A Hackney-based firm has been thrust into the global spotlight after revealing that their satellites could hold the clue to the fate of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Telecoms giant Inmarsat, whose head offices are based at Old Street roundabout, is assisting the Malaysian authorities with their enquiries after disclosing that its satellite network continued to pick up signals from the plane after it disappeared from air traffic radar.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the flight at 2.40am local time, 120 miles off the east coast of Malaysia, but Inmarsat employees have revealed that one of their satellites placed the plane over the Andaman Sea – some 500 miles west of the point where contact was lost – at 8.11am.
The revelation has dramatically shifted the entire focus of the investigation. The scenario of an accidental crash has now been thrown into question as the authorities work on the assumption that the plane may actually have been deliberately diverted following the disabling of its communications.
The company posted a short statement on its website saying: “Routine, automated signals were registered on the Inmarsat network from flight Malaysia Airlines MH370.”
239 people from 15 different countries are still missing after the Boeing 777 airliner disappeared on the morning of 8 March.
But experts warn that even with Inmarsat’s involvement the international operation to determine their whereabouts is unlikely to be straightforward.
Ian Storey, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said: “If we are talking about a multilateral effort that relies on sharing of intelligence, I think we are in uncharted waters. Information and intelligence sharing is always a very sensitive issue.”
Inmarsat is one of the world’s leading satellite communications companies, providing telephone and data services in places where there is no reliable terrestrial network. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has around 500 employees at its east London base.
