24 March 2014 Last updated at 23:03

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Flight MH370 'crashed in south Indian Ocean' - Malaysia PM

Standing sombre before the world's media, Malaysia's prime minister ended weeks of limbo with a brief statement

Malaysia's prime minister has announced that missing flight MH370 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

Najib Razak said this was the conclusion of fresh analysis of satellite data tracking the flight.

Malaysia Airlines had told the families of the 239 people on board, he said.

The BBC has seen a text message sent to families by the airline saying it had to be assumed "beyond reasonable doubt" that the plane was lost and there were no survivors.

There were 227 passengers on flight MH370, many of them Chinese.

Relatives of those on board who watched the announcement at a Beijing hotel wept with grief, and some were taken away on stretchers by medical teams.

Passengers' relatives in China took in the news with a mixture of deep anguish and some anger

China has demanded that the Malaysian authorities make available the evidence on which they based their announcement about the jet's fate.

And some relatives of Chinese passengers expressed scepticism about their conclusion, as the plane has not been found yet.

Flight MH370 disappeared after taking off on 8 March from Kuala Lumpur.

A big international search operation has been taking place in the southern Indian Ocean, along the southern arc or corridor of the plane's possible route, more than 1,500 miles (2,500km) off the south-west coast of Australia.

However, the search had to be suspended on Tuesday due to bad weather, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said.

In the past day, both Australian and Chinese air force crews have reported spotting debris.

The unidentified objects have been seen in separate parts of the vast search area, in some of the world's most treacherous and remote waters.

Heartbreaking

The announcement by Prime Minister Najib Razak came at a late-night news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

It was based on new analysis by British satellite firm Inmarsat, which provided satellite data, and the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

The firms "have concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth," Mr Najib said.

"This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

Mr Najib appealed to the media to respect the privacy of the families of the passengers and crew, saying the wait for information had been heartbreaking and this latest news harder still.

Footage from an Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion aircraft shows a smoke marker where an object was spotted

Malaysia Airlines later said it informed the majority of the families in advance of the prime minister's statement in person and by telephone, and that text messages "were used only as an additional means of communicating with the families".

The text messages read: "Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived... we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean."

Selamat Omar, the father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer who was on the flight, said some family members of other passengers broke down in tears at the news.

"We accept the news of the tragedy. It is fate," Selamat told the Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur.

Fresh analysis methods

Inmarsat had already revealed that it did indeed receive signals - automated "pings" - from the plane over its satellite network after the aircraft ceased radio and radar contact.

Sources told the BBC that flight MH370 continued to ping for at least five hours after the aircraft left Malaysian airspace - which indicated the plane was intact and powered.

And initial analysis showed the location of the final "ping" was probably along one of two vast arcs running north and south.

Monday was the fifth day of operations to search remote areas of the southern Indian Ocean

On Monday, the Malaysian prime minister said Inmarsat had been able to shed further light on the plane's flight path by performing further calculations on the MH370 data "using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort".

According to Inmarsat, this involved a totally new way of modelling,which was why it took time.

The company told the BBC the new calculation involved crunching far more data and that engineers spent all weekend looking back at previous Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flights.

They compared the satellite data from those flights with flight MH370 and were able to work out that it went south.

As far as the engineers could tell, the plane was flying at a cruising height above 30,000ft, but its final position could not be pinpointed more clearly, says BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott.

Inmarsat gave the AAIB the new data on Sunday, it said, which had to be checked before it could be made public.

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26716572

China demands Malaysia share satellite data that confirmed MH370 crash in Indian Ocean

China demands Malaysia share satellite data that confirmed MH370 crash in Indian Ocean  
Sutirtho Patranobis , Hindustan Times
 

China has demanded that Malaysia immediately share the satellite data on the basis of which Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday night that the missing flight MH370 had crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysian ambassador to China, Datuk Iskandar Bin Sarudin was called to the foreign ministry late on Monday where the demand was put forward to him by the Chinese deputy foreign minister, Xie Hangsheng.

