Readers Find Echoes of <b>Malaysia</b> Flight Mystery in 1933 <b>Novel</b> <b>...</b> - Blog Novel Malaysia |
- Readers Find Echoes of <b>Malaysia</b> Flight Mystery in 1933 <b>Novel</b> <b>...</b>
- <b>Novel</b> analysis helped narrow <b>Malaysian</b> jet search (Update)
- MH370 latest: Pings not believed from missing plane's black box <b>...</b>
- One Small Step, A Giant Leap | Journey of My First <b>Novel</b>
- Home Ministry bans Malay <b>novel</b> 'Perempuan Nan Bercinta <b>...</b>
| Readers Find Echoes of <b>Malaysia</b> Flight Mystery in 1933 <b>Novel</b> <b>...</b> Posted: 20 Mar 2014 06:44 AM PDT The disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 has prompted readers to return to James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon, the book which gave us the name "Shangri-la." By Roger Tagholm
There is something of James Hilton's classic 1933 novel Lost Horizon in the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, something that touches our deepest longings for escape from the daily grind and our notions of a better life in a distant utopia. The words above from the novel's prologue have an eerie echo of statements and news reports of the last few days. The heartbreaking interviews with partners of the passengers have an element of the mystical that is redolent of the novel — the woman who said she felt her partner's presence; the man who imagined his brother lashing together pieces of wreckage to make a raft. So many contemporary novels are dystopian — The Hunger Games et al; here was one, written in the innocent years before the horror of the Second World War, that was about a utopia. Customers on Amazon have been reminded too. One posting, headed "If Only This Were the Story of Flight MH370," continued: "James Hilton's Lost Horizon has been haunting me ever since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, so last night I began re-reading it for the first time in decade…" Originally published by Macmillan in the UK in 1933, south coast independent, Summersdale, discovered it was out of print some years ago and MD Alastair Williams, long a fan of the book, successfully approached Curtis Brown for the rights. Williams republished the book in 2003, reprinting a 70th anniversary edition in 2006. But sadly, the publisher's copyright expired last year and, despite strong sales to the Shangri-La hotel chain, the agency has not as yet agreed a new deal. It is somewhat frustrating for the publisher, recently named Independent Trade Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishers Group awards and shortlisted for the Independent Publisher of the Year in the Bookseller Industry Awards. "There are one or two illegal editions out there currently being sold, but we've been selling it legally and paying the estate," said Williams. "We love the book and remain hopeful of getting it back." The novel was made into an equally classic film in 1937, directed by Frank Capra and starring Ronald Colman. Hilton's story belongs to that rare club of books that have given words to the language. It is Hilton that we have to thank for Shangri-La, defined in the dictionary as "a place regarded as an earthly paradise, especially when involving a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization." It was the name he gave to the small, Tibetan hamlet and its harmonious society, tucked away in the hidden valley to which his airplane survivors are led. Setting aside the Bible, which is in a category all its own, it is Joseph Heller's Catch-22 that is probably the most famous example of a novel giving a word or phrase to the language. A "catch-22″ is defined as a "dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions." It is familiar to publishers. They need sales through Amazon – it's the channel that always seems to grow — but they also need the discoverability and launch platforms offered by physical bookshops, the same bookshops that are closing in part because of all those sales through Amazon. It is the industry's very own catch-22. Often it is a character's name that enters the language — J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan ("he never seems to get any older, he's a real Peter Pan figure"), Thurber's Walter Mitty ("he's such a dreamer, such a Walter Mitty"), or, further back, George du Maurier's Svengali from his 1894 novel, Trilby. Dictionaries now define Svengali as "somebody who controls and manipulates somebody else, usually for evil purposes." Which reminds us of Machiavellian and that other category — of authors whose own names have entered the language: Orwellian, Dickensian etc. A much more recent name is on the cusp of making it into the language. In the UK, there have been proposals to abolish the 25% reduction single people receive in their council tax. But the plans have been attacked in some quarters as the equivalent of a "Bridget Jones tax," one that would unfairly hit those who live alone. So Helen Fielding's famous character from her 1996 novel is beginning a whole new life, referenced in newspapers and the House of Commons. Whatever the outcome of the MH370 mystery, the essential idea of Lost Horizon will never die. It will fly on forever. For this novel from the black-and-white era gives voice to that part of us which gazes at all our own lost horizons.  |
| <b>Novel</b> analysis helped narrow <b>Malaysian</b> jet search (Update) Posted: 25 Mar 2014 04:50 AM PDT Mar 25, 2014 by Justin PritchardIn this Monday, March 24, 2014 photo, crewmen on board an RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft look at their radar screens whilst searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. After 17 days of desperation and doubt over the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Malaysian officials on Monday said an analysis of satellite data points to a "heartbreaking" conclusion: Flight 370 met its end in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and none of those aboard survived. (AP Photo/Richard Wainwright, Pool) Investigators are closer to solving an international aviation mystery thanks to a British communications satellite and classroom physics. An analysis of faint signals sent from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to an Inmarsat satellite led officials to conclude the plane crashed in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean. More precise information about the plane's position when it sent the last signals is helping authorities refine the search being undertaken by planes and ships in seas 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, Australia. Investigators had little to examine otherwise because other communications were lost early in the flight March 8. THE TIMING Even with other communications shut down, the plane sent an automatic signal—a "ping" or a "handshake"—every hour to an Inmarsat satellite. Flight 370 completed six pings, and the time each took to be sent by the plane and received by the satellite showed the plane's range from the satellite, according to the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch. This initial analysis showed the last ping came from a position along one of two vast arcs north and south from the Malaysian Peninsula. DOPPLER EFFECT Think of a horn being honked in a passing car. To an observer, the sound is high pitched as the car approaches and is lower after the car passes. On approach, each successive sound wave is sent from a slightly closer position to the observer. The sound waves get compressed, resulting in a higher frequency. The opposite happens as the car moves away. It's called the Doppler effect for Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who put forward the theory in 1842. The same effect applies to the pings, which would arrive to the satellite at a higher frequency if the plane was moving toward the satellite and decrease in frequency when moving away. For the analysis that led to Monday's conclusion the plane had crashed, Inmarsat studied the satellite communications made while the plane was on the ground at Kuala Lumpur airport and early in its flight. In this Monday, March 24, 2014 photo, a crewman of an RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft loads a sonar buoy that will mark the location of any wreckage found whilst searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. After 17 days of desperation and doubt over the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Malaysian officials on Monday said an analysis of satellite data points to a "heartbreaking" conclusion: Flight 370 met its end in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and none of those aboard survived. (AP Photo/Richard Wainwright, Pool) It considered aircraft performance, the satellite's fixed location and other known factors. By knowing how the Doppler effect would apply to the satellite communications, Inmarsat could calculate the possible positions, direction of travel and speed of the plane. The company then compared its predictions to six other Boeing 777 aircraft that flew the same day, and found good agreement, according to Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. Inmarsat did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press. "By analyzing that you can determine speed and direction," said Joseph Bermudez Jr., chief analytics officer and co-founder of AllSource Analysis, a commercial satellite intelligence firm. And by determining the area from which the last signal was sent, then estimating fuel left, it "could give you an approximate area of where the aircraft impacted." MORE ANALYSIS Inmarsat sent its data to investigators days after the plane went missing. But it continued to run its own analysis to see if it could wring out any more clues. The company's engineers were dealing with a "totally new area," Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president of external affairs at Inmarsat, told the BBC. "This really was a bit of a shot in the dark." However, the latest information could only go so far in pinpointing the jet's location. "We can't help you with any closer data," he said. Gregory D. Durgin, a professor who teaches satellite communications at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that because Inmarsat was using a different kind of satellite in a novel way, he expects it would locate the last ping from the Malaysia Airlines lane within "around 100 miles (161 kilometers) of precision." THE COMPANY Inmarsat Plc started out in 1979 as an intergovernmental organization with the aim of helping ships communicate while at sea. It became a private company in 1999 and listed its shares in London in 2005. Customers now include governments, airlines, broadcast media, oil and gas companies, aid agencies as well as merchant shipping. They use hand-held satellite phones, laptop size Internet devices and antennas linked to the company's 10 satellites to communicate.
© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Can a bio-fuel based energy be future houses? 6 hours ago I was thinking what is the cost efficient and energy efficient way for the new future homes to be. Since alternative...Air/Vaccum Piston Arduino7 hours ago Hi, I am a total beginner on all subjects of engineering, but I do want to ask here if it's the right place, about...Balloon Copter8 hours ago Any reason why the balloon could not be substituted for a turbine to make a practicle flying device . One that could...PS4 horizontal on or elevated from wood8 hours ago I don't have a heat meter to test this so I just want to ask from a physics perspective what is more likely to be more...What is with the recent surge in quadcopters?13 hours ago All of the sudden in the past 5+ years there seems to have been a surge in the popularity of quadcopters. My question...Guidance for strength of materials in matlab.May 28, 2014 Hi, all I have to do a project but I need some guidance. I have to make matlab draw bending moment and shear force...More from Physics Forums - General Engineering Related StoriesThree pieces of evidence point to jet's takeover
There are three pieces of evidence that aviation safety experts say make it clear the missing Malaysia Airlines jet was taken over by someone who was knowledgeable about how the plane worked. Thailand gives radar data 10 days after plane lost (Update)
Thailand's military said Tuesday that its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the jetliner's communications went down, and that it didn't share the information with Malaysia ... Malaysian official says missing plane hijacked
A Malaysian investigation into the missing flight 370 has concluded that one or more people with flying experience switched off communications devices and deliberately steered the airliner off-course, a Malaysian ... Thai radar adds possible clue to trace jet's route
New radar data from Thailand gave Malaysian investigators more potential clues Wednesday for how to retrace the course of the missing Malaysian airliner, while a massive multinational search unfolded in an ... Search for missing jet expands toward Indian Ocean
The international search for the missing Malaysian jetliner expanded westward Friday toward the Indian Ocean amid signs the aircraft may have flown on for hours after its last contact with air-traffic control ... Malaysian plane drama fuels aviation security rethink
As the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 enters a third week, the piecemeal returns from one of the most intense, international searches in living memory have delivered a public and institutional shock ... Recommended for youNew Mexico city working on who gets Atari games
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Another phase of the search for missing flight MH370 off Western Australia has drawn to a close with still no evidence of the aircraft's final resting place. Playful responses to public interactive displays surprise researchers
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Close to three months after the Malaysian jetliner disappeared, the government on Tuesday released reams of raw satellite data it used to determine that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean, a step ... User comments : 0
© Phys.org™ 2003-2013, Science X network   Mar 25, 2014 by Justin PritchardIn this Monday, March 24, 2014 photo, crewmen on board an RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft look at their radar screens whilst searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. After 17 days of desperation and doubt over the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Malaysian officials on Monday said an analysis of satellite data points to a "heartbreaking" conclusion: Flight 370 met its end in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and none of those aboard survived. (AP Photo/Richard Wainwright, Pool) Investigators are closer to solving an international aviation mystery thanks to a British communications satellite and classroom physics. An analysis of faint signals sent from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to an Inmarsat satellite led officials to conclude the plane crashed in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean. More precise information about the plane's position when it sent the last signals is helping authorities refine the search being undertaken by planes and ships in seas 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, Australia. Investigators had little to examine otherwise because other communications were lost early in the flight March 8. THE TIMING Even with other communications shut down, the plane sent an automatic signal—a "ping" or a "handshake"—every hour to an Inmarsat satellite. Flight 370 completed six pings, and the time each took to be sent by the plane and received by the satellite showed the plane's range from the satellite, according to the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch. This initial analysis showed the last ping came from a position along one of two vast arcs north and south from the Malaysian Peninsula. DOPPLER EFFECT Think of a horn being honked in a passing car. To an observer, the sound is high pitched as the car approaches and is lower after the car passes. On approach, each successive sound wave is sent from a slightly closer position to the observer. The sound waves get compressed, resulting in a higher frequency. The opposite happens as the car moves away. It's called the Doppler effect for Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who put forward the theory in 1842. The same effect applies to the pings, which would arrive to the satellite at a higher frequency if the plane was moving toward the satellite and decrease in frequency when moving away. For the analysis that led to Monday's conclusion the plane had crashed, Inmarsat studied the satellite communications made while the plane was on the ground at Kuala Lumpur airport and early in its flight. In this Monday, March 24, 2014 photo, a crewman of an RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft loads a sonar buoy that will mark the location of any wreckage found whilst searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean. After 17 days of desperation and doubt over the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, Malaysian officials on Monday said an analysis of satellite data points to a "heartbreaking" conclusion: Flight 370 met its end in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and none of those aboard survived. (AP Photo/Richard Wainwright, Pool) It considered aircraft performance, the satellite's fixed location and other known factors. By knowing how the Doppler effect would apply to the satellite communications, Inmarsat could calculate the possible positions, direction of travel and speed of the plane. The company then compared its predictions to six other Boeing 777 aircraft that flew the same day, and found good agreement, according to Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. Inmarsat did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press. "By analyzing that you can determine speed and direction," said Joseph Bermudez Jr., chief analytics officer and co-founder of AllSource Analysis, a commercial satellite intelligence firm. And by determining the area from which the last signal was sent, then estimating fuel left, it "could give you an approximate area of where the aircraft impacted." MORE ANALYSIS Inmarsat sent its data to investigators days after the plane went missing. But it continued to run its own analysis to see if it could wring out any more clues. The company's engineers were dealing with a "totally new area," Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president of external affairs at Inmarsat, told the BBC. "This really was a bit of a shot in the dark." However, the latest information could only go so far in pinpointing the jet's location. "We can't help you with any closer data," he said. Gregory D. Durgin, a professor who teaches satellite communications at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that because Inmarsat was using a different kind of satellite in a novel way, he expects it would locate the last ping from the Malaysia Airlines lane within "around 100 miles (161 kilometers) of precision." THE COMPANY Inmarsat Plc started out in 1979 as an intergovernmental organization with the aim of helping ships communicate while at sea. It became a private company in 1999 and listed its shares in London in 2005. Customers now include governments, airlines, broadcast media, oil and gas companies, aid agencies as well as merchant shipping. They use hand-held satellite phones, laptop size Internet devices and antennas linked to the company's 10 satellites to communicate.
© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Can a bio-fuel based energy be future houses?6 hours agoI was thinking what is the cost efficient and energy efficient way for the new future homes to be. Since alternative...Air/Vaccum Piston Arduino7 hours agoHi, I am a total beginner on all subjects of engineering, but I do want to ask here if it's the right place, about...Balloon Copter8 hours agoAny reason why the balloon could not be substituted for a turbine to make a practicle flying device . One that could...PS4 horizontal on or elevated from wood8 hours agoI don't have a heat meter to test this so I just want to ask from a physics perspective what is more likely to be more...What is with the recent surge in quadcopters?13 hours agoAll of the sudden in the past 5+ years there seems to have been a surge in the popularity of quadcopters. My question...Guidance for strength of materials in matlab.May 28, 2014Hi, all I have to do a project but I need some guidance. I have to make matlab draw bending moment and shear force...More from Physics Forums - General Engineering Related StoriesThree pieces of evidence point to jet's takeover
There are three pieces of evidence that aviation safety experts say make it clear the missing Malaysia Airlines jet was taken over by someone who was knowledgeable about how the plane worked. Thailand gives radar data 10 days after plane lost (Update)
Thailand's military said Tuesday that its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the jetliner's communications went down, and that it didn't share the information with Malaysia ... Malaysian official says missing plane hijacked
A Malaysian investigation into the missing flight 370 has concluded that one or more people with flying experience switched off communications devices and deliberately steered the airliner off-course, a Malaysian ... Thai radar adds possible clue to trace jet's route
New radar data from Thailand gave Malaysian investigators more potential clues Wednesday for how to retrace the course of the missing Malaysian airliner, while a massive multinational search unfolded in an ... Search for missing jet expands toward Indian Ocean
The international search for the missing Malaysian jetliner expanded westward Friday toward the Indian Ocean amid signs the aircraft may have flown on for hours after its last contact with air-traffic control ... Malaysian plane drama fuels aviation security rethink
As the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 enters a third week, the piecemeal returns from one of the most intense, international searches in living memory have delivered a public and institutional shock ... Recommended for youNew Mexico city working on who gets Atari games
Officials in a New Mexico city are working on a plan under which film companies, museums and the public could get Atari video games that were dug up from an old landfill last month. 'Advergames' new avenue for TV advertising
Advertising in the form of games or "advergames" can be as effective as regular 30-second television advertisements according to researchers at Murdoch University's Audience Labs. Not the real ping – so what now for missing flight MH370?
Another phase of the search for missing flight MH370 off Western Australia has drawn to a close with still no evidence of the aircraft's final resting place. Playful responses to public interactive displays surprise researchers
Designers of large public interactive displays (PIDs) should expect playful responses to these displays. This was the unexpected finding from a study by an inter-disciplinary group of designers and computer ... Iran summons Facebook's Zuckerberg over privacy
An Iranian judge has summoned Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to answer allegations that his company's apps have breached people's privacy, it was reported Tuesday. After long wait, Malaysia releases jet data
Close to three months after the Malaysian jetliner disappeared, the government on Tuesday released reams of raw satellite data it used to determine that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean, a step ... User comments : 0
© Phys.org™ 2003-2013, Science X network |
| MH370 latest: Pings not believed from missing plane's black box <b>...</b> Posted: 26 May 2014 09:34 PM PDT LATEST UPDATE: The head of Australia's transport safety bureau has defended the fruitless hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, saying he is confident that search teams are targeting the right area.
