MH370: Two Chinese aircraft return home
Tan Su Lin
May 4, 2014 16:17 MYT
May 4, 2014 16:17 MYT
The IL-76S aircraft of the People's Liberation Army.
Two Ilyushin IL-76S aircraft owned by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), which joined the search and rescue (SAR) efforts for the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 in Australia, departed for China this morning.
The two aircraft departed at about 8.30am carrying 38 crew members after the SAR was suspended after the search entered a new phase with focus now on the seabed.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Monday that the mission will be entering a new phase focusing on a wider area of the seabed.
The decision was taken after finding that the chances are slim for any plane debris to be found at sea.
The Chinese aircraft had arrived at the Royal Australian Air Force Base (RAAF) Pearce late March to help in the search for flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean.
Last Wednesday, two Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C-130 Hercules aircraft with 53 crew members arrived backed to Malaysia.
Several ships from Australia, Malaysia and China are still continuing in the search efforts with Australia's P3-Orion aircraft on standby.
The Ilyushin IL-76S aircraft owned by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have arrived in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.
A multinational search was mounted for the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learnt that the plane had veered off course, in the southern Indian Ocean.
After an analysis of satellite data indicated that the plane's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced on March 24 that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".