Where do you even begin to look, when the search area covers vast swaths of land and water, stretching thousands of miles, from Kazakhstan to the Indian Ocean?
That's the question
for Malaysian officials and authorities from 24 other nations as people search
for a ninth day, trying to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the 239 people
on board.
As the search area
grows bigger, authorities are also increasing their scrutiny of the pilots,
searching their homes in the quest for clues. That includes a flight simulator
from the captain's home.
It also includes interviewing
the engineers who were in contact with MH370 before it took off, according to a
statement from acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein to
BERNAMA, Malaysia's official news agency. The transport minister characterized
the interviews as "normal procedure."
"Police are
still working on it. ... Nothing conclusive yet," a senior police official
who has direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Sunday night,
speaking on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized
to speak to the press.
With news that the
Boeing 777-200ER might have flown for six and a half hours after its
transponder stopped sending signals March 8, officials said the expanding
search area extends over 11 countries, stretching as far north as Kazakhstan, a
large nation in Central Asia far from any ocean.
The
10 big questions that linger over the search
"This is a
significant recalibration of the search," Malaysia's acting Transportation
Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Sunday.
There are still more
questions than answers about the missing flight. Figuring out the motive of
whoever apparently steered the plane off course is key, analysts told CNN
Sunday.
"I think they
had an end game in mind from the very beginning," CNN aviation analyst Jim
Tilmon said, "and they have executed a lot of things that have led us down
a road. Are we going to the right place? I'm not sure."
The plane disappeared
on March 8, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Airline CEO Ahmad Jauhari
Yahya said Sunday the missing passenger jet took off with its normal amount of
fuel needed for the roughly six-hour flight and did not have extra fuel on
board that could have extended its range.
One of the nations
involved in the search, Pakistan, said Sunday that the plane never showed up on
its civilian radars and would have been treated as a threat if it had.
The Times of India
reported that India's military also said there was no way the plane could have
flown over India without being picked up on radar.
A study of the
flight's cargo manifest showed there were no dangerous materials on board that
concerned investigators, he told reporters.
Investigators are
still looking into the backgrounds of the passengers to see whether any of them
were trained pilots.
"There are still
a few countries who have yet to respond to our request for a background
check," said Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector general of the Royal Malaysian
Police Force. "But there are a few ... foreign intelligence agencies who
have cleared all the(ir) passengers."
U.S. intelligence
officials are leaning toward the theory that "those in the cockpit"
-- the captain and co-pilot -- were responsible for the mysterious disappearance,
a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the latest thinking told CNN.
The official
emphasized no final conclusions have been drawn and all the internal
intelligence discussions are based on preliminary assessments of what is known
to date.
Other scenarios could
still emerge. The
notion of a hijacking has not been ruled out, the official said Saturday.
Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Razak told reporters on Saturday that the plane veered off
course due to apparent deliberate action taken by somebody on board.
'Someone
acting deliberately'
The first clue that
the captain or co-pilot may have been involved stems from when the plane made a
sharp, deliberate turn just after it last communicated with Kuala Lumpur air
traffic controllers, and before it would have to communicate with Vietnamese
controllers, according to the U.S. official with knowledge of the latest
intelligence thinking.
"This is the
perfect place to start to disappear," the official said.
Adding to the
intrigue, ABC News reported that the dramatic left turn was preprogrammed into
the plane's navigation computer. It's a task that would have required extensive
piloting experience.
Two senior law enforcement
officials also told ABC that new information revealed the plane performed
"tactical evasion maneuvers" after it disappeared from radar. CNN was
unable to confirm these reports.
Military radar showed
the jetliner flew in a westerly direction back over the Malaysian Peninsula,
Najib said. It is then believed to have either turned northwest toward the Bay
of Bengal or southwest elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, he said.
"Evidence is
consistent with someone acting deliberately from inside the plane," the Prime
Minister said, officially confirming the plane's disappearance was not caused
by an accident. "Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, we are
investigating all major possibilities on what caused MH370 to deviate."
Pilot:
Whoever changed flight path was an expert
The unconfirmed
possibility that the plane could be on land means authorities need to answer
that question -- and fast, analysts said.
"Time is even
more of the essence. If this airplane has been taken to be used as a weapon,
then the time that has been taken to prepare the aircraft for whatever deed is
the plan, obviously to thwart that, it's all about time," said Shawn
Pruchnicki, who teaches aviation safety and accident investigation at The Ohio
State University.
Tilmon said whoever
deliberately steered the plane off course likely did it with help. But what's
next is anyone's guess, he said.
"We have been
behind them all along, so now, if they had a plan, and if that plan included
being able to set down someplace and refuel a little bit, we are looking at
something that we may never see the end of," he said.
On Saturday,
Malaysian police searched the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53. Zaharie
lives in an upscale, gated community in Shah Alam, outside Malaysia's capital,
Kuala Lumpur.
