Missing Plane: Lessons May Take 'Years'

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

Some have said black boxes should be made to float to the surface

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

A new area is being searched after analysis of MH370 data

Salvage expert David Mears, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

Change takes 'years' in the airline industry, says David Mears

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

Planes spotted two objects in the new search area

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

The backgrounds of the Malaysia Airlines pilots have been scrutinised

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

Captain Clayton Osbon had a psychotic episode in the cockpit

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Pilot suicide is the suspected cause of the 1997 SilkAir flight crash

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane: Ship Arrives To Collect Objects

Missing Plane: Lessons May Take 'Years'

Updated: 1:47am UK, Saturday 29 March 2014

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

Salvage expert David Mears, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brit Found Dead Near Burning Boat In Caribbean

By Richard Williams, Sky News Online

A British man has been found dead near a burning boat in the Caribbean, prompting a police hunt for his Norwegian girlfriend.

Police in St Vincent told Sky News that 53-year-old John Edward Garner was discovered with head injuries just off the coast of the island after reports a yacht was on fire.

He was travelling with a Norwegian woman, Heidi Hukkelaas, who is believed to have been his girlfriend.

St Vincent police commissioner Michael Charles told Sky News "foul play" was a possibility but added: "At this stage we are certainly looking at all lines of inquiry."

Winston Simmons, who knew Mr Garner and his family, said he believed there had been an accidental explosion on the yacht caused by a gas bottle.

He said Ms Hukkelaas left the island on Tuesday to return the Norway, where the couple lived.

Mr Garner had permission to say in St Vincent until April 19

Diver Kay Wilson was one of the first to arrive at the burning yacht.

She told Sky News the flames had "completely engulfed the vessel" by the time she arrived.

"I was out with a group of divers," she said. "We'd gone out to do a dive trip and one of my crew members saw the smoke on the horizon.

"We made our way over there ... When we reached about a quarter of a mile off we saw a flashing light, which we would normally associate with a life jacket.

"We approached cautiously and we found somebody in the water, with the life jacket around their neck, approximately 150 to 200 feet away from the yacht at the time."

Mr Garner's body was found around 15 nautical miles west of Buccament, in the southwest of the island, on Wednesday afternoon.

He was pronounced dead upon arrival at Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, in Kingstown.

Mr Charles said Mr Garner and Ms Hukkelaas arrived on the island on January 19 and had secured permission to remain there until April 19.

The Foreign Office told Sky News they were aware of the death of a British national in St Vincent and were providing consular assistance to the family.

12.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Malaysia Plane 'Was Travelling Faster'

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has shifted after data suggested it was travelling faster than previously thought.

Analysis of radar from before contact with flight MH370 was lost indicates the plane was burning up fuel more quickly and may not have travelled as far south over the Indian Ocean.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau described the data as the "most credible lead to where debris may be located".

Search teams have been relocated to scour an area 685 miles northeast of the zone they had been operating in.

Some 10 aircraft, including nine military planes, are involved and six ships are being sent to the region.

Experts will also trawl through satellite images of the new search zone to identify any possible crash sites.

The development comes after images from a Thai satellite showed 300 objects ranging from two to 15 metres in size scattered in the sea about 1,700 miles southwest of Perth.

Search teams are using 10 planes in an attempt to find missing flight MH370

A French satellite spotted more than 120 objects floating in the ocean, while Japan is also reported to have captured aerial images of 10 items.

It is not known whether any of the objects are from the missing Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The plane is thought to have crashed with the loss of all 239 people on board after flying thousands of miles off course.

The search for the jet was suspended earlier this week because of poor weather off the coast of Australia.

Investigators had been searching an area southwest of Perth

Heavy rain, strong winds and low cloud caused reduced visibility and forced aircraft to turn back.

Meanwhile, distraught relatives of the 150 Chinese passengers on board the plane continue to voice their anger and frustration at the speed of the investigation.

Some Chinese insurance companies have started paying compensation to the families, according to the state news agency.

More follows...

