Now American Airlines Is Being Sued

Man sues American Airlines after being forced to sit next to obese passengers on a flight

Sara Gonzales May 5, 2017 5:55 pm

An Australian man is suing American Airlines for seating him next to obese passengers on a 14-hour flight from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles. The man is seeking $100,000 in damages. (Tom Pennington/Stringer)

59Follow

• SHARE
• TWEET

An Australian man is suing American Airlines after he says his seating arrangement next to two obese passengers during a 14-hour flight caused him to have permanent neck and back injuries.

Michael Anthony Taylor, 67, said that although he was in the window seat during a flight from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles, the two other passengers in his row were obese and the airline would not let him switch seats. Taylor alleges his seating position led to bruising of his neck along with aggravating his previously existing scoliosis.

The December 2015 Boeing 777 flight was reportedly full at the time, but Taylor said the flight crew could have made other adjustments to prevent him from discomfort, but instead he was left to contort his body into a series of positions including crouching, kneeling, bracing, or standing,”  according to News.com.au.

“I don’t hold any malice towards the people in the seats next to me — they’d paid for a ticket too,” Taylor told the Daily Telegraph. “The airline could have put me in a crew seat or moved people around but they did nothing.”

Federal regulations prohibit airlines from seating passengers in jump seats, which are reserved for trained flight attendants.

Taylor is seeking $100,000 in damages, and his attorney hopes that the lawsuit will serve as a final push to force airlines to make economy class seats more accommodating.

“As a result of the fact that American Airlines failed to reseat him or even offer a viable alternative, he suffered bodily injuries by contorting his body within the cramped space caused by the intrusion of the grossly obese passenger sitting next to him,” Taylor’s attorney Thomas Jansen said.

“If Michael is successful, this throws open the doors to potentially a large amount of cases against airlines and how they’ve designed their seating and how they seat passengers,” he said. “There will be a huge outcry against the way airlines furnish their cabins, particularly in economy.”

The lawsuit comes after American Airlines announced their plans to cut legroom on their Boeing 737 Max jets from 31 inches to 30 inches, which will allow them to include at least 10 more seats per plane.

Latest On Missing Malaysian Plan MH370. Still No Real Leads After Nearly Two Years

Australia says new analysis backs search area for MH370 3 DECEMBER 2015 @ 9:03 AM CANBERRA, Australia: Australian authorities said Thursday that new analysis confirms they’ve likely been searching in the right place for a missing Malaysian airliner. Searchers have been combing a 120,000-square-kilometer (46,000-square-mile) part of the Indian Ocean since last year but have yet to turn up any trace of MH370. A wing flap was found in July washed up on remote Reunion Island. The new analysis by an agency of the Defence Department confirmed “the highest probability” the final resting place for the plane is within the current search area, the government said in a statement. Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the new analysis pointed to the aircraft most likely coming to rest in the southern part of the current search area, so searchers would focus on that location and slightly widen the boundaries of the search area there. The Boeing 777 vanished with 239 people aboard on March 8, 2014, during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. Authorities are baffled by how and why it disappeared. The current seabed search more than 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) southwest of Australia began in October last year. Ships using side-scan sonar and an underwater drone fitted with a video camera have so far scoured more than 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles) of rugged terrain. The search area is based on analysis of scant satellite information that tracked the final hours of MH370. --AP

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/12/115177/australia-says-new-analysis-backs-search-area-mh370

Could Putin Have Been The Target Of Missile?

Reports that Putin flew similar route as MH17, presidential airport says 'hasn't overflown Ukraine for long time'

Published time: July 17, 2014 18:13
Edited time: July 18, 2014 04:29

Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane was travelling almost the same route as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s jet shortly before the crash that killed 298, Interfax news agency reports citing sources.

LIVE UPDATES:Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine

“I can say that Putin’s plane and the Malaysian Boeing intersected at the same point and the same echelon. That was close to Warsaw on 330-m echelon at the height of 10,100 meters. The presidential jet was there at 16:21 Moscow time and the Malaysian aircraft - 15:44 Moscow time,” a source told the news agency on condition of anonymity.

"The contours of the aircrafts are similar, linear dimensions are also very similar, as for the coloring, at a quite remote distance they are almost identical", the source added.

At the same time, there have been reports contradicting Intefax’s report that was the first and the only media source to publish the news, saying that Presidential plane was not flying over Ukraine at the same time.

As a source told Gazeta.ru online news portal, Putin’s plane does take off from Vnukovo-3 [the terminal that accepts business jets], but the president does not fly over the conflict-gripped neighboring country.

