Malaysia plane’s flight path changed by cockpit computer

The turn that diverted the missing Malaysian Airlines plane off its flight path was programmed into the aircraft’s computer navigation system, probably by someone in the cockpit, the New York Times reported late Monday.

That reinforces the increasing belief among investigators that the aircraft was deliberately diverted, the newspaper said, quoting US officials.

Rather than manually operating the plane’s controls, whoever altered Flight 370′s path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer situated between the captain and the co-pilot, according to officials.

The computer is called the Flight Management System. It 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 Times said.

Flight 370 vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysia said Saturday it believed the plane had been diverted because its transponder and other communications devices had been manually turned off several minutes apart.