Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 missing!

FEATURE: MALAYSIA UNDER PRESSURE OVER MISSING PLANE BY JOHN GRAFILO, DPA

Malaysian authorities are feeling the heat over their handling of the search for the Malaysia Airlines aircraft missing with 239 people on board, amid perceived bungles and conflicting statements. Since the Boeing 777-200 vanished from the radar around an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Saturday, Malaysian officials have given out contradictory information about the flight and its passengers. There was confusion over whether military radar tracked the aircraft in the Strait of Malacca, off the west coast of the Malaysian peninsula, and more than 100 kilometres from its north-easterly course to Beijing. Malay-language daily Berita Harian cited air force chief General Rodzali Daud saying the plane had veered from its flight path. But the general later said he only meant that the plane might have tried to turn back before it went missing. "The sudden disappearance of the plane was already mystifying but the way the government is handling this is more perplexing," said Terrence Netto, a political analyst. The Malaysian Insider online news portal slammed the government for fumbling the release of information to the public. "The mood among Malaysians now is moving from patience in the search for the 239 people aboard the missing flight MH370 to embarrassment and anger over discrepancies about passengers, offloaded baggage and concealed information about its last known position," it said in a commentary online. Government officials have issued conflicting information about the five passengers who reportedly checked in to the ill-fated flight but did not board. Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Department of Civil Aviation, told a press conference on Monday all the luggage of the five passengers was removed from the plane before it took off, and aviation officials found the items "clean" on examination. But on Tuesday, chief of police Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said the report was untrue. "Everybody who checked in to the flight boarded," he said. "There is nobody who checked in and did not board." Conflicting accounts emerged concerning the two passengers who boarded using fake passports. Malaysian immigration chief Aloyah Mama said the two Iranians who boarded with stolen passports used those documents to fly to Malaysia from Iran on February 28. Interpol said Tuesday the two used their own passports to enter Malaysia, which does not require entry visas for Iranians. With the authorities' handling of the incident attracting unwelcome attention, former Malaysian transport minister Ong Tee Keat questioned why the government had not formed an inter-ministry committee to deal with the loss of the jet. "The management of this crisis must be handled in a directed and coordinated manner," he said. "It is important that the people across the globe are reassured of our competence and capabilities to manage such a crisis or it will a have severe bearing on their future cooperation with our country." The Malaysian government, which has ruled for more than half a century, is not accustomed to domestic transparency, let alone intense scrutiny from the international community, said one foreign journalist who has covered Malaysia for several years. "This government is in complete control of the country from the economy to the media," she said, speaking anonymously. "The officials are not used to being in the spotlight, where every action they make is scrutinized." Netto, who admits to being critical of the administration in general, does not believe the officials are bungling accidentally, noting that the government has been in power since 1957 and is probably not as inefficient as it sometimes appears. "I think they are deliberately creating this confusion to hide something," he said. "For one, it has diverted the attention from the lax airport security in Malaysia." Netto said public attention has also been drawn away from the fact that Malaysia's two Scorpene submarines were not taking part in the search and rescue operations. The vessels were bought when Prime Minister Najib Razak was defence minister in early 2000, amid suspicion of huge kickbacks. The navy chief said the two submarines are not being used because they can only detect underwater objects that produce sound through engines, movement, and radio or sonar transmissions. "This government will do anything to hide its shortcomings and to survive amid intensified resentment of the people," he said.


Source : Sapa-dpa /lk
Date : 12 Mar 2014 08:33
 
MALAYSIA JET SEARCH SWINGS NORTHWEST, STOKING CRITICISM
by Dan Martin

The search for a missing Malaysian jet swung northwest towards the Andaman Sea on Wednesday, far from its intended flight path, exposing Malaysia to mounting criticism that its response was in disarray.

Vietnam scaled back its efforts to locate Malaysia Airlines flight 370, carrying 239 passengers, which had focused on the South China Sea where the jet last made contact on a journey between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

No trace of the plane has been found since it vanished on Saturday, and contradictory and incomplete information from Malaysian authorities has infuriated relatives enduring an unbearable wait for news of their loved ones.

"We are not going to leave any chance. We have to look at every possibility," civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told AFP, confirming the expansion to the Andaman Sea, which lies north of Indonesia's Sumatra island.

He did not indicate whether the decision to expand the multi-nation hunt hundreds of kilometres (miles) to the northwest of the original search radius was based on any firm indications the plane might be there.

