WATCH: Malaysian police on Sunday were examining a flight simulator belonging to one of the pilots of the missing jetliner and investigating engineers who worked on the plane, sharpening the probe into the jet’s disappearance after authorities revealed it was a deliberate act. Christina Stevens reports.
LATEST UPDATES:
- Malaysia’s acting transport minister says 25 countries now involved in the search for the missing jetliner
- Prime Minister Najib Razak said despite reports disappearance was a hijacking, all possibilities being explored
- Malaysian prime minister said disabling of communications, plane’s movements were deliberate
- Flight MH370’s last contact with satellite was 8:11 a.m. local time Mar. 8
- Search now focusing on two corridors: first between northern Thailand and Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border, second between Indonesia and southern Indian Ocean
- Operations in the South China Sea will come to an end
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysian authorities say the number of countries involved in the search for the missing jetliner has increased to 25.
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Sunday that 11 more countries joined the search after it was determined that the missing Malaysia Airlines plane may have gone as far north as Central Asia, flying over several countries.
A day earlier, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Flight MH370 had its communications deliberately disabled and its last signal came about 7 1/2 hours after takeoff, meaning it could have ended up as far as Kazakhstan or into the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.
Najib’s statement confirmed days of mounting speculation that the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was not accidental, refocusing the investigation into the flight’s crew and passengers and underlining the massive task for searchers who already have been scouring vast areas of ocean.
Investigators now have a high degree of certainty that one of the plane’s communications systems — the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System — was disabled before the aircraft reached the east coast of Malaysia, Najib said. Shortly afterward, someone on board then switched off the aircraft’s transponder, which communicates with civilian air traffic controllers.
Najib stressed that investigators were looking into all possibilities as to why the plane deviated so drastically from its original flight path.
Malaysian air force defence radar picked up traces of the plane turning back westward, crossing over Peninsular Malaysia into the northern stretches of the Strait of Malacca. Authorities previously had said this radar data could not be verified.
Still, Najib said authorities have not fully confirmed a hijacking took place. Earlier Saturday, a Malaysian government official called the plane’s disappearance a hijacking, though he said no motive had been established and no demands had been made known.
WATCH: 7 days after its disappearance, the investigation is pointing towards a possible hijacking. Seth Doane reports.
“In view of this latest development, the Malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation into the crew and passengers on board,” Najib told reporters, reading from a written statement but not taking any questions.
The plane was carrying 239 people when it departed for an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing at 12:40 a.m. on March 8.
Police investigate Flight MH370 pilots
Police on Saturday morning drove into the residential compound where the missing plane’s pilot lives in Kuala Lumpur, according a guard and several local reporters who were barred from entering the complex.
Malaysian police have already said they are looking at the psychological state, family life and connections of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. Both have been described as respectable, community-minded men.
Zaharie joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and had more than 18,000 hours of experience. His Facebook page showed an aviation enthusiast who flew remote-controlled aircraft, posting pictures of his collection, which included a lightweight twin-engine helicopter and an amphibious aircraft.
Fariq was contemplating marriage after having just graduated to the cockpit of a Boeing 777. He has drawn scrutiny after the revelation that in 2011, he and another pilot invited two women aboard their aircraft to sit in the cockpit for a flight from Phuket, Thailand, to Kuala Lumpur.
The plane was carrying 239 people when it departed for an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing at 12:40 a.m. on March 8. The plane’s communications with civilian air controllers were severed at about 1:20 a.m., and the jet went missing – heralding one of the most puzzling mysteries in modern aviation history.
Information from Boeing’s satellite service
Boeing offers a satellite service that can receive a stream of data on how an aircraft is functioning during flight and relay the information to the plane’s home base. Malaysia Airlines didn’t subscribe to that service, but the plane still had the capability to connect with the satellite and was automatically sending signals, or pings, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the situation by name.
Najib said the last confirmed signal between the plane and a satellite came at 8:11 a.m. – 7 hours and 31 minutes after takeoff. This was more than five hours later than the previous time given by Malaysian authorities as the possible last contact.
Airline officials have said the plane had enough fuel to fly for up to about eight hours.
“The investigations team is making further calculations which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after this last point of contact,” Najib said.
On Thursday, an American official said the plane remained airborne after losing contact with air traffic controllers because it was sending a signal to establish contact with a satellite. The Malaysian official confirmed this, referring to the process by its technical term of a “handshake.”
Najib said authorities had determined that the plane’s last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible “corridors” – a northern one from northern Thailand through to the border of the Central Asian countries Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
He said that searching in the South China Sea, where the plane first lost contact, had ended.
Malaysia has faced accusations it isn’t sharing all its information or suspicions about the plane’s final movements. It insists it is being open, and says it would be irresponsible to narrow the focus of the search until there is undeniable evidence of the plane’s flight path.
WATCH: Former head of NTSB believes that the investigation should now switch from the accident to a possible crime
Multinational ships, planes deployed in search
As of Sunday morning, 25 countries are searching for the missing jetliner.
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Sunday authorities were hoping for more satellite data that would narrow the search.
Meanwhile, police chief Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said he had requested countries with citizens on board the plane to investigate their background. He said some had already done this and found nothing suspicious, but he was waiting for others to respond.
The USS Kidd destroyer arrived late Friday in the Strait of Malacca, from where U.S. officials said it would move into the Bay of Bengal to help in the search. It uses a “creeping-line” search method of following a pattern of equally spaced parallel lines in an effort to completely cover an area.
A P-8A Poseidon, the most advanced long-range anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft in the world, was to arrive over the weekend and sweep parts of the Indian Ocean. It has a nine-member crew and has advanced surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the U.S. Defence Department said in a statement.
Watch below: Why the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has again turned west and a U.S. navy ship is joining efforts in the Indian Ocean. Mike Drolet reports.
Associated Press writer Chris Brummitt contributed to this report from Kuala Lumpur. AP writer Didi Tang, video producer Aritz Parra and news assistant Henry Hou contributed from Beijing.
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