Malaysian flight with 239 people aboard missing, including 153 Chinese nationals

[InformationSociety]

Malaysians lose patience with Chinese fury and scorn over missing flight

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 02 April, 2014, 3:53am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 02 April, 2014, 3:53am

Satish Cheney in Kuala Lumpur

Chinese relatives pray at the Lido Hotel in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

At the coffee shop where an old man flipped some roti canai, Mohammad Noor could not contain his anger another moment.

"If China is so good, why don't they just take over and find the plane," said the 30-year-old petrol kiosk employee. His friends nodded in approval. "I don't think even Singapore could have done a better job."

Malaysians want the Chinese to know something: they, too, lost people when the Malaysia Airlines flight vanished. And they want the insults to cease.

For more than three weeks, residents and relatives in the besieged nation have endured worldwide scorn as the hunt continues for flight MH370. Chinese officials and relatives have accused Malaysian officials of withholding data, botching the investigation, even lying about the fact that the plane had ditched into the Indian Ocean.

Malaysian citizens, media and government officials have quietly seethed, and have heard enough. They want an end to what they see as a vulgar display of superiority and an overreaction by the Chinese over the missing airliner.

At the Everly Hotel in Putrajaya, the site of an official briefing for the passengers' relatives, Gurusamy Subramaniam was there to learn more about the fate of his 34-year-old son, who was aboard the flight. He had quietly endured Chinese complaints. But TV footage last week of Chinese relatives protesting outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing was the last straw, he said.

"What's the point? Will violence or protests bring the passengers back?" the 60-year-old said in Tamil. He admitted he had trouble sleeping. "All of us are suffering inside in our hearts."

On Sunday, a new group of relatives from China arrived in the Malaysian capital and staged their own press conference at the Holiday Villa, an expensive hotel in Subang. They unfurled Chinese state flags and banners and condemned Malaysians.

"Let me ask you something,'' said a Malaysian government official. "Which country do you think will allow others from another country to come and let them stay in a great hotel and allow them to throw insults? We've been very nice already. I hope they realise that."

Malaysian media, especially the local Chinese press, has published op-ed pieces condemning Chinese actions, but some newspapers have also asked readers to consider the bigger picture.

Social media has buzzed as Malaysians question the motives behind the Chinese behaviour.

James Chin, a professor of political science at the Malaysian campus of Monash University, said Malaysians initially had been sympathetic towards the Chinese.

"But marching to the Malaysian embassy was the turning point," he said. "It's hypocrisy. The Chinese won't dare do anything like this against their own government, which is one of the most opaque in the world."

But most analysts are confident the fallout will not continue in the long term. For Malaysia especially, there is too much at stake; China is a key trading partner and rich source of tourists. Najib Razak, Malaysia's prime minister, has just launched a 4 billion ringgit (HK$9.5 billion) development in Langkawi aimed in part at Chinese tourists.

 

[InformationSociety]

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 probe classified as a criminal investigation: WSJ

Yahoo! and agencies April 2, 2014, 12:14 pm

The investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been classified as a criminal investigation, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper claimed that Khalid Abu Bakar said police had taken more than 170 statements for the ongoing probe into the March 8 disappearance of the Boeing 777 and had now been classified as a criminal investigation.

However, the police chief said findings from the investigation wouldn't be revealed soon because of fears it may impact a later prosecution.

"We may not even know real cause," Bakar was quoted saying, adding that an investigation into the MH370's captain's home-made flight simulator remained inconclusive.

Hard drives from the flight simulator were handed over to US authorities, including the FBI, after it was discovered that information had been deleted.

Malaysia Police Inspector General, Khalid Abu Bakar speaks during a press conference at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Photo: AP.

Nothing found in flight MH370's cockpit transcript

Malaysia revealed the full radio communications with the pilots of its missing flight Tuesday, but the routine exchanges shed no light on the mystery as an Indian Ocean search for wreckage bore on with no end in sight.

The previously unreleased conversations between MH370's pilots and air traffic controllers had been the subject of much speculation as suspicions have focused on whether one or both of its pilots deliberately diverted the plane on March 8 with 239 people aboard.

But they revealed nothing about what happened aboard the ill-fated jet.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah with his home flight simulator. Photo: Youtube

"There is no indication of anything abnormal in the transcript," a Malaysian government statement said of the 43 separate transmissions over nearly 54 minutes, which were thick with air-traffic and navigational jargon.

Hours earlier, Australia counselled against expectations of quick success in the difficult task of recovering the Malaysia Airlines plane's "black box" for clues into what might have happened to the jet.

Despite an extensive multinational search in remote Indian Ocean waters southwest of Perth where Malaysia believes the plane went down, nothing has been found that would indicate a crash site.

Retired Australian air chief marshal Angus Houston, who is heading a new coordination centre in Perth, called it the most challenging search and rescue operation he had ever seen.

"I say that because the starting point whenever you do a search and rescue is the last known position of the vehicle or aircraft. In this particular case, the last known position was a long, long way from where the aircraft appears to have gone," he said.

He added the search -- 10 planes and nine ships from several countries took part Tuesday -- "could drag on for a long time."

Malaysia believes the flight, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was deliberately diverted by someone on board and flown for hours before crashing.

Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, have come under intense scrutiny, especially amid conflicting reports about the final words in the cockpit and whether they indicated trouble or an intent to commandeer MH370.

But the transcript gave no hint of either as Malaysian air traffic controllers bid the plane "good night", and instructed the pilots to contact controllers in Vietnam, over which the plane was due to fly.

An object is spotted in the Indian Ocean as searchers desperately try to find signs of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photo: Getty Images

- Black box -

In the final entry from just after 1:19 am one of the MH370 pilots responded with an innocuous:"Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero".

Malaysia Airlines had said previously the last words were believed uttered by First Officer Fariq, but the statement said the ongoing investigation was yet to confirm that.

Shortly after the final message, communications were cut and the Boeing 777 vanished from civilian radar.

Tuesday's developments meant another day of frustration for anguished families desperate for firm information on what happened to their loved ones.

Excess fuel is dumped from a nozzle protruding from the left wing of a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion aircraft before landing. Photo: Reuters.

The battery-powered signal from the plane's black box -- which records flight data and cockpit voice communications that could indicate what happened to the plane -- usually lasts only about 30 days.

Australian vessel Ocean Shield, fitted with a US-supplied black box detector, left Perth on Monday for the search zone but is three day's sail away.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston admitted there was only a slim chance the black box would be found since the crash location remains unknown.

A distraught relative of a passenger on the missing flight sits near a poster for MH370. Photo: AP

- 'About one week left' -

"We've got about a week (left), but it depends on the temperature of the water and water depth and pressure as to how long the battery power will last," he told Australian radio.

Authorities are scouring a massive expanse of ocean for debris. If found, they plan to analyse recent weather patterns and ocean currents to track back to where the plane went down.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected in Perth on Wednesday to tour the air base being used as a staging post.

