Jump to content
MalaysianWings - Malaysia's Premier Aviation Portal
Ashley Lee

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

Recommended Posts

Sabah police confirms report received on a/c wreckage on southern Philippines island off Tawas coast.

 

You mean Tawau instead of Tawas?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Search for missing flight MH370 will end in 2016

1:03 PM Thursday Dec 24, 2015

 

The search in the southern Indian Ocean for the ill-fated missing Malaysia Airlines flight is expected to finish in six months, the International Business Times is reporting, quoting the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre.

 

The search has been the largest and most expensive aviation investigation in history. Nearly 80,000 sq km of the sea floor has already been covered.

Flight MH370 went missing March 8 last year after departing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing, China.

Despite a massive multinational search for the plane, few traces have turned up.

This year, debris was found washed ashore on Reunion Island, a French territory, which was confirmed as part of the plane's wing.

In recent months, aviation experts have said they believe investigators might be close to discovering the whereabouts of the plane.

The 239 passengers and crew are presumed dead, with the Boeing 777 likely to have crashed into the ocean.

Those on board included New Zealand man Paul Weeks.

The search for the missing aircraft has cost Malaysia an estimated $75 million.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11565871

Edited by xtemujin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought the debris washed ashore reunion island cannot be confirmed coming from MRO?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought the debris washed ashore reunion island cannot be confirmed coming from MRO?

I believe there has been mass confusion over the debris findings.

 

The flaperon found was confirmed to be from MH370

 

The orher debris found and investigated after that were the ones uncofirmed. The few days after the flaperon findings, everyone was claiming to have found parts and debris. None were verified as true though

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The case for pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s hijack of flight MH370

BYRON BAILEY THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 9, 2016 12:00AM

 

Twenty-two months ago, on March 8, 2014, at 1am, an ultra-modern Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines suddenly and without warning disappeared from radar over the South China Sea en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Flight MH370 had 239 people on board and the pilot in command was captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a highly respected and very experienced aviator.

The B777 is state of the art; probably the safest aircraft flying today. I know — I have many thousands of hours as captain on B777. How then could it disappear?

Many theories surfaced but all of these can be explained away by the superb protection devices and warning systems of the B777. Emergencies such as engine fire or explosive decompression are easily handled by well-trained pilots who practise these scenarios in simulators every six months.

Malaysia Airlines is not some cut-price operator with poorly trained pilots. It is a world-class airline with well-trained pilots who can easily handle any emergency, as they are trained to do with Boeing best practice immediate action drills.

At first I thought it was a bomb, as only a sudden massive event (such as MH17 being shot down over Ukraine) could have prevented a well-trained crew from reacting according to their training.

But then a method of tracking the plane via hourly satellite handshakes revealed the aircraft had flown for more than seven hours and was most likely in the southern Indian Ocean. I, and every B777 pilot I questioned, did not know about these satellite handshakes. Then the penny dropped. The flight management system computer must have been reprogrammed. Otherwise the aircraft would have flown itself to Beijing if the pilots were incapacitated and the damage of any event was not so severe as to cause autopilot disconnect — which would have resulted in a uncontrolled crash.

An aircraft can be flown only in two ways. First is manual hand flying. This normally is done only on takeoff and landing. In a typical eight-hour flight the pilot would touch the controls only for several minutes. The second method of control is by autopilot, which red­uces human error to a minimum. This is normal for climb, cruise and descent.

The B777 has three autopilots, all of which are linked — if one plays up, the other two automatically reject it. The autopilot is controlled by an FMS computer. The B777 has three — all linked — and it uses information fed in by the managing pilot to command the autopilot how and where to fly. There is no third way. It cannot meander by itself, uncontrolled across the sky, as it would crash.

