Communication satellites received intermittent data "pings" from a missing Malaysia Airlines
WSJ has confirmed that the pilot had the ability to manually turn off the transponder on Flight MH370. Why is the transponder so significant? WSJ's Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.
Communication satellites received intermittent data "pings" from a missing Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU +2.13% jet, giving the plane's location, speed and altitude for at least five hours after it disappeared from civilian radar screens, people briefed on the investigation said Thursday.
The final satellite ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a "normal" cruising altitude. The people declined to say where specifically the transmission originated, adding that it was unclear why the transmissions stopped. One possibility one person cited was that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.
The automatic pings, or attempts to link up with satellites operated by InmarsatISAT.LN -1.32% PLC, occurred a number of times after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's last verified position, these people said, indicating that at least through those hours, the Boeing Co. BA -2.04% 777 carrying 239 people remained intact and hadn't been destroyed in a crash, act of sabotage or explosion.
Malaysia Airlines said it hadn't received any such data.
Chicago-based Boeing declined to comment Thursday.
If the plane remained airborne for that entire period it could have flown more than 2,200 nautical miles from its last confirmed position over the Gulf of Thailand, these people said.
On Thursday, meanwhile, the international search for the plane zeroed in on areas far west of the plane's last known location.
Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, said the USS Kidd would move through the Strait of Malacca, on Malaysia's west coast, and stay at its northwest entrance, while surveillance planes would search an area of the Indian Ocean 1,000 miles or more west of the strait.
Malaysia, which is overseeing the search effort, directed Indian forces to a specific set of coordinate in the Andaman Sea, northwest of the Malay peninsula, an Indian official said Thursday.
"There was no specified rationale behind looking in those areas, but a detailed list was provided late Wednesday evening," the Indian official said.
U.S. aviation investigators said they were analyzing the satellite transmissions to determine whether they can glean information about the plane's location or status. The transmissions were sent via onboard technology designed to send routine maintenance and system-monitoring data back to the ground via satellite links, according to people familiar with the
Among the possible scenarios investigators said they are now considering is whether the jet may have landed at any point during the five-hour period under scrutiny, or whether it ultimately crashed.
The people said aviation investigators are exploring the possibility that someone on the plane may have intentionally disabled two other automated communication systems in an attempt to avoid detection. One system is the transponders, which transmit to ground radar stations information on the plane's identity, location and altitude, and another system that collects and transmits data about several of the plane's key systems.
The widebody jet was scheduled to fly overnight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in the predawn hours of March 8. Its transponders last communicated with Malaysian civilian radar about an hour after takeoff.
After the plane dropped off civilian radar screens, these people said, the satellite link operated in a kind of standby mode for several hours and sought to establish contact with a satellite or satellites. These transmissions didn't include data about any of the plane's critical systems, they said, but the periodic contacts indicate to investigators that the plane was still intact and believed to be flying at least a significant portion of that time. The people said the transmissions included detailed information about the plane's location, speed and bearing.
The transmissions, one person said, were comparable to the plane "saying I'm here, I'm ready to send data."
Unknown so far to investigators is what happened to the plane following the final satellite ping, these people said. Questions remain about the plane's status, including what was happening in the cockpit.
But the huge uncertainty about where the plane was headed, and why it apparently continued flying so long without working transponders and other communication links, has raised theories among investigators that the aircraft may have been commandeered for reasons that remain unclear to U.S. authorities.
Former FBI agent Chris Voss joins the News Hub to discuss U.S. investigators' suspicions that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stayed in the air for four hours after vanishing from civilian air-traffic control radar.
At one briefing, according to this person, officials were told that investigators are actively pursuing the notion that the plane was diverted "with the intention of using it later for another purpose."
As authorities scramble to analyze and understand all of the transmissions from the missing 777, the situation continues to change rapidly. Some people briefed on the issue initially described the transmissions as information that had been relayed from onboard monitoring systems embedded in the two Rolls-Royce PLC Trent 800 engines, not the idling satellite communications system.
"Trefor Moss, Gaurav Raghuvanshi, Josh Chin and Jeremy Page contributed to this article..
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com and Jon Ostrower atjon.ostrower@wsj.com
Edited by SG200 - 11 years ago
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