BEIJING — Authorities believe missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was on autopilot for hours when it crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, Australian officials said Thursday as they announced the search for the jet will shift to a new area.
"Certainly for its path across the Indian Ocean, we are confident that the aircraft was operating on autopilot until it ran out of fuel," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said at a press conference in Canberra on Thursday.
Asked whether the autopilot would have been manually turned on, Dolan said, "The basic assumption would be that if the autopilot is operational it's because it's been switched on."
Transport Minister Warren Truss said officials wouldn't be able to accurately determine when the plane's autopilot was turned on, and have not attempted to. The flight from Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 carried 239 passengers and crew, including 153 Chinese citizens whose relatives have been highly critical of the investigation.
Source : theweek.co.uk
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