[Peetwo]

Christoph Mueller (left) speaks as James Hogan, President and CEO of Etihad Airways looks on during a panel discussion at the 2015 International Air Transport Association AGM and World Air Transport Summit in Miami Beach, Florida, June 8, 2015. — Reute

MH370 4 August developments

From the Oz:

Flight MH370 experts holding talks

Malaysian aviation ­experts were to meet their French counterparts and judges last night to co-ordinate the investigation into missing Flight MH370, days after the discovery of a washed-up plane part ­offered fresh hopes of solving the mystery.
 

Technical experts, including from Boeing, will from today begin examining the wing component that surfaced last week on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion.

The 2m flaperon, already confirmed to be part of a Boeing 777, is virtually certain to have come from the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight, as no other such plane is known to have crashed in the area.

In one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history, MH370 inexplicably veered off course last March and dis­appeared from radars, sparking a colossal hunt that has until now proved fruitless.

In January, Malaysian authorities declared all 239 people on board MH370 presumed dead.

The wing part will undergo physical and chemical analysis in the southern French city of Toulouse in a bid to prove beyond doubt that the flaperon once belonged to MH370.

It will be examined with an electron microscope “that can magnify up to 10,000 times” to try to understand how it was damaged, said Pierre Bascary, former director of tests at France’s General Directorate for Armaments.

Experts have warned grieving families not to expect startling revelations from a single part. “We shouldn’t expect miracles from this analysis,” said Jean-Paul Troadec, former head of France’s BEA flight authority.

In order to provide clues as to what happened to the aircraft, “the part would need to be at the centre of the accident and the chances are fairly small,” he noted. “With two square metres of plane, it will be difficult to be sure.”

More than 9000km away, locals on La Reunion were scouring the beaches for more debris that could offer further clues.

What has been described as a “treasure hunt” mentality has led to false alarms, with locals handing in “plane debris” only to discover it is nothing more than ocean rubbish.

“People are calling us for everything,” said a local source close to the investigation.
On Sunday, there was a frenzy of speculation over what ­locals believed to be a plane door but authorities quickly shot down the hopes.

Malaysia’s director-general of civil aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the metallic part was “actually from a domestic ladder. It is not a door.”

Also on Sunday, La Reunion police collected a mangled piece of metal with Chinese characters and attached to what appeared to be a leather-covered handle, sparking more frenzied speculation. Chinese internet users suggested it may be a kettle.

“People are more vigilant. They are going to think any metallic object they find on the beach is from Flight MH370, but there are objects all along the coast, the ocean continually throws them up,” said Jean-Yves Sambim­anan, the spokesman for Saint-Andre where the wing ­debris was found.

Scientists say it is plausible that ocean currents carried a piece of the wreckage as far as La Reunion, but Roland Triadec, a local oceanographer, said La ­Reunion represented only “a pinhead” in the Indian Ocean and the likelihood of other debris washing up there was low.
AFP

 
Too little to late
Next there was this reported in the West Australian & Yahoo7: 

Plea to search coast for MH370 debris

Geoffrey Thomas August 4, 2015, 12:35 am



Plane debris found on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion.

Malaysia has asked for help from around the southern Indian Ocean, including WA’s South West coast, to look for possible debris from MH370 but urged caution after false leads.

Yesterday Charitha Pattiaratchi, professor of coastal oceanography at the University of WA, reiterated that computer modelling indicated debris from MH370 could have washed up in the South West.

Modelling also showed debris could have reached as far as South Australia and Tasmania.

Only human intervention could cause crash

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But it is unknown how much debris from MH370 could still be floating.

In April last year debris was found on a beach 10km east of Augusta but it was from a light plane.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told news agency Agence France-Presse that authorities asked counterparts in other Indian Ocean territories to look out for debris that could provide more clues to the missing aircraft.
 
He said Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation was urging authorities to let experts “conduct more substantive analysis should there be more debris coming on to land, providing us more clues to the missing aircraft”.

“I urge all parties to allow this crucial investigation process to take its course,” Mr Liow said.

“I reiterate this is for the sake of the next of kin of the loved ones of MH370 who would be anxiously awaiting news and have suffered much over this time.

“We will make an announcement once the verification process has been completed.”

On Sunday, Britain’s SkyNews reported a small aircraft door or panel was found but it turned out to be part of a ladder. But Mr Liow confirmed the flaperon found last week on Reunion Island was “officially identified” as from a Boeing 777 by the joint investigative team of Boeing, the US National Transportation Safety Board and Malaysian and French authorities.

A key identification tag that would link the flaperon to a particular aircraft was missing, so a more forensic investigation was needed.

Confirmation of which aircraft the flaperon belonged to is expected on Thursday.

Do we care?
Finally (for now) there was this...

MH370 ‘social media hype’ hurting Malaysian Airlines’ demand


KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — Media coverage of the search for missing Flight 370 is hurting ticket sales at MalaysiaAirlines, chief executive officer Christoph Mueller said.


“Particularly pronounced” coverage of the search for MH370, which is thought to have crashed in the Indian Ocean off Australia’s western coast in March 2014, “correlates unfortunately but very positively with our demand figures” in Australia, Mueller told a conference in Sydney today.

“It is fueled in most cases by social media hype.”

Last  Wednesday, investigators in France will begin testing a wing part from a Boeing Co 777 — the same type as the missing plane — that was found on Reunion island, a French territory east of Africa. If the part, known as a flaperon, is confirmed to be from Flight 370, it will be the first physical remnant recovered from the aircraft.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said a suitcase discovered near the part also will be studied.
“We have been always cooperating with the investigators since day one, and so do we today,” Mueller said.

 He declined to comment further on Malaysia Air’s involvement in the investigation in Paris or specify what assistance the carrier was providing.

Flight 370 was en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in March 2014 when it vanished without a trace with 239 people on board.

By analysing satellite signals, investigators concluded the jet turned back over the Indian Ocean.

The wreckage that washed ashore in Reunion is the strongest clue yet in a search that is now the longest ever for a missing commercial jet.

Ships using deep-sea sonar have already scanned more than 55,000 square kilometers of the seabed southwest of Australia.

Demand at Malaysia Air plunged demand last year after the disasters with Flight 370 and Flight 17, which crashed over Ukraine in July 2014 in an accident the U.S. and other countries attribute to a missile attack from pro-Russian separatists.

It’s now wholly owned by Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, which took the carrier private in a RM1.38 billion buyout and has committed to invest RM6 billion to restructure the airline.

The airline will restart under a new legal identity on Sept 1, Mueller said today.
It will cut expenses to a level where the main carrier is competitive with low-cost rivals such as AirAsia Bhd, Singapore Airlines Ltd’s Scoot Pte and Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd, he said.

“We will embark as a new carrier,” he said.

It’s “a complete reset of the system”. — Bloomberg

MTF...P2