Inmarsat’s use of data helps solve MH370 flight path riddle

By Mark Odell in London and Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong Kong

UK-based company Inmarsat solved the mystery of the final course taken by flight MH370 – the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that disappeared without trace two weeks ago – by a revolutionary use of satellite data.

The analysis by the UK-based company, a London-based operator of communications satellites, and UK air accident investigators, proved conclusively that the last signal from the aircraft came from a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean.

 Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, said on the basis of this information investigators had concluded that flight MH370 which set off from Kuala Lumpur bound northeast for Beijing ended up crashing into the sea 2,500km south west of Perth.

“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 said.

The news comes 16 days after the Boeing 777 passenger jet vanished in the early hours of March 8 less than an hour after taking off on a routine red-eye flight to China. Since then more than two dozen countries have been helping Malaysia look for the jet, in the most intensive search for a missing aircraft in history.

The focus of the search turned last week to the Indian Ocean based on an analysis of “pings” received by one of Inmarsat’s satellites from an automatic system onboard the aircraft.

That data established the aircraft had veered west from its original flight path, passed over the Malaysia peninsula and then flown along one of two arcs – a northern corridor that stretches to Kazakhstan and a southern corridor that runs into the Indian Ocean past Australia.

But over the weekend, Inmarsat’s engineers fine-tuned the data drawing on a new type of analysis which had never been used for this purpose before, to establish the flight went south rather than north.

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The team used the “Doppler effect” of the satellite as it moved in its orbit to establish a set of measurements for the predicted northerly and southerly paths, a company spokesman said. The Doppler effect describes the change in the frequency of sound, radio or light waves as they travel between two objects, when one or both of them are moving.

The team then overlaid these measurement with data from other aircraft that had flown both “arcs” and the results corresponded with the southerly route. Inmarsat had the results peer-reviewed before passing them on to the Malaysian authorities.

Before the announcement by Mr Najib, Australian and Chinese aircraft reported on Monday they had spotted several objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean. However, none of the items has yet been recovered. Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister, cautioned they might be unconnected to the aircraft.

In Beijing, family members of some of the 153 Chinese nationals who were on the flight cried and shouted when they heard the announcement. At least one person was carried out on a stretcher after hearing the news.

Hishammuddin Hussein, the Malaysian defence minister who has become the global face of the search, sought to reassure the relatives, tweeting after Mr Najib’s announcement: “#MH370: words just cannot describe how I feel 2nite but I promise you esp d families of all d passengers n crew: The search continues.”

He also tweeted: “I truly understand there are no words which could console the family members of #MH370. The whole world is with you in these difficult times.”

Earlier, Malaysia Airlines said it had sent the following text message to relatives of those on board: “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.”

The search teams will now seek to establish exactly where the aircraft crashed in the vast southern expanses of the Indian Ocean. Any clue as to what happened on MH370 will be contained in the voice cockpit and flight data recorders, which are assumed now to be lying at depths of up to 4,000m on the seabed. They are both fitted with transponders that have a battery life of just 30 days under water.

Additional reporting by Tom Mitchell and Julie Zhu in Hong Kong

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MH370: Aircraft reach search zone in south Indian Ocean

• Michael Safi, Paul Farrell, James Randerson and Claire Phipps
• theguardian.com, Friday 21 March 2014 18.46 GMT

RAAF Flying Officer Brittany Sharpe from 10 Squadron, coordinates all communications between her AP-3C Orion and other aircraft involved in the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photograph: Handout/Reuters

Latest Developments

Good morning and welcome to our continuing coverage of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, now focused on a remote stretch of ocean about 2,300 km south-west of Perth.

Here’s the latest:

• The search for two objects spotted on satellite images which Australian authorities believe could belong to the missing flight, will shortly resume in the south Indian Ocean.
• Four search aircraft will be scanning the area, joined by a Norwegian commercial ship which carried on searching overnight despite thick fog and rough seas.
• Australia’s defence minister cautioned “this may well be nothing”, though a Maritime Safety Authority official said the images are “probably our best lead right now”.
• Malaysian authorities have described the images as a “credible lead”, but acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein added: “Search and rescue operations will continue” in other search corridors.
• The objects, one estimated to be 79ft (24m) long, could have drifted dozens of miles, experts warned. The remote area is known for poor weather and strong, unpredictable currents.
• Families of missing Chinese passengers insisted loved ones could still be alive. Chinese authorities have sent police and ambulances to the Beijing hotel where many relatives are waiting.

