Australia says MH370 search is on right track

SYDNEY - The head of Australia's transport safety bureau has defended the fruitless hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, saying he is confident that search teams are targeting the right area.

Satellite analysis in the days after the Boeing 777 went missing on March 8 with 239 people onboard placed the jet somewhere in a huge tract of the Indian Ocean stretching from near Indonesia south towards Antarctica.

But in a setback, the area believed to be the jet's most likely resting place based on the detection of acoustic "pings" was ruled out Thursday after an extensive underwater search.

Australia's Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan told AFP the source of the acoustic transmissions, thought to be man-made, was still a mystery.

"To be frank, we don't know. We like to be the experts but sometimes we just don't know the answer," he said, refusing to speculate on whether they came from the Australian vessel hunting for signals from the aircraft's black boxes.

Dolan, whose organisation is playing a key role in the search effort, said the four signals detected in April were then the best lead in the hunt for the plane, which mysteriously diverted from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing route.

"This was the best area to look at the time. We still don't have anything that confirms that it's the wrong place. But we will do our analysis and we will determine the best search area for the next phase."

Dolan said while experts were reassessing the satellite data that led the search to the southern Indian Ocean, the linear arc produced by analysis of this information still likely represented the plane's flight path.

"That arc is definite. We know that somewhere close to that very long arc is where the aircraft will be found," he said in an interview late Thursday.

The arc was produced by analysing satellite signalling messages, also referred to as "handshakes", between the ground station, the satellite and the aircraft's satellite communication system.

Dolan said experts believed the aircraft would be found near the area representing the last of these signals, thought to be have been sent when the plane ran out of fuel.

"The thing that we're absolutely confident of is somewhere on that long arc we will find the aircraft," he said.

"But because it's so long we have to be able to find a much smaller segment of the arc to concentrate our search and that's what our analysis is looking at defining.

"So we are reanalysing all the satellite data and aircraft performance information and everything else to define an area of up to 60,000 square kilometres, which is the most likely one for the location of the aircraft."

The next phase will focus on using the satellite data to confirm a search area, completing mapping of the sea floor and getting towable sonar and other equipment to carry out an intensive deep water search, which could take up to a year.

Dolan voiced confidence that investigators had been given all the information available, but said he could understand the anger of relatives still looking for answers almost three months after the plane went missing.

"We're conscious that people don't have a particular confidence in the analysis," he said. "We have a much higher confidence. But we are nevertheless doing a cross check to verify it."

Dolan said the search was considered unique because there was so little information to go on, likening it to a worst-case scenario for aviation safety authorities.

"In an organisation like mine you work out what's the worst thing that will ever happen and hope that it never does," he said.

"And Australia has been very good at managing the safety of aviation, but our worst case scenario is a widebody passenger aircraft in mid-ocean.

"We've actually got plans to deal with this sort of thing, we just hoped we would never have to use those plans for real."

source: interaksyon.com

Underwater MH370 search resumes

SYDNEY - A mini-sub searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 recommenced its operations on Thursday after technical problems, as it enters its final week of scouring the Indian Ocean seabed for signs of the aircraft.

Australia is leading the search for the plane which vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard, and is using the Bluefin-21 mini-sub until new equipment can be obtained.

"The autonomous underwater vehicle, Bluefin-21, was deployed from the vessel around 2:00 am this morning. It remains underwater on its search mission," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said.

The US Navy Bluefin-21, which can plunge to a depth of some 4,500 meters (15,000 feet), was brought back to shore last week to fix technical issues that saw it pulled from the water.

It resumed its search in the remote area of several transmissions believed to have come from the missing aircraft's black box recorders.

"Over the next week, Bluefin-21 will search the remaining areas in the vicinity of the acoustic signals detected in early April by the towed pinger locator... that are within its depth operating limits," JACC said.

"This continues the process that will ultimately enable the search team to discount or confirm the area of the acoustic signals as the final resting place of MH370."

The Australian ship which deployed the Bluefin-21, Ocean Shield, is expected to leave the search area on May 28 and return to Perth on May 31 to demobilise the mini-sub.

MH370 is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean but despite a massive air and sea and underwater search, no sign of any wreckage has yet been found.

While the aerial and sea surface searches have been scaled down, the operation is moving to the next phase which will involve using sophisticated equipment to scan the unmapped ocean bed.

Negotiations are underway to engage contractors to do this work.

JACC said Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen left the west Australian port of Fremantle Wednesday to start mapping areas of the ocean floor in preparation for the commercially contracted deep ocean search.

Another Chinese ship Haixun 01 was Thursday to depart for the area to support this operation, tasked with delivering survey data to Fremantle weekly for processing by Australian officials.

JACC said work was continuing to review and analyse all the data and information relating to the likely flight path of MH370.

