MALAYSIAN Airlines flight en route to China is missing.

[PrivateEyes]

Chinese families take Malaysia Airlines staff captive at hotel

Tempers flare as Malaysia vows to make public report it gave to the UN

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 5:30am
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 April, 2014, 5:30am

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur, Wu Nan in Beijing and Kristine Kwok

A relative of a MH370 passenger outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, where he and other relatives have gathered. Photo: AP

Ten Malaysia Airlines staff were held at a Beijing hotel against their will for hours by Chinese relatives of flight MH370 passengers, the airline said yesterday.

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

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

"Malaysia Airlines confirms that its staff were held at the Lido Hotel ballroom in Beijing by the family members of MH370 as the families expressed dissatisfaction in obtaining details of the missing aircraft," the airline said.

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

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

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

"We are so tired, as this is the 49th day. We didn't sleep the whole night, but we are still angry. No update has been made and our loved ones are still missing," a family representative said.

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

About two-thirds of the 239 passengers aboard the missing plane came from China. Relatives have for weeks complained about the handling of the search for the plane, which vanished on March 8.

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

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

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

In an effort to be transparent, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak promised that a preliminary report submitted to the United Nations' aviation body would be released publicly.

"In the name of transparency, we will release the report next week," he told CNN in an interview late on Thursday.

Anthony Brickhouse, a member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, said the report was unlikely to contain anything startling.

"This preliminary report is really just a run-down of what you know so far," he said.

A difficult underwater search of the suspected crash site, using a mini-submarine equipped with a sonar device, is nearing completion with no trace of the plane found.

 

[PrivateEyes]

Searchers 'highly unlikely' to find MH370 debris on surface, Abbott says

New phase of underwater search will cover expanded area, involve private contractors, and may drag on for years.

PUBLISHED : Monday, 28 April, 2014, 1:15pm
UPDATED : Monday, 28 April, 2014, 1:45pm

Agencies

The underwater drone Bluefin 21 has completed its search of the initial area around where electronic black-box "pings" were heard on April 8. Photo: Xinhua

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today that it was 'highly unlikely' any debris would be found on the ocean surface from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, and that the underwater search would be expanded to include a massive swath of ocean floor, a hunt that could take up to eight months.

The new phase of the search will focus on a much larger area than previously scoured and will involve private contractors, at a cost of about $60 million, Abbot said.

“It is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface. By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become waterlogged and sunk,” Abbott told reporters. “Therefore, we are moving from the current phase to a phase which is focused on searching the ocean floor over a much larger area.&rdquoAn underwater search by an a US Navy drone has so far turned up no evidence of the flight that went missing on March 8.

Abbott said the US Navy’s robotic submarine Bluefin 21 had finished scouring the initial search area far off the Australian west coast and has not yet found anything.

The Bluefin’s original search area was a circle with a 10-kilometre radius, 4.5 kilometres deep around a spot where signals consistent with airplane black boxes were heard on April on April 8.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, left, with Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. They said the next phase of the search for MH370 would cover a huge swath of ocean and last up to eight months. Photo: EPA

Radar and satellite data show the jet carrying 239 passengers and crew veered far off course on March 8 for unknown reasons during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Analysis indicates it would have run out of fuel in the remote section of ocean where the search has been focused. Not one piece of debris has been recovered since the massive multinational hunt began.

Crews will now begin searching the plane’s entire probable impact zone, an area 700 kilometres long and 80 kilometres wide, Abbott said.

That will be a monumental task — and one that will take time, warned Angus Houston, head of the search effort.

“If everything goes perfectly, I would say we’ll be doing well if we do it in eight months,” Houston said, adding that weather and technical issues could cause the search to drag on well beyond that estimate.

It could take officials several weeks to organize contracts for the new equipment and in the meantime, the Bluefin will continue to scour the seabed, Abbott said.

The search is already the longest and most expensive in aviation history, with ships and aircraft from some two dozen nations taking part.

US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the United States was committed to providing more assets to assist in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.