Malaysia's handling of the crisis, marked by piecemeal and occasionally contradictory information, has been widely questioned, especially by disconsolate relatives of the 153 Chinese nationals aboard.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's P-3C Orion aircraft sits on the tarmac after arriving at Royal Australian Air Force Pearce Base to help with search operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Photo: AP.

Many of them have alleged incompetence or even a cover-up by Malaysia, straining ties between the two countries, but the rhetoric has eased off in recent days.

A survey released Tuesday by Merdeka Center, Malaysia's leading polling firm, said less than half of Malaysians -- 43 percent -- were satisfied with the government's handling of the crisis, while 50 percent were dissatisfied.

The question was posed between March 13-20, before many fed-up Malaysians began to hit back against the foreign criticism, particularly from China.

International Air Travel Association (IATA) head Tony Tyler said, in the wake of MH370, the industry should implement improvements in how aircraft are tracked in flight.

"We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish," he said in a statement at an aviation conference in Kuala Lumpur.

 

[InformationSociety]

China’s ambassador to Malaysia strikes conciliatory tone over flight MH370

Ambassador to Malaysia strikes conciliatory tone as he emphasises joint responsibility in missing jet search after criticism from families

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 02 April, 2014, 11:44pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 03 April, 2014, 7:35am

Teddy Ng and Danny Lee in Kuala Lumpur

Relatives of passengers aboard the ill-fated plane leave yesterday after a briefing by Malaysian government officials. Photo: AFP

Beijing last night sought to distance itself from critical comments made by Chinese relatives of those onboard flight MH370, branding them "irresponsible" and unrepresentative of the views of the central government.

In an effort to smooth bilateral ties after a backlash in Malaysia over attacks by some families, China's ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang said he was confident the investigation was being handled well.

Huang Huikang backed the investigation. Photo: AP

His statement came days after state media urged relatives to act "rationally" to news their loved ones had almost certainly perished in the Indian Ocean.

"Some Chinese families, internet users and well-known people have aired some radical views," Huang said.

"These radical and irresponsible opinions do not represent the views of Chinese people and the Chinese government."

Huang is the first official to comment on the outbursts.

He also defended Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's use of the word "ended" when describing the probability that the jet plunged into the ocean on March 8 - a turn of phrase that infuriated relatives who said there was no evidence of a crash.

Some accused the Malaysians of "murdering" loved ones by delaying the rescue mission, while others called for a boycott of Malaysian travel and goods.

"None of the accusations are true," Huang said. "Najib Razak chose the word 'ended' instead of 'crashed' or 'lost'. I fully understood why, because the purpose was to avoid harmful meaning."

Huang's conciliatory tone marked a softening in the stance of the government, which last week allowed a demonstration to take place outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing.

Huang said Kuala Lumpur had had problems co-ordinating the search and releasing consistent information, but added that Malaysia could not bear sole responsibility for the search.

"China and Malaysia are sincerely co-operating with and trust each other," he said. "We are willing to give helping hands to each other without hesitation whenever the other is in need."

The airline incident would not sour relations on the 40th anniversary of bilateral ties, Huang said. Planned celebrations would go ahead, with China giving two pandas to Malaysia and Najib visiting Beijing in May.

Huang's remarks came as Premier Li Keqiang and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott spoke by phone, during which time Li said rescue efforts should not be lessened.

Last night, following a meeting with Malaysia's civil aviation director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, some Chinese families remained unrepentant.

One man, who did not wish to be named, said: "We have not raised any unreasonable demands. Our criticisms are not targeted at Malaysian people, but the government."

Yesterday Malaysia's top policeman, Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar, warned investigators "may not ever know the real cause" of the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people onboard.

 

[InformationSociety]

MH370 mystery may never be solved, says top Malaysian police officer

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 03 April, 2014, 2:41am
UPDATED : Thursday, 03 April, 2014, 2:41am

Danny Lee [email protected]

Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar

Malaysia's top police officer warned yesterday that the mystery behind the disappearance of flight MH370 may never be solved, as a global body representing airlines said all aircraft should be continuously tracked.

"Investigations may go on and on and on. We have to clear every little thing," Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar admitted. "At the end of the investigations we may not ever know the real cause."

He said more than 170 interviews had been conducted and there were more in the pipeline. "We need to be thorough," he said.

His words will be of little comfort to the relatives of the 239 on board the Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight, including the Chinese families.

The probe is well into its fourth week with police still checking the backgrounds and activities of the 12 crew members on board. The 227 passengers are no longer suspects.

Meanwhile, International Air Transport Association director general Tony Tyler, a former Cathay Pacific chief executive, urged the industry yesterday to introduce real-time monitoring of aircraft around the world.

"In a world where our every move seems to be tracked, there is disbelief that an aircraft could simply disappear," he said, announcing a high-level task force to make recommendations on the matter.

"We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish."

Malaysia's Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein will meet US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel this week during a gathering of Association of Southeast Asian Nations members. He is expected to ask for more help in the hunt for MH370.

The Malaysian government said yesterday that the country's attorney general had been instructed to "compile evidence and advise" on possible legal action against false media reports related to the missing plane.

 

[InformationSociety]

First signs of MH370 crash may be found on Australian shore

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 03 April, 2014, 2:41am
UPDATED : Thursday, 03 April, 2014, 2:41am

Danny Lee in Kuala Lumpur [email protected]

Unknown debris seen from a search plane on Monday. Photo: Reuters

The first pieces of evidence that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the ocean may come to light when they are washed up on a beach, possibly within weeks, experts said yesterday.

Oceanographers said that currents and prevailing winds would likely push any floating debris towards Australia's vast west coast.

In the event that the huge ongoing Indian Ocean search turns up nothing, small, buoyant items could appear before the wreckage of the plane itself is located.

An assortment of aircraft and ships scouring the ocean some 2,000 kilometres off the coast of Perth have so far found no sign of the missing Boeing 777.

Dr Alec Duncan, an oceanographer from Curtin University in Perth, said: "Prevailing winds are southwesterly, which will push material in the general direction of the coast. However, the search area is a long way offshore, so this could take months."

He said it was also possible that debris could wash up on one of the islands that dot the Indian Ocean.

Oceanographer Erik van Sebille said that if the plane had crashed near Australia there "would be a good chance" something washed up.

A computer-generated model created by Sebille, which tracks ocean rubbish based on historical data, suggests objects floating in the water 1,800 kilometres from Australia will take about six months to reach land.

But he warned that it would be difficult to identify anything that might wash up.

"I don't think we will see many sightings, or people picking up debris from the plane, because it won't be a beach full of plane wreckage," he said.

"There's so much debris in the ocean, if you start to investigate every single piece, the chances of it being from the plane are pretty slim."

Graham Edkins, a former safety investigator with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said it was possible that objects would reach the coast.

"If someone stumbled across wreckage they would be required to call the police in the first instance," he said.

Oceanographer Andrew Kiss described the current in the search zone as turbulent, and said it would spread floating objects in all directions.

He cautioned that even if something from the plane were to wash ashore, it could easily go unnoticed since the 2,600-kilometre west coast of Australia was sparsely populated.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology predicted that for the next seven days, waves would flow in southwestern and northerly directions in the area around the search zone.

