MH370 search: Captain Mark Matthews’ paints pessimistic assessment of black box search

Tom Allard

Sydney Morning Herald

March 30, 2014

Finding the black box flight recorder of the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet is simply ”untenable” as things stand at the moment, the US Navy officer who will lead the search has conceded.

The deeply pessimistic assessment from Captain Mark Matthews came as the Royal Australian Navy vessel Ocean Shield was being loaded with a ”pinger” locator and an underwater drone critical to recovering the black box .

However, ADV Ocean Shield will not arrive in the 319,000 square kilometre search area for three to four days, while the beacon on the black box could have only four days of battery power left.

”It all depends on how effective we are at reducing the search area,” said Captain Matthews, a search-and-recovery expert who was involved in the two-year search to find the black box of Air France flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

”Right now, the search area is basically the size of the Indian Ocean, which is an untenable amount of time to search.”

The black box – with its cockpit and flight data recorders – is the key to understanding why flight MH370 disappeared more than three weeks ago.

Highlighting the enormity of the task, Captain Matthews revealed that the ”towed pinger locator” can detect emissions from the black box only if it is within about 1.6 kilometres of its beacon. And it must be towed at a snail-like 5km/h to be effective.

Captain Matthews said the black box’s beacon could operate for a maximum of 45 days.

Further complicating matters is that even if debris of the plane is found, crew on Ocean Shield will then have to wait for oceanographers to complete the complex job of estimating where the plane actually crashed before the pinger locator can be usefully deployed.

Its point of impact will be hundreds of kilometres from where any debris floating on the surface of the Indian Ocean is found.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished 23 days ago, veering dramatically off its course to Beijing after its communications system was disabled.

Eight ships and 10 aircraft were again hunting for remnants of the aircraft on Sunday, although one of the Malaysian Air Force C-130s was unable to depart due to technical problems.

A Malaysian frigate will join the search on Monday as part of the expanding international effort, which includes five Chinese vessels, one of which is understood also to have a black box locator on board.

While many objects have been picked up by the vessels in the past two days, none of them have been identified as part of MH370.

Chief of Navy Ray Griggs said the new search area was located in a ”more conventional shipping lane”, meaning there would be more flotsam than further south.

Meanwhile, former chief of defence force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston has been appointed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott as the overall leader of the rescue and investigation effort.

Vice Admiral Griggs said that Air Chief Marshal Houston ”will deal with high-level international co-ordination”, while Commodore Peter Leavy will command the multinational search-and-recovery operation.

Air Chief Marshal Houston’s role is understood to be primarily related to a push by a number of nations for Australia to be the base of the air crash investigation, as revealed by Fairfax Media on Saturday.

While Malaysia will formally still lead the investigation as required by international convention, the analysis of wreckage and the black box would take place in Australia.

The Malaysian government has yet to comment on the proposal. However, government and aviation officials in Kuala Lumpur agree the nation did not have the capacity to deal with an investigation of this magnitude.

”Really, we are out of our depth,” said a senior Malaysian police officer involved in the investigation.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 March 2014, 7:06 pm and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


MH370 search draws blank as Australia brings in ex-military chief

The Malay Mail/AFP

March 30, 2014

PERTH, March 30 — A new search area failed to yield an immediate breakthrough in the hunt for ill-fated Flight MH370 today, as Australia appointed its former military chief to help coordinate the operation in the Indian Ocean.

Debris spotted by aircraft and then picked up by ships combing the new search zone proved not to be from the Malaysian Airlines’ Boeing 777, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.

“It appeared to be fishing equipment and just rubbish on the (ocean’s) surface,” an AMSA spokesman told AFP.

As the hunt resumed 1,850 kilometres (1,150 miles) west of Perth, Australia said former defence force chief Angus Houston would head a new unit to help in the search, which involves the militaries of seven nations — Australia, China, Malaysia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that Houston would lead the new Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) based in Perth, “to coordinate the Australian government’s support for the search into MH370”.

Houston, who was chief of the Australian Defence Force from 2005-2011, has been given a brief to coordinate the often delicate diplomatic contacts between participants in the international effort.

He will also make sure that families receive up-to-date information and travel assistance, including visa services, accommodation advice, interpreter services and counselling.

Describing Houston as “an individual of enormous experience and great skill who has already served his country with distinction,” Abbott said his appointment was part of Australia’s commitment to learning the fate of the flight which disappeared with 239 people on board on March 8.

“This government won’t rest until we’ve done everything we reasonably can to get those families and to get the wider community of the world a little more peace and a little more insight into exactly what happened,” he said.

International protocols mean Malaysia is officially in charge of the search operation, but Abbott made clear that Houston was available “to oversee the overall search and investigation effort” if asked.

“Should our (Australia’s) responsibilities increase as time goes by, there is no one better placed than Angus to coordinate and liaise, given the quite significant number of countries that all have a stake here,” Abbott told reporters.

‘Difficult and demanding’ search

Authorities continued to pour resources into the operation, which is scouring an area about the size of Norway, dispatching an Australian navy ship with a US-supplied “black box” locator on board.

AMSA said four ships, three of them from China, were already in the search zone and another six were scheduled to arrive later today.

The Australian authority also has 13 military planes at its disposal, including two Malaysian C-130 Hercules which joined the operation for the first time today, while the frigate HMAS Toowoomba is also on the way.

All efforts to locate the plane have so far proved fruitless, with hopes repeatedly raised by debris sightings, including more than 70 items seen by a New Zealand Orion yesterday that turned out to be random flotsam.

“Until items are picked up by a ship and assessed by expert investigators, no conclusions as to their origin can be made,” New Zealand’s Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short said.

“It’s difficult and demanding work, scanning the ocean for small items, even flying low over the water at comparatively slow speeds. It requires total concentration.”

The search moved Friday to a new sea zone after fresh data indicated the plane was flying faster than first thought before it is presumed to have run out of fuel and plunged into the sea.

But debris sightings by Chinese, Australian and New Zealand planes yesterday did not yield any solid clues in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries, compounding the frustration of families who have been waiting more than three weeks to discover the fate of their loved ones.

Many of the relatives have been critical of Malaysia’s handling of the crisis, accusing it of not being transparent.

Families of the 153 Chinese passengers — two-thirds of those on board the plane — have been particularly vocal, with many refusing to accept Malaysia’s view that it crashed into the sea after being deliberately redirected by someone on board then flown thousands of miles southwards. — AFP

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 March 2014, 1:01 pm and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Missing Malaysian Flight MH370: Search will be biggest, most expensive ever – salvage expert

Joe Krishnan

The Independent

29 March 2014

Some small and as yet unidentified objects were said to have been recovered from the Indian Ocean on Saturday but experts have warned that salvaging MH370 in some of the world’s deepest and most turbulent waters will not be easy.

David Mearns, owner of Blue Water Recoveries in West Sussex and one of the world’s most experienced deep-sea shipwreck salvagers, described the efforts that would be undertaken to recover the plane that disappeared with 239 people on board on 8 March.

He said that the seabed some 1,800km (1,100 miles) from Perth, Western Australia, may not be “precisely mapped out” which could rule out many systems for recovering any parts of the Boeing 777 that may have sunk. He said the operation would be divided into two phases: recovery and salvage.

“Only a small number of systems have the technology to search that far,” he said. “A handful of companies will have the equipment and necessary expertise within their teams to do this.”

The wreckage may be contained in what Mr Mearns described as a “search box” covering hundreds of nautical miles. “It’s going to be the biggest search box ever, many times bigger than any other tragedy. This will take months, maybe years,” he said. “They’ll need to cover the entire area of where the wreckage ranges from, including the seabed. There is a part of fortune to it, in terms of finding a piece of wreckage which could reduce the time, but it all comes down to luck and the equipment.”

In what Mr Mearns predicted would become the most expensive search ever, specialist teams would only recover what was required to answer why MH370 vanished from radar screens.

He warned that once parts of the plane were returned to Perth – where it now looks likely the investigation will be based – it would take “a year or two” for causes of the crash to be confirmed. He added: “I can’t see it being solved easily.”

Tech wishlists

The bizarre tale of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 comes at a time when flying is safer than ever.

Aviation safety advocates say there are lessons to be learned, starting with the need for tamper-proof equipment that would stream data in real time to satellites and reveal a plane’s position. Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the US Department of Transportation, which includes the Federal Aviation Administration, would like to see the full “black box” data — a massive amount of information about a plane’s performance – — streamed to ground locations during flight. Only days remain to find MH370’s black box before it stops functioning. “It would have been immensely helpful here,” she said.

Each box is designed to withstand fire and high pressure. Search teams are hoping the detection equipment will be able to pick up acoustic pings emitted every second from the plane’s black box flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 March 2014, 7:34 am and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


An open letter to Dr M

By
Ice Cream Seller
 | MARCH 30, 2014

The Malaysian Insider

Dear Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,

We refer to your recent testing of the waters to see if you would be welcomed back to take over from our missing prime minister.

Thank you, but most of us are once bitten twice shy and have no stomach for another spell of your tenure.

You say you want to curb the Internet because it contributes to social problems and a rise in the crime index.

Actually, our social problems stem from many sources. Dumping of newborn babies is not something picked up from the Net. Incest and rape were already prevalent. Khalwat and zina thrived well before the age of the Net. Drug abuse was there, too.

