Anger as MH370 report offers no new clues to aviation's greatest mystery

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia- A long-awaited official report into the disappearance of Flight MH370 gave no new clues Monday about why the Malaysian plane vanished, sparking anger and disappointment among relatives of those on board.

The report from the official investigation team pointed to failings by air traffic controllers and suggested the Malaysia Airlines plane was likely diverted from its flight path manually, rather than due to a mechanical fault. 

But it said the Boeing 777 jet, which vanished over four years ago as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, was airworthy and the pilots were in a fit state to fly.

After years of fruitless searching in the world's most enduring aviation mystery, the report offered nothing concrete to grieving relatives of passengers -- most of whom were Chinese -- and crew hoping for some sort of closure.

"The team is unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of MH370," concluded the largely technical 400-page report.

Relatives who were briefed at the transport ministry before the report's public release expressed anger that there was nothing new in the document, with some storming out of the briefing as frustration boiled over. 

"It is so disappointing," said Intan Maizura Othman, whose husband was a steward on MH370. "I am frustrated. There is nothing new in the report.

"Those who gave the briefing from the ministry of transport were not able to give answers as they were not (the ones) who wrote the report."

She said the meeting between relatives and officials descended into a "shouting match" as family members' frustration boiled over. 

"Many asked questions," said G. Subramaniam, who lost a son on the flight, but added that "unsatisfactory responses left many angry".

LARGEST HUNT IN HISTORY

The disappearance of MH370 triggered the largest hunt in aviation history. But no sign of the jet was found in a 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led hunt was suspended in January last year.

US exploration firm Ocean Infinity resumed the search in a different location at the start of this year on a "no find, no fee" basis, using high-tech drones to scour the seabed. But that search was also called off after failing to find anything.

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a two-meter wing part known as a flaperon.

Malaysia's new government, which took power in May, has said the hunt could be resumed but only if new evidence comes to light and officials have seemed keen to draw under a line the tragedy.

One area that came in for criticism in the report by the 19-member investigation team, which included foreign investigators, was air traffic control. 

It said both Malaysian air traffic control and their Vietnamese counterparts failed to act properly when the Boeing jet passed from Malaysian to Vietnamese airspace and disappeared from radars. 

Air traffic controllers did not initiate emergency procedures in a timely fashion, delaying the start of the search and rescue operation, it said.

However, it played down concerns about the pilot and first officer, saying neither appeared to have suffered difficulties in their personal lives that could have affected their ability to fly.

It also said the plane was airworthy and did not have major technical issues. This, however, meant that the plane's change of course "was likely made while the aircraft was under manual control and not the autopilot", the report said. 

Intervention by a third party could not be ruled out, it said, but also added there was no evidence to suggest the plane was flown by anyone other than the pilots.

The report also dismissed one conspiracy theory about the plane's disappearance -- that it was taken over remotely to foil a hijacking, saying there was no evidence to support this.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Malaysian carrier makes emergency landing in Thailand

KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysia-bound Malindo Air flight diverted to Thailand and made an emergency landing on Monday after the cabin started to de-pressurize, the airline said, adding that none of the 129 people aboard was hurt.

The Malaysia-based carrier's flight OD206 from Delhi had been due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur early Monday but instead re-routed to Bangkok after the incident, which caused oxygen masks to deploy inside the plane.

"A slow decompression was detected by the pilot," said a Malindo spokesman, who suggested it may have been caused by oxygen leaking from the fuselage.

"In our case, oxygen masks were deployed as a precautionary measure according to SOP (standard operating procedure)."

The Boeing 737-900ER had 121 passengers and eight crew aboard.

The incident was still being investigated.

Malaysian aviation has endured a horrible year with flag carrier Malaysia Airlines losing two jets and 537 people.

Flight MH370 disappeared in March with 239 people aboard and is believed to have mysteriously diverted and crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but no evidence to prove the theory has been found.

Flight MH17 came down over conflict-torn Ukraine in July, believed to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

MH370 conspiracy theories re-emerge as search sputters

KUALA LUMPUR - The fruitless MH370 search has breathed new life into conspiracy theories on the plane's fate, with a book, two films and even a former prime minister pushing ideas ranging from diversion by the CIA to an accidental shoot-down.

A host of wild theories including a Taliban hijack or meteor strike had emerged to fill the information vacuum in the days following the plane's disappearance on March 8 with 239 aboard as authorities across Asia scrambled to figure out what happened.

The speculation abated after Malaysia said in late March the plane was believed to have gone down in the Indian Ocean for unknown reasons, but has revived due to the failure of an international search effort to find any trace of the plane.

In a blog posting Sunday, former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad put his weight behind online rumours that the Boeing 777 had a feature allowing the plane's controls to be taken over remotely.

The still-influential Mahathir, 88, said the US Central Intelligence Agency might have taken control of the American-made plane after it was commandeered by terrorists, adding it was possible "the plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS (Malaysia Airlines) markings".

"Can it not be that the pilot of MH370 lost control of their aircraft after someone directly or remotely activated the equipment for seizure of control of the aircraft?" Mahathir wrote.

- 'Someone is hiding something' -

"Someone is hiding something. It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame. For some reason the media will not print anything that involves Boeing or the CIA," wrote Mahathir, who is known for his anti-western rhetoric.

Similar allegations were floated previously by a newspaper controlled by Malaysia's ruling party -- which was under fire over a perceived bumbling and secretive handling of the crisis.

The suggestion of American involvement was dismissed at the time by the US embassy in Malaysia.

Two films about MH370 were touted Sunday to potential distributors at the Cannes Film Festival in France, with a trailer for one of them -- "The Vanishing Act" -- showing terrified passengers and a gun being brandished.

The film was pitched as "the untold story of the missing Malaysian plane".

One of the first books about MH370 went on sale Monday, suggesting it could have been shot down during a military drill in the South China Sea and the incident covered-up.

London-based author Nigel Cawthorne said there had been a joint Thai-US military exercise at the time and which was to include live-fire exercises.

"Say a participant accidentally shot down Flight MH370. Such things do happen. The cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf in 1988," he wrote.

"No one wants another Lockerbie, so those involved would have every reason to keep quiet about it," he added, referring to the blowing up of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. A Libyan intelligence officer was convicted of that bombing.

Singapore-based aviation analyst Terence Fan said without evidence of the wreckage, "you can't rule anything out but this is very unlikely".

- Reassessing the search -

Malaysia's government has said satellite data indicates the plane probably diverted to the Indian Ocean and crashed after running out of fuel.

But nothing has been found despite weeks of extensive searches at the surface and on the seabed. Malaysia has said it would review the satellite data and reassess the search, possibly deploy more undersea search assets.

Malaysia has announced no findings from various investigations into what caused MH370's disappearance.

Surveys have suggested most Malaysians suspect the corruption-prone government is hiding something, while one in 10 Americans believe "space aliens, time travellers or beings from another dimension" were involved, according to an earlier CNN poll.

Leading theories being probed by investigators include a possible hijacking, rogue pilot action or mechanical failure.

Pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, came under scrutiny amid unsubstantiated reports that he was upset over a jail sentence handed to Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim hours before the plane took off or was suicidal due to personal problems.

