Malaysia Airlines jetliner disaster
People write well wishes for the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at a viewing gallery at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport March 16, 2014. Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of a missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. REUTERS/Edgar Su
REFILE - ADDING INFO Passengers have their belongings screened by airport security at the departure hall of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport March 16, 2014. Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday that the investigation would refocus on the crew and passengers of Flight MH370, after confirming that someone aboard appeared to have shut off the plane's communication systems before turning it away from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A woman leaves a messages of support and hope for the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 in central Kuala Lumpur March 16, 2014. Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of the missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Passengers queue up for custom checks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport March 16, 2014. Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of a missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. No trace of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER has been found since it vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, but investigators believe it was diverted by someone who knew how to switch off its communications and tracking systems. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A woman writes well wishes on a banner for passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport March 16, 2014. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A Malaysian Army paratrooper patrols at the viewing gallery of the departure hall at Kuala Lumpur International Airport March 16, 2014. Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of a missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. No trace of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER has been found since it vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, but investigators believe it was diverted by someone who knew how to switch off its communications and tracking systems. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A message for pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah (C), captain of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, is pictured at an event to express solidarity to the family members of passengers onboard the plane, in Subang Jaya March 16, 2014. Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of the missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. REUTERS/Samsul Said
A woman writes a message for family members of passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at an event to express solidarity in Subang Jaya March 16, 2014. Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of the missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. Picture taken through colourful decorations at the event. REUTERS/Samsul Said
A woman uses her mobile phone as she stands against a chalkboard with messages for family members of passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, at an event to express solidarity in Subang Jaya March 16, 2014. Police are combing through the personal, political and religious backgrounds of pilots and crew of the missing Malaysian jetliner, a senior officer said on Sunday, trying to work out why someone aboard flew the plane hundreds of miles off course. REUTERS/Samsul Said
A map of a flight plan is seen on a computer screen during a meeting before a mission to find the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared from radar screens in the early hours of Saturday, at Phu Quoc Airport on Phu Quoc Island March 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)
Relatives of a passenger onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cry inside a hotel they are staying, in Putrajaya March 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Samsul Said)
Military personnel work within the cockpit of a helicopter belonging to the Vietnamese airforce during a search and rescue mission off Vietnam's Tho Chu island March 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)
A girl lights a candle next to a message that reads 'Pray for MH370' during a candlelight vigil held by ethnic Malaysian Chinese for the passengers of Malaysia Airlines MH370 near Independence Square in Kuala Lumpur March 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Edgar Su)
Rescue officials and journalists sits onboard a Vietnam Air Force search and rescue aircraft An-26 on a mission to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, at a military airport in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City March 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Kham)
A Chinese relative of a passenger of Malaysia Airlines MH370 is comforted by a staff member of the airport as she shields her face from journalists at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang March 10, 2014. (REUTERS/Edgar Su)
A Vietnamese Air Force officer in a search and rescue aircraft takes notes as he searches for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane, 250 km from Vietnam and 190 km from Malaysia, March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Stringer)
A relative (front) of a passenger of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she walks past journalists at a hotel in Beijing March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Jason Lee)
A relative (woman in white) of a passenger onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she talks on her mobile phone at the Beijing Capital International Airport March 8, 2014. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
A woman, whose husband is a passenger of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, complains about Malaysia Airlines to journalists as she attempts to leave a hotel in Beijing, March 8, 2014. (REUTERS/Jason Lee)
A relative (bottom R) of a passenger of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she walks past journalists at a hotel in Beijing March 8, 2014. (REUTERS/Chance Chan)
Admiral Datuk Mohd Amdan Kurish, Director General of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, looks at a radar screen while searching for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the South China Sea, about 100 nautical miles (185 km) from Tok Bali Beach in Malaysia's Kelantan state, March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency/Handout via Reuters)
A relative of a passenger of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she walks past journalists at a hotel in Beijing March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Jason Lee)
Volunteer rescue workers and religious organizations pray during multi-religion mass prayers for the passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Edgar Su)
A Vietnamese Air Force officer takes photos from a search and rescue aircraft in the search area for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane, 250 km from Vietnam and 190 km from Malaysia, in this handout photo from Thanh Nien Newpaper taken March 8, 2014. (REUTERS/Trung Hieu/Thanh Nien Newspaper)
Family members of those onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cry at a hotel in Putrajaya March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Samsul Said)
Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik applies the final touches to a sand art sculpture he created wishing for the well being of the passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, on a beach in Puri, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Stringer)
Family members of those onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight walk to their car outside a hotel in Putrajaya March 9, 2014. (REUTERS/Samsul Said)
Report an error Related Stories Topics
KUALA LUMPUR - Investigators probing the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner with 239 people on board believe it most likely flew into the southern Indian Ocean, a source close to the investigation said on Wednesday.