But in a setback, the area believed to be the jet's most likely resting place based on the detection of acoustic "pings" was Thursday ruled out after an extensive underwater search. Australia's Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan told AFP the source of the acoustic transmissions, thought to be man-made, was still a mystery. "To be frank, we don't know. We like to be the experts but sometimes we just don't know the answer," he said, refusing to speculate on whether they came from the Australian vessel hunting for signals from the aircraft's black boxes. Dolan, whose organisation is playing a key role in the search effort, said the four signals detected in April were then the best lead in the hunt for the plane, which mysteriously diverted from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing route. "This was the best area to look at the time. We still don't have anything that confirms that it's the wrong place. But we will do our analysis and we will determine the best search area for the next phase." "That arc is definite. We know that somewhere close to that very long arc is where the aircraft will be found," he said in an interview late Thursday. The arc was produced by analysing satellite signalling messages, also referred to as "handshakes", between the ground station, the satellite and the aircraft's satellite communication system. Dolan said experts believed the aircraft would be found near the area representing the last of these signals, thought to be have been sent when the plane ran out of fuel. "The thing that we're absolutely confident of is somewhere on that long arc we will find the aircraft," he said. "But because it's so long we have to be able to find a much smaller segment of the arc to concentrate our search and that's what our analysis is looking at defining. "So we are reanalysing all the satellite data and aircraft performance information and everything else to define an area of up to 60,000 square kilometres, which is the most likely one for the location of the aircraft." The next phase will focus on using the satellite data to confirm a search area, completing mapping of the sea floor and getting towable sonar and other equipment to carry out an intensive deep water search, which could take up to a year. Dolan voiced confidence that investigators had been given all the information available, but said he could understand the anger of relatives still looking for answers almost three months after the plane went missing. "We're conscious that people don't have a particular confidence in the analysis," he said. "We have a much higher confidence. But we are nevertheless doing a cross check to verify it." Dolan said the search was considered unique because there was so little information to go on, likening it to a worst-case scenario for aviation safety authorities. "In an organisation like mine you work out what's the worst thing that will ever happen and hope that it never does," he said. "And Australia has been very good at managing the safety of aviation, but our worst case scenario is a widebody passenger aircraft in mid-ocean. "We've actually got plans to deal with this sort of thing, we just hoped we would never have to use those plans for real." Malaysia releases satellite data Malaysia's aviation authority released on Tuesday satellite data used to determine that flight MH370 went down in the southern Indian Ocean following demands from sceptical relatives of those on board. The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) said in a statement it had worked with Inmarsat to provide 47 pages of data communication logs recorded by the British satellite operator as well as explanatory notes for public consumption. Family members of the 239 people on board the Malaysia Airlines plane, which vanished on March 8, had demanded that raw satellite data be made public for independent analysis after an initial undersea search found no wreckage. AFP was not immediately able to interpret the highly technical numerical data, which used the Doppler effect - the change in frequency of waves from a moving object - to decipher the Boeing 777's final flight path. The DCA has previously stressed that satellite data was just one of several elements being examined by investigators. Malaysian authorities have been tight-lipped on details, saying they can only divulge information once it has been verified and when its release will not affect ongoing investigations into the plane's disappearance. But no sign of the plane has been found despite a massive and costly search for the flight that mysteriously diverted from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route 11 weeks ago. Australia, which is leading the hunt in the Indian Ocean, has committed up to US$84 million towards the search operation over two years. Promo of 'missing plane' film at Cannes... Click here The director of a movie based on the Malaysian Airlines plane disappearance says he rushed the trailer of the project so he could bring it to the Cannes Film Festival. "I was seeing the festival calendars and I could not miss Cannes. And so I told my team to make a trailer immediately," said Rupesh Paul of his planned film, "The Vanishing Act." It wasn't until he arrived at the festival that he faced questions over the timing of the film's promotion and whether he was being sensitive to the families of the missing passengers. "These things came in to my thoughts only after I came here," said Paul, also a producer, in an interview on Saturday. "From the very first interview I was only asked about this fact that we did not even think of much when we were pitching this in India. Nobody asked this question in India actually. When we came to Europe this was the only question I faced." The 35-year-old director says he never thought his actions might upset anyone but insists "that nobody will be hurt (by) this movie." "Why should I gain out of somebody's pain?" said Paul. The trailer for "The Vanishing Act" shows two crew members kissing as a third looks at them angrily. It's something the director says will not be included in the main feature. "This trailer was not even meant to get released on the Internet online," said Paul. "It was meant to show some investors and producers that the movie will be dramatic and thrilling. Somehow it got released, we had to give it to many people, it got out of my hands. And there is no love triangle in this movie at all and there is no romance in this movie." A handgun is also featured in the movie, but Paul said it isn't what it seems. "Everyone that has flown once on even a small flight will definitely understand that it is impossible to carry a gun inside, whatever you do," he said. "So it's impossible, but there is a weapon in the story." The director is keeping tight-lipped about his theory on how the plane disappeared and what will be shown in the film. He said that although he "cannot reveal the climax, it will not be a tragic climax." The trailer, which also shows commotion and horror on the plane, has garnered more than 300,000 views on YouTube. Paul is aiming for a September release. EARLIER STORIES: Underwater search resumes; 5 conspiracy theories A mini-sub searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 recommenced its operations on Thursday after technical problems, as it enters its final week of scouring the Indian Ocean seabed for signs of the aircraft. Australia is leading the search for the plane which vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard and is using the Bluefin-21 mini-sub until new equipment can be obtained. The US Navy Bluefin-21, which can plunge to a depth of some 4,500 metres (15,000 feet), was brought back to shore last week to fix technical issues which saw it pulled from the water. It resumed its search in the remote area of several transmissions believed to have come from the missing aircraft's black box recorders. "Over the next week, Bluefin-21 will search the remaining areas in the vicinity of the acoustic signals detected in early April by the towed pinger locator... that are within its depth operating limits," JACC said. "This continues the process that will ultimately enable the search team to discount or confirm the area of the acoustic signals as the final resting place of MH370." The Australian ship which deployed the Bluefin-21, Ocean Shield, is expected to leave the search area on May 28 and return to Perth on May 31 to demobilise the mini-sub. MH370 is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean but despite a massive air and sea and underwater search, no sign of any wreckage has yet been found. While the aerial and sea surface searches have been scaled down, the operation is moving to the next phase which will involve using sophisticated equipment to scan the unmapped ocean bed. Negotiations are underway to engage contractors to do this work. JACC said Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen left the west Australian port of Fremantle Wednesday to start mapping areas of the ocean floor in preparation for the commercially contracted deep ocean search. Another Chinese ship Haixun 01 was Thursday to depart for the area to support this operation, tasked with delivering survey data to Fremantle weekly for processing by Australian officials. JACC said work was continuing to review and analyse all the data and information relating to the likely flight path of MH370. "This work will confirm the best areas on which to focus an effective future search," it said. 5 conspiracy theories gaining traction The fruitless MH370 search has breathed new life into conspiracy theories on the plane's fate, with a book, two films and even a former prime minister pushing ideas ranging from diversion by the CIA to an accidental shoot-down. A host of wild theories including a Taliban hijack or meteor strike had emerged to fill the information vacuum in the days following the plane's disappearance on March 8 with 239 aboard as authorities across Asia scrambled to figure out what happened. The speculation abated after Malaysia said in late March the plane was believed to have gone down in the Indian Ocean for unknown reasons, but has revived due to the failure of an international search effort to find any trace of the plane. In a blog posting Sunday, former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad put his weight behind online rumours that the Boeing 777 had a feature allowing the plane's controls to be taken over remotely. The still-influential Mahathir, 88, said the US Central Intelligence Agency might have taken control of the American-made plane after it was commandeered by terrorists, adding it was possible "the plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS (Malaysia Airlines) markings". "Can it not be that the pilot of MH370 