PM Najib: Based on the last available communications and the amount of
fuel that was in the plane, it is possible that the plane made it as far
as Kazakhstan. The deviation in the flight path indicates possible
hijacking. Accordingly, searches in the South China Sea are being called
off and efforts are being moved West.
- Report: Missing plane confirmed hijacked
- LIVE REPORTS
2.25pm: "Based on new satellite communications, we can say with a high degree of certainty that Acars (transponder) was disabled before the aircraft reached the east coast of Malaysia," says Najib.
2.20pm: Najib says he instructed Malaysian authorities to share all information on the ill-fated jetliner with all relevant countries.
2.19pm: PM Najib addresses press conference.
1.55pm: Jagjit Singh, a officer of the Information Department, takes the podium.
"The prime minister will be making a statement on the development of MH370, however he won't be taking any questions," he said.
Jagjit urged reporters to submit questions to the media centre instead, and will be address at the 5.30pm press conference and will be furnished with technical details.He did not respond to questions on why this is done.1.46pm: There is an air of anxiety in the room, filled with nervous chatter of reporters.
It falls silent whenever doors at the front of the auditorium swing open, but there is still no sign of PM Najib.1.35pm: Five minutes past the scheduled press conference, there is still no sign of PM Najib.
Reporters now fill even the space between rows of seats, squatting so not to block the view of those behind them.
1:30pm: Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Huang Hui Kang is at the press conference.
Also seen are two representatives from the Russian Embassy. Ukraine ambassador is reportedly also at the press conference.
Manifest for Flight MH370153 Chinese38 Malaysians7 Indonesians6 Australians5 Indians4 French3 Americans2 each from New Zealand, Ukraine and CanadaOne each from Russia, Taiwan, Netherlands
Two men - one confirmed as Iranian - travelling under stolen Italian and Austrian passports
1.10pm: Reporters enter the press conference venue and are now all set for the press conference.
They number about 200, filling any and every space in Sama-Sama Hotel's auditorium.
12.33pm: Prime Minister Najib Razak is scheduled to hold a press conference at 1.30pm in Sama-Sama Hotel, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
Journalists (right) gather at the hotel awaiting the press conference.
Officials conduct a security sweep inside the press conference room, media personnel asked to leave until it is done.
12.20pm: Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 has been hijacked, according to a news report.
According to Associated Press (AP) report today, a Malaysian government official said that hijacking was no longer just a theory: “It is conclusive,” read the report.
The official who is involved in the investigation were reported saying they have determined that either one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience has hijacked the missing jet.
However, the motive has not been established while it is unclear where the plane has been taken.
Speculation is rife that the Malaysian government will announce this at a press conference slated for 1.30pm.
The news comes amidst increasing clues pointing to foul play in the week-long mystery over the commercial Beijing-bound flight that went off the radars at 2.41am last Saturday.
While the plane disappeared from sight while over the South China Sea just off the coast of Vietnam, there is growing belief it may have detoured to the West towards the Indian Ocean.
According to AP, to steal a jetliner out of midair would require a pilot who knew how to elude detection by both civilian and military radar.
“It would take a runway at least a mile long to land the wide-body jet, possibly in the dark, and a hangar big enough to hide it. All without being seen.”
The report quoted Scott Shankland, an American Airlines pilot who spent several years as a co-pilot on Boeing 777s, who said a captain would know how to disable radios and the plane’s other tracking systems.
“‘But a hijacker, even one trained to fly a plane, “would probably be hunting and pecking quite a while - ‘Do I pull this switch? Do I pull that?’ You could disable a great deal’ of the tracking equipment, ‘but possibly not all of it’.”
Some of the plane’s data is transmitted automatically from equipment not located in the cockpit, making it even harder to avoid leaving electronic bread crumbs, he said.
Meanwhile, John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at MIT who is familiar with the Boeing 777, said it would be possible for an intruder to turn off the transponders, but knowing how to shut down other systems in a bid to be stealthy would be more difficult.
“If it was a hijacking, it was probably a hijacking gone bad,” he said.
Alan Diehl, a former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) crash investigator, said if it was a hijacking, “they would have to be somebody who has detailed knowledge of the plane.”
“Could they get down below the radar and make a beeline to an abandoned airstrip somewhere? I suppose the short answer is yes. Even today, satellites don’t cover every square kilometre of the Earth.”
Family members of passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 check news on a mobile phone at a hotel in Beijing today. – Reuters pic, March 15, 2014.
A Malaysian government official said investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370.The Associated Press quoted the unnamed official who is involved in the investigation as saying that the hijacking was no longer a theory.
“It is conclusive,” he said. AFP meanwhile quoted a senior Malaysian military official as saying that investigators believed the jet had been commandeered by a "skilled, competent" flyer who piloted the jet for hours.
"It has to be a skilled, competent and a current pilot," the official said.
"He knew how to avoid the civilian radar. He appears to have studied how to avoid it."
However, British daily The Telegraph reported that director-general of the Department of Civil Aviation, Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, has denied the plane was hijacked.
"It is not conclusive. I'm heading the investigation and nobody is saying that. It's not true. We are looking at the possibility, we're looking at all possibilities. We're doing every profile of the passengers and crew but there is no firm evidence or leads so far," he told the Telegraph.
The startling new development comes after a week of a massive search and rescue operation for the plane, which was carrying 239 people when it left Kuala Lumpur International Airport for a flight to Beijing.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that the missing airliner has been traced to the Indian Ocean off Australia, citing a person familiar with the analysis.
The report said a path from Malaysia to the ocean off Australia would have taken as much as 3,000 miles – the maximum distance MH370 could have flown with its fuel load.
Bloomberg also reports that investigators have found that someone in the cockpit of MH370 programmed the plane to turn away from its original path to Beijing, citing another person from the US government who is familiar with the investigation.
The report quoted spokesman for Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Peter Gibson, as saying he was not aware of the new information putting MH370 near Perth. However, he added that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority would have jurisdiction of the search if the information were true.
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