But his brother-in-law Asuad Khan, in an interview Monday with Australian Broadcasting Corporation, denied Zaharie suffered any emotional problems and suggested he was being used as a scapegoat.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Mini-sub deploys to scour ocean depths in MH370 hunt

PERTH  - Australia decided Monday to deploy a mini-submarine to scour the unmapped Indian Ocean seabed for Malaysian jet MH370 at a daunting depth of 4,500 metres (15,000 feet), ending the search for black-box signals.

Angus Houston, who heads the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, also revealed that an oil slick had been sighted in the area of the search led by the Australian vessel Ocean Shield far off Perth.

"Ocean Shield will cease searching with the towed pinger locator later today and deploy the autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin-21 as soon as possible," Houston said, adding it could enter the water later Monday.

"We haven't had a single detection in six days so I guess it's time to go underwater," he told a news conference.

"We anticipate deploying it this evening."

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The reason why the plane came to crash in the southern Indian Ocean remains a mystery.

So far no debris has been found despite an enormous search involving ships and planes from several nations. But Houston said about two litres of the newly spotted oil slick had been collected for testing.

"I stress the source of the oil is yet to be determined but the oil slick is approximately 5,500 metres downwind... from the vicinity of the detections picked up by the towed pinger locator on Ocean Shield," he said.

It would be a number of days before the oil could be conclusively tested ashore, but Houston said he did not think it was from one of the many ships involved in the search.

"It's very close to where the transmissions are coming from and we'll investigate it and that will take a little bit of time, given that we're in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

"We don't think it's from the ships, so where is it from? So it's another lead to pursue."

- 'Slow and painstaking' -

Houston emphasised that it was 38 days since the Boeing 777 vanished and the batteries powering the black box tracker beacons had a life of only 30 days.

Ocean Shield has detected four signals linked to aircraft black boxes, helping to narrow down the vast search zone. But the last confirmed ping came on Tuesday last week and officials suspect the batteries are now dead.

The retired air chief marshal stressed the enormous difficulties in working at great depths in such a remote location.

"This is an area that is new to man," Houston said, expecting to find a lot of silt.

"It's not sharply mountainous or anything, it's more flat and almost rolling, but we understand... that part of the India Ocean has a lot of silt on the bottom.

"And if we have silt on the bottom, that can be quite layered, quite deep and that will complicate how things are on the bottom. It's around 4,500 metres."

The Bluefin-21 is equipped with side-scanning sonar and will initially focus on 40 square kilometres (15 square miles) of seabed in the vicinity of the detected signals.

But Houston explained that the US-made vessel operates slowly, with each mission taking a minimum of 24 hours to complete.

The device needs two hours to reach the bottom, where it will work for 16 hours producing a high-resolution 3D map before surfacing in another two hours.

Downloading and analysing data requires a further four hours.

But while the mini-sub could take the search a step closer towards visually identifying any wreckage, Houston repeated his longstanding note of caution that nothing was guaranteed.

He noted that after Air France Flight AF447 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, it took nearly two years to retrieve the black boxes from a depth of 3,900 metres.

"However, this is the best lead we have and it must be pursued vigorously. Again I emphasise that this will be a slow and painstaking process."

The Bluefin-21, a 4.93-metre long sonar device, weighs 750 kilograms and can operate down to 4,500 metres -- roughly the depth of the ocean floor where the pings were detected.

Houston also said the search for floating material from the plane would end in the coming days.

"The chances of any floating material being recovered have greatly diminished and it will be appropriate to consult with Australia's partners to decide the way ahead later this week," he added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Hunt for MH370 closes in on 'final resting place'

PERTH - The hunt for more black box "pings" from missing Malaysian airliner MH370 narrowed Thursday to a specific patch of remote ocean after the logging of fresh signals raised hopes wreckage will soon be found.

With dying batteries after more than a month since the Boeing 777 vanished, the head of the Australian-led search Angus Houston wants to pursue the listening operation to help pinpoint the plane's exact location before sending down a submersible.

Houston's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) announced Thursday the search area off western Australia was now 57,923 square kilometres (22,364 square miles) -- compared to more than 220,000 sq kms previously and 75,000 sq kms on Wednesday.

But Australian ship Ocean Shield is focused on a far smaller area of the Indian Ocean 2,280 kilometres (1,400 miles) northwest of Perth where it picked up two fresh signals Tuesday. They matched a pair of transmissions logged over the weekend.

"When you put those two (sets of pings) together, it makes us very optimistic," US Seventh fleet spokesman commander William Marks said Thursday, adding that the search was getting "closer and closer".

"This is not something you find with commercial shipping, not something just found in nature, this is definitely something that is man-made, consistent with what you would find with these black boxes."

"So we are looking pretty good now."

He told CNN he expected the pings to last "maybe another day or two".

No debris from the aircraft which disappeared on March 8 has yet been found although a large number of objects were spotted on the surface on Wednesday, JACC said.

"But only a small number were able to be recovered. None of the recovered items were believed to be associated with MH370."

Officials had feared that the signals which were initially picked up might not be detected again, particularly since the batteries on the black box tracking beacons have a normal lifespan of about 30 days.

"Yesterday's signals will assist in better defining a reduced and much more manageable search area on the ocean floor," Houston said Wednesday.

"I believe we are searching in the right area but we need to visually identify the aircraft before we can confirm with certainty that this is the final resting place of MH370."

Houston, however, again urged caution for the sake of the families of those aboard the flight which mysteriously vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, and said the search for more signals would go on.

"Hopefully with lots of transmissions we'll have a tight, small area and... in a matter of days we'll be able to find something on the bottom," he said.

- Clock ticking -

Australia confirmed Wednesday that the fresh signals were consistent with black box recorders, boosting optimism after more than a month of fruitless searching for the missing jetliner.

Searchers are now focusing on tapping transmissions that are expected to be weaker than those signals as the batteries are soon expected to fail.

"With the batteries likely to fade or fail very shortly, we need to get as much positional data as we can so that we can define a very small search area," Houston said.

No other ships will be allowed near the Ocean Shield, as it must work in an environment as free of noise as possible.

With the clock ticking on how long the black boxes batteries, Houston said it would not be long before a US-made autonomous underwater vehicle called a Bluefin 21 would be sent down to investigate.

"I don't think that time is very far away," he said.

He noted that Ocean Shield can search six times the amount of area with a Towed Pinger Locator listening for evidence of the black boxes as can be done with the Bluefin sonar.

Once you put the Bluefin in the water, "there's really no time limit for that", said commander Marks.

Up to 10 military aircraft, four civil planes and 13 ships would take part in the search on Thursday, JACC said.

Fair visibility was predicted for the day with moderate southeasterly winds and isolated showers.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Hunt for MH370 'pings' will take days before sub launch

PERTH - Ships searching for underwater signals from Flight MH370 have heard no more "pings" and will spend several more days trying to pinpoint a crash site before launching a mini-sub to scour the ocean floor, authorities say.

A month to the day since the Boeing 777 vanished with 239 people on board, time is running out to detect further signals as the batteries in beacons on the jet's black box data recorders reach their expiry date.