"I can tell you the United States is absolutely committed to providing whatever resources and assets that we can," Obama told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

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

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

 

[PrivateEyes]

​

 

[groinroot]

Malaysia Flight 370: US Pilot Says He’s Found The Missing Plane
Mon, April 28, 2014 12:47pm EDT by bperkins400 19 Comments 71,252 Article Views
Michael Hoebel Found Plane

US pilot Michael Hoebel reported to his hometown TV station on April 27 that he’s found Missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370 — a mystery that eight nations have struggled to solve over a 52 day period.

Michael Hoebel, 60, spent hours upon hours searching satellite images from his home in Tonawanda, New York. According to his research he’s discovered an outline of the plane underneath the Indian Ocean right where search crews were looking for the missing aircraft.

Malaysia Flight 370: US Pilot Says He’s Found The Missing Plane

The images Michael was searching through were mostly from a crowd-sourcing website called TomNod.com.
Malaysia Flight 370: Batteries dead, underwater...

The ping pong match in the Indian Ocean comes to an end; but the search is far from over for flight MH-370.

“I was taken aback because I couldn’t believe I would find this,” Michael told his hometown news channel WIVB.
With No Pings Heard For Nearly A Week, MH370...

Searchers looking for any sign of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have given up on the search for possible pings from the plane’s black...

Do You Think This Pilot Altered The Satellite Photos?
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Michael, who is a recreational pilot in his hometown, said he was shocked to discover that the plane, appeared to be in one piece beneath the water off the northeast coast of Malaysia. This location was, at one time, part of the search area, just west of Songkhla in Thailand.

The 60-year-old pilot claims that more promising news comes from the fact that the satellite image was taken right after the plane reportedly crashed on March 28.

Michael claims that he used the scale at the bottom of the map on TomNod.com and compared its numbers to the aircraft’s measurements on Boeings’ company website. From the comparison he established that the white figure he saw in the satellite image was the perfect match to the missing plane.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: US Pilot Discovers Missing Aircraft?

Michael’s alleged discovery came just a day before the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott held a press conference regarding the next steps in the search for the missing plane.

He stated that the “surface search” for the missing plane was being scaled back or reduced because the chances of finding debris from the plane is “highly unlikely.”

“By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become waterlogged and sunk,” the Prime Minister explained during the press conference.

What do you think HollywoodLifers, could the prime minister be wrong, and do you think this latest news is the answer to the mystery of missing Malaysia flight 370? Tell us what you think.

– Bryant Perkins

http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/04/28/malaysia-flgith-370-pilot-found-missing-plane/

 

[uglyloser]

i think it is creepy for such a large object to be still unaccounted for after such a prolonged period of time...could it be spirited away by those 3 UFOs sighted by PRC radar?

 

[PrivateEyes]

Malaysia probes claim that Australian firm ‘found MH370 in Bay of Bengal’

Australian firm says it has discovered metals and elements used in planes in Bay of Bengal

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 April, 2014, 7:39pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 April, 2014, 9:09am

Staff Reporter and Reuters

International and Australian air crews involved in search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370, prepare for official photograph on the tarmac at RAAF Pearce Base in Bullsbrook. Photo: Reuters

Malaysia said last night it was investigating a claim by an Australian firm that it had potentially discovered the wreckage of flight MH370 - some 5,000 kilometres from where search teams have been focusing their efforts.

Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia was working to "assess the credibility of this information", after the company said it had identified in the ocean chemical elements used in the construction of aircraft.

GeoResonance told Australia's 7News that it had used hi-tech equipment to scan more than two million square kilometres of ocean before identifying an area in the Bay of Bengal containing "aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials".

The company's David Pope said the team had been "very excited when we found what we believe to be the wreckage of a commercial airliner".

He said the team then verified its findings by analysing images of the area taken three days prior to the crash.

"The wreckage wasn't there prior to the disappearance of MH370," Pope told 7News.

The GeoResonance website states the firm can "detect the nuclei of targeted substances" at depths of up to 5,000 metres.

The Boeing 777, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, vanished more than seven weeks ago with 239 people on board. Search teams have concentrated their efforts on an area of ocean off the west coast of Australia.

Hishammuddin said: "The fact that MH370 still has not been found underscores the complexity and difficulty of this search operation.

"Malaysia will discuss with our international counterparts, including Australia, how the new search operation … will proceed."

