US investigators think that Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remained airborne for four more hours after vanishing from its last recorded position - raising the startling prospect the plane could have been hijacked. Officials suspect that the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded from the Boeing 777s Rolls Royce engines and sent back to the ground as part of a routine monitoring program. US counter-terrorism teams are now pursuing the astonishing possibility that the plane and its 239 passengers were diverted to an undisclosed location with the intention of using it later for another purpose. As part of maintenance agreements between Rolls Royce and Malaysian Airlines, the engines transmit live data to its global engine health monitoring center in Derby, UK for analysis every 30 minutes. Investigators have used this information to try to establish the activities of flight 370 after its transponders ceased to work en-route to Beijing, half way across the Gulf .
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:23:21 +0000
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