China seeks satellite data from Britain on missing Malaysian plane

Beijing: China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it hopes Britain will provide satellite data by British firm Inmarsat on the missing Malaysian Airlines plane. When asked whether China wants Britain to give it the satellite information, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he hoped the “relevant country” could provide it. [caption id=“attachment_1449247” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP.[/caption] Citing groundbreaking satellite-data analysis by Inmarsat, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished more than two weeks ago while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. Inmarsat used a wave phenomenon discovered in the 19th century to analyse the seven pings its satellite picked up from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to determine its final destination. The pings, automatically transmitted every hour from the aircraft after the rest of its communications systems had stopped, indicated it continued flying for hours after it disappeared from its flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. From the time the signals took to reach the satellite and the angle of elevation, Inmarsat was able to provide two arcs, one north and one south that the aircraft could have taken. Earlier today, China said that it would send a special envoy to Kuala Lumpur to consult with the Malaysian government over the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Xinhua said that the President Xi Jinping “has ordered to send a special envoy to Kuala Lumpur”. It did not name the envoy. In a separate statement, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had said China will ask Malaysia to provide more detailed and accurate information on the plane, according to a government microblog account. Li said the most important task was to search for the missing plane and he expressed sympathy for the family members. Reuters