[Peetwo]

Back to basics.

P2 - “[The Australian Transport Safety Bureau based its selection of the area to be searched]” etc.


Why was it the ATSB that ‘selected’ the area to be searched. When an aircraft or ship is ‘lost’ it is always the AMSA that manages and coordinates the ‘search’. That is one of their primary functions and they have, in the past, proven to be very good at it. Contacts, expertise, and working agreements in place with ‘emergency’ services to support a search effort.

Then I wonder about the methodology used to define the search area – again, ATSB have no expertise in that area, AMSA have; and then the speed at which the area selected reduced in size based on limited data raised many an eyebrow. The speed at which ATSB reached their conclusion of a ‘ghost flight’ on flimsy evidence begs many questions.

Speculation and theorising is all well and good, in the media, in professional circles, in academia – I’d bet good money there were (and are still) some on going ‘discussions’. This is all a normal, routine response to any air accident, particularly 370 as it is shrouded in mystery. But for a government department only the known provable facts should be considered. Investigation first, evidence second, search area definition based on that; not on one of a possible three ‘viable’ scenarios.

There is a growing number of people who are coming to the conclusion that it would be most inconvenient to find the aircraft. There is some fairly substantial reasoning behind that theory; I do stress ‘theory’. But, the question begs a honest answer.

Time passing usually blunts interest and inquiry; but 370 remains a ‘great mystery’. The biggest question of all is why has it not been found? Perhaps it is not meant to be found. If the spectre of Electronic Terrorism (ET) has been seen, it would be a fair bet that no government would want it to be known. That, stand alone, supports a reasonable argument for what appears to be a cover up. The first clue, IMO, is the summary dismissal of a world class Search and Rescue operation (AMSA) and replacing it with an accident investigator – without an aircraft to ‘investigate’.

Fascinating idle speculation I know; but the Vance book raises many questions; which deserve at very least, serious academic discussion.

Toot - toot.

From the #MH370 archives - Courtesy Oceankoto via freemalaysiatoday.com: 

---

ATSB threatens staff with jail if MH370 details leaked

FMT Reporters -April 17, 2017 2:28 PM



PETALING JAYA: Investigators in Australia are coming down hard against any possible leak of information pertaining to its search for missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 by threatening to jail staff members, The Australian reported.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) gave this warning after having refused to release material pertaining to the search efforts, as requested by families of the Chinese passengers of the ill-fated flight.

Invoking an article of law that was rarely used under the Transport Safety Investigation Act, ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said the request was denied because the release of the ­information could “cause damage to the international relations of the commonwealth”.

“The activities of the ATSB with respect to assisting the Malaysian investigation are covered by the TSI Act,” Hood said in supporting a decision that was made in February by the ATSB general manager for strategic capability Colin McNamara when the latter denied a Freedom of Information request which was first made by The Australian.

According to the daily, the law also carries with it a penalty of two years in jail, should any ATSB employee leak the requested information.

“The act allows for a serving or former ATSB staffer or consultant who discloses information to any person or to a court; and the information is ­restricted, to be considered as having breached the act, and be subject to a penalty of two years in prison,” Hood was quoted as saying.

Following the decision, the families of the Chinese passengers accused Australia of being complicit in a cover-up by the Malaysian government.

“Is avoiding offending the ­Malaysian authorities more important than discovering the truth?” the families said in a statement after the first request was refused in February.

The particular information requested was said to be documents that the ATSB had claimed supported its “ghost flight” and “death dive” scenario, which holds the Boeing 777 went down in an unpiloted crash.

However, according to The Australian, some ATSB officers are having second thoughts about the agency’s official line that MH370’s ­pilots were unconscious or dead at the end of the flight. Hence, the fear that some of the documents may be leaked.

Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese, en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Its whereabouts have become one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

The disappearance of MH370 sparked the largest and most expensive search operation in aviation history.

However, Australia, China and Malaysia, which jointly coordinated and funded the search operation led by ATSB, announced in January the suspension of the search for MH370.

---

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

#MH370: OAIC rule in favour of Higgins and the Oz right to know. -   

From that man, via the Oz:

---

Watchdog intervenes in MH370 gag interview


EXCLUSIVE
EAN HIGGINS
REPORTER
@EanHiggins

9:11PM NOVEMBER 11, 2019

The Department of Defence has been forced to reveal the name of an official who suppressed details about why a Defence scientist was gagged, after intervention by the information watchdog.

Defence official Justine Nordin had remained anonymous a year ago in responding to a freedom-of-information request on why the department had not allowed Defence Science and Technology Group expert Neil Gordon to be interviewed by The Australian.

But the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner determined the law clearly states that all formal responses to an FOI request must identify by name the decision-maker, and Defence has now identified Ms Nordin and said it has reviewed its procedures to make sure it complies in future.
 
The Australian had sought to speak with Dr Gordon in relation to his work on satellite data connected with the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in 2014. The request was refused.

The head of the Defence media unit, Amy Hawkins, at the time would not say why the interview request was turned down, but said the decision had been taken at a high level. Rather than release her name as required under the FOI Act, Ms Nordin had “digitally signed” the original decision in which she released some old correspondence between The Australian and Defence, but redacted other material in relation to the decision to not grant the interview with Dr Gordon.

“While I accept there is a public interest in the internal procedures of Defence in the management of media requests and that Defence undertakes its functions in a transparent and proper manner, on balance, it would be contrary to the public interest to release” the ­material sought, Ms Nordin said in her decision.

When The Australian sought guidance from the OAIC on ­Defence’s failure to identify the officer who made the decision, a spokeswoman for the commissioner said “under section 26(1) of the FOI Act, decision-makers must give a statement of reasons that includes the name and designation of the person making the decision”.

Despite The Australian passing on this information to Ms Hawkins a year ago, Defence did not provide the name of the decision-maker until the newspaper made an official complaint to the OAIC, and that body intervened.

Contacted by The Australian on Monday, Ms Nordin would not say why she did not, as required under the act, reveal her name when she first made her decision, but said she had informed the OAIC. Defence’s acting director of FOI, Kris Quaedvlieg, said the ­department accepted the law ­required that Ms Nordin provide her name, and said “I am sure there has been a discussion” with her.

Ms Quaedvlieg said the department had reviewed other FOI ­decisions and introduced protocols to ensure it complied with the FOI Act in future.

The tendency to refuse to ­release information on MH370 has also been the usual approach of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which failed in its $200m underwater search for the downed aircraft.

Ger
6 HOURS AGO

We haven’t found it yet.

despite all the high tech equipment used.

despite all the scientific brains participating in the satellites data analysis.

We are told the “calculated splash down zone” has been thoroughly searched
so, clearly its not where we are looking, its somewhere else.

But what if everyone searching was given the same erroneous data to start with?

why has no investigator tracked down the many fishing trawlers in the splash down area of the 7th arc?

shipping trackers show multiple vessels in the area of the 7th arc at the right time for someone from potentially dozens of sailors to have possibly looked up to witness a 777 descending or spiralling out of the sky.

The impact would surely have created a very visible column of white water or loud explosion at the least.

what of the marine tracker screenshot that did the rounds on the net at the time showing several trawlers steaming at speed towards a location well north on the 7th arc.

why is there a dismissive attitude by investigators to public reports of possible sightings? The oil rig worker in the south china sea, the passenger on another flight looking out her window, the yacht at sea near the Andaman islands?

what of the loud explosion detected by the undersea seismology recorders in perth, the event was close to the calculated flameout time of the aircraft but triangulated to a location outside the search area and subsequently dismissed.

I suspect there is a growing number of people going “Hmmmm somethings not right” wheres all the satellite imagery and military early warning/tracking radar reports?

And now we hear of defence officials on the 10th floor frustrating freedom of information requests from the press.

what are they hiding?

The conspiracy deepens.


Call in the FBI i reckon.

---

Mike
7 HOURS AGO

Well done Ean, keep knocking on the door.

---

Marian
10 HOURS AGO

These things should not be secret. Public servants should not be building palisades around their work.