 

[InformationSociety]

Search for missing Malaysian jet drags on, as probe narrows to crew

By Matt Siegel and Niluksi Koswanage
PERTH/KUALA LUMPUR Wed Apr 2, 2014 1:32pm EDT

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HqR789gLeFY?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

(Reuters) - Malaysian police have ruled out involvement of any passengers in the disappearance of a missing jetliner, while Australian officials warned bad weather and a lack of reliable information were impeding efforts to find wreckage from the plane.

Up to 10 planes and nine ships from a half dozen countries on Wednesday scoured a stretch of the Indian Ocean roughly the size of Britain, where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is believed to have crashed more than three weeks ago.

Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as causing the disappearance, but say all the evidence suggests the plane was deliberately diverted from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysia's police chief said the investigation was focusing on the cabin crew and pilots, after clearing all 227 passengers of possible involvement in hijacking, sabotage or having personal or psychological problems that could have been connected to the disappearance.

"They have been cleared," national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

The search and rescue teams are in a race against time to locate the plane's black box recorder, which has an expected battery life of around 30 days and without which it may never be possible to find the wreckage.

Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, said that a lack of reliable flight telemetry and punishing conditions at sea were making the operation even more challenging.

"In other words, we don't have a precise aircraft location for six hours before the aircraft went into the water somewhere," he said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The reality is it's the most complex and challenging search and rescue operation, or search and recovery operation now, that I've ever seen."

NO TRACE

Broken clouds, sea fog and isolated thunderstorms were expected to further complicate operations, Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center said.

The search is now focused on an inhospitable 221,000 sq km (85,000 sq miles) swathe of the southern Indian Ocean some 1,500 km (932 miles) west of the Australian city of Perth. But despite the unprecedented effort, the international team has so far failed to spot any trace of the jetliner.

"Look, it's one of the great mysteries of our time," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in an interview with local Perth radio station Radio 6iX.

"We owe it to the world, we owe it to those families, to do whatever we reasonably can do get to the bottom of this."

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was expected to arrive in Perth late on Wednesday to inspect the search and rescue operations, which are being conducted out of RAAF Base Pearce north of the city. He was expected to meet Abbott on Thursday.

Najib will arrive with Malaysia coming under fresh fire for its handling of the incident after authorities there changed their account of the plane's critical last communication.

Malaysia on Tuesday released the full transcript of communications between the Boeing 777 and local air traffic control before it dropped from civilian radar in the early hours of March 8. (for full transcript, click: r.reuters.com/kam28v)

While indicating nothing abnormal, the transcript showed the final words from the cockpit were not the casual "All right, good night" that authorities first reported, but the more standard "Good night Malaysian three seven zero."

Minutes after the final radio transmission was received the plane's communications were cut off and it turned back across Peninsular Malaysia and headed towards the Indian Ocean, according to military radar and limited satellite data.

NUCLEAR SUBMARINE

Malaysian authorities have faced heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search, now in its fourth fruitless week, and holding back information. Most of the 239 people on board the flight were Chinese.

Among the vessels due to join the search in the coming days is an Australian defence force ship, the Ocean Shield, that has been fitted with a sophisticated U.S. black box locator and an underwater drone.

Britain is sending HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine with sonar capabilities, to help with the search, Malaysia's transport ministry said in a statement.

Still, Houston said the challenging search would continue based on the imperfect information with which they had to work.

"It's vitally important for the governments involved that we find this aeroplane," he said. "But I'm just pointing out that it won't be easy given the circumstances that surround this particular search and recovery operation."

(Additional reporting by Stuart Grudgings in KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by Alex Richardson)

 

[InformationSociety]

Malaysia to launch lawsuits against media that publish 'false' reports on Flight MH370

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 02 April, 2014, 11:31am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 02 April, 2014, 11:31am

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein speaks during a press briefing on Flight MH370. Photo: EPA

Malaysia’s authoritarian government, which has been under harsh global scrutiny over the handling of the missing Flight MH370 drama, said on Tuesday it would compile a list of “false” media reports issued over the crisis and consider filing lawsuits.

Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on his Twitter feed the country’s attorney general had been instructed to “compile evidence and advise” on possible legal action.

Earlier in the day Hishammuddin was quoted by the Malay Mail newspaper as saying: “We have been compiling all the false reports since day one. When the time is right, the government should sue them.”

The MH370 saga and resulting world attention has put Malaysia’s long-ruling government – which muzzles its own pliant mainstream press – in the unaccustomed position of having to answer tough questions from reporters.

Hishammuddin, who has run the government’s near-daily briefings on the situation, has repeatedly denied various anonymously-sourced reports revealing details of Malaysia’s investigation into the March 8 disappearance of MH370 with 239 people aboard.

He took particular aim on Monday against British tabloid the Daily Mail, which at the weekend quoted a “source close to the family” of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah as saying police had learned he was emotionally unstable before the flight amid alleged marital trouble.

“I can confirm to you that the information did not come from the police and you should ask Daily Mail how they get the information,” Hishammuddin said tersely when asked about the report.

In a Facebook comment reported by local media, Zaharie’s daughter Aishah Zaharie accused the Daily Mail of “making up” the report.

The Daily Mail also reported earlier that Zaharie was said to be a fanatical supporter of Malaysia’s political opposition. Friends and acquaintances have denied that.

Suspicions have fallen on Zaharie, 53, and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid after Malaysian officials said the plane was believed to have been deliberately diverted by someone with flying knowledge. But nothing has emerged to suggest either had any motive to go rogue.

The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in power since independence in 1957 has a poor record of transparency, routinely sweeping corruption scandals and other embarrassments under the rug.

Malaysia’s independent web-based news organisations are largely unfettered due to a promise by the government in the 1990s not to censor the internet, but their reporters say they are routinely harassed or blocked from government press briefings.

 

[InformationSociety]

Food probed as investigation continues into flight MH370

AFP
Yahoo! and wires April 3, 2014, 2:06 pm

Sub joins MH370 hunt as Malaysia police probe draws blankAFP Sub joins MH370 hunt as Malaysia police probe draws blank

A new theory being investigated is that the food was poisoned on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Authorities are probing every lead possible in the hunt to find out what happened to the missing flight, including scrutinising the food and cargo on the plane.

Malaysia’s top police officer Khalid Abu Bakar said that just investigating a load of mangosteens, a leathery-shelled, tropical Asian fruit, proved to be a difficult exercise.

“For example when we knew there was a load of mangosteens on board we had to find out where the mangosteens came from,” he said. “We tracked down who plucked the fruits, who packed them and shipped them out, who put them on the plane.”

“Imagine how many people we must interview and that was just the mangosteens,” he said.

Prime minister Tony Abbott met with Malaysia prime minister Najib Razak in Perth. Photo: Getty Images

Investigators had to also track down who was buying the fruit to make sure all leads were covered.

"Investigations may go on and on and on. We have to clear every little thing," he said.

"At the end of the investigations, we may not even know the real cause. We may not even know the reason for this incident."

