(Corrects headline and text to say 21 satellites, not 20)
BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday that it has deployed 21 satellites to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner with 239 people on board.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comments at a daily news briefing.
China has begun searching for the missing jet in those parts of its own territory covered by a northern corridor that the aircraft could have flown through, state media said earlier in the day.
No trace of the plane has been found more than a week after it vanished, but investigators believe it was diverted by someone with deep knowledge of the plane and commercial navigation.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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