U.S. intelligence officials
are leaning toward the theory that "those in the cockpit" -- the pilots of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 -- were responsible for the mysterious
disappearance of the commercial jetliner, a U.S. official with direct knowledge
of the latest thinking told CNN on Saturday.
The revelation followed news that
Malaysian authorities searched the home of the lead pilot, a move that came the
same day that Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters the plane veered off
course due to apparent deliberate action taken by somebody on board.
The Malaysian government had been
looking for a reason to search the home of the pilot and the co-pilot for
several days. But it was only in the last 24 to 36 hours, when radar and
satellite data came to light, that authorities believed they had sufficient
reason to go through the residences, according to the U.S. official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
"The Malaysians don't do this
lightly," the official said. It's not clear whether the Malaysian government
believes one or both the men could be responsible for what happened when the
Boeing 777-200 ER disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The official emphasized no final
conclusions have been drawn and all the internal intelligence discussions are
based on preliminary assessments of what is known to date.
Other scenarios could still
emerge. The notion of a hijacking has not been ruled out, the official said.
A source close to the
investigation told CNN that Malaysian police had searched the home of pilot
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53. Shah lives in an upscale gated community in Shah Alam,
outside Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur.
Two vans were loaded with small
bags, similar to shopping bags, at the home of the co-pilot, 27-year-old Farq Ab
Hamid, according to a CNN crew who observed activities at the residence. It was
unclear whether the bags were taken from the home, and police made no comment
about their activities there.
Najib made clear in a press
conference that in light of the latest developments, authorities have refocused
their investigation to the crew and passengers on board.
Undoubtedly, they will scour
through the flight manifest and look further to see whether any of the
passengers on board had flight training or connections to terror groups.
A senior U.S. law enforcement
official told CNN that investigators are carefully reviewing the information so
far collected on the pilots to determine whether there is something to indicate
a plan or a motive.
That would seem supported by
preliminary U.S. intelligence reports, which the U.S. official said show the
jetliner was in some form of controlled flight at a relatively stable altitude
and path when it changed course and flew toward the Indian Ocean. It is presumed
by U.S. officials to have crashed, perhaps after running out of fuel.
'Someone acting
deliberately'
The first clue that perhaps one
or both of the pilots were involved stem from when the plane made a sharp,
deliberate turn from where it last communicated with Kuala Lumpur air traffic
controllers, and before it would have to communicate with Vietnamese
controllers, according to the U.S. official with knowledge of the latest
intelligence thinking.
"This is the perfect place to
start to disappear," the official said.
Military radar showed the
jetliner flew in a westerly direction back over the Malaysian peninsula, Najib
said. It is then believed to have either turned northwest toward the Bay of
Bengal or southwest elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, he said.
"Evidence is consistent with
someone acting deliberately from inside the plane," the Prime Minister said,
officially confirming the plane's disappearance was not caused by an accident.
"....Despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, we are investigating all
major possibilities on what caused MH370 to deviate."
The focus of the search is now
in the southern Indian Ocean. "The southern scenario seems more plausible," the
official said.
Meanwhile, according to Najib,
new satellite information leads authorities to be fairly certain that someone
disabled the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS,
just before the aircraft reached the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.
"Shortly afterward, near the
border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control," Najib said, "the
aircraft's transponder was switched off."
ACARS is the system that
routinely transmits information like turbulence and fuel load back to the
airline. A transponder is a system controlled from the cockpit that transmits
data about the plane via radio signals to air traffic controllers. It combines
with ground radar to provide air traffic controllers with details about the
plane, including its identification, speed, position and altitude.
The last voice communication
from the cockpit a week ago were these words: "All right, good night."
They were uttered at the Vietnam
air traffic control border at about the same time the transponder was shut off,
Najib said. That suggests the incident on the plane began sooner than initially
thought.
But some have questioned the
Prime Minister's account, given the dearth of information available.
Malaysia investigation
criticized
In the days since the flight
disappeared, the Malaysian government has been under intense scrutiny for its
handling of the investigation. The government has been criticized by some U.S.
officials for not sharing information or accepting more offers of help.
