MALAYSIAN Airlines flight en route to China is missing.

PressToTeleport · Aug 16, 2015

Malaysia, China and Australia to meet in September to 'refine' search efforts for MH370

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 10:52pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 August, 2015, 10:52pm

Agence France-Presse

French maritime gendarmes look at a map in their search for wreckage from the missing MH370 plane on Reunion. Photo: AFP

Malaysia, China and Australia will meet in September to “refine” the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after part of the plane’s wing was discovered on an Indian Ocean island last month, more than a year on from its tragic disappearance.

On August 5, Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak said experts had “conclusively confirmed” that the debris found on the French island of Reunion – a piece of the wing known as the “flaperon” – came from the doomed flight, which vanished 17 months ago in one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

However, French investigators were more cautious, saying only there was a “very high probability” that the flaperon came from the plane, sparking anger from relatives over the ambiguity.

“With the discovery of the flaperon, we have to sit down with Australia and China to map the way forward to find the plane,” Malaysia’s deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said.

“We hope to refine and prioritise the search efforts. Definitely, the search will continue in the same area,” he said, adding that officials were working out the date for the gathering and the host for the meeting.

The jet disappeared from radar on March 8 last year after mysteriously veering off its original flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Investigators believe the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

Of the 239 people on board, the majority were Malaysians and Chinese. Australia has been leading the search for the plane, the largest multinational search operation in history.

More than 60,000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been searched so far, with no trace of the missing Boeing 777 found until last month’s discovery.

In April it was announced that the search area could be expanded up to 120,000 square kilometres if needed.

PressToTeleport · Aug 18, 2015

France scales back MH370 debris search

AAP
August 18, 2015, 3:51 am

France's air and sea search for wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 off the coast of Reunion island is being scaled back because no new debris has been discovered in days.

Aeroplanes, helicopters and ships were deployed to scour a 10,000-square-kilometre area of the waters surrounding the French territory in the eastern Indian Ocean after a wing fragment believed to have come from the Boeing 777 washed ashore in late July.

Malaysia's prime minister said the object "conclusively" come from the jet, but officials in France said only that there were strong indications it matched the missing plane.

The prefecture on Reunion Island said it would continue to be vigilant for further wreckage.

The plane disappeared without a trace with 239 people aboard about an hour after it left Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The plane mysteriously changed course and went out over the Indian Ocean before losing all contact.

Experts believe the plane went down in the waters off the western coast of Australia.

PressToTeleport · Sep 4, 2015

Wing part found on Reunion Island definitely from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, say French authorities

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 03 September, 2015, 11:40pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 03 September, 2015, 11:47pm

Reuters in Paris

French gendarmes and police inspecting a large piece of plane debris which was found on the beach in Saint-Andre on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion. Photo: Reuters

The piece of wing found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean has been formally identified as part of the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the Paris prosecutor said on Thursday.

The part, known as a flaperon, was found on the shore of the French-governed island on July 29 and Malaysian authorities have said paint colour and maintenance-record matches proved it came from the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

The French prosecutor, who had until Thursday’s statement been more cautious on its provenance, said a technician from Airbus Defense and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which had made the part for Boeing, had formally identified one of three numbers found on the flaperon as being the serial number of the MH370 Boeing 777.

"It is therefore possible to confirm with certainty that the flaperon found on Reunion island on July 29, 2015 corresponds to the one from flight MH370," the prosecutor said in a statement.

The plane disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese.

Cylon · Sep 5, 2015

French investigators confirm washed-up piece of debris belongs to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

The flight’s disappearance on March 8, 2014, has been one of aviation’s most confounding mysteries.

PUBLISHED : Friday, 04 September, 2015, 12:26pm
UPDATED : Friday, 04 September, 2015, 12:47pm

Associated press in Paris

file_france_reunion_transport_aircraft_mh370_qdr1658.jpg

Officers carrying a flaperon from an aircraft apparently washed ashore in Saint-Andre de la Reunion in July. Photo: EPA

French investigators have formally identified a washed-up piece of airplane debris found in July on a remote island in the Indian Ocean as part of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 that disappeared more than a year ago with 239 people aboard.

Investigators have been examining the wing part, called a flaperon, since it was flown to a French aeronautical research laboratory near Toulouse last month. Malaysian authorities had already declared that the wing fragment was from the jet that went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but until now French investigators couldn’t say with certainty that it was the case.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday that investigators used maintenance records to match a serial number found on the wing part with the missing Boeing.

“Today it is possible to state with certainty that the flaperon discovered on Reunion July 29, 2015 corresponds to that of Flight MH370,” the prosecutor’s statement said.

Cheng Liping, whose husband was on the plane, said in Beijing that she still needed to see his body and for the plane’s flight recorders, or black boxes, to be found.

“We have been anxiously waiting for such a long time and the confirmation of just one piece of debris can hardly tell us what happened to the plane,” she said on Friday.

The flight’s disappearance on March 8, 2014, has been one of aviation’s most confounding mysteries.

