MALAYSIAN Airlines flight en route to China is missing.

PrivateEyes · Apr 20, 2014

Australian officials say current underwater search for MH370 complete in 5-7 days

Underwater search using US Navy deep-sea autonomous underwater vehicle could end within a week, Australia says as Malaysia describes search as at a 'critical juncture'

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 19 April, 2014, 1:44pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 19 April, 2014, 4:55pm

Reuters in Sydney and Perth

Leading Seaman, Boatswain's Mate, William Sharkey searches for possible debris in the southern Indian Ocean in the continuing search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the Australian Defence Force April 17, 2014. Photo: Reuters

Australian officials supervising the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 said on Saturday that an underwater search for the black box recorder based on "pings" possibly from the device could be completed in five to seven days.

Malaysia said the search was at a “very critical juncture” and asked for prayers for its success.

A US Navy deep-sea autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is scouring a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean floor for signs of the plane, which disappeared from radars on March 8 with 239 people on board and is believed to have crashed in the area.

After almost two months without a sign of wreckage, the current underwater search has been narrowed to a circular area with a radius of 10 kilometres around the location in which one of four pings believed to have come from the black box recorders was detected on April 8, officials said.

"Provided the weather is favourable for launch and recovery of the AUV and we have a good run with the serviceability of the AUV, we should complete the search of the focused underwater area in five to seven days," the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre told reporters in an e-mail.

Officials did not indicate whether they were confident that this search area would yield any new information about the flight, nor did they state what steps they would take in the event that the underwater search were to prove fruitless.

The comment came in response to a request for clarification from the agency, after it said in a statement on Thursday that previous media reports suggesting the underwater search could take as long as several months were inaccurate.

Search planes and ships from a half dozen countries have tried in vain to catch any glimpse of the wreckage after nearly two months of daily sorties, making this the most expensive such operation in aviation history.

After almost two weeks without a signal, and long past the black box battery’s 30-day life expectancy, authorities are increasingly reliant on the US$4 million US Bluefin-21 drone, which on Saturday was expected to dive to unprecedented depths.

Because visual searches of the ocean surface have yielded no concrete evidence, the drone and its ability to search deep beneath the ocean surface with "side scan" sonar has become the focal point of the search 2,000 kilometres west of the Australian city of Perth.

The search has thus far centred on a city-sized area where a series of "pings" led authorities to believe the plane’s black box may be located. The current refined search area is based on one such transmission.

After the drone’s searches were frustrated by an automatic safety mechanism which returns it to the surface when it exceeds a depth of 4.5 kilometres, authorities have adjusted the mechanism and have sent it as deep as 4,695 metres, a record.

But hopes that it might soon guide searchers to wreckage are dwindling with no sign of the plane after six deployments spanning 133 square kilometres. Footage from the drone’s sixth mission was still being analysed, the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said on Saturday.

“It is important to focus on today and tomorrow. Narrowing of the search area today and tomorrow is at a very critical juncture,” Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a media conference in Kuala Lumpur, asking for people to pray for success.

Malaysia was asking oil companies and others in the commercial sector to provide assets that might help in the search, Hishammuddin added, after earlier saying more AUVs might be used.

On Monday, the search co-ordinator, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the air and surface search for debris would likely end by midweek as the operation shifted its focus to the ocean floor.

But the air and surface searches have continued daily, and on Saturday the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said up to 11 military aircraft and 12 ships would help with the day’s search covering about 50,200 square kilometres across three areas.

Sinkie · Apr 20, 2014

Gone liao lah........liddat might as well give up now.

PrivateEyes · Apr 21, 2014

Malaysian minister talks to MH370 families about financial help

As submarine continues search, relatives are urged to submit a plan for cash assistance

PUBLISHED : Monday, 21 April, 2014, 12:28am
UPDATED : Monday, 21 April, 2014, 12:28am

Associated Press in Perth

Malaysia's Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainuddin. Photo: AP

A Malaysian minister yesterday met relatives of passengers on missing flight MH370 and discussed ways of providing them with financial assistance.

The move came as an unmanned submarine continued to search for any signs of the Malaysia Airlines jet.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainuddin met families in Kuala Lumpur to talk about where to go next. Financial assistance was discussed and family members were urged to submit a plan for consideration. He declined to elaborate further, but said a fund could possibly be set up by the government or Malaysia Airlines.

