leon t

yes latest is Chinese ship detected signal and its the same frequency as blackbox would be giving at 37.5 megahertz. If indeed tru that will be great as marks exactly a month after the plane disappeared. And it does show that Chinese ship is more advanced that thought to be able to detect and equipped with good sonar.

Not sure if insurance cover for the many searches but it will cover the passengers and crew life and that of the plane. Believed that the govt must pay for most of the cost for the searches. However still cant believe that when MH 370 first lost contact and then the massive search off Vietnam and then it took the govt to say that the RMAF radar have detected the turn back on the 5th DAY! - and then the subsequent search off Penang for another 4 -5 days. Then last couple of weeks only the govt says again the RMAS tracked the plane down the Malacca straits!!! Why has the govt wasted a total of easily 10 days of fruitless searches when they claim recently that their radar capture all these?? Its either the govt really have something to hide on this radar detection of the turn back or that the RMAF personnel didn't even know about the turn back until they went back and review the tapes and then after a few days only discovered the turn back.

yes - malaysia have been relatively peaceful so far but then complacency shouldnt set in and afterall its good practice for RMAF to supposedly follow SOP to try and establish contact with any unidentified planes intruding into its airspace. There's is no much "internal conflicts" for the RMAF to even focus on - but maintaining vigilance and control over the national airspace is very important. We should not be giving excuses for any lapses whether or not its in peacetime. Afterall theair force should and hopefullyhave practices to intercept unidentified planes - and hence in real time scenario they should have also done the same as otherwise why even practice if its not done so for real time intrusions.

well perhaps AK is also using this as a leverage to negotiate for lower fees and rentals.

The role of the air forces and their radar is to protect the country's air space. In this case not only did the RMAF did not send their jets up even after the plane passes by KLIA, it also seems that no radio attempts were even made to identify the plane!!?? Whether it claims it knows if its a commercial plane or not (if they really know?) still there must be some attempt to contact and verify. How would they just simply assume its a commercial plane n let it slip by as after 911 they shd know the security risks that at any time this "commercial plane" can suddenly turn towards any buildings etc. Believed if this plane or any others do for example intruded into our southern neighbor's airspace, am certain they will try to establish contact and failing that they will scramble their planes to intercept and confirm. That's the role expected of the air force and that's how a proper air force should carry out its duties as Singapore have their air force planes on standby for any interception 24/7.

seems acting minister of transport is getting "desperate" according to international media in which he threatened to sue journalists and media - and also yesterday he questioned Boeing and RR on their part. Believed he should now be more tactful and cool under the circumstances and not come out with such statements - especially as a minister here.

Indonesia - from Sumatra down to Java is a very very large area including some of the islands and hence do not think Indonesia military primary area is able to cover the whole country - but still the main issue comes back to RMAF which its radar supposedly detected the turn and then all the way down Malacca straits - and without even raising the alarm. Malaysia cannot demand answers as to why Indonesia or even Singapore military or civilian radar detected bec its very own did nothing about it. Further amot surprise if Malaysia buy these 2nd hand subs without fully equipping them with passive n active sonars - nothing surprises the people anymore - just like buying so many Russian fighters and then not having enough spares and maintenance and having half or more grounded for so many years.

yes MOT did say that - you have to refer back to one of the Press conferences where he gave this reply after a reporter asked him.

even much earlier the defence minister who is also acting transport minister now said that the Malaysian subs are not equipped with actibe or passive radars to help. this is really strange as buying and paying billions for subs without radar/sonar capability??? Think there's a lot of questions to be raised following this sorry incident and even the military radar detection and non respond wven when the plane did not return to klia but continued on southwards. Believed yesterday the Australian provided a list of all countries assets - and one in particular mention Singapore sending its submarine as an asset.

do doubt seriously that the US remotely flew MH 370 and highly improbably and just a conspiracy theory. Dont get confuse with drones or remotely piloted planes as these are specifically made for that purpose. But the rakyat and people all come and unite as one in this trying times - but cant say for the govt officials as there's too many inconsistencies - and as the transport minister has always like to say that he is always "consistent" well - only thing consistent is the changes!

