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Malaysian Plane Still Missing: Mystery Deepens As New Data Reveals Jet Was Airborne FOUR HOURS After Vanishing

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US investigators think that Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remained airborne for four more hours after vanishing from its last recorded position – raising the startling prospect the plane could have been hijacked.

Officials suspect that the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded from the Boeing 777’s Rolls Royce engines and sent back to the ground as part of a routine monitoring program.

US counter-terrorism teams are now pursuing the astonishing possibility that the plane and its 239 passengers were diverted to an undisclosed location ‘with the intention of using it later for another purpose’.

Startling theory: US counter-terrorism officials are concerned as to why Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remained airborne for four hours after it vanished from radar based on data transmitted from its engines. Pictured are crew members of a Chinese Air Force aircraft

Startling theory: US counter-terrorism officials are concerned as to why Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remained airborne for four hours after it vanished from radar based on data transmitted from its engines. Pictured are crew members of a Chinese Air Force aircraft. 

Disconcerting: Police patrol with a dog at Beijing International Airport days after the Beijing-bound Malaysian jetliner went missing. One of the world's most perplexing aviation mysteries continued to rumble on through Thursday as reports claimed US investigators were examining if the plane was hijacked by terrorists

Disconcerting: Police patrol with a dog at Beijing International Airport days after the Beijing-bound Malaysian jetliner went missing. One of the world’s most perplexing aviation mysteries continued to rumble on through Thursday as reports claimed US investigators were examining if the plane was hijacked by terrorists.

 

The Wall Street Journal broke the new developments after talking with two unofficial sources familiar with the American investigation – raising a whole new raft of questions about what happened to the jet which disappeared seemingly without trace from radar at around 1.30 am early on Saturday morning en-route to Beijing.

Government terrorism experts are now examining the possibility that the pilot or somebody else turned the plane’s transponders off to avoid detection and flew it to another country.

A total flight time of five hours upon leaving Kuala Lumpur means that the Boeing 777 would have been able to remain airborne for an additional 2,200 nautical miles at its air-speed – which put the border of Pakistan and the Arabian Sea within its reach.

While the Wall Street Journal said it isn’t clear whether investigators have evidence of terrorism or hijacking – they have not ruled it out.

However, officials are working on the suspicion that the plane’s engines were operating for four more hours following its last recorded sighting on radar.

This has caused enormous uncertainty over the final destination of the aircraft – in addition to why it flew for so long without operating its transponders.

One working theory from counter-terror officials is that the plane was taken over for an as-yet unknown purpose.

Uncertainty: Passengers look at a Malaysian Airline planes at Kuala Lumpur International Airport,  Malaysia, on 13 March 2014. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people on board went missing early 08 March 2014 while on its way to Beijing under mysterious circumstances

Uncertainty: Passengers look at a Malaysian Airline planes at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, on 13 March 2014. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 people on board went missing early 08 March 2014 while on its way to Beijing under mysterious circumstances. 

The Wall Street Journal said that this scenario – previously only discussed in the media as one of a number of conspiracy theories – was brought to national security officials and senior personnel from the appropriate US agencies.

At one of these briefings, officials were told that terror investigators were actively examining if flight 370 had been commandeered ‘to be used later for another purpose’.

Of course, the mystery of the whereabouts of the aircraft continues – and it remains unclear if the plane crashed hundreds of miles from its last known location or indeed landed at an alternate destination.

A senior Malaysia Airlines official told Reuters that no such data existed, while a second official said he was unaware of it. A spokeswoman for engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce had no immediate comment.

Malaysia Airlines has said previously that the Rolls-Royce Trent engines stopped transmitting monitoring signals when contact with the plane was lost.

As part of maintenance agreements between Rolls Royce and Malaysian Airlines, the engines transmit live data to its global engine health monitoring center in Derby, UK for analysis every 30 minutes.

Investigators have used this information to try to establish the activities of flight 370 after its transponders ceased to work en-route to Beijing, half way across the Gulf of Thailand.

Fruitless search: A Vietnamese military official uses a binocular to look out the window inside a flying Soviet-made AN-26 of the Vietnam Air Force during search and rescue (SAR) operations for a missing Malaysian Airlines flight, off Vietnam's sea, on 13 March 2014Fruitless search: A Vietnamese military official uses a binocular to look out the window and another uses a map (right) inside a flying Soviet-made AN-26 of the Vietnam Air Force during search and rescue (SAR) operations for a missing Malaysian Airlines flight, off Vietnam's sea, on 13 March 2014 

Fruitless search: A Vietnamese military official uses a binocular to look out the window and another uses a map (right) inside a flying Soviet-made AN-26 of the Vietnam Air Force during search and rescue (SAR) operations for a missing Malaysian Airlines flight, off Vietnam’s sea, on 13 March 2014.

No trace: Vietnam Air Force aircraft flies during search and rescue (SAR) operations for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, off Vietnam's sea, on 13 March 2014 - the Boeing 777 has not been found or heard from since March 8 when it disappeared from radar

No trace: Vietnam Air Force aircraft flies during search and rescue (SAR) operations for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, off Vietnam’s sea, on 13 March 2014 – the Boeing 777 has not been found or heard from since March 8 when it disappeared from radar. 

Six days on and a massive international air and water search involving 10 nations using 56 surface ships have failed to find a single piece of debris or sign of the Malaysian Airlines aircraft.

Hopes of a resolution were briefly raised when a Chinese state agency released satellite images of three pieces of large debris floating near to the jets last recorded position in the South China sea.

These were dashed early on Thursday morning when Vietnamese and Malaysian authorities said they found no trace at the co-ordinates.

‘There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing,’ Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s civil aviation chief said on Thursday morning.

Vietnam had already searched the area where Chinese satellites showed objects that could be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet but a plane was sent to check the area again, Vietnamese military officials said.

‘We are aware and we sent planes to cover that area over the past three days,’ Deputy Transport Minister Pham Quy Tieu told Reuters. ‘Today a military plane will search the area again,’ he said.

And on Thursday morning Vietnamese authorities said two military jets searching for clues top the missing Malaysia Airlines jet found no wreckage at the location.

A visitor writes on a banner carrying messages for the passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport

A visitor writes on a banner carrying messages for the passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. 

Captain Syukri of the Malaysian Air Forces studies a map during a search and rescue mission flight

Captain Syukri of the Malaysian Air Forces studies a map during a search and rescue mission flight.

 

Aircraft repeatedly circled the area over the South China Sea but were unable to detect any objects, said a Reuters journalist, who flew aboard a Antonov 26 cargo plane for three hours.

What at first seemed a potentially crucial development on the fifth day of the search even appeared to corroborate the testimony of a New Zealand oil worker who claimed he witnessed the crash of the missing airplane early on Saturday morning.

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