Missing Plane: Police Probe 'Flight Engineer'

Investigators say they are looking into the background of one of the passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane who claimed he had worked as a flight engineer.

Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat said on social media sites he worked for a Swiss-based private jet charter company.

The 29-year-old's apparent experience means he would have a knowledge of in-flight computer systems and be able to carry out repairs.

However, as an engineer specialising in executive jets, he would not necessarily have had the skills required to divert and fly a Boeing 777.

A senior police official with knowledge of the investigation said: "The focus is on anyone who might have had aviation skills on that plane."

The hunt for the missing plane was expanded significantly over the weekend, as the investigation moved from shallow seas to large tracts of land in 11 countries, as well as deep, remote ocean trenches.

It is thought the aircraft flew for up to seven hours after vanishing from radar on March 8, when its communication systems were deliberately switched off.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board

Some 25 countries are now involved in the search for the jet, which emitted its final 'ping' as it travelled along one of two air corridors going north and south from the sea off Malaysia.

It has been claimed the plane could have landed at one of more than 600 runways spread across at least a dozen countries.

Researchers at WNYC searched for runways with a length of at least 0.95 miles (1.52km) within a radius of 2,530 miles (4,070km) from the aircraft's last known position.

The missing plane could have landed at hundreds of locations. Pic: WNYC

Some 634 runways, stretching from the India-Pakistan border to the northeast coast of Australia, matched those requirements - many of them in remote, inaccessible places.

Michael McCaul, chairman of the US Homeland Security Committee, said hijackers may have landed the plane and be planning to use it "as a cruise missile" in a 9/11-style terror attack.

Some experts believe the plane is most likely to have flown southwest towards the Indian Ocean.

A northwesterly route would have taken it through numerous national airspaces in an area monitored extensively by satellites, they say.

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Missing Pilot 'Caring And Very Professional'

A friend of one of the pilots on missing flight MH370 has told Sky News he cannot believe he had anything to do with the aircraft's disappearance.

Peter Chong described Zaharie Ahmad Shah as a kind, generous man and said he longs for his friend to return.

He said it was "only natural" investigators were searching his friend's home but added: "He is a very caring person who enjoys life and enjoys flying. He is a very professional pilot."

Mr Hamid is patted down by a member of security staff. Pic: YouTube

Leaked CCTV footage appears to show Mr Zaharie and his co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, calmly passing through security shortly before boarding the aircraft.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube, seems to show  walking through a body scanner at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Dressed in uniforms, the two men in the video are frisked for less than two seconds each by security staff before collecting luggage from the conveyor belt of an X-ray machine.

Mr Hamid (L) and Mr Zaharie's backgrounds are being investigated

The two pilots have come under increased scrutiny since investigators revealed flight MH370's tracking devices were deliberately switched off mid-way through a flight to Beijing.

Authorities are yet to comment on the CCTV footage, although the personal and religious backgrounds of both pilots are being checked.

Police are investigating a flight simulator found at the home of Mr Zaharie, who has more than 18,000 hours' flying experience and joined Malaysia Airlines more than 30 years ago.

Messages posted on the 53-year-old's Facebook page suggest he was a politically active opponent of the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for 57 years since the country became independent.

Mr Fariq, 27, had only recently graduated to the cockpit of the Boeing 777 and had not asked to fly with Mr Zaharie, authorities have confirmed.

Satellite data suggests the Boeing 777, which had 239 people on board, flew for at least seven hours - more than six hours after it lost contact with air traffic control.

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Malaysia Airlines Plane: What Has Happened?

The missing Malaysia Airlines flight may be proving so hard to find because it could have vanished in an aviation "black spot", an expert has told Sky News.

Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer said it was "disturbing" that there had been no distress call from flight MH370's cockpit and that the plane's emergency locator transmitters had not sent any signals.

He said: "These are very sophisticated equipment that should have been working under any condition - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you can not communicate for some reason.

"Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots, so perhaps at that time there was no data transmission between the aircraft and the airline."