"We realise this is an excruciating time for the families of those on board," said Hamzah, who heads a committee overseeing the needs of the next of kin. "No words can describe the pain they must be going through. We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of the families and those watching around the world."

He added that he would soon visit Beijing to shore up bilateral relations between Malaysia and China. Two-thirds of the missing plane's 227 passengers were Chinese, and many of their family members have been angered by Malaysia's handling of the investigation, with some accusing the government of lying, incompetence or participating in an outright cover-up.

After nearly a week of sweeping the bottom of the southern Indian Ocean with sonar, the unmanned sub began its eighth mission yesterday. The yellow device has already covered about half of its focused search area, but has yet to uncover any clues that could shed light on the mysterious disappearance of the plane more than six weeks ago.

The US Navy's Bluefin 21 has journeyed beyond its recommended depth of 4.5 kilometres to comb the silt-covered seabed off the coast of western Australia. Its search area forms a 10-kilometre radius around the location of an underwater signal that was believed to have come from the aircraft's black boxes. The search centre said the sonar scan of the sea floor in that area is expected to be completed this week.

On Saturday, Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, stressed the importance of the weekend submarine missions in the ocean, but said that even if no debris was recovered, the scope of the search may be broadened or other assets used.

Meanwhile, yesterday up to 11 aircraft and 12 ships continued to scan the ocean surface for debris from the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Radar and satellite data show the jet mysteriously veered far off course for unknown reasons and would have run out of fuel in the remote section of the southern Indian Ocean where the search has been focused. Not one piece of debris has been recovered since the massive multinational hunt began.

There have been numerous leads, but all have turned out to be false.

PrivateEyes · Apr 21, 2014

Two-thirds of underwater search done, no sign of MH370

AFP
April 21, 2014, 1:53 pm<object id="flashObj" classid="clsid :biggrin:

Perth (Australia) (AFP) - Two-thirds of the planned underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been completed, with no signs so far of the jet, Australian officials said Monday.

As many as 10 military aircraft and 11 ships are taking part in the search for the aircraft, which was carrying 239 people when it vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

No debris from the plane has been found despite an intense air and sea search and hopes centre on the underwater autonomous vehicle (UAV) Bluefin-21 finding wreckage on the Indian Ocean seabed.

"Bluefin-21 has searched approximately two thirds of the focused underwater search area to date," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre managing the search said in a statement.

"No contacts of interest have been found to date."

The torpedo-shaped sonar scanning device has so far made eight missions to the vast depths of the ocean with no result, despite exceeding it's operating limit of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet).

"Bluefin-21 AUV's ninth mission will commence later this morning," JACC said.

MH370 inexplicably diverted from its course towards Beijing and is thought to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean.

Authorities believe acoustic signals picked up from the seabed far off the west coast of Australia by specialist US equipment -- known as a towed pinger locator -- are the best lead so far in solving the mystery.

With the batteries of the black box beacons now thought to have expired, experts are scouring the seabed in the vicinity of the transmissions to try and find their source.

"The focused underwater search area is defined as a circle of 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) radius around the second Towed Pinger Locator detection which occurred on 8 April," JACC said.

The Australian agency said the visual search area Monday would total 49,491 square kilometres (19,108 square miles).

The centre of this search, which will be conducted by all the planes and all but one of the ships in Monday's search, is about 1,741 kilometres north west of Perth.

The weather in the region is forecast to deteriorate later Monday, particularly in the northern sector, as Tropical Cyclone Jack continues its track southwards, JACC said.

Widespread showers were developing with isolated thunderstorms to the north and east south-easterly winds, it added.

Authorities have indicated they may reassess within days how to approach the extremely challenging search for the plane, expected to be the costliest in aviation history, given that nothing has so far been found.

Malaysia's government and the airline have come under harsh criticism from Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers -- two-thirds of whom were Chinese -- over their handling of the incident.

A Malaysia Airlines plane with 166 people aboard was forced to make an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur early Monday in another blow to its safety image.

Flight MH192, bound for Bangalore, India, turned back to Kuala Lumpur after it was discovered that a tyre had burst on take-off, the airline said.

singveld · Apr 21, 2014

water too deep, search area too large, i think we are never going to find MH370. Issue the death certs, pay out the compensation and just close the file on it. we know more about surface of the moon than deep under the ocean.

sochi2014 · Apr 21, 2014

Two thirds of the search region has been covered still no findings.