Until the wing flap washed ashore July 30 on the French island of Reunion, investigators had not found a single physical clue linked to the missing plane, despite a massive air and sea search. Officials believe it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, killing everyone aboard, but are unsure of the cause.

The discovery of the wing flap refocused the world’s attention on the investigation, which many hope will finally yield clues to the plane’s fate.

Australian forces are continuing their search for the plane in a desolate stretch of ocean 4,200km to the east of Reunion, where experts believe the plane crashed.

Investigators examining the wing fragment in France are trying to glean clues into the plane’s fate based on its condition, opening up even more questions: How, exactly, did the plane end up in the water? Was it a controlled landing? Was there an explosion?

Officials who scrutinised data exchanged between the plane’s engine and a satellite determined that the jetliner took a straight path across the ocean, leading them to believe that the plane flew on autopilot for hours before running out of fuel and crashing into the water.

po2wq · Oct 11, 2015

Man claims MH370 wreckage on south Philippines island

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah police have received a report claiming that an aircraft wreckage with the Malaysian flag painted on it was found on a southern Philippines island.

The report was made by a man who said the wreckage with human remains inside was spotted by his nephew, from the southern Philippine island of Tawi Tawi, at Ubian Island in southern Phillippines several days ago.

State Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the man made the report at the Sandakan police station on Saturday.

“This matter is being investigated,” he told The Star in a text message.

In the report the man, an audio visual technician in his 40s, said his nephew and a few others were hunting for birds when they spotted the wreckage on the island.

They managed to get near the wreckage where they found human bones. They also found skeletal remains in the pilot's chair with the seat belt fastened.

Before leaving the area, they took a flag they found in the wreckage.

The man said he informed police as the wreckage could be that of an airplane that disappeared last year.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them China nationals.

The incident triggered one of the largest search for an aircraft focusing in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Last month, French authorities confirmed a piece of wing found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean has been identified as part of the MH370 wreckage.

The flaperon was found on the shore of the French-governed island on July 29 and Malaysian authorities have said paint colour and maintenance-record matches proved it came from the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nati...-part-of-wreckage-in-south-philippnes-island/

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v8/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1178578

Cylon · Oct 13, 2015

Philippines dismisses reports MH370 wreckage found on remote island

AFP
October 13, 2015, 5:23 pm

Zamboanga (Philippines) (AFP) - Philippine authorities insisted on Tuesday a Malaysian Airlines jet that went missing last year had not crashed onto a remote Filipino island, after a man's claims that wreckage had been found there made headlines.

The precise fate of Flight MH370, which went missing in March last year with 239 people on board, remains a mystery, and the latest reports appeared to be yet another false lead based on no evidence.

While a wing part from the jet was found washed up on a beach in the Indian Ocean in July, the rest of the plane has yet to be found.

Malaysian media reported at the weekend that a Filipino man told Malaysian police that his relatives had found wreckage of a plane, with skeletons inside, in the jungles of the Philippines' remote Tawi-Tawi island chain.

Despite the report appearing to have little credibility, some media in Britain, the United States, Singapore and elsewhere picked it up, saying wreckage of a plane had been found on the island and it could be from MH370.

Philippine authorities said on Tuesday that no plane wreckage had been found, and questioned the credibility of the apparent police witness.

"I sent people to the site where it (the plane wreck) was supposedly seen and the results were negative," the deputy police director of Tawi-Tawi, Superintendent Glenn Roy Gabor, told AFP by phone.

"There was someone who was spreading that story but it has no truth to it and the person spreading it has disappeared."

Gabor said that if a big plane had crashed on Sagbay island, as the man reportedly claimed to Malaysian police, local residents would definitely have noticed.

"We interviewed the local people and they didn't see anything. That is a small area. It is impossible they wouldn't see something like that," he said.

Tawi-Tawi governor Nurbert Sahali also released a statement saying no wreckage had been found.

The Boeing 777 mysteriously disappeared as it was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Authorities believed it crashed into the Indian Ocean, but a massive investigation has failed to find the main body of the plane or determine why it went missing.

The only major breakthrough came in late July when a two-metre (almost seven-foot) wing part washed up on a beach on Reunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean.

Authorities later confirmed it was from MH370, in the first confirmation that the plane had met a tragic end in the Indian Ocean. But the discovery has not led to any further hard evidence of what happened to the plane.

In the absence of proof, there have been many false leads and conspiracy theories that have been given widespread publicity.

virus · Jan 24, 2016

liow liow.. all speculations were false.

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/01/24/liow-dca-instructed-to-contact-thai-counterparts/

LANGKAWI: The suspected “plane wreckage” found of the coast of southern Thailand is not confirmed to be from MH370, says Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (pic).

“It is still speculation right now,” the Transport Minister told The Star at the Langkawi International Airport, referring to news reports on the purported wreckage.

Liow added that he had instructed the Department of Civil Aviation to contact its Thai counterpart for verification.

He added that the public should not share unverified news lest it “causes more pain to the victims’ family members”.