Say I were to fly a jet from Sydney to Auckland. I enter the departure airfield YSSY and the destination NZAA, and the FMS responds with a selection of suitable airways. I choose Airway L521. Immediately after takeoff I engage autopilot, knowing the aircraft will now fly itself to Auckland unless I delete the destination and select a new destination and airway. The savants of the Australian Transport Safety Board surely know this.

Examples abound. Take the Helios B737 flight from Larnaca in Cyprus to Athens in August 2005, the victim of a failure to pressurise due to incorrect switch selection by poorly trained pilots who were rendered unconscious because of hypoxia. Autopilot flew the aircraft to the FMS programmed destination, Athens, and went into a holding pattern waiting for landing instructions to be entered in the FMS, until fuel exhaustion caused a crash.

So, who changed the destination in MH370’s FMS?

Soon after the revelation that MH370 flew for more than seven hours to the southern Indian Ocean, I realised only an accomplished pilot could have managed this feat. The ATSB has ignored information coming from sources that should be considered expert.

Simon Hardy, a former British Airways B777 captain, wrote a book that almost conclusively identifies Zaharie as responsible for the hijack of MH370 and its flight to the southern Indian Ocean, which likely ended as a controlled ditching as per Boeing flight manual procedures.

Hardy calculated a likely ditching area based on known fuel on board and the fuel burn figures from the B777 flight manual, and allowing for known upper winds. This is well to the south and west of the area so far searched. Such calculations produce a much more accurate probable position than the very broad one indicated by the satellite handshakes and the ATSB’s mathematical modelling.

It was apparent from the start the ATSB was pushing a flame-out theory that negates any pilot involvement. Since November 2014 I have pointed out the impossibility of some of the strange stuff put out by the ATSB. Why did it never consider pilot involvement? The aircraft suddenly turned westward over the South China Sea and flew a precise track — revealed by analysis of Malaysian military radar — across northern Malaysia. It avoided Thai military radar, then turned, after circling Zaharie’s home island of Penang, to the northwest up the Straits of Malacca and around the northern tip of Sumatra, avoiding Indonesian military radar, and eventually headed south. This shows precise control of the aircraft.

Why no debris? In 2004, a Flash Airlines B737 crashed after taking off at night from Sharm el-Sheikh because of pilot disorientation. It came in from 2500 feet at about 500km/h. Masses of debris floated for a long time. A much bigger B777 hitting the sea from 37,000ft at 1200km/h would produce a huge amount of debris that would float for months. Conclusion: it did not crash and was flying under control.

The B777 has three VHF radios; two HF radios; two transponders that supply secondary radar information to air traffic control of call sign, altitude and position; ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system); a satellite phone; and even a fax machine. To disable all these systems, which are on separate electrical buses to provide fail-safe redundancy, the pilot would have to turn off everything within reach, then leave his seat to pull circuit-breakers on a panel on the rear cockpit bulkhead.

An event to disable all these systems would have to be so serious, it is extremely doubtful the aircraft could still be flying, let alone continue for seven hours.

Analysis of Malaysian military radar revealed the aircraft had climbed to 45,000ft as it tracked across northern Malaysia. The only reason for doing this would be to incapacitate passengers and cabin crew by hypoxia. Only pilots’ masks have selectable pressure breathing capacity.

Hardy’s book is quite detailed about the rogue pilot theory and draws attention to the fact the aircraft circled Penang as if in a farewell to Zaharie’s home island. Former Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has confirmed Zaharie was a card-carrying member of his party (and an very distant relative) but has dismissed suggestions he may have diverted the plane as a political act. Hours before the flight vanished, Anwar, de facto leader of the People’s Justice Party, was sentenced to five years in jail after a court overturned his 2012 acquittal on a sodomy charge. Zaharie reportedly attended the hearing.

Several months after the MH370 disappearance I was told by a government source that the FBI had recovered from Zaharie’s home computer deleted information showing flight plan waypoints. Here, I assumed, was the smoking gun. To fly to the southern Indian Ocean, which has no airway leading from north of Sumatra to the south, the pilot would need to define flight plan waypoints via latitude and longitude for insertion in the FMC.

