Post date: Mar 13, 2014 1:4:7 PM
Malaysia's Transport Minister Hishammudin Hussein says there is no evidence the missing plane flew for hours after losing contact.
SEPANG, SELANGOR STATE, MALAYSIA (MARCH 13, 2014) (REUTERS) - Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Thursday (March 13) there was no evidence
that a jetliner missing for almost six days flew for hours after losing contact with air traffic controllers and continued to
transmit technical data.
The Wall Street Journal said that U.S. aviation investigators and national security officials believed theBoeing 777 flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from its
Rolls-Royce Trent engines as part of a standard monitoring programme.
"The last transmission from the aircraft was at 0107 which indicated everything was normal. Rolls Royce and Boeing teams are here in Kuala Lumpur and have worked with MAS (Malaysia Airlines) and investigations teams since Sunday. These issues have never been raised. Whenever there are new details, they must be corroborated. Since today's media reports, MAS has asked Rolls Royce and Boeing specifically about the data, as far as Rolls Royce and Boeing are concerned, those reports are inaccurate," he told reporters at a regular news conference.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, dropped off air traffic control screens at about 1:30
a.m. on Saturday (March 8), less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were no reports of bad weather or
mechanical problems.
On the sixth day of the search, planes scanned an area of sea where Chinese satellite images had shown what could be
debris, but found no sign of the airliner. Hishammuddin said the images were provided accidentally.
"On the Chinese satellites imagery, a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agencysurveillance plane was dispatched this morning to investigate potential debris hown on Chinese satellite images, we deployed our assets but found nothing, we have contacted the Chinese embassy who notified us this afternoon that images were released by mistake and did not show any debris from MH370,"he said.
It was the latest in a series of false signals for the Boeing 777-200ER, adding to the confusion and agony of the relatives of the passengers.
Authorities have not ruled out any cause for the disappearance. Malaysian police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or
mechanical failure.
Hishammuddin however said media reports that police had searched the homes of the missing aircraft's crew were false.
"Reports suggesting that the Malaysian police searched the homes of the MH370 crew are not true and the Royal Malaysian Police have issued a statement to that effect,," he said.
It is one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation - there has been no trace of the plane since nor
any sign of wreckage despite a search by the navies and military aircraft of over a dozen countries across Southeast Asia.
The last definitive sighting on civilian radar screens came as the plane flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of
Thailand. The multi-national search team is combing both bodies of water, which total 27,000 square nautical miles (93,000 square
km), an area the size of Hungary.
"Much has been made about the extension of the search areas, some claim thatMalaysia has slowed down the search, that is totally not true, in fact we have intensified the search, again, let me be clear, there is no real precedent for a situation like this, the plane vanished, we have extended the search area because it is our duty to follow every lead, and we owe it to the families, and trust when I say we will not give up," he said.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that its experts in air traffic control and radar who
travelled to Kuala Lumpur over the weekend were giving the Malaysians technical help.
A U.S. official in Washington said the experts were shown two sets of radar records, military and civilian, and they both
appeared to show the plane turning to the west across the Malay peninsula.
But the official stressed the records were raw data returns that were not definitive.