Shortly after Najib delivered
his remarks, China demanded Malaysia provide more information on the
investigation. Of the 239 people aboard Flight 370, 154 were Chinese.
"Today is the 8th day of the
missing MH370, and the plane is still yet to be found," said a statement from
the foreign ministry. "Time is life."
The criticism was more pointed
in an editorial published by China's state-run news agency Xinhua.
"And due to the absence -- or at
least lack -- of timely authoritative information, massive efforts have been
squandered, and numerous rumors have been spawned, repeatedly racking the nerves
of the awaiting families," the editorial said.
Malaysian authorities have been
highly sensitive to any suggestion they can't handle the investigation, said the
U.S. law enforcement official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. It took
several days last week to calm their anger over inaccurate reports that the FBI
had dispatched a team to investigate, the official said.
Malaysia Airlines defended its
actions, saying there has never been a case where information gleaned from
satellite signals alone could potentially be used to find the location of a
missing airliner.
"Given the nature of the
situation and its extreme sensitivity, it was critical that the raw satellite
signals were verified and analyzed by the relevant authorities so that their
significance could be properly understood," the airline said in a statement.
"This naturally took some time, during which we were unable to publicly confirm
their existence.
Kazakhstan to Indian
Ocean
As the focus of the
investigation shifted, so, too, has the focus of the search.
Information from international
and Malaysian officials indicate that the jet may have flown for more than seven
hours after the last contact with the pilots.
Focus on 'two corridors' in
plane search
Flight 370 search expands to
Indian Ocean
WSJ: Plane probe focuses on
sabotage
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Andaman and Nicobar
Islands
Flight 370 took off from Kuala
Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. on March 8. The last satellite communication from the plane
occurred at 8:11 a.m., Najib said, well past the scheduled arrival time in
Beijing.
That last communication, Najib
said, was in one of two possible traffic corridors shown on a map released to
the press. A northern arc stretches from the border of Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and a southern arc spans from Indonesia to
the southern Indian Ocean.
"Due to the type of satellite
data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane when it last
made contact with the satellite," Najib said.
Because the northern parts of
the traffic corridor include some tightly guarded airspace over India, Pakistan,
and even some U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S. authorities believe it
more likely the aircraft crashed into waters outside of the reach of radar south
of India, a U.S. official told CNN. If it had flown farther north, it's likely
it would have been detected by radar.
Nonetheless for the last 36
hours, the U.S. military and intelligence community has been reviewing all
satellite imagery and electronic data it collects from the region for any sign
of an explosion or crash, according to another U.S. official directly familiar
with that effort.
Najib said authorities were
ending search operations in the South China Sea and reassessing the deployment
of assets.
"This new satellite information
has a significant impact on the nature and scope of the search operation," he
said.
Investigators, he said, have
confirmed by looking at the raw satellite data that the plane in question was
the Malaysia Airlines jet.
The same conclusion was reached
by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. National Transportation
Safety Board, the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the Malaysian
authorities, all of whom were working separately with the same data, he
said.
Families hold onto
hope
For the families and loved ones
of those aboard Flight 370, Saturday was Day 8 of anguish. Some found comfort
that there is no evidence the plane made impact.
The father of one passenger
watched Najib's news conference at a Beijing hotel. He said he hoped the plane
was hijacked because that gave him reason to think his son was alive.
"I hope they are alive, no
matter how small the chance is," he said.
The search that began last
weekend now involves 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft, Najib said, and
that the relevant foreign embassies have been given access to the new
information.
China is sending technical
experts to join the investigation, and two Chinese search vessels headed for the
Strait of Malacca, according to Xinhua.
Plane was taking
'strange path'
Hours before Najib's
announcement, U.S. officials told CNN the flight had made drastic changes in
altitude and direction after disappearing from civilian radar.
Malaysian military radar showed
the plane climbing to 45,000 feet -- which is above its approved altitude limit
-- soon after disappearing from civilian radar screens and then dropping to
23,000 feet before climbing again, a U.S. official familiar with the
investigation said.
The jetliner was flying "a
strange path," the official said on condition of anonymity. The details of the
radar readings were first reported by The New York Times on Friday.
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