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Malaysia Backtracks on When Airliner’s Communications Were Disabled Malaysia Backtracks on When Airliner’s Communications Were Disabled
(about 1 hour later)
SEPANG, Malaysia — As the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stretched into a 10th day, the Malaysian authorities on Monday identified the plane’s first officer as the last person in the cockpit to speak to ground control. But the government added to the confusion about what happened during those key minutes by withdrawing its assertion that the radio signoff had come after a crucial communications system was disabled. SEPANG, Malaysia — The investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took another confusing turn on Monday, as the authorities here reversed themselves and offered yet another version of the sequence of events in the crucial minutes before ground controllers lost contact with the jet early on March 8.
Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is also Malaysia’s acting minister of transportation, appeared to give a crucial clue pointing to the possible complicity of the pilots when he said at a news conference on Sunday that the communications system had been “disabled” at 1:07 a.m. on March 8, before someone in the cockpit gave a verbal signoff to air traffic controllers here on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. As the search for the missing Boeing 777 jet stretched into a 10th day, two of the nations helping in the hunt, Australia and Indonesia, agreed to divide between them a vast area of the southeastern Indian Ocean, with Indonesia focusing on equatorial waters and Australia beginning to search farther south for traces of the aircraft. To the north, China and Kazakhstan checked their radar records and tried to figure out whether the jet could have landed somewhere on their soil.
But Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, clarified at a news conference early Monday evening that the communications system, known as an Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, had worked normally at 1:07 but then failed to send its next regularly scheduled update at 1:37 a.m. The Malaysian authorities said on Monday that the plane’s first officer — the co-pilot — was the last person in the cockpit to speak to ground control. But the government added to the confusion about what had happened on the plane by that time, withdrawing its assertion that a crucial communications system had already been disabled when the co-pilot spoke.
“We don’t know when the Acars system was switched off,” he said. Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defense minister and acting transportation minister, had made that assertion on Sunday, saying that the aircraft’s Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or Acars, was disabled at 1:07 a.m. Saturday, well before the co-pilot’s verbal signoff. That appeared to point to possible complicity of the pilots in the plane’s disappearance.
It was between the two scheduled transmission times for the Acars system, he said, that the verbal signoff was given by radio at 1:19 a.m. A second communications system, a transponder that communicates with ground-based radar, then ceased working at 1:21 a.m. But Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, said at a news conference early Monday evening that the Acars system had worked normally at 1:07 but then failed to send its next regularly scheduled update at 1:37 a.m., and could have been disabled at any point between those two times. “We don’t know when the Acars system was switched off,” he said.
The new description of what happened to the Acars system appeared to reopen the possibility that the aircraft was operating normally until the transponder ceased sending signals two minutes after the last radio message. The new uncertainty could raise additional questions about whether the plane was deliberately diverted or whether it suffered mechanical or electrical difficulties that crippled its communications and resulted in its flying an aberrant course that involved turning around, heading back over Peninsular Malaysia while rising and falling rapidly again, and finally flying out over the Strait of Malacca to an unknown location. Mr. Ahmad Jauhari said the co-pilot’s verbal signoff was given by radio at 1:19 a.m., and the aircraft’s transponder, which communicates with ground-based radar, ceased working about two minutes later.
Standing next to Mr. Ahmad Jauhari, Mr. Hishammuddin waved off numerous questions about why he had said a day earlier that Acars had been disabled at 1:07 a.m. “What I said yesterday was based on fact, corroborated and verified,” he said. In response to another question, he said that uncertainty about the chronology underlined the importance of finding the aircraft and its data recorders. The new account appeared to reopen the possibility that the aircraft was operating normally until 1:21 a.m., and that the two communications systems failed or were deactivated at the same time, not at separate points. That could raise additional questions about whether the plane was deliberately diverted, or experienced mechanical or electrical difficulties that crippled its communications and resulted in its flying an erratic course.
The last satellite transmission from the Boeing 777-200 on March 8 may have come from over Indonesia or the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysian officials said. The alternative is that the transmission came from western or southwestern China, or from nearby areas of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan or northern Laos. Though the possibility of an accident has not been excluded, the strong consensus among Malaysian and foreign experts involved in the investigation remains that deliberate action by someone on board was the most likely explanation for the disappearance, according to a person involved in the investigation. This person, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss publicly a matter that has become a criminal case, said investigators believed there were too many suspicious coincidences for the disappearance to have been entirely due to an accident.
