Malaysia's Ministry of Transport has recently released an extended version of the exchange between the flight control and the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 after experts raised concerns that the previously released logs had been edited and were incomplete. The newly released document reveals the last message sent to the flight's control display unit — a console in the cockpit that pilots use to program their flights.
"DEAR MH370. PLS ACK TEST MSG. RGDS/OC," the message read.
The message was sent 4 times at 18:38, 18:39, 18:40 and 18:41, but the delivery system never received a response signaling that the message had reached the aircraft. The message is distinctly shorter than the previous ones sent to the plane, with many words like "acknowledge," "message" and "regards" being shortened, while the authorship of the message is attributed to the operations center (OC) instead of the dispatch name. The address to the plane's crew is also unusual when compared to earlier messages. It is unclear why the transmission was left out of the previously published logs.
READ MORE: MH370: Missing Malaysian Airliner Reportedly Spotted in Cambodian Jungle
Investigators of the MH370 disappearance are still struggling to find the plane's remains, with the latest lead sending them to the Cambodian jungle. British video producer Ian Wilson recently claimed to have found the aircraft's crash site using satellite images on Google Maps.
In one of the images, he found an object strikingly resembling the plane, although slightly longer, at 230 feet as opposed to the 206 feet that the plane should be. Still, Wilson is confident that it is MH370 and that the difference in length can be explained by the tail of the aircraft breaking off upon crashing, thus lying a certain distance away from the rest of the plane.
READ MORE: Air Traffic Controllers May Face Action in MH370 Case — Reports
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which had 239 passengers and crew on board, disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. After years of massive searches, the Malaysian government admitted in July that they still do not know what happened to the plane. The investigation team noted in its report that a technical failure had unlikely occurred and that the actions of the two pilots didn't suggest ill intent, such as deliberately crashing the plane.
