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

PressToTeleport · Feb 1, 2015

Angry relatives of flight MH370 victims reject Malaysia's findings, turn down payouts

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 31 January, 2015, 1:50pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 31 January, 2015, 2:39pm

Agence France-Presse in Beijing

Relatives for the victims of MH370 Malaysian Airline missing flight hold a press conference in Subang Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

Traumatised relatives of those aboard missing flight MH370 Friday blasted the Malaysian government for declaring the passengers and crew dead without evidence of the plane’s fate, and rejected compensation offers.

Malaysian authorities a day earlier had said they were now classifying the unexplained disappearance of the plane as an “accident” under global aviation conventions and said for the first time that all 239 on board were presumed dead.

But relatives in both Malaysia and China - two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals - rejected that declaration.

“We call on Malaysia to withdraw their statement. It lacks a basis in evidence,” said Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the plane, calling on authorities to apologise.

More than 100 Chinese relatives of the lost passengers are demanding Malaysia withdraw the statement, according to posts in an online group they use.

In Kuala Lumpur, some 20 relatives held a briefing to blast Malaysia’s move and demand answers to a 10-month-old mystery they said has been mishandled from the start and marked by secrecy on the part of the government and flag carrier.

“Almost all families are unanimous in our stand that we do not want to declare our loved ones dead without a shred of evidence,” they said in a prepared statement.

Policemen move in to stop family members (L), whose relatives were onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, giving an interview to the media yesterday. Photo: Reuters

“We, the next of kin of MH370, are perplexed as to why the Malaysian authorities are jumping the gun in wanting to make any announcements while the search is a long way from completion.”

Family members in Beijing, some of whom burst into tears as they spoke to reporters near a Buddhist temple, said they had received little advance warning of the announcement - echoing complaints from furious relatives in Kuala Lumpur.

“Malaysia ignored the right of relatives to know the news first,” Jiang added.

Malaysia’s declaration opens the door for compensation payments, but many relatives told AFP they wanted answers before any compensation.

“We don’t want money. We want the truth about what happened,” said Hu Xiufang, whose only child, daughter-in-law and grandson were on the plane.

Chinese media reported on Friday that the father of an MH370 passenger died suddenly at his home three hours after hearing the plane was missing.

Li Xiaohui, 60, whose son was onboard, had no known serious medical problems at the time of his death, a state-run outlet called The Paper reported.

The plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing last March 8 in one of history’s great aviation mysteries.

Malaysia’s government says satellite data indicates the plane inexplicably detoured to the remote southern Indian Ocean, which they suspect was due to “deliberate” action onboard.

But no evidence has turned up despite an ongoing Australian-led search and rescue operation - the most expensive in history.

The relatives in Kuala Lumpur said they fear Thursday’s declaration indicated Malaysian authorities’ desire to wash their hands of the affair and leave it unsolved.

They appealed to the governments of Malaysia, Australia and China not to abandon the search.

Chinese relatives have formed a loose-knit group to express their demands, but Beijing is wary of any unofficial organisations and they have met with harassment from police.

Around a dozen policemen on Friday surrounded relatives of MH370 passengers outside the temple, telling them not to speak to reporters and ordering journalists to leave the scene.

PressForNirvana · Feb 1, 2015

MH370: Australia insists it has not given up search after loss declared an 'accident'

Head of Australian search authority refuses to comment on costs of underwater MH370 operation but says she wakes each morning "praying that today is the day"

(File photo) Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion flies past Australian Defense vessel Ocean Shield on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the acoustic search of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Photo: AP

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney
1:57PM GMT 30 Jan 2015

The Australian authority overseeing the MH370 search says its focus is "just as fervent" as when the hunt started and it has deployed a fourth ship to cover difficult underwater territory in the Indian Ocean.

A day after Malaysian authorities declared the loss of the plane an accident and all 239 passengers presumed dead, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said it supported the declaration but had not given up on finding the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

"We remain focused on the search activity. We have a priority area," Judith Zielke, an Australian civil servant who is coordinating the search, told ABC News.

"We've just put a fourth vessel into the search area to assist with some of the more difficult areas of the terrain, but please be assured that our focus on these search operations continues to be just as fervent as it was when we first started."

The official description of the incident as an "accident" was made by Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia's civil aviation department, and was intended to pave the way for families of passengers to be compensated.

No trace of the Boeing 777 has been found since it flew off course and disappeared during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. The plane is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

Some families of the passengers were angered by Malaysia's announcement and insisted that their loved ones may still be alive.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014

Ms Zielke said she supported the declaration and believed it would help the families to "move on".

"We understand that the families of those on board are experiencing enormous grief and that's only heightened by not knowing the circumstances under which the aircraft disappeared," Ms Zielke said.

"For next of kin to be able to proceed with presumption of death certificates and be able to take decisions in relation to how to deal with very day to day issues – bank accounts, assets, life insurance – you know, they need a decision like this to be able to move on."

Ms Zielke would not comment on the cost of the massive underwater search, which is due to continue until May. Almost 7,000 square miles have been covered, about 30 per cent of the targeted zone. A fourth search vessel is due in the zone within days.

"I don't believe you can put a figure on the search," she said.

"Australia has committed substantial resources but so have Malaysia and China as well … We have what we need at the moment to be undertaking the activity and this isn't something that necessarily more ships will resolve. This needs to be undertaken carefully and we need to make sure that we're coving all of the area."

Asked how long the search might ultimately last, Ms Zielke said: "I can only say that I wake up every morning praying that today is the day. I am greatly concerned about the grief of the next of kin and trying to answer their concerns and their questions as quickly as possible. As well as just the general travelling public, I think everybody would like to know what has happened."

topspin · Feb 1, 2015

Malaysia cant be trusted.

PressForNirvana · Feb 2, 2015

MH370: Nine things we will never know about the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines plane

Authorities declared the flight's disappearance an 'accident' today, but promised that the search would remain a 'top priority'

Rose Troup Buchanan
Thursday 29 January 2015

Malaysian officials have confirmed that although the search for missing flight MH370 will continue, the disappearance of the aircraft has been labelled an “accident”, effectively drawing a line in the sand over speculation.

But for those fascinated by the mysterious disappearance of the plane, this means that there are many things we will – probably – never know.

1. Where is the plane now?

Obviously, this is the million-pound question. And one which Malaysian authorities have seemingly admitted they may never find. Although they had stressed that searching for the missing aircraft will remain a “top priority” – approaching a year after the plane’s disappearance, hope is fading.

The most recent searches have focused on a swath of ocean off the western coast of Australia. Despite the use of sophisticated sonar equipment, and aid from governments including China, nothing conclusive has turned up.

The search area has expanded massively to include the territory of a dozen countries

2. Why were the plane’s communications systems disabled?

MH370’s transponder, which communicates with the ground, was shut down as the plane travelled from Malaysian air traffic control to Vietnamese controlled airspace.

There does not appear to be any rational explanation for this, with some aviation experts labelling the pilot’s decision to do so “extraordinary”. Fingers have been pointed towards malicious intent, either on the behalf of the pilots or of an unknown ‘outside’ player in the scenario.

Realistically, it is impossible to know and with the continued absence of the plane’s black box we will probably never know the final moments in the cockpit.

HMS Echo, which is helping to find missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

3. Why was the plane’s disappearance not spotted immediately?

As mentioned, the plane’s was shut down during the flight, but this appears to have gone unnoticed until much later.

One possible reason for this is simply human error – Malaysian air control would have handed over to their Vietnamese counterparts and simply forgotten about it.

A woman writes a message of support and hope for passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370

4. Why did the plane make a sharp left turn?

Conspiracy theories abound on this question. Military logs show the plane turned west, deviating from its planned flight path, shortly after the plane’s transponder had been switched off and the last ACARS (the system used to communicate with the ground) datalink transmission had been sent.

One theory, suggested by aviation blogger Chris Goodfellow, claims that the sharp left turn came after the aircraft’s communications were knocked out in some kind of catastrophe.

According to Mr Goodfellow, the actions of the pilot – in the situation – would be to turn towards the nearest safe airport, possibly Paulau Langwaki.

