Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Printable Version

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 06-21-2016

(06-21-2016, 10:31 AM)Peetwo Wrote:  ATSB CC Dolan spotted in KL = Tripartite meeting is a farce -  

Dolan accompanied by Peter Foley (and some other dude?) was caught leaving the first day of the MH370 Tripartite meeting in KL:





Also if you go to this tweet link (courtesy of Melissa Goh) you will see some video footage: https://twitter.com/MelGohCNA/status/744739181599985665

According to Ms Goh the ATSB crew were in somewhat of a hurry...

MG tweet 1: "..Australian officials left in a hurry after making presentation at MOT , declined to speak to the media.." 

 ...and when asked for a comment..

"...Australian officials decline to comment on #MH370 tripartite meeting " any queries please direct to the #JACC .."

{Note: The fact that Beaker is in KL and sporting a beard, are IMO both ominous signs that the Tripartite meeting is a total sham and the MH370 SIO search 'end game' is nigh... } 


MTF...P2

Ps TY Oceankoto for the links...

Update 21/06/16 - via news.com.au:

Quote:Officials mull over MH370 search future
June 21, 20167:06pm

AAP

Senior aviation officials from Australia, Malaysia and China have spent two days discussing the future of the search for MH370, while relatives insist it must go on.

The officials met in Kuala Lumpur on Monday and Tuesday ahead of a final ministerial-level meeting following Australia's July 2 federal election.

The three countries previously agreed that in the absence of credible new information, the search would be wound up once the 120,000 square kilometre zone in the southern Indian Ocean was scoured.

The search for the Boeing 777 is in its final phase, with 15,000sq km yet to be covered, and is expected to conclude in the next eight weeks, although wild weather, including waves up to 18 metres high, is causing delays.

Australia's Transport Minister Darren Chester says he remains hopeful of a successful outcome in that time.

But a network of families of passengers dubbed Voice370 says relatives - whose lives have been in limbo for more than 800 days - are growing distressed by the prospect the search may be called off if funds dry up.

"While Malaysia and Australia have invested substantial sums in the effort thus far, we believe a shortage of funds should not be a reason to end the search," the group said in a statement.

"The search for the plane and the truth of what happened is vital to look ahead and move on.

"It is inconceivable that wealthy nations and corporations that immensely benefit from civil aviation and the connectivity that it underscores would be unwilling to fund the continued search for MH370."

Several pieces of debris that authorities say are almost certainly from the plane have been recovered during the past year on the shorelines of South Africa, Mozambique, and Rodrigues and Reunion islands.

A piece of possible plane debris was recently found on South Australia's Kangaroo Island and is being examined at Australian Transport Safety Bureau laboratories in Canberra.
American lawyer Blaine Gibson, who previously found debris in Mozambique, has also reported finding more objects in Madagascar, including personal items such as hand luggage.

The aircraft disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board.

Originally published as Officials mull over MH370 search future

MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 06-22-2016

(06-21-2016, 09:05 PM)Peetwo Wrote:  Update 21/06/16 - via news.com.au:

Quote:Officials mull over MH370 search future
June 21, 2016 7:06pm

AAP

Update 22/06/16 - In an update to the News Corp article (above):

Quote:Possible MH370 debris left to languish in Madagascar
June 22, 2016 12:00am
Robyn Ironside
National Aviation Writer
News Corp Australia Network




EXCLUSIVE

MH370 Families will have to wait until after the Federal Election to find out if there is any chance of the search for the missing plane being extended any further.

A two-day meeting of Australian, Malaysian and Chinese officials in Kuala Lumpur has reached no final decision — other than to postpone a decision until July.

The three countries have previously said there will be no extension to the search without credible new evidence of MH370’s final resting place.

MH370 families have shared photos of personal items found on the beach at Madagascar, near where other possible aircraft debris was located by Blaine Gibson. Picture: Air Crash Support Group Australia

About 15,000 square kilometres of seabed in the Southern Indian Ocean is still to be scoured by ships equipped with sensitive deep-water sonar gear.

Australia’s Transport Minister Darren Chester said he remained hopeful of a positive outcome in that time.

It may come down to money — with Australia committing no further funds to the search that has already cost taxpayers $90 million. Malaysia has contributed a similar sum, and China about $10 million.

Further questions have been raised about Malaysia’s commitment to the search after the country twice cancelled an official’s trip to Madagascar to collect aircraft debris that could provide crucial clues about the Boeing 777.

The aircraft debris that may hold vital clues to the mystery are languishing in storage in Madagascar because Malaysia will not pay for anyone to collect it.

One of 17 items of possible “hand luggage” from MH370 found on Riake Beach in Madagascar. Picture: Air Crash Support Group Australia

Five pieces of debris including what appears to be the frame of an in-flight entertainment unit have been recovered by self-funded MH370 investigator Blaine Gibson from Riake Beach in Nosy Boraha.

The items were found in the same area as 17 bags and backpacks, that may possibly be hand-luggage from the missing Malaysia Airlines’ flight.

Mr Gibson travelled to Madagascar on the advice of Australian oceanographers, who said that was most likely to be where debris from MH370 would be found now.

The US blogger and lawyer previously found a horizontal stabiliser in Mozambique, which was determined to be “almost certainly” from the Boeing 777.

He said it was very important the debris was examined by experts.

“If confirmed from MH370, this is the fartherest north debris has been discovered and the first time that more than one piece has been found on the same beach,” said Mr Gibson.


A Rivers’ brand shoe — the likes of which is only sold in Australia and New Zealand — found near other possible MH370 debris in Madagascar. Picture: Air Crash Support Group Australia

“If these are confirmed as being from 370, and especially if any of the personal effects can be traced to the passengers, Riake Beach may be the closest thing to a 370 debris field that is yet to be found or may exist.”

But so far, the items had not been collected by the MH370 Safety Investigation Team from Madagascan authorities.

“The Malaysian member of the MH370 Safety Investigation Team ... wants to come and it is very unfortunate that his superiors have cancelled his trips on two occasions to recover this important evidence,” Mr Gibson said.

