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Now it comes out the CO Pilots phone connected with a Tower in Penang.

Co-pilot of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 made desperate phone call seconds before plane went off radar: report* - NY Daily News

Co-pilot of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 made desperate phone call seconds before plane went off radar: report
Fariq Abdul Hamid’s cell phone reportedly connected with a telecommunications tower in the Malaysian city of Penang on March 8. Malaysian authorities are investigating the reports. International search teams have yet to find wreckage from the plane.BY Carol Kuruvilla / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Published: Saturday, April 12, 2014, 11:14 AM / Updated: Saturday, April 12, 2014, 11:14 AMA.
Share this URL. Co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, reportedly tried to make a mid-flight phone call.
Moments before Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went off the radar, its co-pilot allegedly tried to make one last call for help.

Fariq Abdul Hamid may have made a call from his cell phone as the doomed Boeing 777 flew low over the Malaysian city of Penang, the New Straits Times reports.

His phone reportedly connected with a telecommunications tower in the city before it was cut off—so the call never went through.

Malaysian officials have not divulged details about whom Hamid may have been trying to contact.

"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," sources told NST.

The aircraft carrying 239 people then traveled about 200 miles northwest of Penang before it vanished forever.

Satellite data suggests the Beijing-bound plane flew off course on March 8 and crashed into the southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. More than a month later, international search teams are investigating pings that may have come from the flight’s black box. They have yet to find wreckage from the plane.


Hamid would have turned 28 on April 1. Relatives say the young pilot was very close to his mom.

"If Fariq could make one call before the plane disappeared, it would have been to her,” said 18-year-old cousin Nursyafiqah Kamarudin.

In this map provided on Saturday, April 12, 2014, by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, details are presented in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean.
The evening before his flight departed from Kuala Lumpur, Hamid reportedly sent a text message through the WhatsApp Messenger.

His phone was then “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 it went missing from radar), the line was 'reattached,’” sources told NST.

View Gallery Search for Malaysia Airlines plane continues, as relatives are overcome with grief.
The paper cautioned that a “reattachment” doesn’t necessarily signal that a call was made. It could also mean that Hamid just tried switching his phone on again.

Telecommunications experts have said that it is possible for phones to connect at an altitude of 7,000 feet.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Saturday that the search would likely continue some time. He was "very confident" signals the pings heard by an Australian vessel in the Southern Indian Ocean were coming from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777's black boxes.

Search for MH370 seeks plane's 'final resting place'
AFP


Perth (AUSTRALIA) (AFP) - The hunt for "pings" from the missing Malaysian airliner's black box narrows in the remote Indian Ocean after fresh signals were detected,...
Perth (AUSTRALIA) (AFP) - The hunt for "pings" from the missing Malaysian airliner's black box narrows in the remote Indian Ocean after fresh signals were detected,...
..We have "very considerably narrowed down the search area, but trying to locate anything 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) beneath the surface of the ocean about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from land is a massive, massive task, and it is likely to continue for a long time to come," Abbott said.

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

The batteries that power the black boxes last only about a month, and that window has already passed. Finding the devices after the power runs out will be extremely difficult due to the extreme depth of the water in the search area.

The searchers want to pinpoint an exact location before they send down submersible robots to search for the wreckage. Up to 10 planes and 14 ships were searching Saturday.

With News Wire Services



Read more: Co-pilot of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 made desperate phone call seconds before plane went off radar: report* - NY Daily News

Why after 5 Weeks this is reported? Wouldn't they do this research as soon as they felt their was some possibility of foul play? How many other passenger phones made some sort of contact with towers?