Updated at 10.47pm GMT

MH370: Pasukan penyiasat teliti 'panggilan misteri' Kapten Zaharie

 Teoh El Sen| Kemas kini: Mac 21, 2014

 SEPANG: Pihak penyiasat sedang meneliti petikan perbualan telefon yang dipercayai dibuat oleh Kapten Zaharie Ahmad Shah, beberapa minit sebelum pesawat Penerbangan Malaysia (MAS)  MH370 berlepas ke Beijing.

Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif MAS, Datuk Ahmad Jauhari Yahya hari ini mengesahkan panggilan telah dibuat oleh jurutebang pesawat yang hilang sejak 8 Mac lalu itu.

“Kami telah memberikan maklumat panggilan ini kepada pihak penyiasat dan mereka akan menyiasatnya,” katanya dalam sidang media di KLIA petang tadi.

Akhbar United Kingdom The Sun sebelum ini melaporkan wujud satu ‘panggilan misteri’ sejurus sebelum pesawat MH370 itu berlepas.

“Diharapkan pihak yang menerima panggilan itu dapat memberikan petunjuk mengenai misteri kehilangan pesawat,” lapor akhbar itu lagi.

Kapten Zaharie dan pembantu juruterbang, Fariq Abdul Hamid sedang disiasat bagi mengenalpasti samada mereka terbabit dalam kehilangan pesawat Boeing 777-200ER  itu.

Siasatan turut merangkumisimulator pesawat milik Kapten Zaharie. Polis memaklumkan pihaknya sedang meneliti kandungan simulator terbabit dimana beberapafail dikatakan telah dipadamkanpada 3 Feb lalu.

Pasukan penyiasat tempatan dan antarabangsa kini sedang cuba untuk mengesan kembali fail yang hilang dengan harapan dapat memberikan petunjuk kepada kehilangan pesawat.

Berita mula diterbitkan pada: Mac 21, 2014 22:19 (MYT)

Untuk menonton banyak lagi program Astro terkini, layari Astro on the Gohttp://onthego.astro.com.my

Tag: Zaharie Ahmad Shah, Penerbangan Malaysia, MH370, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya

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In Aussie handling of MH370 search, valuable lessons for Malaysia

In Aussie handling of MH370 search, valuable lessons for Malaysia

BY JUSTIN ONGMARCH 20, 2014

John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of the Australian Maritime
 Safety Authority (AMSA) walks past a diagram showing the search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean, March 20, 2014. — Reuters pic  

 OMMENTARY, March 20 — Australia's response to satellite imagery of debris possibly from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could not have been more different from Malaysia's in the past 12 days. - See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/in-aussie-handling-of Choosing the country's Parliament as the venue to announce the discovery, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott conveyed both the gravity of the matter — a missing jetliner with 239 passengers —  and that it went beyond partisan lines.

And while the discovery remains far from conclusive — the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) repeatedly said the debris may even not have anything to do with the missing plane — it chose to come forward with the information almost immediately.

During the press conference, AMSA Emergency Response Division general manager John Young spoke with lucidity and deliberate caution, readily professing a lack of expertise when he was talking on matters with which he was unfamiliar.

And even with the press conference attended by international media held just hours after Abbott made his announcement, the Australian maritime authority made readily available online all the information it shared with the press then, preventing any possible misinterpretation of its findings.

The alacrity, transparency and neutrality of the response stood in contrast to Malaysia's actions, which have invited criticism by some and condemnation by others.

In the early days, Malaysia held on to critical information that could have shed valuable information on the plane's whereabouts. And when it finally shared that information, it turned out to be nearly a week old.

Malaysia insisted that the information needed to be corroborated by, as it repeatedly said, global agencies such as the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Board (AAIB).