lost control of their aircraft after someone directly or remotely activated the equipment for seizure of control of the aircraft?" Mahathir wrote. "Someone is hiding something. It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame," said Mahathir. Two films about MH370 were touted Sunday to potential distributors at the Cannes Film Festival in France, with a trailer for one of them – 'The Vanishing Act' - showing terrified passengers and a gun being brandished. The film was pitched as "the untold story of the missing Malaysian plane". One of the first books about MH370 went on sale Monday, suggesting it could have been shot down during a military drill in the South China Sea and the incident covered-up. London-based author Nigel Cawthorne said there had been a joint Thai-US military exercise at the time and which was to include live-fire exercises. "Say a participant accidentally shot down Flight MH370. Such things do happen. The cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf in 1988," he wrote. "No one wants another Lockerbie, so those involved would have every reason to keep quiet about it," he added, referring to the blowing up of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. A Libyan intelligence officer was convicted of that bombing. Singapore-based aviation analyst Terence Fan said without evidence of the wreckage, "you can't rule anything out but this is very unlikely". Malaysia to release satellite data on missing jet amid pressure from passengers' families Malaysia says it will publicly release satellite data used to narrow down the search for the missing jetliner to the southern Indian Ocean. The Civil Aviation Department and British company Inmarsat said in a joint statement Tuesday said they would do this "in line with our commitment to greater transparency." Some family members of the 239 people on the plane have demanded raw satellite data to be made public for independent analysis. EARLIER REPORTS Malaysia to review all data to pinpoint flight Malaysia, China and Australia have agreed to re-examine all data related to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to better pinpoint the search area, Malaysia's acting transport minister said on Thursday, as the hunt for the jet enters a new phase. The three countries also agreed at a meeting in Canberra last week to undertake a survey to map the ocean floor and procure more deep-sea search vehicles and other equipment to scour it, minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. "I have briefed the Malaysia cabinet yesterday on the outcome of the meeting and it has been deliberated. I now have the mandate to announce that the details of the transition phase have been approved by the Malaysian government," he said. The Boeing 777 with 239 passengers and crew disappeared on March 8 during a scheduled service between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, and is believed to have gone down in the Indian Ocean, off western Australia. About two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals. Australia would have responsibility for procuring new search assets from commercial contractors, Hishammuddin said, while Malaysia and China would assign additional equipment and services for the search. Hishammuddin said he would discuss the possibility of more U.S. technical help with U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel at a summit in Singapore later this month. Hishammuddin said it was vital to carry out the undersea bathymetric survey to map the new search area so that the expensive and scarce deep-sea autonomous vehicles and towed sonar scanners could be deployed safely. "It is important the bathymetric survey and deep water search needs to be seamless," said Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister. The three governments would hold weekly video conferences to coordinate the search, starting on Monday. Malaysia to deploy underwater vehicles in MH370 search Malaysia is considering deploying underwater vehicles as authorities prepare for a long-term search effort for missing flight MH370, an official said on Thursday. Deputy defence minister Abdul Rahim Bakri said national oil company Petronas would provide two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to help search for the Malaysia Airline Boeing 777-200, which disappeared without a trace. "Up to now Petronas has given full commitment, dedicating at least two AUVs to help the search," he said in a press conference. As the so-far futile search continues, he said Petronas was also mulling providing underwater sonar equipment and remotely operated vehicles. Abdul Rahim said Malaysia's oil and gas firm Sapura Kencana was offering a multibeam echo-sounder which was being considered by the government. Meanwhile, a resumption of the search was hindered Wednesday by technical troubles, with a mini-sub lasting only two hours in the water before it had to be raised. Australian vessel Ocean Shield, carrying the US Navy Bluefin-21 submersible, arrived back in the southern Indian Ocean search zone Tuesday following a port visit to Perth after the air and sea hunt was scaled back. The plan was for it to resume scouring the seabed where transmissions believed to have come from the plane's black box flight recorders were heard last month. MH370 vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board after mysteriously diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route. It is believed to have crashed into the sea far off Australia's west coast. Air and sea searches over vast stretches of the Indian Ocean have failed to find any sign of the plane. Australia, which is leading the hunt, has stressed that it believes it is looking in the right area based on satellite communications from the plane. Officials have said an intensified undersea mission will begin once new and more sophisticated equipment to complement Bluefin-21 can be obtained to search at depths of more than 4,500 metres (15,000 feet). The ocean bed in the prospective search zone is not just deep but largely unmapped, meaning specialist sonar equipment and other autonomous vehicles are needed. Malaysia has vowed to continue the search for the missing MH370 plane until it was found. After disaster Malaysian PM wants real-time tracking planes Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has called for real-time tracking of planes and improving their communication system to prevent a repeat of the mysterious disappearance of Flight 370. In an opinion piece Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, Najib called for changes that would "make it harder for an aircraft to simply disappear, and easier to find any aircraft that did." "One of the most astonishing things about this tragedy is the revelation that an airliner the size of a Boeing 777 can vanish, almost without a trace. In an age of smartphones and mobile Internet, real-time tracking of commercial airplanes is long overdue," he said. The Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 when it disappeared. The search is focused in the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, but it has not been found. Inmarsat Plc, a British provider of global mobile satellite communications services, said Monday it will offer free basic tracking services for planes flying over oceans. The service will be available to most of the world's long-haul commercial fleet. The Malaysian plane sent a signal to an Inmarsat satellite, but not location data. Engineers conducted a novel analysis of those signals to determine the plane's flight path, but the effort took time. Najib also urged the aviation industry to consider changing planes' communications systems so that they can't be disabled midair. The government has said someone severed the plane's communication systems with the ground and deliberately diverted Flight 370. He said the capacity of the cockpit data recorder, one of a plane's two black boxes, should be extended from two hours currently to recording the entire flight, while its location beacons should be made to last at least 90 days, instead of 30 days now. "The global aviation industry must not only learn the lessons of MH370 but implement them," he added. Najib reiterated that Flight 370 was one of world's greatest aviation mysteries. "Nobody saw this coming, nobody knows why it happened, and nobody knows precisely where it is," he said. He said the government has done its best but admitted there were mistakes in the early days of the crisis, with a disorderly public communication and a slow start to search efforts. He said an independent investigation is ongoing so the government can learn from mistakes. Najib assured families of passengers that Malaysia will "keep searching for the plane for as long as it takes." Australia is leading the search, which is moving into a second phase in which commercial underwater operators will be contracted to scour a vast expanse of seabed with sonar equipment looking for wreckage for the next one year. An Australian ship on Tuesday returned to the area where underwater sounds consistent with black boxes were heard in April, the search coordination center said. The ship had returned to port briefly to be resupplied. The Ocean Shield is carrying a robot submarine, the Bluefin 21, to survey the ocean floor. EARLIER STORIES: Aircraft tracking changes mulled Tracking aircraft by satellite, cloud storage of black box data and other technological innovations were being considered Monday by aviation officials in the wake of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370's disappearance. The fate of MH370 has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history since it vanished on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Despite a massive international search in the Indian Ocean, no trace of the missing Boeing 777 has been found. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is holding a special meeting Monday and Tuesday in Montreal to discuss how to prevent a recurrence of this tragedy as well as the mystery that surrounds it. "Meeting participants will explore the use of existing technologies that may provide the means to support globally track airline flights at a reasonable cost," said a statement. These technologies could allow, for example, basic data such as an aircraft's position, altitude, speed and course recorded and transmitted via satellite in the event of a sudden change, said the ICAO. French authorities had already lobbied the ICAO to adopt the new standards following the June 2009 crash of an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that killed 228. The jetliner's black box was not recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean until 2011, after an exhaustive search of a zone not covered by ground radar. "For the general public, it has become unthinkable that a flight can simply disappear," says a European Union discussion paper posted on the ICAO website. "An aircraft should be permanently tracked, even beyond radar coverage and in case of an accident, it should be immediately located." Ahead of the two-day meeting, the ICAO asked industry groups for a complete list of technologies that might be useful to the airline sector. Twenty-two companies, including Globalstar and Rockwell Collins, responded to the call. "The responses received so far to the ICAO questionnaire showed that there are existing commercial off-the-shelf solutions providing global coverage for hardware costs under USD $100,000," said the ICAO. British satellite operator Inmarsat has also offered a basic tracking service to all of the world's passenger airlines free of charge. Inmarsat, which has played a role in the search for the missing plane, said the service would allow a plane to determine its location using GPS and send that data over Inmarsat's global network at 15-minute intervals. While GPS (Global Positioning System) is commonplace in cars and mobile phones, the international air traffic control network is still almost entirely based on radar. In the so far fruitless search for the Malaysian jet, electronic pings from Inmarsat equipment on the lost plane led investigators to search for wreckage in the Indian Ocean. Inmarsat said it would also offer a "black box in the sky" service under which a plane that had deviated off course -- which is believed to be the case with flight MH370 -- could transmit historic and real-time information from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. The ICAO meeting is expected to lead to a working group that should present its recommendations within five months. Families urge leaders to release data More than 300 bereaved family members of the 239 passengers and crew aboard the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are urging Malaysian, Australian and Chinese leaders to release the raw Inmarsat data so that "it can be subject to broader analysis by relevant experts." In an open letter signed by family members from China, Malaysia, India, the US and New Zealand, Voice370, short for MH370 Victim Families and Crew Association, has urged "all relevant authorities to carefully reconsider the data anew, without predetermination or bias as to any possible or probable outcome. The open letter, addressed to Prime Minister of Malaysia Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott, and President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, Voice 370 said that "[d]ue to the lack of physical evidence that MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean, the families are in urgent need for the conclusion, based on Inmarsat data analysis, that the aircraft"s flight ended in that Ocean to be reconsidered to confirm its accuracy." "Further, if Inmarsat"s analysis is unable to rule out other flight paths as a possibility, that fact must be acknowledged. Given the lack of tangible evidence of what happened to MH370, in our view, data analysis that only indicates a probable southern flight path is an insufficient basis to support a definitive conclusion that no other flight path was possible," the family members wrote in the letter. "We implore the Malaysian Government to share and release the raw Inmarsat satellite engine ping data for 9MMRO (every ping from Friday, March 7 12:00 until the final signal was received globally so that it can be subject to broader analysis by relevant experts," it added. The families are demanding the release of raw satellite data to solve the over two-month-long aviation mystery. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that lost contact with air traffic control on March 8, 2014, at 01:20 local time, less than an hour after takeoff. At 7.24, Malaysia Airlines reported the flight missing. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 14 nations. Despite a multinational search and rescue effort, reportedly the largest in history, there has been no confirmation of any flight debris and no crash site has been found so far, two months after the aircraft first disappeared. EARLIER STORIES MH370 puzzle seen leading to out-of-court settlements The lack of any evidence indicating what caused flight MH370's disappearance raises a legal conundrum that is expected to force Malaysia Airlines into out-of-court settlements with angry next-of-kin, aviation law experts said. More than two months since MH370 disappeared, no wreckage has been found to even confirm a crash, let alone apportion blame. But relatives of the 239 people on board can still come after Malaysia Airlines because under international aviation law it is an airline's responsibility to prove it was not to blame for an accident. "On the surface, (Malaysia Airlines) is responsible," said Jeremy Joseph, a Malaysian attorney specialising in transport law. The "burden of proof" rests on the national carrier to clear its name, he added. Under International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, next-of-kin in an air crash are entitled to an automatic minimum of about $175,000 per passenger, regardless of fault, payable by an airline's insurance company. Search heads to site of first "ping" An Australian naval vessel carrying an underwater drone involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 left port on Saturday on its second mission to scan part of the Indian Ocean where the longest sonar "ping" was heard over a month ago. The Ocean Shield is heading to the area where a signal was first located and heard for some two hours on April 5, about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northwest of Perth to launch the Bluefin-21 submersible.
Exactly two months after Malaysia Airlines' ill-fated MH370 went missing, the search for the aircraft that disappeared along with 239 passengers and crew members is getting deeper, broader, and more expensive. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that lost contact with air traffic control on March 8, 2014, at 01:20 local time, less than an hour after takeoff. At 07:24, Malaysia Airlines reported the flight missing. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 14 nations. Despite a multinational search and rescue effort, reportedly the largest in history, there has been no confirmation of any flight debris and no crash site has been found so far, two months after the aircraft first disappeared. Officials from Malaysia, China and Australia reportedly met yesterday to plan the next steps in the quest for MH370, which may take up an additional $60 million. European safety officials on Tuesday proposed tougher rules for 'black box' flight recorders in the strongest regulatory reaction yet to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it would propose increasing the recording time on cockpit voice recorders to 20 hours from two to make it easier to understand plane accidents and prevent vital evidence being overwritten. Newly published proposals would also bring into force recommendations made by French crash investigators after the loss of an Air France jet in the Atlantic in 2009, but which remain bogged down in talks among regulators. These include the addition of a new pinger frequency making it easier to locate the recording devices under water, where lower frequencies travel further. The proposals appeared in an opinion published by EASA on Tuesday and confirmed details reported by Reuters. They have been submitted to the European Union's executive Commission which will use them as the basis for a change in law.
Australia, China and Malaysia pledged on Monday not to give up searching for the Malaysia Airlines jetliner that disappeared almost two months ago, despite lingering questions about how to proceed and who will pay. With the air and surface search now halted, a new search phase costing around A$60 million ($55 million) will begin after existing visual and sonar search data is analysed and a contractor is found to lease the sophisticated equipment needed, officials said after meeting in Canberra. Financial responsibility is a major focus of the talks and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss seemed to open the door to manufacturers including Boeing, which produced the 777-200ER jet, and engine maker Rolls Royce, to contribute financially. "They also have a vested interest in what happened on MH370 so they can be confident about the quality of their product, or take remedial action if there was some part of the aircraft that contributed to this accident," he told reporters. "So, I think we will be looking for increasing involvement from the manufacturers, and their host countries." New search equipment two months away Officials said on Monday it could be up to two months before new, more sophisticated equipment will be in the water to help in the search for flight MH370 across what will be largely unmapped ocean floor. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss admitted the hunt will take time, with the ocean bed in the prospective search zone several kilometres deep and largely unmapped, meaning specialist sonar equipment and other autonomous vehicles are needed. He said a tender process would start soon to acquire them, but it would likely be two months before the equipment was actually in the water, while more oceanographic mapping was required to better understand where they would be looking. "We are optimistic that we can do most of this in the space of one to two months so we will actually have more hardware in the water within a couple of months," he said after meeting Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Chinese counterpart Yang Chuantang. "In the interim we'll still have the Bluefin-21 working and we'll get going on the oceanographic work that needs to be done so they'll be no long interruptions in this search."
The Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 could not have disappeared without human input, according to latest media reports. According to senior Boeing 777 captain and a former crash investigator, "human input was essential" for the flight to end the Indian Ocean, reported yahoo.com "To change course requires the pilot to either disengage the flight management computer and dial in a new heading to the autopilot/flight director or fly manually," the captain said. The plane's flight path shows multiple course changes and altitude changes, according to Malaysian authorities. Meanwhile, a former crash investigator, said, "There are a variety of scenarios," for the flight disappearing. "It could have gone into a spiral or maybe a flat spin... Another scenario is an aerodynamic stall with a nose pitched up and then a roller coaster ride down."
