<b>Malaysia</b> Releases Preliminary MH 370 Report, Shows Delayed <b>...</b> - Hotel in Malaysia Blog |
- <b>Malaysia</b> Releases Preliminary MH 370 Report, Shows Delayed <b>...</b>
- SHANGRI-LA KUALA LUMPUR AGAIN WINS BEST <b>HOTEL IN</b> <b>...</b>
- <b>Malaysia</b> Flight 370 Families Told to Go Home
| <b>Malaysia</b> Releases Preliminary MH 370 Report, Shows Delayed <b>...</b> Posted: 01 May 2014 02:45 AM PDT On the fateful night that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, officials apparently didn't notice for 17 minutes that it had gone off radar — and didn't activate an official rescue operation for four hours.  A crying woman is escorted to a bus for relatives at the Beijing Airport, as fears mounted over the fate of the 239 people aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines jet on Mar. 8, 2014. (Credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) Those are two of the details outlined in a preliminary report by Malaysia's Transportation Ministry released to the public Thursday. The report had been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. body for global aviation. What's remarkable about the report is what's missing from it. When did the plane disappear? At 1:21 a.m. on March 8, the plane — carrying 239 people to Beijing — disappeared from radar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. By then, the plane's crew should have contacted air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, but apparently it didn't. And it wasn't until 17 minutes later that Ho Chi Minh asked Malaysian air traffic control where the plane was. "We are left to assume (that) for those 17 minutes, Kuala Lumpur either didn't notice or didn't act," CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said. Why was there a four-hour gap in response? Then came a four-hour gap — from the time when officials noticed the plane was missing to when the official rescue operation was launched. The report gives an account of the conversation air traffic controllers in Vietnam and Malaysia had at that time. Ho Chi Minh City let Kuala Lumpur know at 1:38 a.m. that it was not able to establish verbal contact with Flight 370. Kuala Lumpur also contacted Singapore, Hong Kong and Cambodia. Those four hours may have been crucial. On Tuesday, a Malaysia Airlines official said the plane probably ran out of fuel about 7½ hours into the flight. That means it might have been flying during that four-hour gap, and possibly for another 2½ hours after the search started. Where was the military? The Malaysian Prime Minister has said the military tracked the plane as it headed back across Malaysia. According to the report, a playback of a recording from military primary radar revealed that an aircraft that may have been MH370 had made a westerly turn, crossing Peninsular Malaysia. The search area was then extended to the Strait of Malacca. But it's unclear when that happened. The report makes no mention of the military's role the night of the disappearance. Where are the details? Preliminary reports are by their nature brief and to the point. It is up to the country to choose whether to release additional details, such as a cargo manifest, seating plan and air traffic control transcripts. "This report and any other documents released should be an audit of what happened and factually who did what," Quest said. Compared to the preliminary reports of other recent major flight investigations, the one released by Malaysia is scant. The equivalent preliminary report on Air France 447 was 128 pages long. That report by, produced by France's aviation safety agency just one month after the plane went missing in 2009, offered specific details on communication between various air traffic control centers. Flight 447 was found more than a year later in the Atlantic Ocean; all 228 people on board had died. And a preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau into the Qantas engine explosion in 2010 ran more than 40 pages, including diagrams and charts. "I can certainly understand that the authorities had more pressing matters in finding the plane than writing a long report, when there will be plenty of other chances to do so," Quest said, "but this report is the barest possible they could get away with." Debate over transparency The report released Thursday was the same one Malaysia submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organization but had not been made public. Malaysian officials came under heavy criticism last week for submitting the report to the U.N. body but not making it available to relatives of passengers. While authorities are not required to make a preliminary report public, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak acquiesced. Reporters could not ask questions raised by the report since the document was released by e-mail and not at a news conference. One safety recommendation The report makes one safety recommendation: the need for real-time tracking. Authorities noted that while commercial planes spend considerable time operating over remote areas, there is no requirement for real-time tracking of such aircraft. "There have now been two occasions during the last five years when large commercial air transport aircraft have gone missing and their last position was not accurately known," the Malaysian report states. "This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner." CNN reported on this detail from the report last week. The officials asked the International Civil Aviation Organization to examine the benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial planes. It's the same recommendation that was made after the Air France 447 disaster in 2009. But nothing seems to have happened after that report.  |
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| <b>Malaysia</b> Flight 370 Families Told to Go Home Posted: 01 May 2014 04:01 PM PDT
Despite the fact Malaysian flight 370 dropped out of sight in the wee hours of March 8, 2014 at 1:21 AM Malaysia time, left behind families are being told to go home to wait for incoming news. Meanwhile, ground monitors of aircraft in Vietnam did not think to ask about it until 1:38 AM. During that time, the Malaysia Military had been aware of a friendly object on their radar, but did not put two and two together right away. They followed the object, which seemed to turn around from heading towards Beijing, China, back towards Malaysia. It then followed a set aeronautic path over many aerodynamic passageways used by planes while it traveled 200 miles northwest en route to the Strait of Malacca where it went black on military radar at 2:15 AM. There is a system in place with which to keep tabs on airplanes; ACARS, known as the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. Almost all aircraft have it, utilizing it mainly for maintenance issues that arise in flight, but also for communications. ACARS can be accessed over land by radio or by satellite, which costs more, for planes heading out over the oceans of the world. Malaysia Airlines maintained ACARS on their planes, including flight 370, but somehow that flights apparatus was switched off, as was the planes transponder. In order to deactivate these serious data transmitting devices, a person in the cockpit of the plane had to manually turn them off. There is speculation as to why this would have been done. Millions in cash has been spent searching for the defunct plane since March. The aircraft is suspected to be in the South Indian Ocean west of Australia, one of the most inaccessible seas on the planet. The precise location remains a mystery, yet pings from the planes transponder were thought to be heard in April in the Indian Ocean in the area of Australia. An unmanned submersible has been in use for weeks now on loan from the U.S. Navy but has not been able to find any remains on the ocean floor. Some say that the reason is the dying signals from the planes transmitting apparatus. The life of the transponders is only one month, making a search the size of this one no easy task. In contrast to other quests for missing aircraft, Malaysia Flight 370 is the longest in aeronautics history, perplexing families of lost loved ones why they are being told to go home. Confusing officials is the fact that there has been no debris found floating on the water in the almost two months since the plane went down, despite an extensive search by boats, a robotic submarine and planes. Also there is the fact that radar contact was lost within an hour of the flight taking off. The Malaysian Transport Ministry is calling on the U.N. to investigate whether or not automatic tracking of planes is the best way to go when keeping up with aircraft placing in the world. They are suggesting some form of a real-time tracking system that would provide an advantage in a situation like this one. It would identify the exact location of a plane if it encounters trouble and relay that information directly to the proper authorities who could then take the appropriate measures. Opinion by Korrey Laderoute |
After being put up in hotels since Malaysia Flight 370 disappeared in the south Indian Ocean, the airline has told family members of the lost plane to go home to await updates about the search. The relatives had been sheltered in hotel rooms by the airline since the plane went down almost two months ago. Now Malaysia Airline is shutting down the help units on May 7, 2014, advising family members that the will be advised on the searches progress either by telephone or in person. The airline will be devoting space to implementing resource centers for families in both Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia Airlines is also about to make rectification payments to surviving kith and kin, although no amount has been disclosed. These payments may not prevent families from suing the airline in the future.| You are subscribed to email updates from Hotel in Malaysia - Google Blog Search To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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