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Search for Missing Jet Shifts to Indian Ocean Amid Confusion Over Radar Search for Missing Jet Shifts to Indian Ocean Amid Confusion Over Radar
(about 4 hours later)
SEPANG, Malaysia — The focus of the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner shifted westward on Thursday, toward the vastness of the Indian Ocean, as Malaysian authorities denied a variety of reports related to the jet’s disappearance, and experts pored over military radar data that seemed to indicate the flight had turned west and remained airborne long after its last contact with ground controllers. WASHINGTON — Investigators are examining data that appear to show that the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner was still in automated communication with satellite systems, and may therefore still have been airborne or at least functional, for hours after ground controllers last heard from it, a well-placed official involved in the investigation said on Thursday.
An American destroyer, the Kidd, was redeploying to the Strait of Malacca, the Seventh Fleet and Pentagon officials said — one of several indications that the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was turning away from the eastern waters that have been combed by dozens of ships and airplanes for days. The information added to a growing belief that the jet turned off course after contact was lost and could have traveled hundreds of miles west, across the Malaysian peninsula and out into the Indian Ocean. Some search efforts were redirected to those waters on Thursday, with the redeployment of American naval aircraft and an American destroyer, the Kidd.
Malaysian officials said they had expanded the search into the Andaman Sea, the part of the Indian Ocean northwest of the strait. The Pentagon said that the Kidd would be searching there, at the request of the Malaysian government, and that a P-3 surveillance plane had already flown over the area. Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said that India had also sent three ships, two airplanes and a helicopter to search intensively in that area. Revelations that the aircraft continued to communicate with satellites long after it was reported lost added to a swirl of new information and speculation on Thursday about its fate. ABC News reported on Thursday evening that American officials believe the shutdown of two communications systems aboard the aircraft happened at separate times, suggesting they were turned off deliberately rather than as a result of a catastrophic failure. The ABC report, which quoted two unidentified officials, could not be immediately corroborated.
Pentagon officials said that several American agencies were reviewing radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military, but had not yet found anything that would indicate specifically where the missing plane might be. A senior Pentagon official said that Malaysian and American authorities were “looking pretty closely” at the possibility that the plane went down in the Indian Ocean, but had not reached any conclusions. Data captured before the aircraft’s communications systems ceased to function appeared to reflect regular attempts by equipment on the plane to establish a link with a satellite. Such a link would be used to transmit routine maintenance data about the plane, if the airline operating it subscribed to that service.
Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said Thursday afternoon in Washington that the search area might soon be expanded again. The attempts continued periodically for a considerable time after the plane’s transponder, which identifies it to ground control radar, stopped functioning 40 minutes into the flight, the investigator said, but electronics experts have not yet established precisely how long. It was not clear how much information could be gleaned from the satellite communications, beyond the length of time that the contacts persisted.
Yet in a measure of the continued caution and bafflement among the authorities here, Malaysia’s defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said the main search effort continued to be east of the Malaysian peninsula, in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. The new evidence suggesting that the plane kept flying for hours was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Malaysian officials denied on Thursday that any data was received from the aircraft after contact with ground controllers was lost.
In a news briefing that was more structured and organized than those of earlier days, the Malaysian authorities denied a widely circulated report that the jetliner, a Boeing 777, had transmitted technical data after contact with the cockpit was lost around 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning, when the airplane was on course toward Beijing, its scheduled destination. Radar signals detected by the Malaysian military also strongly suggest that an unidentified aircraft — most likely the missing jet — remained airborne after Flight 370, with 239 people on board, ceased communications with air traffic controllers. The radar showed the aircraft crossing the peninsula from east to west near the Malaysia-Thailand border and flying out over the Strait of Malacca.
The report, by The Wall Street Journal, asserted that a satellite communications device designed to automatically send periodic updates on the status of certain systems on the plane had kept transmitting signals for roughly four hours after the last radio contact with the pilots, suggesting that the plane was still intact and flying during that time. Military radar last recorded the unidentified plane 200 miles northwest of Penang, Malaysia, flying at 29,500 feet, Malaysian officials said. They said the data was being shared with American and Chinese officials to help determine whether the plane was Flight 370.
But the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said that the last data received from Flight 370 came at 1:07 a.m. Saturday, when the aircraft was still in touch with ground controllers and there was no indication of trouble with the plane. The search area being combed by dozens of ships and planes was expanded on Thursday to take in parts of the Andaman Sea, the arm of the Indian Ocean northwest of the strait, and may grow further. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said on Thursday, “Based on some new information that’s not necessarily conclusive, but new information, an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean, and we are consulting with international partners about the appropriate assets to deploy.”
