Communication systems on flight MH370 were deliberately switched off: Malaysian PM KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday that the movements of a missing plane were consistent with a deliberate act by someone who turned the jet back across Malaysia and onwards to the west. Investigators had confirmed that an aircraft tracked by military radar was the lost Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, after its communications were likely switched off before it reached the east coast of Malaysia a week ago, Najib told a news conference. The satellite data places the aircraft in one of two corridors: north from Northern Thailand to Kazakhstan, or south from Indonesia to the Southern Indian Ocean, he said, noting that all possible causes for the plane to deviate from its flight path are still being investigated. He says that expanded search area is based on the latest available satellite data. “Clearly the search for MH370 has entered a new phase,” he said. “We hope this new information brings us one step closer to finding the plane.” Earlier, a Malaysian government official involved in the investigation called the disappearance a hijacking, though he said no motive has been established and no demands have been made known. It’s not yet clear where the plane ended up, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. The official said a deliberate takeover of the plane was no longer a theory. “It is conclusive,” he said, indicating that investigators were ruling out mechanical failure or pilot error in the disappearance. He said evidence that led to the conclusion were signs that the plane’s communications were switched off deliberately, data about the flight path and indications the plane was steered in a way to avoid detection by radar. The Boeing 777’s communication with the ground was severed just under one hour into a flight March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian officials have said radar data suggest it may have turned back toward and crossed over the Malaysian peninsula after setting out on a northeastern path toward the Chinese capital. Earlier, an American official told The Associated Press that investigators are examining the possibility of “human intervention” in the plane’s disappearance, adding it may have been “an act of piracy.” While other theories are still being examined, the official said key evidence suggesting human intervention is that contact with the Boeing 777’s transponder stopped about a dozen minutes before a messaging system on the jet quit. Such a gap would be unlikely in the case of an in-flight catastrophe. The Malaysian official media said only a skilled aviator could navigate the plane the way it was flown after its last confirmed location over the South China Sea. The official said it had been established with a “more than 50 per cent” degree of certainty that military radar had picked up the missing plane after it dropped off civilian radar. Why anyone would want to do this is unclear. Malaysian authorities and others will be urgently investigating the backgrounds of the two pilots and 10 crew members, as well the 227 passengers on board. Some experts have said that pilot suicide may be the most likely explanation for the disappearance, as was suspected in a SilkAir crash during a flight from Singapore to Jakarta in 1997 and an EgyptAir flight in 1999. A massive international search effort began initially in the South China Sea where the plane’s transponders stopped transmitting. It has since been expanded onto the other side of the Malay peninsula up into the Andaman Sea and into the Indian Ocean. Scores of aircraft and ships from 12 countries are involved in the search. The plane had enough fuel to fly for at least five hours after its last known location, meaning a vast swath of South and Southeast Asia would be within its reach. Investigators are analyzing radar and satellite data from around the region to try and pinpoint its final location, something that will be vital to hopes of finding the plane, and answering the mystery of what happened to it
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:37:17 +0000
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