When nothing about this emerged from ATSB I rang my source. He confirmed what he had told me and left me with the impression that the FBI were of the opinion that Zaharie was responsible for the crash.

The flaperon found on a Reunion Island beach was definitely from MH370. The flaperon sits immediately behind the engines on a B777. The engines sit well below the fuse­lage and in a controlled ditching would contact the water first. The engines are held on by shear bolts and are expected to rip off (taking the flaperon with them) on contact with water.

Ditching procedure is covered in every aircraft flight manual and training is given by airlines every year for pilots and cabin crew. Common sense suggests when Zaharie got a low fuel warning he initiated descent while still heading south and performed a controlled ditching under engine power before the engines flamed out because of fuel starvation. The aircraft would sink rapidly.

When the flaperon was analysed by Boeing, the manufacturer said, along with US aviation safety consultant John Cox, that it had been broken off in a lowered position, consistent with the theory MH70 had made a controlled ditching into the sea. The ATSB initially said damage to the flaperon was consistent with a high-speed dive after flame-out. Later the ATSB changed tack to say damage to the flaperon still supported the flame-out theory but showed the aircraft glided uncontrolled to a soft landing on the sea (hence no debris). Really? Who lowered the flap?

Last month it was revealed the search for MH370 had been adjusted after Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss released a new report indicating efforts should focus on the southern end of the search area and go farther west. The wider search area was considered the most “prospective”, and the search of the northern end of the arc was to be abandoned. Only now is the search operation probably moving to the correct area. Since March 2014, they have been searching in the wrong area. All the projections assuming no pilot involvement and “flame-out theory” have placed the search area too far north and east.

If they had followed Hardy’s and my reasoning of pilot involvement they would have calculated a position much farther south and west. A B777 in cruise covers 900km in an hour and probably flew more than 7000km after the hijack event.

Two weeks ago I flew to Dubai for simulator training. On December 29, I and another senior B777 pilot put the ATSB flame-out theories to the test in a B777 simulator. The results revealed the ATSB’s theories are completely wrong. It claimed that most of the analysis from an estimated flame-out involved the aircraft making a left turn. But when we flamed out an engine at 37,000ft to simulate fuel starvation of the first engine, the autopilots remained on the commanded track.

The ATSB, under the heading “Search Area Width”, said “glide distance under active control after second engine flame-out was 125nm (230km) which favours a no active control scenario”. To a pilot this is very confusing because I don’t understand what they mean. (Boeing would be gobsmacked a B777 with both engines flamed out could glide so far while in a practically stalled condition.)

Last month’s ATSB report had me deeply troubled. It bases search area calculations of projected flight paths on grossly incorrect assumptions. A B777 cannot fly level at 37,000ft on one engine after a flame-out because of fuel starvation. The only thing I can agree on with the ATSB is that MH370 would probably not be under active — hand-flown — control. Right from the start the ATSB has assumed no pilot involvement. But only an expert B777 pilot could have disabled the extensive communications-avionics suite when the aircraft disappeared electronically. Only an expert pilot could have reprogrammed the FMS to fly to the southern Indian Ocean, otherwise the B777 would have flown on to Beijing. Only a pilot could have lowered the flap for the controlled ditching.

The only logical conclusion I can draw is that Zaharie carefully planned and executed this very clever hijack scenario to end up in perhaps the world’s most unsurveyed deep-sea mountainous terrain, 6.5km deep in a cold, dark hell that would not be found — an area not that far north of Antarctica.

