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A man watches a large screen showing different flights in the region where experts first thought MH370 had disappeared. Photo: Reuters
As China began looking for traces of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 within its borders, Chinese experts were divided over whether such a big jet could enter its airspace undetected. The move follows a request from Malaysia that it be given access to classified Chinese radar data.
Huang Huikang , China's ambassador to Malaysia, said China had started a search and rescue operation on its territory, checking the possible northern flight path of the Boeing 777-200 following its disappearance from radar screens on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Of the 239 passengers and crew, 154 were Chinese.
Malaysian authorities appealed to China and other countries on Monday for radar data after satellite data showed the jet had either flown north towards Kazakhstan or along a southern corridor towards the southern Indian Ocean from its last known location over the northern Malacca Strait.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei did not say directly on Monday whether China would share its radar data, saying only that Beijing was willing to "proactively co-operate with Kuala Lumpur if it was beneficial to the search".
Chinese radar experts were divided over whether the plane could have flown undetected into Chinese airspace, but all agreed the radar data was so sensitive that a decision to share it could only be made "at the highest level".
Beijing-based military expert Li Jie said China had started a search of its territory because it did not want to miss any opportunity to locate the lost flight.
"There is still a slim chance that such a big plane could evade radar detection, so China should spare no effort to find it," he said.
Professor Li Jun , a data analysis researcher at the National Laboratory of Radar Signal Processing in Xian , Shaanxi , said "the possibility could not be ruled out" that the missing Boeing 777-200 had evaded radar while entering Chinese airspace.
A plane could dodge radar in two ways, Li said. Stealth military jets, for instance, use sophisticated coatings and special body design to minimise detection by radar. But a skilled pilot could also fly a civilian aircraft into a country without alerting its air defences.
"If [the pilot] flew low and made clever use of uneven terrain, he could have cheated radar and entered China, or any country, without being shot down or detected," he said. "The chance is remote but it cannot be ruled out."
To carry out such a mission, the flight crew would have to know the location of every radar station along the flight path, including military ones.
Although the whereabouts of military radar stations was supposed to be a tightly guarded national secret, "with the help of satellite images from Google Maps and some professional knowledge of the external features of radio antennas, you could mark out most radar stations on the route and chart a flight path through a 'shadowed corridor'," Li said.
Chinese radar and radio communications researchers were baffled by the incident and were following it closely, Li said.
The government may also have compiled raw data from civilian and military radar stations for detailed analysis.
Professor Su Hongtao , a radar tracking researcher at the national radar lab, agreed with Li that some pilots and aircraft could dodge detection through special manoeuvres, but doubted it were possible in a plane the size of a Boeing 777.
During the cold war, a young German pilot flew a small plane to Moscow, evading almost the entire air defence system of the Soviet Union, he noted.
"That certainly couldn't be done with a Boeing 777, which is much larger and faster, making it an easy target for any country's radar system," he said.
Singling out a suspicious object as large as a 777 on China's radar data should be easy, Su said.
Another source, a Beijing-based aviation expert who did not want to be named, said there was a greater chance the plane had headed south, but to concentrate more search resources there, the northern route had to be ruled out. "That's probably why China is carrying out the search at home," he said.
Professor Xu Rongqing , a radar imaging expert at the Harbin Institute of Technology, said the data collected by military radar could be mined for useful information about a country's air defence system, and that was probably why Malaysia was reluctant to share its with China immediately after the incident.
"Now that has become our headache. To share or not to share, that is the question," he said.
Xu said other countries' radar experts could glean a great deal of intelligence about Malaysia's air defences from the government's reports on the incident, and the same could happen to China.
"Chinese radar data contains lots of technical information that we definitely don't want to share with other countries," Xu said. "If it is to be shared, the decision must be made at the highest level."
Additional reporting by Adrian Wan in Kuala Lumpur
A helicopter takes off from the Jianggangshan amphibious dock landing ship last week while searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Photo: Xinhua
China is splitting up its southern search-and-rescue fleet to comb two far-flung sections of the Indian Ocean for the vanished Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
One flotilla of civilian and military ships would head northwest to the Bay of Bengal, while the other would steam south to Sumatra and Christmas Island, PLA Navy spokesman Liang Yang said in a statement on Tuesday.
Malaysian authorities said on Sunday that the plane’s last satellite contact – at 8.11am on March 8 – revealed it flew for more than seven hours after disappearing from civilian radar over the South China Sea near the Gulf of Thailand.
Two flight corridors are now the focus of the search – one extending from northern Thailand to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and a southern corridor from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
“There are major changes in our search strategy and plans due to the changing situation. The forces will head in two opposite directions, one northward and the other southward, starting today,” a public relations official at the China Maritime Search and Rescue Centre in Beijing told the South China Morning Post.
Four Chinese ships – the Jinggangshan, a 20,000-tonne advanced amphibious dock landing ship; the Yongxingdao, a submarine rescue ship; the Haixun 31, a coastguard patrol ship; and the South China Sea Rescue 115, of the Transport Ministry – would search a 120,000-square-kilometre area in the Bay of Bengal, Xinhua said. They would be joined by three helicopters in the search area west of the Andaman Islands.
The second flotilla – the Kunlunshan, another amphibious ship; the Haikou, a fast missile destroyer; the Haixun 01, the South China Sea Rescue 101; and a container ship operated by state-owned shipping giant Cosco – would focus on a 180,000-square-kilometre band of sea southwest of Sumatra and Java. It too would be assisted by three helicopters.
The supply ship Qiandaohu would also sail to Sumatra and Java to join that group after it resupplies other vessels in Singaporean waters, Xinhua added.
China so far has sent 10 ships to take part in the search and recue mission, including five PLA Navy warships and five civilian and commercial ships.
The PLA Daily said the Chinese fleet searching the Gulf of Thailand during the past week was heading to Singapore for regrouping and preparations before sailing to the two new search locations. The five navy ships were replenished in the South China Sea on Monday afternoon, PLA Daily reported yesterday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said yesterday that China had deployed 21 satellites to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that was carrying 239 passengers and crew, including 154 Chinese.
Thailand gives radar data 10 days after plane lost
Associated Press
March 18, 2014
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's military said Tuesday that its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the jetliner's communications went down, and that it didn't share the information with Malaysia earlier because it wasn't specifically asked for it.
A twisting flight path described Tuesday by Thai air force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn took the plane to the Strait of Malacca, which is where Malaysian radar tracked Flight 370 early March 8. But Montol said the Thai military doesn't know whether it detected the same plane.
Thailand's failure to quickly share possible information regarding the fate of the plane, and the 239 people aboard it, may not substantially change what Malaysian officials know, but it raises questions about the degree to which some countries are sharing their defense information, even in the name of an urgent and mind-bending aviation mystery.