“We demand the Malaysian side to make clear the specific basis on which they come to this judgement," Xie said during an urgent meeting with Sarudin, official news agency Xinhua said in a report published early Tuesday.

Xia demanded the Malaysian side to provide all information and evidence related to the analysis of satellite data, the report said.

There were 154 Chinese passengers among the 239 passengers on board flight MH370 Malaysian airlines flight. The flight was on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur but ended up thousands of miles away in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean.

Razak’s statement on Monday triggered hysterical reactions among the family members and relatives of the passengers in a Beijing hotel where they have been put up since the flight vanished on March 8. Many were angry at Malaysian authorities and the airlines for not sharing information at a regular basis.

Keeping the emotions of Chinese citizens in mind, Xie urged Malaysia to continue all “the relevant work including search and rescue for the missing plane”.

The Chinese diplomat emphasised that the search and rescue work must not stop at the moment.

During the meeting with Sarudin, Xie said China pays great attention to Malaysia's announcement that the missing plane ended in the Indian Ocean.

“We have noticed that the Malaysian side said it will make further elaboration on related details,” Xie said.

China had been critical of Malaysian efforts to coordinate the search and rescue mission for the missing aircraft, urging Kuala Lumpur everyday to step up the pace and to share information on a regular basis.

Beijing also dispatched a working group comprising members of various ministries to Kuala Lumpur to coordinate with the Malaysian authorities and provide help to the Chinese family members waiting in Kuala Lumpur.

The Xinhua report quoted Chinese maritime authorities as saying late Monday night that China will send more vessels to the waters of the southern Indian Ocean to search and salvage wreckage of Malaysia Airline MH370. China has already sent some six vessels to the area where two Chinese IL-76 aircraft are scouring the rough seas for the missing plane, the report said.

- See more at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/malaysianairlinemystery2014/china-demands-malaysia-share-satellite-data-that-confirmed-mh370-crash-in-indian-ocean/article1-1200057.aspx#sthash.e5y6FrYt.dpuf

MH370 search: what happens when a plane runs out of fuel?

MH370 search: what happens when a plane runs out of fuel?

Planes continue to glide for long distances even after running out of fuel.

If debris spotted in southern Indian Ocean does in fact turn out to be flight MH370, it will be thousands of kilometres from where it turned around over the Malay Peninsula.

The theory being considered most likely in this scenario is that some mechanical failure led to a drop of cabin pressure that rendered the crew and passengers unconscious, leaving the plane on a ghost flight for several hours.

At some point, though, the fuel would have run out.

An aviation expert said most new-generation aeroplanes would continue to glide, even after all the plane's fuel reserves had been exhausted.

"All the aeroplanes glide," Professor Jason Middleton, from the School of Aviation at the University of NSW, said.

"They'll go 10 (kilometres) along for every one down."

In other words, if flight MH370 ran out of fuel somewhere over the Indian Ocean at a cruising altitude of around 10km, it could have glided for 100km without fuel in the tanks or a conscious pilot in the cockpit.

In such a "ghost flight" scenario, the final descent into the ocean would depend largely on the weather, Professor Middleton said.

Even with the best pilots, fully alert, the conditions in the Indian Ocean would guarantee a messy crash into the waves in which the plane would likely cartwheel and break apart, he said.

Fairfax Media reported earlier today that the theory favoured for some days now by professional pilots on chat sites and blogs is that the pilots had an event on board that took out the communications and led to a slow or rapid decompression - rendering the crew incapable of making an emergency landing.

Pilots have only a few minutes to bring a plane down to below 4000 metres before the passengers and crew will become disoriented, then unconscious and eventually die.

In 1999 a Lear jet carrying professional golfer Payne Stewart flew for several hours with its passengers and crew unresponsive, before it ran out of fuel and crashed in a field in South Dakota.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/mh370-search-what-happens-when-a-plane-runs-out-of-fuel-20140321-358jo.html#ixzz2ww2gu1Nu
 

MH370 search: How new satellite data confirmed Malaysia Airlines plane was lost

Date

March 25, 2014 - 6:42AM

 London: A new, unprecedented satellite tracking technique is what gave Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak enough confidence to announce that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went down in the remote south of the Indian Ocean.