“There are barnacles on the monitor case that need to be examined before they deteriorate further.”

A spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed retrieval and analysis of evidence such as possible debris was the responsibility of the Government of Malaysia.

“The debris will need to be examined to ascertain its origin,” said the spokesman.

“Australia stands ready to assist Malaysia with that as required.”

Inquiries to Malaysia’s Minister of Transport were not answered.

The Malaysia Airlines’ flight from Kuala Lumpur disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board, including six Australians.

Investigators have estimated the plane came down in the Southern Indian Ocean but have been unable to find the fuselage.

To date debris found on Reunion Island, Mozambique and Mauritius has been consistent with the aircraft’s proposed final resting place.

This bit...

...A spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed retrieval and analysis of evidence such as possible debris was the responsibility of the Government of Malaysia.


“The debris will need to be examined to ascertain its origin,” said the spokesman.


“Australia stands ready to assist Malaysia with that as required.”


Inquiries to Malaysia’s Minister of Transport were not answered...

  This could be the first real sign of a true debris field and yet the Malaysians won't even approve a Malaysian member of the JIT team to take claim of the possible debris items - UDB!

Dear Malcolm & Chester,

You might be in government caretaker mode but you still represent Australia as a sovereign nation and signatory to ICAO, therefore Malcolm & Chester start making calls NOW!


MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - aussie500 - 06-22-2016

I do not really see Malaysia getting too excited over the personnel effects, lots of things have sunk in the SIO, and over near Indonesia. Even if this lot is from MH370, it is not likely to tell them anything they do not already know from the aircraft debris collected. They cannot prove it is from MH370, even if they went though the boarding video to see what carry on luggage there was, still it would not prove it was from MH370 if someone had something similar.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - ventus45 - 06-22-2016

Personal Items with ID that float would be the only definitive proof.
Perhaps there should be a re-write of international standards for things like passports and credit cards and boarding passes, that requires them all to made of some laminated plastic material with tiny cells within them, such that they would be able to float in water.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Kharon - 06-22-2016

A time waster.

Funny how your mind works ain’t it? – lately I have taken to playing Mah-jong while waiting on the telephone – listening to bloody awful music – it is a fascinating game.  A stray thought – I wondered if the difference between Chess and Mah-jong could somehow hold the key to defining the differences between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ thinking – anyway I ramble.  The next thought close to the surface was about China and the MH 370 search and I wished we had a ‘China watcher’ – ala the John le Carré novels; those about Smiley and the Circus where ‘experts’ on a nation where tasked with guessing what a national reaction to a certain ‘thing’ would be.  That got me started; China has thus far, played a very low key game.  My own humble, uneducated notion is that they are a proud, though pragmatic people; deeply attached to family; and, there is the enigma of ‘face’.  We may as well throw in that like most nations, they don’t take advice from fools gladly and they appear to be long march away from being considered gullible.

The point, I’m struggling to get to is what will this great nation do once the Lord Mayors parade has passed by?  I wonder what information they hold, I wonder what their forward game will be – if any.  Don’t know is the short answer, same-same Mah-jong; you cannot move the pieces to influence an outcome.  You may try; sometimes you are beaten, for all money, then a magic run turns the tide.  Other times, no matter how you plot and scheme, defeat is inevitable; it’s just the way the tiles were laid down by fickle fate.  

Anyway, as we inevitably approach the end game of MH 370 insofar as the Malaysian and Australian governments are concerned, I wonder just what, if anything, we may expect from China?

“China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.”   Napoléon Bonaparte.

Aye well, just a stray, passing thought turned into a twiddle, more for my own amusement than anything else. But!

Toot toot.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - ventus45 - 06-25-2016

With regard to the item Samuel Armstrong found on Kangaroo Island, the markings could indicate a use of the HEXCEL corp logo on yacht components ?
See:
http://www.hexcel.com/Solutions/Industries/IMarine_Solutions
http://www.hexcel.com/news/archive/news-20071121




The company has plants all over the world.
http://www.hexcel.com/

It is also interesting that Hexcel has a plant in China, manufacturing (among other things) wind turbine blades.

http://www.hexcel.com/Locations/tianjin
http://www.hexcel.com/solutions/wind-energy/




And loock at this article about the A350 wing skins.  The photo is a beauty.
http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aerospace/2015-09-22/hexcel-prepares-more-composites-commercial-aircraft



And it looks like that latest item found on Pemba Island in Africa has a Boeing Bolt used on B-777-200 and B-777-300 aircraft.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 07-01-2016

Ding Dong the Muppet is gone -  Or is he?? 

WARNING: Bucket will be required!

Via Binger at the Oz:

Quote:MH370 search should go on, says outgoing ATSB chief Martin Dolan
Mitchell Bingemann
The Australian
12:00AM July 1, 2016

The man in charge of the hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 believes the search should go on if no wreckage is recovered.

The possibility of locating the missing Boeing 777 is fast diminishing as the two-year hunt this week entered the last 10,000sq km of its designated 120,000sq km search area.

But Martin Dolan — who yesterday hung up his hat as the chief of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau leading the $180m effort on behalf of the Malaysian, Australian and Chinese governments — said if the search failed governments should consider extending it to new areas.

“Of course (I’d like to see it continue). This has been two years of our lives focused on this task, so of course you want to see it to completion — of course we want to find that aircraft,” Mr Dolan told The Australian on his last day as chief of the ATSB.

“The instinct of a professional investigator would be to find this aircraft so we can find evidence that will help us solve the mystery of what happened.

“But I also recognise there comes a point when governments have to make a decision about the level of resourcing that can be made available and at the moment government are saying that resources are only available to search 120,000sq km.”

Mr Dolan, who has led the ATSB for the past seven years, said not finding the wreckage would be one of the biggest regrets of his working life.

“This has been such a big part of my working life over the last two years, so regret is the right word,” he said.

“But while there is regret that we haven’t found the aircraft, there is also a sense of pride, because the team that’s doing the work and all the professional capability and technology and everything that has been brought to bear, everything possible that could be done has been done really well. So I can take some pride in that.”

