MAS B772 9M-MRO Flight MH370 KUL-PEK Missing with All 239 POB Presumed Killed

[V Wong 0]

Like a page turner, except there is no ending in sight thus far. And that is extremely agonizing

[Cire 0]

Does anyone know if the data link for the engines is transmitted to base via ACARS or its a independent system?

 

Read somewhere that the automated transmission including the RR's engines' performance is transmitted via satelite direct to Boeing.

Like a page turner, except there is no ending in sight thus far. And that is extremely agonizing

 

If the news report were to be true that MH370 actually flew for another 4-5 hours, then its likely that there is no crash and that the plane and its crews and passengers are hidden away somewhere for purpose we have yet to ascertain. Another whole new chapter altogether.

[Waiping 12]

 

Read somewhere that the automated transmission including the RR's engines' performance is transmitted via satelite direct to Boeing.

 

If the news report were to be true that MH370 actually flew for another 4-5 hours, then its likely that there is no crash and that the plane and its crews and passengers are hidden away somewhere for purpose we have yet to ascertain. Another whole new chapter altogether.

 

Yet they didn't program the engines to include GPS coordinates into their messages. Time for OS upgrade.

 

Well your version is still slightly better. I would have thought that they lost communication and navigation capability, possibly due to short circuit. They may have flown blindly after losing contact.

 

I can't imagine how a renegade force can hijack a plane like this and hide it somewhere around this area without being noticed.

[Naim 6]

Does anyone know if the data link for the engines is transmitted to base via ACARS or its a independent system?

"A critical aspect of the EHM system is the transfer of data from aircraft to ground. Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) digital data-link systems are used as the primary method of communication. This transmits the Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS ) reports via a VHF radio or satellite link whilst the aircraft is in-flight.

 

A worldwide ground network then transfers this data to the intended destination. The positive aspect of this system is its robust nature and ability to distribute information worldwide. On the other hand, the Airplane Condition Monitoring Function (ACMF) reports are limited to 3kB, hence the acquisition systems need to work within this limitation. Future systems are being deployed to increase data volumes through wireless data transmission as the aircraft approaches the gate after landing. This will enable more data to be analysed, but will not be as immediate as ACARS, where data can be assessed well before the aircraft lands again."

 

http://www.rolls-royce.com/about/technology/systems_tech/monitoring_systems.jsp

[shahjees 0]

and now they're saying that only ACARS are working..how is this possible when the rest of adb-s, vhf down..?? *WMD = Weapon of mass delusion

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

If they really were flying for so many hours after lost of comms.... I'm surprised they found themselves so far away.

 

If they had an emergency.... They would land at the nearest suitable air field

 

I doubt the crew decided to fly around aimlessly

 

ACARS works out of VHF 3.....

 

We can rule out any electrical problem since VHF 3 should not be powered in that situation...

 

Game changer.

[Johan Z 0]

Someone posted on FB. I think this is true for almost all governments:

 

 

 

The Philippine government and the Malaysian government share something in common: when a big, internationally-covered crisis comes, they both panic. So did the American government with 9/11, when they blamed and pursued Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden. The lesson here is that we cannot expect any government to act rationally when lives are lost. After all, who among us can claim to act rationally when the lives of our dear ones are suddenly lost or if our own lives are suddenly placed in danger?

[Waiping 12]

Can't hear much from the last PC, but appeared more organised and professional. Can they utilise better microphone for that purpose?

[JuliusWong 0]

PC just ended. Much more professional and organised. Only AJ, and Hishamuddin talking.

 

> DCA and MAS refuted Rolls Royce claim that the aicraft flew for another four or five hours after losing contact with ground. AJ stated that the last transmission from the plane was 1:07am. Nothing else came from the plane after.

> Vietnam SAR could not find the debris shown by China satellites.

> Asking on how is the welfare on the families from China? Hashimuddin stated that the Malaysia government welcomed their stay until 'certain period of time' and provide all support neccessary.

> Hishamuddin stated that Malaysia government is being as transparent as possible.

 

These are the only info I was able to hear. AJ is super cool during the PC.

Edited March 13, 2014 by JuliusWong

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

So the RR claim was false?

[JuliusWong 0]

So the RR claim was false?

I won't said it is totally false, Hishamuddin did said later that NTSB and FAA will look into the last two burst of data transmission from MRO if the plane did indeed flew for extra 4 to 5 hours after losing contact. If it does match, RR most probably is correct.

[Waiping 12]

Oh ya, this morning while driving to work and listening to One FM, I thought I heard something about the "compensation" to Chinese victim families coming to Malaysia:-

 

1) 5 member per victim allowed from the original 2 per victim to travel to KL.

2) The initial compensation sum will not be deducted from the final total compensation amount. I am not sure if I heard this right so correct me if I am wrong.

3) Fly business class. Again, not sure if I heard it right.

 

I know some would definitely take advantage and have heard similar story over the SQ006 incident. There is no compensation SOP like normal car accident I guess.

[Johan Z 0]

Anyone in Australia, Channel 7 has a special documentary "The Mystery of Malaysia Flight 370".

[Fahiruz 0]

It's not weather, not mechanical, so most likely hijacked?

 

The confusing statements now do makes more sense.

I just watched ChannelNewsAsia and one of the correspondence said "back to square 1" so if we go back to the 8th of March..

 

Initially, MH confirms lost contact with MH370 at 240am. Only on 2nd day DCA said it was actually 120am.
Perhaps someone knows what happened for the whole 120am gap but has not come clean?

 

the 120am timeframe makes sense with the inital IGARI area SAR, while 240am-ish timeframe may corresponds well with later "speculation" by RMAF that a UFO was last "recorded" by our recording defence radar around Pulau Perak?

