Day 3: The MH370 story so far

KUALA LUMPUR: The search for flight MH370 enters day three, today.

Authorities late Sunday night reported that there has been no sighting of the mysteriously missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft Boeing 700-200ER.

However, the Malaysian-led operation carries on with assistance by Vietnam, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, United States, Philippines, and Australia.

With 34 aircrafts and 40 vessels from Operations the search has expanded from 20 nautical miles to 50 nautical miles, some 120 nautical miles east of Kota Baru.

Based on information provided by the Royal Malaysian Air Force chief Tan Sri Rodzali Daud, who stated of a possible turn back to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as per radar records, the search has now been expended to include the West Coast Straits of Malacca.

As the round-the-clock search continues on Monday, here is a brief summary of what we know so far:

• Reported spotting of oil slicks have yielded no results as Vietnamese boats found no sign of any wreckage. Tests are being done on the samples to see if the oil came from the plane.
• However, an engineer with experience in ship operations in the oil and gas industry told Astro AWANI that the yellow nature of the slicks were likely instead to be the characteristic of oil tanks and not aircraft fuel.
• Singaporean and Vietnamese authorities found ‘suspicious objects’ 100km from Vietnam’s Tho Chu Island but Malaysian authorities confirmed that it was not of the aircraft.
• Some debris was spotted off the east coast of West Malaysia, but it is still unconfirmed if it belonged to the aircraft, according to a top Chinese aviation official
• A probable terrorism link emerged when authorities confirmed that they were investigating four individuals on board MH370 for using stolen passports.
• However, the authorities said that they so far have only been able to identify two of the passports being used, through CCTV footages at the airport. These passports belonged to Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi who had their passports stolen in Thailand.
• Information of the two 'stolen passports' being used has been passed to relevant intelligence agencies for further investigation. The two were apparently heading to Amsterdam, and had bought their tickets together via China Southern Airlines in Thai baht.
• Meanwhile, touching on the likelihood of MH370 being hijacked by terrorists, international terrorism expert Profesor Rohan Gunaratna told Astro AWANI that the possibility of it happening were very slim
• Malaysian officials denied knowing of an alleged claim of responsibility over the attack originating from China, stating tha they have not been notified by the Chinese authorities.
• Malaysian Home Minister said immigration officers were being investigated while Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak added that security procedures maybe reviewed.

US officials from the FBI, Boeing, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration were assisting in investigations.MH370 had 239 people on board from 14 nationalities. They included at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans. These included two infants.

There were also five passengers who had purchased tickets bound for Beijing, but did not board. All baggages were removed.

The MAS flight went missing at 2.40am on a Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight two hours after it took off at 12.41am on Saturday. It was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6.30 am. on Saturday.

MAS had said it was"fearing for the worst".

Astro Awani