10 years on and Malaysian Flight 370 still has to be solved

[Anthea]

Daily Express

THE wreckage of the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have been MISSED by search teams, officials have shockingly admitted.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan said crews are retracing their steps in the hunt for the Boeing-777.

He said the difficult terrain of the ocean floor did not always allow the vessels to get a “good enough sonar image".

Mr Dolan said: “We’re taking another look because the areas where we haven’t been certain are large enough to contain an aircraft — which is why we’re going over them.

"The sea floor is very rugged and complex."

The doomed MH370 disappeared en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.

Despite the largest search in aviation history only one piece of the flight has been discovered, found on Reunion Island more than a year later.

All 239 people onboard the flight were killed during the doomed journey.

Link to Article and Updates:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/639 ... Boeing-777

[Anthea]

Londoner

If you are unable to respond to this article I will know that you are still unable to logon to this forum

I will push Dyaoko to fix the problems with this site

Piling and I do appear to be the only people able to post on this site

Neither of us use microsoft

We have not forgotten you

[Anthea]

The Guardian

MH370 search: debris found in Mozambique 'belongs to Boeing 777'

US and Malaysian officials say debris washed up in Mozambique belongs to a Boeing 777, the same type of aircraft as the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared two years ago.

“Based on early reports, high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to a B777,” tweeted Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysia’s transport minister. But he went on to warn against “undue speculation as we are not able to conclude that the debris belongs to #mh370 at this time”.

Photographs of the debris appear to show the fixed leading edge of the right-hand horizontal stabiliser, or tailfin, of a Boeing 777, a US official told the Associated Press. People who have handled the part, which is being transported to Malaysia, say it appears to be made of fibreglass composite on the outside, with aluminium honeycombing on the inside, the official said.

However, Mozambique’s national director of civil aviation, João Abreu, said authorities had found no part of the missing plane.

MH370 went missing on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers on board.

Despite extensive searches of the southern Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, the only trace of the plane has been a wing part known as a flaperon that washed ashore last July on the French island of Réunion. The island, off the east coast of Africa, is about 2,300 miles (3,700km) from the current search area in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.

Radar tracking of MH370 showed that the plane turned around as it approached Vietnamese airspace, flew back towards Malaysia and then on over the Indian Ocean, where radar contact was lost. Authorities who analysed data exchanged between the plane’s engine and a satellite determined that MH370 took a straight path across the ocean, leading them to believe that it flew on autopilot for hours before running out of fuel and crashing into the water.

The US television network NBC said the debris was found on a sandbank in the Mozambique Channel, between the African mainland and Madagascar, by an American man who had been tracking the investigation into the missing flight. Engineers who had looked at the debris believed there was a good chance it belonged to MH370, NBC said, citing sources close to the search. Boeing engineers were examining the photos, it added.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... boeing-777

[Anthea]

Mail Online

Has this man really found more fragments from MH370? Beach cleaner who retrieved 'wing' claims to have discovered new debris days before second anniversary of plane's disappearance

Johnny Begue says he found square-shaped grey item with blue border

Handed piece he discovered during run on Reunion island to gendarmerie

Last July Mr Begue found wing fragment later identified as part of MH370

Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared with 239 people aboard two years ago

The beach cleaner who found a wing fragment of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on an Indian Ocean island last year claims he has found more mysterious debris.

Johnny Begue said today that he found the square-shaped grey item with a blue border on the French island of Reunion on Thursday afternoon and gave it to the gendarmerie the next morning.

A special gendarmerie air brigade in the capital of Saint Denis confirmed it received the item, almost two years to the day when the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet disappeared with 239 people aboard.

Mr Begue found a wing fragment known as a flaperon on July 29 last year that French investigators identified in September as part of the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8, 2014.

He said that unlike the flaperon there were no barnacles on the latest item, adding that the new piece was square and measured an estimated 16in by 16in.

Mr Begue said: ‘I was running. After, when I stopped to rest, that's when I found the piece [lying on the stony beach several meters from the water]. The same beach and nearly the same place.’

The 49-year-old cleaner told how the piece he found on the Saint-Andre beach was thinner and smaller than the flaperon, but the material had the same appearance, with a honeycombed interior.

‘It looks like the other one, but I don't know if it's part of the plane or not,’ he added. ‘Experts will say.’

The gendarmerie's Territorial Air Brigade confirmed that Mr Begue turned over the piece on Friday morning, but had no further comment.

The flaperon, which had a serial number, was sent to the French Accident Investigation Bureau's research laboratory near Toulouse where it was positively identified as a part corresponding to the missing Malaysian plane.

