Tag Archives: Malaysia

Families getting glimmer of closure … finally

Take it from me: The family members of those 239 people lost and presumed dead aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 have been clinging to the faintest hope imaginable that their loved ones are still alive.

Why? Because no one has found a trace of the huge jet that reportedly crashed more than a year ago.

Until now.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/investigators-scramble-to-analyse-wreckage-for-mh370-link/ar-AAdIeJ2

Investigators are combing through a piece of debris that is now believed to part of the Boeing 777 that vanished March 8, 2014 after it took off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.

No trace of the plane has been seen since. Now, though, a piece of debris has been found on the other side of the Indian Ocean. It’s believed to be from MH370.

Not quite 35 years ago, my father was fishing in British Columbia with some friends and business associates. They crashed their small boat. Two of the four men aboard survived the crash; the other two died. Searchers found one of the dead men right away. Dad, though, remained missing for eight days.

I speak from experience that every single day we waited for word about Dad’s whereabouts was filled with a glimmer of hope that he actually survived. That’s what your emotions do. They play cruel trick on you. You know in your head that the worst has happened, but you hope in your heart for the best.

Our hopes were dashed when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police informed us of the grim discovery they made several miles downstream in the inland where the crash occurred.

The families of the MH370 passengers and crew well might be living that very nightmare today as they await word on what was found in the Indian Ocean.

I hope — for the sake of those still-grieving loved ones — that they determine this piece of wing came from the doomed aircraft.

Imagine that … MH 370 search questioned

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on March 8, 2014 … and then vanished.

Not into thin air. It wasn’t swallowed by a black hole, as at least one TV commentator theorized.

It likely crashed into the Indian Ocean.

But 16 months later, with no trace of the plane or its 239 passengers and crew, some are questioning the search techniques used to find the Boeing 777 — which, by the way, happens to be a very large commercial aircraft.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/all-at-sea-australias-search-for-mh370-under-scrutiny/ar-BBkjK0L

According to Reuters: “Experts involved in past deep water searches say the search to find MH370 could easily miss the plane as Dutch company Fugro NV, the firm at the forefront of the mission, is using inappropriate technology for some terrain and inexperienced personnel for the highly specialized task of hunting man-made objects.”

Australia has taken the lead in the search effort. The Malaysians have sent out all manner of conflicting messages. Search teams scoured one huge section of ocean, then shifted to another huge section of ocean floor. Where on God’s Earth is that jetliner?

Not a single sign of debris has been spotted. No human remains have been detected. A plane that large hitting the water, presumably at a high rate of speed, breaks apart.

And still no sign of it?

I’m amazed, to be honest, that it took this long for serious questions to come forward about the manner in which the search has dragged on.

 

 

MH 370: Still missing one year later

Conspiracy theories usually are the province of those with too much time on their hands.

Idle minds concoct notions that defy description, let alone credulity.

That all said, the mystery behind Malaysia Air 370’s disappearance from Planet Earth one year ago is sorely testing my skepticism of conspiracy theories.

I’m still skeptical of anything other than the obvious result, but man, it’s been tough to resist the notion that something truly strange happened to MH 370.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/07/asia/mh370-theories/index.html

My belief remains that the plane crashed into the drink somewhere in the Indian Ocean. No one seems to know whether it was a hard crash or a “soft” one, if that’s possible.

A hard crash would have produced debris as the plane broke apart. It was a Boeing 777, one of the airline industry’s bigger birds. It carried 239 passengers and crew members. There’s been zero sign of debris or human remains spotted, despite all the efforts of several nations’ best efforts, not to mention some of the most sophisticated search technology in use today.

A “soft” crash is another matter. Was the flight deck crew able to land the plane on top of the water, only to have the plane sink over time? If that’s the case, why was there no communication with anyone about what was happening?

The victims of this crash, beyond those on board, are the loved ones who are awaiting discovery of what actually happened to MH 370. There’s been a boatload of misinformation coming from the Malaysian government; the plane, remember, took off March 8, 2014 from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing. It fell on the Malaysians to tell the world what happened to the aircraft.

A year later, nothing is known.

I shudder to think that this mystery will remain unsolved until the end of time.

Soon, attention to turn to that other crash

You can rest assured about this: The moment the grief subsides somewhat over the loss of an AsiaAir jetliner in the Java Sea we’re going to turn our attention — once again — to the enduring mystery of Malaysia Air Flight 370.

