Beijing/ Kuala Lumpur/New Delhi: For the past six days, 12 countries have been sweeping the region from South China Sea to Bay of Bengal in hope of finding some trace of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane MH 370 that went missing on Saturday with 239 people onboard.
Authorities responsible for the search operation are considering a variety of possibilities including involvement of terrorist to possible case of hijacking.
US Investigators are hinting at the possibility that the Malaysian Airlines plane was airborne for 4 more hours after it lost contact.
In the picture, a woman looks for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 off Con Dao island.
The Boeing 777 plane is equipped with Rolls Royce engines and as per an agreement between the Malaysian Airline and Rolls Royce, The engine sends data, after every half hour, that is downloaded at the Roll Royce's global health monitoring centre in Derby, UK for analysis.
Based on the following inputs, the investigating agencies are speculating that the plane flew for four more hours after it lost contact.
That would mean that MH370 remained airborne for an additional 2,200 nautical miles at its speed, which puts the border of Pakistan and Arabian Sea within its reach.
So far, senior officials in Malaysian Airlines have denied existence of such data, whereas, Rolls Royce had no immediate comment.
The investigating agencies are not denying the possibility that the airplane could have been flown to an undisclosed location intended to be used later for another person.
Terrorism experts are not denying the possibility of handwork of terror groups. They believe that pilots or someone else could have turned-off the transponders to avoid detection and flew it to another country.
India today joined the global search for the Malaysian aircraft by deploying three warships along with around four surveillance aircraft including the latest P-8I anti-submarine warfare plane.
In the picture, an unidentified search and rescue ship is seen through the window of a Vietnam Air Force aircraft AN-26 during a mission to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 off Con Dao island.
Three warships have been despatched from Andaman and Nicobar Command including INS Kumbhir and INS Saryu from Navy and Coast Guard Ship Kanaklata Baruah to the areas specified by the Malaysian Government, Navy officials said.
The Indian assets also include two Dornier aircraft from the Coast Guard and the Navy along with the P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft from INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu, they said.
The IAF has also kept its surveillance aircraft on standby and they will be despatched to the 35,000 square km area identified by the Malaysian authorities for search operations, they said.
The Indian operations in the task are being handled by the Navy and instructions are being passed to the officials on ground from the Naval headquarters here, they said.
The tri-service Andaman and Nicobar Command is providing the assets for the search operations.
The Navy is also understood to be using its Rukmini surveillance satellite for locating the missing plane.
The ship Sagar deployed in Thai waters is also likely to join the search later on.
The Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 plane, with 239 people including five Indians on board, vanished over the South China Sea on Friday an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur.
In the picture, Muslims perform a special prayer for passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane at the departure hall of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Search and rescue operations which had been mobilised since early Saturday morning have failed to find the jetliner in the South China Sea and authorities have expanded the area of search into the Andaman Sea, Malaysian officials said.
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