A piece of suspected plane wreckage was reportedly found off the coast of southern Thailand, a local official said on Saturday, prompting speculation it might belong to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370.

A large piece of curved metal washed ashore in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, where villagers reported it to the authorities to help identify it, Tanyapat Patthikongpan, head of Pak Phanang district, told Reuters.

“Villagers found the wreckage, measuring about 2m wide and 3m long,” he said.

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, after its departure from Kuala Lumpur with 239 passengers on board.

On July 29, 2015, a piece of the plane wing was discovered on Reunion Island and sent to France for further analysis.

On Aug 6, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak confirmed that part of the flaperon found on the island belonged to the aircraft.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...each-amid-reports-missing-airliner-MH370.html

Cylon · Feb 22, 2016

MH370 search: ‘rogue pilot’ theory still on Australian investigators’ radar

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane continues to be governed by the theory there was no control input in use for the last portion of the flight

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 20 February, 2016, 2:01pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 20 February, 2016, 2:28pm

The Guardian

Flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine looks out of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion as it flies over the southern Indian Ocean during the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photo: Reuters

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane continues to be governed by the theory there was no control input in use for the last portion of the flight.

The Australian authority in charge of the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 says the “ghost flight theory”continues to guide its investigations.

The clarification comes amid reports the theory that a rogue pilot deliberately brought down the plane could be revived.

A Thai soldier inspects a piece of suspected plane wreckage found off the coast of southern Thailand in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, in this January 24, 2016 file photo. Photo: Reuters

The Boeing 777-200ER aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled passenger service to Beijing on 8 March 2014, then disappeared with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has been searching a 60,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia, a long but narrow arc determined by calculations of where the plane would have come down after its fuel ran out.

The hypothesis governing the search is that, after it had turned off course and travelled across the Malaysian peninsula, MH370 became a “ghost flight”, travelling on autopilot and crashing when its fuel ran out.

This file photo taken on March 8, 2015 shows Ghyslain Wattrelos (foreground, second right) holding a banner which translates as

This is supported by analysis of satellite data that the plane continued to fly for more than six hours after contact was lost.

A flaperon from MH370 washed up on remote Réunion Island off the east coast of Madagascar in July last year, but no other trace of the plane has been found.

The search will conclude at some point in June, depending on progress between now and then, and external factors such as weather.

A Malaysian official (centre) takes pictures of the suspected aircraft debris after it was found by fishermen in Nakhon Si Thammarat. Thailand's air force said it would bring a metal panel measuring two metres by three metres to Bangkok, amid media speculation it may belong to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Photo: AFP

If at that point the plane has not been found, the bureau will have to posit theories as to why it was not in the search area, one of which is that it was piloted down deliberately.

The ATSB chief commissioner, Martin Dolan, told The Times the investigation was not yet at that point, since it was still likely the aircraft would be found in the search area. But if that didn’t happen, “we will have to explain to governments what the alternative is”.

The “rogue pilot theory” would become “a more significant possibility”only if the entire current search area was eliminated.

A closer look at the piece of debris found in Thailand last month. Photo: AFP

Dolan was unavailable to comment to Guardian Australia, but a spokesman said the search for MH370 continued to be governed by the theory there was no control input on the aircraft for the last portion of the flight.

“We haven’t seen anything to change our perspective on the search,”he said.

He also said Australia’s responsibility was to look for MH370 in the predetermined area of the southern Indian ocean.

Malaysian authorities had been tasked with investigating what happened on the flight, and he could not comment on how that investigation was progressing.

The ship Ocean Shield is pictured at Her Majesty's Australian Ship (HMAS) Base Stirling, south of Perth, in this 2014 file photo. The Australian naval vessel carrying the Bluefin-21 submersible underwater drone was involved in the search for MH370. Photo: Reuters

“It is not ATSB’s role to put forward theories about what may have happened or why. Mr Dolan has indicated the sorts of considerations that might need to be addressed in a report to governments at the conclusion of the search.

“As set out in the reports on our website, the ATSB is searching on the basis that there were no control inputs at the end of the aircraft’s flight.

“Any analysis or conclusion based on the results of our search are matters for the Malaysian investigations.”

In late January, the Malaysian transport ministry announced that a piece of suspected plane wreckage found off the coast of southern Thailand days earlier had not belonged to flight MH370.

Cylon · Mar 3, 2016

Possible MH370 debris taken to Australia

AAP
March 3, 2016, 4:31 am

Debris believed to be part of a Boeing 777 jet found off Mozambique is being taken to Australia to be examined by investigators involved in the search for the missing Flight MH370.

Malaysia's transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said there is a "high possibility" that the piece of debris belonged to a 777 jet but added he could not conclude yet that it was from the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner.

"The debris will be taken to Australia for further examination," he told Reuters.

The piece of debris was discovered off the east African coast between Mozambique and Madagascar.

Liow said a team of investigators had been sent to Mozambique on Tuesday to inspect the object.

