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Malaysia U-turns on satellite data evidence; unsure when system went off line Malaysia backtracks on satellite data evidence; unsure when system went offline
(about 9 hours later)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities, in the latest of a series of U-turns, reversed themselves Monday on a key detail of what happened in the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the minutes before it vanished from civilian radar nine days ago. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The search for Malaysia’s missing airliner pushed on Monday across a vast spread of the Indian Ocean into the waters off western Australia as officials here contradicted earlier information that pointed to a planned takeover in the cockpit.
The government had previously said that a key satellite communications system had been disabled some time before the cockpit made final radio contact with air traffic control — and before the plane disappeared from civilian radar contact with 239 passengers and crew on board. The government had previously said that a key satellite communications system had been disabled sometime before the cockpit made final radio contact with air-traffic control — and before Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from civilian radar contact on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew members on board.
That sequence of events suggested that something suspicious was already underway before that final radio call was made, and that one or both pilots were either involved in a plot to commandeer the Boeing 777 or acting under duress. That sequence of events suggested that something suspicious was underway before that final radio call was made, and that one or both pilots were either involved in a plot to commandeer the Boeing 777 or acting under duress.
But authorities acknowledged Monday that they do not know exactly when that data system went dark, making it harder to pinpoint when the suspected act of hijacking or sabotage was initiated.But authorities acknowledged Monday that they do not know exactly when that data system went dark, making it harder to pinpoint when the suspected act of hijacking or sabotage was initiated.
The new disclosure does not change the criminal nature of the probe into the missing airliner — an investigation that now has countries from Australia to Kazakhstan scouring radar and satellite data for signs of the plane, and deploying sea and air search teams to hunt for evidence of the aircraft. It still appears likely that somebody was trying to cover their tracks as the plane was deliberately flown off-course. The new disclosure does not change the criminal nature of the investigation. It still appears likely that someone was trying to cover their tracks as the plane was deliberately flown off-course.
But it does change the balance of probabilities as to who was responsible. The search for the airliner has been plagued by a series of contradictory statements from Malaysian authorities that have frustrated countries in the region and caused anguish for relatives of those on board.
Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the automatic communications system made what proved to be a final transmission at 1:07 a.m. on March 8, relaying routine information on the plane’s performance. The next transmission, from the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, known as ACARS, was due 30 minutes later, but never arrived, Ahmad said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang asked Malaysia to provide more detailed and timely data about the flight, which had departed Kuala Lumpur and was bound for Beijing, the Chinese news agency Xinhua said.
“The last ACARS transmission was 1:07. It was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from that, but that transmission did not come through,” he said. “When was it switched off? Any time between then, and 30 minutes later.” Australia committed several more planes to a search off Perth, the west coast city whose offshore waters run to 13,000 feet deep. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak asked the Australians to coordinate the activity.
At 1:19 a.m. on March 8, the co-pilot of Flight MH370, Fariq Abdul Hamid, said, “All right, good night,” to air traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur, two minutes before the plane disappeared from civilian radar. “Australia is preparing to work with assets from a number of other countries, including surveillance aircraft from New Zealand and the United States,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement.
In the desperate search for clues, the recording of that final radio contact is being analyzed to see if it could indicate whether everything was normal in the cockpit at the time, said airline chief executive Ahmad. With the focus switching to Australian waters, the U.S. Navy said its ship that had been looking for wreckage in the Andaman Sea would pull out of the search.
The search for the missing airliner has been plagued by a series of contradictory statements by Malaysian authorities that have frustrated countries in the region and caused anguish for relatives of those on board. They have also fueled a cottage industry of speculation about what could have happened on board the plane. Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Monday that it was important to narrow the focus of the hunt.
Indications that something malign was afoot before the final radio call had led many people to suspect that the plane’s co-pilot or its captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, might have been behind the plane’s disappearance. Zaharie had flown for the airline for 30 years and had not shown any sign of personal troubles recently, according to friends. “The area is huge,” he said, “and what we’ve been doing is to try to narrow this.”
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the homes of Zaharie and Fariq were visited on March 9, and then searched over the past weekend. The flight simulator in Zaharie’s home was taken away by police and is being examined for clues, he said. But he has warned against jumping to conclusions, saying that the pilot and co-pilot had not asked to fly together that day, nor had they requested additional fuel. Malaysian officials have asked countries throughout the region to search their radar records for clues as to where the airliner could have flown. Aviation officials in Pakistan say they have no evidence that the plane entered the country’s airspace. Indian defense officials and air-traffic controllers have scoffed at the theory that a plane could have flown across that country undetected. However, security analysts said that radar does not cover all 1.2 million square miles of that country.
While the investigation into the disappearance of the airliner has often appeared chaotic, evidence has steadily mounted that the plane’s diversion — either by passengers or crew members — was meticulously planned. Malaysian officials said they were reviewing psychological tests of crew members and they had asked Chinese authorities to examine the histories of the 154 Chinese passengers.
The plane’s transponder, a device that identifies and locates the plane for civilian air traffic control, was turned off just as it was leaving Malaysian airspace and entering that of Vietnam. At that point, the plane appeared to turn back toward the Malay Peninsula, flying on for as many as seven additional hours without being spotted. U.S. aviation expert Ron Carr said whether the plane is found may depend on how it struck the water. He said that if it came in as though it were landing, it would float for a while and then sink, creating a large underwater target for sonar detectors. If it came down hard and broke into pieces, plenty of debris would be floating on the surface.
