Pool photo by Paul Kane
On Tuesday, the Malaysian government and Inmarsat released previously unpublicized raw satellite-transmission data to the families of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s victims and the media. The newly released information suggests that the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean as it was heading south. Its final satellite transmission was “consistent with satellite communication equipment on the aircraft powering up following a power interruption,” the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a separate statement after reviewing the data, adding, “The interruption in electrical supply may have been caused by fuel exhaustion.” The data seems to confirm that the plane’s wreckage is somewhere very far off the western coast of Australia. The ocean floor mapping of the region will take at least three months. MH370 disappeared on March 8, carrying 239 people.