With only its own radar to go on, it took Malaysia a week to confirm that Flight 370 had entered the strait, an important detail that led it to change its search strategy.
When asked why it took so long to release the information, Montol said, "Because we did not pay any attention to it. The Royal Thai Air Force only looks after any threats against our country, so anything that did not look like a threat to us, we simply look at it without taking actions."
He said the plane never entered Thai airspace and that Malaysia's initial request for information in the early days of the search was not specific.
"When they asked again and there was new information and assumptions from (Malaysian) Prime Minister Najib Razak, we took a look at our information again," Montol said. "It didn't take long for us to figure out, although it did take some experts to find out about it."
Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:40 a.m. Malaysian time and its transponder, which allows air traffic controllers to identify and track the airplane, ceased communicating at 1:20 a.m.
Montol said that at 1:28 a.m., Thai military radar "was able to detect a signal, which was not a normal signal, of a plane flying in the direction opposite from the MH370 plane," back toward Kuala Lumpur. The plane later turned right, toward Butterworth, a Malaysian city along the Strait of Malacca. The radar signal was infrequent and did not include any data such as the flight number.
He said he didn't know exactly when Thai radar last detected the plane. Malaysian officials have said Flight 370 was last detected by their own military radar at 2:14 a.m.
The search area for the plane initially focused on the South China Sea, where ships and planes spent a week searching. Pings that a satellite detected from the plane hours after its communications went down have led authorities to concentrate instead on two vast arcs — one into central Asia and the other into the Indian Ocean — that together cover an expanse as big as Australia.
Thai officials said radar equipment in southern Thailand detected the plane. Malaysian officials have said the plane might ultimately have passed through northern Thailand, but Thai Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong told reporters Tuesday that the country's northern radar did not detect it.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim talks to Post reporter Adrian Wan earlier this week. Photo: SCMP
Post reporter Adrian Wan interviewed Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in the week it emerged that the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was a staunch supporter of the politician. Here is the full interview.
Do you know the captain?
I don’t recollect the name, but when the photographs of him were shown, I remember I have met him in some party meetings.
Was he an active member in the party?
He doesn’t hold positions in the party, but is active in the sense that he’s been seen to be with the party’s parliamentary leaders – taking photographs with them.
When was the last time you saw him?
I think it was one of the functions our party held in a nearby constituency. But he’s known to our members of parliament because he’s a senior captain. As I recall it, probably one or two years back.
Just to have a full disclosure: do you know any other people on the plane?
Most of them are foreign nationals, so I’m not aware I know any, except for captain Zaharie.
Some people are linking the plane’s disappearance with the captain’s political affiliation to your People’s Justice Party. What is your reaction to that?
It’s grossly unfair. First, there’s simply no evidence that shows any he’s responsible for it. And he’s only a member of my party, nothing else.
Other than coming quickly to this sort of conclusion, the government should find out who were on the plane, who used the forged passports – the issues that wonder many people. But what they are doing is to make it rather political and blame Anwar. I mean, that’s their whole game.
I have suffered immensely in my political career, but I consistently oppose any kind of violence of terrorist act.
I have read your 2001 article “Who hijacked Islam?”, which you opened with a quotation from the Qur’an: “Let not your hatred of others cause you to act unjustly against them.”
Yeah.
But do you think the government is trying to associate you with the plane’s disappearance?
Yes. I think what they don’t realise now is that the entire issue of governance and the manner they managed the media were all under international spotlight. They want to deflect questions away to the pilot and me, without addressing the many real issues, like why they give contradictory facts. I mean, even the stolen passports – the police said four, and then two. And what’s wrong with the security breach?
I mean, I have enough problems in my political career. (laughs) I have got this five-year sentence hanging, and I have just two to three months of space for an appeal.
You see, I was finance minister before, Adrian. And at that time they procured the Marconi radar system in the east coast - decided by then defence minister Najib Razak. They is supposed to be a radar that has the capacity to identify all flying objects from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean. Now how is it that they can’t? They have to explain these things.
It’s understandable for the Chinese to express disgust or anger. Why for one week we have to spend millions of dollars when you know that the plane has been diverted? You see? So what they are trying to do now is to try and cover all these and say “look, look. Maybe this is a hijacking involving this fanatic Anwar supporter”. That does not absolve them from the manner they manage the crisis. Or, mismanaged it.
But there’s a long running joke here that goes: “Anything goes wrong, it’s Anwar.” So when Manchester United lost to Real Madrid and the referee was Turkish, it must be Anwar, because he’s a friend of Turkey.
A parliamentary member was having tea with me and said: “my province has no rain for three days. I think Anwar must explain.” (laughs)
How long have you been in KL?
About a week – but I rarely left the airport because most work was there. But this morning the hotel told me they’re full so I had to move. There’s this Grand Prix next weekend I was told, so rooms are in short supply.
Mahathir’s son is handling this. Welcome to the real world.
[Mokhzani Mahathir, the second son of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, is chairman of Sepang International Circuit, home to the Malaysian Grand Prix.]
You know many people in high places – do you know better than most of us as to where the plane is?
I was in communication with some friends including Al Gore and several others. They all are baffled. I mean, it does not make sense how the plane cannot be identified.
China has become quite strongly and openly critical of how Malaysia has been handling this crisis. Is it justified?
You see, my understanding is, apart from issues like disputed territories, China is exceedingly polite and careful in bilateral relations. But in this case, they came out and put out a statement after they lost their patience. Obviously, there is a lot to be said about the manner in which we managed our crisis.
Chinese foreign diplomats are very careful, even when I was in government. At that time, I was in close communication with Zhu Rongji. In private we were close. He visited my house, which was rare, and we would have tea. He event sent me the entire translated collection of Confuscius. He went into my library and saw some of them, and he went back and sent all known English translations. So I’ve got a good collection now.
So I know they are careful. But they are prepared to do this now because this is just clear utter incompetence of the authorities.
I want to ask some questions on you and Malaysia in general. How did you feel when the acquittal was overturned?
None of us anticipated an immediate judgment, particularly when you want to overturn a high court ruling. Normally it would take time. So I was not disappointed but disgusted by the extent they were prepared to go to and their complete disregard for basic rules and decency.
Did you say earlier you’ll only have two to three months only for the appeal?
Yea – because I think they will fast track it. They did it in the last trial. It was supposed to be April, and there was this by-election so they advanced it by one month. And, Adrian, what is shocking is for a major trial with all the experts coming to court, they could decide in one hour. So…it’s very efficient. Super efficient. (laughs)
What is your plan now until the appeal?
The focus is the by-election on the 23rd that my wife is contesting. On the 21st we will have a “black rally” in the constituency as the start of this protest against the injustice. And I think that will continue nationwide. I don’t think we should just sit and accept this reality. We must mobilize public support. People must express themselves.
