And it looks like that turn was no accident.
A law
enforcement official told CNN Tuesday that the aircraft's first turn to
the west was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit.
The official, who has
been briefed on the investigation, said the programmed change in
direction was entered at least 12 minutes before the plane's co-pilot
signed off to air traffic controllers, telling them, "All right, good night."
Analysts on CNN's "AC360"
offered different interpretations of what that could mean -- with some
experts cautioning the change in direction could have been part of an
alternate flight plan programmed in advance in case of emergency, and others warning it could show something more nefarious was afoot.
"We don't know when
specifically it was entered," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst
and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt said the new timeframe "makes the issue of foul play seem more significant."
"Because by doing that,"
he said, "what it basically shows is that this thing was already heading
in a different direction when they're saying good night."
But still, the new details about what happened don't add up to a clear answer.
"Like everything on this story, we learn a little bit," Schmidt said, "but then we just have more questions."
Inside the cockpit of a Boeing 777
Police search pilots' homes
Partner: I have to prepare for worst
Did plane drop 5,000 ft. to avoid radar?
Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Evidence that someone
programmed the plane's computer and the Thai data that surfaced Tuesday
corroborate a leading theory from Malaysian investigators: The missing
plane veered off course in a deliberate act by someone who knew what
they were doing.
But investigators still
don't know who was at the controls, or why whoever was flying the plane
apparently took it far from its original destination.
An initial search of the
pilots' personal computers and e-mails found nothing to indicate that
the sudden deviation in the aircraft's route was planned, U.S. officials
said Tuesday after being briefed by Malaysian authorities.
The officials said they
had also reviewed cockpit conversations between the plane and air
traffic controllers and heard nothing suspicious or anything that would
explain why the jetliner changed course.
And a flight simulator
belonging to pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah did not show any of the
unexplained paths the plane may have flown after it went off the grid,
officials said.
Schiavo said it's no surprise investigators found nothing suspicious in the pilots' homes.
"I've worked on many
cases were the pilots were suspect, and it turned out to be a mechanical
and horrible problem," she said. "And I have a saying myself: Sometimes
an erratic flight path is heroism, not terrorism. And I always remind
myself of that, not to jump to that conclusion. Sometimes pilots are
fighting amazing battles, and we never hear about it. "
Thailand: Plane sent intermittent signal
The Thai military's
revelation that it also spotted the plane turning west toward the Strait
of Malacca is one encouraging sign that investigators could be on the
right track after days of searching for the missing plane have failed to
turn up any answers about its location.
The Thai military was
receiving normal flight path and communication data from the Boeing
777-200 on its planned March 8 route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing until
1:22 a.m., when it disappeared from its radar.
Six minutes later, the
Thai military detected an unknown signal, a Royal Thai Air Force
spokesman told CNN. This unknown aircraft, possibly Flight 370, was
heading the opposite direction.
Malaysia says the
evidence suggests that the plane was deliberately flown off-course,
turning west and traveling back over the Malay Peninsula and out into
the Indian Ocean.
The Thai data are the second radar evidence that the plane did indeed turn around toward the Strait of Malacca.
It follows information
from the Malaysian air force that its military radar tracked the plane
as it passed over the small island of Pulau Perak in the Strait of
Malacca.
"The unknown aircraft's
signal was sending out intermittently, on and off and on and off," the
spokesman said. The Thai military lost the unknown aircraft's signal
because of the limits of its military radar, he said.
Investigators say they're still not sure where the plane ended up.
The latest findings say
the plane's last known location detected by a satellite is along two
wide arcs: one stretching north over Asia and the other south into the
Indian Ocean. The plane's last electronic connection with the satellite
was about six hours after it last showed up on Malaysian military radar.
Families wait for word of missing flight
Homes of pilot, co-pilot searched
Tracking Malaysia Air flight 370
Did plane drop 5,000 ft. to avoid radar?
The total area now being
searched stands at 2.97 million square miles -- an area nearly the size
of the continental United States -- Hishammuddin Hussein, the Malaysian
defense and transport minister said.