A group of 11 terrorists with links to Al Qaeda were yesterday being interrogated on whether they are behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, according to the Daily Mail. According to the report, the request for the move came from international agencies, including FBI and MI6, who asked for the suspects, ages range from 22 to 55, including students, odd-job workers, a young widow and business professionals, to be questioned intensively about MH370. First funerals The first funerals for passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will be held this weekend, relatives said on Friday, as a Malaysian official urged relatives of those presumed dead to "face reality" and leave support centres. Meanwhile, family and friends of Rod and Mary Burrows, two of six Australians on board the flight, will hold a memorial service in Brisbane today [Sunday], according to a statement on behalf of the family released by police. The family, it said, sought "privacy and request their solitude be respected during this difficult time". On Friday, Malaysia's deputy foreign minister said it was time for relatives to be "realistic". "We have been waiting to come up with a statement and all of us, be it the family members or the whole world, is actually looking for the answer," Hamzah Zainudin told a news conference. The airline, he said, had been looking after and supporting family members in Beijing for 55 days. "And that's the reason it"s about time for us to actually accept the reality that the family members should go back and wait for the answer in their hometowns." Families, Malaysian officials said, would be told of developments in the search and those who qualified would receive prompt compensation. Panel to probe Malaysia's defence minister said an independent panel would look into the delay in ordering a search and rescue operation. "We created the independent body with experts from around the world," Hishammuddin Hussein, who doubles as acting transport minister, told the Kuala Lumpur news conference. "There were things that Malaysia has done well and there were things we could have done better. If that's something the panel says, we won't be reluctant to take the relevant action." EARLIER STORIES 4-hour delay, 17-minute ATC call-gap deepens mystery Did a four-hour delay between the plane's disappearance and the authorities' response a key factor in the "losing" of the Malaysia Airline plane MH370? An independent panel formed by the Malaysian government will now decide if that is inded the case. However, in a report published by the asiaone website, Transport Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein defended the response time, even invoking the seven-hour gap during the Air France incident. "Each case is different. In this case, we took four hours to respond to the disappearance. "I was informed that in the Air France case, it was six to seven hours before any response. "We leave it to the independent panel to judge the four-hour gap," he said at a press conference on Friday . The report also states that at the same press conference, the Civil Aviation Department said the independent panel could decide on the 17-minute gap between the plane's last connection with air traffic control and the call from Ho Chi Minh saying there was no contact established with the plane. The preliminary report Malaysia released its most comprehensive account yet of what happened to missing Flight MH370, in a preliminary report that detailed the route the plane probably took as it veered off course and revealed the confusion that followed. It showed four hours elapsed between the first sign that the Malaysia Airlines jet had failed to report in when expected to and the decision to mount a search operation - and that time included lapses of communication and a false lead from the airline itself. The document, dated April 9, also contributed to a growing safety debate by urging the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN body that oversees aviation, to consider introducing a system for tracking commercial jets. The call comes ahead of a meeting at the Montreal-based agency later this month to address mounting pressure for improvements to fill communications blind spots over the world's oceans, but until now regulators have said such systems still need to be proven despite lobbying by the satellite industry. Although the preliminary report issued by the Ministry of Transport leaves many key questions about what happened nearly eight weeks ago unanswered, and is not intended to resolve speculation about the cause, Malaysia may be hoping it sets the record straight on at least some of the contentious issues. The fate of Flight MH370 remains a mystery despite the biggest search operation in commercial aviation history, and relatives of the passengers on board are desperate for confirmation of what happened to their loved ones. Boeing, the manufacturer of the 777 aircraft, will also be keen to learn exactly what caused the plane to veer sharply off course and disappear from sight, and in particular whether it was mechanical failure or human intervention. While not ruling out technical faults, a parallel Malaysian police investigation has so far focused on the pilots amid signs that the aircraft followed a twisting and deliberate course for at least the first hour of its journey off course. THAILAND AND INDONESIA The report confirmed that military radar tracked a plane as it turned in a westerly direction across the Malaysian Peninsula on the morning of March 8, and said the radar operator took no further action because the aircraft was deemed "friendly". In an accompanying statement, Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the military data was played back that morning and after he and Prime Minister Najib Razak were informed of the possible turnback, military ships and an aircraft were sent to look for MH370 in the Straits of Malacca. The report also described what appeared to be frantic attempts to trace the aircraft, with air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur contacting counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, when something appeared to have gone awry. Kuala Lumpur was initially informed of a problem when air traffic controllers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, who were meant to take over monitoring MH370 around the time the plane disappeared, said they had not heard from its pilots. They told their Malaysian counterparts the "radar blip" had disappeared at a navigation point called BITOD about half way between Malaysia and Vietnam. Investigators suspect the aircraft's radar transponder was turned off at about that time. The airline at first wrongly told controllers the jet was over Cambodia and later that it had passed over Vietnam, but this turned out to be a projection rather than real information. Released to the public for the first time were recordings of conversations between the cockpit of MH370 and Kuala Lumpur air traffic control and maps showing MH370's probable flight path. The pilot recordings, ending with a deadpan "good night" and the call sign, begin with the first contact on the ground and appear business-like, without any obvious signs of stress. According to the maps, MH370 turned back from the South China Sea, cut across the southernmost tip of Thailand near the border with the Malaysian state of Kelantan and then flew across the Malaysian Peninsula. It made a turn to the west in the Straits of Malacca near Penang and flew beyond the limits of Malaysian military radar. ELECTRONIC HANDSHAKES From this point, investigators have had to rely on an estimated course based on electronic handshakes picked up by a UK satellite, which came to light days after the disappearance. After leaving Malaysian military radar coverage, investigators believe MH370 turned south and flew over the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra Island before heading for the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean off Australia's western coast, where a massive underwater search is now concentrated. The course, contradicting reports the plane skirted round Indonesian airspace, raises potentially awkward questions over why Indonesia did not identify the aircraft on its own radar. Sensitivities over the sharing of data have been a recurring theme in the search for the jet, according to people involved. The report identified three areas in the southern Indian Ocean where they can say with different levels of certainty that the jet crashed, but although searchers identified pings from its black boxes a thorough seabed search has been fruitless. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that the seabed search over a wider area could take 6-8 months, but some experts say it could take even longer, possibly years. Fuelling the debate over tracking, Malaysia's Transport Ministry pointed to the disappearance of Flight MH370 and Air France Flight AF447 in 2009 as evidence that a system for real-time tracking would help to locate missing aircraft more easily. Details of the initial findings including the audio tapes were shared before the report's publication with mainly Chinese relatives who have protested about Malaysia Airlines' handling of the case, in particular the use of text messages to inform some relatives when the aircraft was deemed to have crashed. Malaysia releases missing flight report, calls for real-time tracking Malaysia released a preliminary report on missing Flight MH370 on Thursday in which it recommended that the U.N. body overseeing global aviation consider introducing a system for tracking commercial aircraft in real time. In the report dated April 9, but only just made available to the media, the ministry pointed to the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines aircraft and Air France Flight AF447 in 2009 as evidence that such real-time tracking would help to locate missing aircaft more easily in future. "There have now been two occasions during the last five years when large commercial air transport aircraft have gone missing and their last position was not accurately known," the Transport Ministry said. "This uncertainty resulted in significant difficulty in locating the aircraft in a timely manner." The report called on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to "examine the safety benefits of introducing a standard for real-time tracking of commercial air transport aircraft". Flight MH370, which had 239 passengers and crew on board, disappeared off civilian radars while on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. The search for the Boeing 777-200ER is already the biggest in aviation history, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it had entered a new phase which could take six to eight months to complete. Families of the missing passengers, the majority of whom are Chinese, have directed their anger largely at Malaysia's authorities and military for failing to do enough to track the aircraft after it turned back after takeoff. The report confirmed that military radar tracked a plane as it turned in a westerly direction across the Malaysian peninsula on the morning of March 8, and that it took no further action because the plane was deemed "friendly". However, it did not explain why Flight MH370 had been categorised as friendly even through its transponder was switched off by the time it turned back, one of many mysteries surrounding its fate that remain unanswered. Still unknown is who or what led to MH370 veering off its original flight path and eventually ending up several thousand kilometres (miles) away in the southern Indian Ocean. Malaysia Airlines to end hotel stays for MH370 families Malaysia Airlines will cease to provide hotel accommodation for relatives of missing flight MH370 passengers by May 7, the airline said on Thursday. The Malaysian flag carrier has provided hotel accommodation for relatives in a number of countries -- most of them in Malaysia and China -- where it provided them periodic updates on the situation since shortly after the flight mysteriously disappeared on March 8. But relatives' tempers have repeatedly flared, particularly at the Lido Hotel in Beijing where Chinese families have regularly lashed out at officials from the Malaysian government and the airline over their inability to explain the plane's disappearance. "Instead of staying in hotels, the families of MH370 are advised to receive information updates on the progress of the search and investigation and other support by Malaysia Airlines within the comfort of their own homes, with the support and care of their families and friends," the airline said in a statement. "In line with this adjustment, Malaysia Airlines will be closing all of its family assistance centres around the world by 7 May 2014." Wen Wancheng, whose son was on the flight, said that relatives have come under pressure from time to time to leave the hotel and go back home, but was adamant that they would refuse. "Today MAS brought this up officially and we're not going to accept it," he told AFP, referring to the airline. "They made the commitment in March that they wouldn't drive us out of the Lido until any wreckage was found," he said. The government-controlled carrier also said it would soon make advance compensation payments to the next-of-kin of the 239 people onboard the plane, part of a final package to be agreed upon later. It did not specify the amounts. Wen, the Chinese relative, expressed concern about the payments. "It has to have a legal basis," he said. "Is this for relatives' mental damages or the casualties of our family members onboard?" About two-thirds of those aboard the missing plane, which vanished from radar en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, were Chinese nationals. The airline also had provided psychiatric support at hotels for families trying to cope with the tragedy. The carrier said it would establish centres in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur to provide "follow-up support and services" but gave no further specifics. A Malaysia Airlines spokeswoman declined to offer further details when contacted by AFP. The cut-off of accommodation is likely to upset some family members who continue to demand answers from the airline and Malaysian government. The airline said last week that 10 of its staff were held against their will for more than 10 hours at the Lido Hotel by angry relatives. Hotel-staying next-of-kin could not immediately be reached for comment. The plane is believed to have inexplicably diverted from its course and crashed in the Indian Ocean. However, a multi-nation search for plane wreckage has failed to find any evidence despite weeks of looking.
