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Search for MH370 to resume in new location

Now an analysis of those failed attempts to reach Flight 370 could alter the search for the plane.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief
Commissioner Martin Dolan said Thursday that the sprawling search area
in the southern Indian Ocean may be extended farther south based on the
new analysis, which suggests that the aircraft turned that direction
earlier than previously believed.

Investigators have long been aware of the
calls but only recently developed methods to analyze the phone data for
hints about the plane's final hours. It was through a similar analysis
of satellite data from the plane's jet engine transmitters that
investigators were able to define the current search area.

The jetliner disappeared
March 8 after veering off its northerly course from Kuala Lumpur to
Beijing and has become one of aviation's biggest mysteries. It is
thought to have crashed 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) off Australia's
west coast, but no trace of the aircraft or the 239 people aboard has
been found.

Dolan, the chief crash investigator, said
he would meet with international experts next week to decide whether
the 60,000-square kilometre (23,000-square mile) targeted search area
should be extended or shifted south.

Malaysia Airlines ground staff tried twice to call the crew. The new analysis applies to satellite data from the first call.

By the time the calls were attempted, the
plane had become invisible to civilian radar and gone silent.

It flew
west past Sumatra and beyond the range of Malaysian military radar.

The analysis suggested the
jet was already flying south when the first phone call was attempted,
less than 20 minutes after the plane dropped off military radar.

"We're now more confident that it turned
comparatively early. That does make a difference to how we prioritize
the search along the seventh arc," Dolan added, referring to the broad
area where investigators believe the flight ran out of fuel and crashed,
based on the last ping from the engine transmitters.

With the hunt for the airliner set to
resume in a few weeks, investigators are attempting to calculate which
parts of the search area should be examined first.

The analysis adds weight to a
crash-investigation report issued in June by the Australian Transport
Safety Bureau in which most modeling of the plane's potential flight
paths factored in a relatively early turn to a southerly course.

The current search area
covers a swath of ocean 700 kilometres (435 miles) long and 80
kilometres (50 miles) wide. An initial search of 850 square kilometres
(330 square miles) of seabed to the north ended with officials
concluding that they were focusing their efforts in the wrong place.

Also Thursday, Australian Deputy Prime
Minister Warren Truss and Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai
signed an agreement in Canberra for the two countries to share the
ongoing costs as the search progresses to the expensive next phase,
which could take up to a year and cost 52 million Australian dollars
($48 million).

Until now, each country involved in the search has borne its own costs.

In three weeks, a Dutch contractor will
begin the operation with three vessels towing underwater vehicles
equipped with side-scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounders and video
equipment, Truss said.

"We need to find the plane. We
need to find the black box in the plane so that we can have a
conclusion in the investigation," Liow said.

Malaysia, as the country where the jet
was flagged, has overall responsibility for the crash investigation. But
Australia is responsible for search-and-rescue operations.

Chinese Vice Minister of Transport He
Jianzhong, who also attended the Canberra meeting, said the ministers
agreed that the search will not be interrupted or given up. Most of the
passengers — 153 — were Chinese.