KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 — The final words from the missing Malaysian jetliner’s cockpit gave no indication anything was wrong even though one of the plane’s communications systems had already been disabled, officials said Sunday, adding to suspicions that one or both of the pilots were involved in the disappearance, reported Associated Press.
As authorities examined a flight simulator that was confiscated from the home of one of the pilots and dug through the background of all 239 people on board and the ground crew that serviced the plane, they also were grappling with the enormity of the search ahead of them.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur at around 12:40 a.m. on March 8, headed to Beijing. On Saturday, Malaysia’s government confirmed that 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 at 1:07 a.m. Around 14 minutes later, the transponder was also shut down. The fact that they went dark separately is strong evidence that the plane’s disappearance was deliberate.
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said that the final, reassuring words from the cockpit — “All right, good night” — were spoken to air traffic controllers after the communication system was shut down. Whoever spoke did not mention any trouble on board, seemingly misleading ground control.
The search area now includes 11 countries the plane might have flown over, Hishamuddin said, adding that the number of countries involved in the operation had increased to 25.
