Missing Flight MH370: New evidence of 'cockpit tampering'
Experts investigating the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have discovered possible evidence of tampering with the plane's cockpit equipment.
A report by Australian air crash investigators has revealed that the missing aircraft suffered a mysterious power outage during the early stages of its flight, which experts now believe could be part of an attempt to avoid radar detection.
The NZ Herald says that according to the report, the aircraft's satellite data made an unexpected 'log-on' request to a satellite less than 90 minutes into its flight from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.
The report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says the log-on request appears likely to have been caused by an interruption of electrical power on board the plane, adding: "A log-on request in the middle of a flight is not common".
David Gleave, an aviation safety expert from Loughborough University said the interruption to the power supply appeared to be the result of someone in the cockpit attempting to minimise the use of the aircraft's systems. He said the action was consistent with an attempt to turn the plane's communications systems off to avoid radar detection.
He told the Daily Telegraph: "A person could be messing around in the cockpit which would lead to a power interruption. It could be a deliberate act to switch off both engines for some time. By messing about within the cockpit you could switch off the power temporarily and switch it on again when you need the other systems to fly the aeroplane."
Asked if the power outage could have been caused by a mechanical fail, he added: "There are credible mechanical failures that could cause it. But you would not then fly along for hundreds of miles and disappear in the Indian Ocean."
Another aviation expert, Peter Marosszeky, from the University of New South Wales, agreed, telling the Telegraph: "It would have to be a deliberate act of turning power off on certain systems on the aeroplane. The aircraft has so many backup systems. Any form of power interruption is always backed up by another system.
"The person doing it would have to know what they are doing. It would have to be a deliberate act to hijack or sabotage the aircraft."
An official Malaysian investigation into the cause of the disappearance has not yet released its full findings, but has indicated it believes the plane was deliberately flown thousands of miles off course on 8 March.
The Australian report also suggested the plane appeared to have flown on autopilot and that the crew and passengers likely died of suffocation before crashing into the Indian Ocean.
According to the Daily Mail, on 26 June 2014 the Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Warren Truss, announced the new search zone for the wreckage is around 2,000km west of Perth in a stretch of isolated ocean.
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