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THE POLITICAL MYSTERY OF MALAYSIA FLIGHT 370

Investigators have said someone on board the plane first disabled one of its communications systems — the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS — about 40 minutes after takeoff. Around 14 minutes later, the transponder that identifies the plane to commercial radar systems was also shut down. The fact that both systems went dark separately offered strong evidence that the plane's disappearance was deliberate. On Sunday, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference that that the final, reassuring words from the cockpit — "All right, good night" — were spoken to air traffic controllers...

Greek ships rushing towards Straits of Malacca, debris spotted in water, may belong to Malaysian flight MH370 - http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/147254

With the authorities settling on what amounts to air piracy, the Daily Mail is reporting a theory that the pilot of MH370 may have hijacked the plane as a political protest against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's latest sodomy conviction. The British tabloid revealed that hours before he took command of the Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) bound for Beijing last Saturday, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone to court on March 7 for the trial and sentencing of Anwar in the sodomy case. The opposition leader was jailed for five years by the Court of Appeal which had overturned his High Court...

PKR vice president R Sivarasa confirmed that MH370 flight captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a life member of the party. However, the Subang MP said that the membership had nothing to do with the missing MAS airplane. “He was a PKR member since Jan 23 last year and campaigned for us during the general election but this is irrelevant to the case,” said Sivarasa told a press conference here Sunday. Sivarasa was responding to a Daily Mail report which claimed Zaharie was a “political fanatic”. Read: Flight captain a "political fanatic," reports Daily Mail The tabloid also claimed that Zaharie...

Fears emerged tonight that the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet may have hijacked the plane himself as an anti-government protest. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a fervent supporter of his country's opposition leader who was jailed for homosexuality - illegal in Malaysia - only hours before flight MH370 vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board, the Sunday Mirror can reveal. And in a new twist, it emerged that the pilot's wife and three children moved out of the family's home the day before the plane's disappearance. The revelations came after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday confirmed...

US Investigators Think Missing Plane Might Have Been Stolen To Use Later For Another Purpose Michael KelleyMarch. 13, 2014, 11:06 AM U.S. investigators suspect that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours after it reached its last confirmed location, according to Andy Pasztor of The Wall Street Journal. The Journal originally reported that they obtained data from the aircraft's engines, but then issued a correction saying that U.S. investigators based their position on "an analysis of signals sent through the plane’s satellite-communication link designed to automatically transmit the status of some onboard systems." Satellites...

New Evidence Suggests That Plane Disappearance Was A Deliberate Act Paul SzoldraMarch 13, 2014      Two U.S. officials believe the shutdown of two separate communications systems from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 happened at different times, indicating the disappearance was less likely the result of a catastrophic failure and more the result of a "deliberate act," according to a new report from ABC News. Sources speaking with ABC believe the data reporting system was shut down at 1:07 a.m., while the transponder — sending out location and altitude data — was shut down at 1:21...

Two U.S. officials tell ABC News the U.S. believes that the shutdown of two communication systems happened separately on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. One source said this indicates the plane did not come out of the sky because of a catastrophic failure. The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The transponder -- which transmits location and altitude -- shut down at 1:21 a.m. This indicates it may well have been a deliberate act, ABC News aviation consultant John Nance said. U.S. investigators told ABC News that the two modes of communication were "systematically shut down."...

BEIJING (AP) — China's official Xinhua News Agency says a government website has images of suspected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. The report says the satellite images from the morning of March 9 appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes. The report includes coordinates of a location in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia.

ABC's Bob Woodruff has shared an email from an oil rig worker stationed near the coast of Vietnam that alleges to have witnessed the missing jet go down in flames. "The timing is right," writes Mike McKay. "While I observed the burning (plane) it appeared to be in ONE piece." McKay's employer has confirmed that the letter is not a hoax. "From when I first saw the burning (plane) until the flames went out (still at high altitude) was 10-15 seconds," he writes. "There was no lateral movement, so it was either coming toward our location, stationary (falling) or going...

