Jeff Wise, a plane detective and author of the book The Plane That Wasn't There, has revealed in an interview with the Express newspaper that MH370's satellite communication system (Satcom) was switched off when it went off the radars, but was 30 minutes later switched back on again.
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According to him, the satellite that had unsuccessfully been trying to reach the plane for 30 minutes suddenly received a log-on request from it at 18:35, meaning that someone on board had switched the system back on. At the same time, it's unclear for what reason this was done, as the plane hadn't been using its Satcom during the flight.
"They probably had no idea that its intermittent handshake exchanges could be used to track the plane, since the technique hadn't been invented yet", Wise suggested.
The Satcom system resumed when the plane was over the Malacca Strait and 15 minutes later it allegedly took a turn in an unknown direction and, according to Wise, flew on autopilot beginning from 19:41 UTC in a straight line.
Numerous plane hunters have made attempts to determine the fate of the missing Boeing, coming up with all sorts of theories. While some have suggested that certain areas in the Indian Ocean be searched, others have proposed that the plane may have crashed in the Cambodian jungle.
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Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on 8 March 2014 carrying 239 passengers on board, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. After several years of unsuccessful attempts to locate the plane, the Malaysian government ended its search in May 2018, admitting that they did not know what happened to the plane.