Tony

---

Gimiston
17 HOURS AGO

Just how much does Defence know about the disappearance of MH370? London to a brick they know where it is and privy to a lot more details of it's disappearance.

---

gregory
3 HOURS AGO

Decided what happened then massaged the evidence to fit. No one could be completely sure of but its most likely MH 370 was flown onto the water. To many real authorities have concluded this rather than the ATSB s hypothesis of armchair investigators. They were badly shown up by the coroners court after the Whyalla air disaster yet never relented with their disproved analysis

---

Alan
17 HOURS AGO

Once again we see self opinionated civil servants extending their beliefs that they are above the law.Even now this person(she) still thinks that is still the case by not stating her reasons why she acted in the manner she did.

It's apparent she acted in a manner that contravened the act and what penalty did she incur.
Question is,if we the plebs contravened any act would we escape any retribution?.No doubt the answer is obvious.

---

Hmm..I hope the Hooded Canary has been practicing his singing....  

MTF...P2 

[Kharon]

Quite a three pipe problem.

I’ve always wondered why there has been an air of secrecy and ‘gag’ around the 370 event. It’s uncommon, to the point of rarity: take any of the major accidents in recent history as a yardstick, all available information out there and the majority of FOI answered. The 370 story went almost ‘dark’ pretty much from when AMSA were dumped. Why?

If a question cannot be answered, that, in the 370 case is fair enough – “sorry, we just don’t know” would be a reasonable answer. When a question can be answered, then why not respond – even if it is an answer qualified with a rider “based on the best information available” etc.

The whole episode was shrouded in its own mystery and puzzling enough for the most determined of sleuths and conspiracy clubs. So why compound the mystery by gagging folk who may have a valid opinion, or idea. ATSB threatened jail for speculation outside of closed doors. Why? To what purpose.

But what could be so secret about a passenger flight, lost ‘at sea’ that the military would go to extreme lengths to prevent a media interview of a Defence scientist? This is the sort of behaviour which simply feeds ‘conspiracy theorists’ and promotes suspicion. In all probability, the named Group expert Neil Gordon only has his own ‘theory’ based on information available, same as everyone else. Unless there is something to hide and there is information which is not being shared.  If so, what is it and why?

It ain’t ‘suspicious’ but it is ‘cock-eyed’. Why should ATSB prevent open discussion with accredited crash investigators – it’s a fair bet there would be ‘dissention’ in the ranks, which, in the name of ‘investigation’ can only be healthy. Why should any Defence scientists be gagged; not allowed to openly and publicly present their ‘theory’; where’s the harm in discussion?

I don’t ‘get-it’ – if there’s nothing untoward to hide, then why prevent discussion which may stimulate resolution of the ‘mystery’. If there’s nothing to hide, then why go to extreme lengths to prevent open discussion? There can only be four, perhaps five major causes of the disappearance; it should be possible to refine those to a probability or two. In the beginning this event was land based; the solution is on the ground; someone, somewhere knows exactly what happened; one of the 1886 known satellites may hold a clue; one of the clever radar sites may provide an inkling; who knows. But what is as yet unknown is how, in this modern age can a passenger aircraft just vanish without a trace. Threats of jail and gags don’t help find the aircraft; just fuel the flames of conspiracy and suspicion, where there should be none. Why?

ET rules OK.

[aussie500]

Well when I asked the Australian Defence Department for the surface search photo's from the search area of 18th-27th March they chose to falsify the release schedule to make it seem like they had complied. They did not release what I asked for, they released hundreds of photo's from up north, which were useless for what I needed them for, I already knew where the wreckage site was, I wanted to know if an analysis of those photo's especially the ones from the 24th March would have revealed what was submerged in a small part of that area, and I wanted an explanation for the seemingly strange behavior of the wreckage and debris. I wanted to see what else was in the area, and might have been more visible on the surface in an actual photo.

When the AMSA sightings report was released under FOI, all the USN P8 sightings in the search area were redacted, apparently just a description, time and location of their sightings would cause damage to the international relations of the Commonwealth. Well from one of the few useful things I got with my FOI request for the southern surface search images, the P8 had 9 sightings just east of my area on March 21st, they were the reason the search area was expanded further east. There were a lot of sightings completely redacted from the AMSA report.

You could get a hint of how much was seen from the ATSB final report, they listed each group of sightings as just one sighting, so the P8 sightings from March 21st, if they even got a mention would have been listed as one sighting. The March 24th RAAF sightings all in the same area would have made 2 sightings in the final report, since 2 separate aircraft made those 8 sightings, or did they maybe bunch them all together as 1 sighting? There would have been a lot more sightings but at least 2 people had to see each object and be able to describe it, how many objects were only seen by one person? There was a lot of stuff in that area, nearly all of it submerged. We have description of 2 other objects (one from the pilot and one from the working screen) and the locaction of one of them that were not even included in that lot.

When I asked the ATSB, WA police and the Federal police for the photo's they all had of the metal panel that washed up near Augusta in April 2014, there was outright collusion, conspiracy and straight out lying to prevent them being released under FOI. For something they had all dismissed as being from MH370 it was very strange the trouble they went to to prevent anyone else from identify that panel. It was not from a boat or caravan as some had attempted to claim, all those materials were used on MH370, I demonstrated that to the ATSB when I first questioned their decision it was not from MH370. It would have been from MH370, but without the photo's the police took of the panel there was no chance of proving it, the photo's the person who found it released only showed the back of the panel, not the remains of the front. You would have to see the front of the central grey strip to have any chance of working out where it came from.

ATSB would not include that Augusta piece in their final report, probably for fear of giving those who objected to the dismissal something they could use. They showed the panel that washed up at Queenscliff, a mistake they will yet rue, that one was even easier to identify, it is part of a galley panel, very distinctive features it had. Well no investigator is going to rock the 7th arc boat to reveal the whole underwater search has been a waste of time. They are not interested in the truth, it would have been simple to check the galley panels and work out which one matched. They are all absolutely confident their precious 7th arc is in the right place, and that Boeing would be able to recognize a bit of B777...

The wreckage site was practically in plain site, there were hundreds of submerged bits and chunks of intact wreckage seen in the sat images in the area of the RAAF sightings of March 24th, some fairly large and many made up of a lot of parts all still intact and joined together. There were hundreds of objects in an even smaller area just north of there. That same area a bit further north had the only sound event that was just minutes after the last ping (Dr Kadri's research), area around that lot had dozens of sightings during the surface search of objects likely to be debris, yet they rush off up north to search where nothing was ever seen or heard. Well they heard those pings that were not from the black boxes, but that was a bit later, and all too convenient a distraction.

The primary radar they say is MH370, is not compatible with the southern wreckage site, MH370 went for no jaunt up the Malacca Strait, I believe they did track an aircraft that flew very close to MH370, close enough to observe what happened, just like there was a military aircraft near MH17, probably just observing what happened according to some of the audio they released trying to blame someone else for what happened.

Speculation, but in my opinion it was deliberate premeditated murder of the people on both MH17 and MH370, and two deliberate coverups. They have at least covered up evidence in the MH370 investigation that would have told them exactly where MH370 ended up, which is no where near that 7th arc. Someone is hiding a lot more information about what happened to cripple MH370. Probably if MH370 had fallen where expected they would have blamed North Korea for shooting it down with some missile. The media campaign stirring up fear and anger against North Korea went strangely quiet for a while after MH370 was lost. I wonder these days just how much of our news is fabricated and how much is real. And unusual for such a disappearance, there were hardly any stories blaming a missile for what happened to MH370. But someone had that fake distress call all ready to go, another indication it was premeditated and not some accident. Once it was obvious MH370 did not crash where ATC lost her, it would not be that hard for such people to fake the mobile tower connection in an attempt to frame the Captain for it.

P2 - excellent well constructed post Aussie 500 and your hypothesis/speculation is none too shabby either. Thank you and the choccy frog is in the mail...

[Peetwo]

BB on MH370 in the sim??

