Hijackers who Took Control of Missing Flight MH370-
'Must have Crawled Through Trap Door in Full View of Cabin Crew',,,to Disable Second Communications System
- ACARS system was switched off between 1.07am and 1.37am
- It followed last verbal communication and transponder turn off
- Flight then flew into a navigational and technical black hole
- ACARS designed to transmit maintenance data back to ground
- But to disable it would require 'lots of aircraft knowledge'
- Experts have said taking control would take meticulous planning
- Lockdown of MH370 may have begun as early as 40m into the flight
By Daily Mail UK, 17 March 2014
The hijackers of missing jet MH370 must have crawled through a trap door in full view of cabin crew to cut a key datalink with the ground, it was revealed today.
Investigators said a system called ACARS was switched off on the Malaysia Airways at some point between 1.07am and 1.37am - after it vanished from controllers' radars.
The flight is then believed to have flown into a navigational and technical black hole, a feat that could only be achieved by experienced pilots who had meticulously planned in advance.
Pilots have revealed hijackers must have crawled through trap door in in flight MH370's galley in full view of cabin crew' to disable second communications system. This graphic shows whether trap door would be
Probe: Police in Malaysia have searched the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah (bottom) and Fariq Abdul Hamid (top) after officials confirmed the plane was taken over by a 'deliberate act'
ACARS is designed to transmit maintenance data back to the ground and was the second communications system to switched off on the flight.
The first, the transponder, had been disabled in the ****pit two minutes after the last verbal contact was made with air traffic control.
But pilots revealed today cutting the ACARS datalink would have been much more difficult and instructions are not in the Flight Crew Operating Manual.
Whomever did so may have had to climb through a trap door in full view of cabin crew, people familiar with the jet say.
Circuit-breakers used to disable the system are in a bay reached through a hatch in the floor next to the lefthand front exit, close to a galley used to prepare meals.
Another pilot, who did not want to be identified, said: 'Occasionally, there are gaps in the communications systems and the guys in ground operations may not think much of it initially.
Experts have claimed the Boeing 777-200ER dropped 5,000ft (1,500m) to evade commercial radar detection
'It would be a while before they try to find out what was wrong.'
Most of the pilots said it would be impossible to turn off ACARS from inside the ****pit, though two people did not rule it out.
Malaysia Airlines said 14 minutes elapsed between the last ACARS message and the transponder shutdown that - in the growing view of officials - confirmed a fully loaded jet was on the run.
The ACARS must have been disabled within 16 minutes after that.
In the meantime a voice believed to be that of the co-pilot issued the last words from MH370 and the transponder went dead.
By choosing one place and time to vanish into radar darkness with 238 others on board, the person - presumed to be a pilot or a passenger with advanced knowledge - may have acted only after meticulous planning, according to aviation experts.
Malaysian Selamat Omar shows pictures of his son Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, an aviation engineer, who was onboard the missing flight, in Putrajaya, Malaysia
Malaysia's transport ministry released this satellite map of the north corridor of the possible location of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
The hunt: Malaysian Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussin (right) show north corridor and south corridor maps
This graphic shows the location of the Boeing 777's ELT, in the rear of the plane
He signed off from Malaysian airspace at 1.19am on March 8 with a casual 'all right, good night,' rather than the crisp radio drill advocated in pilot training, a person now believed to be the co-pilot gave no hint of anything unusual.
Two minutes later, at 1.21 a.m. local time, the transponder - a device identifying jets to ground controllers - was turned off in a move that experts say could reveal a careful sequence.
'Every action taken by the person who was piloting the aircraft appears to be a deliberate one. It is almost like a pilot's checklist,' said one senior captain from an Asian carrier with experience of jets including the Boeing 777.
There is so far no indication whether the co-pilot was at fault or had anything to do with turning off the transponder. Pilots say the usual industry convention is that the pilot not directly responsible for flying the plane talks on the radio.
Anxious wait: Erny Khairul, whose husband Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat was onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, kisses her daughter inside a hotel they are staying at in Putrajaya
Anxious wait: Chinese relatives of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines are still waiting to find out happened to their loved ones
Hotel security officers guard at an entrance of a hotel room set aside for relatives of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane in Beijing
Police have searched the premises of both the captain and co-pilot and are checking the backgrounds of all passengers.