"This work will confirm the best areas on which to focus an effective future search," it said.

source: interaksyon.com

Search for MH370 enters 'critical juncture': Time to set a deadline for futile efforts?

KUALA LUMPUR - The effort to find missing flight MH370 is at a "very critical juncture", Malaysia's transport minister said Saturday as authorities mull whether to reassess a challenging search of the Indian Ocean seabed that has so far found nothing.

"The search for today and tomorrow is at a very critical juncture. So I appeal for everybody around the world to pray and pray hard that we find something to work on," Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

The jet is believed to have crashed in deep and remote waters far off Western Australia.

But with no results from the multi-national search operation for the Boeing 777, which vanished on March 8 carrying 239 people, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday set a one-week deadline to locate the plane by mini-submarine.

The Australian-led search effort is relying on a single US Navy submersible sonar scanning device to scour an uncharted seabed at depths of around 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) or more.

Technical hitches, including the fact that the torpedo-shaped Bluefin-21 is operating at the extent of its depth limit, made for a slow start to the search.

Launched from an Australian naval vessel, the device has so far made six deep-sea scanning runs but has detected nothing.

"We have pursued every possible lead presented to us at this stage, and with every passing day the search has become more difficult," Hishammuddin, who is heading up the Malaysian government's response to MH370, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

As the search and rescue effort expected to be the costliest in aviation history wears on, authorities have indicated alternative methods may be needed, including possibly deeper-diving devices.

Hishammuddin said adjustments "may include widening the scope of the search and utilising other assets that could be relevant in the search operation", but he stressed the search would not be abandoned.

source: interaksyon.com

Mini-sub deployed to scour ocean depths in hunt for MH370

PERTH -- Australia was Monday deploying a mini-sub to scour the Indian Ocean seabed for missing Malaysian jet MH370 at the daunting depth of 4,500 meters (15,000 feet), abandoning the search for black-box transmissions six days after the last ping was heard.

Angus Houston, the former air marshal who heads the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, revealed also that an oil slick had been sighted in the area of the search led by the Australian navy 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 Friday evening.

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

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, and how the plane may have come 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 liters 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 meters 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 emphasized that it was 38 days since the Boeing 777 vanished and the batteries powering the black box tracker beacons had a shelf 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 Bluefin-21 is equipped with side-scanning sonar and will initially focus on 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) of seafloor 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 analyzing 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 long-standing 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 meters.

"However, this is the best lead we have and it must be pursued vigorously. Again I emphasize 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 meters -- roughly the depth of the ocean floor where the pings were detected.

Houston also said the search for floating material from the plane would be concluded 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: interaksyon.com

Time running out in search for MH 370's black box

PERTH - Two vessels were searching underwater for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Saturday, as air and sea missions failed to find any sign of the plane and the clock ticked on the signal from its black box.

Up to 10 military planes, three civilian jets and 11 ships were set to take part in the protracted search in the southern Indian Ocean for the Boeing 777 which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people onboard.

"Today Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield and (Britain's) HMS Echo continue underwater search operations," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said.

The vessels are hoping to pick up a battery-powered signal from the plane's black box recorder but this sound is only emitted for roughly 30 days and could soon expire.

Angus Houston, Australia's former military chief and now coordinator of the eight-nation search, admitted Friday "we're now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire".

Australia is leading the hunt for the plane which Saturday was concentrating on about 217,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean some 1,700 kilometers north west of Perth.

"Today's search area will focus on three areas within the same vicinity," the JACC said, adding that the forecast was for fair weather with possible showers in the remote ocean region.

No debris of Flight MH370 had yet been found but it is thought to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean after veering dramatically off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysian authorities believe satellite data indicates MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean, far off Australia's western coastline.

- Slow progress -

Australian officials have pointed out that the search location and conditions are extraordinarily tough with Prime Minister Tony Abbott describing the search as "the most difficult in human history".

But he has refused to put a time frame on the mission, saying Australia owed it to the families and friends of all onboard to do everything it could to solve the mystery.

Australian officials are still trying to pinpoint the crash site.

"The Australian Transport Safety Bureau continues to refine the area where the aircraft entered the water based on continuing ground-breaking and multi-disciplinary technical analysis of satellite communication and aircraft performance," JACC said.

The centre revealed late on Friday that there had again been sightings of objects reported by ships in the search area, but as of late Friday "none were associated with MH370".

Since the plane disappeared nearly a month ago, eight nations, many of whom do not normally work together, have rallied to help track down clues to one of the world's greatest ever aviation mysteries.

Authorities still have no idea how or why the plane vanished, and warn that unless the black box is found, the mystery may never be solved.

The Ocean Shield, which is carrying a US Navy "black box" detector, and HMS Echo which has a similar capability are searching a single, converging, 240-kilometre track in hopes of finding the recorder.

