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Wah!! Like James Bond movie!!
Malaysia Airlines plane ‘may have been flown deliberately towards Andaman Islands’
Inquiries focus on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight hundreds of kilometres off its intended course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing
PUBLISHED : Friday, 14 March, 2014, 4:41pm
UPDATED : Friday, 14 March, 2014, 9:00pm
Reuters in Kuala Lumpur
A navigator from the Royal Malaysian Air Force co-ordinates a search of the Strait of Malacca. Photo: AFP.
Military radar-tracking evidence suggests a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown across the Malay peninsula towards the Andaman Islands, sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters on Friday.
Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints – indicating it was being flown by someone with aviation training – when it was last plotted on military radar off the country’s northwest coast.
New military radar data suggest flight MH370 was flying toward India’s Andaman Islands. Photo: SCMP
The last plot on the military radar’s tracking suggested the plane was flying toward India’s Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, they said.
Waypoints are geographic locations, worked out by calculating longitude and latitude, that help pilots navigate along established air corridors.
A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight, with 239 people on board, hundreds of miles off its intended course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
“What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards,” said that source, a senior Malaysian police official.
All three sources declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media and due to the sensitivity of the investigation.
This new theory seems to clash with findings by a team of seismologists at one of China's top universities, who said they had detected a slight seismic event on the sea floor between Vietnam and Malaysia on March 8, which might be consistent with an airplane crashing into the sea, possibly related to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
At a press conference held on Friday evening, Malaysia's Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed the search for missing flight MH370 had been expanded but stopped short of confirming it was due to new reports that suggest the plane had flown west towards the Andaman Islands.
"Although there is information of a turn back, it's not 100 per cent identified as MH370. That is why we have expanded our search to the Strait of Malacca," he said.
Malaysia’s civil aviation chief, Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, added that experts from Rolls Royce, which manufactured the plane's engines, were due to arrive from the UK 'to study the position of satellite communication'.
Officials at Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport, the official point of contact for information on the investigation, did not return calls seeking comment.
Malaysian police have previously said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
The comments by the three sources are the first clear indication that foul play is the main focus of official suspicions in the Boeing 777’s disappearance.
As a result of the new evidence, the sources said, multinational search efforts were being stepped up in the Andaman Sea and also the Indian Ocean.
Last sighting
In one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation, no trace of the plane nor any sign of wreckage has been found despite a search by the navies and military aircraft of more than a dozen countries.
The last sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1.30am Malaysian time last Saturday, less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, as the plane flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand. That put the plane on Malaysia’s east coast.
The Malaysian air force search for wreckage in the Andaman Sea. Photo: XinhuaMalaysia’s air force chief said on Wednesday an aircraft that could have been the missing plane was plotted on military radar at 2.15am, 320 kilometres northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia’s west coast.
This position marks the limit of Malaysia’s military radar in that part of the country, a fourth source familiar with the investigation told Reuters.
When asked about the range of military radar at a news conference on Thursday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said it was “a sensitive issue” that he was not going to reveal.
“Even if it doesn’t extend beyond that, we can get the co-operation of the neighbouring countries,” he said.
The fact that the aircraft – if it was MH370 – had lost contact with air traffic control and was invisible to civilian radar suggested someone aboard had turned its communication systems off, the first two sources said.
They also gave new details on the direction in which the unidentified aircraft was heading – following aviation corridors identified on maps used by pilots as N571 and P628. These routes are taken by commercial planes flying from Southeast Asia to the Middle East or Europe and can be found in public documents issued by regional aviation authorities.
In a far more detailed description of the military radar plotting than has been publicly revealed, the first two sources said the last confirmed position of MH370 was at 35,000 feet about 144 kilometres off the east coast of Malaysia, heading towards Vietnam, near a navigational waypoint called “Igari”. The time was 1.21am.
Wellwishers leave messages at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Photo: EPA
The military track suggests it then turned sharply westwards, heading towards a waypoint called “Vampi”, northeast of Indonesia’s Aceh province and a navigational point used for planes following route N571 to the Middle East.
From there, the plot indicates the plane flew towards a waypoint called “Gival”, south of the Thai island of Phuket, and was last plotted heading northwest towards another waypoint called “Igrex”, on route P628 that would take it over the Andaman Islands and which carriers use to fly towards Europe.
The time was then 2.15am. That’s the same time given by the air force chief on Wednesday, who gave no information on that plane’s possible direction.
The sources said Malaysia was requesting raw radar data from neighbours Thailand, Indonesia and India, which has a naval base in the Andaman Islands.
Yes it all makes sense now....someone was obviously planning on crashing the plane into the Andaman & Nicobar Trade Center.
In a strange twist of events, the bomoh who shot to fame in trying to locate the missing plane, has warned Khairy. He had also revealed that he was hired by a government minister. LOL.
Read here http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/257101
I'll slap you like a croc, bomoh warns Khairy
Among the characters who has gained international stardom amid the ongoing MH370 crisis is Ibrahim Mat Zin, the bomoh (shaman) who is conducting a supernatural search and rescue mission for the missing plane.
His antics at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, with coconuts and bamboo binoculars, prompted a red-faced Khairy Jamaluddin to urge religious authorities to apprehend him.
However, Ibrahim, in a Suara TV recording, issued a stern warning to the youth and sports minister not to cross his path and challenged the later to a duel.
"This boy who just became a minister should not seek publicity using me. Let me do my work (to locate the plane). Don't classify what I do as haram (forbidden in Islam). Meet me first... even the court, before delivering a verdict must investigate a case," he said.
Ibrahim also demanded that Khairy retract his statements, which among others, referred to the bomoh as an "embarrassment and magic carpet shaman".
Failing which, he warned the minister of legal action.
Saying that he was not afraid of Khairy (left), he urged the Umno Youth chief to quit his cabinet post and then enter into a bout with him.
In the original quote in Malay, Ibrahim said: "Biar saya cakap terang-terang pada Khairy Jamaluddin. Saya cabar dia. Letak jawatan (sebagai menteri) dan saya letak jawatan sebagai mahaguru. Kita 'try fight'. Saya tampar dia macam buaya nanti, baru dia tahu."
(Let me be frank with Khairy Jamaluddin. I challenge him. Resign (as minister) and I will resign as mahaguru. We try fighting. I will slap him like a crocodile, then he will know).
The bomoh, who is often seen decked in a coat and wearing a 1Malaysia pin, also said that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had erred in appointing Khairy as a minister.
"If this drags on, I will send a memorandum to Najib together with all 500,000 silat members," he warned.
The bomoh claimed that he was called by a government leader to help with the search and rescue mission, prompting opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to raise the matter in Parliament.
Really? They don't? So, the whole air force fly around the whole day and night, and therefore, there are no planes on the tarmac? Are you some sort of retard?