Remembering Tanjung Kupang, 1977

THE missing MH370 is now the worst air crash in the country after the announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that the plane is lost in the Indian Ocean with no hope of survivors.

Until then, the Tanjung Kupang tragedy had been Malaysia’s worst plane crash.

It was 37 years ago when villagers from nearby Kampung Tanjung Kupang saw a plane scream overhead and hit the ground in a mangrove forest at high speed and a near vertical angle. It burst into flames, killing all 93 passengers and seven crew members on board.

MAS flight MH653 had been hijacked on the night of Dec 4, 1977.

Though the actual cause of the crash remains a mystery, investigations and information retrieved from the flight’s communications with air traffic controllers revealed there was a hijacker on board the Boeing 737-2H6 aircraft.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 now clearly a government cover-up- All evidence contradicts official story

NaturalNews) The "official" story of what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is now a blatant cover-up. After an endless stream of wild incompetence from the Malaysian military and government concerning the radar signature of the missing flight, we are now told by the Malaysian government that the flight "went down over the southern Indian Ocean" and that all lives are lost.

This explanation smacks of an obvious cover-up for several crucial reasons, all of which are now being utterly ignored by the conventional press:

#1) If the plane went down in the ocean, it would have broken up on impact and debris would be easily spotted

A Boeing 777 does not -- and cannot -- survive impact with the ocean and remain intact. It simply does not have the structural integrity to survive such an impact, which is a lot like hitting a cement wall at terminal velocity.

If Flight 370 hit the ocean, it would have been broken into tens of thousands of pieces, many of which obviously float on water (such as the seat cushions) and would be witnessed washing up on regional shores or easily spotted by search teams.

The lack of such debris is strong support that Flight 370 did not crash into the Indian Ocean as we are now being told.

#2) The plane continued broadcasting data to Boeing for 4 - 7 hours

Remember the fact that the airplane was broadcasting data for at least 4 hours after the transponder was turned off? This fact is now suddenly being dumped from history and from our memories as if it never happened.

We already know Flight 370 flew for 4 - 7 hours after diverging from its planned flight course. We already know this could have taken the plane to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran or even North Korea. (Click here to see my map showing possible destinations.) The fact that the plane broadcast this data for hours is not in dispute!

Wall Street Journal: "U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines 3786. Flight 370 stayed in the air for up to four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky."

The Guardian: "MH370: Missing plane could have kept flying four hours after disappearing, US investigators say... Engine data shows plane could have kept flying for four hours after disappearing"

MH370 might have crashed into Indian Ocean in suicide mission, says daily

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean in an apparent suicide mission, the Daily Telegraph quoted unnamed sources as saying today.

The team investigating MH370's disappearance believed no malfunction or fire was capable of causing the aircraft's unusual flight, it reported today.

"Nor would the disabling of the aircraft's communication system cause MH370 to veer wildly off course on a seven hour silent flight into the sea," the English daily said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced last night that MH370's final flight path was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, according to latest satellite data.

An official source told The Telegraph that investigators believe “this has been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed knowledge to do what was done...

Nothing is emerging that points to motive.”

Asked about the possibility of a plane malfunction or an on-board fire, the source told the Telegraph: “It just does not hinge together... (The investigators) have gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way.”

Confirmed: MH370 went down in Indian Ocean

After 17 days of extensive search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, authorities have finally concluded that the aircraft can only be in the southern region of the Indian Ocean.

 

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak revealed this tonight in a hastily convened press conference at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

 

Najib said the confirmation is based on "a type of analysis never before used" on Inmarsat's satellite data.

"Based on the new analysis (from) Inmarsat and (UK's) AAIB (Air Accident Investigation Branch) that MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.

 

"This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore, with deep sadness and regret I must inform you that according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," he said.

PM cautious with words

 

Najib who spoke in a solemn tone, was flanked by a grim-looking acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

 

"Malaysia Airlines have already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew to inform them of this development.

 

"For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking; I know this news must be harder still.

 

"I urge the media to respect their privacy, and to allow them the space they need at this difficult time," he said.

 

Najib appeared extremely cautious with his words, refusing to specifically say the plane crashed into the ocean and that its passengers had perished.

 

However, his grim presentation coupled with his assertion that there were no possible landing site where the aircraft ended can only indicate one outcome.

Emotional moment

Some journalists in the room were seen sobbing while a fatigued looking Hishammuddin who had made back and forth trips between the media centre and Parliament today appeared to be holding back tears.

 

After the press conference, which lasted less than 10 minutes, Najib took paused briefly before striding out of the room without taking questions.

 

Journalists had rushed after the premier but he refused to offer more comment.