The Chinese government has released satellite images showing "a suspected crash area at sea," including "three suspected floating objects," near the flight's planned path. Taken Sunday morning but not made public until today, the blurry shots are located northeast of Kuala Lumpur, south of Vietnam, in what may be the most promising lead thus far, on the fifth day of a frustrating, otherwise fruitless search.

Oil Rig Worker Thinks He Saw Malaysia Air Flight 370 Go Down In Flames The Wire ABBY OHLHEISER, THE WIRE MAR. 12, 2014, 12:13 PM In yet another odd twist to the mysterious story of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a New Zealand man working on an oil rig in the South China Sea has come forward to say he believes he saw the airplane on fire right around the time it disappeared. Mike McKay, a worker on the "Songa Mercur" drilling platform, sent an email to his bosses detailing his version of events. McKay said that he "observed the plane...

The search for Malaysian Airlines MH307 plane has been expanded to Sumatran waters, north of Straits of Malacca, as military radar may have detected the missing plane in the vicinity of Pulau Perak. A Berita Harian report today quoted the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) as saying the plane may have reversed course further than expected while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Air Force chief Rodzali Daud ( left ) is quoted as saying that based on military radar readings from its station in Butterworth, MH370 may have turned west after Kota Bahru and flew past the...

SHOCKING: AUSTRALIAN WOMAN RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT COCKPIT BEHAVIOUR OF THE CO-PILOT OF FLIGHT MH370 ON AUSTRALIA’S TV SHOW ‘A CURRENT AFFAIR‘ GIRL WHO FLEW WITH MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370 CO-PILOT. SHE CLAIMS THAT THE CO-PILOT WAS SMOKING IN THE COCKPIT The woman claims they were smoking and taking pictures of the women in the cockpit. The girls were invited up front for the entire flight.

Malaysia's military believes a jetliner missing for almost four days turned and flew hundreds of kilometers to the west after it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country's east coast, a senior officer told Reuters on Tuesday. --SNIP-- Malaysian authorities have previously said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for the Chinese capital Beijing. "It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait," the senior military officer, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.

Muktesh, the grandson of Mohan Kumaramangalam —the steel and mines minister in Indira Gandhi's Cabinet, was on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared and is believed to have crashed in the South China sea. Ironically, Kumaramangalam, too, died in an air crash in May 1973 near Delhi's Palam airport. Muktesh (42), a Canadian resident and vice-president of China operations with Pennsylvania-based Xcoal Energy and Resources, was on board the flight with his Chinese wife Xiaomo Bai (37).

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The head of the organization that monitors the nuclear test ban treaty said Monday he has asked its experts to see if they detected an explosion at high altitude of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane. Lassina Zerbo, executive director of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization told a news conference that the CTBTO uses "infrasound" - or infrasonic sensors - to monitor the earth mainly for atmospheric nuclear explosions....

How difficult is it to board a plane with a stolen passport? Not as hard as you might think. In any major international airport, it's not uncommon to have your passport checked four times or more between check-in and boarding the aircraft. But if passenger documents aren't checked against Interpol's database of Stolen and Lost Travel Documents, travelers using those documents can slip through layers of security. Investigators don't yet know if the travelers with stolen passports had anything to do with the plane's disappearance. On any given day, many people travel using stolen or fake passports for reasons that...

Last November, I flew out of Kuala Lumpur on a flight to China on a Boeing 777. It was a smooth, uneventful flight that left on time — a delightfully common occurrence in this part of the world. It was dark, and I recall gazing out my window at the dazzling image of Kuala Lumpur below. I particularly remember seeing the massive, 88-floor Petronas Twin Towers glowing amidst the landscape of the city. This memory came back to me when I heard about the disappearance of Malaysian Airways flight MH370, and subsequent reports that the missing Beijing-bound jet may have...