Did doomed jet fly on auto-pilot for five hours until it ran out of fuel? Straight line from last contact to 'debris' site suggests 'on-board emergency knocked out crew'

Aviation experts were today trying to unravel the enduring mystery of flight MH370 after debris thought to belong to the missing plane was spotted in the Indian Ocean some 1,500miles south-west of Australia.
Air search teams called off the hunt after a ten-hour operation in treacherous weather conditions spanning an area the size of the English Channel failed to locate any wreckage.
Commercial pilot Robert Mark, who is editor of Aviation International News Safety magazine, said the direct line from the plane's last-known location to the new search area off the coast of Perth reduced the likelihood it was hijacked.
If the debris does turn out to be from the Malaysia Airlines flight, it adds strength to the theory that an on-board emergency may have knocked out the crew, leaving it to fly on auto-pilot until running out of fuel, he said.
What lends further weight to this theory is the fact the new search is being conducted in one of the remotest parts of the planet which offers few, if any, terror targets or landing areas.

Vast: This Google Earth map shows just how remote the search area is in the southern Indian Ocean

Robert Mark, editor of Aviation International News Safety magazine, says the location of the debris would add strength to the theory that an emergency may have knocked out the crew, leaving it to fly on auto-pilot

Mr Mark told MailOnline: 'What I think is interesting is that if you look at where the plane was last seen on radar and where the debris has been found, it is almost a straight line.
'I would say it means that once the aircraft turned, it didn't change course. A mechanical fault or emergency seems more plausible to me.'
He said the plane could conceivably have flown on auto-pilot for another five to six hours, possibly a maximum of seven, from its last known location off the west coast of Malaysia before running out of fuel.
He said speculation that the plane had been taken for a suicide mission was also now more unlikely.
'If you've taken a plane to commit suicide, why fly for seven hours?' he added.
However, he said he was unable to fully discount any theory and said the idea it may have been hijacked was still on the cards despite the absence of any obvious targets in the Indian Ocean.

Two pieces of wreckage that are possibly from the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 - one estimated to be 78ft in size - have been found to the west of Australia, it was announced today. Pictured: Satellite pictures released by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority of the object thought to be related to the search for MH370

The debris was spotted on satellite imagery and a total of four aircraft have been sent to investigate the sighting, some 1553 miles off the coast of Perth

 

Two potential bits of missing flight MH370 wreckage found

The search area covers an ocean ridge known as Naturalist Plateau, a large sea shelf about 3,500 metres (9,800 feet) deep.
The plateau is about 250 km (150 miles) wide by 400 km (250 miles) long, and the area around it is close to 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) deep.
Mr Mark said: 'It may have on some other mission to one that was being hijacked for use some time later.
'We may find that whoever has taken the plane may be breaking new ground we have never experienced.
'We thought the Air France crash (in 2009) was a game-changer.
'It is going to be another one for the (history) books - we have never seen anything like this before.'
A statement from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said four planes searched an area of 8,800 square miles (23,000 square kilometres) about 1,550 miles (2,500m) south-west of Perth without success. The area is about halfway between Australia and desolate islands off the Antarctic.

New leads: Australian security expert Neil Fergus says if objects spotted by satellite off the coast of Perth are confirmed as belonging to MH370 then its location would rule out any possibility of a technical error

WHAT THEORIES ARE NOW MORE LIKELY... AND WHICH LESS SO

MAJOR MALFUNCTION - the plane is unlikely to have flown that far into the Indian Ocean

HIJACKING - less likely given that there is nowhere to land anywhere nearby
COMMANDEERED - again unlikely as there is nowhere in the Indian Ocean of strategic value

PILOT SUICIDE - a possibility if they chose to nosedive into the ocean

EMERGENCY - a fire or loss of cabin pressure may have forced crew to turn back.
If it caused them fall unconscious, the plane could have flown for several hours on auto-pilot

A crew member on a U.S. Navy plane P-8 Poseidon had declared on Thursday that 'there is something down there', according to ABC, but the radar hits couldn't confirm it was airliner debris.
The crew from a Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane was 'very confident they will get a result' despite Thursday's 'very treacherous conditions', Nine Network Australia reported.
However, Neil Fergus, who was Director of Intelligence for Sydney’s 2000 Olympics, told Australia's Channel 9 that a catastrophic malfunction on MH370 would mean the plane couldn’t have flown all the way to where the debris has been spotted.
The Bangkok-based specialist said it could only have occurred with human involvement – either by passengers, crew or pilots Capt Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid.
‘If this debris does turn out to be the missing MH370 then, given its location, we can definitely rule out technical malfunction,’ he said.
‘There is no way with (some) sort of technical calamity or fire that it could have travelled to where it appears to be. It would in the first instance confirm human intervention.’
His comments come as investigators were reportedly trying to identify a mysterious phone call made by pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah while he was in the cockpit.
It is not known who he rang or what was said, but officials believe the call, made minutes before the plane took off, could solve the mystery of the flight's disappearance, The Sun reported.