However, progress is painstaking as the equipment which searches at depths of 3,000 metres or more only works when the vessels move slowly at about three knots.

"The search using sub-surface equipment needs to be methodical and carefully executed in order to effectively detect the faint signal of the pinger," Commodore Peter Leavy said.

source: interaksyon.com

Angry kin of Chinese passengers on MH370 march on Malaysian embassy

BEIJING -- Scores of angry relatives of the Chinese passengers aboard Flight MH370 set out on a protest march to the Malaysian embassy in Beijing Tuesday to demand more answers about the crashed plane's fate.

Around 200 family members, some in tears, linked arms and shouted slogans including "The Malaysian government are murderers" and "We want our relatives back."

The embassy is about four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Lido Hotel, where meetings have been taking place throughout the drama.


A new chapter opened late on Monday when Malaysia said the plane had crashed in the Indian Ocean.

Chinese authorities normally keep a very tight rein on any protests in Beijing.

Scores of black-clad uniformed police officers were blocking traffic at the diplomatic mission, their walkie-talkies abuzz.

A relative who refused to give his name, but who has been one of the unofficial leaders of the Flight MH370 group, told AFP that the police "would have known" about the demonstration.

"We are still discussing with the police what we are going to do," he told AFP. "Maybe they are preparing for us to arrive."

Earlier, the relatives boarded large shuttle buses bringing them from various hotels to the Lido, intending to take them to the diplomatic mission, but dozens of police surrounded the vehicles and prevented them from driving off, leading them to march instead.

"We are going to protest at the Malaysian embassy," one man told AFP as he joined some 200 other relatives to board the buses at the hotel where they had gathered throughout the 17-day ordeal.

One family member was holding a loudspeaker and urging journalists to head to the embassy, while others stood in a group, somber and motionless, many holding pre-prepared printed placards and wearing "Pray for MH370" T-shirts.

"We want our families," read one placard. Others read "Son: mother and father's heart is broken, hurry home" and "Husband, hurry home. What am I and our son going to do?"

The protest did not appear to be spontaneous, as at least a dozen police cars were waiting nearby at the Lido.

The officers were standing in a row behind a sign reading: "Traffic restrictions, vehicles take a circular route." A policeman refused to say why the traffic restrictions had been imposed when asked by an AFP reporter.

The move to protest outside the embassy came hours after relatives reacted with grief and anguish as Malaysia confirmed their worst fears about the flight.

In dramatic scenes at the Lido Hotel, stretcher-bearing paramedics were drafted in to tend to family members devastated by the news, with at least two people carried out.

China has demanded that Kuala Lumpur hand over the satellite data that led it to conclude that the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight crashed at sea and that none of the 239 people aboard survived.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese.

source: interaksyon.com

Malaysia says French satellite detects debris in plane search area

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia said Sunday it had received new satellite data from France indicating floating objects in the search area for a missing Malaysian jet in the southern Indian Ocean.

The Transport Ministry said the information had been passed on to Australian authorities who are coordinating the search for the plane, now focused on a remote stretch of ocean 2,500 kilometres (1,562 miles) southwest of Perth.

The ministry said the latest data came in the form of images but France's foreign ministry later clarified this, saying it came in the form of "satellite-generated radar echoes".

A radar echo is an electronic signal that contains information about the location and distance of the object which bounces the signal back.

According to the French statement, the debris was floating around 2,300 kilometres from Perth.

It said France would increase its satellite capacity to continue the search in the zone.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.

Malaysia, which later revealed the plane turned back over the Malaysian peninsula after losing contact, has enlisted 25 other countries to help hunt for the plane.

Efforts in recent days have focused on the coast off Australia after previous satellite images of large objects there were released, and a plane spotted a wooden cargo pallet, along with some belts or straps.

source: interaksyon.com

China releases image of possible MH370-linked object

KUALA LUMPUR -- China has a new satellite image of a large floating object in the Indian Ocean that could be related to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, officials said Saturday.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein announced the news during his daily press briefing after he was handed a note by an aide.

"The news that I just received is that the Chinese ambassador received satellite images of floating objects in the southern corridor and they will be sending ships to verify," Hishammuddin said.

In a later press statement, the transport ministry clarified that there was one "suspected" object with an estimated size of 22.5 meters by 13 meters (74 by 43 feet).

Hishammuddin had provided different dimensions, which the statement said was the result of a telephone miscommunication.

Chinese state television later released a copy of the undated, grainy satellite image.

Attached coordinates suggested it was in roughly the same area of remote ocean as two possible objects spotted on satellite images taken March 16 and released by the Australian government on Thursday.

China's Xinhua news agency said the object was spotted 120 kilometers from those spotted by Australia.