Malaysia PM visits Perth

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been told Australia is doing everything it can to find the missing flight, which disappeared almost four weeks ago with 239 people on board.

Mr Najib arrived at Perth's RAAF Pearce air base, which is the departure point for the eight-nation operation, to meet those involved in the search and tour the facilities.

"I want to assure you Australia is doing everything it can," retired air marshal Angus Houston, who is leading the new Joint Agency Coordination Centre for the search, said.

He said it was one of the most demanding search and rescue operations he'd ever seen, and one of the most complex.

He offered his sympathies to the families of those on board MH370, which disappeared on March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"I'd like to personally extend my personal condolences to the people of Malaysia," he said.

The former head of Australia's defence forces said the search, co-ordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, was being reinforced by strong liaison at all levels.

"Prime Minister Najib, today you will see in action the remarkable co-operation occurring between the military crews from across our region and indeed the world, who are contributing to the search effort," he said.

"They are working seamlessly and effectively with our civilian agencies, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

"It is a truly international effort and the search, I think, is a powerful example of international co-operation at its very best."

He said Malaysia and Australia were longstanding friends who worked well together.

"To use the Australian term, we're good mates," air chief marshal Houston said.

Mr Najib was accompanied by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The initial search focused on the South China Sea, where air traffic controllers lost contact with MH370.

After subsequent searches in the Strait of Malacca, Andaman Sea and northern Indian Ocean, the focus turned to the southern Indian Ocean, based on satellite data.

Hundreds of objects have been spotted in the remote search area, but none have been verified as being part of the plane's wreckage.

The Joint Agency Coordination Centre, established this week in central Perth and staffed by 20 people, said eight planes and nine ships would on Thursday search an area of 223,000 square kilometres, 1680 kilometres west-northwest of Perth.

The first plane left the Pearce air base at 6am (WST).

The weather forecast is fair with visibility of about 10km, but the southern area may experience some isolated showers.

Tweet causes stir

Malaysian defence and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein has come under fire for appearing to agree with a journalist that missing flight MH370 was a "blessing in disguise".

A journalist based in Kuala Lumpur, Ismail Amsyar , tweeted "#MH370 is a blessing in disguise for all of us. I understand now the beauty of unity, the sweetness of having each other. @HishammuddinH2O".

Shortly later, Hishammudin replied with "Right u are (sic)".

Users immediately responded, blasting both the journalist and the minister for suggesting that there could be a positive to the plight of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

Alan Cook tweeted: “@HishammuddinH2O @IsmailAmsyar hmmmm not sure the families will be happy to hear that translate it so they can read your statment #mh370”.

Hishammuddin Hussein is under fire for this tweet. Photo: Twitter

Hj Azman HMZ also quickly responded: “@HishammuddinH2O @IsmailAmsyarSorry. I beg to differ with max consideratn & respect to the families. MH370 can’t be a blessing!”.

The journalist, who works for The Malaysian National News Agency, responded to the criticism, saying the unity and resilience of the Malaysian people was behind his comments.

“but u shud see how united we are defending our country from being accused, how strong the local media dispelling -ve reports,” he wrote.

He also responded directly to users who had taken aim at him.

“@hjazman got what u mean..but m not being insensitive or anything. I look at them as my family and i want them back. My apology,” he tweeted.

“@hjazman I’ve been covering this issue since day 1. they are all my family, my Malaysian family. if they hurt, so do i,” he followed up with shortly later.

Submarine sent to aid search

A British nuclear sub with underwater search capabilities reinforced the Indian Ocean hunt for flight MH370 on Wednesday, but Malaysian police warned the cause of the jet's mysterious disappearance may never be known.

Despite extensive scouring of the remote waters southwest of Perth where Malaysia believes the jet went down, ships and planes have found no debris that would indicate a crash site.

Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said a three-week-old criminal investigation into what caused the flight with 239 people aboard to veer far from its intended route between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing had so far been inconclusive.

The sober assessment will add to the frustrations of anxious family members of the missing passengers, who have denounced Malaysia's handling of the crisis.

"Give us more time," Khalid told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, according to Dow Jones Newswires. "We may not even know the real cause of this incident."

Ten planes and nine ships resumed the hunt Wednesday although authorities warned clouds, fog and isolated thunderstorms would reduce visibility.

Britain's Royal Navy said the first submarine in the operation -- HMS Tireless -- has arrived in the area and "with her advanced underwater search capability will be able to contribute to the attempts to locate the missing plane".

Britain's HMS Echo is also due in the search zone shortly to assist Australia's Ocean Shield naval vessel, which is fitted with a US-supplied "black box" detector and is expected to arrive on Friday.

Black box deadline looms

Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted police chief Khalid saying all MH370 passengers had been "cleared" of suspicion.

Police also are investigating the backgrounds of the plane's 12 crew, as well as ground staff and flight engineers, for signs of a hijack or sabotage plot.

More than three weeks after the flight's March 8 disappearance, authorities remain baffled as to how and why it happened, and warn that unless the black box is found, the mystery may never be solved.

The battery-powered signal from MH370's black box -- which records flight data and cockpit voice communications that could hold clues in the mystery -- usually lasts only about 30 days, with time fast running out to find it.

Malaysian leader heads to Perth

Australia has warned against expectations of quick success in the difficult task of recovering the black box from the deep and vast seas.

Retired Australian air chief marshal Angus Houston, who is heading a new coordination centre in Perth, reiterated Wednesday that the odds were stacked against them.

"The reality is it's the most complex and challenging search and recovery operation I've ever seen," he told national radio.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib is due to arrive late Wednesday in Perth.

On Thursday, he will tour the air base being used as a staging post for the search and meet with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott.

Malaysia's handling of the crisis, marked by piecemeal and occasionally contradictory information, has been widely questioned, especially by distraught relatives of the 153 Chinese nationals aboard.

Many have alleged incompetence or even a cover-up by Malaysia, straining ties between the two countries, although the rhetoric has eased in recent days.

In a briefing on Wednesday, Malaysian officials sought to explain to skeptical relatives their conclusion that the plane went down in the Indian Ocean.

That determination, based on complex satellite data, has outraged some families who say wreckage must first be recovered.

The closed-door briefing outside Kuala Lumpur included technical experts from China and Malaysia, a government statement said, and was telecast to other relatives in Beijing.

"Throughout the process, I want to assure you that we have done everything in our power to locate MH370. We have spared no effort and expense," civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told relatives in his opening statement.

But Steven Wang, a relative in Beijing, said the briefing did not convince him.

"I don't think that anything was explained to us... There are all kinds of possibilities," he said.

On Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines revealed the full radio communications with the pilots of MH370, but the routine exchanges contained nothing unusual and shed no light on the theory of possible pilot involvement.

The conversations with air traffic controllers had been the subject of much speculation as suspicions have focused on whether one or both of the pilots deliberately diverted the plane.

 

[mjpnathan]

With regard to the missing MH370 flight one wonders why the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when they reputedly works to ensure that all air travel is safe, allow passenger carrying aeroplanes to have the facility in the plane to switch off all communications. One can understand such facilities being there in non-passenger carrying war planes and planes doing some stealth work. However, aeroplanes carrying fare paying passengers should be mandated not to be allowed to have this facility anywhere in the plane.

