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Data from Inmarsat Satellites Released in Search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370

Data from satellites involved in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was released on Tuesday morning, some two months after relatives of the passengers requested it be released, according to CNN.

A 47-page document was published by Malaysian authorities that showed hundreds of lines of communication logs between the satellite system of Inmarsat and the plane. The statement at the beginning of the document says that the data is “intended to provide a readable summary of the data communication logs.”

David Soucie, a Safety Analyst for CNN, said, “There’s not enough information to say whether they made an error. I think we’re still going to be looking for more.”

On Tuesday, the CEO of Inmarsat, Rupert Pearce, said that the company did not release the model used to apply the data to estimate the path of the plane. Pearce also said that the decision to release the model will come from the Malaysian government, which is the leader of the search.

“We’d be perfectly happy to put that model out,” Pearce told CNN’s “New Day.”
Last week, in an interview with CNN, vice president of satellite operations at Inmarsat, Mark Dickinson said, “No one has come up yet with a reason why it shouldn’t work with this particular flight when it has worked with others. 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.”

Dickinson continued, “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.”

Jim Vassallo: Jim is a freelance writer based out of the suburbs of Philadelphia in New Jersey. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, son Tony and dog Phoebe.

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