Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Mystery

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Mystery - The search for the missing Flight MH370 was further complicated Monday by new revelations from the Malaysian government regarding the specific timeline of events surrounding the planes final cockpit voice transmission, creating more uncertainty about who aboard the flight may have sent the message.

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The developments come as Australia began scouring the southern Indian Ocean and China offered 21 satellites to respond to Malaysia's call for help in the unprecedented hunt spanning more than 10,000 square kilometres.

Malaysian Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said an initial investigation indicated that the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, spoke the flight's last words — "All right, good night" — to ground controllers. Had it been a voice other than that of Fariq or the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, it would be the clearest indication yet of something amiss in the cockpit before the flight went off-course.

Malaysian officials earlier said those words came after one of the jetliner's data communications systems — the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System — had been switched off, sharpening suspicion that one or both of the pilots may have been involved in the plane's disappearance.

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However, Ahmad said Monday that while the last data transmission from ACARS — which gives plane performance and maintenance information — came before that, it was still unclear at what point the system was switched off, making any implications of timing murkier.

The new information opened the possibility that both ACARS and the plane's transponders — which make the plane visible to civilian air traffic controllers — were severed later and at about the same time. It also suggests that the all-clear message delivered from the cockpit could have preceded any of the severed communications.

French investigators arriving in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to lend expertise from the two-year search for an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 said they were able to rely on distress signals. But that vital tool is missing in the Malaysia Airlines mystery because flight 370's communications were deliberately severed ahead of its disappearance more than a week ago, investigators say.

"It's very different from the Air France case. The Malaysian situation is much more difficult," Jean Paul Troadec, a special adviser to France's aviation accident investigation bureau, said in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysian authorities say the jet carrying 239 people was intentionally diverted from its flight path during an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and flew off-course for several hours. Suspicion has fallen on the pilots, although Malaysian officials have said they are looking into everyone aboard the flight. (Flight MH370)