“That was the last transmission,” Mr. Ahmad Jauhari said at a news conference at the international airport serving Kuala Lumpur, in Sepang. “It did not run beyond that.” The Pentagon said that the Kidd would search in the Andaman Sea at the request of the Malaysian government, and that a P-3 surveillance plane had already flown over the area. Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry, said India had also sent three ships, two airplanes and a helicopter to search in that area.
The authorities said separately that nothing had come of images recorded by Chinese satellites on Sunday and posted online on Wednesday, which appeared to show large objects floating in the South China Sea. Aircraft and ships sent to the area found nothing, they said, and Mr. Hishammuddin said he was told by Chinese officials that “the images were released by mistake and did not show any debris.” The plane, a Boeing 777, was bound for Beijing and had fuel on board to fly at least 2,500 miles. Contact was lost 40 minutes into the flight, when the plane was on course, heading northeastward from Kuala Lumpur over the Gulf of Thailand toward Vietnamese airspace, and the hunt initially concentrated on those waters to the east of the Malaysian peninsula.
Days of intensive searching there produced nothing but false leads and floating debris that turned out to be unrelated to the aircraft. Still, Malaysia’s defense minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said on Thursday that the main search effort would continue in that area.
Pentagon officials said that several American agencies were reviewing the radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military, but had not yet found anything that would indicate specifically where the missing plane might have gone. A senior Pentagon official said that Malaysian and American authorities were “looking pretty closely” at the possibility that the plane went down in the Indian Ocean, but had not reached any conclusions.
Malaysian officials who briefed reporters on Thursday denied the initial report from The Wall Street Journal that the aircraft had continued to transmit technical data about the status of its engines after 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, the approximate time when the pilots last spoke to ground controllers by radio.
The chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said that the last data received from Flight 370 came at 1:07 a.m. on Saturday and gave no indication of trouble with the plane.
“That was the last transmission,” Mr. Ahmad Jauhari said at the news conference, held in Sepang, where the international airport serving Kuala Lumpur is. “It did not run beyond that.”
The Journal later corrected its report to say that it was satellite contacts, not transmission of technical data, that had continued for hours.
“The positive takeaway is that the system had to be powered to try to establish the connection,” Robert W. Mann Jr., an aviation consutant in Port Washington, N.Y., said in an interview.
The fact that satellite contacts continued does not necessarily mean that the plane continued to fly, Mr. Mann said. If the system had a backup battery, he said, it could have kept trying to transmit after the jet had landed somewhere, and in certain circumstances even after a crash.
The Malaysian authorities said separately on Thursday that nothing had come of images recorded by Chinese satellites on Sunday and posted online on Wednesday, which appeared to show large objects floating in the South China Sea. Aircraft and ships sent to the area found nothing, they said, and Mr. Hishammuddin said he was told by Chinese officials that “the images were released by mistake and did not show any debris.”
The government also denied Malaysian news reports that the police had searched the house of the missing flight’s pilot.The government also denied Malaysian news reports that the police had searched the house of the missing flight’s pilot.
There were increasing indications that the aircraft did turn radically off course after contact with the ground was lost. Malaysian authorities said they were setting aside national security considerations to share military radar readings with the United States and China to help determine whether they show the missing jet. The authorities said the country’s air force took no immediate action on Saturday to investigate the unidentified blips on radar, and only later realized the significance of the readings. Mr. Hishammuddin, who is also the country’s acting transport minister, said Malaysia had asked neighboring countries, including India, for any radar data they might have that could help establish what became of the unidentified aircraft seen on Malaysian military screens.
They said the data appear to show an unidentified plane flying westward across the Malaysian peninsula and toward the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea, with the last reading placing it 200 miles northwest of the island of Penang, cruising at 29,500 feet. The military took no immediate action on Saturday to investigate the unidentified blips, whose path appeared to take the aircraft near Penang, and only later realized the significance of the readings. Matthew L. Wald reported from Washington and Thomas Fuller from Sepang, Malaysia. Reporting was contributed by Michael Forsythe from Sepang; Keith Bradsher and Chris Buckley from Hong Kong; Alan Cowell from London; Gardiner Harris from New Delhi; and Christopher Drew, Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt from Washington.
Mr. Hishammuddin, who is also the country’s acting transport minister, told reporters on Thursday that Malaysia had asked neighboring countries, including India, for any radar data they might have that could help establish what became of the aircraft seen on Malaysian military screens.
Gen. Rodzali Daud, the Malaysian air force chief, said on Wednesday that the military was still not certain that the aircraft its radar had detected was the missing jetliner, which took off with enough fuel to fly more than 2,500 miles.