Cebu_4_2
17th March 2014, 03:05 PM
Missing jet likely crew member’s ‘suicide mission’: experts (http://nypost.com/2014/03/17/missing-jet-likely-crew-members-suicide-mission-experts/)
US authorities increasingly suspect that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was part of a suicide plot by a crew member, one of Congress’ top terrorism experts told The Post on Sunday.
“There is a growing consensus that this was a suicide by the pilot or co-pilot and that they wanted to get as far away and land in the farthest and deepest part of the ocean,” said Rep. Pete King (R-LI), chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
King said the scheme might have hinged on the hope that family members could still collect life insurance on the dead pilot or co-pilot.
“If they never find the plane, they can’t call it suicide,” he said.
In other developments Sunday:
• It was reported that the Boeing 777 dropped to 5,000 feet or lower to avoid detection by radar after it veered off its route to Beijing. The New Straits Times of Malaysia also said that when it flew at normal altitudes, it stuck to established aviation routes to avoid raising suspicion.
• Malaysian military authorities revealed that the final words from the plane’s cockpit to air traffic controllers — “All right, good night” — were spoken after a key data-communication system on the jet was disabled. Whoever spoke to ground control didn’t mention any trouble, suggesting that the person was covering up what was happening. The suicide scenario “makes the most sense,” he added.
Modal Trigger (http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shah1.jpg)http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shah1.jpg?w=300
Zaharie Ahmad ShahPhoto: Sunday Mirror
• A photo emerged showing the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, holding a cleaver and a bowl of meat, while another snapshot shows him wearing a shirt printed with the words “Democracy is Dead.” The photos surfaced as he was described as an “obsessive” and “fanatical” follower of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was sentenced to five years in prison for homosexuality hours before Flight MH370 took off.
Police denied reports that Zaharie’s family moved out of their home in the days before the March 8 flight.
Modal Trigger (http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilots-going-through-sec1.jpg)http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilots-going-through-sec1.jpg?w=231Video grabs of the two Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 pilots going through a security screening before boarding the plane.Photo: YouTube
• Surveillance video showed Zaharie and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid being subjected to routine patdowns in the Kuala Lumpur airport shortly before boarding the jet. Hamid, 27, had trained at the controls of a Boeing 777 only a month earlier, and said later he “just loved it.’’
Modal Trigger (http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilot-sec2.jpg)http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilot-sec2.jpg?w=231Photo: YouTube
• Malaysian police said some countries whose nationals were on the plane still haven’t responded to requests for information, leaving it unclear if any passengers on board knew how to fly the jet.
• Stoking theories that the plane landed, officials said it was possible that signals it sent after it dropped off civilian radar could have come from the ground and not midair as long as the jet had electrical power. But Pakistani and Indian officials said the 777 never flew over either country because their radar didn’t pick anything up.
The search area now includes 11 countries, with Malaysia’s defense minister saying the “highly complex” effort “has now become even more difficult.”
India temporarily suspended its searches of the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal until Malaysia better pinpointed the plane’s possible paths.
King said American authorities don’t believe the Beijing-bound airliner, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, flew north toward Asia after veering off course over the Gulf of Thailand.
Instead, they suspect it headed south toward the Indian Ocean, which holds some of the deepest spots of any ocean.
“This is still a mystery, but if there is any consensus now, it’s that it was a suicide by the pilot or co-pilot and he wanted to go as far as he could into the Indian Ocean,” King said.
King expressed doubt that the pilot and co-pilot were both in on the plan, adding, “One or the other would have to kill or somehow silence the other.”
The plane’s sharp climb to 45,000 feet, as recorded by Malaysian military radar, would probably have “incapacitated” everyone outside the cockpit by rapidly reducing oxygen levels in the cabin, King said.
Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said hijacking, sabotage or psychological problems of someone on board were being investigated.
Malaysian air force Maj. Gen. Affendi Buang said it was unclear whether the pilot or co-pilot spoke the last words heard by ground controllers.
Affendi also said the fact that whoever was at the microphone didn’t mention the disabled communication system “will tell you something . . . because this is something not normal that the pilot would do.”
Although there have been previous suspected instances of murder-suicides by pilots of passenger planes, officials have traditionally been reluctant to accept that conclusion even in the face of compelling evidence.
A US investigation into the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 out of John F. Kennedy International Airport determined that co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty was alone on the flight deck when he switched off the autopilot, put the plane into a dive and repeatedly said, “I rely on God!” as it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, killing all 217 aboard.
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed El-Batouty, but its report never mentioned suicide, saying his motive “was not determined.” Egyptian officials insisted mechanical problems caused the crash.
American investigators also ruled that SilkAir Flight 185, on which 104 people were killed en route from Indonesia to Singapore in 1997, was deliberately crashed, while an Indonesian probe was inconclusive.
A recent study by the Federal Aviation Administration said suicides by plane “are most likely under-reported and under-recognized.”
The report found eight fatal plane crashes caused by pilot suicide during the 10 years ending in 2012, all involving male fliers.
“Aircraft-assisted suicides are tragic, intentional events that are hard to predict and difficult to prevent,” the report concluded.
A close friend of Zaharie, Peter Chong, acknowledged the pilot’s political leanings but rejected suggestions that he was involved in the plane’s disappearance.
