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Perth (Australia) (AFP) - Two-thirds of the planned underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been completed, with no signs so far of the jet, Australian officials said Monday.
As many as 10 military aircraft and 11 ships are taking part in the search for the aircraft, which was carrying 239 people when it vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
No debris from the plane has been found despite an intense air and sea search and hopes centre on the underwater autonomous vehicle (UAV) Bluefin-21 finding wreckage on the Indian Ocean seabed.
"Bluefin-21 has searched approximately two thirds of the focused underwater search area to date," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre managing the search said in a statement.
"No contacts of interest have been found to date."
The torpedo-shaped sonar scanning device has so far made eight missions to the vast depths of the ocean with no result, despite exceeding it's operating limit of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet).
"Bluefin-21 AUV's ninth mission will commence later this morning," JACC said.
MH370 inexplicably diverted from its course towards Beijing and is thought to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean.
Authorities believe acoustic signals picked up from the seabed far off the west coast of Australia by specialist US equipment -- known as a towed pinger locator -- are the best lead so far in solving the mystery.
With the batteries of the black box beacons now thought to have expired, experts are scouring the seabed in the vicinity of the transmissions to try and find their source.
"The focused underwater search area is defined as a circle of 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) radius around the second Towed Pinger Locator detection which occurred on 8 April," JACC said.
The Australian agency said the visual search area Monday would total 49,491 square kilometres (19,108 square miles).
The centre of this search, which will be conducted by all the planes and all but one of the ships in Monday's search, is about 1,741 kilometres north west of Perth.
The weather in the region is forecast to deteriorate later Monday, particularly in the northern sector, as Tropical Cyclone Jack continues its track southwards, JACC said.
Widespread showers were developing with isolated thunderstorms to the north and east south-easterly winds, it added.
Authorities have indicated they may reassess within days how to approach the extremely challenging search for the plane, expected to be the costliest in aviation history, given that nothing has so far been found.
Malaysia's government and the airline have come under harsh criticism from Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers -- two-thirds of whom were Chinese -- over their handling of the incident.
A Malaysia Airlines plane with 166 people aboard was forced to make an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur early Monday in another blow to its safety image.
Flight MH192, bound for Bangalore, India, turned back to Kuala Lumpur after it was discovered that a tyre had burst on take-off, the airline said.
Flight MH370 relatives oppose Malaysian moves towards issuing death certificates
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 11:21pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 11:21pm
Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur
A family member cries as she and other relatives pray during a candlelight vigil for passengers on the missing plane. Photo: Reuters
Relatives of flight MH370 passengers have denounced the Malaysian government's suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certificates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.
The statement, issued in response to a weekend briefing that Malaysian officials gave to families in Kuala Lumpur, also called for a review of satellite data that Malaysia says indicates the plane probably crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
"We, the families of MH370, believe that until they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survivors, they have no right to attempt to settle this case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs," said the statement by the "United Families of MH370".
Family members pray around 239 lit candles during a candlelight vigil for the missing flight passengers. Photo: Reuters
In Sunday's briefing, a Malaysian official said the government would look into a timetable for issuing death certificates for passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight. The documents are required for families to seek insurance payments, settle debts and address a range of other issues.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainudin also asked relatives in the meeting to submit a proposal for government financial assistance for families.
But relatives, who have repeatedly accused the government and national airline of botching a response to the plane's disappearance and withholding information, said Malaysian authorities were playing an agonising "cat and mouse game" over the fate of their loved ones.
"WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR AND SHOCK!" the statement said, using bold capital letters.
The Boeing 777 went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
Australia is leading the hunt for MH370, which is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean after veering sharply from its route for no apparent reason. No debris has yet been found from the plane.
The aerial search for wreckage of the airliner was suspended yesterday due to a tropical cyclone, but 10 ships will continue their work.
Demanding hard evidence, some vocal relatives have repeatedly said they were not convinced by Malaysia's conclusions about data analysis conducted by British satellite communications firm Inmarsat.
"They have failed to share why they would accept a single source [Inmarsat] for analysis, utilising a never before attempted method, as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is under the water and all lives lost," the families said. The statement said they wanted an independent peer review, but this was rejected on grounds Inmarsat's data was protected for privacy reasons.
In Sunday's meeting "not a single one of our questions was answered", it added.
Search for MH370 reveals a military vulnerability for China
Reuters
By Greg Torode and Michael Martina 22 April, 2014
Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 is pictured during a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370, in the south Indian Ocean
By Greg Torode and Michael Martina
HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - When Chinese naval supply vessel Qiandaohu entered Australia's Albany Port this month to replenish Chinese warships helping search for a missing Malaysian airliner, it highlighted a strategic headache for Beijing - its lack of offshore bases and friendly ports to call on.
China's deployment for the search - 18 warships, smaller coastguard vessels, a civilian cargo ship and an Antarctic icebreaker - has stretched the supply lines and logistics of its rapidly expanding navy, Chinese analysts and regional military attaches say.
China's naval planners know they will have to fill this strategic gap to meet Beijing's desire for a fully operational blue-water navy by 2050 - especially if access around Southeast Asia or beyond is needed in times of tension.
China is determined to eventually challenge Washington's traditional naval dominance across the Asia Pacific and is keen to be able to protect its own strategic interests across the Indian Ocean and Middle East.
"As China's military presence and projection increases, it will want to have these kind of (port) arrangements in place, just as the U.S. does," said Ian Storey, a regional security expert at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies.
"I am a bit surprised that there is no sign that they even started discussions about long-term access. If visits happen now they happen on an ad-hoc commercial basis. It is a glaring hole."
The United States, by contrast, has built up an extensive network of full bases - Japan, Guam and Diego Garcia - buttressed by formal security alliances and access and repair agreements with friendly countries, including strategic ports in Singapore and Malaysia.
While China is building up its fortified holdings on islands and reefs in the disputed South China Sea, its most significant southernmost base remains on Hainan Island, still some 3,000 nautical miles away from where Chinese warships have been searching for missing Malaysia airlines flight MH370.
