MALAYSIAN Airlines flight en route to China is missing.

PressForNirvana · Mar 10, 2015

Investigation team releases interim statement on MH370

Xinhua and Staff Reporter
2015-03-09

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Family members of the missing passengers attend an event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 8. (Photo/CNS)

The investigation team for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 released an interim statement on the efforts and progress that have been made in the search for the missing plane and the investigation into the incident.

The statement, released on the first anniversary of the disappearance of the MH370, was formally announced through Radio Television Malaysia.

According to the statement, the investigation team gathered some factual information on the MH370 incident through reviewing recordings, interviews and visits to departments concerned.

The investment team, called Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team, was set up by the Ministry of Transport Malaysia under the Malaysia Civil Aviation Regulation. Experts and representatives from a number of countries and international organizations participated in the 19-member investigation team.

The team reviewed Air Traffic Control radio and radar tape recordings and made transcripts of radiotelephony communications between the aircraft and Air Traffic Controllers, said the report.

The team also reviewed aircraft maintenance records and carried out simulator sessions to reconstruct the aircraft flight profile and system operation.

The team interviewed more than 120 people from the Department of Civil Aviation of Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines, next-of-kin of crew and others concerned.

The investigation team in the months ahead will need to analyze the information to draw conclusions and put forward safety recommendations based on the factual information that have been gathered, said the statement.

"In addition to the analysis and the conclusion phase of the investigation, steps taken will also include further validation of the factual information on the emergence of new evidence," the statement said.

"The investigation team expects that further factual information will be available from the wreckage and flight recorders if the aircraft is found," the statement said.

The Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board. So far no trace has been found despite a massive surface and underwater hunt.

A massive search has been jointly carried out by Australia, Malaysia and China in the Indian Ocean some 1,600 kilometers off Australia's west coast, with four ships using sophisticated sonar systems to scour a huge underwater area.

The vessels are focusing on a 60,000 square kilometer priority zone, with the hunt scheduled to end in May.

Malaysian minister of transport Liow Tiong Lai told reporters that over 26,000 square kilometers of the seafloor, or over 40% of the total priority zone have been searched so far for the missing flight.

According to the regulations of International Civil Organization (ICAO), if a final investigation report on an air incident can not be made public available within 12 months, the country conducting the investigation shall make an interim statement on each anniversary of the occurrence, detailing the progress of the investigation.

"The disappearance of MH370 is without precedent, and so too is the search, by far the most complex and technically challenging in aviation history," Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said in a statement earlier Sunday. "Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists. Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopefully that MH370 will be found," the prime minister said.

PressForNirvana · Mar 10, 2015

Is this proof that MH370 crashed off the coast of Australia? Towelette with Malaysia Airlines logo washes up on Western Australia beach

The package washed up on a Cervantes beach in Western Australia
It has now been sent to Canberra for further testing and verification
Experts think a package this small could travel these long distances
It comes just days after the one year anniversary of the disappearance
MH370 disappeared with all 239 people on board on March 8, 2014
Relatives of the passengers gathered to mourn and demand answers

By John Carney for Daily Mail Australia and Heather Mcnab for Daily Mail Australia
Published: 22:25 GMT, 9 March 2015 | Updated: 14:52 GMT, 10 March 2015

In a new twist in the continuing saga of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a towelette that was washed up on a Western Australia beach is now being examined to try and find out if it could have come from the disappeared plane.

The small pre-moistened paper towel that was in a Malaysia Airlines sealed packet has been sent to Canberra for testing and verification after being found by a couple walking along a beach in Cervantes in July last year, Nine News reported.

The news comes just days after the one year anniversary of the plane's disappearance, with 239 people on board.

Kingsley and Vicki Miller discovered the unopened packet at Cervantes, 200 kilometres north of Perth, and said it was ‘unopened, which was very unusual’.

267AFEF100000578-2987078-A_towelette_that_was_washed_up_on_a_Western_Australia_beach_may_-m-21_1425939406734.jpg

A reenactment of the discovery of the towelette that washed up on a Western Australia beach which may have been from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

The package was washed up on a Cervantes beach hundreds of kilometres away from where the plane is said to have disappeared

267B002A00000578-2987078-The_small_package_has_been_sent_to_sent_to_Canberra_for_further_-a-22_1425939433037.jpg

The small package has been sent to sent to Canberra for further testing

'If it had of been opened and found lying there it would have been completely different,' Mr Miller said.

The Daily Telegraph reported that experts believe it's possible for a small package such as the towelette to travel long distances without sustaining damage.

However, experts believe that the package may not provide any helpful information as to the disappearance of the plane.

'A 6cm x 8cm moist towelette in wrapping branded with the Malaysia Airlines logo was found at Thirsty Point on 2 July 2014. It was handed in to the WA police,' said a spokesperson for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

'It is unlikely, however, that such a common item with no unique identifier could be conclusively linked with MH370,' reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

The plane dropped off the civilian radar after its transponder and other equipment were switched off shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur. It was then tracked by Malaysia’s military radar heading towards the Indian Ocean.

Kingsley and Vicki Miller discovered the unopened packet at Cervantes, 200 kilometres north of Perth

The MH370 flight disappeared on the May 8 with 239 people on board

Malaysian Airlines towelette washes up on WA beach

The anniversary of the plane's disappearance was matched by a report which revealed that the battery of an underwater locator beacon on the flight had expired more than a year before the incident.

The update on the progress of the probe surrounding the Malaysia Airlines plane indicates those looking for the aircraft would have had less chance of finding it.
Apart from the anomaly of the beacon, the report devoted many of its 584 pages to describe the complete normality of the flight - shedding little light on one of aviation's biggest mysteries.

The significance of the expired battery was not immediately apparent, except indicating that searchers would have had lesser chance of locating the plane, even if they were in its vicinity.

The report said: ‘The sole objective of the investigation is the prevention of future accidents or incidents, and not for the purpose to apportion blame or liability.’

PressToTeleport · Apr 17, 2015

MH370 search zone to double if nothing found

AFP
April 17, 2015, 1:57 am

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - The search area for flight MH370 will double in size to encompass a vast Indian Ocean corridor if wreckage remains elusive, Malaysia, Australia and China said Thursday, asserting their commitment to finding the plane.

Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, ministers from the three countries said the deep-sea zone now being scanned for signs of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines jet would be expanded to 120,000 square kilometres (46,300 square miles) if the current area comes up empty.