I think it is a global conspiracy to kidnap more than two hundred people and the plane.

halsey02 · Apr 21, 2014

singveld said:
water too deep, search area too large, i think we are never going to find MH370. Issue the death certs, pay out the compensation and just close the file on it. we know more about surface of the moon than deep under the ocean.

There is a strange feeling that, the plane is not at that spot where they are looking or even the area(s), the plane is somewhere else, only those, who does not want it to be found. Don't you think so? with all the advance technology...USA can accurately bomb wherever they want to bomb...the plane cannot b found??

GoldenPeriod · Apr 21, 2014

halsey02 said:
There is a strange feeling that, the plane is not at that spot where they are looking or even the area(s), the plane is somewhere else, only those, who does not want it to be found. Don't you think so? with all the advance technology...USA can accurately bomb wherever they want to bomb...the plane cannot b found??

A few more weeks and all will be forgotten.

PrivateEyes · Apr 22, 2014

Flight MH370 relatives oppose Malaysian moves towards issuing death certificates

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 11:21pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 11:21pm

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur

A family member cries as she and other relatives pray during a candlelight vigil for passengers on the missing plane. Photo: Reuters

Relatives of flight MH370 passengers have denounced the Malaysian government's suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certificates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.

The statement, issued in response to a weekend briefing that Malaysian officials gave to families in Kuala Lumpur, also called for a review of satellite data that Malaysia says indicates the plane probably crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

"We, the families of MH370, believe that until they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survivors, they have no right to attempt to settle this case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs," said the statement by the "United Families of MH370".

Family members pray around 239 lit candles during a candlelight vigil for the missing flight passengers. Photo: Reuters

In Sunday's briefing, a Malaysian official said the government would look into a timetable for issuing death certificates for passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight. The documents are required for families to seek insurance payments, settle debts and address a range of other issues.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainudin also asked relatives in the meeting to submit a proposal for government financial assistance for families.

But relatives, who have repeatedly accused the government and national airline of botching a response to the plane's disappearance and withholding information, said Malaysian authorities were playing an agonising "cat and mouse game" over the fate of their loved ones.

"WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR AND SHOCK!" the statement said, using bold capital letters.

The Boeing 777 went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Australia is leading the hunt for MH370, which is believed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean after veering sharply from its route for no apparent reason. No debris has yet been found from the plane.

The aerial search for wreckage of the airliner was suspended yesterday due to a tropical cyclone, but 10 ships will continue their work.

Demanding hard evidence, some vocal relatives have repeatedly said they were not convinced by Malaysia's conclusions about data analysis conducted by British satellite communications firm Inmarsat.

"They have failed to share why they would accept a single source [Inmarsat] for analysis, utilising a never before attempted method, as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is under the water and all lives lost," the families said. The statement said they wanted an independent peer review, but this was rejected on grounds Inmarsat's data was protected for privacy reasons.

In Sunday's meeting "not a single one of our questions was answered", it added.

PrivateEyes · Apr 23, 2014

Search for MH370 reveals a military vulnerability for China

Reuters
By Greg Torode and Michael Martina 22 April, 2014

2014-04-22T210758Z_1_CBREA3L1MPG00_RTROPTP_2_CNEWS-US-CHINA-NAVY.JPG

Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 is pictured during a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370, in the south Indian Ocean

By Greg Torode and Michael Martina

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - When Chinese naval supply vessel Qiandaohu entered Australia's Albany Port this month to replenish Chinese warships helping search for a missing Malaysian airliner, it highlighted a strategic headache for Beijing - its lack of offshore bases and friendly ports to call on.

China's deployment for the search - 18 warships, smaller coastguard vessels, a civilian cargo ship and an Antarctic icebreaker - has stretched the supply lines and logistics of its rapidly expanding navy, Chinese analysts and regional military attaches say.

China's naval planners know they will have to fill this strategic gap to meet Beijing's desire for a fully operational blue-water navy by 2050 - especially if access around Southeast Asia or beyond is needed in times of tension.

China is determined to eventually challenge Washington's traditional naval dominance across the Asia Pacific and is keen to be able to protect its own strategic interests across the Indian Ocean and Middle East.

"As China's military presence and projection increases, it will want to have these kind of (port) arrangements in place, just as the U.S. does," said Ian Storey, a regional security expert at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies.

"I am a bit surprised that there is no sign that they even started discussions about long-term access. If visits happen now they happen on an ad-hoc commercial basis. It is a glaring hole."

