748 MH370 one year on: Emirates head Tim Clark says MH370 was hijacked, warns "others would like to bury" the truth

MH370 one year on: Emirates head Tim Clark says MH370 was hijacked,
warns "others would like to bury" the truth

This newsletter is at http://mailstar.net/bulletins/150315-b2427-MH370.rtf

Newsletter published on 15 March 2015

(1) MH370 one year on: Emirates head Tim Clark says MH370 was hijacked,
warns "others would like to bury" the truth
(2) ACARS data transmited from MH370 to Rolls Royce "every 30 minutes"
(3) Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot allows a plane to be remotely
controlled to a landing
(4) Emirates head Tim Clark tells Spiegel that MH370 was hijacked, warns
"others would like to bury" the truth
(5) SMH Transcript of Emirates head Tim Clark interview with De Spiegel
on MH370
(6) Former airline boss Marc Dugain says MH370 might have been hacked
remotely, flown to Diego Garcia
(7) Island of Diego Garcia Factors into Mysterious Malaysia Flight Theories
(8) MH370 Captain had five Indian Ocean practice runways in his private
simulator
(9) Possible MH370 sighting as Maldives residents report 'low-flying jumbo'
(10) Inmarsat satellite company reports "significant uncertainty" about
flight path of MH370
(11) Hydrometeorologist's offer to locate MH370 by tracking its vapour
trail turned down by authorities
(12) GeoResonance say, "We reported the precise location" of MH370 in
Bay of Bengal
(13) Raja Dalelah says she saw an aircraft in the sea in the Bay of
Bengal, near Andaman islands
(14) Missing MH370: Kelantan duo report seeing lights 'falling' at high
speed
(15) MH370 search: British sailor may have seen Malaysia Airlines jet on
fire

(1) MH370 one year on: Emirates head Tim Clark says MH370 was hijacked,
warns "others would like to bury" the truth
- by Peter Myers, March 15, 2015

This newsletter contains new reports since my last one on MH370.

On the 1-year anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, the media ran
features carefully avoiding to mention dissident explanations such as
that the aircraft landed on Diego Garcia.

In an interview last October with De Spiegel, Emirates head Tim Clark
argued that MH370 had been hijacked, and warned that "others would like
to bury" the truth (items 4 & 5).

The fruitless search in the Southern Indian Ocean has already cost $90
million or so. Yet authorities have not bothered to spend $10 to 20
thousand dollars on investigating the Maldives sightings, claims that
the plane landed at Diego Garcia, and reports that it is in the Bay of
Bengal.

Whilst I believe the Maldives/Diego Garcia explanation, this newsletter
includes some other claims as well (items 12-5).

My newsletters on MH370 are at http://mailstar.net/bulletins/bulletins.html
They are also now at http://mailstar.net/additions.html and
http://mailstar.net/download.html.

These are the earlier newsletters:

1: Maldives sightings:
http://mailstar.net/bulletins/140319-b2362-MH370.rtf

2: Mahathir alleges remote hijacking by CIA; Yoichi Shimatsu presents a
detailed case: http://mailstar.net/bulletins/140521-b2388-MH370.rtf

3: Internet contributors assemble evidence of Hijacking to Diego Garcia,
despite official obfuscation:
http://mailstar.net/bulletins/140727-b2420-MH370.rtf

The rtf files should download for opening in Word, with formatting (eg
bold) preserved. Please report any problems.

(2) ACARS data transmited from MH370 to Rolls Royce "every 30 minutes"

http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/07/19/flight-mh17-conjures-mh370-exposing-western-deception-leading-to-more-questions/

Flight MH17 Conjures MH370, Exposing Western Deception, Leading To More
Questions

  JULY 19, 2014

Shawn Helton
21stCentury Wire

[...] During the wave of MH370 reports in March, I outlined the many
systems in place used to track the whereabouts of a Boeing 777 at all
times, making the false reports by satellites very questionable:

“Rolls Royce and Malaysian Airlines are said to have a partnership that
requires the engine to transmit live data to its global engine health
monitoring center in Derby, UK every 30 minutes. Investigators are said
to have used the ACARS information uploaded to the engine maker.”

Additionally, we learned about the controversial on board device known
as the Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot (Fly-By-Wire remote control)
that has supposedly been equipped in all Boeing planes since 1995,
according to Field McConnell, a retired 35 year Delta pilot, “This
information was apparently not released until March of 2007, following a
subsequent lawsuit by McConnell. The modification was reported to the
FAA, NTSB and ALPA ( airline pilots association). According to
McConnell’s documents, Boeing is said to have stated that by end of 2009
all Boeing planes would be fitted with the BUAP - making them impossible
to manually hijack within the plane but susceptible to remote control by
the military, according the flight veteran.”

(3) Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot allows a plane to be remotely
controlled to a landing

Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Uninterruptible_Autopilot

The Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot (BUAP), is a system designed to
take control of a commercial aircraft away from the pilot or flight
crew, chiefly in the event of a hijacking, and allow the craft to be
remotely controlled to a landing at a designated airstrip. The action
can be initiated either by crew or by government entities on the ground.
[...]

This page was last modified on 21 July 2014 at 11:58.

(4) Emirates head Tim Clark tells Spiegel that MH370 was hijacked, warns
"others would like to bury" the truth

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/mh370-emirates-head-has-doubts-about-investigation-a-996212.html

Missing Plane: Emirates Head Critical of MH 370 Investigation

Interview Conducted by Andreas Spaeth

October 9, 2014

Despite months spent searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370, not
a trace has been found.