Australian and US spotter planes have been scouring the area for the past three days, but without finding any sign of the suspected wreckage.

source: interaksyon.com

Fishermen saw plane crash around Malacca Straits

LANGKAT, North Sumatra -- A group of fishermen in North Sumatra provincial sub-district of Pangkalan Susu claims to have seen an air plane crash around the Malacca Straits.

"We saw an airplane crash around the Malacca Straits," one of the fishermen, identified as Hendra, said here on Monday.

Hendra, along with several fishermen, said they went to the sea on Sunday, March 8, for a week of fishing.

Around 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, the fishermen saw a white plane crossing and circling.

Then, the ill-fated plane showed smoke coming from the right rear portion when it circled for a second round and tilted to the left.

A moment later, the plane, flying lower, fell from sight.

"We suspect the plane crashed into the sea," he said.

"We could not go to the location where the aircraft was lost due to large waves, and the boat did not have enough fuel," the fisherman said.

The location of the aircraft is believed to be in Idi waters, in Aceh provincial district of East Aceh.

source: interaksyon.com

Malaysia rejects jet 'debris' images and 4-hour flight report

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia said Thursday that satellite images of suspected debris from a missing jet were yet another false lead, and debunked a report the plane had flown on for hours after losing contact -- leaving the nearly week-old mystery no closer to being solved.

China had sparked talk of a breakthrough in the riddle of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) jet with satellite images of three large floating objects near where flight 370 with 239 people on board lost contact on Saturday, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

But Vietnamese and Malaysian planes that searched the area in the South China Sea on Thursday found no sign of wreckage of the Boeing 777, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

Adding to confusion, the Wall Street Journal reported that US investigators suspected the plane flew for four hours after its last known contact with air traffic control at 1:30 a.m. Malaysian time, based on data automatically sent from its Rolls-Royce engines.

It would mean flight MH370 travelled for hundreds of miles after it dropped off the radar, expanding the potential crash site far beyond the vast zone under scrutiny now.

The WSJ said US counterterrorism officials were probing the possibility that a pilot or someone else on board diverted the jet towards an unknown location after turning off its communication transponder.

But Malaysia denied the report as "inaccurate".

"The last (data) transmission from the aircraft was at 0107 hours which indicated that everything was normal," Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters.

"Rolls-Royce and Boeing teams are here in Kuala Lumpur and have worked with MAS and investigation teams since Sunday. These issues have never been raised."

He added that China had told Malaysia that the satellite photos posted on the website of a Chinese state science agency were released "by mistake and did not show any debris".

'Every day like eternity'

The day of Malaysian denials only exacerbated the puzzles surrounding the search for flight MH370, which has been blighted by false alarms, swirling rumours and contradictory statements about its fate.

Authorities have chased up all manner of leads, including oil slicks, a supposed life raft found at sea and even witness accounts of a night-time explosion, only to rule them all out.

"Every day it just seems like it's an eternity," Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was on board, told CNN from their home in the Australian city of Perth.

Fighting back tears, she described how Paul had left his wedding ring and watch with her for safekeeping before starting his journey to a mining venture in Mongolia.

"I'm praying that I can give (them) back to him. It's all I can hold onto. Because there's no finality to it and we're not getting any information," she said.

Malaysia has contributed to the confusion by saying the plane may have turned back after taking off.

Military radar detected an unidentified object early Saturday north of the Malacca Strait off west Malaysia but it is unclear if it was the missing airliner.

The search for the plane now encompasses both sides of peninsular Malaysia, over an area of nearly 27,000 nautical miles (more than 90,000 square kilometres) -- roughly the size of Portugal -- and involves the navies and air forces of multiple nations.

Theories about the possible cause of the disappearance range from a catastrophic technical failure to a mid-air explosion, hijacking, rogue missile strike and even pilot suicide.

Beijing will keep up the search "as long as there is a glimmer of hope", Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said.

The passengers included 153 Chinese citizens, and Li told his once-a-year news conference: "Those people's families and friends are burning with anxiety."

Pursuing all 'concrete clues'


The satellite information prompted the focus of the search to swing back Thursday to the original flight path, after a shift in recent days to Malaysia's west coast -- far from the last known location.

"We will look at all areas especially the ones with concrete clues," a spokesman for Malaysia's civil aviation department said.

The China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application said in a statement on its website earlier this week that it had deployed eight land observation satellites to scour the suspected crash area.

By Tuesday morning, it had obtained images covering 120,000 square kilometres, describing their quality as "rather good".

China has also requested assistance from a fleet of Earth-monitoring satellites under an international charter designed to aid emergency efforts.

US authorities said their spy satellites had detected no sign of a mid-air explosion.

Malaysian police said Thursday they were investigating the two pilots, after an Australian television report of a past cockpit security breach, although the transport minister denied that their homes had been raided.