AsiaAir Flight 8501’s wreckage was spotted almost immediately, as one would expect. The grim task of recovering victims and debris commenced. High-tech equipment will locate the black boxes soon on the sea floor to find evidence of what happened to the plane that crashed less than a week ago.

But … what about Malaysia Air Flight 370?

It disappeared after it took off on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Crews have found nothing. Not a trace of the Boeing 777 has been spotted anywhere. More than 200 souls are now presumed dead. But the families of those aboard have zero closure.

I continue to believe that MH 370 went into the drink somewhere in the vast Indian Ocean. The goofy conspiracy theories do not hold up. The plane wasn’t hijacked and flown to some lost island.

As for the other nutcase scenarios, not one of explains how a plane so large can disappear without a trace. Was it shot down by some government’s air force? No. Debris would be found, on land or in the water. And no government can keep a secret from a hyper-curious public.

The fate of one air disaster contrasting with the unsolved nature of the other, though, does cause one to wonder: What in the world happened to Malaysia Air Flight 370?

Now it's an AirAsia plane that's disappeared

What in the name of “safe” air travel is happening in Southeast Asian air space?

An AirAsia Airbus 320 has disappeared. Remember the Malaysian Air 370 tragedy this past March? And the Malaysian Air 17 plane that was shot down over Ukraine?

Now another Malaysia-based airliner is having to console family members until they can account for the whereabouts of an AirAsia Flight 8512 carrying 162 passengers and crew.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/search-resumes-for-missing-airasia-passenger-jet/ar-BBhhsK0

It’s impossible to understand any of this.

The Airbus was flying through apparently some horrific weather conditions en route from Indonesia to Singapore. It had been in the air about 42 minutes when it vanished. Pfftt! Just like that. Gone.

There was no pre-disappearance communication from the flight deck. Nothing was said. Ground crews had the plane on their radar screens. Then it was gone. Off the grid.

My heart breaks for those awaiting word on the whereabouts of the plane. It’s impossible to believe anything good can come from this — other than some closure for those who need to know the fate of this airplane.

 

Search resumes for missing jetlner

It’s so hard to keep up with these compelling news stories that keep getting pushed away from the public eye.

You remember Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, correct?

It’s still missing somewhere in the Indian Ocean with more than 200 people on board. Searchers took four months off to map the floor of the ocean.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/with-huge-search-area-mapped-mh370-hunt-resuming/ar-BB7nH4P

The crazy conspiracy stories have stopped. Malaysian and Australian government officials have more or less stopped issuing press releases. The loved ones of those on board have returned to their homes, although I’d bet real American money they haven’t resumed living “normal” lives.

The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It’s now believed to have crashed while traveling more or less in the opposite direction of its intended destination. These highly sophisticated airplanes don’t do such things on their own.

The mystery still must be solved. It’s as compelling a problem to the loved ones of those who are missing and presumed dead as it was when it vanished without a trace.

For the rest of the world? We’ve been pulled so many directions since that terrible story broke it’s impossible to keep up, it seems, with where to turn our attention next.

I’m going to join many around the world, though, in hoping the resumption of the search will finally — finally — produce a discovery.

MH 370 data might be wrong

The cluster flip — formerly known as the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 — has taken yet another bizarre turn.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/27/world/asia/mh370-is-inmarsat-right-quest-analysis/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

The data that came from a satellite, Inmarsat, might be wrong — meaning that all those ships, planes, submersibles and people might have been looking in the wrong place for a missing Boeing 777 jetliner.

Holy mackerel! Can it get any worse?

Hang on. I’m thinking it might.

At issue is the data released from Inmarsat, which transmitted to searchers the possible whereabouts of MH 370, which disappeared March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia en route to Beijing.

The flight reportedly made a sharp left turn, flew back south over the Indian Ocean and then vanished with 239 passengers and crew aboard. They’re presumed dead. The search area has been modified, re-modified and re-re-modified.

A major piece of aviation hardware has vanished and no one seems able to locate it. I understand the difficulty of finding a place at the bottom of a large ocean, which is where I believe MH 370 ended up. What is harder to understand is why the information flow from the Malaysian government has been so, um, erratic.

I’m no beginning to believe the view of some “experts” — and I use the term with caution — that the discovery of the plane might take many more months, or even years.

No surprise there, given that the supposedly high-tech data taken from supposedly sophisticated satellite equipment might have been bogus.

Meanwhile, many loved ones’ anguish continues.

Malaysians have lost world's trust

Is it me or has the Malaysian government lost the trust of a curious world that wants to know about the fate of that missing jetliner?