Military attaches say foreign port access is relatively easy to arrange during peace-time humanitarian efforts - such as the search for MH370 or during anti-piracy patrols off the Horn of Africa - but moments of tension or conflict are another matter.
"If there was real tension and the risk of conflict between China and a U.S. ally in East Asia, then it is hard to imagine Chinese warships being allowed to enter Australian ports for re-supply," said one Beijing-based analyst who watches China's naval build-up.
"The Chinese know this lack of guaranteed port access is something they are going to have to broach at some point down the track," he said. "As the navy grows, this is going to be a potential strategic dilemma."
Zha Daojiong, an international relations professor at Beijing's Peking University, said the Indian Ocean search was an "exceptional" circumstance and that Chinese strategists knew they could not automatically rely on getting into the ports of U.S. allies if strategic tensions soared.
China's navy had significantly expanded friendship visits to ports from Asia and the Pacific to the Middle East and Mediterranean in recent years, but discussions over longer-term strategic access were still some way off, he said.
"At some point, we will have to create a kind of road-map to create these kind of agreements, that is for sure, but that will be for the future," Zha said.
"We are pragmatic and we know there are sensitivities surrounding these kinds of discussions, or even historic suspicions in some places, so the time is probably not right just yet," he said.
"I expect to see more friendship visits, and on-going access on a request basis. Then there is the issue of making sure the facilities can meet our needs."
Operationally, long-range deployments such as the anti-piracy patrols and the search for wreckage of MH370 have proved important logistical learning curves, he added.
Potential blue-water deployments of future air-craft carrier strike groups further complicates China's logistical outlook.
China's first carrier, the Liaoning, a Soviet-era ship bought from Ukraine in 1998 and re-built in a Chinese shipyard, is being used for training and is not yet fully operational.
Regional military attaches and analysts said it could be decades before China was able to compete with U.S. carriers, if at all.
Tai Ming Cheung, director of the U.C. Institute of Global Conflict and Co-operation at the University of California, described the MH370 search as a "major learning moment" for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and could lead to a push from its top brass to develop global power-projection capabilities.
The PLA covers all arms of the military, including the navy.
Chinese officials and analysts have bristled at suggestions by Western and Indian counterparts that Beijing is attempting to create a so-called "string of pearls" by funding port developments across the Indian Ocean, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Chinese analysts say the ports will never develop into Chinese bases and even long-term access deals would be highly questionable, given the political uncertainties and the immense strategic trust this would require.
Storey, of Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies, said the "string of pearls" theory was increasingly seen as discredited among strategic analysts.
So far this decade, Chinese naval ships have visited Gulf ports and other strategic points across the Middle East, including Oman, Israel, Qatar and Kuwait, after completing piracy patrols.
But despite its rapid naval build-up, many experts believe China is a decade or more away from being able to secure key offshore shipping lanes and was still reliant on the United States to secure oil choke-points such as the Straits of Hormuz that leads to the Gulf.
Closer to home, the disputed South China Sea offers few solutions. China's eight fortified holdings on reefs and islets across the contested Spratly archipelago are not considered big enough for a significant offshore base, according to Richard Bitzinger, a regional military analyst at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Nor is the base at Woody Island in the Paracels further north, where China is expanding a runway and harbor.
"Beyond the PLA's significant naval bases on Hainan Island, I just can't see where the Chinese will be able to get the port access they will need in Southeast Asia over the longer term," Bitzinger said. "The intensifying disputes with the likes of the Philippines and Vietnam have hardly helped."
The Philippines and Vietnam, along with Malaysia and Brunei, dispute China's claim to much of the South China Sea, one of the world's most important trade routes. Taiwan's claim mirrors that of Beijing.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan all maintain military bases across the Spratlys, which sit above a seabed rich in oil and gas potential.
"The U.S. Navy has been at this for 100 years or so," and constantly works at maintaining and nurturing its strategic network, Bitzinger said. "China's being doing it for about 15 ... China's not going to be able to catch up overnight."
(Additional reporting by Grace Li in Hong Kong and Matt Siegel in Sydney. Editing by Dean Yates and Mark Bendeich)
Possible debris from MH370 washes up on Australian shore
Photographs of material passed on to Malaysian investigation team
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 April, 2014, 6:25pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 April, 2014, 6:51pm
Agence France-Presse in Perth
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has so far been fruitless. Photo: AFP
Authorities are investigating whether “unidentified material” washed up on the southwest coast of Australia has any link to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, officials said on Wednesday.
“Western Australia Police have attended a report of material washed ashore 10 kilometres east of Augusta and have secured the material,” Australia’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said in a statement.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is examining photographs of the material to determine whether it has any links to the search for the missing jet, it added.
The bureau has provided photographs of the material to the Malaysian investigation team.
“It’s sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan told broadcaster CNN, describing the object as appearing to be sheet metal with rivets.
But he added a note of caution. “The more we look at it, the less excited we get.”
The Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 when it mysteriously diverted.
It is thought to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean off Western Australia, where a huge search is underway.
Earlier this month, an oceanographer told the South China Morning Post that currents and prevailing winds would likely push any floating debris towards Australia's vast west coast.
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.
The development comes as Australia said it may use more powerful sonar equipment that can delve deeper beneath the Indian Ocean in the hunt for the missing jet.
The search co-ordination centre said on Wednesday a robotic submarine, the US Navy’s Bluefin 21, had so far covered more than 80 per cent of the 310-square-kilometre seabed search zone off the Australian west coast, creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor. Nothing of interest had been found.
The 4.5-kilometre deep search area is a circle 20 kilometres wide around an area where sonar equipment picked up a signal on April 8 consistent with a plane’s black boxes. But the batteries powering those signals are now dead.
Defence Minister David Johnston said Australia was consulting with Malaysia, China and the United States on the next phase of the search for the plane that went missing on March 8, which is likely to be announced next week.
MH370 relatives reject Malaysian conclusions on plane AFP
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may be forced to re-investigate the possibility that the passenger jet with 239 on board landed, according to new reports.
