MH370 transcript

PETALING JAYA: The full transcript of communications between Flight MH370 and the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control has been released, revealing nothing 'abnormal'.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammudin Hussein said the transcript had been shared with the families of passengers.

"There is no indication of anything abnormal in the transcript," said Hishammuddin in a statement on Tuesday.

"The transcript was initially held as part of the police investigation," he said.

Hishammuddin said that previously, MAS had stated initial investigations indicated the voice which signed off was that of the co-pilot. 

"The police are working to confirm this belief, and forensic examination of the actual recording is ongoing," Hishammuddin added.

The 43 separate transmissions over nearly 54 minutes are thick with air-traffic and navigational jargon, giving no hint of trouble aboard the ill-fated plane.

The transcript concludes with Malaysian air traffic control first bidding MH370 "good night", as it instructs the pilots next to contact controllers in Vietnam, over which the plane was due to fly.

The final entry from just after 1.19am comes from one of the two MH370 pilots, who said: "Good night, Malaysian three seven zero".

The transcript - and particularly the final words from MH370 - have been the subject of much speculation following earlier statements by authorities and the airline that the last transmission from the plane was a casual "All right, good night". 

The Malaysian Boeing 777-200ER, with 239 passengers and crew on board, vanished on March 8, about an hour after the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight took off from the KL International Airport at 12.41am.

On March 24, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced that the flight path of MH370 ended in a remote region of the southern Indian Ocean based on detailed analysis of satellite data.

Malaysian authorities believed that up until the point at which the plane left military primary radar coverage, MH370's movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the aircraft. 

'New credible lead' in MH370 search

Australian authorities say the search area for the missing Malaysian airliner has shifted because of a "new credible lead".

The revised search area comes as the weather cleared today in the southern Indian Ocean to allow planes to hunt for fresh clues to the fate of the plane that went missing on March 8.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been briefed on new radar data analysis which has prompted authorities to shift the search area 1100km to the northeast, following updated advice from the international investigation team in Malaysia.

The analysis is of radar data between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca before contact with MH370 was lost.

The new area is 319,000sq km and about 1850km west of Perth.

"This is a credible new lead and will be thoroughly investigated," Mr Abbott said.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the data indicated the aircraft was travelling faster than previously estimated, resulting in increased fuel usage and reducing the possible distance it travelled south into the Indian Ocean.

"The potential flight path may be the subject of further refinement as the international investigative team supporting the search continues their analysis," the AMSA said.

Source: AP/AAP

MH370 crash: ‘I love you’ - flight steward’s last words to wife

SHAH ALAM: "I love you" were the last words that MH370 flight steward Mohd Hazrin Hasnan had uttered to his wife just hours before the Malaysia Airlines aircraft was reported missing on March 8. 

The words will forever be ingrained in the memory of Intan Maizura Othaman, 34. 

Malaysia Parliament: RCI or PSC to be formed after MH370 black box found

KUALA LUMPUR: The formation of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) or Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) will only be done after the black box of missing Malaysian Airlines MH370 is found said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim.

"The question over the setting up of a RCI or PSC was discussed by the Government.

"We have agreed to form either the RCI or PSC but after the plane's black box if found," he said on Thursday when replying to a question raised by Anthony Loke Siew Fook on the proposal to form the PSC in Dewan Rakyat.

He added that locating the black box was the utmost importance as the Government is aware of the negative foreign media reports against Malaysia and Muslims.

However, several Opposition MPs insisted that the government reconsider forming the PSC even before the black box is found.

Lim Kit Siang (Dap-Gelang Patah) urged Shahidan, who is in charge of Parliament, to review its decision and immediately set up inquiry body without the need to wait for the black box.

"So does it mean that there is no need to set up the RCI or PSC if the black box is not found?"

"We cannot wait and the body must be formed to answer all the questions raised on MH370," he said.

Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan), who is Barisan Nasioanl Backbenchers Club deputy chairman, defended the Government's stance, saying that it would be pointless to debate the issues if the black box was not first found.

Comparing the Depth Zone

MH370 crash: Search suspended due to bad weather

PERTH: The search for wreckage from Flight MH370 was called off Thursday for the second time this week as the weather worsened in the Indian Ocean with planes and ships ordered out of the area.

"Today's search operations have been suspended due to bad weather. All planes are returning to Perth & ships are leaving search area," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) tweeted.

Six military planes from Australia, China, Japan and the United States were flying sorties along with five civil aircraft, scouring two areas in the remote southern Indian Ocean covering a cumulative 78,000 square kilometres.

