Zero Hedge .......

Voice Recording From Missing Flight MH370 Was Edited

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/03/2014 12:15 -0400

It has been nearly two months since Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared without a trace on March 8. Since then, despite the endless coverage of CNN, there has been absolutely no progress in uncovering any clues about the fate of the missing Boeing 777. Perhaps the following may provide some clarity on why.

On Thursday, for the first time, 7 minutes of audio recordings of the final conversations between pilots of the missing Malaysian jet and teams of air traffic controllers on the ground were released.

The recording is provided below.

There is one problem: the recordings were "edited" leading many to wonder if the entire conversation wasn't fabricated on a sound stage, and if so: why? And just what is the Malaysian government (either alone or in conjunction with other countries) hiding.

NBC has more:

Analysts who listened to the recordings for NBC News did not know why they were edited, but discovered at least four clear breaks in the audio that indicated edits.

"It's very strange," said audio-video forensic expert and registered investigator Ed Primeau of Primeau Forensics, who has analyzed hundreds of audio recordings. He said the beginning and end of the recording are high-quality with a low noise floor, meaning ambient background noise is almost silent, unlike the middle.

"At approximately 1:14 (a minute, 14 seconds into the audio, which can be heard here), the tone of the recording change to where to me, it sounds like someone is holding a digital recorder up to a speaker, so it's a microphone-to-speaker transfer of that information. That's a pretty big deal because it raises the first red flag about there possibly being some editing," he said.

The next part that raises questions is two minutes, six seconds in, through two minutes, nine seconds in, he said.

"I can hear noise in the room, along with the increase in the noise floor. I can hear a file door being closed, I can hear some papers being shuffled. so I'm further convinced that,beginning at 1:14 continuing through 2:06 to 2:15, it's a digital recorder being held up to a speaker."

Long gaps in the communication throughout the recording also imply some editing, he said.

"But yet, at 6:17, there's a huge edit because the conversation is cut off. It's interrupted. And the tone changes again," he said. "The noise floor, when you're authenticating a recording from a forensic perspective, is a very important part of the process. All of a sudden, we go back to the same quality and extremely low noise floor that we had at the beginning of the recording."

Kent Gibson, a forensic audio examiner with Forensic Audio in Los Angeles, added that there appear to be additional edits at 2:11 and 5:08, and agreed it sounded as thoughthe middle section was recorded with a microphone near a speaker.

"You can hear, at 4:07, pages turning or a person breathing, which is unusual," he said.

While it's not uncommon for the background of a recording to change when a cockpit communication turns over from ground control to air controllers — which happened about four minutes into this recording — that doesn't explain the noises that are heard.

"It's not unusual that there would be clicks when they push the button on the microphone, but it's very unusual to have a disturbance. Normally you wouldn't have any background," Gibson said.

A cut-off word also isn't out of the realm of possibility, he said.

"It wouldn't be unthinkable to have a truncated word because if somebody let go of the trigger on the microphone, it might cut off their word," he said. "But it would be very unusual to find a background differential at the same time, suggesting that Malaysian authorities or whoever presented this made edits for whatever reason."

So why did the authorities fabricate the recording? Simple: the pilot said something the government did not want leaked:

Gibson said it’s possible the tapes could have been edited by Malaysian authorities "if the pilot dropped a hint that they didn't want to get out, if he said something that doesn't fit with the Malaysian government's party line."

But, he said, "It's more likely to be an inadvertent thing. But it's not the way to handle evidence."

The recording also could have come from different sources, he added.

"You can assume that the recording while they're still on the ground came from the tower and then you could assume that the communication with air controllers was while they're in the air," he said. "They may have just mishandled the cobbling of it together."

This doesn't necessarily prove anything about the investigation, he added. "Unfortunately, there are no smoking guns, except there are edits. And there are clear edits," he said.