Yesterday in parliament I gave a clear indication, saying: “You in the government think you can just treat the people like pariahs and bully them as you want. I want to give a signal: I’m not going to take these hands down. We’re going to protest against the media control, the judicial misconduct.
My lead counsel is also convicted. MPs from all the coalition party are taking turns to be convicted. Do we then just leave it as it is? The lies, and the contradictions.
I’m not young like you, but what is there for the young in this country now? But things can change. I mean, look at the racist slurs. I’m a Malay but I’ve seen the minorities feel, after being here third, fourth generation. I can’t take it. And people like me have to stand up. We don’t have a choice. We have to reform.
How much do we have to suffer because of the plain incompetence of the leadership? Who can trust the media now? After a week you realise it. We have it endure it every day.
I can’t say it’s a blessing that the plane’s gone missing – we pray for their safety - but it certainly is a major eye-opener for the world as to how this country is governed.
You seemed to take issue with the prime minister giving announcement without taking questions too.
(Laughs) It was a PR disaster. Nowhere in the world do we have that. If you don’t want to take questions, you get your press secretary to read out the statement. I mean, first, you disappeared in the first days and emerged late. Now you came out and refused to answer questions.
First you came out and said you would not take questions in the first press conference but would do that in a later one on the same day, but then the second one was cancelled.
If the prime minister cannot deal with such situation, who else can you expect to do it? The DCA chief? The head of the police? This reflects the utter lack of sensitivity and confidence.
What is your relationship with the local media?
I don’t get any air time. Not at all. If I invite them over, they come, but they ask some very nasty questions and would never use them. So now I don’t even entertain them.
They have asked: “But then I’m sure you know the pilot. I’m sure you have talked to him. I’m sure you instigated him to do this.” I told them: “Let me get some time alone to figure out the logic behind your argument.”
But despite that, our party still got the majority of votes in the last general election. That means people are not stupid.
Politics aside, I am a sentimental person. I remember this Chinese woman in a Penang village where I was campaigning. She grabbed my hand suddenly, crying, and said: “please take care of my children.” I don’t know her, but her trust in me and the hope she had for me was very touching.
You may have to go back to jail, and that won’t help the country’s democracy progress either, will it?
We believe in the cause and have hope and remain optimist that the country will be able to transform. Look at Indonesia, whose elections are giving so much hope.
What do we do then in the quest for democracy in front of absolute power?
We tell the ministers in the parliament openly we are against what they are doing with reasons. But now, I am very strongly against violence and I draw the line there. Because I think you are fighting the entire army and the police. And I still believe that when people rise, they can still impact changes. I was a supporter of the Arab Spring, although I think it derailed somewhat. It’s important for the country in transition to do the right things.
You may have to go back in jail. Is it a horrible prospect for you? I don’t see anything negative with your air.
Yeah. I’m incorrigible. My wife says to me “You’re too confident outside” because it’s tough for her and the children too. Of course I don’t want to, but then you have to overcome fear. I don’t want my supporters to suffer. Why do I have them to endure?
Sixteen years ago, I was much younger and much healthier. Now, it’s much tougher.
I have talked to Estrada, and even Aung San Suu Kyi, who were in house arrest most of the time. In my case, it was tight security prison. Solitary confinement. It’s a torture by itself. Oh my god. (laughs)
But you have to believe the cause, and I think they’re making big mistakes if they think they can go scot-free doing this.
Phone records checked as mystery surrounds lack of contact with Malaysia Airlines passengers
Absence of phone calls or e-mails from people onboard could provide clues for investigators struggling to solve one of the greatest mysteries of modern aviation
US Navy crew members on board a P-8A Poseidon assisting in search and rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photo: AFP
In the age of smartphones and social media, one question surrounding the disappearance of the Malaysian airliner is why none of the passengers tried to contact relatives, as they did during the 9/11 attacks.
Even the absence of phone calls or emails from those on board the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 could provide clues for investigators struggling to solve one of the greatest mysteries of modern aviation.
It may indicate that the plane was flying too high or was over water, or that the passengers were unconscious, possibly due to a change in cabin pressure.
Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said on Monday there was no evidence of any attempt by the people on board to make calls, but that “millions of records” needed to be processed.
“It’s being done as part of the investigation,” he said, without elaborating on exactly what checks are being carried out.
Experts say the chances of the 239 people on board Flight 370 being able to use their mobile devices would have been better the closer they were to a mobile network on the ground.
Many are sceptical that the passengers or crew would have been able to establish and maintain a call using cellphones while travelling at speed, particularly at cruising altitude.
For mobile phones to be used, there must be a contact between the handset and the network – known as a “handshake”. This requires a strong enough signal from both a transmission tower and the phone.
A passenger walks before the Air traffic control tower at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP
“Theoretically, 23,000 feet [7,000 metres] and 45,000 feet are a cell range that terrestrial mobile network could work with,” said Singapore-based telecommunications consultant Koh Chee Koon, referring to unconfirmed reports of changes in the plane’s altitude after it lost radar contact.
But given the limited transmission power of a commercial mobile phone, as well as the barrier presented by the plane body, “for the mobile phone to connect to the mobile network with acceptable strength and quality would require some luck”, added Koh.
Experts note that in the case of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the planes were flying at relatively low altitude over areas with cellphone coverage.
In any case most of the calls are believed to have been made from seatback phones and not mobile devices.
Recently some airlines have introduced technology to enable passengers to use their phones in the air using a small cellular base station on board, but Malaysia Airlines said this service was not available on Flight 370.
Without this, a cellphone cannot be used at an altitude of more than roughly 0.5 kilometres in the case of a commercial airliner, and must not be too far from a cell tower, according to A.K. Dewdney, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
“No cellphone could possibly succeed from an airliner in mid-ocean, even if flying low over the water,” he said.
“At normal cruising altitude no cellphone could possibly succeed in making ground contact as it is completely out of reach of the network of towers, in any case,” added Dewdney, who conducted experiments after the 9/11 attacks to test the capability of mobile telephones to make calls from the air.
A relative of a Chinese passenger on flight MH370 points and shouts a Malaysia Airlines representative after a briefing for families on Wednesday left many unanswered questions. Photo: Reuters
Deepening the mystery, Chinese media have reported that relatives heard ringing tones when trying to call passengers’ mobile phones.
But experts believe this does not necessarily mean the phones were still functioning.
Even if nobody on board the plane tried to make a call, logs of the ”handshakes” might provide some clues about the route taken by the jet after it disappeared.
While many phones would have been switched off in line with airline rules, some people may have forgotten to deactivate their devices.
But to trace any “handshakes” investigators face the challenge of collecting the unique identity numbers for the passengers’ mobile devices, as well as signal data from network operators in countries along the possible flight paths, such as Myanmar which still has limited network coverage.
As the flight turned back and crossed over Malaysia after disappearing from radar en route to Beijing, it probably passed over a network area.