He said Malaysian authorities had sought the help of Australian investigators to secure the debris, as Malaysia did not have an embassy in Mozambique.

Earlier on Wednesday, NBC News reported the piece could be a horizontal stabiliser from a Boeing 777, citing US, Malaysian and Australian investigators who looked at photos of the debris.

Flight MH370 disappeared two years ago when it was carrying 239 people, including six Australians, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

Last year authorities found a piece of the plane's wing on the shore of Reunion island in the Indian Ocean on the other side of Madagascar.

"It is yet to be confirmed and verified ... I urge everyone to avoid undue speculation as we are not able to conclude that the debris belongs to MH370 at this time," Liow said on his Twitter account.

Leongsam · Mar 3, 2016

Honestly who gives a shit about the fate of planeload of Tiongs.

There are 1.4 BILLION of the same breed on this earth. Surely they can spare a couple of hundred without going into hissy fits.

It isn't worth spending another penny on this issue. The ROI is non existent.

Cylon · Mar 5, 2016

Families of missing MH370 passengers sue airline as deadline nears

Reuters
March 4, 2016, 9:05 pm

2016_03_04t101423z_2_lynxnpec230jr_rtroptp_2_malaysia_airlines_court-1bdioak.jpg

Lawyer Sangeet Deo (R) speaks to members of the media, accompanied by relatives of passengers Tan Ah Meng, his wife Chuang Hsiu Ling, and son Tan Wei Chew, who were aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, during a hearing for the compensation suit brought against the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines over claims of negligence and breach of trust, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 4, 2016. REUTERS/Olivia Harris

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The families of 12 passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 filed suits against the airline on Friday before a two-year deadline for legal action expires.

MH370 disappeared en route to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Multiple suits have been filed in the United States, Australian, Chinese and Malaysian courts in the past few weeks and more are expected as the deadline approaches on Tuesday.

Family members of two Ukrainian passengers filed suits in the Malaysian High Court against Malaysia Airlines (MAS). The families of a Russian, a Chinese and eight Malaysian passengers are suing the Malaysian government, the airline, the Civil Aviation Department director-general and the Malaysian air force.

Sangeet Kaur Deo, a lawyer for the Russian, Chinese and Malaysian families, said they were seeking unspecified damages for negligence, breach of contract and breach of statutory duty. She said even though the plane had not been found, the passengers and crew were presumed to be dead.

"I think a lot of families were trying to negotiate settlements but nothing reasonable has been forthcoming from MAS. And for that reason, to secure their legal rights, they've all decided to file before Tuesday," Sangeet Kaur told reporters after the hearing.

A wing part recovered from Reunion island off Madagascar last year is the only debris from MH370 that has been found, but it offers little clues over what actually happened to the plane.

This week, a piece of debris found off the southeast African coast was sent to Australia for testing.

The High Court on Friday also heard a bid by the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) to strike out a suit filed by two teenage children of two passengers.

In their application, the government and MAB argued that it has no liability in relation to MH370 as it was set up eight months after the plane disappeared.

MAS transferred all its assets and operations to MAB last year as part of a restructuring exercise. Families now fear that they will not be able to receive any damages or compensation from MAS.

Apart from Malaysian government bodies, MAS and MAB, the family suits have also named Malaysia Airlines’ insurance provider, Allianz, and Boeing , the aircraft's manufacturer, as potential defendants.

(This refiled version of the story changes typographical error in para five to read "She said")

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Cylon · Mar 5, 2016

Flight 370 hunt running out of sea to search

Kristen Gelineau, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Friday, March 04, 2016 11:42 AM EST | Updated: Friday, March 04, 2016 11:49 AM EST

In this Tuesday, April 1, 2014, file photo, an observer on a Japan Coast Guard Gulfstream aircraft takes photos out of a window while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean, near Australia. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, Pool)

SYDNEY, Australia -- As the two-year anniversary of the disappearance of Flight 370 approaches, the situation would seem decidedly grim. The underwater hunt of a punishing patch of ocean that has trudged along since late 2014 has thus far come up empty, the stretch of water left to search is narrowing and skepticism of whether crews are looking in the right place continues to grow.

Still, the man overseeing one of the most complex searches ever conducted seems remarkably unfazed.

"Our best estimate back then was it would take up to two years," says Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the hunt in the desolate waters of the Indian Ocean 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) off Australia's west coast. "We were hoping we'd do it more quickly than that. But we knew this was potentially a long game and we planned for the long game."

The ending to that game is now in sight. By late June, crews are expected to finish scouring the entire 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square mile) search zone. If they haven't found the Boeing 777 by then, there are no plans to expand the search area. And so the hunt will end -- plane or no plane.

With that finality nearing, the ATSB has come under increasing scrutiny over the methods used to determine the search area. Dolan says crews still have a big chunk of ocean to scour -- around 30,000 square kilometres (11,500 square miles) -- and he remains relatively confident the plane lies somewhere within that patch. "We're not at the point where we're particularly concerned," he says.

