U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.04% Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky. Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. BA -0.99% 777s engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program. .... U.S. counterterrorism officials are pursuing the possibility that a pilot or someone else on board the plane may have diverted it toward an undisclosed location after intentionally turning off the jetliners transponders to avoid radar detection, ....The investigation remains fluid, and it isnt clear whether investigators have evidence indicating possible terrorism or sabotage. So far, U.S. national security officials have said that nothing specifically points toward terrorism, though they havent ruled it out. But the huge uncertainty about where the plane was headed, and why it apparently continued flying so long without working transponders, has raised theories among investigators that the aircraft may have been commandeered for a reason that appears unclear to U.S. authorities. Some of those theories have been laid out to national security officials and senior personnel from various U.S. agencies, according to one person familiar with the matter ...At one briefing, according to this person, officials were told investigators are actively pursuing the notion that the plane was diverted with the intention of using it later for another purpose. As of Wednesday it remained unclear whether the plane reached an alternate destination or if it ultimately crashed, potentially hundreds of miles from where an international search effort has been focused. In those scenarios, neither mechanical problems, pilot mistakes nor some other type of catastrophic incident caused the 250-ton plane to mysteriously vanish from radar. .... The disappearance is officially now an accident and all information about this is strictly handled by investigators, said a Rolls-Royce executive who declined to be named, citing rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency. As part of its maintenance agreements, Malaysia Airlines transmits its engine data live to Rolls-Royce for analysis. The system compiles data from inside the 777s two Trent 800 engines and transmits snapshots of performance, as well as the altitude and speed of the jet. Those snippets are compiled and transmitted in 30-minute increments, said one person familiar with the system. According to Rolls-Royces website, the data is processed automatically so that subtle changes in condition from one flight to another can be detected. The engine data is being analyzed to help determine the flight path of the plane after the transponders stopped working. The jet was originally headed for China, and its last verified position was half way across the Gulf of Thailand. A total flight time of five hours after departing Kuala Lumpur means the Boeing 777 could have continued for an additional distance of about 2,200 nautical miles, reaching points as far as the Indian Ocean, the border of Pakistan or even the Arabian Sea, based on the jets cruising speed. Read more.... : online.wsj/news/articles/SB10001424052702304914904579434653903086282?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304914904579434653903086282.html
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 08:18:14 +0000
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