Authorities had earlier expanded the zone to the Malacca Strait off Malaysia's west coast after citing radar data they said indicated a "possibility" the plane may have changed course from its intended flight path over the South China Sea.

But the shifting search areas have fuelled perceptions of official bungling.

Frustration mounted in Malaysia, with the country's active social media and some press outlets turning from sympathy for families of relatives to anger over the fruitless search.

"The mood among Malaysians now is moving from patience in the search for the 239 people aboard the missing flight MH370 to embarrassment and anger over discrepancies about passengers, offloaded baggage and concealed information about its last known position," Malaysian Insider, a leading news portal, said in a commentary.

Twitter users took aim at contradictory reports, and confusion over whether the jet had deviated from its intended course.

"If the Malaysian military did not see MH370 turn toward the Malacca Strait, then why the search? Who decided to look there and why?," one comment said.

"I think Malaysia Airlines and the Malay government is trying to cover up or hide something about flight MH370," wrote another.

The anger and embarrassment were compounded by a report aired in an Australian news programme of a past cockpit security breach involving the co-pilot on the missing jet.

Malaysia Airlines said Tuesday it was "shocked" over the report that First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, along with a fellow pilot violated airline rules in 2011 by allowing two young South African women into their cockpit during a flight.

The report included photos of the women in the cockpit, with one appearing to show them posing with a man resembling Fariq. Passengers have been prohibited from entering cockpit during flights after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Analysts said pressure on Malaysian authorities could derail complicated search and rescue efforts.

"Public pressure may result in the command structure and unity of the search to crack. This is not what we want," said Gerry Soejatman, an independent aviation analyst based in Jakarta.

"Once that cracks, information and ability to verify becomes a problem and reckless speculation will overwhelm common sense."

Vietnam, whose southern coast had been the focus of the recovery effort, said it had suspended its air search and scaled back sea operations as it waited for Malaysia to clarify the potential new direction of the multi-national hunt.

"We've decided to temporarily suspend some search and rescue activities, pending information from Malaysia," deputy minister of transport Pham Quy Tieu said.

"We've asked Malaysian authorities twice, but so far they have not replied to us," Tieu said, when asked about a media report that the plane had been detected over the Strait of Malacca.

"We informed Malaysia on the day we lost contact with the flight that we noticed the flight turned back west but Malaysia did not respond," he added.

Malaysia's air force reiterated on Wednesday it had not ruled out the possibility the Boeing 777 inexplicably changed course, but denied the report it had been detected in the Malacca Strait, far from its planned flight path.

"For the time being, it would not be appropriate... to issue any official conclusions as to the aircraft's flight path until a high amount of certainty and verification is achieved," Air Force chief General Rodzali Daud said in a statement.

"However all ongoing search operations are at the moment being conducted to cover all possible areas where the aircraft could have gone down in order to ensure no possibility is overlooked."

Authorities have so far revealed no details on radar data they said indicated a possible "turn-back".

The search zone shift is the latest twist in the mystery surrounding the plane. On Tuesday, Malaysian authorities said two men travelling on stolen passports appear to be Iranian illegal immigrants -- easing fears of terrorism.

Malaysia's national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar has said his officers are not ruling anything out but were now focusing on a possible hijacking, sabotage, or psychological or personal problems among passengers or crew.

The search operation grew to involve 42 ships and 35 aircraft as of Tuesday, from Southeast Asian countries, Australia, China, New Zealand and the United States.

China, which had 153 of its nationals on board the plane, said it would harness 10 satellites equipped with high-resolution imaging to help in the search.

Boeing said it was joining a US government team to try to unravel the mystery of what happened to its 777-200 plane.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ns
Date : 12 Mar 2014 05:58
 
MALAYSIA SEARCHING ANDAMAN SEA FOR MISSING PLANE: OFFICIAL

The international search for a missing Malaysian airliner has been expanded into the Andaman Sea, hundreds of kilometres (miles) to the northwest of the original search radius, an official said Wednesday.

Flight MH370 went missing early Saturday with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, sparking a massive search across Southeast Asia.

Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said ships and planes were now also searching in the southern part of the Andaman Sea.

"Yes, above Sumatra is the Andaman Sea," he told AFP, when asked to confirm whether assets were being deployed in the Andaman Sea. "It's a very big area to cover... We are not going to leave any chance. We have to look at every possibility."

Sumatra is a large Indonesian island south of the Andaman Sea. The body of water is off Thailand's west coast.