Transmissions picked up by Australia's Ocean Shield ship consistent with those from aircraft black boxes had raised hopes that a robotic submersible would soon be sent down to look for debris.

But search chief Angus Houston clarified Tuesday that while the pings were an exciting development, further transmissions were needed before scouring the ocean floor.

"We need to continue that (search) for several days to the point at which there is absolutely no doubt that the pinger batteries will have expired," Houston said.

"Until we stop the pinger search we will not deploy the submersible."

He said that no further transmissions had been detected in the remote search area off western Australia which could help pinpoint where the jet carrying 239 people might have crashed.

The plane went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and the search is now focusing on a 600-kilometre (370-mile) arc of the remote southern Indian Ocean.

Houston had indicated that the time was nearing for the Ocean Shield, which is criss-crossing the area to try to home in on the signals again, to launch the US-made autonomous underwater vessel Bluefin-21.

But he put a more definitive timeframe on it Tuesday, saying the five-metre (16-feet) long submersible sonar device would not be put into the water unless more transmissions were detected.

"If we go down there now and do the visual search it will take many, many, many days because it's very slow, very painstaking work to scour the ocean floor," he said.

Families of MH370 passengers in Beijing marked the one-month anniversary of the plane's disappearance with a tearful candlelit vigil Tuesday, desperately trying to comfort each other as their agonising wait for news continues.

About two-thirds of the 239 people on board were Chinese.

TAKING IT TO THE LIMIT

The 4.5-kilometre (nearly three-mile) depth of the ocean floor is the absolute operating limit for a Bluefin-21, which is designed for deep sea surveying and can carry video cameras.

Ocean Shield, which picked up two series of pulses lasting two hours and 20 minutes and then 13 minutes, is operating at the northern end of the defined search area.

China's Haixun 01, which has also reported some acoustic sounds, and Britain's HMS Echo are working the southern end.

The signals are being investigated as the clock ticks past the 30-day lifespan of the emergency beacons on the two data recorders from the Malaysia Airlines jet.

Houston said the Ocean Shield transmissions were the most promising, adding that the advice from black box manufacturers was that the frequency of the signals could have changed.

"There's a change with the pressure on the ocean floor and the age of the particular batteries... you get changes in the transmission level," he said.

"Some of the false leads that we've had have been transmissions from the ship that was actually searching."

- Encouraging signs -

While 14 ships were involved in the search, it was not possible to crowd the area due to the need for silence, he said.

"We can't have too many ships in the area because when you're dealing with these transmissions you need utter silence," he said.

Commander William Marks of the US Seventh Fleet has said one of the signals picked up strengthened for a time, then weakened, indicating crews were near its source.

"That is encouraging because that is what you would expect if you are indeed moving toward the black box -- that it should get stronger and as you move away from it, it should get weaker," he told AFP.

Up to 11 military planes and three civilian planes were also Tuesday set to take part in the unprecedented search 2,268 kilometres northwest of Perth, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston said the searchers were working on the "positive lead" of the acoustic noises to deliver up something more tangible.

"I want to confirm that we have at least several days of intense action ahead of us," he said, adding that the weather was expected to be reasonable while the two pingers were still active.

"We are totally focused on assisting our Malaysian friends in identifying the location of this aircraft and bringing some closure to the loved ones of the passengers and crew onboard," he said.

Johnston said the search for debris floating on the water's surface was still going on.

If deployed, the Bluefin-21 could detect unusual formations on the ocean floor. It would then be brought back to the surface to fit cameras before returning to the seabed.

"What we're after is wreckage, a debris field as people would say," Houston said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Signal detected in MH370 search 'consistent' with black box

PERTH -- A signal detected by a Chinese ship searching the Indian Ocean for flight MH370 is "consistent" with the type emitted from the aircraft black box, according to the Australian ex-military chief in charge of the hunt.

China's official Xinhua news agency reported Saturday that a black box detector on board the Chinese search ship had picked up a signal at a frequency of 37.5kHz.

The Underwater Acoustic Beacons on the MH370 flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder both operate at that frequency, a spokesman for Honeywell Aerospace, the manufacturers of the black boxes on board the missing plane, told AFP.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of coordination in the search, said the reported characteristics of the signal "are consistent with the aircraft black box".

A number of white objects were also sighted on the surface about 90 kilometres from the detection area, he said, according to a statement by the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC).

However, he warned: "There is no confirmation at this stage that the signals and the objects are related to the missing aircraft."

In a statement Sunday, the JACC reiterated that the signals had not been verified.

Up to 10 military planes, two civil planes and 13 ships will scour the remote waters on Sunday, almost a month to the day since the plane carrying 239 passengers and crew disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

The hunt will concentrate on about 216,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean around 2,000 kilometers northwest of Perth.

Cautious reception

The Chinese search ship Haixun 01 picked up the pulse signal at about 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, Xinhua said in a brief dispatch Saturday.

Australia has asked China for more information, Houston said, and was considering deploying search assets to the area.

Chinese officials also warned the signal had not yet been identified.

"Suspected pulse signal picked up by Haixun 01 has not been identified yet," the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said on a verified microblog.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston echoed the words of caution.

"This is not the first time we have had something that has turned out to be very disappointing," he told ABC television.

Australian and British vessels are currently involved in a round-the-clock underwater search hoping to pick up a signal from the black box, but the battery powering those emissions is nearing the end of its roughly 30-day life span.

The Ocean Shield, which is carrying a US Navy black box detector, and HMS Echo, which has a similar capability, are searching a 240-kilometre track of ocean in hopes of detecting sonic pings from the recorder.

However, progress is painstaking as vessels must move slowly to improve readings, and officials have acknowledged there is no solid evidence the plane went down in that stretch of sea.

Unique frequency

Anish Patel, president of US black box beacon manufacturer Dukane Seacom, said he was "highly sceptical" about the Chinese report Saturday.

"I would like to understand why not two signals -- there should be a second beacon from either the flight data recorder or the voice recorder. So if the recorders are adjacent or within reasonable proximity... they should have detected possibly two signals," he told CNN.

"So let's get some additional assets in the water so we can corroborate, before we get everyone's hopes up, before we disappoint these families one more time I think we need to corroborate."

But Charitha Pattiaratchi, a professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia, said the news was exciting.

"The 35.7 kHz is a man-made noise. There's not another noise at that frequency," he told AFP, adding that this was exactly why black box pingers were set at this frequency.

"A whale or a dolphin or rain or an underwater earthquake... they have a completely different frequency."

Earlier in Kuala Lumpur, Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia would, in line with international agreements, appoint an independent "investigator in charge" to lead an international team to probe what happened to MH370.

The team will include Australia, China, the United States, Britain and France.

Hishammuddin again declined to provide any detail from Malaysia's ongoing investigation, however, saying he remained focused on finding the plane and its black box.

Malaysian authorities believe satellite readings indicate MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean, far off Australia's western coastline, after veering dramatically off course.

But no proof has been found that would indicate a crash site, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described the oceanic search as "the most difficult in human history."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

MH370 cover-up alleged as 'black box' locator nears

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim accused the government of hiding information on Flight MH370, as a black-box detector was expected Friday in the search zone nearly a month after the plane vanished.

