Pieter C.

MMF & MMG - CRA = Craiova/Romania - interesting !!!

Great clear shots, guys !!!

Glad to be back Have requested leave already for the end of June 2015, however, not approved as yet: will keep you posted !!!

Can anyone advise me in which booking-class the Economy fares (Basic, Smart, Flex) are booked by MH ? It does not reflect this information on the website, and I need this for my mileage accruel (of another Oneworld partner). Thanks for your help !

Interesting article: LONDON—A lack of training, flying hours and funding have directly contributed to the high level of losses experienced by the Ukrainian air force as it battles Russian troops in the eastern part of the country. A Ukrainian official, speaking at an event here, said 23 years of independence from the Soviet Union meant that Ukrainian pilots were not experienced flying in combat. “There is a lack of experience, and we have not had enough money to provide training for our pilots,” the official said. He also pointed to the passing of intelligence about the level and number of air defense systems, in particular, man-portable launchers currently in the hands of terrorist groups in Eastern Ukraine. The official said around 20 air defense batteries were currently in operation in Eastern Ukraine, using weapons captured from Ukrainian weapons depots in now-annexed Crimea and transferred east or supplied directly from the Russian Federation. The official said some shoulder-launched missiles were looted by Russian special forces from a public security building in Donetsk. The Ukrainian air force’s losses have been high. Since the beginning of the year, the air arm has lost 10 helicopters – five Mil Mi-8 Hip transport helicopters and five Mi-25 Hind attack helicopters. It has also lost five Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoots, two Mikoyan MiG-29s Fulcrums and an Su-24 Fencer. Shoulder-launched weapons also downed an Antonov An-26 and An-30 transport, along with one of three Il-76s flying a supply mission into Lughansk, using two missiles fired from two different sites as the transport aircraft made its approach to land. Ukraine is upgrading its fighters, the majority of which entered service in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They include Sukhoi Su-27s, MiG-29s and the Aero L-39s used for training. Modernization of the MiG-29 and Su-27 involves upgrading the radar to improve range and performance as well as weapons designation. The air arm also wants to improve the accuracy of unguided weapons used on the Su-27. Ukraine also wants to improve the quality of training it can conduct on the L-39 in order to prepare crews for combat. Engine performance is also being improved on the trainer. But while reliant on Soviet-era types, the Ukrainian defense ministry is looking to the West for its future combat aircraft, with the official naming the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, Saab Gripen, F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-16. The Ukrainian defense ministry hopes to begin a process to purchase a new fighter in the early 2020s.

Good to see the SP still active - thanks a lot for sharing these great shots !!!

Agree 100%: KUL it should be (or SZB)...

Both are OK according their Facebook input...

MH017 AMS-KUL registration 9M-MRD... RIP to all who perished !!!

Guys, Firefly 5205 737-400 9M-FZA in full colours just landed at AMS/EHAM from IST for a night-stop...will depart for St. Athan/Cardiff in the UK on 27mar14... Hope to make a picture tomorrow as sun-set already here

US investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two people familiar with the details. The report comes as authorities remain uncertain about which ocean to search for the airliner that went missing on Saturday after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. The latest disclosure led US investigators to explore the possibility that someone deliberately turned off the transponder and diverted the plane to another location, the newspaper reported. It raises the possibility that the plane, and the 239 people on board, could have flown on for additional distance of about 2,200 miles (3,500 km), potentially reaching the border of Pakistan or as far as destinations in the Indian Ocean or Arabian Sea, the paper said. The last definitive sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 am on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing. Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing 777's engines as part of standard monitoring, the Journal said. One person told the paper that, as part of a maintenance agreement, the Malaysia Airlines plane was able to transmit engine data live to Rolls-Royce for analysis. The system sends data from the Boeing 777's two Trent 800 engines, giving details such as altitude and speed of the jet. US counterterrorism officials are pursuing the possibility that a pilot or someone else on board the plane may have diverted it toward an undisclosed location after intentionally turning off the plane's transponders to avoid radar detection, the newspaper reported, citing one person tracking the probe. A senior Malaysia Airlines executive said on Wednesday that the airline has "no reason to believe" that any actions by the crew caused its disappearance. At one briefing, US officials were told investigators are actively pursuing the notion that the plane was diverted "with the intention of using it later for another purpose," the Journal said. On Tuesday, the international police agency Interpol's head said they do not believe the disappearance of the jet was the result of a terrorist attack. (Reuters) .

