Search narrowed after new analysis

PETALING JAYA: The search for the missing Malaysian jet in the southern Indian Ocean has been narrowed after new analysis of its fuel reserves.

An assessment by the US National Transportation Safety Board allowed the search to be focused on an area about the size of Italy, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in an e- mailed statement. That’s about half the size of the zone planned earlier, said John Young, the agency’s general manager of emergency response.

A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion aircraft, which made the first sortie to the zone yesterday, covered about 65,000 sq km under good search conditions without seeing any signs of debris, he said.

“We still have grave fears for anyone that might have managed to escape the aircraft in the southern ocean,” he said in a video posted on the agency’s website. “It remains a big area.”

Another Australian Orion was being added to the search alongside an Orion variant operated by the New Zealand Air Force and a US P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane, for a total of four aircraft, Young said.

NTSB analysis on the plane’s fuel reserves and the distance it could have flown narrowed the search area to about 305,000 sq km.