Why is there still no trace of flight MH 370? In an interview, Sir Tim
Clark, head of Emirates Airline, is sharply critical of the
investigation thus far. He believes someone took control of the plane
and maintained it until the very end.

Tim Clark has been a senior manager at the airline Emirates since 1985
and has been instrumental in developing it into one of the world's
largest airlines. Today, the 64-year-old is seen as a knowledgeable
expert and critic of the aviation industry. His view of the vanished
Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 is a provocative one. The plane that
disappeared was a Boeing 777 and Emirates operates 127 such aircraft,
more than any other airline in the world. [...] {Sydney Morning Herald
transcript follows}

(5) SMH Transcript of Emirates head Tim Clark interview with De Spiegel
on MH370

http://www.smh.com.au/world/full-transcript-emirates-chief-sir-tim-clark-on-mh17-and-mh370-20141121-11rc70.html

Sir Tim Clark believes information is being concealed

Emirates head presses for change to prevent further tragedy

Sydney Morning Herald November 21, 2014

The full transcript of German aviation journalist Andreas Spaeth's
interview with Emirates chief Sir Tim Clark.

It's many months later and we know nothing about MH370, having
disappeared on March 8, 2014. What can be done?

TIM CLARK: Malaysia Airlines 370 remains one of the great aviation
mysteries. Personally I have the concern that we will treat it like that
and move on, and it will go onto National Geographic as one of
aviation's great mysteries. We mustn't allow this to happen. This
aeroplane has disappeared without trace. The public and the industry are
questioning the lack of information and the cold hard logic of the
disappearance of this and the factors that led to its disappearance. The
tracking of the aircraft, its routing, its altitude oscillations, these
were all measurable and explainable in my view. But we seem to have
allowed it to go into this black hole of 'it could be one of aviation's
great mysteries'. It can't be left like that, never. We must know what
caused that aeroplane to disappear.

What do you think happened?

CLARK: My own view is that probably control was taken of that aeroplane,
the events that happened during the course of its tracked flight will be
anybody's guess of who did what and when. I think we need to know who
was on this aeroplane in the detail that obviously some people do know,
we need to know what was in the hold of the aeroplane, in the detail we
need to know, in a transparent manner. And we need to continue to press
all those stake holders, that were and are involved in the analysis, in
the assessment of what happened, for more information. Because heading
an airline that operates the largest number of 777s in the world, I have
a responsibility of knowing exactly what went on. I do not subscribe to
the view that the aircraft, which is one of the most advanced in the
world, has the most advanced avionic and communication platforms, needs
to be improved so that we can introduce some kind of additional tracking
system for an aeroplane that should never have been allowed to enter
into a non-trackable situation.

What do you mean by that?

CLARK: The transponders are under the control of the flight deck. These
are tracking devices, aircraft identifiers, that work in the secondary
radar regime. If you turn off that transponder in a secondary radar
regime, it causes a disappearance of that particular aeroplane from the
radar screen. That should never be allowed to happen. All secondary and
primary radar should be the same. Irrespective of when the pilot decides
to disable the transponder, the aircraft should be able to be tracked.
So the notion by the Malaysians that the disappearance from the
secondary radar and then the ability of the military to use primary
radar to track the aeroplane and identify it as 'friendly' – I don't
know how they did that -  is something we need to look at very carefully.

What about other ways of monitoring?

CLARK: The other means of constantly monitoring the process of the track
of an aircraft is the Aircraft Communication and Reporting System,
ACARS. That is designed primarily for the companies to monitor what the
aeroplanes are doing, we use it for a number of things, but primarily to
monitor the aircraft systems and engine performance. So we track from
the ground, as we do at Emirates, every single aircraft and every
component of the aircraft and engine of the aircraft at any point of the
planet, and very often we are able to track faults in the systems before
the pilots do. It's that good and it's that real time.

How was it possible to disable that?

CLARK: Disabling it is no simple thing, and our pilots are not trained
to disable ACARS. There are ways to enter the system through the
multiple menu levels to get through and disable, but to completely
disable also requires you to go down below the main deck into the
avionics bay. That requires you to leave the flight deck and go down
through a trap door in the floor to do that. But somehow this thing was
disabled, so much so that the ground tracking capability was eliminated.

What should be the consequence?

CLARK: We must find systems to allow ACARS to continue uninterrupted,
irrespective of who is controlling the aircraft. So that is not
something somebody can do. If you have that, with the satellite
constellations that we have today even in the Southern Ocean, we still
have the capability of monitoring. So you don't have to introduce
additional tracking systems. We are told we are saying that because we
don't want to spend money. I have no problem spending and Emirates is
one of the first to step out and ensure that safety is never
compromised. But I have to be persuaded that adding additional tracking
systems on top of what we already have is really worthwhile.

So what should be done then?

My recommendation to the aircraft manufacturer group is that they find a
way to make disabling of the ACARS system impossible by the flight deck.
And the transponder as well - I'm still struggling to find why a pilot
should be able to put the transponder into standby or off. In my view,
that should not be an option. Thirdly, the air traffic control systems
should not have a situation where a non-transponder aircraft without its
squawk identifier should not be allowed to turn off and still not be
able to track it. This is absolute stuff of nonsense. Radar is radar, it
will pick up metal objects flying at the speed of the size of a 777
without any difficulty. Who took the decision to say: 'If a transponder
is off, we can't track it in a secondary radar regime'? Which apparently
most air traffic control systems are in. We must look at that as well.
This aircraft in my opinion was under control, probably until the very end.

But why would they fly down five hours straight towards Antarctica?