5. Was the plane hijacked?

Since 9/11 all alirlines hav fitted their cabin cockpits with reinforced ‘bulletproof’ doors designed to prevent exactly such a hijacking. Realistically, it is unlikely anyone would be able to get into the cockpit once these doors had been closed – moreover the pilots should have been able to issue a distress call had it happened.

There are times when the doors are open, which allows for the possibility of a hijack, or even if passengers had been invited into the cockpit – as the co-pilot of MH370 was shown to have done previously.

Network data show the phone belonging to co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, was on 30 minutes after MH370 turned west, according to CNN

6. Did the pilots have something to do with the possible crash?

Extensive searches were carried out on both pilots’ homes and backgrounds – and turned up nothing conclusive. But there is equally nothing to disprove it.

There have been occasions when pilots are believed to have carried out suicidal thoughts: Egypt Air flight 990 (1999) and Silk Air flight 185 (1997) are both considered to be examples of this.

Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel take part in the search to locate the missing Malaysia Airways Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean

7. Was the entire event just a series of fluke chances and bad luck?

We love a good conspiracy but there is a chance that the flight disappearance is the result o a series of accidents, disabling parts of the plane in stages.

For example; a fire could have caused the communications to be knocked out but left the plane broadly intact. Later, there could have been gradual decompression which would have caused hypoxia, incapacitating the crew and passengers, until the crasH.

A Buddist devotee offers prayers for the missing Malaysian Airline plane MH370 in Bentong, Pahang, Malaysia

8. Would passengers have known something was happening?

It depends on what happened previously. If the events leading up to the plane’s crash were hostile, then it is fair to expect that many passengers were aware that something was wrong.

However, given the time the plane appears to have disappeared – middle of the night – there is a chance many passengers would have been asleep and would have been unaware of the events unfolding around them, especially if the possible crash was just a fluke series of accidents.

A message for pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, captain of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, is pictured at an event to express solidarity to the family members of passengers onboard the plane

9. Did the plane crash land?

It has been estimated that the plane still had enough fuel to fly another 2,200 miles from its known location after its communication devices were turned off. This leaves a dizzyingly large area – and roughly 634 runways where it is possible for an aircraft of that size could have landed.

Other suggestions – mostly from that most verifiable of sources ‘The Internet’ – claim the flight could have landed on a deserted island somewhere. This plays into conspiracy theories suggesting the flight was hijacked and later touched down somewhere.

PressForNirvana · Feb 13, 2015

Chinese relatives of missing MH370 victims protest outside carrier’s office

Families angry after Malaysia's government declared all passengers presumed dead while the search continues for the aircraft

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 12 February, 2015, 3:05pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 12 February, 2015, 10:12pm

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur

The mother of a passenger missing on flight MH370 holds a photograph of her grandson during the protest. Photo: Reuters

Relatives of Chinese citizens on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 protested outside the carrier’s office on Thursday demanding the country’s government withdraw a statement declaring all the passengers dead.

The Malaysian government last month officially listed the disappearance of the flight as an accident and said all 239 people on board had perished, in a move it said would pave the way for compensation claims.

The announcement immediately sparked outrage among distraught family members who have shunned offers of compensation.

About 15 people gathered outside the airline’s gates under a hot sun on Thursday wearing white caps and red T-shirts bearing the words: “Pray for MH370.”

They held placards in English reading: “Who can tell us what happened?”, ”Come back MH370” and “Today it is us, tomorrow it could be you.”

They said they wanted to meet Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

“My husband was on the flight. We want the Malaysian government to cancel the declaration that they made,” said Kelly Wen, the wife of a Chinese passenger on the flight.

Malaysia Airlines officials later transported the protesters to the nearby Subang Airport, but it remained unclear whether they would get to meet any airline officials there.

More families of MH370 victims from China are expected to arrive this week in Malaysia ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

Many families are angry that the authorities decided on the fate of their family members without consulting them, some still clinging to the hope that their loved ones may still be alive.

They have previously also accused the authorities of failing to keep them updated on the search for the aircraft.

MH370 disappeared on March 8 last year after inexplicably diverting from its course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The airliner is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean off western Australia, but no trace has been found.

Passengers from China accounted for about two-thirds of the 239 people who were on board the Boeing 777.

Australia has been spearheading the hunt for the plane.

PressForNirvana · Feb 21, 2015

Chinese MH370 relatives detail long list of grievances

21 Chinese family members detail long list of grievances over plane's disappearance

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 21 February, 2015, 2:46am
UPDATED : Saturday, 21 February, 2015, 2:46am

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur

Chinese relatives of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 passengers sits as computer screen reads 'Only the truth and complete disclosure by all parties can help us locate the plane and find our loves ones' during press conference at a hotel in Seri Petaling near Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

Grieving Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers blasted Malaysia Airlines yesterday, detailing their long list of complaints and traumas they said were suffered as a result of the flight's mysterious disappearance 11 months ago.

The 21 family members arrived in Malaysia last week from China to demand authorities cancel a declaration that the plane's 239 passengers and crew were presumed dead. They voiced discontent over the airline's responses to questions they submitted on a litany of issues.

Using a projector at a news conference held at a Kuala Lumpur hotel, they showed journalists photos of relatives of the passengers suffering emotional and physical trauma in China, including one elderly man whom they claimed suffered a stroke after hearing of Malaysia's declaration about the passengers.

"We are extremely dissatisfied with the replies from Malaysia Airlines," said Jiang Hui, whose mother was on the ill-fated flight.

"The answers were contradictory and not within the scope of the questions asked."

Xu Jinghong, 43, whose mother was also on MH370 said the Malaysia Airlines support centre in Beijing was not helpful to people the and expressed fears search operations might be called off.

"We think the plane can be found. I don't think they are searching at the right area," she said. "I don't think it's in the sea."

The declaration that MH370's disappearance was an "accident" and that the crew and passengers - two-thirds of whom were Chinese - were presumed dead set off howls of protest from next of kin in both Malaysia and China, many of whom have sharply criticised the airline and Malaysian government for their actions.

Authorities say the declaration allows families to move on and seek compensation.

Boeing was also criticised, as the group of relatives claimed the US plane manufacturer refused to answer their queries on "product design and structure".

MH370 vanished while on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 in what has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

Malaysia says satellite data indicates the plane inexplicably detoured to the remote southern Indian Ocean, which they suspect was due to "deliberate" action onboard.

But no evidence has turned up despite an intensive search there, and Malaysian authorities have still yet to release any findings from their various investigations into the incident.

Some of the relatives of the passengers on the plane accuse government officials in Kuala Lumpur and the airline of a bungled response to the disaster and possible cover-up, charges that have been denied.

PressForNirvana · Feb 26, 2015

MH370 steered off course toward Antarctica: expert

Staff Reporter 2015-02-25 13:42

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A family member of missing passengers from the MH370 adjusts lit candles in a vigil for the vanished airliner, April 8, 2014. (File photo/ CNS)

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared on March 6 last year on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, may have been deliberately flown off course towards Antarctica, according to an aviation disaster expert cited in the UK's Daily Mail.

Satellite data suggests the plane made three turns to the south towards Antarctica after its last radio contact and experts believe that it had stayed in the air for hours after losing contact with air traffic control, said the report.

In a National Geographic production to be aired in March to mark the first anniversary of the disappearance of the airliner, aviation disaster expert Malcolm Brenner says the turns "strongly suggest" that someone had deliberately directed the Boeing 777-200 with 239 passengers on board off course. Brenner has led a team to investigate the disappearance of the airliner and is seen as one of the world's leading aviation disaster experts.

MH370 was first believed to have crashed in the Gulf of Thailand. Later, the search turned to the southern Indian Ocean but no physical evidence of the plane's fate has been found.

"This accident has caught the attention of the world in a way I have not seen in a forty-year career in aviation," Brenner said.

Malaysia's civil aviation authority said in January that one-third of the underwater search for MH370 is complete and the rest will be completed by May. Malaysia believes that MH370 is located within the region scheduled to be searched, but they will look for alternative solutions based on the data they have if nothing is found by then.