Australia announced on Monday that it would search the vast expanse of the southern Indian Ocean for the missing jetliner. Standing next to Mr. Ahmad Jauhari at the news conference, Mr. Hishammuddin waved off numerous questions about why he had said a day earlier that Acars had been disabled at 1:07 a.m. “What I said yesterday was based on fact, corroborated and verified,” he said. In response to another question, he said that uncertainty about the chronology underlined the importance of finding the aircraft and its data recorders.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia spoke with Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia on Monday afternoon and offered extra resources for the search, which now involves 26 nations. “We are currently working on a defined search zone,” the spokesman said, adding that Mr. Abbott was expected to release a more detailed statement Monday evening. After the last voice contact with the ground, radar data indicates that the aircraft turned off its planned flight path northeastward toward Beijing, and had headed west, back across the Malay Peninsula while rising in altitude and falling rapidly again, and then flew out over the Strait of Malacca and beyond, out of radar range, to an unknown location.
After the Acars system, the transponder and voice radio contact had all ceased, one device on the plane kept trying to communicate, a satellite transmission device usually used for sending maintenance data. That device kept sending occasional brief signals for several hours after all other contact was lost, Malaysian authorities say; the last signal received from that device indicated that the plane was on or near one of two broad arcs of the earth’s surface. One extends over Indonesia and remote areas of the southern Indian Ocean, the other over the Asian land mass, through western and southwestern China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and northern Laos.
By Monday, 26 nations were involved in searching those two arcs.
In the southern hemisphere, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority will lead the search through its Rescue Coordination Center, supported by the Australian Defense Force. “Australia is preparing to work with assets from a number of other countries, including surveillance aircraft from New Zealand and the United States,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement on Monday.
He said two Orion aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force that have been involved in the search since March 9 would be “re-tasked to search in the southern Indian Ocean” and that two more would join the search within the next 24 hours.
The police have been investigating the pilot, co-pilot and other crew members of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight since the day of its disappearance, Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said in a statement on Monday. The statement highlighted growing interest by the law enforcement authorities into whether any of the airline employees might have been complicit in the plane’s disappearance.The police have been investigating the pilot, co-pilot and other crew members of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight since the day of its disappearance, Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said in a statement on Monday. The statement highlighted growing interest by the law enforcement authorities into whether any of the airline employees might have been complicit in the plane’s disappearance.
Adam Dolnik, a professor at the University of Wollongong in Australia who has studied terrorism in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world, said that, judging from the information disclosed so far, there was no evidence to suggest involvement by a terrorist organization, although there was the possibility of a “lone wolf” acting, at least partly, in the name of extremist beliefs. Adam Dolnik, a professor at the University of Wollongong in Australia who has studied terrorism in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world, said that, judging from the information disclosed so far, there was nothing to suggest any involvement by a terrorist organization. He said, though, that there was the possibility of a “lone wolf” acting at least partly in the name of extremist beliefs.
Mr. Dolnik voiced skepticism that the two Iranians on board the plane with stolen passports had played a role in diverting it. “For groups like Al Qaeda, which tried to take airliners down in midcourse flight by a suicide bomber since the mid-1990s, this is their fantasy target and what they keep going for, but repeatedly they are unable to keep doing it,” he said. “But for a group like this to grow an entire plan — which would have to be quite sophisticated for them to be able to actually get the operational capabilities through the secure perimeter and onboard an airplane — and to blow it on something like a stolen passport, it just doesn’t make any sense. What they would do is send operatives who have clean passports, to make sure they actually make it through immigration.” Mr. Dolnik voiced skepticism that the two Iranian passengers who boarded the plane with stolen passports had played a role in diverting it. “For groups like Al Qaeda, which tried to take airliners down in midcourse flight by a suicide bomber since the mid-1990s, this is their fantasy target, and what they keep going for, but repeatedly they are unable to keep doing it,” he said. “But for a group like this to grow an entire plan — which would have to be quite sophisticated for them to be able to actually get the operational capabilities through the secure perimeter and on board an airplane — and to blow it on something like a stolen passport, it just doesn’t make any sense. What they would do is send operatives who have clean passports, to make sure they actually make it through immigration.”