The aircraft is to join the Australian Maritime Safety Authority-led search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean after two objects are found in the Indian Ocean

Another aviation expert believes the plane may have crashed as a result of foul play and a technical fault.
Peter Marosszeky, from the University of New South Wales School of Aviation, told the Sydney Morning Herald: 'It looks there was foul play and whoever was the in cockpit couldn't get the plane to work the way they wanted it to.'
He believes all electronic signals and lights would have been disabled at the time communication was cut off.
A top air-crash investigator said the fate of MH370 may forever remain a mystery unless a human cause can be found for its disappearance.
Thomas Anthony, a former security chief with the Federal Aviation Administration, told Sky News: 'If the aircraft breaks, the technical investigation will likely disclose the causes.
'If the human breaks, the technical investigation may actually provide no answers to what caused the accident, incident or crash.'
The actions of the pilots have come under fresh scrutiny in recent days after the Malaysian Prime Minister said the plane had changed course as a result of 'deliberate action' on the plane.

Royal Australian Air Force pilot Flight Lieutenant Russell Adams from 10 Squadron, flying his AP-3C Orion over the Southern Indian Ocean during the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370

COULD MH370 HAVE CRASHED DUE TO ANOTHER FAULT WITH A BOEING?

A mechanical or structural failure with the Boeing 777 is one of many theories about what may have caused flight MH370 to disappear.
If so, it would the latest in a long list of problems that have beset Boeing aircraft in recent years.
Here are some of them:
July 28, 2012: A fan shaft fails during runway tests of Boeing 787 in South Carolina
December, 2012: A 787 Dreamliner was forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans
January 7, 2013: An unoccupied Dreamliner flight bursts into flames at Boston airport
January 15, 2013: A flight made an emergency landing in Japan after a smoke alarm went off. The string of incidents led to regulators ordering a global grounding of the entire Dreamliner fleet, which lasted for four months
June 2, 2013: Battery-related problems were reported on a Japan Airlines aircraft forcing the airline to use an alternative plane
June 12, 2013: A flight in Japan was cancelled after one of the engines failed to start
June 18, 2013: A United Airlines flight was diverted to Seattle due to an oil-filter problem
June 24, 2013: A Dreamliner operated by United Airlines had to make an emergency landing in Denver due to a brake problem
July 3, 2013: Polish airline LOT cancelled a Dreamliner flight to Chicago because the aircraft had ‘problems with the power supply'
July 12, 2013: Ethiopian Airlines plane catches fire on the runway at Heathrow, forcing the closure of the whole airport
July 18, 2013: Japan Airlines plane bound for Tokyo had to return to Boston's Logan airport after take-off because of a possible issue with the fuel pumps
July 26, 2013: Qatar Airways pulls plane out of service 'after smoke reported near electrical compartment'
October 2013: Two Dreamliners forced to abandon flights because of problems with toilets and de-icing system
January 14, 2014: Norwegian Airlines Boeing 787 was preparing to take off from Bangkok on a journey to Oslo on Sunday when passenger Ann Kristin Balto saw that fuel was leaking on to the runway. 
March 8, 2014: A Japan Airlines-operated Boeing 787 made an emergency landing at Honolulu Airport after oil pressure in its right engine dropped

It was reported that Capt Shah had programmed a remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a runway long enough to land a Boeing 777 into his home flight simulator.
A U.S. official said the Malaysian government is seeking the FBI's help in analysing any electronic files deleted last month from the pilot's simulator.
The official, speaking anonymously, said the FBI has been provided electronic data to analyse.
CNN also reported investigators at Quantico, a Marine Corps base and home to FBI labs, were examining 'hard drives belonging to two pilots'.
Malaysia's defense minister said investigators were trying to restore files deleted from the simulator last month to see if they shed any light on the disappearance.

Files containing records of simulations carried out on the program were deleted February 3.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott during his speech stated that Australia will take control over the 'southern vector' carrying its duty in the search and rescue operations (SAR) for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

The new satellite images were taken four days ago, but have only recently been analysed.
Reminded that the satellite image of the debris was four days old, Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein denied there had been a reluctance by countries to hand over details.
'I can tell you there has been no reluctance to hand over information,' he said.
Mr Hishammuddin's strongest comment was a repetition of what Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had told his parliament: that the satellite image was 'credible.'
He gave little more new information and the feeling was that he was now awaiting further results of the search for the debris.
Four aircraft have now been dispatched to an area within the southern search zone for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane, Mr Abbott announced.

Security expert Neil Fergus said the plane could only have flown to the new search area with human involvement – either by passengers, crew or pilots Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah (left) and Fariq Hamid (right)

Enlarge  

Mystery: Australian security expert Neil Fergus says if objects spotted by satellite off the coast of Perth are confirmed as belonging to MH370 then its location would rule out any possibility of a technical error.