I’m beginning to disbelieve almost anything that government is saying about the what it thinks happened to Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 370 after it took off March 8. It disappeared. It had been headed due north from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Searchers have been looking due south, in the Indian Ocean, off the Australia coast.

Through it all, the Malaysian government has made a mess of the information it is supposed to tell people about what might have happened to the Boeing 777 and the 230 people on board.

http://news.msn.com/world/indian-ocean-undersea-hunt-for-mh370-set-to-be-extended

The search area has been shifted, expanded, shrunk and re-expanded. The families of those missing and presumed dead have been pushed through an emotional sausage grinder. The Malaysian government informed the family members via text message that their loved ones likely are dead. Some members of the transportation ministry have actually said they’re holding out hope they’ll find survivors, giving grieving family members reason to hold onto the faintest of hopes in a hopeless situation.

The search has become the costliest and most extensive aviation disaster operation in world history.

It’s understandable that the search is being done in a treacherous, deep and rarely navigated waters. Everyone should grasp the difficulty in finding wreckage 3 miles below the surface of some rough ocean water.

It’s just that the Malaysian government — which is supposed to have taken responsibility for telling the world all it knows about the tragedy — has seemed to incapable of sending out consistent information about what it knows and when it knew it.

Australian underwater search devices have been deployed. They’ve found nothing so far. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says his government won’t stop looking until teams find the wreckage and recover those flight recorder devices.

That should provide some tiny measure of comfort for family members waiting to know what happened to their loved ones. They don’t seem to be getting it from the Malaysians.

Change in sign-off adds to confusion

Faith in the Malaysian government’s ability to communicate clearly what might have happened to a still-missing Boeing 777 jetliner might be about to vanish into thin air.

Consider this: The government now has changed its findings into what allegedly was said aboard the Malaysian Air Flight 370 moments before it went silent and then apparently crashed into the Indian Ocean.

http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-changes-version-last-words-missing-flights-cockpit-171941224–sector.html

Someone on the flight deck had supposedly said “All right, good night” on March 8. Not so, says the government, which issued a statement Monday that said the more formal final sign off was, “Good night Malaysian three seven zero.”

Why is this important?

From where I sit, if the government cannot get straight something so simple and declarative as the crew’s final message — which had been received by the control tower in Kuala Lumpur — then its ability to transmit any information to the grieving families and the rest of the world is now in serious doubt.

Malaysian authorities have been pounded by critics over the way it has handled this tragic event. It notified family members via text message that the plane likely was lost and that all 239 people aboard were “lost.” They have been slow to inform China — given that two-thirds of the people aboard MH 370 were Chinese nationals — of the progress of the search, which has angered the government in Beijing. They changed the search area to a spot 700 miles north of where they thought the plane went down, saying that it traveled faster than earlier thought, burned fuel more quickly and went down sooner than they had thought.

Now this.

Satellite pictures have indicated possible debris from the aircraft southwest of Perth, Australia. Several nations have deployed sophisticated equipment and trained personnel to look for the jetliner. They’re trying to locate the flight data recorder by listening for “pings” that authorities now believe may cease in a few days when the batteries expire.

Meanwhile, all this stumble-bumming around has created a climate for crackpot conspiracy theories that do nothing but add to waiting family members’ unimaginable grief.

Time is running out.

Finding 'black box' must be Job One

One must conclude now that the search for the missing jetliner and its 239 passengers and crew has to center on the black box, the flight data recorder that likely is lying deep below the surface of the southern Indian Ocean.

If searchers find the recorder, they’ll be able to retrieve it and gather all the information necessary to determine what happened to Flight 370 as it left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 8.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/now-missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370/story?id=23003374

All the theories about hijacking seem to have been discounted now. What we don’t know is why the plane turned sharply off course shortly after leaving Malaysia en route to Beijing. Nor do we know whether someone purposely took the plane far south, whether it ran out of fuel, whether the Boeing 777 dived steeply into the water or whether it glided into the water, broke apart and sank.

We don’t know what happened on the flight deck moments before communication was lost. We don’t know whether a struggle occurred or whether the two-man flight deck crew simply decided to end it all right then.

The world awaits the fate of the individuals on board, along with those they left behind.

The satellite pictures of those two objects spotted 1,500 miles southwest of Perth, Australia don’t tell us much. They might have sunk by now, leaving searchers with no visual clues with which to work.

This, folks, is one gigantic aviation mystery.

They’ll be talking about it for many years — even after they find that flight data recorder. They’d better find it soon. The batteries are running out. When they die, the “ping” stops.

Then what?