A meeting between the Malaysian government and Chinese relatives of the missing plane revealed that “All right, good night” were the last-heard words from the flight.
The meeting was held in Beijing on Wednesday morning, Malaysia-based newspaper The Star reports.
The flight then disappeared from radar screens, said Malaysia’s civil aviation officials at the meeting.
Anxious and angry over their loved one’s unknown fate and lack of progress in locating the plane, the family members on Tuesday had requested for the meeting with the Malaysian government to seek answers to their questions.
The aviation officials said MH370’s last-heard words were made in response after Malaysian air traffic controllers told the cockpit that they were entering Vietnamese airspace and that air traffic controllers from Ho Chi Minh city were taking over.
The plane, carrying 239 passengers and crew in all including 153 Chinese nationals, have remained missing since Saturday 1:20am despite a massive international search operation involving Singapore.
While such disappearance from radar screens could be a result of a hijacking and the hijackers turning off signals, in such an event, the pilot should still have sent a secret mayday code, said the Malaysian civil aviation official.
The officials also said that there was no reason to suspect the pilot, who was experienced and had passed all the checks that MAS applies to pilots.
This was in response to families bringing up reports that the pilot had let passengers into the cockpit.
In a confusing exchange, the male official – who was Malay but spoke Chinese – was asked repeatedly by family members if military-grade radar had picked up the plane. Military air data and technology would go beyond the civilian ones, they said.
The official replied that the Malaysian military was assisting investigations “at a high level.”
Pressed repeatedly on what information the military had given authorities, he finally replied that “now is not the time” to reveal it.
Some of the families shouted incredulously at this, but one man who had taken on the role of family representative said that they understood, and that they hoped Malaysia would reveal the information as soon as possible.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
