11 April 2014| last updated at 01:39PM
MH370 Tragedy: Signal detected yesterday not related to black boxes - JACC
PERTH: The Chief Coordinator of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston (Retired), said an initial assessment of the possible signal detected by a RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft yesterday afternoon has been determined as not related to an aircraft underwater locator beacon.
“The Australian Joint Acoustic Analysis Centre has analysed the acoustic data and confirmed that the signal reported in the vicinity of the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield is unlikely to be related to the aircraft black boxes,” Houston said.
“Further analysis continues to be undertaken by Australian Joint Acoustic Analysis Centre.
“Today Ocean Shield is continuing more focused sweeps with the Towed Pinger Locator to try and locate further signals that may be related to the aircraft's black boxes. It is vital to glean as much information as possible while the batteries on the underwater locator beacons may still be active.
“The AP-3C Orions continue their acoustic search, working in conjunction with Ocean Shield, with three more missions planned for today.
“A decision as to when to deploy the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle will be made on advice from experts on board the Ocean Shield and could be some days away.
“On the information I have available to me, there has been no major breakthrough in the search for MH370. I will provide a further update if, and when, further information becomes available.”
11 April 2014| last updated at 07:58AM
MH370 TRAGEDY: Air and sea hunt for missing plane resumes (Day 35)
PERTH (Australia): An air and sea hunt for the missing Malaysian jet resumed Friday in the same swath of the southern Indian Ocean where an underwater sensor made the fifth detection of a signal in recent days, raising hopes that searchers are closing in on what could be a flight recorder.
An Australian air force P-3 Orion, which has been dropping sonar buoys into the water near where four sounds were heard earlier, picked up a "possible signal" on Thursday that may be from a man-made source, said Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search for Flight 370 off Australia's west coast.
The latest acoustic data would be analysed, he said. If confirmed, the signal would further narrow the hunt for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which vanished March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
The Australian ship Ocean Shield, which is towing a US Navy device to detect signal beacons from a plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders, picked up two underwater sounds Tuesday. Two sounds it detected Saturday were determined to be consistent with the pings emitted from the flight recorders, or "black boxes."
The searchers are trying to pinpoint the location of the source of the underwater signals so they can send down a robotic submersible to look for wreckage and the flight recorders from the Malaysian jet.
Houston's coordination center said the area to be searched for floating debris on Friday had been narrowed to 46,713 square kilometres (18,036 square miles) of ocean extending from 2,300 kilometres (1,400 miles) northwest of Perth. Up to 15 planes and 13 ships would join Friday's search.
Thursday's search of a 57,900 square kilometre (22,300 square mile) area of ocean in a similar location reported no sightings of potential wreckage, the centre said.
The sonar buoys are being dropped by the Australian air force to maximise the sound-detectors operating in the search zone. Royal Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy said each buoy is dangling a hydrophone listening device about 300 metres (1,000 feet) below the surface and transmits its data via radio back to a search plane.
The underwater search zone is currently a 1,300-square-kilometre (500-square-mile) patch of the ocean floor — about the size of the city of Los Angeles — and narrowing the area as much as possible is crucial before the submersible is sent to create a sonar map of a potential debris field on the seabed.
The Bluefin 21 submersible takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator being towed by the Ocean Shield and would take six weeks to two months to canvass the current underwater search zone. That's why the acoustic equipment is still being used to get a more precise location, US Navy Capt. Mark Matthews said.
Houston has expressed optimism about the sounds detected earlier in the week, saying Wednesday that he was hopeful crews would find the aircraft — or what's left of it — in the "not-too-distant future."
Crews searching the surface are moving in tighter patterns, now that the zone has been narrowed to about a quarter the size it was a few days ago, Houston said.
Separately, a Malaysian government official said Thursday that investigators have concluded the pilot spoke the last words to air traffic control, "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," and that his voice had no signs of duress. A re-examination of the last communication from the cockpit was initiated after authorities last week reversed their initial statement that the co-pilot was speaking different words.
The senior government official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. The conclusion was first reported by CNN.
Investigators believe the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean based on a flight path calculated from its contacts with a satellite and analysis of its speed and fuel capacity, but the content of the flight recorders is essential to solving the mystery of why the plane veered so far off-course.
The search for the recorders is increasingly urgent because their locator beacons have batteries that last about a month and may fail soon.
An Australian government briefing document circulated among international agencies involved in the search said the acoustic pingers likely would continue to transmit at decreasing strength for up to 10 more days, depending on conditions.
Once there is no hope left of hearing more sounds, the Bluefin sub will be deployed.
Complicating matters, however, is the depth of the seabed in the search area. The sounds detected earlier are emanating from 4,500 meters (14,763 feet) below the surface, which is the deepest the Bluefin can dive.
"It'll be pretty close to its operating limit. It's got a safety margin of error and if they think it's warranted, then they push it a little bit," said Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at Sydney University.
The search coordination center said it was considering options in case a deeper- diving sub is needed. But Williams suspects if that happens, the search will be delayed while an underwater vehicle rated to 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) is dismantled and shipped from Europe, the US or Japan.