But again, most likely our 'state-of-the-art' radar can only "records" up until that area, so who knows if the plane kept on flying...

[hafiziza 0]

I won't said it is totally false, Hishamuddin did said later that NTSB and FAA will look into the last two burst of data transmission from MRO if the plane did indeed flew for extra 4 to 5 hours after losing contact. If it does match, RR most probably is correct.

I think you probably misheard what Hishamuddin said.

 

NTSB and the FAA is examining the data from the military radar.

 

They are not looking into the data transmission because MAS, Boeing and RR all confirmed that they did not receive any further transmission after 1.07 am.

[Naim 6]

Interesting ...

 

RT @AviationWeek: Australia Silent On Whether OTH Radar Tracked MH370 http://ow.ly/2EFHpe

[Cire 0]

Seriously, with so many official and unofficial news out there, anyone would have been led to believe it was hijacked. That appears to be the way to move on as the initial areas to search have proven futile.

 

Kapt.Nik in his discussion program last night mentioned that if the plane did make an Air turn, and that the military radar tracked "it" up north, then the search should also conduct an inland search along the possible line towards the Penang.

Based on this notion, have anyone conducted a land search and confirmed their findings or lack of it?

[Naim 6]

"Somebody has not been telling the TRUTH ..."

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152232359710490

[shahjees 0]

> DCA and MAS refuted Rolls Royce claim that the aicraft flew for another four or five hours after losing contact with ground. AJ stated that the last transmission from the plane was 1:07am. Nothing else came from the plane after.

 

that's what I thought, how come only ACARS on VHF4 is working when the rest of comms are down, even than how could a plane veer aimlessly for 4 hours without being detected by any regional primary radar... it defeats simple logic...

"Somebody has not been telling the TRUTH ..."

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152232359710490

 

boss, are you suggestion the American's on the ground searching for 9M-MRO are involved in this conspiracy as well? haha does not make sense...

Edited March 13, 2014 by shahjees

[BC Tam 2]

> DCA and MAS refuted Rolls Royce claim that the aicraft flew for another four or five hours after losing contact with ground. AJ stated that the last transmission from the plane was 1:07am. Nothing else came from the plane after.

No transmission from plane does not mean for certain it wasn't flying

If we can entertain possibility that somehow all means of communication from and to the plane were made redundant in one instance - satnav would be out, transponders maybe sending out wrong data, no chance of sending out mayday calls

Perhaps only chance of navigation may be a compass and the most rudimentary flight instruments (I am assuming those are still available nowadays as final back up measure ?)

Then if there was decompression, panic and confusion all round - not easy to concentrate and focus on finding one's bearings under those difficult circumstances

And there must be a limit to how much and how long those oxygen masks can sustain ......

Then the plane can fly in any direction ...... until the fuel runs out

 

Which is why I think the FAA and NTSB are going up the right alley in concentrating on data from military radars. If possible why not invite the Thais to volunteer what their radars picked up early that morning too ?

 

Note I am not pinning blame on anyone/anything

Just voicing a possibility from man in the street's understanding

Perhaps there are safeguards in place against what I mentioned above, I hope there is, for I will need to travel again at some point in future, and I neither fancy nor am able to afford going by way of the sea

 

[Waiping 12]

In the Helios incident jets were scrambled to intercept the jetliner after they failed to make contact, and I believe the jets were armed to shot if necessary.

 

Am just wondering if another Helios happens around this region, would any country (ASEAN countries) scramble their jets and shot the plane down, or wait for it to fall to the ground.

[S V Choong 4]

In the Helios incident jets were scrambled to intercept the jetliner after they failed to make contact, and I believe the jets were armed to shot if necessary.

 

Am just wondering if another Helios happens around this region, would any country (ASEAN countries) scramble their jets and shot the plane down, or wait for it to fall to the ground.

Either way this is an embarrassing incident for the RMAF since they let an UFO passed just like this without scrambling their jets. For 4-5 hours, they were doing nothing!

 

I am just wondering though. IF, let's say, if somebody had stolen MRO... Will the engines broadcast the messages to Boeing and RR if she is flying again?

 

Or will the engines broadcast the messages again if it is fitted onto another 777-200ER? Will Boeing or RR be able to identify these are the engines from The stolen jet, MRO?

Edited March 13, 2014 by S V Choong

[Aaron Goh 1]

Waiping, on 13 Mar 2014 - 10:41 PM, said:

In the Helios incident jets were scrambled to intercept the jetliner after they failed to make contact, and I believe the jets were armed to shot if necessary.

 

Am just wondering if another Helios happens around this region, would any country (ASEAN countries) scramble their jets and shot the plane down, or wait for it to fall to the ground.

Either way this is an embarrassing incident for the RMAF since they let an UFO passed just like this without scrambling their jets. For 4-5 hours, they were doing nothing!

 

I am just wondering though. IF, let's say, if somebody had stolen MRO... Will the engines broadcast the messages to Boeing and RR if she is flying again?

 

Or will the engines broadcast the messages again if it is fitted onto another 777-200ER? Will Boeing or RR be able to identify these are the engines from The stolen jet, MRO?

Edited by S V Choong, Today, 09:57 PM.

 

Theres actually quite a bit of unidentified flying object around,and the military detects a lot of flying object in its primary radar. That includes flying club and airliners as long as its an object in the sky. These are unidentified cos its a primary radar with no aircraft ident. Do you seriously expect rmaf to scramble jets everytime theres a UFO? Then i ll bet you ll say its a waste of tax money. Jets are scrambled when its considered hostile ( of cos with prior intelligence).

[Mulyadir Fitri 0]

US Navy's P-8A Poseidon will join the search beginning 15th March

[Pieter C. 5]

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)