The Malaysian government will announce an investigation report on the missing flight on March 7, a day before the first anniversary of its disappearance.
　

PressForNirvana · Mar 2, 2015

No plane, many discoveries in yearlong search for Flight 370

Silver linings in yearlong search for Flight 370: No sign of plane but many useful discoveries

By Nick Perry, Associated Press | Associated Press – 02 March 2015

FILE - In this April 13, 2014 file photo, taken from the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) P-3K2-Orion aircraft, co-pilot Squadron Leader Brett McKenzie looks out of a window while searching for debris from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, over the Indian Ocean off the coast of western Australia. The yearlong search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has turned up no sign of the plane, but that doesn’t mean it’s been unproductive. It has yielded lessons and discoveries that could benefit millions, including coastal Australians, air and sea travelers and scientists trying to understand ancient changes to the earth’s crust. (AP Photo/Greg Wood, Pool, File)View Photo

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- The yearlong search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has turned up no sign of the plane, but that doesn't mean it's been unproductive. It has yielded lessons and discoveries that could benefit millions, including coastal Australians, air and sea travelers and scientists trying to understand ancient changes to the earth's crust.

The knowledge gained so far is of little comfort to family and friends of the 239 people still missing from the plane, which vanished last March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. While finding the plane remains the top priority for searchers and investigators, what they're learning along the way may prove valuable long after the search ends.

Benefits of the work so far include:
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NEW UNDERWATER MAPS

In the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where experts believe the plane crashed, scientists have been mapping the sea floor to aid in the search for wreckage.

Previous maps relied on satellite data, which gave only rough estimates of the ocean's depth. Now, using sonar readings from ships, scientists have mapped an area the size of Nebraska and have discovered previously unknown trenches and underwater mountains that rival the height of any on Australia's surface.

Searchers are getting even more detailed sonar readings using small underwater vehicles called "towfish" that are towed just above the sea floor.

Scientists from around the world are eagerly anticipating the release of the three-dimensional maps and data once the search is completed.
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BETTER TSUNAMI PREDICTION

Stuart Minchin, a divisional chief at Geoscience Australia, said that when the maps are released and further analyzed, they will give scientists a better understanding of areas that during earthquakes are susceptible to underwater landslides, which can create or exacerbate tsunamis.

He said the information will help scientists pinpoint areas along Australia's west coast that are particularly vulnerable to tsunamis and enable better warnings and predictions for coastal residents.
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IMPROVED SEARCH AND RESCUE

Knowing the topography of the ocean floor also helps scientists predict ocean currents, said Minchin. That can help with everything from predicting where a disabled boat might drift in a search-and-rescue mission to understanding how marine species spread to new areas.

He said it can even help scientists understand how heat is distributed through the ocean, which could be used by meteorologists to help fine-tune weather forecasts.
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BETTER PLANE TRACKING

One thing the airline industry learned from Flight 370 is that more tracking is needed, even for planes expected to fly over land for their entire journeys.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, which is part of the United Nations, has proposed that airlines be required to get position updates from each of their planes every 15 minutes. That requirement is expected to be in place by November 2016.

A more stringent requirement would seek updates every minute if a fire is detected or the plane makes an unusual move, such as suddenly dropping or climbing in elevation. That would apply only to jets manufactured after 2020.

Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss said Sunday that his government's airspace agency will work with Malaysia and Indonesia to test a new method, which would enable planes to be tracked every 15 minutes, rather than the previous rate of 30 to 40 minutes. However, even if such a system had been in place for Flight 370, it would not have made it possible to track the plane because transponder and other equipment were switched off.

Because investigators still don't know what happened to Flight 370, airlines have no information to help them update their mechanical systems or flight-training techniques.
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IMPROVED MULTINATIONAL SEARCHES

Capt. Chris Budde, maritime operations director for the U.S. Navy 7th Fleet, said that when it helped out on a multinational search for another missing plane in December, things went more smoothly thanks to lessons learned from the hunt for Flight 370.

The latter search was for AirAsia Flight 8501, which plunged into the Java Sea near Indonesia, killing all 162 people aboard.

Budde said tasks like establishing common radio frequencies between nations and determining who to contact onshore for search assignments were completed more efficiently after Indonesia studied and learned from Malaysia's experience.

"These events are tragic, but they do help build cooperation and regional stability as militaries work together," he said.

He said the U.S. Navy fleet also managed to modify its technology on the fly in the search for Flight 370, by tweaking its sonar equipment to detect, at short range, pings from an airplane's black boxes. It was able to use that tweak a second time in the search for the AirAsia plane, he said, albeit without success in either instance.
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POSSIBLE SATELLITE IMPROVEMENTS

The search exposed some of the limitations of satellite images, said Joseph Bermudez Jr., the co-founder of Longmont, Colo.-based AllSource Analysis. Over the long term, he said, it may prompt companies to improve the technical capabilities of their satellites — for instance, by having them detect different and enhanced light wavelengths.

Many people assumed that, like in the movies, they could scour satellite images to see the plane veering off course or spot its wreckage. In reality, Bermudez said, commercial satellites aren't generally aimed to take images over remote stretches of ocean and when they do, the images are often unclear and need experts to decipher them.

He said there was such high interest in the plane's disappearance that amateurs around the world studied satellite images on crowd-sourcing websites to identify between 2 million and 3 million possible sightings of the plane or its debris.

"Not one of them was correct," he said. He added that people need to be better trained in reading such images before they are turned loose on the task. Improved image quality, he added, could also help.
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A WINDOW INTO HISTORY

Robin Beaman, a marine geologist at Australia's James Cook University, said the underwater maps will help show scientists how Earth's crust stretched and pulled apart millions of years ago, a process that is continuing today and is slowly pushing Australia away from Antarctica.

"It's fitting the pieces of the puzzle back together. And it's not just an academic exercise," Beaman said. "The great gas resources for Australia are in the west, and if you fit that jigsaw back, you get more of a picture of how those gas resources were created."

Dave Gallo, the director of special projects at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, said less than 8 percent of the underwater world has been explored.

"It's more daunting than looking on Mars because there's no light," he said. "So we're in a completely unknown world in mountains that are the most rugged on earth. There's no maps, so it's all basic, pure exploration with a mission that not only are we exploring, but we're also looking for an aircraft."
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Minchin said that everybody involved in the search continues to hope the plane will be found.

"If not, there is a silver lining," he said. "The data will be useful to science for many years to come."
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Associated Press writers Scott Mayerowitz in New York and Kristen Gelineau in Sydney contributed to this report.

PressForNirvana · Mar 3, 2015

MH370 search cannot last forever, may be called off within weeks, says Australia’s deputy PM

PUBLISHED : Monday, 02 March, 2015, 11:12am
UPDATED : Monday, 02 March, 2015, 4:20pm

Reuters in Canberra

A photo taken last March shows the shadow of a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion search aircraft on low-level clouds as it flies over the southern Indian Ocean looking for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photo: Reuters

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 cannot go on forever, Australia’s deputy prime minister said, and discussions are already under way between Australia, China and Malaysia as to whether to call off the hunt within weeks.

No trace has been found of the Boeing 777 aircraft, which disappeared a year ago this week carrying 239 passengers and crew, in what has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

MH370 vanished from radar screens shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing, early on March 8. Investigators believe it was flown thousands of kilometres off course before eventually crashing into the Indian Ocean.

The search of a rugged 60,000 sq km patch of sea floor some 1,600 km west of the Australian city of Perth, which experts believe is the plane’s most likely resting place, will likely be finished by May.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said that a decision would have to be taken well before then as to whether to continue into the vast 1.1 million sq km area around the primary search zone if nothing has been found.

Discussions had already begun about what to do in that event, including the possibility that the search might be called off, said Truss, who is also transport minister.

“For many of the families onboard, they won’t have closure unless they have certain knowledge that the aircraft has been located and perhaps their loved ones’ remains have been recovered,” Truss said in an interview.

“We clearly cannot keep searching forever, but we want to do everything that’s reasonably possible to locate the aircraft.”