The New Strait Times has quoted sources close to the probe that the investigation teams are considering revisiting the possibility that the plane did not crash into the ocean and had landed safely at an unknown location.
“The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible, as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to MH370. However, the possibility of a specific country hiding the plane when more than 20 nations are searching for it, seems absurd,” the sources told the NST.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he has received "no advice whatsoever" to indicate the plane has landed.
“Our expert advice is that the aircraft went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean, we have identified a probable impact zone, which is about 700km long, about 80km wide,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra.
The latest development comes as the multinational team searching for MH370 and its 239 passengers and crew widens the hunt using more capable underwater vehicles.
Yesterday, the Bluefin-21 completed its ninth mission scouring the seabed with three more dives expected to wind up the survey of the most likely location of MH370.
However, no contacts of interest have been found so far.
MH370 relatives reject Malaysian conclusions on plane
Relatives of flight MH370 passengers have denounced the Malaysian government's suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certificates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.
The statement, issued in response to a weekend briefing that Malaysian officials gave to families in Kuala Lumpur, also called for a review of satellite data that Malaysia says indicates the plane likely crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
"We, the families of MH370, believe that until they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survivors, they have no right to attempt to settle this case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs," said the statement by the "United Families of MH370".
Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion's captain, Wing Comdr. Rob Shearer watches out of the window of his aircraft while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Photo: AP.
In Sunday's briefing, a Malaysian official said the government would look into a timetable for issuing death certificates for passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight, which are required for families to seek insurance payments, settle debts and address a range of other issues.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainudin also asked relatives in the meeting to submit a proposal for government financial assistance for families as the MH370 search wears on.
But relatives, who have repeatedly accused the government and national airline of botching a response to the plane's disappearance and withholding information, said Malaysian authorities were playing an agonising "cat and mouse game" over the fate of their loved ones.
"WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR AND SHOCK!" the statement said, using bold caps.
Malaysian officials could not immediately be reached to comment. The government and airline deny they are hiding anything.
The Boeing 777 went missing March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
Malaysia says satellite data indicates the plane crashed in the remote Indian Ocean but no proof has been found despite an intensive multi-nation sea search.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, right, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak talk during their meeting at the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Perth. Photo: AP.
Demanding hard evidence, some vocal relatives have repeatedly said they were unconvinced by Malaysia's conclusions on the data analysis, performed by British satellite communications firm Inmarsat.
"They have failed to share why they would accept a single source (Inmarsat) for analysis utilising a never before attempted method, as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is under the water and all lives lost," the families said.
The statement said they requested an independent peer review, but the suggestion was rejected on grounds Inmarsat's data was under privacy protections.
In the Sunday meeting, "not a single one of our questions was answered," it added.
A public opinion poll published last week found that more than half of Malaysians believe their scandal-prone government -- which has controlled the country for 57 years -- is hiding the full truth on MH370.
Material washed up on Australia beach was not from MH370, say officials
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 24 April, 2014, 9:02am
UPDATED : Thursday, 24 April, 2014, 4:49pm
Associated Press in Canberra, Australia
A crew member of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion, look out in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. Photo: AP
Australian officials said Thursday that after examining detailed photographs of unidentified material that washed ashore in the southwestern part of the country they are satisfied it is not a clue in the search for the missing Malaysian plane.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has advised search coordinators that the material, which washed ashore 10 kilometers east of Augusta in Western Australia, is not from missing Flight 370, according to a statement from the Joint Agency Coordination Centre.
Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the safety bureau, told The Associated Press Wednesday that an initial analysis of the material — which appeared to be sheet metal with rivets — suggested it was not from the plane.
“We do not consider this likely to be of use to our search for MH370,” he said.
Augusta is near Australia’s southwestern tip, about 310 kilometers from Perth, where the search has been headquartered.
The search coordination center also said Thursday a robotic submarine, the U.S. Navy’s Bluefin 21, had scanned more than 90 per cent of the 310-square kilometer seabed search zone off the Australian west coast, creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor, but had found nothing of interest.
The 4.5-kilometer deep search area is a circle 20 kilometers wide around an area where sonar equipment picked up a signal on April 8 consistent with a plane’s black boxes. But the batteries powering those signals are now believed dead.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday that failure to find any clue in the most likely crash site of the lost jet would not spell the end of the search, as officials plan soon to bring in more powerful sonar equipment that can delve deeper beneath the Indian Ocean.
A man looks at a bulletin board as Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have a meeting at the Metro Park Hotel in Beijing. Photo: AFP
Defense Minister David Johnston said Australia was consulting with Malaysia, China and the United States on the next phase of the search for the plane, which disappeared March 8. Details on the next phase are likely to be announced next week.
Johnston said more powerful towed side-scan commercial sonar equipment would probably be deployed, similar to the remote-controlled subs that found RMS Titanic 3,800 meters under the Atlantic Ocean in 1985 and the Australian WWII wreck HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean off the Australian coast, north of the current search area, in 2008.
While the Bluefin had less than one-fifth of the seabed search area to complete, Johnston estimated that task would take another two weeks.
Abbott said the airliner’s probable impact zone was 700 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide. A new search strategy would be adopted if nothing is found in the current seabed search zone.
“If at the end of that period we find nothing, we are not going to abandon the search, we may well rethink the search, but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery,” Abbott told reporters.
The focus of the next search phase will be decided by continuing analysis of information including flight data and sound detections of the suspected beacons, Johnston said, adding that the seabed in the vicinity of the search was up to 7 kilometers deep.
The search center said Thursday an air search involving up to 11 planes was planned to examine an area of nearly 50,000 square kilometers centered about 1,600 kilometers northwest of Perth. The center said it would first assess weather conditions, which have hampered aerial searches over the past two days. The center said 11 ships would also join the search.
Radar and satellite data show the jet veered far off course on March 8 for unknown reasons during its flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. An analysis indicates it would have run out of fuel in the remote section of ocean where the search has been focused. Not one piece of confirmed debris has been found since the massive multinational hunt began.
