Ten days after Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared from radar contact over the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy is calling back one of its ships originally tasked with carrying out search and rescue operations in one of the possible areas the plane may have crashed, Stars and Stripes reported.
The USS Kidd, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer housing two MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopters, has been recalled to its original base of operations in the South China Sea by Navy officials. The Kidd's departure follows that of the USS Pinckney, which assisted search efforts as well before heading to Singapore for scheduled maintenance and repairs.
The Kidd and Pinckney will be replaced by a P-8A Poseidon and P-3C Orion long-range patrol aircraft as U.S. soldiers continue to search for signs of the disappeared flight and its 227 passengers.
With recent data from radar and communications systems, the plane may have traveled in any direction as far west as Kazakhstan or as far south as the well into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia, according to The Wall Street Journal. Search efforts now encompass distances 3,200 miles from the point of last contact with the plane over the South China Sea.