Two MILLION square miles to be searched, 26 countries involved - and still not a trace of Flight MH370: hunt for the missing plane stretches from Kazakhstan to Southern Ocean Malaysia appealed for radar data and search planes to help the hunt 26 countries have answered the call, including the U.S. and France Australian PM Tony Abbott agreed to help after talking to Malaysia's leader Six Australians were on board the flight carrying 239 passengers India rejects fear it could have been intended target of 9/11-style attack Indian security sources 'rubbish' idea that plane flew near an Indian city Searchers still don't know if the aircraft has come down on land or sea Total area now being examined amounts to 28million square miles That is equivalent to twice the size of Africa or a tenth of the planet Australia has taken the lead in the hunt for the missing Boeing 777 over the southern Indian Ocean as the list of countries providing assistance rose to 26 today. The move came as Malaysia's transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein revealed that two million square miles still need to be searched. Malaysia has appealed for radar data and search planes to help in the unprecedented hunt through a vast swath of Asia stretching north-west into Kazakhstan. It said searches have begun in both the northern and southern corridors of a vast swath of Asia where the jet may have ended up. The Malaysian government has revealed an investigation indicates the jet was deliberately diverted and flew for several hours after leaving its scheduled flight path. A huge area spanning the rainforests of South East Asia and the landscapes of former Soviet Union republics is now part of the investigation into the fate of Flight MH370 Investigators say Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was deliberately diverted and its communications equipment switched off shortly after take-off during an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. Suspicion has fallen on anyone on board the plane with aviation experience, in particular the pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot. Today, the airline said it believes the co-pilot Fariq Hamid spoke the jet's final words to ground controllers. Malaysian police confiscated a flight simulator from the home of the pilot on Saturday and also visited the home of the co-pilot, in what Malaysia's police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said was the first visit to their homes. The government issued a statement today contradicting that account by saying that police first visited the pilots' homes on March 9, the day after the flight. Meanwhile, researchers from Slade.com have pinpointed 634 runways where the place could have landed in the area being searched. Today it was revealed Britain and France are now among the countries providing help along with Australia, which will take responsibility for the 'southern vector'. French investigators arriving to lend expertise from the two-year search for an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. 'It's very different from the Air France case. The Malaysian situation is much more difficult,' Jean Paul Troadec, a special adviser to France's aviation accident investigation bureau, said in Kuala Lumpur. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament that he agreed to take the lead in scouring the southern Indian Ocean for the 'ill-fated aircraft' during a conversation today with Malaysia's leader Najib Razak. Abbott, who revealed he had no information that the flight may have come close to Australia, said he was responding to a request from Mr Razak. 'He asked that Australia take responsibility for the search on the southern vector, which the Malaysian authorities now think was one possible flight path for this ill-fated aircraft,' Abbott told parliament. 'I agreed that we would do so. I offered the Malaysian prime minister additional maritime surveillance resources which he gratefully accepted.' Abbott said the defence chiefs of Australia and Malaysia were discussing how to implement the arrangement. 'Australia will do its duty in this matter. It will do our duty to ensure that our search and rescue responsibilities are maintained and upheld,' he said. 'And we will do our duty to the families of the 230 people on that aircraft who are still absolutely devastated by their absence and who are still profoundly, profoundly saddened by this as yet unfathomed mystery.' Asked earlier whether Australian agencies had detected the plane close to Australia, given its western coast borders the Indian Ocean, Abbott said: 'I don't have any information to that effect. 'But all of our agencies that could possibly help in this area are scouring their data to see if there's anything that they can add to the understanding of this mystery,' he told reporters. Australia has two Orion surveillance aircraft assisting with the search for the plane, which was en route to Beijing when it disappeared. Abbott said one of those had now been redeployed to the Indian Ocean.

• published: 17 Mar 2014
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