News
MH370 satellite tracking data made public

But at least one independent expert said his initial impression was
that the communication logs didn't include key assumptions, algorithms
and metadata needed to validate the investigation team's conclusions
that the plane flew south and crashed in a remote patch of the Indian
Ocean.

"It's a whole lot of stuff that is not very important to know," said
Michael Exner, a satellite engineer who has been intensively researching
the calculations. "There are probably two or three pages of important
stuff, the rest is just noise. It doesn't add any value to our
understanding."

Almost three months since it went missing en route to Beijing from
Kuala Lumpur, no trace of the jet has been found, an agonizing situation
for family members stuck between grief and the faintest hope, no matter
how unlikely, their loved ones might still be alive. The mystery
disappearance also has nurtured speculation and wild conspiracy
theories.

Several family members have been highly critical of the Malaysian
government's response, accusing them of failing to release timely
information or even concealing it. The government, which in the early
days did release contradictory information about the plane's movements,
insists it is being transparent in what has been an unprecedented
situation.

An international investigation team led by Malaysia has concluded
that the jet flew south after it was last spotted on Malaysian military
radar about 90 minutes after takeoff and ended up in the southern Indian
Ocean off western Australia. This conclusion is based on complex
calculations derived in part from hourly transmissions between the plane
and a communications satellite.

An unmanned U.S. Navy sub that has been scouring an approximately
400-square-kilometre patch of seabed since April was scheduled to finish
its mission on Wednesday. The Bluefin 21 has been searching in an area
where sounds consistent with aircraft black boxes were detected last
month.

The next search phase will be conducted over a much bigger area —
approximately 60,000 square kilometres — and will involve mapping of the
seabed. The area's depths and topography are largely unknown.

Officials are looking to hire powerful sonar equipment that can search for wreckage in deeper water than the Bluefin.

Angus Houston, who is heading up the search, said in early May that
it would take a couple months before any new equipment would be ready to
be deployed.

The technical data released Tuesday consisted of data communication
logs from the satellite system operated by the U.K's Inmarsat company.
The plane sent hourly transmissions to a satellite. The signals were
never meant to track an aircraft's path, but investigators had nothing
else to go on because the plane's other communication systems had been
disabled.

Investigators determined the plane's direction by measuring the
frequency of the signals sent to the satellite. By considering aircraft
performance, the satellite's fixed location and other known factors,
they determined the plane's final location was to the south of the
satellite.

Sarah Bajac, whose husband was on the flight, doesn't believe that
the plane few south and had been highly critical of the Malaysian
government. She has been at the forefront of a campaign to press the
Malaysian government for more transparency.

She said that "a half dozen very qualified people were looking" at the information and she hoped to have their take soon.

But along with Exner, she was also critical of the way it was
released. The government put it in a PDF file not in its original data
form, making working with it far more time-consuming.

"A little tweak to make people work harder needlessly," she wrote in an email.

Congregating in internet chat rooms and blogs, many scientists,
physicists and astronomers have been trying to replicate the math used,
either as an intellectual exercise or out of a belief they are helping
the relatives or contributing to transparency around the investigation
into the missing plane.

Duncan Steel, a British scientist and astronomer, said some of the
data "may" explain the belief that the aircraft went south rather than
north, but that further confirmation would take a day or so. But he too
was disappointed by the release.

"One can see no conceivable reason that the information could not
have been released nine or 10 weeks ago. Even now, there are many, many
lines of irrelevant information in those 47 pages," he said in an email.

Soon after takeoff, the plane disappeared from commercial radar over
waters between Malaysia and Vietnam. The search was initially focused
there but gradually shifted to the west of peninsular Malaysia.
Authorities say they believe the plane was deliberately diverted from
its flight path, but without finding the plane or its flight data
recorders, have been unable to say with any certainty what happened on
board.