I believe that Boeing has evidence that the engines ran for an additional 7 hours.
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Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
MH370: US officials say plane sent signals ‘hours’ after losing contact – live
Unnamed officials describe automatic transmissions
White House says Indian Ocean possible ‘new search area’
Pentagon sends destroyer towards Indian Ocean
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Matthew Weaver in London and Tom McCarthy in New York
theguardian.com, Thursday 13 March 2014 18.07 EDT
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Malaysia’s acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein briefs the media on Thursday on the latest developments in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Reports that the plane continued for several hours after losing contact were inaccurate, Hussein says. He says no debris has been found where Chinese satellite’s detected large objects on Sunday. The search teams have found nothing from any of the other potential leads
7.13pm ET
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6.07pm ET
Summary
• Malaysia Airlines flight 370 continued to send automatic status transmissions for hours after the plane lost contact with ground control, possibly indicating the plane remained in flight during that time, unnamed US officials told reporters.
• The search for the jet, which disappeared carrying 239 passengers and crew, was set to enter its seventh day. The search effort now comprises dozens of ships and aircraft from 12 nations over an area of 35,800 square miles (92,600 square kilometers).
• The search intensified in the Indian Ocean, where the United States said it was deploying additional ships and aircraft.
• Earlier Thursday, Malaysian officials said reports that the plane stayed in the air for hours after losing contact were “inaccurate”. The officials have not commented on the latest claims by US officials.
5.36pm ET
The “new information” that Press Secretary Jay Carney referred to today was “that the plane’s engines remained running for approximately four hours after it vanished from radar,” the Washington Post quotes anonymous “Obama administration officials” as saying. The information is in line with multiple reports this afternoon. The Post reports:
One senior administration official said the data showing the plane engines running hours after contact was lost came from the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, a way that planes maintain contact with ground stations through radio or satellite signals. The official said Malaysian authorities shared the flight data with the administration.
Read the full piece here.
5.29pm ET
Flight MH370 sent “signals to a satellite for four hours after the aircraft went missing,” the Associated Press quotes an unnamed US official as saying: