CNN
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- U.S. intelligence
officials are leaning toward the theory that "those in the cockpit" --
the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 -- were responsible for the
mysterious disappearance of the commercial jetliner, a U.S. official
with direct knowledge of the latest thinking told CNN on Saturday.
March 16, 2014 -- Updated 0304 GMT (1104 HKT)
Official: Focus on 'those in the cockpit'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Area between Malaysia and Vietnam "perfect place to start to disappear," official says
- Investigators have renewed their focus on the pilots, a law enforcement official says
- Malaysia's government wanted a reason to search the pilots' homes, the official says
- Police search homes of pilot and co-pilot
The revelation followed
news that Malaysian authorities searched the home of the lead pilot, a
move that came the same day that Prime Minister Najib Razak told
reporters the plane veered off course due to apparent deliberate action
taken by somebody on board.
The Malaysian government
had been looking for a reason to search the home of the pilot and the
co-pilot for several days. But it was only in the last 24 to 36 hours,
when radar and satellite data came to light, that authorities believed
they had sufficient reason to go through the residences, according to
the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The Malaysians don't do
this lightly," the official said. It's not clear whether the Malaysian
government believes one or both the men could be responsible for what
happened when the Boeing 777-200 ER disappeared March 8 en route from
Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The official emphasized
no final conclusions have been drawn and all the internal intelligence
discussions are based on preliminary assessments of what is known to
date.
Other scenarios could still emerge. The notion of a hijacking has not been ruled out, the official said.
A source close to the
investigation told CNN that Malaysian police had searched the home of
pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53. Shah lives in an upscale gated community
in Shah Alam, outside Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur.
Two vans were loaded with
small bags, similar to shopping bags, at the home of the co-pilot,
27-year-old Farq Ab Hamid, according to a CNN crew who observed
activities at the residence. It was unclear whether the bags were taken
from the home, and police made no comment about their activities there.
Najib made clear in a
press conference that in light of the latest developments, authorities
have refocused their investigation to the crew and passengers on board.
Undoubtedly, they will
scour through the flight manifest and look further to see whether any of
the passengers on board had flight training or connections to terror
groups.
A senior U.S. law
enforcement official told CNN that investigators are carefully reviewing
the information so far collected on the pilots to determine whether
there is something to indicate a plan or a motive.
That would seem
supported by preliminary U.S. intelligence reports, which the U.S.
official said show the jetliner was in some form of controlled flight at
a relatively stable altitude and path when it changed course and flew
toward the Indian Ocean. It is presumed by U.S. officials to have
crashed, perhaps after running out of fuel.
'Someone acting deliberately'
The first clue that
perhaps one or both of the pilots were involved stem from when the plane
made a sharp, deliberate turn from where it last communicated with
Kuala Lumpur air traffic controllers, and before it would have to
communicate with Vietnamese controllers, according to the U.S. official
with knowledge of the latest intelligence thinking.
"This is the perfect place to start to disappear," the official said.
Military radar showed
the jetliner flew in a westerly direction back over the Malaysian
peninsula, Najib said. It is then believed to have either turned
northwest toward the Bay of Bengal or southwest elsewhere in the Indian
Ocean, he said.
"Evidence is consistent
with someone acting deliberately from inside the plane," the Prime
Minister said, officially confirming the plane's disappearance was not
caused by an accident. "....Despite media reports that the plane was
hijacked, we are investigating all major possibilities on what caused
MH370 to deviate."
The focus of the search is now in the southern Indian Ocean. "The southern scenario seems more plausible," the official said.
Meanwhile, according to
Najib, new satellite information leads authorities to be fairly certain
that someone disabled the Aircraft Communications Addressing and
Reporting System, or ACARS, just before the aircraft reached the east
coast of peninsular Malaysia.
"Shortly afterward, near
the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control," Najib
said, "the aircraft's transponder was switched off."
ACARS is the system that
routinely transmits information like turbulence and fuel load back to
the airline. A transponder is a system controlled from the cockpit that
transmits data about the plane via radio signals to air traffic
controllers. It combines with ground radar to provide air traffic
controllers with details about the plane, including its identification,
speed, position and altitude.
The last voice communication from the cockpit a week ago were these words: "All right, good night."
They were uttered at the
Vietnam air traffic control border at about the same time the
transponder was shut off, Najib said. That suggests the incident on the
plane began sooner than initially thought.
But some have questioned the Prime Minister's account, given the dearth of information available.