Malaysia Airlines has said it was "shocked" over allegations that First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, along with a fellow pilot, violated airline rules in 2011 by allowing two young South African women into their cockpit during a flight.

It also emerged that months before the Malaysia Airlines jet vanished, US regulators had warned of a "cracking and corrosion" problem on Boeing 777s beneath their satellite antenna that could lead to a drastic drop in cabin pressure and possible mid-air break-up.

But Gerry Soejatman, a Jakarta-based independent aviation analyst, said the warning did not apply to the missing aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, which has a different kind of antenna.

"When an aircraft simply disappears from radar with no trace whatsoever, normally it means a rapid deterioration of the aircraft -- an explosion or structural failure that's very rapid," he added.

"That means the wreckage would be found near where it was last reported. But in this case, this doesn't seem to be the case."

On Thursday, Malaysia Airlines said it would retire the flight codes MH370 and MH371 -- the return flight from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur -- as a mark of respect.

source: interaksyon.com

Malaysia tracked missing plane to Strait of Malacca

Malaysia's military believes it tracked a missing jetliner by radar over the Strait of Malacca, far from where it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country's east coast, a military source told Reuters.

In one of the most baffling mysteries in recent aviation history, a massive search operation for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER, now in its fourth day, has so far found no trace of the aircraft or the 239 passengers and crew.

"It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait," the military official, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.

The Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping channels, runs along Malaysia's west coast. The airline said on Saturday that radio and radar contact with Flight MH370 was lost off the east coast Malaysian town of Kota Bharu.

Police had earlier said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might explain its disappearance, along with the possibility of a hijack, sabotage or mechanical failure.

The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early on Saturday morning, vanishing from civilian radar screens about an hour after take-off over the sea separating eastern Malaysia from the southern tip of Vietnam.

There was no distress signal or radio contact indicating a problem and, in the absence of any wreckage or flight data, police have been left trawling through passenger and crew lists for potential leads.

"Maybe somebody on the flight has bought a huge sum of insurance, who wants family to gain from it or somebody who has owed somebody so much money, you know, we are looking at all possibilities," Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told a news conference.

"We are looking very closely at the video footage taken at the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport), we are studying the behavioral pattern of all the passengers."

STOLEN PASSPORTS

The fact that at least two passengers on board had used stolen passports, confirmed by Interpol, has raised suspicions of foul play. But Southeast Asia is known as a hub for false documents that are also used by smugglers, illegal migrants and asylum seekers.

Police chief Khalid said one of the men had been identified as a 19-year-old Iranian, Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, who appeared to be an illegal immigrant. The identity of the other was still being checked.

"We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group, and we believe he was trying to migrate to Germany," Khalid said of the teenager. His mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and had been in contact with authorities, he said.

Asked if that meant he ruled out a hijack, Khalid said: "(We are giving) same weightage to all (possibilities) until we complete our investigations."

Both men entered Malaysia on Feb 28, at least one from Phuket, in Thailand, eight days before boarding the flight to Beijing, Malaysian immigration chief Aloyah Mamat told the news conference. Both held onward reservations to Western Europe.

Police in Thailand, where the passports were stolen and the tickets used by the two men were booked, said they did not think they were linked to the disappearance of the plane.

"We haven't ruled it out, but the weight of evidence we're getting swings against the idea that these men are or were involved in terrorism," Supachai Puikaewcome, chief of police in the Thai resort city of Pattaya, told Reuters.

source: interaksyon.com

Malaysian jet passenger with stolen ID is Iranian, but with no terror link

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian police said Tuesday one of two suspect passengers who boarded a missing passenger jet was an Iranian illegal immigrant, as relatives of some of the 239 people on board said they were losing hope for a miracle.

Authorities have doubled the search radius to 100 nautical miles (equivalent to 185 kilometres) around the point where Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappeared from radar over the South China Sea early Saturday, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Fears of terrorism were stoked by the weekend revelation that two men boarded the flight using stolen European passports. But police said people-smuggling was emerging as the likeliest explanation for the identity fraud.

One of the pair had been identified as a 19-year-old Iranian, Malaysia's national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters.

"We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terror group and we believe he was trying to migrate to Germany," he said, adding that authorities had not yet identified the other man.

The passports -- one Italian and one Austrian -- were stolen over the past two years in Thailand, where police have long been battling a thriving trade in Western documents used by criminal gangs.

An Iranian man identified as "Mr Ali" made the two bookings by phone through a travel agency in the Thai resort of Pattaya on March 1, asking for the two cheapest tickets to Europe, Thai police say.

"We believe that these two passports were stolen by a human-smuggling gang who send people to work in third countries, especially European countries," Lieutenant General Panya Maman, commander of Thailand's southern region police, told AFP.

One of the tickets was from Kuala Lumpur to Frankfurt, via Beijing and Amsterdam, while the final destination for the other ticket was Copenhagen, according to travel documents seen by AFP.