Thanks to the Internet, these are brought to our awareness and not censored by your pliant media. Not to mention the numerous scandals of your and subsequent administrations

You say you gave your word about the Internet but not any assurance that it would not be filtered.

Frankly, we don’t care any more what you remember and what you choose to forget.

“Melayu muda lupa,” you say. But are you really Malay enough to forget? Selected amnesia is a skill you have honed since retirement.

You claim we have long held the expertise to censor the Internet. I don’t know about that but if it is anywhere as good as our capability to detect and track flight U-turns, then it is fine with me.

You blame the Internet for violence in film and television. To some extent, you are right. But what about the violence threatened by organisations which you are patron of?

Would they have behaved or postured differently had there been no Internet? Or is it the fact that their activities are being reported on the Internet while the mainstream pretend that they don’t exist being the reason you are irked?

You say our country has the right to uphold its security. That is so very true. But who says you have the divine right to determine how this security is upheld?

We have already seen it compromised in the substandard, overpriced equipment we have bought for the army, navy and air force.

What kind of security are you referring to when you brought in millions of illegals with the sole motive of perpetuating your tenure and compromising our judiciary to such an extent that it beggars belief.

The contamination our education standards with a venomous mixture of bigotry and religiosity and reducing the police force to what it is compared with 40 years ago was under your watch – whether you were instrumental or not.

You contemptuously state that people (meaning us) are too ill disciplined and immature to practise democracy. Well, as a previous education minister you have unintentionally admitted to be instrumental in creating and perpetuating an immature people.

You could have put that right in your subsequent 22 years as PM if you wanted to or if you thought it was the best for the country.

Actually, you selfishly ensured that the populace were only given a mediocre education for the insidious purpose of what Hishamuddin Rais referred to as the “bonsaification of the mind” thereby enabling you and your party to continue to rule at will.

Ignorant people are easier to manipulate, confuse, mislead and deceive. That is why for everything, our excuse is that “it will confuse our people”.

This mantra of our people being confused is now being adopted by the home minister in his recent comments about criticism from the Chinese press over the handling of the MH370 saga.

He himself avoided all the press conferences and instead sent his IGP. Maybe he was afraid he’d be confused by the barrage of questions that would be thrown at him. At least for that, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein earns some respect from me.

While on that subject, I must say the conduct and demeanour of MAS’ chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also stood apart from the rest.

As you home in your 90th year, please rest, stay home and take time to smell the flowers and don’t mind the occasional haze that blights Kuala Lumpur.

Take a drive once a week or so to the Proton factory and see if they can catch up with the Hyundais and the KIAs. Maybe even take a long holiday to Kerala – god’s own country and relish the fish moli.

The wasted generation have enough on their plate. – March 30, 2014.

Note: This piece was written 10,700m up in the air on a MH flight that mostly straddled the vast oceans. Good flight, dedicated and pleasant crew, improved food and no U-turns.

*
Ice Cream Seller reads The Malaysian Insider.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 March 2014, 9:09 am and is filed under
Mahathir
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


I fully agree with establishment of RCI into the May 13 riots in 1969

Yesterday, I called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 29-year-old Memali Incident, especially as the protagonists like former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, former Inspector-General of Police, Tun Hanif Omar, former Acting Inspector-General of Police,Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd Amin bin Osman, the then Information Minister Tan Sri Rais Yatim,  Deputy Home Minister at the time, Tan Sri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, the then UMNO Secretary-General Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, the OCPD Baling during the Memali incident, Tunku Muszaffar Shah and a follower of Ibrahim Libya who is now Senator Muhamad Yusof Husin from Baling, Kedah are still alive and can testify on the avoidable tragedy which cost the lives of 18 people, including four policemen.

I made this call following the revelation by Musa in a public discussion organised by the Kelantan State Government Kota Bahru four nights ago that Mahathir was in Malaysia during  the bloody Memali incident on Nov. 19, 1985 when police forces killed Ibrahim Libya and his followers in a clash which resulted in 18 casualties, including four policemen.

Musa’s revelation has come as a shocker as close to three decades, it was reported and believed that Musa took charge of the operations as Home Minister in 1985 because Mahathir was in China for a visit.

Musa said in Kota Bahru: “In fact, two three days after that (Memali) he was still in KL.”

I think Musa was right when he said that Mahathir was in the country when the Memali Incident took place on November 19, 1985 but was wrong when Musa said that Mahathir was still in KL “two three days after” the Memali Incident.

This is what the RCI should inquire into, not only to establish whether Mahathir was operationally responsible for the Memali Tragedy and not Musa, but also to conduct a comprehensive investigation to ascertain:

– whether the Memali tragedy was avoidable, whether there was no other way for the police to handle the situation without provoking the loss of 18 lives;

– whether UMNO’s discriminatory policies against PAS supporters could have been a contributing factor to the tragedy;

– whether it was true that Musa had earlier issued a directive to the police not to use force when arresting Ibrahim Libya and to withdraw should they encounter resistance and whether Mahathir had countermanded this directive leading to the loss of 18 lives – and if not Mahathir,  who had done so;

– whether the Memali Incident was one of the first examples under the 22-year Mahathir premiership where national institutions like the police lost their professionalism, independence and integrity when they have to take operational orders from politicians whether Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister?

In response to my call for a RCI into the Memali Incident of 1985, I was subject to an intense attack by UMNO/BN cybertroopers on the Internet asking whether I would agree to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the May 13, 1969 riots, together with the insinuation as well as downright lies about my being involved or having instigated the May 13 riots in Kuala Lumpur 45 years ago.

This led me to post the following seven  tweets last night, which are self-explanatory:

1. Ignoramus galore in cyberspace. In Parliament in Feb 1971, I called for public inquiry into May 13 riots. Full support from me on RCI on May 13!

2. Always bemused by imbecile antics of Umno/BN cybertroopers/agent provocateurs with their wild allegation that I caused May 13 in 1969.

3. They don’t realise they are insulting five Prime Ministers Razak Hussein Mahathir Abdullah Najib; the long line of Home Ministers including Ismail Ghazali Musa Hamid Hishammudin Zahid!

4. Not only that, they insult police especially IGP and  Special Branch past 45 years as utterly useless/incompetent, not to know my “role” in May 13, 1969!

5. Until these Umno/BN cybertroopers/agent provocateurs “discovered” it after 11GE in 2008! People of minimum IQ know this is trash but x scums.

6. They regard this as their “Eureka” moment of discovery, when its proof of their infantile mentality. No wonder UMNO/BN going down the drain!

7. With such “friends” like these cybertroopers/agent provocateurs, Umno/BN do not need enemies. I only lament for Malaysia  – at such low politics!

Yes, I fully agree with the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the May 13 riots in 1969, although it is 45 years ago, a stand which I had consistently taken from 1969 in my Letter to the Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, when I was in detention under the Internal Security Act in Muar Detention Centre in 1969-1970 and in my first speech in Parliament in February 1971.

The question is whether the UMNO/BN politicians and cybertroopers/agent provocateurs dare to openly pressure the Umno/BN government to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the May 13 riots of 1969!

Let us begin by hearing  an UMNO/BN Member of Parliament taking up this issue in Parliament, and I will give it full support.

(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Monday 31st March 2014)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 March 2014, 8:30 am and is filed under
Mahathir
,
PAS
,
Police
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Malaysia must stop mediocrity rot

– Lok Wing Kong

The Malaysian Insider

March 30, 2014

Former de facto law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said that in 30 years, Malaysia will be on a par with Singapore.

He is totally wrong in that Malaysia will never be able to catch up with Singapore. Why?  It is simple. Singapore practise hyper meritocracy while Malaysia practises mediocrity.

The two countries are moving forward at different speeds. They can only be getting further apart over time.

World Bank senior economist Dr Frederico Gil Sander recently said that the low quality of Malaysia’s education was more alarming than its household debts.

The writer cannot agree with him more as the policy of mediocrity is at play.

Malaysia’s education system is based heavily on mediocrity and cannot produce talent to improve the economy.  It will continue to be mired in low-skilled industries and heavily trapped in the middle-income pit.

For more than five decades, the government has been building up a low education standard system to suit mass production of graduates of one race.

The result is that from primary to tertiary education, the teachers, lecturers and professors are of mediocre quality.

Mediocre teachers produce mediocre graduates and this phenomenon has become a perpetual norm.

It will take many decades to rectify this appalling condition provided the powers-that-be has the strong political will and sincerity to do it.

There are more than 80,000 Bumiputera pupils studying in the Chinese primary schools. Many of them go on to study in the Chinese independent schools.

This shows that the Bumiputeras have lost faith in the national schools.  In these Chinese independent secondary schools, after six years, many students sitting for SPM score good grades and with credit in Bahasa Melayu (BM).

The Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) of the Chinese independent schools is recognised by many foreign universities, many universities in Singapore have been admitting UEC graduates for umpteen years.  Yet, the Malaysian government refuses to recognise UEC.  It is ridiculous.

The government wants the Chinese independent schools to adopt the national educational syllabus in that all subjects are to be taught in BM, except Chinese language. This is not acceptable.

There is nothing to shout about if the government recognises the UEC with conditions attached. Unless it is recognised unconditionally, it is better to maintain the status quo.