Malaysia said last night it had hired the former director-general of the civil aviation department, Kok Soo Chon, to lead an international team tasked with determining the cause of the plane's disappearance.

Air accident specialists from China, the US and Britain are among team members, along with representatives of Boeing and satellite firm Inmarsat.

Hishammuddin said the team's main purpose was to "determine the actual cause of the incident so similar incidents could be avoided in the future".

 

[PrivateEyes]

Searchers dismiss possibility wreckage found in Bay of Bengal is from MH370

Australian geophysical survey company that may have discovered MH370 debris in March thousands of miles from current search zone questions why claim was dismissed

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 30 April, 2014, 11:05am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 April, 2014, 11:26am

Reuters in Kuala Lumpur
Most Popular

GeoResonance''s image claims to show chemical elements in the Bay of Bengal. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The Australian agency heading up the search for the missing Malaysian jet has dismissed a claim by a resource survey company that it found possible plane wreckage in the northern Bay of Bengal.

The location cited by Australia-based GeoResonance is thousands of kilometres north of a remote area in the Indian Ocean where the search for Flight MH370 has been concentrated for weeks.

“The Australian-led search is relying on information from satellite and other data to determine the missing aircraft’s location. The location specified by the GeoResonance report is not within the search arc derived from this data,” the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC), which is heading up the search off Australia’s west coast, said in a statement on Tuesday. “The joint international team is satisfied that the final resting place of the missing aircraft is in the southerly portion of the search arc.”

GeoResonance stressed that it is not certain it found the Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but called for its findings to be investigated.

“The company is not declaring this is MH370, however it should be investigated,” GeoResonance said in the statement.

The company uses imaging, radiation chemistry and other technologies to search for oil, gas or mineral deposits. In hunting for Flight MH370, it used the same technology to look on the ocean floor for chemical elements that would be present in a Boeing 777: aluminium, titanium, jet fuel residue and others.

GeoResonance compared multispectral images taken March 5 and March 10 – before and after the plane’s disappearance – and found a specific area where the data varied between those dates, it said in a statement. The location is about 190 kilometres south of Bangladesh.

The company said it had passed on the information to Malaysian Airlines and the Malaysian and Chinese embassies in Australia on March 31, and to the JACC on April 4.

A sand sculpture of the missing flight created by artist Sudarshan Pattnaik on the banks of the Bay of Bengal in east India. Photo: Xinhua

“The company and its directors are surprised by the lack of response from the various authorities,” GeoResonance said.

“This may be due to a lack of understanding of the company’s technological capabilities, or the JACC is extremely busy, or the belief that the current search in the Southern Indian Ocean is the only plausible location of the wreckage.”

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Tuesday that China and Australia were aware of the announcement. “Malaysia is working with its international partners to assess the credibility of this information,” a statement from his office said.

India, Bangladesh and other countries to the north have said they never detected the plane in their airspace. The jet had contact with a satellite from British company Inmarsat for a few more hours, and investigators have concluded from that data that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

No wreckage from the plane has been found, and an aerial search for surface debris ended on Monday after six weeks of fruitless hunting. An unmanned submarine is continuing to search underwater in an area where sounds consistent with a plane’s black box were detected earlier in April. Additional equipment is expected to be brought in within the next few weeks to scour an expanded underwater area. That search could drag on for eight months.

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

The preliminary report into the disappearance of MH370 has been published by Malaysian authorities...and it doesn't make pretty reading if you're a Malaysian.

1) Officlals didn't realise the plane had gone off radar for 17 minutes.
2) There was a FOUR hour gap between when the plane left radar and when a search and rescue operation began.

This whole operation sounds like the "Mother of all f**k ups".

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/01/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane-report/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

[Sinkie]

The preliminary report into the disappearance of MH370 has been published by Malaysian authorities...and it doesn't make pretty reading if you're a Malaysian.

1) Officlals didn't realise the palace had gone off radar for 17 minutes.
2) There was a FOUR hour gap between when the plane left radar and when a search and rescue operation began.

This whole operation sounds like the "Mother of all f**k ups".