The Ministry of
Transport said Sunday that police were examining a flight simulator found at
the pilot's house.
It's somewhat common
among aviation enthusiasts to use online flight simulator programs to replicate
various situations. Simulators allow users to virtually experience scenarios in
various aircraft. Programs can simulate flight routes, landings and takeoffs
from actual airports.
Two vans were loaded
with small bags, similar to shopping bags, at the home of the co-pilot,
27-year-old Fariq Ab Hamid, according to a CNN crew who observed activities at
the residence. It was unclear whether the bags were taken from the home, and
police made no comment about their activities there.
Najib made clear in a
news conference that in light of the latest developments, authorities have
refocused their investigation to the crew, ground staff and passengers on
board.
Hishammuddin, the
transportation minister, told reporters the pilots didn't request to work
together.
What
we know about the cockpit crew
Peter Chong, a friend
of Zaharie's, said he had been in the pilot's house and tried the simulator.
"It's a
reflection of his love for people -- because he wants to share the joy of
flying with his friends," Chong said.
He was bothered by
speculation about the captain's credibility and questions about possible ties
to terrorism.
"I think it is a
little bit insensitive and unfair to the family," he said, adding he
thought there was no evidence to suggest any ulterior motives on Shah's part.
A senior U.S. law
enforcement official told CNN that investigators are carefully reviewing the
information so far collected on the pilots to determine whether there is
something to indicate a plan or a motive.
"In any criminal
investigation, the most important analysis is what's the motive," said
Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S.
Department of Transportation. "I think right now, they have to look for
it, and they have to rule it out, if they can, with their own pilots, so they
can start looking for motives elsewhere."
Undoubtedly,
authorities will scour through the flight manifest and look further to see
whether any of the passengers on board had flight training or connections to
terror groups.
According to The New
York Times, one of the passengers was an aviation engineer on his way to
Beijing to work for a private-jet company.
As the focus of the
investigation has shifted, so, too, has the focus of the search.
Information from
international and Malaysian officials indicates the jet may have flown for more
than seven hours after the last contact with the pilots.
Flight 370 took off
from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. March 8. The last satellite communication from
the plane occurred at 8:11 a.m., Najib said, well past the scheduled arrival
time in Beijing. It is possible this contact could have been made from the
ground, as long as the airplane still had electrical power, Malaysia's civil
aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said Sunday.
That last
communication, Najib said, was in one of two possible traffic corridors shown on
a map released to reporters. A northern arc stretches from the border of
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and a southern arc spans from
Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
"Due to the type
of satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane
when it last made contact with the satellite," Najib said.
Because the northern
parts of the traffic corridor include some tightly guarded airspace over India,
Pakistan and even some U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S. authorities
believe it more likely the aircraft crashed into waters outside of the reach of
radar south of India, a U.S. official told CNN. If it had flown farther north,
it's likely it would have been detected by radar.
Malaysia's Ministry
of Transport said Sunday that both the northern and southern corridors are
being treated with equal importance. Malaysian officials are working with 25
countries, many of them along the corridors. They include Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China,
Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, France, the United
Kingdom and the United States.
Afghanistan's
Ministry of Transport said it has joined the search, but said there is no
evidence the plane flew over Afghan soil.
Separately, India has
"temporarily halted" its search for the missing plane while Malaysian
authorities reassess the situation, according to a top military official.
"We are
conserving our assets for now," Rear Adm. Sudhir Pillai, the chief of
staff of India's joint Andaman and Nicobar command, said Sunday. "We are
on a standby."
He said the
Malaysians are reviewing India's deployment.
Families at
boiling point
For the families and
loved ones of those aboard Flight 370, tensions boiled over Sunday in Beijing
at the daily briefing by Malaysia Airlines.
Nine days after the
plane went missing, patience is running thin with officials.
Before a packed room,
one man told them that the families have already lost faith.
"A liar can lie
once, twice or three times, but what's the point (to) keep lying?" he
said. "What we ask for is the truth. Don't hide things from us."
In the face of
mounting criticism over its handling of the situation, Malaysia Airlines has
defended its actions, saying it took time to verify satellite signals and give
authorities a chance to analyze their significance before releasing
information.
But at Sunday's
Beijing briefing, a majority of the people in the room stood up when the man
asked how many had lost trust in the airline and the Malaysian government.
Another man rushed
the front of the room and tried to throw a punch but was stopped.
The airline has been
picking up the tab for families of the Chinese passengers to stay in Beijing
during the ordeal.
China is sending
technical experts to join the investigation, and two Chinese search vessels
headed for the Strait of Malacca, according to Xinhua.
People are across the
world have shown their support for those involved.
During his weekly Sunday message following
prayers at the Vatican, Pope Francis asked the crowd to pray for the crew
members and passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane and their
families. "We are close to them in this difficult moment," Pope
Francis said.Source:CNN
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