"If the aircraft is not found within the current 60,000-square-kilometre search area, we have collectively decided to extend the search by an additional 60,000 square kilometres within the highest-probability area," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.

He spoke at a press briefing following a meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and China's Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 passengers and crew aboard mysteriously veered off its route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, creating one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries and sparking a massive international effort to find it.

About 60 percent of an initial suspected crash area has already been searched in the Australian-led, high-tech effort to scan the seafloor.

Australian authorities had earlier said the current search was expected to be completed in May, raising fears among next-of-kin that the expensive and challenging operation would end after that.

The current zone, a sweeping arc about 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) off Australia's west coast was determined via expert analysis of signals from MH370 that were detected by a satellite.

- A 'relief' for families -

Authorities admit the method is not precise but say they have nothing else to go on.

The expanded area would centre on the current zone and follow its contours, but be wider and longer.

"We will extend north, south, east and west -- it's an expanded area, it's within the high-priority areas," Liow said.

Thursday's news came as a relief to Jacquita Gonzales, one of many MH370 relatives who have criticised Malaysia's handling of the situation and who question the satellite data and the focus on the southern Indian Ocean.

- Authorities 'committed' to the job -

"It's a relief that they are not stopping, but we still worry whether they are looking in the right area," said Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was the flight's cabin crew supervisor.

"I just hope the next 60,000 (kilometres) is not just a waste of another year."

The three ministers said in a joint statement that an expanded search could take another year due to the difficulties faced by the operation in the remote and storm-tossed seas.

Truss said it would take "at least the rest of this year," noting that the additional area would be just as forbidding as the current one.

"As the new search area surrounds the old one, you can assume the seabed is broadly similar," he said.

Rough weather, the pitch-black extreme depths of up to 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), and the rugged nature of the previously unmapped seafloor have made for a slow, frustrating search.

Four different search vessels are towing 10-kilometre cables fitted with sophisticated sonar systems that scan the seabed.

Truss said Australia and Malaysia remained "committed to making sure we can do this job properly."

"We have the best equipment in the world and we are satisfied the search is being conducted in a very professional way."

China's Yang said his country would also marshal resources "including vessels or other physical assets" if the search is broadened.

Most MH370 passengers were Chinese.

The meeting also discussed possible next steps if wreckage is found so that a recovery operation can quickly swing into action.

Shortly before veering off its route, MH370's communications and tracking systems appear to have been "deliberately" shut down, Malaysia has said.

The cause of the diversion remains unknown.

Theories range from rogue pilot action, catastrophic mechanical problems, or a hijacking.

PressToTeleport · Apr 23, 2015

MH370 search to return to square one and comb for any missed clues

Date April 22, 2015 - 9:22PM
Alana Schetzer

Tidal movements in the search zone and the abundance of rubbish in the ocean, have made the search for MH370 problematic. Photo: Reuters

Experts searching for missing plane MH370 will review data collected about a year ago to ensure no clues about the plane's fate have been missed.

As the international search enters its second year, Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief Martin Dolan said satellite data from the plane's last known communications will be combed for any details that experts may have missed the first time.

And an analysis of how planes behave when they run of fuel - something that many experts believed is what happened to the plane - will also be re-examined to help pinpoint the aircraft's possible final resting place.

Commissioner Dolan told News Corp Australia: "We keep on checking because until we find the aircraft everyone can say "well you must be looking in the wrong place because you haven't found it"."

Malaysian Airlines MH370 went missing on March 8 last year, with 239 people on board, including six Australians. The Boeing 777 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when contact stopped unexpectedly

Since the plane went missing, countless theories have been suggested as to what happened, including terrorism, suicide by pilot and mechanical failure.

Commissioner Dolan said the best possible lead from the plane's tracking system was that the plane had crashed in the Southern Indian Ocean varying significantly off course and running out of fuel.

The international party searching for the plane agreed last week to double the size of the search, which will now cover 120,000 square kilometres of the Southern Indian Ocean.

The bureau would not comment when contacted by Fairfax Media.

PressToTeleport · Jun 4, 2015

Search for MH370 plane will not be expanded, Australia says

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 03 June, 2015, 6:33pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 03 June, 2015, 6:33pm

Agence France-Presse in Sydney

A candle burns as relatives of Chinese passengers from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 attend prayers in Thean Hou temple, Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 would not be expanded beyond its current area without specific new leads, Australian officials said on Wednesday, dousing relatives’ hopes the search could last beyond early next year.

In April, more than a year after the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, Malaysia, Australia and China announced that the search zone would double in size.

This boosted the area of the remote southern Indian Ocean being scoured by three specialist vessels to 120,000 square kilometres, with officials saying the wider search could take another year due to the difficult conditions.

But on Wednesday, the Australian-led Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said it would not expand the search – which has already proved arduous and expensive – without new data.

“In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area,” JACC said.

The hunt for the aircraft, which disappeared on March 8 last year, has been a complex undertaking, with Australia initially concentrating on a remote 60,000 square kilometre area of the ocean far off its west coast.

No wreckage from MH370 has ever been found in one of aviation’s great mysteries and Malaysian authorities in January declared that all on board were presumed dead.

But many relatives of those lost on the flight have rejected that verdict, criticising Malaysia’s handling of the situation and questioning the choice to focus the search on the southern Indian Ocean.

“We do not know for sure where the plane is even after such a long time. Hence we demand they expand the area of search until the plane is found,” 61-year-old Malaysian G. Subramaniam, whose only son was on the flight, said.

“Every day is a difficult day for me and my wife. Until a wreckage is found, we will not accept the claim by the authorities that the plane has crashed.”

The search zone – a sweeping arc of about 1,600 kilometres – was determined by analysing data from satellite signals which indicate the plane went down in the Indian Ocean after mysteriously diverting.

More than 50,000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been scoured so far with no trace of the jet, JACC said, and with the onset of winter and poor weather the operation is slowing down.

The deep underwater search using sonar equipment is currently suspended due to choppy seas, where waves have reached up to 12 metres, although ships remain on the scene.

It will continue once conditions improve but be scaled back with one of the vessels, GO Phoenix, ceasing operations and returning to Singapore near the end of June.

A fourth vessel previously involved in the search, Fugro Supporter, which carried an autonomous underwater vehicle, was withdrawn in May in the face of the worsening conditions.