British firm Inmarsat was behind an earlier analysis that indicated the plane had been flying in one of two big ‘corridors’, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern.

Graphic: Jamie Brown

However last week it went back to its data and tried a new mathematical analysis, which concluded on Sunday.

 The new analysis allowed them to discard the northern corridor, and focus more precisely on the southern route.

Based on this new information, Mr Najib announced on Monday that MH370’s last known position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.

 

UK firm Inmarsat was behind an earlier analysis of the path of missing flight MH370. Photo: Fairfax

The nature of the pings indicated that the plane was still moving during that time.

“This is a remote location far from any possible landing sites,” he said. “It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that … flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

The aeroplane had Inmarsat’s ‘Classic Aero’ satellite system, which collects information such as location, altitude, heading and speed, and sends it through Inmarsat’s satellites into their network.

This ‘ACARS’ (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system) was switched off or interrupted early in the flight, meaning no such information was available to track the plane.

However the Classic Aero system still sent hourly ‘pings’ back to Inmarsat’s satellite for at least five hours after the aircraft left Malaysian airspace, the company discovered.

These pings contained no data – they were just a simple ‘hello’ to keep the link open – however their timing and frequency contained hidden mathematical clues.

The company looked at the ‘Doppler effect’ – tiny changes in the frequency of the ping signal, caused by the relative movement of the satellite and the plane (the Doppler effect is the reason why, for example, police sirens are a different pitch or frequency depending on whether they are travelling toward you or away from you).

This analysis allowed Inmarsat to map two huge ‘corridors’ for the plane’s possible location, in big arcs stretching thousands of kilometres north and south of the point where the last radar contact with MH370 was made.

Australian and US experts took this information, added some assumptions about the plane’s speed, and narrowed the southern option into an area of ocean that could be realistically searched.

Meanwhile, Inmarsat went back to its satellite data. Its new analysis found that the northern route did not quite correlate with the frequency of the pings from the plane – meaning the plane must have been heading south.

It also suggested that the plane had been travelling at a steady cruising altitude above 30,000 feet.

They compared satellite data from MH370 with that from previous Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 flights, going back a few weeks, in order to better model the movement of the plane.

“This really was a shot in the dark,” Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president of external affairs at Inmarsat told the BBC. “It’s a credit to the scientific team that they managed to model this.

“Just a single ‘ping’ can be used to say the plane was both powered up and travelling. And then by a process of elimination comparing it to other known flights and established that it went south.”

The UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch also contributed to the analysis. 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh370-search-how-new-satellite-data-confirmed-malaysia-airlines-plane-was-lost-20140325-hvme8.html#ixzz2ww16YB6G

Read what Foreign News Said about MH370: MH370 crashed in 'suicide mission'??

MH370 crashed in 'suicide mission', Britain's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reports

Date

March 25, 2014 - 9:30AM

How The Daily Telegraph in London reported the story in its newspaper.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was deliberately crashed into the ocean in ‘‘an apparent suicide mission’’, according to a report in Britain’s The Daily Telegraph.

The newspaper report, which appears on the front page of Tuesday's edition, was based on what it claimed were ‘‘well-placed sources’’. Fairfax Media can not vouch for the veractiy of the story.

The report said sources had revealed that the team investigating the plane’s disappearance believed that no malfunction or fire was capable of causing the Boeing 777’s unusual flight path after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, or the disabling of its communications systems.

It does not speculate as to who might have been responsible for causing the crash, and whether there were links to terrorism or mental illness, but rather states that it must have been a deliberate - and therefore suicidal - act. 

The Telegraph report was written by Australian journalist Jonathan Pearlman, a former reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.  

While claiming the story was verified by multiple sources, The Daily Telegraph quoted just one unnamed official source as saying that investigators believed "this has been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed knowledge to do what was done ... Nothing is emerging that points to  motive."

Asked about the possibility of a plane malfunction or an on-board fire, the source told the newspaper: "It just does not hinge together..... [The investigators] have gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way."