Authorities have expanded the search after earlier citing radar data they said indicates a "possibility" the plane may have changed course from its intended flight path over the South China Sea.

Officials have yet to provide any further clarification on the radar data they referred to.

Authorities have been searching since Saturday in the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam.

The effort has found no trace of the plane, sparking one of the greatest aviation mysteries in memory.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ns
Date : 12 Mar 2014 04:57
 
Despite the breach of security, Roos said the two pilots had been “very competent at what they were doing”.
Click to expand...

This, based on her years spent in Pensacola?
 
EXPERTS SLAM MALAYSIA'S STRUGGLE TO CHART MH370 CRISIS

Criticised for contradictory statements, slow reactions and a lack of information, the "incompetence" of Malaysian authorities in communicating effectively during a crisis on the scale of its missing jet is painfully evident, analysts say.

With the search for flight MH370 now swinging away from the original zone, the airline and the government are accused of floundering as they face increasing demands for clarity.

"They have not experienced anything of this magnitude. It's a bit difficult for them to grasp the scale," Shukor Yusof, aviation analyst at Standard and Poor's Capital IQ, told AFP.

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has issued more than a dozen statements to the media since the disappearance, including the full flight manifest, details of the search and rescue operation, and offered support to families while authorities have given regular briefings.

The airline has also offered to fly relatives to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to the search and has made 31,000 yuan ($5,000) available to the family of each missing passenger.

Some experts in public relations said the airline was doing its best in unprecedented circumstances.

But Yusof said the authorities had at times appeared "abrasive" and "flippant", while airline representatives had seemed "lacking in contrition" which belied poor staff training for crisis situations.

"This is an extremely serious tragedy and it has to be treated as such... I think communication has been very poor," he said.

Both the MAS updates and those from aviation chiefs have been under intense scrutiny from the press, public and international community since the flight disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early Saturday with 239 people on board.

Social media erupted Wednesday after Malaysia confirmed it had taken the search northwest to the Andaman Sea -- far from MH370's intended flight path.

"Why so many unconfirmed accounts? Don't know what is the real info," posted one Twitter user.

China -- which had 153 nationals aboard -- has slammed Malaysia for a lack of information, while anguished relatives say the airline has been slow to communicate with them.

Adding to the confusion, MAS backtracked on a statement about the focus of the search Tuesday.

And Malaysia's air force chief meanwhile denied telling local media that the Boeing 777 had been detected in the Malacca Strait, far from its planned flight path.

For the plane to go missing is bad enough, "but then for the responsible country's government and aviation agencies to handle the associated information with total incompetence is unforgivable", David Learmount, operations and safety editor at industry magazine Flightglobal, wrote.

Senior Malaysian opposition figure Lim Kit Siang has also questioned why senior ministers were not more quickly informed about the missing plane.

"There are many questions about crisis management -- for instance, why the prime minister and the acting transport minister were not informed immediately when the MH370... went missing, as they only knew about it several crucial hours later," he said in a statement Sunday.

There was also some unwanted embarrassment when the transport ministry was forced to clarify comments by Malaysia's civil aviation chief, in which he referred to black Italian footballer Mario Balotelli when discussing two suspect passengers on the jet.

But without a breakthrough in the search, some experts say there is little more the airline can do.

"In the absence of literally any information about the fate of the Malaysia Airlines plane it would be astonishing if there were not major criticism of the airline from the families," said Peter Hirsch, US-based director of reputation risk for Ogilvy Public Relations.

"On balance, the airline seems to be doing what it can."

Authorities will "almost inevitably" make mistakes in their communication, said aviation crisis management expert John Bailey.

"When was the last time that any of these individuals were involved in something on this scale? They quite possibly have not undergone training in what to expect and what to focus on."

"The real communication challenge for the airline and for all the other parties involved with this is dealing with the families. Managing their expectations over what's going to happen next -- those are very difficult conversations to have," said Bailey, who runs a Singapore-based PR consultancy.

Under pressure to communicate any kind of development, crisis management specialists praised Malaysia Airlines for its use of both social media and traditional media.

"Operationally, many good things are being done," said Ray Rudowski, regional director of crisis planning and training at Edelman Public Relations in Hong Kong.

"The problem is the lack of information at this point," he said, with still no trace of the plane on the fifth day of searching.