Although it may give some commercial advantage to an airplane company to offer a system in which the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), and other communication facilities to be turned off when desired, as this would then allow the plane to be used for purposes other than to just carry passengers, it should never have been allowed.

Hence, the FAA and the IATA should not turn a blind-eye to the dangers posed by offering this facility, which brings along with it all sorts of suspicions of criminal activity.

Further, passenger carrying planes still having only the decades old Black Box, in this present age of cloud computing, is quite surprising. Is this also to enable these planes to be easily used for other purposes than to purely carry fare paying passengers?

 

[InformationSociety]

​

 

[InformationSociety]

Underwater search for MH370 black boxes begins - just days before their batteries die

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 03 April, 2014, 11:52pm
UPDATED : Friday, 04 April, 2014, 1:06pm

Agence France-Presse in Perth

A towed pinger locator sits on the wharf ready to be fitted to the defense ship Ocean Shield to aid in her roll in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Perth. Photo: AP

Crews searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet today launched a targeted underwater hunt for the plane’s black boxes along a stretch of remote ocean - just days left before the devices’ batteries are expected to run out.

The Australian navy ship Ocean Shield, which is dragging a towed pinger locator from the US Navy, and the British navy’s HMS Echo, which has underwater search gear on board, will converge along a 240-kilometre track in a patch of the southern Indian Ocean, said Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency coordinating the search.

The plane’s data recorders emit a ping that can be detected by equipment on board the ships. But the battery-powered devices stop transmitting the signals some 30 days after a crash — meaning searchers have little time left before the batteries on Flight 370’s black boxes die.

Locating the data recorders and wreckage after that is possible, but incredibly difficult.

The area the ships are searching was chosen based on hourly satellite pings the aircraft gave off after it vanished from radar March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. That information, combined with data on the estimated speed and performance of the aircraft, led them to that particular stretch of ocean, Houston said.

“The area of highest probability as to where the aircraft might have entered the water is the area where the underwater search will commence,” Houston said. “It’s on the basis of data that only arrived very recently and it’s the best data that is available.”

The underwater search started after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed yesterday "we will not rest" until the fate of flight MH370 is known.

Australia called the hunt for the jet "the most difficult search in human history".

Najib toured the military base in Perth being used as a staging post in the hunt for the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people that is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean.

"We want to find answers. We want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found," Najib said, as he thanked those involved in the eight-nation search.

Despite extensive scouring of the remote southern Indian Ocean, no debris that would indicate a crash site has been found, with time running out to locate the plane's "black box", which only emits a signal for around 30 days.

Najib admitted the exhaustive hunt for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8 was a "gargantuan task", but said he was confident that "in due time we will provide a closure to this event, on this tragedy".

Najib left without taking questions, as a reporter called out a query about Malaysia's handling of the crisis. Its response has been widely criticised, especially by distraught relatives of the 154 Chinese aboard. Adding to the frustration for families affected, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said on Wednesday that a criminal investigation into what caused the flight to veer from its intended route between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing had so far been inconclusive.

In contrast, Australia's mobilisation since it was handed increased responsibility for the search effort has been praised.

Australia has far more experience than Malaysia of conducting rescue operations, routinely monitoring huge tracts of ocean, but Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: "It is a very difficult search, the most difficult in human history, but as far as Australia is concerned we are throwing everything we have at it."

Both Najib and Abbott hailed the "truly remarkable" co-operation between Australia, Britain, China, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea and the United States.

A British nuclear submarine with underwater search capabilities on Wednesday joined planes and ships scouring the vast oceanic search zone.

Australia's Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, which is directing the search, said eight planes and nine ships were involved yesterday as they further refined the search area, moving it to west-northwest of Perth.

Australia's Ocean Shield naval vessel, fitted with a US-supplied "black box" detector, is due to arrive in the area today. But without a confirmed crash site, hopes of finding the device are slim.

 

[InformationSociety]

Opposition leader accuses Malaysian government of MH370 cover-up

Anwar Ibrahim tells British newspaper Malaysian government is 'concealing information' on fate of Flight MH370 missing since March 8

PUBLISHED : Friday, 04 April, 2014, 10:28am
UPDATED : Friday, 04 April, 2014, 1:19pm

Agence France-Presse in London, Associated Press in Perth

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Photo: Reuters

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Friday accused the government of hiding information on missing flight MH370, telling Britain’s Daily Telegraph that the country’s radar system would have detected any change of course.

His comments came just a day after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak vowed increased efforts to find the plane."We want to find answers. We want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found," Najib said, as he thanked those involved in the search.

On Friday, the Australian head of the agency co-ordinating the searching for the missing jet said two ships using US Navy equipment would begin an underwater hunt for the jet’s black boxes.

Angus Houston, said a towed pinger locator had been put on the Australian ship the Ocean Shield and it would converge with the British HMS Echo in an effort to locate the black boxes before their batteries were exhausted.

Anwar, who recently had his acquittal on sodomy charges overturned in what he claims is a political smear, said he was “baffled” why the sophisticated Marconi radar system that he authorised as finance minister in 1994 had failed to immediately detect the plane’s deviation.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing in the early hours of March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

He described it as “not only unacceptable but not possible, not feasible” that it could travel across “at least four” Malaysian provinces undetected, adding: “I believe the government knows more than us”.

“We don’t have the sophistication of the United States or Britain but still we have the capacity to protect our borders,” he stressed.

The radar system, based near the South China Sea, covers mainland Malaysia.

Anwar defended the aircraft’s pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who is also a personal friend and a member of his political party.

“If you say or suggest that the pilot may have been involved, what about the concealing [of information]?” he told the Telegraph.

“He could not have concealed the radar readings. He could not have instructed the air force to remain completely silent.”

The search for missing Malaysia Arlines Flight MH370 is continuing. Photo: EPA

Despite extensive scouring of the remote southern Indian Ocean, no debris that would indicate a crash site has been found, with time running out to locate the plane’s "black box", which only emits a signal for around 30 days.

Najib admitted the exhaustive hunt for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8 was a "gargantuan task", but said he was confident that "in due time we will provide a closure to this event, on this tragedy".

Anwar was sentenced to five years in jail just hours before MH370 took off after a Court of Appeals panel sided with a government challenge to his 2012 acquittal on charges he sodomised a male former aide. He is currently on bail.

Once a rising star in Malaysia’s long-ruling party until his spectacular ouster in the late 1990s, Anwar has alleged a long-running campaign by the ruling regime to destroy his political career with false charges.

He leads a pro-democracy coalition of parties that shocked the government by claiming over half of the popular vote last year’s general election, though it was not enough to secure victory.

 

[InformationSociety]

'Go home', mental health experts urge families of missing Chinese passngers on flight MH370

PUBLISHED : Friday, 04 April, 2014, 11:49pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 05 April, 2014, 1:32am

Teddy Ng in Kuala Lumpur [email protected]

Relatives of Chinese passengers pray in Beijing yesterday. Photo: AP

Relatives of Chinese passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight should return home to start the recovery process, mental health experts say.