Anwar said he was "baffled" over the Malaysian military's failure to respond despite detecting the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crossing back over the country's airspace following its mysterious detour.

"Unfortunately the manner in which this was handled after the first few days was clearly suspect," Anwar said in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph.

"One fact remains. Clearly information critical to our understanding is deemed missing. I believe the government knows more than us."

Malaysia's response to the crisis has been widely criticised, particularly by distraught relatives of the 153 Chinese people on the plane.

Australia, meanwhile, has assumed increasing responsibility over the physical search for the plane in the Indian Ocean.

Authorities coordinating the search said the Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield, carrying a US-supplied "black box" detector and underwater drone vehicle "for mapping the seafloor", was due to arrive in the area being scoured for wreckage as 14 planes continued the arduous search.

The plane went missing in the early hours of March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Malaysia has said satellite data indicates it crashed in the Indian Ocean, far off western Australia.

But no debris indicating a crash site has been found despite an extensive search, as time runs out on the "black box" locator signal, which lasts only around 30 days.

- Malaysia 'wasted time' -

Malaysian authorities have said they are still stumped over what caused the plane to deviate from its course.

Malaysia's long-ruling government has a poor record on transparency, but Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said this week it was "not hiding anything."

But Anwar, who recently had his acquittal on sodomy charges overturned in what he claims is a political smear by the government, said a "sophisticated" radar system that he authorised as finance minister in 1994 should have led to prompt military action.

Malaysia's armed forces said soon after the plane disappeared that its radar had picked up a unidentified object moving toward the Indian Ocean, but did not respond because it was not deemed hostile.

The decision has been criticised for losing valuable time in tracking the plane's movements. It took Malaysia one week to confirm the radar blip was MH370, and to subsequently reorient a huge search away from its initial focus in the South China Sea.

Anwar said Malaysia should have quickly notified other countries in the search to save them scouring "a place that they know cannot be the site of the plane".

A Malaysian government spokesman did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Fading hopes for determining MH370's fate are now focused on the Indian Ocean search, in what Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called "the most difficult in human history".

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak toured the military base in Perth being used as a staging post and vowed "we will not rest" until the mystery is cracked.

"We want to find answers. We want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found," Najib said, while admitting searchers faced a "gargantuan task."

- Window closing on black box -

Eight nations, many of whom do not normally work together, have rallied to look for clues in the Indian Ocean. They include Australia, Britain, China, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea and the United States.

Besides planes and vessels from the various nations, a British nuclear submarine with underwater search capabilities joined in Wednesday.

Despite the arrival of the black box detector, hopes of finding the box and its potentially revealing data are slim without a confirmed crash site.

Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar on Wednesday said all 227 passengers had been "cleared" of suspicion, as authorities probe a possible hijack or sabotage plot.

Police are still investigating the backgrounds of the plane's 12 crew, as well as ground staff and flight engineers, but Khalid indicated no progress had been made and added soberly that authorities may never know what happened.

Beijing has expressed its displeasure with Malaysia over the affair, and ties faced further strain over the kidnapping late Wednesday of a Chinese tourist from a Malaysian diving resort by unidentified gunmen.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

MH370 shows need for better aircraft tracking: IATA

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's missing jet tragedy illustrates the needs to improve in-flight tracking of passenger aircraft, the International Air Travel Association (IATA) said Tuesday, adding: "We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish."

"MH370 has highlighted the need to improve our tracking of aircraft in flight," Tony Tyler, head of the airline industry trade body, said in a statement.

"In a world where our every move seems to be tracked, there is disbelief both that an aircraft could simply disappear and that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are so difficult to recover."

Tyler's statement was released at an IATA conference in Kuala Lumpur, where baffled authorities are investigating what caused Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to disappear on March 8.

The Boeing 777 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Malaysian authorities believe the flight was deliberately diverted by someone on board, flew for hours in the wrong direction, and was last detected by a satellite in the remote Indian Ocean.

"We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish," Tyler said.

Aviation experts say the MH370 mystery could prompt major change in the industry, particularly in improving the tracking of aircraft even if they slip off civilian radar and their automated signalling systems are disabled.

Malaysia says the missing jet's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) and its transponder cut out at around the time it disappeared from radar.

The systems relay information about the plane and its location.

Tyler also said governments must make better use of information sources like Interpol's lost or stolen passports database.

Two of the passengers on the missing plane were travelling on stolen passports, which raised early fears of a terrorist attack. But Interpol has since said the Iranian pair were merely illegal immigrants.

Malaysia drew criticism when it emerged that none of the passengers' passports were checked against the Interpol database before boarding. Kuala Lumpur hit back by saying such checks were too time-consuming for immigration officers and could cause excessive delays at airports.

Tyler said the checking of passports was "the well-established responsibility of governments".

"It is important to remember that airlines are not border guards or policemen," he said.

"This information is critical and must be used effectively."

A multi-nation search is under way for wreckage from MH370 in the Indian Ocean. It is ultimately hoped that the plane's "black box", with its flight data and cockpit voice recorders, can be recovered to provide clues on what happened.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Australia warns MH370 search could take 'long time'

PERTH - Australia warned Tuesday the hunt for missing Flight MH370 could be long and frustrating as a vessel equipped with a specialised "black box" locator raced against the clock to reach the Indian Ocean search area.

Despite an extensive multinational search southwest of Perth, no wreckage has been identified since the Malaysia Airlines plane vanished on March 8, with objects retrieved from the desolate seas turning out to be fishing gear or flotsam.

Retired Australian air chief marshal Angus Houston, who is heading a new coordination centre in Perth, said it was the most challenging search and rescue operation he had ever seen and cautioned about any quick fixes.

"I say that because the starting point whenever you do a search and rescue is the last known position of the vehicle or aircraft. In this particular case, the last known position was a long, long way from where the aircraft appears to have gone," he said.

Houston noted that it look more than 60 years to find HMAS Sydney, which was sunk in the Indian Ocean in 1941 by a German warship, and the search for MH370 is "not something that's necessarily going to be resolved in the next two weeks".

"This could drag on for a long time but I think at this stage that it's very important to pursue all the leads," he added, as 10 planes and nine ships, some with helicopters, resumed the search in worsening weather.

- Black box -

Malaysia believes the flight, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying 239 people, was deliberately diverted by someone on board and that satellite data indicates it crashed in the Indian Ocean.

Houston's appeal for patience contrasts with the angry demands of Chinese passengers' relatives who are desperate for firm information on what happened to their loved ones.

Australian vessel Ocean Shield, fitted with a US-supplied black box detector known as a "towed pinger locator", left Perth Monday but is expected to take up to three days to reach the search zone.

The signal from the black box -- which records flight data and cockpit voice communications -- usually lasts only about 30 days and fears are mounting that time will soon run out.

Australian Defence Minister David Johnston admitted there was only a slim chance it would be found as debris needs to be positively identified first to nail down a crash site.

"We've got about a week (left), but it depends on the temperature of the water and water depth and pressure as to how long the battery power will last," he told Australian radio.

Authorities are scouring a massive expanse of ocean for clues and even if the zone is narrowed down, Ocean Shield must tow the equipment at just five kilometres per hour (3.1 mph) for the pinger to be able to pick up a signal.

