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| A Malaysian military soldier petrols the viewing gallery of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport where dedication boards with well wishes and messages for people involved with the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner MH370 is displayed, Sunday, March 16, 2014 in Sepang, Malaysia. Malaysian authorities Sunday were investigating the pilots of the missing jetliner after it was established that whoever flew off with the Boeing 777 had intimate knowledge of the cockpit and knew how to avoid detection when navigating around Asia. |
KUALA LUMPUR,
Malaysia (AP) -- Even before someone at the controls calmly said the
last words heard from the missing Malaysian jetliner, one of the Boeing
777's communications systems had already been disabled, authorities
said Sunday, adding to suspicions that one or both of the pilots were
involved in disappearance of the flight.
Investigators
also examined a flight simulator confiscated from the home of one of
the pilots and dug through the background of all 239 people on board, as
well as the ground crew that serviced the plane.
The
Malaysia Airlines jet took off from Kuala Lumpur in the wee hours of
March 8, headed to Beijing. On Saturday, the Malaysian government
announced findings that strongly suggested the plane was deliberately
diverted and may have flown as far north as Central Asia or south into
the vast reaches of the Indian Ocean.
Authorities
have said someone on board the plane first disabled one of its
communications systems - the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and
Reporting System, or ACARS - about 40 minutes after takeoff. The ACARS
equipment sends information about the jet's engines and other data to
the airline.
Around 14 minutes later, the
transponder that identifies the plane to commercial radar systems was
also shut down. The fact that both systems went dark separately offered
strong evidence that the plane's disappearance was deliberate.
On
Sunday, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news
conference that that the final, reassuring words from the cockpit - "All
right, good night" - were spoken to air traffic controllers after the
ACARS system was shut off. Whoever spoke did not mention any trouble on
board.
Air force Maj. Gen. Affendi Buang told
reporters he did not know whether it was the pilot or co-pilot who spoke
to air traffic controllers.
Given the expanse
of land and water that might need to be searched, finding the wreckage
could take months or longer. Or it might never be located. Establishing
what happened with any degree of certainty will probably require
evidence from cockpit voice recordings and the plane's flight-data
recorders.
The search area now includes 11
countries the plane might have flown over, Hishammuddin said, adding
that the number of countries involved in the operation had increased
from 14 to 25.
"The search was already a highly complex, multinational effort," he said. "It has now become even more difficult."
The
search effort initially focused on the relatively shallow waters of the
South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, where the plane was first
thought to be. Hishammuddin said he had asked governments to hand over
sensitive radar and satellite data to try to get a better idea of the
plane's final movements.
With more information, he said, the search zone could be narrowed "to an area that is more feasible."
Malaysia is leading the search for the plane and the investigation into its disappearance.
In
the United States, Dan Pfeiffer, senior adviser to President Barack
Obama, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the FBI was supporting the
criminal probe.
Rep. Peter King, chairman of
the House Homeland Security subcommittee on counterterrorism and
intelligence, said on ABC's "This Week" that so far "there's nothing out
there indicating it's terrorists."
Investigators
are trying to answer these questions: If the two pilots were involved
in the disappearance, were they working together or alone, or with one
or more of the passengers or crew? Did they fly the plane under duress
or of their own will? Did one or more of the passengers manage to break
into the cockpit or use the threat of violence to gain entry and then
seize the plane? And what possible motive could there be for diverting
the jet?
Malaysia's police chief, Khalid Abu
Bakar, said he asked countries with citizens on board the plane to
investigate their backgrounds, no doubt looking for anyone with
terrorism ties, aviation skills or prior contact with the pilots. He
said that the intelligence agencies of some countries had already done
so and found nothing suspicious, but he was waiting for others to
respond.
Police searched the homes of both
pilots Saturday, the first time they had done so since the plane
vanished, the government said. Asked why it took them so long, Khalid
said authorities "didn't see the necessity in the early stages."
Police
confiscated the elaborate flight simulator that one of the pilots,
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had built in his home and reassembled it in their
offices to study it for clues, Khalid said.
Zaharie,
53, who has three grown children and one grandchild, had previously
posted photos online of the simulator, which was made with three large
computer monitors and other accessories. Earlier this week, the head of
Malaysia Airlines said the simulator was not in itself cause for any
suspicion.
Malaysian police were also
investigating engineers and ground staff who may have had contact with
the plane before it took off, Khalid said.
Even
though the ACARS system was disabled on Flight 370, it continued to
emit faint hourly pulses that were recorded by a satellite. The last
"ping" was sent out at 8:11 a.m. - 7 hours and 31 minutes after the
plane took off. That placed the jet somewhere in a huge arc as far north
as Kazakhstan in Central Asia or far into the southern Indian Ocean.
While
many people believe the plane has crashed, there is a small possibility
it may have landed somewhere and be relatively intact. Affendi, the air
force general, and Hishammuddin, the defense minister, said it was
possible for the plane to "ping" when it was on the ground if its
electrical systems were undamaged.
Australia
said it was sending one of its two AP-3C Orion aircraft involved in the
search to remote islands in the Indian Ocean at Malaysia's request. The
plane will search the north and west of the Cocos Islands, a remote
Australian territory with an airstrip about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles)
southwest of Indonesia, military chief Gen. David Hurley said.
Given
that a northern route would have sent the plane over countries with
busy airspace, most experts say the person in control of the aircraft
would more likely have chosen to go south. The southern Indian Ocean is
the world's third-deepest and one of the most remote stretches of water
in the world, with little radar coverage.
Whoever
disabled the plane's communication systems and then flew the jet must
have had a high degree of technical knowledge and flying experience,
putting one or both of the pilots high on the list of possible suspects,
Malaysian officials and aviation experts said.
Zaharie,
the captain, was a supporter of a Malaysian opposition political party
that is locked in a bitter dispute with the government, according to
postings on his Facebook page and a friend, Peter Chong, who is a party
member.
Chong said that he last saw Zaharie a
week before the pilot left on the flight for Beijing and that they had
agreed to meet on his return to organize a shopping trip for poor
children.
"If I am on a flight, I would choose
Captain Zaharie," he said. "He is dedicated to his job. He is a
professional and he loves flying."