Despite finishing his term as the head of the ATSB without finding MH370, Mr Dolan said he remained hopeful the aircraft would be found in the area they had been searching.
“The more area the cover the more you have to review your probabilities and so there is a diminishing level of confidence that the aircraft is there,” he said.

“But we are still in a priority area and it is still quite possible that the aircraft will be found within this search area. So we haven’t by any means given up, and we will complete the job the governments have given us to search that area and find the aircraft, or if we are unsuccessful, then to eliminate that area from the search.”

The search for MH370 was scheduled to conclude in July but severe weather conditions and 15m waves have severely hampered the investigators’ work. The search has been extended to August to compensate, but Mr Dolan conceded that it was now looked like the hunt would take even longer than that.

“We’ve had seriously bad weather this winter. Last winter was much milder than we are encountering this time,” he said.

“So there are still several months to go. Certainly it is possible that the search will go through October.”

In the two years since the plane disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers on board, five pieces of debris believed to come from the aircraft have been found. Last week another piece that appears to be from a Boeing 777 washed ashore on an island near Tanzania.

It is not clear the piece came from MH370, and Malaysian authorities are sending it to the ATSB for closer inspection.

“We haven’t had access to it yet, but we are coming to an agreement with our Malaysian colleagues that it will be brought to Australia for closer examination,” MR Dolan said.
“We can’t comment at this stage on authenticity but the Malaysians are interested in it enough to bring it here for closer examination.”

Last round of Beaker bollocks - hopefully??


MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 07-09-2016

Christine Negroni on continued mystery of MH370 - via Forbes:

Quote:Search Ending For MH370 But Mysteries Grow



Christine Negroni,  
Contributor

Only a few pieces of MH 370 have been found

The latest news from Australia is sure to disappoint once again people who lost loved ones on Malaysia Flight 370 and the larger group of people who just want to know what happened to the airliner that flew into oblivion on March 8, 2014.

The search for the Boeing 777 in the South Indian Ocean will come to an end in July, according to Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Coincidentally, that is the date when Dolan retires.

During my time in Malaysia helping ABC News cover the MH370 tragedy, I was mystified by the selection of the Australians to lead the underwater search for the airplane. The nation had proximity going for it to be sure and military ships and planes that could, and did, spring into action as soon as the satellite data suggested the plane flew in the general direction of Australia’s western coast.

The Pel-Air medical evacuation jet ditched off the coast of Norfolk Island in 2009. ATSB photo

At the same time, the ATSB was already the subject of great criticism over its shoddy investigation of another overwater air accident; the ditching of a Pel-Air medical evacuation flight in 2009 in which no one died. That crash occurred in shallower water and much closer to land.

The ATSB opted not to recover the Pel-Air plane or its black boxes. Only after a Senate inquiry and a Canadian review of the ATSB investigation did the agency take another look at its assessment of the crash – which had placed much of the responsibility on the pilot while ignoring the infractions of the politically-connected operator, Pel-Air. You can read more about the scandal here, or in my soon-to-be-published book, The Crash Detectives.

That is why when the Australians were given custody of the search for MH370, I wondered why, and I was not alone. But the Australians including the ATSB’s Dolan were eager to become the heroes in solving the world’s most riveting air mystery. In an interview in June 2014, Dolan told me enthusiastically that coordinating the search was “the challenge of a career.”

Who knows what political maneuvering was going on behind the scenes? But in the small world of underwater search and salvage there were those who thought the Australians had not selected the most experienced outfit when they gave the Dutch company, FugroWorld Wide, the multimillion dollar contract.

“How did a company with no real record in this industry and no equipment at the time end up with this huge job and get away with not producing any publicly available data for two years?” asked Rob McCallum, a manager at Williamson and Associates, an underwater recovery firm. That’s the kind of question I’ve heard in one form or another over the past two years.

Fugro’s critics are companies that were passed over for the job. They had their reasons for sniping about Fugro.

Still, the big names who assisted with the recovery of the Italian Itavia airliner in the Tyrrhenian Sea in 1980, the TWA 747 that exploded off the coast of New York in 1996, the search for the black boxes from Indonesia’s Adam Air in 2007 and the much-talked about, two-year effort to find Air France in the North Atlantic in 2009, were notably absent in the Malaysia 370 search operation.

So I don’t buy what the ATSB chief told Peter Lloyd, a journalist with the Australian ABC News, earlier this week.  If the plane is not found in the area defined as high probability, Dolan reportedly said, searchers “will know that the aircraft was not in that area.”

“The debris could have been lost in the topography,” said Steven Saint Amour of the Maryland-based search firm, Eclipse. Or the interpretation of the information could be wrong, or the quality of the equipment might affect the reliability of information. In short, many factors can explain why MH370 has not been found even if is in the area searched.

9M-MRO the plane that flew as MH370. Photo by Jay Davis

But in a case of history repeating itself, the ATSB is once again trying to wrap up a complex case with a tidy statement. It has adopted a “trust us we know what we’re doing” approach to questions about the reliability of a conclusion that the plane is not in the zone searched.

What Australia has now that it didn’t have in its tarnished investigation of the Pel-Air crash, is another government to which it can return the files and direct all further questions, and that is Malaysia.

In July, the missing Flight 370 will once again become solely Malaysia’s problem with no improvement in transparency over what the Australians have offered. Expect to remain mystified.

IMO in those last three paragraphs Christine totally nails the total shameful ineptitude of the ATSB (& by association the government) in the conduct of the MH370 SIO search -

MTF...P2  

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 07-18-2016

The biggest bit of DOI arrives in Can'tberra -


Via PlaneTalking today:

Quote:Large 'likely' piece of MH370 wing lands in Canberra

The sea floor search for MH370 appears to be running out of places to look just as more fragments of the airliner are washed up on western and southern Indian Ocean shores
Ben Sandilands

The key illustration in the earlier IG paper identifying the Tanzania object

What appears to be the large section of wing from MH370 (shown above) and found on a beach in Tanzania in June has arrived in Canberra for detailed examination by the ATSB.
This piece, which is adjacent to the inboard flaperon that was found on La Réunion island in July last year, has already been strongly associated with the missing Malaysia Airlines 777-200ER in a paper published by the Independent Group four days after it was found last month.

