CANBERRA, Australia--Australian authorities believe Malaysia
Airlines Flight 370 turned south earlier than previously thought
based on an attempted phone call to the plane after it vanished,
providing a new clue to the jetliner's possible location in the
southern Indian Ocean.
Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Thursday
that the new assessment was based on fresh analysis that included
being able to trace the satellite phone call by Malaysia Airlines
ground staff, which wasn't successful in contacting the plane after
it disappeared on March 8.
"The detailed research that is being done now has been able to
identify, or trace, that phone call and help to position the
aircraft and the direction it was traveling," Mr. Truss said.
Australia recently selected the Dutch oil-and-gas consulting
firm Fugro NV to lead a rebooted search for Flight 370 in the
Indian Ocean. The search effort in an area spanning 20,000 square
miles could take up to a year, following its restart next
month.
Mr. Truss said the new analysis won't lead to a shift in the
search area. "But some of the information we now have suggests that
areas a little further to the south within the search area may be
of particular interest," he said in Canberra after meeting with
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai and Chinese Transport
Minister He Jianzhong.
Flight 370 had 239 people on board when it disappeared en route
to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Most of the passengers on board were
Chinese citizens.
Searchers have so far surveyed more than 87,000 square
kilometers of undersea topography ahead of a renewed hunt for the
plane expected to cost more than 52 Australian million dollars
(US$49 million). The search will straddle an arc drawn from a final
ping transmission between Flight 370 and an Inmarsat PLC
telecommunications satellite.
-Write to Rob Taylor at rob.taylor@wsj.com
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