Third RMAF plane joins search

PERTH: The third Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) C-130 Hercules aircraft has arrived today at the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce base to assist the search of the missing MAS flight MH370.
The additional third military aircraft is part of the Malaysian programme to intensify the search for the jetliner after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak announced the plan to send more military assets during his two-day visit to Australia last Thursday.
The RMAF 20th Squadron chief, Major Muhammad Jafri Suboh, said the C-130 aircraft arrived at 12.30pm along with 33 military personnel.
"We already have two C-130s which have been involved in the search mission since March 29 and the additional aircraft will complement our team," he told reporters when met at the Pearce air base today.
A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learned that the plane had veered off course, along two corridors – the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that flight MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Najib then announced on March 24 that (the flight path of) flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean". – Bernama