they re showing. so i don t know if there s something i m missing. david gallo i think that also gets to the point you raiej÷5(p% earlier. andy pastor from the wall street journal, i want to ask you in terms of your reporting it was a manual change of direction, how can they know it was manually done? because the system that sends up some data from the aircraft to a satellite was not switched off at that point. it took them maybe between 14 and 20 minutes or something around that time, whoever was doing this, to make the transponder stop working and then disconnect the satellite communication system. and in that period of time is when the course change occurred. and the data that was relayed up to the satellite, according to the folks we ve talked, to indicates that this was a manually a manual direction to the flight control computer. i just want to also maybe answer one of your question why are they searching in the indian ocean more than 320,000 square miles.
the last signal that was received from the aircraft to the satellite was over the indian ocean. so they re starting their search based on the assumption that something happened from that point of view. and we should also be very aware that whoever was doing this was a very well, had some sophisticated knowledge of aircraft and aircraft electronics. because to disable these systems in a series of efforts, not at the same time, is not as easy and most pilots would not know precisely what to do to disable them. and once again it indicates it s not likely to be some catastrophic event. it s just too suspicious for that. let me bring in ron brown who is our pilot here with over 30 years experience. on andy s point there, how difficult is it to fly a 777, to disable these systems? i mean, what level of technical training would one need? well, first of all, to fly the 777, the controls in your hands in flying it is like
feet, is that something that an autopilot would do or does that that has to be manually done? that has to be manually done, and it has to be done by somebody having their hands on the controls or somebody having their hand on the autopilot and changing the altitude. otherwise, if the airplane is on autopilot, it s going to stay at the heading that it was given. so to do erratic changes like that, somebody was controlling that airplane and flying it outside the envelope and not knowing what the correct way to fly the airplane was. we ve got to take another break. i would like you to stick around, andy pastor, as well. based on the people he s talking to, it seems now evident that the plane was manually turned after the communication device was switched off and authorities
industry officials. michael pastor of the journal joins us now with details. andy pastor with details. andy, just minutes ago you posted a story for the wall street journal with staggering new details about that first turn the plane took. what can you tell us? so this investigation appears to be moving very quickly toward a law enforcement or terrorism path. every day it s harder and harder to come up with a credible argument that this was an accident. and what we re putting on the web site and will put in tomorrow s paper are some details about what the investigators suspect was happening on that plane, some deliberate actions. in the space of six hours, someone or a group turned off three different signalling systems on that aircraft to hide its location. and investigators also believe that about an hour after takeoff, just after the transponders stopped operating, someone manually made the aircraft turn to the left. and in addition to that, there are strong suspicions that in
to right away. does it make sense to you from an investigation standpoint they would not have already searched the home of the pilot who had a flight simulator in hisíqm house and others? i don t believe that. i think they went to his home. they ve been there already, they ve gone through his stuff. the malays don t want to talk about the possibility one of their own citizens brought this plane down or hijacked it. they re very sensitive about this. remember that 9/11 in a sense started in malaysia with a meeting in kuala lumpur. go of the hijackers left and went to san diego. they re still sensitive about that. they have an islamic fundamentalist problem there which they don t want to come out and admit to the whole world. bob bair, everyone, i want to thank you all for being with us. andy pastor in particular, you ve been breaking this story just at the top of the hour and were able to come on the program and talk about it. it s on the wall street journal web site right now