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Investigators are now reportedly looking at a possibility of the missing Malaysian Airline passenger jet being flown to Taliban-controlled bases. The Flight MH370 went off civil radar just after 40 minutes after take off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, carrying 239 people.
After numerous theories of a possible sea crash, hijack and pilot suicide, Malaysian authorities are seeking diplomatic permission to scrutinise Taliban-controlled bases on the borders of Afghanistan and North West Pakistan, the Independent reports. According to the report, experts said that the plane’s transponders were deliberately disabled by someone of expertise on board, as the plane continued to give out ‘pings’ or satellite signals despite getting off radar.
Based on this theory, the authorities searched the homes of captain Zaharie Ahmed Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, and located the self-made simulator at Shah’s place. Meanwhile, the satellite data pointed that the plane was on one of two possible arcs, one stretching north from Thailand to Kazakhstan and crossing more than 10 countries, and one to the south over Indonesia and out across the southern Indian Ocean.
Large areas of the southern half of Afghanistan are ruled by the Afghan Taliban, while some areas of north-west Pakistan, adjacent to or near to the Afghan border, are controlled by the Pakistani Taliban, the report said.
Malaysian officials said that the search area has been significantly expanded and changed, as they were now looking at large tracts of land, crossing 11 countries as well as deep and remote oceans and have also requested help from a dozen Asian countries and asked them to provide radar data.
Pakistani civil aviation officials said they had checked their radar recordings and found no sign of the missing jet. The report added that after a background check of all the crew and passengers on board the ill-fated Malaysian Airline MH370, no trace had been found about any possible terrorist link.