A link to that paper appears in this post.

MH370 with 239 people diverted from its file flight plan and disappeared on March 8, 2014, on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
[url=http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/mh370][/url]
This is the joint statement from the ATSB and Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation.

Malaysia is hosting a meeting with the officials from Australia and China in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow (July 19) to consider the on going sea floor search for the sunk wreckage of the airliner.

 

MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 07-20-2016

From off this week's MH370 operational update:

Quote:Joint Agency Coordination Centre 
MH370 Operational Search Update

20 July 2016

This operational report has been developed to provide regular updates on the progress of the search effort for MH370. Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow. Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible.

Key developments this week

• Fugro Discovery  continues operations in the search area.
  

• Fugro Equator is conducting underwater search operations and bathymetry as weather and sea conditions allow and is expected to depart the search area late tonight.
  

• Dong Hai Jiu 101 is currently on weather stand by and will conduct underwater search operations as weather and sea conditions allow.
  

• A piece of aircraft debris found on Pemba Island, just off the coast of Tanzania, in late June has been transported to Australia for examination. Malaysia and Australia have worked with Tanzanian officials to assume responsibility for the item, believed to be an outboard wing flap. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is working with Malaysian investigators to ascertain whether it is from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
  

Malaysian and Australian investigators examine the piece of aircraft debris found on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania



Source: ATSB

MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - ventus45 - 07-20-2016

Amazingly circular holes - with door handle visible through one - in a formerly solid web.

I wonder what the cailber of the hole making tool was ?

Remember the "4 Corners" program of 21st of May 2014 ?
Interesting remarks at 8 minutes and 50 seconds in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XQPCwY5SHk

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 07-21-2016

(07-20-2016, 04:56 PM)Peetwo Wrote:  From off this week's MH370 operational update:

Quote:Joint Agency Coordination Centre 
MH370 Operational Search Update

20 July 2016

This operational report has been developed to provide regular updates on the progress of the search effort for MH370. Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow. Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible.

Key developments this week

• Fugro Discovery  continues operations in the search area.
  

• Fugro Equator is conducting underwater search operations and bathymetry as weather and sea conditions allow and is expected to depart the search area late tonight.
  

• Dong Hai Jiu 101 is currently on weather stand by and will conduct underwater search operations as weather and sea conditions allow.
  

• A piece of aircraft debris found on Pemba Island, just off the coast of Tanzania, in late June has been transported to Australia for examination. Malaysia and Australia have worked with Tanzanian officials to assume responsibility for the item, believed to be an outboard wing flap. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is working with Malaysian investigators to ascertain whether it is from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
  

Malaysian and Australian investigators examine the piece of aircraft debris found on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania



Source: ATSB

Update: 21/07/16

Courtesy Oz Aviation & Dazzling Dazza's office :

Quote:ATSB analyses wing flap believed to be from missing MH370
July 20, 2016 by australianaviation.com.au
The wing flap washed up near Tanzania in late June. (ATSB)

A wing flap found off the coast of Africa in late June believed to be from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been sent to Canberra for further analysis.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia said the piece of aircraft debris was discovered on Pemba Island near Tanzania on June 23.

“Malaysia and Australia have worked with Tanzanian officials to assume responsibility for the wing flap,” the pair said in a joint statement.

“Technical specialists from the ATSB are working with Malaysian investigators to determine if it is from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, MH370.”

The statement said the ATSB had previously determined four pieces of debris to be “almost certainly” to be from the 777-200ER, 9M-MRO, that went missing enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 2014 carrying 239 passengers and crew. Meanwhile, a flaperon that washed up on La Reunion Island in July 2015 was positively identified by French investigators as a part from MH370.

Meanwhile, the ATSB said efforts to locate the missing aircraft continue to be hampered by poor weather in the Indian Ocean.

“Ongoing poor weather conditions have severely impacted search operations and resulted in delays to search operations of around 6-8 weeks,” the ATSB said in its weekly operational update.

“Since the onset of poor conditions associated with winter weather, progress has slowed with only a minimal area searched during this time.”

As a result, the ATSB reaffirmed previous guidance that should the run of bad weather continue, the remaining 10,000 square kilometres yet to be searched could run “well beyond the winter months”.

About 110,000 square kilometres of the 120,000 square kilometre search area has been covered.

The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China have said previously that in the absence of new leads the search would not be expanded beyond the current 120,000 square kilometre area.

The ATSB said marginal weather conditions still allowed the use of deep tow equipment. Further, the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) used to search areas that the deep tow sonar could not was only able to be used in calmer conditions in spring and summer.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said he would meet with representatives from Malaysia and China on Friday to discuss the search effort.

Also attending the Ministerial Tripartite Meeting at Putrajaya just outside Kuala Lumpur will be Malaysian Minister of Transport Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai and Chinese Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang, Chester said.

“I’m looking forward to meeting with our international partners in the search for MH370. The search has been unprecedented in both size and scale, conducted in some of the world’s most isolated waters and at times in extremely challenging weather,” Chester said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The meeting will provide an opportunity to reflect on achievements to date and discuss next steps as we near completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area.”

Quote:Ministers to meet to discuss MH370



Media Release

DC077/2016

20 July 2016


Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester will meet with counterparts from Malaysia and the People's Republic of China later this week to discuss the way forward in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Ministerial Tripartite Meeting will be held on Friday in the Malaysian federal administrative centre of Putrajaya. Malaysian Minister of Transport, Dato' Sri Liow Tiong Lai will host the meeting which will also be attended by the Minister of Transport from the People's Republic of China, Mr Yang Chuantang.

“I'm looking forward to meeting with our international partners in the search for MH370. The search has been unprecedented in both size and scale, conducted in some of the world's most isolated waters and at times in extremely challenging weather,” Mr Chester said.

“The meeting will provide an opportunity to reflect on achievements to date and discuss next steps as we near completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area.”