If they did! I am saying that every single element of the 'facts' of
this particular incident must be challenged and examined in full
transparency, exhausted to the point that there is no other way that we
can think of this other than a complete mystery. We are nowhere near
that, there is plenty of information out there, which we need to be far
more forthright, transparent and candid about. All the entities involved
like the NTSB, the Malaysians, the Australians, Boeing itself, whatever.
They all know that people like me, and I hope the Malaysians are in this
boat, too, will not allow this to go into that box of oblivion. Every
single second of that flight needs to be examined. From the point on its
heading in a north-easterly direction where it 'disappeared' off the
screen and made a conscious left turn to go almost due West in
controlled flight. There were apparently some oscillations in altitude
from 41.000 to 27.000 feet, then the notion that it turned between
existing waypoints on a north-easterly, then a north-westerly, then a
south-westerly heading, where it theoretically then ended up in the
Southern Ocean. For which they couldn't find a trace in 1.7 million
square miles of search, nothing, they say.

So you nurture doubts that it actually happened as is said?

When you press questions on this, I sense a degree of belligerence, the
more belligerent people become, the more worried I become. They have
used AF447 as an example, where it was two years to track the aircraft,
but very shortly after the incident they found the fin, floating. So we
knew that the aircraft had gone in. And yes, there were all sorts of
oceanographic issues with the currents and it took us two years to find.
But in this case, there wasn't a seat cushion, and our experience tells
us that in water incidents, where the aircraft has gone down, there is
always something. We have not seen a single thing that suggests
categorically that this aircraft is where they say it is, nothing. Apart
from this 'handshake', which calls my electronic engineers to start
thinking 'what is all this about?'.

What is their conclusion?

CLARK: They say, even though they disabled satellite communication and
the ACARS, it is actually not disabled, it is still powered up and sends
out weak signals that hunt, like you would do with a mobile phone. And
therefore it is traceable. Well, I question this 'handshake' as well. In
the Southern Ocean, with a very weak signal, which is intermittent, and
they are a multitude of other aircraft in the same area, I'm not sure
about that. Those are the things that need to be challenged. First of
all let's establish what actually happened. If the industry then
believes there is a case to put extra tracking devices on board, we can
look at it. But don't walk down a blind alley. Many people, including at
IATA, are going down this path. I don't agree with it.

At which point in the presumed flight path do your doubts start?

CLARK: There hasn't been one overwater incident in the history of civil
aviation, apart form Amelia Earhart in 1939, that has not been at least
five or ten percent trackable. This has disappeared. So for me that
raises a degree of suspicion, and I'm totally dissatisfied with what is
been coming out of all of this.

Who can change that?

CLARK: I'm not in a position to do it, I'm essentially an airline
manager. But I will continue to ask the questions and will make a
nuisance of myself, when others would like to bury it, and we have an
obligation to the passengers and crew of MH 370 and their families,
whose deep distress you see every day. We have an obligation not to
brush this under the carpet, but to sort it out and do better than we
have done.

So the search efforts undertaken so far were not good enough?

CLARK: They will start the search now again in the Southern Ocean, but
look at what they had there: The Russians, the Chinese, the British, the
Australians, the Malaysians. They had so many aircraft there that at one
point, they had to bring in a separate aircraft to control their
movements, so they didn't bump into each other. And still, nothing. Now,
months later, they are gonna start again, but they couldn't find
anything with all these entities before. This is very strange.

What is your gut feeling, will we at some point know more about what
actually happened?

I think we will know more if there is full transparency of everything
that everybody knows. I do not believe that the information held by some
is on the table. Who actually disabled ACARS, who knew how to do it? If
you eliminate the pilot on a suicide mission, I'm sure you could have
put the aircraft in the South China Sea, rather than fly it for seven
hours. So if he was on a suicide mission, he would have done it then.
Who then took control of the aircraft? Who then knew how to disable
ACARS and turn the transponder off? That is a huge challenge.

Can you understand that there is still so much disbelief everywhere how
this could have ever happened in this time and age?

CLARK: Therein lies this huge question mark in my mind. I know this did
not have to happen, there is technology to track these aircraft and
everybody will say that, Boeing or Airbus. That is where the conundrum
is of mystery, that is where we must be more forthright and candid as to
what went on, it is not good enough for the Malaysian military to say:
"On a prime radar we identified it as 'friendly'".

The role of the Malaysian military appears to be particularly murky.

CLARK: This is a very busy part of Southeast Asia, the notion that we
should not be able to identify if it is friend or foe, or we can on
primary radar and do nothing about it, is bizarre. What would have
happened if the aircraft would have turned back to fly into the Petronas
Towers in Kuala Lumpur? But we identified it as "friendly"? Friendly
with intent, or friendly without intent? But what was done? These are
the questions that need to be asked of the people and the entities that
were involved in all of this. Full transparency of that will help us to
find out what went on.

On MH17

There are million-dollar rewards offered now by interested parties to
help solve both cases, MH 370 and also MH 17. Will that help?

MH 17's cause is completely different, but an equally tragic incident
which the industry needed to respond to. The notion of a reward is
something new to us. There is criminal culpability in what happened in
my view. The aircraft was clearly taken down by ordnance, and even if
people are shy to say it – it was taken down by a missile. They talk
about multiple penetration of high velocity – well hello, that's not
likely to be a goose, is it? So this aircraft was shot down. Others are
saying it was by accident, I don't believe that. I believe the aircraft
was taken down in the full knowledge of what it was.

Why, what purpose would that serve for anybody?