Flight MH370 vanished from radar screens early on Saturday about one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

When it last made contact, the Malaysia Airlines jet was at cruising altitude, 11km (35,000 feet) above sea level, largely considered the safest part of a flight.

Wreckage of Air France flight 447 is discovered after the crash

While there is still no confirmation that the Boeing 777-200 crashed, aviation experts have put forward possible causes of its disappearance including a terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, human error or even suicide.

The failure of the pilots to send a distress signal has given rise to speculation there was a sudden catastrophe - possibly caused by a mechanical failure or an explosion.

Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell has told Sky News that despite flying becoming safer over the years, mistakes are still made.

"We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made," he said.

Investigations into Air France flight 447 that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people, eventually concluded that both technical and human error were to blame for the disaster.

Authorities have extended the search area for the plane

Closer to the area where MH370 vanished, Adam Air flight 574 with 102 people on board disappeared in January 2007, also at its cruise phase, during a domestic flight in Indonesia.

Authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

The lack of wreckage from MH370 also suggests a high-altitude disaster which spread debris across an area too wide to be easily detected.

Aviation experts say the size of the debris field will be one of the first indicators of what happened.

A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up upon impact with the water.

A large, widespread field would signal the plane probably broke apart at a high elevation, perhaps because of a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

Authorities are now searching a 100-nautical mile area

But sudden, accidental structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft.

This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

Authorities have not ruled out terrorism or hijacking, though, with suspicions over two of the passengers found to be travelling on stolen passports.

"There are two categories of people who use these (stolen passports) - criminals and terrorists," Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, there was substantial wreckage despite it being a mid-air explosion, and claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster.

The Lockerbie bombing killed 270 people, including 11 on the ground

But no-one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find.

It took two years to find the main wreckage of the Air France plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people.

An Indonesian navy ship detected metal on the ocean floor a week after the Adam Air flight disappeared in 2007.

It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders, and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

An Indonesian fisherman holds up part of the Adam Air aircraft

The Malaysian jet could have made a U-turn shortly before it vanished, officials say, adding one more level of uncertainty to the effort to find it.

It is thought the plane could be hundreds of miles from where it was last detected, and the search has been widened in the hope of finding the plane.

Just about every major jet to disappear in the modern era has eventually been found. The rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 owned by the Peruvian Faucett Airlines ditched into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel on its way to Miami.

The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

More mysterious was the disappearance of another Boeing 727 being used to transport diesel fuel to diamond mines in Africa.

The owners had numerous financial problems and the plane took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

One theory, never proven, is that it was stolen so the owner could collect insurance.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane Search Widened

What Has Happened To Malaysia Airlines Plane?

Updated: 7:50am UK, Tuesday 11 March 2014

The missing Malaysia Airlines flight may be proving so hard to find because it could have vanished in an aviation "black spot", an expert has told Sky News.

Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer said it was "disturbing" that there had been no distress call from flight MH370's cockpit and that the plane's emergency locator transmitters had not sent any signals.

He said: "These are very sophisticated equipment that should have been working under any condition - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you can not communicate for some reason.

"Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots, so perhaps at that time there was no data transmission between the aircraft and the airline."

Flight MH370 vanished from radar screens early on Saturday about one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

When it last made contact, the Malaysia Airlines jet was at cruising altitude, 11km (35,000 feet) above sea level, largely considered the safest part of a flight.

While there is still no confirmation that the Boeing 777-200 crashed, aviation experts have put forward possible causes of its disappearance including a terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, human error or even suicide.

The failure of the pilots to send a distress signal has given rise to speculation there was a sudden catastrophe - possibly caused by a mechanical failure or an explosion.

Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell has told Sky News that despite flying becoming safer over the years, mistakes are still made.

"We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made," he said.

Investigations into Air France flight 447 that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people, eventually concluded that both technical and human error were to blame for the disaster.

Closer to the area where MH370 vanished, Adam Air flight 574 with 102 people on board disappeared in January 2007, also at its cruise phase, during a domestic flight in Indonesia.

Authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

The lack of wreckage from MH370 also suggests a high-altitude disaster which spread debris across an area too wide to be easily detected.

Aviation experts say the size of the debris field will be one of the first indicators of what happened.

A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up upon impact with the water.

A large, widespread field would signal the plane probably broke apart at a high elevation, perhaps because of a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

But sudden, accidental structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft.

This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

Authorities have not ruled out terrorism or hijacking, though, with suspicions over two of the passengers found to be travelling on stolen passports.

"There are two categories of people who use these (stolen passports) - criminals and terrorists," Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, there was substantial wreckage despite it being a mid-air explosion, and claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster.

But no-one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find.

It took two years to find the main wreckage of the Air France plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people.

An Indonesian navy ship detected metal on the ocean floor a week after the Adam Air flight disappeared in 2007.

It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders, and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

The Malaysian jet could have made a U-turn shortly before it vanished, officials say, adding one more level of uncertainty to the effort to find it.

It is thought the plane could be hundreds of miles from where it was last detected, and the search has been widened in the hope of finding the plane.

Just about every major jet to disappear in the modern era has eventually been found. The rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 owned by the Peruvian Faucett Airlines ditched into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel on its way to Miami.

The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

More mysterious was the disappearance of another Boeing 727 being used to transport diesel fuel to diamond mines in Africa.

The owners had numerous financial problems and the plane took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

One theory, never proven, is that it was stolen so the owner could collect insurance.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Malaysia Airlines Plane: What Happened?

A "very sudden and very violent" event is likely to be responsible for the loss of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, according to aviation experts.

The aircraft was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when air traffic control lost contact some two hours into the flight.

No distress calls were sent from the aircraft, leading experts to assume that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and left the pilots little time to respond.

"Either you had a catastrophic event that tore the airplane apart, or you had a criminal act," said Scott Hamilton, the managing director of aviation consultancy Leeham Co.

"It was so quick and they didn't radio."

The plane is suspected to have suffered a sudden break-up, or a failure which caused a steep dive. Some experts say an act of terrorism may also be responsible.

William Waldock, who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona, said the absence of a distress call "suggests something very sudden and very violent happened".

One of the first indicators of what exactly occurred on Flight MH370 will be the size of the debris field.

An information message at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang

If it is large and spread out over tens of miles, then the plane likely broke apart at a high elevation. That could signal a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

If it is a smaller field, the plane probably fell from 35,000 feet intact, breaking up upon contact with the water.

Captain John M Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said whatever took place occurred very quickly.

"We know the airplane is down. Beyond that, we don't know a whole lot," he said.

Airplane crashes typically occur during take-off and the climb away from an airport, or while coming in for a landing.

Only 9% of fatal accidents happen when a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet airplane accidents done by Boeing.

Aviation expert David Learmount told Sky News the Boeing 777-222 had an "absolutely superb" safety record.

"Aviation safety now is quite extraordinarily good. It's far better than it was 20-30 years ago - I mean massively better," he said.

"That's why things like this are so surprising. They just should not happen any longer."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Malaysia Plane's 'Four Suspect' Passengers

Officials are investigating the identity of four passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane - but have not determined if the plane was downed in a terror attack.

Malaysia's defence and transport minister Hishamuddin Hussein told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur: "All the four names are with me."

He confirmed Malaysian investigators have met counterparts from the FBI, and said the operation is focusing on "the entire passenger manifest".

It emerged on Saturday that two people boarded the Boeing 777-200 using stolen European passports.

"On the issue of the passports, I'm in touch with the international intelligence agencies," he said.

A relative of a passenger on the flight waits for news in Beijing

"At the same time our own intelligence has been activated, and of course, the counter-terrorism units...from all the relevant countries have been informed."

Asked whether he believes the plane was hijacked, he would only say: "We are looking at all possibilities."

Flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished around two hours into the flight.

