This is the 24th day in the fourth week of the multi-national sea and air search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft, with today’s search outcome by a total of 10 aircraft and 10 ships from Australia, Malaysia, US, China, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea as empty-handed and fruitless as the earlier 23 days.
Except there is now an element of desperation as the search is in a race against time, with only about two weeks left to find the aircraft’s pair of black boxes before they stop emitting locator pings.
The boxes, designed to ‘ping’ for at least 30 days, contain sounds recorded in the cockpit and data on the plane’s performance and flight path that could help answer why it diverted sharply west from its overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8th March.
What has made the new search area 1,100 km north east of the old site in the southern Indian Ocean frustrating is that it contained a higher volume of ocean trash that may be mistaken for wreckage.
The present search zone has been described as an area of the Indian Ocean where currents drag in all manner of flotsam and rubbish – what an oceanographer has described as “just outside what we call the garbage patches”.
Today’s media carried a report from Washington quoting “senior US lawmakers” as saying that US investigators had found no evidence thus far pointing to terrorism in the disappearance of Flight MH370 more than three weeks ago, and that it was critical to find the plane to understand what happened on board.
The two “senior US lawmakers” quoted are the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein who told Sunday talk shows that they had seen no evidence of foul play.
Roger said: “I have seen nothing yet that comes out of the investigation that would lead me to conclude that (this was) …anything other than a normal flight that something happened and something went wrong.”
Separately, Feinstein told another TV talk show that she had not seen any evidence indicating a terrorist act brought the airplane down.
US officials close to the investigation said the FBI examined data it received from a home-made flight simulator and other computer equipment used by MH370’s pilots, but found nothing illuminating.
Clearly, US lawmakers are kept in the loop in the US investigations into the missing MH370 and are regularly informed of the latest updates, which is not the case with their Malaysian counterparts as Malaysian Members of Parliament, whether from BN or PR, are kept completely in the dark about the developments of the MH370 disaster crisis – although a Malaysian airliner is in the centre of the longest and largest-ever global multi-national sea, air and satellite search for the missing Boeing 777.
This attitude must change. The Government has still to respond to my call that regardless of whether the “black boxes” are retrieved or not, a Parliamentary Select Committee on MH370 disaster should be set up and be prepared to start work and investigations six to eight weeks from March 8.
This has become even more imperative with the report that a scientist who was part of the team to develop the black box was very dubious that the MH370 “black boxes” would be found.
The scientist, Bill Schofield, told Xinhua news agency in an interview: “I’ve got to say I think their chances of finding this black box in very deep water when they don’t know where it went down within an area of 1,000 km, are practically nil.”
(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 31st March 2014)
ketuanan where got the humility to keep the parliament informed. they are tuans. who are you?
robots
/// with only about two weeks left to find the aircraft’s pair of black boxes before they stop emitting locator pings. ///
I read somewhere on the Internet that the US can use a kind of magnetic sensing equipment to detect the black boxes after their battery life is expired.
the drones
“Sometimes the object spotted in the water is a snarled fishing line. Or a buoy. Or something that might once have been the lid to an ice box. Not once — not yet at least — has it been a clue.”
How come the objects retrieved above which appeared in foreign news were not revealed to Malaysians?
now we know how polluted an ocean is
The other day a friend asked this question: Can you imagine MCA is still in the Cabinet with the last MCA man as MOT? I shudder to think the embarrassment he would have had caused not only to his Community but to the nation! By this incident, even UMNO should begin to think if political expediency is the only option for this nation? With Hisham from a C- he has gone to C but had it be the MCA man, I wouldn’t even start off at E -!. Hence, MCA in their struggle to maintain their political convenience has also fallen down the black hole of embarrassment! So would UMNO holds on to MOT until this incident is solved? Or just pass it to Liow? Wee? Who else????????????????????
To be kept informed, Malaysians should read the international media reports. Latest reports say that none of the objects collected from the Indian Ocean so far are related to the missing plane.
But how to expect Malaysian media to report such news? Instead local news will report PM is going to Perth on Wednesday to witness the search, while Chew Mei Fun is going to China (as special officer) to meet family members of passengers.
/// as empty-handed and fruitless as the earlier 23 days. ///
Perhaps undersea photography technology may be utilized to locate debris submerged in water. A waterproof camera with ultra high zoom facilities to magnify distant objects can be lowered into the sea from a ship to take picture of underwater objects.
hopefully the US drones can detect the black box and whatever that remains of the aircraft; some big parts, the logo, the word, something that is definite enough to say that is the MAS plane
From Malaysiakini report ” Minister deflects probe queries despite grilling”:
///Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister, refused to shed light on the authenticity of various leaked information on the Internet and instead said he will be answerable to various inquiries that will be set up in future. . . . “But in any event, at the end of the day I am answerable to the royal commission of inquiry or parliamentary select committee and the international inquiry board (that will be set up),” he told a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur this evening.///
Latest development: Breaking News.
Another boo-boo. Pilot’s last words were not
“All right. Goodnight.”
but
“Goodnight Malaysian Three Seven Zero”.
CNN reported that the american party was quite at sea because they were uncertain of info released by malaysia: Read on http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/31/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/
But of course the americans dont know better. Umno is the supreme grand master of the universe and the GOD of all gods. So it is going to be hard for mortal beings to understand the words of the supreme grand master and GOD of all gods.
For instance “jalan sehala” or “one way street” in umno’s language means many ways. In fact all ways and including anything and everything whatsoever. So a one way street is also a place where you could park your helicopter, put tables and chairs, etc etc etc.
One more thing. When jib announced that the plane’s journey ended in the indian ocean he could well mean the plane never took off and everyone’s well and enjoying themselves watching this world wide prank.
So dear americans, if you think that the north koreans are crazy think again.