Williams said colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts had autonomous and remotely operated vehicles that dive to 11 kilometres (36,100 feet), although they might not be equipped for such a search.
Underwater vessels rated to 6,500 metres (21,300 feet) could search the seabed of more than 90 per cent of the world's oceans, Williams said.
"There's not that much of it deeper than 6 1/2 kilometres," he said.
Williams said it was unlikely that the wreck had fallen into the narrow Diamantina trench, which is about 5,800 metres (19,000 feet) deep, since sounds emanating from that depth would probably not have been detected by the ping locator. -- AP
MH370: Australia 'very confident' pings are from black box, says prime minister
Tony Abbott says searchers think underwater signals are coming from wreckage of Malaysia Airlines plane
Australia is confident that search teams have located the missing Malaysian plane’s black box to "within some kilometres", the prime minister, Tony Abbott, said on Friday.
But the head of the Australian team co-ordinating efforts to find MH370 stressed that there had been “no major breakthrough” in a statement released minutes later.
Angus Houston’s remarks suggest the prime minister was offering a stronger assessment of existing evidence rather than drawing on new information. Houston had said on Thursday that analysis found the signal detected by an Australian vessel “was not of natural origin and was likely sourced from specific electronic equipment … consistent with a flight data recorder”.
Speaking on an official visit to China, Abbott told reporters: "[The search area] has been very much narrowed down because we've now had a series of detections, some for quite a long period of time.
"Nevertheless we're getting to the stage where the signal from what we are very confident is the black box is starting to fade. We are hoping to get as much information as we can before the signal finally expires."
The beacons on the plane’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders were certified to emit signals for 30 days but experts have said that such devices can often continue working for two weeks after that depending on the state of their batteries.
According to the text of his speech, issued by his office, Abbott said: “We are confident that we know the position of the black box flight recorder to within some kilometres … Still, confidence in the approximate position of the black box is not the same as recovering wreckage from almost four and a half kilometres beneath the sea or finally determining all that happened on that flight.”
Crews have been scouring the southern Indian Ocean for any trace of the missing Boeing-777, which disappeared shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur early on 8 March. Flight MH370 was bound for Beijing but investigators believe it was diverted from its flight path deliberately, either for an emergency or other reasons.
The centre co-ordinating the search said at the weekend that an Australian vessel had detected underwater signals in the search zone. The Ocean Shield, which is using specialised equipment known as a towed pinger locator, has picked up the signal four times in all.
Houston said analysts had ruled out that a signal detected by an Australian aircraft on Thursday might have been from MH370, Houston said.
The five week search has involved dozens of countries and at various stages spanned millions of square kilometres, but has been narrowed down to two areas together measuring around 46,700 square kilometres, roughly 2,300km north-west of Perth. Up to a dozen military planes, three civilian aircraft and 13 ships were working there on Friday.
Abbott is due to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on Friday.
While the trip was already scheduled, the location of Abbott's statement had particular resonance given that more than 150 of the 239 people on board when it went missing are from China.
In Beijing family members said they remained sceptical about whether the black boxes had been detected, arguing that wreckage should have been found by now if the search teams were close to the crash site.
Friday, 11 April 2014 16:55
THEN FROM WHERE? Now IGP says MH370 mangosteens not from Muar: SUSPICIOUS CARGO
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KUALA LUMPUR - The four tonnes of mangosteen stashed as part of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370’s cargo were not harvested in Muar, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar clarified today, after reports pointed out that the Johor township does not even have mangosteen orchards.
Khalid said the local fruit was only packed into crates in Muar before they were transported to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and place aboard the missing jetliner.
“I did not say the mangosteens were from Muar. I said that the supplier was from Muar and that we will investigate everything, including the extent of who plucked the fruits,” Khalid told reporters after launching a police function at the Buddhist Maha Vihara here.
Khalid’s response comes after the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) asserted that mangosteens were not in season in Johor when the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft disappeared last month.
According to FAMA’s Johor branch director Faridul Atrash Md Mokri there were no orchards in the state that had produced the shipment that allegedly made part of the cargo onboard MH370.
Past news reports quoted Khalid saying that the fruits were sourced from Muar and that the police are digging into every nitty-gritty detail of the cargo, including information on the workers who plucked the fruit and the individuals who were supposed to receive the mangosteens in China.
Khalid added that they have recorded more than 205 statements in connection to the criminal investigation on the vanished flight en route to Beijing from KLIA on March 8 and which remains missing despite an international search involving over two dozen countries.
Australia is now leading the multi-nation hunt for the plane at the Indian Ocean where satellite data last tracked its signal before it disappeared entirely.
Despite having cleared all 227 passengers on board MH370 on hijacking, sabotage, psychological and personal problems, Khalid said investigation are still ongoing into the 12 crew members and their families.
“We have a focus (on the four areas of investigations) but I’m not at liberty to reveal... until at an official inquiry when the black boxes are discovered,” he said.
Friday, 11 April 2014 17:08
WHY NO LEADS OR RESULTS? More than 200 statements recorded so far, say M'sian cops in MH370 probe
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KUALA LUMPUR - The police have recorded more than 200 statements during the investigation into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said Friday.
