Pilots of missing plane face increased scrutiny

A Malaysian military soldier patrols the viewing gallery of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport where dedication boards with well wishes and messages for people involved with the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner MH370 is displayed, Sunday, March 16, 2014 in Sepang, Malaysia. Malaysian authorities Sunday were investigating the pilots of the missing jetliner after it was established that whoever flew off with the Boeing 777 had intimate knowledge of the cockpit and knew how to avoid detection when navigating around Asia. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

A Malaysian military soldier patrols the viewing gallery of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport where dedication boards with well wishes and messages for people involved with the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner MH370 is displayed, Sunday, March 16, 2014 in Sepang, Malaysia. Malaysian authorities Sunday were investigating the pilots of the missing jetliner after it was established that whoever flew off with the Boeing 777 had intimate knowledge of the cockpit and knew how to avoid detection when navigating around Asia. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Monday, March 17, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Even before someone at the controls calmly said the last words heard from the missing Malaysian jetliner, one of the Boeing 777’s communications systems had already been disabled, authorities said Sunday, adding to suspicions that one or both of the pilots were involved in the disappearance of the flight.

Investigators also examined a flight simulator confiscated from the home of one of the pilots and dug through the background of all 239 people on board, as well as the ground crew that serviced the plane.

The Malaysia Airlines jet took off from Kuala Lumpur in the wee hours of March 8, headed to Beijing. On Saturday, the Malaysian government announced findings that strongly suggested the plane was deliberately diverted and may have flown as far north as Central Asia or south into the vast reaches of the Indian Ocean.

Authorities have said someone on board the plane first disabled one of its communications systems - the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS - about 40 minutes after takeoff. The system can monitor engines and other equipment for problems that may need attention when a plane lands.

About 14 minutes later, the transponder that identifies the plane to commercial radar systems was also shut down. The fact that both systems went dark separately offered strong evidence that the plane’s disappearance was deliberate.

On Sunday, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference that the final, reassuring words from the cockpit - “All right, good night” - were spoken to air traffic controllers after the ACARS system was shut off. Whoever spoke did not mention any trouble on board.

Air force Maj. Gen. Affendi Buang told reporters he did not know whether it was the pilot or co-pilot who spoke to air traffic controllers.

The search area now includes 11 countries the plane might have flown over, Hishammuddin said, adding that the number of countries involved in the operation had increased from 14 to 25.

“The search was already a highly complex, multinational effort,” he said. “It has now become even more difficult.”

The search effort initially focused on the relatively shallow waters of the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, where the plane was first thought to be. Hishammuddin said he had asked governments to hand over sensitive radar and satellite data to try to get a better idea of the plane’s final movements.

With more information, he said, the search zone could be narrowed “to an area that is more feasible.”

Malaysia is leading the search for the plane and the investigation into its disappearance.

The jet “most likely” went down in the Indian Ocean, and authorities in Malaysia should stop resisting international help in finding out what happened, U.S. lawmakers said Sunday.

“A lot of folks that I talk to believe that’s probably the most likely, the most probable circumstance, that in fact it is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said on CBS’ Face the Nation.

“But you cannot quite yet rule out everything because we don’t have the physical evidence we need to come to that conclusion,” said Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent.

Malaysian officials have been resisting help from the FBI and Interpol, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a member of the House homeland security committee who leads its panel on counterterrorism and intelligence.

“My understanding is that Malaysia is not really cooperating at all. They’re very reluctant to lay what they have out on the table,” King said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.

U.S. officials said there are no signs of terrorist connections in the disappearance of the passenger jet.

“There’s been no terrorist chatter. There’s nothing out there indicating it’s terrorists,” King said. “Doesn’t mean it’s not, but so far nothing has been picked up by the intelligence community from day one.”

“It’s too early to rule anything in or out yet. We simply just don’t know enough information,” Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.

The Malaysian authorities trying to locate the jet have not singled out the pilots or crew as the only potential suspects. Officials said Sunday that they would scrutinize the backgrounds of all 239 passengers and crew onboard, as well as ground crew and engineers who worked on the Boeing 777 jet.

“The Malaysian authorities are refocusing their investigation on all crew and passengers,” Hishammuddin said. “I understand the hunger for new details, but we do not want to jump to conclusions.”

According to the airline, he said, “the pilot and co-pilot did not ask to fly together on MH370.” If true, that point might undermine speculation that the two men acted in unison in the plane’s disappearance.

Malaysia’s police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, said he asked countries with citizens on board the plane to investigate their backgrounds, no doubt looking for anyone with terrorism ties, aviation skills or prior contact with the pilots. He said the intelligence agencies of some countries had already done so and found nothing suspicious, but he was waiting for others to respond.

Police searched the homes of both pilots Saturday, the first time they had done so since the plane vanished, the government said. Asked why it took them so long, Khalid said authorities “didn’t see the necessity in the early stages.”

Police confiscated the elaborate flight simulator that one of the pilots, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had built in his home and reassembled it in their offices to study it for clues, Khalid said.

Zaharie, 53, who has three grown children and one grandchild, had previously posted photos online of the simulator, which was made with three large computer monitors and other accessories. Earlier this week, the head of Malaysia Airlines said the simulator was not in itself cause for any suspicion.

Malaysian police were also investigating engineers and ground staff who may have had contact with the plane before it took off, Khalid said.

Even though the ACARS system was disabled on Flight 370, it continued to emit faint hourly pulses that were recorded by a satellite. The last “ping” was sent out at 8:11 a.m. - 7 hours and 31 minutes after the plane took off. That placed the jet somewhere in a huge arc as far north as Kazakhstan in Central Asia or far into the southern Indian Ocean.

“It’s something of the scope I’ve never seen before,” said Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet, which sent two guided-missile destroyers to join the search. Of the size of the Indian Ocean, he said: “Essentially, it’s like looking for a person somewhere between New York and California. It’s that big.”

While many people think the plane has crashed, there is a small possibility it may have landed somewhere and be relatively intact. Affendi, the air force general, and Hishammuddin, the defense minister, said it was possible for the plane to “ping” when it was on the ground if its electrical systems were undamaged.

Australia said it was sending one of its two AP-3C Orion aircraft involved in the search to remote islands in the Indian Ocean at Malaysia’s request. The plane will search north and west of the Cocos Islands, a remote Australian territory with an airstrip about 745 miles southwest of Indonesia, military chief Gen. David Hurley said.

Indian navy and air search operations for the missing Malaysian jetliner were suspended Sunday as Malaysia sought technical assistance from New Delhi in corroborating the possible paths that the plane might have taken after losing contact with air traffic controllers, officials said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, on the phone Sunday and requested technical assistance, an Indian official said. Singh assured Najib that India would provide all possible assistance, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Earlier in the day, India suspended search operations until fresh areas could be identified by Malaysia’s government, said Col. Harmit Singh, spokesman for India’s tri-services command.

Given that a northern route would have sent the plane over countries with busy airspace, most experts say the person in control of the aircraft would more likely have chosen to go south. The southern Indian Ocean is the world’s third deepest and one of the most remote stretches of water in the world, with little radar coverage.

Whoever disabled the plane’s communication systems and then flew the jet must have had a high degree of technical knowledge and flying experience, putting one or both of the pilots high on the list of possible suspects, Malaysian officials and aviation experts said.

Zaharie, the captain, was a supporter of a Malaysian opposition political party that is locked in a bitter dispute with the government, according to postings on his Facebook page and a friend, Peter Chong, who is a party member.

Chong said that he last saw Zaharie a week before the pilot left on the flight for Beijing and that they had agreed to meet on his return to organize a shopping trip for poor children.

“If I am on a flight, I would choose Captain Zaharie,” he said. “He is dedicated to his job. He is a professional and he loves flying.” Information for this article was contributed by Chris Brummitt, Jim Gomez, Ian Mader, Eileen Ng, Kristen Gelineau and Ashok Sharma of The Associated Press; by Chris Buckley, Keith Bradsher, Michael Forsythe and Kirk Semple of The New York Times; and by Greg Giroux and Gail DeGeorge of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/17/2014