Truss compared the search, already the most expensive of its kind, with another great mystery from an earlier era, the hunt for missing aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, who disappeared in 1937 during an early attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

Four vessels owned by Dutch engineering firm Fugro , equipped with sophisticated underwater drones, have searched about 40 percent of the previously unmapped expanse of sea floor that has been designated the highest priority in the hunt for MH370.

Australia and Malaysia contributed to evenly split the costs, estimated at up to A$52 million (HK$314 million), but Truss warned that continuing the search beyond that area would be impossible without more international help.

“We put in the amount of money that we believed was necessary to do this job well and thoroughly with the best available equipment,” he said. “We have to make other decisions, then, about how long the search should continue.”

Military radar showed the plane turned across the Malay Peninsula after contact with it was lost. A handful of faint “pings” picked up by a commercial satellite for around another six hours helped narrow down its likely final location.

Martin Dolan, Chief Commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau which is leading the search, said he remained confident that the plane would be found in the remainder of the so-called “priority search area”.

If, however, the search has to be expanded into the much larger surrounding area, the costs could prove prohibitive.

“It’s almost impossible to get your head around the scale of what’s involved here,” he said.

“If you take the theoretical maximum of the possible area for the aircraft - 1.1, 1.2 million sq km - you’re talking about orders or magnitude in terms of cost and time above what we’re currently doing, and that’s something that governments will obviously have to bear in mind.”

Most of those on board the lost flight were Chinese or Malaysian.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Australia, China and Malaysia had co-operated closely on the search.

“The Australian side has put in a large amount of personnel and material resources and we are deeply grateful for their help,” Hong said. “The search effort is still ongoing and we hope the relevant work will produce progress.”

The Malaysian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

PressForNirvana · Mar 3, 2015

Australia to trial ‘world first’ plane tracking system after MH370 mystery

The 'world first' technology comes almost a year after MH370 vanished

PUBLISHED : Monday, 02 March, 2015, 5:21am
UPDATED : Monday, 02 March, 2015, 4:29pm

Agence France-Presse in Sydney

Relatives of MH370 victims pray in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AP

Australia said yesterday it will test with Malaysia and Indonesia a "world first" system that increases the tracking of aircraft over remote oceans, allowing authorities to react quickly to abnormal situations such as the disappearance of flight MH370.

It raises the minimum tracking rate for planes flying over remote oceans to 15 minutes from current intervals of 30 to 40 minutes.

The technology "can increase real-time monitoring should an abnormal situation arise," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.

"In a world first, all three countries will trial a new method of tracking aircraft through the skies over remote oceanic areas," Truss said.

"Now this initiative adapts existing technology used by more than 90 per cent of long-haul passenger aircraft and would see air traffic control able to respond more rapidly should an aircraft experience difficulty or deviation from its flight plan."

The announcement came almost a year after Malaysian Airlines MH370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

A massive air and underwater search has failed to find any evidence of the plane.

While the system was "not a silver bullet", it would help to improve current methods of tracking ahead of other solutions being developed, Airservices Australia chairman Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said.

If an aircraft deviated more than 60 metres from its assigned level or two nautical miles from its expected track, the system would automatically monitor the jet more closely, such as every five minutes or almost continuously, he added.

"This is a big step forward. It's not just changing things, it's going to make the monitoring of aircraft over these oceanic areas much more effective," the head of the air traffic control body said.

The trial, using automatic dependent surveillance contract (ADSC) technology, will commence at the air traffic services centre in the eastern city of Brisbane before being extended to Melbourne in the country's south and to Indonesia and Malaysia.

PressForNirvana · Mar 7, 2015

One year on hopes fade for Chinese MH370 families

A year after Flight MH370 disappeared, the families of the missing are no closer to the truth

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 07 March, 2015, 2:29am
UPDATED : Saturday, 07 March, 2015, 2:29am

Angela Meng [email protected]

A candle burns as the families of Chinese passengers from the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 attend prayers at the Thean Hou temple in Kuala Lumpur last month. Photo: EPA

Nothing is too much for the next-of-kin of those who were onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. They have circled the world looking for answers, hired private detectives and lawyers, formulated search groups, and read every single conspiracy theory on the internet.

Even now, some relatives wake up and send "Let's hope our relatives come back safely today" messages to a support group of other relatives on WeChat. Nothing is too much because anything is possible.

It's been a year since the red-eye flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared, and despite the most expensive and most expansive aviation search in history, the plane is nowhere to be found. No debris - engines, wing parts, landing gear, or even a smear of jet fuel - has been seen by the search authorities.

Li Zhi (right)

"A part of me wants to go on living my life with my daughter, and a part of me wants to spend every waking moment looking for answers," Gao Yongfu said. Gao's husband Li Zhi, a Chinese businessman in Malaysia, was on the plane.

A few families have taken Malaysia Airlines' compensation and moved on, Gao is not among them. She didn't even take the US$5,000 the airline distributed to help families with immediate financial strain caused by the search for the plane.

On March 8, 2014, the Boeing 777-200ER, one of the safest aircraft in modern aviation, disappeared with 239 passengers and crew onboard. After a long and arduous multinational search effort that came up with no answers, Malaysia Airlines formally declared the flight an accident on January 29, paving the way for relatives to be compensated.

But most are not ready. In a long letter addressed to the Malaysian authorities, "Family Members of the Passengers on Flight MH370", a group of mainly Chinese relatives, expressed indignation at this "groundless announcement" and demanded answers to questions such as: "What is the factual basis to certify MH370's wrecking?"

Malaysia Airlines group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya answered the requests citing the Chicago Convention, as well as clarifying that "in light of the advance compensation package available to the next of kin-families [US $50,000 or its RMB equivalent], there is no reason to provide any additional unconditional financial assistance payments."

"The only thing I can do now is protect my daughter," Gao said. "If he were here, he'd want me to take care of our daughter before anything else." Gao, like many other relatives, still hasn't told her daughter about her father.

"She asks me all the time, where did my dad go? Aren't planes supposed to travel fast? Why isn't he here yet? I don't know what to answer."

Liu Guiqiu, a grandmother from Beijing whose son was also on the plane, said "I don't want my granddaughter to know … I won't let anyone tell her about it."

Some of the relatives, who were already struggling with rising prices in China, have lost their family's only source of income. They are the ones searching for answers as a full-time job.

"We all do what we can, some of us give our time, some of us give money" Gao said. An account has been set up to distribute funds to those families in need. According to Gao, individual families have donated anywhere between 500 yuan (HK$629) to 10,000 yuan each.

A committee appointed by the family members is managing the money, it goes to buying clothes and food for those families in need, as well as covering some hotel costs in Beijing. Some relatives who come from rural areas of China prefer to be in the capital chasing answers.

More than 20 relatives have travelled to Kuala Lumpur this week looking for more answers.

Wen Wancheng, the 65-year-old father of passenger Wen Yongsheng and one of the main voices of the family support group, is currently in Malaysia.

Wen fainted whilst waiting for Liow Tiong Lai, the Transport Minister, on Tuesday outside the Malaysia's Ministry of Transport. He remains convinced someone is hiding the plane and won't stop working until it is found.

Local governments in China have tried to assist families, each is assigned a lawyer for counselling, but with so many believing their loved ones are still alive, it is difficult to determine what they should be advising them on.

"We are ready to sue" Wen said, but asked whom and what for, he has no answer.

"The best outcome is no outcome", Gao said. "They find nothing, and the families get some money, that's it."

This article appeared in the South China

PressForNirvana · Mar 7, 2015

MH370: 'Rogue pilot' emerges as the main theory in loss of Malaysian plane

Date March 6, 2015 - 2:56PM
Michael Forsythe and Keith Bradsher

Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - the rogue pilot explanation remains the most plausible in the search for the missing plane. Photo: Facebook

The retired chief pilot of Malaysia Airlines is torn between logic and loyalty to an old friend. Nik Huzlan, 56, was one of the first captains to fly the 12-year-old Boeing 777 that disappeared over the Indian Ocean a year ago this Sunday. He knew the pilot who flew the plane that day, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, for decades.

