MH370 As the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 entered into its 11th day, the New York Times reported the possibility that the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft’s flight path could have been altered by someone who programmed it through the airplane’s computer from the cockpit.

That someone, the paper quoted senior American officials as saying, is someone knowledgeable about the aircraft’s systems, who programmed it from the plane’s cockpit.

NYT further cited American officials assisting the Malaysian investigations as saying that the reprogramming could have taken place before the plane’s Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars) had been turned off and the first turn towards the West was done by the aircraft’s computer.

“Instead of manually operating the plane’s controls, whoever altered Flight MH370's path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer on a knee-high pedestal between the captain and the first officer.

“The Flight Management System (FMS), as the computer is known, directs the plane from point to point specified in the flight plan submitted before a flight. It is not clear whether the plane’s path was reprogrammed before or after it took off,” the NYT cited American officials as saying.

The plane’s turn-away from its intended flight path to Beijing has reinforced the investigators’ belief that the plane was deliberately diverted and foul play was involved.

“It has also increased the investigators’ focus on the plane’s captain and first officer,” the report states.

The paper further cited American officials as saying that the Flight 370's FMS reports its status to Acars, and it relayed the information back to the maintenance base.

“This shows the reprogramming happened before Acars stopped working. The Acars ceased to function at about the same time that oral radio contact was lost and the airplane’s transponder also stopped, fuelling suspicions that foul play was involved in the plane’s disappearance.”

Acars was last working at 1.07am on March 8 and is supposed to send signals every half an hour. However, Acars did not send any signal at 1.37am. The co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, as announced by MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahaya, gave the last verbal signoff at 1.19am.

Investigators now focusing on radar tapes

The report says that investigators are concentrating on the radar tapes from the time the plane left KLIA, as the tapes will show that after the plane first changed its course, it passed through several pre-established ‘waypoints’, which are virtual mile markers in the air.

That, the paper said, suggests the plane was under control of a skilled pilot as passing those points without the use of a computer would have been unlikely.

“Whoever changed the plane’s course would have had to be familiar with the Boeing aircraft, though not necessarily the 777 - the type of plane that disappeared.”

The NYT reports that American officials and aviation experts said it was far-fetched to believe that a passenger could have reprogrammed the FMS.

“The normal procedure is to key in a five-letter code - that is the name of a waypoint. A normal flight plan consists of a series of such waypoints, ending in the destination airport.

“For an ordinary flight, waypoints can be entered manually or uploaded into the FMS by the airline.”

The paper further reported that to change course, one of the pilots could key in a waypoint on a separate screen, and after confirming no errors, will push another button to move it into the sequence already in the flight plan.

Normally, the pilot would orally confirm the waypoint with the other pilot, then push another button to instruct the plane to head there.

“With the change in course, the plane would bank at a comfortable angle, around 20 degrees, and make the turn. Passengers would not feel anything unusual,” the paper reported.