It was also not until two days ago that it finally clarified the timeline of the crucial moments before the plane's disappearance.

Malaysia also chose to put a variety of personalities in front of the media, not all of whom were familiar with the matters they were answering to but still spoke with apparent authority.

The answers that came at times sounded confused. At others, they were delivered with an anxiety that suggested an evasiveness where none probably existed.

This allowed misinformation and misinterpretation to cloud available facts, at a time when a word said in error could spread from one end of the world to the other in an instant.

Malaysia also chose not to address those errors quickly, often waiting until the next daily press conference to seemingly contradict the information shared the day before, much to the chagrin of the reporters covering the events.

At times, Malaysia has acted with a lack of delicacy. Yesterday, authorities forcibly removed Chinese relatives of those aboard MH370 from speaking with media following the daily press conference at the Sama-Sama Hotel in Sepang.

Decisions to only brief lawmakers from the ruling administration rather than share the information it had in Parliament also suggested an unwillingness to set aside enmities long enough for a matter of national concern.

It is undeniable that MH370 is “unprecedented”, both for the aviation industry and Malaysia.

Malaysia has never experienced anything on such a scale, and is clearly still coming to grips with the situation.

With mystery of MH370 possibly still far from being resolved, Malaysia can still rectify some of the issues raised with its handling so far.

But what is undeniable is that Australia today has significantly raised the bar.

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http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/in-aussie-handling-of-mh370-search-valuable-lessons-for-malaysia

Malaysia officials look at suicide theory

Investigators review background of pilots as convictions grow that plane was diverted off course by an expert hand. Last updated: 18 Mar 2014 03:04 The co-pilot of a missing Malaysian jetliner spoke the last words heard from the cockpit, the airline's chief executive said, as investigators consider suicide by the captain or first officer as one possible explanation for the disappearance. No trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard. Investigators are increasingly convinced it was diverted perhaps thousands of miles off course by someone with deep knowledge of the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial navigation, Reuters news agency reported. A search of unprecedented scale involving 26 countries is under way, covering an area stretching from the shores of the Caspian Sea in the north to deep in the southern Indian Ocean. Airline chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also told a news conference on Monday that it was unclear exactly when one of the plane's automatic tracking systems had been disabled, appearing to contradict comments by government ministers at the weekend. Suspicions of hijacking or sabotage had hardened further when officials said on Sunday that the last radio message from the plane - an informal "all right, good night" - was spoken after the tracking system, known as "ACARS", was shut down. "Initial investigations indicate it was the co-pilot who basically spoke the last time it was recorded on tape," Ahmad Jauhari said on Monday. That was a sign-off to air traffic controllers at 1:19 am local time, as the Beijing-bound plane left Malaysian airspace. The last transmission from the ACARS system - a maintenance computer that relays data on the plane's status - was received at 1:07 am local time, as the plane crossed Malaysia's northeast coast. "We don't know when the ACARS was switched off after that," Ahmad Jauhari said. "It was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from there, but that transmission did not come through." Sophisticated knowledge The plane vanished from civilian air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian authorities believe that someone on board shut off its communications systems. Malaysian police are trawling through the backgrounds of the pilots, flight crew and ground staff for any clues to a possible motive in what is now being treated as a criminal investigation. Asked if suicide by the pilot or co-pilot was a line of inquiry, Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said: "We are looking at it." But it was only one of the possibilities under investigation, he said. Intensive efforts by various governments to investigate the backgrounds of everyone on the airplane had not, as of Monday, turned up any information linking anyone to militant groups or anyone with a known political or criminal motive to crash or hijack the aircraft, US and European security sources said. One source familiar with US inquiries into the disappearance said the pilots were being studied because of the technical knowledge needed to disable the ACARS system. Many experts and officials say that, while the jet's transponder can be switched off by flicking a switch in the cockpit, turning off ACARS may have required someone to open a trap door outside the cockpit, climb down into the plane's belly and pull a fuse or circuit breaker. Whoever did so had to have sophisticated knowledge of the systems on a 777, according to pilots and two current and former US officials close to the investigation. Malaysian police searched the homes of the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, in middle-class suburbs of Kuala Lumpur close to the international airport on Saturday. Source: Agencies BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY WITH SHAKLEE http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2014/03/malaysia-officials-look-at-suicide-theory-201431811230832778.html