“Safety of the search crews, as always, remains a priority and vessels and equipment utilised will vary to reflect operational needs, particularly during winter months,” JACC said.

“Search operations will continue through the winter months, but pauses are anticipated.”

The pitch-black extreme depths of up to 4,000 metres in the search area as well as the rugged nature of the seafloor have also added to the challenges facing authorities.

The hunt has also uncovered a previously uncharted shipwreck deep underwater, authorities said last month.

PressToTeleport · Jun 12, 2015

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 nosedived into Indian Ocean, Dr Goong Chen says

Date June 11, 2015 - 5:04PM
Marissa Calligeros

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared without a trace because it nosedived at a perfect 90-degree angle into the Indian Ocean and stayed intact, according to a maths professor.

The latest theory on the ill-fated flight, which vanished in March 2014, has been put forward by Goong Chen and his team of mathematicians from the Texas A&M University in Qatar.

Read the full study here

A computer-generated image of the MH370 nosedive. Photo: Texas A&M University at Qatar/Notices of the American Mathematical Society

The mathematicians ran a series of computer simulations, which Dr Chen says show that the Boeing 777 plunged into the Indian Ocean at a 90-degree angle.

According to Dr Chen, this explains why no debris or oil slick has ever been found.

"The true final moments of MH370 are likely to remain a mystery until someday when its black box is finally recovered and decoded," Dr Chen said.

A computer-generated image of MH370 hitting the Indian Ocean at a 90 degree angle. Photo: Notices of the American Mathematical Society

"But forensics strongly supports that MH370 plunged into the ocean in a nosedive."

According to Dr Chen's fluid dynamics simulations, a "vertical water entry" would have caused the least resistance to the plane.

He said the wings of the plane would have broken off almost immediately, while the rest of the fuselage remained intact. Dr Chen said the wings, along with other heavy debris, would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, leaving little or no trace behind. It may be on the ocean floor, belly-up.

A computer-generated image showing MH370 nosediving into the Indian Ocean. Photo: Notices of the American Mathematical Society

His research was first published in the April 2015 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

Meanwhile, the Australian government is allegedly preparing to call off the search for the plane, according to Emirates president Sir Tim Clark.

Sir Tim, who has likened the effort to a "goose chase", told Fairfax Media funding for the search would be exhausted later this year.

The Go Phoenix being battered by large waves during the search for missing MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Photo: Ryan Galloway and Joshua Phillips

He said the disappearance would thereafter go into the annals of the history of aviation.

"I think it is only a question of time before the search is abandoned," he said on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Miami on Tuesday.

"Do we have solutions? Do we have explanations? Cause? Reasons? No. It has sent us down a goose chase. It will be an Amelia Earhart repetition."

Dr Goong Chen. Photo: Texas A&M University at Qatar.

Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in the late 1920s. A few months later, after another attempt, she disappeared.

At the request of the Malaysian government, Australia has taken responsibility for the search, with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau leading the mission.

The search for the aircraft, thought to be in the Southern Ocean off the coast of Western Australia, is ongoing but has been hampered by bad weather.

In the latest operational update on June 3, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said all three search vessels in the area were forced to temporary halt the effort on May 30 as a result of poor weather.

In April, the search area was doubled to 120,000 square kilometres, but the Australian, Malaysian and Chinese governments have agreed that in the absence of further information that leads to the identification of the aircraft, there will be no further expansion of the search area.

MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Six Australians, including Brisbane couple Rod and Mary Burrows and their friends Robert and Catherine Lawton, and Sydney couple Gu Naijun and Li Yuan were on board.

Perth-based New Zealand man Paul Weeks was also on the flight.

- with Jamie Freed

PressToTeleport · Jun 19, 2015

Malaysia says committed to MH370 hunt despite ship pull-out

AFP
June 19, 2015, 5:15 am

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Malaysia on Thursday insisted it was committed to completing the hunt for missing flight MH370 despite not renewing its contract with one of three search vessels scanning the Indian Ocean seabed.

The Australian-led operation had said previously that Malaysia would not renew its contract with the high-tech ship GO Phoenix once the search goes into hiatus in coming weeks due to the onset of the southern hemisphere winter, and it would exit the search.

That has spurred speculation online that Malaysia's commitment to the frustrating effort was flagging.

But Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Thursday his government remained committed to finish scouring an additional 60,000 square kilometres (23,000 square miles) added to the search parameters in April.

"To reiterate, Malaysia remains committed to continuing the search for the additional 60,000 square kilometres," he said in a statement emailed to media.

The statement, however, did not say why the GO Phoenix contract was not being renewed.

But it said Malaysia had committed more than $46 million to search and recovery efforts, "which clearly demonstrates our commitment to finding MH370."

In April, more than a year after the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, Malaysia, Australia and China announced that the search zone would double in size to 120,000 square kilometres.

They said at the time that the widened search could take another year due to the difficult conditions.

But earlier this month search authorities said the hunt would not be further expanded beyond that without specific new leads.

The aircraft disappeared on March 8 last year.

No part of the wreckage has ever been found in one of aviation's great mysteries and Malaysian authorities in January declared that all on board were presumed dead.

But many next of kin have rejected that verdict, criticising Malaysia's handling of the situation and questioning the focus on the southern Indian Ocean, which was arrived at via an analysis of satellite data indicating the plane's possible path.

PressToTeleport · Jul 8, 2015

Could plane spotted by Maldivian islanders really have been MH370?

On March 8, 2014, the day Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared, the inhabitants of a tiny Maldivian island claim to have spotted a noisy, low-flying jet. Florence de Changy visits Kuda Huvadhoo to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Kuda Huvadhoo island, Dhaalu Atoll, in the Maldives. Photos: Florence de Changy

Since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared in the early hours of Saturday, March 8, last year, there have been persistent claims, validated by international media, that a large, very noisy aircraft flying low and spotted by inhabitants of a remote island in the Maldives could have been the missing plane. It's a scenario that has given hope to the families of the 239 people on board that they may at last discover the fate of the Beijing-bound airliner.

Kuda Huvadhoo would be hard to find by accident. The tiny island is located in the central part of the Maldives archipelago, at the southern tip of Dhaalu Atoll. It is not on the luxury tourism map and the island claims five mosques and just four private cars. Calls to prayer dictate the rhythm of the day, here, while weeks are punctuated by the arrival, every Wednesday morning, of the cargo ferry from the Maldivian capital, Male, delivering passengers, chickens, mopeds, sacks of rice and onions and the occasional fridge or fan.