Byron Bailey, a veteran commercial pilot with more than 45 years’ experience and 26,000 flying hours, is a former RAAF fighter pilot and trainer and was a senior captain with Emirates for 15 years, during which he flew the same model Boeing 777 passenger jet as Malaysia Airlines MH370.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/the-case-for-pilot-zaharie-ahmad-shahs-hijack-of-flight-mh370/news-story/955ed1c640c91e85a9f660fdf7ed5248

Edited by xtemujin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

China's ship to join search for missing MH370 jet in Indian Ocean

Source: Xinhua | January 29, 2016, Friday | icon_OE.png ONLINE EDITION

China will join the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by sending a ship to the search area in the southern Indian Ocean.

Australia's deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss announced on Friday that the Chinese ship, Dong Hai Jiu 101, will be deployed in February to assist in the Australian-led search operation.

"The Australian government welcomes the Dong Hai Jiu 101 to the search effort and thanks the government of the People's Republic of China for its generous contribution," Truss said in a statement on Friday.

"The ship, offered to (Australian) Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by Premier Li Keqiang of the People's Republic of China in November 2015, will undertake search operations in the southern Indian Ocean."

"The ship has recently been refitted and will be equipped with the ProSAS-60 - a 6000-meter depth-rated synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) towed system to be used in search operations."

"The ProSAS-60 will be operated by Phoenix International Holdings and Hydrospheric Solutions. Both companies have experience in the search for MH370 having previously operated on the search vessel GO Phoenix."

"The ship is currently in Singapore for mobilization and is expected to depart for Australia on Sunday (January 31). It will commence operations in the search area towards the end of February," the deputy prime minister said.

Truss, who is also the minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, said "The presence of Dong Hai Jiu 101 will supplement the work of Fugro Discovery, Fugro Equator and Havila Harmony, and returns to four the number of vessels actively searching for MH370 in the 120,000-square kilometer search area."

Flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people, including 154 Chinese and six Australians, on board on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/national/Chinas-ship-to-join-search-for-missing-MH370-jet-in-Indian-Ocean/shdaily.shtml

Edited by xtemujin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Could this item be a part of 9M-MRO?

 

http://www.chinapress.com.my/20160124/%E5%B0%8B%E7%8D%B2mh370%E5%AE%A2%E6%A9%9F%EF%BC%9F%E3%80%80-%E6%B3%B0%E5%8D%97%E6%B5%B7%E5%B2%B8%E7%8F%BE%E9%87%91%E5%B1%AC%E6%AE%98%E9%AA%B8%E3%80%80/

 

Reported in the China Press of Malaysia, in Chinese only.

Edited by S V Choong

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Missing MH370: Possible Boeing 777 Part Found Off Mozambique, Sources Say

by TOM COSTELLO and ALASTAIR JAMIESON

MAR 2 2016, 9:10 AM ET

An object that could be debris from a Boeing 777 has been found off Mozambique and is being examined by investigators searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, sources told NBC News.

Early photographic analysis of the object suggests it could have come from the doomed jet, which vanished almost exactly 2 years ago.

It was found on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel — the body of water between Mozambique in eastern Africa and Madagascar — and in the same corner of the southern Indian Ocean where the only confirmed piece of debris, a flaperon, was found last July.

Investigators in Malaysia, Australia and the U.S. have seen photographs of the latest object and sources say there is a good chance it comes from a Boeing 777.

Boeing engineers are looking at the photos, according to sources, but the company has declined to comment.

The object has the words "NO STEP" on it and could be from the plane's horizontal stabilizer — the wing-like parts attached to the tail, sources say. It was discovered by an American who has been blogging about the search for MH370.

Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center said it was aware of the discovery and arranging for a thorough examination. Malaysia Airlines said it was "too speculative at this point" to comment.

The development comes days ahead of the second anniversary of the jet's disappearance en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board.

No trace has been found of Flight MH370 except for the single barnacle-encrusted flaperon that washed up on the eastern shore of Reunion, east of Madagascar, last July. French aviation experts verified it as part of aircraft 9M-MRO after more than one month of forensic analysis at a laboratory near Toulouse.

There have been false hopes over the course of the investigation: In January, aviation officials ruled that two objects recovered from Malaysia's east coast were not from the missing airliner.