'Divine intervention'

China, which had 153 of its nationals on board the plane, said it would harness 10 satellites equipped with high-resolution imaging to help in the search, as Boeing said it was joining a US government team to try to unravel the mystery of what happened to its 777-200 plane.

At a hotel in Beijing where relatives are gathered, a woman surnamed Cao told AFP that her husband's brother had been on board as part of a group accompanying Chinese artists to an exhibition in Malaysia

"We feel really helpless and haven't been to sleep for days as we are very worried," she said. "We are mentally prepared for the worst."

The vastness of the search zone reflects authorities' bafflement over the plane's disappearance. On the fourth day of searching, the operation had grown to involve 41 ships and 36 aircraft from Southeast Asian countries, Australia, China, New Zealand and the United States.

The 34-year-old son of Malaysian security guard Subramaniam Gurusamy was on the flight to do business in Beijing for an oil company.

"My three-year-old grandson is asking: 'where is Dad?' We tell him father has gone to buy sweets for you," Gurusamy, 60, said as he broke down in tears.

"Please bring back my son. I am praying for divine intervention. That is the only hope we have."

Malaysian authorities and airline officials have come under fire from China for their inability to provide any indication of what happened, and for a string of contradictory statements.

But a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) statement stressed: "We are as anxious as the families to know the status of their loved ones."

The search sphere now includes land on the Malaysian peninsula itself, the waters off its west coast, and an area to the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

That covers an area far removed from the scheduled route of MAS flight MH370, which officials say may have inexplicably turned back towards Kuala Lumpur.

Emotional breakdown
Hapless authorities and airline officials have held a number of press conferences since the drama erupted but have had no answer for the most burning questions over whether the plane exploded, ditched in the sea, was hijacked, or any number of other scenarios.

The plane, captained by a veteran MAS pilot, had relayed no indications of distress, and weather at the time was said to be good.

Vietnam asked fishing boats off its southern coast -- where the flight dropped off radar -- for help in the effort but said it feared the worst.

"In terms of our assessments and predictions - we have little hope of a positive outcome," Pham Quy Tieu, deputy minister of transport, said Tuesday.

Emotions were running high after China's state media blamed Kuala Lumpur for a lack of information. Tearful relatives of the missing Chinese passengers voiced frustration, while some clung to fading hopes.

"I hope it is a hijacking, then there will be some hope that my young cousin has survived," a man in his 20s surnamed Su said in Beijing.

"My uncle and aunt had an emotional breakdown, they are not eating, drinking and sleeping."

Conflicting information has deepened the anguish of relatives, with tests on oil slicks in the South China Sea showing they were not from the Boeing 777 and reports of possible debris from the flight also proving to be false alarms.

Malaysian embassy officials have been processing visa applications for Chinese families wanting to take up an offer from MAS to travel to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to the operation.

A team of Chinese officials from government ministries came to Malaysia, tasked with investigating the incident and helping family members already there.

source: interaksyon.com

Malaysia signals missing plane has crashed; probes false IDs of 4 passengers

KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC ISLAND, Vietnam  -  Malaysia Airlines said it was "fearing the worst" on Sunday for a plane carrying 239 people that went missing more than 24 hours ago, as the government investigated four passengers who may have held false identity documents. A terrorist attack was one of the possibilities being investigated by Malaysian authorities with help from some foreign governments, though they stressed the priority at the moment was finding the plane.

And, in a development that deepened the mystery surrounding the  jetliner, military officers said Sunday Flight MH370  may have turned back from its scheduled route before vanishing from radar screens.

More than 36 hours after the last contact with Flight MH370, officials said they were widening the search to cover vast swathes of sea around Malaysia and off Vietnam, and were investigating at least two passengers who may have been using false identity documents.

Despite dozens of military and civilians vessels and aircraft criss-crossing waters to the east and west of Malaysia, no wreckage has been found, although oil slicks have been reported in the sea south of Vietnam.

"What we have done is actually look into the recording on the radar that we have and we realized there is a possibility the aircraft did make a turnback," Rodzali Daud, the Royal Malaysian Air Force chief, told reporters at a news conference.

There were no reports of bad weather and no sign of why Flight MH370 would have vanished from radar screens off the coast of Vietnam about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing early on Saturday morning.

Stolen EU passports
Earlier Sunday, European officials said it appeared two people on board were using stolen passports and Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said authorities were also checking the identities of two other passengers.

"All the four names are with me," said Hishamuddin, who is also defense minister. "I have indicated to our intelligence agencies and I have also spoken to international intelligence agencies for assistance."

He said help was also being sought from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). However, an attack was only one of the possibilities being investigated.

"We are looking at all possibilities," he said. "We cannot jump the gun. Our focus now is to find the plane."