The United States, by contrast, has built up an extensive network of full bases - Japan, Guam and Diego Garcia - buttressed by formal security alliances and access and repair agreements with friendly countries, including strategic ports in Singapore and Malaysia.

While China is building up its fortified holdings on islands and reefs in the disputed South China Sea, its most significant southernmost base remains on Hainan Island, still some 3,000 nautical miles away from where Chinese warships have been searching for missing Malaysia airlines flight MH370.

Military attaches say foreign port access is relatively easy to arrange during peace-time humanitarian efforts - such as the search for MH370 or during anti-piracy patrols off the Horn of Africa - but moments of tension or conflict are another matter.

"If there was real tension and the risk of conflict between China and a U.S. ally in East Asia, then it is hard to imagine Chinese warships being allowed to enter Australian ports for re-supply," said one Beijing-based analyst who watches China's naval build-up.

"The Chinese know this lack of guaranteed port access is something they are going to have to broach at some point down the track," he said. "As the navy grows, this is going to be a potential strategic dilemma."

Zha Daojiong, an international relations professor at Beijing's Peking University, said the Indian Ocean search was an "exceptional" circumstance and that Chinese strategists knew they could not automatically rely on getting into the ports of U.S. allies if strategic tensions soared.

China's navy had significantly expanded friendship visits to ports from Asia and the Pacific to the Middle East and Mediterranean in recent years, but discussions over longer-term strategic access were still some way off, he said.

"At some point, we will have to create a kind of road-map to create these kind of agreements, that is for sure, but that will be for the future," Zha said.

"We are pragmatic and we know there are sensitivities surrounding these kinds of discussions, or even historic suspicions in some places, so the time is probably not right just yet," he said.

"I expect to see more friendship visits, and on-going access on a request basis. Then there is the issue of making sure the facilities can meet our needs."

Operationally, long-range deployments such as the anti-piracy patrols and the search for wreckage of MH370 have proved important logistical learning curves, he added.

Potential blue-water deployments of future air-craft carrier strike groups further complicates China's logistical outlook.

China's first carrier, the Liaoning, a Soviet-era ship bought from Ukraine in 1998 and re-built in a Chinese shipyard, is being used for training and is not yet fully operational.

Regional military attaches and analysts said it could be decades before China was able to compete with U.S. carriers, if at all.

Tai Ming Cheung, director of the U.C. Institute of Global Conflict and Co-operation at the University of California, described the MH370 search as a "major learning moment" for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and could lead to a push from its top brass to develop global power-projection capabilities.

The PLA covers all arms of the military, including the navy.

Chinese officials and analysts have bristled at suggestions by Western and Indian counterparts that Beijing is attempting to create a so-called "string of pearls" by funding port developments across the Indian Ocean, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Chinese analysts say the ports will never develop into Chinese bases and even long-term access deals would be highly questionable, given the political uncertainties and the immense strategic trust this would require.

Storey, of Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies, said the "string of pearls" theory was increasingly seen as discredited among strategic analysts.

So far this decade, Chinese naval ships have visited Gulf ports and other strategic points across the Middle East, including Oman, Israel, Qatar and Kuwait, after completing piracy patrols.

But despite its rapid naval build-up, many experts believe China is a decade or more away from being able to secure key offshore shipping lanes and was still reliant on the United States to secure oil choke-points such as the Straits of Hormuz that leads to the Gulf.

Closer to home, the disputed South China Sea offers few solutions. China's eight fortified holdings on reefs and islets across the contested Spratly archipelago are not considered big enough for a significant offshore base, according to Richard Bitzinger, a regional military analyst at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Nor is the base at Woody Island in the Paracels further north, where China is expanding a runway and harbor.

"Beyond the PLA's significant naval bases on Hainan Island, I just can't see where the Chinese will be able to get the port access they will need in Southeast Asia over the longer term," Bitzinger said. "The intensifying disputes with the likes of the Philippines and Vietnam have hardly helped."

The Philippines and Vietnam, along with Malaysia and Brunei, dispute China's claim to much of the South China Sea, one of the world's most important trade routes. Taiwan's claim mirrors that of Beijing.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan all maintain military bases across the Spratlys, which sit above a seabed rich in oil and gas potential.

"The U.S. Navy has been at this for 100 years or so," and constantly works at maintaining and nurturing its strategic network, Bitzinger said. "China's being doing it for about 15 ... China's not going to be able to catch up overnight."

