Radar shows sharp change in altitude and course of jet

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 experienced significant changes in altitude after it lost contact with ground control, and altered its course more than once as if still under the command of a pilot, American officials and others familiar with the investigation have said.

Radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military appear to show the missing airliner climbing to 45,000 feet, above the approved altitude limit for a Boeing 777-200, soon after it disappeared from civilian radar and made a sharp turn to the west, according to a preliminary assessment by a person familiar with the data.

The radar track, which the Malaysian government has not released but says it has provided to the US and China, then shows the plane descending unevenly to an altitude of 23,000 feet, below normal cruising levels, as it approached the island of Penang, one of the country’s largest. There, the plane turned from a southwest-bound course, climbed to a higher altitude and flew northwest over the Strait of Malacca toward the Indian Ocean. The data, while incomplete and difficult to interpret, could still provide critical new clues as investigators try to determine what transpired when Flight 370, disappeared early last Saturday carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Headed west
Malaysian and international investigators have said in recent days that the plane may have departed from its northerly flight route toward Beijing and headed west across the Malaysian peninsula just after it disappeared from civilian radar, its pilots stopped communicating with ground controllers and its transponders stopped transmitting data about its speed and location. The plane is also now thought to have continued flying for more than four hours after diverting its course, based on automated "pings" sent by onboard systems seeking to connect with satellites.

But the Malaysian military radar data adds significant new information about the flight immediately after ground controllers lost contact. The combination of altitude changes and at least two significant course corrections could have a variety of explanations, including an intentional diversion by a pilot or a hijacker, or uneven flying because of a disabled crew.

The erratic movements of the aircraft after it diverted course and flew over the country also raise questions about why the military did not respond in real time to the flight emergency. Malaysian officials have acknowledged that military radar may have picked up the plane, but said they took no action because it did not appear hostile.

Because the plane stopped transmitting its position about 40 minutes after takeoff, military radar recorded only an unidentified blip moving through Malaysian airspace. Certain weather conditions, and even flocks of birds, can occasionally cause radar blips. The Malaysian authorities say they are still studying the signals to determine if they came from Flight 370.

But the person who examined the data said it leaves little doubt that the airliner flew near or through the southern tip of Thailand, then back across Peninsular Malaysia, near the city of Penang, and out over the sea again. That's in part because the data is based on signals recorded by two radar stations, one at Butterworth air force base on the peninsula's west coast, near Penang, and the other at Kota Bharu, on the northeast coast. – ( New York Times )