Huzlan is convinced that deliberate human intervention, most likely by someone in the cockpit, caused the aircraft, on a red-eye flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, to suddenly turn around, cease communication with air traffic control and some six hours later run out of fuel and fall into the ocean. But he also said he had never seen anything in more than 30 years of friendship that would suggest that Zaharie was capable of such a deed.

"Based on logic, when you throw emotion away, it seems to point a certain direction which you can't ignore," Huzlan said.

The search for MH370 continues in sometimes frightening seas off the coast of Western Australia. Photo: ABIS Chris Beerens

"Your best friend can harbor the darkest secrets."

No trace of the plane has been found, although four ships continue to scour a section of the ocean floor roughly the size of West Virginia and as deep as three miles below the surface. Without the plane's flight recorders, the disappearance remains a mystery.

But the "rogue pilot theory," as investigators call it, has emerged as the most plausible explanation among several. Many, but not all, of the investigators and experts who have reviewed the limited evidence say Zaharie, or perhaps the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, is the likeliest culprit, although they caution that the evidence is limited and circumstantial and that the theory is full of holes, like lack of a motive.

The ATSB's Martin Dolan remains confident MH370 will eventually be found. Photo: Elesa Kurtz

"I would say that's my favorite, because it would fit best with what has happened," said Peter Marosszeky, a longtime Australian airline executive who is a senior research fellow at the University of New South Wales. But he added that without finding and retrieving at least part of the plane, it would be hard to say anything conclusively.

Others still offer a different explanation for the disappearance of a jumbo jet with 239 people aboard: mechanical failure, a fire, hijacking, sabotage or some other event as yet unknown.

Psychological profiles of the pilot prepared after the disappearance of Flight 370 do not suggest Zaharie could have taken the plane down or would have had a compelling reason for doing so, several people with detailed knowledge of the investigation said. His family has emphatically denied that he would have deliberately turned the plane around and flown it to its destruction.

A rival theory in the early days after the plane's disappearance, a midair equipment failure, falls apart for lack of a breakdown that could swiftly disable separate communications systems but still allow the plane to stay in the air and perform a long series of maneuvers.

There were no reports of bad weather in the area.

Yet at 1:21 a.m. that March 8, 40 minutes into the flight, all communication with the aircraft was lost, and its radar label vanished from the screens of ground controllers. According to military radar, which continued to track the plane, it suddenly altered its northeasterly course, veering west and south, over the Malay Peninsula and across the island of Penang, where Zaharie grew up. It then headed out to sea across the Strait of Malacca before turning south into the Indian Ocean.

Why is a question that may not be answered until the wreckage is found, and possibly not even then. The Malaysian government is expected to release an accident report in the next several days that may provide more information.

That puts the focus on finding the aircraft. Search planes and ships have been scouring the ocean west of Australia since late March. Based on modeling from the aircraft's electronic handshakes with a satellite positioned over the Indian Ocean, an Australian-led team narrowed the search area to a 23,000-square-mile swath of ocean, about 1100 miles west-northwest of Perth, Australia.

Four ships under contract by the Australian and Malaysian governments are searching the site, braving swells reaching 55 feet as cyclone after cyclone churns the ocean between Africa and Australia. Crews work 12-hour days, with no days off, six weeks at a time.

The vessels are towing side-scan sonar devices that glide above the ocean floor at the end of armored fiber-optic cables up to 10,000 yards long, creating detailed maps of the ocean floor. They follow a pattern like mowing a lawn, heading back and forth in the search box to cover every square yard.

They have scoured nearly half the area, and they expect to complete the job by May.

"We still have pretty good confidence that we'll find the aircraft in the priority search area," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the agency leading the search, said in a telephone interview.

The Australian government has not begun consultations with other governments on what to do if they do not find the missing plane.

"I can't promise that the search will go on at this intensity forever, but we will continue our very best efforts to resolve this mystery and provide some answers," Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia told Parliament in Canberra on Thursday.

Extensive analyses of the satellite pings sent by the plane in its final hours show that it was headed more or less due south until it ran out of fuel. Statistical models show that, in theory, it could have ended up anywhere in a 425,000-square-mile area, about the size of Texas and California combined.

Dolan said it was "unlikely" the plane was outside the designated search area, however, because analyses of the satellite data suggest the plane was on autopilot as it flew south and made a steep descent at the end, consistent with a plane running out of fuel.

Paul Kennedy, the search director for Fugro, the contractor operating three of the ships, is confident that his vessels can find the aircraft. The company's sonar equipment can detect objects as small as a metre wide, and a 777 extends more than 63 metres, or about 200 feet.

"The technical publications give you confidence that we are looking in the right place," Kennedy said.

"It is just not possible for it to be anywhere else. Too many experts, around the world, independently analyzed the data and came to the same conclusion. These are seriously clever people."

For the relatives of the passengers, a year has been a long time to go without answers. Many complain that the Malaysian and Chinese governments - 153 of the 227 passengers were Chinese - have ignored them.

"No one is listening," said Steve Wang, whose mother was on the plane and who is an unofficial spokesman for the families in Beijing. "I cannot describe our rage."

Like much of the public, they cannot fathom how, in an era where a missing mobile phone can be located in moments, a wide-body jetliner could simply vanish.

That sense of vulnerability gave new impetus to a long-running debate within the aviation industry over how flights could be tracked more closely in order to help rescuers and investigators respond more quickly in an emergency.

"Flight 370 showed that in today's very connected world, the idea that we cannot know where every airplane is at any given moment has become unacceptable," said Remi Jouty, the director of the French Bureau of Investigations and Analysis, which has been advising investigators on the case.

French investigators had recommended closer flight tracking measures, including real-time streaming of flight data, in 2012, after a two-year search for the wreckage of an Air France jetliner that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. But safety regulators were slow to respond with concrete proposals, viewing the likelihood of a similar event as extremely remote.

But it did happen again. And in the wake of the Flight 370 disappearance, the airlines and the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. body, have agreed in principle on the need for all airliners to have the ability, by November 2016, to automatically report their position at least every 15 minutes, twice as often as the current average of around 30 minutes.

Had those measures been in place before Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur Airport, they may not have prevented the plane from crashing, but the plane would have most likely been found by now and the question of what happened put to rest.

For his part, Huzlan is reluctant to definitively blame his old friend.

"Despite the trail of logic," he said he could not assume that his old friend "would, on his own accord, for whatever reason, lead 238 others whose lives he was entrusted to hold in his hand to their doom in the depths of the world's loneliest place, the South Indian Ocean."

- New York Times

PressForNirvana · Mar 8, 2015

Battery in MH370 black box locator had expired a year before plane went missing

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 08 March, 2015, 3:53pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 08 March, 2015, 4:28pm

Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Catherine Gang, whose husband Li Zhi was onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, holds a banner in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

The first comprehensive report into the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has revealed that the battery of an underwater locator beacon had expired more than a year before the plane vanished in March 2014.

Apart from that anomaly, the detailed report released Sunday devoted pages after pages to describe the complete normality of the flight, shedding little light on aviation’s biggest mystery.

“The sole objective of the investigation is the prevention of future accidents or incidents, and not for the purpose to apportion blame or liability,” the report said.

The significance of the expired battery on the beacon of the Flight Data Recorder was not immediately apparent, except indicating that searchers would have had lesser chance of locating the aircraft in the Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed, even if they were in its vicinity. However, the report said that the battery on the locator beacon of the cockpit voice recorder was working.

Even though the battery on the beacon had expired, the instrument itself was functioning properly and would have in theory captured all the flight information.

The two instruments are critical in any crash because they record cockpit conversation and flight data, leading up to the end of the flight.

The 584-page report by an independent investigation group went into minute details of the crew’s lives — their medical and financial records, their training before detailing the aircraft’s service record — as well as maintenance schedule, weather, communications systems and other aspects that showed nothing unusual except for the one previously undisclosed fact of the battery’s expiry date.

It said that according to maintenance records, the battery on the beacon attached to the Flight Data Recorder expired in December 2012, but because of a computer data error it went unnoticed by maintenance crews. “There is some extra margin in the design to account for battery life variability and ensure that the unit will meet the minimum requirement,” it said.