After Flight MH370 lost communications with air traffic controllers over the Gulf of Thailand at 1.30am on March 8, British-based satellite agency Inmarsat recorded six hourly "pings" from the plane until 8.11am, indicating that the plane had spent several hours in the air.
 

This data had been used to narrow the search to the northern and southern corridor but the latest refinement meant the focus was now solely in the Indian Ocean.

 

Prior to the confirmation, Australia, US, New Zealand, China and Japan have already been searching in the Indian Ocean some 2,500km southwest of the Perth based on satellite images of potential debris from a crash.

 

A press conference is expected to be called tomorrow to provide more details on the nature of the refined information.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/258084

Indian aircraft join search for missing jetliner

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Two long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft from India took off from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Subang this morning to join the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines (MAS) jetliner in the Indian Ocean.

The P8-I of the Indian Navy and C-130J of the Indian Air Force have long endurance capabilities coupled with state of the art electro optronic and infra red search and reconnaissance equipment on board, said the Indian High Commission in Malaysia in a statement today.

It said the P8-I aircraft has the added advantage of on-board radars and specially designed search and rescue kits.

After extensive briefings at the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) on Saturday, both Indian aircraft took off this morning for the search areas allotted by the ARCC.

The statement said both aircraft arrived here on March 21 following a commitment from the Indian prime minister to assist Malaysia in locating the missing flight MH370.

India has been participating in the ensuing search since March 11 in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal with five ships and six aircraft of the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard from the Andaman and Nicobar Command.

MH370 en route to Beijing, China vanished from the radar at about 1.30am on March 8 in the airspace between Malaysia and Vietnam, 49 minutes after leaving the KL International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang.

The Boeing 777-200ER was carrying 239 passengers and crew.


Source :  Bernama

Currents, winds can obstruct black box search

If two blurred objects photographed from space are confirmed as debris from Flight MH370, scientists will still face a daunting task to find and recover the sensitive recorders containing clues to the Malaysian jet's disappearance.

With so little known about why the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight changed course and disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur on March 8, finding the 'black box' is seen as the only real hope of understanding what happened to the plane and the 239 people on board.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday said objects possibly belonging to the plane had been discovered in the Indian Ocean. The area is around 2,500 km (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth, above a volcanic ridge in waters estimated to be 2,500 to 4,000 metres (8,200 to 13,120 feet) deep.

It roughly corresponds to the far end of a southern track the aircraft could have taken after investigators suspect it was deliberately diverted.

"It can be incredibly rough and difficult. It can be very windy with strong currents, though it can equally be calm," said David Gallo, director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Falmouth, Massachusetts, referring to the general area where the objects were seen.

Flight MH370's disappearance has been compared to the 2009 Air France jet disaster, which puzzled investigators until a mission led by WHOI found the black boxes in 3,900 metres (12,800 feet) of water.

Objects found the best lead yet on MH370

PETALING JAYA: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) today said the objects found in the Indian Ocean, some 2,500km southwest of Perth, is credible enough for them to divert search and rescue teams of MH370 to the area.

“But we can’t yet say that the objects found is from the plane. We received satellite imaginary of the objects and after a review of our experts we feel we need to investigate it further.

It may not be related to the missing plane,” AMSA’s emergency response general manager John Young said in a press conference in Canberra a few minutes ago.

He said the objects were found in the southern part of Australia in the vicinity of the search and rescue area for MH370 which went missing on Mar 8.

The Boeing 777-200ER jetliner went missing an hour into its flight form the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing, China.

It was carrying 239 passengers and crew. The runaway plane was last spotted by civilian radar heading towards Vietnam over the South China Sea.

Its transponders which sends signal to air traffic control on the plane’s location was switched from inside the jetliner off soon after last contact was made.

Obama says plane search a ‘top priority’

WASHINGTON DC, March 20 — US President Barack Obama said yesterday the search for the missing Malaysian airliner was a “top priority” for the United States and offered every possible resource — including the FBI.

In his first on camera comments on the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Obama offered thoughts and prayers to the relatives of the missing passengers.

“I want them to be assured that we consider this a top priority,” Obama told Dallas television station KDFW in an interview at the White House.

“We have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process,” he said.
“There has been close cooperation with the Malaysian government.”

Obama said the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board and any agency or official that deals with aviation was at the disposal of the investigation.

Source :  AFP

‘Malaysia, what else are you hiding?’

BEIJING: Relatives of Chinese passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane voiced fury Monday, accusing the Malaysian government of “talking nonsense” as Premier Li Keqiang backed their demand for more information.

Li in a phone call asked his Malaysian counterpart Najib Tun Razak to provide more details about the missing flight “in a timely, accurate and comprehensive manner”, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Anguished relatives echoed his call.