MH370 search 'likely to take years', says US official as Australia prepares to widen search area
PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 12:24pm
UPDATED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 3:24pm
Agencies
Photo released by Australian Defence Department on April 17, 2014 shows that Phoenix International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis is craned over the side of Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield. Photo: Xinhua
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is likely to drag on for years, a senior US defence official told said on Friday, as an underwater search appeared to have failed in finding any trace of the plane’s wreckage.
Australian officials also said on Friday that the sonar scan of the most likely crash site deep beneath the Indian Ocean is set to widen.
The Australian search coordination centre said a robotic submarine had scanned 95 per cent of a 310-square-kilometre search area since last week but had found nothing of interest. The US Navy’s Bluefin 21 is creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor near where signals consistent with airplane black boxes were heard on April 8.
The search area is a circle with a 10-kilometre radius 4.5 kilometres deep off the west Australian coast. The search of the target area is scheduled to be completed within days.
“If no contacts of interest are made, Bluefin 21 will continue to examine the areas adjacent to the 10-kilometre radius,” the center said in a statement.
“We are currently consulting very closely with our international partners on the best way to continue the search into the future,” it added, referring to Malaysia, United States and China.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told CNN on Thursday that his government will release a preliminary report on the plane’s disappearance next week.
The report has already been sent to the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisation, but has yet to be made available to the public, CNN reported.
Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said this week that an announcement was likely next week on the next phase of the search for the Boeing 777 which vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
He said the next phase was likely to deploy more powerful side-scan sonar equipment that can delve deeper than the Bluefin 21.
On Friday, up to 8 planes and 10 ships were to search for debris over a 49,000-square-kilometre ocean expanse 1,600 kilometres northwest of the city of Perth where the search is headquartered, the center said.
Meanwhile, dozens of Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers held an overnight protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, demanding information from officials.
Police fanned out around the embassy on Friday morning, barring reporters from nearing the building. Embassy staff were not immediately available for comment.
Chinese relatives have for weeks complained bitterly about what they call Malaysia’s secretive and incompetent handling of the search.
Tensions boiled over at Thursday’s briefing, with some relatives claiming to be on “hunger strike” after airline representatives said a Malaysian embassy official would not arrive to answer their questions.
Malaysia to release report on disappearance of Flight MH370, says PM
Najib Razak tells CNN preliminary report on missing flight would be released 'next week' as Chinese relatives demand more transparency
PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 10:42am
UPDATED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 5:39pm
Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Photo: AP
Malaysia will release a preliminary report on the disappearance of Flight MH370, Prime Minister Najib Razak said, as the government battles widespread criticism over the transparency of its investigation.
“I have directed an internal investigation team of experts to look at the report, and there is a likelihood that next week we could release the report,” Razak told CNN in an interview aired late on Thursday.
The government has so far been tight-lipped about its investigation into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet, fuelling anger and frustration among the relatives of the 239 people aboard the plane.
The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is now believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, where an Australian-led effort is under way to recover its flight data and cockpit voice recorders.
Malaysia’s government has come under fire for a seemingly chaotic initial response, while the scarcity of official information on MH370 has prompted questions over its transparency.
Malaysia’s transport minister pledged earlier this month that any data that is eventually recovered from the plane’s black box recorders would be publicly released.
In his CNN interview, Najib also stressed that his government was not yet prepared to declare the passengers on board flight MH370 dead.
Angry relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight push through a police line to march on the Malaysian embassy from a hotel in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: AP
“At some point in time I would be, but right now I think I need to take into account the feelings of the next of kin – and some of them have said publicly that they aren’t willing to accept it until they find hard evidence,” Najib said.
But it was “hard to imagine otherwise,” he added.
Relatives of the passengers recently denounced the Malaysian government’s suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certificates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.
Malaysia Airlines says staff 'held' by Chinese families
AFP
April 26, 2014, 2:51 am
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Ten Malaysia Airlines staff were held against their will for hours by Chinese relatives of flight MH370 passengers, the airline said Friday, at a Beijing hotel that has seen increasingly tense confrontations over the missing plane.
The airline employees were "barred from leaving" a ballroom for more than 10 hours on Thursday, and another staff member was kicked in the leg in a confrontation two days earlier, the airline said.
Tempers have repeatedly flared at the Lido Hotel, where Chinese relatives have been put up by the airline since the plane vanished, increasingly lashing out in briefings as Malaysian officials and the flag carrier have been unable to explain the plane's disappearance.
"Malaysia Airlines confirms that its staff were held at the Lido Hotel ballroom in Beijing by the family members of MH370 as the families expressed dissatisfaction in obtaining details of the missing aircraft on 24 April 2014 at 3 pm," it said in a statement released in Kuala Lumpur.
The more than 200 family members were incensed when a Malaysian government official did not come to brief them on Thursday, and the meeting descended into chaos as relatives angrily confronted airline staff.
An airline spokesman told AFP "the main MAS officials were barred from leaving the ballroom" as about 60 family members left for the Malaysian Embassy to demand information from government officials.
"The group finally released the staff at 1.44am, 25 April 2014," the airline's statement said.
The relatives who went to the embassy remained there in an overnight protest, two participants said Friday.
The carrier also said a Malaysia Airlines security supervisor was "kicked in the left knee" by an "aggressive" Chinese family member at the hotel on Tuesday.
The airline said it had filed a police report on the incident.
About two-thirds of the 239 passengers aboard the missing plane came from China.
Chinese relatives have for weeks complained bitterly about what they call Malaysia's secretive and incompetent handling of the search for the plane, which vanished March 8.
It disappeared from radar on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is believed to have crashed far out in the Indian Ocean.
A multi-national search, however, has failed to find any evidence despite weeks of looking.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Friday that his country urges Malaysia to "take seriously" the families' grievances, while urging families to behave in a "rational way".
Dozens of relatives staged a noisy protest last month at the embassy -- apparently sanctioned by Chinese authorities, who cleared streets for their approach -- decrying Malaysian authorities and the national airline as "murderers".