CLARK: Eventually, those responsible for it will be asked that.
Hopefully in the courts. I can't speak for them. All I do know is the
complexity of the equipment that was used: The need for the equipment to
track what they were actually going to take down. Identify it and set it
up to feed the information from the control vehicle into the missile,
feed the data, so that the missile could log on. This wasn't a
heat-seeking missile. It was a missile that can go up to 79,000 feet. So
there was a risk up to 79,000 feet, we don't fly up there, it could have
almost taken a satellite down. We need to ask those questions and we
need to have answers. Clearly there are players like the Dutch who say
this was a criminal action and should be treated accordingly under the
normal courts of international justice. It was a criminal act, I would
call it premeditated mass murder. I hope that in time those responsible
will be brought to book. [...]

(6) Former airline boss Marc Dugain says MH370 might have been hacked
remotely, flown to Diego Garcia

Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 17:32:22 +0900
Subject: Former Airline CEO Claims US Military Shot Down MH370 Near Diego
  Garcia | Zero Hedge
From: chris lancenet <chrislancenet@gmail.com>

Former Proteus Airlines boss Marc Dugain claims MH370 may have been shot
down by US military near Diego Garcia

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/former-proteus-airlines-boss-marc-dugain-claims-mh370-may-have-been-shot-down-by-us-military-near-diego-garcia/story-fnizu68q-1227164555636

Former Proteus Airlines boss Marc Dugain claims MH370 may have been shot
down by US military near Diego Garcia

by: Network Writers, with AFP

DECEMBER 23, 2014  10:39AM

A SECOND senior airline industry source has revealed his belief that
there is some sort of conspiracy behind the disappearance of Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370.

Emirates president and CEO Sir Tim Clark made world headlines in October
when he revealed his doubts about the fate of the missing plane, which
disappeared early in the morning of March 8 this year.

In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Sir Tim voiced his
scepticism about the complete lack of wreckage from the incident, and
the electronic satellite “handshakes” which positioned the plane in the
southern Indian Ocean.

Now a second senior airline industry source has voiced his doubts about
the fate of the plane, with the even wilder claim that the Boeing 777
may have been shot down by US military personnel who were fearing a
September 11-style attack on the US Navy base on Diego Garcia.

The former boss of Proteus Airlines, Marc Dugain, put forward his theory
that the Malaysia Airlines plane crashed near the remote Indian Ocean
island in a recent edition of Paris Match.

Dugain speculated that the plane’s computers may have been subject to a
remote hacking, or an on-board fire, which prompted a diversion from its
flight path.

Diego Garcia is a British territory but has been used as a significant
US military base and refuelling stop since the 1970s. It is currently
home to 1700 military personnel and 1500 civilian contractors.

Many conspiracy theories about the island have been aired since the
disappearance of MH370, but the US government has repeatedly denied that
the plane came anywhere near the remote territory, which is 3600km from
Africa’s east coast and 4700km northwest of Australia.

Dugain said the downing of the plane may have come about for a range of
different reasons, including the possibility that it may have been shot
out of the sky by the US military, who were fearing a September 11-style
attack on the base.

He pointed to the testimony of residents of the Maldives, who reported
seeing an airliner travelling towards Diego Garcia on March 8, but whose
claims were largely dismissed.

Dugain said a fisherman on Kudahuvadhoo island told him a “huge plane
... with red and blue stripes on a white background” had flown overhead
at a low altitude.

The former airline boss claimed he had also been shown pictures of a
strange object that had washed up on a beach of neighbouring Baraah island.

According to Dugain, two aviation experts and a military officer
believed the object was an empty Boeing fire extinguisher, but the
mystery object was subsequently seized by the Maldives military.

In the Paris Match story, Dugain also appeared to dismiss the “handshake
technology” evidence supplied by the UK company Inmarsat, saying that
such organisations were “very close to intelligence agencies”. [...]

(7) Island of Diego Garcia Factors into Mysterious Malaysia Flight Theories

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/03/island-of-diego-garcia-factors-into-mysterious-malaysia-flight-theories/

By Colleen Curry

Mar 18, 2014 1:52pm

Theories about what happened to missing Malaysia Flight MH370 now span a
2 million-plus square mile area of open ocean and southeast Asian land,
including one mysterious island in the Indian Ocean known as Diego Garcia.

While aviation experts and armchair theorists continue to come up with
plausible locations, the jet could have landed or crashed. Many theories
have included Diego Garcia as a notable landing strip.

The island atoll is a British territory in the central Indian Ocean and
is home to a United States Navy support facility — not exactly a U.S.
base, but a home for 1700 military personnel, 1,500 civilian
contractors, and various Naval equipment.

The island — named after 16th century Spanish explorer Diego Garcia de
Moguer — gained some notoriety in the past 10 years after reports
claimed that the U.S. used Diego Garcia to transport and detain alleged
terrorists.

(8) MH370 Captain had five Indian Ocean practice runways in his private
simulator
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/cops-find-five-indian-ocean-practice-runways-in-mh370-pilots-simulator-bh-r

Cops find five Indian Ocean practice runways in MH370 pilot’s simulator,
BH reports

MARCH 18, 2014

Police have confiscated a home-made flight simulator from Captain
Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s house in Shah Alam. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 - Investigators have discovered the runways of
five airports near the Indian Ocean loaded into Captain Zaharie Ahmad
Shah’s home-made flight simulator, a Malay daily reported today.

An unnamed source told Berita Harian that while it was too early to make
any conclusions on the new finding, it was still considered an important
element in the probe on the whereabouts of the plane and its 239 people.

“The simulation programmes are based on runways at the Male
International Airport in Maldives, an airport owned by the United States
(Diego Garcia), and three other runways in India and Sri Lanka, all have
runway lengths of 1,000 metres.

