Journal 2014 - # 607

#MalaysiaAirlines, #MH370, #PrayForMH370

Conflicting reports cloud investigation

There are conflicting reports about this latest lead as well. Earlier Thursday the Malaysian government denied a Wall Street Journal report that the plane was transmitting data after the last transponder signal.

And a senior aviation source with detailed knowledge of the matter also told CNN's Richard Quest on Thursday that there was no technical data suggesting the airplane continued flying for four hours, and said specifically that the Wall Street Journal account was wrong.

But U.S. officials maintained Thursday afternoon that the information from the airplane's data system was being actively pursued in the plane investigation.

Analysts from U.S. intelligence, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have concluded that the pings likely came from the missing aircraft, the senior U.S. official said.

There is reason to believe the plane flew for four hours, officials said, but there is no specific indication where the plane actually is.

Multiple bursts of data were received indicating the plane was flying over the Indian Ocean, the senior U.S. official told CNN.

But there's another confusing twist. An emergency beacon that would have sent data upon impact apparently did not go off, the official said. The beacons, known as Emergency Locator Transmitters, activate automatically upon immersion in fresh or salt water, but must remain on the surface for a distress signal to transmit.

The failure of the beacon to activate could mean that the plane didn't crash, that the transmitter malfunctioned, or that it's underwater somewhere.

Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, said even though it's unclear how accurate the latest information is, authorities have no choice but to pursue it.

"Well I think basically given that there is some information -- how reliable or not -- we have to respond," she said. "There is no way we cannot follow up on this lead. It would be inhumane. And it might turn out to be just the lead we need. ... There isn't much, but I think we have to do it."

So are we any closer to knowing whether a mechanical problem, terrorism or hijacking could be tied to the plane's disappearance?

Not really, said Evy Poumpouras, a former Secret Service agent. "The sad thing here is, we don't have enough information to say, 'It's not this, it's not that,'" she told CNN's Don Lemon. "We're still at the point, six days later, it could be anything, and that's the frustrating thing."

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