Whoever turned the transponder to 'off', whether or not the move was deliberate, did so at a vulnerable point between two airspace sectors when Malaysian and Vietnamese controllers could easily assume the airplane was each others' responsibility.
'The predictable effect was to delay the raising of the alarm by either party,' David Learmount, operations and safety editor at Flight International, wrote in an industry blog.
That mirrors delays in noticing something was wrong when an Air France jet disappeared over the Atlantic in 2009 with 228 people on board, a gap blamed on confusion between controllers.
Yet whereas the Rio-Paris disaster was later traced to pilot error, the suspected kidnapping of MH370's passengers and crew was carried out with either skill or bizarre coincidences.
Residents of Boeung Kak Lake light candles to spell 'MH370' during a Buddhist ceremony, praying for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370, in Phnom Penh
Cambodian residents of a community light candles as they pray for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at their village in Phnom Penh
Whether or not pilots knew it, the jet was just then in a technically obscure sweet spot, according to a top radar expert.
Air traffic controllers use secondary radar which works by talking to the transponder. Some air traffic control systems also blend in some primary radar, which uses a simple echo.
But primary radar signals fade faster than secondary ones, meaning even a residual blip would have vanished for controllers and even military radar may have found it difficult to identify the 777 from other ghostly blips, said radar expert Hans Weber.
'Turning off the transponder indicates this person was highly trained,' said Weber, of consultancy TECOP International.
The overnight flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur is packed year-round with business people, Chinese tourists and students, attracted in part by code-sharing deals, regular travellers say.
Family members of passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vote to talk directly to Malaysian government's representatives
Relatives of passengers of a missing Malaysia Airlines plane gather at a television viewing area to watch news programs in a hotel in Beijing
The lockdown of MH370 may have begun as early as 40 minutes into the flight at a point when meals are being hurriedly served in time to get trays cleared and lights dimmed for the night.
'It was a red-eye flight. Most people - the passengers and the crew - just want to rest,' a Malaysia Airlines stewardess said. 'Unless there was a reason to panic, if someone had taken control of the aircraft, they would not have noticed anything.'
The north-east-bound jet took a north-western route from Kota Bahru in eastern Malaysia to Penang Island. It was last detected on military radar around 200 miles northwest of Penang.
Even that act of going off course may not have caused alarm at first if it was handled gradually, pilots said.
'Nobody pays attention to these things unless they are aware of the direction that the aircraft was heading in,' said one first officer who has flown with Malaysia Airlines.
The airline said it had reconstructed the event in a simulator to try to figure out how the jet vanished and kept flying for what may have been more than seven hours.
Pilots say whoever was then in control may have kept the radio on in silent mode to hear what was going on around him, but would have avoided restarting the transponder at all costs.
'That would immediately make the aircraft visible ... like a bright light. Your registration, height, altitude and speed would all become visible,' said an airline captain.
After casting off its identity, the aircraft set investigators a puzzle that has yet to be solved. It veered either northwards or southwards, within an hour's flying time of arcs stretching from the Caspian to the southern Indian Ocean.
The best way to avoid the attention of military radars would have been to fly at a fixed altitude, on a recognised flight path and at cruising speed without changing course, pilots say.
Malaysian officials dismissed as speculation reports that the jet may have flown at low altitude to avoid detection.
But pilots said the best chance of feeling its way through the well-defended northern route would have been to hide in full view of military radar inside commercial lanes - raising awkward questions over security in several parts of the Asia-Pacific.
'The military radar controllers would have seen him moving on a fixed line, figured that it was a commercial aircraft at a high altitude, and not really a danger especially if he was on a recognised flight path,' said one pilot.
'Some countries would ask you to identify yourself, but you are flying through the night and that is the time when the least attention is being paid to unidentified aircraft. As long as the aircraft is not flying towards a military target or point, they may not bother with you.'
Although investigators refused on Monday to be drawn into theories, few in the industry believe a 250-tonne passenger jet could run amok globally without expert skills or preparation.
'Whoever did this must have had lots of aircraft knowledge, would have deliberately planned this, had nerves of steel to be confident enough to get through primary radar without being detected and been confident enough to control an aircraft full of people,' a veteran airline captain said.
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