Instead, the Chinese independent schools will strive and flourish and continue to maintain high standards.

It will eventually become the choice of parents, both Chinese and non-Chinese, to send their children to such schools.

National schools have become religious schools with low standards as reflected in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings.  The 2013-2025 Education Blueprint will also not be able to reverse the decline.

The Malays have been favoured for decades under the New Economic Policy, yet the prime minister feels that it is not enough.  Shortly after the 13th general election, he introduced the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Programme (BEEP).

Barisan Nasional or Umno wants to maintain mediocre policies in all fields of human endeavour to suit the Malays perpetually.

It also wants to maintain the exclusive policies which promote racial polarisation in the country.

The pre-independent days of racial mingling are a thing of the past. All these policies have a double-edged effect in that the Malays will be weakened and will forever need government help if they want to survive.

Many talents have been pushed to emigrate when the powers-that-be favours one race.

BN/Umno wants to rule the country perpetually by keeping the rakyat stupid with a lousy education system.  The Internet has prevented it from achieving this goal.

The civil service, government-linked companies, police and defence forces are all bloated with staff with poor education and low skills.  They represent more than 1.4 million people with a national population of about 29 million, one of the highest in the world.

In order to save this country and the Malay race, mediocrity and race-based polices must be discarded and the country must practise meritocracy and need-based policies instead.

English-medium schools must be brought back urgently.  Otherwise, there is no hope of us achieving developed-nation status even by 2050. – March 30, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 March 2014, 6:26 am and is filed under
Education
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


US lawmakers are kept informed and placed in the loop of US investigations into missing MH370 while Malaysian legislators are kept completely in the dark about the latest developments of the MH370 disaster

This is the  24th day in the fourth week of the multi-national sea and air search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft, with today’s  search outcome by a total of  10 aircraft and 10 ships from Australia, Malaysia, US, China, New Zealand, Japan and  South Korea as empty-handed and fruitless as the earlier 23 days.

Except there is now an element of desperation as the search is in a race against time, with  only about two weeks left to find the aircraft’s pair of black boxes before they stop emitting locator pings.

The boxes, designed to ‘ping’ for at least 30 days, contain sounds recorded in the cockpit and data on the plane’s performance and flight path that could help answer why it diverted sharply west from its overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8th March.

What has made the new search area 1,100 km north east of the old site in the southern Indian Ocean frustrating is that it contained a higher volume of ocean trash that may be mistaken for wreckage.

The present search zone has been described as an area of the Indian Ocean where currents drag in all manner of flotsam and rubbish – what an oceanographer has described as “just outside what we call the garbage patches”.

Today’s media carried a report from Washington quoting “senior US lawmakers” as saying that US investigators had found no evidence thus far pointing to terrorism in the disappearance of Flight MH370 more than three weeks ago, and that it was critical to find the plane to understand what happened on board.

The two “senior US lawmakers” quoted are the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein who told Sunday talk shows that they had seen no evidence of foul play.

Roger said: “I have seen nothing yet that comes out of the investigation that would lead me to conclude that (this was) …anything other than a normal flight that something happened and something went wrong.”

Separately, Feinstein told another TV talk show that she had not seen any evidence indicating a terrorist act brought the airplane down.

US officials close to the investigation said the FBI examined data it received from a home-made flight simulator and other computer equipment used by MH370’s pilots, but found nothing illuminating.

Clearly, US lawmakers are kept in the loop in the US investigations into the missing MH370 and are regularly informed of the latest updates, which is not the case with their  Malaysian counterparts as Malaysian Members of Parliament, whether from BN or PR, are kept completely in the dark about the developments of the MH370 disaster crisis – although a Malaysian airliner is in the centre of the longest and largest-ever global multi-national sea, air and satellite search for the missing Boeing 777.

This attitude must change. The Government has still to  respond to my call that regardless of whether the “black boxes” are retrieved or not, a Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 disaster should be set up and be prepared to start work and investigations six to eight weeks from March 8.

This has become even more imperative with the report that a scientist who was part of the team to develop the black box was very dubious that the MH370 “black boxes” would be found.

The scientist, Bill Schofield, told Xinhua news agency in an interview: “I’ve got to say I think their chances of finding this black box in very deep water when they don’t know where it went down within an area of 1,000 km, are practically nil.”

(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 31st March 2014)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 March 2014, 6:29 pm and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Correction of  the last words from the cockpit of MH370 – why it is even more imperative for an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on MH 370 before Parliament adjourns on April 10!

The 25th day of the missing Malaysian Airlines (MAS) MH370 starts with another emotional roller-coaster not only for the loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 777 airliner, but for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, territory or politics.

This is the medley of shame, sadness and anger felt by most Malaysians when they learn of the correction issued by the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) just before midnight confirming that MH370’s last radio communication was “Good night Malaysian 370” and not “All right, good night” as earlier reported.

The Chinese broadcaster
CCTV
 had on Sunday reported that the last words from the cockpit of MH370 before it disappeared from civilian radar were actually “Good night, Malaysian 370”, and not “all right, good night” as the Department of Civil Aviation had previously claimed.

The final sign off,  said as the plane left Malaysian airspace and was about to enter that of Vietnam at 1.19 am on March 8, is much more formal than the words that were originally reported.

I believe I share the feelings of  the overwhelming number of Malaysians when I cringe at the DCA’s clarification, feeling shame, sadness and even anger that we have made another mistake which should not have occurred, as it reflects most adversely  on the competence  of our system of governance and therefore on our national pride.

The past 25 days have exposed at least half-dozen mistakes and weaknesses, viz:

1.
Time when plane lost contact
 – The conflicting times when MH370 lost contact, with the MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya at first saying it was 2.40 am but contradicted by the DCA Director-General Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman a few hours later that it was 1.30 am. But FlightRadar24 chief executive officer Fredrik Lindahl gave  the time as 1.21 am.

2.
Air turn back
 – RMAF chief General Tan Sri Rodzali Daud first mentioned about a likely aircraft turn-back on March 9, with Berita Harian on Tuesday, 11th March quoting Rodzali that MH370 had  turned back as “kali terakhir pesawat itu dikesan berada berhampiran Pulau Perak, di perairan Selat Melaka, pada jam 2.40 pagi oleh menara kawalan udara berhampiran sebelum isyarat hilang tanpa sebarang petunjuk”. The Berita Harian report was denied by Rodzali later on Tuesday.

Adding to the confusion, Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, spokesman for the prime minister’s office, said in a telephone interview with New York Times said that he had checked with senior military officials, who told him there was no evidence that the plane had recrossed the Malaysian peninsula, only that it may have attempted to turn back.

 “As far as they know, except for the air turn-back, there is no new development,” Tengku Sariffuddin said, adding that the reported remarks by the air force chief were “not true.” (New York Times 12/3/04)

3.
MH 370 flew on for hours
 – on March 13, 2014, Wall  Street Journal reported that “U.S. Investigators Suspect Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane Flew On for Hours”, which was promptly “debunked” by the acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein in his MH370 daily press conference the same day.

4.
ACARS turn off before / after final radio transmission

On 15th March, Hishammuddin said the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was disabled before someone said, “All right, good night” from the cockpit.

The next day, 16th March, MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari said “We don’t know when the ACARS system was switched off” as the ACARS was working normally just before the last words were heard but failed to send its next scheduled signal about 30 minutes later.

5.
RMAF “assumption” that turn-back was ordered by control tower

On 26th March, Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri told Parliament that RMAF did not attempt to intercept MH370 when it was detected on military radar off the Straits of Malacca on March 8 as the RMAF had “assumed” that the plane was ordered to turn back by flight traffic controllers.

On 27th March, he issued a clarification outside Parliament that  his remarks in Parliament on MH 370’s turn back had been proven erroneous and that it was based on his own assumptions.

6.
Last words from the cockpit
 – that its “Good night, Malaysian 370” and not “all right, good night” as revealed by Malaysia’s Ambassador to China, Iskandar Sarudin, when speaking to passengers’ relatives and friends at a Beijing hotel on March 12.

The latest error about the last words from the cockpit – discovered only after the passage of 19 days – has reinforced the case for the establishment of an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 Disaster, regardless of whether the “black boxes” of MH370 could be retrieved.

This is because the establishment of an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee will send a clear and unmistakable message, both nationally and internationally, that the Malaysian authorities have nothing to hide and is prepared to  find answers to the thousand-and-one questions which have surfaced in the past four weeks, not just about the “what, how and why” about the events leading to the disappearance of Flight MH370 on March 8, but also a whole series of questions and  controversies  surrounding the disappearance of the Triple Seven and the Search-and-Rescue (SAR) Operation, including:

•	Whether a week had been wasted looking for MH370 in the South China Sea before switching the area of search from the east to the west, moving from the Straits of Malacca,  the Andaman Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Northern and Southern Corridors, and eventually to southern Indian Ocean; and

•	Whether three days had been wasted looking for MH370 in the wrong part of the Indian Ocean because of poor co-ordinating among countries working on locating the missing aircraft as reported by Wall Street Journal today.

