More confusion emerged Monday in the hunt for the missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner as authorities provided a revised version of the co-pilot’s last words – making them far less ominous than previously thought.
“Good night, Malaysian three seven zero,” co-pliot Fariq Abdul Hamid said before the plane vanished without a trace on a March 8 flight to China with 239 passengers and crew aboard.
The words are a routine sign-off officials said.
Earlier, they had said his last words were, “Alright, good night,” fueling speculation that the co-pilot or pilot was responsible for the plan’s disappearance.
“The last words are particularly significant because it lessens the probability that either the pilot or co-pilot were involved in the ‘deliberate act’ of steering the plane in the westerly direction [away from its planned route],” said James Chaua, a reporter for the Chinese news outlet CCTV.
The disclosure was the latest embarrassing contradiction to emerge during the frustrating search, and prompted critics to blast the ongoing probe.
A Chinese relative of passengers on board missing MH370 is comforted by a monk as she breaks into tears at a Buddhist temple in Malaysia.AP “This investigation is an example of what not to do,” James Hall, an ex-chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told NBC News. “Everything they do, they change.”
Meanwhile, a cluster of orange objects spotted by a search plane was just fishing equipment and not related to the missing jet, officials said Monday, another disappointment in the three-week hunt that Australia’s prime minister said will continue indefinitely.
