Posted on 04/12/2014 8:10:30 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Malaysia flight's co-pilot tried to make cellphone call-report
Reuters 57 minutes ago
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Investigators probing the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 suspect that the co-pilot of the jetliner tried to make a call with his cellphone after the plane was diverted from its scheduled route, Malaysia's New Straits Times reported sources as saying on Saturday.
The newspaper cited unidentified investigative sources as saying the attempted call from co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid's phone was picked up by a cellphone tower as the plane was about 200 nautical miles northwest of the west coast state of Penang. That was around where military radar made its last sighting of the missing jet at 2:15 a.m. local time on March 8.
"The telco's (telecommunications company's) tower established the call that he was trying to make. On why the call was cut off, it was likely because the aircraft was fast moving away from the tower and had not come under the coverage of the next one," the New Straits Times cited a source as saying.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Maybe he didnt want the rest of the passengers to know their real predicament?
That he had the fish?
U.S. Official sets the record straight:
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Co-pilots cell phone was on, U.S. official says
(CNN) The phone of the co-pilot of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was on and made contact with a cell tower in Malaysia about the time the plane disappeared from radar, a U.S. official told CNN on Monday.
However, the U.S. official who cited information shared by Malaysian investigators said there was no evidence the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had tried to make a call.
The official told CNNs Pamela Brown on Monday that a cell-phone tower in Penang, Malaysia about 250 miles from where the flights transponder last sent a signal detected the co-pilots phone searching for service roughly 30 minutes after authorities believe the plane made a sharp turn westward.
The details do appear to reaffirm suggestions based on radar and satellite data that the plane was off course and was probably flying low enough to obtain a signal from a cell tower, the U.S. official said.
U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told CNN they have been told that no other cell phones were picked up by the Penang tower.
Pilots are supposed to turn off their cell phones before pushing back from the gate.
It would be very rare in my opinion to have someone with a cell phone on in the cockpit, safety analyst David Soucie said. Its never supposed to be on at all. Its part of every check list of every airline I am familiar with.
When the plane first went missing, authorities said millions of cell phone records were searched, looking for evidence that calls had been made from the plane after it took off, but the search turned up nothing.
The revelation of the co-pilot’s cell phone connection with a Penang tower 30 minutes after MH370 was diverted has struck a nerve:
Why doesn’t M’sia punish Umno newspaper NST for false MH370 report?
New Straits Times(NST) should be severely punished for acting against the national interests by trying to exploit the MH370 tragedy with treacherous intent of sensational and false reporting without due regards for facts and the feelings of family members of the passengers. As NST is owned by UMNO and regarded as both UMNO and the Federal governments mouthpiece, its front-page world exclusive expose on 12 April 2014 has caught the worlds attention.
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