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By Eileen Ng The Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, MALAysiA » Pi- racy and pilot suicide are among the scenarios under study as inves- tigators grow increasingly certain the missing Malaysian Airlines jet changed course and headed west after its last radio contact with air traffic controllers. The latest evidence suggests the plane didn't experience a cat - astrophic incident over the South China Sea as was initially sus- pected. Some experts theorize that one of the pilots, or someone else with flying experience, hijacked the plane or committed suicide by plunging the jet into the sea. A U.S. official said Friday in Washington that investigators are examining the possibility of "hu - man intervention" in the plane's disappearance, adding it may have been "an act of piracy." The offi- cial, who wasn't authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condi- tion of anonymity, said it also was possible the plane may have landed somewhere. While other theories are still be - ing examined, the official said key evidence suggesting human in- tervention is that contact with the Boeing 777's transponder stopped about a dozen minutes before a messaging system on the jet quit. Such a gap would be unlikely in the case of an in-flight catastrophe. A Malaysian official, who also declined to be identified because he is not authorized to brief the media, said only a skilled aviator could navigate the plane the way it was flown after its last confirmed location over the South China Sea. The official said it had been estab - lished with a "more than 50 per- cent" degree of certainty that military radar had picked up the missing plane after it dropped off civilian radar. Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hus - sein, said the country had yet to determine what happened to the plane after it ceased communicat- ing with ground control around 40 minutes into the flight to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people aboard. He said investigators were still trying to establish with certainty that military radar records of a blip moving west across the Ma - lay Peninsula into the Strait of Ma- lacca showed Flight MH370. "I will be the most happiest person if we can actually confirm that it is the MH370, then we can move all (search) assets from the South China Sea to the Strait of Malacca," he told reporters. Un - til then, he said, the international search effort would continue ex- panding east and west from the plane's last confirmed location. On Thursday, a U.S. official said the plane remained airborne after losing contact with air traffic con - trol, sending a signal to establish contact with a satellite. Boeing offers a satellite service that can receive a stream of data on how an aircraft is functioning in flight and relay the information to the plane's home base. Malay - sia Airlines didn't subscribe to that service, but the plane still had the capability to connect with the sat- ellite and was automatically send- ing signals, or pings, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't au- thorized to discuss the situation by name. India said it was using heat sen- sors on flights over hundreds of Andaman Sea islands Friday and would expand the search for the missing jet farther west into the Bay of Bengal, more than 1,000 miles to the west of the plane's last known position. EAst AsiA Missing plane: Piracy theory gains credence Gautam SinGh — the aSSociated PreSS in this nov. 14, 2005 file photo, clouds hang over the north Sentinel island, in india's southeastern andaman and nicobar islands. india used heat sensors on flights over hundreds of uninhabited andaman Sea islands Friday and will expand its search for the missing malaysia airlines jet farther west into the Bay of Bengal, officials said. By Cassandra Vinograd The Associated Press LONDON » Despite six hours of talks, the U.S. and Russia found "no common vision" Fri- day over the crisis in Ukraine, where residents in the coun- try's strategic Crimean re- gion are holding a secession vote this weekend. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made the com - ment after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in London. At the marathon talks, Lav - rov made it clear that Rus- sian President Vladimir Putin would not make any decision about what to do with Crimea — which is now under the con - trol of Russian-backed forces — until after Sunday's vote. Kerry, however, said Washing- ton and the international com- munity won't recognize the outcome of the referendum. Sunday's vote on Crimea — Ukraine's strategic Black Sea peninsula of 2 million people — is widely expected to back secession and, potentially, an - nexation with Russia. The new government in Kiev believes the vote is illegal, but Moscow says it does not recognize the new government as legitimate since it forced out Ukraine's pro-Russian president. The U.S. a nd EU say the Crimean vote violates Ukraine's constitution and international law. If Crimea votes to secede, the U.S. and European Union plan to slap sanctions as early as Monday. "That is a decision of enor - mous consequence with re- spect to the global commu- nity," Kerry said. "It would be against international law and, frankly, fly in the face of ev- ery legitimate effort to try to reach out to Russia and oth- ers to say there is a different way to protect the interests of Crimeans, to protect Russia's interests and to respect the in - tegrity of Ukraine and the sov- ereignty of Ukraine." UKRAiNE Kerry: U.S. won't recognize vote in Crimea By Verena Dobnik The Associated Press NEW yORK » Using sound de- vices to probe for voices and telescopic cameras to peer into small spaces, work- ers searching a pile of rub- ble from a gas explosion in New York City were cling- ing to the possibility Friday of finding survivors from a blast that brought down two apartment buildings and killed at least eight people. "We have to think of sur - vivors and work in that way, with hope," said Fire Depart- ment of New York Chief Ed- ward Kilduff. Police said Friday that at least one person remained unaccounted for after the deafening blast Wednesday morning destroyed two five- story East Harlem apart - ment buildings at Park Av- enue and 116th Street that were served by an 1887 cast- iron gas main. "We are still in a search and rescue mode," a fire de - partment spokesman said. The work was slow going, with 40 percent to 50 per- cent of the debris removed by Thursday evening. Kilduff said the fire was still burn- ing, and the force of the ex- plosion collapsed and pan- caked layers of floors. A back wall that still freestanding posed a collapse hazard. Workers continued to re - move debris at the site on Friday, and hoped to make it down to the first floor by Saturday, then move on to the basement. "This is catastrophic. It's devastating and we've had, obviously, a loss of life. So, it is very hard to be here. But it's part of our job to find out wh at h ap pe ne d so t ha t we can keep it from happening again," said National Trans - portation Safety Board team member Robert Sumwalt, who was at the scene Friday. NAtiON NYC rescuers searching rubble from blast We Do That 1375 Montgomery Rd. Red Bluff, CA 530 529-0797 STOVE JUNCTION The The North State's premier supplier of stoves 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Over 25 years of experience Tues-Sat 9am-5pm • Closed Sun & Mon Now Carrying! 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