The Daily Telegraph claimed the revelation came from ‘‘well-placed sources’’, but only quoted one unnamed source in its report.

The worst fears of families were confirmed last night when Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the plane crashed into a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, killing all 239 people on board.

“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” Mr Najib told a media briefing.

"It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.’’

Confirmation the Boeing 777, one of the world’s most sophisticated airliners, crashed into the sea came from Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch which had been provided information from the London-based satellite company Inmarsat.

According to the analysis the plane flew for more than seven hours after it had turned back from its scheduled flight path over the South China Sea.

Officials said it was likely the plane ran out of fuel before crashing.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh370-crashed-in-suicide-mission-britains-the-daily-telegraph-newspaper-reports-20140325-hvmf1.html#ixzz2wvUIzV2U

Missing plane familes texted 'it's lost' news

MEGAN LEVY

A family member of a passenger from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 leaves on a stretcher after fainting at Lido Hotel.

Some relatives of those on board MH370 learned in a heart-breaking text message that the missing passenger jet was believed to have ditched into the southern Indian Ocean, killing all 239 on board.

Malaysia Airlines sent the message to the relatives of those on board the plane, stating it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived".

The message was sent in English and Chinese.

Shortly before the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made the announcement at a briefing at 10pm in Kuala Lumpur (3am NZT), Malaysia Airlines said its officials informed relatives of the missing passengers and crew.

The airline said most of those people were informed in person or by telephone, but some were sent a text message.

The text message read: "Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.

''As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia's Prime Minister, we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean."

Both the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines have been criticised during the two-week investigation into the disappearance of MH370. 

The airline later defended sending the text messages, saying all efforts were made to contact all families to inform them in person beforehand.

At Beijing's Lido Hotel, harrowing scenes of grief and distress unfolded as about 50 or so relatives watched Najib's announcement in the hotel's cordoned-off conference room.

One elderly woman burst out of the room wailing, crying out for her son, her daughter-in-law and her grandchild who were on board the plane.

"My whole family is gone," she screamed, as loved ones and police struggled to restrain her.

"My son, my son, my son," another woman was heard yelling.

Others were angered by the abrupt nature and brevity of Najib's statement, which deferred to a further press conference to be held later today.

"I've been waiting half a month, and they just give us one sentence?" one woman said.

At least two people were wheeled out on stretchers and taken to hospital.

The Malaysian transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, later tweeted his sympathy for the families of the passengers and crew on MH370.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/9865055/Missing-plane-familes-texted-its-lost-news

Flight MH370 crashed in Indian Ocean, no survivors

AIMEE GULLIVER AND LINDSAY MURDOCH IN KUALA LUMPUR

The devastated relatives of passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 must assume the plane is "lost" and the flight crashed in the Indian Ocean, the Malaysian prime minister says.

The families were called to meetings this morning to be told the fate of flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people, including two New Zealanders, aboard the flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing.

Those who could not attend received a text message or phone call from the airline confirming the terrible news.

New satellite analysis showed MH370 flew along the southern flight corridor identified by searchers and its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth, representatives of the British Air Investigation Branch had told Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

"This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites," Najib said today.

"It is, therefore, with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

Families have been booked on chartered flights to Perth. 

Najib said in a first, "pings" sent out by the plane had been pieced together to shed more light on its flight path.

According to this data, provided to UK officials by London-based satellite company Inmarsat, the plane flew for more than seven hours after it had turned back from its scheduled flight path over the South China Sea.

Officials said it was likely the plane ran out fuel before crashing. It is not known whether the pilots were still in control during the long flight into the Indian Ocean.

In Beijing, where relatives of the missing had gathered at a hotel to hear the latest update, screams could be heard as the news was delivered. A steady stream of paramedics brought in stretchers.

Soon after, family members left the room wailing, with some collapsing on the floor and refusing to get up. One man threw himself on to an escalator and refused to move.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/9863247/Flight-MH370-crashed-in-Indian-Ocean-no-survivors