So no smoking guns, except... there are smoking guns. "There's things that have to do with timelines and radar that they have available, but they don't make them available," said Tom Owen, a consultant for Owen Forensic Services audio analysis and chairman emeritus of the American Board of Recorded Evidence. "They wouldn't give you anything that would be enlightening for the public to any secretive information. I don't see that as a problematic issue."

Considering several hundred people are missing, presumed dead, purposefully covering up critical clues as to what happened is certainly a problematic issue, even if thanks to the government's botched up handling of the situation, it does impart a significant dose of morbid humor to the following advertisement from Malaysian Airlines.

Finally, for all those who have been inquiring and trying to get to the bottom of this mystery, here is the official cargo manifest of flight MH370 - no doubt "edited" as well.

h/t Ro

New Straits Times.....

03 May 2014| last updated at 07:28PM

MH370 Tragedy: MAS requests media not to expose amount of compensation

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has requested the media not to expose the amount of compensation for the families of passengers affected by its missing Flight MH370 aircraft due to potential security threats.

Its senior vice-president for strategic communication Datuk Najmuddin Abdullah in a statement here today, said apart from MAS, the family members had also made such request.

"Malaysia Airlines did not disclose any information pertaining to the amount of compensation as picked up by the media, and we believe this was acquired from other sources," he said.

With this, MAS would like to seek media cooperation to withdraw all published articles which stated the amount of compensation for the families of the passengers.

The amount of compensation, said Najmuddin, would be made known only to the family members and done personally by MAS caregivers, adding that it was important for the media to respect their safety and privacy.

There were more than 1,000 family members under MAS' care and the airline's utmost priority was to assist them, he said.

Flight MH370, with 227 passengers and 12 crew vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, about an hour after taking off from the KL International Airport in Sepang on March 8.

-- BERNAMA

03 May 2014| last updated at 07:19PM

MH370 Tragedy: Police have no plan to reveal findings of investigations now

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) have no plan to reveal the findings of their investigations on the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at this moment.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said this included the investigations on possible hijack, sabotage, psychological aspect and personal problems faced by passengers and crew of the ill-fated flight.

"As the investigations are still ongoing, we will not reveal the findings at any time now," he told a press conference after attending the PDRM-MEDIA shooting competition at the General Operations Force (PGA) shooting range in Cheras here today.

Also present were his deputy Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin and Bukit Aman Police Logistics Department director Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah.

Khalid said as at yesterday, the police had recorded 311 statements concerning the tragedy, including from the victims' family members.

Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, left the KL International Airport 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 arrived in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.

A multinational search was mounted for the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learnt that the plane had veered off course, in the southern Indian Ocean.

After an analysis of satellite data indicated that the plane's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced on March 24 that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean". -- BERNAMA

03 May 2014| last updated at 12:26AM

MH370 Tragedy: Signals based on aircraft projection: MAS

By Rozanna Latiff | news@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has clarified that the signals its operations centre received from flight MH370 on the night it went missing were in fact based on aircraft projection, and not on the plane's actual location.

In a statement, the airline said after Vietnamese air traffic controllers (ATC) queried its Kuala Lumpur counterparts as to MH370's whereabouts, MAS OPS informed the KL ATC supervisor that MH370 was still sighted over Cambodian airspace in MAS's Flight-Following System.

"The word “Cambodia” was displayed by the Flight-Following System on the screen when zoomed-in, leading Malaysia Airlines to deduce that the aircraft was flying in Cambodian airspace.

"The Flight-Following System did not display the name “Vietnam”, even though the aircraft was over Vietnam airspace," said the statement.

Questions have been raised on whether the information relayed by MAS OPS delayed emergency search and rescue efforts, which were activated four hours after the plane first lost contact with ATC on March 8.

In response, MAS said the responsibility of aircraft tracking monitoring resides with the ATCs.

"For airlines, it is normal to engage flight following systems to assist its pilots to manage in weather conditions or route diversions. Such airline flight following systems are non-primary and non-positive controlling," the airline said.

