The Malaysian government finally confirmed what Reuters and The Wall Street journal have been saying since yesterday – that flight Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was indeed flying for up to five hours since its last contact, its contact systems were disabled deliberately, and that foul play is now suspected.
Malaysian government officials state there was a “high degree of certainty” that the planes link to Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), followed by the location transponder were disabled in sequence.
The plane diverted west, then north-west according to Malaysian leader Najib Razak, and did not crash into the South China Sea.
Investigations have now been focused away from the South China Sea and the Asian Main land area.
When final contact was made with the plane via a satellite ping, it was along two lines – a northern corridor stretching from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, or a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. These were represented on a satellite track, which appears as an arc on a map. Whilst the plane did not necessarily follow the corridor, but was at some point along its path at the moment the signal was sent.
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Possible paths – data Malaysian Government, Imagery Google, Info-graphic BBC News
Countries along both routes are being asked to check their satellite records – including Thailand, Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Pakistan.
The word “hijack” has not been mentioned yet, but investigations into the crew and passengers aboard have begun into who could had caused this plane to deviate from its planned flight path.
No information about the passengers or crew having militant links or other links that could be linked to sabotage, however the home of the captain – Zaharie Ahmad Shah – is now being searched.
With the areas given for the search – it’s now a case of “needle in the haystack” time as this covers an enormous area.
The two big questions however remain: What happened aboard MH370 to cause this change, and where is that plane containing its people and passengers now?
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sounds like a well thought out plan, fly to burn up fuel weight and be able to land in less runway space.