The Chinese official Xiamen Daily reported that one of the passengers who was supposed to be on the flight, according to the manifest, was at home in China. The name on the passport and the passport number did not match, according to the newspaper.

It was not immediately clear if the Chinese person's identity was among those being investigated.

There were no confirmed signs of the plane or any wreckage on Sunday, well over 24 hours after it went missing. Search operations continued through the night, officials said.

"In fearing for the worst, a disaster recovery management specialist from Atlanta, USA, will be assisting Malaysia Airlines in this crucial time," the airline said in a statement.

Stolen passports

Vietnamese naval boats sent from the holiday island of Phu Quoc patrolled stretches of the Gulf of Thailand, searching for any wreckage, scouring the area where an oil slick was spotted by patrol jets just before nightfall on Saturday.

"Our two rescue boats have approached the two oil spills since 3 a.m. today but we haven't found any sign of the Malaysian plane yet. Other boats are ready to go to support if needed," Admiral Ngo Van Phat told Reuters.

There were no indications of sabotage nor claims of an attack. But the passenger manifest issued by the airline included the names of two Europeans - Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi - who, according to their foreign ministries, were not on the plane.

A foreign ministry spokesman in Vienna said: "Our embassy got the information that there was an Austrian on board. That was the passenger list from Malaysia Airlines. Our system came back with a note that this is a stolen passport."

Austrian police had found the man safe at home. The passport was stolen two years ago while he was travelling in Thailand, the spokesman said.

The foreign ministry in Rome said no Italian was on the plane either, despite the inclusion of Maraldi's name on the list. His mother, Renata Lucchi, told Reuters his passport was lost, presumed stolen, in Thailand in 2013.

U.S. and European security officials said that there was no proof of foul play and there could be other explanations for the use of stolen passports.

A Malaysian official with knowledge of the investigation said the passengers being checked had all bought their tickets through China Southern Airlines, which was code-sharing the flight with Malaysia Airlines, the official said.

Passengers on board the flight included 20 employees of Austin, Texas-based chip maker Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. Twelve of the employees were from Malaysia and eight from China, the company said in a statement.

No mayday
The 11-year-old Boeing 777-200ER, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines, took off at 12:40 a.m. (11.40 a.m. ET Friday) from Kuala Lumpur International Airport when it went missing without a distress call. Aboard were 227 passengers and 12 crew.

Flight MH370 last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu. Flight tracking website flightaware.com showed it flew northeast after takeoff, climbed to 35,000 ft and was still climbing when it vanished from tracking records.

A crash would likely mark the 777's second fatal incident in less than a year, and its deadliest since entering service 19 years ago. An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crash-landed in San Francisco in July 2013, killing three passengers and injuring more than 180.

Boeing said it was monitoring the situation but had no further comment.

Paul Hayes, director of safety at Flightglobal Ascend aviation consultancy, said the flight would normally have been at a routine stage, having reached initial cruise altitude.

"Such a sudden disappearance would suggest either that something is happening so quickly that there is no opportunity to put out a mayday, in which case a deliberate act is one possibility to consider, or that the crew is busy coping with what whatever has taken place," he told Reuters.

A large number of planes and ships from several countries were scouring the area where the plane last made contact, about halfway between Malaysia and the southern tip of Vietnam.

"The search and rescue operations will continue as long as necessary," Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters. He said his country had deployed 15 air force aircraft, six navy ships and three coastguard vessels.

Besides the Vietnamese vessels, China and the Philippines also sent ships to the region to help, while the United States, the Philippines and Singapore dispatched military planes. China also put other ships and aircraft on standby.

'Big red flag'

The disappearance of the plane is a chilling echo of an Air France flight that crashed into the South Atlantic on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people on board. It vanished for hours and wreckage was found only two days later.

John Goglia, a former board member of the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. agency that investigates plane crashes, said the lack of a distress call suggested that the plane either experienced an explosive decompression or was destroyed by an explosive device.

"It had to be quick because there was no communication," Goglia said. He said the false identities of the two passengers was "a big red flag".

If there were passengers on board with stolen passports, it was not clear how they passed through security checks.

International police body Interpol maintains a database of more than 39 million travel documents reported lost or stolen by 166 countries, and says on its website that this enables police, immigration or border control officers to check the validity of a suspect document within seconds. No comment was immediately available from the organization.

2 Europeans with stolen passports surprised

Two passengers on a Malaysia Airlines passenger aircraft that went missing in Asia with 239 people on board appeared to have been travelling on stolen EU passports, it emerged Saturday.

An Austrian, named in reports as Christian Kozel, 30, had his passport pinched in Thailand in 2012, while Italian Luigi Maraldi, 37, had his stolen last year, also in Thailand, officials and sources said.