Such a prolonged period disconnected from friends and family was having an adverse effect on their well-being and keeping them locked in the early stages of the grieving process, the experts said.

Families of many of the 239 people on board the flight were taken to hotels in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur when news broke on March 8 that it had vanished.

As the days passed and leads dried up, many - particularly some of the Chinese - became frustrated and vented their anger towards officials and journalists.

Public sympathy has started to wane, leading the Chinese government to distance itself from their comments and accusations.

Paul Yin, a psychologist volunteering at the Lido Hotel in Beijing, said grouping families together had helped in co-ordinating the operation but it was time for them to go home, where he hoped the authorities would ensure they were properly cared for.

Sean Lee, a counsellor who has provided help for some 10 Malaysian families in Kuala Lumpur, said their response had been more muted.

When Prime Minister Najib Razak announced the flight had "ended" over the Indian Ocean, he said, the Malaysian reaction had "not been as strong as expected".

That was a sign they had overcome the disbelief characteristic of the initial stages of trauma, he added, and pointed to the Malaysians' strong religious beliefs as a possible reason.

"Religion helps people to face a situation where they feel powerless to change anything. They will leave everything to God," he said.

"[For the Chinese], demanding the truth is something they believe they can do for their family members."

Chong Keat Aun, a producer at a Kuala Lumpur radio station, said his Malaysian friend had been on the plane, "but his daughter prefers to stay at home with her mother".

As the focus of the investigation shifts away from the two capital cities, it is now decision time for many relatives.

Some fear returning home will leave them disconnected from the search. "We have work to do and family to take care of back home. And I am worried about my father too," said Liu Jiani, whose grandfather and grandmother were on the plane.

"Emotions are tense here [at the Lido Hotel]. People look very calm, but they become very emotional all of a sudden. But after I go back home, who is going to help me and what can I do if I want to get in touch with someone to know about the latest search efforts?"

 

[InformationSociety]

Chinese ship detects suspected beacon from missing MH370 flight

A pulse signal suspected to be from the black box recorders on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been detected by the crew of the Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01, China's state media reported on Saturday evening.

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 05 April, 2014, 3:31pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 05 April, 2014, 11:14pm

Agencies and staff reporters

The captain and a crew member of Chinese rescue vessel the Haixun 01, which has detected a signal suspected to be from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photo: Xinhua

A Chinese patrol ship taking part in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has received pulse signals suspected to be from the flight recorders of the plane, four weeks to the day after the airliner vanished.

Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News on Saturday evening reported that the crew of the Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 had "basically confirmed" that a signal that it picked up in the southern Indian Ocean search zone was from the missing Boeing 777-200. One of the newspaper's reporters was on board the ship in the southern Indian Ocean and reported the findings via satellite phone.

However, the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center was cautious over the news and said on a verified microblog the “suspected pulse signal picked up by Haixun 01 has not been identified yet”. As of Saturday night, the official Xinhua News Agency said experts on board the ship Haixun 01 were still trying to verify the source of the detected signal.

A black box detector deployed by the Haixun 01 picked up the signal, a ping per second at the frequency of 37.5kHz, at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, said Xinhua.

Jiefang Daily, another Shanghai-based official newspaper with a reporter on board the patrol ship, said on Saturday evening that three crew members on a search raft released by Haixun 01 had first heard the signal briefly on Friday, but weren't able to record it. The signal was heard again for a minute and a half on Saturday afternoon, it said.

Two Chinese navy vessels searching in nearby waters had sailed to the location and were trying to further verify the source of the signal, it said.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said he had not received a report on the signal and warned that it may not be from the plane.

“This is not the first time we have had something that has turned out to be very disappointing,” he told ABC television.

“I’m just going to wait for Angus [Houston] and the team and my team to come forward with something that’s positive because this is a very, very difficult task.”

A multinational team lead by Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston called the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre has been desperately trying to find debris floating in the water or faint sound signals from the flight recorders that could lead them to the aircraft and help unravel the mystery of its fate.

Finding floating wreckage is key to confirming that the detected signal is from Flight MH370..

Beacons in the black boxes emit “pings” so they can be more easily found, but the batteries only last about a month.

Officials have said the hunt for the wreckage is among the hardest ever undertaken.

The recorders could help investigators determine why Flight 370, which disappeared March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, veered so far off-course.

Weather conditions in the area, which have regularly hampered crews trying to spot debris, were fair with some rain expected, the Co-ordination Centre said.

A pinger locator is being towed by Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield in the first search for the missing flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Photo:AFP

Houston had earlier acknowledged the search area was essentially a best guess, and had noted the time when the plane’s locator beacons would shut down was “getting pretty close”.

The overall search area is a 217,000-square-kilometre zone in the southern Indian Ocean, about 1,700 kilometres northwest of the western Australian city of Perth.

The search area had shifted each day as investigators continued to analyse what little radar and satellite data was available while factoring in where any debris may have drifted.

Australia has been co-ordinating the ocean search, and the investigation into the plane’s disappearance is Malaysia’s responsibility. Australia, the US, Britain and China had all agreed to be “accredited representatives” in the investigation.

In related news, the Air Line Pilots Association, a union that represents 30,000 pilots in North America, said in a statement that the Malaysia Airlines tragedy should lead to higher standards of plane tracking technology being adopted by the airline industry.

 

[InformationSociety]

Malaysia Airlines may face bankruptcy after MH370 tragedy

Staff Reporter
2014-04-05

Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, at the podium, speaks during a press event on missing flight MH370, March 24. (Photo/CNS)

The tragic and baffling disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has undoubtedly worsened the financial situation of the company as the airline was already suffering a deficit prior to the incident, according to the China Economic Weekly.

As of March 27, an international search has yet to find any definitive clues into what happened to the plane that disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. Malaysia's prime minister, Najib Razak, announced on March 24 that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean with the loss of all 239 people on board. The announcement was met with anger in China, whose nationals made up two thirds of the passengers on board, where it was felt this conclusion should not have been reached before solid evidence of the flight's fate had been found.

Whatever the result be, Malaysia Airlines will have to bear the responsibility and compensate the passengers' families.

Standard & Poor's Financial Services predicts that the payout for compensation claims connected to flight MH370 will be a big as those related to the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States.

Malaysia Airlines has been incurring losses for several consecutive years. Its net loss was pegged at 4.7 billion yuan (US$763.7 million) in 2011 and 810 million yuan (US$130.4 millon) in 2012. Last year, the company's net loss ballooned to 220 million yuan (US$35.4 million) despite an annual sales growth of 9.9%.

Over the past year, share prices of the company have dropped by nearly a quarter, the weekly said, adding that its stock has plunged by as much as 20% since March 8.

The company has yet to offer a final compensation to the passengers' families as the plane remains missing and the cause of the incident remains unclear. According to international regulations, a carrier is obligated to pay an initial compensation to the family of the victims after the occurrence of an aviation incident and has to confirm the final amount of compensation when the causes are confirmed.