(Additional reporting by Grace Li in Hong Kong and Matt Siegel in Sydney. Editing by Dean Yates and Mark Bendeich)

Tuayapeh · Apr 23, 2014

sochi2014 said:
Two thirds of the search region has been covered still no findings.

I think it is a global conspiracy to kidnap more than two hundred people and the plane.

what a fucking dummy....nobody after the people la gong cheebye.....

they are after something in the cargo....the lives are all dispensable.......

PrivateEyes · Apr 23, 2014

Possible debris from MH370 washes up on Australian shore

Photographs of material passed on to Malaysian investigation team

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 23 April, 2014, 6:25pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 April, 2014, 6:51pm

Agence France-Presse in Perth

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has so far been fruitless. Photo: AFP

Authorities are investigating whether “unidentified material” washed up on the southwest coast of Australia has any link to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, officials said on Wednesday.

“Western Australia Police have attended a report of material washed ashore 10 kilometres east of Augusta and have secured the material,” Australia’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said in a statement.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is examining photographs of the material to determine whether it has any links to the search for the missing jet, it added.

The bureau has provided photographs of the material to the Malaysian investigation team.

“It’s sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan told broadcaster CNN, describing the object as appearing to be sheet metal with rivets.

But he added a note of caution. “The more we look at it, the less excited we get.”

The Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 when it mysteriously diverted.

It is thought to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean off Western Australia, where a huge search is underway.

Earlier this month, an oceanographer told the South China Morning Post that currents and prevailing winds would likely push any floating debris towards Australia's vast west coast.

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

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

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

The development comes as Australia said it may use more powerful sonar equipment that can delve deeper beneath the Indian Ocean in the hunt for the missing jet.

The search co-ordination centre said on Wednesday a robotic submarine, the US Navy’s Bluefin 21, had so far covered more than 80 per cent of the 310-square-kilometre seabed search zone off the Australian west coast, creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor. Nothing of interest had been found.

The 4.5-kilometre deep search area is a circle 20 kilometres wide around an area where sonar equipment picked up a signal on April 8 consistent with a plane’s black boxes. But the batteries powering those signals are now dead.

Defence Minister David Johnston said Australia was consulting with Malaysia, China and the United States on the next phase of the search for the plane that went missing on March 8, which is likely to be announced next week.

halsey02 · Apr 23, 2014

>HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - When Chinese naval supply vessel Qiandaohu entered Australia's Albany Port this month to replenish Chinese warships helping search for a missing Malaysian airliner, it highlighted a strategic headache for Beijing - its lack of offshore bases and friendly ports to call on.>

All they need to do, is to make a call to "mee siam mai hum"....we are brothers, aren't we? just show the money....all can be arranged!...'xiong di"...!!

PrivateEyes · Apr 23, 2014

MH370 may have landed, not crashed: sources

Yahoo!7 News and wires April 23, 2014, 1:20 pm

MH370 relatives reject Malaysian conclusions on plane AFP

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may be forced to re-investigate the possibility that the passenger jet with 239 on board landed, according to new reports.

The New Strait Times has quoted sources close to the probe that the investigation teams are considering revisiting the possibility that the plane did not crash into the ocean and had landed safely at an unknown location.

“The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible, as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to MH370. However, the possibility of a specific country hiding the plane when more than 20 nations are searching for it, seems absurd,” the sources told the NST.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he has received "no advice whatsoever" to indicate the plane has landed.

“Our expert advice is that the aircraft went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean, we have identified a probable impact zone, which is about 700km long, about 80km wide,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

The latest development comes as the multinational team searching for MH370 and its 239 passengers and crew widens the hunt using more capable underwater vehicles.

Yesterday, the Bluefin-21 completed its ninth mission scouring the seabed with three more dives expected to wind up the survey of the most likely location of MH370.

However, no contacts of interest have been found so far.

MH370 relatives reject Malaysian conclusions on plane

Relatives of flight MH370 passengers have denounced the Malaysian government's suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certificates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.

The statement, issued in response to a weekend briefing that Malaysian officials gave to families in Kuala Lumpur, also called for a review of satellite data that Malaysia says indicates the plane likely crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

"We, the families of MH370, believe that until they have conclusive proof that the plane crashed with no survivors, they have no right to attempt to settle this case with the issuance of death certificates and final payoffs," said the statement by the "United Families of MH370".

Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion's captain, Wing Comdr. Rob Shearer watches out of the window of his aircraft while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Photo: AP.