12.16 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ukraine: 'No G8 Summit In Russia' Over Crisis

G7 Leaders Release Russia Statement

Updated: 8:32pm UK, Monday 24 March 2014

A statement from leaders of the G7 following an emergency meeting in The Hague on Monday as been published by the European Council.

It reads:

1. We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission met in The Hague to reaffirm our support for Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.

2. International law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state's territory through coercion or force.

To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built.

We condemn the illegal referendum held in Crimea in violation of Ukraine's constitution.

We also strongly condemn Russia's illegal attempt to annex Crimea in ontravention of international law and specific international obligations. We do not recognise either.           

3. Today, we reaffirm that Russia's actions will have significant consequences.

This clear violation of international law is a serious challenge to the rule of law around the worldand should be a concern for all nations.

In response to Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to demonstrate our determination to respond to these illegal actions, individually and collectively we have imposed a variety of sanctions against Russia and those individuals and entities responsible.

We remain ready to intensify actions including coordinated sectoral sanctions that will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy, if Russia continues to escalate this situation.

4. We remind Russia of its international obligations, and its responsibilities including those for the world economy.

Russia has a clear choice to make. Diplomatic avenues to de-escalate the situation remain open, and we encourage the Russian Government to take them.

Russia must respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, begin discussions with the Government of Ukraine, and avail itself of offers of international mediation and monitoring to address any legitimate concerns.

5. The Russian Federation's support for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine is a step in the right direction.

We look forward to the mission's early deployment, in order to facilitate the dialogue on the ground, reduce tensions and promote normalisation of the situation, and we call on all parties to ensure that Special Monitoring Mission members have safe and secure access throughout Ukraine to fulfill their mandate.

6. This group came together because of shared beliefs and shared responsibilities.

Russia's actions in recent weeks are not consistent with them. Under these circumstances, we will not participate in the planned Sochi summit.

We will suspend our participation in the G-8 until Russia changes course and the environment comes back to where the G-8 is able to have a meaningful discussion and will meet again in G-7 format at the same time as planned, in June 2014, in Brussels, to discuss the broad agenda we have together.

We have also advised our Foreign Ministers not to attend the April meeting in Moscow. In addition, we have decided that G-7 Energy Ministers will meet to discuss ways to strengthen our collective energy security.

7. At the same time, we stand firm in our support for the people of Ukraine who seek to restore unity, democracy, political stability, and economic prosperity to their country.

We commend the Ukrainian government's ambitious reform agenda and will support its implementation as Ukraine seeks to start a new chapter in its history, grounded on a broad-based constitutional reform, free and fair presidential elections in May, promotion of human rights and respect of national minorities.           

8. The International Monetary Fund has a central role leading the international effort to support Ukrainian reform, lessening Ukraine's economic vulnerabilities, and better integrating the country as a market economy in the multilateral system.

We strongly support the IMF's work with the Ukrainian authorities and urge them to reach a rapid conclusion.

IMF support will be critical in unlocking additional assistance from the World Bank, other international financial institutions, the EU, and bilateral sources.

We remain united in our commitment to provide strong financial backing to Ukraine, to coordinate our technical assistance and to provide assistance in other areas, including measures to enhance trade and strengthen energy security.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Air Pollution 'Kills 7 Million People Worldwide'

Air pollution killed an estimated seven million people worldwide in 2012, the UN health agency has said.

Pollution over Amritsar in northern India

New research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found pollution, ranging from cooking fires to car fumes, was linked to one in eight deaths in 2012.

Maria Neira, the WHO's public and environmental health chief, said the figure was "shocking and worrying".

Paris, where there has been a recent health scare

"Air pollution, and we're talking about both indoors and outdoors, is now the biggest environmental health problem, and it's affecting everyone, both developed and developing countries," she said.

The biggest pollution-related killers were heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease and lung cancer, the WHO said.

Moscow, Russia

The research found indoor air pollution was responsible for 4.3 million deaths in 2012, mostly people cooking inside using wood and coal stoves in Asia.