Malaysia will release a preliminary report Thursday on the disappearance of flight MH370 nearly two months after it went missing, according to a transport ministry official. Malaysian media reported Transport and Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as saying Wednesday that the report would be made public but gave no other details. According to state news agency Bernama, Hishammuddin said the report would be similar to the one forwarded to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). "I don't think there's going to be any problem to issue it. But we have decided it as a team, that it's going to be issued tomorrow," he was quoted as saying. A transport ministry official confirmed the reports but could not comment further. Malaysia has been accused by angry relatives of the 239 people aboard the plane of hiding information -- a claim the Southeast Asian nation has persistently denied. Malaysian officials said last week that the report already had been sent to ICAO. ICAO requires countries to submit a factual run-down of what is known so far in any air crash within 30 days. Prime Minister Najib Razak last week vowed to release the report "in the name of transparency". The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but a massive hunt for the wreckage has been fruitless so far. US pilot claims to have found plane on satellite image The sightings are beginning to increase. And the anguish for the families is only going to get worse. A day after a US pilot claimed a satellite image he saw was the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Adelaide-based GeoResonance was quoted in Malaysian media and by Australia's Channel Seven as saying it had detected possible debris from a plane 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) from the current search location - in the Bay of Bengal. However, Australian authorities on Wednesday dismissed claims by a marine exploration company that material found in the Bay of Bengal could be from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. On Tuesday, Malaysia's acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he was verifying the information but Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre, which is fronting the search, downplayed any link. "The location of MH370 suggested by the GeoResonance report (in the Bay of Bengal) is not in the Australian search and rescue zone," a spokesman for the government agency told AFP. "The Australian led search is relying on information from satellite and other data to determine the missing aircraft's location. The location specified by the GeoResonance report is not within the search arc derived from this data. "The joint international team is satisfied that the final resting place of the missing aircraft is in the southerly portion of the search arc." The company said it surveyed over 2,000,000 square kilometres. "We identified chemical elements and materials that make up a Boeing 777... these are aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials," company representative Pavel Kursa told Channel Seven. Another company representative, David Pope, told the broadcaster: "We're not trying to say that it definitely is MH370, however it is a lead we feel should be followed up." Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Tuesday that China and Australia were aware of the announcement. "Malaysia is working with its international partners to assess the credibility of this information," a statement from his office said. Pilot's claim Is this the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airline MH370? Six weeks into the search for the missing airliner, with absolutely no sign of any debris to prove that the airline did go down into the Indian Ocean, websites across the globe have reported that a US pilot quoted on US channel WIVB believes he has found an image of MH370. As part of a global search on TomNod, a crowd-sourcing website that has been sharing online satllite imagery in the hope of finding the airline, New York pilot Michael Hoebel, 60, believes he has found an image of what appears to be the wreck. Where is it? According to the reports, quoting Hoebel, in the Gulf of Thailand. Quoted by the TV news channel, Hoebel refuted it was a shark image, saying: "That's a 210ft shark. The lighter skin where the wing attaches to the fuselage - you see that lighter skin." Air search called off... Only underwater now The air search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet has been called off but the underwater search will be expanded. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared a new phase in the search for MH370, saying it is now "highly unlikely" any wreckage will be found on the ocean's surface. "By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become waterlogged and sunk," he was quoted as telling reporters in Canberra on Monday. Authorities will instead focus all their efforts on the underwater search of the probable impact zone - an area of about 700km by 80km of the remote Indian Ocean. Most of the ocean in the area is between 4,000 and 4,500 metres deep. "We will search it all," Mr Abbott said. Report awaited Malaysia is set to release a comprehensive report on its investigation and search into the missing Malaysia Airline flight MH370 this week. With several surprising new developments this week, not least the reported CNN interview where Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is quoted as saying military radar tracked an aircraft on March 8. The Malaysian PM said he initially didn't believe it but was told that the military radars have some capability. The authorities are not sure whether it was MH370 or any other aircraft. There is also the question of whether the search is going on in the right area to begin with. These theories will ensure the conspiracy angle stays alive, however, all eyes will be on the report set to come out and if more "secret revelations" are to made by Malaysia. The atoll of Diego Garcia is forever hovering in the background and will continue to drive internet discussion until there is closure on the case. Confident signals Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said he was "very confident" that signals from the black box had been detected. The undersea search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is to be extended beyond the small area identified as its most likely resting place as the quest for any sign of the missing plane enters its 50th day on Saturday. The submarine drone Bluefin 21 has so far searched about 95 per cent of a 10 square km area of the Indian Ocean seabed, pinpointed after the detection of acoustic pings believed to be from the plane's black box flight recorders. Bluefin 21 had to abort the search on Friday and resurface due to a software malfunction. Technicians fixed the drone overnight and its 14th, 16 hour trip to the sea floor at depths of more than 4.5 km was underway on Saturday. "If no contacts of interest are made, Bluefin-21 will continue to examine the areas adjacent to the 10km radius," Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) in in charge of the search said in a statement. Obama in Malaysia US President Barack Obama offered support to Malaysia on Saturday in the baffling mystery over missing flight MH370, an official said. Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is leading Malaysia's efforts to determine the fate of the passenger jet, said he spoke briefly with Obama after the president's arrival for an official visit. "He said he knows it is a tough, long, road ahead. We'll work together. There is always support," Hishammuddin said. "I'm very happy to hear (this) because it is a long journey." Malaysian military radar tracked an aircraft after MH370 went missing, says PM A Malaysian military aircraft did track an unidentified aircraft in the country's airspace when at the time of MH370 losing contact with the ground control, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said. Quoting a CNN interview, the Daily Mail said the radar tracked aircraft after it had turned back on its from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. But the authorities are not sure whether it was MH370 or any other aircraft. Malaysia will release a preliminary report next week on the disappearance of flight MH370, Prime Minister Najib Razak said, as his government battles criticism over the transparency of its investigation. "I have directed an internal investigation team of experts to look at the report, and there is a likelihood that next week we could release the report," Najib told CNN in an interview aired late Thursday. Malaysian officials said Wednesday the report already had been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which requires countries to submit within 30 days a factual run-down of what is known so far in any air crash. Search for missing Malaysian jet to take years The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is likely to drag on for years, a senior U.S. defence official told Reuters on Friday, as an underwater search for any trace of the plane's wreckage off west Australia appeared to have failed. The official, speaking under condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment on the search effort, said two weeks of scouring the Indian Ocean floor with a U.S. Navy submersible drone had turned up no wreckage. He said the search for the jetliner, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, would now enter a much harder phase of scouring broader areas of the ocean near where the plane is believed to have crashed. "We went all in on this small area and didn't find anything. Now you've got to go back to the big area," the official said. "And now you're talking years." On Friday, the undersea drone Bluefin-21 is expected to finish what may be the last of its 16-hour trips to depths of more than 4.5km (2.8 miles) searching a 10 square km (6.2 square mile) stretch of seabed about 2,000 miles northwest of Perth. Authorities had identified the area as their strongest lead in determining the plane's final resting place after detecting what they suspected was a signal, or "ping", from the plane's black box recorder on April 4. But the U.S. official said Malaysia would have to decide how to proceed with the search, including whether to bring in more underwater drones, even with the understanding that the search could continue for years without a refined search area. Searchers face tough choices on what next Searchers for missing Flight MH370 face tough choices on how to proceed after almost seven fruitless weeks, with only a fraction of a deep-sea zone still left to be scanned. After 11 dives seeking wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines jet which mysteriously disappeared on March 8, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has come up empty-handed. "Bluefin-21 has now completed more than 90 percent of the focused underwater search area," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre managing the search said early Thursday. "No contacts of interest have been found to date." Australia is leading the search for the missing Boeing 777, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean after veering dramatically off course from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing route. JACC refused to speculate on what the next steps would be if the Bluefin-21 ended its 3D sonar scanning some 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) below the surface without result, but said the search would continue. "We are currently consulting very closely with our international partners on the best way to effect this for the future," it said. For now, it will not give up on the 400 square km search zone which has offered the best hopes so far of finding the aircraft, based on seabed signals consistent with those emitted by black box data recorders. "At the moment, we are focused on pursuing the best lead we have in relation to missing Flight MH370," the agency said. "It is important this lead is pursued to its completion so we can either confirm or discount the focused underwater area as the final resting place of MH370. This is clearly of great importance to the families of those on board." Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that while the search would not abandoned, it could face a "re-think". Defence Minister David Johnston has suggested a more powerful sonar scanner could be deployed. Malaysia's Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has also insisted the search for the passenger jet, which was carrying 239 people, would not stall but could move on to different technology. "I can confirm that in fact we are increasing the assets that are available for deep-sea search... that involves commercial ventures," he told reporters on Wednesday. "And in the next few days, we will be talking to other entities to look at the possibility of increasing the assets for the next phase," adding that these would not be deployed in the next few days. "What is more important is that the search continues and this is an assurance we will give to the families of the passengers," he added. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has also reportedly suggested that the search zone could be broadened, if calculations about the plane's position when it likely ran out of fuel and crashed are revised. "The area for focus of the search... has already been moved twice, and there's always a possibility that further work will move it again," the bureau's chief commissioner Martin Dolan told CNN. As the painstaking aerial and surface searches over the vast and remote ocean continued, the discovery on Wednesday of potential debris on a Western Australian beach was ruled out as a lead. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the unidentified material found on the far south coast of Western Australia was not associated with MH370. The JACC said up to 11 military aircraft and 11 ships would assist in the search on Thursday, with most concentrating on a visual search of 49,567 square km some 1,584 km northwest of Perth. The visual search has for days been frustrated by weather related to ex-tropical Cyclone Jack, and authorities said it could again be suspended with sea swells expected of three to four metres. EARLIER REPORT Debris found on Australian beach not from MH370 The Australian Transport Safety Bureau ruled out Thursday any link between material found on a beach in southwestern Australia and the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. Debris described as "unidentified material" was found Wednesday on a beach near Augusta, more than 300 kilometres (180 miles) south of Perth, by a member of the public and handed to police. The ATSB decided to examine photographs of the material to determine whether it was linked to the search for the missing jet. Photographs were also provided to the Malaysian investigation team. However ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan scotched any hope of a breakthrough. "We've carefully examined detailed photographs that were taken for us by the police, and we're satisfied that it's not a lead in terms of the search for MH370," Dolan told ABC radio. "We want to pursue every possible lead that will help us find MH370 but sadly this is one that isn't going to help that search," he said. Dolan had Wednesday night declared the material, apparently sheet metal with rivets, "sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs". However he had added a note of caution. "The more we look at it, the less excited we get." The Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 when it mysteriously diverted. It is thought to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean off Western Australia, where a huge search is underway. 'Missing Malaysia Airline MH370 may have landed, not crashed'; Diego Garcia? The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may be forced to re-investigate the possibility that the passenger jet with 239 on board landed, according to new reports. A report in the Financial Express, quoting The New Strait Times has quoted sources close to the probe that the investigation teams are considering revisiting the possibility that the plane did not crash into the ocean and had landed safely at an unknown location. "The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible, as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to MH370. However, the possibility of a specific country hiding the plane when more than 20 nations are searching for it, seems absurd," the sources told the NST. This latest report will once again put the spotlight on the island of Deigo Garcia and the conspiracy theory that the small atoll is the most likely spot the plane could have landed. Click to read: Diego Garcia and MH370 conspiracy of a 'lost' island in middle of it all
It"s the kind of news that families of passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will dread, but as long as the search goes on in vain cyclone or not, the fact is, all options are on the table. According to a report on website asiaone.com, quoting the New Straits Times, members of the International Investigation Team (IIT) in charge of the search are considering the possibility that the search is going on in the wrong area. Quoting sources within the team based in Kuala Lumpur, the possibility that the jet had landed somewhere else, instead of ending up in the southern Indian Ocean, is now back on the table. "The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible, as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to MH370," the report said. As the remote controlled submarine was expected to complete its ninth mission on Tuesday, four days after the coordination centre gave the five-day timeframe, the centre confirmed that it had covered about two thirds of its target search area and had found "no contacts of interest". The dawning prospect of the Bluefin-21, initially seen as the search's most promising aid, completing its mission without a trace of the missing aircraft has authorities under pressure to determine which strategy to take next. The daily search involving some two dozen nations is already shaping up to be the most expensive in aviation history. |
| One Small Step, A Giant Leap | Journey of My First <b>Novel</b> Posted: 23 May 2014 05:22 AM PDT In the course of writing my novel, I had many opportunities to compare the Malaysia I knew with the Malaysia of today. I have already shared my sadness, disappointment and worry elsewhere (The Malaysia We've Lost; Where is Home?; Ambiga, Allah and this Visit Malaysia Year). This past week has been markedly different. On May 17, 2014, my country finally took a step in the right direction, and raised my spirits in the process. On that day, a brave young woman of Malay ethnicity became the Opposition candidate in a predominantly Chinese town. If this sounds trivial, it is not. In Malaysia, race and religion are used as political weapons, and Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud's story marks a water-shed. As it happens, I had already been thinking about Teluk Intan, the town where Dyana is standing for election. My agent Thomas Colchie (see previous blog post), had asked to see the synopses of my entire trilogy of books, and I had been pondering Teluk Intan because the town will be mentioned in my second novel (where it will be called by its colonial name of Telok Anson). I am still at the planning stage for this second work: jotting down ideas, looking at maps, dreaming… But I digress; my purpose here is to share why Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud has given me such hope. She is a lawyer from a family of active government supporters. In Malaysia, this means that Dyana could enjoy a good life by not rocking any boats. Instead, she joined an Opposition political party. Not only that, but she chose a party that is widely regarded as "Chinese". Why did she do this? Here is a quote from her: "Malaysia needs a new form of politics and to drop the old race based politics. I choose to forge a path towards a better Malaysia." Bravo, absolutely spot on. In truth, the party which Dyana joined – the Democratic Action Party or DAP – welcomes all races and religions, but because it has historically appealed more to Malaysian-Chinese voters, the incumbent government likes to stick it with a "race" label. The fact that Dyana chose this party was a courageous step, demonstrating an independence of mind and a willingness to go beyond her comfort zone to further her ideals. How many of us can say we have done that? Almost at once, the backlash against Dyana began. She was wolf-whistled at her own nomination. Photographs of an actress who looked like her but was dressed in a bikini floated around the Internet. There were whispers about her age: too young at twenty seven, apparently. Malaysia's incumbent Prime Minister was only twenty three when he was handed his seat on a plate. Did anyone complain about his youth? I doubt it. One rule for men, another for women. Same old, same old. The great and the good of Malaysian politics have come out in force to denounce Dyana as a traitor (to her race), to bait her on religion, even to scold her mother for not sufficiently indoctrinating her! This, unsurprisingly, came from our former Prime Minister, an expert in the gutter politics of tribe. All kudos to Dyana's mother for standing up so publicly for her daughter: "As a mother, I will support my daughter. I will campaign with her because she is my daughter." Quite. But when so many have so little to say about so few, you know that something momentous is happening. And what is happening is that the old politics of tribe are being challenged in highly public fashion. A young Malay, Malaysian-born and bred, has stood up and said NO to the race-based politics that have held sway since the 1970s. She is too young to know the Malaysia which I knew, and I have always worried about what would happen to Malaysia when those of us who remember what it used to be like, pass on from this Earth. Now I have glimpsed the answer: just because you have not experienced what Malaysia once was, it does not mean that you will be blind to injustice when you see it. Dyana is a tangible challenge not just to Malaysia's old politics but also to the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism, and strong forces are lined up against her. They do not want her to succeed. They do not want her to win, and if she wins, they do not want her to do a great jobs, and if she does a great job, they do not want her to remain with the DAP. Because if she succeeds, she will be living proof of exactly the sort of progressive, modern, inclusive Malaysia which many in my country are terrified of. If she succeeds, more may follow her. If more follow, what would become 0f vested interests? What would be the raison d'être of single-race and single-religion political parties? Heaven forbid, we may actually move forward and build the truly embracing society we are capable of building together, the real One Malaysia, not the slogan-bound 1Malaysia the government likes to trot out for tourists. For all these reasons, I wish Dyana and the DAP the very best on 31 May 2014 and beyond. (For the record, I am not a DAP supporter). |
| Home Ministry bans Malay <b>novel</b> 'Perempuan Nan Bercinta <b>...</b> Posted: 02 May 2014 10:06 AM PDT PUTRAJAYA: The Home Ministry (KDN) has issued a prohibition order on the Malay novel titled 'Perempuan Nan Bercinta' authored by Faisal Tehrani for allegedly containing elements detrimental to public order. In a statement here yesterday, KDN said the ban, which took effect on April 9, was in accordance with Section 7(1) of the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 (Act 301). "Among the reasons for the issuance of the prohibition order are because the book contains elements that question and ridicule hadis concerning discrimination of women as stated by Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah; excessive devotion to Ahlul Bayt while denying Sunnah Wal Jamaah as the accepted mazhab (school of law); and indirect invitation to protest against Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah on grounds of freedom of mazhab," the statement said. The decision was made to stop an attempt to spread Syiah propaganda through creative writings, which probably aimed to reach out to academicians and teenagers, it said. — Bernama  We encourage commenting on our stories to give readers a chance to express their opinions; please refrain from vulgar language, insidious, seditious or slanderous remarks. While the comments here reflect the views of the readers, they are not necessarily that of Borneo Post Online. Borneo Post Online reserves the right not to publish or to remove comments that are offensive or volatile. Please read the Commenting Rules. |
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