“However, once beyond the expiry date, the (battery’s) effectiveness decreases so it may operate, for a reduced time period until it finally discharges,” the report said. While it is possible the battery will operate past the expiry date, “it is not guaranteed that it will work or that it would meet the 30-day minimum requirement,” said the report.

The report gave insight into the flight Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s physical and mental well-being, saying he had no known history of apathy, anxiety or irritability. “There were no significant changes in his lifestyle, interpersonal conflict or family stresses,” it said.

It also said there were “no behavioural signs of social isolation, change in habits or interest, self-neglect, drug or alcohol abuse” by Zaharie, his first officer and the cabin crew.

Financial check also showed nothing abnormal about their gross monthly income and spending pattern. It said Zaharie held several bank accounts and two national trust funds. He had two houses and 3 vehicles, but there was no record of him having a life insurance policy.

The co-pilot, First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, had two saving accounts and a national trust fund account. He owned two cars and “spent money on the upkeep” of his cars. “He does not have much savings in his bank account. He has a life insurance policy,” it said.

The report also said 221 kilograms of lithium ion batteries packed by Motorola Solutions in northern Penang state didn’t go through security screening at Penang airport. The shipment was inspected physically by the airline cargo personnel and went through customs inspection and clearance before it was sealed and left Penang a day before the flight. At the Kuala Lumpur airport, it was loaded onto the plane without any additional security screening.

The report said the batteries were not regulated as dangerous goods. There were 99 shipments of lithium ion batteries on Malaysia Airlines flights to Beijing from January to May last year, it added.

PressForNirvana · Mar 8, 2015

Kin mark MH370 anniversary with vow to never give up

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 08 March, 2015, 4:05pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 08 March, 2015, 4:05pm

Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Wang Guohui, mother of a passenger of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, cries during a gathering of family members of the missing passengers in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

Families of the 239 people on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Sunday marked the anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, vowing to never give up on the desperate search for wreckage and answers to the world’s biggest aviation mystery.

Several dozen relatives gathered at the main Buddhist temple in central Beijing, some of them wearing T-shirts reading “Never Give Up. Search On.” A swarm of security closely watched the relatives and stopped them from entering the sprawling grounds. Since the plane’s disappearance, Chinese security have tightened their watch over the relatives, especially after some began criticizing the Chinese government’s response to the incident.

“We want to show our determination,” said Jiang Hui, whose mother was aboard the flight. “We are here to pray for our loved ones and we hope they can come back and the truth will come out as soon as possible.”

She said that without concrete evidence she and other relatives will never accept the conclusion of the Malaysian authorities that the passengers are dead.

In Kuala Lumpur, Voice 370, a support group for the kin of those on board, will host a “Day of Remembrance” at a mall. Later Sunday, the Malaysian government will release an interim investigation report, a requirement under international civil aviation regulations.

Family members of Chinese passengers from flight MH370, one showing a poster saying, "Bring the MH370 passengers home" as they leave after a prayer session in Beijing. Photo: AFP

Although no wreckage has been found, officials in Australia, Malaysia and China, the three countries leading the search effort, say they are still optimistic the plane will be found in the southern Indian Ocean where they suspect it crashed after deviating from a flight to Beijing.

Grace Subathirai Nathan, whose mother Anne Daisy was on the plane, said Sunday’s events were important “to highlight to the public that we still don’t have any answers and that we must pursue the search.”

“The lack of answers and definitive proof — such as aircraft wreckage — has made this more difficult to bear,” Malaysian Prime Minster Najib Razak said in a statement. “Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists. Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopeful that MH370 will be found.”

Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, where most of the passengers came from, said his government will provide “all needed service to every next of kin” and help uphold their “legitimate and lawful rights and interests.”

“A year has passed, the plane has not been located, but the search effort will continue,” he told a news conference in Beijing. “Today must be a difficult day for the next of kin ... Our hearts are with you.”

In late January, Malaysia’s government formally declared Flight 370’s disappearance an accident and said all 239 people on board were presumed dead. The statement was meant to pave the way for compensation claims, but it angered many relatives who deemed it to be premature without any physical evidence of the crash.

Many relatives also believe there is a conspiracy behind the disappearance and that their loved ones are alive, which the airline is hiding.

“Since last March 8, nothing has changed, nothing has been found. Every day they just lie and trick the families. I feel only hatred now. Not even suffering, just hatred,” said a woman at the Beijing temple, who would identify herself only by her family name Li. Her daughter was on the flight.

“I want to tell the next of kin that I am also looking for the answers,” Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told reporters Saturday. “Our priority now is on the search ,” he said, adding that if nothing is found by the end of May, “then we will have to go back to the drawing board” and come up with a new plan.

He said the safety investigation team will release its interim report later Sunday. Officials said it will detail the facts but is unlikely to touch on the cause of the tragedy.

Ships dragging sonar devices have so far scoured 44 per cent of a 60,000-square-kilometre (23,166-square-mile) area off western Australia where investigators who analysed transmissions between the aircraft and a satellite believe the plane eventually crashed after deviating from its route with its transponder and other equipment switched off.

PressForNirvana · Mar 8, 2015

‘Back to drawing board’ if current MH370 search fails, Malaysia's transport minister says

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 07 March, 2015, 5:39pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 08 March, 2015, 12:14pm

Danny Lee and Agencies

Kelly Wen, the wife of a missing MH370 passenger, attends a vigil near Kuala Lumpur ahead of the anniversary of the tragedy. Photo: Reuters

The fruitless underwater hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will "go back to the drawing board" unless results are found soon, Malaysia's transport minister announced yesterday.

Speaking on the eve of today's anniversary of the Boeing 777's disappearance, Liow Tiong Lai told journalists he remained cautiously optimistic that the aircraft was in the area of the Indian Ocean that was being searched. Of the 239 passengers and crew aboard the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, 153 were Chinese.

Should nothing turn up by the end of May, China, Malaysia and Australia will decide on a new plan, with the help of independent experts reviewing data from the Inmarsat satellite network, which was used to draw up the search zone.

"By the end of May, if we still can't find the plane, then we will have to go back to the drawing board," he said. "We rely on the expert group ... to come up with the plan. I am cautiously optimistic it should be in this area."

Liow Tiong Lai at an interview ahead of the first anniversary of the disappearance of flight MH370, in Putrajaya. Photo: Reuters

Malaysia declared the case an accident on January 29 and said the passengers and crew were declared dead.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation, said the review of MH370 evidence did not mean the investigation was going nowhere.

"We are not back at square zero … It doesn't mean the plane is lost," he told the South China Morning Post.

"The three transport ministers of Malaysia, China and Australia will sit down and listen to the report of the experts who define the Inmarsat data, and they will advise us on the next course of action."

However, the release of a detailed technical report into the MH370 accident, expected yesterday, was pushed back 24 hours until this afternoon. The beleaguered civil aviation chief cited protocol for the delay, stating that without a confirmed air accident, updates must be given on the anniversary of the incident.

Beijinger Steve Wang, 26, who lost his 57-year-old mother aboard the flight, told the Post: "They have delayed these kinds of [reports] dozens of times, and I am not surprised it is delayed again. And they said they will give it to us tomorrow now [Sunday], but who knows.

"The most important thing is not when they give it to us, but what they give to us, because we want something useful in the report and not five pages of protocol, which is totally useless."

A man stands in front of a flight MH370 mural in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

Meanwhile, the sister of MH370's pilot has launched a staunch defence of her brother amid suggestions he played a role in the disappearance. Some experts say pilot intervention is the best explanation for the plane's loss.

Sakinab Shah said 53-year-old captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a "man of integrity" and had been acting normally when they last met about two weeks before the plane went missing. She did acknowledge that her brother had unspecified personal problems.

In an update on the seabed search, Liow said ships looking for debris on the ocean floor off the coast of Western Australia had so far scoured 43 per cent of the 60,000-square-kilometre area the search has focused on.

The search team is still waiting to identify 10 hard objects.

Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss said last week that if the plane was not found by May, one option was to expand the hunt beyond the current search zone.

Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

PressForNirvana · Mar 8, 2015

Q&A on the MH370 mystery

AFP
March 8, 2015, 7:30 pm

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - A year on, there remains no evidence to indicate what caused Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to vanish or where it ended up, despite the most expensive search operation in history.

Here are answers to some key questions still swirling around MH370:

Q: What is the status of the search?

A. Vessels scanning the sea floor for wreckage using sophisticated sonar have covered about 40 percent of a "priority search area" in the remote southern Indian Ocean spanning 60,000 square kilometres (23,000 square miles).

Nothing has been found yet apart from several shipping containers in the Australian-led operation, which is due to be completed in May. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on the one-year anniversary of the disappearance that the search could be extended to another 60,000 square kilometre zone if nothing turns up by then, but offered no further details.

The stormy southern hemisphere winter is expected to begin affecting any future operations within months.

Q: What happens if wreckage is spotted?

A: An immensely challenging recovery phase would begin in pitch-black depths of up to 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) below the surface, potentially hampered by volcano clusters, undersea mountains, ridges and valleys.

Search coordinators, however, can draw on lessons learnt during the quest for the data recorders from the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean.

Its black boxes were located after a difficult two-year search using submersible drones and other means. A remotely operated vehicle was eventually sent down to pluck them from the seabed nearly 4,000 metres below.

Q: Are they looking in the right place?

A: That remains unclear, although search coordinators insist they are.

The crash zone was determined through analysis of signals from MH370 that were detected by a satellite, which indicated the plane's last known location as being along one of two arcs: one stretching north into Central Asia, one south into the Indian Ocean.

The northern corridor has been discounted in the belief the plane would have been spotted and most experts concur that, while the satellite data analysis is imprecise, the Indian Ocean is the best bet.

But the failure to find anything has sustained nagging doubts -- particularly among the families of passengers -- about whether the search is on the right track.

Q: What are the main theories today on what happened?

A: Speculation remains focused primarily on a possible mechanical or structural failure, a hijacking or terror plot, or rogue pilot action, but still nothing has emerged to substantiate any of these scenarios.

The lack of solid information has sustained a cottage industry of conspiracy theories, with books, documentaries and a thriving online debate positing a range of possibilities.

These include suggestions that the plane was commandeered to be used as a "flying bomb" headed for US military installations on the Diego Garcia atoll, and was shot down by the Americans. The United States has dismissed this.

A few months after MH370 vanished, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was among those subscribing to online speculation that the CIA took remote control of the US-made plane after it was commandeered by terrorists.

He added that it was possible "the plane is somewhere, maybe without (Malaysia Airlines) markings".

Writing in New York magazine last month, US aviation expert Jeff Wise sparked an online debate by suggesting MH370 was commandeered to a Russian facility in Kazakhstan, possibly an effort by President Vladimir Putin to intimidate the West during the Ukraine crisis, or to gain access to a certain passenger or item in the hold.

"There's no way to know. That's the thing about MH370 theory-making: It's hard to come up with a plausible motive for an act that has no apparent beneficiaries," he wrote.

Q: Do we know everything the authorities know?

A: Malaysia's government and the airline have continually insisted they are hiding nothing.

But angry next of kin have railed at contradictory early statements by authorities and the carrier, and accused them of being slow to share facts or of divulging only partial information.

Tim Clark, the chief executive of Gulf airline Emirates, said in media interviews last year he also doubted there had been full disclosure.

"I do not believe that the information held by some is on the table," he was quoted as saying.

An independent team of investigators tasked with probing the mystery released an interim report on its findings on Sunday on the one-year anniversary in Kuala Lumpur, with authorities stressing its "interim" status due to the lack of hard evidence of what happened to the plane.

Q: How rare are cases like this?

A: According to the Netherlands-based Aviation Safety Network, which tracks air incidents, there has been only one other recorded instance in which a plane carrying more than 100 people has disappeared without a trace.

That was in 1962, when a turbo-prop operated by US-based Flying Tiger Line and chartered by the US military disappeared en route from Guam to the Philippines with 107 people aboard. Its fate remains unknown.

Q: What will be MH370's aviation legacy?

A: Unless MH370's black box or other telling wreckage is recovered, the aviation industry will be unable to determine what went wrong and consider implementing appropriate safeguards.

But MH370 has also spurred efforts to reduce the chance of planes disappearing.

A global aviation summit in Montreal last month backed plans to require real-time tracking of any airliner in distress starting in 2016.

Last Sunday, Australia also said it was conducting trials, with Malaysia and Indonesia, of a system that increases the frequency with which planes are tracked over remote oceans.

PressForNirvana · Mar 8, 2015

Timeline: The fruitless year-long hunt for MH370

AFP
March 8, 2015, 7:28 pm

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - One of the most baffling aviation mysteries in history seems no closer to being solved as the first anniversary of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370's disappearance passes on March 8.

Following is a timeline of major developments in the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew:

March 8, 2014

-- Flight 370 departs Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 am, bound for Beijing. It vanishes from Malaysian civilian radar at 1:30 am, just before passing to Vietnamese air traffic control. It appears on military radar until 2:15 am, but Malaysia's air force takes no action.

-- Vietnam launches a search operation that expands into a multinational hunt in the South China Sea.

-- Two passengers who were travelling on stolen EU passports spark speculation of a terrorist attack, but are revealed to be merely suspected Iranian illegal immigrants. Malaysian police later say background checks of all on board produced no red flags.

March 9

-- Malaysia's air force chief says the plane may have turned back towards Kuala Lumpur for no apparent reason, citing radar data. In the coming days, the search area expands to the west of the Malaysian peninsula and the air force confirms the blip on its radar was indeed MH370.

March 14

-- The hunt spreads far south to the Indian Ocean after the White House cites "new information" that the jet may have flown on after losing contact.

March 15

-- At a dramatic news conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says the plane appears to have been flown deliberately for hours, veering sharply off-route at roughly the same time that its communications system and transponder were manually switched off.

-- Satellite data suggests the jet's last known location was somewhere along one of two huge arcs stretching north into Central Asia and south into the Indian Ocean. The South China Sea search is called off.

March 16

-- With more than two dozen countries now involved in the search, suspicions focus on the pilot and co-pilot, both Malaysians. FBI experts examine the hard drive on a flight simulator in Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home, but find nothing suspicious.

March 20

-- Australia says satellites photographed two large objects in the remote southern Indian Ocean, but the flotsam proves to be another in a series of a false alarms.

March 24

-- Najib announces "with deep sadness and regret" that MH370 is presumed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, citing new analysis of satellite data.

The next day in Beijing, emotional Chinese relatives of passengers scuffle with guards outside the Malaysian embassy, demanding answers.

March 31

-- Malaysia releases a transcript of all the pilots' radio communications, but it sheds little light.

April 4

-- A US-supplied "black box" detector begins scanning the suspected crash zone, with the clock ticking on the one-month battery life of their locator beacons.

April 5

-- A Chinese search ship detects an underwater "pulse signal" in the Indian Ocean. More "pings" are detected by other vessels in subsequent days, but they cease before they are pinpointed. Some experts later express doubt they were related to MH370.

April 14

-- Halting the search for underwater signals, Australia deploys an American deep-sea drone to scan the seabed for debris near the ping sites. It ultimately finds nothing.

April 28

-- Australia announces the search area will be expanded across a huge swathe of ocean. The focus shifts for several months to mapping the uncharted seafloor before searching can resume.

May 27

-- After weeks of pressure from families, Malaysia releases raw satellite data used to determine the search zone. Relatives say crucial data was omitted.

October 6

-- A Malaysia-contracted vessel resumes the sonar search of the seabed for debris. Three specialised Dutch search ships eventually join an effort expected to wrap up in May 2015.

2015

January 29

-- Malaysia's government declares MH370's passengers and crew "presumed dead", angering next of kin who demand proof.

February 4

-- Prompted by the MH370 mystery, a global aviation summit in Montreal backs plans to require real-time tracking of any airliners that encounter distress, starting in 2016.