After that, the chances of any “handshakes” depend on how low and close to mobile towers the plane flew.
“Police track cellphones all the time by the last phone call they made,” said Ken Dulaney, a US-based analyst with technology research firm Gartner.
But he added that this was only possible if the devices were in reach of a network.
“If they are not in coverage then no one can do anything,” he said.
Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein (second right), during yesterday's press briefing. He said experts had been recruited to examine the pilot's flight simulator. Photo: AFP
A flight simulator seized from the home of the captain of the missing Malaysian passenger jet is now at the centre of the investigation into how the airliner with 239 people on board disappeared.
Investigators, including agents from the FBI, are trying to restore deleted files from the simulator installed at the Kuala Lumpur home of Malaysia Airlines captain Zahirie Ahmad Shah in the hope that they might contain clues about the aircraft's disappearance, which has sparked an unprecedented search spanning 6.2 million square kilometres and 26 countries.
Unspecified data recording which airports and runways the captain tried to land and take off from was wiped from the flight simulator on February 3, little more than a month before flight MH370 vanished from radar screens on March 8, according to Malaysia's police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar.
"What we have found out is that the simulator… the data logs of the games has been cleared,'' he said yesterday.
The latest twist is likely to rekindle speculation that one or both of the cockpit crew may have been responsible for the airliner's disappearance.
"Local and international expertise has been recruited to examine the pilot's flight simulator," Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said, adding: "Forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing.''
Malaysian officials renewed appeals for people not to rush to judgment, stressing that the crew and passengers remained innocent until proven guilty.
Officials also revealed that the Boeing 777's flight-management system may have been manipulated after 1.07am on the night the flight disappeared, around the time the plane's communications system was switched off.
The new details come amid reports that new co-ordinates - not in the original flightpath - were added during the flight.
"I can confirm that the aircraft flew on normal routing up until the waypoint IGARI [around the area where the plane disappeared from civilian radar]. There is no additional waypoint on MH370's documented flight plan, which depicts normal routing all the way to [its scheduled destination] Beijing," Hishammuddin said.
Claims a plane was seen by villagers flying low over the Maldives in the Indian Ocean search area has been ruled out.
After China's ambassador to Malaysia ruled out foul play involving any of the nation's 153 nationals on board, India did likewise yesterday. A US report said Indonesia had also cleared its nationals of any wrongdoing.
Malaysia said it had received passenger background checks from all countries except Russia and Ukraine. No information of significance had been found.
A relative of a passenger onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 screams as she is removed from the media conference at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Reuters
Distraught family members of Chinese passengers who were on flight MH370 stormed a meeting room in Kuala Lumpur ahead of a Malaysian government press conference, as investigations into the missing airliner entered a 13th day but yielded few conclusive answers.
"Where are my sons, I need to know where they are," said one woman from Beijing.
A handful of relatives evaded heavy security at the Sama Sama Hotel near Kuala Lumpur International Airport and unfurled a banner saying: "We protest against the Malaysian government withholding information and holding up search efforts."
The relatives burst into the hall as reporters were preparing for the latest update on search efforts to find the missing aircraft.
"It's been 12 days. How can the Malaysian government not let us know of our son's whereabouts?" one woman demanded.
"Not one Malaysian official has said one comforting word to us," she said.
The Beijing resident said they were a group of relatives of more than 20 passengers on the plane.
"The Chinese embassy has been sending its officers to talk to us and make sure we're fine every day, but not one Malaysian official has appeared," she said.
Shortly before the press briefing started, security guards corralled the protesters into a room opposite the conference hall and locked them in. The relatives were then held back from reporters as they were later led away.
Security officers grabbed onto one distressed relative in front of journalists, and appeared to pull her away against her will.
About 20 Chinese relatives of those on the plane have come to Kuala Lumpur in the past week. It is not clear how they managed to evade their minders in their respective hotels to make their way to the Sama Sama hotel, where the daily press briefing is held.
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that it would now send out SMS alerts with brief updates to the families, in addition to phone calls.
Malaysian officials have been giving separate daily briefings to the families in Kuala Lumpur about the latest developments, including the scope of the search and points of interest in the investigation.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been monitoring the findings of an investigation team composed of the Federal Aviation Administration, the minister of transportation and other Malaysian agencies.
Twenty-six countries are participating in the search.
Families have been increasingly frustrated by the lack of definitive answers on where the jet went, and what happened to the 227 passengers and 12 crew.
Acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in yesterday's press conference that it was still time to "look for the aircraft" and not to apologise to the families yet.
"I actually understand what they are going through. Emotions are high and this is something that I discussed with the French delegation this morning," he said.
"We are sending another high-level team to Beijing to explain what we're doing and I hope and I appeal to everybody that I fully understand, we are trying our very best," he said.
Angela Meng, Adrian Wan and Satish Cheney in Kuala Lumpur
Selamat bin Omar, said his son did not have the technical knowledge to divert the aircraft from its set course
The father of an aviation engineer on board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has vehemently defended his son, who is under investigation because his training may have equipped him with the technical knowledge and skill to control the jetliner.
Investigators were examining Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, the Malaysian engineer, and crew members aboard flight MH370 as police renewed theories that the plane could have been hijacked, officials said.
Selamat bin Omar, and son
The engineer's father, Selamat bin Omar, said his son did not have the technical knowledge to divert the aircraft from its set course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Malaysian authorities said that someone with substantial knowledge of aviation navigation diverted the plane from its original path on March 8. The search area now spans from Kazakhstan to the south of the Indian Ocean.
"I can't change what other people think of my son, but I am 100 per cent sure he was not responsible," said Selamat, 60. "He repaired plane engines, he doesn't know how to change the route."
Selamat said his "good son" had excelled at school, cared for his family, and had friends of many races. He had a wife and 15-month-old baby at home in Shah Alam, and was a soccer fanatic.
Investigators are scrutinising the background of each of the 239 people on board MH370.
Khairul identified himself as an employee of Swiss-based ExecuJet Aviation Group in a photograph posted on social media in 2011. Graeme Duckworth, the Asia managing director for ExecuJet, said the 29-year-old had been an aircraft engineer at the company for more than three years. "Without question, he was one of our better engineers, but he specialised in business jets, not commercial jets," he said.
Duckworth said Khairul was travelling to Beijing to service a Learjet when the plane disappeared.
Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transport minister, has said all passengers, crew and ground staff responsible for the flight are being investigated but that every person involved is innocent until proven otherwise.
"For the sake of their families, I ask that we refrain from any unnecessary speculation that might make an already difficult time even harder," Hishammuddin said yesterday.
Selamat said that police had not contacted him or any member of Khairul's family.
"If they do, I'll be ready. I have nothing to hide," Selamat said. "I just hope he will be found soon."
Student claims to have spotted missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on satellite
Yahoo! and agencies March 19, 2014, 2:38 pm
A university student from Taiwan claims to have found an image of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by searching satellite images on a map service assisting in the investigation.
The Taiwan China Times reports that the image sourced from Tomnod, a map search website being used by hundreds and thousands in the search for the missing Boeing 777-200 passenger jet, had not yet been verified by authorities.
The satellite image appears to show a plane in the skies above a jungle, which is claimed to be the missing Malaysian Airlines flight.
A university student from Taiwan claims to have found an image of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by searching satellite images on a map service assisting in the investigation. Photo: DigitalGlobe/Reddit.
According to satellite firm DigitalGlobe, which owns Tomnod, more than three million people have participated in the search of an area that now covers around 24,000 square kilometres, including a new area in the Indian Ocean.
It also said that system was's computers were overloaded for some time, with over 250 million map views and nearly three millions areas "tagged" by users.
- Missing plane 'spotted in Maldives' -
Witnesses in the Maldives said that they saw a low-flying plane on the day it disappeared in what could be the latest possible sighting of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Residents saw a jet with markings similar to a Malaysia Airlines plane flying around Kuda Huvadhoo, a remote Maldives island in Dhaal Atoll, local news site Haveeru Online reported.
This coincides with reports that several airport runways were found programmed on the flight simulator at Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home.
One of those runways was Male International Airport in the Maldives.
According to the report, several locals saw a plane at 6.15am local time on March 8.
"I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly," a resident said.
"It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too."
Family members of passengers from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 wait for news at the Lido Hotel. Photo: Getty Images
Thailand denies withholding information
Thailand's military said Tuesday that its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the jetliner's communications went down, and that it didn't share the information with Malaysia earlier because it wasn't specifically asked for it.
A twisting flight path described Tuesday by Thai air force spokesman Air Vice Marshal Montol Suchookorn took the plane to the Strait of Malacca, which is where Malaysian radar tracked Flight 370 early March 8. But Montol said the Thai military doesn't know whether it detected the same plane.
Thailand's failure to quickly share possible information regarding the fate of the plane, and the 239 people aboard it, may not substantially change what Malaysian officials know, but it raises questions about the degree to which some countries are sharing their defense information, even in the name of an urgent and mind-bending aviation mystery.
With only its own radar to go on, it took Malaysia a week to confirm that Flight 370 had entered the strait, an important detail that led it to change its search strategy.
When asked why it took so long to release the information, Montol said, "Because we did not pay any attention to it. The Royal Thai Air Force only looks after any threats against our country, so anything that did not look like a threat to us, we simply look at it without taking actions."
Members of the social group Christian Muslim Alliance Pakistan take part in a candlelight vigil for passengers that were aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane. Photo: AP
He said the plane never entered Thai airspace and that Malaysia's initial request for information in the early days of the search was not specific.
"When they asked again and there was new information and assumptions from (Malaysian) Prime Minister Najib Razak, we took a look at our information again," Montol said. "It didn't take long for us to figure out, although it did take some experts to find out about it."
Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:40 a.m. Malaysian time and its transponder, which allows air traffic controllers to identify and track the airplane, ceased communicating at 1:20 a.m.
Australia is leading the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 along the southern search corridor. Photo: AP
Montol said that at 1:28 a.m., Thai military radar "was able to detect a signal, which was not a normal signal, of a plane flying in the direction opposite from the MH370 plane," back toward Kuala Lumpur. The plane later turned right, toward Butterworth, a Malaysian city along the Strait of Malacca. The radar signal was infrequent and did not include any data such as the flight number.
He said he didn't know exactly when Thai radar last detected the plane. Malaysian officials have said Flight 370 was last detected by their own military radar at 2:14 a.m.
The search area for the plane initially focused on the South China Sea, where ships and planes spent a week searching. Pings that a satellite detected from the plane hours after its communications went down have led authorities to concentrate instead on two vast arcs — one into central Asia and the other into the Indian Ocean — that together cover an expanse as big as Australia.
Thai officials said radar equipment in southern Thailand detected the plane. Malaysian officials have said the plane might ultimately have passed through northern Thailand, but Thai Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong told reporters Tuesday that the country's northern radar did not detect it.
Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein (second right), during yesterday's press briefing. He said experts had been recruited to examine the pilot's flight simulator. Photo: AFPA flight simulator seized from the home of the captain of the missing Malaysian passenger jet is now at the centre of the investigation into how the airliner with 239 people on board disappeared.
Investigators, including agents from the FBI, are trying to restore deleted files from the simulator installed at the Kuala Lumpur home of Malaysia Airlines captain Zahirie Ahmad Shah in the hope that they might contain clues about the aircraft's disappearance, which has sparked an unprecedented search spanning 6.2 million square kilometres and 26 countries.
Unspecified data recording which airports and runways the captain tried to land and take off from was wiped from the flight simulator on February 3, little more than a month before flight MH370 vanished from radar screens on March 8, according to Malaysia's police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar.
Investigators dismantled and reassembled the flight simulator captain Zaharie Shah had built at his home. Photo: SCMP
"What we have found out is that the simulator… the data logs of the games has been cleared,'' he said yesterday.
The latest twist is likely to rekindle speculation that one or both of the cockpit crew may have been responsible for the airliner's disappearance.
"Local and international expertise has been recruited to examine the pilot's flight simulator," Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said, adding: "Forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing.''
Malaysian officials renewed appeals for people not to rush to judgment, stressing that the crew and passengers remained innocent until proven guilty.
Officials also revealed that the Boeing 777's flight-management system may have been manipulated after 1.07am on the night the flight disappeared, around the time the plane's communications system was switched off.
The new details come amid reports that new co-ordinates - not in the original flightpath - were added during the flight.
"I can confirm that the aircraft flew on normal routing up until the waypoint IGARI [around the area where the plane disappeared from civilian radar]. There is no additional waypoint on MH370's documented flight plan, which depicts normal routing all the way to [its scheduled destination] Beijing," Hishammuddin said.
Claims a plane was seen by villagers flying low over the Maldives in the Indian Ocean search area has been ruled out.
After China's ambassador to Malaysia ruled out foul play involving any of the nation's 153 nationals on board, India did likewise yesterday. A US report said Indonesia had also cleared its nationals of any wrongdoing.
Malaysia said it had received passenger background checks from all countries except Russia and Ukraine. No information of significance had been found.
Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: FBI called in to recover deleted data from flight simulator at pilot’s home
Malaysian minister insists those aboard should be considered innocent until proven guilty
Andrew Buncombe
Kuala Lumpur
Wednesday 19 March 2014
Experts from the FBI are trying to restore data that was deleted from the flight simulator found in the home of the pilot of missing Flight MH370, officials have said. They hope that by restoring the information they may obtain something that can help pry open the mystery.
Twelve days after the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew disappeared without a trace, Malaysia’s Transport Minister said additional efforts were being made to search one of two “corridors” possibly flown by the plane after it disappeared from civilian radar.
The minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said it was important that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 57, along with the other members of the crew and the passengers, should be considered innocent until something was found to the contrary. He also stressed that Mr Zaharie’s family were cooperating with the police.
“Local and international expertise has been recruited to examine the pilot’s flight simulator,” Mr Hussein told reporters. “Some data had been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing.”
But other pilots said there was nothing suspicious about deleting data from such a simulator and likened it to getting rid of unwanted files from a computer. Amin Said, who runs a commercial fight simulator in Kuala Lumpur and who recreated Flight MH370’s path for The Independent earlier this week, said such a move was usual. “It takes a bit of memory,” he said. “Sometimes it would just conflict.”
Mr Hussein said that while Malaysia was still coordinating the search for the missing plane, other countries were increasingly taking responsibility in their own territory, and in other sectors. He said that Australia and Indonesia were leading the search of the southern Indian Ocean.
He said some countries, but not all, had provided radar information and that he was hoping other countries would provide the data. He refused to reveal what data had been provided. There has been growing speculation that the search is being undermined to some extent by an unwillingness of some countries to hand over information they believe could be harmful to their national security.
The Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared on 8 March on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanations, but have said the evidence so far suggests the flight was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca.
Investigators have identified two giant arcs of territory spanning the possible positions of the plane when it issued the last “ping” from its satellite communication system. The two arcs stretch northwards to Kazakhstan and deep into the southern Indian Ocean.
Mr Hussein said both areas of considered equally important but that the search of the southern corridor was more of a challenge because there were fewer countries over which the plane might have flown. However, an unidentified source said to be close to the inquiry told the Reuters news agency that it was most likely the missing plane headed south.
Pilots Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, left, and Fariq Abdul
The US, Australia and New Zealand have begun searching 117,000 square miles of ocean, around 1,600 miles to the west of Perth. Merchant ships are also being asked to keep a look out.
Checks are being carried out on the background of all of those aboard the plane. Mr Hussein said that checks have been received for all the foreigners except those from Ukraine and Russia - which account for three passengers - and that nothing suspicious has turned up so far.
Before Wednesday’s news briefing at a hotel near the Kuala Lumpur airport, two Chinese relatives of passengers held up a banner saying “Truth” in Chinese and started shouting before security personnel escorted them out.
Journalists were prevented from speaking to them. “I want you to help me to find my son,” one of the two women said, according to the Associated Press.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is seen during a House of Representatives question time at Parliament House in Canberra on 20 March 2014. Photo: EPA
Australia has sent aircraft to investigate two objects spotted by satellite floating in the southern Indian Ocean that could be debris from a Malaysian jetliner missing with 239 people on board, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Thursday.
No confirmed wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia’s east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off.
"New and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean," Abbott told the Australian parliament.
"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search."
"Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified," he said.
Maintenance personnel conduct post-flight checks on an Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion following a sortie in support of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean. Photo: Australian Defence Image Library
Abbott said he had already spoken with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak and cautioned that the objects had yet to be identified.
"The task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and it may turn out they are not related to the search for MH370," Abbott said.
Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane’s communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Exhaustive background checks of the passengers and crew aboard have not yielded anything that might explain why.
The FBI is helping Malaysian authorities analyse data from a flight simulator belonging to the captain of the missing plane, after initial examination showed some data logs had been deleted early last month.
Abbott said a search aircraft was due to arrive at the area where the objects were spotted at about the time he was speaking in parliament.
A further three aircraft were also en route to the site. The AMSA said it would hold a media briefing in Canberra at 0430 GMT (12.30pm HKT).
An unprecedented multinational search for the plane has focused on two vast search corridors: one arcing north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia’s Sumatra island to west of Australia.
Australia is leading the search in the southern part of the southern corridor, with assistance from the US Navy.
Australia reports possible debris from Malaysian plane in Indian Ocean
By Jane Wardell and Siva Govindasamy
SYDNEY/KUALA LUMPUR Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:54am GMT
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott tells parliament in Canberra that satellite imagery has found two objects possibly related to the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in this still image taken from video March 20, 2014. REUTERS/Australian Broadcasting Corporation via Reuters TV
(Reuters) - Search aircraft are investigating two objects spotted by satellite floating in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia that could be debris from a Malaysian jetliner missing for 12 days with 239 people on board.
Australian officials said the objects, the largest of which measured up to 24 metres (78 ft), were around 2,500 km (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth, and appeared to be awash over water several thousand metres deep.
"I can confirm we have a new lead," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, where the investigation into the missing airliner is based.
Another official in Malaysia said investigators were "hopeful but cautious" about the Australian discovery.
No confirmed wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
"New and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the country's parliament.
"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search."
John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of AMSA, told reporters that an Australian air force AP-3C Orion plane was already at the scene, and more aircraft were on the way. A merchant ship diverted for the task was due to arrive in a few hours, he said.
"They are objects of a reasonable size and probably awash with water moving up and down over the surface," he said.
Young said it could be some days before authorities have anything to report and added that poor visibility reported in the area could hamper the search.
"It's probably the best lead we have right now but we have to get there, find them, see them, assess them, to know whether it's really meaningful or not," he said.
Prime Minister Abbott said he had already spoken with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak and cautioned that the objects had yet to be identified.
"The task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and it may turn out they are not related to the search for MH370," Abbott said.
FBI HELPING PROBE
Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course.
Exhaustive background checks of the passengers and crew aboard have not yielded anything that might explain why.
Investigators piecing together patchy data from military radar and satellites believe that, minutes after its identifying transponder was switched off, the plane turned sharply west, re-crossing the Malay Peninsula and following an established commercial route towards India.
After that, ephemeral pings picked up by one commercial satellite suggest the aircraft flew on for at least six hours.
The methodical shutdown of the communications systems, together with the fact that the plane appeared to be following a planned course after turning back, has focused particular attention on the pilot and co-pilot.
The FBI is helping Malaysian authorities analyse data from a flight simulator belonging to the captain of the missing plane, after initial examination showed some data logs had been deleted early last month.
A Malaysian official with knowledge of the investigations into the pilots said three simulator games that 53-year-old pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had played were being looked at.
"We are following up on the data logs being erased," the source said. "These could be logs of the games that were erased to free up memory, so it may not lead us to anything. He played a lot of games, going into hundreds and thousands of hours."
An unprecedented multinational search for the plane has focused on two vast search corridors: one arcing north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia.
Australia is leading the search in the southern part of the southern corridor, with assistance from the U.S. Navy.
The depth of the water where the possible debris has been sighted would likely make recovering the "black box" voice and data recorders that may finally unlock the mystery of what happened aboard Flight MH370 extremely challenging.
(Additional reporting by Tim Hepher, A. Ananthalakshmi and Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
A Chinese man claimed his company offered a short-term contract to Maraldi Luigi (pictured) and Austrian Kozel Christian last June to fly them from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early this year. Photo: AP
Chinese police are questioning a man who claims his company had hired two "foreign dancers" whose names are identical to those on the stolen passports used by two Iranians to board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.
Xie Zhuoling said his foreign performers' agency in Yinchuan, in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, offered a short-term contract to Italian Maraldi Luigi and Austrian Kozel Christian last June to fly them from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early this year.
Xie said the pair were hired without his knowledge to perform for an unknown third party in Beijing between February 15 and May 14.
Malaysian authorities earlier confirmed that two Iranians using European passports stolen in Thailand were on the missing flight. The passports belonged to Luigi Maraldi and Christian Kozel - identical to the names cited by Xie but with the surnames appearing last, in the Western style. Maraldi's passport was reported stolen on July 22 last year, while Kozel lost his in 2012.
Malaysian investigators said later that the two Iranians were most likely just illegal immigrants, passing through Beijing to Frankfurt and Copenhagen respectively. They were not linked to any known terrorist group.
Xie, who made the claim and posted alleged photos of the contracts online, said in a telephone interview that they were prepared and signed by his legal representative Lei Xiaofang, who "mysteriously disappeared".
His story could not be independently verified and it contained conflicting information. But the online post has attracted 620,000 views since last Friday.
Yinchuan police confirmed that they questioned Xie on Monday and took the alleged documents for investigation.
"We are investigating the contracts and cannot comment before we can conclude if they are authentic or not," an officer said.
But he dismissed Xie's account of Lei's mysterious disappearance, saying: "We believe they were a couple and fell out after financial disputes."
Xie later admitted that he had been in a relationship with Lei but insisted his story was true. "I just want to provide clues to the aircraft investigation," he said.
Possible Malaysian plane debris spotted in Indian Ocean off Australia
By Jane Wardell and Siva Govindasamy
SYDNEY/KUALA LUMPUR Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:54am EDT
Satellite imagery provided to Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) of objects that may be possible debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in a revised area 185 km (115 miles) to the south east of the original search area in this picture released by AMSA March 20, 2014. A Search aircraft are investigating two objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia that could be debris from a Malaysian jetliner missing for 12 days with 239 people on board, officials said on Thursday. REUTERS/Australian Maritime Safety Authority/Handout via REUTERS
(Reuters) - Search aircraft and ships are investigating two objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia that could be debris from a Malaysian jetliner missing for 12 days with 239 people on board, officials said on Thursday.
Australian officials said the objects were spotted by satellite four days ago in one of the remotest parts of the globe, around 2,500 km (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth in the vast oceans between Australia, southern Africa and Antarctica.
The larger of the objects measured up to 24 metres (79 ft), long and appeared to be floating on water several thousand metres deep, they said. The second object was about 5 metres (16 feet) long.
Officials cautioned it could take several days to confirm if they were parts of the missing plane.
"It's credible enough to divert the research to this area on the basis it provides a promising lead to what might be wreckage from the debris field," Royal Australian Air Force Air Commodore John McGarry told a news conference in Canberra.
No confirmed wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
"I can confirm we have a new lead," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, where the investigation into the missing airliner is based.
Another official in Malaysia said investigators were "hopeful but cautious" about the Australian discovery.
The fate of Flight MH370 has been baffling aviation experts for nearly two weeks.
Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course.
Exhaustive background checks of the passengers and crew aboard have not yielded anything that might explain why.
An Australian air force AP-3C Orion plane was already at the scene, John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), told the news conference in Canberra.
Three more aircraft were also on their way, including a New Zealand Air Force Orion and a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon, the world's most advanced maritime surveillance plane.
A merchant ship diverted for the task was also arriving in the area, Young said. A Royal Australian Navy ship equipped to recover any objects was also en route, but was still "some days away".
China, whose citizens made up about two-thirds of the passengers on board the flight, said it was also sending ships to the area of the sighting, but it was not clear how long it would take for the vessels to reach the scene.
POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGH
The huge potential breakthrough in an investigation that had appeared to be running out of leads was revealed by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who told parliament the objects had been located with satellite imagery.
"New and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean," Abbott said.
He added that he had already spoken with his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, and cautioned that the objects had yet to be identified.
"The task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and it may turn out they are not related to the search for MH370," Abbott said.
Young, the Australian official, said it could be some days before authorities have anything to report and added that poor visibility reported in the area could hamper the search.
"It's probably the best lead we have right now but we have to get there, find them, see them, assess them, to know whether it's really meaningful or not," he said.
Images released by Australia showed the satellite pictures were from U.S. company DigitalGlobe Inc and were taken on March 16. Arrows on the images pointed to two indistinct objects apparently bobbing in the water.
The dimensions given are consistent with at least one of the objects possibly being the major part of a 777-200ER wing, which is around 27 metres (89 feet) long, though Australian officials cautioned the first images were indistinct.
The relatively large size of the objects would also suggest that, if they do come from the missing aircraft, it was intact when it went into the water.
FBI HELPING PROBE
Investigators piecing together patchy data from military radar and satellites believe that, minutes after its identifying transponder was switched off as it crossed the Gulf of Thailand, the plane turned sharply west, re-crossing the Malay Peninsula and following an established commercial route towards India.
What happened next is unclear, but faint electronic "pings" picked up by one commercial satellite suggest the aircraft flew on for at least six hours. That would be consistent with the plane ending up in the southern Indian Ocean.
The methodical shutdown of the communications systems, together with the fact that the plane appeared to be following a planned course after turning back, has focused particular attention on the pilot and co-pilot.
The FBI is helping Malaysian authorities analyse data from a flight simulator belonging to the captain of the missing plane, after initial examination showed some data logs had been deleted early last month.
A Malaysian official with knowledge of the investigations into the pilots said three simulator games that 53-year-old pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had played were being looked at.
"We are following up on the data logs being erased," the source said. "These could be logs of the games that were erased to free up memory, so it may not lead us to anything. He played a lot of games, going into hundreds and thousands of hours."
An unprecedented multinational search for the plane has focused on two vast search corridors: one arcing north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia.
Australia is leading the search in the southern part of the southern corridor, with assistance from the U.S. Navy.
The depth of the water where the possible debris has been sighted would likely make recovering the "black box" voice and data recorders that may finally unlock the mystery of what happened aboard Flight MH370 extremely challenging.
University of Western Australia Professor of Oceanography Charitha Pattiaratchi said that, based on currents in the area, if the debris is from the plane it probably would have gone into the water around 300-400 km (180-250 miles) to the west.
The search area covered an ocean ridge known as Naturalist Plateau, a large sea shelf about 3,500 metres (9,800 feet) deep, Pattiaratchi said. The plateau is about 250 km (150 miles) wide by 400 km (250 miles) long, and the area around it is close to 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) deep.
"Whichever way you go, it's deep," he said.
(Additional reporting by Tim Hepher, A. Ananthalakshmi and Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur, Byron Kaye and Lincoln Feast in Sydney and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Bomoh Rescue Run was inspired by Ibrahim Mat Zin's antics to locate the missing MH 370. Photo: SCMP, AFP
The witch doctor helping locate the missing Malaysia Airlines jet has inspired a host of mobile video games featuring flying carpets and coconuts as machinery.
The efforts of Ibrahim Mat Zin, a famous Malaysian
bomoh (Malay for shaman), to pinpoint flight MH370 was met with scepticism and ridicule by the public and became instant fodder for mobile game developers.
Forty-six apps under the key word "
bomoh" can be downloaded from Google Play.
One of the first created, Bomoh Rescue Run by unknown developer Triapps, appeared shortly after Ibrahim Mat Zin performed rituals at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 10 to help find the location of the jet, which carried 227 passengers - mostly Chinese - and 12 crew.
Available since March 13, the game has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, and 78 per cent out of the 3,823 raters gave the app a top rating of five stars.
Users control three witch doctors, in lounge suits riding a flying carpet in a row, to rescue passengers and crew on a runway to gain points. There are three modes of searching: by air, sea or on the street.
The game's description says the shamans perform rituals with water and an enchanted walking stick.
Despite it making light of a touchy subject, it drew positive comments.
"Very creative," said a user labelled Stephy Yi. "Those who want to give it a try should download as soon as possible. The game can be taken off from the shelf anytime."
Other developers have come up with puzzle and adventure games featuring the witch doctor.
Most of the
bomoh games have scored higher than four stars.
Barely three days after the airplane vanished from civilian aviation radar, Ibrahim Mat Zin predicted the jet was either underwater or still flying.
After videos and pictures of his rituals surfaced, Malaysia's religious authorities, who said the rituals contravened Islamic law, dispatched seven officers to the airport to bar the witch doctor if he returned.
Andrea Chen
Sturla Henriksen, director general of the Norwegian Shipowner's Association. The Norwegian ship "Hoeegh St Petersburg" reached the area of the Indian Ocean where possible debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane were spotted. Photo: AFP
Finding the main wreckage and black boxes of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 would require Herculean efforts, state-of-the-art technology and no small amount of luck.
Two large objects were spotted floating in a remote part of the Indian Ocean yesterday, raising hopes that the mystery of the missing Boeing 777 could finally be solved.
But experts quickly cautioned the public about expectations. Even if investigators confirmed that the two objects were from the missing jet, it would take a while to salvage the wreckage and the black boxes - or flight-data recorders - that would most likely have plunged to the ocean floor.
The Indian Ocean is 3,900 metres deep on average, with some parts twice that depth.
Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transport minister, acknowledged the size of the task at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, comparing the search to the extended hunt for Air France flight 477 in 2009 that took nearly two years.
"The conditions in the Indian Ocean are very similar to that of the Atlantic Ocean. It will be very challenging," Hishammuddin said.
Chinese experts agreed with his assessment.
Professor Dong Chaoyang , an aeronautics scientist at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, compared the task ahead to the hunt for flight 477, the wreckage of which was found some 3,000 metres below the surface. Many of the bodies were never found.
"The depth of 3,000 metres is way beyond the reach of the bravest divers," he said.
"Such hazardous depths will considerably delay the solving of this mystery."
Even the most advanced US nuclear submarine would struggle to operate below 500 metres.
To conduct operations at such depths, the search teams would have to face steel-crushing water pressure, a complete absence of light and extremely low temperatures.
"Even if they found and confirmed the exact location of the wreckage, to reach the black box and bring it up would be a daunting task," Dong said.
"It took more than two years to retrieve the black box of the Air France plane. It could take longer this time."
Once a search area was confirmed, the salvage teams would have to send submarines equipped with advanced sonar systems to pinpoint the precise location of the main area of wreckage.
In the Air France case, France dispatched its nuclear submarine and two ships equipped with towed sonar sensors to search the area once the crash site was found.
It still took the French months to pinpoint the location.
After that, submersible robots salvaged the wreckage. Only a few nations can build and operate such machines.
An oceanographer with the Ocean University of China in Qingdao , who asked not to be identified, said Chinese ships had high-resolution sonar equipment that could penetrate thousands of metres under the water.
"The black boxes are very important to China, we will be forever left in the dark on some serious questions if they are lost, or found by other countries [who may not want to share the data]," he said.
He said China's deep-sea research submersible, the Jiaolong, could reach beyond 7,000 meters with a three-person crew.
But he added that the craft would need to undergo significant modifications for a retrieval mission.
Relatives console each other as they wait for more news. Photo: AFP
Families of passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines jet endured another anxious day at a Beijing hotel yesterday, worrying over fresh reports that objects were seen in the Indian Ocean.
Some feared it was the news they didn't want to hear.
"My tears dried up during the tiring wait. We still held on to hope because there had not been confirmed bad news," said a man from Beijing whose aunt was aboard the missing flight.
He said he had experienced an emotional roller coaster in recent days with each report of satellite pings and possible shifts in the flight path. But still, his aunt's fate was a mystery. And that meant there was a chance.
"We heard it was hijacking and we were pinning hopes on [a belief] that the plane did not crash and everybody was all right," he said. "There was no bad news and we felt that they would soon probably turn up. But now this has changed everything."
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced earlier in the day that satellite imagery had detected one object of 24 metres in length and another about 5 metres long.
Four military search planes were sent to the area 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth.
"Why did some media use the words 'possible wreck'? It is not confirmed," the man said. "We just hope that later today it will be confirmed that the objects were not related to the flight."
Some family members lingered long after the announcement at the Metropark Lido Hotel, eyes fixed on a television as they waited for updates.
The media was banned from the room, but some relatives invited in reporters.
"I am too nervous and don't dare to move," said a woman whose husband was on the missing flight.
"We were waiting for news that they would return safe and sound and suddenly, out came the news of possible wreck. I pray this is not related to the plane."
Another man kept switching between channels and ran to tell other relatives when the television news presenters mentioned there was more news.
One station said it could take days to identify if the objects caught by satellite were from flight MH370, and at least two days for the Chinese research ship Snow Dragon to get to the area where the debris was seen.
"It's torturous that everything is so slow and takes so long," the man said.
A young man from Shandong, whose uncle was on the missing flight, said: "All the information is noise and I don't believe any of it until the truth is out.
"If they say they are alive, I need to see them. And if they are dead, I need to see the bodies to believe."