Indian Ocean undersea hunt area to be broadened in search for missing Flight MH370
Search co-ordinators to extend area of sea bed search as for missing Flight MH370 after submarine drone fails to find debris in 10 square kilometre zone after 50 days
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 3:50pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 3:50pm
Reuters in Perth
The Bluefin-21 submarine drone , is prepared for deployment from the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean. Photo: Reuters
The undersea search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is to be extended beyond the small area identified as its most likely resting place as the quest for any sign of the missing plane enters its 50th day on Saturday.
The US Navy submarine drone Bluefin-21 has so far searched about 95 per cent of a 10 square kilometre area of the Indian Ocean seabed, pinpointed after the detection of acoustic pings believed to be from the plane’s black box flight recorders.
Bluefin 21 had to abort the search on Friday and resurface due to a software malfunction. Technicians fixed the drone overnight and its 14th, 16 hour trip to the sea floor at depths of more than 4.5 kilometres was underway on Saturday.
“If no contacts of interest are made, Bluefin-21 will continue to examine the areas adjacent to the 10 kilometre radius,” Australia’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC) in charge of the search said in a statement.
Flight MH370 disappeared without a trace on March 8 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
The search for MH370 is the longest and most expensive in aviation history, with ships and aircraft from some two dozen nations taking part. The air and sea search continued on Saturday with up to 8 military aircraft and 11 ships.
A US defence official told reporters on Friday that the sea search is likely to drag on for years as it enters the much more difficult phase of scouring broader areas of the ocean near where the plane is believed to have crashed.
Speaking under condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment on the search effort, the official said Malaysia would have to decide how to proceed with the search, including whether to bring in more underwater drones.
The Australian and Malaysian governments are under pressure to show what lengths they are prepared to go to in order to give closure to the grieving families of those on board flight MH370.
Malaysia is also under growing pressure to improve its disclosure about its investigation. Prime Minister Najib Razak told CNN on Thursday his government would make public a preliminary report into the plane’s disappearance next week.
Chinese families take Malaysia Airlines staff captive at hotel
Tempers flare as Malaysia vows to make public report it gave to the UN
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 5:30am
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 5:30am
Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur, Wu Nan in Beijing and Kristine Kwok
A relative of a MH370 passenger outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, where he and other relatives have gathered. Photo: AP
Ten Malaysia Airlines staff were held at a Beijing hotel against their will for hours by Chinese relatives of flight MH370 passengers, the airline said yesterday.
The airline employees were "barred from leaving" a ballroom for more than 10 hours on Thursday, and another staff member was kicked in the leg in a confrontation two days earlier, the airline said.
Tempers have repeatedly flared at the Lido Hotel, where Chinese relatives have been put up by the airline since the plane vanished, increasingly lashing out in briefings as Malaysian officials and the flag carrier have been unable to explain the plane's disappearance.
"Malaysia Airlines confirms that its staff were held at the Lido Hotel ballroom in Beijing by the family members of MH370 as the families expressed dissatisfaction in obtaining details of the missing aircraft," the airline said.
The more than 200 family members were incensed when a Malaysian government official did not come to brief them on Thursday, and the meeting descended into chaos as relatives angrily confronted airline staff.
An airline spokesman said "the main MAS officials were barred from leaving the ballroom" as about 60 family members left for the Malaysian embassy to demand information from government officials.
The relatives who went to the embassy remained there in an overnight protest, two participants said yesterday.
"We are so tired, as this is the 49th day. We didn't sleep the whole night, but we are still angry. No update has been made and our loved ones are still missing," a family representative said.
The carrier also said a Malaysia Airlines security supervisor was "kicked in the left knee" by an "aggressive" Chinese family member at the hotel on Tuesday.
About two-thirds of the 239 passengers aboard the missing plane came from China. Relatives have for weeks complained about the handling of the search for the plane, which vanished on March 8.
It disappeared from radar on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is believed to have crashed far out in the Indian Ocean.
A multi-national search, however, has failed to find any debris despite weeks of looking.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday his country has asked Malaysia to "take seriously" the families' grievances, while urging families to behave in a "rational way".
In an effort to be transparent, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak promised that a preliminary report submitted to the United Nations' aviation body would be released publicly.
"In the name of transparency, we will release the report next week," he told CNN in an interview late on Thursday.
Anthony Brickhouse, a member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, said the report was unlikely to contain anything startling.
"This preliminary report is really just a run-down of what you know so far," he said.
A difficult underwater search of the suspected crash site, using a mini-submarine equipped with a sonar device, is nearing completion with no trace of the plane found.
Searchers 'highly unlikely' to find MH370 debris on surface, Abbott says
New phase of underwater search will cover expanded area, involve private contractors, and may drag on for years.
PUBLISHED : Monday, 28 April, 2014, 1:15pm
UPDATED : Monday, 28 April, 2014, 1:45pm
Agencies
The underwater drone Bluefin 21 has completed its search of the initial area around where electronic black-box "pings" were heard on April 8. Photo: Xinhua
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today that it was 'highly unlikely' any debris would be found on the ocean surface from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, and that the underwater search would be expanded to include a massive swath of ocean floor, a hunt that could take up to eight months.
The new phase of the search will focus on a much larger area than previously scoured and will involve private contractors, at a cost of about $60 million, Abbot said.
“It is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface. By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become waterlogged and sunk,” Abbott told reporters. “Therefore, we are moving from the current phase to a phase which is focused on searching the ocean floor over a much larger area.&rdquoAn underwater search by an a US Navy drone has so far turned up no evidence of the flight that went missing on March 8.
Abbott said the US Navy’s robotic submarine Bluefin 21 had finished scouring the initial search area far off the Australian west coast and has not yet found anything.