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/01/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane-report/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Malaysia is fucked up..........primarily because of UMNO and the inert stupidity of the Malay genes.......

 

[SpaceTruckin]

MH370 remains a mystery as Malaysia releases report

AFP
May 2, 2014, 12:44 am

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Malaysia on Thursday released a much-anticipated report on Flight MH370 that chronicled its slow-footed response to the airliner's disappearance but contained no new clues on what happened to the missing plane.

The brief five-page report dated April 9, and which was submitted earlier to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), was mostly a recap of information that had already been released over time.

The document and accompanying materials contained no major revelations in what remains one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

"Over a month after the aircraft departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport, its location is still unknown," said the report, which was emailed to news organisations.

But the information indicated it took authorities four hours from the time the Malaysia Airlines jet was first noticed missing at around 1:38 am on March 8 to initiate an official emergency response.

The air force, meanwhile, took eight hours to formally notify civilian authorities that it had tracked a plane believed to be MH370 moving back across Malaysian airspace and out toward the Indian Ocean.

The jet vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

It is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, but a massive search for wreckage has found nothing.

The information release included a summary of exchanges between the national airline and confused Malaysian, Vietnamese and Cambodian air-traffic controllers as they sought to determine what happened to the plane after it disappeared from primary radar over the South China Sea at 1:21 am.

The main report is required by the ICAO within 30 days of a crash, and Malaysian authorities have confirmed it was submitted on time.

However, they waited another three weeks before releasing the brief document, with Prime Minister Najib Razak saying last week he wanted it to be reviewed first by an "internal" team of experts.

- Call for real-time tracking -

Malaysia's long-ruling government, which has a poor record on transparency, was heavily criticised for a seemingly chaotic response and contradictory statements on MH370 in the early days of the crisis.

It has been tight-lipped about the progress of its ongoing investigations.

Some relatives of passengers have angrily accused the government and airline of incompetence and withholding incriminating information, charges that are denied.

A statement accompanying Thursday's release said "as long as the release of a particular piece of information does not hamper the investigation or the search operation, in the interests of openness and transparency, the information should be made public".

Malaysia is continuing to investigate what happened to MH370, saying this week it had appointed a former head of the country's civil aviation department to head an overall probe that will include members of the US National Transportation Safety Board and other foreign aviation agencies.

Thursday's release did not contain information from an ongoing Malaysian police investigation into whether a criminal act such as terrorism was to blame.

Malaysia's air force has acknowledged tracking a radar blip later determined to be MH370 after the plane went missing.

It has come under fire for failing to respond to the unidentified image, letting it slip away toward the Indian Ocean and wasting an opportunity to track it.

Thursday's data confirmed that Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was not informed of the radar blip until 10:30 am on March 8, nearly eight hours after it was first monitored.

The report concluded by recommending that the ICAO "examine the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial air transport aircraft," to prevent planes going missing in future.

Malaysian authorities have previously said the plane's transponder, which relays its location, and a separate automated system that transmits information on the state of the aircraft both appeared to have been shut off around the time it was diverted, suggesting a deliberate act.

 

[SpaceTruckin]

Malaysia releases draft report on missing flight MH370 as it ends hotel stays for families

Malaysia recommends introduction of real-time aircraft tracking in new report, as Malaysia Airlines ends hotel stays for MH370 families

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 01 May, 2014, 10:49am
UPDATED : Thursday, 01 May, 2014, 9:06pm

Reuters and Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur

Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia will release a preliminary report on the disappearance of the plane. Photo: EPA

Malaysia on Thursday made public a preliminary report on flight MH370 and other data that marks its most extensive release of information on the missing airliner to date, nearly two months after its mysterious disappearance.

The brief five-page report, which was submitted earlier to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), was essentially a recap of information that has already been released over time, and did not immediately appear to contain any major new revelations.

The report was accompanied by audio recordings of verbal exchanges between the cockpit of the Malaysia Airlines jet and air traffic controllers, and documents pertaining to the cargo manifest.

Malaysia’s Transport Ministry recommended in the report that the International Civil Aviation Authority, the UN body that oversees global aviation, examines the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial air transport aircraft.