Missing pilot's flight simulator data deleted

Malaysian officials say data logs from flight simulator used at home by pilot of missing MH370 plane deleted last month. Last updated: 19 Mar 2014 17:59 Data was deleted from the home flight simulator used by one of the pilots of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, according to Malaysian officials. Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysia's police chief, said the data log of Zaharie Ahmad Shah's simulator's had been cleared on February 3. Police have searched the homes of the Zaharie, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. Among the items taken were a the flight simulator that Zaharie had built in his home. Hishammuddin Hussein, the country's minister of transport and defence, said on Wednesday that investigators were trying to recover the information. He added that background checks on all but three of the 239 passengers on board the aircraft when it disappeared on March 8 had produced no "information of significance," the AFP news agency reported. The methodical shutdown of the communications systems, together with the fact that the plane appeared to be following a planned course after turning back, have been interpreted as suggesting strongly that foul play, rather than some kind of technical failure, was behind the disappearance. US government sources said intelligence agencies had extensively analysed people on the flight but came up with no connections to possible sinister motives. A senior US official said he was "not aware of any stones left unturned". Teams from 26 countries are helping with the search effort, with Australia taking the lead in the southern part of the Indian ocean, with assistance from the US navy. It has shrunk its search field based on satellite tracking data and analysis of weather and currents, but it still covers an area of 600,000 sq km, roughly the size of Spain and Portugal. Source: Agencies BIZ OPPORTUNITY WITH SHAKLEE

Possible plane debris spotted off Australia

Australia sends airforce plane to ocean location of objects possibly related to missing Malaysian plane. Last updated: 20 Mar 2014 18:01 Australia has sent four aircraft to investigate two objects spotted by satellite floating in the southern Indian Ocean that could be debris from a Malaysian jetliner missing with 239 people on board, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. "New and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean," Abbott told the Australian parliament on Thursday. No confirmed wreckage from the missing jet has been found, since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off. "The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search," Abbott said. "Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified," he said. In a news conference in Canberra, John Young, an Australian maritime official, said that one of the objects spotted could be as large as 24 metres, and the other one 5 meters. "They are objects of a reasonable size and probably awash with water moving up and down over the surface," Young said. There could be other objects in waters nearby in the area that's a four-hour flight from Australia's southwestern coast, he said. The area is roughly 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth.   Young also said visibility was poor and may hamper efforts to find the objects. As of late Thursday, the Norwegian car carrier Hoegh St. Petersburg has already reached the area in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia where two floating objects were first spotted, according to the Reuters news agency. The car carrier was on its way from Madagascar to Melbourne when it got a request from Australian authorities to assist in investigating the objects spotted by satellite four days ago, in one of the remotest parts of the globe. Royal Australian Air Force Air Commodore John McGarry said the findings were "credible enough to divert the research to this area on the basis it provides a promising lead to what might be wreckage from the debris field". Meanwhile, the Austrlian prime minister said he had already spoken with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak and cautioned that the objects had yet to be identified, according to Reuters news agency. Unprecedented search In an interview with Al Jazeera, Tom Ballantyne, an aviation expert, said Abbott's announcement could be "the most promising" development since the plane disappeared. "Although the word caution, I think, is the most important one here," he said from Sydney. "We've had so many false leads in this story, and we probably have to wait for several hours, before we get a real defining detail of what these objects are in the water." Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Exhaustive background checks of the passengers and crew aboard have not yielded anything that might explain why. The FBI is helping Malaysian authorities analyse data from a flight simulator belonging to the captain of the missing plane, after initial examination showed some data logs had been deleted early last month. An unprecedented multinational search for the plane has focused on two vast search corridors: one arching from Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian Ocean from west of Indonesia's Sumatra island to west of Australia. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies BIZ OPPORTUNITY WITH SHAKLEE