| Irish Times | - |
Indian
Navy ship INS Kesari, involved in search operations for the missing
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, arrives at the naval base in Port Blair,
the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands today.
Co-pilot spoke last words from missing Malaysian jet
Airline uncertain when communications system disabled ; Jet could have travelled west of Australia
Indian
Navy ship INS Kesari, involved in search operations for the missing
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, arrives at the naval base in Port Blair,
the capital of India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands today. Photograph:
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
The co-pilot of a missing Malaysian jetliner
spoke the last words heard from the cockpit, the airline‘s chief
executive said today, as investigators consider suicide by the captain
or first officer as one possible explanation for the plane‘s
disappearance.
No trace of Malaysia
Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished on March 8th
with 239 people aboard. Investigators are increasingly convinced it was
diverted perhaps thousands of miles off course by someone with deep
knowledge of the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial navigation.
A search unprecedented in its scale is now
under way for the plane, covering a area stretching from the shores of
the Caspian Sea in the north to deep in the southern Indian Ocean.
Flight MH370: four unanswered questions
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Why does the mystery of Malaysia MH370 hold such fascination for us?
Airline chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya
also told a news conference that it was unclear exactly when one of the
plane‘s automatic tracking systems had been disabled, appearing to
contradict the weekend comments of government ministers.
Suspicions of hijacking or sabotage had
hardened further when officials said on Sunday that the last radio
message from the plane - an informal “all right, good night“ - was
spoken after the system, known as “acars“, was shut down.
“Initial investigations indicate it was the
co-pilot who basically spoke the last time it was recorded on tape,“
Ahmad Jauhari said today, when asked who it was believed had spoken
those words.
That was a sign-off to air traffic controllers at 1.19 am, as the Beijing-bound plane left Malaysian airspace.
The last transmission from the acars system - a
maintenance computer that relays data on the plane‘s status - had been
received at 1.07 am, as the plane crossed Malaysia‘s northeast coast and
headed out over the Gulf of Thailand.
“We don‘t know when the acars was switched off
after that,“ Ahmad Jauhari said. “It was supposed to transmit 30 minutes
from there, but that transmission did not come through.“
Police and a multi-national investigation team
may never know for sure what happened in the cockpit unless they find
the plane, and that in itself is a daunting challenge.
Satellite data suggests it could be anywhere in
either of two vast corridors that arc through much of Asia: one
stretching north from Laos to the Caspian, the other south from west of
the Indonesian island of Sumatra into the southern Indian Ocean west of Australia.
Kazakhstan said today it had not detected any
“unsanctioned use” of its air space by any planes on March 8th, making
it unlikely that a missing Malaysia Arlines jetliner could have been
diverted along a northern route via Thailand.
China, which has been vocal in its impatience
with Malaysian efforts to find the plane, called on its smaller
neighbour to “immediately“ expand and clarify the scope of the search.
About two-thirds of the passengers aboard MH370 were Chinese.
Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said he had spoken to Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak
by telephone, and had offered more surveillance resources in addition
to the two P-3C Orion aircraft his country has already committed.
“He asked that Australia take responsibility
for the search in the southern vector, which the Malaysian authorities
now think was one possible flight path for this ill-fated aircraft,“ Mr
Abbott told parliament. “I agreed that we would do so.“
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Co-pilot spoke last words from missing Malaysian jet
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