Air accident investigators say it will be difficult to piece together even basic information about what happened in the cabin and cockpit as the plane was steered off course. “The third option is the aircraft went under water at a steep angle,” said Carr, who was an Air Force and airline pilot for 39 years before becoming a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona. “It would accordion down into a smaller size that would make discovery more difficult. A ship or an aircraft would have to be in the right place, at the right time, looking in the right spot to see any floating debris, if there was any floating debris left to see.”
Even if the plane is found, the black box will not contain an audio recording of the crucial minutes when MH370 turned from its path to Beijing. The cockpit voice recorder captures only two hours of sound, recording over the oldest material. Unlike the most recent airliner to crash in the ocean, an Air France Flight 447 in 2009, Carr said there is no clue as to where to search.
Malaysian officials said Monday they are trying to determine whether any passengers sent text messages or attempted or made cellphone calls during the flight, though they have not yet found any evidence of such communication. “As time goes by, I would say it would become more and more difficult to find the [Boeing] 777, and at some point the cost of the search will reach a point that it will be abandoned and the possibility of it never being found obviously goes way up,” he said.
U.S. officials believe that the plane, after turning west, soared to 45,000 feet — above the approved altitude limit for a Boeing 777. But the plane had returned to cruising altitude by the time it crossed the Malaysian peninsula. Evidence points to a plan
It appeared unlikely that, during its westward tack, the plane would have dipped low enough for any passenger to receive cellphone reception or connect with a ground tower. If the plane turned south toward the Indian Ocean after crossing Malaysian territory, passengers would have had no other chance to pick up a signal. Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the automatic communications system made what proved to be a final transmission at 1:07 a.m. on March 8, relaying routine information about the plane’s performance. The next transmission, from the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), was due 30 minutes later but never arrived, he said.
“Let’s say they are in the middle of the ocean and trying to make a call, then no ground station would know anybody is attempting a connection,” said Ravi Madaravam, an aerospace and defense expert at the Frost & Sullivan business consulting firm in Kuala Lumpur. “The last ACARS transmission was 1:07. It was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from that, but that transmission did not come through,” he said. “When was it switched off? Any time between then and 30 minutes later.”
Malaysia said 26 countries are now involved in the effort to locate the missing plane, with some actively searching and many others being asked to surrender satellite and radar data. At 1:19 a.m., the co-pilot of Flight 370, Fariq Abdul Hamid, said, “All right, good night,” to air-traffic controllers in Kuala Lumpur, two minutes before the plane disappeared from civilian radar, authorities said.
“Over the last two days, we have been recalibrating the search for MH370,” said Hishammuddin, the defense minister and acting transport minister. “It remains a significant diplomatic, technical and logistical challenge. Malaysia is encouraged by the progress made during such a short time.” The recording of that final radio contact is being analyzed to see if it could indicate whether everything was normal in the cockpit at the time. On Sunday, Hishammuddin had told reporters that the ACARS system was shut down before the “good night” communication, suggesting that the co-pilot was either hiding information or being forced to cover up the irregular situation.
Malaysia has already taxed the resources of more than a dozen countries by focusing the first week of the search on nearby waters — areas that now appear far from the flight’s endpoint. Indications that something malign was occurring before the final radio call had led many people to suspect that the co-pilot or the plane’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, might have been behind the plane’s disappearance. Zaharie had flown for the airline for 30 years and had not shown any sign of personal trouble recently, friends said.
Hishammuddin rebutted accusations that his government withheld information that could have been relevant to the investigation, or that it allowed a massive search effort to take place in the Gulf of Thailand in the first week after the plane vanished when data were already indicating that the plane had flown elsewhere. Hishammuddin said Zaharie and Fariq’s homes were visited on March 9, and then searched over the past weekend. Police are examining a flight simulator from Zaharie’s home, he said. But he has warned against jumping to conclusions, saying that the pilot and co-pilot had not asked to fly together that day.
“It would be irresponsible to deploy such essential assets merely on the basis of unverified and uncorroborated information,” he said. Evidence has steadily mounted that the plane’s diversion — either by passengers or crew members — was meticulously planned.
U.S. officials have examined the names of the passengers and crew members on the flight for possible connections to terrorist groups. No such links have been disclosed. At the same time, the officials have also expressed frustration that Malaysia did not ask for more extensive help from the FBI in investigating what Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says is now thought to have been a “deliberate action of someone on the plane.” The plane’s transponder, a device that identifies and locates the airliner for civilian air-traffic control, was turned off just as it was leaving Malaysian airspace and entering that of Vietnam. At that point, the plane appeared to turn back toward the Malay Peninsula, flying on for as many as seven hours without being spotted.
However, Hishammuddin said he has been working with the FBI “from Day One.” Steven B. Wallace, a former head of investigations at the Federal Aviation Administration, said he is confident that the mystery will be solved. But “I’m slightly less confident than I was on the day this investigation began,” he said. “This is the modern jet transport era and this is a state-of-the-art aircraft. Jet airliners have never disappeared. We’ve never seen anything like this.”
Halsey reported from Washington. Chico Harlan in Kuala Lumpur, Tim Craig in Islamabad, Annie Gowen in New Delhi and Ernesto Londoño in Washington contributed to this report.