Via the Oz: 

Sim test refutes MH370 ‘dive’ theories



Two months ago in a Boeing 777 simulator I compared the IPG (Independent Pilots’ Group) pilot-controlled descent and ditching of MH370’s final moments with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s death-dive-upon-fuel-exhaustion theory.

Both began at the DSTG (Defence Scientific Technology Group) hotspot on the 7th arc from 39,000 feet and Mach 0.84. The IPG descent at 230 knots indicated airspeed (IAS) stabilised at 1700 feet a minute.

I progressively lowered the flaps; the auxiliary power unit (APU) autostarts at 22,000 feet on remaining fuel and bled the speed back to ditch about 120 knots. In the 3m-4m swell this would have wrecked the aircraft, probably tearing off the engines and flaps and breaking the fuselage at the weakest point — forward wing junction. This took about 20 minutes and covered about 130km. Next, as per the ATSB report, which states when the second engine flamed out the aircraft turned left, I allowed the B777 to enter a left-spiral death dive and two minutes later we impacted the sea at 620 knots (nearly 1100km/h). At this speed the water acts like concrete and the aircraft would have exploded into smithereens. Tens of thousands of small bits of flotsam would have floated for months.

This did not happen.

The evidence and opinions of aviation experts point to the fact that the ATSB wrongly based their MH370 search on this nonsense and persisted with the farce, ignoring the outcry from aviation experts. The video of the comparison of the two descents will be in a forthcoming TV documentary.

It is now close to six years since the Malaysia Airlines’ flight disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including six Australians.

To this day the Australian government refuses to release documents requested under FOI by The Australian. What are they trying to hide? We have a right to know.

MTF..P2  

[Peetwo]

Yet another Sky God for the 'Captain did it' camp - 

Via the Oz:

Retired Qantas captain Mike Glynn has MH370 in his sights



For 55 of his 60 years, Mike Glynn has been fascinated by flying.

The recently retired Qantas captain says he decided to become a pilot at a very young age when his first career choice was dashed by an older brother.

“Around the age of about four or five, I became aware of the US space program and decided I was going to be an astronaut. My older brother took great delight in telling me Australia doesn’t have any astronauts,” Glynn says.

“I can actually remember making a decision then, that ‘okay, I’ll be a pilot’, and it just started the fascination.”

After getting into the Royal Australian Air Force on his second try, Glynn learned to fly the DHC-4 Caribou, an aircraft still dear to his heart.

A few years later he applied to Qantas and landed a gig as a second officer on the Boeing 747-300 in 1987.

“I did 2½ years on that, went onto the 767 as a first officer, followed by the 747-400, and then I was lucky enough to get a command in less than ten years which these days is unheard of,” he says.

“When you go from a first officer to a captain, all of a sudden your jokes are a lot more humorous, and you do get taken more seriously by the management.

“That was back on the 767, then I did the A330 for 11 years and finished up on the 747.

“To go out on the 747 was just brilliant. It’s just a classic aircraft and it changed the world.”

Among Glynn’s many career highlights, was being selected to test fly the 747s after a “D-check” where the aircraft is completely dismantled and put back together again. It’s the test pilot’s job to then fly the aircraft to its limits, “shut down engines, approach a stall and dump fuel”, to determine it’s safe to return to commercial operation.

“That’s fantastic fun. You get to do all sorts of things you don’t get to do on a normal flight and I was very lucky to be picked for that,” Glynn says.

“Normally you only do that stuff in a simulator but because the aircraft is out of a major overhaul, you have to test all the systems.”

With jet fuel so clearly coursing through his veins even in retirement, Glynn admits he’s not quite ready to hang up the wings yet.

As part of the Russian Roolettes formation airshow team, Glynn plans to be getting airborne soon in a Nanchang CJ6A or Yak52.

Until then he has another project on the go, in the form of a book. Like many pilots, Glynn has taken a keen interest in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and hopes to deliver a revealing take on the mystery.

“I basically think I can prove it’s the captain,” he says. “I started from the point of view of ‘what would you have to do to do this?’ and it became abundantly clear to me that you had to be an expert pilot on the B777.

“I have more than 12,000 hours on very similar aircraft and I couldn’t have walked on to the flight deck and done the things that actually happened there.

“The SATCOM going off, the ACARS being turned off, all done in a very methodical way that actually did make the aircraft disappear to an extent.”

After a slow depressurisation of the cabin, Glynn says the captain would have turned the SATCOM back on to regain systems that would have been lost otherwise.

“Shutting down the SATCOM would shut down half of the electrics on the aircraft, as well as the fuel pumps in the left fuel tank, and the TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system),” Glynn says. “He didn’t want those system off for too long, given where he was going.”

Glynn acknowledges that much has already been said and written about MH370 — to date, more than 70 books have been published — but he is not deterred. “I think I’ve got enough things that no one’s talked about to make it something different,” he said.

MTF...P2 


ps I think I might have just poked the Bear - 

[Kharon]

Yup: Bear poked – well and truly.

But; seriously - Who gives a Rat’s?

“The recently retired Qantas captain says he decided to become a pilot at a very young age when his first career choice was dashed by an older brother.”

Oh, poor baby.


“Around the age of about four or five, I became aware of the US space program and decided I was going to be an astronaut. My older brother took great delight in telling me Australia doesn’t have any astronauts,” Glynn says.

Who didn’t?

“I did 2½ years on that, went onto the 767 as a first officer, followed by the 747-400, and then I was lucky enough to get a command in less than ten years which these days is unheard of,” he says.

Only in Australia – once again who gives a Rat’s arse.

Etc. Etc. Ad nauseum, ad tedium; add ego. FDS every bloody ‘airline Captain’ has a ducking opinion. So what?

What a load of self aggrandising twaddle: from someone not remotely qualified to state – publicly – five years after the event:-

I think I’ve got enough things that no one’s talked about to make it something different,” he said.

BOLLOCKS – in Spades redoubled. BOLLOCKS.

Ye Gods – a whole pathetic, charmed life history to wind up with a ‘hint’ – that this genious ‘knows’ what happened. Shee-it; why is the whole world not queued up on his manicured, analy retentive suburban driveway awaiting the ‘words of the prophet'. Disgusting.

Told ya’s. Night watch makes me ‘irritable’. But even sanguine – I’d call BOLLOCKS. Load of……………..

Toot – toot. P.S. No one’s listening.

[Peetwo]

CAPTIO Hypothesis??

Ref: https://mh370-captio.net/

..CAPTIO stands for Constraints on Alternative Piloted Trajectories in the Indian Ocean, for the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 which mysteriously disappeared on March 8, 2014.

In latin, ‘Captio, -onis’ means ‘fraud’, ‘deception’, ‘trick’, and the acronym CAPTIO we have chosen for this study refers to the sophisticated way of evading control which the people in command of the aircraft have demonstrated.

Yet, a handful of surveillance and communication traces have been left behind to help us reconstruct the trajectory of the aircraft until the end : firstly, some tracking by Malaysian primary radars, and secondly, and most important, a set of arcs determined by Inmarsat experts on the basis of a few periodic satcom messages. What we know is that the trajectory of the aircraft ended somewhere into the eastern half of the Indian Ocean...

Finally got a chance to watch (without DT interruption) the CAPTIO presentation to the Brussels section of the RAeS and although parts are a little disconnected and lost in interpretation with the French/Euro accents, it is IMO necessary viewing for any dedicated MH370 follower -   

(Ps Make sure you turn up the volume)

The part from 1hr 05 minutes is particularly of interest where Jean-Marc questions why after 3 failed searches that the ATSB and the Malaysians did not consider other well researched, plausible hypothesis...

JM: "...why did they not challenge the hypothesis in the first place..." 

Hmm...ain't that a $200 million question -   

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

Sir Angus Houstoblame calls for cockpit cams - 

Via Sky News:

Angus Houston calls for cockpit cams to film commercial pilots
13/02/2020|5min



Former Defence Chief Sir Angus Houston has called for cockpit cams to be installed in all commercial flights as an added security measure.

News Corp Senior Correspondent Charles Miranda told Sky News it was now six years since the MH370 plane tragedy and there was now better technology which would allow live streaming from cockpits.