“We are not discounting the possibility that the plane landed on a
runway that might not be heavily monitored, in addition to the theories
that the plane landed on sea, in the hills, or in an open space,” the
source was quoted as saying.

Although Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein denied
yesterday that the plane had landed at US military base Diego Garcia,
the source told the daily that this possibility will still be
investigated based on the data found in Zaharie’s flight simulator software.

The police had seized the flight simulator from the 53-year-old pilot’s
house in Shah Alam on Saturday and reassembled it at the police
headquarters where experts are conducting checks.

The Transport Ministry has said that the police also searched the home
of Zaharie’s co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, on the same day.

Also on Saturday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said MH370 was
diverted deliberately after someone on board switched off the Boeing
777’s communications systems.

He said investigations were now being refocused at the crew and
passengers aboard the plane.

After MH370 disappeared from civilian radar in the early hours of March
8, the plane was flown westward from its intended path to Beijing,
turning around at Checkpoint Igari in the South China Sea.

(9) Possible MH370 sighting as Maldives residents report 'low-flying jumbo'

http://www.smh.com.au/world/possible-mh370-sighting-as-maldives-residents-report-lowflying-jumbo-20140319-hvkb0.html

March 19, 2014 - 9:54AM

A search area the size of Australia is being scoured by 26 countries as
authorities try to piece together why missing Malaysia Airlines flight
MH370 changed course.

As an Australian-led search for a missing Malaysia Airlines passenger
jet swings into action in the southern Indian Ocean, reports have
emerged of a possible sighting of MH370 thousands of kilometres away in
the Maldives.

Residents on the island nation, in the Indian Ocean about 700 kilometres
south-west of Sri Lanka, have reported seeing a ‘‘low-flying jumbo jet’’
on the morning that the missing plane with 239 people on board vanished
from civilian radar and lost contact with ground controllers.

The large plane was reported to be white with red stripes, which is
consistent with the Malaysia Airlines fleet, and was said to have made
an incredibly loud noise as it flew over the the island of Kuda Huvadhoo
at about 6.15am on March 8, according Maldives newspaper Haveeru Daily.

"I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before,’’ one
unnamed witness told the newspaper.

‘‘We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I
could even make out the doors on the plane clearly... It's not just me
either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same
thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the
tremendous noise too."

Mohamed Zaheem, the island councillor of Kuda Huvadhoo, told the
newspaper that other residents had also spoken of the incident.

The residents claimed the plane was flying towards the southern tip of
the Maldives, the Addu Atoll.

Investigators have not commented on the reported sighting in the
Maldives, which is thousands of kilometres away from where an
Australian-led search has begun in a massive stretch of ocean west of Perth.

That search operation, covering an area the size of France, began on
Tuesday afternoon when an Australian P-3 Orion surveillance plane set
off from RAAF base Pearce, outside Perth.

Aircraft from the US and New Zealand will join the search on Wednesday,
and China has expressed interest in helping.

On Wednesday morning, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA)
said three merchant ships near the search area also had responded to a
broadcast issued by AMSA’s rescue co-ordination centre.

The search area is more than 600,000 square kilometres, and the search
is likely to take weeks.

John Young, from AMSA’s rescue co-ordination centre, said that search
area was the ''best estimate'' of where the plane may have came down.

It is a considerably smaller area than the massive arc previously
outlined by Malaysian authorities.

But Mr Young said it would still be a massive job, and repeated several
times it was only a ''possible search area'', underscoring the
uncertainty that still surrounds the whole episode.

''A needle in a haystack remains a good analogy,'' he said. ''The sheer
size of the search area poses a huge challenge.''

(10) Inmarsat satellite company reports "significant uncertainty" about
flight path of MH370

http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/flight-mh370/57641/flight-mh370-officials-optimistic-missing-plane-will-be-found

MH370: Indian Ocean crash theory in doubt

New report raises 'significant uncertainty' as airline boss asks if
MH370 crashed into the sea

LAST UPDATED AT 14:53 ON Wed 15 Oct 2014

The fate of Malaysia Airlines' missing flight MH370 has been thrown into
doubt once again after a British satellite company central to the search
said that there was "significant uncertainty" about the final flight
path of the Boeing 777.

As underwater searches for the aircraft continue in the southern Indian
Ocean, Inmarsat – one of the companies whose analysis of satellite data
has been critical to helping refine the investigation – has published a
report on the data analysis techniques in the Journal of Navigation.

The report goes into "extraordinary detail" about the so-called
"handshakes" between MH370 and satellite communication equipment prior
to the plane's disappearance, News.com.au reports.

Through close analysis of the satellite data it is possible to deduce
that "the aircraft remained operational for at least seven hours after
the loss of contact as the satellite terminal continued to transmit
messages during this period", but it is not possible to be certain about
the plane's final resting place, Inmarsat concluded.

The main problem for analysts, the report said, is that the information
they are working from cannot be refined significantly enough to
confidently identify the plane's final resting place.

"A potential flight path has been reconstructed that is consistent with
the satellite data ... but it is stressed that the sensitivity of the
reconstructed flight path to frequency errors is such that there remains
significant uncertainty in the final location," the report said.

The new report comes just two days after airline chief Sir Tim Clark,
the head of Emirates, criticised the search for MH370 in Der Spiegel
newspaper.

Clark, whose fleet has 127 aircraft identical to the missing Malaysia
Airlines plane, said: "Our experience tells us that in water incidents,
where the aircraft has gone down, there is always something. I am saying
that all the 'facts' of this particular incident must be challenged and
examined with a full transparency. We are nowhere near that."

