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Speculation MH370’s electric systems tampered
Published:  Jul 1, 2014 1:23 PM
Updated: 8:41 AM

Aviation experts are speculating that MH370’s electrical systems had been tampered with about 90 minutes after take-off, according to UK daily The Telegraph .

 

This follows revelations in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report last week that the aircraft first ‘handshake’ with a communications satellite was likely due to a power interruption.

 

Loughborough University aviation safety expert David Gleave told the daily that the interruption appeared to be an attempt to minimise the use of the aircraft’s systems in order to turn off communications and avoid radar detection.

 

“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,” he reportedly said.

 

He said that while there are mechanical failures that could cause such a power interruption, the same failure would also prevent the aircraft from flying on for hours.

 

The ATSB report was released on Thursday last week, providing an analysis of MH370 disappearance for the purpose of refining the search area.

 

It said that on March 8 at 2.25am, the aircraft initiated a “handshake” with a communications satellite in mid-flight, which is uncommon and could be due to a software failure, power interruption, or loss of satellite data link due to altitude.

 

“An analysis was performed which determined that the characteristics and timing of the logon requests were best matched as resulting from power interruption to the SDU (satellite data unit),” the report said, without mentioning the probable cause for the interruption.

 

At the time, the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft had just left Malaysian air defence radar coverage minutes ago. It was flying northwest towards the Andaman Sea before making a turn south towards the Indian Ocean.

 

It was carrying 239 passengers and crew on board. To date, no trace of them or the aircraft has been found, but the search is still ongoing.

 

'Crew likely suffocated'

The ATSB report also said that the crew had likely suffocated or unresponsive during the aircraft’s flight south on basis of the absence of radio communications and lack of large course changes, amongst other reasons, but stressed it was only an assumption made to help define the search area.

 

“There is no suggestion that the investigation authority will make similar assumptions,” the report said.

 

Meanwhile, another aviation expert agreed that MH370’s power interruption must have been intentional by someone on board.

 

“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,” University of New South Wales aviation expert Peter Marosszeky told The Telegraph .

 

Meanwhile, Inmarsat - the satellite communications company that owns the satellite that MH370 was communicating to - was at a loss for the reason for the power failure.

 

"It does appear there was a power failure on those two occasions… It is another little mystery. We cannot explain it. We don't know why. We just know it did it,” the company’s vice president Chris McLaughlin was quoted as saying.

 

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