Investigators reveal MH370 co-pilot tried to make a call from his mobile phone after the aircraft 'vanished' but 'was abruptly cut off' as U.S. deny reports the plane landed at their remote military base



Investigators say call was made from Fariq Abdul Hamid's mobile phone

It was flying low enough for a sub-station in Penang to pick up signal

Details of who Fariq was trying to call have not been disclosed



It possible for a mobile phone to be connected at an altitude of 7,000 feet



U.S. denies reports plane landed at base on remote island of Diego Garcia



Fariq Abdul Hamid made a call from his mobile phone as the aircraft flew low over the west coast of Malaysia

The co-pilot of missing flight MH370 made a call from his mobile phone while the aircraft flew low over the west coast of Malaysia, it was revealed today as the U.S. denied reports the plane landed at a military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia.



Investigators have learned that the call was made from Fariq Abdul Hamid's mobile phone as the Boeing 777 flew low near the island of Penang, on the north of Malaysia's west coast.

The New Straits Times reported the aircraft, with 239 people on board, was flying low enough for the nearest telecommunications tower to pick up Fariq's signal.

The call ended abrupty, however it has been learned that contact was definitely established with a telecommunications sub-station in Penang state.

The paper said it had been unable to ascertain who Fariq was trying to call 'as sources chose not to divulge details of the investigation.'

It added: '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, quoting 'sources'.

The paper added that it had also been established that Fariq's last communication was through the WhatsApp Messenger app and that it had been made at about 11.30pm on March 7, shortly before he boarded the aircraft for the six-hour flight to Beijing.

The New Straits Times said it had been told checks on Fariq's phone history showed that the last person he spoke to was 'one of his regular contacts - 'a number that frequently appears on his outgoing phone logs'.

That last call, said the paper, was made no more than two hours before the flight took off 12.41am on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

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raphic showing Malaysia Airlines' route as it took off and its final contact with air traffic control. It is believed a call was made from Fariq's phone near the island of Penang. Today the U.S also denied reports the plane landed in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean

HMS Echo, which has arrived in the area of the southern Indian Ocean where 'pings' thought to be from the black box of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been detected

HMAS Toowoomba searching for debris of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at sea in the Indian Ocean

Separate sources told the paper that checks on Fariq's phone showed that connection to the phone when he made that last call before he boarded the plane had been 'detached'.

'This is usually the result of the phone being switched off.

'At one point, however, when the airplane was airborne, between waypoint Igari and the spot near Penang (just before the aircraft went missing from radar), the line was "reattached".'

Search area: This image released by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows the current planned search area along the old ones in the Indian Ocean, West of Australia, for the wreckage of flight MH370

The paper said that a reattachment does not necessarily meant that a call was made. It could also be the result of the phone being switched on again.

The revelation came as the U.S. denied claims the missing flight had landed at its military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia.

There had been rumours that the jetliner could have headed for the small coral atoll in the Indian Ocean after it veered off course while travelling between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Beijing, China on March 8.



However, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in the Malaysian capital denied the allegation.

According to Malaysia's Star newspaper, the spokesman said: 'There was no indication that MH370 flew anywhere near the Maldives or Diego Garcia.



'MH370 did not land in Diego Garcia.'



Diego Garcia is about 3,500km from Malaysia.



Meanwhile experts said today that it was possible for a mobile phone to be connected to a telecommunications tower at an altitude of 7,000 feet - which is low for a large jet like the Boeing 777 unless it was flying at high speed to maintain height.

The New Straits Times said that Fariq's cousin, Nursyafiqah Kamarudin, 18, had said recently that the 28-year-old co-pilot was very close to his mother.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) P3 Orion Rescue Flight 795 crew member is seen during a search for debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight

Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Co Pilot squadron Leader Brett McKenzie (left) and Flight Engineer Trent Wyatt sit in the cockpit aboard a P3 Orion maratime search aircraft

'If Fariq could make one call before the plane disappeared, it would have been to her,' said the cousin.

TIMELINE OF LOST FLIGHT MH370

March 8: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 loses contact with air traffic controllers between ne and two hours after takeoff

March 9: Radar indicates flight may have turned back from its scheduled route to Beijing

March 11: Interpol names two Iranian men who got on jet with stolen passports

March 12: Search expands to area from China to India

March 15: Malaysian authorities say they believe 'deliberate action' caused the plane to veer off course and someone shut down its tracking systems.

March 20: Search teams spot possible wreckage in Southern Indian Ocean, 1,500 miles off western coast of Australia

March 24: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says it is 'beyond any doubt' that the 239 passengers and crew perished in the Indian Ocean.

March 30: Daughter of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah says her father recently acted strangely

April 7: Australian ship Ocean Shielf detects underwater signals consistent with black boxes

April 9: Ocean Shield detects two more signals

April 11: Australian authorities pinpoint location



Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said earlier in the week that investigators had obtained 'some clues' as to what might have happened, based on the statements from 176 people who had been interviewed.

