Malaysian - 3. april

With Plane Still Missing, Legal Moves for Payouts Start

BEIJING - For 10 days, Monica R. Kelly and her American law firm's aviation lawyers have stalked the dim hallways of the Lido Hotel here to make their pitches to relatives of passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
They tell the families that a court in the United States could potentially award millions of dollars per passenger in a lawsuit against the Boeing Company, which built the missing jet, a Boeing 777-200. In a hotel suite, Ms. Kelly uses a model of a Boeing 777 to show families how the plane might have malfunctioned.
"It's not an issue of whether families will be compensated," Ms. Kelly said recently while munching on French fries with her 12-year-old son at a restaurant across the street from the Lido. "It's a question of how much and when."
But Ms. Kelly admitted that Flight 370 was a uniquely difficult case. "We've done more than 43 plane crashes," she said, "and there's never been a situation like this one, ever."
An Australian Air Force member during a search for the missing airline over the Indian Ocean.Transcript From Lost Jet Is Released By MalaysiaAPRIL 1, 2014
Complicating the prospects for a legal case against Malaysia Airlines, Boeing or other parties is the mystery surrounding the plane's disappearance after it left Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, en route to Beijing on March 8. No one can say with certainty that the plane has crashed, even though the Malaysian government has said satellite data shows that the flight "ended" in the southern Indian Ocean. International search efforts have yielded no debris.

Video:  http://tinyurl.com/oshkwdm

Report: MH370 disappearance a criminal investigation, police chief says

By Michael Pearson and Jim Clancy, CNN

April 2, 2014 -- Updated 2117 GMT (0517 HKT)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- The investigation into Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is now classified as a criminal investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing the Malaysian police chief.

Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said authorities have already recorded more than 170 statements and will interview more people for the Flight 370 probe, the Journal said.

But Bakar cautioned that what happened with Flight 370 might still be unknown after the investigation.

He added that the investigation into the flight simulator in the pilot's house is still inconclusive. Authorities are awaiting an expert's report on the simulator, he said.

After three and a half weeks, the search for the missing plane has come down to this: a lot of floating rubbish, hundreds of heartbroken relatives and, now, quibbling over words all acknowledge offer no clues into what happened to the doomed plane.

Malaysian authorities on Tuesday released the transcript of radio chatter between air traffic controllers and the plane in the hour or so before it vanished while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people on board.

The transcript shows the last voice transmission from the doomed plane was "Good night Malaysian three-seven-zero" -- not the "All right, good night" transmission authorities had previously used.

The comments are "exactly what you'd expect" in a cockpit, airline safety expert John Gadzinski told CNN's "The Lead." Still, even if this new transcript offers no clues about the plane's mysterious disappearance, the discrepancy has provided fresh fodder for critics of Malaysia's handling of the investigation.

Read the cockpit transcript

That authorities gave one version and let it stand uncorrected for weeks undermines confidence in the investigation, air accident investigation experts told CNN.

"High criticism is in order at this point," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

And Michael Goldfarb, a former chief of staff at the Federal Aviation Administration, added that people following the investigation "haven't had a straight, clear word that we can have a lot of fidelity in."

"We have the tragedy of the crash, we have the tragedy of an investigation gone awry and then we have questions about where we go from here," he said.

Malaysian officials have defended their work, with acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein recently saying, "History will judge us well."

Regardless of one's assessment of Malaysia's response, that doesn't change the immense challenge it faces -- especially given the few apparent details on altitude, speed and, of course, location.

"They are looking in a vast area in very deep waters, ... and we really have no idea where it went in," Bill Schofield, an Australian scientist who helped create flight data recorders that could be key in determining what happened, told CNN. "... A needle in a haystack would be much easier to find."

Malaysian and Australian leaders vow to do everything "humanly possible" to find MH370

Published on Apr 03, 2014
12:16 PM

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak (left) and Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott at a briefing on the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at RAAF Base Pearce near Perth on April 3, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

By The Straits Times in Perth

Malaysian and Australian prime ministers on Thursday pledged again to do everything humanly possible to find the lost Malaysian Airlines MH370 jetliner, although they cautioned that they cannot be sure of success.
Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who is on a short visit to Perth to observe the search operations and personally thank those involved, said a new refined search area had given "some hope" but did not give further details.
International experts believe that the plane may have gone down in the rough waters off Perth on March 8, hours after it took off for Beijing. It is still unknown why the plane had diverted so far off its course.
Mr Najib, who thanked Australia for leading the search in its waters, said despite the large number of ships and aircraft out searching everyday, the search area is vast and the work is not easy.
"It is one of the great mysteries of our time," he said, describing it as a Herculean task as there was so little evidence.
He promised the families that Malaysia would not give up the search.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Perth, Australian prime minister Tony Abbott also promised that Australia will not rest until it has done everything it humanly can in the search for the plane that went missing with 239 people on board almost a month ago.
He said they cannot be "certain of ultimate success" in finding the plane but all countries were doing their best in very difficult conditions.
Mr Abbott also appealed to the families to be patient, and said Australia will extend its warmest possible welcome to them when it comes to the time for them to arrive in Perth. Malaysia Airlines has promised to fly the families to Perth when the authorities give the green light to bring the families to the search site.
Mr Najib had earlier toured the search base in Perth, after he arrived late Wednesday night.

Dette sa man etter AF447 også:

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

MH370 Search Prompts Call for Better Aircraft Tracking

Woodrow Bellamy III 

[Avionics Today April 2, 2014] As the search for the missing Boeing 777 from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 reaches its fourth week, International Air Transportation Association (IATA) CEO Tony Tyler called on the global aviation industry to produce a better method for tracking aircraft.

Officials leading the investigation for MH370 believe that the missing aircraft landed in the southern Indian Ocean after flying off course for a flight leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. The investigators believe they less than a week before the aircraft's black boxes stop transmitting signals that would help the searchers locate them if they're currently deep underwater.

“In a world where our every move seems to be tracked, there is disbelief both that an aircraft could simply disappear and that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are so difficult to recover. Air France 447 brought similar issues to light a few years ago and some progress was made. But that must be accelerated. We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish,” said Tyler in a speech on air transportation safety in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia Airlines has released the full transcript of communications between the flight crew of MH370 and Air Traffic Control (ATC) Kuala Lumpur.  The transcript shows nothing abnormal in exchanges between the pilot and controllers.

"The international investigations team and the Malaysian authorities remain of the opinion that, up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, MH370’s movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane," said by Hishammuddin Hussein, the Malaysian Minister of Defense.

Tyler also expressed IATA's support for better global tracking of commercial aircraft. 

The IATA chief said that his organization will form a new task force in collaboration with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in an effort to facilitate a new method for global tracking of commercial aircraft.

"Industry must — and will — play a role in supporting ICAO in this effort with a united position. IATA will convene an expert task force that will include ICAO participation to ensure that the work is well coordinated. This group will examine all of the options available for tracking commercial aircraft against the parameters of implementation, investment, time and complexity to achieve the desired coverage," said Tyler.

The task force will report its conclusions in December, Tyler said.