“Only the Malaysia government knows the truth. They’ve been talking nonsense since the beginning,” said Wen Wancheng, following a meeting with airline officials in Beijing as the search entered its 10th day.

“You (Malaysia) hid the whereabouts from the beginning and after seven to eight days you discovered it?

That was the best time to launch a rescue,” added the 63-year-old from the eastern province of Shandong, whose son was aboard the missing jet.

Another relative who left the meeting told AFP: “Of course there is no useful information for us, there never is.”

Malaysia also drew more scathing criticism from Chinese state media and social media users.

Najib on Saturday disclosed that the flight had been deliberately diverted, and that the plane flew for several hours after leaving its intended flight path.

FBI regrets Malaysia won't let it help more

A senior official of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has criticised Malaysia for hoarding information on the missing Flight MH370 and not acting fast enough to establish "malicious intent" early on.

The New York Times (NYT) quoted the official as saying that more could have been achieved if Malaysia had agreed to receive more than the two FBI agents now helping out in Kuala Lumpur.

“We just don’t have the right to just take over the investigation,” said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is in progress.

“There’s not a whole lot we can do absent of a request from them for more help or a development that relates to information we may have.”

The FBI has had an agent based at the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur for more than a decade, and is said to have developed a working relationship with Malaysian law enforcement officials in recent years.

Radar data suggests MH370 flown towards Andamans

MH370 Military radar-tracking evidence suggests a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown across the Malay peninsula towards the Andaman Islands, sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters today.

Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints - indicating it was being flown by someone with aviation training - when it was last plotted on military radar off the country’s north-west coast.

The last plot on the military radar’s tracking suggested the plane was flying toward India’s Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, they said.

Waypoints are geographic locations, worked out by calculating longitude and latitude, that help pilots navigate along established air corridors.

A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight, with 239 people on board, hundreds of kilometres off its intended course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

“What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards,” said that source, a senior Malaysian police official.

In China, angry kin wants answers on MH370

In Beijing, furious relatives of passengers on a missing Malaysia aircraft are ramping up pressure on the Malaysian and Chinese governments to give them answers about what has happened.

They are threatening lawsuits and demanding to see Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Surrounded by reporters who have flocked to the nondescript Beijing hotel where they have been told by the airline to gather, relatives are lashing out at the media, the airline and their own government for ignoring their plight.

"I really want to see President Xi (left) - I don't know right now what could possibly be more important than the lives of these 200 people," said a young woman who gave her family name as Wen, fighting back tears.

"I also want to ask Mrs Xi, if your husband, President Xi, was on the plane, just imagine, if it was you, how would your parents feel?

"My husband was on the plane, every day my children are asking me about their dad, what am I supposed to do? ... We're helpless, we need our government to support us."

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur early on Saturday and dropped off civilian radar screens less than an hour into its flight to Beijing, a mystery that has yet to be solved.

Another person, who declined to give his name, said a lawsuit was the only way forward.

"We are definitely going sue them. This is really bad. (We are not suing) Malaysia Airlines, but the Malaysian government," he told reporters.

One man from Beijing, speaking to reporters after a meeting between the families and Malaysian diplomats, said it was ridiculous the Malaysians seemed to have no information about even the most basic facts.

"The exact demands were the exact position the plane disappeared at, the time it disappeared, and what happened between the time when the plane was first reported missing and 2.40am," he said, recounting the meeting on Thursday with the diplomats, who left without speaking to reporters.

Plane still missing, M'sia's credibility nosedives

MH370 One of the world's most perplexing aviation mysteries is casting a harsh spotlight on Malaysia's government, as a leadership unused to heavy scrutiny comes under intense international criticism for a litany of confusing messages and a perceived lack of transparency.

Five days after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from civilian radar screens, a huge international search operation has failed to turn up a trace of the Boeing jetliner that was carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Frustration over the fruitless search has increasingly been directed at Malaysian officials after a series of fumbling news conferences, incorrect details given by the national airline, and a long delay in divulging details of the military's tracking of what could have been the plane hundreds of miles off course.

The missteps have ranged from conflicting information about the last time of contact with the jet to the sharing of photos of two passengers in which they had the same pair of legs.

Chinese satellite finds ‘suspected crash area at sea’

Chinese satellites searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have "observed a suspected crash area at sea," a government agency has revealed.

The Chinese have released days-old images of potential wreckage in the South China Sea in what is possibly the first indication of a crash site five days after the Boeing 777 disappeared with 239 people onboard.

China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence announced the discovery, including images of what it said were "three suspected floating objects and their sizes".

The images were captured on Sunday – the day after the passenger jet went missing – but were not released until today, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today.

Former US National Transportation Safety Board managing director Peter Goelz told CNN that China may have been reluctant to release the images earlier because "they may not want to reveal what kind of satellite capabilities they have".

