Flight MH370 satellite data made public-see more

For weeks, the satellite company Inmarsat said it didn’t have the authority to release the data, deferring to Malaysian authorities, which are in charge of the search for the plane that disappeared more than two months ago over Southeast Asia.

Last week, the two sides announced that they would aim to make the information available to the public. They released a 47-page document on Tuesday.

The satellite signals — called “handshakes” — with MH370 were part of a larger set of data that investigators have used to try to establish the whereabouts of the Boeing 777 that went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.

A team of international experts used the data — in combination with other information, including radar data and engine performance calculations — to conclude that the plane ended up in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean.

Searchers have so far found no wreckage and have not been able to say for sure where MH370 might be.

CNN aviation analyst Jeff Wise has said that “the box is going to open” when the satellite data gets publicized.

“It could produce more theories. It will probably cancel out a lot of theories,” he said.

Either way, the release will hopefully give “a much better understanding of what’s been going on all this time,” Wise said.

Relatives of people who were on the passenger jet,scientists studying its disappearance and media covering the search have become increasingly critical about the lack of public information about why the search has focused on the southern Indian Ocean.

They have been calling for the release of the data that has informed the search efforts.

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Richard Quest last week, the Inmarsat’s vice president of satellite operations said he has “good confidence” that experts have interpreted the data correctly.

The company’s calculations, he said, have been tested by other people.

“No one has come up yet with a reason why it shouldn’t work with this particular flight when it has worked with others,” Mark Dickinson said. “And it’s very important this isn’t just an Inmarsat activity. There are other people doing investigations, experts who are helping the investigation team, who have got the same data, who made their own models up and did the same thing to see if they got the same results and broadly speaking, they got roughly the same answers.”

Experts came to the conclusion that the plane had ended up in the southern Indian Ocean by piecing together three types of information, he said.

“We have actually the messages from the ground station to the plane and back again. That essentially tells you the terminal is switched on and powered up. We have some timing information and in addition to that there were some frequency measurements,” he said.

The timings told them the distance between the plane and the satellite, enabling them to map out arcs. Then they factored in frequency differences, determining that the plane had headed south.

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