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 12 Mar 2014 09:54
 
VIETNAM RESUMES FULL SEARCH FOR MISSING MALAYSIAN AIRLINER

Vietnam has resumed its search for the Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing at the weekend, after communicating with Malaysian authorities over rumours the plane had changed course, a military official said Wednesday. "Search activities are being deployed as normal, expanding to the east and south of the plane's last known trajectory," Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, Vo Van Tuan, told dpa. Media reports Tuesday said military radar last detected the plane near Pulau Perak, an island in the strait between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. On Wednesday morning, Vietnamese authorities said they were scaling back the search for the plane pending confirmation from Malaysia. Tuan said authorities in Malaysia later contacted Vietnam saying they had no official information on the rumour.


Source : Sapa-dpa /lk
Date : 12 Mar 2014 09:53
 
MALAYSIA POLICE DENY IRANIAN PHOTOS ALTERED IN JET DRAMA

Malaysian police dismissed claims Wednesday that they doctored photographs of two Iranians who boarded a missing airliner with stolen passports -- saying one man's legs were spliced over the other's in a photocopying error.

Revelations that two passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 jet were travelling on stolen EU passports fuelled fears of a terrorist attack after it vanished on Saturday.

Police on Tuesday released photographs of the two men -- now believed to be illegal immigrants with no apparent links to extremist groups -- but the lower halves of the images were identical.

Social media users who saw the photos suggested they may have been intentionally doctored.

"Why did they try to photoshop the legs on the released photo of the Iranians?" one user asked.

"Photoshop failed! same legs on those pics. are they for real??" another posted.

But police spokeswoman Asmawati Ahmad said the odd appearance of the photos stemmed from a police staff member placing one on top of the other when photocopying them.

"It was not done with malice or to mislead," she told AFP.

She said this had been explained to some news photographers when the photos were handed out.

The error fuelled criticism of Malaysian authorities, who are accused of blundering and making contradictory statements since the plane went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early Saturday.

An extensive international search involving vessels and aircraft from several nations has so far turned up no sign of any wreckage.

Interpol identified the Iranian pair as Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, who used a stolen Italian passport, and Pouria Nourmohammadi, who used an Austrian one.

Both passports had been stolen in Thailand.

Authorities have said they believe the Iranian pair were illegal immigrants who were on their way to Europe via Beijing.


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 12 Mar 2014 11:36
 
WHAT HAPPENED TO MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370?

Nearly five days since it disappeared while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, there is still no trace of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Conflicting information, false alarms over debris and confusion over the focus of the search have produced more questions than answers.

Here we take a look at the possible scenarios being weighed up by industry experts as the world waits for clues as to the fate of the Boeing 777, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

WHY: According to Malaysian authorities the plane was cruising at 35,000 feet (11 kilometres) above sea level when it last made contact and vanished without making a distress call, pointing to the possibility of a sudden catastrophic event.

The presence on board of two suspect passengers travelling on stolen passports fuelled fears of a terrorist attack.

It was revealed Tuesday they were probably just Iranian migrants, but CIA Director John Brennan said a terror link had not been ruled out.

Other possibilities include a strike by a missile or military aircraft.

EXPERT VIEW: "I don't believe it is anything to do with the serviceability or the design of the aircraft," Neil Hansford, chairman of leading Australian airline consultancy Strategic Aviation Solutions, told AFP.

"The way I see it there are three scenarios. There was a bomb on board... the aircraft was hit by a military aircraft or a rogue missile; or...the captain is locked out of the cockpit and the plane is put in a dive," he said.

WHY: The sudden disappearance could also point to a technical problem that could have led to a rapid descent. Reports from the Malaysian authorities that the jet may have made a sharp turn west before it lost contact, possibly pointing to the pilots struggling to rectify a problem, have bolstered this theory.

EXPERT VIEW: "To me that (the veer) suggests there was a stall," says former Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation and aviation lawyer, Mary Schiavo.

"That doesn't mean you lose your engines. It means that you're losing your air flow over your wings, sufficient speed to keep the plane in the air...it would lose altitude really dramatically."

She compared the possible scenario to the fate of Air France 447 -- which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 after its speed sensors malfunctioned -- in an interview with Australia's ABC television.

If the plane did crash, a combination of technical difficulties and pilot error would be a likely scenario, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific aerospace consultant Ravi Madavaram said.

"There is no single factor which generally leads to an airplane crash, but a combination of technical glitches and pilot decisions. Each of these glitches and decisions taken independently are harmless and often happens. It is the combination of these factors that lead to a catastrophe."