Mr Begue's reported find came three days after American amateur investigator Blaine Gibson found suspected MH370 debris in Mozambique, some 1,300 miles west of Reunion.

That object, which is more than 3ft long, has been sent to Australia for expert analysis.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said last Wednesday that initial information indicated a ‘high possibility’ it came from a Boeing 777.

An international team of investigators probing the loss of flight MH370 will issue a statement on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance.

The unprecedented Australian-led hunt for wreckage from the flight is expected to finish its high-tech scanning of a designated swathe of seafloor in the remote Indian Ocean by July.

Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities plan to end the search - projected to cost up to £90million - at that point if no compelling new leads emerge.

Link to Article - Video - Photos:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... board.html

[Londoner]

They are looking for a ghost, which they will never find. The plane didn't crash in the sea. It is time for them to admit it.

[Anthea]

They are looking for a ghost, which they will never find. The plane didn't crash in the sea. It is time for them to admit it.

Hello Londoner - good to see you again

Are you still having problems with this site?

As for the plane

It is 2 years since it vanished

I cannot believe that they have not found it in all this time

I am sure you are right

I am sure the plane landed somewhere and there is some sort of cover-up

[Anthea]

A resident on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion who last year found a wing fragment from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 said on Sunday he had come across a second possible piece from the missing plane.

Johnny Begue, who found the "flaperon" part while cleaning a beach last July, told he handed over the new suspected object to police immediately after finding it last Thursday.

He said he was out jogging by the sea shore when he found the object measuring about 40 by 20 centimetres (15 by eight inches), which had a blue mark on the surface and was grey underneath.

Begue said it was of the same lightweight "honeycomb" construction as the flaperon piece.The flaperon he found remains the only piece of debris identified with certainty as having come from the flight.

Begue said he has been combing the island's shores ever since."When there's bad weather is when you should look, when the sea tosses up a lot of stuff," he said.
Police have not contacted Begue since he handed over the new object on Thursday, he said.The Gendarmerie Brigade for Air Transport -- the police unit which investigated the first find -- could not immediately be reached by AFP for comment.

MH370, a Boeing 777, was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it vanished on March 8, 2014, on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Begue's reported find came three days after an American amateur investigator found suspected MH370 debris in Mozambique, some 2,100 kilometres (1,300 miles) west of Reunion.That object, which is about a metre (3.25 feet) long, has been sent to Australia for expert analysis.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said last Wednesday that initial information indicated a "high possibility" it came from a Boeing 777.

An international team of investigators probing the loss of flight MH370 will issue a statement on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the plane's disappearance.
The unprecedented Australian-led hunt for wreckage from the flight is expected to finish its high-tech scanning of a designated swathe of seafloor in the remote Indian Ocean by July.

Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities plan to end the search -- projected to cost up to 118.51€ million (120 million euros) -- at that point if no compelling new leads emerge.

http://www.kashmirmonitor.in/news-%E2%8 ... 99935.aspx

[Anthea]

ABC News

2 Years of Mystery: What Happened to Missing Plane MH370 and the 239 People Onboard?

It’s been exactly two years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished, leaving the families of its 239 passengers and crew devastated -- and desperate for answers.

They may never get them.

Investigators remain perplexed about what happened on the Boeing 777, which Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said likely “ended” in the Indian Ocean.

What he can’t say is how -- or why -- it got there.

The Flight

The jet, bound for Beijing, took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport shortly after midnight, at 12:41 a.m. local time.

About 26 minutes into the flight, at 1:07 a.m., the plane sent its final automated data transmission. Sometime between 1:07 and 1:37, when the next transmission was scheduled, the automated data system was shut off.

At 1:19 a.m. came the final radio transmission: “Goodnight , Malaysian three seven zero.”

Two minutes later, at 1:21 a.m., the jet’s transponder, which communicates location information, was also switched off.

Those two separate actions -- turning off the data transmission system and the transponder -- suggest that someone may have been alive and conscious inside the cockpit.

Bolstering this hypothesis is radar data, which shows that four minutes after the transponder shut off, the plane deviated from its planned route, doubling back on itself and flying back over Malaysia, then north along the Malacca Strait, until it eventually dropped off Malaysian radar.

According to rudimentary satellite data -- the only data available, since the data system and transponder had been shut off -- the aircraft continued flying for about six hours, until it likely ran out of fuel over the Indian Ocean at just after 8:19 a.m. Malaysia time.

