If the flight were hijacked or a target of terrorism, cutting off ACARS would be a strategic move because the system reports to satellites anything being done to the aircraft, Quest said. It’s a significant event: Turning off ACARS takes know-how, Quest said. So, the ACARS stopped communicating sometime between 1:07 and 1:37 a.m. Therefore, it was supposed to transmit at 1:37 a.m. The ACARS was supposed to transmit a half-hour after it last did so. Malaysian air traffic controllers in Subang, outside Kuala Lumpur, lose contact with the plane over the Gulf of Thailand between Malaysia and Vietnam at coordinates 06 55 15 N and 103 34 43 E.Įxpected ACARS transmission doesn’t happen indicated that it “showed normal routing all the way to Beijing.” The Malaysian government has not said when or if the plane was reprogrammed to fly off course.Īgain, according to the Malaysians, the last data from the ACARS at 1:07 a.m. The plane appears to have changed course in this time frame. The Thai radar station in southern Surathani province picks up an unknown aircraft flying in a direction opposite to what Flight 370 had been traveling, a Royal Thai Air Force spokesman told CNN. Thai military radar is tracking the plane’s signal, but it disappears at 1:22 a.m., a Royal Thai Air Force spokesman told CNN. Plane disappears from Thai military radar … (The information from) a plane that you’re monitoring all of a sudden disappears,” Quest said. “The air traffic controller should notice. Shutting off the transponder is a simple turn of a switch in the cockpit, Quest said. That’s because the transponder isn’t sending identifying information about the plane. “If there is radar there, the radar will see a blip, but they won’t know who it is, where they are going. With the transponder off, “now the plane is flying blind from the ground’s point of view,” Quest said. This is enormously useful information to air traffic controllers who are looking at scores of blips on their screens, and each blip is a plane emitting identifying information, thanks to the transponder. The plane’s transponder stops communicating at 1:21 a.m., said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director of the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation.Ī transponder sends electronic messages from the plane: “squawks” to radar systems about the flight number, altitude, speed and heading. ” ‘All right, good night’ is a pleasantry at the end of radio communication.” That happens a gazillion times,” Quest said. The phrase “good night” is the radio parlance used by pilots when executing a handover from one airspace to another, Quest said.
“All right, good night” were the final words from the cockpit, said Zulazri Mohd Ahnuar, a Malaysian civil aviation officer. Initial investigations indicate it was the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, according to Malaysia Airlines officials. Someone in the cockpit makes a voice check-in with air traffic controllers as the plane is apparently leaving Malaysian airspace and entering Vietnamese airspace. MH370 First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, left, and Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. The information is useful for operations, maintenance, scheduling and performance purposes, Quest said. It’s akin to computers in automobiles that track oil levels and engine performance.Īboard aircraft, ACARS computers measure thousands of data points and send the information via satellite to the airline, the engine manufacturer and other authorized parties, according to CNN aviation and airline correspondent Richard Quest. The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System is the onboard computer that collects information – a lot of it – about aircraft and pilot performance. transmission showed a normal routing all the way to Beijing,” according to a statement from Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport.
One of the plane’s communication systems sends what turns out to be its last transmission, according to Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya. Here’s how experts and officials have reconstructed key moments of the flight, which disappeared March 8 with 239 people aboard.Īll tracking systems are working as the Boeing 777-200ER takes off from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, headed for Beijing. New details provide a clearer chronology about what might have happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 between its takeoff and its last known spotting seven hours later.
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