The ministry pointed to the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 and Air France flight AF447 in 2009 as evidence that such real-time tracking would help to better track aircraft.

Earlier on Thursday, Malaysia Airlines said they would cease to provide hotel accommodation for relatives of missing flight MH370 passengers by May 7.

The Malaysian flag carrier has provided hotel accommodation for relatives in a number of countries – most of them in Malaysia and China – where it provided them periodic updates on the situation since shortly after the flight mysteriously disappeared on March 8.

But relatives’ tempers have repeatedly flared, particularly at the Lido Hotel in Beijing where Chinese families have regularly lashed out at officials from the Malaysian government and the airline over their inability to explain the plane’s disappearance.

Relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the missing flight. Photo: AP

“Instead of staying in hotels, the families of MH370 are advised to receive information updates on the progress of the search and investigation and other support by Malaysia Airlines within the comfort of their own homes, with the support and care of their families and friends,” the airline said in a statement.

“In line with this adjustment, Malaysia Airlines will be closing all of its family assistance centres around the world by 7 May this year.”

The government-controlled carrier also said it would soon make advance compensation payments to the next-of-kin of the 239 people onboard the plane, part of a final package to be agreed upon later.

It did not specify the amounts.

About two-thirds of those aboard the missing plane, which vanished from radar en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, were Chinese nationals.

The airline also had provided psychiatric support at hotels for families trying to cope with the tragedy.

The carrier said it would establish centres in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur to provide “follow-up support and services” but gave no further specifics.

The cut-off of accommodation is likely to upset some family members who continue to demand answers from the airline and Malaysian government.

The airline said last week that 10 of its staff were held against their will for more than 10 hours at the Lido Hotel by angry relatives.

Hotel-staying next-of-kin could not immediately be reached for comment.

The plane is believed to have inexplicably diverted from its course and crashed in the Indian Ocean.

However, a multi-nation search for plane wreckage has failed to find any evidence despite weeks of looking.

“There have now been two occasions during the last five years when large commercial air transport aircraft have gone missing and their last position was not accurately known. This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner,” the ministry said.

The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER disappeared while on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March. The search for the aircraft, which had 239 passengers and crew on board, initially took place in the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca. It moved to the Indian Ocean only about three weeks after the disappearance as a result of new satellite data.

Australian Defence Force with the International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle deployed in the search mission for the missing flight. Photo: AP

“[Prime Minister Najib Razak] set, as a guiding principle, the rule that as long as the release of a particular piece of information does not hamper the investigation or the search operation, in the interests of openness and transparency, the information should be made public,” an accompanying government statement said.

Malaysia is continuing to investigate what happened to the plane, saying this week it also had appointed a former head of the country’s civil aviation to head up a probe that will include members of the US National Transportation Safety Board and other foreign aviation agencies.

Thursday’s release did not contain any information from a separate Malaysian police investigation into whether a criminal act such as terrorism was to blame.

Malaysia’s government, which was heavily criticised for a seemingly chaotic initial response and comments to the media on MH370, has been tight-lipped about the progress of its investigations into the tragedy.

Some relatives of passengers have angrily accused the government and airline of incompetence and withholding information, which Malaysia denies.

The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

It is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, but a massive hunt for the wreckage has been fruitless so far.

 

[SpaceTruckin]

Red herring in hunt for MH370 highlights air traffic flaws

By Tim Hepher
PARIS Fri May 2, 2014 8:18am EDT

A map shows the possible path of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 as released to Reuters by the Malaysian Transport Ministry May 1, 2014. REUTERS/Malaysian Transport Ministry/Handout via Reuters

(Reuters) - Fresh questions have been raised over air traffic co-ordination after a preliminary report on the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared almost two months ago revealed 90 minutes of wasted effort while controllers looked in the wrong country.

While Flight MH370's disappearance has led to calls for real-time tracking, it has also re-focused attention on the gap between what controllers sometimes think and see, which complicated early efforts to find Air France 447 in 2009.

Some 25 minutes after the Malaysian jet was first reported missing over the Gulf of Thailand on March 8, the airline told controllers that it had flown onto Cambodian airspace. It later added it had been able to exchange signals, the report said.