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 number 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 777 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. "The Malaysians deserve to be criticised - their handling of this has been atrocious," said Ernest Bower, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Government officials say they are coping as best they can with an exceptional, highly complex crisis. Confusion, false leads, and misinformation are common in the initial hours of air disasters in any country. But China, whose citizens made up around two-thirds of the passengers on board the flight, has barely hidden its impatience with Malaysia, urging it several times to step up the search and investigation efforts. The head of the Civil Aviation Authority of China, Li Jiaxiang, told reporters on Thursday that the message had been repeated to Malaysia's special envoy in the Chinese capital. "Yesterday Malaysia's special envoy arrived in Beijing, and the CAAC asked of him that Malaysia step up search efforts and increase their scope, and that we hope that Malaysia's information release and communication can be smoother," he said. FAMILIES ANGRY Some families of the up to 154 missing Chinese have voiced fury at what they said was the slow release of information. Verbal abuse and water bottles were thrown at representatives of the airline in Beijing. "The core of Malaysia's information hasn't been consistent from start to finish," said China's widely read and influential Global Times tabloid, published by the Communist Party's official People's Daily. "It certainly hits at the confidence that the rest of the world has in Malaysia's ability to be the nucleus of the rescue mission," the paper added. Other governments have praised the Malaysian effort, but some officials have complained of a lack of communication and information sharing that has slowed initial fact-finding. US officials said Malaysia's failure to disclose the military's radar tracking data until days after the plane's disappearance meant important evidence may have disappeared. "The lack of communication about what is going on is catastrophic," said one Western regulatory source, asking not to be identified. "We are in the fourth dimension here." COMMUNICATION DEFICIT Malaysia's government, one of the longest-serving in the democratic world with the same coalition in power for the 57 years since independence, has struggled to cope with the harsh glare of international scrutiny. The ruling United Malays National Organisation has long been criticised, including by some of its own members, for cronyism, an authoritarian streak and breeding a political culture in which loyalty is prized over talent. Majority ethnic Malays have benefited from a system of economic and social privileges that has steadily alienated ethnic Chinese and Indians, who make up large minorities in the nation of 29 million people. Just a day before the plane vanished, a court convicted opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in prison, overturning his acquittal two years ago in a ruling that supporters and international human rights groups say was politically influenced. Ministries often meet requests for information or interviews with silence. "There was a lot of confusion on the first and second days of this incident," a senior Malaysian military official with knowledge of the operations told Reuters news agency. "A lot of permissioning, especially when you start sharing information with other ministries in government. I admit there is a lot of bureaucracy and we were slow." Malaysia's response has been overseen personally by Prime Minister Najib Razak, who put his cousin - the defence and acting transport minister Hishamuddin Hussein - in charge of day-to-day operations and interaction with the media. "This is unique what we are going through," Hishamuddin told reporters at a Wednesday news conference, batting away their complaints over a lack of transparency. "Coordinating with so many countries is not easy." The frequency of news conferences given to hundreds of reporters now massed at a hotel next to Kuala Lumpur airport has dwindled sharply since the first day. The delayed briefing on Wednesday evening was the first to give details on the search operation in two days. CONFUSION FROM START The confusion began hours after the flight vanished from air traffic control radar early on Saturday morning. Malaysia Airlines initially said the plane lost contact at 2:40 am, two hours after its departure. Hours later, it corrected the time to 1:30 am. As details emerged that some passengers had boarded the flight using stolen passports, Malaysia's home minister was quoted by state news agency Bernama as saying that two men travelling on Italian and Austrian documents had "Asian faces". That was denied by Hishamuddin, and the muddle deepened when Malaysia's aviation chief attempted a confusing analogy with the black Italian footballer Mario Balotelli. The men turned out to be Iranians who were not suspected of being connected with the disappearance of the plane. On Tuesday, police displayed pictures of the two in which their legs appeared exactly the same, sparking speculation of a cover-up. Police later said this was a photocopying error, according to local media. National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar flatly denied a statement by the aviation chief that there were five passengers who checked-in for the flight and did not board. Malaysia Airlines later clarified there had been four passengers who did not show up at the airport for the flight. Perhaps the greatest confusion was generated by the Malaysian military's revelation on Sunday that the plane may have turned back from its scheduled path off Malaysia's east coast before disappearing. Officials did not give more details on the suspected "turnback" until Wednesday, leaving a gap that was filled by speculation the government was hiding something and doubts over whether the search was being conducted in the right place. On Wednesday, officials confirmed they tracked an unidentified aircraft into the Malacca Strait, hundreds of miles and off the opposite coast from where the jet went missing. Bowers, the Southeast Asia specialist, said Malaysia's apparent mishandling of the situation could have long-term strategic consequences in a region where China's economic and military might is growing rapidly. "They have no maritime domain awareness and it doesn't look like they have a strong command and control structure and they're not well coordinated with friends. Sadly, that's what the MH370 situation demonstrates," he said of Malaysia. "It's not good and it fits in with the narrative I believe is forming in Beijing that China should and needs to take control." (Reuters)

http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/the-truth-about-the-luxury-of-qatar-airways/ No wonder that football-player could not leave Qatar as well !!!

Still plenty of (shrub)land between the civil and military parts of the airport: can easily build (another) Terminal(s) there...

Nice pictures of the Viking Twinotter; does this mean, the old ones are wfu ? Should make another trip to E-Malaysia to fly these birds, as they're still missing my logbook Guess, MYY should be a good starting point ?

02may2014...OK, we'll see

Nice !!! I've seen those seats on AA, and they look (and sit ?) wonderful; a really nice Business Class environment !!!

Wow, that's a real nice one, flee !!! SZB never stops to amaze me regarding the traffic there...

Nice three-some, Chaity !!!

YI-ASA: excellent shot; was it in KUL because of ex-MAS (paperwork) or do they operate scheduled flights now into KUL ? Great weather too, over the CNY

Well, it's shown as such in the on-board Holland Herald magazine...besides, KLM got into a well-publicised code-share with Etihad (via AUH), no doubt tapping the Aussie-Kiwi markets from the Netherlands...to be honest, I would rather fly EY i.s.o. CZ when going "Down Under"...

No roster for the end of June for me as yet....will try to squeeze out some days off and be there in KUL for the celebration/festivities...

Wonder how long AMS will be on MH's route-list...years ago it was 744, now by 772 and noticed in KLM's Holland Herald, all Aussie flights from the Netherlands now routed via CAN (on CZ) i.s.o. KUL (on MH)...does the code-share KL/MH still exist (even for various domestic destinations) ??? Loads ex AMS seem to be quite bad now for MH, given EK and EY eat a (large) piece of the Far-East pie, and QR will do so as from April 2014...

SS Lee, you can always fly KUL-AMS-LAX, but that's another story and Alliance

First time I see those silencers on the Mad Dog...thanks for the detailed pictures !!!