Yes these last words spoken and the different version did not spell anything sinister abt it - just that MAS and MOT shd have clarified what was actually said as it is of no "security or secret" abt it as this is just standard pilots' talk and respond. Another part if when supposedly in earlier communication between malaysian radar that the pilot suppsedly said "attitude 34,000 feet" - may not be the actual words - as pilots n radar control control will usually use the phrase "flight level 340". But then again these words actually spoken or not is not sinister in any way as both says the same thing in except the actual words/phrase spoken and what the media reported.

on tighter security measures onboard aircraft, the practice of having a cabin crew in the cocpit when one of the pilots leave the cockpit has been standard for SIA for quite sometime now as I have observed a couple of times on SQ flights in J class where i can see the cockpit access door.

Yes the prc Chinese behaviour is too much too - but then that's the way it is in China as they believe the loudest noise will win the day and get them answers and also their behaviour is consistent with the way the humbled less educated are and its like the "call of the forest" mentality. They are also asking for answers which are unknown at this time too. However given these, do believe also the officials and investigation committee is also at some fault for not able to answer technical questions or even explain them. There are questions which could be answered but are then not answered and often given the wxcuse of "security reasons or let the authorities do their investigations". Even questions like why the RMAF radar detected and did not attempt to even contact the plane and after that if it did as mentioned that it tracked the plane down south - why did they still not raise an alarm after the plane did not land back at Klia and continued southwards - and to this the MOT reply was "due security nature they cant answer". If only the RMAF did their job - all these would have not happened and known. Then the question of the plane's cargo which AJ said were only 4 tons of mangosteens and "other normal cargo" but did not mention the lithium ion batteries until 2 weeks later when asked specifically by a foreign journalist, and when the Australian asked for the cargo manifest, even the MOT and AJ said the list is with the investigation committee and that the Australian should asked them! - isn't the acting minister of transport also in the committee and cant he just get a list for the Australians? It does shows that MAS n MOT are not forthcoming in their reply and hence leading to the prc families conclusion that MAS is hiding some info.

yes SIN have strong currency and savings and spends like 10% of their GNP on defence to the tune of S$12 Billion a year - which is almost 3 times what Malaysia spends on. But even given in the event Malaysia too want to keep up with joneses evenif its in a deficit; thekey to RSAF and the SAF is that their procurement and feasibilty studies are very professionally done and without any hanky panky business as the military contracts are negotiated directly govt to govt - unlike Malaysia where strangely its done even through 3rd party arms dealers or through agencies. And the SAF knows how to buy such defence hardware; unlike here with no commonality and split even with Russian made hardware and which is frought with issues of maintenance and spares - and haveread and even RMAF had publicly mention some time back that half of its russian jets are inoperative! Andwe also have bought submarines that are not fully equipped with sonars - as mentioned last few days by Minister of Defence and why these subs are not used inthe search for MH 370!

does RSAF really need 6 A330 MRTTs for its small island state? But am sure it is primarily use for transporting its RSAFcargo and men to support its many overseas air force training centres from Pearce in Aust to Germany to US etc. It didnt mention about retiring its existing 6 KC-135s too. RSAF have the best and modern and well mantained air force in SE Asia.

MAS have had several bail outs and restructuring over the last 15 years amounting to easily more than rm9 billion, and even then bank negara have to set up a special vehicle company to buy planes and then lease it favourably to MAS. Even with all these MAS still make record billion dollar losses and conveniently blame it on high fuel costs and low fares - which is a poor excuse. One can see even cathay pacific with its much higher overhead costs can make very good profit recently and so does SIA. How is it that MAScan make that kind of losses given its lower costs than foreign carriers and its fares to overseas like europe is amongst the highest here due to virtual monoploy like its London sector. There's much more to it than just commercial reasons for the mega losses.

hope Najib didnt jump the gun too fast and announce that the plane had ended there - as its only a day or two from recovering the debris and confirming that the debris are from MH 370. If its not from the plane, then it will be even more difficult for the families - do feel that PM should have just waited a few hours more for evidencial confirmation. On the aftermath, RMAS radar and even that of DCA have alot to answer for why or ifthey actually have spotted the plane on their screen and what did they obviously didnt do - rather than blaming indonesia radar etc or others for no tdetecting.