Every Saturday, the same ferry returns to Male.

The population of Kuda Huvadhoo suddenly swelled to 3,500 in December 2004, when it had to accommodate survivors from two neighbouring islands destroyed by the great tsunami. The world's attention again turned to Kuda Huvadhoo when a number of islanders claimed to have seen a large plane, flying low, a few hours after MH370 disappeared from radar screens 40 minutes into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

At first, the flight time from Kuala Lumpur appeared to be compatible with this theory - assuming that the aircraft had turned due west after its last contact with air-traffic control. Since it was scheduled to land in China at 6.30am, roughly the same time as the sighting over the Maldives, this assumption gathered support. Similar distance travelled, right timing. It all seemed to fit …

Malaysian officials were quick to reject the islanders' eyewitness accounts, however. Malaysia's then acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, told reporters at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on March 19 last year that the reports were not true, without giving further details. Besides, the trajectory over the Maldives was incompatible with what was becoming the official account of the disappearance, according to which, the aircraft had changed direction 40 minutes into the flight and had flown due south until it ran out of fuel, ultimately crashing at 8.19am somewhere in the Indian Ocean southwest of Perth, Australia, in one of the most isolated areas of the planet.

Zuhuriyya Ali, at her home on Kuda Huvadhoo, points to where she saw the aircraft.

In the climate of distrust that had set in between the families of the disappeared and the authorities, though, Malaysia's denial lent credence to the possibility that the flight had instead flown towards the Maldives.

As time went on and no sign of the lost airliner emerged, the rumours refused to die. French weekly magazine Paris Match and newspaper The Australian sent reporters to the Maldives to investigate. Both publications claimed that the "large plane" spotted could have been MH370. The Australian report, published on April 4 this year, was widely circulated. It rekindled the controversy, and hope along with it.

If it were indeed MH370 that had been spotted that March morning over Kuda Huvadhoo, then the Boeing 777 could not have come down more than 4,000km away, where hugely expensive submarine search operations, led by Australia, are still ongoing.

ZUHURIYYA ALI, 50, greets us in the inner courtyard of her breeze-block home with a glass of rose-flavoured milk and a bowl of fresh mangoes. Leaning against a rack on which saucepans are drying in the sun, the housewife concentrates as she describes what she saw that morning, as she swept her yard.

It was a "big plane making a lot of noise", she says. She points to a section of her zinc roof and draws an arc in the sky. Ali remembers that it was 6.15am, give or take a few minutes, because 5am is prayer time, following which, at 6am, she usually sweeps her courtyard.

That morning, Humaam Dhonmonik, a 16-year-old schoolboy, had nipped out to retrieve a piece of clothing from the washing line. He was getting ready for his Saturday class, which starts at 7am. He saw the aircraft pass overhead through a gap between two tall trees. Using the compass on a mobile phone, he points to where the aircraft came from, west-northwest, concurring with Ali.

Logically speaking, MH370 should have been coming from the opposite direction - due east, or east-northeast. Humaam checks the location of Malaysia on his Google Maps app. The information troubles him. There was blue and red paint around the cockpit, he says, as you'd expect to find on a Malaysia Airlines aircraft, but "no logo" that he can remember.

Abdu Rasheed Ibrahim, 46, is the handyman at the magistrates' court. He was standing in the sea, fishing, when he heard the aircraft. He recalls that a strong wind was blowing, an oddity on the equator. And because it was blowing towards the plane, he wasn't aware of the aircraft until it was directly above him. When the plane banked to head south-southeast, he says, he saw "some red under the portholes, some red around the door".

"There is something behind all this," says Hussain Shakir, vice-president of the island council. "People have clearly seen something. But if the aircraft had come down in our waters, we would have found bits of wreckage.

"We have a lot of dhonis [fishing boats] out there. They have phones; even if they're a long way away, they notify us if something happens."

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS WERE first published in local newspaper Haveeru Daily 10 days after the event.

"They were very insistent but we did not really believe them," remembers Shan Anees, a reporter with Male-based Haveeru. "What people from the small islands tell you they saw, you know …," he says, leaving what he thinks of outer islanders to my imagination.

Nevertheless, a story was published and then picked up by international news agencies. At that point, there was still genuine hope of finding MH370. The police and defence authorities, who had been handed the case after Malaysia came asking for details, rushed investigators to Kuda Huvadhoo to question the witnesses and take measurements. But the police report was never made public.

"The witness statements were highly inconsistent," is all that a Maldivian police spokesman is willing to concede when we meet in Male.

According to Captain Ibrahim Rasheed, director of flight operations at the country's Civil Aviation Authority, it could have been one of the many flights between the Middle East and Australia that pass over the Maldives.

"When they enter our airspace, they're still quite low, between 31,000 and 33,000 feet, on account of their fuel reserves," says the former pilot. "They often request permission to climb to 39-to-42 when they leave our space."

But Rasheed does not seem convinced by his own explanation. Although none of the witnesses considered the aircraft's altitude to be threateningly low, they all described it as being much closer to the ground than 30,000 feet.

"It didn't appear to be falling, it was just flying lower than normal," says Humaam.

A Maldivian DHC-8. Photo: Fabian Zimmerli/PlanePictures.net

Rasheed is more sure of himself when talking about the fire extinguisher found on March 24 last year, on the island of Baarah, 500km north of Kuda Huvadhoo. The spherical object, which looks like a floating mine and is the same shape as a certain type of aircraft-hold fire extinguisher, had been identified first by a Maldivian aeronautical engineer, according to quotes reported in Haveeru, and subsequently by other experts quoted in Paris Match, as being "very probably … a Boeing fire extinguisher".

Rasheed, though, is adamant this item didn't come from an aircraft, and certainly not from a Boeing: "A boat would be more likely."

He shows me copies of the 12 photos from the technical report sent to Malaysia. According to his local experts, none of the serial numbers on the item match parts used by Boeing.

The eyewitnesses on Kuda Huvadhoo are in agreement about two key points: the direction the aircraft was flying in and the time they saw it, 6.15am. But 6.15am in the Maldives is 9.15am in Beijing, almost three hours after the plane should have landed in the Chinese capital.