Five ships were also in the search zone, including Australia's HMAS Success and Chinese vessels Xue Long, Kunlunshan, Haikou and Qiandaohu.

The international hunt for debris from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which crashed on March 8 with 239 people aboard had taken on renewed urgency after new satellite images released Wednesday.

They showed more than 100 floating objects in the area, sparking fresh hopes of a breakthrough, but there was no word from AMSA on whether anything had been seen by the planes or ships before the search was suspended.

Earlier Thursday, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology warned of impending thunderstorms and high winds in the search area 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth.

Towering waves and gale force winds are routinely whipped up in the desolate area where the search is being conducted, with operations also suspended on Tuesday.

MH370 - Timeline

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia announced Monday that a Malaysia Airlines plane which went missing more than two weeks ago crashed in the Indian Ocean, bringing a measure of closure to relatives of the 239 people on board.

Here is a timeline of major developments in the hunt for flight MH370: 

SATURDAY MARCH 8

- The Boeing 777 takes off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 am, bound for Beijing. It vanishes from Malaysian civilian radar at 1:30 am, just before passing to Vietnamese air traffic control. It blips on military radars until 2:15 am, but that sighting is only later identified as flight MH370.

- Vietnam launches a search operation that expands in the following days into a multinational hunt in the South China Sea.
- Vietnamese planes spot two large oil slicks near the plane's last known location, but they turn out to be a false alarm.

- It emerges that two passengers were travelling on stolen EU passports, fuelling speculation of a terrorist attack. The two Iranian men are later revealed as suspected illegal immigrants. 

SUNDAY MARCH 9

- Malaysia's air force chief says the plane may have turned back towards Kuala Lumpur for no apparent reason, citing radar data.

- A Vietnamese plane spots possible debris off southwest Vietnam - another false alarm. 

MONDAY MARCH 10

- Malaysia sends ships to investigate a sighting of a possible life raft, but only flotsam is found. 

TUESDAY MARCH 11

- The search area now includes land on the Malaysian peninsula, the waters off its west coast, and an area to the north of Indonesia's Sumatra island - all far from the flight's scheduled route. 

WEDNESDAY MARCH 12

- Malaysia expands the search zone again to include the Malacca Strait off its west coast and the Andaman Sea north of Indonesia.

- Malaysia's air force chief says an unidentified object was detected on military radar north of the Malacca Strait early Saturday, but says it is still being investigated. 

THURSDAY MARCH 13

- Chinese satellite images of suspected debris in the South China Sea are found to be yet another false lead. 

FRIDAY MARCH 14

- The hunt spreads to the Indian Ocean after the White House cites "new information" that the jet may have flown on after losing contact.

SATURDAY MARCH 15

- At a dramatic news conference, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announces that the plane appears to have been flown deliberately for hours, veering sharply off-route at roughly the same time that its communications system and transponder were manually switched off.

- Satellite data now places the jet anywhere in one of two huge corridors of land and sea

- a northern one stretching into Central Asia and a southern one swooping deep into the Indian Ocean. The search in the South China Sea is called off. 

SUNDAY MARCH 16

- As the number of countries involved in the search jumps to 26, experts examine a flight simulator installed in the home of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. 

MONDAY MARCH 17

- After conflicting statements, officials confirm that the relaxed-sounding last words from the cockpit - "All right, good night" - came two minutes before the plane's transponder was shut down.

- Malaysia Airlines says the voice is believed to be that of co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid. Police probe a potential political motive on the part of Captain Zaharie, a supporter and distant relative of Malaysian opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. 

TUESDAY MARCH 18

- Australian and US surveillance planes begin combing 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 square miles) of the remote Indian Ocean in the southern search corridor.

- Desperate relatives of the Chinese passengers threaten to go on hunger strike. 

WEDNESDAY MARCH 19

- Malaysia says background checks on almost all passengers and crew have produced no "information of significance".

- Angry Chinese relatives try to gatecrash Malaysia's daily media briefing on the investigation, unfurling a banner reading: "Give us back our families."

- With the 26-country search apparently bogged down in coordination problems, Thailand's air force reveals its military radar had picked up what appeared to be flight MH370 just minutes after it was diverted. 

THURSDAY MARCH 20

- Australia says satellites have spotted two objects, one estimated at 24 metres (79 feet) long, in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean.

- Four surveillance aircraft are dispatched to the area, as is a Norwegian merchant ship. But in poor weather, they spot nothing. 

FRIDAY MARCH 21

- Planes spend a second fruitless day searching the remote stretch of the Indian Ocean.

- Malaysia asks the United States to provide undersea surveillance technology. 

