MH370’s final words analyzed for clues
Print Edition
INVESTIGATORS are conducting a forensic examination of the final recorded conversation between ground control and the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 before it went missing three weeks ago, the Malaysian government said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Australia, which is coordinating the search for the Boeing 777, cautioned that it “could drag on for a long time” and would be an arduous one.
The forensic examination could shed light on who was in control of the cockpit and will also seek to determine if there was any stress or tension in the voice of whoever was communicating with ground control — crucial factors in an air disaster investigation.
Responding to repeated media requests, the Malaysian government also released a transcript of the conversation, which showed normal exchanges from the cockpit as it requested clearance for takeoff, reported it had reached cruising altitude and had left Malaysian air space.
“Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero,” were the final words received by ground control at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport at 1:19am on March 8. On Monday, the government changed its account of the final voice transmission which it had earlier transcribed as “All right, good night.”
The hunt has turned up no sign of the aircraft, which vanished with 239 people on board bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
The search area has shifted as experts analyzed the plane’s limited radar and satellite data, moving from the seas off Vietnam and eventually to several areas west of Australia.
Yesterday, Australia deployed an airborne traffic controller to prevent collisions as search planes fly over the Indian Ocean.
Eleven planes and nine ships are focusing on less than half of the search zone, about 2,000 kilometers west of Perth, according to the Joint Agency Coordination Center.
Low clouds, rain and choppy seas hampered search efforts yesterday.
One aircraft, a Japanese coast guard plane with high-performance radar and infrared cameras, completed just one of its three planned passes over the search area, then had to turn back. It descended to just 150 meters above the surface at one point, but the crew members still couldn’t see anything from its windows.
Some of the aircraft have occasionally dipped even lower above the sea for brief periods, raising concerns of collisions with ships crisscrossing the zone.
Under normal circumstances, ground-based air traffic controllers use radar and other equipment to track aircraft in their area of reach and direct planes so they are at different altitudes and distances. But the planes searching for the missing flight are operating over a patch of ocean that is hundreds of kilometers from any air traffic controller.
Houston, a former Australian defense chief, called the search effort the most challenging one he had yet seen.
The starting point for any search is the last known position of the vehicle or aircraft, he said. “In this particular case, the last known position was a long, long way from where the aircraft appears to have gone. It’s very complex, it’s very demanding.
“What we really need now is to find debris, wreckage from the aircraft,” he said. “This could drag on for a long time.”
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