A retired Air Force officer says it is not possible because telco antennas are directed toward the ground.
KUALA LUMPUR: A retired Air Force officer today expressed doubt that anyone on Flight MH370 made a mid-flight telephone call with a mobile phone, as recent news reports have suggested.
Captain Abdul Rahmat Omar told FMT it would be improbable for telecommunication towers to receive cellular signals from a plane because their antennas were directed toward the ground.
“Basically, you can’t make a call from a plane,” he said. “A plane moves fast and the reception is unstable. Furthermore, our telco antennas don’t point skyward. They face the ground.”
He was commenting on a New Straits Times report over the weekend quoting unnamed sources as saying that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid made a desperate call from his mobile phone when the Malaysia Airlines craft was close to Penang after veering from its KLIA-Beijing route on March 8.
The daily said the plane was then low enough for the nearest telecommunication tower to pick up his phone’s signal before it ended abruptly.
However, Abdul Rahmat suggested that Fariq might have switched on his mobile phone and the signal was picked up by the nearest tower but went off due to the speed of the flight.
“Maybe the co-pilot had his mobile phone turned on and the signal was traced by the telco tower just for a few seconds,” he said.
“But you can’t make a phone call because the reception is not stable. The plane is too fast for the phone to connect with a signal.”
CNN, quoting a US official, has also reported today that Fariq’s phone made contact with a telecommunication tower in Penang.
However, it said there was no evidence to show that Fariq had actually tried to make a call.
It quoted the unnamed official as saying the tower detected the first officer’s phone searching for service roughly 30 minutes after authorities believe the plane made a sharp turn westward.
Mobile signal, not call
A former commercial pilot meanwhile told FMT it was possible that the tower in Penang picked up a telephone signal from the plane.
“In my opinion, there is a chance that it can happen,” he said. “Maybe the telco tower did capture the signal for a few seconds, but I am not saying that the co-pilot managed to call out.”
He said that in the 1990s anyone on a flight was able to make a phone call using the old 010 mobile channel, which has now been discontinued.
“I am not very familiar with the new telco system because nowadays you have 3G, 4G and many others,” he said.
“In those days, you could make a call on air if you were using the 010 channel, but I’m not talking about the new 010 channel.”
MH370 disappeared from civilian radar while flying over the South China Sea. It is believed to have made a sudden turn and was spotted on military radar on the western side of Peninsular Malaysia heading for the Andaman Sea.
Searchers are still looking for the plane in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.
Captain Abdul Rahmat Omar told FMT it would be improbable for telecommunication towers to receive cellular signals from a plane because their antennas were directed toward the ground.
“Basically, you can’t make a call from a plane,” he said. “A plane moves fast and the reception is unstable. Furthermore, our telco antennas don’t point skyward. They face the ground.”
He was commenting on a New Straits Times report over the weekend quoting unnamed sources as saying that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid made a desperate call from his mobile phone when the Malaysia Airlines craft was close to Penang after veering from its KLIA-Beijing route on March 8.
The daily said the plane was then low enough for the nearest telecommunication tower to pick up his phone’s signal before it ended abruptly.
However, Abdul Rahmat suggested that Fariq might have switched on his mobile phone and the signal was picked up by the nearest tower but went off due to the speed of the flight.
“Maybe the co-pilot had his mobile phone turned on and the signal was traced by the telco tower just for a few seconds,” he said.
“But you can’t make a phone call because the reception is not stable. The plane is too fast for the phone to connect with a signal.”
CNN, quoting a US official, has also reported today that Fariq’s phone made contact with a telecommunication tower in Penang.
However, it said there was no evidence to show that Fariq had actually tried to make a call.
It quoted the unnamed official as saying the tower detected the first officer’s phone searching for service roughly 30 minutes after authorities believe the plane made a sharp turn westward.
Mobile signal, not call
A former commercial pilot meanwhile told FMT it was possible that the tower in Penang picked up a telephone signal from the plane.
“In my opinion, there is a chance that it can happen,” he said. “Maybe the telco tower did capture the signal for a few seconds, but I am not saying that the co-pilot managed to call out.”
He said that in the 1990s anyone on a flight was able to make a phone call using the old 010 mobile channel, which has now been discontinued.
“I am not very familiar with the new telco system because nowadays you have 3G, 4G and many others,” he said.
“In those days, you could make a call on air if you were using the 010 channel, but I’m not talking about the new 010 channel.”
MH370 disappeared from civilian radar while flying over the South China Sea. It is believed to have made a sudden turn and was spotted on military radar on the western side of Peninsular Malaysia heading for the Andaman Sea.
Searchers are still looking for the plane in the southern part of the Indian Ocean.
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