Authorities investigating the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have found evidence of a mysterious power outage.
Data reveals a “log-on” request was made to a satellite just an hour-and-a-half into the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The log-on request (known in the aviation business as a “handshake”) was described as “not common” in the report released by The Australian Transport Safety Bureau last week.
It adds a “handshake” can occur for only a few reasons: “These include a power interruption to the aircraft satellite data (SDU) unit, a software failure, loss of critical systems providing input to the SDU or a loss of the link due to aircraft altitude.
“An analysis was performed which determined that the characteristics and timing of the logon requests were best matched as resulting from power interruption to the SDU.”
Aviation expert Peter Marosszeky, from the University of New South Wales, told the Sydney Morning Herald the power outage could be linked to an attempt by hijackers to tamper with cockpit equipment in a bid to avoid radar detection.
He said: “If there was a crew wanting to do something that was rather sinister or there were hijackers on board, they would remove power by opening up the bus-tie breakers and opening up the battery control switch.