No wreckage has been found from Flight MH370, which vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast at 1:21 a.m. local time on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.
An unprecedented search for the Boeing 777-200ER is under way involving 26 nations in two vast search 'corridors': one arcing north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia.
'The working assumption is that it went south, and furthermore that it went to the southern end of that corridor,' said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The view is based on the lack of any evidence from countries along the northern corridor that the plane entered their airspace, and the failure to find any trace of wreckage in searches in the upper part of the southern corridor.
China, which is leading the northern corridor search with Kazakhstan, said it had not yet found any sign of the aircraft crossing into its territory.
Malaysian and U.S. officials believe the aircraft was deliberately diverted perhaps thousands of miles off course, but an exhaustive background search of the passengers and crew aboard has not yielded anything that might explain why. SOPHISTICATED EQUIPMENT
The minister in charge of the operation said the multinational search team was deploying the most sophisticated equipment available to find the plane.
'It probably is the largest peacetime armada of assets and satellite information-sharing that we have ever seen for a rescue and search operation,' Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.
Officials believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777 and commercial aviation navigation switched off two vital datalinks: the ACARS system, which relays maintenance data back to the ground, and the transponder, which enables the plane to be seen by civilian radar.
The source close to the investigation said that it was thought 'highly probable that ACARS was switched off prior to the final verbal message' received for the cockpit.
That message, an informal 'all right, good night' radioed to Malaysian air traffic controllers to acknowledge their handover of the plane to Vietnamese airspace, was believed to have been spoken by the co-pilot, the airline said earlier this week.
Investigators piecing together patchy data from military radar and satellites believe that minutes later the plane turned sharply west, re-crossing the Malay Peninsula and following an established commercial route towards India.
After that, ephemeral pings picked up by one commercial satellite suggest the aircraft flew on for at least six hours. The data from the satellite placed the plane somewhere in one of the two corridors when the final signal was sent at 8:11 a.m.
The methodical shutdown of the communications systems, together with the fact that the plane appeared to be following a planned course after turning back, have been interpreted as suggesting strongly that foul play, rather than some kind of technical failure, was behind the disappearance. NEVER FOUND?
Last week, a source familiar with official U.S. assessments said it was thought most likely the plane flew south, where it presumably would have run out of fuel and crashed into the sea.
If it did indeed end up in the southern Indian Ocean, one of the remotest places on Earth and also one of the deepest seas, it increases the chance it may never be found - and investigators may never know for sure what happened on board.
U.S. government sources said intelligence agencies had extensively analyzed people on the flight but came up with no connections to terrorism or possible criminal motives.
A senior U.S. official said he was 'not aware of any stones left unturned'. China has said there is no evidence that Chinese passengers, who made up over two-thirds of those on board, were involved in a hijack or act of sabotage.
Australia is leading the search of the southern part of the southern corridor, with assistance from the U.S. Navy.
It has shrunk its search field based on satellite tracking data and analysis of weather and currents, but it still covers an area of 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq miles), roughly the size of Spain and Portugal.
The U.S. Navy said it had switched mainly to using P-8A Poseidon and P-3 Orion aircraft to search for the missing plane instead of ships and helicopters.
'The maritime patrol aircraft are much more suited for this type of operation,' said Navy Lieutenant David Levy, who is on board the USS Blue Ridge. '...It's just a much more efficient way to search.'
Post By http://www.torontosun.com/2014/03/19/missing-malaysian-jet-most-likely-in-southern-indian-ocean-source
0 comments Blogger 0 Facebook
Post a Comment