The Governments of Malaysia, Australia and the People's Republic of China agreed in April 2015 that should the aircraft not be located within the 120,000 square kilometre search area and in the absence of any new credible evidence the search area would not be extended.

MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - ventus45 - 07-21-2016

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 07-21-2016

(07-21-2016, 08:52 AM)Peetwo Wrote:  

(07-20-2016, 04:56 PM)Peetwo Wrote:  From off this week's MH370 operational update:

Quote:Joint Agency Coordination Centre 
MH370 Operational Search Update

20 July 2016

This operational report has been developed to provide regular updates on the progress of the search effort for MH370. Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow. Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible.

Key developments this week

• Fugro Discovery  continues operations in the search area.
  

• Fugro Equator is conducting underwater search operations and bathymetry as weather and sea conditions allow and is expected to depart the search area late tonight.
  

• Dong Hai Jiu 101 is currently on weather stand by and will conduct underwater search operations as weather and sea conditions allow.
  

• A piece of aircraft debris found on Pemba Island, just off the coast of Tanzania, in late June has been transported to Australia for examination. Malaysia and Australia have worked with Tanzanian officials to assume responsibility for the item, believed to be an outboard wing flap. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is working with Malaysian investigators to ascertain whether it is from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.
  

Malaysian and Australian investigators examine the piece of aircraft debris found on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania



Source: ATSB

Update: 21/07/16

Courtesy Oz Aviation & Dazzling Dazza's office :

Quote:ATSB analyses wing flap believed to be from missing MH370
July 20, 2016 by australianaviation.com.au
The wing flap washed up near Tanzania in late June. (ATSB)

A wing flap found off the coast of Africa in late June believed to be from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been sent to Canberra for further analysis.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia said the piece of aircraft debris was discovered on Pemba Island near Tanzania on June 23.

“Malaysia and Australia have worked with Tanzanian officials to assume responsibility for the wing flap,” the pair said in a joint statement.

“Technical specialists from the ATSB are working with Malaysian investigators to determine if it is from the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, MH370.”

The statement said the ATSB had previously determined four pieces of debris to be “almost certainly” to be from the 777-200ER, 9M-MRO, that went missing enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 2014 carrying 239 passengers and crew. Meanwhile, a flaperon that washed up on La Reunion Island in July 2015 was positively identified by French investigators as a part from MH370.

Meanwhile, the ATSB said efforts to locate the missing aircraft continue to be hampered by poor weather in the Indian Ocean.

“Ongoing poor weather conditions have severely impacted search operations and resulted in delays to search operations of around 6-8 weeks,” the ATSB said in its weekly operational update.

“Since the onset of poor conditions associated with winter weather, progress has slowed with only a minimal area searched during this time.”

As a result, the ATSB reaffirmed previous guidance that should the run of bad weather continue, the remaining 10,000 square kilometres yet to be searched could run “well beyond the winter months”.

About 110,000 square kilometres of the 120,000 square kilometre search area has been covered.

The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China have said previously that in the absence of new leads the search would not be expanded beyond the current 120,000 square kilometre area.

The ATSB said marginal weather conditions still allowed the use of deep tow equipment. Further, the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) used to search areas that the deep tow sonar could not was only able to be used in calmer conditions in spring and summer.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said he would meet with representatives from Malaysia and China on Friday to discuss the search effort.

Also attending the Ministerial Tripartite Meeting at Putrajaya just outside Kuala Lumpur will be Malaysian Minister of Transport Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai and Chinese Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang, Chester said.

“I’m looking forward to meeting with our international partners in the search for MH370. The search has been unprecedented in both size and scale, conducted in some of the world’s most isolated waters and at times in extremely challenging weather,” Chester said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The meeting will provide an opportunity to reflect on achievements to date and discuss next steps as we near completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area.”

Quote:Ministers to meet to discuss MH370



Media Release

DC077/2016

20 July 2016

 
Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester will meet with counterparts from Malaysia and the People's Republic of China later this week to discuss the way forward in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Ministerial Tripartite Meeting will be held on Friday in the Malaysian federal administrative centre of Putrajaya. Malaysian Minister of Transport, Dato' Sri Liow Tiong Lai will host the meeting which will also be attended by the Minister of Transport from the People's Republic of China, Mr Yang Chuantang.

“I'm looking forward to meeting with our international partners in the search for MH370. The search has been unprecedented in both size and scale, conducted in some of the world's most isolated waters and at times in extremely challenging weather,” Mr Chester said.

“The meeting will provide an opportunity to reflect on achievements to date and discuss next steps as we near completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area.”

The Governments of Malaysia, Australia and the People's Republic of China agreed in April 2015 that should the aircraft not be located within the 120,000 square kilometre search area and in the absence of any new credible evidence the search area would not be extended.

Further update via Reuters:

Quote:We've been looking in the wrong place, MH370 search team says
SYDNEY | By Jonathan Barrett and Swati Pandey


A crew member from the Royal Malaysian Air Force uses binoculars onboard a Malaysian Air Force CN235 aircraft during a Search and Rescue (SAR) operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in the Straits of Malacca March 13, 2014.
Reuters/Samsul Said


SYDNEY Top searchers at the Dutch company leading the underwater hunt for Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 say they believe the plane may have glided down rather than dived in the final moments, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean for two years.

Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew onboard en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Searchers led by engineering group Fugro have been combing an area roughly the size of Greece for two years.

That search, over 120,000 square kilometers of the southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia, is expected to end in three months and could be called off after that following a meeting of key countries Malaysia, China and Australia on Friday. So far, nothing has been found.

"If it's not there, it means it's somewhere else," Fugro project director Paul Kennedy told Reuters.

While Kennedy does not exclude extreme possibilities that could have made the plane impossible to spot in the search zone, he and his team argue a more likely option is the plane glided down - meaning it was manned at the end - and made it beyond the area marked out by calculations from satellite images.

"If it was manned it could glide for a long way," Kennedy said. "You could glide it for further than our search area is, so I believe the logical conclusion will be well maybe that is the other scenario."

