SHAH ALAM, 1 July: Australian air crash investigators disclosed that the missing MAS MH370 aircraft, which has been missing for 115 days, suffered a mysterious power outage during the early stages of its flight, which experts believe could be part of an attempt to avoid radar detection.
David Gleave, an aviation safety expert from Loughborough University, said the interruption to the power supply appeared to be the result of someone in the cockpit attempting to minimize the use of the aircraft’s systems.
The action, he said, was consistent with an attempt to turn the plane’s communications and other systems off in an effort to avoid radar detection.
“A person could be messing around in the cockpit which would lead to a power interruption.
“It could be a deliberate act to switch off both engines for some time,” he said.
Investigators looking into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have discovered possible evidence of tampering with the aircraft’s cockpit equipment.
According to the report, the aircraft’s satellite data unit made an unexpected “log-on” request to a satellite less than 90 minutes into its flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to the Chinese city of Beijing.
The report says the log-on request, known as a “handshake”, appears likely to have been caused by an interruption of electrical power on board the plane.
“A log-on request in the middle of a flight is not common.
“An analysis was performed which determined that the characteristics and timing of the logon requests were best matched as resulting from power interruption,” according to a report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
According to the ATSB report, the widebody aircraft carrying 239 people tried to log on to Inmarsat’s satellites at 2.25am, three minutes after Malaysia’s military radar spotted it.
This was when the plane had already veered off its intended flight path to Beijing and was flying north of Sumatra in Indonesia.
Six hours later, MH370, now far off course, issued another log on request, which the daily said is believed to have been caused by it running out of fuel over the southern Indian Ocean.
Prior to this, PKR urged the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, to immediately establish an independent investigation body in relation to the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 aircraft.
The PKR Vice President, Nurul Izzah Anwar, said that this should be done as the families of passengers and crew are still waiting for an answer for over three months.
Izzah also urged Tiong Lai to disclose the audit report on the Department of Civil Aviation and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) radar system.
NS