In Sunday's briefing, a Malaysian official said the government would look into a timetable for issuing death certificates for passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight, which are required for families to seek insurance payments, settle debts and address a range of other issues.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainudin also asked relatives in the meeting to submit a proposal for government financial assistance for families as the MH370 search wears on.

But relatives, who have repeatedly accused the government and national airline of botching a response to the plane's disappearance and withholding information, said Malaysian authorities were playing an agonising "cat and mouse game" over the fate of their loved ones.

"WE ARE IN UTTER OUTRAGE, DESPAIR AND SHOCK!" the statement said, using bold caps.

Malaysian officials could not immediately be reached to comment. The government and airline deny they are hiding anything.

The Boeing 777 went missing March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Malaysia says satellite data indicates the plane crashed in the remote Indian Ocean but no proof has been found despite an intensive multi-nation sea search.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, right, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak talk during their meeting at the Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Perth. Photo: AP.

Demanding hard evidence, some vocal relatives have repeatedly said they were unconvinced by Malaysia's conclusions on the data analysis, performed by British satellite communications firm Inmarsat.

"They have failed to share why they would accept a single source (Inmarsat) for analysis utilising a never before attempted method, as their sole grounds for determining that the plane is under the water and all lives lost," the families said.

The statement said they requested an independent peer review, but the suggestion was rejected on grounds Inmarsat's data was under privacy protections.

In the Sunday meeting, "not a single one of our questions was answered," it added.

A public opinion poll published last week found that more than half of Malaysians believe their scandal-prone government -- which has controlled the country for 57 years -- is hiding the full truth on MH370.

PrivateEyes · Apr 24, 2014

Material washed up on Australia beach was not from MH370, say officials

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 24 April, 2014, 9:02am
UPDATED : Thursday, 24 April, 2014, 4:49pm

Associated Press in Canberra, Australia

A crew member of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion, look out in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. Photo: AP

Australian officials said Thursday that after examining detailed photographs of unidentified material that washed ashore in the southwestern part of the country they are satisfied it is not a clue in the search for the missing Malaysian plane.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has advised search coordinators that the material, which washed ashore 10 kilometers east of Augusta in Western Australia, is not from missing Flight 370, according to a statement from the Joint Agency Coordination Centre.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the safety bureau, told The Associated Press Wednesday that an initial analysis of the material — which appeared to be sheet metal with rivets — suggested it was not from the plane.

“We do not consider this likely to be of use to our search for MH370,” he said.

Augusta is near Australia’s southwestern tip, about 310 kilometers from Perth, where the search has been headquartered.

The search coordination center also said Thursday a robotic submarine, the U.S. Navy’s Bluefin 21, had scanned more than 90 per cent of the 310-square kilometer seabed search zone off the Australian west coast, creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor, but had found nothing of interest.

The 4.5-kilometer deep search area is a circle 20 kilometers wide around an area where sonar equipment picked up a signal on April 8 consistent with a plane’s black boxes. But the batteries powering those signals are now believed dead.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday that failure to find any clue in the most likely crash site of the lost jet would not spell the end of the search, as officials plan soon to bring in more powerful sonar equipment that can delve deeper beneath the Indian Ocean.

A man looks at a bulletin board as Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have a meeting at the Metro Park Hotel in Beijing. Photo: AFP

Defense Minister David Johnston said Australia was consulting with Malaysia, China and the United States on the next phase of the search for the plane, which disappeared March 8. Details on the next phase are likely to be announced next week.

Johnston said more powerful towed side-scan commercial sonar equipment would probably be deployed, similar to the remote-controlled subs that found RMS Titanic 3,800 meters under the Atlantic Ocean in 1985 and the Australian WWII wreck HMAS Sydney in the Indian Ocean off the Australian coast, north of the current search area, in 2008.

While the Bluefin had less than one-fifth of the seabed search area to complete, Johnston estimated that task would take another two weeks.

Abbott said the airliner’s probable impact zone was 700 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide. A new search strategy would be adopted if nothing is found in the current seabed search zone.

“If at the end of that period we find nothing, we are not going to abandon the search, we may well rethink the search, but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery,” Abbott told reporters.

The focus of the next search phase will be decided by continuing analysis of information including flight data and sound detections of the suspected beacons, Johnston said, adding that the seabed in the vicinity of the search was up to 7 kilometers deep.

The search center said Thursday an air search involving up to 11 planes was planned to examine an area of nearly 50,000 square kilometers centered about 1,600 kilometers northwest of Perth. The center said it would first assess weather conditions, which have hampered aerial searches over the past two days. The center said 11 ships would also join the search.

