| ABC News | - |
The
search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet now spans "large
tracts of land crossing 11 countries as well as deep and remote oceans,"
according to Malaysian government officials, who reached out to 25
countries about whether they had any contact ...
Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet: Search Expands to 11 Countries, 'Deep and Remote Oceans'
March 16, 2014
By GLORIA RIVERA, JOSH MARGOLIN, PIERRE THOMAS, DAVID KERLEY, DEAN SCHABNER and BEN CANDEA
via Good Morning America
Weekend Manager/Editor
The search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet now spans "large
tracts of land crossing 11 countries as well as deep and remote oceans,"
according to Malaysian government officials, who reached out to 25
countries about whether they had any contact with the plane and asked
for help in the search.
Those countries include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China, Myanmar, Laos,
Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia.
"We are asking countries that have satellite assets, including the U.S.,
China and France, amongst others, to provide further satellite data,
and we are contacting additional countries who may be able to contribute
specific assets relevant to the search and rescue operation," Acting
Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is also Malaysia’s minister
of defense, said during a news conference.
Both the northern and southern corridors - which span from Kazakhstan to
the southern Indian Ocean - are being treated with equal importance,
said Hussein. But sources told ABC News the southern corridor is more
likely the path that the plane took because of radar capabilities and
air defenses of countries in the northern corridor, which include
nuclear-armed states.
One source close to the investigation told ABC News the search will
concentrate in the southern Indian Ocean a thousand miles off the coast
of Australia.
Investigators are also examining the flight simulator in the home of Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah,
the 53-year-old pilot of the missing plane, who has been described as
an affluent aviation buff with more than 18,000 hours of experience in
the air. Police spoke with his family members during their visit to his
home Saturday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said today.
Police also searched the home of his co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27,
who joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007 and has 2,000 hours of flying time.
The pair did not ask to fly together, according to the airline.
The details of Malaysian officials' investigation of the pilot and
co-pilot comes as two senior law enforcement officials told ABC News
that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials are focusing on the
possibility that at least one of the Malaysia Airlines pilots is
responsible for the disappearance of flight MH 370 after new information
revealed the plane performed "tactical evasion maneuvers" after it
disappeared from radar.
U.S. authorities believe only a person with extensive flight or
engineering experience could have executed the maneuvers. They also are
suspicious of what appeared to be attempts to evade radar.
After the plane's transponder -- which reports the plane's location and
altitude -- was turned off about 1:20 a.m. last Saturday, the plane was
picked up by military radar as it turned back towards Malaysia and
passed above Peninsular Malaysia before heading into the Strait of
Malacca.
Razak said Saturday that "these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane."
After a week of scrutinizing passengers and the crew, one of the
officials said there were no indications anyone besides the pilots had
the ability to perform the complicated maneuvers done by the plane.
Furthermore, officials said they have found no link between the
passengers and known terrorist groups and that the plane could have been
flown into a densely populated area if the incident was related to
terrorism -- but it wasn't.
Another possibility that can't be ruled out is that the pilots were
coerced or made to redirect the plane by force. Malaysian officials are
investigating all crew and passengers, as well as “all ground staff
handling the aircraft,” said Hussein.
Razak said Saturday that the plane was steered off course by someone on
board, was airborne for more than seven hours and may have traveled as
far as Kazakhstan. He added that although the movements were consistent
with deliberate acts, he wouldn't confirm that the plane was hijacked.
Razak presented a vastly different timeline that what had officials had
previously acknowledged -- saying for the first time that the last
confirmed communication between the plane and a satellite was at 8:11
a.m. Malaysian time. The prime minister said the search has expanded to
points as far north as Kazakhstan and as far south as the South Indian
Ocean -- a stretch of more than 5,000 miles.
The flight was carrying 239 people when it disappeared while above
waters between Malaysia and Vietnam. A frantic search followed, with 14
different countries involved.
The plane's communication systems were shut down separately, two U.S.
officials said, an indication that the plane did not come out of the sky
because of a catastrophic failure.
The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The
transponder – which transmits location and altitude – shut down at 1:21
a.m. The missing flight continued to "ping" a satellite on an hourly
basis after it lost contact with radar, senior administration officials
told ABC News.
end quote from:
No comments:
Post a Comment