“Putin has only one jet – Board One, he does not fly other planes. This plane always takes off from Vnukovo-3, but the presidential plane have not been flying over Ukraine for a while,” the source at Vnukovo-3 terminal said.

President Putin was on his way from Brazil, where he attended the BRICS summit, to Moscow.

‘Tragedy would't have taken place if there was peace in Ukraine’

Ukraine should bear responsibility for Malaysian airliner tragedy, said the head of the Russian state at a meeting on economic issues, which he proposed to start with a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the disaster.

“Obviously, the state over whose territory it happened bears responsibility for this terrible tragedy,” he said late on Thursday.

“This tragedy would not have happened if there was peace on this land, if military action in the southeast of Ukraine had not been resumed,” Putin said, adding that he has asked the appropriate Russian authorities to do everything to investigate the matter.

“We must do everything in our power that an objective picture of what happened goes public in our community, in Ukraine and all over the world,” Putin said as he expressed his condolences to the families of victims.

Flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, and was carrying 298 people. The passenger Boeing-777 was expected to enter Russian airspace at 5:20pm local time, but never did, a Russian aviation industry source said.“The plane crashed 60km away from the border,” Itar-Tass cited its source.

Another Malaysian 777 Is Lost. Is This The End Of The Company?

Malaysian plane reportedly shot down in Ukraine near Russian border

Adviser to Ukraine's interior minister says plane was shot down by missile launcher

July 17, 2014 11:23AM ET Updated 2:28PM ET

Emergencies Ministry members work at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in Grabovo, Ukraine, in the Donetsk region, on Thursday.

Maxim Zmeyev / Reuters

A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border, the Interfax news agency cited an aviation industry source as saying on Thursday.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed on its Twitter feed that it had lost contact with Flight MH17, which was traveling from Amsterdam, adding that "the last known position was over Ukrainian airspace." 

Malaysia Airlines also said in a statement that it received notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it lost contact with the plane, a Boeing 777, about 31 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. 

The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew, the airline confirmed. Dozens of bodies were scattered around the smoldering wreckage in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported. Ukrainian officials have confirmed to Al Jazeera that the death toll from the incident is “at least 295.”

The death toll includes 23 U.S. citizens, according to a Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser quoted by Interfax. 

President Barack Obama, speaking at an event in Delaware on Thursday afternoon, said that the U.S. government is working to determine if there were any American citizens on board and that the U.S. would "offer any assistance to help determine what happened and why."

An emergency services rescue worker told Reuters at least 100 bodies had so far been found at the scene, in the village of Grabovo, about 25 miles from the Russian border.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on his Twitter page that he was "shocked" by the reports of the crash and that the government was "launching an immediate investigation." 

Meanwhile, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai is rushing back to Kuala Lumpur from Beijing, Al Jazeera has confirmed. 

The self-appointed prime minister of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Alexander Borodai, told Al Jazeera that he is headed to the location of the downed plane and that a Donetsk People's Republic investigation team was now in the area.

Borodai blamed the downing of the plane on Ukraine's government forces.

"Apparently, it's a passenger airliner indeed, truly shot down by the Ukrainian air force," Borodai told Russia's state-run Rossiya 24 TV broadcaster. Kiev denied the involvement of Ukraine's armed forces.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, said on his Facebook page that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk surface-to-air missile system, which Russia began producing in the mid-1990s.

That flight, according to the aviation tracking website Flightstats.com, was scheduled to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 6:10 a.m. local time. Major airlines have diverted their flight paths and said they would avoid flying over Ukrainian airspace.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Obama discussed the plane crash in Ukraine during a phone call. 

The development comes a day after the Ukrainian military said a Russian jet shot down a Ukrainian air force plane that was on military operations over eastern Ukraine, where government forces are fighting to quell a pro-Russian rebellion.

The incident also comes after a Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board. It has not been found. 

Philip J. Victor contributed to this report, with Al Jazeera and wire services 

Malaysian plane downed in Ukraine near Russian border 1:27

Two Ships Looking Further South To Find MH370

Search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 moves further south

Investigators trying to solve the mystery of the jet's disappearance are moving to a zone 1,000 miles west of Perth

• Share21
• Tweet this
• Email

• Agence France-Presse
• theguardian.com, Friday 20 June 2014 05.18 EDT
• Jump to comments (…)

One of the ships searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photograph: David Le-May/BBC/David Le-May

The drawn-out search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will revert to an area hundreds of miles south of the previously suspected crash site following new analysis of the plane's flight path, a report said on Friday.

