dipped significantly in altitude to around 4 to 5,000 feet, dipped from the cruising altitude of about 35,000 feet down to about 4,000 to 5,000 feet flying from 120, 125 nautical miles at that height before coming up again to cruising altitude. why do these sources say they believe they have this information? they believe that it s based on or they say it s based on radar data, that the malaysian military radar detected at a certain point as the aircraft, as we know, it flew towards beijing, came back across the malaysian peninsula, flew out into the straits. in the straits there it disappears from the malaysian military radar. it disappears and then reappears further on. and from all the data these experts are telling us they believe that the aircraft, therefore, dropped in altitude to about 4,000 to 5,000 feet before coming back up, before flying off around the north of
when it gets back out over the sea, it then disappears from military radar, reappears about 120 nautical miles north northwest of that location where it disappears. according to the sources we re talking to, they say that may be because it was dipping to flight under under aircraft lines that are used for flights regularly used for flights to europe and to the indian subcontinent. we also understand that malaysian airline jets were scrambled as a, quote, precautionary measure about half an hour after the air force we re told by malaysian airlines that the flight itself had gone missing. so a lot of new details here, but perhaps for investigators the most important one, two minutes before the transponders get switched off, the last radio communication from the cockpit is from the pilot. this is something they ve been searching to find out. kaitd? absolutely, nic. a lot of information to work through. you will continue to work your
we re also learning brand-new details about the potential path of the plane at the very start. just after it dropped off malaysian military radar, as you key right here in this graphic. a senior malaysian source now tells cnn it appears the plane went north and then around indonesian airspace you see right there. that move may have been intentional to avoid detection in indonesia. first a closer look at the details about the possible flight path now. senior international correspondent nic robertson is live for us in kuala lumpur, arab. nick, what more can you tell us about the plane skirting indonesia and why? well, fredricka, what we re being told by officials here, they have been able to make this calculation based on more radar data available for neighboring countries. they have been able to use that to get the accurate plot of where the flight flew after it
map is correct kind of goes around indonesian radar. it does go over the peninsula. so, if they re trying to avoid being detected and maybe they don t have, no alternative, you re the aviation expert, i m not. another route through this area that they could even skip malaysian radar, as well? no, there isn t. if it had gone any further north, keep that map up and you ll see. go any further north and you ll hit thai air space. although the plane was definitely tracked by thai military, we know that, they already told us. there was a rumor they were planning to shoot it down if it entered thai air space. it avoids thai air space. in fact, victor, you put your finger on the biggest scandal in this whole incident. and it is that the plane was able to fly, in my opinion, anyway, it was able to fly back completely across malaysian air space. it was tracked by malaysian
but i think a lot of viewers, transation and the last known position of the plane was, northward after we spent a month looking in the southern indian ocean. what does this mean? we re not sure where this has come from, but there seems to be a view that at the moment of extremists, the plane had turned north. i have not heard this officially from any of the press statements, but it is out there. how would they know? i suppose this doppler information they used but let me just ask you all a question. i don t understand, physically, if you can t tell me where the plane went down how can you say it is pinging northward in the last few moments of its flight. that could be interpreted to me when it was last seen on malaysian military radar it was heading on this zigzag course towards the end of an island. heading to the northwest before it disappeared then we don t know if it turns north or south.