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| Beijing Says No Chinese Passengers Were Involved in Jet’s Disappearance | Beijing Says No Chinese Passengers Were Involved in Jet’s Disappearance |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| SEPANG, Malaysia — The Chinese government said Tuesday it had ruled out the possibility that any of its nationals on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight were terrorists or malcontents who tried to seize the plane. | |
| The announcement came as Australia said it was focusing its search for the missing airliner in the southern Indian Ocean using new computer models of the plane’s possible flight path. But the calculations still left a vast area of about 175,000 nautical square miles. | |
| Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia indicated that Beijing had not received any relevant threats from Uighur separatist groups seeking independence for Xinjiang, an ethnically divided region in far western China, and he cleared the sole Uighur passenger on the missing plane of suspicion. | |
| The Chinese findings, announced by Ambassador Huang Huikang, appear likely to increase pressure on investigators to establish whether the Malaysian captain of the plane, his junior officer or any other people on board with flying experience were involved in the disappearance of the Boeing 777. Officials have said that the plane’s abrupt deviation from its original route on March 8 most likely involved deliberate intervention by an experienced aviator, making the captain and junior officer in the cockpit focal points of attention. | |
| “China has conducted a thorough investigation, and to date we have not found any signs that any passengers on board the plane participated in destruction or terror attacks,” Mr. Huang said at a news briefing in Kuala Lumpur for Chinese reporters, according to a summary on the website of the state-run People’s Daily newspaper. | “China has conducted a thorough investigation, and to date we have not found any signs that any passengers on board the plane participated in destruction or terror attacks,” Mr. Huang said at a news briefing in Kuala Lumpur for Chinese reporters, according to a summary on the website of the state-run People’s Daily newspaper. |
| “We can say that we have generally ruled out the possibility of Chinese passengers engaging in destruction or a terrorist attack,” he was quoted as saying. | “We can say that we have generally ruled out the possibility of Chinese passengers engaging in destruction or a terrorist attack,” he was quoted as saying. |
| China has often alleged that Uighur groups seeking an independent Xinjiang homeland have orchestrated acts of terrorism, including attempted attacks aboard domestic flights. The ambassador’s denial of any possible link to the plane’s disappearance was thus all the more striking. Chinese nationals made up about two-thirds of the 227 passengers on the jet, which disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. One of them was an artist of Uighur ethnicity, Maimaitijiang Abula. | China has often alleged that Uighur groups seeking an independent Xinjiang homeland have orchestrated acts of terrorism, including attempted attacks aboard domestic flights. The ambassador’s denial of any possible link to the plane’s disappearance was thus all the more striking. Chinese nationals made up about two-thirds of the 227 passengers on the jet, which disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. One of them was an artist of Uighur ethnicity, Maimaitijiang Abula. |
| Mr. Huang explicitly ruled out suspicions about Mr. Abula, who was part of a Chinese government-approved delegation of artists to Malaysia. Mr. Abula, 35, was the subject of speculation on the Internet in China, as well as in some Western news outlets. | Mr. Huang explicitly ruled out suspicions about Mr. Abula, who was part of a Chinese government-approved delegation of artists to Malaysia. Mr. Abula, 35, was the subject of speculation on the Internet in China, as well as in some Western news outlets. |
| “Currently, there is no evidence to prove that he engaged in any terrorist or destructive activities,” Mr. Huang said, according to Chinese television news. “And nor has any organization or individual made political demands to the government concerning this incident.” | “Currently, there is no evidence to prove that he engaged in any terrorist or destructive activities,” Mr. Huang said, according to Chinese television news. “And nor has any organization or individual made political demands to the government concerning this incident.” |
| The Chinese Communist Party-run government maintains abundant records and surveillance on citizens, especially anyone with a reputation for discontent, and would have used that information as the starting point for police inquiries into any potential suspects on the plane, said Pan Zhiping, a professor at Xinjiang University who studies unrest in the region. He said he saw “no signs of Uighur involvement.” | The Chinese Communist Party-run government maintains abundant records and surveillance on citizens, especially anyone with a reputation for discontent, and would have used that information as the starting point for police inquiries into any potential suspects on the plane, said Pan Zhiping, a professor at Xinjiang University who studies unrest in the region. He said he saw “no signs of Uighur involvement.” |
| “These background checks are relatively easy in China,” he said. “I think that the government felt that this search is already so large and so complicated that it would be helpful to publicly exclude at least one aspect, especially when there have been many rumors and media speculation about a connection to Xinjiang.” | “These background checks are relatively easy in China,” he said. “I think that the government felt that this search is already so large and so complicated that it would be helpful to publicly exclude at least one aspect, especially when there have been many rumors and media speculation about a connection to Xinjiang.” |
| The Chinese ambassador’s statement came after U.S. officials disclosed that the sharp turn to the west that took the plane from its planned flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was achieved using a computer system that was most likely programmed by someone in the cockpit knowledgeable about airplane systems. | The Chinese ambassador’s statement came after U.S. officials disclosed that the sharp turn to the west that took the plane from its planned flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was achieved using a computer system that was most likely programmed by someone in the cockpit knowledgeable about airplane systems. |
| Malaysian officials have not publicly disclosed that information, and on Monday they recast important details of their account of what happened in the crucial minutes before the plane vanished from air traffic control communications over the Gulf of Thailand. | Malaysian officials have not publicly disclosed that information, and on Monday they recast important details of their account of what happened in the crucial minutes before the plane vanished from air traffic control communications over the Gulf of Thailand. |
