KUALA LUMPUR/PERTH - The search for wreckage from Flight MH370 resumed on Wednesday, after being stalled by bad weather on Tuesday, even as families of passengers clamoured for answers and China demanded more information regarding the fate of the Malaysia Airlines plane.
P-3 Orions and other front-line reconnaissance aircraft were grounded at Base Pearce and Australia's navy ship HMAS Success was ordered to move away as 7m-high waves and gale-force winds hit the search zone, where debris believed to be from the jetliner was last spotted on Sunday.
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At his daily briefing, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed that all efforts were now focused on the southern Indian Ocean. The search area has been reduced from 2.2 million sq nautical miles to about 470,000 sq nautical miles, roughly three times the area of Thailand.
He elaborated on Prime Minister Najib Razak's sombre announcement on Monday night that fresh analysis by satellite company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch concluded that the flight ended in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth and "far from any possible landing sites".
Using a method described as unprecedented, Inmarsat calculated that the plane had flown along the southern corridor. Its last position was over the ocean with no land mass nearby.
The conclusion was that the plane had crashed into the sea, as it would have been over seven hours since it took off with fuel to last about eight hours.
But the lack of evidence of a crash sparked fury in Beijing.
Relatives of some of the 153 Chinese nationals on the plane marched to the Malaysian embassy, where they demanded to meet the ambassador. Some threw plastic bottles in anger as they accused the Malaysian government of cheating them, and scuffled with security officers.
"My son, my son, return my son!" wailed 63-year-old Wen Wancheng.
The Chinese government wants Malaysia to hand over the satellite data analysis which led it to conclude that MH370 had crashed. It later said it was sending a special envoy - Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui - to Kuala Lumpur to find out more.
Datuk Seri Hishammuddin said another high-level team would be leaving for Beijing to explain matters to China and to share information with relatives.
But an element of testiness emerged when he reminded journalists that the first Chinese satellite images, which suggested that the plane may have gone down in the South China Sea, had proved to be a red herring. "It made us detract from the search and was found to be negative," he said.
Malaysia, he added, had always been transparent in its efforts to locate the plane, which turned back from its north-easterly route to end up far from its destination.
Last night, about 50 family members demanded to see PM Najib during a meeting with MAS chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya. They expressed anger that Datuk Seri Najib had drawn conclusions based on satellite data rather than actual proof.
Meanwhile, a Towed Pinger Locator, an instrument that can help find a plane's black box, and other sophisticated equipment from the United States arrived in Perth on Wednesday. Black boxes are built to emit signals for 30 days. MH370 disappeared early on March 8.
Mr Hishammuddin said any aircraft parts or bodies recovered would be taken to Perth.
carolynh@sph.com.sg
tanhy@sph.com.sg
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