“He is a political activist, yes . . . but that does not make him a terrorist,” Chong told USA Today.
US authorities increasingly suspect that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was part of a suicide plot by a crew member, one of Congress’ top terrorism experts told The Post on Sunday.
“There is a growing consensus that this was a suicide by the pilot or co-pilot and that they wanted to get as far away and land in the farthest and deepest part of the ocean,” said Rep. Pete King (R-LI), chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.
King said the scheme might have hinged on the hope that family members could still collect life insurance on the dead pilot or co-pilot.
“If they never find the plane, they can’t call it suicide,” he said.
In other developments Sunday:
• It was reported that the Boeing 777 dropped to 5,000 feet or lower to avoid detection by radar after it veered off its route to Beijing. The New Straits Times of Malaysia also said that when it flew at normal altitudes, it stuck to established aviation routes to avoid raising suspicion.
• Malaysian military authorities revealed that the final words from the plane’s cockpit to air traffic controllers — “All right, good night” — were spoken after a key data-communication system on the jet was disabled. Whoever spoke to ground control didn’t mention any trouble, suggesting that the person was covering up what was happening. The suicide scenario “makes the most sense,” he added.
Modal Trigger (http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shah1.jpg)http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shah1.jpg?w=300
Zaharie Ahmad ShahPhoto: Sunday Mirror
• A photo emerged showing the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, holding a cleaver and a bowl of meat, while another snapshot shows him wearing a shirt printed with the words “Democracy is Dead.” The photos surfaced as he was described as an “obsessive” and “fanatical” follower of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was sentenced to five years in prison for homosexuality hours before Flight MH370 took off.
Police denied reports that Zaharie’s family moved out of their home in the days before the March 8 flight.
Modal Trigger (http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilots-going-through-sec1.jpg)http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilots-going-through-sec1.jpg?w=231Video grabs of the two Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 pilots going through a security screening before boarding the plane.Photo: YouTube
• Surveillance video showed Zaharie and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid being subjected to routine patdowns in the Kuala Lumpur airport shortly before boarding the jet. Hamid, 27, had trained at the controls of a Boeing 777 only a month earlier, and said later he “just loved it.’’
Modal Trigger (http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilot-sec2.jpg)http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/pilot-sec2.jpg?w=231Photo: YouTube
• Malaysian police said some countries whose nationals were on the plane still haven’t responded to requests for information, leaving it unclear if any passengers on board knew how to fly the jet.
• Stoking theories that the plane landed, officials said it was possible that signals it sent after it dropped off civilian radar could have come from the ground and not midair as long as the jet had electrical power. But Pakistani and Indian officials said the 777 never flew over either country because their radar didn’t pick anything up.
The search area now includes 11 countries, with Malaysia’s defense minister saying the “highly complex” effort “has now become even more difficult.”
India temporarily suspended its searches of the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal until Malaysia better pinpointed the plane’s possible paths.
King said American authorities don’t believe the Beijing-bound airliner, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, flew north toward Asia after veering off course over the Gulf of Thailand.
Instead, they suspect it headed south toward the Indian Ocean, which holds some of the deepest spots of any ocean.
“This is still a mystery, but if there is any consensus now, it’s that it was a suicide by the pilot or co-pilot and he wanted to go as far as he could into the Indian Ocean,” King said.
King expressed doubt that the pilot and co-pilot were both in on the plan, adding, “One or the other would have to kill or somehow silence the other.”
The plane’s sharp climb to 45,000 feet, as recorded by Malaysian military radar, would probably have “incapacitated” everyone outside the cockpit by rapidly reducing oxygen levels in the cabin, King said.
Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said hijacking, sabotage or psychological problems of someone on board were being investigated.
Malaysian air force Maj. Gen. Affendi Buang said it was unclear whether the pilot or co-pilot spoke the last words heard by ground controllers.
Affendi also said the fact that whoever was at the microphone didn’t mention the disabled communication system “will tell you something . . . because this is something not normal that the pilot would do.”
Although there have been previous suspected instances of murder-suicides by pilots of passenger planes, officials have traditionally been reluctant to accept that conclusion even in the face of compelling evidence.
A US investigation into the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 out of John F. Kennedy International Airport determined that co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty was alone on the flight deck when he switched off the autopilot, put the plane into a dive and repeatedly said, “I rely on God!” as it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, killing all 217 aboard.
The National Transportation Safety Board blamed El-Batouty, but its report never mentioned suicide, saying his motive “was not determined.” Egyptian officials insisted mechanical problems caused the crash.
American investigators also ruled that SilkAir Flight 185, on which 104 people were killed en route from Indonesia to Singapore in 1997, was deliberately crashed, while an Indonesian probe was inconclusive.
A recent study by the Federal Aviation Administration said suicides by plane “are most likely under-reported and under-recognized.”
The report found eight fatal plane crashes caused by pilot suicide during the 10 years ending in 2012, all involving male fliers.
“Aircraft-assisted suicides are tragic, intentional events that are hard to predict and difficult to prevent,” the report concluded.
A close friend of Zaharie, Peter Chong, acknowledged the pilot’s political leanings but rejected suggestions that he was involved in the plane’s disappearance.
“He is a political activist, yes . . . but that does not make him a terrorist,” Chong told USA Today.