If floating MH370 debris is eventually found, authorities plan to analyse recent weather patterns and ocean currents to track back to where the plane went down.

- Last words spoken -

The seven-nation search effort resumed hours after Malaysia's civil aviation department said the last words spoken by one of the pilots on the doomed flight were "Good night Malaysian three seven zero".

The phrasing was different to the more casual "All right, good night" originally reported.

Aviation experts said the correction to the cockpit wording did not raise any red flags about possible pilot intent.

"There is plenty about Malaysia's handling (of MH370) over which questions may be raised, but I think in the scheme of things this is inconsequential," said Scott Hamilton, managing director of US-based aviation consultancy Leeham Co.

Shortly after the final message, communications were cut and the Boeing 777 vanished from civilian radar.

Malaysia insists it has been transparent, rejecting Chinese relatives' accusations it is guilty of incompetence or even a cover-up, but has repeatedly changed tack on what happened.

Notably, there have been about-turns regarding the crucial sequence of events in the cockpit before the plane veered off course, and Malaysia's air force has been criticised for failing to intercept it when it appeared on military radar.

Critics took aim on social media, saying the changed narrative on the cockpit communication showed continued bumbling.

"The Malaysian government can't even get the cockpit sign-off right. Why would we expect they get anything else correct?" said one posting on Twitter.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected in Perth on Wednesday to tour the air base being used a staging post.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Australia: No time limit on hunt for Malaysian jet

PERTH - No time limit will be imposed on the search for MH370 because the world deserves to know what happened, Australian premier Tony Abbott said Monday, as a ship equipped to locate the plane's "black box" prepared to set sail.

The hunt for physical evidence that the Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in the Indian Ocean more than three weeks ago has turned up nothing, despite a massive operation involving seven countries and repeated sightings of suspected debris.

Experts warn hard evidence must be found first to narrow down a search zone in order for the US-supplied black box detector to be effective.

Abbott said the search across an expanse of ocean the size of Norway would continue for as long as necessary to track down the Boeing 777, which was carrying 239 people when it vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"I'm certainly not putting a time limit on it... We can keep searching for quite some time to come," Abbott told reporters at the Perth military base coordinating the operation.

"We owe it to the families, we owe it to everyone that travels by air, we owe it to the anxious governments of the countries who had people on that aircraft. We owe it to the wider world which has been transfixed by this mystery for three weeks now."

More than a dozen Chinese relatives of those aboard the ill-fated plane -- part of a group of nearly 30 who arrived in Malaysia to press authorities for answers -- kept up the pressure on Monday during a visit to a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Wearing T-shirts that read "MH370 come back safely" in Mandarin, they lit candles and left flowers at the temple in an hour-long prayer session for loved ones. But their anger at Malaysia's handling of the crisis still smoldered.

"We will never forgive those who hurt our families and don't tell the truth and delay the rescue mission," a spokesman for the group told reporters, reiterating the belief among many relatives of the 153 Chinese aboard that Malaysia has concealed the truth.

- 'Critical' to find debris -

The Australian vessel Ocean Shield, fitted with a device known as a towed pinger locator and an underwater drone equipped with electronic sensors for detecting the black box's signal, was to conduct sea trials off Perth on Monday before heading to the search area.

Captain Mark Matthews from the US Navy said it was "critical" to first locate a likely crash site.

"Right now the search area is basically the size of the Indian Ocean, which would take an untenable amount of time to search," he said.

A black box signal usually lasts only about 30 days. Fears have been mounting that it could already be too late, with Ocean Shield needing up to three days to get to the search area.

However, Matthews said the black box signal could last up to 15 days longer than thought.

Once any floating debris is confirmed to be from the plane, authorities plan to work backwards -- analysing recent weather patterns and ocean currents -- to a possible crash site.

- Families demand answers -

Malaysia believes MH370 was deliberately diverted by someone on board, but nothing else is known. It has said satellite data indicates the plane went down in seas far off western Australia.

The circumstances have brought pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, under intense scrutiny, but no evidence has emerged to implicate them, and family and acquaintances have attested their good character.

Zaharie's daughter Aishah on Monday accused a British tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, of concocting a report "out of thin air" alleging that her father was "disturbed" due to marital trouble.

"May god have mercy on your souls," she told the paper in a Facebook posting quoted by local media.

"You can bet your ass I will not forgive you."

Many Chinese relatives, already distraught and angry, have been further incensed by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's announcement on March 24 that the plane was lost at sea, saying that could not be concluded until wreckage is found.

But Abbott backed Najib's conclusion, saying it was supported by an "absolutely overwhelming wave of evidence".

A source close to Malaysia's investigation told AFP that authorities in Kuala Lumpur were upset with "the Chinese side whipping up the families' emotions against Malaysia".

China's state media have regularly heaped scorn on Malaysia for losing MH370, and Beijing has pressed for more transparency in its investigation.

Monday's search saw ten planes take to the skies, with ten ships already at sea. Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea and the US are taking part.

Malaysia remains officially in charge of the search, but Australia has assumed increasing responsibility, appointing retired air chief marshal Angus Houston to head a new coordination centre in Perth.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

MH370 search looks for debris breakthrough in new area

PERTH - Searchers scoured a new area of the Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Saturday hoping to salvage possible debris from the doomed jet after several hopeful sightings.

But despite having access to considerable assets, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the search teams faced a formidable task given the distances involved.

"We should not underestimate the difficulty of this work, it is an extraordinarily remote location," he told reporters Saturday.

"We are trying to find small bits of wreckage in a vast ocean. While we're throwing everything we have at it, the task goes on."

Planes attached to the multinational operation spotted "multiple objects" floating in the water on Friday after the focus of the search moved to a new zone on the strength of fresh data indicating the plane was flying faster than first thought before it disappeared on March 8.

Authorities stressed that the items sighted could not be verified as coming from MH370 until they were physically examined and ships from China and Australia have been tasked with finding them.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said a Chinese ship, the Haixun 01 began attempting to relocate the objects at first light Saturday.

It was joined by a navy vessel Jinggangshan, which carries two helicopters, China's official state news agency Xinhua said.

AMSA expects six ships to be in place by the end of the day, including the Australian navy's HMAS Success and a total of five Chinese vessels as they comb an area of roughly the size of Norway.

The authority said weather conditions on Saturday were good, although they could deteriorate later in the day.

AMSA has 11 military aircraft from six countries -- Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States -- at its disposal for the search, which is taking place far off Western Australia and about 1,100 kilometres (685 miles) northeast of where initial efforts were focused.

Yet the objects they are trying to find are tiny, with New Zealand Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short saying the items spotted from a New Zealand Orion Friday were mostly rectangular and ranging in size from just 50-100 centimetres (20-40 inches).

- New search zone -

The search sector "was shifted north after international air crash investigators in Malaysia updated their previous analysis of the likely aircraft movement", AMSA said.

The new area was identified following an examination of radar data by experts from Boeing who have joined an international investigation team in Kuala Lumpur.

It suggested the aircraft was travelling faster than previously thought, meaning the Boeing 777 used more fuel and would have crashed into the Indian Ocean sooner.