Whether the air carrier is responsible for the incident or not, it has to pay a compensation of €113,100 (US$155,700) for each casualty or death in accordance with the Montreal Convention. In other words, Malaysia Airlines is required to pay a minimum of 1.2 million yuan (US$193,200) to the family of each passenger and it will have to bear at least US$28 million in compensation costs.

The amount will increase however if it was proved that Malaysia Airlines was solely responsible for the incident.

Whether the largest air carrier in Malaysia will take responsibility for the plane's disappearance is still unknown, but the company's credibility has been hurt from the manner in which it has handled the aftermath.

The statements made by the company and the Malaysian government have been vague and contradictory, the weekly said, adding that Prime Minister Razak's announcement of the flight crashing in the Indian Ocean was not supported by any solid evidence.

 

[mjpnathan]

With regard to the missing MH370 flight one wonders why the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when they reputedly works to ensure that all air travel is safe, allow passenger carrying aeroplanes to have the facility in the plane to switch off all communications. One can understand such facilities being there in non-passenger carrying war planes and planes doing some stealth work. However, aeroplanes carrying fare paying passengers should be mandated not to be allowed to have this facility anywhere in the plane.

Although it may give some commercial advantage to an airplane company to offer a system in which the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), and other communication facilities to be turned off when desired, as this would then allow the plane to be used for purposes other than to just carry passengers, it should never have been allowed.

Hence, the FAA and the IATA should not turn a blind-eye to the dangers posed by offering this facility, which brings along with it all sorts of suspicions of criminal activity.

Further, passenger carrying planes still having only the decades old Black Box, in this present age of cloud computing, is quite surprising. Is this also to enable these planes to be easily used for other purposes than to purely carry fare paying passengers?

 

[InformationSociety]

Chinese, Australian ships try to verify potential 'pings' from Malaysia jet

By Lincoln Feast and Swati Pandey
SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia Sun Apr 6, 2014 2:04am EDT

Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force Commander Hidetsugu Iwamasa is pictured in front of one of their P-3C Orion aircraft currently at RAAF Base Pearce near Perth, April 4, 2014. On Monday it will be 30 days since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 lost communications and disappeared from civilian radar less than an hour into an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. REUTERS/Jason Reed

(Reuters) - Chinese and Australian ships hunting for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner have picked up separate acoustic signals in different parts of a vast Indian Ocean search area and are trying to verify if one could be from the plane's black box recorders.

Australian search authorities said on Sunday a Chinese patrol vessel, the Haixun 01, had picked up a fleeting "ping" signal twice in recent days in waters west of Perth, near where investigators believe Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went down on March 8.

More planes and ships were being sent to assist in that area, but meanwhile, Australia's HMAS Ocean Shield had reported a separate "acoustic event" some 300 nautical miles away.

The Ocean Shield is carrying sophisticated U.S. Navy equipment designed to pick up signals sent from the black boxes, which may hold the key to why the aircraft ended up thousands of kilometers off course.

"We are treating each of them seriously. We need to ensure before we leave any of those areas that this does not have any connection with MH370," Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency coordinating the operation, told a media conference in Perth.

A black box detector deployed by the Haixun 01 picked up the signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz per second - the same as emitted by flight recorders - at about 25 degrees south and 101 degrees east, Xinhua reported on Saturday.

Australian search authorities said such a signal would be consistent with a black box, but both they and Xinhua stressed there was no conclusive evidence linking it to the Boeing 777.

"The 37.5kHz is the specific frequency that these locator pingers operate on," said Anish Patel, president of Sarasota, Florida-based Dukane Seacom, which made the black box locator.

"It's a very unique frequency, typically not found in background ocean noise," such as whales or other marine mammals, he told Reuters.

SOUTHERN AREA BACK IN FOCUS

Houston said analysis of earlier satellite data had again led investigators to refine the search area towards the southern part of the corridor.

"The area of the highest probability is, what we think, the southern part where Haixun 01 is operating. That is why we are really interested in the two acoustic encounters that Haixun 01 has had."

The water was around 4,500 meters (14,800 ft) deep in that part of the search area, Houston added.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was "hopeful but by no means certain" that the reported pulse signals were related to MH370.

"This is the most difficult search in human history. We are searching for an aircraft which is at the bottom of a very deep ocean and it is a very, very wide search area," Abbott told reporters in Tokyo, where he is on a visit.

Up to a dozen planes and 13 ships will be scouring three separate areas about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) northwest of Perth, Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre said on Sunday.

SONAR EQUIPMENT

Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as a cause of the plane's disappearance, but say the evidence, including loss of communications, suggests it was deliberately diverted.

Malaysian authorities have faced heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search and holding back information. Most of the 227 passengers were Chinese.

Malaysia said on Saturday it had launched a formal investigation into the plane's disappearance that would include experts from Australia, the United States, China, Britain and France.

Normally, a formal air safety investigation is not launched until wreckage is found. But there have been concerns that Malaysia's informal investigations to date have lacked the legal standing of an official inquiry convened under U.N. rules.

Under International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, the country where the aircraft is registered leads the investigation when the incident takes place in international waters.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the investigation would comprise three groups: one would examine maintenance records, structures and systems; an "operations" group would study flight recorders, operations and meteorology; and a "medical and human factors" group would look into psychology, pathology and survival.

(Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in PARIS, Siva Govindasamy and Niluksi Koswanage in KUALA LUMPUR and Jane Wardell in SYDNEY; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Michael Urquhart)

 

[InformationSociety]

Flight MH370 search ships detect more pulse signals from depths of Indian Ocean

Search co-ordinator urges caution over three pulse signals from the potential crash zone

PUBLISHED : Monday, 07 April, 2014, 4:43am
UPDATED : Monday, 07 April, 2014, 9:09am

Associated Press in Perth

An updated handout picture shows the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) ship Haixun 01 has reportedly detected a pulse signal in the Indian Ocean and could be from the black box of flight MH370. Photo: EPA

Three separate but fleeting sounds from deep in the Indian Ocean offered new hope yesterday in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, as officials rushed to determine whether they were signals from the plane's black boxes before their beacons fall silent.

The head of the multinational search being conducted off Australia's west coast confirmed that a Chinese ship had picked up electronic pulse signals twice in a small patch of the search zone, once on Friday and again on Saturday.

Yesterday an Australian ship carrying sophisticated deep-sea sound equipment picked up a third signal in a different part of the massive search area.

Angus Houston

"This is an important and encouraging lead, but one which I urge you to treat carefully," said Angus Houston, who is co-ordinating the search.

He stressed that the signals had not been verified as being linked to flight 370, which was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.

"We have an acoustic event. The job now is to determine the significance of that event," Houston said, referring to each of the three transmissions. "There are lots of noises in the ocean, and sometimes the acoustic equipment can rebound, echo if you like."

The British navy ship HMS Echo was moving to the area where the signals were picked up by the Chinese patrol vessel Haixun 01 and would probably get there early today, Houston said.

