MH370 pilots likely changed course intentionally: expert

The landing ship Jinggangshan, one of China's search and rescue vessels, cruises into the suspected site of Missing MH370 on Tuesday. (Photo source: chinanews.com)

(ECNS) – An aviation expert unwilling to be identified said it's very likely that the pilots of the missing flight MH370 intentionally changed course and shut down communications, according to the Beijing Times.  [Special coverage]

The unnamed expert said one possibility was that the pilots shut down the jetliner's transponder or changed course after flying into the control zone of Vietnam, and cut off communications with or ignored calls from the ground.

When the jet flew back into Malaysia's air space, local controllers might not have noticed, he said, but military radar could detect it anyway.

The missing Boeing 777-200 was equipped with four sets of communication devices, so it's very unlikely that a communication system failure caused the loss of contact, the expert added.

Malaysia's air force chief said on Wednesday afternoon that the country's military radar had detected the signal of a flying object 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast at 2:15 am on 8 March, 45 minutes after MH370 lost contact with civil radar.

The signal has not been identified, but they wouldn't exclude the possibility that the jetliner had tried to turn back, the chief added.