Investigators grappling to solve the mystery of the jet's disappearance are set to scour a zone 1,100 miles (1,800km) west of Perth – previously subject to an aerial search – when an underwater probe resumes in August, the West Australian newspaper said.

Citing unnamed US sources, the newspaper said Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) would soon announce that the hunt would move 500 miles south-west from where it was previously focused.

It said the sources had revealed that survey ship Fugro Equator was already operating in this area and would soon be joined by Chinese vessel Zhu Kezhen.

A massive aerial and underwater search for MH370, which had 239 people on board when it diverted from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path on 8 March, has failed to find any sign of the plane.

Scientists from British company Inmarsat told the BBC earlier this week that the search had yet to target the most likely crash site, or "hotspot", after becoming diverted by pings thought at the time to have originated from the plane's black boxes.

It was not clear from the West Australian report whether the new search area overlapped with the "hotspot".

JACC said on Friday that the revised search zone, based on an intensive study of satellite communications from the jet and other data, would be announced by the end of the month.

Australian officials have said repeatedly that the revised search zone would be in the area of the seventh arc, or the final satellite "handshake" from the plane, believed to be when the aircraft ran out of fuel and was in descent.

JACC said the Fugro Equator was now working in this zone.

"Located along the seventh arc, that area is consistent with provisional analysis of satellite and other data that is being used to determine the future search area," it said.

Australian officials announced earlier this week that a survey of the seabed, as yet mostly unmapped and crucial to the success of the underwater search, had resumed.

Two ships – Fugro Equator and Zhu Kezhen – will survey an area up to 6,000m deep and covering up to 60,000 sq km before a contractor begins an intensive undersea search looking for debris.

Previously an intensive undersea search for the plane, in the area in which the acoustic noises were detected, failed to find any sign of the jet. The source of the noises is unknown.

MH370 Still Missing After Four Months. What Could Have Happened? EMP Pulse? In-Flight Total Failure? Terrorism? All Are Open Answers.

Inmarsat: 'No hotspot' in search for Flight MH370

After failing to find signs of Flight MH370 on a swath of the Indian Ocean, searchers will focus on an area further south. But the spot viewed as the most likely resting place of the jet is no hotspot, Inmarsat tells DW.

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 recently suffered a setback as Australia ruled out a large swath of the Indian Ocean as the jet's final resting place, compounding the frustration of passengers' relatives. They have been left without answers ever since the Boeing 777 mysteriously disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8 with 239 people on board.

Australia plans to resume the search southwest of the area of the Indian Ocean where the seafloor was scanned in detail last month, according to officials. The New York Times reports the move reflects analyses of a series of electronic "handshakes" between the plane and a satellite operated by the London-based company Inmarsat in the hours after the airliner vanished.

The company calculated where the plane probably went down in the southern Indian Ocean based on brief hourly connections it made to one of their satellites and recently told the BBC that investigators had yet to target the most likely crash site. But in a DW interview, Chris McLaughlin, senior vice-president for external affairs at Inmarsat, defends the investigators' decision to focus on the area where ping signals were detected and warns that the new search area will be extensive and very challenging.

DW: Why are you of the view that the search team has not yet investigated the passenger jet's most likely resting place?

DW.DE

MH370 families: 'A fresh set of eyes needed'

Several families of those aboard Flight MH370 have launched a fund-raising drive to encourage an insider to come forward. Sarah Bajc, whose partner was on the flight, tells DW she believes information is being withheld. (09.06.2014)

MH370 fallout 'will hurt' Malaysian tourism

'Time of the essence' in hunt for MH370

Chris McLaughlin: Our model and that of four other professional groups indicates a sustained route south for over seven hours and therefore past arc seven on the published charts. (The seventh arc, or "handshake", is the final signal from the plane and thought to be when the jet ran out of fuel.)

According to your data, where is the hotspot located where MH370 most likely came down?

There is no "hotspot." The comment made by Inmersat scientist Chris Ashton on the BBC's Horizon program refers to a large area of ocean and should not be thought of as a small defined point. We can only identify an approximate course based on the very limited data available to be extrapolated from our network. The search area will be extensive and very difficult.

How were you able to calculate this location?

We didn't. We have demonstrated a probable direction of travel, which has been independently agreed upon as the best fit for the data available by other professional bodies.

Investigators had been searching for two months in another location for what are now believed to be bogus ping signals. In your view, what prevented search teams focusing on the area previously identified by Inmarsat?