If the Malaysian govt really is delaying and refusing to give the cargo manifest then it must be hiding something or some cargo details. As said the RMAS primary radar that supposedly recorded the blip and did nothing abt it is really a big security risk to the country and to that of our neighbouring countries too. In the first place how can the RMAF say its "not hostile" when it may not even have known passes through its airspace too! And what we heard from the acting transport minister who is also the defence minister as replying to foreign media that Malaysia's submarines are Not equipped with active n passive sonars??? How come submarines are not equipped with such or more sophisticated radars then how is it to prevent or be defensive??

of course now MAS CEO claimed that these batteries are packed in accordance with standards and that its routinely carried by airline - but then why did MASkept this info from the public eye for so long and maintain it was mainly mongosteens only? They have given up search in the andaman sea may even be a wrong move altogether. Remember the fact is that the plane communications all stopped at this point - from there onwards it was all conjectures and the primary radar did not confirm that indeed the plane detected was MAS 370 and hence the zigzag etc onwards is all "believed to be" but never ascertain and confirm for sure - even the bings. The immarsat satellite that picked up these bings could not ascertain or even confirm its from the plane. For all you know am sure there are many non commercial planes for obvious reasons may be flying with their transponders off esp military and others on "missioned security flights. It may even be a coincidence that the RMAFwhich pick up the blip comes from another plane close to where MASplane lost contact. We never know bec the RMAF did not interrogate nor send any planesupto intercept and check.

One very interesting news relevation at yesterday's press conference is when a foreign reporter from Sky news asked to see the list of cargo carried on the flight and is there any dangerous cargo like lithium ion batteries carried onboard. And with bit of hesistation MAS CEO then said that the plane was carrying lithium ion batteries and as listed as a dangerous cargo it "was supposed to be packed as such". He did not elaborate on the quantity or weight carried. Several containers of these lithium ion batterries poses a huge explosive situtation. What was interesting was that last week, he said only mangosteens were the main item carried! Why was such a lid on this dangerous battery not given then - as lithium ion is unstable at attitude/pressue - and this was the main reason why Boeing's new 787 planes were grounded for more than 3 months asaresult of burning n overheating of these batteries. Given this fact, then it could be well that the possibilty of the batteries for some reason ignited and thus resulting in a sudden catastrophic disintegration of the plane off vietnam. And it is surprising that this information was not released by MAS nor the Officials incl the acting MOT. Is there really then a cover up of some of the facts known by the Malaysian officials???

yes there are too many so called experts especially on foreign media - CNN n Fox news with alot theories which some seems improbable. However, i am still concern that the plane could be at somewhere they lost all communication n its transponder ie off Vietnam as this is a fact. From there on - its all conjectures and even then the RMAF primary radar did not communicate with the unidentified plane that was "believed" to be MH370 and no air force jet was sent to identify and confirm. Hence all the way from that point is all maybe(s) and if(s) and "very likely" but never confirmed. But whats interesting is that the theory that the cockpit suffered a fire and knocked out the tech crew but then for the next 6 hours the cabin crew and pax at the back didnt do anything???

and believed Singapore long range radar can cover about 400 km distance as it still controls the air space over Malaysia above a certain high attitude - hence technically if there were such a blip believd to be MH370 heading along Malacca Straits, it should have picked it up - if not its RSAF radars would have esp in the western part of Singapore in tengah where its main air force base is located too.

am not sure if there's so many "friendly" blips on unidentitifed aircrafts through Malaysian airspace everyday/nite? Believed in most countries or even in Singapore, that their air force allow such "friendly" blips and how do they know its commercial planes if their transponders are off and in the 1st place why are these commercial planes have their transponder off - and for such commercial flights they would have filed a flight plan through the air space.

doubt there's anything of significance in the CPT's simulator - as the name implies it is a simulator with various airports and runways. The main thing is that the RMAF radar that supposedly tracked the unidentified plane - and that they did absolutely nothing about it - or were they even noticed it then in real time. If things were done right and the RMAF sent out its planes to intercept the unidentified plane - then all these issues and speculations would have ended and the fact known. In fact even asclaimed the plane after Penang made a southernly track down the Malacca Straits - again the RMAS radar all the way down the peninsula did not track the plane? - even subang radar should have detected it. Something is not right with RMAF and whether Malaysia's air space is really protected or have effective adar coverage or they are even watching the skies. Its scary that any unidentified planes can intrude into our airspace just like that and pass through "if its not hostile?"

but the closest airport is Kuantan and since its been upgraded, e closer too as it overfly Penang.ven a 744 have landed there - instead of to Langkawi. In fact Penang airport is closer as it supposedly flew past Penang too. oops not Kuantan, but Trengganu airport