Mystery call? … Co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid. Picture: Supplied Source: News Corp Australia
THE co-pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines plane made a call from his mobile phone moments before the jet went off the radar, according to a weekend report in Malaysian media.
Officials have downplayed the report in the New Straits Times, which said the call from co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid’s phone ended abruptly after contact was established with a telecommunications sub-station in Penang state.
It added the call was made as the jet was flying low near Penang island on Malaysia’s west coast, the morning it went missing.
“The telco’s (telecommunications company’s) tower established the call that he was trying to make. On why the call was cut off, it was likely because the aircraft was fast moving away from the tower and had not come under the coverage of the next one,” the paper said, citing unnamed sources.
However Malaysian officials would not comment beyond saying if the report were true, they would have known about the call earlier.
Investigators are still trying to work out what had happened moments before the Boeing 777 went off the radar.
Fariq and Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah have come under intense scrutiny after the plane mysteriously vanished.
Fariq’s cousin Nursyafiqah Kamarudin, 18, told the New Strait Times on Monday that Fariq, who would have turned 28 on April 1, was very close to his mother.
“If Fariq could make one call before the plane disappeared, it would have been to her.”
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said authorities have received a lot of reports and leads.
“Unless we can have verifications, we can’t comment on these reports,” he said.
“If this did happen, we would have known about it earlier.”
NO new acoustic signals have been detected in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
source: news.com.au
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