He added: "There is plenty of information out there, which we need to be
far more forthright, transparent and candid about. Every single second
of that flight needs to be examined up until it theoretically ended up
in the Indian Ocean – for which they still haven't found a trace, not
even a seat cushion."

(11) Hydrometeorologist's offer to locate MH370 by tracking its vapour
trail turned down by authorities

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/could-this-technology-find-missing-malaysian-flight-mh370/story-fnizu68q-1227093827402

Could this technology find missing Malaysian Flight MH370?

By MARNIE O’NEILL

The Australian October 17, 2014 6:04PM

AN Australian scientist says it is possible to locate missing Malaysian
Airlines flight MH370 by identifying cloud changes for evidence of
vapour trails caused by burning fuel emissions from the aircraft.

Hydrometeorologist Aron Gingis, head of environmental consultancy firm
Australian Management Consolidated, and a former Monash University
academic, specialises in cloud microphysics.

Mr Gingis says he has used the technology to locate shipwrecks in the
north Pacific Ocean by identifying “ship trails” and the changes in
cloud microphysics caused by emissions of floating vessels using
archival satellite data.

{photo}
Mr Gingis said he was able to track ship trails in the North Pacific
Ocean by identifying fuel vapour emissions present in the cloud seen on
the left of this archival satellite image and can do the same with
MH370. Source: Supplied
{end}

The respected engineer, who has 27 years experience in the field,
offered his services to the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian
authorities just weeks after the Boeing 777 vanished, only to be rejected.

“I believe that we have a realistic chance to follow flight path of
Malaysian Airline MH370 and follow its flight direction and possibly
identifying its landing or crash site,” Mr Gingis wrote to the Malaysian
High Commissioner Eldeen Husaini in an email dated April 3 — less than a
month after the plane vanished.

“I would be required to fly to KL and to have a detailed briefing with
Malaysian search and rescue authorities in order to be able to identify
and search for specific satellite availability and all satellite data
imagery frames that we can analyse using our cloud microphysics algorithms.

“The travelling to KL and back to Melbourne and 1 day briefing session
will be sufficient to explain to your search and rescue authorities as
of our ability to identify the flying trails of MH370.

“I believe that we will be able to utilise our expertise and identify
the flight pass of MH370 and then to direct the search and rescue
authorities to save or recover MH370 passengers.”

Mr Gingis said Mr Husaini emailed him on April 10 to say his proposal
had been forwarded to the “Operation Room” in Malaysia, and on April 24,
the High Commissioner sent him a “thanks but no thanks” response.

“We appreciate your kind offer to assist us in finding the MH370 as we
are looking into all possibilities to facilitate the search,” Mr Husaini
wrote.

“However, at the moment we have engaged with all international forum
which consist of experts in their own respective field to search for the
missing plane.”

On May 30, Mr Gingis sent his proposal to the Australian Transport and
Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is coordinating the search for MH370 in the
South Indian Ocean.

On June 17, ATSB senior transport safety investigator Duncan Bosworth
responded with a list of 11 questions (seen by news.com.au) grilling Mr
Gingis for information the scientist says he refused to answer without
being under contract for fear of compromising commercial and security
interests.

In a statement to news.com.au this week, the ATSB confirmed Mr
Gingis’story. The bureau also confirmed it was in possession of the
relevant archival satellite images but had not engaged anyone to examine
the images for airline vapour trails left by MH370.

“The ATSB asked for details of the techniques that Mr Gingis proposed to
use, however Mr Gingis refused to provide information for consideration
as he believed it could be detrimental to his commercial interests,” the
statement said.

“The ATSB has worked closely with Australian government agencies with
expertise in the analysis of satellite imagery and has fed the results
into its assessment of priority search areas.

“The ATSB remains confident in the analysis work undertaken by the
international experts of the Satellite Working Group and the validity of
the satellite communications data on which that group has relied.”

Mr Gingis said he offered to do a reconnaissance for $17,500 — a
fraction of the estimated $100 million the Australian Government is
spending on the exploration of at least 60,000 sq km of unchartered
seabed, which has so far uncovered nothing and has been set down for a year.

That search has been heavily criticised for its reliance on analysis of
satellite communication “handshakes” to pinpoint MH370’s flight path and
estimated final resting place.

Last week the head of the world’s largest fleet of Boeing 777s, Emirates
CEO and president Sir Tim Clark, rubbished the ATSB’s investigation and
hinted at a cover-up by Malaysian authorities among others.

Sir Tim also said he did not believe MH370 flew south for five hours
before running out of fuel and spiralling into the South Indian Ocean,
as the ATSB concluded in a report published earlier this month.

Sarah Bajc, the outspoken partner of American Philip Wood, one of the
239 on board Flight MH370, told news.com.au she was “astounded” that Mr
Gingis’ offer to do preliminary research for just $17,500 was rejected.

“What I do know is that credible scientists who end up being right are
called quacks all the time,” she said. “There were dozens who proposed
the earth was round for hundreds of years before society accepted it.

“There are many functioning technologies that are squashed by ‘big
business’ that is protecting its revenue streams — I would include many
governments and powerful individuals in that category too.”

Ms Bajc, an American expat based in Kuala Lumpur, has been vocal in her
criticism of the search and, like Australian Jennifer Chong, the wife of
MH370 passenger Chong Ling Tan, believes that without proof to the
contrary, those on board could still be alive and that authorities have
covered up the true fate of the aircraft.

“I still disagree with SIO (South Indian Ocean search) because NONE of
the other evidence supports it. No radar sightings, no debris. My
personal belief is that there is either intentional or unintentional
miscalculation, or there is falsified data.”