Half an hour later, the airline reassured controllers that the Boeing 777 was in a "normal condition" based on a signal placing it even further east, on the other side of Vietnam.

In fact, by then it had flown back west across Malaysia and was already on a new southerly course thought to have taken it across the tip of Indonesia and towards the Indian Ocean, where investigators believe it crashed with 239 people on board.

The false trail appears to have cost controllers time, according to maps and a chronology released on Thursday.

Unnoticed by civil controllers because its transponder was switched off, and deemed no threat by a military radar controller, the aircraft flew back across Malaysia and the Malacca Straits for an hour while the airline believed it was in Cambodian and then Vietnamese airspace.

The airline later told controllers the information had been based on a "projection" and was not reliable, according to the report.

Malaysia Airlines could not be reached for comment.

The confusion echoes a fumble when Air France 447 vanished over the Atlantic five years ago. Controllers at first mistook a virtual flight path for the plane's actual course, according to an official report, which may have delayed a search operation.

In both cases, people on the ground were looking only at projections when they thought they were looking at real data.

HIGH TRAFFIC

Both events illustrate the problems in handling a growing amount of air traffic crossing through remote areas, where controllers and dispatchers sometimes have to fill in the blanks by anticipating where an aircraft should be.

"It is a natural consequence of the old traditional industry ways, which are limited by communications capability," said air traffic control expert Hans Weber, president of U.S.-based consultancy TECOP International.

Experts say such methods are not necessarily unsafe because controllers simply compensate for uncertainty by leaving a bigger "bubble" of vacant space around a jet to avoid collision. But that can also lead to delays and greater congestion.

"Controllers anticipate where a plane's next call should come from: that is what they do because that is all they have to work with," said Weber.

Many private satellite firms are offering flight tracking services, but analysts say they face problems of capacity due to sharp rises in global air traffic expected over coming years.

Such issues could be overtaken by broader plans for a radical overhaul of air traffic control in the next decade in the United States and Europe, using satellites. But the schemes are costly and have not yet been widely adopted elsewhere.

(Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

 

[SpaceTruckin]

Nations searching for missing Flight MH370 to meet on way forward

PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 3:53pm
UPDATED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 6:52pm

Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein listens to Angus Houston, the Australian head of the search, in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. Photo: EPA

Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China will meet early next week to decide on the next step in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, while expressing confidence on Friday that the hunt was on the right track despite no wreckage being found so far.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the challenges were huge but he told reporters, “I believe we will find MH370 sooner or later.”

Hishammuddin said he will travel to Canberra for the meeting on Monday on the approach forward regarding deployment of assets, engagement with victims’ families and expert and technical advice.

An unmanned sub continued to scan the Indian Ocean floor off western Australia where sounds consistent with a plane’s black box were detected in early April. Additional equipment is expected to be brought in within the next few weeks to scour an expanded underwater area. The aerial search for surface debris ended this week.

Angus Houston, the Australian head of the search operation, said he was confident the wreckage was in that area based on the most promising leads. He said, however, that the chance of the US Navy’s Bluefin 21 robotic sub finding the wreckage are “probability ... lower than it was when we started the search.”

Personnel and aircraft involved in the search of Flight MH370 pose in this photo released by Australian Defence Department. Photo: Xinhua

Houston said the ministerial meeting was crucial to “formalise the way ahead to ensure the search continues with urgency and that it doesn’t stop at any stage.”

He said that the search could take another eight to 12 months but “we are totally committed to find MH370”.

Houston also said that Bangladeshi ships, including a vessel fitted with sonar equipment, had so far found nothing in the northern Bay of Bengal, where a resource survey company, Australia-based GeoResonance, had claimed it found possible plane wreckage.

According to Hishammuddin, Malaysia was still considering whether to hire private deep sea vessels to search the Bay of Bengal area as it could distract the main search and cost involved would be high.

The Malaysian Boeing 777 disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

 

[SpaceTruckin]

Relatives of flight MH370 angry over order to check out of Beijing hotel

Provincial officials sent to Lido Hotel to persuade families they should return home

PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 11:37pm
UPDATED : Friday, 02 May, 2014, 11:55pm

Laura Zhou in Beijing and Angela Meng

Hotel staff in a hall used as a service centre for relatives of flight MH370 passengers. Photo: Reuters

Malaysia Airlines' decision to shut down assistance centres set up for relatives of passengers aboard missing flight 370 has left the families angry and confused.

