Timeline: the hunt for flight MH370
Boeing 777 vanished early Saturday with 239 people on board.
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 entered its fourth day on Tuesday. Here is a timeline of the main developments since the Boeing 777 vanished early Saturday with 239 people on board, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing:
SATURDAY MARCH 8
-- Malaysia Airlines says the plane lost contact with air traffic control at around 1:30 am (1730 GMT Friday), about an hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Initially, authorities had put the last contact time at 2:40 am.
-- Vietnam says the plane went missing in its airspace. It launches a search operation that expands into a huge international hunt in the South China Sea -- now involving 41 ships and 36 aircraft from Southeast Asian countries, Australia, China, New Zealand and the United States.
-- Tearful relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers gather at a Beijing hotel, criticising Malaysia Airlines over a lack of information.
-- Late evening, Vietnam says its planes have spotted two large oil slicks near the plane s last known location and sends boats to the area, but they find no sign of the plane.
-- It also emerges that two passengers on board were travelling on EU passports that were stolen in Thailand, fuelling speculation of a terrorist attack.
SUNDAY MARCH 9
-- Malaysia says it is probing a possible terror link to the jet s disappearance. The US sends FBI agents to assist in the investigation.
-- Malaysia says the plane may have turned back towards Kuala Lumpur, for no apparent reason.
-- Late Sunday, a Vietnamese plane spots possible debris in the sea near Tho Chu island, part of a small archipelago off southwest Vietnam. It proves a false alarm.
MONDAY MARCH 10
-- Authorities double the search radius to 100 nautical miles (equivalent to 185 kilometres) around the point where MH370 disappeared from radar.
-- China lashes out at Malaysia, saying it needs to speed up the investigation.
-- Shares in Malaysia Airlines lose up to 18 percent on the first trading day since the plane went missing, before closing down four percent.
-- In the afternoon Malaysia sends ships to investigate a sighting of a possible life raft -- but a Vietnamese vessel that gets there first finds only flotsam.
-- Chemical analysis by Malaysia disproves any link between oil found at sea and the missing plane.
-- The US Navy sends a second destroyer to join the operation.
-- Boeing experts join the investigation. The US aircraft maker says it is giving technical advice to a team from the US National Transportation Safety Board that is already in Southeast Asia to offer assistance.
TUESDAY MARCH 11
-- Chinese state media report that Beijing is deploying as many as 10 satellites in the hope of finding the jet.
-- The search area now includes land on the Malaysian peninsula itself, the waters off its west coast, and an area to the north of Indonesia s Sumatra island -- all far removed from the flight s scheduled route.
-- Vietnam asks fishing boats off its southern coast -- where the flight dropped off radar -- for help in the effort but says it now holds "little hope of a positive outcome".