Ms Bajc is leading a group of relatives of MH370 passengers who have
hired a private investigator to find out what happened to the aircraft.

“We are not just refusing to accept the truth,” Ms Bajc told news.com.au.

“I would be the first person to apologise publicly for being so stubborn
and contrary if they do indeed find the plane in the South Indian Ocean.

“Our position does, however, explain a total lack of debris, the string
of ‘blunders’ in the search, the seemingly intentional false leads of
debris and underwater pings, the redacted data logs, the error/illogical
ridden Inmarsat analysis, missing/altered air traffic control records,
the large ‘gaps’ in contact with the plane, missing military radar,
missing cargo manifest, and the astoundingly incompetent path of the
entire investigation.”

(12) GeoResonance say, "We reported the precise location" of MH370 in
Bay of Bengal

http://www.therakyatpost.com/news/2014/05/10/georesonance-adamant-mh370-bay-bengal/

GeoResonance adamant MH370 is in Bay of Bengal

GeoResonance Pty Lt managing director Pavel Kursa says the company's
claim has unearthed numerous pseudo scientists in the form of media
commentators.

By Eileen Hee

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10:

Geological survey firm GeoResonance Pty Lt, based in Adelaide, said it
hadn’t suffered any backlash from issuing its public claim to have found
the wreckage of MH370 in the Bay of Bengal.

“We cannot judge about awareness that our business has created. What we
know for sure is that our claim has unearthed numerous pseudo scientists
in the form of media commentators,” said managing director Pavel Kursa.

He said GeoResonance had consulted its clients before approaching the
media with the MH370 wreckage claim and its clients had encouraged the
firm to alert the authorities.

GeoResonance’s clients mainly comprise mining companies searching for
minerals, oil and gas hidden deep under ocean floors.

Asked if there had been any new interest in the firm’s services since
the claim, Kursa told The Rakyat Post: “We have only received
invitations to scientific conferences.”

As to possible questions raised about the impact of the claim on its
business reputation, Kursa said: “We are busy doing survey projects.”

Touching further on the MH370 wreckage claim, he said: “There are people
who tried to discredit our technology without having proper knowledge of
what the company does.”

Having read that thus far only Bangladesh navy ships had gone to
investigate the GeoResonance claims, he said: “As far as Bangladeshi
Navy checking our findings, we firmly believe that our findings have not
been checked at all.

“The media mentioned ‘three Bangladeshi ships scouring the Bay of
Bengal’.  However, what does ‘scouring’ mean?

“We reported the precise location. Given the margin of error, the
reported area size was only 500 sq metres! What was required is to send
just one ship to the specified coordinates and check the location with a
sonar.

“GeoResonance remains quietly confident on our reported finding in the
Bay of Bengal.

“We are considering verifying the location ourselves. Two words to all
the sceptics: ‘Test us!’”

(13) Raja Dalelah says she saw an aircraft in the sea in the Bay of
Bengal, near Andaman islands

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/21/Woman-reports-sighting-jet-Raja-Dalelah-Im-convinced-I-saw-aircraft-near-Andaman-islands/

Raja Dalelah: I'm convinced I saw aircraft near Andaman islands

Malaysian Star

Published: Friday March 21, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Friday March 21, 2014 MYT 12:43:15 PM

MALACCA: Did MH370 crash in the Andaman Sea and then drift thousands of
kilometres to the southern Indian Ocean?

A Johor housewife has claimed that she saw the stricken Malaysia
Airlines plane partly submerged in the waters off the Andaman islands
when she was returning to Kuala Lumpur after a pilgrimage to Mecca on
March 8.

Raja Dalelah Raja Latife, 53, lodged a police report the same day.

She said she had taken flight SV2058 that left Jeddah at 3.30am Saudi
time (8.30am Malaysian time) and after the plane flew past the southern
Indian city of Chennai, she saw something strange in the ocean.

“It looked like an aeroplane,” said the mother of 10.

“Throughout the journey, I was staring out of the window of the aircraft
as I couldn’t sleep during the flight.

“It is normal for me to look out of the window if I can’t sleep during a
flight. On my first trip to Beijing two years ago, I also stayed awake
by looking out the window,” she said.

Raja Dalelah, from Kota Tinggi in Johor said the plane she was in was
flying over the Indian Ocean when she saw a silvery object on the ocean.

The in-flight monitor in front her showed that the aircraft was crossing
the Indian Ocean. The last city on the land mass showed Chennai.

“I had seen several shipping liners and islands from my window earlier.
Then, I saw the silvery object.

“I took a closer look and was shocked to see what looked like the tail
and wing of an aircraft on the water,” she said.

Raja Dalelah said she took another look and was sure it was an aircraft
in the ocean.

“I woke my friends in the flight but they laughed me off.”

A pilot has also laughed off her claim.

“Along any flight path, especially a long-haul one such as between
Jeddah and Kuala Lumpur, the altitude of the plane will be maintained at
around 35,000ft once it is in the air,” said the pilot who wished to
remain anonymous.

“This is roughly seven miles above sea level. How can anyone see
anything like a boat or ship on the ground from so high up?” he questioned.

Raja Dalelah, however, was sticking to her guns. “I know what I saw. I
am convinced that I saw the aircraft. And I will not lie. I had just
returned from my pilgrimage,” she said.

She said that on March 14, she lodged another police report in Sentul,
hoping the Department of Civil Aviation would take her seriously.

She said the aircraft had what looked like floats on its side but a
large part of it was under water.

“I clearly saw the time, it was about 9.30am (2.30pm Malaysian time),”
she said.

She was also disappointed that when she told an air stewardess about
what she had seen, the crew member closed the window and told her to get
some sleep.