Mr. Dolnik added: “If you’re a militant jihadist group, why would you ever go for Malaysia Airlines? If you have a predominantly Muslim country, one of the biggest Muslim countries, hitting the national carrier of that country really would be very risky in terms of constituency support or how people are going to view you.”Mr. Dolnik added: “If you’re a militant jihadist group, why would you ever go for Malaysia Airlines? If you have a predominantly Muslim country, one of the biggest Muslim countries, hitting the national carrier of that country really would be very risky in terms of constituency support or how people are going to view you.”
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry also said that three civil aviation security officials had arrived from France to share expertise gained from the search for Air France Flight 447, which disappeared nearly five years ago off the coast of Brazil. Searchers there needed almost two years to find the Air France jet, an Airbus A330, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Malaysia’s Transport Ministry also said that three civil aviation investigators had arrived from France to share expertise gained from the search for Air France Flight 447, which disappeared nearly five years ago off the coast of Brazil. Searchers needed almost two years to find the Air France jet, an Airbus A330, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
Investigators had an advantage then because they had found more than 3,000 pieces of floating debris and 50 bodies in the ocean in the days and weeks after the crash, giving them a rough sense of where the plane had entered the water. By contrast, there are still few clues regarding where Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 finally came down after someone diverted it 40 minutes into what was supposed to be a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Investigators had an advantage in that case, because they had found more than 3,000 pieces of debris and 50 bodies floating in the ocean in the days and weeks immediately after the crash, giving them a rough sense of where the plane had entered the water. By contrast, there are still few clues to where the Malaysia Airlines jetliner finally came down.
The United States’ search effort is still focused on the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, in the northeast corner of the Indian Ocean, where the American destroyer Kidd and a P3 surveillance plane are patrolling. But the last satellite transmission received from the missing plane came either from deep in the interior of Asia or from somewhere along an arc across Indonesia and the southern Indian Ocean. The United States search effort is still focused on the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, in the northeast corner of the Indian Ocean, where the American destroyer Kidd and a surveillance plane are patrolling. In the vast, empty expanses of the southern oceans, however, aircraft can cover a very large area more quickly than ships and ship-based helicopters could.
In a relatively confined area such as the Gulf of Thailand, the initial focus of the search effort after the plane disappeared on March 8, ships and their helicopters were appropriate assets to use, Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the United States Navy Seventh Fleet, said in an interview.
But helicopters can sweep only a small fraction of the area each day that an aircraft can cover.
Australia is a world leader in over-the-horizon radar technology, with the Jindalee Operational Radar Network covering around 37,000 square kilometers, or 14,285 square miles, across Australia’s northern and western boundaries and into the Indian Ocean. Andrew Davies, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that conventional radar requires a line of sight to an aircraft, but that over-the-horizon radar bounces high-frequency radio waves off the atmosphere.
Dr. Davies, who also worked at Australia’s Department of Defense as a capabilities and intelligence analyst, said that the JORN system has the capacity to monitor flights into the Indian Ocean. “But a lot depends on the atmosphere at the time,” he said, adding that a satellite may also have been overhead, but that satellites must be “tasked to look down” on a specific area.
“It is entirely possible nothing was tasked to look at this part of the world,” Dr. Davies said. “The over-the-horizon radar might not have been effective because the aircraft was out of range, or the atmospheric conditions were not right.”
Satellites cannot be active for their entire orbit, Dr. Davies added, as they must shut down to recharge batteries. “If there is no reason to look at a box of ocean, it is entirely plausible that no one is looking.”
The JORN radar system has receivers in remote parts of Australia. Its scanning range spans outward across the top of the Northern Territory, possibly as far north as the Malay Peninsula; westward across Western Australia; and into the Indian Ocean. The JORN radar stations are in central western Queensland at Longreach; a second is at Leonora, in southeast Western Australia; and a third is in Australia’s northern territory at Alice Springs, close to the geographical center of Australia.