Mr Miranda said the initiative was getting push-back from pilots who were concerned about being “spied upon effectively for the entire flight".

He said some pilots argued they should be "trusted" and should not be "scrutinised".

Sky News investigates the mysterious disappearance of MH370 and reveals ground-breaking new details in a two part documentary "MH370: The Untold Story".

Watch or stream on Foxtel at 8pm AEDT on Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th February.

Image: Getty

  

This coming from the man who was instrumental in creating the Great White Elephant OneSKY trough fund and who helped facilitate the Malaysian/ATSB cover-up of the MH370 disappearance...

Perhaps he is craving some attention; or maybe he is trotting out yet another smoke'n'mirrors dog and pony show -   

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

MH370: That man 'Iggins is back - 

Via the Oz:

---

Documentary brings MH370 back on the radar

EAN HIGGINS
REPORTER
@EanHiggins

12:00AM FEBRUARY 18, 2020



Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished in 2014.

Six years since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished in the biggest aviation mystery in history, new moves are afoot to find out what happened.

The Malaysian government is engaged in tacit negotiations with a British-owned, Houston-based sophisticated underwater search company on whether to launch a new search for the aircraft, and Australia and China also may be involved.

Highly experienced pilots have teamed up with a Brisbane legal expert in a bid to persuade Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath to launch a coronial inquest into the deaths of the four Queenslanders on board the flight, and D’Ath is prepared to consider the idea.

More evidence points to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau having relied on the wrong theory about MH370 in its $200m failed attempt to find the aircraft.

As the anniversary of the disappearance of MH370 approaches, a new two-part documentary, beginning on Sky News on Wednesday night, contains major revelations about what key players knew about MH370 at the time.

MH370 disappeared on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

Forty minutes into the flight and just after the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, signed off from Kuala Lumpur air traffic controllers, saying “Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero”, the Boeing 777 vanished from radar screens as its secondary radar transponder was turned off, and radio contact ceased.

A playback of military primary radar showed the aircraft made a sharp turn to fly back over the Thai-Malaysia airspace border, and turned again around Penang to fly up the Strait of Malacca until it went out of radar range.

Analysis of automatic satellite “handshakes” from the aircraft sending performance data from the engines to Malaysia Airlines engineers later found MH370 had turned again on a long track south, and indicated a band on which it was thought to have ended up in the southern Indian Ocean.

A two-year underwater search for MH370 led by the ATSB, working on the theory that no one was flying the plane at the end of the flight and it crashed down unpiloted after running out of fuel on autopilot, failed to find any trace of the aircraft.

Push for new search

Undersea survey company Ocean Infinity, working on a “no cure, no fee” deal with the Malaysian government in which it would receive up to $US70m only if it found the aircraft, mounted its own search in 2018 but also had no luck.

There has been considerable speculation that Ocean Infinity and the Malaysian government might strike another “no cure, no fee” arrangement and launch a new hunt, and a private expert group recently proposed new areas to search.

Signs are that Ocean Infinity has yet to persuade the Malaysians it has enough new material to justify such a venture — but Kuala Lumpur remains open to being persuaded. Last week the Malaysian Transport Ministry said it would need to consult with Australia and China.

“The ministry has not made any decision to relaunch any new searches as there has not been any new credible evidence to initiate such a process,” the ministry said in a statement. “However, the ministry will review any information that it officially receives.”

Ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Plunkett says “finding MH370 is a topic extremely close to our hearts”, but adds: “The Malaysian government, rightly in our view, set a high bar before they will engage in that discussion.”



Duty to solve mystery

That leaves France as the only country actively trying to find out what happened to MH370.

A secretive French judicial ­investigation into the loss of the aircraft has been under way for some time, and officials are known to have asked British satellite company Inmarsat to provide the satellite data for independent evaluation.

The French government’s approach is simple: it believes it has a duty to find out who or what killed four of its citizens. Some feel Australian authorities have a similar duty when it comes to the six Australian citizens on MH370.

Brisbane barrister Greg ­Williams has established that under the Queensland Coroners Act, the state Attorney-­General has the power to direct the state Coroner to open an inquest into a death, even if that death occurs overseas.

Williams and two highly experienced former fighter pilots and airline captains, Mike Keane and Byron Bailey, have spent some months communicating with D’Ath’s office to persuade her to launch an inquest into the deaths of the four Queenslanders, married couples Rodney and Mary Burrows, and Robert and Catherine Lawton, who were travelling on a holiday together.

The other Australians on board, Gu Naijun and Li Yuan of Sydney, were on their way to Beijing to be reunited with their young daughters and are not believed to have had any family in Australia.

A recent letter to Bailey from D’Ath’s office says: “So that the Attorney-General can consider this matter, would you kindly provide in writing the new evidence to which you refer”.

Bailey replied to D’Ath: “There is a very strong view in the international aviation industry that the captain of Malaysia Airlines MH370, ­Zaharie Ahmad Shah, murdered four Queenslanders in a brutal and appalling manner.”

D’Ath would be far more likely to order an inquest if relatives of the Burrows and the Lawtons requested her to do so; The Australian knows some who are considering it. Bailey is correct: most aviation experts say the only credible theory as to what happened to MH370 is that ­Zaharie, after sending his co-pilot into the passenger cabin on an ­errand, locked the cockpit door, put on his oxygen mask, which has hours of supply, and depressurised the aircraft, killing all else on board.

The debate is whether after setting the final course south on autopilot Zaharie then took off his own ­oxygen mask to commit suicide, which is the implication of the ATSB’s “ghost flight” theory; or, as Keane, Bailey and many other ­aviation experts believe, Zaharie flew it to the end and ditched it.

Analysis by the French government and independent aviation experts of a flap and flaperon found washed up on the other side of the Indian Ocean, including veteran Canadian air crash investigator Larry Vance and more recently a Royal Aeronautical Society expert group, has concluded they were lowered for a controlled ditching.

ATSB spokesmen Paul Sadler and Daniel O’Malley refused to answer questions about MH370, including whether the bureau was sticking to its ghost flight theory. When contacted by telephone, each said: “We’re not engaging with you.”

ATSB Chief Commissioner Greg Hood and other senior ATSB officials have refused repeated Freedom of Information requests from The Australian seeking key material the bureau claims supports its theory, including international expert opinions on the satellite data, saying to do so might cause diplomatic problems.

Keane and Bailey argue that among other benefits of an inquest, it would require serving and former ATSB officers to give evidence in open court about what they know about MH370, and release documents.

-

Mystery flight’s fate inspires elaborate theories

Until MH370 is found and its black boxes recovered, what happened on board the aircraft will remain a mystery.

Ean Higgins’s book The Hunt for MH370 canvasses five dramatised theories that have precedents: a rogue pilot flying the aircraft to the end, a hijack gone wrong, a fire on board, rapid decompression, and the following, presented as an edited extract.

Zaharie Ahmad Shah had enjoyed several mistresses over the years, but none, he found, came close to Rina.

Rina came from a family of fishermen on the coast and she had come into a handsome inheritance.

With Zaharie married, the couple decided to elope.

On the evening of March 7, 2014, Zaharie packed his flight crew bag with some warm clothing, a bright waterproof torch, a referee’s whistle, and his paraglider parachute.

Forty minutes into the flight, having sent his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid back to get him a cup of coffee and locked the cockpit door, Zaharie put on the warm clothing, turned off the secondary radar transponder, put his oxygen mask on which would support him for hours, depressurised the aircraft, and turned the aircraft around.

Zaharie flew the Boeing 777 back over the Malay Peninsula, and turned up the Straits of Malacca. With their 12 minutes of oxygen having run out, the passengers and crew had fallen comatose from hypoxia, or dead.

Zaharie took the plane down to 3000 feet and reduced speed. Seeing the lights of the fishing boat he was expecting, Zaharie made a pass over it, and lined up for a second pass heading south, setting the autopilot towards the southern Indian Ocean.