One of the objects is estimated to be 78ft (24m) in size and the sighting of the objects was said by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to be 'credible and potentially important'.
Mr Fergus said the Australian government would now focus on finding the plane’s black box, which would finally reveal what fate befell the Malaysian Airways flight.
‘The Orion will do a low-vis check that will be much clearer of course than the resolution from the satellite,’ he said.
‘And then they will drop sonar buoys, which have a particular relevance because black box recorders have a battery life of around 30 days… and it should pick up an emission coming from there.
‘It will confirm the location of the black box which is the key to unravelling this horrible mystery.’
Michael Daniel, a retired United States Federal Aviation Administration official told The Straits Times that it could take up to 48 hours for Australian search teams to confirm if the debris belongs to MH370.
It emerged last night that four days were wasted searching the wrong area because of delays by Malaysian officials in releasing crucial satellite data that changed the entire course of the investigation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On March 11, a British satellite operator released data analysis and other documents that showed how the plane could have taken one of two corridors - north and south - stretching some 3,000 miles from the plane's last known location.
It was handed to a partner company then passed to the Malaysian government the following day.
Satellite operator Inmarsat also handed the information to British security and air-safety officials at the same time.

Anxious wait: Chinese relatives of the passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 wait for the latest information at Lido Hotel in Beijing, China. Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott said that authorities have spotted two objects in the Indian Ocean that may be related to flight MH370

Two people familiar with the investigation said the information may not have been made available to the search teams until March 13.
But disputes about cross-checking the data and how much of it to release meant the decision to shift resources from the South China Sea did not happen until March 15 - the day Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak admitted the flight was diverted as a result of 'deliberate action' on the plane.
Reports overnight also suggested that Malaysia Airlines did not buy a basic app that helped locate the Air France plane that crashed in 2009.
The software, which costs just £6 a flight, would have continued sending crucial data such as direction, speed and altitude even after the transponder and ACARS systems were switched off, the Washington Post reported.
It proved pivotal to finding the Air France flight which crashed into the Atlantic ocean by enabling search teams to triangulate the search area to around 64 kilometres. They found the debris in just five days.
But the app, called Swift, was reportedly not being used on MH370.

THE BAFFLING SEARCH FOR MH370: HOW EVENTS HAVE UNFOLDED

March 8 - Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am local time bound for Beijing carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.
Someone, apparently the co-pilot, makes the final voice communication from the cockpit at 01.19am, saying 'All right, good night' to air traffic controllers.
The plane is last seen on military radar at 02.14am heading west over the Strait of Malacca. Half an hour later the airline reveals to the public it has lost contact with the plane. The plane was due to land around 6.30am.
Officials reveal two passports used to board the flight were stolen, raising the first suspicions of terrorist involvement.
March 9 - Malaysia's air force chief says that military radar indicated the missing Boeing 777 jet may have turned back.
March 10 - Vietnamese aircraft search for a plane door spotted in their waters but find nothing.
March 11 - The hunt is widened to cover a 115-nautical mile radius involving 34 aircraft and 40 ships from several countries.
The Malaysian military claims it has radar evidence showing that the missing plane changed course and made it to the Malacca Strait which is hundreds of miles away from the last location reported by civilian authorities. The aircraft was believed to be flying low.
The two male passengers travelling with stolen passports were Iranians who had bought tickets to Europe and were probably not terrorists, Malaysian police said.
March 12 - Satellite images on a Chinese government website shows suspected debris from the missing plane floating off the southern tip of Vietnam, China's Xinhua News Agency says.
The report includes co-ordinates of a location in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia, near the plane's original flight path.
March 13 - Malaysian authorities expand their search for the missing jet into the Andaman Sea and beyond after acknowledging it could have flown for several more hours after its last contact with the ground.
Nothing was found when planes were sent to search an area off southern Vietnam identified by Chinese satellite images.
The Chinese Embassy notifies the Malaysian government that the images were released by mistake and did not show any debris from the missing flight.
March 15 - Prime Minister Najib Razak's says the missing airliner was deliberately diverted and continued flying for more than six hours after losing contact with the ground. The plane could have gone as far north west as Kazakhstan or into the Indian Ocean's southern reaches.
Malaysian police have already said they are looking at the psychological state, family life and connections of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. Both have been described as respectable, community-minded men.
March 16 - The search area now includes 11 countries the plane might have flown over. The number of countries involved in the operation had increased from 14 to 25.
Malaysian defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he had asked governments to hand over sensitive radar and satellite data to try to help get a better idea of the plane's final movements.
March 17 - Officials release a new timeline suggesting the final voice transmission from the cockpit of the missing Malaysian plane may have occurred before any of its communications systems were disabled.
Investigators have not ruled out hijacking, sabotage, or pilot suicide, and they are checking the backgrounds of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members, as well as the ground crew, to see if links to terrorists, personal problems or psychological issues could be factors.
March 18 - Ten days after a Malaysian jetliner disappeared, Thailand's military said it saw radar blips that might have been from the missing plane but did not report it 'because we did not pay attention to it'.
March 19 - Distressed relatives of the missing passengers threaten to go on hunger strike over the lack of information about the investigation.
March 20 - Two objects which could be connected to the missing jet are detected in the southern India Ocean, the Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said.
 

DM