One of them, a six-foot-long metal item found in the eastern state of Terengganu, was examined by officials from the transport ministry, the Department of Civil Aviation and Malaysia Airlines.

However, the sonar search operation has turned up a 19th-century shipwreck.

Almost three-quarters of internationally-agreed 46,000 square mile search zone has been covered so far in the hunt for the missing airliner — an area of ocean floor larger than the state of South Carolina.

The operation is due to be completed by the middle of this year. The Joint Agency Coordination Center says that if no "credible new information" about the jet's location emerges, the search will end.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/missing-mh370-possible-boeing-777-part-found-mozambique-sources-say-n530066

Edited by xtemujin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Probably some forensic investigation on the paint content can review the truth?

More debris are washing up? Perhaps the seismic happening under water floated some of the debris to surface?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

JUST IN: interim report on #MH370 to be released at 3pm tomorrow, 2nd anniversary of disappearance,on RTM & at http://www.mh370.gov.my

 

http://www.mh370.gov.my/index.php/en/

 

 

 

Don't really understand the need of this 2nd anniversary report, there wasn't any substantial development anyway. Most will probably just repeating what has been said before.

Edited by S V Choong

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fears souvenir hunters hoarding MH370 wreckage as South African family comes forward with find

By Marnie O'Neill, news.com.au

...All four finds, particularly the Lotter family’s, raise the question: how many other pieces of the missing airliner are potentially sitting in people’s homes, gathering dust on the mantelpiece or in the bedroom of some curious child (or adult) who found it on the beach?...

 

Rest of the story: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/fears-souvenir-hunters-hoarding-mh370-wreckage-as-south-african-family-comes-forward-with-find/news-story/6eb0a9ede6f2a61aa78ccee25dbfffde

 

***

Entire coastal communities in countries facing the Indian Ocean should be informed and alerted of possible debris from 9M-MRO.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That is one depressing news. Hoarding up wreckage and debris as souvenirs? May sound like an innocent act as these people may not have known about the missing aircraft nor relate what they found with the aircraft.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Fears souvenir hunters hoarding MH370 wreckage as South African family comes forward with find

By Marnie O'Neill, news.com.au

...All four finds, particularly the Lotter family’s, raise the question: how many other pieces of the missing airliner are potentially sitting in people’s homes, gathering dust on the mantelpiece or in the bedroom of some curious child (or adult) who found it on the beach?...

 

Rest of the story: http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/fears-souvenir-hunters-hoarding-mh370-wreckage-as-south-african-family-comes-forward-with-find/news-story/6eb0a9ede6f2a61aa78ccee25dbfffde

 

***

Entire coastal communities in countries facing the Indian Ocean should be informed and alerted of possible debris from 9M-MRO.

 

 

One of the picture showing a Boeing maintenance sheet with registration N539AS. N539AS is a newly registered ex-SQ B777-212ER. Previous registration were 9V-SQA and 9V-OTA (with Scoot). So, not really an item from MH370/ 9M-MRO

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Suspected aircraft engine cover found in South Africa

from: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/334829#ixzz43g715x72

 

There must be a reason why stuff is getting washed up only after two years, or people are only now consciously noticing the stuff ?

The latest debris partially shows the logo of Rolls Royce.

Looking at the condition of items found so far, the aircraft met a violent end in my opinion.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Suspected aircraft engine cover found in South Africa

from: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/334829#ixzz43g715x72

 

There must be a reason why stuff is getting washed up only after two years, or people are only now consciously noticing the stuff ?

Indeed there is - this is within the predicated time and place of drift of the debris of a crash in the southern arc. Drift modelling also suggests that some debris may land on Western Australian shores too, if it remains afloat long enough. These finds are what we expected to happen.

 

Regards,

Paul

Edited by Paul Saccani

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hope the best of forensic experts will render their specialty to help narrow down the crash site.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...