Doubts that the search teams are looking in the right place will likely fuel calls for all data to be made publicly available so that academics and rival companies can pursue an "open source" solution - a collaborative public answer to the airline industry's greatest mystery.

Fugro's controlled glide hypothesis is also the first time officials have leant some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight's final moments.

Since the crash there have been competing theories over whether one, both or no pilots were in control, whether it was hijacked - or whether all aboard perished and the plane was not controlled at all when it hit the water. Adding to the mystery, investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off the plane's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles.

The glide view is not supported by the investigating agencies: America's Boeing Co, France's Thales SA, U.S. investigator the National Transportation Safety Board, British satellite company Inmarsat PLC, the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

CARRY ON

The meeting between officials from China, Australia and Malaysia is expected to discuss the future of the search. The three governments have previously agreed that unless any new credible evidence arises the search would not be extended, despite calls from victims' families.

Any further search would require a fresh round of funding from the three governments on top of the almost A$180 million ($137 million) that has already been spent, making it the most expensive in aviation history.

Deciding the search area in 2014, authorities assumed the plane had no "inputs" during its final descent, meaning there was no pilot or no conscious pilot. They believe it was on auto-pilot and spiraled when it ran out of fuel.

But Kennedy said a skilled pilot could glide the plane approximately 120 miles (193 km) from its cruising altitude after running out of fuel. One pilot told Reuters it would be slightly less than that.

For the aircraft to continue gliding after fuel has run out, someone must manually put the aircraft into a glide – nose down with controlled speed.

"If you lose all power, the auto-pilot kicks out. If there is nobody at the controls, the aircraft will plummet down," said a captain with experience flying Boeing 777s - the same as MH370. Like all pilots interviewed for this story, he declined to be named given the controversy around the lost jet.

Fugro works on a "confidence level" of 95 percent, a statistical measurement used, in Fugro's case, to indicate how certain the plane debris was not in the area they have already combed, a seabed peppered with steep cliffs and underwater volcanoes.

"The end-of-flight scenarios are absolutely endless," Fugro managing director Steve Duffield said. "Which wing ran out of fuel first, did it roll this way or did it tip that way?"

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the agency coordinating the search, has consistently defended the defined search zone. It did not immediately respond to questions over whether it was assessing the controlled glide theory.

Authorities used data provided by Inmarsat to locate the likely plunge point through communication between the plane and satellite ground station.

"All survey data collected from the search for missing flight MH370 will be released," an ATSB spokesman said

MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Peetwo - 07-23-2016

Dazzling Dazza, the ventriloquist dummy, shines in KL -

(07-22-2016, 08:03 AM)Peetwo Wrote:  

(07-19-2016, 09:09 PM)Peetwo Wrote:  Fresh from his selfie tour -

Via OzFlying's Hitch:

Quote:Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester chats with general aviation people at Tamworth. (Steve Hitchen)

Chester pledges More Consultation with GA


Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/latest/chester-pledges-more-consultation-with-ga#F6D2q0fmIHHwGmSi.99

Here is the link for Dazzling Dazza the WOFTAM miniscule with NFI - Media Release DC076/2016 18 July 2016

Oh FFS Malcolm & Barnaby please give the industry someone (like a David Fawcett) who has half an idea where the pointy end of an aircraft is..  

This numbnut is way too busy self-flagellating, self-promoting himself around the countryside to truly give a rat's arse about aviation & aviation safety in this country - besides Nick Xenophon will eat him for breakfast...

Chester's selfie tour moves to KL -

While the Chest-ire (the selfie) Cat rubs shoulders with the Chinese & Malaysian's - with absolutely NFI what he is talking about - in Dunceunda land Dick's tea party goes off without a hitch... :

(07-22-2016, 11:18 PM)Gobbledock Wrote:  Perm boy;

"Mr Chester said he wanted to reassure the victims' families and loved ones that they were "on the same team" and authorities were also desperate to find answers and locate the aircraft".

How dare you...on the 'same team'? You lying lowlife piece of grime. 'Same team' my ass you stain. You go home to your family at night. MH370 victims loved ones  don't sleep at night due to not having their loved ones beside them. Don't you dare put yourself or your crooked Government bipartite mates in the same boat as the families of the deceased.

Chester, 'your team' didn't screw up the search because there was never a proper search in the first place, you deliberately searched in the wrong areas. Reasons why? Well you and your cronies know why, but of course the rest of us will most likely never be elevated high enough up societies ladder to find out the truth. But one day the ocean will give up all it's secrets old mate, it always does. One day........tick tock

&..Via triple D's office: 

Quote:..Thank you Minister Liow.


I would like to thank you and Minister Yang, for our productive discussions and the cooperative manner in which you have approached the complex issues that we have discussed today.

Today's announcement is very significant not only for our three countries, but more importantly for the family and friends of those on board the aircraft. I take this opportunity to honour the memory of the passengers and crew on board MH370 and acknowledge the enormous loss felt by their loved ones.

The search for MH370 is currently ongoing. At this very moment vessels are in the search area carrying out their challenging work and we remain hopeful the aircraft will be located.

However, should this not occur, we have today agreed to suspend the search at the completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area.

This decision was not taken lightly nor without sadness and I want to emphasise that our work is continuing in analysing data, inspecting debris and considering all new information.

However, in the absence of credible new evidence to assist in identifying the specific location of the aircraft, a further search is not currently viable. We have been mindful that any future search needs to have a high likelihood of success to justify raising the hopes of family and friends.

I want to impress upon the families the enormous task that has been undertaken over the last two and a half years and assure them that every effort has been made to locate the aircraft.

We have used the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field.

I have been overwhelmed by the commitment and dedication shown by the hundreds of people involved in this unprecedented challenge.

I want to reassure family and friends: we are all on the same team, we all want to find answers to the questions about what happened to MH370 and we all want to locate the aircraft.

I would like to make particular mention of the crews on the ships that have continued to work in extreme weather conditions in one of the most inhospitable areas in the world, in an attempt to provide answers.