WHY: The lack of wreckage or black box transmission has led to speculation that the plane may have disintegrated mid-air.

EXPERT VIEW: While structural disintegration has been behind some previous aircraft disappearances, new planes use "better materials, technology and maintenance schedules", Madavaram says.

"This last happened to China Airlines flight 611, during its cruise at 35,000 feet in 2002. Flight 611 was a Boeing 747 aircraft and the reason for that crash was faulty repair."

He added that the technology on a Boeing 747 was 20 years older than on a 777.

WHY: The absence of debris around the intended flight path, the possibility that the flight turned back, and conflicting reports over whether the plane was spotted by Malaysian military way off course have added to speculation of a hijack, which has still not been ruled out by investigators.

Malaysia Airlines says that all its aircraft are equipped with the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) system -- which puts out information about location and airspeed -- but has so far declined to release whatever data it got from flight MH370.

EXPERT VIEW: The reports of a "turn back" raised yet more questions, says Scott Hamilton, managing director of US-based aviation consultancy Leeham Co.

"If it were near the Vietnam coast, why turn back when there probably would have been a closer airport in the event of an emergency?" he wrote on his company website.

The larger question was whether the turn was intentional "under the command of the pilots (or hijackers)," or due to other causes such as engine problems or an explosion.

But Frost & Sullivan's Madavaram believes several factors rule out a hijack, including a lack of a credible claim of responsibility and the difficulty in evading radars and witnesses.

WHY: While rare, there have been cases in the past of pilots crashing planes to take their own lives. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, pilot suicides account for less than 0.5 percent of all fatal general aviation accidents.

EXPERT VIEW: A suicide bid "is possible and if that's the case there might not be a lot of debris because the plane would have come down in relatively structural integrity," said Terence Fan, aviation expert at Singapore Management University.

"The airplane is not meant to float and if the airplane sinks in the water, water will go inside because the door seals are not meant to seal water."


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 12 Mar 2014 13:24
 
SATELLITE GUARDIANS JOIN SEARCH FOR MISSING MALAYSIAN PLANE

A fleet of Earth-monitoring satellites has joined the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the organisers of the satellite pool said on Wednesday.

China on Tuesday requested activation of the so-called International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, the organisation said on its website.

Under the agreement, 15 space agencies or national space institutes help emergency or relief efforts by passing on images from satellites flying over the location.

"Satellite imagery is now being employed to search for any evidence of the plane, both before and after it disappeared," the website said.

"As of 12 March 2014, the search remains ongoing."

The activation request came from the China Meteorological Administration, it said.

The Charter, which took effect in 2000, has been activated hundreds of times.

It has been mostly used in the aftermath of earthquakes and floods when rescue teams needed to identify badly damaged zones or roads, railways and bridges that are still passable.

It was invoked last November to aid swathes of the Philippines ravaged by Typhoon Haiyan.

(Once activated, space technicians determine which satellites are available and best suited for the task of providing ground radar data or photos.)

(They then send a request to the satellite's operator, which programmes the orbiter to take pictures as it flies a zone. The data are usually available within 24 hours and are provided for free.)


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 12 Mar 2014 14:53
 
Satellite imagery is now being employed to search for any evidence of the plane, both before and after it disappeared,
Click to expand...

Maybe I've seen too many movies, but shouldn't they have done this from Day One?
 
Fazda said:
Maybe I've seen too many movies, but shouldn't they have done this from Day One?
Click to expand...

+ 1

Seems like it would be way more effective and accurate than searching manually by doing flyovers. Don't know if clouds get in the way though.
 
I know most agencies and networks are reporting that the Malaysians are doing a poor job. But I'm not so sure. I've watched and read at least half a dozen reports in the past hour or so, and they're all critical of the Malaysians ... but there is no actual substance backing up claims of a lousy job.

Sure there are many questions. Routes, radars, transponder, etc, etc. But none of these necessarily mean the Malaysian authorities are incompetent. This is a very nettlesome issue, and when you don't have answers, well, you don't, despite the massive international effort.

I feel very much for the families/NoK of the passengers. Their exasperation is understandable. But there aren't any answers at present, and it's not from want of trying.

Losing a jetliner without trace is a reminder that the planet is very much bigger than we sometimes think. It all looks so manageable on a map, but when you actually get out there and fly over the water, the area is truly vast.
 
I guess the criticism stems from their secrecy which inevitably fuels the 24hr news cycle flames... :(
 
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