The analysts calculated MH370's estimated speed during the time it was briefly tracked by Malaysian military radar shortly after it diverted to the west -- the last time MH370 appeared on radar.

It switched the search's focus to an area around 1,850 kilometres west of Perth. prompting Australia to re-position its satellites to look for clues.

The new zone is closer to land, meaning planes can spend more time searching before having to return to refuel, and enjoys better weather than seas further south where the search had been concentrated.

- Black box deadline -

As the search moves to the new area, the clock is ticking on the tracking signal emitted by the plane's "black box" of flight data, which lasts about 30 days.

The US Pacific Fleet has moved specialised black box locator equipment to Perth and Abbott said it would be deployed on an Australia navy ship once an approximate crash site is established.

"It's critical to continue searching for debris so we can reverse-forecast the wind, current and sea state since March 8 to recreate the position where MH370 possibly went into the water," said Commander Tom Moneymaker, US 7th Fleet oceanographer.

Malaysia continues to believe the plane was deliberately redirected by someone on board and flown thousands of miles southwards, but nothing else is known.

More than two-thirds of the 239 people on board MH370 were Chinese and anguished families are desperately awaiting solid evidence that might unlock one of aviation's greatest riddles.

Until then, many have refused to accept the Malaysian government's conclusion that the plane went down at sea.

Underscoring simmering tensions, on Friday in Beijing hundreds of Chinese family members walked out of a briefing by Malaysian officials, who were left to stare at ranks of empty chairs while a relatives' representative berated them.

Malaysia also came under fire from Interpol, which rejected Kuala Lumpur's claims that consulting a stolen passport database -- which may have detected two people using false passports on the flight -- would have caused excessive delays.

While Kuala Lumpar's handling of the plane's mysterious disappearance has been criticised by some families, Abbott said international protocols meant Malaysia would remain in charge of the operation.

"The prime responsibility rests with Malaysia (but) Australia is ready to shoulder as much of the responsibility as countries wish us to take," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Families of Chinese passengers on MH370 get insurance payouts

BEIJING - Chinese insurance companies have started to pay compensation to the families of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines plane presumed crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

China Life, the country's largest insurance company, has compensated the families of seven passengers a total of 4.17 million yuan ($671,600), Chen Honghao, an official from China Life's department of planning told Reuters by telephone on Friday.

China Life had 32 clients on the flight and estimates its total compensation would be 8.94 million yuan, Chen said.

Flight MH370 is believed to have crashed with the loss of all 239 people aboard after flying thousands of miles off course on March 8 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. More than 150 of the passengers were Chinese.

New China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. will compensate the families of nine clients on board the flight with a total of about 1 million yuan, Zhang Hongxia, a public relations official from the firm, said on Thursday.

Shanghai-based China Pacific Insurance Co., Ltd. said it had offered its first compensation payment of 525,000 yuan as of Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua said.

Sunshine Insurance will compensate 500,000 yuan to the family of one of its clients, a woman surnamed Zhang from the firm said on Thursday.

China Pacific Insurance could not be reached for comment.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Weather suspends hunt for missing Malaysian jet

PERTH - High winds and icy weather halted the air search on Thursday for a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet presumed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, just as new satellite images emerged showing what could be a large debris field from the plane.

The latest possible sightings of wreckage from Flight MH370, which went missing 19 days ago, were captured by Thai and Japanese satellites in roughly the same remote expanse of sea as earlier images reported by France, Australia and China.

"We detected floating objects, perhaps more than 300," Anond Snidvongs, the head of Thailand's space technology development agency, told Reuters. "We have never said that the pieces are part of MH370 but have so far identified them only as floating objects."

A Japanese satellite also captured images of 10 objects which could be part of the plane, Kyodo news agency quoted the government as saying on Thursday.

An international search team of 11 military and civilian aircraft and five ships had been heading for an area where more than 100 objects that could be from the Boeing 777 had been identified by French satellite pictures earlier this week, but severe weather forced the planes to turn back.

"The forecast in the area was calling for severe icing, severe turbulence and near-zero visibility," said Lieutenant Commander Adam Schantz, the officer in charge of the U.S. Navy Poseidon P8 maritime surveillance aircraft detachment.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the effort, confirmed flights had been called off but said ships continued to search despite battering waves.

"It's the nature of search and rescue. It's a fickle beast," Flying Officer Peter Moore, the captain of an Australian AP-3C Orion, told Reuters aboard the plane after it turned around 600 miles from the search zone.

"This is incredibly important to us. The reality is we have 239 people whose families want some information and closure."

 

NEW IMAGES

The Malaysian airliner, on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, is thought to have crashed with the loss of all 239 people aboard after flying thousands of miles off course.

The objects spotted by the Thai satellite were between 2 metres (6.5 ft) and 16 metres (52 ft) in size and were in an area around 2,700 km (1,680 miles) southwest of Perth, Snidvongs said.

The pictures were taken on Monday, a day after a satellite operated by France-based Airbus Defence & Space spotted 122 potential objects in a 400 sq km (155 sq mile) area of ocean around 2,500 km southwest of the Western Australian city.

The pictures by the Japanese satellite were taken on Wednesday of debris about 2,500 km (1,553 miles) southwest of Perth, the biggest measuring 4 by 8 metres, a government official said.

MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after take-off and investigators believe someone on board may have shut off the plane's communications systems. Theories range from a hijacking to sabotage or a possible suicide by one of the pilots, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems.

Partial military radar tracking showed the plane turning west off its scheduled course over the South China Sea and then recrossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

The logistical difficulties of the search have been highlighted by the failure so far to get a lock on possible debris, despite the now numerous satellite images and direct visual sightings from aircraft and ships.

The area being searched by crews from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea has some of the deepest and roughest waters in the world.

One day had already been lost earlier this week because weather conditions were too dangerous, but Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said the forecast for Friday was better.

RELATIVES DISTRAUGHT

Recovery of wreckage could unlock clues about why and how the plane diverted so far off course in one of aviation's most puzzling mysteries.

The United States has sent an undersea Navy drone and a high-tech black box detector which will be fitted to an Australian ship due in Perth in the coming days.

The so-called black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - record what happens during flight, but time is running out to pick up their locator beacons, which stop about a month after a crash due to limited battery life.

The prolonged and so far fruitless search and investigation have taken a toll, with dozens of distraught relatives of 150 Chinese passengers clashing with police and accusing Malaysia of "delays and deception".

China has repeatedly voiced its frustration with the efforts of Malaysia to find the plane. China's special envoy to Malaysia said on Thursday that Beijing was doing its best to push the Southeast Asian nation to coordinate the international search effort, state news agency Xinhua said.

Chinese insurance companies have started paying compensation to the families of passengers, Xinhua reported separately.

The family of Paul Weeks, a New Zealander on board the Malaysia Airlines flight, said they had been angered by the way the airline has dealt with the families of passengers.

"The whole situation has been handled appallingly, incredible insensitivity, lack of information," Weeks's sister, Sara Weeks, told Radio Live in New Zealand.