Hishammuddin is in Hawaii to attend a meeting of ASEAN and US defence officials, scuppering his briefing tonight for Pakatan Rakyat MPs on MH370 which the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim had promised in his speech in Parliament last Thursday.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is flying to the Pearce Air force base in Perth tomorrow to see the SAR operations first hand.

I would urge both of them not to delay any further but to reach a decision for the establishment of an opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on MH 370, especially as Malaysian MPs should not be treated worse than legislators in other countries like the United States who are given access to latest developments in the 25-day MH370 international disaster.

Parliament will be adjourning next Thursday April 10, and it will a gross remiss of duty if Parliament adjourns without establishing the opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 so that it could start preparatory work for a full-scale investigations into the MH370 disaster.

The MH370 disaster is an international disaster and the Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 will have to consider initiating global parliamentary co-operation resulting in an international investigation into how in the hi-tech world today, one of the world’s most popular and safest aircrafts can vanish into the skies, with 239 passengers and crew on board without leaving any clue for 25 days!

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, 6:49 pm and is filed under
MH 370
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Flight MH370 Malaysian officials struggle with credibility after changing last words heard from lost aircraft

Chris Brummitt and Gillian Wong, Associated Press | April 1, 2014 10:19 AM ET

National Post

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — It may mean little to investigators that the last words air traffic controllers heard from the lost jetliner were “Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero,” rather than “All right, good night.” But to Malaysian officials whose credibility has been questioned almost from the beginning, it means a great deal.

Malaysian officials said more than two weeks ago that “All right, good night,” were the last words, and that the co-pilot uttered them. They changed the account late Monday and said they are still investigating who it was that spoke. The discrepancy added to the confusion and frustration families of the missing already felt more than three weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared.

“This sort of mistake hits at the heart of trust in their communications. If Malaysia is changing what the pilot said, people start thinking, ‘What are they going to change next?” said Hamish McLean, an expert in risk and crisis communication at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

“Information is in a crisis is absolutely critical. When we are dealing with such a small amount of information its needs to be handled very carefully,” he said.

Authorities have been forced on the defensive by the criticism, the most forceful of which has come from a group of Chinese relatives who accuse them of lying about — or even involvement in — the plane’s disappearance. In part responding to domestic political criticism, defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein has taken to retweeting supportive comments on Twitter. He has twice in recent days proclaimed that “history would judge us well” over the handling of the crisis.

The government’s opponents disagree. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the correction set off a “medley of shame, sadness and anger” and strengthened the case for creating an opposition-led parliamentary committee to investigate the government’s performance in the search.

The communications skills of any government or airline would have been severely tested by the search for the Boeing 777-200 and its 239 passengers and crew. So far not a scrap of debris has been found.

“There has been very little to tell and a lot of unanswered questions,” said Andrew Herdman, director-general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. “There is frustration on the lack of new information, frustration over progress with investigations and the search. That frustration is being channeled to the Malaysian authorities but I think it’s a bit premature to use that to reflect adversely on how they are doing.”

Still, the government’s handling of information has at times fed perceptions that it was holding back. From the first day of the search, crews were looking far to the west of the plane’s last point of contact with air-traffic controllers, but it took about a week for officials to explain that radar had detected the plane in the area.

“There are some things that I can tell you and some things that I can’t,” Malaysia’s civil aviation chief said cryptically in the early days of the search.

“That was a terrible, terrible response,” said Lyall Mercer, the principal of Australian-based Mercer PR, a public relations company. “It says to the families that ’we know things that we are not going to share’ and that ‘something else is more important than you’.”

The piece of information that families most want to hear — whether their relatives are alive or dead — has remained impossible to say with finality, creating a dilemma for the government.

On March 24, it tried to address that. Malaysian Airlines officials met families in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing and sent a text message to others saying “we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.”

At a news conference half an hour later, Prime Minister Najib Razak was less direct. He said with “deep sadness and regret” that the plane’s last known position was “a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” and that the flight “ended” in the southern Indian Ocean.

Sarah Bacj, a 48-year-old American expatriate teacher whose boyfriend, Philip Wood, was on the flight, said the decision by Malaysian Airlines to inject some certainty into the fate of the passengers was a mistake. Until then, she said she thought the Malaysian government had acted responsibly, but the text message “totally violated my trust.”

“I fell off the cliff,” Bacj said. “The way the text message came, I expected proof. That they had found the bodies, or that they had found confirmed wreckage, or something … but they didn’t actually tell us anything at all. The only thing they did was make a judgment statement about evidence — unconfirmed evidence, mind you.”

The final words from the cockpit, and who said them, are of interest not only because there are few other clues to the disappearance, but because the communication occurred just a minute before the plane’s transponders were shut off.

On March 16, government and airline officials said the final words were “All right, good night” and initial investigations showed they were spoken by the co-pilot. As of Tuesday they had not explained how they got it wrong.

PR experts and professionals said the important thing now was to try and give the families as much information as possible, before the media gets hold of it, and to keep paying attention to them even when the media gaze had drifted.

On Tuesday, the Malaysian government announced that technical experts from Malaysia, China and Australia would brief the families in a closed-door session in Kuala Lumpur.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, 10:58 pm and is filed under
General
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Not even China could run MH370 gauntlet unscathed, FT says

The Malay Mail Online

April 1, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Malaysia may be grappling with the crisis of flight MH370 but international rebuke, particularly from China, over its handling is not fully deserved, the Financial Times said.

In a commentary here, the business daily’s Singapore-based senior editor Jeremy Grant suggested that even China — Malaysia’s biggest critic since the Boeing 777-200ER’s mysterious disappearance on March 8 — would not likely have fared better.

He reminded China of its previous debacles in the face of public crises, such as the melamine-contaminated milk scandal in 2008 that had turned into a public relations nightmare for the republic.

In another fiasco, the Chinese authorities were accused of muzzling the media and attempting to cover-up the tragic high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, which killed 38 people and injured 192.

Despite its previous performance, China is now putting Malaysia under the spotlight over similar accusations.

Among others, they allege that Malaysian authorities are covering-up mistakes made in the early days of MH370’s disappearance to avoid perceptions of bungled investigations.

Last weekend, a group of irate Chinese families flew to Malaysia to demand answers and even staged a protest outside a hotel that Malaysia Airlines had booked for them.

During the protest, they called Malaysian authorities murderers and vowed never to forgive them for the loss of their loved ones.

In his commentary, Grant agreed that Malaysia made many missteps from the start.

When MH370 first disappeared from civilian radar screens on the morning of March 8, search planes were not immediately dispatched to look for the missing jetliner carrying 239 people, he pointed out.

Then, search and rescue operations had been concentrated in the South China Sea where MH370 was last seen even though readily available military data showed a mysterious aircraft flying in the opposite direction over the Straits of Malacca that same day.

“Even after the investigation had settled into a routine of daily news conferences, Malaysia’s messaging was fumbling.

“The first few featured officials who had probably never faced journalists before, and military brass who bristled in sometimes inadequate English at what was being asked,” Grant wrote.

“But,” he added, “… the analysis should not stop there. Malaysia was, and remains, faced with an aviation disaster that is unprecedented on almost every level.”

The last such commercial aircraft disappearance was the Air France flight 447 off Brazil. But Grant pointed out that in that case, debris showed up five days into search and rescue, and the grieving families were offered early closure to the tragedy.

In the Air France case, he added, the aircraft was filled with mostly French passengers and the responsibility of the search was cleanly in the hands of the French government.

In the case of MH370, however, the Chinese accounted for a staggering 153 passengers of the 239 people on board

“Few countries could have handled that flawlessly, not least China, one of Malaysia’s biggest critics,” he said.

He noted that while some of the Malaysian officials were less than eloquent in the early days of MH370’s disappearance, Malaysia’s acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has at least put on a “polished and assured” front.

“He (Hishammuddin) likely understands the imperative of treating China with care; Malaysia’s population of almost 30m is about the same as that of the Chinese city-province of Chongqing. China is Malaysia’s biggest trading partner,” Grant pointed out.

Search efforts for MH370 is now approaching its fourth week. The jetliner, a widebody Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, disappeared from radar screens mysteriously on the morning of March 8, offering little clues in its trail as to how and why it had gone missing.

The hunt is now concentrated in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Perth, Australia, which is hundreds of miles off MH370’s original flight path to Beijing.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, 10:01 pm and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Opposition angry Hishammuddin will not be around for MH370 briefing

by Eileen Ng

The Malaysian Insider

April 01, 2014

Pakatan Rakyat MPs are seething at Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s decision to attend the Asean Defence Ministers meeting in Hawaii, instead of briefing them tonight on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

Describing it as the “height of irresponsibility and an utter contempt of parliament”, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said they wanted Hishammuddin to brief them, and not his officers.

“This is proof that the Barisan Nasional government is not serious, especially on the roles that MPs can play on this matter,” Lim said in a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

However, it is not known whether the briefing will go on today or it has been cancelled or postponed.

Hishammuddin, who is Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister, announced yesterday that he will be at the meeting in Hawaii from today until April 3 where United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is also expected to attend.

Hishammuddin said he would be discussing the possibility of deploying more specific military assets to assist in the search and rescue operation of the jetliner, which went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Last week, minister in the prime minister’s department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim announced in Chambers that a briefing on the jetliner would be held for opposition MPs, after they kicked up a storm upon finding out a similar briefing was held for BN MPs two weeks ago. – April 1, 2014.