But with 70 per cent of the search zone covered, the window for success is narrowing, and one question is being asked with increasing frequency: What if they're looking in the wrong place?

Dolan hates hypotheticals. Still, given that he doesn't believe his well-equipped and well-trained crews could drift over the wreckage and miss it, he concedes that if the plane isn't found in the current search zone, it must be because their working theory of what happened on board is wrong.

Malaysia, as the country where the plane was registered, is in charge of figuring out what happened to Flight 370 and why. Australia, as the country closest to where officials believe the plane crashed, is tasked with finding it. But there is necessarily some overlap; Australia had to settle on one of the many theories about Flight 370's fate in order to determine where to look.

The theory the ATSB considers the most probable, based on several factors including satellite data, is that no one was at the controls of the plane when it hit the water. Malaysia long ago said the plane's erratic movements after it took off from Kuala Lumpur were consistent with deliberate actions by someone on board, suggesting someone in the cockpit intentionally flew the aircraft off course. The question Australian officials have focused on is what happened after that.

Analysis of exchanges between the plane's engine and a satellite showed the plane flew south on a straight path during its final hours, suggesting it was on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the water. Based on that theory, and the location of the final "handshake" between the plane and the satellite, officials calculated the current search area.

Some skeptics have increasingly been pushing an alternate theory: that someone was still controlling the plane at the end of its flight. If that was the case, the plane could have glided much farther, tripling in size the patch of ocean where it could have crashed.

Dolan says officials have always considered that theory, but it is seen as unlikely for several reasons. Among them: The final "handshake" between the plane and a satellite indicated that the aircraft had lost power and it occurred at a point consistent with it running out of fuel. That matters, Dolan says, because if a pilot wants to control the ditching of an aircraft, he or she is trained to do so while there is still power available to the engines. Also, if someone had been at the controls with the goal of maximizing the aircraft's range while crossing the Indian Ocean, the plane could have flown around 300 kilometres (190 miles) farther than the satellite evidence shows it did. That's because pilots use a technique called step climb to alter the plane's altitude in a bid to preserve fuel on long flights.

"All our analysis tells us that by far the most likely scenario is, for whatever reason, that there were no control inputs at the end of flight," Dolan says. "But we have never discounted the possibility of the other scenarios."

As the debate rolls on, so too does the underwater search of the mountainous seabed, which reaches depths of 6.5 kilometres (4 miles). A Chinese ship has just joined the hunt equipped with a state-of-the-art towed sonar device, bringing to four the number of vessels scanning the rugged terrain for wreckage. China's contribution of the ship marks the first time it has agreed to share the financial cost of the search with Malaysia and Australia, which have each pledged $60 million to the hunt. Most of the 239 people on board were Chinese.

Two of the other ships are dragging sonar devices called "towfish" just above the seabed to scan for debris. Another ship, Havila Harmony, has a manoeuvrable deep-sea drone that has been fitted with a camera and high-resolution sonar for searching difficult terrain and for taking a closer look at areas of interest.

Over the past year, the crews have endured a series of hardships: violent weather, on-board medical dramas that forced the ships to return to port, equipment snafus. In January, one of the towfish crashed into an underwater volcano.

Officials got a rare boost in July when a piece of the plane's wing washed up on Reunion Island on the other side of the Indian Ocean. The discovery of the first confirmed debris from Flight 370 sent a buzz through the Australian search team, Dolan says. This week, authorities announced that an aircraft part that appeared to be from a Boeing 777 washed up in Mozambique; the horizontal stabilizer has yet to be confirmed as part of Flight 370.

An analysis of ocean currents shows that both objects could have drifted from the underwater search zone, bolstering confidence the crews are looking in the right spot.

"There was a noticeable increase in the energy levels in the team," after the Reunion find, Dolan says. "I think it's just because if you plug away on what were essentially mathematical models for a long time, to get something physical that is consistent with what you've been modeling always adds something."

The team hoped that France's analysis of the wing part would reveal clues about what happened at the end of the plane's flight, therefore narrowing the search area. But the analysis hasn't shed any fresh light on that mystery, Dolan says.

As months turn into years, Dolan has had to be cautious about allowing Flight 370 to become all-consuming. He still has an agency to run that is grappling with 130 other investigations, he says. Still, every morning, he checks to see what information came in overnight, eager for good news.

"I always hope I'll get up one morning and we've found it," he says.

Cylon · Mar 5, 2016

He went on a one-man search for flight MH370. Miraculously, he seems to have found some of it

PUBLISHED : Friday, 04 March, 2016, 9:03am
UPDATED : Friday, 04 March, 2016, 11:11am

Associated Press in Maputo, Mozambique

Blaine Gibson poses for a photo in Maputo, Mozambique, on Thursday. Photo: AP

The discovery of an apparent piece of debris from missing flight MH370 was all the more remarkable for the fact that the find was no coincidence - but the result of a one-man mission to hunt down wreckage from the airliner.

It is a search that has defied the efforts of multiple nations spending tens of millions of dollars, with a fleet of warships and hundreds of searchers at their disposal.