"It's where it's supposed to be," Peter Goelz, a former National Transportation Safety Board managing director, told CNN's Jake Tapper, noting that there had been scepticism about reports the plane had turned around to go back over Malaysia.

Pilot’s last words: ‘Alright, good night’

BEIJING:  The last radio transmission from the cockpit of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was “Alright, good night”, Kuala Lumpur’s ambassador to Beijing reportedly said Wednesday during a meeting with Chinese relatives.

Iskandar Sarudin was speaking to passengers’ relatives and friends at a Beijing hotel. A total of 153 of the 239 people on board the aircraft are Chinese.

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared from radar screens early on Saturday without making a distress call and no confirmed wreckage has been found, despite a vast search.

The “alright, good night” comment from one of the pilots came as the flight switched from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace, Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper quoted the ambassador as saying.

As confusion deepens over the search area and whether Malaysian military radar tracked the aircraft, he said “now is not the time” to reveal what information the military had supplied civilian authorities.

He also defended the crew, after an Australian television report that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, violated airline rules in 2011 by allowing two young South African women into their cockpit during a flight.

Relatives told AFP the event had been “orderly”, in contrast to a meeting with Chinese officials on Monday, when reports said family members hurled abuse at government representatives.

Missing MH370: Phantom Phones Still Ringing Four Days After Mystery Disappearance

AS many as 19 families of missing passengers have apparently been connected to their loved ones despite there still being no clue as to what happened to them.

The mystery of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight is getting deeper and deeper.

It has emerged that phones taken on board flight MH370 are still ringing FOUR DAYS after the plane's disappearance.

Reports suggest as many as 19 families have managed to call phones of their missing loved ones, while the airline itself has got through to some of the missing crew's handsets.

According to Chinese media, the 19 families have signed a joint statement confirming they made calls which connected to the missing passengers but without an answer.

In addition a Malaysia Airlines official confirmed that they too had tried to get in touch with cellphones of missing crew members, but again without a response.

And even more bizarrely, some social media sites have shown missing passengers as still being 'online'.

One man said that his missing brother's QQ profile - a Chinese social networking site - was still logged in.

But frustratingly for all the heartbroken families all messages or calls are yet to be reciprocated.

This isn't the first time that the phones of those people missing were able to be 'reached'.

Plane fine, pilots good, so where is MH370?

More than 80 hours after it vanished from thin air, Malaysia Airlines said that the B777-200ER operating flight MH370 breezed through checks 15 days earlier – compounding the mystery over its fate.

The Malaysian flag carrier had earlier said both pilots were experienced to fly the aircraft, Boeing Co's best-selling wide-body plane, and remain stumped over its whereabouts.

The search for the plane carrying 239 people onboard has expanded as far as Sumatra on the west coast of the Malay peninsula and Hong Kong on the far reaches of the South China Sea but more than 40 ships and as many aircraft have yet to find any trace of the lost passenger jet.

Why is it taking so long to find the aircraft that was last seen crossing the Gulf of Thailand towards Beijing early Saturday morning?

In a special report, the Christian Science Monitor compared the search for MH370 with that of Air France flight 447.

In both cases, there was no "Mayday" or distress call from pilots. The planes just "disappeared" from the sky, the report said.

In the case of AF447, bad weather was a factor.

The Air France pilots didn't radio for help because they didn't realise, until it was too late, the severity of their problems.

And as some pilots have noted, they don't see a lack of communication as necessarily a sign of a terrorist bomb or the catastrophic failure of the aircraft.

How can a plane disappear?

How can a plane carrying 239 people just disappear over the ocean for more than three days?

As puzzling as it sounds in this age of modern technology, what happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is not the first reminder of how vast the seas are and how difficult it is to locate something lost in them, said a report by the AP news agency.

It took two years to find the main wreckage of an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

It also took a week for debris from an Indonesian jet to be spotted in 2007 after it crashed near the area between Malaysia and Vietnam where Saturday's flight vanished.

Today, the mostly intact fuselage still sits on the bottom of the ocean.

"The world is a big place," Michael Smart, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Queensland in Australia, told AP.

"If it happens to come down in the middle of the ocean and it's not near a shipping lane or something, who knows how long it could take them to find?"

To add to the confusion, officials had said that MH370 might have made a turn back towards Kuala Lumpur, making it even more difficult to find as it might have been hundreds of kilometres from where it last made contact with air traffic controllers.

Aviation experts say the plane will be found — eventually. Since the start of the jet age in 1958, only a handful of jets have gone missing and not been found, the AP report said.

"I'm absolutely confident that we will find this airplane," Captain John M. Cox, who spent 25 years flying for US Airways and is now CEO of Safety Operating Systems, was quoted as saying.