The crew, he said, were the main subjects of the investigation, a probe which has focused on four possible areas - hijack, sabotage, and personal and psychological problems among the crew or passengers.

The dramatic revelation that Fariq tried to make a phone call after regular communication from the aircraft to ground control was lost opens up a new field of speculation - and more questions about the mysterious disappearance of the jet.

If Fariq was able to make a call, why was there no attempt by the pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, to also make a mobile phone call?

Did Fariq know he was going to die and had, as his cousin had suggested, tried to phone his mother to say goodbye?

An email received by the Mail recently suggested that the aircraft had been hijacked and that the pilots had been ordered to fly around Malaysian and Indonesian air space while negotiations were carried out.

Those negotiations, said the email - from a source in Malaysia which could not be verified - demanded the dropping of a jail sentence imposed on Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

The hijackers, said the email, gave government negotiators five hours to meet their demands or the plane would be destroyed.

Last night Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister said he could not comment on the report in the New Straits Times adding that 'if it is true, we would have known about it much earlier.'

Mr Hishammuddin Hussein made his remarks to the Malaysian news agency, Bernama, pointing out that he had adopted the approach not to confirm anything without any corroboration or verification from the time when the aircraft was reported missing.

The Star newspaper, which is in opposition to the New Straits Times, interpreted Mr Hishammuddin's remarks as refuting the report about co-pilot Fariq attempting to make a mobile phone call.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (centre) speaks during a press conference on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in Kuala Lumpur

The Minister, who is also Defence Minister, told the news agency that he hoped the public understood what he was going through because such 'baseless information' not only affected operations but also the families of the passengers and the crew of the aircraft.

Mr Hishamuddin made his comments after performing prayers at a mosque in Kluang, Malaysia, earlier in the day.



Yesterday, it looked like the black box may had been located deep in the Indian Ocean.



Perth radio station 6PR tweeted the discovery, citing aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, who revealed the flight recorder had finally been found more than a month after the Boeing 777 went missing.

Buddhist monks write messages ahead of a mass prayer for the missing passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, in Kuala Lumpur

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is in China, said searchers are 'very confident' the signals detected were from the black box were from MH370.



'I really don't want to give any more information than that at this stage...as a sign of respect to the Chinese people and their families.'

Speaking from Shanghai, China, Mr Abbott added that today's discovery was a huge step in solving the mystery - and even claimed that officials believe they can now pinpoint the position of the missing black box flight recorder to ‘within some kilometres’.



'This is probably the most difficult search in human history,' he said. '

Among tragedy, however, there is hope. We are confident we know the position of the black box to the nearest kilometre.

'But confidence in the position is not the same as recovering the wreckage from more than 4.5km beneath the sea and finally determining all that happened on that flight.'



The fact that Mr Abbott has reportedly used the word 'confident' suggests that searchers are finally convinced that weeks of scouring the Indian Ocean might now have resulted in the discovery of the missing Boeing 777.

Mr Abbott's announcement came after a fifth ping was detected around 1,500 miles north west of Perth, in western Australia.



The signal was captured on Thursday by a Royal Australian Air Force Orion P-3 aircraft, which had been dropping sonar buoys into the water at the time.

Yesterday's breakthrough came as black box manufacturer Dukane Seacom said batteries powering the beacon could last for 40 days rather than the 30 previously thought.



Searching for clues: A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion conducts a low level fly-by before dropping supplies to Australian Navy ship HMAS Toowoomba

If it is discovered, the plane's black box, or flight data and cockpit voice recorders, may hold the answers to why the Boeing 777 lost communications and veered so far off course when it vanished while flying to Beijing.

Search crews are racing against time because the batteries powering the devices' locator beacons last only about a month - and more than a month has passed since the plane disappeared.



Finding the black boxes after the batteries fail will be extremely difficult because the water in the area is 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) deep.



The Australian ship Ocean Shield is towing a U.S. Navy device that detects black box signals, and two sounds it heard last Saturday were determined to be consistent with the signals emitted from aircraft flight recorders.



Two more sounds were detected in the same general area on Tuesday - just days before the fifth ping was detected on Thursday.



Leading Seaman Aircrewman (LSA) Daniel Colbert winching LSA Joel Young, into the water of the Indian Ocean

The underwater search zone is currently a 1,300-square-kilometre(500-square-mile) patch of the ocean floor, about the size of the city of Los Angeles.



Investigators believe the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean based on a flight path calculated from its contacts with a satellite and analysis of its speed and fuel capacity.

Malaysia's government has now begun to investigate civil aviation and military authorities to determine why opportunities to identify and track Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were missed in the chaotic hours after it vanished, two officials said.

In an interview with Reuters last weekend, Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said internal enquiries were under way, although he declined to give details.

Malaysia's opposition coalition has demanded a parliamentary inquiry into what happened on the ground in those first few hours.