I also commend all those involved on land, planning the search, analysing data and coordinating search efforts. Their tireless work has continued to improve our knowledge of the search area and is critical in our efforts to find the aircraft.

I note media commentary regarding the identification of the priority search area and offer the following comment:

Everyone is entitled to an opinion but I won't be second guessing the experts.

We have relied on expert analysis of the facts we have to work on and made decisions to search in the ‘most probable’ location for MH370

This decision was based on what we know from the last satellite communications with the aircraft. This information shows the aircraft was in a high rate of descent, so we believe the aircraft will be located somewhere near what is known as the 7th arc.

We remain hopeful that we will still locate the aircraft in the remaining priority area, but if we don't I hope that new information will come to light and that the aircraft will be located.

Following on (from the above): Once again miniscule Chester overwhelmingly proves why he is the perfect foil (read photogenic filter) for Barnaby & Malcolm in all things aeronautical, including the MH370 cock-up and/or cover-up smokescreen. However this does not mean PAIN & others will not call him out when he makes bollocks, NFI statements like the one above...

 E.g. in 'bold' via PT today:

Quote:MH370 gets a weird tripartite media conference in Malaysia

Tonight’s very strange tripartite media conference by the MH370 search partners Malaysia, China and Australia needs the be unpacked to separate the weird from the misleading.

The early reports in the Australian media have breathlessly reported that the three nations have agreement to suspend the search in the absence of new credible leads following the exhaustion of the current priority search zone in the south Indian Ocean.

That isn’t new, although Darren Chester, the Australian minister responsible for aviation, claimed it was new. This has been the position of the Australian Government and its search partners for a long time.

In fact the oldest surviving Operational Update to recite that decision on the ATSB website as of tonight is dated January 13, 2016.

What was new was the agreed statement that completing sonar scanning of the less than 10,000 square kilometres remaining within the original 120,000 square kilometre priority search zone could take until October, November or even December because of delays caused by wild weather and equipment failures.

It will be then, as recited by the ATSB every week for a very long time, that the search would end unless there was a discovery of the sunk wreckage of the missing airliner, or a credible new lead as to its location.

MH370 was being operated between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing by a Malaysia Airlines 777-200ER with 239 people onboard on March 8, 2014, when it vanished as a transponder identified flight on air traffic control screens.

Why Mr Chester would lend himself to that farcical part of tonight’s media conference is unknown.

However the brief media session after the ceremonial statements heard Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai explain that he was attempting to persuade France to repatriate the first identified fragment of MH370, a flaperon found on the French Indian Ocean island of La Réunion in July last year, back to Malaysia.

Mr Liow made this startling disclosure when he was challenged several times by Nine network reporter Ross Coulthart to reveal what analysis of that part of the jet’s wing had revealed.  Mr Liow didn’t answer the question, which was wrapped up in Mr Coulthart’s assertion that a source had said the flaperon showed that MH370 had glided before it crashed.

(Mr Coulthart’s information as to it gliding appears unlikely to be correct in that the ping analysis from the jet indicates a high rate of descent before impact with the sea, and 777s are all but uncontrollable after they run out of fuel.
While his premise appears incorrect, Mr Coulthart’s question did produce an astonishing answer.)

It is useful to note at this stage of the unpacking of this awkward Q and A session in Putrajaya that the reason France may be playing hard ball with Malaysia is that the Public Prosecutor in Paris, who has custody of the flaperon, was reported last year by the Wall Street Journal to be concerned at a lack of cooperation from Kuala Lumpur for his criminal inquiries into the cause of death of the four French nationals who were on board  MH370.

Of course, this may be a case of incorrectly connecting the dots. But there must be a reason for Mr Liow to give an answer indicating a prima facie total lack of cooperation between France and Malaysia on this point.

The large section of what is believed to be the part of the right hand wing of MH370 adjacent to and outboard of the recovered flaperon is however now in the custody of the ATSB, and if there are any insights to be revealed by it in relation to the impact of the jet, they should tell the same tale as the smaller section found on La Réunion.

All of the fragments of MH370 now collected exhibit external signs of making a high energy impact with the ocean, not some sort of gentle controlled ditching which would have required electrical and hydraulic systems to be running off engine power in order to move critical control surfaces.  The internal debris already studied by the ATSB shows signs of blunt force delivered by water smashing its way through the fuselage.

Mr Liow appeared to say that there was ‘no evidence’ of a gliding landing on the sea when pressed by Mr Coulthart, but the acoustics and delivery made the media conference difficult to follow on a live video link.

That isn’t itself controversial. After being prepared to consider that gliding possibility late last year the ATSB led search appears to have firmly come down on the side of an energetic impact with the sea, one which would have smashed the jet into hundreds even thousands of pieces of floating debris, as well as sending its heavy dense parts like the landing gear and the two engines and stronger sections of the fuselage, wings and tail to the bottom of the sea.

The three ministers made it clear that when the current search zone is finally fully sonar scanned the operations would be ‘suspended’ rather than abandoned. That suspension would end, as has been said since last year, when a credible new lead as to the location of the jet emerged.

MTF...P2

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - ventus45 - 07-23-2016

"Suspension"
The perfect political "get out of jail", ie, "cop-out".
Suspension is the perfect political "device" to put the investigation into official permanent limbo.
It means that the investigation is technically, that is, legally, still on-going, but "progress" has stopped.
This effectively means that no information of substance (even if it exists) will ever be released at all.
There will be no further reports, and certainly no "final" report.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Gobbledock - 07-23-2016

In regards to that idiot Chesters press release, this is the same reason the USA will shortly vote in Donald Trump as President and the same reason the Australian independents earned 25% of the vote last election - the public are not only awake but are sick to death of politically worded bullshit that is spun, stretched, deceptively worded or is an outright lie.

We've pretty much had enough, and that is why the troops are rebelling. The game is up and the trickery and smoke and mirrors that has worked for the past century is now old and boring. The majority of us pissants are more intelligent than you bureaucratic wankers.