It also said flight following systems do not indicate if something goes wrong onboard.

"Such situations have to be pilot initiated. Unless otherwise, airlines’ operations control centres would continue to see the aircraft as flying on its normal route, based on projected or predicted positions and locations."

MAS said to make the flight-following systems work successfully and effectively, it was important to have visual depiction of the aircraft’s position, coupled with confirmation by air-to-ground communications, such as through Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) or satellite communication.

In the case of tracking MH370, MAS said its flight-following system indicated that the aircraft was flying. However, there was no communication from the pilots.

"MAS OPS attempted to communicate with MH370 after we were flagged by KL-ATC, but was never able to make contact."

On the cargo aboard MH370, MAS said about 2 tonnes (2,453kg) of cargo was declared as consolidated under one Master Airway Bill (AWB).

This Master AWB actually comprised 5 house AWB, out of which two contained lithium ion batteries amounting to a total tonnage volume of 221kg.

The remaining three house AWB, amounting to 2,232kg, were declared as radio accessories and chargers.

MAS also confirmed that 38 Malaysian were onboard the flight, as listed in the passenger manifest released on Thursday.

Malaysia Chronicle.......

Saturday, 03 May 2014 17:11

MH370: The more they say they have nothing to hide, the more THE WORLD DOUBTS M'SIA

Written by Lim Kit Siang

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Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammddin Hussein in his statement yesterday repeated ad nauseum that “we have nothing to hide” demonstrating a grave guilt complex on this issue.

In fact, Hishammuddin’s reiteration umpteenth time yesterday that “we have nothing to hide” is the most potent proof that he realizes that he is fighting a losing battle in the credibility war both nationally and internationally because of lack of openness and accountability in the MH 370 disaster crisis management.

While continuing to declare that “we have nothing to hide”, he continues to evade accountability and responsibility for what happened in the crucial and critical first few hours of the first day of the missing MH 370 tragedy on March 8, and even enlisted the help of Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston in the latter’s first public appearance in Malaysia yesterday since heading the multinational search for MH370.

I could not believe it when I read the media report that when asked about the Malaysian government’s preliminary report on the missing MH 370 made public on May 1 and how much attention should be given to past mistakes, Houston parroted Hishammuddin saying that efforts should be focussed “wholly and solely” on the ongoing search.

Houston was reported to have said: “We need to continue the search. We owe it to the families, and I think we owe it to the flying public around the world that we continue this search, so that we can get to the bottom of what happened to MH370”.

Houston was not being very professional in parrying the question with a non sequitur, as nobody is suggesting any halt to the search for the missing MH 370, which is now beginning the ninth week of its disappearance, i.e. 57th day.

However, the inability for eight weeks to find any wreckage or clue of the aircraft can no more be the reasons for the authorities concerned to avoid answering questions about past mistakes in the first few critical and crucial hours of the disaster – or the world’s longest-search for the missing aircraft which some said could drag on for years would also be the world’s longest-running cover-up for human and technological faults and mistakes resulting in the MH370 disaster.

If Hishammddin and Houston are right that the focus on the missing MH 370 should be on the search and not on past mistakes, then Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the director-general of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), had no business complaining that Vietnam’s air controllers having breached protocol by enquiring about the missing Flight MH 370 only 17 minutes after the plane vanished from radar on March 8.

Azharruddin said that at 1.19 am on March 8, Kuala Lumpur air traffic control had ordered the Beijing-bound MH 370 to change frequency to their Ho Chi Minh counterparts, but Ho Chi Minh only enquired about the jet at 1.38 am, when they were not contacted.

Azharruddin said: “If Ho Chi Minh wasn’t contacted by the aircraft, the protocol is five minutes.”

He said that once MH370 had passed the Igari navigational waypoint in the South China Sea, the plane was officially the responsibility of the Vietnamese air traffic controllers.

Azharuddin said it was for the controllers at Ho Chi Minh to say why it took them 12 minutes longer than prescribed by aviation protocol before contacting their Malaysian counterparts for verification.