The writer of the Paris Match article states the time "fits well" but offers no numbers to back up the claim. In The Australian story, the time difference is mentioned but the journalist does not ask how a six-hour flight could still be in the air three hours after its estimated time of arrival.

According to Malaysia Airlines and the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, respectively, MH370 was carrying 49.1 or 49.2 tonnes of fuel when it took off. Having left Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am, the aircraft could have kept on flying until 8am (Kuala Lumpur or Beijing time) - or 8.30am, if flying conditions were perfect - according to Boeing 777 pilots consulted for this article. According to Inmarsat data, MH370 actually flew until 8.19am, which is 5.19am in the Maldives. MH370 would have run out of fuel long before 6.15am Maldivian time.

So what did the Kuda Huvadhoo islanders see?

"I WAS PLAYING BALL with my [three-year-old] son outside, when he pointed to the sky and shouted, 'Daddy! Plane! Plane!'" says Adam Saeed, who teaches Dhivehi (the Maldivian language) at the Dhaalu Atoll Education Centre. "My first thought was that it was a plane coming in to land at the next atoll's airport. I was just annoyed that it was flying so low and disturbing us all on a Saturday morning."

He, too, made a statement to the police.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority's official record of flights across the zone, retrieved from air-traffic control data, Maldivian, an airline that uses blue and red in its livery, operated flight DQA149, from Male to Veymandhoo, on March 8 last year. DQA149 landed at 6.33am at Thimarafushi Airport, on Thaa Atoll, some 50km south-southeast of Kuda Huvadhoo. The aircraft was a twin-engine DHC-8, a 50-seater that is notoriously noisy.

The pilot of flight DQA149 could have made an unusual approach due either to unfamiliarity with the route (the airport had been in operation for only a few months) or on account of the unusually strong wind mentioned by Ibrahim the handyman, say flyers consulted for this article. Since Thimarafushi Airport has no control tower and the radar systems in Male are not powerful enough to cover the area, no one other than the pilot might have noticed this anomaly - except, that is, for a few Kuda Huvadhoo islanders.

"In all probability, the plane that the islanders saw was this domestic flight," says Ibrahim Faizal, chairman of the board of directors of the Civil Aviation Authority.

Faizal, sitting at his desk on the 11th floor of an office block in Male, has become annoyed by the whole affair. He would like to get to the bottom of it and is still smarting from seeing the Civil Aviation Authority being sidelined when the investigation was placed in the hands of the defence and police forces.

"There's nothing to convince us that it could have been MH370: neither the route nor the timing support that theory," he says.

When pressed to confirm with Maldivian the flight path or the name of the DQA149 pilot, Faizal replies that he is "not sure Maldivian have records of routes flown that far back".

"These airports are not instrument landing system airports," he adds. "So it would have been a visual approach anyway."

Despite the inconsistencies, many relatives of the missing passengers, a large majority of whom are Chinese, were clinging to this improbable scenario as they try to imagine what happened to their loved ones. Now the question of which aircraft flew over Kuda Huvadhoo that fateful morning has been answered, the mystery surrounding what really happened to MH370 has only deepened.

singveld · Jul 8, 2015

one towelette is proof? what ignorance. this proved that someone who flew MAS is a litterbug.

singveld · Jul 8, 2015

Dr Goong Chen. Photo: Texas A&M University at Qatar. said that 90 degree crash into ocean.
i think he is an idiot. an retard.

why not just belly land the plane on the ocean and let the seawater slowly enter the plane and it sink slowly into the ocean.

eatshitndie · Jul 30, 2015

6-foot part of a wing wreckage found on eastern shore of la reunion island. covered with shells. :eek:

GramStroker · Jul 30, 2015

PressToTeleport · Jul 31, 2015

PressToTeleport · Aug 2, 2015

Torn wing flap arrives in France for analysis as Malaysia says probe 'moving closer' to solving MH370 mystery

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 01 August, 2015, 2:00pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 01 August, 2015, 2:12pm

Agence France-Presse in Paris

The Boeing 777 wing found on La Reunion, a French island in the western Indian Ocean, will be analysed by the BEA aviation body. Photo: TNS

A piece of Boeing 777 wreckage that washed up on an Indian Ocean island arrived for analysis in France early on Saturday, in the hope that it can be the breakthrough investigators have long been waiting for in the hunt for vanished flight MH370.

Paris’ Orly airport website confirmed the Air France flight transporting the piece of wreckage landed at 6.17 am local time from the French island of La Reunion.

A police escort will accompany the two-metre part on its journey by road to a defence ministry laboratory near the southwestern city of Toulouse.

Experts will begin their analysis on Wednesday, along with an examination of parts of a suitcase discovered nearby.

If confirmed, the discovery would mark the first breakthrough in a case that has baffled aviation experts for 16 months.

“I believe that we are moving closer to solving the mystery of MH370. This could be the convincing evidence that MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean,” Malaysia’s deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said.

The Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared on March 8, last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were 239 people on board.

Boeing said in a statement Friday that it would send a technical team to France to study the plane debris at the request of civil aviation authorities.

“Our goal, along with the entire global aviation industry, continues to be not only to find the airplane, but also to determine what happened - and why,” the US aerospace giant added.

However, others have warned one small piece of plane debris is unlikely to completely clear up one of aviation’s greatest puzzles.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said while the part “could be a very important piece of evidence”, using reverse modelling to determine more precisely where the debris may have drifted from was “almost impossible”.

French gendarmes work on a oversized crate, believed to contain plane wreckage, in La Reunion. It was sent to Toulouse via Paris for testing. Photo: Reuters

MH370 was one of only three Boeing 777s to have been involved in major incidents, along with the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine last year and the Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco airport in 2013 that left three dead.

Photographs show the wing component bearing the part number “657BB”.

“From the part number, it is confirmed that it is from a Boeing 777 aircraft. This information is from MAS (Malaysia Airlines),” Aziz said.

On La Reunion, where a clean-up crew discovered the wreckage and the suitcase, dozens of curious locals scoured the rocky shore for other possible debris.

Members of the same clean-up association on Friday discovered a detergent bottle with Indonesian markings and a bottle of Chinese-branded mineral water, which they took to police.

Of the victims, 152 were Chinese and seven from Indonesia.

Australian officials played down the discovery of the suitcase, saying such items “may just be rubbish”.

No confirmed physical evidence has ever been found, sparking wild conspiracy theories about the plane’s fate.