SATURDAY MARCH 22

- China releases a new satellite photo of an object floating 120 kilometres (75 miles) from those pictured in the Australian images. 

SUNDAY MARCH 23

- Along with French satellite data indicating floating objects in the area, sightings of a wooden pallet and other debris raise hopes of a breakthrough. 

MONDAY MARCH 24

- China and Australia both announce fresh, separate sightings of objects in the sea, adding to the mounting evidence of debris in the Indian Ocean.

- The US Navy orders a specialised black box locator sent to the area.

- Late in the evening, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announces "with deep sadness and regret" that MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean, citing new analysis of satellite data. In a message to families, the airline states "we have to assume" the plane was lost at sea. - AFP

Current Search & Rescue Mission in the Indian Ocean

Announcement by PM

Inmarsat: Satellite data analysis reveals direction of travel

PETALING JAYA: Inmarsat spokesman Chris McLaughlin described its data analysis that was used to determined that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had plunged into the Indian Ocean as a “ground-breaking math-based, peer-reviewed process revealing a direction of travel”.

In an interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, McLaughlin explained: “Effectually, we looked at the doppler effect, which is the change in frequency due to the movement of a satellite in its orbit. 

“What that then gave us was a predicted path (of the aircraft) for the northerly route and a predicted path the southerly route”.

“What we discovered was a correlation with the southerly route and not with the northern route after the final turn that the aircraft made, so we could be as close to certain as anybody could be in that situation that it went south.

“Where we then went was to work out where the last ping was, knowing that the aircraft still had some fuel, but that it would have run out before the next automated ping.

“We don’t know what speed the aircraft was flying at, but we assumed about 450 knots,” concluded the senior vice-president of external affairs of the UK satellite communications company.

Inmarsat passed the data to the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch on Sunday.

CNN World quoted McLaughlin as saying that Inmarsat was “saddened for the families involved”, adding that he wished something useful might come out of the tragedy.

“The only thing you can hope is that from this, just as the Titanic resulted in the Safety of Lives at Sea law, there will be a mandate that all aircraft should be constantly tracked,” he said.

Despite the airplane’s communications system being shut off on the day it disappeared on March 8, one of Inmarsat’s satellites had continued to receive hourly signals, also called pings, from MH370.

Analysis of the pings showed that MH370 continued to fly for at least five hours after leaving Malaysian airspace.

The plane was believed to have flown within either of two corridors, one leading north, (towards India, Bangladesh and Myanmar), the other heading south (over Indonesian airspace to the Indian Ocean).

Here’s what’s odd about that map of MH370′s final satellite ping

By now, if you've been following the Malaysia Airlines story, you've probably seen this map.

From what reporters have been told, based on the last "handshake" between the Inmarsat satellite and the vanished plane, MH370 could have been anywhere along those red lines. How do they know? By measuring how long it took for the handshake signal to return, as well as the angle at which it hit the satellite, investigators believe that's where the plane could have been at the point of the final ping.

But we also know that there were multiple handshakes made between the satellite and the plane. Officials have concluded from that that the plane had flown for hours after disappearing from radar. So here's the question: What else can we determine from those extra handshakes? If one data point can indicate MH370's distance and angle relative to the satellite, couldn't a string of them — which we apparently have — help plot the aircraft's trajectory? Why aren't we looking more closely at the other data? Why is the last one so important?

We can plausibly guess that this idea has already occurred to someone. Inmarsat says it's shared its information with Malaysian Airlines. But it's not clear why officials haven't said more about this line of reasoning.

According to an industry expert who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, the final handshake provides investigators the most up-to-date information they'd need to calculate how much fuel the aircraft had left, how to expand the search area, and so on. That's true, so far as it goes. But the search parameters could be even narrower if we at least knew which direction the plane was headed.

The map above suggests officials have no idea whether the plane turned north or south. The confusion is reinforced somewhat by all the speculation about how MH370 could have avoided radar installations in Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan.

But the other handshake signals could conceivably offer an important clue. If the other hourly pings produced a pattern that showed the plane's angle changing in relation to the satellite but its distance from it never changed, we might conclude that the aircraft was traveling along the red line rather than perpendicular to it. If, on the other hand, the pings produced a pattern with all the same angle in relation to the satellite but otherwise showed diminishing distances from it, we might conclude that the plane was closing in on the satellite's position.

Unfortunately, it's not clear what the pattern looked like, because officials have only publicly commented on the last ping. And there's still one crucial flaw in looking at the plane's trajectory before it made the final handshake: We still don't know what happened afterward. It could've turned north, or it could've turned south. Or it could've continued on.