And the outdoor pollution death toll was put at 3.7 million, with sources ranging from coal heating fires to diesel engines. Nearly 90% of those deaths were in developing countries.

Lianyungang, eastern China

Many people are exposed to both indoor and outdoor pollution, and due to that overlap the separate death tolls cannot simply be added together, the WHO said.

The WHO said the hardest-hit regions were Southeast Asia, which includes India and Indonesia, and the Western Pacific, ranging from China and South Korea to Japan and the Philippines.

Beijing, China

Those regions combined accounted for 5.9 million deaths.

The new estimates are more than double previous figures and based mostly on modelling, but the WHO has changed its research methods so it is difficult to make a comparison with past estimates.

Smog in Manila, the Philippines, after fireworks on New Year's Eve

Ms Neira said: "The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes.

"Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution.

"The evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe."

Dumai in Indonesia's Riau province

Majid Ezzati, chair in global environmental health at Imperial College London, said more research was needed to identify the deadliest components of pollution in order to fight it more effectively.

"We don't know if dust from the Sahara is as bad as diesel fuel or burning coal," he said.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russians Seize Base As Troops Amass On Border

Russian troops have seized a Ukrainian naval base in Crimea amid growing fears of a fresh Russian incursion into Ukraine.

The base, in Feodosia, was one of the last few military facilities flying a Ukrainian flag after Russia's annexation of Crimea.

A Ukrainian military spokesman told Reuters the Russian soldiers forced their way in with the help of helicopters.

Russian troops violently flushed out other remaining pockets of Ukrainian military influence in Crimea on Saturday, smashing armoured vehicles through the walls of Belbek air force base in a swift takeover.

Armoured carriers smashed their way into the Belbek air base

As G7 leaders are prepare to discuss the crisis at a summit, Nato's top commander in Europe has warned that Russia's military force massing on Ukraine's border was "very, very sizeable and very, very ready".

General Philip Breedlove said he was worried the Russian military could make a move for Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region.

"There is absolutely sufficient force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniestria if the decision was made to do that and that is very worrisome," he said.

Transdniestria, a narrow strip of land to Ukraine's southwest, already has a Russian military presence and most people there favour a union with the country.

General Breedlove is concerned about the size of Russia's troop build-up

White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken echoed the suggestion that President Putin could be plotting further action.

"It's deeply concerning to see the Russian troop build-up on the border," he told CNN.

"It creates the potential for incidents, for instability. It's likely that what they're trying to do is intimidate the Ukrainians. It's possible that they're preparing to move in."

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week signed papers making Crimea part of Russia, saying it was complying with international agreements and had no plans to invade.

There are fears Russian forces are eyeing Ukraine's Transdniestria region

It has also called the soldiers who took over Ukrainian bases in Crimea "self-defence forces".

Most experts agree there is no way of winning back Crimea from Russia.

Today leaders of the G7 nations will hold emergency talks on the crisis on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in The Hague.

The US and European Union have already targeted some of Mr Putin's closest political and business allies with personal sanctions and have threatened broader economic sanctions if his forces encroach on other parts of Ukraine with large Russian-speaking populations.

Germany, which has close trade ties with Moscow, said the EU was united in its readiness to impose sanctions on Russia if necessary.

"None of us wants to escalate, but if Russia changes things unilaterally, then it must know that we won't accept it and that relations will be bad," German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

Crimea landgrab 'cannot be won back', say experts

Prime Minister David Cameron has even suggested that Russia could be expelled from the G8 bloc of nations.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, accepted that Crimea was now "de facto" a part of Russia, but said the annexation set a "bad precedent".

Speaking to Sky News, Ukraine's Ambassador to the UK, Volodymyr Khandogiy, said European powers had not done enough to help his country.

"The US is more resolute in their actions and words. We appreciate what Europe is doing (but) we would have liked a more aggressive approach," said Mr Khandogiy.

"If I'm asked if Europe has done enough I would say no."