Malaysia investigation criticized
In the days since the
flight disappeared, the Malaysian government has been under intense
scrutiny for its handling of the investigation. The government has been
criticized by some U.S. officials for not sharing information or
accepting more offers of help.
Shortly after Najib
delivered his remarks, China demanded Malaysia provide more information
on the investigation. Of the 239 people aboard Flight 370, 154 were
Chinese.
"Today is the 8th day of
the missing MH370, and the plane is still yet to be found," said a
statement from the foreign ministry. "Time is life."
The criticism was more pointed in an editorial published by China's state-run news agency Xinhua.
"And due to the absence
-- or at least lack -- of timely authoritative information, massive
efforts have been squandered, and numerous rumors have been spawned,
repeatedly racking the nerves of the awaiting families," the editorial
said.
Malaysian authorities
have been highly sensitive to any suggestion they can't handle the
investigation, said the U.S. law enforcement official, who also spoke on
condition of anonymity. It took several days last week to calm their
anger over inaccurate reports that the FBI had dispatched a team to
investigate, the official said.
Malaysia Airlines
defended its actions, saying there has never been a case where
information gleaned from satellite signals alone could potentially be
used to find the location of a missing airliner.
"Given the nature of the
situation and its extreme sensitivity, it was critical that the raw
satellite signals were verified and analyzed by the relevant authorities
so that their significance could be properly understood," the airline
said in a statement. "This naturally took some time, during which we
were unable to publicly confirm their existence."
Kazakhstan to Indian Ocean
As the focus of the investigation shifted, so, too, has the focus of the search.
Information from
international and Malaysian officials indicate that the jet may have
flown for more than seven hours after the last contact with the pilots.
Flight 370 took off from
Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. on March 8. The last satellite communication
from the plane occurred at 8:11 a.m., Najib said, well past the
scheduled arrival time in Beijing.
That last communication,
Najib said, was in one of two possible traffic corridors shown on a map
released to the press. A northern arc stretches from the border of
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and a southern arc
spans from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
"Due to the type of
satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the
plane when it last made contact with the satellite," Najib said.
Because the northern
parts of the traffic corridor include some tightly guarded airspace over
India, Pakistan, and even some U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S.
authorities believe it more likely the aircraft crashed into waters
outside of the reach of radar south of India, a U.S. official told CNN.
If it had flown farther north, it's likely it would have been detected
by radar.
Nonetheless for the last
36 hours, the U.S. military and intelligence community has been
reviewing all satellite imagery and electronic data it collects from the
region for any sign of an explosion or crash, according to another U.S.
official directly familiar with that effort.
Najib said authorities were ending search operations in the South China Sea and reassessing the deployment of assets.
"This new satellite information has a significant impact on the nature and scope of the search operation," he said.
Investigators, he said,
have confirmed by looking at the raw satellite data that the plane in
question was the Malaysia Airlines jet.
The same conclusion was
reached by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board, the British Air Accidents Investigation
Branch and the Malaysian authorities, all of whom were working
separately with the same data, he said.
Families hold onto hope
For the families and
loved ones of those aboard Flight 370, Saturday was Day 8 of anguish.
Some found comfort that there is no evidence the plane made impact.
The father of one
passenger watched Najib's news conference at a Beijing hotel. He said he
hoped the plane was hijacked because that gave him reason to think his
son was alive.
"I hope they are alive, no matter how small the chance is," he said.
The search that began
last weekend now involves 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft, Najib
said, and that the relevant foreign embassies have been given access to
the new information.
China is sending
technical experts to join the investigation, and two Chinese search
vessels headed for the Strait of Malacca, according to Xinhua.
Plane was taking 'strange path'
Hours before Najib's
announcement, U.S. officials told CNN the flight had made drastic
changes in altitude and direction after disappearing from civilian
radar.
Malaysian military radar
showed the plane climbing to 45,000 feet -- which is above its approved
altitude limit -- soon after disappearing from civilian radar screens
and then dropping to 23,000 feet before climbing again, a U.S. official
familiar with the investigation said.
The jetliner was flying "a strange path," the official said on condition of anonymity. The details of the radar readings were first reported by The New York Times on Friday.
Barbara Starr reported from Washington, Jim
Clancy from Kuala Lumpur and Chelsea J. Carter reported and wrote from
Atlanta; CNN's Moni Basu, Faith Karimi, Hamdi Alkhshali, Evan Perez,
Saima Mohsin and Yuli Yang contributed to this report.
Comments