Investigators quite rightly needed to examine the signals coming from beneath the ocean surface and they did so.

Malaysia's civil aviation authority and Inmarsat released new satellite data about the ill-fated plane last month. Why did you release it after so many months?

"Investigators quite rightly needed to examine the signals coming from beneath the ocean surface," says McLaughlin.

We gave initial data to the investigation within three days of the loss, through the data owner to the correct authority. Some two weeks later, following further investigation and modelling, coupled by independent review by other parties, we gave our suggested path for a southern route and this was announced by Malaysian authorities subsequently.

The data belonged to the investigation – NOT to Inmarsat. We were pleased to assist the investigation when it decided to make our data public.

Chris McLaughlin is senior vice-president for external affairs and Marketing Communications at the UK-based satellite company Inmarsat.

Mystery Of MH370 Continues. Families Setting Up Fund To Search For Someone Who Knows The Details Of The Disappearance.

MH370 families: 'A fresh set of eyes needed'

Several families of those aboard Flight MH370 have launched a fund-raising drive to encourage an insider to come forward. Sarah Bajc, whose partner was on the flight, tells DW she believes information is being withheld.

The fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been shrouded in mystery ever since the passenger jet left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing in the early morning hours of March 8 with 239 people on board. While the Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, international search efforts have so far failed to provide any clues as to what happened to the plane.

Objects spotted by radar, ships and airplanes that have turned out to be floating garbage have led to growing frustration among the victims' relatives. Some of them fear the authorities might know more than they are willing to reveal and have therefore launched the "Reward MH370" campaign on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo. The project aims to raise at least 5 million USD "to encourage a whistleblower to come forward with information," the families said in a press release.

In a DW interview, Sarah Bajc, whose partner Philip Wood was on board the flight, talks about why some of the victims' families mistrust the conclusions reached by the authorities and why they consider an insider is needed to help solve the mystery of Flight MH370.

DW: How many of the victims' relatives are participating in the "Reward MH370" campaign?

Sarah Bajc: "Reward MH370" has been organized by a team of seven people, including five family members and two independents.

What is the purpose of the campaign?

"I am fully committed to bringing Philip home, be that in celebration, or to his final resting place," says Bajc (R)

The main purpose of the campaign is to raise funds to provide a reward for a whistleblower to come forward with information that leads us to find the plane. A portion of the funds will also be used to fund a private investigation firm to chase those leads.

We are confident that we will raise at least a substantial portion of our goal of 5 million USD. We do believe it is possible we could even exceed that goal. If we can, we will make the reward even larger.

Why do you think a whistleblower is needed to provide more information on the fate of the missing plane?

Over the last three months, there have been many indications that information is being withheld and/or modified prior to release to the public. That makes us confident that there are people who know more than is being shared. That may even include someone who knows exactly where the plane is, and perhaps even the details of what happened. Our hope is that someone will come forward with the information needed to find the plane. A fresh set of eyes is needed.

What evidence do you have that information is being withheld?

Besides the dozens of changed or redacted stories, there was the preliminary report itself. The cargo manifest was missing pages of information, the air traffic control audio files appear to be tampered with, and there are a significant number of factual inaccuracies in the 'Actions Taken' report. There is also the modified data release from Inmarsat and the withdrawal of the acoustic pings from consideration as leads.

DW.DE

'Time of the essence' in hunt for MH370

Search teams have stepped up efforts to find Flight MH370, as the hunt for the missing plane enters its third week. But with no confirmed traces, expert Heinrich Großbongardt tells DW that time may be running out. (22.03.2014)

Flight MH370 may have been victim of foul play

MH370 fallout 'will hurt' Malaysian tourism

Malaysian authorities release MH370 and Inmarsat satellite data

What information do you hope a whistleblower will provide?

We have set parameters for submissions to include the need for concrete evidence to support the claim. Evidence may include photographs, audio clips, genuine documents, and validated eyewitness accounts. A theory based on circumstantial evidence, or on ambiguous satellite photos, would not be considered a valid lead.

It seems that you are not satisfied with the conclusions the authorities have reached so far. Why is that?

It just doesn't sound reasonable to us. If we are to accept the conclusion provided by the authorities, then we must also accept the reasonableness of the following things:

First, it is possible for a fully loaded Boeing 777 to crash in the water without a single piece of debris surfacing in the ocean, on a beach, or in fishing nets over a three-month period of time. Second, a Five Power Defense Arrangement military base at Butterworth, Malaysia either didn't see or ignored a huge unidentified object flying almost directly over its base.

