Malaysia Airlines MH370: Finger of suspicion points at pilots as Chinese satellite spots debris Data analysis rules out fire damage and intervention from passenger on vanished plane The co-pilot and pilot of the Malaysian plane MH370 The co-pilot and pilot of the Malaysian plane MH370 Photo: ENTERPRISE NEWS AND PICTURES By Jonathan Pearlman, in Kuala Lumpur, Robert Mendick and Patrick Sawer10:30PM GMT 22 Mar 2014 Authorities investigating the disappearance of Flight MH370 have narrowed their investigation down to the aircraft’s two pilots following extensive analysis of data from the plane. Senior sources involved in the investigation told The Sunday Telegraph that they remained certain the disappearance of the Boeing 777 was as a result of a “deliberate act” by a “person or persons on board”. Two weeks after the plane vanished, investigators have largely ruled out the possibility that the Malaysia Airlines flight might have suffered a fire that knocked out all communication systems and killed the pilots. The plane would then have had to fly on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and before any Mayday message could be sent. But they are doubtful whether a passenger could have seized control of the aircraft, after a study of transcripts between air traffic control and the co-pilot suggested a would-be hijacker would have had only a two-minute window of opportunity. That leaves inquiries increasingly focused on Captain Zaharie Shah Ahmed, 53, and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. 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The finger of suspicion is pointing towards the pilots. “The pilots were only seriously investigated after the view emerged that someone on board did something deliberate rather than it being an accident.” The source said that “the most plausible” explanation after two weeks’ inquiries is that the pilots, either in concert or alone, proceeded to lock themselves into the cockpit and hijack the flight. They then steered the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew into remote southern waters in the Indian Ocean. Foreign intelligence agencies last week completed a second round of vetting of each of the passengers, including two Iranians travelling on false passports, and cleared them all. Only a Russian passenger – who is not believed to be suspect – apparently remained to be fully vetted, because authorities in Moscow have been preoccupied with the crisis in Crimea. Ukraine finally vetted its two passengers earlier last week. The transcript of exchanges between the pilots and air traffic control, which has been obtained by The Telegraph, has been the focus of the investigation – in particular the 14 minutes between 1.07am and 1.21am, during which the first signs emerged that something was amiss aboard MH370. At 1.07am, 26 minutes after take-off, the plane’s Acars automatic signalling device sent its last message before being disabled at some point in the next half an hour. The device was timed to send a signal every 30 minutes. Then at 1.19am, Mr Hamid, the co-pilot, spoke his last known message of “All right, good night” to air traffic control in Malaysia as the plane shifted into Vietnamese airspace. Investigators are still completing analysis of Hamid’s voice pattern to determine whether the 27-year-old, who was planning to marry his 26-year-old pilot girlfriend, was being coerced or was speaking under duress. Two minutes after the final message at 1.21am, the plane’s transponder was turned off, apparently deliberately disabled. MH370 slipped off Malaysian radar screens nine minutes later and it never made it on to those of Vietnam. Instead, the plane took a sharp and unexpected turn westward and flew silently for almost seven hours, probably in a southerly direction. If passengers had seized control of the plane, they would likely have done so in the two-minute window between the point when Mr Hamid spoke to air traffic control and the moment the transponder was switched off. A girl looks at a board with messages of support and hope for passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 (REUTERS) Aside from a glimpse on Malaysian military radars, which showed the plane had steered wildly off course, MH370 has not been seen since. As yet, however, police have found no evidence of a plot cooked up by the pilots or of signs that either man had psychological problems. Malaysian police are hoping vital clues may emerge from Capt Zaharie’s three-screen home flight simulator, on which he played three games: Flight Simulator X, Flight Simulator 9 and X-Plane 10. The bizarre westward turn by MH370 while above the Gulf of Thailand took the plane on to routes that Malaysia Airlines does not fly; if the plane, as is believed, ended up in the southern Indian Ocean, neither pilot had previously steered a plane there. On February 3, apparently some weeks before he would have been aware of the flight details for MH370, Capt Zaharie deleted the game logs from his simulator. It is believed he practised on five runways across the Indian Ocean. Malaysian criminal investigators called in FBI forensic experts to try to recover the files but early assessments have found nothing suspicious. A complete copy of the machine’s hard drive has been sent to the US for further investigation. Yesterday, the search for the aircraft remained focused on a remote corner of the Indian Ocean after the release of images taken from Chinese satellites suggesting a sighting of one large piece of possible debris. The object, around 74ft long and 43ft wide, was spotted early on March 18 about 75 miles south-west of a location where possible debris was sighted by another satellite on March 16, in the remote ocean 1,200 miles off the coast of Western Australia. The Chinese sighting was dramatically revealed by Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defence minister and acting transport minister, who was handed a note containing details midway through a press conference in Kuala Lumpur. “Chinese ships have been dispatched to the area,” Mr Hishammuddin said, after holding up the note to photographers. China said an image of the object had been captured by its high-definition Earth observation satellite, Gaofen-1. Confusingly, the strong ocean currents in this area would tend to push any floating items in an easterly direction, raising questions over whether the separate sightings could both involve objects with the same origin. Six aircraft and two merchant ships have been scouring the area, but there were no reports of any wreckage being found. “Even though this is not a definite lead, it is probably more solid than any other lead around the world and that is why so much effort and interest is being put into this search,” said Warren Truss, Australia’s deputy prime minister. As the hunt went on, the relatives of the missing grew increasingly impatient. In a statement released yesterday, relatives in Beijing accused a Malaysian delegation of “concealing the truth” and “making fools” out of the families. Out of 239 people on board, 153 were Chinese citizens. “This kind of conduct neglects the lives of all the passengers, shows contempt for all their families, and even more, tramples on the dignity of Chinese people and the Chinese government,” they said. During the meeting, police were forced to intervene as relatives of the Chinese passengers rushed towards Malaysian officials, shouting: “Government of Malaysia, tell us the truth! Give us back our loved ones!” In Kuala Lumpur, Mr Hishammuddin called on “all parties to be understanding during this extraordinary and difficult time”. Back in Beijing, Nan Jinyan, the sister-in-law of a missing passenger Yan Ling, a 29-year-old engineer, said: “If they can’t offer something firm, they ought to just shut up.”
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 07:33:01 +0000
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