NEWS FROM WORLD: Malaysian PM: Diversion And Communications Shutdown 'Consistent With Deliberate Action By Someone On The Plane' [feedly]

Malaysian PM: Diversion And Communications Shutdown 'Consistent With Deliberate Action By Someone On The Plane'
// Business Insider

Malaysia plane

After an unnamed Malaysian official told the AP the missing Malaysia Airlines flight was indeed "hijacked," the Malaysian Prime Minister denied this, despite confirming erratic actions on the plane that he called "consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane."

In a press conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that "despite media reports that the plane has been hijacked, I wish to be clear: We are still investigating all possibilities."

This sharply departs from the AP report, which said a "[Malaysian] official said that hijacking was no longer a theory. 'It is conclusive.'"

Among the most surprising new revelations the Malaysian P.M. confirmed was that communication with the plane was last heard at 8:11 a.m. on the day the plane disappeared — seven hours later than previously thought.

"We have followed every credible lead," Razak said. "Sometimes these leads have led nowhere. There has been intense speculation. We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of the families and those watching around the world."

Within the last 24 hours, investigators had increasingly moved their focus toward the possibility of sabotage, either from a hijacker or rogue crew.

"We have a responsibility," he added. " ... to only release information that has been corroborated and our primary motivation has always been to find the plane."

Despite the Prime Minister's pushback on speculation of "hijacking," his brief statement offered mixed messaging that confirmed details previously reported that appear consistent with foul play.

Earlier on Friday, a senior U.S. official told The New York Times the aircraft made a number of erratic direction and altitude changes before it likely crashed in the Indian Ocean. And the deliberate shutdown of systems to track the airliner indicates the plane's disappearance was more a "deliberate act" than an accident or pilot error.

On Thursday, sources speaking with ABC said they believed the data reporting system was shut down at 1:07 a.m., while the transponder — sending out location and altitude data — was shut down at 1:21 a.m. The 14-minute delay indicates the systems were purposely shut down rather than the result of a malfunction or failure in some sort of catastrophic accident.

"An aircraft which was believed but not confirmed to be MH370 did indeed turn back," Razak told reporters. "It then flew in a westerly direction back over Peninsular Malaysia before turning northwest. Up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane."

This confirmed a previous New York Times report, which cited a combination of satellite tracking and military radar that was able to continue tracking the plane.

malaysia flight path search area After falling off of civilian radar, radar signals from the Malaysian military appeared to show the Boeing 777 climbing above the plane's maximum ceiling to 45,000 feet before it made a sharp turn toward the west. The data then shows another turn to the southwest and descent to 23,000 feet before it finally settled on a higher altitude and bearing toward the Indian Ocean.

"Today, based on raw satellite data which was obtained from the satellite data service provider, we can confirm that the aircraft shown in the primary radar data was flight MH370," Razak added, noting that investigators from a number of agencies working independently concurred with that assessment.

As a number of commercial pilots told NPR's "All Things Considered" on Friday, with the exception of the transponder, which can be shut off at the flick of a switch, other onboard tracking systems are not as easy to disable.

"They said you'd have to go through big checklists, you'd have to possibly pull circuit breakers if you wanted to deactivate [all the communications equipment]," NPR's Geoff Brumfiel said, citing interviews with pilots. "So, to do this, you'd have to have some degree of premeditation and a lot of knowledge of the aircraft."

Investigators, who widened their search area on Thursday to the Indian Ocean based on faint electronic "pings" of technical data from the flight, have now expanded into the Andaman Sea northwest of the Malay Peninsula, based on another "ping" picked up five or six times by a satellite before it was completely lost, Reuters reports.

This post has been updated.

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