Radar and satellite data show the jet veered far off course on March 8 for unknown reasons during its flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. An analysis indicates it would have run out of fuel in the remote section of ocean where the search has been focused. Not one piece of confirmed debris has been found since the massive multinational hunt began.

PrivateEyes · Apr 25, 2014

MH370 search 'likely to take years', says US official as Australia prepares to widen search area

PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 12:24pm
UPDATED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 3:24pm

Agencies

Photo released by Australian Defence Department on April 17, 2014 shows that Phoenix International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis is craned over the side of Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield. Photo: Xinhua

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is likely to drag on for years, a senior US defence official told said on Friday, as an underwater search appeared to have failed in finding any trace of the plane’s wreckage.

Australian officials also said on Friday that the sonar scan of the most likely crash site deep beneath the Indian Ocean is set to widen.

The Australian search coordination centre said a robotic submarine had scanned 95 per cent of a 310-square-kilometre search area since last week but had found nothing of interest. The US Navy’s Bluefin 21 is creating a three-dimensional sonar map of the ocean floor near where signals consistent with airplane black boxes were heard on April 8.

The search area is a circle with a 10-kilometre radius 4.5 kilometres deep off the west Australian coast. The search of the target area is scheduled to be completed within days.

“If no contacts of interest are made, Bluefin 21 will continue to examine the areas adjacent to the 10-kilometre radius,” the center said in a statement.

“We are currently consulting very closely with our international partners on the best way to continue the search into the future,” it added, referring to Malaysia, United States and China.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told CNN on Thursday that his government will release a preliminary report on the plane’s disappearance next week.

The report has already been sent to the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisation, but has yet to be made available to the public, CNN reported.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said this week that an announcement was likely next week on the next phase of the search for the Boeing 777 which vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

He said the next phase was likely to deploy more powerful side-scan sonar equipment that can delve deeper than the Bluefin 21.

On Friday, up to 8 planes and 10 ships were to search for debris over a 49,000-square-kilometre ocean expanse 1,600 kilometres northwest of the city of Perth where the search is headquartered, the center said.

Meanwhile, dozens of Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers held an overnight protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, demanding information from officials.

Police fanned out around the embassy on Friday morning, barring reporters from nearing the building. Embassy staff were not immediately available for comment.

Chinese relatives have for weeks complained bitterly about what they call Malaysia’s secretive and incompetent handling of the search.

Tensions boiled over at Thursday’s briefing, with some relatives claiming to be on “hunger strike” after airline representatives said a Malaysian embassy official would not arrive to answer their questions.

PrivateEyes · Apr 25, 2014

Malaysia to release report on disappearance of Flight MH370, says PM

Najib Razak tells CNN preliminary report on missing flight would be released 'next week' as Chinese relatives demand more transparency

PUBLISHED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 10:42am
UPDATED : Friday, 25 April, 2014, 5:39pm

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Photo: AP

Malaysia will release a preliminary report on the disappearance of Flight MH370, Prime Minister Najib Razak said, as the government battles widespread criticism over the transparency of its investigation.

“I have directed an internal investigation team of experts to look at the report, and there is a likelihood that next week we could release the report,” Razak told CNN in an interview aired late on Thursday.

The government has so far been tight-lipped about its investigation into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet, fuelling anger and frustration among the relatives of the 239 people aboard the plane.

The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is now believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, where an Australian-led effort is under way to recover its flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

Malaysia’s government has come under fire for a seemingly chaotic initial response, while the scarcity of official information on MH370 has prompted questions over its transparency.

Malaysia’s transport minister pledged earlier this month that any data that is eventually recovered from the plane’s black box recorders would be publicly released.

In his CNN interview, Najib also stressed that his government was not yet prepared to declare the passengers on board flight MH370 dead.

Angry relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight push through a police line to march on the Malaysian embassy from a hotel in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: AP

“At some point in time I would be, but right now I think I need to take into account the feelings of the next of kin – and some of them have said publicly that they aren’t willing to accept it until they find hard evidence,” Najib said.

But it was “hard to imagine otherwise,” he added.

Relatives of the passengers recently denounced the Malaysian government’s suggestion that it would soon look into issuing death certificates for those on board despite no proof yet of what happened to the plane.