Third, Australia's famous JORN over-the-horizon radar defenses were not operating on March 8. And last but not least, a mechanical failure could happen that is significant enough to knock out all communication capabilities and human intervention, yet still allow the auto-pilot to fly the airplane smoothly for many hours.

Do you have any indications of intentional misdirection on the part of the authorities?

We have no proof that the authorities are intentionally misdirecting this investigation, however, if it is not intentional misdirection, it certainly is gross incompetence. The Malaysian government is continuing to stay in control of an operation they have clearly failed at. This is an intentional decision to remain an obstacle, which is then intentional misdirection through stubborn ignorance and pride.

What it your personal feeling as to what happened to the plane?

I have too many feelings to put into words. That is why I am on a quest to find facts. Only proof will lead us to the plane and the passengers. I am fully committed to bringing Philip home, be that in celebration, or to his final resting place.

"The conclusions reached by the authorities just don't sound reasonable to us," says Bajc

How are you and other relatives of the victims coping with this difficult situation?

We are coping with the situation by staying busy and doing what we can to continue to push for the truth. The only other option would be hopelessness and despair, but that solves nothing.

An international team is now determining an expanded search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometers. What more would you like authorities to do to help find the missing plane and passengers?

We are confident in Australia's ability to run a competent underwater search. Our challenge to the investigation, however, is that we believe they are looking in the wrong place because of failures in the early stages of the investigation.

We are hoping that the authorities will cooperate with our efforts should we find appropriate leads to pursue beyond what our investigation firm can pursue. Our call for a whistleblower to come forward aims to identify the correct place to find the plane. At that point we will of course need to get the authorities to drive that search and rescue process.

Sarah Bajc teaches economics and business studies in Beijing, China. Her partner Philip Wood was on Flight MH370 when it disappeared March 8.

Are We Getting Closer To Finding MH370? Independent Analysis Looks Like We Are.

Search teams ARE looking in the right place for missing plane MH370, an independent report confirms

• On Thursday Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed search area in southern Indian Ocean was correct
• A week ago the ATSB announced 'pings' detected off WA coast were not from the missing plane
• The ATSB said a study after the 2009 Air France crash concluded majority of lost aircrafts were found within 32km of last known position
• Searchers will continue looking in the long flight path 'arc' determined by aviation company Inmarsat

By FREYA NOBLE

PUBLISHED: 11:50 EST, 5 June 2014 | UPDATED: 17:24 EST, 5 June 2014 

 
 
 
 

61 shares

14

View
comments

An independent analysis has confirmed search teams are looking in the right area of the southern Indian Ocean for MH370, a week after it was revealed that pings detected more than 2,000 kilometres off the coast of Perth were not from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

A new specific underwater search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometres is now being determined after scientists reviewed original data and concluded that the search should still follow the original arc defined by British satellite company Inmarsat.

The search arc is defined by the final 'handshakes' between the Boeing 777 and satellites - electronic transmissions from the plane - when MH370 disappeared on March 8 during its scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpar to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.

By the time MH370 would have reached the seventh arc, the outermost arc determined by Inmarsat's data analysis, the aircraft is considered to have exhausted its fuel and would have been descending.

+9

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said on Thursday independent research confirmed searchers were looking in the right place for the plane

+9

The latest information and analysis confirms that MH370 will be found in close proximity to the arc set out in this map and labelled as the 7th arc. At the time MH370 reached this arc, the aircraft is considered to have exhausted its fuel and to have been descending. As a result, the aircraft is unlikely to be more than 20 NM (38 km) to the west or 30 NM (55 km) to the east of the arc.

+9

The 7th arc: The seventh arc on this globe is the area where MH370 is thought to be. The arc was determined by measuring the time difference between communication messages sent between MH370 and an Inmarsat satellite

The news comes a week after the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said a narrowed-down area where acoustic 'pings' were detected could be discounted as the final resting place of MH370.

These pings were detected in the southern Indian Ocean in early April.

After they were heard, the search area was refined to a single zone, about 75,423 square kilometres in size, 2261 kilometres north west of Perth.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott was confident about the defined area holding the key to the plane's location. He said in a speech in Shanghai, in April, that the position of the black box flight recorders had been narrowed to 'within some kilometres'.

The Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, headed by former Defence chief Angus Houston, was then forced to downplay the PM's comments.

They said the overall search area remained at 46,713 square kilometres.

