[Dhaka Tribune] Malaysian authorities yesterday said there was no evidence that a jetliner missing for almost six days flew for hours after losing contact with air traffic controllers and continued to transmit technical data.
The Wall Street Journal said US aviation Sherlocks and national security officials believed the Boeing 777 flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from its Rolls-Royce Trent engines as part of a standard monitoring programme.
"Those reports are inaccurate," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference. "As far as both Rolls-Royce and Boeing are concerned, those reports are inaccurate. The last (data) transmission from the aircraft was at 1:07am (local time) which indicated that everything was normal." Boeing and Rolls-Royce have yet to comment.
Rooters has previously reported that the plane's transmission of the so-called ACARS technical data ceased after it lost contact with air traffic control.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, dropped off air traffic control screens at about 1:30am on Saturday, less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were no reports of bad weather or mechanical problems.
It is one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation - there has been no trace of the plane since nor any sign of wreckage despite a search by the navies and military aircraft of over a dozen countries across Southeast Asia.
"It's extraordinary that with all the (satellite and telecommunication) technology that we have got that an aircraft can disappear like this," Tony Tyler, the head of the International Air Transport Association that links over 90% of the world's airlines, told news hounds in London.
"It will trigger a desire to see how can we avoid this from happening again... I would not be surprised that the technology did not exist already but is not being used." |