Inmarsat’s role in the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 began immediately after the aircraft disappeared, The Washington Post has reported.
Based on a series of hourly ‘handshakes’ received by one of Inmarsat’s satellites from the plane, Inmarsat calculated that the aircraft had flown along one of two routes – one arcing north and the other south – 24 hours after it vanished, said the newspaper.
The report added that the handshakes from the satellite – along with assumptions about the plane’s speed – helped Australia and the US National Transportation Safety Board to narrow down the search area to just 3 per cent of the southern corridor on 18 March.