She said her brother's wife had only received a text message to say that her husband was presumed dead. (Additional reporting by Suilee Wee in Beijing, Niluksi Koswanage in Kuala Lumpur, Jane Wardell in Sydney, Gyles Beckford in Wellington, Stanley White in Tokyo and Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Alex Richardson; Editing by Nick Macfie)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

US law firm plans to bring suit vs Boeing, Malaysia Airlines

NEW YORK/KUALA LUMPUR - A U.S.-based law firm said it expects to represent families of more than half of the passengers on board the missing Malaysian Airlines flight in a lawsuit against the carriers and Boeing Co BA.N, alleging the plane had crashed due to mechanical failure.

The Beijing-bound flight MH370 disappeared more than two weeks ago, and was announced to have crashed into the remote southern Indian ocean with all 239 on board presumed to have died.

Chicago-based Ribbeck Law has filed a petition for discovery against Boeing Co, manufacturer of the aircraft, and Malaysian Airlines, operator of the plane in a Cook County, Illinois Circuit Court. The petition is meant to secure evidence of possible design and manufacturing defects that may have contributed to the disaster, the law firm said.

Though both Boeing and Malaysian Airlines were named in the filing, the focus of the case will be on Boeing, Ribbeck's lawyers told reporters, as they believe that the incident was caused by mechanical failure.

"Our theory of the case is that there was a failure of the equipment in the cockpit that may have caused a fire that rendered the crew unconscious, or perhaps because of the defects in the fuselage which had been reported before there was some loss in the cabin pressure that also made the pilot and co-pilot unconscious," Monica Kelly, head of Global Aviation Litigation at Ribbeck Law, told reporters.

"That plane was actually a ghost plane for several hours until it ran out of fuel."

Kelly said the conclusion was made based on experience on previous incidents, dismissing the possibilities of hijacking or pilot suicide.

The lawsuit, soon to be filed, would seek millions of dollars of compensation for each passenger and ask Boeing to repair its entire 777 fleet.

The law firm said it expected to represent families of more than 50 percent of the passengers on board the flight, but declined to give details on how many families have sought their representation in the case.

The court filing was not immediately available.

The petition was filed on behalf of Januari Siregar, whose son was on the flight, the firm said. Siregar, a lawyer, had known Ribbeck's staff when working on a case involving Garuda Indonesia GIAA.JK a few years earlier, Ribbeck said.

Contacted by Reuters in Indonesia, he confirmed the petition, but said he was the uncle, not the father, of a passenger on the plane.

Additional pleadings will be filed in the next few days against other potential defendants that designed or manufactured component parts of the aircraft that may have failed, Kelly said.

Ribbeck is also asking that U.S. scientists be included in the search for wreckage and bodies, the firm said.

A spokesman for Boeing declined comment. A spokesman for Malaysian Airlines could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ribbeck is also representing 115 passengers in the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco in July.

Ribbeck only plans to file the case in the United States.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Malaysia's jet crash announcement draws criticism

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia drew criticism at home and abroad on Tuesday for announcing that a missing passenger jet with 239 people aboard had been lost at sea, even before any wreckage was found.

The country's flag carrier also received ire for informing some relatives of the plane's loss by text message, although it insisted this had been a "last resort".

A sombre Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished more than two weeks ago, had "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".

He cited fresh analysis of satellite tracking data and said the information was being shared "out of a commitment to openness and respect for the families".

Malaysian authorities have come in for repeated criticism for perceived secretiveness and contradictory information since the plane fell off air traffic control screens on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Najib's announcement drew further criticism.

Scores of Chinese relatives marched on Malaysia's embassy in Beijing on Tuesday, shouting slogans including "The Malaysian government are murderers".

And China's government demanded authorities in Kuala Lumpur hand over the new satellite data.

Malaysia Airlines insisted that it was doing best to handle relatives with care and dignity, and had tried to spread Najib's message with tact before the prime minister spoke.

"Wherever humanly possible, we did so in person with the families or by telephone, using SMS only as an additional means of ensuring fully that the nearly 1,000 family members heard the news from us and not from the media," said airline chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

The carrier added that it had deployed more than 700 "dedicated caregivers" to support the next-of-kin, who have been given hotel accommodation as well as initial financial assistance of $5,000 per passenger with more on the way.

"Our sole motivation last night... was that the families heard the tragic news before the world did," Ahmad Jauhari said at a news conference, which featured pointed questioning from Chinese journalists.

"There are no words which can ease that pain."

- 'Damned' either way -

Bridget Welsh, an expert on Malaysian politics at the Singapore Management University, said the authorities' intentions were good but the means of breaking the news could have been improved.

"The use of SMS messages even for additional communication could have been rethought. I imagine every time a person looks at their phone they will be reminded of their loss," she told AFP.

Paul Yap, an aviation lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, said Najib should have delayed his announcement until debris confirmed as coming from the plane had been found.

Online criticism abounded, together with messages of condolences for the victims -- two-thirds of them from China.

"How can Malaysian government declare flight 'ended' in Indian Ocean but with no physical evidence?? #MH370 #dontbelieveit," one user posted.

"Malaysian airlines and government concealed and delayed information then tells news of dead relatives by text. #disgusting #MH370," another said.

The Malaysian government, which has held daily press briefings, has insisted it is passing on information as promptly as it can.

"The government has never stopped information from reaching the families," Najib said in parliament on Tuesday, adding it was his "responsibility" to keep them updated.

Gerry Soejatman, an independent aviation consultant based in Jakarta, said Najib's announcement marked a "sad day, but at the end of it, we have to be realistic".

"It was the right thing to do to go ahead and announce, but I understand the frustration of the people. Sadly, the Malaysian government is in a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' kind of situation," Soejatman said.

"They were criticised for waiting for verification because it meant delays in disseminating information, and now they are being criticised for releasing information as soon as they can."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Tears and cries as all MH370 hopes extinguished

BEIJING - Tears and cries of inconsolable pain and loss echoed from a Beijing hotel ballroom on Monday as the relatives of MH370 passengers learned the news: their loved ones were dead.

Some clung on to other family members for crumbs of comfort as they left the room where they were told the Malaysia Airlines flight had ended, incontestably, in the remote southern Indian Ocean.

Paramedics carrying stretchers rushed into the ballroom at the Lido hotel in Beijing, where relatives of many of the 153 Chinese passengers on board the aircraft had been waiting for more than two weeks.

Even the possibility of a hijack had meant there was still a chance their loved ones were still alive.

After the announcement, they realized there was no hope for survival. There was no hope at all.

Some burst out the room crying uncontrollably, being held by other family members, while others wiped tears from their eyes as left the briefing.

Others simply covered their heads, hiding their emotions.

Inside, the wails of the bereaved echoed.

Relatives at the hotel appeared in no mood to speak, one who talked to AFP by telephone said: "We know we have no hope left now."

Malaysia Airlines to keep searching for jet

This, as Malaysia Airlines on Monday told relatives of the 239 people on board a missing passenger jet that "we have to assume" the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean, but vowed the search for the jet would continue.

"Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," the airline said in a statement to the families, citing new analysis of satellite data.

"On behalf of all of us at Malaysia Airlines and all Malaysians, our prayers go out to all the loved ones (of those on board) at this enormously painful time," the statement continued.

"We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain. We will continue to provide assistance and support to you."

