wo U.S. officials tell ABC News the U.S. believes that the shutdown
of two communication systems happened separately on Malaysia
Airlines Flight 370. One source said this indicates the plane did
not come out of the sky because of a catastrophic failure.
The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m.
The transponder -- which transmits location and altitude -- shut
down at 1:21 a.m.
This indicates it may well have been a deliberate act, ABC News
aviation consultant John Nance said.
U.S. investigators told ABC News that the two modes of
communication were "systematically shut down."
That means the U.S. team "is convinced that there was manual
intervention," a source said, which means it was likely not an
accident or catastrophic malfunction that took the plane out of the
sky.
U.S. officials said earlier that they have an "indication" the
missing Malaysia
Airlines jetliner may have crashed in the Indian Ocean and
is moving the USS Kidd to the area to begin searching.
It's not clear what the indication was, but senior administration
officials told ABC News the missing Malaysian flight continued to
"ping" a satellite on an hourly basis after it lost contact with
radar. The Boeing 777 jetliners are equipped with what is called
the Airplane Health Management system in which they ping a
satellite every hour. The number of pings would indicate how long
the plane stayed aloft.
It's not clear, however, whether the satellite pings also indicate
the plane's location.
The new information has greatly expanded the potential search area
into the Indian Ocean.
"We have an indication the plane went down in the Indian Ocean,"
the senior Pentagon official said.
The official initially said there were indications that the plane
flew four or five hours after disappearing from radar and that they
believe it went into the water. Officials later said the plane
likely did not fly four or five hours, but did not specify how long
it may have been airborne.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “It's my understanding that
based on some new information that's not necessarily conclusive,
but new information, an additional search area may be opened in the
Indian Ocean, and we are consulting with international partners
about the appropriate assets to deploy.”
Carney did not specify the nature of the “new information.”
Pentagon officials said that the destroyer USS Kidd was being moved
to the western part of the strait of Malacca at the request of
Malaysia and is heading towards an area where the Indian Ocean and
the Andaman Sea meet. The ship has helicopters aboard that can
scour the area.
The U.S. action came hours after Malaysian officials said they had
extended their search into the Andaman Sea and had requested help
from India in the search for the missing plane and its 239
passengers.
Investigators also said today that U.S. officials gave them reasons
to keep searching the waters west of Malaysia, far from the flight
path of the Malaysia Airlines plane.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the
search’s “main focus has always been in the South China Sea,” which
is east of Malaysia and along the plane’s route from Kuala Lumpur
to Beijing.
But the search was extended earlier this week to include water far
to the west on the other side of Malaysia.
“We are working very closely with the FAA and the NTSB on the issue
of a possible air turn back,” Hishammuddin said, referring to the
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation
Safety Board.
“They have indicated to us that based on the information given by
the Malaysian authorities, they — being the FAA and NTSB — the U.S.
team was of the view that there was reasonable ground for the
Malaysian authorities to deploy resources to conduct search on the
western side of the peninsula of Malaysia. Under the circumstances,
it is appropriate to conduct the search even if the evidence
suggests there is a possibility of finding a minor evidence to
suggest that ... the aircraft would have been there.”
Hishammuddin said it was possible the plane kept flying after
dropping off of radar. "Of course, this is why we have extended the
search," he said.
The Malaysians spent much of today's news conference dismissing
earlier leads.
abc news
