KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — The last radio transmission from the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) aircraft could have come from a third person, CNN suggested today, following an earlier revelation that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid had invited passengers into the cockpit of a flight two years ago.
The allegation came to light after South African Jonti Roos told Australian Channel 9 programme “A Current Affair” that Fariq, the same first officer on board MH370, had invited her and another woman into the cockpit for an entire flight in 2011.
In a report exploring the interests and personalities of both Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq, 27, CNN implied that the last words from the cockpit of MH370 — “Alright, good night” — could have come from either one of the duo, or even a third person.
“Who said them? Was it the captain or his first mate? Or someone else in the cockpit with them?” the American cable and satellite TV channel said.
This comes as reports quoting US officials emerged early this morning, claiming that the jumbo jet ferrying 239 people to Beijing last Saturday had sent a series of “pings” or electronic pulses even after it disappeared from radar.
The last “ping” was transmitted from a location over water at a cruising altitude.
Citing an unidentified aviation expert, CNN reported: “The duty of all pilots is to aviate, navigate and communicate, in that order.
“Someone may have kept aviating, but either they couldn’t — or wouldn’t — communicate.”
Inspector-general of Police Tan Sri Khalid Bakar has said that the police are investigating the backgrounds of the 12 flight crew members and 227 passengers to determine if they had any psychological or personal problems.
The probe has raised speculation of terrorism and hijacking, both possibilities that the authorities have all but ruled out.
Further into its analysis, CNN released a series of candid information regarding the Zaharie and Fariq, from the former’s affinity for self-built simulators and Fariq’s “textbook perfect” landing while the latter was in training.
Citing a source, the news agency said that local police are rooted outside both their homes but have not moved on to search the houses.
It added that Roos’ tale raised suspicion of “somebody taking that aircraft off its intended flight path”. Quoting former airline captain Mark Weiss, the report added that it would be “reckless” for pilots to turn off the plane’s transponder.
“Airline pilots are not trained for radar avoidance,” said aviation expert and a former pilot Keith Wolzinger, in the report.
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported today that search mission has expanded further west towards the Indian Ocean, which is miles far west from MH370’s last-known location.
This latest data conflicts, however, with claims from Malaysian authorities yesterday evening disputing reports in the WSJ that had pointed that the plane flew on for four more hours.
WSJ’s report had said that the data allegedly transmitted from the Boeing 777’s Rolls Royce engines, which was described as “inaccurate” by acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and confirmed by both the engine manufacturer Rolls Royce and Boeing Co.
WSJ has since corrected its report, however, admitting it had wrongly cited US investigators as basing their suspicions on signals from the plane’s Rolls Royce engines.
The Boeing 777-200 aircraft took off at 12.41am from the KL International Airport (KLIA) en route to Beijing, but barely 40 minutes into the journey the plane fell off the radar, about 120 nautical miles off Kota Baru.