Zaharie put a deflated life jacket on along with his parachute. He entered the passenger cabin, and opened one of exit doors just behind the wings. He waited until he again saw the lights of the fishing boat approaching, and bailed out.

At the helm of one of her family’s fishing boats, Rina had watched the Boeing 777 pass overhead, kept an eye on the beam from Zaharie’s torch as he descended, and heard the whistle.

Within 15 minutes the love of her life was safely aboard and in her arms, ready to secretly elope to Australia for a new life with stolen passports and the cash from her inheritance safely stowed in the boat.

This scenario has a real-life precedent. In Portland, Oregon, on November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper bought a one-way ticket on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, bound for Seattle, Washington.

Once airborne he showed a flight attendant what was in his briefcase: a collection of wires, switches, and red-coloured sticks. He threatened to blow up the aircraft if he did not get four parachutes and a $US200,000 ransom. When the plane landed in Seattle, the man let the passengers and two flight attendants off the plane, and officials handed over the money in $US20 bills plus the parachutes. Once the aircraft took off again, Cooper told the pilots to “fly to Mexico” — real slow and real low.

At some point thereafter, at night, Cooper lowered the rear stairway of the Boeing 727, and bailed out. He remains missing to this day, despite an extensive manhunt which the FBI only gave up in 2016.

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MTF...P2 

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MH370: 'He said; she said!' - Here we go again??

Via the Oz and SkyNews today: 

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Tony Abbott told ‘early on’ MH370 pilot had committed mass ­murder

EAN HIGGINS
REPORTER
@EanHiggins

9:00PM FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Tony Abbott knew early on that the pilot of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had hijacked his own aircraft in an act of mass murder suicide after being briefed by top Malaysian officials.

In a documentary airing this week, Mr Abbott says “it was crystal clear to me” as prime minister after MH370 disappeared six years ago that the Malaysians -believed Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had deliberately taken himself and 238 passengers and crew to their deaths.

“My very clear understanding, from the very top levels of the Mal¬aysian government, is that from very, very early on here they thought it was murder--suicide by the pilot,” he says in the Sky News documentary MH370: The Untold Story airing on Wednesday and Thursday night.

“I’m not going to say who said what to whom. It was crystal clear to me they had a very clear understanding that this almost certainly was what had happened.”

Mr Abbott says the Malaysians never mentioned alternative explanations for the loss of the aircraft, such as a fire or a terrorist hijack. His revelations are likely to encourage critics in the aviation community who claim that in its investigation report on MH370, the Malaysian government, to avoid loss of face, tried to cover up suggestions a captain on a government-owned airline would commit mass murder.



MH370 disappeared 40 minutes into a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The Malaysian government’s investigation report claimed there was no evidence Zaharie, described as a model pilot and well-adjusted individual who had no financial or personal problems, had hijacked his own aircraft.

On the release of the report in July 2018, investigation leader Kok Soo Chon said Zaharie was “a very competent pilot, almost flawless in the records, able to handle work stress very well”.

“We are not of the opinion it could be an event committed by the pilot,” he said.

In the documentary, Mr Abbott says: “If it is a fact that the furthest reaches were not explored because of assumptions of a pilot who was no longer at the controls. I would say, let’s ditch that assumption.”

MH370: The Untold Story airs on Sky News on Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm

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MH370: 'He said; she said!' cont/-   


Via the Oz:

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Malaysia suspected murder flight plot

AMANDA HODGE
SOUTHEAST ASIA CORRESPONDENT
@hodgeamanda


Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak. Picture: AFP

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has said his government “never ruled out” the possibility that Malaysian Airlines MH370 captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was behind the plane’s disappearance, but did not go public with its suspicions because it could not prove them.

His comments support revelations by Tony Abbott this week that the most senior figures in the Malaysian government when MH370 disappeared suspected murder-suicide by pilot.

“This possible scenario was never ruled out during the search effort and investigations,” Mr Najib told the Free Malaysia Today news site on Wednesday.

He said the suspicions were never made public because it would have been “irresponsible since the black box and cockpit recorder had not been found”.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 had 239 people aboard when it fell off the radar screen 40 minutes into its scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to ­Beijing on March 8, 2014.

In a two-part Sky News documentary this week on the MH370 disappearance, Mr Abbot­t revealed that as then Australian prime minister he was told by “the very top levels of the Malaysian government … that from very, very early on they thought it was murder-suicid­e by the pilot”.


Tony Abbott appears on the Sky News documentary on the MH370 disappearance. Picture: Sky News

Those comments prompted one of the current Malaysian government’s most senior figures­, Lim Kit Siang, to call for an international inquiry into the plane’s disappearance.

Mr Lim, founder and head of the Democratic Action Party — one of four parties in Malaysia’s ruling Pakatan Harapan ­coalition — also called on former Najib government members to reveal what they know about MH370.

“The highest levels of the former Malaysian government who believed from very early on that the MH370 tragedy was a ­murder-suicide plot must now speak up,” he said.

“It would appear an inter­national commission of inquiry into the MH370 disappearance would be necessary as a result of ­Abbott’s revelations.”

Mr Najib, who is facing trial on 42 charges of corruption and abuse of office related to the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB misappropriation scandal, said ­suspicion fell on Zaharie ­because the plane’s transponders were switched off just as it was about to enter Vietnam air space.

“This suggests that whoever was responsible had knowledge of commercial flights,” he said.

He also referred to Zaharie’s links to the then political opposition and the fact he was distantly related by marriage to prime minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim.

The plane went missing a day after Anwar was sentenced to what was widely seen as a second politically motivated jail term for sodomy, and Zaharie was widely reported to have attended the hearing.

An investigation by the Malaysian government concluded there was no evidence Zaharie had hijacked his own aircraft.

The report described Zaharie as a model pilot and well-adjusted individual who had no financial or personal problems, though it was later revealed he had marital problems and had developed a close relationship with a younger woman.

Malaysian police Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador, a former MH370 investigator, said there was no evidence to support the theory that the pilot of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 committed murder-suicide, and such claims could not be verified unless the plane was found.

“I do not know who is the Malaysian official Abbott was referring to, but I was among those involved in the investigation,” he said on Wednesday.

“We investigated all angles, from terrorism to hijack by certain parties.

“There were various theories that involved the use of sophisticated technology and a lot of facts were gathered.”

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Plus Beaker is back...

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We got it wrong, says ex-MH370 search head Martin Dolan

EAN HIGGINS
REPORTER
@EanHiggins

8:00PM FEBRUARY 19, 2020

The senior public servant in charge of the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has admitted the $200m hunt may have failed because he refused to accept the captain hijacked his own aircraft and flew it to the end.

Martin Dolan, former chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, has conceded in a documentary that new evidence increasingly points to the ATSB’s theory that MH370 was unpiloted at the end being wrong.

Then transport minister Warren Truss also admits in the Sky News special MH370: The Untold Story, airing on Wednesday and Thursday nights, that the ATSB was “looking in the wrong place” in trying to find the Boeing 777 and the 239 people on board.

Mr Dolan says independent aviation experts such as veteran pilot Byron Bailey, whom the government dismissed when he promoted the rogue-pilot-to-the-end conclusion early in the search, may be right after all. He says a rogue pilot may have depressurised the aircraft to kill the passengers and crew through oxygen deprivation, while he alone in the cockpit had a much longer oxygen supply.

New evidence and analysis, such as the pattern of damage on wing parts of the aircraft found washed up on the other side of the Indian Ocean that independent experts say show the aircraft was deliberately ditched, appear to have changed Mr Dolan’s mind.

“We just now have some additional information which has been brought to bear … that means there’s an increasing likelihood that there was someone at the controls at the end of flight,” Mr Dolan says.

The admissions mark an about-face for Mr Dolan, who during the two-year search for MH370 after its disappearance in 2014 repeatedly said suggestions Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah flew it to a controlled ditching were “very unlikely”.

In the documentary, Mr Dolan says of Mr Bailey’s scenario: “He might be right — I don’t disagree with any of the basic ­assumptions that Byron has.”

