MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370; SATELITE DATA RELEASED AFTER LONG WAIT

By Jethro Mullen and Saima Mohsin, CNN

May 27, 2014 -- Updated 0615 GMT (1415 HKT)

Source: CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: A passenger's partner says it needs to be established how complete the data is
• Inmarsat and Malaysian officials held back the data for weeks
• Families have been clamoring for the information
• The data will allow for an independent analysis of what happened on March 8

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- Data from communications between satellites and missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was released Tuesday, more than two months after families of some of the passengers on the plane requested that it be made public.

Malaysian authorities published a 47-page document containing hundreds of lines of communication logs between the jetliner and the British company Inmarsat's satellite system.

Some passenger family representatives, unsatisfied by official explanations of the plane's fate, say they will now send the complex information on to independent experts for analysis.

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"The first thing we're going to expect feedback on is does the data look right," said Sarah Bajc, whose partner Philip Wood was on the missing jet. "Is it as complete as we're being led to believe it is?"

For weeks, Inmarsat said it didn't have the authority to release the data, deferring to Malaysian authorities, which are in charge of the search for the plane that disappeared more than two months ago over Southeast Asia.

Last week, the two sides announced that they would aim to make the information available to the public.

Source: CNN

Malaysia to Inmarsat: Make data public

The satellite signals -- called "handshakes" -- with MH370 were part of a larger set of data that investigators have used to try to establish the whereabouts of the Boeing 777 that went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.

A team of international experts used the data -- in combination with other information, including radar data and engine performance calculations -- to conclude that the plane ended up in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean.

Questions over search

Searchers have so far found no wreckage and have not been able to say for sure where MH370 might be.

CNN aviation analyst Jeff Wise has said that "the box is going to open" when the satellite data gets publicized.

"It could produce more theories. It will probably cancel out a lot of theories," he said.

Either way, the release will hopefully give "a much better understanding of what's been going on all this time," Wise said.

Relatives of people who were on the passenger jet, scientists studying its disappearance and media covering the search have become increasingly critical about the lack of public information about why the search has focused on the southern Indian Ocean.

They have been calling for the release of the data that has informed the search efforts.

Inmarsat confident

In an exclusive interview with CNN's Richard Quest last week, the Inmarsat's vice president of satellite operations said he has "good confidence" that experts have interpreted the data correctly.

The company's calculations, he said, have been tested by other people.

"No one has come up yet with a reason why it shouldn't work with this particular flight when it has worked with others," Mark Dickinson said. "And it's very important this isn't just an Inmarsat activity. There are other people doing investigations, experts who are helping the investigation team, who have got the same data, who made their own models up and did the same thing to see if they got the same results and broadly speaking, they got roughly the same answers."

Experts came to the conclusion that the plane had ended up in the southern Indian Ocean by piecing together three types of information, he said.

"We have actually the messages from the ground station to the plane and back again. That essentially tells you the terminal is switched on and powered up. We have some timing information and in addition to that there were some frequency measurements," he said.

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The timings told them the distance between the plane and the satellite, enabling them to map out arcs. Then they factored in frequency differences, determining that the plane had headed south.

'The right work'

It was a startling conclusion -- and Dickinson says investigators made sure to repeatedly check their calculations before sharing them.

"You want to make sure when you come to a conclusion like that, that you've done the right work, the data is as you understand it to be," he said.

Now, Dickinson says he's well aware that the entire weight of the search rests on the Inmarsat data.

"Everyone on the team understands what this means. This is all the data we have for what has happened for those six or so hours," he said. "It's important we all get it right and particularly that everyone looking at the data makes the best judgments on it and how it's used. And particularly for the families and friends of the relatives on board, try and make sure that we can help bring this sad incident to a close."

The wait for data

The issue of making the satellite data public has become the cause of confusion and contradictory statements.

Bajc said the families had first asked for the data more than two months ago.

"It seemed a relatively innocent request" at the time, she said, but authorities refused to release it.

Malaysian officials told CNN earlier this month that their government did not have the data. But Inmarsat officials said the company provided all of it to Malaysian officials "at an early stage in the search."

"We've shared the information that we had, and it's for the investigation to decide what and when it puts out," Inmarsat Senior Vice President Chris McLaughlin said earlier this month.

But a senior Malaysian official told CNN that the government needed Inmarsat's help to pass on the data to families "in a presentable way."

"We are trying to be as transparent as possible," the official said. "We have no issues releasing the data."

Bajc said the delay only added to questions surrounding the information.

"It's a little curious to me why this had to become such a big deal," she said Tuesday.

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CNN's Saima Mohsin reported from Kuala Lumpur; CNN's Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong; CNN's Holly Yan and Catherine Shoichet contributed to this report.