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Jet: 'White And Square Objects Found'

Missing Plane Mystery: Pilot's Simulator 'Key'

Updated: 6:11am UK, Sunday 23 March 2014

The pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane invested vast amounts of time and money in an ultra-realistic flight simulator that is being pored over by investigators trying to solve the mystery of the jet's disappearance.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah spent thousands of hours in the virtual cockpit of the machine playing flying games and boosting its capabilities.

The state-of-the-art setup is a key part of the investigation into flight MH370, which has been missing for more than two weeks.

There is no evidence Mr Zaharie was responsible for the loss of the jet, and it is not uncommon for pilots to enjoy flying so much they have simulators at home.

In a post on an online message board in 2012 he posted a picture of his finished simulator, calling it "awesome" and adding it was his "passion".

The simulator was seized from the 53-year-old's home west of Kuala Lumpur by police last week, and its capabilities are extraordinary.

Mr Zaharie's simulator setup included a motion controller, which made the chair pitch and turn like in a real cockpit in order to simulate the climbs, descents and banked turns of a real plane.

There was also a centre pedestal, where aircraft controls are located, and an overhead panel.

The software would have allowed him to practise landing at more than 33,000 airports, on aircraft carriers, oil rigs, frigates and helipads on top of buildings.

Mr Zaharie would also have been able to use the internet to fly with friends and simulate "a lot of malfunctions, emergencies, go-arounds, return-to-base or divert with fairly exact procedures", said Naoya Fujiwara, a flight simulator expert from Japan.

Mr Fujiwara added he could have simulated weather conditions and even downloaded real weather, wind and temperature information from a professional server.

One thing he could not have simulated was evading radar. There has been speculation the jet could have flown as low as 5,000ft using "terrain masking" to try to avoid radar, claims Malaysian authorities have rejected.

Investigators are looking at the games he was running, including Microsoft's "Flight Simulator" series and the latest "X-plane" title.

"Looking through the flight logs in these simulator games is a key part of the investigation," an official with direct knowledge of the investigation said.

"X-plane 10 was interesting to investigators because it was the latest thing Zaharie bought. Also it is the most advanced out there and had all sorts of emergency and combat scenarios."

The authorities in the country have also asked the FBI for help with memory recovery after discovering some data was deleted from the simulator on February 3.

Given the large amount of memory computers have, it is unclear why this happened. It could have been part of a regular maintenance routine or to help improve the simulator's performance, other users say.

The exact cost of Mr Zaharie's simulator is not known, but a rough estimate puts the sum at several thousands of pounds.

Costs vary on the parts used. A replica Boeing-737 seat from Flight Simulator Centre, a website which sells simulators, costs almost £3,000 ($5,000). An overhead panel listed on another website costs £400 ($800).

12.14 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane: Cockpit Conversations Revealed

A transcript of the final conversations between the crew of flight MH370 and air traffic control has been revealed two weeks after the aircraft vanished from radar.

The transcript, between the co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid and the control tower, includes conversations as the aircraft was taxiing at Kuala Lumpur airport up until the final exchange with Malaysian air traffic control at 1.19am.

It also includes a repeated message about the aircraft's altitude at the same time as the plane's Acars signalling technology sent its last transmission before it was apparently disabled.

Excerpts from the cockpit conversations

At 1.01am it reads: "MH370 remaining in flight altitude 350 (35,000ft)."

Six minutes later, the co-pilot said: "MH370 remaining in flight altitude 350."

The final conversation in the documents, published in The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror, was at 1.19am as the plane left Malaysian airspace, and reads: "All right, good night."

But former pilot Alastair Rosenschein told Sky News too much could be read into the repetition of the plane's altitude.

He said: "You make a radio call confirming your altitude and then a few minutes later you think 'gosh did I make that call?', you don't know, the easiest thing is to make it again.

"So no it's not suspicious, at least I don't see it as suspicious.