As revealed by The Australian on Tuesday, then prime minister Tony Abbott says in the documentary he had known within days that the pilot had hijacked his own aircraft in an act of mass murder-suicide because senior Malaysian officials had told him the evidence pointed that way.

MH370 disappeared 40 minutes into a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. A play-back of military radar and automatic satellite handshake data revealed it flew a zig-zag course back over Malaysia and up the Straits of Malacca before turning on a long track to the southern Indian Ocean, its secondary radar transponder turned off and radio contact broken.

The ATSB based its two-year search on the assumption that by the end, MH370 was a ghost flight with “unresponsive” pilots, crashing after running out of fuel while flying on autopilot.

ATSB spokesman Paul Sadler did not respond to questions asking whether the bureau had changed its mind on its “ghost flight/death dive” theory.

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MH370: 'That man' in the Weekend Oz - 

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Will the mystery of MH370 ever be nearer to solving?

EAN HIGGINS
REPORTER
@EanHiggins

12:00AM FEBRUARY 22, 2020



A man walks past a mural of missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane. Picture: AFP


Six years on from when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went rogue and disappeared, the international fascination with the aviation ­mystery remains unabated.

Revelations in a high-rating Sky News documentary broadcast this week, MH370: The Untold Story, sparked a chain reaction of developments here and in Malaysia, including calls for a fresh inquiry­ and a new search for the aircraft.

The flight vanished from air traffic­ controllers’ screens 40 ­minutes into a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

A playback of Malaysian ­military radar and analysis of automatic satellite “handshakes” from the aircraft show that it flew back over Malaysia and turned south, ending up somewhere on a band in the southern Indian Ocean.


Two underwater searches have failed to find the aircraft.

Is momentum building for a third hunt?

What’s changed?

There’s a different tone of debate about what happened on MH370.

In one punch, Tony Abbott knocked over the public pretence of Malaysian government officials that what happened on the flight was something other than pilot hijack­. The then prime minister’s words in the Sky News documentary were, as he put it, “crystal clear”.

“My very clear understanding, from the very top levels of the Malaysi­an government, is that from very, very early on here they thought it was murder-suicide by the pilot,” Abbott said.

His revelation started a cascade effect. Within hours of the story coming out, the former Malaysian prime minister in office when MH370 disappeared, Najib Razak, told the Free Malaysia Today news site “this possible scenario was never ruled out during the search effort and investigations”.

He said the suspicions were not disclosed because it would have been “irresponsible since the black box and cockpit recorder had not been found”.

Najib’s intervention represents an acceptance that the most likely explanation for what happened on MH370 is a big loss of face for Malaysi­a: that a highly trusted Malaysian pilot on a government-owned airline, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, took 238 innocent people to their deaths in an act of mass ­murder.


Then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, right, shakes hands with Malaysia’s then Prime Minister Najib Razak during a visit to Australia in 2014

Najib went further, laying out the evidence that has been there all along: someone switched off the secondary radar transponder 40 minutes into the flight, and whoever was at the controls knew exactly what he was doing with some tricky flying of a commercial airliner. He noted Zaharie was a supporter of then opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was given a second politically motivated jail term the day before the flight.

The admissions stand in marked contrast to the spin of the head of the Malaysian government’s official investigation into the loss of MH370, Kok Soo Chon. In releasing his report in 2018 he said there was no suspicion that Zaharie had hijacked his own plane and pointed instead to a “third party” being responsible.

Najib’s admissions mark the first healthy dose of truth in Malay­sia when it comes to MH370 — the question is how the current government reacts.

Will the Malaysian government come clean?

In the next phase of the domino effect­, Lim Kit Siang — the head of the Democratic Action Party, which is a member of the ruling coalit­ion — called for an inter­national inquiry into the dis­appearance, and for former Najib government members to reveal what they know about MH370.

“The highest levels of the former­ Malaysian government who believed from very early on that the MH370 tragedy was a murder-suicide plot must now speak up,” Lim said.

Malaysia’s official investigation into MH370 copped significant criticism for not paying enough attention to Zaharie’s back­ground, and disregarding the pattern of damage to a flap and flaperon­ from MH370 found washed up on the other side of the Indian Ocean.

An inquiry with a panel including top air-crash investigation exper­ts from different countries, and public hearings where Australian, Malaysian and other officials involved could give evidence, would give Malaysia a chance to redeem credibility on MH370.

It could be the catalyst and venue for all the material kept secre­t about the flight to be ­publicly released.

Will the Australian Transport Safety Bureau come clean?

ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood and his senior officers have refused several Freedom of Information requests from The Australian, including for the opinions of international experts on critical satellite data.

There’s now a chance, though, that Hood and his lieutenants could be forced to testify under oath and provide subpoenaed documents in an open courtroom.

As revealed by The Australian this week, two veteran pilots aided by a barrister have asked Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath to exercise her power to order the state Coroner to launch an inquest into the deaths of four Queenslanders on MH370, and she says she’ll consider it.

Sky News used a scheduled ­interview this week to ambush Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on the topic, and extracted­ what comes close to a commitment.

“It’s obviously a big issue and of course there were a lot of families right across Australia that were deeply impacted,” Palaszczuk said.

“If the Attorney-General, our government, can help in any way, we would be more than happy to do so.”

Hood is also now under pressure to say whether he still believes in the strategy behind the ATSB’s failed search, which he inherited from his predecessor Martin Dolan, because Dolan now thinks it may have been wrong.

The ATSB based its two-year search on the assumption that by the end MH370 was a ghost flight with “unresponsive” pilots, crashing down after running out of fuel flying on autopilot.

The ATSB did not cover a relatively small area farther south where senior airline pilots believe the aircraft lies — the pilots think the evidence shows Zaharie flew the plane until it ran out of fuel and glided it 100 nautical miles or more beyond the search zone.

In a bombshell admission, Dolan told Sky News he now thinks the pilots may have been right, and the ATSB wrong.

He appears to have been influenced by a determination by ­independent experts including French government officials that the pattern of damage on the flap and flaperon shows they were deploy­ed by a pilot for a controlled ditching.


A recovered Boeing 777 wing flap identified to be part of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, on display in Kuala Lumpur in 2019.

“We just now have some addition­al information which has been brought to bear … that means there’s an increasing likelihood that there was someone at the ­controls at the end of flight,” Dolan said.

Will there be a new search?

There are plenty of logical places to look further for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, such as the area just a bit farther south as suggested by the pilots, or farther north along what’s known as the seventh arc, or either side along it.

Ever since its search in 2018 failed to find MH370, undersea survey company Ocean Infinity has said it would like to strike anothe­r “no find, no fee” deal with the Malaysian government to have another crack.

The Malaysians say they’re open to it but need fresh credible evidence to justify a new search. That could come in the form of material from an international inqui­ry or possibly a Queensland coronial inquest.

Beyond that, this week’s revelations provide both a moral imperative and a political opportunity for the government of Mahathir Mohamad. It’s now out there that the previous Malaysian government privately accepted that a Malaysian pilot almost certainly committed mass murder of 238 people from all over the world, and their families and governments more than ever want answers.

Wouldn’t Mahathir like, as the highlight of his long political career­, to provide those answers by finding MH370?

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MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

MH370: Bailey plea in the Oz??

Via Friday's the Oz:

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Fighting to restart the ocean search for MH370

BYRON BAILEY


Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, pictured in 2011.

• 12:00AM FEBRUARY 28, 2020
  
  
• 8 COMMENTS
  

Last week, Sky News aired a two part documentary, “MH370, The Untold Story”.

The most revealing aspect was the admission by former prime minister Tony Abbott that his understanding very, very early on, from the very top levels of Malaysian government, that MH370 almost certainly was mass murder/suicide by the pilot.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau planned the search on the basis of a ghost flight where the aircraft, passing the 7th arc at latitude 38S, ran out of fuel and commenced a death dive. In my opinion, this led to five years of wasted effort and over $200m plus down the drain.

