McCaul: Jetliner’s disappearance was intentional, deliberate

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on Monday said the missing Malaysian plane either crashed in the Indian Ocean or landed somewhere in an effort to help terrorists.

The latter scenario is less likely, he clarified in an interview on CNN’s “New Day.”

“I think one of two things happened here if we’re talking about possibilities,” said McCaul, who first explained the plane might have run out of fuel and crashed in the Indian Ocean.

“The other possible theory, but more unlikely is it landed somewhere to hook up with potential terrorists to use it as a weapon, as a cruise missile, in a future terrorist attack,” he added.

{mosads}No ties to terrorism have surfaced so far, but investigators aren’t ruling it out, McCaul said.

The flight’s disappearance 10 days ago was an “intentional and deliberate act” and “not an accident,” said McCaul, who has been briefed on the investigation.

“I feel very confident that it was done by someone intentionally,” he said. 

McCaul said that hypothesis is supported by the facts that a transponder was turned off, and the flight pattern was abruptly changed.

The congressman said he’s frustrated the U.S. hasn’t been provided with more access to the investigation.

“There’s a level of frustration. You’re dealing with a sovereign nation, and you have to be respectful. It’s not terribly sophisticated,” he said. “We want to push harder to get our federal law enforcement in there and homeland security officials to move forward on this.”