The Australian navy's Ocean Shield would also head there, but would first investigate the sound it picked up, he said.

Speculation regarding the plane's flight path also grew after a report claimed the aircraft flew around Indonesian airspace after vanishing from Malaysian military radar.

The Boeing 777 jet might have intentionally taken a route designed to avoid radar detection, CNN quoted an unnamed senior Malaysian official as saying.

Two-thirds of the passengers aboard the missing plane were Chinese, and a group of relatives has been in Kuala Lumpur to follow the investigation.

As some families were leaving yesterday, they issued a letter requesting that the international rescue bodies that found a missing Air France jet in 2009 join the current search operation.

Additional reporting by Teddy Ng

 

[InformationSociety]

Task force on flight tracking to report by December, IATA chief says

Task force to examine options following disappearance of flight MH370

PUBLISHED : Monday, 07 April, 2014, 4:43am
UPDATED : Monday, 07 April, 2014, 8:15am

Tiffany Ap [email protected]

Tony Tyler

An aviation task force set up to address concerns over flight tracking after the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane will prepare a report for the public by December, says the head of the global airline association.

Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association, stressed that although the committee would explore live data streaming on planes, it would need to "keep the problem in proportion" and costs might be a limiting factor.

"I want to get an answer by December. I think it's quite urgent," said the former chief executive of Cathay Pacific. "I'd like to see a report from the task force with a recommendation, I hope, with what we should be doing about tracking planes."

Task-force members will include but are not limited to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, aircraft manufacturers, equipment makers, satellite service providers, air-traffic managers and rescue teams.

The airline industry and the Malaysian government have faced heavy criticism over the handling of the flight MH370 incident as victims' families still search for answers almost a month after the plane vanished. However, Tyler discouraged rushing to premature solutions.

"Now is the time to think very carefully and bring the experts together," he said.

Although it was too early to estimate how much better tracking measures would cost, Tyler said live data streaming via satellites might be cost-prohibitive.

"We need to keep the problem in proportion. It is the first and only time it's happened, but we must make sure it can't happen again … Everybody has to consider the technical aspects and of course what it will cost … sending large quantities of data via satellite networks is expensive.

"It hasn't been seen as necessary and even now I think we need to establish whether it is necessary. I'm not saying it is. I think we need to take a good look at that question," he said.

Most planes download information at certain moments such as take-off, climbing and then cruising. Once a plane hits cruise height, data is typically released only every 30 minutes.

"The data ... is contained on the aircraft," Tyler said. "The idea behind data streaming is that even if you can't find the aircraft, you would still have the data. That's the issue."

He also questioned why governments were not utilising the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), a flaw that was highlighted by two MH370 passengers using fake passports to board the plane.

Sixty governments around the world, including the United States and Britain but not Malaysia, require that airlines provide passenger-screening data ahead of time, costing the industry nearly €8 billion (HK$85 billion) a year. But even some of those 60 governments who require the information are not properly checking APIS.

"It's quite clear now that many countries do not use it," Tyler said. "My question is, if you're not using it, why do you need it? What should be happening is airlines should be providing this data to governments and they should use it to check against the Interpol database."

 

[InformationSociety]

Australia says new 'pings' best lead yet in Malaysia jet search

By Jane Wardell and Swati Pandey
SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia Mon Apr 7, 2014 6:32am EDT

Crew aboard the Australian Navy ship HMAS Success watch as a helicopter participates in a Replenishment at Sea evolution with the Royal Malaysian Navy ship KD LEKIU in the southern Indian Ocean during the continuing search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the Australian Defence Force April 7, 2014. REUTERS-Australian Defence Force-Handout via Reuters

(Reuters) - An Australian ship searching for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner has picked up signals consistent with the beacons from aircraft black box recorders, in what search officials said on Monday was the most promising lead yet in the month-long hunt.

The U.S. Navy "towed pinger locator" connected to the Australian ship Ocean Shield picked up the signals in an area some 1,680 km (1,040 miles) northwest of Perth, which analysis of sporadic satellite data has determined as the most likely place Boeing 777 went down.

"I'm much more optimistic than I was a week ago," Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency coordinating the search, told a news conference in Perth in western Australia, while cautioning that wreckage needed to be found for a confirmation.

"We are now in a very well defined search area, which hopefully will eventually yield the information that we need to say that MH370 might have entered the water just here."

If the signals can be narrowed further, an autonomous underwater vehicle called a Bluefin 21, will be sent to find wreckage on the sea floor to verify the signals, said Houston, who noted that the potential search area was 4.5 km (2.8 miles) deep, the same as the Bluefin range.

The black boxes record cockpit data and may provide answers about what happened to the Malaysia Airlines plane, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished off radar on March 8 and flew thousands of kilometres off its Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing route.

Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as a cause of the plane's disappearance but say evidence, including loss of communications, suggests it was deliberately diverted.

Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur he was "cautiously hopeful" that the signals picked up would lead to a positive finding soon.

"I am more optimistic than some of the leads we have had. This is something much more positive than others," he said.

The first "ping" signal detection was held for more than two hours before the Ocean Shield lost contact, but the ship was able to pick up a signal again for about 13 minutes, Houston said.

"On this occasion two distinct pinger returns were audible. Significantly, this would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder," he said.

AT EDGE OF SEARCH CAPABILITY

The black boxes, thought be to lying on the ocean floor, are equipped with locator beacons that send pings but the beacons' batteries are thought to be running out of charge by now, a month after Flight MH370 disappeared.

"We are right on the edge of capability and we might be limited on capability if the aircraft ended up in deeper water. In very deep oceanic water, nothing happens fast," said Houston.

"This is not the end of the search. We still have got difficult, painstaking work to do to confirm that this is indeed where the aircraft entered the water."

Alec Duncan, expert in underwater acoustics at Curtin University's Centre for Marine Science and Technology said the lead was promising but impossible to verify without confirmed wreckage from the aircraft.

"It's a difficult business, operating underwater and trying to detect anything in the sort of water depth that this search involves and it's impossible to be 100 percent sure of anything until the wreckage is actually on the deck of the ship," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

A second search area was being maintained in waters where a Chinese vessel had also picked up "ping" signals at the weekend in an area more than 300 nautical miles from the latest signals.

Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 reported receiving a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5 kHz, consistent with the signal emitted by flight recorders, on Friday and again on Saturday.

Houston said the Chinese and Australian discoveries of pings were consistent with work done on analysing radar and satellite data but the Ocean Shield's leads were now the most promising.

Houston on Sunday said he was comfortable with the level of cooperation between search countries, following criticism that Australia only became aware of the Chinese find at the same time as the Xinhua state news agency filed a story from a reporter on board the Haixun.

"I'm very satisfied with the consultation, the coordination that we are building with our Chinese friends," Houston said.

However, he added that language was sometimes an issue and he had arranged for a Chinese liaison officer to join the Australian-led coordination center.

Malaysian authorities have faced heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search and holding back information. Most of the 227 passengers were Chinese.

(Additional reporting by Lincoln Feast in Sydney and Anuradha Raghu in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by Michael Perry and Robert Birsel)