MORE TO COME

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, 1:15 pm and is filed under
Hishammuddin
,
MH 370
,
Parliament
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Report: Poor coordination wasted time in Indian Ocean hunt for MH370

The Malay Mail Online

April 1, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Searchers wasted three days looking for MH370 wreckage in the wrong part of the Indian Ocean because of poor coordinating among countries working on locating the missing aircraft, the Wall Street Journal wrote today.

Citing opinions from those familiar with the probe, the business paper said the international team of experts involved in investigations have all been performing their roles but are working separately from one another, each in their own area of expertise.

One person, according to WSJ, said that although investigators have been dutifully sharing information with their international partners in the Malaysian-led probe, “Malaysian officials didn’t feel it was their role to ensure that foreign experts were sharing refined data among themselves”.

“They don’t have the necessary structure for inter-agency coordination. It has exposed their lack of preparation to deal with such a disaster,” the paper quoted James Keith, former US ambassador to Malaysia, as saying previously.

Last Friday, the search for MH370 abruptly shifted to an area 1,100 kilometres northeast of where search planes and ships were initially looking for the missing jetliner’s wreckage in the Indian Ocean, far southwest of Perth, Australia.

The move, according to Australian officials, was determined based on a “new, credible lead” that emerged from the investigative team in Malaysia.

“The new information is based on continuing analysis of radar data between the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca before radar contact was lost.

“It indicated that the aircraft was travelling faster than previously estimated, resulting in increased fuel usage and reducing the possible distance the aircraft travelled south into the Indian Ocean,” the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said then.

WSJ noted that the move came only after the authorities merged “two investigative strands” by the teams that were working separately to locate MH370 and exactly which part of the vast Indian Ocean search teams should be despatched.

The paper noted that one team was looking at calculations on the aircraft’s probable speed and fuel consumption, studying data gleaned from radar screens and aircraft-performance modelling.

A separate team was looking at satellite data to calculate the plane’s probable movements.

“The failure to promptly coordinate the analyses raises questions about the flow of information among the many participants in the multinational probe, particularly in the process of identifying the initial search area in the Indian Ocean,” WSJ wrote.

Malaysia first started directing teams to look for MH370 in the South China Sea and the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam in the early days after the jetliner went missing on March 8.

The Beijing-bound aircraft had been heading to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur but lost contact with the Subang Air Traffic Control less than an hour after take-off at 12.41am. At the time, the wide-body jet carrying 239 people was hovering 120 nautical miles off the coast of Kota Baru.

When Malaysian military radar picked up possible signals from an unidentified aircraft hovering over the Straits of Malacca, searchers were told to look there. But this raised eyebrows at the time as the new lead suggested that MH370 had diverted off-course to the west of its original flight path.

It was only on March 15 — a week after MH370’s disappearance — that the Malaysian authorities called off the search at the South China Sea, after expert readings from satellite and military radar data showed that MH370 had indeed veered off course in a westerly direction and could have ended in either one of two arcs – a northern one stretching up to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan or a southern one that ends in the Indian Ocean.

On March 25, 10 days after a 26-nation hunt saw search planes scouring the two identified arcs, the authorities called off the search in the north.

The decision was based on further analysis by UK’s commercial satellite firm Inmarsat and Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which concluded that MH370 flew towards the Indian Ocean after it deviated from its flight path to Beijing.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, 10:29 am and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


UK satellite firm swats off suspicions over MH370 briefing snub

The Malay Mail Online

April 1, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 — Commercial satellite firm Inmarsat has dismissed allegations of “evasiveness” in its absence from technical briefings on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, saying existing rules precluded its active participation in place of British authorities.

The firm whose satellite provided the crucial information of the plane’s calculated position came in for accusations of furtiveness after a “Malaysian official” was reported as saying that it had declined an invitation to join a “high-level” briefing organised by the Malaysian government for families of Chinese passengers from MH370 in Beijing.

Speaking to UK newspaper The Guardian, Inmarsat vice-president for external affairs Chris McLaughlin denied they had turned down the invitation, saying that it was not the private firm’s place to be invited to begin with.

“We haven’t been invited. Why would we? The Air Accident Investigation Branch are the proper people to speak. Inmarsat is a technical adviser to the AAIB.

“That is not us being evasive, that is the Chicago convention protocol,” McLaughlin told the UK daily.

The Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation regulates rules regarding aviation and establishes how air accident investigations are conducted.

Up until the mystery of MH370 that disappeared on March 8, the authority of the responsible country had been the sole spokesman of investigations into air accidents but the rules have seemingly gone out the window in the absence of facts in the current case.

Private firms had before this avoided public comments on ongoing investigations for fear of reprisals from powerful aviation authorities such as the US’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

But it was Inmarsat’s decision to give out multiple press interviews the same day Malaysia announced that the firm’s calculations have placed MH370 “somewhere in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean” that had led to the view that it would be a bigger presence in the investigations.

McLaughlin said, however, that Inmarsat would not be allowed to speak even if it were invited to the briefing as it would need to do so through the AAIB.

In the Gallery

    A Chinese relative (2nd right) of passengers on board the missing MAS flight MH370 leaves his hotel in Bangi, outside Kuala Lumpur, April 1, 2014. — Reuters pic

AAIB also said it will not speak in place of the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation.

On Sunday, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein expressed frustration by the refusal of plane maker Boeing and engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce to join technical briefings on the missing plane, leaving only MAS to field the queries.

“But just putting MAS on the witness stand, we also need to bear in mind what is the role and responsibility of Rolls Royce, of Boeing, of all these experts, agencies, where is their voice?” Hishammuddin said during an interview with China-owned news station CCTV.

The minister said the firms were paid millions of dollars for their products and services, and must “step up” to help explain the technical aspects of the mystery.

The March 24 announcement based on Inmarsat’s analyses led to angry recrimination from the families of those on MH370, especially after MAS sent text messages to inform them that all passengers were assumed to be dead.

On the weekend, a group of Chinese families made their way to Malaysia to demand the truth and staged a protest outside the Holiday Villa Hotel in Subang Jaya, calling the Malaysian authorities murderers.

In his press statement yesterday, Hishammuddin announced that a “high-level” briefing will soon be held for the families to update them on the latest developments on the search for MH370.

The minister also stressed the complexity of the research done so far to locate MH370, noting that it has involved a massive team of highly-specialised experts, many of whom are based in countries across the world.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, 9:48 pm and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Will Subang ATC now reveal initial response when MH370 went missing?

The Malaysian Insider

April 01, 2014

Aviation industry experts now want Malaysia’s air traffic controllers to reveal their response when flight MH370 vanished early March 8, after the authorities finally said last night that the plane’s pilots said “Good night Malaysian three seven zero” and not “All right, good night”.

The change in the conversation transcript is the latest in a series of changes in information about the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) which disappeared with 239 people while en route to Beijing 24 days ago.

“Subang air traffic control (ATC) has not said what it did when the plane vanished after it signed off from Malaysian airspace. Did they launch an immediate search and rescue?

“If the lack of military response is anything, it raises a lot of questions about the ATC’s standard operating procedure (SOP),” an aviation expert told The Malaysian Insider, citing International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations require immediate alerts to relevant search and rescue units.

Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri said on March 26 the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) did detect an unidentified aircraft that had turned back but assumed it had done so after being instructed by air traffic control.

“We detected the ‘turn back’ but did not regard it as hostile and as it was a friendly aircraft, we thought maybe that it had received instructions from the control tower but what we later realised was that the aircraft had disappeared (off the radar) at the Andaman Sea or northern Malacca Strait.

“For your knowledge, the visibility of our radar is only around 250 nautical miles,” he said in his winding-up speech to debate the royal address in Parliament.

Rahim rescinded his statement a day later, saying it was his assumption and it was “not accurate”.

But pilots speaking to The Malaysian Insider said Rahim’s knowledge of aviation terminology suggested that he could have been briefed about the Department of Civil Aviation’s (DCA) silence over flight MH370.

“Air turn backs happen regularly and the deputy minister’s presumption means that the ATC or DCA did not inform the military that a plane was lost.

“The onus is on the DCA to clear the air and reveal what it did,” said a pilot who declined to be named.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that American officials and others said Boeing was upset that it took about three hours – much longer than would be typical – for Malaysian authorities to inform company representatives the jet hadn’t been heard from.

Boeing’s team remains “quite frustrated and doesn’t trust the process”, according to one person familiar with the company’s views.

In its first statement on the missing flight on March 8, Malaysia Airlines said that it “confirms that flight MH370 has lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at 2.40am, today (March 8, 2014)”.

“Flight MH370, operated on the B777-200 aircraft, departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am on March 8, 2014. MH370 was expected to land in Beijing at 6.30am the same day. The flight was carrying a total number of 227 passengers (including two infants), 12 crew members.

“Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their search and rescue team to locate the aircraft,” it said in a statement issued at 7.43am on March 8.

The flag carrier later corrected its statement to say that the last contact was at 1.19am that day, and not 2.40am Malaysian time.

Last night, the DCA said that “We would like to confirm that the last conversation in the transcript between the air traffic controller and the cockpit is at 0119 (Malaysian time) and is ‘Good night Malaysian three seven zero’.