Yesterday, family members were asked to check out of the Lido Hotel in Beijing, where at least 100 police and several ambulances were on stand-by in case of trouble.

"Why did they ask us to leave so suddenly? Why couldn't they have given us five or six more days?" a woman from Henan province asked.

A receptionist at the hotel said a large number of relatives had checked out by late afternoon.

On Thursday, the Malaysian government released a preliminary report on flight MH370, which disappeared on March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. It showed air traffic controllers took 17 minutes to notice the disappearance and four hours for officials to declare a search-and-rescue mission.

"That's why I think this is a political issue," said a Tianjin woman whose boyfriend was on board the flight. "Why else would it take them four hours to start the search?"

A search of the southern Indian Ocean where the Boeing 777 is believed to have gone down has found no sign of the airliner.

At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said France took more than six hours to declare a rescue mission after Air France flight 447 went missing over the Atlantic in 2009. But, he said, the investigation team would still look into the issue.

That will come as little comfort to relatives.

"It is torture," said Nan Kaijun, a Shandong native whose brother-in-law was on board the plane. "If we go home, who are we going to direct our questions to? Who will update us on new developments?"

Provincial officials have been at the hotel trying to persuade relatives to return home, as well as offering temporary accommodation in Beijing if they wish to stay.

Bian Zengchao, a village-level official from Hebei , said he and nine other officials were told to escort three family members home. "We are worried about them," Bian said.

A woman from Henan said officials from her village had travelled to the hotel and pressured her to leave.

The Beijing Lawyer's Association has assembled 71 lawyers to provide free legal services. They will negotiate compensation.

Malaysia Airlines will begin to distribute US$50,000 to each family next week, but some relatives may not accept it yet.

"Accepting the money and signing with the lawyers would mean I accept that he's dead," the Tianjin woman said. "I'm not ready to do that yet."

 

[SpaceTruckin]

​

 

[halsey02]

According to Dr.M, American made plane is to be blamed...should have bought from the Russian....it still smell like "selected amnesia"....do you think the pilot or someone would have contacted flight control & said something....maybe 4 hrs it took to negotiate a deal, who knows? & then, it did not go through.....why they are so sure that the plane was 'dumped' near to PERTH??

 

[virus]

Published: Sunday May 4, 2014 MYT 9:12:00 AM
Updated: Sunday May 4, 2014 MYT 9:52:06 AM
MH370: 11 alleged militants quizzed over plane’s disappearance, Daily Mirror reports


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LONDON: The 11 alleged militants, who were arrested had links to the al-Qaeda, and were being questioned over the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, the Daily Mirror reported on Saturday.

It said that the suspects were members of a new terror group said to be planning bomb attacks in Muslim countries.

The report claimed that investigators, including the FBI and MI6, had asked for the alleged militants, who are aged from 22 to 55, to be interrogated.

They include students, odd-job workers, a widow and business professionals.

It was reported that in the interviews conducted so far, some suspects had admitted planning ‘sustained terror campaigns’ in Malaysia, but denied being involved in the disappearance of the airliner.

Last week, Bukit Aman arrested 11 alleged militants in Selangor and Kedah. They were believed to have networks in Syria and southern Philippines.

Flight MH370 went missing on Mar 8, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board, while en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

A massive search and rescue operation was conducted, first in the South China Sea, and later in the southern Indian Ocean.

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/05/04/MH370-MH370-11-alleged-militants-quizzed/

found the woman who called the pilot?

 

[vtran2684]

Aussies must be increasing their debt spending so much time and resources on this.

 

[god_zeus]

New Flight 370 Details! Cargo Hold Had Lithium and 2.2 Tonnes of Mystery Product! .

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/95aDtScI8xE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Sinkie]

Correct lor, in the first place, why in the fuck would any company ship lithium batteries to China, that manufactures lithium batteries for the world? It is obvious the lithium batteries were for the 2.2 tons mystery product.....