UNSTOPPABLE DREAMS

Monday 17 March 2014

Malaysia Airlines: The lost final hours

The mystery over the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has deepened after satellite data emerged to suggest the plane flew on for hours after it was reported missing.
Map showing last known movements of MH370
The search operation is now concentrating on huge areas to the north and south of Malaysia, after locational 'pings' detected by a satellite appeared to indicate the plane was somewhere on an arc stretching either north up to to Central Asia, or south, to the Indian Ocean and Australia.
Evidence revealed on Saturday 15 March by the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak suggested the jet was deliberately diverted by someone on board about an hour after takeoff.
line break
When was the last contact made?
Graphic: How planes can be tracked
Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41 on Saturday (16:41 GMT Friday), and was due to arrive in Beijing at 06:30 (22:30 GMT).
Malaysia Airlines says the plane lost contact less than an hour after takeoff.
No distress signal or message was sent.
The ACARS - a service that allows computers aboard the plane to "talk" to computers on the ground - was silenced some time after 01:07 as the plane crossed Malaysia's east coast.
At about 01:19 the co-pilot was heard to say: "All right, good night".
The plane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was shut down soon after this final communication, as the aircraft crossed from Malaysian air traffic control into Vietnamese airspace over the South China Sea.
At 01:37 the next ACARS transmission was due, but never sent.
Graphic: Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER
line break
What happened next?
The plane's planned route would have taken it north-eastwards, over Cambodia and Vietnam, and the initial search focused on the South China Sea, south of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula.
But evidence from a military radar, revealed later, suggested the plane had suddenly changed from its northerly course to head west. So the search, involving dozens of ships and planes, then switched to the sea west of Malaysia.
MH370's last communication with a satellite, disclosed a week after the plane's disappearance, suggested the jet was in one of two flight corridors, one stretching north between Thailand and Kazakhstan, the other south between Indonesia and the southern Indian Ocean.
The BBC's Richard Westcott takes a look at the gadgets used to track a plane in flight
The timing of the last confirmed communication with a satellite was 08:11 (00:11 GMT), meaning that the Boeing continued flying for nearly seven hours after contact with air traffic control was lost.
Investigators are making further calculations to establish how far the plane might have flown after the last point of contact.
line break
Who was on board?
Arni Marlina, 36, a family member of a passenger onboard Flight MH370, shows a family picture on her mobile phone, at a hotel in Putrajaya, Malaysia, 9 March Muhammad Razahan Zamani (bottom right), 24, and his wife Norli Akmar Hamid, 33, were on their honeymoon on the missing flight. The phone is being held by his stepsister, Arni Marlina
The 12 crew members were all Malaysian, led by pilots Captain Zaharie Ahmed Shah, 53 and 27-year-old co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid.
Police have searched their homes and a flight simulator has been taken from the captain's home and reassembled for examination at police headquarters.
It is now believed that co-pilot Hamid spoke the last words heard from the plane, "All right, good night" - but it it not clear whether this was before or after the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) had been deliberately switched off.
There were 227 passengers, including 153 Chinese and 38 Malaysians, according to the manifest. Seven were children.
Other passengers came from Iran, the US, Canada, Indonesia, Australia, India, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and the Netherlands.
Among the Chinese nationals were a delegation of 19 prominent artists who had attended an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur.
With so many of their nationals aboard, the Chinese Government has been very involved in the search, expressing barely-concealed frustration with the lack of progress.
Malaysia Airlines said there were four passengers who checked in for the flight but did not show up at the airport.
line break
Could it have been a terrorist attack?
Malaysian PM Najib Razak, 15 March 2014The plane was deliberately diverted, the Malaysian PM told a news conference
The aircraft's change of direction was consistent with "deliberate action on the plane", the Malaysian authorities said.
But it remains unclear whether the course change was carried out by the air crew or flight-trained hijackers onboard.
So far no known or credible terror group has emerged to claim responsibility.
Initial investigations concentrated on two passengers found to be travelling on stolen passports.
The two Iranian men - 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29 - were later found to headed for Europe via Beijing, and had no apparent links to terrorist groups.
line break
Other theories for a crash
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER taking off from Narita Airport near Tokyo, Japan, April 2013A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER taking off from Narita Airport near Tokyo, Japan, last year
Some initial theories suggested that the aircraft could have suffered a disastrous mid-air decompression, but Malaysian authorities say they are now almost entirely focused on the actions of the crew.
Captain Zaharie Ahmed Shah, who had more than 18,000 flying hours behind him, had been employed by the airline since 1981.
Weather conditions for this flight were good.
Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record and the jet, a Boeing 777-200ER, is said to be one of the safest because of its modern technology.
line break
Can a modern jet just vanish without trace?
The BBC's Richard Westcott examines how a plane can vanish without trace
The disappearance of a modern airliner for so long, with no wreckage found, is an unprecedented event.
In 2009, the loss of an Air France Airbus A-330 in the Atlantic Ocean remained unexplained for almost two years until the plane's 'black box' flight recorders were recovered from 13,000ft under water.
Three French investigators involved in that inquiry have been brought in to assist with the search for the Malaysian plane.
What happened during the last hours of Flight MH-370 may only ever be discovered when its black boxes are located.
The recorders emit ultrasonic signals that can be detected under water. Under good conditions, the signals can be detected from several hundred miles away.

More on This Story

MH370 mystery

No comments:

Post a Comment