“The authorities are still doing forensic investigation to determine whether those last words from the cockpit were by the pilot or the co-pilot.

“The minister has instructed the investigating team to release the full transcript which will be made available during the briefing to the next of kin,” it said.

On March 12, Malaysian government officials revealed that “All right, good night” were the last words heard from the missing flight MH370 – when they briefed Chinese relatives of passengers in Beijing.

The Daily Telegraph revealed the transcript on March 22, reporting that the final words spoken “All right, good night” came from Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, the co-pilot.

The Malaysian Insider reported on Friday that aviation industry officials were still not clear what the Subang ATC did when it found out the passenger jet had gone missing.

“It is not clear what the ATC did. We know MAS knew the plane was missing but did the military know?

“In fact, did other ATCs in the region know that MH370 was missing? They could have tracked it if they received early information,” an aviation industry official told The Malaysian Insider.

It is understood that Malaysian investigators have found it difficult to get radar data from the country’s neighbours as regional military officials are reluctant to reveal their capabilities.

Australian news site news.com.au quoted a Straits Times report last week that Malaysian authorities had infuriated passengers’ loved ones by telling them at a briefing this week that there was “sealed evidence that cannot be made public” in relation to the missing flight.

“The sealed evidence included air traffic control radio transcript, radar data and airport security recordings,” the paper reported.

The remarks by Malaysian authorities – made at the Metropark Lido Hotel in Beijing – have not been reported by other major newspapers, despite being widely shared on social media, news.com.au said.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has asked for a probe into the mystery, noting there were many questions surrounding the plane’s disappearance which had nothing to do with the black box.

Putrajaya has said it will hold an inquiry after the black box is found. – April 1, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 April 2014, 10:40 am and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Admit your mistake over MH370, Pakatan tells Najib

by Jennifer Gomez

The Malaysian Insider

April 02, 2014

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must admit that he made a mistake when he announced on March 24 that MH370 had ended in the southern Indian Ocean and later attempted to imply that he did not mean that the plane had crashed or that there were no survivors, opposition politicians said today.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang told reporters at the Parliament lobby that the mistake was obvious when Najib tabled a motion of sympathy for the families the day after making the announcement, implying that there were no survivors.

He said text messages were also sent out by MAS while its chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya had mentioned in a press conference that there were no survivors.

After the announcement caused anger and frustration among mainly families of the Chinese passengers, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein defended Najib by saying the prime minister did not say the plane had crashed or there were no survivors.

Relatives of passengers said Putrajaya should apologise for prematurely claiming that the plane had crashed.

Datuk Mahfuz Omar (Pas-Pokok Sena) wanted to know if the government would be taking action against local media which had reported that the plane had crashed in the Indian Ocean, and implied that all those on board had died.

“The acting transport minister said they were considering taking action against international media that carried false reports on the missing plane.

“Are they going to take action against the media that carried the reports suggesting there were no survivors?” he asked.

Lim said Putrajaya should have released the transcript of the communications from the cockpit of the missing jetliner at the start and not now after more than three weeks.

The Transport Ministry had said in a statement on Monday that “Good night, Malaysian three seven zero”, was the last conversation between the air traffic controller and the cockpit of the missing jet.

It was previously reported that the last communication from the cockpit was “All right, good night”.

The statement also said Hishammuddin had instructed the investigating team to release the full transcript, which made available during a briefing to the next-of-kin of MH370’s passengers and crew.

Lim said he shared the anger and shame of Malaysians on the correction issued on the matter, following the revelation by China’s CCTV that the last words were different from what the Department of Civil Aviation had originally revealed.

“This is another mistake that should not have happened. It reflects poorly on the competence and transparency of our system of governance.”

He said the past 25 days since the plane went missing had exposed other mistakes and weaknesses, including the exact time the plane lost contact, on the air turn back and the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s supposed assumption that the turn back was ordered by the control tower.

Given these conflicting statements by the authorities, Lim said it was imperative that a parliamentary select committee on MH370 be set up to investigate its disappearance.

Lim added that the latest Merdeka Center survey revealed that 50% of respondents were not happy with the authorities’ handling of the MH370 crisis – something which should be taken seriously.

He said Putrajaya should not hit back at the rakyat by labelling them anti-nationalistic for expressing such views.

“It is because we love and take pride in how Malaysia is viewed in the eyes of the world, but it does not change the fact that the people have a lot of questions about the handling of the crisis,” he said.

The survey carried out by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research among 1,005 respondents revealed that only 43% were satisfied with the way Putrajaya was dealing with the issue.

The majority of Chinese and Indian respondents were dissatisfied, at 74% and 59% respectively. Only 18% of Chinese and 36% of Indian polled said they were satisfied.

But 63% of Malay respondents expressed satisfaction with the handling compared with 30% who said they were not. – April 2, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, 2:49 pm and is filed under
MH 370
,
Najib Razak
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


After tourism, MH370 fallout in China set to hit Malaysian property

The Malay Mail Online

April 2, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Growing acrimony in China over Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 crisis could jeopardise Chinese buyers’ appetite for property development here, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The news comes as rancour in Beijing over the Malaysia’s continued inability to find the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that carried 153 Chinese nationals among the 239 people on board has already torpedoed the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 promotions in the country.

Families of the Chinese passengers on the doomed flight and their countrymen became hostile towards Malaysia following its announcement on March 24 that satellite data showed the plane “ended somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean”.

The absence of physical evidence of the flight led some families to label the Malaysian government “murderers” for implying that all those aboard were dead.

“For now, marketing homes in Malaysia is going to be a bit awkward. It’s just like how we don’t market homes in Japan to Chinese customers,” an anonymous Beijing-based real estate consultant told the WSJ.

But the expected drop-off will not only hit Malaysian property developers; Chinese real estate firms who invested heavily in the market here could now end up with lots for which they might find fewer buyers.

One such firm was Guangzhou-based Country Garden Holdings, who began venturing into the local property market via Johor Baru in 2012.

Sales in its Country Garden Danga Bay project there last year reached roughly 7 billion yuan (RM3.7 billion), and was the firm’s biggest sales contributor.

“The (MH370) incident has brought some negative impressions of Malaysia (and the) Malaysian government, and we do not preclude the possibility that this would also affect our projects in the Malaysian market,” said Country Garden in a statement.

But it said it was still confident in its investment in Malaysia.

“We believe that Chinese buyers in the choice of overseas investment are rational,” it said.

Malaysia was fast becoming the regional “darling” of property buyers from mainland China following market restrictions in Hong Kong and Singapore.

In 2013, Chinese institutional and retail investors invested a total of US$1.9 billion (RM6.2 billion) into real estate in Malaysia, exceeding the US$867 million invested in Hong Kong and US$1.8 billion invested in Singapore, according to real estate consultancy Savills.

The figure also topped the US$1 billion invested in Australia, but lagged Chinese investments into Britain and the United States.

It is unclear the extent of the damage MH370 will ultimately deal to the property sector in Malaysia, but parallels are  being drawn between the missing plane and the China-Japan tension in 2012 that saw buyers in the former country organise concerted boycotts of products from the latter, which hit its automotive sector hard.

Still, analysts believe the effects will not be permanent.

“In the long term, homebuyers will consider more fundamental issues, like education and investment prospects of buying a home in Malaysia,” CIMB Securities analyst Johnson Hu told the US daily.

On Monday, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said that “Visit Malaysia Year” roadshows in China would be halted until the MH370 case is closed.

Nazri yesterday conceded that, less than a month since the plane was lost, the falloff was already taking its toll.

“I would be lying if I said that it is not affected.

“We are sure that the Chinese passengers’ families are angry at Malaysia including some of their artists who expressed the same sentiment,” he was quoted as saying by Sinar Harian.

China currently accounts for 12 per cent of tourist arrivals here, who contribute six per cent of the country’s tourism earnings or approximately RM39 billion last year.

On Sunday, several families of Chinese passengers of MH370 arrived in Kuala Lumpur from Beijing, and held a press conference to denounce Malaysia’s handling of the search for the plane.

Some held aloft banners that read in Chinese and English: “You must return relatives of MH370, no strings attached” and “Hand us the murderer”.

MH370 went missing shortly after departing Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing on March 8 and remains missing despite an international search involving over two dozen countries.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, 8:10 am and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Search reveals extent of ocean garbage

By Noelle Swan, Staff writer / April 1, 2014

The Christian Science Monitor

The search for Malaysia Flight 370 is complicated by the wide spread of ocean garbage, much of which looks just like plane crash debris in satellite images.

It’s a wing.… It’s a seat cushion.… It’s an icebox lid?

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has turned up a lot of debris. Unfortunately, so far at least, none of it appears to belong to the missing Boeing 777.

Vast quantities of trash bobbing around the ocean have made the Sisyphean search for wreckage from Flight 370 all the more complicated.

In the weeks since the March 8 disappearance of the plane, searchers have darted about the Indian Ocean, following evolving analyses of radar data and potential clues offered by satellite imagery.

Unfortunately, garbage floating on the ocean waves looks an awful lot like plane debris, says Malcom Spaulding, a former oceanography professor at the University of Rhode Island who has been involved in search and rescues since the 1970s.

