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This week, the search is still on for clues that could finally shed light on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370’s disappearance, with passengers’ family members getting increasingly scared and frustrated as days pass with no results. In New York, two apartment buildings collapsed after a gas leak caused an explosion, claiming eight lives and injuring dozens more.
Welcome back to NEWSFLASH, giving you the week’s main stories!
Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane May Have Crashed In Indian Ocean
The mystery behind flight MH370’s disappearance continues to deepen as signals sent from the plane indicate that the aircraft may have crashed into the Indian Ocean.
Officials claimed that MH370 continued to “ping” a satellite after it vanished off radar. Boeing 777 planes are equipped with a Airline Health Management system that allows them to ping a satellite every hour.
Given the number of pings received by the satellite, the plane could possibly have flown for an extra four to five hours into the Indian Ocean. The U.S. will send the U.S.S. Kidd into position to aid search and rescue parties.
Malaysia’s transportation minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, denied that the plane could have crashed into the Indian Ocean. He also rejected an earlier claim that debris located by a Chinese satellite could have belonged to the aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared last Saturday en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The plane was carrying 239 passengers, most of whom were Chinese citizens.
Officials in China and Malaysia, along with their international partners, explored a few possible leads, including oil streaks discovered in Vietnamese waters. All leads have since been ruled out, leaving the international community perplexed and fearful of MH370’s fate.
New York Building Explosion Kills Eight
Two buildings in the Upper East Side of Manhattan collapsed on Wednesday following an explosion presumably caused by a main gas pipe leak.
Eight were killed and at least 70 people were injured when the two East Harlem residential buildings tumbled from an explosion that rocked the neighborhood. A resident had reported smelling a gas odor just 15 minutes before the explosion.
Some people are still missing, feared dead under the rubble as rescue teams continue to sift through the wreckage.
Federal safety authorities began investigating the explosion on Thursday.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the 66 people who lost their homes due to the explosion have been given shelter.