Investigators puzzled at lack of distress signal
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Searchers report object in sea as intelligence agencies join probe into passengers on stolen passportsVietnamese authorities searching waters for a missing Boeing 777 jetliner spotted an object yesterday they suspected is one of the plane’s doors, as international intelligence agencies joined an investigation into two passengers who boarded the aircraft with stolen passports.
More than a day and half after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing, no confirmed debris from the plane had been found, and the final minutes before it disappeared remained a mystery.
The plane, which was carrying 239 people, including 154 from China, lost contact with ground controllers somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam after leaving Kuala Lumpur early Saturday morning for Beijing. The Thanh Nien newspaper quoted Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of Vietnam’s army, as saying searchers in a low-flying plane had spotted an object suspected of being a door from the missing jet. It was found in waters about 90 kilometers south of the Tho Chu island, in the same area where oil slicks were spotted on Saturday.
“From this object, hopefully (we) will find the missing plane,” Tuan said.
Thanh Nien said two ships from the maritime police were heading to the site.
The missing plane apparently fell from the sky at cruising altitude in fine weather, and the pilots were either unable or had no time to send a distress signal - unusual circumstances under which a modern jetliner operated by a professional airline would crash.
Malaysia’s air force chief, Rodzali Daud, said yesterday radar indicated that the plane may have turned back, but did not give further details on which direction it went or how far it veered off course.
“We are trying to make sense of this,” Daud said at a news conference. “The military radar indicated that the aircraft may have made a turn back, and in some parts this was corroborated by civilian radar.”
Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said pilots are supposed to inform the airline and traffic control authorities if the plane does a U-turn. “From what we have, there was no such distress signal or distress call per se, so we are equally puzzled,” he said.
Authorities were checking the identities of the two passengers who boarded the plane with stolen passports.
“I can confirm that we have the visuals of these two people on CCTV,” Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference late yesterday, adding that the footage was being examined. “We have intelligence agencies, both local and international, on board.”
Hishammuddin declined to give further details, saying it may jeopardize the investigation.
“Our focus now is to find the aircraft,” he said, adding that finding the plane would make it easier for authorities to investigate any possible foul play.
Hishammuddin said only two passengers had used stolen passports, and that earlier reports that the identities of two others were under investigation were not true. White House Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said the US was looking into the stolen passports, but that investigators had reached no conclusions.
In addition to the plane’s sudden disappearance, the stolen passports have strengthened concerns about terrorism as a possible cause. Al-Qaida militants have used similar tactics to try to disguise their identities.
Still, other possible causes would seem just as likely at this stage, including a catastrophic failure of the plane’s engines, extreme turbulence, pilot error or even suicide.
Establishing what happened with any certainty will need data from flight recorders and a detailed examination of any debris, something that will take months if not years.
Meanwhile, the multinational search for the missing plane was continuing. A total of 34 aircraft and 40 ships have been deployed to the area by Malaysia, China, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and the US, in addition to Vietnam’s fleet.
Vietnamese air force jets spotted two large oil slicks on Saturday, but it was unclear whether they were linked to the missing plane.
Two-thirds of the jet’s passengers were Chinese. The rest were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.
Finding traces of an aircraft that disappears over sea can take days or longer, even with a sustained search effort.
Depending on the circumstances of the crash, wreckage can be scattered over many square kilometers. If the plane enters the water before breaking up, there can be relatively little debris.
A team of American experts is on its way to Asia to be ready to assist in the investigation into the crash. It includes accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing.
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