The cargo arrives in Paris. A police escort will accompany the two-metre part on its journey by road to a defence ministry labouratory near the southwestern city of Toulouse. Photo: AFP

For the families of the victims, torn between wanting closure and hoping that their loved ones were somehow still alive, the discovery of the wing part has been yet another painful turn on an emotional rollercoaster.

Ghyslain Wattrelos, whose wife and two children were on the flight, said he was relieved to get the smallest bit of information about the missing plane.

“I hope to have answers very soon, because the wait is unbearable,” the Frenchman, currently in San Francisco, said.

Australian Jeanette Maguire, whose sister Cathy was on board, said the discovery had triggered “a very bittersweet feeling for all of the family, it’s quite emotional”.

An Australian-led search has spent 16 months combing the southern Indian Ocean for the aircraft, which is known to have inexplicably veered off-course.

“This is the first positive sign that we have located part of that plane,” Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Saturday.

Volunteers comb the beach in Saint Andre, La Renion, for more debris possibly linked to the jet after the Boeing 777 flaperon washed up on shore this week. Photo: AFP

“Australia is still committed to assisting and doing whatever we can so that we can locate MH370 and provide answers for the families,” she added.

Speculation on the cause of the plane’s disappearance has focused primarily on a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.

Scientists say there are several plausible scenarios in which ocean currents could have carried a piece of debris from the plane to the island.

Australian search authorities, which are leading the Indian Ocean hunt for the aircraft some 4,000 kilometres from La Reunion, said they were confident the main debris field was in the current search area.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search for the passenger jet, said the discovery did not mean other parts would start washing up on La Reunion.

“Over the last 16 or 17 months, any floating debris would have dispersed quite markedly across the Indian Ocean,” he said.

The_Hypocrite · Aug 2, 2015

http://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...-to-mh370-search/story-fnizu68q-1227465529341

China refusing to contribute funds to MH370 search Travel Incidents

by: Robyn Ironside National Aviation Writer
From: News Corp Australia Network
1 day ago July 31, 2015 10:13PM

Search

Last updated: August 02, 2015
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Incidents

China refusing to contribute funds to MH370 search

Travel Incidents

by: Robyn Ironside National Aviation Writer
From: News Corp Australia Network
1 day ago July 31, 2015 10:13PM

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United front ... Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Mr Hishammuddin Hussein, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, Chinese Minister for Transport Yang Chuantang holding a press conference after a trilateral Meeting on MH370. Picture: News Corp Australia Source: News Corp Australia

AUSTRALIA is set to be stuck with the lion’s share of the bill for the MH370 search with China refusing to contribute anything despite having the most passengers on board.

Of the 239 people on the Malaysia Airlines’ flight, 153 were from China, which has played a key role in the decision-making about the search operation.
Although China did send ships from its navy to assist in the early days of the investigation, the country has steadfastly refused to contribute financially to the search.

FAMILIES REACT TO THE NEWS: ‘I selfishly hope this is not MH370’

Show us the money ... Chinese Minister for Transport Yang Chuantang, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and Acting Transport Minister and Minister for Defence, Mr Hishammuddin Hussein taking part in a trilateral Meeting on MH370. Picture: News Corp Australia Source: News Corp Australia

A spokesman for The Office of Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss confirmed China had been asked to go thirds in the cost with Australia and Malaysia.
“China has not contributed resources or equipment to the underwater search,” said the spokesman.
MH370: Your questions answered
The Office of Deputy Prime Minister confirmed that Australia had spent $76 million on the search to date, and Malaysia had contributed $40 million.

Although Malaysia has publicly stated it will match Australia’s contribution, no further payments have been forthcoming.

Stormy seas ... Search crews have endured dreadful conditions looking for MH370. Picture: John Draves. Source: Supplied

Another $14 million has been budgeted by Australia for the search which is expected to take another year unless MH370’s tail section containing the black box recorders is found sooner.
Six Australians were on board the flight and 38 were Malaysian nationals.
University of Sydney International Relations expert Justin Hastings said there was no legal requirement for China to contribute and it had nothing to gain politically.
“From a Chinese perspective, they had to play for two audiences when the plane disappeared and there was a lot of Chinese people on board,” said Dr Hastings.

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“The Chinese Government had to look like it was doing something, so they sent out a flotilla and they also used it to their advantage to gain bargaining leverage with Malaysia by saying ‘this is a problem you caused, that we are now helping to solve’.”
He said the issue could cause further tension between Australia and China but not significantly so.
“I would say that they don’t see a political cost from not giving a donation,” Dr Hastings said.
“They don’t necessarily want to set a precedent that leads to a financial obligation, and they’ve probably calculated it’s not going to overly harm them.”

In the case of Malaysia, Dr Hastings said Australia should not hold its breath waiting for the country to meet its commitment to pay half the search cost.

Not our problem ... China has no legal obligation to assist with the search for MH370 despite having the most passengers on board. Picture: Greg Wood/Getty Source: Getty Images

“As the country that controls the search and rescue region, Australia is obliged to head the search under international law, and we can ask for assistance,” he said.
“From Malaysia’s perspective, they already took a political hit when MH370 disappeared.
“To not honour their agreement to pay half the cost of the search is not going to do them much more damage.”
Australian aviation expert Neil Hansford said he found it totally abhorrent that China would not contribute anything to the cost of the search.
“It should be a case of, if you don’t pay, you don’t play,” said Mr Hansford.
“If find it totally abhorrent the Chinese are getting to call the shots, without paying a cent.”
Questions to the Chinese Ambassador to Australia were not answered yesterday.

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by: Robyn Ironside National Aviation Writer
From: News Corp Australia Network
1 day ago July 31, 2015 10:13PM

PressToTeleport · Aug 3, 2015

Malaysian official: New metallic debris found on La Reunion island is not from MH370

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 02 August, 2015, 5:46pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 02 August, 2015, 9:14pm

Agence France-Presse in Saint-Andre

New metallic debris was found on a beach on the French Reunion Island close to where where a Boeing 777 wing part believed to belong to missing flight MH370 washed up last week. Photo: AFP

A senior Malaysian official says that an object found in Reunion has been confirmed as “a domestic ladder” and is not a plane part, amid media reports that a new piece of plane debris was found on the island.