“We essentially have had satellite-based images that give us tantalizing information that there might be a debris field,” says Mr. Spaulding. “But we don’t know whether anything in the debris field is associated with the accident.”

One of the major problems is that the ocean is littered with similar debris fields that resemble the expected scatter pattern of a crash, says Seattle oceanographer Curtis Ebbsmeyer, who studies sea-bound trash.

“Everything that humanity does is reflected in the debris out there,” Mr. Ebbsmeyer says.

Household garbage, remnants of space shuttle rocket boosters, spilled contents of shipping containers, and lost fishing equipment traverse the globe on the oceans’ currents, he says.

The region’s currents run from the Cape of Good Hope across the Indian Ocean to the Western Australian coast, and north toward India before doubling back to Africa near Ethiopia and returning to the Cape of Good Hope, he says. It takes about three years to complete the circle.

Ebbsmeyer likens the ocean and it’s currents to a mixing bowl filled with cake batter.

“If you just stir slowly, you are going to wind up with patches of powdery stuff,” he explains. “We’re all used to [electric mixers], but the ocean is basically like your wooden mixing spoon going slowly.”

As a result, the ocean accumulates patches of debris. Some are massive and become islands unto themselves.

“Above each garbage patch, there are winds that circle around and push the debris into the center,” he explains. “It’s the winds that drive the ocean, but they can’t mix it so they basically just collect it.”

The largest of these floating garbage dumps is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is located about halfway between Hawaii and San Francisco. Scientists have found that birds living on Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are eating that garbage. Scientists discovered a piece of wreckage from a 1944 plane crash in the stomach of an albatross in 2004.

Scientists identified a similar patch in the Southern Indian Ocean in 2010. There are also hundreds of “little nano garbage patches” floating around the Indian Ocean, Ebbsmeyer says.

Every time satellites find a new debris patch, searchers have to establish “ground truth,” essentially hop in a boat and head to the area to confirm that what the satellite depicted is as it appears.

If they can find it, that is. Frequently, by the time boats can get to the new area, the objects spotted on the satellite image have floated away or sank.

Last week, a French defense contractor satellite spotted a debris field containing 122 objects, including a 75-foot-long piece of something that commentators surmised could be the wing of a plane. Searchers systematically trawled the area but turned up nothing.

While large portions of wrecks have been recovered in the past – search teams recovered the tail fin of Air France Flight 227, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 – more often, planes disintegrate into small pieces when they hit the water, says Robert Benzon, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator who led the 1996 investigation into the crash of TWA flight 800 in the Atlantic Ocean.

“The TWA plane plunged into the ocean from 13,000 feet and the wings shattered. They were in hundreds of pieces,” he says. “Anything’s possible, but a piece that large would surprise me.”

That leaves the question, What was that 75-foot-long object?

It could be any number of things, Ebbsmeyer says.

“A typical cargo container is 40 feet long and it will float for up to 9 months. It could be a yacht that’s turned over,” he speculates. “Sometimes there are rocket launchers that go into the ocean.”

Assuming the plane did break into small pieces, the debris field is probably spreading wider and thinner with each passing day. Ebbsmeyer estimates that the debris patch is probably more than 20 miles in diameter and spreading, based on his studies of container spills.

“The debris is going to become less concentrated and harder to spot,” he says. “There’s no doubt that pieces of plastic from this wreck will float for decades, but they’ll become just part of all the other plastic which is not identifiable.”

Even if search teams are able to recover floating debris, chances are it is not hovering in place directly above the wreckage. Finding the main debris field and the flight recorder could take additional weeks of searching with automated underwater vehicles (AUV), Spaulding says.

The US Navy’s Bluefin-21 AUV can help provide searchers a view of the sea floor using side scan sonar technology. However, the ocean floor can be just as littered with debris as the sea surface, NTSB’s Mr. Benzon says.

When searching for TWA Flight 800, “we found a lot of stuff on the bottom of the ocean here that had nothing to do with the accident, including wrecks from other crashes,” he says. “The bottom of the ocean a lot of times isn’t as clean as everybody thinks it is. Even when they get down there, they may have their work cut out for them.”

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, 7:15 am and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Malaysia ranks 39 out of 44 countries in problem-solving test for 15-year-olds, says report

by Elizabeth Zachariah

The Malaysian Insider

April 02, 2014

Malaysia once again fared poorly in a world student performance assessment test conducted in 2012, ending up in the bottom quarter among 44 countries – a result that reinforces the concern that the country’s education system is in tatters.

Malaysia ranked 39 with a mean score of 422 in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) first assessment on creative problem-solving, while neighbouring Singapore came out tops with a mean score of 562, said the report released yesterday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The overall mean score for all countries was 500.

Malaysia had more than half of the share of low achievers, which means the students tested lacked the skills needed in a modern workplace.

In contrast, Singapore only had 8% share of low achievers. The mean share was 21.4%.

On the other hand, Malaysia only had 0.9% share of top performers compared with Singapore’s 29.3%. Malaysia’s share was below the average percentage of 11.4%.

This showed that only one out of 10 Malaysian students, aged 15, is able to solve the most complex problems, compared with one in five in Singapore, Korea and Japan.

Asian countries like Korea, Japan, Macau-China, Hong Kong-China, Shanghai-China and Chinese Taipei make up the top seven of the list.

Students from Canada, Australia, Finland, England, Estonia, France, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, the United States and Belgium all scored above the average.

“Eighty-five thousand students from 44 countries and economies took the computer-based test, involving real-life scenarios to measure the skills young people will use when faced with everyday problems, such as setting a thermostat or finding the quickest route to a destination,” said the OECD, which carried out the tests.

Malaysians scored 29.1 on solution rate on tasks measuring the acquisition of knowledge and 29.3 on solution rate on tasks measuring the utilisation of knowledge while Singapore scored 62 and 55.4 respectively, way above the average score of all countries, which are 45.5 and 46.4 respectively.

“Today’s 15-year-olds with poor problem-solving skills will become tomorrow’s adults struggling to find or keep a good job,” said Andreas Schleicher, acting Director of Education and Skills at OECD.

“Policymakers and educators should re-shape their school systems and curricula to help students develop their problem-solving skills which are increasingly needed in today’s economies.”

Malaysia had also performed poorly in an earlier PISA assessment which measured how students in 65 countries did in mathematics, science and reading.

According to the PISA’s 2012 results, Malaysian students scored below average or ranked 52 out of the 65 countries. In contrast, Vietnamese students ranked 17 out of 65.

Just a week ago, a World Bank senior economist pointed out that the poor quality of Malaysia’s education system was more worrying than the debt level of its households.

Dr Frederico Gil Sander, who is senior economist for Malaysia, had said Malaysians should be “alarmed” that their children were doing worse in school than children in Vietnam, a country that was poorer than Malaysia.

Malaysia’s continuous dismal performance in international assessments highlights the weaknesses in the country’s schooling system, despite the fact that education gets the largest share of funds every year from the national budget.

Critics have pointed out that the PISA results contradicted Putrajaya’s insistence that Malaysia has a world-class education system.

Critics have also questioned the real worth of the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) which produces many students who scored As, but who can’t compete with their peers from Singapore, China and Taiwan.

Opposition politicians have relentlessly attacked Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin over Malaysia’s poor results in international assessment tests.

Muhyiddin subsequently announced that the ministry would set up a special committee tasked with elevating students’ assessments in these tests. – April 2, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, 1:15 pm and is filed under
Education
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


MH370: UK submarine joins search for missing plane

BBC News

1 April 2014

British submarine HMS Tireless has joined the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Ministry of Defence said the Trafalgar class submarine had arrived in the southern Indian Ocean and would help search for the plane’s black box recorder.

It will soon by joined by Royal Navy coastal survey ship HMS Echo.

The aircraft disappeared with 239 people on board on 8 March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Earlier on Tuesday, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston – the man co-ordinating the search from Australia – said the hunt was the “most challenging” ever seen and could take weeks.

Several floating objects have been found in recent days, but none is believed to belong to the missing plane.

Search for debris

Nuclear-powered submarine HMS Tireless was launched on 17 March 1984 and holds a crew of 130, plus 18 officers.

HMS Echo HMS Echo will help search for debris from the plane on the water surface

An MoD source told the BBC the vessel had “advanced underwater search capabilities, but the task in hand remains a tall order and the search area immense”.

“Her deployment is being co-ordinated closely with our Australian and US colleagues.”

The submarine will listen for ultrasonic “pings” from the plane’s black box, which continue to be broadcast for about 30 days after take-off.

The MoD source said the submarine was ordered to move from an operational tasking to the search area about a week ago and arrived on Monday.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond informed his Malaysian counterpart of the additional British contribution during a phone call on Tuesday evening.

HMS Echo is expected to begin its work on Wednesday, and the MoD said it would “play an important role in the search for debris on the sea’s surface and her advanced environmental assessment capability will help to optimise search operations”.

Four RAF personnel on secondment to the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force are also actively involved in the search.

On Monday, Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the search area was 254,000 sq km (98,000 sq miles), according to the Australian authorities.

Malaysian authorities have released the full transcript of communications between flight MH370 and Kuala Lumpur’s air traffic control.

They said there was no indication of anything abnormal in the transcript, although the last words received by ground controllers are different from those previously stated.