PrivateEyes · Apr 26, 2014

Malaysia Airlines says staff 'held' by Chinese families

AFP
April 26, 2014, 2:51 am

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Ten Malaysia Airlines staff were held against their will for hours by Chinese relatives of flight MH370 passengers, the airline said Friday, at a Beijing hotel that has seen increasingly tense confrontations over the missing plane.

The airline employees were "barred from leaving" a ballroom for more than 10 hours on Thursday, and another staff member was kicked in the leg in a confrontation two days earlier, the airline said.

Tempers have repeatedly flared at the Lido Hotel, where Chinese relatives have been put up by the airline since the plane vanished, increasingly lashing out in briefings as Malaysian officials and the flag carrier have been unable to explain the plane's disappearance.

"Malaysia Airlines confirms that its staff were held at the Lido Hotel ballroom in Beijing by the family members of MH370 as the families expressed dissatisfaction in obtaining details of the missing aircraft on 24 April 2014 at 3 pm," it said in a statement released in Kuala Lumpur.

The more than 200 family members were incensed when a Malaysian government official did not come to brief them on Thursday, and the meeting descended into chaos as relatives angrily confronted airline staff.

An airline spokesman told AFP "the main MAS officials were barred from leaving the ballroom" as about 60 family members left for the Malaysian Embassy to demand information from government officials.

"The group finally released the staff at 1.44am, 25 April 2014," the airline's statement said.

The relatives who went to the embassy remained there in an overnight protest, two participants said Friday.

The carrier also said a Malaysia Airlines security supervisor was "kicked in the left knee" by an "aggressive" Chinese family member at the hotel on Tuesday.

The airline said it had filed a police report on the incident.

About two-thirds of the 239 passengers aboard the missing plane came from China.

Chinese relatives have for weeks complained bitterly about what they call Malaysia's secretive and incompetent handling of the search for the plane, which vanished March 8.

It disappeared from radar on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is believed to have crashed far out in the Indian Ocean.

A multi-national search, however, has failed to find any evidence despite weeks of looking.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Friday that his country urges Malaysia to "take seriously" the families' grievances, while urging families to behave in a "rational way".

Dozens of relatives staged a noisy protest last month at the embassy -- apparently sanctioned by Chinese authorities, who cleared streets for their approach -- decrying Malaysian authorities and the national airline as "murderers".

MasterYoda · Apr 26, 2014

Hmph

Funerals and death certificates

prepare they should

PrivateEyes · Apr 27, 2014

Indian Ocean undersea hunt area to be broadened in search for missing Flight MH370

Search co-ordinators to extend area of sea bed search as for missing Flight MH370 after submarine drone fails to find debris in 10 square kilometre zone after 50 days

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 3:50pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 3:50pm

Reuters in Perth

The Bluefin-21 submarine drone , is prepared for deployment from the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean. Photo: Reuters

The undersea search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is to be extended beyond the small area identified as its most likely resting place as the quest for any sign of the missing plane enters its 50th day on Saturday.

The US Navy submarine drone Bluefin-21 has so far searched about 95 per cent of a 10 square kilometre area of the Indian Ocean seabed, pinpointed after the detection of acoustic pings believed to be from the plane’s black box flight recorders.

Bluefin 21 had to abort the search on Friday and resurface due to a software malfunction. Technicians fixed the drone overnight and its 14th, 16 hour trip to the sea floor at depths of more than 4.5 kilometres was underway on Saturday.

“If no contacts of interest are made, Bluefin-21 will continue to examine the areas adjacent to the 10 kilometre radius,” Australia’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC) in charge of the search said in a statement.

Flight MH370 disappeared without a trace on March 8 flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

The search for MH370 is the longest and most expensive in aviation history, with ships and aircraft from some two dozen nations taking part. The air and sea search continued on Saturday with up to 8 military aircraft and 11 ships.

A US defence official told reporters on Friday that the sea search is likely to drag on for years as it enters the much more difficult phase of scouring broader areas of the ocean near where the plane is believed to have crashed.

Speaking under condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment on the search effort, the official said Malaysia would have to decide how to proceed with the search, including whether to bring in more underwater drones.

The Australian and Malaysian governments are under pressure to show what lengths they are prepared to go to in order to give closure to the grieving families of those on board flight MH370.

Malaysia is also under growing pressure to improve its disclosure about its investigation. Prime Minister Najib Razak told CNN on Thursday his government would make public a preliminary report into the plane’s disappearance next week.

MALAYSIAN Airlines flight en route to China is missing.

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