Among those who gave statements were relatives of the passengers and crew of the lost flight, he said.
Khalid said more people would be questioned by the police in their investigation into the missing plane, a multinational search for which is taking place in the southern Indian Ocean where it is believed to have gone down.
"It is an ongoing investigation. As of yesterday (Thursday) evening, we recorded 205 statements, with more to come.
"There are certain points we have to re-look at to make things really clear in our investigation," he told reporters after attending an activity in conjunction with the 207th Police Day here.
Khalid also responded to a denial by the Johor Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (Fama), that a cargo of mangosteens carried on the missing flight had come from Muar.
"The mangosteens may have not necessarily been cultivated in Johor, but the supplier is from Muar.
"The mangosteens were gathered in Muar before being brought to the KLIA (KL International Airport)," he said.
Johor Fama had explained that the mangosteens carried on the flight were not produced by orchards in Johor as its fruiting season would only start in June.
Khalid also said that an investigation would be conducted to ascertain whether the food served on board flight MH370 had been poisoned.
Flight MH370 left the KLIA at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of Boeing 777-200 aircraft, that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".
A multinational search for the aircraft, which is being led by Australia, is ongoing. - Bernama
Friday, 11 April 2014 17:38
MH370 DID NOT land in Diego Garcia - US rep
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KUALA LUMPUR - The US embassy here says there is no truth in speculation that missing Flight MH370 could have landed in its military base at Diego Garcia, located in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
An embassy spokesman also said there was no indication that the plane flew anywhere near the Maldives.
"There was no indication that MH370 flew anywhere near the Maldives or Diego Garcia. MH370 did not land in Diego Garcia.
"Under the coordinating efforts of Malaysia and Australia, the US Navy's Seventh Fleet is working alongside 26 other nations to locate the aircraft based on areas identified by Malaysian and international experts," he said in an e-mail reply to The Star yesterday.
MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew members on board the flight bound for Beijing.
There has been talk that the plane had landed in Diego Garcia, which is about 3,500km from Malaysia and which the United States uses as a military base. -Asiaone
But.......
Malaysia Airlines MH370: Low-Flying Plane 'Seen' by Maldives Islanders but not Detected by Radars
- By Divya Avasthy
March 19, 2014 08:13 GMT
Missing Malaysia Flight MH370: Residents of Maldives reportedly saw what has been described as a "low-flying jumbo jet" flying over their houses early in the morning of March 8. The distance between Malaysia and Maldives is 3170.74 kmCreative Commons
Claims by people in a remote Maldivian island that they sighted an unidentified plane flying low over their houses in the morning of 8 March have offered a new lead in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Residents of Kuda Huvadhoo in Dhall Atoll in the Maldives spotted a "low-flying plane" around 6:15 am local time on 8 March, the day MH370 vanished leaving scant trails, Maldivian newspaperHaveeru reported.
The local police are probing the testimonies of the residents, but have not yet disclosed any details.
However, the Indian Ocean island nation's defence forces have said their radars did not detect the plane.
"Further to the surveillance conducted thus far, none of the military radars in the country has detected a trace of the missing plane. Furthermore, no trace of the MH370 Airline has been found from the data scrutinized thus far from radars stationed at the airports in the Maldives," an official statement said.
“I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly."”
- A Maldivian 'eyewitness'
The reported time of the sighting of the plane in the Maldives would be around 9 am local time in Malaysia, roughly eight hours after the plane lost contact with air traffic control.
The missing Malaysia Airlines plane, a Boeing 777 jet, is capable of carrying enough fuel to stay in air for more than eight hours even with a full load of 239 people on board.
Malaysia did not seek help
Though the last "ping" from the jetliner was received near the Maldives and the US naval base on Diego Garcia, the Malaysian government did not seek help from Maldivian authorities in finding the missing plane, the newspaper said.
Maldivian islanders saw a "low-flying jumbo jet" with white and red stripes across it as on Malaysian Airliners, the report said. The residents heard incredibly loud noise which made them come out of their houses to look for the source of the sound.
The residents said the plane was flying so low that they could even see its doors, and that the jet appeared to be flying from north to south-east, towards the southernmost atoll of Addu.
"I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly," said an eyewitness.
"It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too."
'Terrain Masking' theory
Meanwhile, a local aviation expert reportedly told Haveeru that it was "likely" the sighted plane was MH370, as the possibility of any other aircraft flying over the island at the reported time was remote.
The latest eyewitness report has given more credence to the 'Terrain Masking' theory, which has been used to explain the mystery behind the jet's unidentified flight path after losing contact with air traffic control.
Terrain masking avoids detection by radar by positioning the airplane low near the ground to have the natural earth mask the plane from radio waves. Military pilots use this manoeuvre to fly stealthily towards their target.
The New Strait Times reported that the plane descended to an altitude of 5,000 feet or lower, after turning from waypoint 'Igari', the last-confirmed location of the plane, possibly to dodge radar.
"The person who had control of the aircraft has solid knowledge of avionics and navigation and left a clean track," an official told the paper.
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