Relatives of missing passengers shout for answers in Beijing on Saturday

"If he wanted to hijack the aircraft then this was an ideal spot because it lies between Malay air space and Vietnamese air space. So you've got that handover - the Malaysians are no longer interested in the aircraft because it's left them, they've handed it over, and the Vietnamese don't yet expect a call.

"Quite frankly if you wanted to take an aircraft and didn't want anyone to know, you wouldn't have done it on a Beijing flight - you're covered by radar the whole way.

"You would have done it on a flight from Kuala Lumpur say to London where you've got plenty of fuel."

Peter Marosszeky, an aviation expert at the University of New South Wales in Australia, added: "I've sat through many thousands of flights myself and it's not something that would really strike me as unusual.

"Without being able to hear the inflection in the pilots' voices, it's very difficult to determine whether anything said is truly noteworthy.

"I'd love to hear the actual voice level of communication to see if there's any level of anxiety that might have been driving the pilot to say what he did."

It comes after the search for debris spotted on satellite in the south Indian Ocean resumed on Saturday for a third day.

Six aircraft took off from Perth to search seas around 1,550 miles southwest of the city after two large objects were spotted earlier this week.

More aircraft and shipping is expected to join the operation over the next few days.

12.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Increasing Hope' Of Solving Plane Mystery

There is "increasing hope" of finding out what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, according to Australian PM Tony Abbott.

"It's still too early to be definite, but obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope, no more than hope, no more than hope, that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft," he said.

Mr Abbott said there had been three "significant" developments in the search for flight MH370, which disappeared en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur more than two weeks ago with 239 passengers.

The first was the release by the Chinese government of a new satellite image showing a large floating object in the southern Indian Ocean which could be debris from the Boeing 777.

The search in the southern Indian Ocean is entering a fourth day

The object, measuring 22.5 metres by 13 metres, (74ft by 43ft), was photographed just 75 miles from where two other potential pieces of debris were spotted by a satellite. China has said further analysis is needed to determine if this is related to the plane.

Mr Abbott said this "does seem to suggest at least one large object down there consistent with the object that earlier satellite imagery discovered".

He also cited the sighting of a number of small objects in the southern Indian Ocean, including a wooden pallet, by a civilian jet on Saturday as a source of optimism.

The final development is the increased resources being deployed in the search of the zone 1,500 miles southwest of Perth. Two Chinese aircraft and two planes from Japan have now joined the hunt.

The two objects spotted by satellite

Eight aircraft are currently searching two areas covering 59,000sq km (22,700sq miles).

"The more aircraft we have, the more ships we have, the more confident we are of recovering whatever material is down there and obviously, before we can be too specific about what it might be, we do actually need to recover some of this material," Mr Abbott added.

The "really big international" search effort was praised by the PM, who said: "It is a very important humanitarian exercise.

"We owe it to the almost 240 people on board the plane, we owe it to their grieving families, we owe it to the governments of the countries concerned, to do everything we can to discover as much as we can about the fate of MH370."

The southern corridor and the area of ocean being searched

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is overseeing the hunt in the region, said searchers would keep trying to determine whether the objects spotted on Saturday are related to the lost plane. So far, only clumps of seaweed have been found.

The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is approximately 27 metres (88ft) long and 14 metres (45ft) wide at its base, according to estimates taken from scale drawings. The fuselage is 63.7 metres (208ft) long and 6.2 metres (20ft) wide.

But bad weather could affect the operation, after a cyclone warning was declared for Tropical Cyclone Gillian, which is forecast to move into the southern search corridor.

Tropical Cyclone Gillian

Countries in the northern search corridor, which includes China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Laos, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, said there have been no sightings of the aircraft on their radar.

The search for the plane was narrowed to these two areas based on faint signals picked up by a satellite, which also suggest the plane flew on for six hours after it disappeared from air traffic control screens in the early hours of March 8.

Investigators believe it was deliberately diverted by someone on board.

The three most plausible explanations for the plane's disappearance are: hijacking, pilot sabotage and a crisis that incapacitated the crew and caused the plane to fly on auto-pilot, run out of fuel and crash.

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