February 25

-- Australian authorities say vessels have completed scanning about 40 percent of a 60,000-square-kilometre (23,166-sq-mile) "priority search area" -- and found nothing.

March 1

-- Australia says it is conducting trials with Malaysia and Indonesia of a system that increases the frequency with which planes are tracked over remote oceans, to avoid an MH370 recurrence. Several days later Malaysia Airlines says it has increased the frequency with which it tracks its aircraft.

March 7

-- Malaysia says the hunt for MH370 will be "sent back to the drawing board" if the search now under way comes up empty, echoing earlier remarks by Australian officials.

-- The sister of Captain Shah defends her brother against suggestions he may have played a role in the flight's disappearance, calling him a "man of integrity".

March 8

-- Grieving relatives mark one year since MH370 disappeared. Malaysia Airlines holds a private ceremony for staff and the families of the flight crew at its headquarters, while an association of MH370 families organises a separate public event in Kuala Lumpur.

-- Australia says the search for the plane will extend beyond its current scope if necessary, appearing to diverge from earlier comments saying it could be scaled back but giving no further details.

-- An interim report by an international investigative team formed in the weeks after the plane vanished hands over its findings on the sequence of events leading up to the disappearance.

PressForNirvana · Mar 10, 2015

MH370 search to continue: Chinese foreign minister

Xinhua
2015-03-09

C308N0118H_2015%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99%E7%85%A7%E7%89%87_N71_copy1.JPG

Family members of flight MH370 passengers gather in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, one year after the aircraft went missing. (Photo/CNS)

China on Sunday pledged that search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 will not stop.

The search for MH370 will continue," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session one year after the Boeing 777 aircraft with 239 people on board disappeared during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"Today must be a tough day for the family members of those on board MH370," Wang said. "Our hearts are with you."

His remarks came nearly two months after Malaysia officially declared the disappearance of MH370 as an accident, and all people on board, most of whom Chinese, were presumed dead.

Authorities with the southeast Asian nation have pledged to continue search for the aircraft after multinational exhaustive search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean turned up nothing.

He said that Malaysian Airlines has started its compensation work.

"We will provide all necessary assistance and services to each family of those aboard the plane," he said. "We will help you uphold legitimate interests and lawful rights."

PressForNirvana · Mar 10, 2015

Investigation team releases interim statement on MH370

Xinhua and Staff Reporter
2015-03-09

C308X0262H_2015%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99%E7%85%A7%E7%89%87_N71_copy1.JPG

Family members of the missing passengers attend an event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 8. (Photo/CNS)

The investigation team for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 released an interim statement on the efforts and progress that have been made in the search for the missing plane and the investigation into the incident.

The statement, released on the first anniversary of the disappearance of the MH370, was formally announced through Radio Television Malaysia.

According to the statement, the investigation team gathered some factual information on the MH370 incident through reviewing recordings, interviews and visits to departments concerned.

The investment team, called Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team, was set up by the Ministry of Transport Malaysia under the Malaysia Civil Aviation Regulation. Experts and representatives from a number of countries and international organizations participated in the 19-member investigation team.

The team reviewed Air Traffic Control radio and radar tape recordings and made transcripts of radiotelephony communications between the aircraft and Air Traffic Controllers, said the report.

The team also reviewed aircraft maintenance records and carried out simulator sessions to reconstruct the aircraft flight profile and system operation.

The team interviewed more than 120 people from the Department of Civil Aviation of Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines, next-of-kin of crew and others concerned.

The investigation team in the months ahead will need to analyze the information to draw conclusions and put forward safety recommendations based on the factual information that have been gathered, said the statement.

"In addition to the analysis and the conclusion phase of the investigation, steps taken will also include further validation of the factual information on the emergence of new evidence," the statement said.

"The investigation team expects that further factual information will be available from the wreckage and flight recorders if the aircraft is found," the statement said.

The Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board. So far no trace has been found despite a massive surface and underwater hunt.

A massive search has been jointly carried out by Australia, Malaysia and China in the Indian Ocean some 1,600 kilometers off Australia's west coast, with four ships using sophisticated sonar systems to scour a huge underwater area.

The vessels are focusing on a 60,000 square kilometer priority zone, with the hunt scheduled to end in May.

Malaysian minister of transport Liow Tiong Lai told reporters that over 26,000 square kilometers of the seafloor, or over 40% of the total priority zone have been searched so far for the missing flight.

According to the regulations of International Civil Organization (ICAO), if a final investigation report on an air incident can not be made public available within 12 months, the country conducting the investigation shall make an interim statement on each anniversary of the occurrence, detailing the progress of the investigation.

"The disappearance of MH370 is without precedent, and so too is the search, by far the most complex and technically challenging in aviation history," Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said in a statement earlier Sunday. "Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists. Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopefully that MH370 will be found," the prime minister said.

PressForNirvana · Mar 10, 2015

Is this proof that MH370 crashed off the coast of Australia? Towelette with Malaysia Airlines logo washes up on Western Australia beach

The package washed up on a Cervantes beach in Western Australia
It has now been sent to Canberra for further testing and verification
Experts think a package this small could travel these long distances
It comes just days after the one year anniversary of the disappearance
MH370 disappeared with all 239 people on board on March 8, 2014
Relatives of the passengers gathered to mourn and demand answers

By John Carney for Daily Mail Australia and Heather Mcnab for Daily Mail Australia
Published: 22:25 GMT, 9 March 2015 | Updated: 14:52 GMT, 10 March 2015

In a new twist in the continuing saga of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a towelette that was washed up on a Western Australia beach is now being examined to try and find out if it could have come from the disappeared plane.

The small pre-moistened paper towel that was in a Malaysia Airlines sealed packet has been sent to Canberra for testing and verification after being found by a couple walking along a beach in Cervantes in July last year, Nine News reported.

The news comes just days after the one year anniversary of the plane's disappearance, with 239 people on board.

Kingsley and Vicki Miller discovered the unopened packet at Cervantes, 200 kilometres north of Perth, and said it was ‘unopened, which was very unusual’.

267AFEF100000578-2987078-A_towelette_that_was_washed_up_on_a_Western_Australia_beach_may_-m-21_1425939406734.jpg

A reenactment of the discovery of the towelette that washed up on a Western Australia beach which may have been from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

The package was washed up on a Cervantes beach hundreds of kilometres away from where the plane is said to have disappeared

267B002A00000578-2987078-The_small_package_has_been_sent_to_sent_to_Canberra_for_further_-a-22_1425939433037.jpg

The small package has been sent to sent to Canberra for further testing

'If it had of been opened and found lying there it would have been completely different,' Mr Miller said.

The Daily Telegraph reported that experts believe it's possible for a small package such as the towelette to travel long distances without sustaining damage.

However, experts believe that the package may not provide any helpful information as to the disappearance of the plane.

'A 6cm x 8cm moist towelette in wrapping branded with the Malaysia Airlines logo was found at Thirsty Point on 2 July 2014. It was handed in to the WA police,' said a spokesperson for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

'It is unlikely, however, that such a common item with no unique identifier could be conclusively linked with MH370,' reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

The plane dropped off the civilian radar after its transponder and other equipment were switched off shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur. It was then tracked by Malaysia’s military radar heading towards the Indian Ocean.

Kingsley and Vicki Miller discovered the unopened packet at Cervantes, 200 kilometres north of Perth

The MH370 flight disappeared on the May 8 with 239 people on board

Malaysian Airlines towelette washes up on WA beach

The anniversary of the plane's disappearance was matched by a report which revealed that the battery of an underwater locator beacon on the flight had expired more than a year before the incident.

The update on the progress of the probe surrounding the Malaysia Airlines plane indicates those looking for the aircraft would have had less chance of finding it.
Apart from the anomaly of the beacon, the report devoted many of its 584 pages to describe the complete normality of the flight - shedding little light on one of aviation's biggest mysteries.

The significance of the expired battery was not immediately apparent, except indicating that searchers would have had lesser chance of locating the plane, even if they were in its vicinity.

The report said: ‘The sole objective of the investigation is the prevention of future accidents or incidents, and not for the purpose to apportion blame or liability.’

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

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