[Meet the New Boss]

Najib said Saturday that the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, was disabled just as MH370 reached the eastern coast of Malaysia. The transponder was then switched off, Najib said, as the aircraft neared the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/jet-was-hijacked-malaysian-official-tells-ap/2014/03/15/ec7397d6-abff-11e3-af5f-4c56b834c4bf_print.html

[hamboy]

Inmarsat the company that provides the Internet broadband via satellites to the airplane actually know the plane's whereabout.  But people at Inmarsat may be forbidden to disclose information per the NDA's they signed, except for their CEO.

[Procyon]

Najib doesn’t understand the technology. There’s no indication that ACARS was disabled because ACARS would had nothing to send until the aircraft landed. Unlike the Air France incident where they were subscribing to the service that transmitted error messages in real time, Rolls Royce had no need for real tine messaging, just stuff for the maintenance log.