"This is an enormous
search area," Hishammuddin said. "And it is something that Malaysia
cannot possibly search on its own. I am therefore very pleased that so
many countries have come forward to offer assistance and support to the
search and rescue operation."
Turn made by computer?
The pilot and first
officer of the missing plane, both of them Malaysian, have come under
particular scrutiny in the search for clues.
But officials have reported no evidence to tie the pilot and first officer to the plane's disappearance.
One aviation expert, writing an opinion piece for CNN.com, floated the idea last week that whoever changed the plane's course was an expert.
The cockpit computer programming analysis, first reported by The New York Times Tuesday, has increased investigators' focus on the pilot and first officer, the newspaper said.
Asked about the report
Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, "As
far as we're concerned, the aircraft was programmed to fly to Beijing.
That's the standard procedure."
But he didn't rule out the possibility the flight path had been reprogrammed.
"Once you're in the aircraft," he said, "anything is possible."
China clears citizens
China says it has found no evidence that any of its citizens on board the missing plane were involved in hijacking or terrorism.
Background checks on all
passengers from the Chinese mainland on the plane have found nothing to
support such suspicions, Huang Huikang, the Chinese ambassador to
Malaysia, said Tuesday, according to the state-run Chinese news agency
Xinhua.
Authorities have said they are investigating all 239 people who were on board the flight, which disappeared more than 10 days ago.
According to the airline, 153 of the 227 passengers on board the plane came from mainland China or Hong Kong.
By effectively ruling
out suspicions for a large majority of the passengers, Chinese
authorities appear to have significantly shortened the list of possible
suspects in the investigation.
The Chinese ambassador's
statement is also likely to greatly dampen speculation that Uyghur
separatists from China's far western region of Xinjiang might have been
involved in the plane's disappearance.
One of the two long
corridors where authorities say the plane was last detected stretched
over Xinjiang, and unconfirmed reports had suggested the possibility
that Uyghurs might be connected to the case.
Chinese authorities have
accused separatists from Xinjiang of carrying out a terrorist attack
this month in which eight attackers armed with long knives stormed a
train station in Kunming, a city in southwestern China, killing 29
people and wounding more than 140.
China said Tuesday that
it had begun to search for the plane in the parts of its territory that
fall under the northern corridor, deploying satellite and radar
resources.
Experts are analyzing
past and present data along the arc stretching through Chinese
territory, Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news
briefing Tuesday in Beijing.
Still a mystery
Eleven days after Flight
370 disappeared, the bottom line is that the fate of the flight remains
a mystery. As time has passed, initial theories about mechanical error
have led to more elaborate ideas about complicated hijacking or
commandeering plots.
Former Malaysia Airlines pilot Nik Huzlan has flown the same aircraft that is now missing.
"I know, I flew this
plane," he said. "This is very, very strange. The lack of communication
is puzzling. How the pilots are not communicating."
Huzlan has come up with his own theories.
"From (the) second or
third day, I've come to my own private conclusion that it must have been
unlawful human interference," he said. "It could have been anyone on
the airplane."
CNN has talked to more
than half a dozen U.S. military and intelligence officials who emphasize
that while no one knows what happened to the plane, it is more logical
to conclude it crashed into the Indian Ocean.
The officials say there
is no evidence that any U.S. satellite data registered an unknown
aircraft in any of the Asian countries along the path the plane may have
taken. According to these officials, it is overwhelmingly likely if the
plane had crashed on land, there would be some evidence of that, and if
it had landed, someone would have seen it.
U.S. Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel raised the issue of transparency when he spoke with his
Malaysian counterpart Monday, according to two U.S. officials.
Both officials said it
was not a criticism of the Malaysians, but more a discussion about the
need to share information with the world on one of the most complex
search operations in history.
"He was saying the best
way to handle this is to continue to be transparent and tell what you
know when you know it," one official said of Hagel's conversation. In
the first days after the incident, some U.S. officials had said the
Malaysian government did not share enough radar and technical data about
the flight.
Malaysian officials have defended their handling of the crisis, stressing that the situation is unprecedented.
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