Malaysian Director General of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said that a piece of debris found on a beach near the town of Saint-Denis on Sunday morning had nothing to do with the investigation involving the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Rahman said “I’m the one leading the investigation in France for the analysis of the (wing flap) piece brought back. I read all over media it (the new debris) was part of a door. But I checked with the Civil Aviation Authority, and people on the ground in Reunion, and it was just a domestic ladder.”

Locals on La Reunion island have been combing the shores since a Boeing 777 wing part was found last Wednesday, sparking fevered speculation that it may be the first tangible evidence that the Malaysia Airlines plane crashed into the Indian Ocean.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said civil aviation authorities were reaching out to their counterparts in other Indian Ocean territories to be on the lookout for further debris.

“This is to allow the experts to conduct more substantive analysis should there be more debris coming onto land, providing us more clues to the missing aircraft.”

He also confirmed in a statement that the wing part found Wednesday on the French island had been “officially identified” as from a Boeing 777 -- making it virtually certain that it was from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Flight MH370 is the only Boeing 777 to ever be lost at sea.

Plane debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion on Wednesday has been transported to France to find out whether it is from missing airliner MH370. Photo: TNS

Wing part analysed in France

While the wing part -- known as a flaperon -- has been sent to France for further analysis, locals on La Reunion are scouring the beach for more debris in what a French source close to the investigation likened to a “treasure hunt”.

The discovery comes after a gruelling 16-month search that has yielded no evidence of what happened to the plane that disappeared on March 8, last year, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

The flight’s mysterious disappearance, which saw it vanish off radars as a key transponder appeared to have been shut off, has baffled aviation experts and grieving families and given rise to a myriad conspiracy theories.

Speculation on the cause of the plane’s disappearance has focused primarily on a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action.

Scientists say it is plausible that ocean currents carried a piece of the wreckage as far as La Reunion.

Malaysia’s deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told AFP that the Boeing 777 wing part “could be the convincing evidence that MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean.”

“I believe that we are moving closer to solving the mystery of MH370,” he said.

The flaperon will be examined in a lab near the French city of Toulouse that specialises in plane crash investigations.

Four Malaysian officials including the head of civil aviation are in Paris together with officials from Malaysia Airlines for a meeting on Monday with three French magistrates and an official from France’s civil aviation investigating authority BEA.

People walk on the beach where a large piece of plane debris was found on Wednesday in Saint-Andre, on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion. Photo: Reuters

Debris won’t solve mystery

Australia’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss has warned that even if the debris confirmed to come from MH370 it is unlikely to completely clear up one of aviation’s greatest puzzles.

The mystery of what happened to the plane and where it went down exactly are still likely to persist unless the black box is found.

Australian search authorities leading the hunt for the aircraft some 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from La Reunion are confident the main debris field is in the current search area.

For the families of the victims, torn between wanting closure and hoping that their loved ones are somehow still alive, the discovery of the part has been yet another painful twist on an emotional rollercoaster.

While it is unclear whether it was a piece of plane door that was found, Nur Laila Ngah, the wife of the flight’s chief steward Wan Swaid Wan Ismail, said she hoped it was.

“It is good news. But it still hurts. But it has been hurting for so long. We need the closure and all the evidence possible so that we can go ahead with our lives. It’s been so long,” she said.

PressToTeleport · Aug 6, 2015

Australia 'confident looking in right area' and MH370 will be found

AFP
August 6, 2015, 8:37 am

Sydney (AFP) - Australian authorities Thursday said they were confident the search for MH370 was being carried out in the right area and the plane would be found after Malaysia confirmed debris on an Indian Ocean island was from the missing flight.

"(The La Reunion find) is consistent with all the work we've done so we're confident that we're looking in the right area and we'll find the aircraft there," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told ABC radio.

But Dolan added that it was "too early to tell" what happened to the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet which disappeared 17 months ago, and that "close examination (of the flaperon) is what's necessary to access how much we can learn".

Australia has been leading the hunt for the plane which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board in March last year.

Satellite and other data point to it coming down in the southern Indian Ocean and ships have been scouring more than 50,000 square kilometres (19,000 square miles) of deep ocean floor for evidence.

Authorities plan to search a total of 120,000 square kilometres.

No evidence had been found until the wing part washed up on the French territory of La Reunion, which Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said early Thursday was from the jet.

French prosecutors used more cautious language, saying only that there was a "very high probability" the wreckage came from MH370.

Australia on Wednesday said its drift modelling showed debris could have been carried by wind and currents to La Reunion, some 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from the region where MH370 was thought to have gone down.

"Implications are that the arrival of this flaperon in La Reunion is consistent with the search area which was specified based on satellite information," Dolan added.

"We'll continue our search in that area that we'd previously specified.

"We have two vessels operating still out in the Indian Ocean with towed sonar and they will cover the sea... thoroughly in the specified search area. We hope as the weather improves to put more assets onto the search."

It remains unclear whether analysis of the wing part will yield any clues into the cause of the plane's disappearance, but Australian aviation expert Neil Hansford said the flaperon snapping off gave pointers on how the jet entered the water.

"What it does show is that the aircraft has gone into the water in a controlled-type crash and as the engines have hit the water, they've sheared off and this part is straight behind one of the engines," he told AFP.

"There should be at least one other flaperon from the other wing (floating around)."

But he added that at this time "all you can say that it proves is that MH370 definitely crashed into the southern Indian Ocean and it also proves that the search area as identified by the Australian experts ... is appropriate."

PressToTeleport · Aug 6, 2015

Malaysia Airlines calls MH370 proof a 'major breakthrough'

AFP
August 6, 2015, 5:40 am

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Malaysia Airlines said on Thursday the confirmation that debris found on an Indian Ocean island came from flight MH370 was a "major breakthrough" in solving the mystery of the flight's disappearance.

"This is indeed a major breakthrough for us in resolving the disappearance of MH370 and we expect and hope that there would be more objects to be found which would be able to help resolve this mystery," said a statement by the airline, quoted by the official Bernama news agency.

After the plane went missing, Malaysia Airlines came under intense fire over its inability to explain the loss of a Boeing 777 aircraft with 239 people aboard.

Many relatives have also accused it, along with Malaysia's government, of a bungled response, possible cover-up, and insensitive treatment of families, charges that are vehemently denied.

"Moving forward, Malaysia Airlines' priority will be to continue providing the latest updates and information to the families and will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities on the investigation and recovery of this tragic accident," the airline statement said.

