A PILOT of the missing Malaysian airliner made a call on his mobile telephone after it had turned back from its scheduled flight path and was flying low near the island of Penang, according to a Malaysian government controlled newspaper.
The call on the telephone of first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid ended abruptly after contact was established with a communications tower, the New Straits Times reported on Saturday.
The newspaper quoted sources as saying the telecommunications tower ''established: the call 27 year-old Mr Fariq was trying to make.''
According to the sources, the call was likely to have been cut off because the aircraft was moving fast away from the tower and had not come under coverage of the next one.
But the report said the sources declined to reveal who he was trying to call.
The report cited other sources close to the investigation into the plane's disappearance as saying that checks on Mr Fariq's phone had shown it had been ''detached'' before the plane with 239 people on board left Kuala Lumpur airport at 12.41am on March 8.
He had sent a WhatsApp message application at 11.30pm to a regular number.
These sources were quoted as saying the phone was ''reattached'' near Penang before the plane disappeared from a military radar 320 kilometres north-west of Penang.
The newspaper described the discovery of the call as a breakthrough into the criminal investigation into the plane's disappearance with 239 people on board.
Police have said the plane's crew members are among the main ''subjects of the investigation'' but have refused to make public any details.
The call on the telephone of first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid ended abruptly after contact was established with a communications tower, the New Straits Times reported on Saturday.
The newspaper quoted sources as saying the telecommunications tower ''established: the call 27 year-old Mr Fariq was trying to make.''
According to the sources, the call was likely to have been cut off because the aircraft was moving fast away from the tower and had not come under coverage of the next one.
But the report said the sources declined to reveal who he was trying to call.
The report cited other sources close to the investigation into the plane's disappearance as saying that checks on Mr Fariq's phone had shown it had been ''detached'' before the plane with 239 people on board left Kuala Lumpur airport at 12.41am on March 8.
He had sent a WhatsApp message application at 11.30pm to a regular number.
These sources were quoted as saying the phone was ''reattached'' near Penang before the plane disappeared from a military radar 320 kilometres north-west of Penang.
The newspaper described the discovery of the call as a breakthrough into the criminal investigation into the plane's disappearance with 239 people on board.
Police have said the plane's crew members are among the main ''subjects of the investigation'' but have refused to make public any details.