The Bluefin’s original search area was a circle with a 10-kilometre radius, 4.5 kilometres deep around a spot where signals consistent with airplane black boxes were heard on April on April 8.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, left, with Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. They said the next phase of the search for MH370 would cover a huge swath of ocean and last up to eight months. Photo: EPA
Radar and satellite data show the jet carrying 239 passengers and crew veered far off course on March 8 for unknown reasons during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Analysis indicates it would have run out of fuel in the remote section of ocean where the search has been focused. Not one piece of debris has been recovered since the massive multinational hunt began.
Crews will now begin searching the plane’s entire probable impact zone, an area 700 kilometres long and 80 kilometres wide, Abbott said.
That will be a monumental task — and one that will take time, warned Angus Houston, head of the search effort.
“If everything goes perfectly, I would say we’ll be doing well if we do it in eight months,” Houston said, adding that weather and technical issues could cause the search to drag on well beyond that estimate.
It could take officials several weeks to organize contracts for the new equipment and in the meantime, the Bluefin will continue to scour the seabed, Abbott said.
The search is already the longest and most expensive in aviation history, with ships and aircraft from some two dozen nations taking part.
US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the United States was committed to providing more assets to assist in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.
"I can tell you the United States is absolutely committed to providing whatever resources and assets that we can," Obama told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
The Australian and Malaysian governments are under pressure to show what lengths they are prepared to go to in order to give closure to the grieving families of those on board flight MH370.
A US defence official said on Friday that the sea search was likely to drag on for years as it entered the much more difficult phase of scouring broader areas of the ocean near where the plane is believed to have crashed.
Malaysia probes claim that Australian firm ‘found MH370 in Bay of Bengal’
Australian firm says it has discovered metals and elements used in planes in Bay of Bengal
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 April, 2014, 7:39pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 April, 2014, 9:09am
Staff Reporter and Reuters
International and Australian air crews involved in search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370, prepare for official photograph on the tarmac at RAAF Pearce Base in Bullsbrook. Photo: Reuters
Malaysia said last night it was investigating a claim by an Australian firm that it had potentially discovered the wreckage of flight MH370 - some 5,000 kilometres from where search teams have been focusing their efforts.
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia was working to "assess the credibility of this information", after the company said it had identified in the ocean chemical elements used in the construction of aircraft.
GeoResonance told Australia's 7News that it had used hi-tech equipment to scan more than two million square kilometres of ocean before identifying an area in the Bay of Bengal containing "aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials".
The company's David Pope said the team had been "very excited when we found what we believe to be the wreckage of a commercial airliner".
He said the team then verified its findings by analysing images of the area taken three days prior to the crash.
"The wreckage wasn't there prior to the disappearance of MH370," Pope told 7News.
The GeoResonance website states the firm can "detect the nuclei of targeted substances" at depths of up to 5,000 metres.
The Boeing 777, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, vanished more than seven weeks ago with 239 people on board. Search teams have concentrated their efforts on an area of ocean off the west coast of Australia.
Hishammuddin said: "The fact that MH370 still has not been found underscores the complexity and difficulty of this search operation.
"Malaysia will discuss with our international counterparts, including Australia, how the new search operation … will proceed."
Malaysia said last night it had hired the former director-general of the civil aviation department, Kok Soo Chon, to lead an international team tasked with determining the cause of the plane's disappearance.
Air accident specialists from China, the US and Britain are among team members, along with representatives of Boeing and satellite firm Inmarsat.
Hishammuddin said the team's main purpose was to "determine the actual cause of the incident so similar incidents could be avoided in the future".
Searchers dismiss possibility wreckage found in Bay of Bengal is from MH370
Australian geophysical survey company that may have discovered MH370 debris in March thousands of miles from current search zone questions why claim was dismissed
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 30 April, 2014, 11:05am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 April, 2014, 11:26am
Reuters in Kuala Lumpur
Most Popular
GeoResonance''s image claims to show chemical elements in the Bay of Bengal. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The Australian agency heading up the search for the missing Malaysian jet has dismissed a claim by a resource survey company that it found possible plane wreckage in the northern Bay of Bengal.
The location cited by Australia-based GeoResonance is thousands of kilometres north of a remote area in the Indian Ocean where the search for Flight MH370 has been concentrated for weeks.
“The Australian-led search is relying on information from satellite and other data to determine the missing aircraft’s location. The location specified by the GeoResonance report is not within the search arc derived from this data,” the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC), which is heading up the search off Australia’s west coast, said in a statement on Tuesday. “The joint international team is satisfied that the final resting place of the missing aircraft is in the southerly portion of the search arc.”
GeoResonance stressed that it is not certain it found the Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but called for its findings to be investigated.
“The company is not declaring this is MH370, however it should be investigated,” GeoResonance said in the statement.
The company uses imaging, radiation chemistry and other technologies to search for oil, gas or mineral deposits. In hunting for Flight MH370, it used the same technology to look on the ocean floor for chemical elements that would be present in a Boeing 777: aluminium, titanium, jet fuel residue and others.
GeoResonance compared multispectral images taken March 5 and March 10 – before and after the plane’s disappearance – and found a specific area where the data varied between those dates, it said in a statement. The location is about 190 kilometres south of Bangladesh.
The company said it had passed on the information to Malaysian Airlines and the Malaysian and Chinese embassies in Australia on March 31, and to the JACC on April 4.
A sand sculpture of the missing flight created by artist Sudarshan Pattnaik on the banks of the Bay of Bengal in east India. Photo: Xinhua
“The company and its directors are surprised by the lack of response from the various authorities,” GeoResonance said.
“This may be due to a lack of understanding of the company’s technological capabilities, or the JACC is extremely busy, or the belief that the current search in the Southern Indian Ocean is the only plausible location of the wreckage.”
Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Tuesday that China and Australia were aware of the announcement. “Malaysia is working with its international partners to assess the credibility of this information,” a statement from his office said.
India, Bangladesh and other countries to the north have said they never detected the plane in their airspace. The jet had contact with a satellite from British company Inmarsat for a few more hours, and investigators have concluded from that data that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
No wreckage from the plane has been found, and an aerial search for surface debris ended on Monday after six weeks of fruitless hunting. An unmanned submarine is continuing to search underwater in an area where sounds consistent with a plane’s black box were detected earlier in April. Additional equipment is expected to be brought in within the next few weeks to scour an expanded underwater area. That search could drag on for eight months.