Malaysia Airlines has been left reeling by the loss of MH370 and the shooting down over Ukraine last year of flight MH17, which killed 298 people.

A drop in bookings following the disasters compounded years of losses, forcing a government bailout and the slashing of 6,000 jobs.

PressToTeleport · Aug 7, 2015

Wreckage 'confirmed' as from MH370

AFP
August 6, 2015, 3:17 am

Debris found on an Indian Ocean island a week ago is from flight MH370, Malaysia's prime minister confirmed for the first time that the plane which mysteriously disappeared 17 months ago had crashed.

"Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts has conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370," Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters.

2015_08_05t181617z_1_lynxnpeb740ws_rtroptp_2_malaysia_airlines_crash_mh370-1as4n9i.jpg

Malaysia's prime minister announced on Wednesday, confirming for the first time that the plane which mysteriously disappeared 17 months ago had crashed. Photo: Reuters

The Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared on March 8 last year, inexplicably veering off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, sparking a colossal but ultimately fruitless multinational hunt for the aircraft.

Last week's discovery of a two-metre-long (almost seven-foot) wing part called a flaperon on the French island of La Reunion has provided the first glimmer of hope for relatives desperate for answers.

Air safety investigators, one of them a Boeing investigator, have identified the component as a "flaperon" from the trailing edge of a Boeing 777 wing, a U.S. official said. Photo: Reunion 1ere via AP

The part was examined at a military lab outside the city of Toulouse in the presence of French, Malaysian and Australian experts, Boeing employees and representatives from China, the country that lost the most passengers in the disaster.

"We now have physical evidence that, as I announced on 24th March last year, flight MH370 tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean," said Najib.

The West Australian's Aviation Editor Geoffrey Thomas told Sunrise: “They will trying to see if there’s any fragment of evidence on this piece of wing that might give them a clue as to what happened to MH370.

"It won’t tell them where it is. It might tell that what happened.

“What this does is that it gives us real confidence that we’re looking in the right area because the University of Western Australia over 12 months ago predicted that debris would turn up in the Reunion Islands, Madagascar, east Africa, also the south coast of Australia, Tasmania as well.”

French police officers inspect a piece of debris from a plane in Saint-Andre, Reunion Island. Air safety investigators, one of them a Boeing investigator. Photo: AP Photo/Lucas Marie

But next-of-kin, investigators, and the aviation industry are still left with the vexing question of what caused the plane to veer off course, flying for hours after its communications and tracking systems were shut off, in what remains one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation.

Najib gave no indication that the analysis of the debris yielded any clues into the cause of the disappearance.

"I would like to assure all those affected by this tragedy that the government of Malaysia is committed to do everything within our means to find out the truth of what happened," he said.

"MH370's disappearance marked us as a nation. We mourn with you, as a nation."

Many relatives accuse Malaysia's government and the airline of a bungled response to the disaster, possible cover-up, and insensitive treatment of families, charges that are vehemently denied.

Paint, traces of explosion?

Jean-Paul Troadec, former chief of France's BEA agency that probes air accidents, had earlier said the paint on the piece was a key element of the probe.

"Every airline paints their planes in a certain way," he said. "If the paint used is used by Malaysia Airlines... there may be more certainty."

It is hoped that more detailed examination in the coming days can yield information on the final moments of the plane by showing how it detached itself from the wing, or whether it showed traces of an explosion or fire.

Search the beach for possible additional airplane debris near the shore where an airplane wing part was washed up, in the early morning near to Saint-Denis on the north coast of the Indian Ocean island of Reunion Sunday. Photo: AP Photo/Fabrice Wislez

Scientists have also pointed to the barnacles attached to the flaperon, saying these could give an idea of how long the piece had been in the water, and perhaps where it had been.

"If it has cold-water barnacles on it that might tell them it went down further south than they think. Or if it's got only tropical barnacles, that might tell them it went down further north," said Shane Ahyong, a crustacean specialist from the Australian Museum.

This plane part was examined at a military lab outside the city of Toulouse. Photo: AFP

No 'miracles'

Troadec had earlier warned that the analysis was highly unlikely to give any clues as to why the plane mysteriously diverted off course.

"One should not expect miracles," he said.

But for the victims' loved ones, any tangible piece of information is likely to help them in seeking closure, according to psychologist Carole Damiani, who specialises in helping the families of people who died in disasters.

"The grieving process is about untying oneself from someone, accepting that they will not be found and they have gone forever," she said.

"When someone goes missing, it is difficult to say 'I will stop looking'," she added. "You need people to say 'he is dead, you are allowed to start the grieving process and undo this bond'."

PressToTeleport · Aug 13, 2015

Australia annoyed at footing the bill for MH370 search

Staff Reporter 2015-08-12 16:03

C806X0070H_N71_2015%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99%E7%85%A7%E7%89%87_N71_copy1.JPG

The flaperon believed to be from flight MH370 found on Reunion. (Photo/Xinhua)

Australia is disgruntled with Beijing for refusing to provide resources during the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, says Duowei News, a US-based Chinese-language political news outlet.

Debris recently recovered on the French island of Reunion is "strongly believed" to have come from the flight, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 last year. If confirmed, it will be the first physical evidence of the plane, the subject of a massive international search for more than one year that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars,

The Malaysian government provided US$31.2-$46.7 million and Australia US$112 million, the most out of all countries countries involved in the search. China has refused to pay a penny despite Beijing's promise to share the financial burden and despite the fact that two thirds of the 239 people on board the ill-fated flight were Chinese nationals.

Warren Truss, Australia's minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, said three countries — China, Australia, and Malaysia — had made a deal to split the fees involved in searching for the missing flight last March.

Twenty-six countries have provided supplies and equipment towards the rescue mission, according to a Reuters report from last April. The cost has been estimated in the hundreds of millions.

Countries like China, Australia, the US and Vietnam deployed warships and military aircraft in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea a month after the flight crashed, which cost around US$4.4 million, according to the Pentagon. The cost of the hunt for the MH370 was double that spent on the search for AF447, a flight that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean two years ago. One day of searching for MH370 cost US$581,600, a fee that has become even larger by now.

Debris confirmed by Malaysia's government to be from the missing flight — though the expert team examining the section of wing have said only that they "strongly believe" this to be the case — was found on the shore of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, 1,700 km away from Australia.

MALAYSIAN Airlines flight en route to China is missing.

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