Update: Australian officials are now searching a patch of ocean southwest of Perth based on calculations by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. The calculations, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, relied on satellite pings provided to Australia by U.S. officials. If true, it suggests that investigators did in fact find the other handshakes useful.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/19/heres-whats-odd-about-that-map-of-mh370s-final-satellite-ping/

Possible new lead

Satellite imagery

Satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe has confirmed that it provided the images that appear to show possible debris related to flight MH370. "No conclusions have been reached about the origins of the debris or objects shown in the imagery," a spokesperson said. "Our thoughts go out to the families and communities of those affected by this tragic situation."

Missing Malaysia plane: Co-pilot 'spoke last words'

Officials in Malaysia say they believe the co-pilot of missing flight MH370 spoke the last words to ground controllers before it vanished.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the aircraft's crew were involved in its disappearance.

The search for the plane has extended into two vast air corridors.

Twenty-six countries have been asked to help find the jet, which went missing over a week ago with 239 people on board.

Malaysia says the plane was intentionally diverted and could have flown on either a northern or southern arc from its last known position.

Ahmad Jauhari Yahy, chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, told a news conference on Monday that initial investigations had indicated that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid had calmly said "all right, good night" shortly before the plane disappeared.

However it is not clear whether the last words came before or after one of the plane's tracking devices was switched off. Officials believe the communications systems were deliberately disabled.

'Switched off'

Police have searched the homes of Captain Zaharie Shah, 53, and Mr Fariq, 27. A flight simulator taken from the captain's home was being reassembled and examined at police headquarters, officials said.

Investigators are also looking at passengers, engineers and other ground staff who may have had contact with the aircraft before take-off.

The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:40 local time (16:40 GMT) on 8 March.

Officials say the sign-off to air traffic controllers came at 01:19 as it left Malaysian airspace.

The last transmission from the plane's Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was received at 01:07.

"We don't know when the ACARS was switched off after that," Mr Ahmad Jauhari said. "It was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from there, but that transmission did not come through."

The plane disappeared from air traffic controllers' screens at 01:21, when it was over the South China Sea.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday that satellite and radar evidence showed it had changed course and could have continued flying for a further seven hours.

'Anguish'

Searches have started in two air corridors - one stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and another from Indonesia to the Indian Ocean.

"Today, I can confirm that search and rescue operations in the northern and southern corridors have already begun," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference on Monday.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday he had agreed to take the lead in scouring the southern Indian Ocean for the "ill-fated aircraft".

Mr Hussein said: "Over the past two days, we have been recalibrating the search for MH370."

Missing Malaysia plane: The passengers on board MH370

Among the 239 people on board flight MH370, which vanished six days ago, was a party of feted Chinese calligraphers, a couple returning to their young sons after a beach getaway and a construction worker making his first trip home in a year

There were 14 different nationalities represented in the 227 passengers and 12 crew travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but the majority - 153 people - were Chinese.

Here are some of their stories.

Seeking a new life in Europe

Suspicions of a terror link to the disappearance of the aircraft were dismissed by Malaysian authorities once the true identities of the men carrying the stolen passports of Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel became known.

Police released pictures of Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, left, and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza

They were both young Iranian men seeking a new life far from home, in Europe.

Eighteen-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad was hoping to join his mother in Germany - he chose a long and circuitous route from Iran to Kuala Lumpur, to transit through Beijing and onwards to Amsterdam and then Frankfurt.

"His mother was waiting for him," officials said, confirming she had been in touch with the authorities.

Hundreds of comments have been left on his Facebook page. He had posted a status update of "feeling excited" upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur from the city of Karaj in Iran two weeks ago.

Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad is second from the left. Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, on the far right, travelled with him on the missing plane.

Interpol identified the other man as Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29. Less is known about his origins.

A young Iranian in Kuala Lumpur told the BBC that both men had stayed with him before taking the Malaysia Airlines flight, and that they had hoped to settle in Europe.

"They were nervous," Mohammad told the BBC's Jonathan Head. They checked in separately. But he insists they were not terrorists.

"They were young like me," he said. "Pouria was quiet, nice, he was never naughty. So was his friend. I heard them talking - they wanted to go to Europe to seek asylum."

He said that Pouria's mother, who is in Hamburg, has been calling ever since MH370 vanished, asking how her son was during his brief stay in Malaysia.

High-flying engineer in a new job

Dr Yuchen Li, left, was on the flight, but his wife was not

Continue reading the main story

Manifest for Flight MH370

• 153 Chinese
• 38 Malaysians
• 7 Indonesians
• 6 Australians
• 5 Indians
• 4 French
• 3 Americans
• 2 each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada
• One each from Russia, Taiwan, Netherlands
• Two men - one confirmed as Iranian - travelling under stolen Italian and Austrian passports

Source: Malaysia Airlines

Dr Yuchen Li recently finished his doctoral engineering degree from Cambridge University.