In the documentary, I demonstrate, in a Boeing 777 simulator with investigative reporter Peter Stefanovic as my co-pilot, the “death dive” from 39,000 feet at 7th arc/38S which resulted in an 1100 kilometre an hour impact with the ocean two minutes later.

I also demonstrated the pilot-controlled glide, ending up with a ditching only about 30km further south, just past 39S in the southern Indian Ocean, from the edge of where the ATSB searched.

This ditching in the heavy seas would have busted up the B777 rather badly, breaking the fuselage open, similar to the Ethiopian B767 which ditched in calm seas north of the Comoros Islands years ago, but the wreckage should mostly be in a small area.

READ MORE:Will the Malaysian government come clean?|Malaysia suspected murder flight plot|Abbott told ‘early on’ MH370 ‘mass murder’

Former prime minister Abbott also stated that we should still be looking and that we should not rest until we have found the aircraft.

The search must be restarted. To this end, I again this week wrote to the Queensland Attorney-General asking her to meet with myself and Captain Mike Keane, former chief pilot of Britain’s largest airline, to present evidence to her and request that she directs the state coroner to open an inquest into the deaths of the Australians on board MH370.

Four of the six Australians were from Queensland — Robert and Catherine Lawton and Rod and Mary Burrows.

The suggestion, by famed Australian aviation entrepreneur Dick Smith of a 10c levy on airline tickets to fund the search, is a very appealing idea.

Byron Bailey is a former RAAF fighter jet pilot and flew B777s as an airline captain.

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Hmm...no comment - 

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MH370: BB again??

Via the Oz:

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MH370’s resting place a $10m question

BYRON BAILEY



Estimated final flight path of MH370 extending beyond the ATSB search area.


Former prime minister Tony ­Abbott said on the recent MH370 Sky News documentary that the search for MH370 should continue as it is the decent thing to do to bring closure to the families of the deceased.

Such a shame that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, when informed by the FBI in mid-2014 that the MH370 captain was the presumed “guilty” party and supplied his practice flight plan to the southern Indian Ocean, did not search just that ­little bit further south past latitude 39S where a controlled glide would have ended up.

The bureau would have won ­either way. Find the wreckage and they are heroes. Fail to find it, the pilot hijack scenario would have been laid to rest and aviation experts could have ceased their complaining that the ATSB was searching in the wrong area.

It was agreed by the Defence Science and Technology Group, ATSB, Joint Agency Coordination Centre, Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Independent Pilots Group that the DSTG’s 7th arc/38S red hotspot of where, using satellite information and bayesian mathematical modelling, the Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 ran out of fuel and commenced a descent, with a probability factor of greater than 99 per cent.

British Boeing 777 captain Simon Hardy managed an 88 nautical miles (160km) glide in a 777 simulator after fuel exhaustion at latitude 38S.

A search of a circle with a radius of 160km gives a search area of 80,000sq km. Since the aircraft was on a southerly heading, the southern semicircle search area is 40,000sq km. But 70 per cent of this area falls within the ATSB’s already searched green rectangle based on 40 nautical miles either side of the 7th arc, reducing the area to 12,000sq km.

Logic would indicate against a downwind ditching, which would reduce again the now triangular area to 7000sq km. This Hardy triangle search area could be searched in under a week for less than $10m.

In the Sky News documentary, in a B777 simulator with investigative journalist Peter Stefanovic as my co-pilot, I turned into wind at 70 nautical miles on the glide descent and ditched at S39.10 E88.18, which is in the centre of the area.

The logistics are challenging as the search area is 2200km southwest of Perth, but with the weather window and calmer seas being favourable from October, the government should make a decision soon so planning can begin.

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And from Mick Gilbert in reply..

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Fuel, temperature wreck MH370 search theory
MICK GILBERT


9:27PM MARCH 5, 2020
13 COMMENTS

MH370’s final resting place is and will remain a topic of much debate until the aircraft is found. On this page Captain Byron Bailey has offered the far south location 39 10S, 88 15E as the site where the Boeing 777 ended its flight in the southern Indian Ocean. I beg to differ.

The first and most critical problem is that MH370 didn’t have anywhere near enough fuel to get within gliding distance of that ­location. As MH370 left radar coverage in the Strait of Malacca, it had 34 tonnes of fuel on board, give or take 500kg. On paper, all things being equal, had the aircraft been flown absolutely optimally, there may have just been enough fuel to get MH370 to that far south terminus. However, in aviation, all things are rarely if ever equal. Two inescapable factors would have driven fuel consumption up that evening — the age of the engines and the warmer conditions.

From the day they leave the factory, the performance of jet ­engines, the thrust delivered for fuel consumed, declines. It is a known and measured factor called the performance deterioration allowance (PDA). The PDAs for the MH370 aircraft’s engines were 0.74 per cent for the left engine and 2.26 per cent for the right. Those PDAs meant that the aircraft was burning at least 1.5 per cent more fuel than the manufacturer’s published fuel consumption model.

A further and more serious issue was the much higher than standard air temperatures at cruising altitudes along the aircraft’s path that evening. Those temperatures would have driven fuel consumption up by 3 per cent.

Together, the PDAs and temperature meant that over the nearly six-hour flight into the southern Indian Ocean, the aircraft would have burned over 1.5 tonnes more fuel than the “on paper” values.

However, even if we were to leave the chemistry and physics of fuel consumption aside, Captain Bailey’s location still has some major problems.

The first of those happened 11 days after MH370 went down, on March 19, 2014. That was the second day of the Australian-run search effort and it was the day that three aircraft — two P-3 Orions together with a RAAF P-8 ­Poseidon — searched the area surrounding Captain Bailey’s 39 10S, 88 15E site. In the 11 days from the crash the floating wreckage would have drifted east-north-east but certainly not beyond that day’s search area. If a floating debris field was there it would have been overflown by one of those sophisticated maritime surveillance/anti-submarine aircraft.

But if we were to accept that maybe those pieces were missed, within a further six months another problem arises. Captain Bailey’s location is on the northern edge of the Antarctic Circumpolar Surface Current. All the drift modelling shows that at least some of the wreckage from that site would have been coming ashore on West Australian beaches by November 2014 and on South Australian, Victorian and/or Tasmanian beaches in the months after that.

Despite numerous beach clean-up and coastal survey groups being placed on alert to look out for aircraft wreckage, nothing from MH370 was ever found.

Aviation safety is a field where it is wise to never say never, but it is difficult to reconcile Captain Bailey’s bet with the realities.

Mick Gilbert is a former RAAF supply officer, and an aviation enthusiast and researcher.

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[P7_TOM]

A snippet on the MH 17 downing. HERE - You have to wonder what actually goes on behind closed doors. MH 17 and 370

-"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness".

[Peetwo]

Richard Godfrey claims he has pinpointed #MH370 location? - 

Via Skynews on Youtube:

Sky News Australia
2.16M subscribers

Aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey says he is “very confident” on the location of missing flight MH370 which vanished in March 2014.

Mr Godfrey claims to have found the missing plane's whereabouts using revolutionary tracking technology.

In a new report, Mr Godfrey claimed the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean approximately 1,993 kilometres west of Perth.

His report says the plane crashed about one minute after the final satellite pickup over the Indian Ocean.

“With this new technology, WSPRnet radio wave data ... they all point to the same location in the Indian Ocean,” Mr Godfrey told Sky News host Chris Smith.

“So, we have four data sets all aligning.”

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Sky News Australia
2.16M subscribers

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas has spoken to Sky News Australia about a potential breakthrough in the search for missing flight MH370.

In a new report, British aerospace engineer Richard Godfrey claims the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean 1,993 kilometres west of Perth.

Mr Godfrey says he used technology called weak signal propagation to track the plane’s movements.

His report says the plane crashed about one minute after the final satellite pickup of 8:19am over the Indian Ocean.

“Before, we had some broad data on where it should be, but we weren’t precise,” Mr Thomas told Sky News Australia.

“Now what he’s been able to do is get it precise.”

Mr Thomas also said the evidence is overwhelming that the pilot intentionally crashed the plane in 2014, carrying 239 people on board.

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Skynews Oz: MH370 - The Final Search?? 