Raja Dalelah said when she landed at KLIA at 4pm she told her children
what she had seen.

“That is when they told me that MH370 had gone missing.

“My son-in-law, a policeman, was convinced that I had seen an aircraft
and asked me to lodge a police report the same day at Sentul police
headquarters in Kuala Lumpur,” she said.

Raja Dalelah said she did not know the exact spot where but said it was
an hour or more out of Chennai, a timeline that would have put her
flight just over the Andaman islands.

“My other children were afraid that I could be detained for filing a
false report as we were told the aircraft had vanished somewhere in the
South China Sea.

“Many of my friends on the flight doubted me at first but they are
beginning to believe me now that we know the plane turned back and
entered the Indian Ocean,” she added.

(14) Missing MH370: Kelantan duo report seeing lights 'falling' at high
speed

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/11/Kelantan-duo-report-seeing-lights-falling-at-high-speed/

Published: Tuesday March 11, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday March 11, 2014 MYT 7:10:51 AM

KOTA BARU: The authorities here have their hands full after receiving at
least two reports from the public that they saw an aircraft flying low
on the same day Malaysian Airlines MH370 vanished.

In his report, the owner of a fishing boat claimed that he saw an
airplane flying low while he was at sea with a friend about 14.4km from
Kuala Besar in Pantai Cahaya Bulan here at 1.30am on Saturday.

Azid Ibrahim, 66, said the aircraft was heading towards international
waters.

According to him, the plane was flying so low that he could see the
lights “as big as coconuts”.

He said he saw the aircraft with his friend Pak De while five other
anglers were asleep in the boat.

In a report which appeared on a local English news portal, a man in
Ketereh, 30km south of Kota Baru, claimed that he saw “bright white
lights” which he believed to be that of an aircraft descending at high
speed at 1.45am the same day the jetliner went missing.

Businessman Alif Fathi Abdul Hadi, 29, said he was in the compound of
his home when he saw the aircraft flying low, heading for Bachok and
descending fast.

He said he only found out about the missing jetplane the next day and
decided to lodge a report at the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency
office in Tok Bali late Sunday evening.

(15) MH370 search: British sailor may have seen Malaysia Airlines jet on
fire

http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh370-search-british-sailor-may-have-seen-malaysia-airlines-jet-on-fire-20140604-zrwuv.html

Sydney Morning Herald June 4, 2014

A British woman on a sailing trip with her husband has told Australian
authorities that she may have seen the missing Malaysia Airlines jet
MH370 streaking through the night sky on fire.

Katherine Tee, 41, was sailing from India to Thailand and was on night
watch on the deck of her Kalik 40 yacht in early March when she claims
she saw a plane surrounded by bright orange lights and with a tail of
black smoke pass above her.

Ms Tee's husband, Marc Horn, 50, was asleep below deck at the time and
another crew member was asleep on deck when she saw the strange
occurrence, which she has only recently reported to the Joint Agency
Coordination Centre (JACC) in Australia. Image from Katherine Tee's blog
showing where the sighting was made.

Image from Katherine Tee's blog showing where the claimed sighting was made.

She now believes it may have been Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which
went missing on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with
239 people on board. Advertisement

"It caught my attention because I had never seen a plane with orange
lights before, so wondered what they were," Ms Tee, from Liverpool in
England, wrote in the online sailing forum Cruisers Forum, where she
also works.

"I could see the outline of the plane, it looked longer than planes
usually do. There was what appeared to be a tail of black smoke coming
from behind it.

"There were two other planes passing higher than it - moving the other
way - at that time. They had normal nav lights. I recall thinking that
if it was a plane on fire that I was seeing, the other aircraft would
report it.

"As I first observed it, it was approaching to cross behind our stern
from the North. When I checked again later it had moved across the stern
and was moving away to the South."

Ms Tee, who has also written about her experience on her blog, did not
initially report her sighting to authorities or even to her husband, she
said, as they had been at sea for 13 months and were having relationship
difficulties.

But recent media reports about the difficulties with the search off the
West Australian coast had convinced her to come forward this week, she said.

"We hadn't spoken for about a week," Ms Tee said, referring to her
relationship with her husband at the time of the sighting.

"The first time I told him was last night after hearing the radio
report. That is when we checked our GPS log and realised that perhaps I
really did see it.

"I did think [initially] that what I saw would add little, and be
dismissed with the thousands of other sightings I assumed were being
reported; I thought that the authorities would be able to track it's
[MH370's] GPS log which I assumed was automatically transmitted, etc.

"And most of all, I wasn't sure of what I saw. I couldn't believe it
myself. I even doubted my sanity, and didn't think anyone would believe
me when I was having trouble believing my own eyes. So I dismissed it,
and got on with the business of fixing me and my marriage.

"All I can confirm is that I learnt last night that we were in the right
place at the right time, so it seems possible."

Ms Tee and her husband were sailing from India to Thailand at the time,
and the couple are now in Phuket. Ms Tee told the Phuket Gazette that
she had filed a report with the full data from their voyage to JACC.

JACC has been contacted for comment.

Authorities last week said the Australian-led search in the southern
Indian Ocean would continue for possibly another year.

The Australian Transport and Safety Bureau will call for tenders this
week for vessels and sonar equipment to continue the hunt for the
missing plane.

A Chinese ship has already begun conducting mapping of the Indian Ocean
sea floor, so that sonar equipment can be towed safely and obstacles
avoided.

The current search has been paused, after authorities concluded that a
series of "pings" heard in the intensive search area were generated by
search equipment and not the aircraft's black boxes.