The two oil slicks seen off Vietnam

The plane disappeared from radar at 1.30am (5.30pm UK time) on Friday, about 85 miles (135km) north of the Malaysian city of Kuala Terengganu.

A huge search involving 22 aircraft and 40 ships is continuing in the vast waters of the Gulf of Thailand, between Vietnam and Malaysia.

It has concentrated around the Vietnamese island resort of Phu Quoc after Vietnamese air force jets spotted two huge oil slicks in the area.

The parallel slicks - both between 10 miles (16km) and 12 miles (19km) long and 500 metres apart - were consistent with the kind of spills caused by fuel from a crashed airliner, a Vietnamese government statement said.

A photo of the missing plane - seen taking off in Paris in 2011

The search has now widened to Malacca, on the west coast of Malaysia, after radar data indicated the plane may have turned back from its scheduled route to Beijing before disappearing.

US federal safety officials have said a team of experts are heading to Asia to help in the investigation.

The team includes accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing.

Earlier today, Malaysia's Civil Aviation chief Azaharudin Abdul Rahman said so far search teams have not found any debris from the plane.

"So far there is no report of any sightings," he said. "We have extended our area of operations which includes the west side of Malaysia."

The jet is reported to have crashed in the ocean off southern Vietnam

Mr Rahman said no other aircraft in the Malaysia Airlines fleet would be grounded and indicated there were "no abnormalities" in the data received from the flight.

Two-thirds of the jet's passengers were from China. The rest were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

The plane's disappearance is especially mysterious because it apparently happened when the plane was at cruising altitude, not during the more dangerous phases of take-off or landing.

Officials say they are examining CCTV footage of passengers boarding the plane after it emerged two passengers had been travelling on stolen passports.

The airline listed one of the passengers on the plane as a 37-year-old Italian called Luigi Maraldi.

Family members have complained of a lack of information

However, Mr Maraldi has contacted his parents to say he was not on the airliner.

He had his passport stolen in Thailand several months ago, leaving questions over who used his passport to board the plane and whether that has anything to do with the airliner's disappearance.

Another passenger was using a passport belonging to Austrian citizen Christan Kozel. He is listed as one of the passengers although he has been confirmed as safe and well by authorities.

His passport was stolen in Thailand two years ago.

Relatives are still waiting anxiously at Beijing airport for news of people on board the plane.

Distraught relatives and friends wait at Beijing International Airport

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Clare's Law Rolled Out To Expose Abusers

By Mike McCarthy, North of England Correspondent

New measures to protect victims of domestic abuse come into effect today.

Clare's Law, which enables people to check the police records of partners, has been launched across England and Wales after being piloted by four police forces.

The father of murder victim Clare Wood, whose name has been given to the scheme, has welcomed its introduction, describing it as "a bittersweet moment".

Clare's killer George Appleton

Michael Brown discovered five years ago that his daughter had been raped and strangled at her Salford home by ex-boyfriend George Appleton, who set fire to her body before going on the run. He was found hanged several days later.

Appleton, who Clare met on Facebook, had a history of violence against women, including knife-point kidnapping.

Mr Brown told Sky News: "When you lose a family member in these circumstances it is always with you. To realise that the last moments of your daughter's life were kicking and screaming in a room in Salford sticks with you."

The 70-year-old said Clare's Law was "not a panacea for domestic violence" but added: "If it can help others - just one - I and all the other campaigners will have succeeded. 

"This is just another piece of armour plate for people to put on when they are in trouble."

The launch coincides with International Women's Day and also marks the introduction of Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs), which are designed to provide support for victims in the immediate aftermath of violent incidents.

Michael Brown has fought for a new law to help women like his daughter

DVPOs can last for up to 28 days, during which time a perpetrator can be prevented from having contact with the victim.

Speaking about Clare's Law, Home Secretary Theresa May said: "What we saw from the pilots was a real benefit for women who were able to go to the police where they had suspicions about the behaviour of their partner.

"As a result of that, they were able to make a decision about whether to stay with that partner or to leave."

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