M A I N   N E W S

Jet search shifts to Bay of Bengal
* Navy to scour west of Andamans for Malaysian plane
* Investigators hint at foul play
TNS & Agencies

New Delhi/Kuala Lumpur, March 14
The search for the missing Malaysian jetliner has shifted closer to the Chennai coast with India today readying to deploy its assets in the Bay of Bengal following a fresh request from Kuala Lumpur.

The investigators are also focusing on foul play as one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation remains unsolved after nearly a week.

An unidentified aircraft that investigators suspect was missing Flight MH370 appeared to be following a commonly used navigational route when it was last spotted early on Saturday, northwest of Malaysia, said sources.

That course - headed into the Andaman Sea and towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean - could only have been set deliberately, either by flying the Boeing 777-200ER jet manually or by programming the auto-pilot.

Source said inquiries were focusing more on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight hundreds of miles off its scheduled course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. "What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards," said a senior Malaysian police official.

The latest radar evidence is consistent with the expansion of the search area which has been extended closer to the India’s eastern coast.

An additional area of approximately 9,000 sq km in the Bay of Bengal will be searched. This is a 15 km wide area with a length of 600 km. It is nearly 900 km west of Port Blair and much closer to Chennai and Visakhapatnam. The Navy’s Eastern Command has been tasked with the responsibility of searching the new area. Until now, Indian Naval warships, planes and IAF planes were searching the Andaman sea which lies east of the Andaman Islands.

US authorities believe that the plane flew westwards towards the Indian Ocean instead of flying north east towards Beijing. The US has based its opinion on several ‘blips’ captured by its satellites of the plane flying for more than four hours after its communication systems lost contact. The satellites have picked up signals from the airliner's service data system, known as ACARS and were transmitted even after the plane’s communication system was not showing any contact during the time it was supposed to be over Vietnam had it flown its normal course towards Beijing.

That information combined with radar data and knowledge of the fuel range of the Boeing 777 plane has led the search towards India and Sri Lanka. Assets of the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and IAF have been deployed in a coordinated search of the area in South Andaman Sea since yesterday. Indian Navy’s Maritime Operations Centre in New Delhi is coordinating the search. Specific areas have been allocated by Malaysian authorities for search by Indian ships and aircraft. Currently, two Indian ships, INS Saryu and INS Kumbhir, are combing the designated areas in South Andaman Sea. Two Coast Guard vessels are also carrying out search along the coastline.

Pilot on suicide mission?

• A US official said the plane sent signals to a satellite for four hours after it went missing
• The reports that the plane flew long after its last confirmed contact opens the possibility that one of the pilots, or someone with flying experience, wanted to hijack the plane or commit suicide by plunging the aircraft into the sea