| Aviation officials implicitly contradicted an assertion, given by Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Sunday, that the last verbal radio signoff from the cockpit had come after a separate communication system that monitors the plane’s equipment — the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or Acars — was disabled. Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, also said on Saturday that the communications system had been disabled early. | Aviation officials implicitly contradicted an assertion, given by Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Sunday, that the last verbal radio signoff from the cockpit had come after a separate communication system that monitors the plane’s equipment — the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or Acars — was disabled. Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, also said on Saturday that the communications system had been disabled early. |
| Mr. Hishammuddin had said that the communications system was disabled at 1:07 a.m. on March 8, before someone in the cockpit gave a verbal signoff to air traffic controllers on the edge of Kuala Lumpur. But Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, said Monday that Acars had functioned normally at 1:07 but failed to send its next scheduled signal at 1:37 a.m. | Mr. Hishammuddin had said that the communications system was disabled at 1:07 a.m. on March 8, before someone in the cockpit gave a verbal signoff to air traffic controllers on the edge of Kuala Lumpur. But Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, said Monday that Acars had functioned normally at 1:07 but failed to send its next scheduled signal at 1:37 a.m. |
| “We don’t know when the Acars system was switched off,” he said. Acars is used for airplane maintenance, and its signals usually go to airline engineers and equipment providers, not air traffic controllers. | “We don’t know when the Acars system was switched off,” he said. Acars is used for airplane maintenance, and its signals usually go to airline engineers and equipment providers, not air traffic controllers. |
| Breaking from its usual reluctance to criticize friendly neighbors, the Chinese government has chided the Malaysian authorities and demanded prompter, more accurate information about the investigation. The ambassador, Mr. Huang, said Tuesday that Malaysia had not concealed information from China. | Breaking from its usual reluctance to criticize friendly neighbors, the Chinese government has chided the Malaysian authorities and demanded prompter, more accurate information about the investigation. The ambassador, Mr. Huang, said Tuesday that Malaysia had not concealed information from China. |
| “Currently, there’s no lack of information,” he said. “The main problem we confront is chaotic information, with all manner of speculation, even rumors, filling the heavens. It makes it impossible to think.” | “Currently, there’s no lack of information,” he said. “The main problem we confront is chaotic information, with all manner of speculation, even rumors, filling the heavens. It makes it impossible to think.” |
| Mr. Huang warned that the areas where the plane could have ended up “have expanded, and the search and rescue effort is difficult.” | Mr. Huang warned that the areas where the plane could have ended up “have expanded, and the search and rescue effort is difficult.” |
| A satellite over the Indian Ocean received a final transmission from the plane that, extrapolating from the angle from which the plane sent it, came from somewhere along one of the two corridors that searchers have been preparing to investigate. Together, the two corridors encompass an area of 2.97 million square miles, or 2.24 million square nautical miles, Mr. Hishammuddin said at a news briefing Tuesday. That is an area the size of the continental United States, excluding California. | |
| At the time of the last satellite transmission, the plane may been somewhere along an arc starting in northern Laos and reaching across China into Central Asia. That arc cuts through western and southwestern China, including remote, mountainous terrain in Tibet. China carefully watches its frontiers, however, and has given no indication that its radar picked up any signs of the plane. | |
| China has begun searching the large section of the northern corridor that crosses its land territory, said Mr. Huang, the ambassador. The Chinese Navy will also send search ships to seas west of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and to seas southwest of Sumatra, a spokesman for the navy said, according to the China News Service, a state-run agency. | China has begun searching the large section of the northern corridor that crosses its land territory, said Mr. Huang, the ambassador. The Chinese Navy will also send search ships to seas west of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and to seas southwest of Sumatra, a spokesman for the navy said, according to the China News Service, a state-run agency. |
| If the plane was on the other, southern corridor, it may have been anywhere from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean, west of Australia, when it was last in contact with a satellite. | If the plane was on the other, southern corridor, it may have been anywhere from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean, west of Australia, when it was last in contact with a satellite. |
| On Monday, the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, said his government would coordinate the search in the southern Indian Ocean. That search would start from about 1,500 nautical miles southwest of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, and cover about 175,000 square nautical miles using ships and aircraft from Australia, the United States and New Zealand, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said on Tuesday. | |
| The search area was determined using new computer models of the plane’s possible flight path built on undisclosed satellite data, a range of assumptions on how much fuel the jet had left and how fast it might have been flying, and estimates of wind conditions and water currents. “The sheer size of the search area poses a huge challenge,” John Young, general manager for the authority’s emergency response division, based in the Australian capital, Canberra, said at a news conference where that information was presented. | |
| Cmdr. William Marks, a spokesman for the United States Navy Seventh Fleet, said the United States would send a Boeing P-8A Poseidon to Australia to help in the daunting task. The Kidd, a U.S. Navy destroyer, pulled out of the search on Monday, Commander Marks said in an email. He and other officials have said that the new search area is so large that sending out ships to investigate each section of it would be virtually impossible. Boeing says the P-8A Poseidon aircraft has a range of nearly 1,400 miles, or 1,217 nautical miles. | |
| “Every attempt will be made to further refine the search area,” Mr. Young said. “But with the passage of significant time, since the eighth of March, and with the constant movement of water, the search will be difficult.” | “Every attempt will be made to further refine the search area,” Mr. Young said. “But with the passage of significant time, since the eighth of March, and with the constant movement of water, the search will be difficult.” |