Boeing 777 hijackers plunged to 5,000ft and used low altitude 'terrain masking' manoeuvre practised by fighter jets to avoid radar detection
- Boeing 777 may have 'dropped to altitude as low as 5,000ft'
- It had flown at 45,000ft, before possibly going down quickly
- Aviation experts say passengers would have felt it plunging
- Villagers in the north-east of Malaysia say they saw bright lights
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Claims today that the missing Malaysian Airlines jet dropped to an altitude of 5,000ft to avoid radar lends credibility to reports by villagers that they saw bright lights and loud noises at about the time the aircraft is thought to have made a 'U-turn'.
Investigators told a Malaysian newspaper that the Boeing 777 had dropped to a lower altitude to avoid ground radar, using the surrounding terrain as a sonar barrier.
This type of flying is considered to be dangerous and risky, because it places tremendous pressure on the frame of the aircraft - and flying low at night without radar assistance could lead to the plane crashing into trees or mountains.
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'Terrain masking', as illustrated here, is a technique used by pilots to avoid radar detection
Experts have claimed the Boeing 777-200ER dropped 5,000ft (1,500m) to evade commercial radar detection
Investigators told the New Straits Times that they were now convinced the aircraft flow low over Kelantan, which is in the north east - exactly the same area where the villagers and fishermen who saw bright lights in the sky on the night the jet vanished are living.
At least nine people - fishermen, farmers and villagers - have made reports to police about seeing lights in the sky and some said they heard the loud noise of an engine.
These accounts appear to match the conclusions of investigators who say the jet flew low after making a sharp turn and heading west from its course over the South China Sea.
The first report of a 'bright light descending at high speed' came from Alif Fathi Abdul Hadi, 29, who said he saw the light heading towards the South China Sea at 1.45am on the night the aircraft disappeared.
The businessman lives in Kampung Kadok, in the far north west of the Malaysian mainland, close to the southern border of Thailand - and the light he witnessed would have been several miles to the north of the flight path the jet was on before it vanished.
Lending credibility to the account by Mr Alif is the claim by fisherman Azid Ibrahim, 55, who saw a bright light streaking overhead at 1.30am on Saturday, about 100 miles south of where Mr Alif had seen the light.
Passengers look at a 'digital earth' displayed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang
Anxious wait: Erny Khairul, whose husband Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat was onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, kisses her daughter inside a hotel they are staying at in Putrajaya
Mr Alif told the New Straits Times that the bright light was the type that aircraft use when taking off and landing at night - like a car uses its headlights.
'I was walking towards the rear of my house when I saw the light, and wondered where it was heading to,' he said. 'The airspace here is like a highway for aircraft and they usually travel in routine patterns.
'However, the light I saw was moving towards a completely different direction. It was going towards the sea, near Bachok (which lies to the south of Mr Alif's home).'
His description tends to indicate that if the light he saw was on the doomed aircraft, it had turned north instead of continuing on its regular north-easterly flight path.
Mr Alif said the aircraft he usually sees fly across the sky for as far as his eyes could see but the light he saw in the early hours of Saturday vanished from view behind a line of coconut trees.
A man stands in front of a board with messages of hope and support for the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 at the departure hall of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport
An artwork by Malaysian artist Safirah Rashid is seen at the Wall of Hope for the passengers of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane at Kuala Lumpur International Airport
While he thought nothing of it at the time, when he learned about the missing aircraft MH370 the following day he lodged a report with police.
Mr Alif's account tended to coincide with that of fisherman Mr Azid who told the New Straits Times: 'Usually, lights from an airplane look like distant stars at night but the one that I saw was big, as the aircraft was flying below the clouds.
'I followed the light for about five minutes before it disappeared.'
Meanwhile, researchers from Slade.com have pinpointed 634 runways where the place could have landed in the vast area now being searched.
Researchers from Slade.com have pinpointed 634 runways where the place could have landed
It comes after the revelation that the last words from the cockpit of missing MH370 – 'all right, good night' – were possibly uttered after someone on board had already begun disabling one of the plane's automatic tracking systems.
Both the timing and informal nature of the phrase, spoken to air traffic controllers as the plane was leaving Malaysian-run airspace could further heighten suspicions of hijacking or sabotage, it was reported.
