Updated, 4:12 a.m. ET| China said it had “immediately redeployed” 10 satellites to help in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared early Saturday with 239 people, mostly Chinese, on board, as frustration mounted among families of the missing over the lack of progress.
According to a report on www.81.cn, or China Military Net, the military’s Xi’an Satellite Monitoring Center redeployed the satellites to help search on Saturday, as soon as news of the aircraft’s disappearance was received.
The center said the 10 satellites were of four types — the Haiyang, Fengyun, Gaofen and Yaogan — and were providing support for ships and aircraft at the search site.
Some of the satellites have altered their original functions — which were not specified — and were now involved in collecting weather data, aiding communications
and performing targeted searches of the area where the aircraft is thought to have been lost.
Beidou — China’s global navigation satellite system — will also be deployed to support the 10 redirected satellites, the website said.
The Xi’an center has been working around the clock to program hundreds of instructions into the satellites so they can deliver back the fastest-possible data, said a spokesman for the center, who was not named.
Late Monday, 13 officials from three government ministries — Foreign Affairs, Public Security and Transport — and the Civil Aviation Administration arrived in Malaysia. Guo Shaochun, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Consular Affairs and a spokesman for the delegation, said the group began work immediately as China continued to press Malaysia for speed.
The Chinese search effort at sea expanded on Tuesday, when the amphibious landing ship Jinggangshan joined the frigate Mianyang, which had arrived early Monday, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported. Another amphibious landing ship and another destroyer, the Kunlunshan and the Haikou, were expected to be on hand by Wednesday morning, bringing the number of Chinese warships to four, it said.
The Chinese ships join dozens of vessels from at least nine countries, including the United States and Vietnam, searching the area.
Meanwhile, college students in China lighted candles and prayed for the passengers, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported.