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

[InformationSociety]

Chinese plane sees floating 'white objects' in search for Malaysian jet

By Jane Wardell and Matt Siegel
SYDNEY/PERTH Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:55am EDT

Family members of passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 attend a routine briefing given by Malaysian representatives at Lido Hotel in Beijing March 24, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Lee

(Reuters) - A Chinese military aircraft searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner spotted several "suspicious" floating objects on Monday in remote seas off Australia, raising hopes wreckage of the plane may soon be found.

The latest sighting followed reports by an Australian crew over the weekend of a floating wooden pallet and strapping belts in an area of the icy southern Indian Ocean that was identified after satellites recorded images of potential debris.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8. No confirmed sighting of the plane has been made since and there is no clue what went wrong.

Attention and resources in the search for the Boeing 777 have shifted from an initial focus north of the Equator to an increasingly narrowed stretch of rough sea in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the original flight path.

The Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft spotted two "relatively big" floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometers, the Xinhua news agency said.

Beijing responded cautiously to the latest find. "At present, we cannot yet confirm that the floating objects are connected with the missing plane," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a news briefing in Beijing.

Australia said that a U.S. Navy plane searching the area on Monday had been unable to locate the objects.

China has diverted its icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, toward the location where the debris was spotted. A flotilla of other Chinese ships are also steadily making their way south. The ships will start to arrive in the area on Tuesday.

Over 150 of the passengers on board the missing plane were Chinese.

In a further sign the search may be bearing fruit, the U.S. Navy is flying in its high-tech Black Box detector to the area.

The so-called black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - record what happens on board planes in flight. At crash sites, finding the black boxes soon is crucial because the locator beacons they carry fade out after 30 days.

"If debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box's pinger is limited," Commander Chris Budde, U.S. Seventh Fleet Operations Officer, said in an emailed statement.

Budde stressed that bringing in the black box detector, which is towed behind a vessel at slow speeds and can pick up "pings" from a black box to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet, was a precautionary measure.

The Chinese aircraft that spotted the objects was one of two IL-76s searching early on Monday. Another eight aircraft, from New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Japan, were scheduled to make flights throughout the day to the search site, some 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth.

DIFFICULT CONDITIONS

Aircraft flying on Monday were focused on searching by sight, rather than radar, which can be tricky to use because of the high seas and wind in the area.

"It's a lot of water to look for just perhaps a tiny object," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio before the Chinese report.

"Today we expect the weather to deteriorate and the forecast ahead is not that good, so it's going to be a challenge, but we will stick at it," he said.

Australia was also analyzing French radar images showing potential floating debris that were taken some 850 km (530 miles) north of the current search area.

Australia has used a U.S. satellite image of two floating objects to frame its search area. A Chinese satellite has also spotted an object floating in the ocean there, estimated at 22 meters long (74ft) and 13 meters (43ft) wide.

It could not be determined easily from the blurred images whether the objects were the same as those detected by the Australian and Chinese search planes, but the Chinese photograph could depict a cluster of smaller objects, said a senior military officer from one of the 26 nations involved in the search.

The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is approximately 27 meters long and 14 meters wide at its base, according to estimates derived from publicly available scale drawings. Its fuselage is 63.7 meters long by 6.2 meters wide.

NASA said it would use high-resolution cameras aboard satellites and the International Space Station to look for possible crash sites in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. space agency is also examining archived images collected by instruments on its Terra and Aqua environmental satellites.

Investigators believe someone on the flight shut off the plane's communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. Faint electronic "pings" detected by a commercial satellite suggested it flew for another six hours or so, but could do no better than place its final signal on one of two vast arcs north and south.

While the southern arc is now the main focus of the search, Malaysia says efforts will continue in both corridors until confirmed debris are found.

(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz, Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing, Michael Martina in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Nick Macfie)

 

[InformationSociety]

China: can't confirm objects sighted by plane are linked to missing jet

BEIJING Mon Mar 24, 2014 3:31am EDT

(Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the Chinese government could not confirm that objects spotted by a Chinese military aircraft earlier in the day were connected with the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner.

The comments were made by ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a daily news briefing.

Hong also said Chinese ships are expected to start arriving on Tuesday in the search area of the southern Indian Ocean.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Writing by Sui-Lee Wee)

 

[InformationSociety]

Australia trying to find objects spotted by China in missing airliner hunt

SYDNEY Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:17am EDT

(Reuters) - Australian search authorities said on Monday they have been advised about objects spotted by Chinese aircraft hunting for any sign of a missing Malaysian airliner and will be trying to locate them in the remote southern Indian Ocean.

Official Chinese news agency Xinhua earlier reported the crew of a IL-76 aircraft spotted two "relatively big" floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometers.

"AMSA advised about reported objects sighted by Chinese aircraft. Reported objects in today's search area. Attempts will be made to relocate," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on its Twitter feed.

AMSA is coordinating the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, which went missing more than two weeks ago with 239 people on board.

(Reporting by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

[InformationSociety]

Top U.S. search plane unable to find objects spotted by Chinese: AMSA

SYDNEY Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:22am EDT

(Reuters) - Australian authorities said a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon, the most advanced search aircraft in the world, had been unable to find objects spotted earlier on Monday by a Chinese aircraft hunting for clues to the missing Malaysia jet in the Indian Ocean.

"A US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft was tasked to investigate reported object sightings by the Chinese aircraft made at 33,000 ft," an AMSA spokeswoman said in an emailed response to Reuters.

"The objects were spotted by the Chinese aircraft as it was heading back to Perth. Drift modeling was undertaken on the sighting. The P-8 was unable to relocate the reported objects."

The Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft spotted two "relatively big" floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometers, the Xinhua news agency reported earlier.

(Reporting by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

[Sinkie]

Najib to give impt emergency announcement at 10pm local time.

Relatives in Beijing booked on flight to Australia.

 

[InformationSociety]

Malaysia says missing plane crashed in Indian Ocean

By Stuart Grudgings
KUALA LUMPUR Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:55am EDT

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Mnf9I0hADkU?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

(Reuters) - The Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared over two weeks ago crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday.

New satellite analysis from Britain had shown that Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, was last seen in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth, Australia, he said in a statement.

"This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites," Najib said.

"It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

Najib added that the families of those on board had been informed of the developments.

His comments came as an Australian navy ship was close to finding possible debris from the jetliner after a mounting number of sightings of floating objects that are believed to parts of the plane.

The objects, described as a "grey or green circular object" and an "orange rectangular object", were spotted on Monday afternoon, said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, adding that three planes were also en route to the area.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8. No confirmed sighting of the plane has been made since and there is no clue what went wrong.

Attention and resources in the search for the Boeing 777 had shifted from an initial focus north of the Equator to an increasingly narrowed stretch of rough sea in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the original flight path.

Earlier on Monday, Xinhua news agency said a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft spotted two "relatively big" floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometers.

Over 150 of the passengers on board the missing plane were Chinese.

In a further sign the search was bearing fruit, the U.S. Navy was flying in its high-tech black box detector to the area.

The so-called black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - record what happens on board planes in flight. At crash sites, finding the black boxes soon is crucial because the locator beacons they carry fade out after 30 days.

"If debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box's pinger is limited," Commander Chris Budde, U.S. Seventh Fleet Operations Officer, said in an emailed statement.

Investigators believe someone on the flight shut off the plane's communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. Faint electronic "pings" detected by a commercial satellite suggested it flew for another six hours or so, but could do no better than place its final signal on one of two vast arcs north and south.

(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz in New York, Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing, Michael Martina, A.Ananthalakshmi and Siva Govindasamy in Kuala Lumpur; and Lincoln Feast in Sydney; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

[InformationSociety]

'No one has survived': Missing Malaysia Airlines plane lost in ocean, says company

Plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean, Malaysia Airlines says

PUBLISHED : Monday, 24 March, 2014, 12:13pm
UPDATED : Monday, 24 March, 2014, 10:50pm

Danny Lee and Angela Meng in Kuala Lumpur, Agencies

Malaysia Airlines tonight announced that the missing flight MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean with no survivors.

Malaysia Airlines tonight announced that the missing flight MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean with no survivors.

In a statement to the families of those with relatives on board, the airline said: "We deeply regret that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board have survived. We must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean."

The news came after Chinese relatives in Beijing were called to the second floor of the Lido Hotel for an emergency meeting.

Dozens of paramedics carrying stretchers attended the scene and screaming was heard coming from behind closed doors.

"I can't take this," shouted a middle-aged woman, who was being supported by two men. "Why is the Malaysian government doing this to us?" cried a man.

Another said: "I don't care if this is just a cover up or political infighting. Please just give me my family back."

It is believed that relatives in Kuala Lumpur will be flown to Perth tonight.

Announcing the grim news at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur tonight, Prime Minister Najib Razak, said: "This evening, I was briefed by representatives from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch or AAIB.

"They informed me that Inmarsat, the UK company that provided the satellite data which indicated the northern and southern corridors has been performing further calculations on the data using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort.

"They have been able to shed more light on the location of 370’s flight path. Based on the new analysis, Inmarsat and UK AAIB have concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.

"This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness, I regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean."

There was disbelief among family members as the news was relayed.

One relative told the South China Morning Post by text message: "Malaysia is lying. Make China go down there and look."

Another said: "If they don't show us the actual plane itself then it doesn't mean anything."

Malaysian authorities earlier said that Australian search teams had identified two objects in the Indian Ocean possibly linked to missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, and it was hoped that they would be picked up within hours.

At a daily press conference into the disappearance of the jet, Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the Australians had sent a ship to investigate.

The sighting comes just hours after Chinese spotter teams were reported to have seen "some suspicious objects" floating in the sea.

"A few minutes ago, the prime minister received a call from the prime minister of Australia who informed him that Australian search aircraft had located two objects in the Australian search area, one circular and one rectangular," Hussein said.

"HMAS Success is in the vicinity and it is possible that the objects could be received within the next few hours or by tomorrow morning at the latest."

He added: "HMAS Success remains the only vessel in the search area. A number of Chinese vessels are expected to commence arriving within the search area on the 25th of March."

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed the new find in a speech to parliament.

"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has advised that objects have been located by a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion and I can advise the House that HMAS Success is on scene and is attempting to locate and recover these objects," he said.

"The objects were spotted in the search area about 2500 kilometres southwest of Perth at about 2.45pm our time.

"The crew on board the Orion reported seeing two objects, the first a grey or green circular object and the second an orange rectangular object. These are separate to the objects reported earlier today by a Chinese search aircraft."

Royal Australian Air Force officer leads a search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

Sounding a note of caution he added: "We don’t know whether any of these objects are from MH370. They could be flotsam. Nevertheless we are hopeful that we can recover these objects soon and that they will take us a step closer to resolving this tragic mystery."

Earlier Monday China's Xinhua news agency said the crew of an Ilyushin-76 transport jet had seen “two relatively big floating objects with many white smaller ones scattered within a radius of several kilometres”.

The larger objects were “white and rectangular”, Xinhua said.

“The crew has reported the coordinates - 95.1113 degrees east and 42.5453 south - to the Australian command centre as well as Chinese icebreaker Xuelong, which is en route to the sea area,” Xinhua said, adding that the the ship was expected to reach the location early Tuesday morning.

The coordinates suggested the objects were about 465 kilometres northeast of where a Chinese satellite spotted a large floating object on March 18.

Meanwhile, the United States Navy is moving one of its high-tech black box detectors closer to the search area for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane in remote seas off the Australian coast, bolstering hopes wreckage of the plane may be found soon.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board on a flight to Beijing on March 8.

The so-called Towed Pinger Locator will be crucial in finding the black box of the missing jetliner if a debris field is established by an Australian-led international search team scouring an area in the southern Indian Ocean some 2,500 km southwest of Perth.

"If debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box’s pinger is limited," Commander Chris Budde, U.S. Seventh Fleet Operations Officer, said in an emailed statement.

Attention and resources in the search for the Boeing 777 have shifted in recent days from an initial focus north of the equator to an increasingly narrowed stretch of icy sea in the southern Indian Ocean.

Chinese Antarctic exploration team members aboard Chinese icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon), searche for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese and Japanese military aircraft were joining a 10-strong international fleet of planes scouring the area for the first time on Monday.

A flotilla of Chinese ships, including the icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, is also making its way south.

Budde stressed that bringing in the black box detector, which is towed behind a vessel at slow speeds and can pick up "pings" from a black box to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet, was a precautionary measure.

Similarly, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss stressed the challenges of the search.

"It’s a lot of water to look for just perhaps a tiny object," Truss told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio.

"Today we expect the weather to deteriorate and the forecast ahead is not that good, so it’s going to be a challenge, but we will stick at it," he said.

The satellite image released by China yesterday showing suspected debris in the southern corridor of the intensified search area in the Indian Ocean. Photo: SCMP

Two Chinese military Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft, two Australian P3 Orions and two ultra-long range civilian jets were in the early search party on Monday. Another ultra-long range jet, a U.S. Navy P8 Poseidon and two Japanese P3 Orions were due to depart later in the day.

Australia was analysing French radar images showing potential floating debris that were taken some 850 kms (530 miles) north of the current search area.

"We only recently got this information and we are still examining it," an AMSA spokeswoman told Reuters by telephone. Malaysia said it received the images on Sunday and passed them on to Australia.

"We are taking it into account but at this stage we are still focused on the same search area," the spokeswoman said, contradicting earlier comments from Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss that the search area had been expanded north to take into account the French sighting.

A crew member on a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion aircraft participating in the Australian Maritime Safety Authority-led search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean. Photo: AFP

Australia has used a U.S. satellite image of two floating objects to frame its search area.

The search planes are zeroing in on the areas around where the earlier sightings were made in an effort to find the object identified by China and other small debris, including a wooden pallet, spotted by a search plane on Saturday.

China said the object it had seen on the satellite image was 22 metres long (74ft) and 13 metres (43ft) wide.

It could not be determined easily from the blurred images whether the objects were the same as those detected by Australia, but the Chinese photograph could depict a cluster of smaller objects, said a senior military officer from one of the 26 nations involved in the search.

The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is approximately 27 metres long and 14 metres wide at its base, according to estimates derived from publicly available scale drawings. Its fuselage is 63.7 metres long by 6.2 metres wide.

NASA said it would use high-resolution cameras aboard satellites and the International Space Station to look for possible crash sites in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. space agency is also examining archived images collected by instruments on its Terra and Aqua environmental satellites, said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.

The Commanding Officer of HMAS Success Captain Allison Norris RAN scans the ocean from the ship's bridge during the search for the missing Malaysia Airliner MH370. Photo: Xinhua"

Our satellites and space-based cameras are designed for long-term scientific data gathering and Earth observation. They’re really not meant to look for a missing aircraft, and obviously NASA isn’t a lead agency in this effort. But we’re trying to support the search, if possible," Beutel said.

Truss said the aircraft flying on Monday would be focused on searching by sight, rather than radar, which can be tricky to use because of the high seas and wind in the area. Civilian aircraft, which can carry more people, have joined the search.

Investigators believe someone on the flight shut off the plane’s communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. Faint electronic "pings" detected by a commercial satellite suggested it flew for another six hours or so, but could do no better than place its final signal on one of two vast arcs north and south.

US Naval pilots attached to Patrol Squadron (VP) 16, fly a P-8A Poseidon during a mission over the Indian Ocean to assist in search and rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photo: Reuters

The lack of solid news has meant a prolonged and harrowing wait for families of the passengers, who have complained in both Beijing and Kuala Lumpur about the absence of information.

A Malaysian statement said a "high-level" team briefed relatives in Beijing on Sunday in a meeting that lasted more than six hours.

While the southern arc is now the main focus of the search, Malaysia says efforts will continue in both corridors until confirmed debris are found.

"We still don’t even know for certain if the aircraft is in this area," Truss said of the southern Indian Ocean search.

"We’re just clutching at whatever little piece of information that comes along to try to find the place we can concentrate the efforts."

 

[InformationSociety]

Tears, fury and disbelief of relatives over flight MH370

Grief turns to anger at Malaysian authorities after news of plane's fate

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 1:46am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 1:47am

Angela Meng and Danny Lee in Kuala Lumpur, and Adrian Wan in Beijing

A relative waves her fist in anger at Beijing's Lido Hotel. Photo: AFP

A woman is stretchered off after fainting at the news. Photo: Xinhua

It was the moment the relatives of the Chinese passengers on board MH370 had been dreading.

And when it came, there were screams of disbelief, uncontrollable sobbing and a refusal to accept that they would never again speak to their loved ones.

"I can't take this," shouted a middle-aged woman who had to be supported by two men in the Beijing hotel where relatives were summoned ahead of the announcement that the jet was lost.

"Why is the Malaysian government doing this to us," cried a man. Paramedics were on hand to help those who simply could not cope with the terrible news.

Reporters were kept out of the room, as they were at a Kuala Lumpur hotel where a similar family meeting was held.

But some family members spoke publicly when they left, some hurling abuse at the Malaysian government.

A woman, held by family on both sides, begged journalists for help. "Reporters, help us say something to the governments," she cried.

"Don't they have children themselves? Are their children all dead? Why are they doing this? I need the governments to speak to us direct. It's not right that they announce this now."

Family members have been among the most distrusting of Kuala Lumpur from the outset. Statements have often been corrected or retracted.

And last night's announcement by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that analysis from UK specialists had confirmed that the plane's last known location was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, far from any possible landing site, did little to quell their anger and suspicion.

Among the increasingly suspicious relatives was Zheng Xi, a thirtysomething woman from Nanjing who spoke to the South China Morning Post by phone. "Malaysia knew what happened to the plane," Zheng, who had two relatives on board, said. "They knew all along but they wanted to act like they didn't. They wanted to divert people's attention and get as many countries involved as possible and then tell people that the plane was lost in the world's most remote location."

Even if she has given up on ever seeing her relatives alive, she said she felt no closure because the bodies have not been recovered.

"We will not stop searching, we will go to the Premier of China if we have to. We will find them," she said.

 

[InformationSociety]

​

 

[InformationSociety]

Flight MH370: How Inmarsat homed in on missing Malaysia Airlines' plane

UK satellite firm and AAIB cited for 'groundbreaking maths' to narrow the flight corridor of missing passenger jet and help solve riddle

Search for wreckage of MH370 resumes – live updates

Charles Arthur, technology editor
The Guardian, Monday 24 March 2014 19.18 GMT

Search area for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 update on 23 March 2014.

Analysis by the British satellite company Inmarsat and the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) was cited on Monday by the Malaysian prime minister as the source of information that has narrowed the location where the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean to a corridor a couple of hundred miles wide.

The analysis follows fresh examination of eight satellite "pings" sent by the aircraft between 1.11am and 8.11am Malaysian time on Saturday 8 March, when it vanished from radar screens.

The prime minister, Najib Razak, said: "Based on their new analysis, Inmarsat and the AAIB have concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.

"This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

He added that they had used a "type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort".

The new method "gives the approximate direction of travel, plus or minus about 100 miles, to a track line", Chris McLaughlin, senior vice-president for external affairs at Inmarsat, told Sky News. "Unfortunately this is a 1990s satellite over the Indian Ocean that is not GPS-equipped. All we believe we can do is to say that we believe it is in this general location, but we cannot give you the final few feet and inches where it landed. It's not that sort of system."

McLaughlin told CNN that there was no further analysis possible of the data. "Sadly this is the limit. There's no global decision even after the Air France loss [in June 2009, where it took two years to recover the plane from the sea] to make direction and distance reporting compulsory. Ships have to log in every six hours; with aircraft travelling at 500 knots they would have to log in every 15 minutes. That could be done tomorrow but the mandate is not there globally."

Since the plane disappeared more than two weeks ago, many of the daily searches across vast tracts of the Indian Ocean for the aircraft have relied on Inmarsat information collated halfway across the world from a company that sits on London's "Silicon Roundabout", by Old Street tube station.

Using the data from just eight satellite "pings" after the plane's other onboard Acars automatic tracking system went off at 1.07am, the team at Inmarsat was initially able to calculate that it had either headed north towards the Asian land mass or south, towards the emptiest stretches of the India Ocean.

Inmarsat said that yesterday it had done new calculations on the limited data that it had received from the plane in order to come to its conclusion. McLaughlin told CNN that it was a "groundbreaking but traditional" piece of mathematics which was then checked by others in the space industry.

The company's system of satellites provide voice contact with air traffic control when planes are out of range of radar, which only covers about 10% of the Earth's surface, and beyond the reach of standard radio over oceans. It also offers automatic reporting of positions via plane transponders. It is possible to send route instructions directly to the cockpit over a form of text message relayed through the satellite.

Inmarsat was set up in 1979 by the International Maritime Organisation to help ships stay in touch with shore or call for emergency no matter where they were, has provided key satellite data about the last movements of MH370.

Even as the plane went off Malaysian air traffic control's radar on 8 March, Inmarsat's satellites were "pinging" it.

A team at the company began working on the directions the plane could have gone in, based on the responses. One pointed north; the other, south. But it took three days for the data to be officially passed on to the Malaysian authorities; apparently to prevent any more such delays, Inmarsat was officially made "technical adviser" to the AAIB in its investigation into MH370's disappearance.

Inmarsat's control room in London, like some of its other 60 locations worldwide, looks like a miniature version of Nasa: a huge screen displays the positions of its 11 geostationary satellites, and dozens of monitors control and correct their positions. A press on a key can cause the puff of a rocket on a communications satellite 22,236 miles away, nudging its orbit by a few inches this way or that.

More prosaically, Inmarsat's systems enable passengers to make calls from their seats and also to use Wi-Fi and connect to the internet while flying.

If the plane has its own "picocell" essentially a tiny mobile phone tower set up inside the plane then that can be linked to the satellite communications system and enable passengers to use their own mobile phones to make calls, which are routed through the satellite and back to earth.

After its creation, Inmarsat's maritime role rapidly expanded to providing connectivity for airlines, the media, oil and gas companies, mining and construction in remote areas, and governments.

Privatised at the end of the 1990s, it was floated on the stock market in 2004, and now focuses on providing services to four main areas: maritime, enterprise (focused on businesses including aviation), civil and military work for the US government, and civil and military work for other governments. The US is the largest government client, generating up to a fifth of its revenues of about £1bn annually. The firm employs about 1,600 staff.

 

[InformationSociety]

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/search-for-missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-suspended-after-confirmation-it-went-down-in-indian-ocean/story-fnizu68q-1226863821771

​

 

[YouMakeMyDreams]

US deploys ‘black box’ locator in Malaysian jet search

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 9:15am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 10:06am

Agence France-Presse in Washington

Crew members on board a P-8A Poseidon assigned to Patrol Squadron (VP) 16 man their workstations while assisting in search and rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Photo: AFP

The US military on Monday sent a black box locator and a robotic underwater vehicle to the Indian Ocean to help search for the missing Malaysian jet, after a series of debris sightings.

The locator system, which relies on acoustic signals to track down flight recorders, and the Bluefin-21, an unmanned device that can scan the ocean’s depths, were being flown to Perth, Australia as a “prudent” step, officials said.

The head of Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, “made a very prudent and wise decision to move the equipment that could be useful should a debris field be found or should we think we can get close to where the black box may be,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

The Malaysia Airlines jet went missing on March 8 with 239 people aboard and officials cautioned that the deployment of the equipment did not mean authorities had found the precise location of the Boeing 777.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the United States. Photo: Xinhua

“I think it’s really important for everybody to understand that it’s being sent there to be ready should there be a need, and right now there’s no need. We do not have a debris field,” Kirby said.

If debris from the flight is confirmed, the US Navy’s “Towed Pinger Locator 25 will add a significant advantage in locating the missing Malaysian aircraft’s black box,” Commander William Marks, a spokesman for the US Seventh Fleet, said in an earlier statement.

The locator system relies on acoustic signals to help find flight recorders -- also known as black boxes -- on downed navy and commercial aircraft to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), he added.

The robotic Bluefin 21 can produce high resolution imagery of the ocean floor at a depth of up to 14,700 feet (4,500 meters) and operate for up to 25 hours, according to the Pentagon. Resembling a torpedo, the vehicle is 17 feet (five meters) long and can travel at a speed of up to 4.5 knots.

A P-8A Poseidon before its flight to assist in search and rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: EPA

The Bluefin will be launched from an Australian commercial ship, Kirby said.

On Monday, a Chinese military plane set off from the western Australian city of Perth at first light to search for “suspicious debris” floating in the remote waters and captured by Chinese and Australian satellite imagery, China’s state news agency Xinhua said.

The sighting of a wooden pallet and other debris that may be linked to the Malaysian passenger jet gave the sense Sunday that the hunt was finally on the right track after more than two weeks of false leads and dead ends.

It was reinforced by new French satellite data indicating floating objects in the southern search area.

Australian officials said the pallet, along with belts or straps, was spotted Saturday in a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean that has become the focus of the search -- around 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth.

 

[InformationSociety]

'Liars, tell us the truth!' Hundreds march on Malaysian embassy in Beijing in massive protest over MH370 disaster

Grief turns to anger at Malaysian authorities after news of plane's fate

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 1:46am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 1:00pm

Mandy Zuo, Simon Song, Zhang Hong and Adrian Wan in Beijing, Angela Meng and Danny Lee in Kuala Lumpur

Family members of MH370 passengers hold up placards in a protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing on March 25. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song

Hundreds of angry protesters, many of them family members of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passengers, marched on the Malaysian embassy in Beijing against what call cover-up and mishandling of the disaster by Malaysian authorities on Tuesday.

Beijing authorities had to call in reinforcement of paramilitary soldiers and plainclothes security agents to guard the Malaysian embassy as protesters, some arriving by bus and others on foot, breached police lines set up several streets away.

Family members of MH370 passengers hold up placards in a protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing on March 25. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song

Earlier on Tuesday morning, several hundred family members of the doomed flight's passengers had stormed out of the hotel they were staying at and travelled to the Malaysian embassy in downtown Beijing by bus. Some family members told reporters later that they had hired the buses themselves.

Grief-stricken and angry over what they call two weeks of "lies and misleading information" after flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, the family members held up placards reading "Malaysia Airlines, you owe us an explanation", "we want the truth" and "Mom, please come home" as they got off buses and marched towards the embassy.

Many wore white T-shirts with the Chinese characters "bless MH370" printed on the front.

Heavy police presence outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing on March 25, 2014. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song

Shouting slogans and waving their placards, several dozen protesters were able to break through lines of uniformed police officers and marched all the way to the gate of the embassy compound, where about 100 paramilitary Armed Police soldiers with shields but no riot gear, and plainclothes agents, had formed a last line of protection.

"Corrupt Malaysian government," "Liars!" shouted the protesters. A few threw water bottles over the gate onto embassy grounds. Some were seen being shoved about by plainclothes security officials, but no serious clashes appeared to have broken out.

At least one woman was seen fainting and falling on the ground.

There was more shoving and shouting when protesters tried to take reporters with them across the police lines, but the policemen stopped all the reporters and only allowed some family members to pass.

Family members of MH370 passengers hold up placards in a protest near Lido Hotel in Beijing. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song

Many distraught family members have accused the airline and the Malaysian government of repeatedly lying to and misleading them about the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones on board the missing flight.

There were screams of disbelief and uncontrollable sobbing when the Malaysian government informed family members late Monday evening that they had concluded the plane had crashed in the Indian Ocean, and nobody on board survived.

A family member wearing a white T-shirt with the Chinese character "bless MH370" cries at the Lido Hotel in Beijing. Photo: Simon Song

"I can't take this," shouted a middle-aged woman who had to be supported by two men in the Beijing hotel where relatives were summoned ahead of the announcement that the jet was lost.

"Why is the Malaysian government doing this to us?" cried a man. Paramedics were on hand to help those who simply could not cope with the terrible news.

Reporters were kept out of the room, as they were at a Kuala Lumpur hotel where a similar family meeting was held.

But some family members spoke publicly when they left, some hurling abuse at the Malaysian government.

A woman, held by family on both sides, begged journalists for help. "Reporters, help us say something to the governments," she cried.

"Don't they have children themselves? Are their children all dead? Why are they doing this? I need the governments to speak to us direct. It's not right that they announce this now."

Some relatives in Beijing lashed out as they left their meeting with the Malaysian flag carrier, with one man throwing punches and kicks at assembled media.

One woman left the room shouting “Murderers! Murderers” and crying uncontrollably as she was held by two other family members, while another swiped at cameramen with her handbag, shouting “Get away!”

At about 2am a group of around 30 relatives came out of the room to meet waiting reporters.

Family members of MH370 passengers protest on Tuesday morning near Beijing's Lido Hotel. Photo: Simon Song

“The Malaysian government, Malaysian Airlines and the Malaysian armed forces are the real murderers who have killed our loved ones,” a man said, appearing to read from a prepared statement on a laptop on behalf of the group.

“The relatives of the passengers launch the strongest protest and condemnation” against them, he added.

The man also said the relatives would use “all possible means” to protest.

In a statement from the Chinese Family Committee, the families criticised the Malaysian government over its handling of the investigation into the fate of MH370.

"From March 8 when they announced that MH370 lost contact to today, 18 days have passed during which the Malaysian government and military constantly tried to delay, deceive the passengers' families and cheat the whole world," the statement said.

A protester holds a banner reading "Don't let us wait too long, MH370". Photo: Simon Song

"This shameless behaviour not only fooled and hurt the families of the 154 passengers but also misguided and delayed rescue actions, wasting a large quantity of human resources and materials and lost valuable time for the rescue effort.

"If the 154 passengers did lose their lives, Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian government and military are the real executioners who killed them. We the families of those on board submit our strongest protest against them.

"We will take every possible means to pursue the unforgivable crimes and responsibility of all three."

Family members have been among the most distrusting of Kuala Lumpur from the outset. Statements have often been corrected or retracted.

And last night's announcement by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak that analysis from UK specialists had confirmed that the plane's last known location was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, far from any possible landing site, did little to quell their anger and suspicion.

A woman is stretchered off after fainting at the news. Photo: Xinhua

Among the increasingly suspicious relatives was Zheng Xi, a thirtysomething woman from Nanjing who spoke to the South China Morning Post by phone. "Malaysia knew what happened to the plane," Zheng, who had two relatives on board, said. "They knew all along but they wanted to act like they didn't. They wanted to divert people's attention and get as many countries involved as possible and then tell people that the plane was lost in the world's most remote location."

Even if she has given up on ever seeing her relatives alive, she said she felt no closure because the bodies have not been recovered.

"We will not stop searching, we will go to the Premier of China if we have to. We will find them," she said.

 

[InformationSociety]

Time running out in hunt for black box that could unlock mystery of MH370 disappearance

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 12:51pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 12:58pm

Associated Press in Canberra, Australia

The Towed Pinger Locator (TPL) 25 System is used for locating emergency relocation pingers on downed Navy and commercial aircraft at a maximum depth of 20,000 feet(6,000 metres). Photo: AFP

Time is running out to find the crucial keys that could solve the mystery of how and why Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went down.

After the excruciating 17-day wait for confirmation that the Boeing 777 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, searchers are racing to locate the so-called black boxes before a battery-powered ping they emit fades away.

By law, the boxes with must be able to send those signals for at least 30 days following a crash. But experts say they can continue making noise for another 15 days or so beyond that, depending upon the strength of the black box battery at the time of the crash.

Without the black boxes — the common name for the voice and data recorders normally attached to a fuselage — it would be virtually impossible for investigators to definitively say what caused the crash.

The location of the plane is still unknown more than two weeks after it crashed, although Malaysian authorities say a British satellite company has pinpointed its last position in the Indian Ocean, where several countries have reported finding floating debris.

It’s now up to experts in ocean currents and weather patterns to give searchers their best estimate on where the plane actually went down, which is where the black boxes - in reality orange or red cylinders - are likely to be located.

“We’ve got to get lucky,” said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. “It’s a race to get to the area in time to catch the black box pinger while it’s still working.”

Crew members on board an RAAF AP-3C Orion transiting at high altitude on what was to be an 11 hour search mission for missing Malaysia Airways flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. Photo: AFP

To “catch” the signal, searchers will be putting to use a high-tech listening device loaned by the U.S. Navy.

One of the Navy’s Towed Pinger Locators is already en route to the search area.

It’s a 76 centimetre cylindrical microphone that’s slowly towed underwater in a grid pattern behind a commercial ship. It will pick up any black box ping emitted from, on average, 1.6 kilometres away, but could hear a ping from two miles away depending upon a number of factors, from ocean conditions to topography to if the black boxes are buried or not.

The listening device is attached to about 7,000 metres of cable and is guided through the ocean depths by a yellow, triangular carrier with a shark fin on top. It looks like a stingray and has a wingspan of 3 feet.

The device sends data up that long cable every half second, where both human operators and computers aboard a ship carefully listen for any strong signals and record a ping’s location. The ship keeps towing the device over the grid so that operators can triangulate the strongest pings and hopefully locate the exact location of the black boxes.

Aside from the Towed Pinger Locator, an Australian navy support vessel, the Ocean Shield, is expected to arrive in the search zone within three or four days, officials said. It’s equipped with acoustic detection equipment that will also listen for pings.

Crew members on board an RAAF AP-3C Orion having just completed an 11 hour search mission for missing Malaysia Airways flight MH370 before landing at the RAAF Pearce airbase in Perth. Photo: AFP

If the pings aren't heard

If no strong signals are located before the battery on the black boxes fades away, then searchers must move on to using side-scan sonar via devices that send sounds to the sea’s depths and analyze the echo return to map the ocean floor. That allows experts to look for any abnormalities in the seabed or any shape that wouldn’t normally be associated with the area.

The sonar devices can be towed behind a ship or used with unmanned mini submarines that can dive to the ocean floor for about 20 hours at a time, scanning the search area, mapping the ocean and looking for the wreckage.

This is how searchers found the wreckage of Air France Flight 447, which went down in 2009 in the Atlantic between Brazil’s northeast coast and western Africa. Underwater search vehicles scanned the mountainous sea floor and sent data back up to experts aboard ships that stayed at sea for a month at a time.

Finally, evidence of possible debris was detected by sonar. Another underwater vehicle with a special high-resolution video camera was sent in to allow scientists to visually inspect the area.

In the case of the Air France jet, it took over $40 million, four lengthy searches and nearly two years before the plane and the black boxes were found.

 

[InformationSociety]

China demands Malaysia hand over satellite data used to conclude Malaysia Airlines flight crashed

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 4:06pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 4:06pm

Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur

Chinese relatives of passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 march to protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing. Photo: AFP

China demanded that Malaysia turn over the satellite data used to conclude that a Malaysia Airlines jetliner had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean killing everyone on board, as gale-force winds and heavy rain on Tuesday halted the search for any remains of the plane.

The weather is expected to improve later Tuesday for the multinational search being conducted out of Perth, Australia, to possibly resume Wednesday. But even then, the searchers face a monumental task of combing the vast expanse of choppy seas for suspected remnants of the aircraft sighted earlier.

“We’re not searching for a needle in a haystack — we’re still trying to define where the haystack is,” Australia’s deputy defense chief, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, told reporters in Perth at a military base as idled planes remained parked behind him.

In remarks to the Malaysian Parliament, Prime Minister Najib Razak also cautioned that the search will take a long time and “we will have to face unexpected and extraordinary challenges.”

Late Monday, Najib announced that the Boeing 777 had gone down in the sea with no survivor. But that’s all that investigators and the Malaysian government have been able to say with certainty about Flight 370’s fate since it disappeared on March 8 shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Left unanswered are many troubling questions about why it was so far off-course -- the plane essentially back-tracked its route over Malaysia and then traveled in the opposite direction in the Indian Ocean.

Investigators will be looking at various possibilities including possible mechanical or electrical failure, hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or someone else on board.

“We do not know why. We do not know how. We do not how the terrible tragedy happened,” the airline’s chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, told reporters.

Monday night’s e announcement unleashed a storm of sorrow and anger among the families of the plane’s 239 passengers and crew — two-thirds of them Chinese. Family members of the missing passengers have complained bitterly about a lack of reliable information and some say they are not being told the whole truth.

A grieving Chinese relative of passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 yells to journalists as they gather to protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing. Photo: AFP

Nearly 100 relatives and their supporters marched on the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing, where they threw plastic water bottles, tried to rush the gate and chanted, “Liars!”

Many wore white T-shirts that read “Let’s pray for MH370” as they held banners and shouted, “Tell the truth! Return our relatives!”

There was a heavy police presence at the embassy and there was a brief scuffle between police and a group of relatives who tried to approach journalists.

Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng told Malaysia’s ambassador to Beijing late Monday that China wanted to know exactly what led Najib to announce that the plane had been lost, a statement on the ministry’s website said.

Malaysia Airlines Chairman Mohammed Nor Mohammed Yusof said at a news conference Tuesday that it may take time for further answers to come clear.

“This has been an unprecedented event requiring an unprecedented response,” he said. “The investigation still underway may yet prove to be even longer and more complex than it has been since March 8th.”

He added that even though no wreckage has been found, there was no doubt it had crashed.

“This by the evidence given to us, and by rational deduction, we could only arrive at that conclusion: That is, for Malaysia Airlines to declare that it has lost its plane, and by extension, the people in the plane,” he said.

The conclusions were based on a more thorough analysis of the brief signals the plane sent every hour to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat, a British company, even after other communication systems on the jetliner shut down for unknown reasons.

Najib said that an unparalleled study of the jet’s last-known signals to a satellite showed that the missing plane veered “to a remote location, far from any possible landing sites” in the southern Indian ocean.

Although there have been an increasing number of apparent leads, there has been no definitive identification of any debris. For several days now, search planes have been scouring seas 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, and have spotted several floating objects, but none have been retrieved or proven to be from the missing plane.

Paramilitary soldiers in anti-riot gear march around the Malaysian embassy while family members of passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 stage a rally in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

“It is impossible to predict how long this will take. But after 17 days, the announcement made last night and shared with the families is the reality which we must now accept,” Ahmad Jauhari, the airline’s chief executive, said

The latest satellite information cannot provide an exact location but just a rough estimate of where the jet crashed into the sea.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had spoken to Najib to offer help with the ongoing search and investigation.

“What up until now has been a search, moves into a recovery and investigation phase,” Abbott said. “I have offered Malaysia, as the country legally responsible for this, every assistance and cooperation from Australia.”

Several countries had already been moving specialized equipment into the area to prepare for a possible search for the plane and its black boxes, the common name for the cockpit voice and data recorders — needed to help determine what happened to the jetliner.

There is a race against the clock to find any trace of the plane that could lead them to the location of the black boxes, whose battery-powered “pinger” could stop sending signals within two weeks. The batteries are designed to last at least a month and can last longer.

An Australian navy support vessel, the Ocean Shield, equipped with acoustic detection equipment, was expected to arrive in several days in the search zone. And the U.S. Pacific Command said it was sending a black box locator to the region in case a debris field is located.

The U.S. Navy has also sent an unmanned underwater vehicle to Perth that could be used if debris is located, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman. The Bluefin-21, expected to arrive in Perth on Wednesday, has side-scanning sonar and what is called a “multi-beam echo sounder” that can be used to take a closer look at objects under water, he added. It can operate at a depth of 4,500 meters (14,700 feet).

The search for the wreckage and the plane’s recorders could take years because the ocean can extend to up to 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) deep in some parts. It took two years to find the black box from an Air France jet that went down in the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, and searchers knew within days where the crash site was.

“We’ve got to get lucky,” said John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. “It’s a race to get to the area in time to catch the black box pinger while it’s still working.”

 

[InformationSociety]

Chinese families clash with police, slam Malaysia over lost plane

By Megha Rajagopalan and Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah
BEIJING/KUALA LUMPUR Tue Mar 25, 2014 12:35pm EDT

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UhtZiK1iCNM?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

(Reuters) - Dozens of angry relatives of passengers on a lost Malaysian jetliner clashed with police in Beijing on Tuesday, accusing the Southeast Asian country of "delays and deception" a day after it confirmed the plane crashed in remote seas off Australia.

About 20 to 30 protesters threw water bottles at the Malaysian embassy and tried to storm the building, demanding to meet the ambassador, witnesses said. Earlier, the relatives, many with tear-stained faces, had linked arms and chanted "Malaysian government has cheated us" and "Malaysia, return our relatives" as they marched peacefully and held banners.

The relatives' grief and anger was unleashed on Monday night after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished more than two weeks ago while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

Citing satellite-data analysis by British firm Inmarsat, he said there was now no doubt that the Boeing jet came down in the ocean in one of the most remote places on Earth - an implicit admission that all 239 people on board had died.

Bad weather in the region far off Australia's western coast on Tuesday forced the suspension of the search for any wreckage, just as a series of satellite images and other sightings of floating objects had raised hopes that debris from the plane would be found.

Malaysia's confused initial response to the Boeing 777's disappearance and a perception of poor communications has enraged many relatives of the more than 150 Chinese passengers and strained ties between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.

After Najib's announcement, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng demanded Malaysia hand over all relevant satellite analysis showing how Malaysia had reached its conclusion about the fate of the jet.

In a separate statement, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China would ask Malaysia to provide more detailed and accurate information on the plane, according to a government microblog account. Chinese President Xi Jinping will send a special envoy to Kuala Lumpur to consult with the Malaysian government, state news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.

ANGER, GRIEF

A group reportedly representing families issued a statement describing the Malaysian airline, government and military as "executioners" who constantly tried to delay and deceive them.

"We will take every possible means to pursue the unforgivable crimes and responsibility of all three," said the statement on the microblog of the Malaysia Airlines MH370 Family Committee.

The relatives protesting in Beijing held signs that said: "MH370, Don't let us wait too long!" and "1.3 billion people are waiting to greet the plane". They wore matching t-shirts that said: "Best of luck to MH370, return home safely."

"We've waited for 18 days and still, you make us wait. How long are we supposed to hang on?" a woman surnamed Zhang told Reuters.

The protest ended after a few hours, when police told protesters to get on buses and escorted them away.

Criticism of the Malaysian national carrier mounted after some relatives of those on board first received the news that the search for survivors was over in an SMS from the airline, which said: "We have to assume beyond all reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and none of those on board survived."

At a news conference at Kuala Lumpur's international airport on Tuesday, company officials defended the move, saying the text message had only been sent as a "last resort" to ensure that some relatives did not hear the news first from media.

"This is a time of extraordinary emotions and we fully understand," said Malaysia Airlines Chairman Mohd Nur Yusof. "In fact, we really feel for the next of kin. In terms of how they react, it's emotional."

Asked whether he would resign over the crisis, the airline's chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said that would be a "personal decision" to be made at a later time.

WRECKAGE COULD HOLD KEY

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off on March 8. No confirmed debris from the plane has been found since.

Investigators believe someone on the flight may have shut off the plane's communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

Recovery of wreckage could unlock clues about why the plane had diverted so far off course. Theories range from a hijacking to sabotage or a possible suicide by one of the pilots, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems.

As a result of the new satellite analysis, the international search effort has been narrowed to focus solely on the southern end of the possible route - a still massive area of 469,000 sq miles (1.2 million sq km) - Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters.

The search site is far from commercial flight paths about 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, a region of deep, frigid seas known as the Roaring 40s where storm-force winds and huge waves are commonplace.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that it would make arrangements to fly relatives to Australia once it had approval from the investigating authorities.

Australia's Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said his department was working with the airline and Beijing to facilitate visas. Relatives would be given tourist visas with the usual fees waived, he said.

COSTLY, DIFFICULT INVESTIGATION

Najib's announcement opens the way for what will be one of the most costly and difficult air crash investigations ever. Normally, an official investigation can only begin once a crash site has been identified. That would give Malaysia power to coordinate and sift evidence.

A government source told Reuters that Malaysia would lead the investigation, but hoped other countries, especially Australia, would play a major role.

The United States said it was sending an undersea Navy drone to Australia, in addition to a high-tech black box detector, to help in the search.

But the black box detector would not arrive in the search area until April 5, Hishammuddin said, leaving only a few days to pick up locator beacons from the box that stop about a month after a crash due to limited battery life.

The so-called black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - record what happens during flight.

Najib said Inmarsat had performed further calculations on data gleaned from faint pings picked up by satellite that initially only narrowed the search area to two massive arcs.

Giving more details on the analysis on Tuesday, Hishammuddin said it showed that at some time after 0011 GMT - about six hours after its last sighting by Malaysian military radar on March 8 - the aircraft was no longer able to communicate with the ground station.

"This is consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft," he said.

He said there was evidence of a further "partial handshake" between the satellite and the aircraft 8 minutes later, but that this transmission was not understood and was being analysed.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Megha Rajagopalan and Joseph Campbell in Beijing, Stuart Grudgings, Michael Martina, Siva Govindasamy and A. Ananthalakshmi in Kuala Lumpur; Phil Stewart in Washington; Jane Wardell in Sydney and Matt Siegel in Perth; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Alex Richardson)

 

[InformationSociety]

New details of the final minutes of flight MH370

Yahoo! and agencies March 26, 2014, 6:33 am

The Malaysian authorities at the forefront of the missing MH370 investigation have revealed that the flight most probably plunged into the southern Indian Ocean between 8:11am and 9:15am on Saturday March 8.

Malaysia’s Defence and acting Transport Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, said the new details were the result of never-before-used technology that has helped traced the Boeing 777's final moments on a deadly flight path.

MH370's last complete "handshake" was last captured on an Inmarsat satellite that was covering two massive southern and northern corridors at 8:11am.

Just eight minutes later, there is evidence of a partial handshake with the ground station.

Sometime between 8:19am and 9:15am, all communication was lost.

Investigating authorities have concluded that the Malaysia Airlines flight crashed into a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean during that final 56 minutes because the jet would have been out of fuel.

Search for Malaysian plane to resume

Blustery conditions in the southern Indian Ocean are expected to ease on Wednesday allowing authorities to resume the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

Gale force winds and heavy swells disrupted search and recovery efforts on Tuesday.

A crew member of an RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft looks out from an window during the search for potential MH370 debris. Photo: Getty.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says the visual search will resume with weather conditions expected to improve.

Twelve aircraft, seven military and the rest civilian will take to the skies over the search zone.

HMAS Success will be conducting a surface sweep, looking for objects of interest.

A ground controller guides a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion to rest upon its return from a search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean, at RAAF Pearce air base in Perth. Photo: AAP

Six countries are assisting the search - Australia, New Zealand, United States, Japan, China and South Korea.

India has offered to join the efforts.

China's polar supply ship Snow Dragon and three other ships are expected to arrive in the search area on Wednesday.

Families set to arrive in Perth

The grief-stricken families of passengers aboard missing Flight MH370 are expected to begin arriving in Perth within days as search teams race to locate the plane's black box before it stops emitting a locator signal.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Australia would waive visa fees for the families, telling Parliament that those who come "will be in the arms of a decent country".

The Malaysian Government said on Monday night the plane had been lost in the southern Indian Ocean.

The enormity of the search was laid bare yesterday with Vice-Chief of the Defence Force Mark Binskin saying teams were not searching for a needle in a haystack but rather still trying to find the haystack.

US officials said the Pentagon had rushed a special undersea "pinger" locator to Perth to hopefully find the black box flight recorder. The locator, which will likely be towed behind a warship, is the best hope of finding the black box before it runs out of batteries in 12 days.

Planes from South Korea arrived yesterday but the search lost valuable time when it was abandoned in bad weather.

Defence Minister David Johnston said the search would be put on hold for at least 24 hours, warning the area of the Indian Ocean where the plane is thought to have gone down was dangerous and remote.

It was expected to resume today with up to 12 planes as Chinese ships were likely to reach the search area.

The family of Perth man Paul Weeks, who was onboard MH370, were comforting one another yesterday at the home he shared with wife Danica and their two sons at The Vines.

Mr Weeks, who moved to Perth from New Zealand more than two years ago, was en route to his first shift as an engineering supervisor in Mongolia.

Mrs Weeks said she was trying to come to terms with the unbelievable situation and was focusing on her boys, Lincoln, 3, and Jack, 11 months.

Her mother, Kay Thompson, said everyone had hoped for something better. "You can imagine how we feel," she said.

"We have been waiting for two weeks but that is the way it is and we are all dreadfully sad."

Malaysia Airlines is examining options to fly relatives of the passengers to Perth.

It has said it would pay for relatives to fly to Perth if and when debris was found.

 

[InformationSociety]

Finding MH370's black box the key, say Chinese scientists

Chinese experts call on authorities to put aside doubts in race to unlock Indian Ocean mystery

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 12:51pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 26 March, 2014, 9:22am

Stephen Chen [email protected]

The Towed Pinger Locator (TPL) 25 System is used for locating emergency relocation pingers on downed Navy and commercial aircraft at a maximum depth of 20,000 feet (6,000 metres). Photo: AFP

China should put aside doubts and act quickly to recover flight MH370's black box, Chinese scientists say.

Answers to vital questions such as why the plane veered off course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and out over the southern Indian Ocean, would probably be found in the plane's rugged recording devices, but China needed more information to find them, scientists said.

They said information released by Malaysian authorities had been vague or incomplete, impeding the search.

Professor Fu Xiongjun, an image and signal processing researcher with the Beijing Institute of Technology, said he had doubts about the Malaysian government's search capabilities and hence its announcement. But the conclusion by Western experts that the flight came to a tragic end 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth had to be accepted.

"Malaysia's claim must be verified, but we can also use the data to run our own estimate on the possible crash site and locate the plane," Fu said.

Yin Junjun, a research fellow on radar signal interpretation with Tsinghua University in Beijing, said that to find the Boeing 777, investigators would need data from at least three satellites to fix its last co-ordinates.

She said if data was recovered from fewer than three, calculations about the plane's location would be unreliable, if not impossible to make.

"Malaysian authorities have made a very definite conclusion on the plane's loss, and I believe it because they have data from more than one satellite," Yin said.

She said the technique of tracking planes with satellite "pings" was based on science that was two centuries old.

Austrian physicist Christian Doppler proposed in 1842 that an observer could detect an object's position based on a change in sound wave frequency. It's the theory that helps drivers detect if a siren is approaching or retreating. The shifting frequency, known as the Doppler effect, can determine an object's relative speed.

Using that principle, satellites can help determine a plane's location. Each hour a satellite received a "ping" from the missing plane and recorded a brief pulse of electromagnetic waves. Yin said that by analysing the wave patterns, investigators might be able to pin down the location.

"The method is simple in theory, but difficult in practice," she said.

Professor Wang Xiuming, a geophysicist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Acoustics, said that given the breadth of the search zone, the plane might not be found without years of effort and at a very high price.

High-resolution sonar imagers can identify objects as long as five metres on the ocean floor at more than 3,000 metres deep, but they can only scan an area about a dozen kilometres wide. Searching the entire floor area would require many ships and many years.

Even the best sonar images are not clear enough to identify plane wreckage, so a search team would need to lower a deep-sea submersible with a camera, which would be costly and time- consuming.

"If the government is determined to find the plane, we will find it sooner or later," Wang said.

But time is working against investigators.

Jiang Yan, chief engineer with the Shanghai Salvage Company under the Ministry of Transport, told China Central Television that China did not have the ability to retrieve wreckage or black boxes from a depth beyond three kilometres.

"Only the United States, Norway or France have the technology and experience," he said. "After April, the weather in the area will become so bad that most search efforts will have to be postponed."

Professor Fu Xiongjun, an image and signal processing researcher at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said that using the raw data, Chinese researchers might reach the same conclusion as Malaysian officials.

"From the first day, China had a dilemma. Most of the passengers on the plane are Chinese but we have made the least discoveries," Fu said. "The embarrassing situation was probably why the government urged Malaysia to be more transparent and asked for the satellite data."

 

[InformationSociety]

Search for Malaysian jet resumes off Australia after weather improves

By Megha Rajagopalan and Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah
BEIJING/KUALA LUMPUR Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:05pm EDT

A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion takes off from RAAF base Pearce to search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean, March 26, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed

(Reuters) - Dozens of distraught relatives of passengers on a lost Malaysian jetliner clashed with police in Beijing on Tuesday, accusing Malaysia of "delays and deception" a day after it confirmed the plane crashed in remote seas off Australia.

About 20 to 30 protesters threw water bottles at the Malaysian embassy and tried to storm the building, demanding to meet the ambassador, witnesses said. Earlier, the relatives, many with tear-stained faces, had linked arms and chanted "Malaysian government has cheated us" and "Malaysia, return our relatives" as they marched peacefully and held banners.

The relatives' grief and anger was unleashed on Monday night after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished more than two weeks ago while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

Citing satellite-data analysis by British company Inmarsat, he said there was now no doubt that the Boeing jet came down in the ocean in one of the most remote places on Earth - an implicit admission that all 239 people on board had died.

Bad weather in the region far off Australia's western coast on Tuesday forced the suspension of the search for any wreckage, just as a series of satellite images and other sightings of floating objects had raised hopes that debris from the plane would be found.

Malaysia's confused initial response to the Boeing 777's disappearance and a perception of poor communications has enraged many relatives of the more than 150 Chinese passengers and has strained ties between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.

Following Najib's announcement, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng demanded that Malaysia hand over all relevant satellite analysis showing how Malaysia had reached its conclusion about the jet's fate.

In a separate statement, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China would ask Malaysia to provide more detailed and accurate information on the plane, according to a government microblog account. Chinese President Xi Jinping will send a special envoy to Kuala Lumpur to consult with the Malaysian government, state news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.

The U.S. State Department said the United States was cooperating with Malaysia and working to verify the data from Inmarsat and the Kuala Lumpur government about the course of the U.S.-made plane.

"Basically, we are going back and looking at how they got to where they got to and seeing if our math experts and folks can get to the same place as well," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a regular news briefing.

ANGER, GRIEF

A group reportedly representing families issued a statement describing the Malaysian airline, government and military as "executioners" who constantly tried to delay and deceive them.

"We will take every possible means to pursue the unforgivable crimes and responsibility of all three," said the statement on the microblog of the Malaysia Airlines MH370 Family Committee.

The relatives protesting in Beijing held signs that said: "MH370, Don't let us wait too long!" and "1.3 billion people are waiting to greet the plane." They wore matching T-shirts that said: "Best of luck to MH370, return home safely."

"We've waited for 18 days and still, you make us wait. How long are we supposed to hang on?" a woman surnamed Zhang told Reuters.

The protest ended after a few hours when police told demonstrators to get on buses and escorted them away.

Criticism of the Malaysian national carrier mounted after some relatives of those on board first received the news that the search for survivors was over in an SMS, or text message, from the airline saying, "We have to assume beyond all reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and none of those on board survived."

At a news conference at Kuala Lumpur's international airport on Tuesday, company officials defended the move, saying the text message had only been sent as a "last resort" to ensure that some relatives did not hear the news first from media outlets.

"This is a time of extraordinary emotions, and we fully understand," said Malaysia Airlines Chairman Mohd Nur Yusof. "In fact, we really feel for the next of kin. In terms of how they react, it's emotional."

Asked whether he would resign over the crisis, the airline's chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said that would be a personal decision to be made later.

WRECKAGE COULD HOLD KEY

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off on March 8. No confirmed debris from the plane has been found since.

Investigators believe someone on the flight may have shut off the plane's communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and recrossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

Recovery of wreckage could unlock clues about why the plane had diverted so far off course. Theories range from a hijacking to sabotage or a possible suicide by one of the pilots, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems.

As a result of the new satellite analysis, the international search effort has been narrowed to focus solely on the southern end of the possible route - a still-massive area of 469,000 square miles (1.2 million sq km) - Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters.

The search site is far from commercial flight paths about 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, a region of deep, frigid seas known as the Roaring 40s where storm-force winds and huge waves are commonplace.

Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that it would make arrangements to fly relatives to Australia once it had approval from the investigating authorities.

Australia's Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said his department was working with the airline and Beijing to facilitate visas. Relatives would be given tourist visas with the usual fees waived, he said.

COSTLY, DIFFICULT INVESTIGATION

Najib's announcement opened the way for what will be one of the most costly, difficult air crash investigations ever. Normally, an official investigation can only begin once a crash site has been identified. That would give Malaysia power to coordinate and sift evidence.

A government source told Reuters that Malaysia would lead the investigation, but hoped other countries, especially Australia, would play a major role.

The United States said it was sending an undersea Navy drone to Australia, in addition to a high-tech black box detector, to help in the search.

But the black box detector would not arrive in the search area until April 5, Hishammuddin said, leaving only a few days to pick up locator beacons from the box that stop about a month after a crash due to limited battery life.

The so-called black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - record what happens during flight.

Najib said Inmarsat had performed further calculations on data gleaned from faint pings picked up by satellite that initially only narrowed the search area to two massive arcs.

Giving more details on the analysis on Tuesday, Hishammuddin said it showed that at some time after 0011 GMT - about six hours after its last sighting by Malaysian military radar on March 8 - the aircraft was no longer able to communicate with the ground station.

"This is consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft," he said.

He said there was evidence of a further "partial handshake" between the satellite and the aircraft eight minutes later, but that this transmission was not understood and was being analyzed.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Megha Rajagopalan and Joseph Campbell in Beijing, Stuart Grudgings, Michael Martina, Siva Govindasamy and A. Ananthalakshmi in Kuala Lumpur; Phil Stewart and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Jane Wardell in Sydney and Matt Siegel in Perth; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Alex Richardson and Jonathan Oatis)

 

[InformationSociety]

Chinese insurers start making payments for clients on Malaysia Airlines flight

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 26 March, 2014, 5:00am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 26 March, 2014, 5:03am

Kwong Man-ki in Beijing [email protected]

Ping An Insurance, with 53 clients on flight MH370, said it had paid 10.5 million yuan (HK$13.2 million) to 24 clients up to yesterday after the Malaysian government announced that the flight left no survivors. Photo: Reuters

Chinese insurers have made initial payments to relatives of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, even as Chinese officials questioned whether there was sufficient evidence to confirm the deaths.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission issued an urgent notice requiring all insurers to offer fast-track compensation and assistance to relatives of policyholders who boarded the plane on March 8, the day the plane disappeared.

Li Bin, a lawyer with the Beijing Gaose Law Firm, said it wasn't appropriate for insurers to make payments because there had not been enough evidence to declare the passengers dead. "Their bodies were not found, and neither was the plane. Also, the Malaysian government confirmed that the plane crashed, but the Chinese side has yet to confirm," he said.

"If the passengers are missing, it could take a much longer time to confirm," he said.

Some Chinese insurers said they had not made payments pending the Chinese government's confirmation of the deaths, an industry insider said.

Ping An Insurance, with 53 clients on flight MH370, said it had paid 10.5 million yuan (HK$13.2 million) to 24 clients up to yesterday after the Malaysian government announced that the flight left no survivors.

The total payout for Ping An's clients is expected to be well above 10 million yuan, a company spokesman said.

China Life Insurance said payouts totalling 4.17 million yuan were made to seven families up to yesterday. The insurer said it had 32 clients with a total of 74 policies on board the Boeing 777. China Life said it expected the total insurance payout to be about 9 million yuan.

New China Life also said that it had started making payments, and expected that the total would be about 1 million yuan.

German insurer Allianz, with 10 clients on the plane, said it would continue to monitor the situation closely and provide assistance.