I support not only Azharuddin’s right but responsibility to raise this question about Ho Chin Minh air controllers in breaching protocol in taking 17 minutes before enquiring about the missing MH 370.

Similarly, all Malaysians have the right to inquire why after Ho Chi Minh control tower enquired about the missing MH370 at 1.38 am on March 8, it did not trigger sufficient alarm until four hours later before a search-and-rescue (SAR) operation was launched.

But Hishammuddin does not want such questions to be asked, as he wants everyone to focus on the search for the missing Boeing after 57 days and not on past mistakes.

Similarly, why was there a three-hour gap between the launching of the SAR operation at 5.30 am and the review of the military radar at 8.30 am, and the further 2-hour gap between the review of the military radar and report to the Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

There was also another half-an hour gap before the first RMAF plane was scrambled in search of the missing MH370 at 10.54 am.

All these gaps as well as many other questions call for answers, including Hishammuddin’s flip-flop on the issue of a Parliamentary Select Committee or a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the missing MH370 disaster.

Hishammuddin cannot regain national and international confidence in the crisis management of MH 370 disaster by reiterating umpteenth times the refrain that the Malaysian government has nothing to hide, but only by fully observing the principles of openness and accountability in every aspect and facet of the handling of the Mh370 disaster in the past nine weeks.

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser

Saturday, 03 May 2014 17:12

WHAT'S GOING ON! M'sia suddenly reveals data from MH370 pilot’s flight simulator still UNRETRIEVED

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KUALA LUMPUR - Investigators have only retrieved “some” of the deleted data from the flight simulator belonging to MH370’s Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar revealed today, over a month after US officials reported no leads from their probe on the avionic equipment.

The Malaysian police chief would not divulge further information on the matter, however, only saying that the process of recovering such data is a difficult one, even with the aid of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“We have only retrieved some of the data from the simulator.

“I cannot reveal further as it is still under investigation,” he was quoted as saying by The Star Online.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) added that to date, the police have recorded statements from 311 people, including foreigners.

On March 28, 20 days after MH370 went missing, the New York Times cited anonymous sources as saying that the FBI have not recovered any incriminating evidence from the hard drives and a flight simulator belonging to Zaharie and his co-pilot First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid.

According to two unnamed individuals informed of the US investigators’ findings, information obtained from the items taken from the homes of the two aviators on March 15 yielded few clues that could further the probe into the plane’s disappearance on March 8 with 239 people on board.

But one of the sources, a former US law enforcement agent, said this did not mean that the data should be discarded.

“Something on the drive which does not seem important today could be, when viewed with additional data obtained from the background of the individual, his other activity, interviews and data from the flight recorded,” the source told the NYT.

Malaysia announced on March 15 that MH370 was diverted from its path to Beijing through deliberate action and that it was focusing investigations on the 12 crew and 227 passengers on board.

Attention has fallen most on the two pilots — Zaharie and Fariq— as investigators insist the circumstances of the plane’s diversion required piloting and avionics expertise.

After Zaharie’s simulator was confiscated, it was revealed that the experienced Malaysia Airlines pilot had loaded several alternate routes into it to study possible safe action plans he could opt for in cases of in-flight emergencies.

CNN then reported an unnamed official as saying that the searches, initially regarded as “curious”, later turned out to be what an experienced and professional pilot would do.

The Beijing-bound aircraft took off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 12.41am on March 8 and disappeared barely an hour later when it lost contact with the Subang Air Traffic Control (ATC).

At the time, the plane’s last known location was 120 nautical miles off the coast of Kota Baru in Kelantan.

Investigators, which include a massive team of experts from around the world, have so far concluded that the aircraft carrying 239 people had “ended” in the Indian Ocean, based on satellite and radar data.

But this is hundreds of kilometres away from MH370’s original flight path to Beijing.

-Malaymail

Catharsis Ours

Saturday, May 3, 2014