The last words from the cockpit of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane before it disappeared were actually ‘Good night, Malaysian three seven zero,’ not ‘All right, good night’ as Malaysian authorities had previously claimed.
It is not clear whether the sign off was said by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah or his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, but it was transmitted as the plane left Malaysian airspace and was about to enter that of Vietnam at 1.19am on March 8.
The cause of the discrepancy is unclear, but for three weeks it was reported that ‘All right, good night’ had been said by co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid two minutes before the plane’s transponder was shut down.
The last words from the cockpit of MH370 before it disappeared from civilian radar were actually ‘Good night, Malaysian three seven zero’ not ‘All right, good night’ as Malaysian authorities had previously claimed. Pictured: Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah,right, and left, Fariq Abdul Hamid.
The statement added that the full transcript’will be made available during the briefing to the next-of-kin of passengers on board the flight, which disappeared on March 8.
Today the Department of Civil Aviation in a short statement: ‘We would like to confirm that the last conversation in the transcript between the air traffic controller and the cockpit is at 0119 (Malaysian Time) and is ‘Good night Malaysian three seven zero.’
‘The authorities are still doing forensic investigation to determine whether those last words from the cockpit were by the pilot or the co-pilot,’ said the statement.
The statement added that acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein ‘has instructed the investigating team to release the full transcript’ which will be made available during the briefing to the next-of-kin of passengers on board the flight, which disappeared on March 8.
Today it was announced that Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak will visit Australia to witness the race-against-time bid to locate a crash site for flight MH370, as a ship equipped to pinpoint its ‘black box’ prepared to steam to the search area.
Ships and planes from seven nations scanned a vast zone far off western Australia for yet another day, but the hunt for debris that would prove the Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the Indian Ocean more than three weeks ago turned up nothing.
Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion’s captain, Wing Comdr. Rob Shearer watches out of the window of his aircraft while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight.
Able Seaman Marine Technician Matthew Oxley stands aboard the Australian Navy ship the HMAS Success looking for debris in the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysian officials attend a briefing for the relatives of Chinese passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 as pictures of Emergency Locater Transmitters are shown during a presentation at a hotel in Beijing.
‘The prime minister, who is going to Perth on Wednesday, will be briefed fully on how things have been conducted, and probably will be discussing what are the chances ahead,’ Malaysian Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Experts warn debris must be found within days to nail down a crash site in order for any use of the US-supplied black box detector – known as a towed pinger locator (TPL) – to be feasible.
The US Navy, which has supplied the detection device, said in a statement Monday: ‘Without confirmation of debris it will be virtually impossible to effectively employ the TPL since the range on the black-box pinger is only about a mile.’
But Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said earlier in the day no time limit would be imposed on the search for clues as to what happened.
‘We owe it to the families, we owe it to everyone that travels by air, we owe it to the anxious governments of the countries who had people on that aircraft. We owe it to the wider world which has been transfixed by this mystery for three weeks now,’ Abbott said in Perth.
The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people vanished without a trace on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, leaving stunned relatives, the aviation industry, and ordinary travellers around the world hanging on the mystery.
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