American adventurer Blaine Gibson said Thursday that when he discovered part of an aircraft on a sandbar off the coast of Mozambique, he initially thought it was from a small plane, and not from the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared two years ago with 239 people aboard.

If confirmed that the piece of tail section came from Flight MH370, a small piece of the puzzle will have been found, but it might not be enough to help solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries.

In an interview, Gibson described how a boat operator took him to a sandbar named Paluma and then called him over after seeing a piece of debris with “NO STEP” written on it.

An undated handout photo released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau on Thursday shows the suspected piece of aircraft debris found on the coast of Mozambique by US searcher Blaine Gibson. Photo: AFP

“It was so light,” said Gibson, who has told reporters that he has spent a long time searching for evidence of missing Flight MH370.

Photos of the debris appear to show the fixed leading edge of the right-hand tail section of a Boeing 777, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to speak publicly. Flight MH370 is the only known missing 777.

Gibson said the discovery happened after he decided to go “somewhere exposed to the ocean” on the last day of a trip to the Mozambican coastal town of Vilankulo.

“At first, all I found were usual beach detritus — flip flops, cigarette lighters. Then ‘Junior’ called me over,” said Gibson, using the nickname of the boat operator.

“I think, ‘Wow, this looks like it’s from an airplane but it looks like it’s from a small airplane because it’s very light and very thin. But I suppose there’s a chance that it could be from the plane or from one of those others.’

“In any case, it needs to be preserved, brought to the authorities and investigated,” he said. “So yes, my heart was thumping, there was anticipation, there was excitement.”

But Gibson said he wants “to exercise caution. We don’t yet know what this piece is ... Until it’s been investigated by the experts, I warn not to jump to any conclusions.”

After being interviewed, Gibson went to the Maputo airport to take a flight to Malaysia to participate in second anniversary commemorations of the disappearance.

“It’s important to keep it in perspective,” Gibson said of his find. “This is about the families of the 239 victims, who haven’t seen their relatives for two years now.”

Gibson, who is from Seattle, said the piece of debris is now in the hands of civil aviation authorities in Mozambique, and that he expects it to be transferred to their Australian counterparts.

He said that he had come to Mozambique as part of a dream to see every country in the world.

“It has been my ambition since I was 7 to visit every country in the world. Malawi was number 176, Mozambique was number 177,” he said.

According to New York Magazine, Gibson has spent much of the past year searching for traces of the missing airliner. Gibson has travelled to the Maldives Islands to investigate reports of a plane flying low at the time of the disappearance, Reunion Island to interview a man who found another section of the plane, and met with Australian deputy prime minister Warren Truss to discuss Australia’s seabed search for the plane.

The location of the debris matches investigators’ theories about where wreckage from the plane would have ended up, according to Australian officials.

The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014 and is believed to have crashed somewhere in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean, far off Australia’s west coast and about 6,000km east of Mozambique. Authorities have long predicted that any debris from the plane that isn’t on the ocean floor would eventually be carried by currents to the east coast of Africa.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said Thursday the location of the debris in Mozambique matches investigators’ drift modelling and would therefore confirm that search crews are looking in the right part of the Indian Ocean for the main underwater wreckage. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai also said the location of the debris lines up with investigators’ predictions.

People who have handled the part, called a horizontal stabilizer, say it appears to be made of fiberglass composite on the outside, with aluminum honeycombing on the inside, the US official said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is running the search for the plane in remote waters off Australia’s west coast, said the part is expected to be transported to Australia for examination.

Malaysian representatives from the nation’s Civil Aviation department and Malaysia Airlines were heading to Mozambique to discuss the find, Liow said.

Cylon · Mar 7, 2016

Two years on, MH370 kin want search extended

AFP
March 7, 2016, 2:18 am

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Families devastated by the loss of flight MH370 vowed Sunday never to quit fighting for answers in the aviation mystery and said the huge search for the Malaysia Airlines plane should continue until something is found.

Families gathered for a poignant ceremony in Kuala Lumpur ahead of Tuesday's second anniversary of the jet's disappearance and to argue for an expansion of the search if the current area being scoured comes up empty.

"We are fighting to search on because our loved ones are not home yet. So how can we say it?s the end?" said Jacquita Gonzales, wife of flight steward Patrick Gomes.

The unprecedented Australian-led hunt for wreckage from the Boeing 777 is expected to finish its high-tech scanning of a designated swathe of seafloor in the remote Indian Ocean by July.

Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities plan to end the search -- projected to cost up to $130 million -- at that point if no compelling new leads emerge.

A piece of the plane washed up on the French-held island of La Reunion last year, and new debris that is yet to be confirmed as from MH370 was found on a Mozambique beach last week.

But the finds came thousands of kilometres from the suspected crash zone and have yielded no clues.

In one of aviation's greatest enigmas, the plane inexplicably vanished during an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 passengers and crew.

- 'OK, what next?' -

Citing imprecise satellite data, search authorities believe it flew for hours to the remote southern Indian Ocean and went down.