Despite their names being on the passenger manifest, neither man was on flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it went missing without sending a distress signal early on Saturday somewhere between Malaysia's east coast and southern Vietnam.

Maraldi phoned from Thailand to his family in Cesena in northeastern Italy after seeing on the news that he was listed as being on the vanished airliner, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Austrian authorities tracked down Kozel after being told by the airline he was on the passenger list. He is "safe and sound" in Austria, Martin Weiss, a spokesman for the Austrian foreign ministry told AFP.

Weiss declined to comment on whether Vienna had been contacted by intelligence services for more information.

"At this point we have just looked at this from a consular point of view, on whether an Austrian is among the possible victims," Weiss said.

"Anything else that comes now is for the security organizations of this world if they want to look at this from a different angle ... We could not comment on this."

In Washington, a US administration official said authorities were aware of the reporting of the two stolen passports.

"We have not determined a nexus to terrorism yet, although it's still very early and that's by no means definitive. We're still tracking the situation," the official said.

Maraldi had managed to phone his father and reassure him he was safe before his family saw the news back home in Italy.

"I turned on (rolling television news channel) RAI News24 and I saw what had happened. Thankfully, everything is okay. Luigi is on holiday, he's coming home in three weeks," the father told Ansa.

Last to know were the police officers who knocked on the door of the Maraldi family home in Cesena in north-eastern Italy, fully expecting to impart some tragic news.

"We were prepared for the worst. It's never nice to have to go and tell people something like this," police inspector Paolo Campana told ANSA.

No trace had been found of the Boeing 777-200 by nightfall Saturday but Vietnam said its search planes spotted large oil slicks in the sea, in the first hint at its possible fate.

source: interaksyon.com

Singaporean vessels searching for MH370 find suspicious floating objects - Vietnamese media

PHU QUOC ISLAND, Vietnam - Singaporean vessels searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger plane have found some suspicious floating objects, Vietnamese official media outlets reported Sunday.

The Singaporean searchers have reported the finding to their Vietnamese counterparts, who are expected to arrive at the area in less than three hours, reported the Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien dailies in their online editions.

source: interaksyon.com

Angry kin of Chinese passengers on missing Malaysian jet demand info

BEIJING -- Chinese relatives of passengers on a Malaysia Airlines flight missing between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on Saturday angrily accused the airline of keeping them in the dark, while state media criticized the carrier's poor response.

Relatives were taken to a hotel near Beijing airport, put in a room and told to wait for information from the airline, but none came. Malaysia Airlines said at least 152 of the 227 passengers on flight MH370 were Chinese.

About 20 people stormed out of the room at one point, enraged they had been given no information.

"There's no one from the company here, we can't find a single person. They've just shut us in this room and told us to wait," said one middle-aged man, who declined to give his name.

"We want someone to show their face. They haven't even given us the passenger list," he said.

Another relative, trying to evade a throng of reporters, muttered: "They're treating us worse than dogs."

Amid chaotic scenes, an unidentified Malaysia Airlines official spoke to reporters for just a few minutes without taking questions before leaving.

"We are working with authorities who have activated the search and rescue teams," the official said. "Our thoughts and prayers are deeply with the affected passengers and their family members."

Adding to the confusion, the official mentioned a rumor that the Chinese government has already denied -- that the aircraft had landed in the southern Chinese city of Nanning.

"There has been speculation that the aircraft has landed in Nanning. We are working to verify the authenticity of the report of others," the official said.

Some Chinese media reported that he meant a place in Vietnam called Nanming. It was unclear exactly what he was talking about.

Chinese media outlets took to their official Weibo microblogs to criticize the airline for taking so long to announce what was going on and for refusing to answer questions.

"Malaysia Airlines, why did you wait for five hours after losing contact with the aircraft to first announce the news, and why did you only have a news conference after almost 13 hours?" the official Xinhua news agency wrote on one of its Weibo accounts.

Sanved Kolekar, an Indian working in Beijing, stood stunned at the airport where he was waiting for his parents who were coming over on a visit.

"My parents are on the flight, they were supposed to come here at 6.30, I don't know what happened," he said. "They haven't given me any information, it's very difficult because I don't understand the local language."

Malaysia Airlines told passengers' next of kin to come to Kuala Lumpur's international airport with their passports to prepare to fly to the crash site, which has still not been identified.

About 20-30 families were being kept in a holding room at the airport, where they were being guarded by security officials and kept away from reporters.

Malaysia Airlines said people from at least 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers.

Chinese media said at least 24 artists and their family members were aboard, returning from an art exchange forum, including a well-known calligrapher.

At least two names on a passenger list released by Beijing police appeared to have been redacted, with the names pixelated out, leading to online speculation that they could have been ethnic Uighurs, a Muslim people from the restive far western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The government has not confirmed this, and it was not possible to reach Beijing police for comment.

source: interaksyon.com