The university confirmed that he had recently begun working in a "high-flying geotechnical position" in Beijing.

"Yuchen was a hugely talented and likeable person with a brilliant career ahead of him," a Cambridge spokesman said.

Dr Li had only recently married, but his wife, Mingei Ma, was not on the flight with him,Cambridge News says.

A Facebook page from Churchill College congratulated the couple on their recent marriage in Hubei, China, adding: "We think they look fabulous!"

Dr Li previously studied civil engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, reports say.

A generation of distinguished calligraphers

A feted group of 24 Chinese artists and five staff accompanying them were returning home after attending a cultural exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. They came from all over China: Jiangsu, Sichuan and also Xinjiang province.

Among them was the oldest person on board, 79-year-old Lou Baotang, whose calligraphy has been included in dictionaries by many cultural institutions in China, Britain and the US, state media say.

He was on the plane with Zhao Zhao Fang, a 73-year-old calligraphist and retired professor who had collected a litany of titles for her work.

The wife of Memetjan Abra, a Uighur painter on board, told Xinhua news agency that she was able to speak to him briefly before his flight.

"He is a good painter, husband and father," she said.

Returning home to their sons

Muktesh Mukherjee, 42, an Indian-born Canadian employed by US firm XCoal, met his wife, Bai Xiaomo, while on business trip in China in 2002, reports in Canada say.

They lived in Montreal before moving to Beijing.

The couple were heading home to Beijing after a beach getaway in Vietnam. Bai Xiaomo, 37, had posted pictures of their holiday shortly before boarding their flight.

The couple's two young sons were waiting for them at home.

Mr Mukherjee's grandfather, a former Indian government minister, died in a plane crash outside New Delhi in the 1970s.

His family are praying the couple have not suffered the same fate: "Miracles do happen. We pray it will happen this time and Muktesh will come back to us," his uncle, Manoj Mukherjee, in India told the AFP news agency.

On a delayed honeymoon

Razahan Zamani, bottom right, and his wife Norli Akmar Hamid, were on their delayed honeymoon

Norli Akmar Hamid, 33, and her husband Razahan Zamani, 24, from Malaysia met while working at a supermarket chain in Kuala Lumpur, local reports say.

Despite their age difference, they decided to get married in 2012. The couple were on a long-delayed honeymoon trip to Beijing.

A relative told Malaysian state news agency Bernama that the couple planned the holiday after Ms Norli suffered a miscarriage.

Before the trip, Ms Norli posted a picture on social media of one of her cats sitting on her suitcase.

The Wall Street Journal quoted friends as saying that this was the couple's first time on a plane.

On the way to new jobs

American Philip Wood, an IBM employee, was also on the Malaysia Airlines flight

IBM executive Philip Wood, 50, originally from Texas, was one of three Americans on the plane.

Mr Wood - an avid traveller - had just been transferred to Malaysia and was excited about the new beginning, his younger brother James told the Wall Street Journal.

It was his last planned trip to Beijing before settling in Kuala Lumpur. He has two sons from a previous marriage who are based in Texas, reports say.

"We are all sticking together," his father, Aubrey Wood, told the New York Times. "What can you do? What can you say?"

Another passenger on the way to a new job was mechanical engineer Paul Weeks from New Zealand.

The former soldier moved his family to Perth, Australia, after the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, reports say.

Before he left home, he took off his wedding ring and watch and gave them to his wife for his two young sons.

A vigil for the missing passengers has been held in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur

"If something should happen to me then the wedding ring should go to the first son that gets married and the watch to the second," wife Danica Weeks was quoted by media as saying.

Malaysian Mohd Sofuan Ibrahim was reportedly heading to Beijing to report for duty at Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry branch office there.

His father, Ibrahim Abdul Razak, told Malaysia's state news agency Bernama that the 33-year-old had never disappointed him. Mr Sofuan was to have held his post in Beijing for six months, Bernama adds.

Friends on a journey

A veteran martial arts expert and stunt double for actor Jet Li was also on board flight MH370.

According to reports, 35-year-old Ju Kun - who had worked on films such as The Forbidden Kingdom - was in Malaysia choreographing a production.

He was on the plane with Chinese national Ding Lijun, who had moved to Malaysia about a year ago to work on construction sites, and was making his first trip home to Beijing since then, a relative told US media.

Nine of those on the plane were old friends, pensioners who made a journey to Nepal, and were on their way back home.