Many relatives remain unconvinced that authorities are searching in the right place.

"If they have exhausted one particular line of inquiry, that doesn?t mean other areas may not come up with something. Just sit down and ask, 'OK, what next'?" said K.S. Narendran, an Indian national whose wife Chandrika was aboard.

Authorities hope to detect debris far down in the ocean depths and eventually recover and analyse the black boxes for clues.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and head of the challenging operation, told AFP last week he remained "very hopeful" something can be found before the 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) search zone is fully scanned.

Many next-of-kin accuse the airline and Malaysian government of letting the plane slip away through a bungled response and covering up what caused the disappearance.

Some also allege Malaysia wants to stop searching to prevent embarrassing information from emerging, which the airline and government strongly deny.

Sunday's ceremony included prayers, musical performances and the release of 240 white balloons, one for each passenger and another for the plane.

Relatives say acceptance of their unexplained loss remains impossible two years on.

"We don?t have anything to accept. We still know nothing and we are all in limbo. If anything I am worse than before," said Grace Nathan, a Malaysian attorney who lost her mother.

Added Gonzales: "We will fight on to make sure that we get the truth of exactly what happened to all of them. We will not give up."

Cylon · Mar 8, 2016

Answers remain elusive on second anniversary of MH370 disappearance

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 08 March, 2016, 3:46am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 08 March, 2016, 3:45am

Kyodo in Kuala Lumpur

Relatives of people aboard the ill-fated Flight MH370 attend a commemoration event in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur March 6, 2016. Photo: Xinhua

Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and also the deadline for legal action with regard to the disappearance.

The Boeing 777 plane was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it went vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Under the International Civil Aviation Organisation Montreal Convention, passengers must file compensation claims within two years of an incident.

However, the families of many victims have been unable to seek legal redress due to issues surrounding legal action. Malaysian law requires relatives to seek consent from Malaysia Airlines before they can sue it.

The unknowns behind the cause of the disappearance have also posed problems to those looking into the legal process. Since the cockpit voice and flight data recorders have not yet been found, the authorities are unable to determine whether fault lies with the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing, or with Malaysia Airlines.

So far, only one piece of debris has been found and confirmed to be from the missing flight. The part, a flaperon, was found washed up on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean in July 2015.

Netherlands-based Fugro Survey continues to search an area off the western coast of Australia with funding and equipment provided by Malaysia, Australia and China.

Given that the aircraft was registered to Malaysia, the responsibility for the investigation lies with their government. However, the bulk of the search has been organised by Australia due it being the closest country to the suspected crash site.

Joao de Abreu, director of the National Civil Aviation Institute of Mozambique, displays a piece of an air plane found off the coast of Mozambique

Locating the crash site has proven difficult. The current search area is based on modelling by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau operating on the assumption that the crew and passengers were unconscious for the last part of the flight due to lack of oxygen from decompression of the cabin.

Throughout the search critics have argued that modelling does not take into account a theory that the pilot remained conscious for the last leg of the flight.

However, ATSB Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan says all possibilities were examined when deciding on the search area.

“The only level of uncertainty is the behaviour of the aircraft at the very end of its flight. The weight of the evidence indicates that there were no control inputs to the aircraft at the very end of its flight and that’s the basis on which we have calculated the search area,” he told Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald recently.

Some 85,000 sq km have currently been completed of the planned 120,000 sq km search site. The bureau has said the search is likely to be completed by June this year and there are no current plans to extend it.

In a press release from December 2015, the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said the Australian, Chinese and Malaysia governments had agreed not to broaden the search without further credible evidence. The discovery of another possible piece of debris has not altered this plan.

The debris, a piece of metal suspected to be from a Boeing 777, was found washed up on a beach in Mozambique on Thursday on February 27. The one-meter-long piece is to be transferred to Australia for examination to determine whether it is from MH370.

Australian transport minister Darren Chester confirmed the find will not alter the search area.

“[It] is consistent with drift modelling commissioned by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau and reaffirms the search area for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean,” he said.

With just months to go, the most expensive search of its kind in history is running out of time to provide answers.

Cylon · Jul 21, 2016

Transport ministers to discuss future of MH370 search

AFP on July 20, 2016, 4:30 pm

2014-03-22T053619Z_01_SAM04_RTRIDSP_3_MALAYSIA-AIRLINES-22-03-2014-07-03-01-487.jpg

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Transport ministers from Australia, China and Malaysia will meet Friday to discuss the future of the frustrating deep-sea search for missing flight MH370, officials said on Wednesday.

The Australian-led search is scouring the seafloor within a designated 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) belt of remote Indian Ocean where authorities believe the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet may have gone down.

Searching is expected to be completed possibly in the next few weeks, and the three countries have said the hugely expensive high-tech sonar operation far off western Australia will not be further expanded without "credible" new evidence pointing to a crash site.

"The search has been unprecedented in both size and scale, conducted in some of the world's most isolated waters and at times in extremely challenging weather," Australia's Transport Minister Darren Chester said Wednesday.