Via Sky News Australia:

Exclusive new investigation 'MH370: The Final Search' to unveil new claims in plane disappearance

Sky News Australia today announced the highly anticipated new chapter in the MH370 investigation. MH370: The Final Search will air on 23 February at 8pm AEDT.
February 2, 2022 - 1:07PM

On the eve of the 8th anniversary of the crash and with all previous searches proving unsuccessful, Sky News uncovers new information that could help investigators finally solve the biggest aviation mystery of all time. Sky News anchor and investigative journalist Peter Stefanovic returns to present the one-hour investigative…

Sky News Australia today announced the highly anticipated new chapter in the MH370 investigation. MH370: The Final Search will air on 23 February at 8pm AEDT.

On the eve of the eighth anniversary of the crash, and with all previous searches proving unsuccessful, Sky News uncovers new information that could help investigators finally solve the biggest aviation mystery of all time.

Sky News anchor and investigative journalist Peter Stefanovic returns to present the one-hour documentary MH370: The Final Search. It follows on two years after the first two-part documentary special called MH370: The Untold Story aired, which is still the most successful Sky News documentary to date.

Peter speaks to leading aviation experts and oceanographers who put forward a compelling case as to why Malaysia should green light one final search. Did the Malaysian government have contact with the pilot before it disappeared? Is there political foul play at hand? Can the plane and its passengers finally be located using new technology? This compelling new documentary will address all these questions and more.

Peter Stefanovic said: “MH370 remains the greatest aviation mystery of all time. Eight years on and there is still no sign of the plane or its 239 passengers and crew.


Peter Stefanovic hosts the new investigation 'MH370: The Final Search' premiering Wednesday 23 February at 8pm AEDT on Sky News Australia.

“This documentary exposes new details that haven’t been aired before with a compelling argument to get that search going again. We need to know where that plane is and finally give the families and friends of those on board some peace.”

On the night of 8 March 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 carrying 239 people, including six Australians, vanished without a trace while on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. After eight years and following the most expensive sea search the world has ever seen and one that galvanised Malaysian, Australian, Chinese and French authorities, what happened to MH370 remains unknown.

MH370: The Final Search is the first documentary to air on Sky News under its 2022 programming line-up, which will see an unprecedented commitment of further locally produced documentaries scheduled across the year.

MH370: The Final Search premieres Wednesday 23 February at 8pm AEDT. Stream Sky News on Flash or watch on Foxtel and Sky News Regional

MTF...P2 

[Peetwo]

ATSB goes into top-cover mode on MH370? 

Via the Herald Sun:

New MH370 evidence and theory as search resumes with ATSB in Australia

Australian air safety investigators have cross matched data with new evidence now suggesting a different flight pattern and possible location for the plane.

Australian air safety investigators have quietly renewed their search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, cross matching data with new evidence now suggesting a different flight pattern and possible location for the missing aircraft.

In a stunning development to aviation’s greatest mystery, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has confirmed it and Geoscience Australia have been reviewing their data in the wake of a detailed technical report from a British aerospace engineer.

The ATSB’s involvement in the search for MH370 – which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board – officially concluded five years ago.

But the ATSB’s new chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said he remained “open minded” about the new theory, data was actively being reviewed with tech advances and a public announcement was expected in a fortnight.



His team assigned to the latest review include staff from the original probe.

“Because it puts the aircraft in an area that we have already searched, I guess me coming in with a due diligence and a new set of eyes, we are to taking a review of the data that we hold there and that’s being done in conjunction with Geoscience Australia,” he told News Corp Australia/Sky News.

The analysis includes matching data gathered by the ATSB’s original search vessel GO Phoenix to that by British engineer Richard Godfrey, who helped design part of the International Space Station.



He claims, in a detailed report released last month, MH370 was put into a 22-minute circle holding pattern before it shot out toward the Indian Ocean. He used technology used by ham radio operators to contact each other that effectively lay digital trip wires that record frequency “disturbances” from something crossing their path.

Mr Godfrey has plotted eight recorded disturbances suspected to have been created by the flight that puts it further to the north end of the original ATSB search zone and the later search by Ocean Infinity but on the same “arc 7 band”, 1933km west of Perth.





Mr Mitchell said he was not making any calls on the credibility of the evidence and did not want to give any false hope to families and loved ones of those on-board.

But he likened it to casting a fresh eye on a police-type cold case of evidence based on the use of the ham radio technology, known as Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) commonly referred to as “whisper”.



He added there had not been any sort of break in the case in the past five years before the emergence of the whisper potential and if the location threw up something, the Godfrey claim about the 22-minute holding pattern would also be looked at.



“At the moment, we’re looking at the data that we hold, where Mr Godfrey’s theory suggests the plane went down,” he said. “I think that once that theory and the technology that he’s using has gone through that scientific process and has been verified or otherwise, then I think the other questions that remain unanswered, and that (flight path) may well be one of them.”

Mr Mitchell confirmed the holding pattern theory had not been raised before and could be a game changer.

“If it were to be true, it would certainly make us rethink some of the assumptions that were held at the time. Whether that changes where the plane ended up, it’s too early to make any call on that.”

He reinforced it would be up to the Malaysian Government to consider whether based on analyses, a broader renewal of the search was warranted.

WHERE MH370 BLACKBOXES WILL BE KEPT



In the offices of newly appointed ATSB boss Angus Mitchell are two boxes, gathering dust.

They were built to house the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder from the MH370 aircraft when it is found.

Like most people around the world, Mr Mitchell had expected them to be filled by now, but they sit as a reminder of one of the world’s greatest mysteries and inspiration for the ATSB to fill them.

“One day it would be great for them to be full,” Mr Mitchell told Sky News.

“Either those boxes or if there’s another search party that locates it, at the end of the day, everyone, from the families to the investigators that were part of this team to the worldwide aviation community to those who travel on planes, want the answers to MH370.”

Hmm...interesting timing considering we are only a week out from the next SkyNews  MH370 exposé - ??

MTF...P2 

[Kharon]

Of Temerity - writ large.

Tonight (in Australia) Sky News will present a documentary relating to the MH 370 event. I wonder what a world wide audience will make of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) sorry track record in this story? How will the performance of Dolan followed by Hood be assessed? We have a fair idea, based on comments and correspondence received; but, those are now part of the legend surrounding the 'mystery' of not only the 'disappearance' but of the way in which the event was stage managed.

History aside, the ATSB have a new public face - Mitchell - you can meet him from about the 28:00 minute mark in the video below.

I confess that after about five minutes of that Senate GA Inquiry session, I'd picked a video clip to add to his own file:-

Whether or not Sky invited the early release of the ATSB piece 'starring Angus' or not is immaterial. The 'work' done on the investigation is not ATSB work; they ( including Angus) had no input to the research. Perhaps Sky just wanted to add ATSB credibility to the piece - who'd know, or care? What the majority of aviation folk do care about, very much, is the pathetic performance of the ATSB accident investigation reporting.

There exists a a very real list of current tragic events; all of significant value to overall safety performance, which have not been finalised (years). There exists an even longer list of almost risible reports into accidents, which, after an unreasonably long time between 'accident' and publication provide little of intrinsic or practical value to the aviation community.

The never ending mantra of 'scant resource' (and the handy 'Covid' thing) have long been used as a standard excuse for piss poor performance. Yet wee Angus can find the time to step into the spotlight's glare and revel in the close up shots - and talk about 'his' take on the MH 370 debacle. Perhaps that time could be better spent getting reports finalised; getting reports to have substance, benefit and increased safety awareness. Hell, he could even begin to clean up the seriously tarnished track record, that of being the best 'top cover' agency in town - credible deniability - abandoned in favour of real accident reporting (I wish). I really want to know why ATSB washed their hands of the Jodel fatal (can't be bothered?) yet have time to fanny about on TV promotions, particularly when one considers the hourly rate of pay our Angus tucks away.

Anyway; no doubt the world and its wife will be able to see the new face of the ATSB in all it's hoary glory this evening. 

Toot - toot....