MH370 remains a mystery as Malaysia releases report
AFP
May 2, 2014, 12:44 am
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Malaysia on Thursday released a much-anticipated report on Flight MH370 that chronicled its slow-footed response to the airliner's disappearance but contained no new clues on what happened to the missing plane.
The brief five-page report dated April 9, and which was submitted earlier to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), was mostly a recap of information that had already been released over time.
The document and accompanying materials contained no major revelations in what remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
"Over a month after the aircraft departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport, its location is still unknown," said the report, which was emailed to news organisations.
But the information indicated it took authorities four hours from the time the Malaysia Airlines jet was first noticed missing at around 1:38 am on March 8 to initiate an official emergency response.
The air force, meanwhile, took eight hours to formally notify civilian authorities that it had tracked a plane believed to be MH370 moving back across Malaysian airspace and out toward the Indian Ocean.
The jet vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
It is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, but a massive search for wreckage has found nothing.
The information release included a summary of exchanges between the national airline and confused Malaysian, Vietnamese and Cambodian air-traffic controllers as they sought to determine what happened to the plane after it disappeared from primary radar over the South China Sea at 1:21 am.
The main report is required by the ICAO within 30 days of a crash, and Malaysian authorities have confirmed it was submitted on time.
However, they waited another three weeks before releasing the brief document, with Prime Minister Najib Razak saying last week he wanted it to be reviewed first by an "internal" team of experts.
- Call for real-time tracking -
Malaysia's long-ruling government, which has a poor record on transparency, was heavily criticised for a seemingly chaotic response and contradictory statements on MH370 in the early days of the crisis.
It has been tight-lipped about the progress of its ongoing investigations.
Some relatives of passengers have angrily accused the government and airline of incompetence and withholding incriminating information, charges that are denied.
A statement accompanying Thursday's release said "as long as the release of a particular piece of information does not hamper the investigation or the search operation, in the interests of openness and transparency, the information should be made public".
Malaysia is continuing to investigate what happened to MH370, saying this week it had appointed a former head of the country's civil aviation department to head an overall probe that will include members of the US National Transportation Safety Board and other foreign aviation agencies.
Thursday's release did not contain information from an ongoing Malaysian police investigation into whether a criminal act such as terrorism was to blame.
Malaysia's air force has acknowledged tracking a radar blip later determined to be MH370 after the plane went missing.
It has come under fire for failing to respond to the unidentified image, letting it slip away toward the Indian Ocean and wasting an opportunity to track it.
Thursday's data confirmed that Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was not informed of the radar blip until 10:30 am on March 8, nearly eight hours after it was first monitored.
The report concluded by recommending that the ICAO "examine the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial air transport aircraft," to prevent planes going missing in future.
Malaysian authorities have previously said the plane's transponder, which relays its location, and a separate automated system that transmits information on the state of the aircraft both appeared to have been shut off around the time it was diverted, suggesting a deliberate act.
Malaysia releases draft report on missing flight MH370 as it ends hotel stays for families
Malaysia recommends introduction of real-time aircraft tracking in new report, as Malaysia Airlines ends hotel stays for MH370 families
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 01 May, 2014, 10:49am
UPDATED : Thursday, 01 May, 2014, 9:06pm
Reuters and Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur
Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia will release a preliminary report on the disappearance of the plane. Photo: EPA
Malaysia on Thursday made public a preliminary report on flight MH370 and other data that marks its most extensive release of information on the missing airliner to date, nearly two months after its mysterious disappearance.
The brief five-page report, which was submitted earlier to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), was essentially a recap of information that has already been released over time, and did not immediately appear to contain any major new revelations.
The report was accompanied by audio recordings of verbal exchanges between the cockpit of the Malaysia Airlines jet and air traffic controllers, and documents pertaining to the cargo manifest.
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry recommended in the report that the International Civil Aviation Authority, the UN body that oversees global aviation, examines the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial air transport aircraft.
The ministry pointed to the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 and Air France flight AF447 in 2009 as evidence that such real-time tracking would help to better track aircraft.
Earlier on Thursday, Malaysia Airlines said they would cease to provide hotel accommodation for relatives of missing flight MH370 passengers by May 7.
The Malaysian flag carrier has provided hotel accommodation for relatives in a number of countries – most of them in Malaysia and China – where it provided them periodic updates on the situation since shortly after the flight mysteriously disappeared on March 8.
But relatives’ tempers have repeatedly flared, particularly at the Lido Hotel in Beijing where Chinese families have regularly lashed out at officials from the Malaysian government and the airline over their inability to explain the plane’s disappearance.
Relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing flight. Photo: AP
“Instead of staying in hotels, the families of MH370 are advised to receive information updates on the progress of the search and investigation and other support by Malaysia Airlines within the comfort of their own homes, with the support and care of their families and friends,” the airline said in a statement.
“In line with this adjustment, Malaysia Airlines will be closing all of its family assistance centres around the world by 7 May this year.”
The government-controlled carrier also said it would soon make advance compensation payments to the next-of-kin of the 239 people onboard the plane, part of a final package to be agreed upon later.
It did not specify the amounts.
About two-thirds of those aboard the missing plane, which vanished from radar en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, were Chinese nationals.
The airline also had provided psychiatric support at hotels for families trying to cope with the tragedy.
The carrier said it would establish centres in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur to provide “follow-up support and services” but gave no further specifics.
The cut-off of accommodation is likely to upset some family members who continue to demand answers from the airline and Malaysian government.
The airline said last week that 10 of its staff were held against their will for more than 10 hours at the Lido Hotel by angry relatives.
Hotel-staying next-of-kin could not immediately be reached for comment.
The plane is believed to have inexplicably diverted from its course and crashed in the Indian Ocean.
However, a multi-nation search for plane wreckage has failed to find any evidence despite weeks of looking.