+9

False hope: Search teams have given up listening to pings detected by this machine as it's now been confirmed they did not come from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's black box

+9

This diagram shows where the pings were detected, around 1,500 miles north west of Perth, in western Australia. They lead to the search area being defined to a smaller space around them, but they have now been discounted from the investigation

+9

+9

New method: The American navy then used the Bluefin-21 (pictured being hoisted on board Ocean Shield) to map the ocean floor. The autonomous vehicle was managed by the Royal Australian Navy Ship (right)

Then, last week, it was back to the drawing board for the search teams when the pings that were at the centre of the search were no longer believed to be coming from the aircraft's black box.

On Thursday, it was announced that although this narrowed-down area has been discounted, the wider area around it is still believed to be where MH370 crashed.

By going back over the original data and satellite information collected by British company Inmarsat, searchers said they remained confident in a long flight path 'arc' over the southern Indian Ocean holding the key to the plane's location.

The 'arc' is based on the seventh and final 'handshake' between the Boeing 777 and satellites on March 8.

The ATSB said the independent analysis had confirmed the original arc is still the right place to search.

'At the time MH370 reached this arc, the aircraft is considered to have exhausted its fuel and to have been descending,' the ATSB said in a statement.

As a result, the aircraft was unlikely to be more than 38km to the west or 55km to the east of the arc, the ATSB said.

+9

Back in March the AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) was searching this relatively small area for MH370. This handout satellite image shows a map of the planned search area on March 24, 2014

It said the analysis would be refined in coming weeks to reduce the underwater search area along the arc to 60,000sq km.

The 'prioritised' length of the search area along the arc is expected to be 650km.

WHERE IS MH370? THEORIES ABOUT THE MISSING PLANE

• The latest 'possible evidence' suggests the MH370 came down in the Indian Ocean south of India almost 4,000 miles north of where 26 nations, using either ships, aircraft or technical expertise, have been searching the waters off the Australian coast.
• British woman Katherine Tee claimed that she saw a burning plane as she sailed from Cochin, in southern India, to Phuket in Thailand on the night of March 8.
• A day earlier Duncan Steel, a New Zealand space scientist and physicist, said it would not be impossible for the missing jet to have flown north west across the ocean and crashed either in the sea or even in central Asia.
• Earlier in the search a worker on an oil rig off the southern coast of Vietnam said he saw a burning plane at around the time MH370 made a 'u-turn' over the South China Sea and headed west.
• Malaysian wife Raja Dalelah Raja Latife insisted she saw an aircraft partially submerged on the surface of the Indian Ocean near the Andaman Islands as she flew on a commercial flight from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur during daylight about 12 hours after MH370 disappeared.
• Another possible sighting of the Boeing 777 has come from residents on the remote Maldives island of Kuda Huvadhoo who say they saw a low flying 'jumbo jet' at around 6.15am on March 8. It was white, they said, with red stripes - like the planes operated by Malaysian Airlines.

Based on all the independent analysis of satellite communications and aircraft performance, the total extent of the 7th arc reaches from latitude 20 degrees S to 39 degrees S.

The ATSB said a study completed after the 2009 Air France crash concluded that the majority of aircraft in loss-of-control accidents were found within 32km of their last known position.

'This provides a reasonable limitation for the size of the search area across the arc.'

The satellite data indicates the Boeing 777 flew for six hours after falling off radar screens.

A new and potentially deeper underwater search taking up to 12 months will begin in August, with a formal request for tender to undertake the search to soon be released, according to The Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre. 

Meanwhile, a Chinese vessel is currently conducting a bathymetric survey - or mapping of the ocean floor - to help experts determine how to carry out the next stage of the search on the previously unmapped ocean seabed.

Recently, there have been many claims of knowledge about the whereabouts of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.

Curtin University in Western Australia released information that an underwater sound recorded just 10 minutes after the plane lost contact with air traffic control could have been the plane crashing into the water.

However, Dr Alec Duncan from the University said there is only a 10 percent chance the 'dull oomph' was actually MH370.

And a British sailor reported she spotted what she believed to be a plane on fire with black smoke trailing behind it while on a 13 month expedition with her husband.

Katherine Tee said she didn't say anything at the time as she was the only one who spotted it and didn't realise it's potential relevance.

Relatives of the 239 passengers and crew were recently successful in demanding Inmarsat publicly release its data, after losing faith that searchers were looking in the right area.

+9

The search for the missing plane continues, with Chinese vessels mapping the sea floor in preparation for the next step of the search

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2649544/Search-teams-ARE-looking-right-place-missing-plane-MH370-independent-report-confirms.html#ixzz33oJue8Pj
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook