Yesterday evening, The Telegraph newspaper exclusively disclosed the last 54 minutes of cockpit communication aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The transcript starts at 00.25 with general conversations between the co-pilot, the control tower, and other air traffic controllers. The detailed conversation begins at 00.36.
The piece runs from the time the Boeing 777 was taxiing to its last known position thousands of feet above the South China Sea, to its final message at 1.19am of “all right, good night” from 27-year-old co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid.
According to analysts the sequence of messages appear to be “perfectly routine”, however two features are potentially odd.
At 1.07am a message from the cockpit stated the plane was flying at 35,000ft, an unnecessary note as the same message had been delivered six minutes earlier.
It was the moment when it occurred that’s crucial as 1.07am marks the final time the plane’s Acars signalling device sent its last message before being apparently deliberately disabled some time in the next half hour.
The Telegraph highlights the second possible ‘odd feature’ was that its loss of communication and subsequent sharp turn west occurred at the air traffic control handover in Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City, a reason to suspect the planes a disappearance was no accident.
This morning Malaysia’s transport Minister spoke for the first time. At a press briefing, which took place at Sepang, the minister explained the transcripts do not indicate anything abnormal and yesterdays report “is not accurate”.
The hunt continues for objects that could be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has entered its third day in the southern Indian Ocean, south west of Perth in western Australia.
Sky News reports that today’s search is involve six aircraft and cover 13,900 square miles (36,000 square kilometres).
Maps released from Australian Maritime Safety Authority show the area search crews will focus on today.
Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister, said: “It’s about the most inaccessible spot that you could imagine on the face of the Earth, but if there is anything down there, we will find it.
“We owe it to the families and the friends and the loved ones of the almost 240 people on Flight MH370 to do everything we can to try to resolve what is as yet an extraordinary riddle.”
This is the largest search and rescue operation in history.