The airline vowed in its statement that the ongoing search for the plane and an intensive investigation into its fate "will continue, as we seek answers to the questions which remain".

The statement echoed the words of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who -- also citing satellite data -- told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur late Monday: "It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

MH370 vanished without warning on March 8 while flying over the South China Sea en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Malaysia believes the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board. But the absence of firm evidence has fueled intense speculation and conspiracy theories, and tormented the families of the missing for 16 days.

The search swung deep into the Indian Ocean last week after initial satellite images depicted large floating objects there, and further sightings of possible debris in the area energized the massive, multinational operation.

It has not yet been confirmed that the debris spotted in the area is from MH370, and officials have voiced caution. It is also still unclear why the plane ended up so far off course over the southern Indian Ocean.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Pallet, belts sighted in Australia hunt for MH370

PERTH - Australian officials said Sunday that a wooden cargo pallet along with belts or straps have been spotted in the remote Indian Ocean by one of the aircraft deployed in the hunt for a missing Malaysian jet.

The objects were seen by a civilian aircraft assisting in the search for Malaysia Airlines MH370 on Saturday in what the Australian Maritime Safety Authority confirmed was the "first visual sighting in the search so far".

"Part of the description was a wooden pallet and a number of other items which were nondescript around it and some belts of some different colors around it as well, strapping belts of different lengths," AMSA aircraft operations coordinator Mike Barton said.

"We tried to refind that yesterday, one of the New Zealand aircraft, and unfortunately they didn't find it. That's the nature of it -- you only have to be off by a few hundred meters in a fast-travelling aircraft," he told a press briefing.

Barton said Sunday's search, which will involve four military and four civilian aircraft, would return to the area to try and zero in on the objects again.

Aviation experts had advised that wooden pallets were quite commonly used to pack goods in planes, Barton added, describing it as a "possible lead".

Such pallets were usually packed into another container loaded into the belly of the aircraft he said, adding however that they were also used in the shipping industry.

He cautioned that the nearby straps "could be anything" and "until we refind these items and have a good look at them it's hard to say whether they are associated with this or not."

A "methodical search" would also continue of a 59,000 square kilometer (22,800 square mile) expanse of sea to try and locate large items captured by satellite imagery on March 16 and 18.

Barton said the operation had shifted away from an earlier emphasis on radar to focus on visual examination "of a more defined area based on the satellite imagery."

He said looking into the sun and through haze from a much lower altitude than a satellite was making things difficult for search crews.

Sunday's weather was not as good as the previous day's, with sea fog and low cloud hampering visibility early in the day, though Barton said it appeared to be clearing and he was hopeful of a "full search in with some good conditions."

But the major challenge was the site's remoteness.

"The aircraft are operating at extreme ranges... At 2,500 kilometers away they're operating at the limits of their endurance and only having a short period of one to two hours in the search area and back again," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Malaysia to 'verify' possible Australia MH370 find

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia said on Thursday that two objects spotted in the Indian Ocean gave reason for hope of a resolution to its missing plane crisis, but stressed the need to verify the claim.

"Every lead is a hope," Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where he is overseeing an international search effort.

"We have been very consistent. We want to verify, we want to corroborate," he said.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament that "new and credible information" based on satellite imagery had come to light, and that four long-range surveillance planes were being diverted to look into the find in the southern Indian Ocean.

Hishammuddin said Abbott had called his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak to discuss the latest development.

"This time I just hope that it is a positive development," Hishammuddin said.

The search has been dogged by previous false leads, including Chinese satellite images of suspected debris published earlier which turned out to be a red herring.

Hishammuddin warned it may take some time before the Australian find could be verified.

"Aircraft and vessels are going there, you know how huge the area is," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why missing jet most likely in Southern Indian Ocean

KUALA LUMPUR - Investigators probing the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner with 239 people on board believe it most likely flew into the southern Indian Ocean, a source close to the investigation said on Wednesday.

No wreckage has been found from Flight MH370, which vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast at 1:21 a.m. local time on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.

An unprecedented search for the Boeing 777-200ER is under way involving 26 nations in two vast search "corridors": one arcing north overland from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia.

"The working assumption is that it went south, and furthermore that it went to the southern end of that corridor," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The view is based on the lack of any evidence from countries along the northern corridor that the plane entered their airspace, and the failure to find any trace of wreckage in searches in the upper part of the southern corridor.

China, which is leading the northern corridor search with Kazakhstan, said it had not yet found any sign of the aircraft crossing into its territory.

Malaysian and U.S. officials believe the aircraft was deliberately diverted perhaps thousands of miles off course, but an exhaustive background search of the passengers and crew aboard has not yielded anything that might explain why.

SOPHISTICATED EQUIPMENT

The minister in charge of the operation said the multinational search team was deploying the most sophisticated equipment available to find the plane.

"It probably is the largest peacetime armada of assets and satellite information-sharing that we have ever seen for a rescue and search operation," Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Officials believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777 and commercial aviation navigation switched off two vital datalinks: the ACARS system, which relays maintenance data back to the ground, and the transponder, which enables the plane to be seen by civilian radar.

The source close to the investigation said that it was thought "highly probable that ACARS was switched off prior to the final verbal message" received for the cockpit.

That message, an informal "all right, good night" radioed to Malaysian air traffic controllers to acknowledge their handover of the plane to Vietnamese airspace, was believed to have been spoken by the co-pilot, the airline said earlier this week.

Investigators piecing together patchy data from military radar and satellites believe that minutes later the plane turned sharply west, re-crossing the Malay Peninsula and following an established commercial route towards India.

After that, ephemeral pings picked up by one commercial satellite suggest the aircraft flew on for at least six hours. The data from the satellite placed the plane somewhere in one of the two corridors when the final signal was sent at 8:11 a.m.

The methodical shutdown of the communications systems, together with the fact that the plane appeared to be following a planned course after turning back, have been interpreted as suggesting strongly that foul play, rather than some kind of technical failure, was behind the disappearance.

NEVER FOUND?

Last week, a source familiar with official U.S. assessments said it was thought most likely the plane flew south, where it presumably would have run out of fuel and crashed into the sea.

If it did indeed end up in the southern Indian Ocean, one of the remotest places on Earth and also one of the deepest seas, it increases the chance it may never be found - and investigators may never know for sure what happened on board.

U.S. government sources said intelligence agencies had extensively analysed people on the flight but came up with no connections to terrorism or possible criminal motives.

A senior U.S. official said he was "not aware of any stones left unturned". China has said there is no evidence that Chinese passengers, who made up over two-thirds of those on board, were involved in a hijack or act of sabotage.

Australia is leading the search of the southern part of the southern corridor, with assistance from the U.S. Navy.

It has shrunk its search field based on satellite tracking data and analysis of weather and currents, but it still covers an area of 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq miles), roughly the size of Spain and Portugal.

The U.S. Navy said it had switched mainly to using P-8A Poseidon and P-3 Orion aircraft to search for the missing plane instead of ships and helicopters.

"The maritime patrol aircraft are much more suited for this type of operation," said Navy Lieutenant David Levy, who is on board the USS Blue Ridge. "...It's just a much more efficient way to search."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com