— A confusing timeline —
On Monday the head of Malaysia Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, revealed that initial investigations indicated the last recorded words from the cockpit – “All right, good night” – were spoken by the co-pilot, Fariq.
Identifying the voice had been deemed crucial because officials initially said the words were spoken after one of the Boeing’s two automated signalling systems – Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) – had been manually disabled.
But Ahmad Jauhari contradicted that chronology, saying that the ACARS could have been switched off before or after Fariq spoke. READ: Last words from missing Malaysian jet spoken by co-pilot.
It could even have been disabled at the same time as the plane’s transponder, which might possibly point back towards a general mechanical malfunction rather than human intervention.
The confusion is likely to fuel frustration with Malaysia’s investigation, which has repeatedly stumbled in presenting contradictory information.
According to unidentified US officials cited by the New York Times on Tuesday, investigators believe the first turn the plane made away from its intended flight path was not effected manually but by a computer system that was most likely programmed by a person in the cockpit.
Use of the Flight Management System, which directs the plane from point to point according to the pre-submitted flight plan, would reinforce the theory that the plane was deliberately diverted by one of the pilots.
Twenty-six countries are now involved in searching for the jet after satellite and military radar data projected two dauntingly large corridors the plane might have flown through.
The northern corridor stretches in an arc over south and central Asia, while the other swoops deep into the southern Indian Ocean towards Australia.
At the far northern end of the arc, the central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan said there had been no sightings of the jet in their airspace.
Malaysia has deployed its navy and air force to the southern corridor, where Australia is taking the lead in scouring a vast section of ocean off its west coast.
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