Mr Chester, your reasoning for stopping the search is a crock of shit. We know there is a coverup, we have our theories and don't have all the evidence but we know it's all bullshit. You're speaking to educated people mate.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - BugsyM - 07-23-2016

Yes its all been pure bullshit from the get go, all of the number crunchers from the IG couldn't find the plane (because its not there) and with the announcement of the end of the search looming, they had to come up with another story to distract people yet again. So lets blame the captain, the only problem is that the FBI emphatically stated (WSJ) that nothing was found on Z's flight sim, only now changing their story. Why sit on this for 2 years and all that money wasted in searching for something that simply wasn't there and they knew it all along. why? the millions of $$$ question.

The FBI lie? Oh no they wouldn't do that would they? Governments don't lie, anyone who believes that, well I got some land for sale in timbuktu for you too. Its fairly obvious now that this isn't just a cock-up, but a major cover up. It has been very obvious that Malaysia doesn't want the plane found, but now it appears as though the USA doesn't either.

I guess they realized that their jig was up and that people weren't buying into the ghost theory plane into the SIO anymore, so they had to come up with a better plan. Oh yeah lets blame the captain, although we know he didn't do it and claimed that his flight sim didn't have anything incriminating on it. But oh yeah he did practice SIO landings on a broken flight sim, oh but the public doesn't need to know that either. Z's family said it had been not working since 2013, but who cares what family says, its not important!!!

I have nothing but contempt for governments after all I've seen and heard in the last couple of years. Pure bullshit doesn't even come close, it does appear as though we the people are only important to vote them in, but after that "we" don't matter to them anymore. Sad state of affairs and this world is going to hell faster every day.

The families deserve answers, but it appears as though governments aren't going to let that happen any time soon, very sad and tragic.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - BugsyM - 07-24-2016

The US hijacked this search from the beginning, but why??? There has to be a good reason that they withheld this information, or just more political bullshit. Maybe they did shoot it down somewhere near sumatra (if it was heading anywhere towards DG they would have) The debris found to date indicates a much further north crash site. This new flight path that Jeff Wise indicated on his site is much further south, would need a lot more fuel than the plane had to get that far. Now who is lying????? This is just pure BULLSHIT!!!

The fact that they said in the beginning that nothing was found on Z's flight sim. Now this story 2 years later and billions of $$$$ spent on a bogus search. Why did Jeff Wise get the scoop? This whole thing stinks as Brock McEwen said, really bad!!!!!

The US was playing nicey nice with Malaysia for the past 2 years, helping them cover up or vice versa. The US was first to announce the Inmarsat data when Malay denied it. Then US president Obama goes to Malaysia, first time a US pres been there in 48 years!! Next thing you see on the news is a surprise visit to Hawaii by Hishy meeting with US Dept of Defense Chuck Hagel. Then all of a sudden OBama is playing golf with Najib in Hawaii. All these things are not a coincidence either, all part of the master plan to pacify Malaysia and keep them as an ally or puppets.

Now they US are throwing Malaysia to the wolves and be damned that Malaysia was their ally in the SCS. The US is now seizing assets in the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia will have to pay back all that insurance money if Z did disappear this plane. I still don't think he did, never did either. This is all just one colossal big effing lie to cover up what really happened. The shootdown scenario is starting to look more and more like a possibility to me. I never believed it for a minute, but now am beginning to wonder. Something very fishy here, the smell is getting worse too. Be interesting to see what transpires now after this leak from Jeff Wise. Did he get the scoop of a lifetime, or was it strategically planned all along. Who knows, but something is definitely not right here.

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RE: Australia, ATSB and MH 370 - Kharon - 07-24-2016

The Sandilands article on Plane Talking, from Crikey is a wonderful piece of tongue very firmly in cheek, analysis. This bizarre little press conference (and photo opportunity) combined with the French contretemps’ is ‘intriguing’.  The Malaysian desperate attempt  to put a lid on a can of snakes and control the narrative, ably assisted by Darren of the NFI clan is becoming a farce worthy of a movie; black humour to be sure.  The intrepid GD intercepted a letter from 'Dazza' in response to Ben's questions and sent a copy to Aunty Pru:- herewith, only slightly censored

 * * * * * * * *  ~ ~ ~  * * *
Dear Ben.

Q - “Why Mr Chester would lend himself to that farcical part of tonight’s media conference is unknown.”

A – Well Ben, it is a great photo opportunity and a chance to be seen on the world stage.  I have my lines to recite, rehearsed them in front of my mirror (selfie), in my motel room (selfie); and, provided I only speak the words given to me; all is well and I can pose and preen to a much bigger audience.  There is also an opportunity to promote my latest coffee table book – ‘Me - in my favourite selfies’.

“[However] the brief media session after the ceremonial statements heard Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai explain that he was attempting to persuade France to repatriate the first identified fragment of MH370, "etc.

A) There’s another good reason Ben; you see the art of looking great and nodding at the right moment is taught at my finishing school (along with dancing, cooking and DIY hair colouring) and these skills were required that night. I have been briefed to support our partners, no matter how much ridiculous twaddle they spout,  There is no finer way of doing this than to nod sagely, at just the right moment.  It also helps to be totally ignorant of the facts; then I won’t look startled by an obvious pony-pooh line and can maintain the gravitas required of a man in my position.  Being as dumb as a pub toilet seat is of great assistance.  Here is a classic example.

“That isn’t new, although Darren Chester, the Australian minister responsible for aviation, claimed it was new. This has been the position of the Australian Government and its search partners for a long time.”

You see I don’t know any better; so my delivery was dead pan and I could look ‘honest’ while I said my lines and had my photo taken; so many times; I’ll have excess luggage to come home with, so many copies to sign for the Dancing with the Stars crowd.  {Memo to self;  I must not forget the dear folk at MKR, they’ll want some too}.

So dearest Ben; there you have it and you, as an intelligent human can easily discern just why my appointment to the ministry is so important; no one does dumb and naïve like I do, without even a hint of vanity or self interest.  

Yours ever so sincerely – Dancing, Dazzling, Darren: your hope for the future.

Signed Selfie attached.


Toot - heave - toot - retch.

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