"The meeting will provide an opportunity to reflect on achievements to date and discuss next steps as we near completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area," he added.

The Boeing 777 vanished March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, mostly Chinese nationals.

The cause of its disappearance is unknown and remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

Amid expectations that the search will soon draw to a close, some families have called for it to be continued indefinitely until the mystery is solved.

Many families continue to allege that only a deliberate cover-up could explain the lack of answers, and some are demanding a reassessment of available data to determine whether authorities are looking in the right area.

The sweep of the search area is expected to be completed within weeks. Picture: Justin Baulch/ Australian Transport Safety Bureau

Several pieces of debris that apparently drifted thousands of kilometres toward the western Indian Ocean and African coast have been identified as definitely or probably from the Boeing 777, confirming that it indeed must have gone down.

Friday's meeting will be held in the Malaysian administrative capital Putrajaya and will also be attended by Malaysia's Liow Tiong Lai and China's Yang Chuantang.

halsey02 · Jul 21, 2016

With today's technology, I am sure, the location of the down plane can be easily found. Look, the military of today, can easily pin point a location to attack or bomb, why can't they locate the plane?. You get a nagging feeling that, there are those, who wants the plane to rot to such an extent & then when the time is up or statutory laws have pass their tim frame....viola!..they will announce they found the plane.

Cylon · Jul 22, 2016

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/1992792/missing-mh370-could-have-crashed-north-search-area-says

Cylon · Jul 29, 2016

Missing MH370 wreckage may be further north, study suggests

AFP on July 28, 2016, 4:44 am

579902d5e8086_dd2941a9be72f33f0b083a9ad8d3dce746e25989-1bpi0ml.jpg

Paris (AFP) - Just days after authorities mooted suspending the ocean search for missing flight MH370, researchers suggested on Wednesday that the debris zone may stretch a further 500 kilometres (310 miles) north.

A team of Italian scientists used computer modelling, into which they fed data on ocean currents and winds over the past two years, to try and pinpoint the Malaysia Airlines plane's likely underwater grave.

They also added information on the location of five confirmed pieces of debris found to date ? two in Mozambique and one each in Reunion, South Africa, and Mauritius.

"One of the most important findings is that everything that has been discovered so far is indeed compatible with the area where the authorities are searching," lead researcher Eric Jansen of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change in Italy told AFP.

"The most likely (crash) area we found in our simulations overlaps with the official search area," he said. But it also stretches a further 500 km north.

"If nothing is found in the current search area, it may be worth extending the search in this direction," said Jansen, while conceding "the area is very large."

Last week, Malaysia, Australia and China said hopes of finding the doomed plane were fading and the search would be suspended if nothing is found in the current search zone.

The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people aboard. It remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The Australian-led search operation is scanning the seafloor at forbidding depths within a 120,000-square-kilometre (46,000-square-mile) area -- nearly the size of Greece.

"I don't expect really that the authorities will change their opinion based on this" new data, said Jansen.

"The search is incredibly expensive and has being going on for two years," he said, adding: "it is, of course, a question of money."

Jansen described the disappearance of the plane as "bizarre".

"It is important to understand what happened, not only for all the people directly involved, but also for the safety of aviation in general," he said in a statement issued by the European Geosciences Union, which publishes the Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences journal in which the study was carried.

"We hope that we can contribute to this, even if our study is just a small piece of a very complicated puzzle."

Cylon · Sep 7, 2016

Mozambique shows 3 new pieces of suspected MH370 debris

AFP on September 5, 2016, 11:38 pm

57cd771bd4889_8d3a46cb7654275df4c7fa715d3712ea9237e3ba-1bsqtor.jpg

Mozambique shows 3 new pieces of suspected MH370 debris

Maputo (AFP) - Mozambique authorities on Monday exhibited three new pieces of aircraft that washed up along its coast and are suspected of belonging to the missing flight MH370.

The largest item is a triangular shaped piece which is red and white on one side and metallic on the other.

It was picked up late last month by a South African hotelier off the waters of Mozambique's southern province of Inhambane.

Joao de Abreu, director of Mozambique's aviation authority said it was the first time a coloured piece had been found.

At a news conference, he said the piece could be "an aileron, a flap,(or) an elevator."

On the inside, "we can see a label which will make it much easier to identify which aircraft it belongs to," he said.

The other two pieces are smaller and were picked up by the son of a European Union diplomat near the southern resort of Xai Xai and handed to the authorities last month, he said, giving no further details.

The items will be sent to Malaysia for examination.

Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 vanished in March 2014 with 239 people onboard as it was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Australia, which is leading the search, has determined that the five pieces of debris examined so far -- found in Mozambique, South Africa and Mauritius -- almost certainly came from the plane.

The first debris linked to MH370 -- a two-metre-long (almost seven-foot) wing part known as a flaperon -- washed up on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion a year ago.

AFP

MALAYSIAN Airlines flight en route to China is missing.

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