Theories

They were “good night Malaysian three seven zero”, but authorities had previously said that they were “all right, good night”.

It is not clear why the account has changed.

Officials say that based on satellite data they have concluded that flight MH370 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, but many relatives of those on board have demanded proof and expressed anger at what they perceive as a lack of information.

Various theories about what went wrong have been suggested – including the captain hijacking his own plane.

The speculation was fuelled by reports that files had been deleted on the pilot’s home flight simulator.

search area map

However, on Saturday Mr Hussein said investigators had found “nothing sinister” from the simulator.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, 6:20 am and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


More cracks found in klia2, a month before starting business

The Malaysian Insider

April 02, 2014

Newly found cracks on the klia2 apron and building have cast doubts on the RM4 billion budget airport terminal’s safety, weeks before it is due to begin operations and at a time of global scrutiny after flight MH370 vanished, aviation industry sources say.

The sources passed a set of 13 photographs taken yesterday to The Malaysian Insider, revealing cracks on the apron and also rectified cracks on walls of the two-storey budget terminal.

“The photos tell the story of whether klia2 is ready or not to be used,” an aviation source told The Malaysian Insider.

This is the second set of photographs sent to The Malaysian Insider about the condition of the new terminal, which can cater for up to 45 million passengers through its 64 gates.

It is understood that klia2 operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has assured the government that it would carry out remedial works that would not affect the terminal’s opening and operations from May 2. The opening date has been delayed at least five times.

“Putrajaya should relook into klia2 meeting an artificial deadline when repairs are still being done. The country’s aviation sector is under close scrutiny and they should get it right,” another industry official said.

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) visited klia2 two weeks ago to check its readiness and also held a hearing yesterday where MAHB officials presented a report on the operational delays.

The PAC has said it might call other parties to shed light on the delays, saying this was a public-interest matter although the klia2 terminal is privately funded.

Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi said yesterday that klia2 would open on May 2 with Cebu Pacific Air and Malindo Air being the first budget airlines to use the terminal.

He said the current Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) would cease operations on May 9, a week after the opening of klia2, drawing a swift response from Asia’s largest budget carrier, AirAsia.

AirAsia said yesterday that all AirAsia and AirAsia X operations would still be based at the LCCT even after May 9 because of a number of unresolved pressing issues that still needed to be addressed.

“The move to klia2 is imminent, however, it will only be carried out after all issues are addressed,” AirAsia Berhad chief executive officer Aireen Omar said in a statement.

She referred to Ikram Premier Consulting’s (Ikram) findings on the readiness of klia2 which revealed there were depressions on the taxiway/apron and runway, which required periodic remedial measures to be undertaken on relevant areas.

The budget carrier said it believed the Operational Readiness & Airport Transfer (ORAT) period for a transfer to support the size of AirAsia’s operations would substantially be more than the two months prescribed by MAHB, “which in our opinion is unrealistic and

overly optimistic”.

“Even the ORAT for the transfer from KLIA Main Terminal to LCCT in 2006 took longer than two months when AirAsia’s operations were significantly smaller,” it said.

Cracks at the U4 taxiway in klia2. – The Malaysian Insider pic, April 2, 2014.Cracks at the U4 taxiway in klia2. – The Malaysian Insider pic, April 2, 2014.AirAsia said ongoing repairs would be “operationally disruptive to a hub airline, such as AirAsia Group, which has about 400 aircraft movements in a day and at least 70 aircraft in its fleet in LCCT”.

“Last year alone, the group carried 22 million passengers via LCCT,” it added.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had said on March 17 that Ikram had found the klia2 terminal to be safe.

Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister, said in its preliminary report, Ikram had recommended that minor cracks on the taxiway be repaired as per International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines.

“In Ikram’s evaluation, which focused on safety aspects of the taxiway, apron, runway and the surrounding areas, they stated that there were no cracks on the runway, only minor ones on the taxiway,” he said in a statement.

He said in their report, the consultants also confirmed that the terminal building was in good condition, although there were a few minor cracks on the structure, which needed immediate rectification.

“As for the surrounding areas, it was found there was land sinking in some places and these, too, needed to be rectified although they did not pose any safety risk to the airport’s users,” he said.

Hishammuddin said the report was tabled at the cabinet meeting in early March, adding that the cabinet was also informed that the second phase of the evaluation of klia2 by IPC would be done on April 14.

Airport operator MAHB conducted a runway test last October using a Malindo Air Boeing 737-900ER at Runway 3 and called it a success as the plane did not hop during landing.

KUB Builders, a unit of government-linked KUB Malaysia, is the contractor of the RM268.8 million runway that is linked by the taxiway to the airport terminal.

In February, MAHB confirmed that the opening of Malaysia’s new budget terminal at Sepang could be delayed as two-thirds of the building failed fire and safety standards after an inspection in January.

According a statement from MAHB, Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd, Sepang Municipal Council and the Fire and Rescue Department inspected the building in the last week of January and found that 65% of the main terminal did not comply with fire and safety standards.

There were cracks in a sewerage pipe outside the terminal and parts of the road and drainage are not fit for use. The authorities’ recommendation is essential for the issuance of the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) for the RM4 billion airport terminal.

MAHB said in a statement that it had failed to receive the CCC for the klia2 terminal building from UEMC-Bina Puri.

The main contractor, UEMC-Bina Puri Joint Venture, had earlier assured that it would hand over the terminal building or CCC to the airport operator by January 31.

In a separate statement, UEM-Bina Puri confirmed it could not obtain the CCC by January 31 and said this was due to an “unexpected issue” which occurred during a follow-up inspection. – April 2, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, 8:01 am and is filed under
Transport
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.


Six Reasons To Explain Mystery Of Flight MH370

By Alex Watts, Sky News

01 April 2014

The mystery of what made flight MH370 crash thousands of miles off route in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean has filled news websites and TV bulletins for the past three weeks.

But despite the huge interest and speculation, are we any nearer to finding out what happened to the doomed Boeing 777 than when it vanished from radar on March 8?

What we do know is both the plane’s transponder and Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), an in-flight digital system that helps track planes after they have gone out of radar coverage, were disabled or stopped working less than an hour into the flight.

The Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 people then flew west for at least five hours before crashing somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

Six theories remain for why the plane disappeared – cabin depressurisation, toxic fumes, fire, hijacking, pilot murder-suicide, or simultaneous failures.

A panel of experts – including pilots, airline bosses, manufacturers and regulators – met in central London on Tuesday and tried to throw light on the mystery.

The event, organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), came up with this analysis:

1. The aircraft depressurised but continued to fly

This would explain the initial change in altitude and heading, as well as subsequent lack of communication, but not why the ACARS and transponder were turned off.

The transponder can be turned off from the cockpit and is done routinely when an aircraft lands.

Turning off the ACARS is more complicated, though, and would need someone with systems knowledge going into the aircraft’s avionics bay – but this should have been prevented if security was adequate.

If the plane was depressurised, it would continue to fly automatically until the fuel ran out.

The effect on passengers would vary depending on the altitude. If the aircraft was above 35,000ft, it would take about one minute before everyone was incapacitated.

Oxygen masks should have descended automatically which would work for around 15 minutes.

The flight crew could have lasted longer using oxygen masks, depending on whether they used pure oxygen or an oxygen mix.

SUMMARY: It’s possible.

2. The aircraft was overcome by toxic fumes

The pilots should have been able to send out a distress call and, again, it does not explain why the ACARS and transponder were turned off.

SUMMARY: Unlikely.

3. There was an onboard fire which damaged the communications systems

This would explain the lack of communication, but it is unlikely the aircraft would have then continued to fly as long as it did if the fire continued to burn.

The aircraft’s communication systems could have also been disabled by power failure or sabotage.

Birdstrike is possible, but is unlikely to have caused such damage.

SUMMARY: Unlikely.

4. The aircraft was hijacked

The aircraft was not flown to another destination, nor was it used as a weapon for a suicide terrorist attack.

If it was an individual hijacker, then no one person or motive has been established and, if it was a group, no organisation has claimed responsibility.

SUMMARY: It’s possible.

5. The aircraft was deliberately diverted by the pilot/co-pilot

No reason for this has not been identified. If it was a suicide attempt then why did the aircraft continue to fly for so long?

Another question is why there were no mobile phone calls or texts from passengers or cabin crew, given the in-flight entertainment (IFE) map would have shown the aircraft going off course.

One explanation is the IFE system was turned off.

The second is most passengers were asleep or did not realise anything was wrong until it was too late to do anything. If they tried to phone later, the aircraft would have been in a remote area over the ocean where there was no signal.

The third is passengers and cabin crew may have been incapacitated in some way, such as by hypoxia due to cabin depressurisation.

SUMMARY: It’s possible.

6. Simultaneous failures

One technical expert pointed out that for every plausible scenario, there is at least one contradictory statement.

“If it was hypoxia, then who turned the aircraft?” he asked.

“If it was a fire, then how did it continue flying? If it was the flight crew, then why did the cabin crew not intervene?”

He suggested that, perhaps, more than one scenario occurred simultaneously – such as a wiring fire and depressurisation.

OVERALL SUMMARY: Until more evidence is found, nothing can be proved.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 April 2014, 7:48 am and is filed under
MH 370
. You can follow any responses to this entry through
RSS 2.0
.