Following Mr Alif's account, nine more peopled filed police reports about a low-flying aircraft in the north east, close to the border with Thailand.
Passengers rest in their seats as a cabin crew member serves snacks onboard Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER flight MH318 shortly after take off
Malaysia Airlines flight number MH318 replaces the flight number of the missing airplane, MH370, that was retired as a mark of respect to the passengers and crew while the flight route remains unchanged
A screen on board Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER flight MH318 shows the plane's flight path as it cruises over the South China Sea from Kuala Lumpur towards Beijing
Deputy police commander Dak Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the eyewitnesses had reported that they saw an aircraft heading north at about the time all civilian tracking data was lost with flight MH370 in the early hours of last Saturday.
Reports came in from people living in north east towns that include Kuala Besar, Pentai Cahaya Bulan, Pentai Senok and Penarik.
'Based on the reports, the plane, the plane was sighted between 1.30am and 1.45am,' said commander Jalaluddin.
Reuters photographer Edgar Su boarded the flight in Kuala Lumpur on March 17 and documented the journey to Beijing
Passengers rest in their seats onboard Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER flight MH318
The police officer added that a bus driver said he saw a low-flying plane at Penarik at about 1.45am, around the time communication with the jet was lost.
'The driver was sure that he saw the aircraft's blinking beacon lights,' said the police commander.
Meanwhile, said commander Jalaluddin, eight villagers from the Marang area lodged reports with police claiming they heard a loud noise on Saturday night coming from the direction of Pulau Kapas.
Meanwhile, said commander Jalaluddin, eight villagers from the Marang area lodged reports with police claiming they heard a loud noise on Saturday night coming from the direction of Pulau Kapas.
Villager Alias Salleh, 36, said he and some friends were sitting oin a bench about 400 yards from the Marang beach at 1.20am when they heard 'a loud and frightening noise which sounded like the fan of a jet engine.'
He said the noise came from the north east of Pulau Kapas.
Mr Alias told The Star newspaper last week that he and his friends looked around the Rhu Muda beach area but they did not see anything unusual.
Today the number of countries involved in the search for the plane has nearly doubled over the past two days to 26, after satellite and military radar data projected two large corridors the plane might have flown through.
It was announced this morning that Kazakhstan - located in the far northwest of the search area - has joined the operation.
The northern corridor stretches in an arc over south and central Asia, while the other swoops deep into the southern Indian Ocean towards Australia.
Malaysia has announced that it was deploying its naval and air force assets to the southern corridor, with Australian vowing substantial assistance.
Some experts believe the plane is most likely to have flown southwest towards the Indian Ocean, as the northwesterly route would have taken it through numerous national airspaces in an area monitored extensively by satellites.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference Monday that finding the plane was still the main focus, and he did not rule out finding it intact.
'The fact that there was no distress signal, no ransom notes, no parties claiming responsibility, there is always hope,' Hishammuddin said.
Meanwhile, footage emerged showing the aircraft's pilots walking through security for the final time before take-off.
Crew members on board a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon man their workstations while assisting in search operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean on Sunday
CCTV captured Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of the Boeing 777 flight, being frisked while walking through security at Kuala Lumpar International Airport.
He is then joined by co-pilot Fariq Hamid who is also searched before the pair walk onto the plane.
Shah, a father-of-three, described as 'loving and generous' in an online tribute video was said to be a 'fanatical' supporter of the country's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim - jailed for homosexuality just hours before the jet disappeared.
It has also been revealed that the pilot's wife and three children moved out of the family home the
day before the plane went missing.
day before the plane went missing.
Some senior US officials believe it is possible the plane was taken as part of a ‘dry run’ for a future terrorist attack – in order to find out whether a plane can be hidden from radar and satellites.
While investigators visited the homes of Shah and Hamid, it was also revealed by Malaysian police that the two pilots did not request to fly together, reported the Wall Street Journal.
It comes as FBI investigators say the disappearance of MH370 may have been ‘an act of piracy’ and the possibility that hundreds of passengers are being held at an unknown location has not been ruled out.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur at around 12.40am on March 8, headed to Beijing.
On Saturday, Malaysia's government confirmed that the plane was deliberately diverted and may
have flown as far north as Central Asia, or south into the vast reaches of the Indian Ocean.
have flown as far north as Central Asia, or south into the vast reaches of the Indian Ocean.
