UPDATE 03/16/14 2:09 PM EST:
New reports that discuss the scrutiny of the pilots have surfaced. CNN reports that authorities are taking a closer look at them while searching for clues.
The site reports:
“As the search area grows bigger, authorities are also increasing their scrutiny of the pilots, searching their homes in the quest for clues. That included a flight simulator from the captain’s home.
‘Police are still working on it. … Nothing conclusive yet,’ a senior police official who has direct knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Sunday night, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the press.”
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New evidence in the baffling case of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 suggests that the disappearance may not be an accident at all.
Two U.S. officials told ABC News that they believe the shutdown of two communication systems happened separately and deliberately. One source even indicated the plane did not come out of the sky because of a catastrophic failure.
According to ABC:
The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The transponder — which transmits location and altitude — shut down at 1:21 a.m.
This indicates it may well have been a deliberate act, ABC News aviation consultant John Nance said.
U.S. investigators told ABC News that the two modes of communication were “systematically shut down.”
That means the U.S. team “is convinced that there was manual intervention,” a source said, which means it was likely not an accident or catastrophic malfunction that took the plane out of the sky.
The search for debris is extending to the Indian Ocean, as U.S. officials indicate that the missing flight may have crashed there. They are moving the Navy’s USS Kidd to the area to begin the search.
It’s not clear what the indication was, but senior administration officials told ABC News the missing Malaysian flight continued to “ping” a satellite on an hourly basis after it lost contact with radar. The Boeing 777 jetliners are equipped with what is called the Airplane Health Management system in which they ping a satellite every hour. The number of pings would indicate how long the plane stayed aloft.
It’s not clear, however, whether the satellite pings also indicate the plane’s location.
Earlier this week, officials said they believed the plane flew for an additional four to five hours after losing contact with Malaysian air control. Officials are now saying the plane likely did not fly four or five hours, but did not specify how long it may have been airborne.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “It’s my understanding that based on some new information that’s not necessarily conclusive, but new information, an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean, and we are consulting with international partners about the appropriate assets to deploy.”
Carney did not specify the nature of the “new information.”
We’ll keep you updated on new developments in this case as they come in.
SOURCE: ABC | VIDEO SOURCE: News, Inc.
