MH370:Hope rises on the 12th day

The search and rescue (SAR) mission for the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 aircraft which went missing on March 8 entered its 12th day on Wednesday with a new phase, involving the northern and southern corridors. But is there any hope left after the various theories, speculations and 'false hopes' often heard since the disappearance of the aircraft since March 8? Any new report on the incident is likely to bring new hope to the people of Malaysia and the world, especially for families of the passengers and crew on board the plane. Recently, residents of a remote island in Maldives claimed that they saw a plane flying low the morning the plane disappeared, at about 6.15am. This had gained the attention of the authorities in Maldives, prompting an investigation. Haveeru Online reported, that the islanders had seen a white plane with red stripes of the same color as the Malaysia Airlines plane, flying to the south of Maldives. They also claimed to have heard a loud noise when the aircraft crossed their island. This gained the attention of a local Maldivian expert who thinks that it is possible for the aircraft which crossed their island to bge MH370, as there were no aircraft scheduled to fly over the island at that time. Another report of hope, is the detection of an aircraft by the Thai Military radar which is also believed to be the missing MH370 aircraft. Radar information showed the plane turning around and was spotted at north of Kuala Lumpur before heading to Butterworth which it later disappeared. A spokesman for the Thai Air Force, Montol Suchookorn, however informed that the Thai authorities was not sure of the usefulness of the information until it receives a formal request from Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) based in Austria also gave another hope to the search of the plane. According to The Star, the highly sensitive sensor CTBTO around the world had not detected any explosion or accident neither on land nor on sea since the plane disappeared on March 8. In the meantime, The Hindu reported, an Indian information technology (IT) analyst has found satellite images showing a large aircraft flying low in the Andaman Islands on March 8. Anoop Yeggina Madhav, 29, believed the image is of the MAS Boeing 777-200ER carrying 239 passengers and crew. A press conference held on Tuesday by acting Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the fact that there had been no emergency calls, no parties demanding a ransom, no group claiming responsibility over the missing MH370 had provided some hope of the plane to be found. However, various theories and speculations about the findings of MH370 aircraft have risen since the first day it was reported missing. Meanwhile, on the social media platform, various views, speculation and rumours were being shared without first reviewing its authenticity, including 'retweets' , ‘like’ or 'share' buttons when excited about getting ‘new’ information.