“There have now been two occasions during the last five years when large commercial air transport aircraft have gone missing and their last position was not accurately known. This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner,” the ministry said.
The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER disappeared while on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March. The search for the aircraft, which had 239 passengers and crew on board, initially took place in the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca. It moved to the Indian Ocean only about three weeks after the disappearance as a result of new satellite data.
Australian Defence Force with the International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle deployed in the search mission for the missing flight. Photo: AP
“[Prime Minister Najib Razak] set, as a guiding principle, the rule that as long as the release of a particular piece of information does not hamper the investigation or the search operation, in the interests of openness and transparency, the information should be made public,” an accompanying government statement said.
Malaysia is continuing to investigate what happened to the plane, saying this week it also had appointed a former head of the country’s civil aviation to head up a probe that will include members of the US National Transportation Safety Board and other foreign aviation agencies.
Thursday’s release did not contain any information from a separate Malaysian police investigation into whether a criminal act such as terrorism was to blame.
Malaysia’s government, which was heavily criticised for a seemingly chaotic initial response and comments to the media on MH370, has been tight-lipped about the progress of its investigations into the tragedy.
Some relatives of passengers have angrily accused the government and airline of incompetence and withholding information, which Malaysia denies.
The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
It is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, but a massive hunt for the wreckage has been fruitless so far.
Red herring in hunt for MH370 highlights air traffic flaws
By Tim Hepher
PARIS Fri May 2, 2014 8:18am EDT
A map shows the possible path of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 as released to Reuters by the Malaysian Transport Ministry May 1, 2014. REUTERS/Malaysian Transport Ministry/Handout via Reuters
(Reuters) - Fresh questions have been raised over air traffic co-ordination after a preliminary report on the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared almost two months ago revealed 90 minutes of wasted effort while controllers looked in the wrong country.
While Flight MH370's disappearance has led to calls for real-time tracking, it has also re-focused attention on the gap between what controllers sometimes think and see, which complicated early efforts to find Air France 447 in 2009.
Some 25 minutes after the Malaysian jet was first reported missing over the Gulf of Thailand on March 8, the airline told controllers that it had flown onto Cambodian airspace. It later added it had been able to exchange signals, the report said.
Half an hour later, the airline reassured controllers that the Boeing 777 was in a "normal condition" based on a signal placing it even further east, on the other side of Vietnam.
In fact, by then it had flown back west across Malaysia and was already on a new southerly course thought to have taken it across the tip of Indonesia and towards the Indian Ocean, where investigators believe it crashed with 239 people on board.
The false trail appears to have cost controllers time, according to maps and a chronology released on Thursday.
Unnoticed by civil controllers because its transponder was switched off, and deemed no threat by a military radar controller, the aircraft flew back across Malaysia and the Malacca Straits for an hour while the airline believed it was in Cambodian and then Vietnamese airspace.
The airline later told controllers the information had been based on a "projection" and was not reliable, according to the report.
Malaysia Airlines could not be reached for comment.
The confusion echoes a fumble when Air France 447 vanished over the Atlantic five years ago. Controllers at first mistook a virtual flight path for the plane's actual course, according to an official report, which may have delayed a search operation.
In both cases, people on the ground were looking only at projections when they thought they were looking at real data.
HIGH TRAFFIC
Both events illustrate the problems in handling a growing amount of air traffic crossing through remote areas, where controllers and dispatchers sometimes have to fill in the blanks by anticipating where an aircraft should be.
"It is a natural consequence of the old traditional industry ways, which are limited by communications capability," said air traffic control expert Hans Weber, president of U.S.-based consultancy TECOP International.
Experts say such methods are not necessarily unsafe because controllers simply compensate for uncertainty by leaving a bigger "bubble" of vacant space around a jet to avoid collision. But that can also lead to delays and greater congestion.
"Controllers anticipate where a plane's next call should come from: that is what they do because that is all they have to work with," said Weber.
Many private satellite firms are offering flight tracking services, but analysts say they face problems of capacity due to sharp rises in global air traffic expected over coming years.
Such issues could be overtaken by broader plans for a radical overhaul of air traffic control in the next decade in the United States and Europe, using satellites. But the schemes are costly and have not yet been widely adopted elsewhere.
(Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Nations searching for missing Flight MH370 to meet on way forward
PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 3:53pm
UPDATED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 6:52pm
Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein listens to Angus Houston, the Australian head of the search, in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. Photo: EPA
Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China will meet early next week to decide on the next step in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, while expressing confidence on Friday that the hunt was on the right track despite no wreckage being found so far.
Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the challenges were huge but he told reporters, “I believe we will find MH370 sooner or later.”
Hishammuddin said he will travel to Canberra for the meeting on Monday on the approach forward regarding deployment of assets, engagement with victims’ families and expert and technical advice.
An unmanned sub continued to scan the Indian Ocean floor off western Australia where sounds consistent with a plane’s black box were detected in early April. Additional equipment is expected to be brought in within the next few weeks to scour an expanded underwater area. The aerial search for surface debris ended this week.
Angus Houston, the Australian head of the search operation, said he was confident the wreckage was in that area based on the most promising leads. He said, however, that the chance of the US Navy’s Bluefin 21 robotic sub finding the wreckage are “probability ... lower than it was when we started the search.”
Personnel and aircraft involved in the search of Flight MH370 pose in this photo released by Australian Defence Department. Photo: Xinhua
Houston said the ministerial meeting was crucial to “formalise the way ahead to ensure the search continues with urgency and that it doesn’t stop at any stage.”
He said that the search could take another eight to 12 months but “we are totally committed to find MH370”.
Houston also said that Bangladeshi ships, including a vessel fitted with sonar equipment, had so far found nothing in the northern Bay of Bengal, where a resource survey company, Australia-based GeoResonance, had claimed it found possible plane wreckage.
According to Hishammuddin, Malaysia was still considering whether to hire private deep sea vessels to search the Bay of Bengal area as it could distract the main search and cost involved would be high.
The Malaysian Boeing 777 disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