Authorities have said someone on board the plane had disabled one of its communications systems -the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS.
This is a message sent every 30 minutes to maintenance crews that indicates the plane's speed, altitude, position and fuel levels.
It made its last transmission at 1.07am, just before the last words from the co-pilot, which were spoken at 1.19am.
But it didn't send a transmission at 1.37am, so at some point in the preceding half an hour it had been switched off, a task that requires considerable expertise.
Two minutes after the last spoken transmission from the flight deck, the transponder - which sends out an identifying signal - was switched off. Turning it off is simply a matter of flipping a switch in the cockpit.
It has emerged that Fariq Abdul Hamid had his reputation called into question by a South African woman who accused him of inviting her to join him in the cockpit for a journey in 2011, in breach of security rules.
Malaysia Airlines said it was ‘shocked’ by the reported security violation, but could not verify the claims.
But those who knew him have described the son of a top state civil servant as a mild-mannered young man with a bright piloting future who is reported to have been engaged to wed a woman he met in flight school nine years ago.
His fiancée, Captain Nadira Ramli, 26, flies for Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia - Malaysia Airlines' fierce rival - and is the daughter of a senior Malaysia Airlines pilot, local media reports said.
AN UNPRECIDENTED HUNT: LATEST ON THE SEARCH FOR MH370
The unprecedented hunt for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet expanded northwest to Kazakhstan and south into the desolate reaches of the Indian Ocean after Malaysian authorities concluded the plane was deliberately diverted by someone with considerable flying experience.
A summary of the latest information on the search for the plane and the investigation into what happened:
LAST COMMUNICATIONS
The Boeing 777's Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, last transmitted at 1:07 a.m., about 40 minutes after takeoff. ACARS sends information about the jet's engines and other data to the airline. The transponder, which identifies the plane to commercial radar systems, was shut down about 15 minutes later.
The final, reassuring words from the cockpit - 'All right, good night' - were believed to have been spoken by co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, according to Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.
After its communications ceased, the plane turned west and crossed the Malay Peninsula. Military radar detected it moving along a known flight route until it was several hundred miles (kilometers) offshore.
Even disabled, ACARS emits hourly pulses that are recorded by a satellite, and Flight 370's last 'ping' was sent at 8:11 a.m. The location of the plane could only be determined in a broad arc from the satellite, which places the jet as far north as Kazakhstan in Central Asia or far into the southern Indian Ocean. The plane at that point would have been near the limit of its on-board fuel supply.
THE GEOGRAPHY
Malaysia's government sent diplomatic cables to relevant countries to seek their help with the search and ask for any radar data that might help narrow the task. Twenty-six countries are involved in the search.
The northern search corridor includes countries with busy airspace that likely would have noticed an unidentified aircraft in their territory. China, India and Pakistan are among the nations that say they have seen no sign of the plane.
Australia is leading the search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean. It has sent two AP-3C Orion aircraft, one of which is searching north and west of the Cocos Islands. Two more search aircraft will be deployed by Tuesday.
The southern Indian Ocean is the world's third-deepest and one of the most remote stretches of water in the world, with little radar coverage. Experts say if the plane crashed there, finding the wreckage could take months or longer, if it is found at all. Establishing what happened with any degree of certainty will require evidence from cockpit voice recordings and the flight-data recorders, which are on board the plane.
THE SUSPICIONS
The investigation is focusing on the plane being deliberately diverted by the pilots or someone on board with considerable flying experience. Police seized a flight simulator from the pilot's home on Saturday and also searched the co-pilot's home. Investigators are checking backgrounds of all 227 passengers and 12 crew members, as well as the ground crew, to see if links to terrorists, personal problems or psychological issues could be factors. But authorities are being tight-lipped about what they've learned so far.
THE UNKNOWN
The whereabouts of the plane is only one question still unanswered. The investigators are also considering: If the two pilots were involved in the disappearance, were they working together or alone, or with one or more of the passengers or crew? Did they fly the plane under duress or of their own will? Did one or more of the passengers manage to break into the cockpit or use the threat of violence to gain entry and then seize the plane? And what possible motive could there be for diverting the jet?
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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