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Missing MH370 dropped to 12,000 ft altitude after making sharp turn

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ANI Washington
Last Updated : Mar 24 2014 | 11:15 AM IST

As the search for the missing Malaysian Airline passenger jet enters its third week, it has been revealed that the plane flew at a very low height before disappearing from the radar.

A source close to the investigation into the missing flight has said that military radar tracking showed that the Flight MH370 changed altitude after making a sharp turn over the South China Sea as it headed toward the Strait of Malacca.

The official further said that the plane flew as low as 12,000 feet at some point before it disappeared from radar, CNN reports.

The sharp turn appeared intentional because executing it would have taken the Boeing 777 two minutes, during which the pilots could have sent an emergency signal if there had been a fire or other emergency onboard.

However, no emergency signals were sent by the pilots, yet authorities maintain that it was still unclear whether the pilots tried but weren't able to communicate because of a catastrophic failure.

Aviation analysts have said that if the plane descended to such a low height from 35,000 feet, it could be done to save passengers onboard, but they didn't rule out suspicions about foul play in the cockpit.

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Meanwhile, France has also provided satellite images of what appeared to be debris floating in the Indian Ocean possibly belonging to the missing plane.

Since the plane went missing on March 8th, numerous theories have emerged to conclude what exactly could have happened to the plane just 40 minutes after its take off from Kuala Lumpur, but no plausible evidence has been traced to establish if the plane crashed through deliberate effort of someone onboard or it was just a tragic accident.

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First Published: Mar 24 2014 | 11:08 AM IST

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