The Search

In the frantic days following the plane’s disappearance, first responders began scanning the South China Sea, then widened the search zone to a staggeringly large 23,000-square-mile swath of land and sea centered around Malaysia. Eventually, after a more thorough analysis of satellite data, the search was expanded to a 46,000-square-mile swath of the Indian Ocean, where investigators scoured the sea for “pings” from the jet’s black box, which records audio from the flight deck and data from the flight computers.

At the request of the Malaysian government, Australian authorities are now leading the search for the missing plane and its 239 occupants.

The search area includes depths of over six miles amid underwater mountain ranges, some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called the search “the most challenging in aviation history.”

The black box has long since run out of battery, but searchers equipped with high-tech detection equipment continue to comb tens of thousands of square miles.

The underwater search has turned up a 200-year-old shipwreck, but no signs of the missing airliner.

The Debris

The first piece of debris, a barnacle-encrusted flaperon, washed ashore on a small French island near Madagascar in July 2015, almost a year and a half after the ill-fated jet disappeared. It was later sent to Toulouse for forensic analysis and confirmed to be part of MH370 by Malaysian authorities.

According to investigators, the location of the debris, coupled the patterns of the Indian Ocean’s currents, confirm that the Australians are likely searching in the right place.

Six months later, an American blogger discovered a piece of what appears to be a Boeing 777 on a sandbar in Mozambique. Officials are working to confirm that the piece comes from MH370, the only missing Boeing 777 in that part of the world.

What now?

Investigators are set to complete the investigation of the search zone this summer, when the funding runs out. But if they fail to unearth the plane, authorities from Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a meeting on how to move forward.

Link to Photos:

http://abcnews.go.com/International/yea ... d=37408789

[Londoner]

They are looking for a ghost, which they will never find. The plane didn't crash in the sea. It is time for them to admit it.

Hello Londoner - good to see you again

Are you still having problems with this site?

As for the plane

It is 2 years since it vanished

I cannot believe that they have not found it in all this time

I am sure you are right

I am sure the plane landed somewhere and there is some sort of cover-up

Many thanks dear Anthea

It seems now I can log on most of the times.

I wish they will find this aeroplane to put the minds of close relatives of passengers in rest. These relatives must have nightmares every night.

[Anthea]

Many thanks dear Anthea

It seems now I can log on most of the times.

I wish they will find this aeroplane to put the minds of close relatives of passengers in rest. These relatives must have nightmares every night.

I cannot imagine what the relations are going through

The first few weeks hoping they are alive somewhere then nothing

2 years of stress

2 years of waiting

2 years without information

2 years without any chance of closure

2 years of speculation and conspiracy theories

Personally I believe that there has been a cover-up

[Londoner]

Many thanks dear Anthea

It seems now I can log on most of the times.

I wish they will find this aeroplane to put the minds of close relatives of passengers in rest. These relatives must have nightmares every night.

I cannot imagine what the relations are going through

The first few weeks hoping they are alive somewhere then nothing

2 years of stress

2 years of waiting

2 years without information

2 years without any chance of closure

2 years of speculation and conspiracy theories

Personally I believe that there has been a cover-up

There is no doubt there has been a cover up. I think USA, Russia and China knows what happened.

[Anthea]

There is no doubt there has been a cover up. I think USA, Russia and China knows what happened.

Between them their spy-in-the sky satellites see everything and could not miss something that size

We could still be here in 2 years times - wondering what happened

[Anthea]

Guardian

MH370: debris found in Mozambique 'almost certainly' from missing plane

Debris found in Mozambique is “almost certainly” from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Australian government has confirmed, fuelling belief that the remains of the plane will be found in the coming months.

Local authorities and their Malaysian counterparts to examine material found near Mossel Bay in latest potential clue to fate of Malaysia Airlines flight

Darren Chester, the minister for infrastructure and transport, said in a statement on Thursday analysis has found that the two pieces of debris – separate discoveries in Mozambique in the past four months – is “highly likely to have come from MH370”.

Blaine Alan Gibson, an American lawyer who has given over much of the past year to his independent search for the plane, found a metre-long piece of metal washed up on a sand bank in Mozambique on 27 February.

Coverage of his find led South African teenager Liam Lotter to come forward with the similar item he found on a beach while on vacation in southern Mozambique in late December.

The pieces arrived in Canberra on 20 March for examination by investigators from Australia and Malaysia, along with specialists from Boeing, Geoscience Australia and the Australian National University.

The analysis found both pieces to be consistent with panels from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft.

Prior to this announcement, only a wing part recovered from a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion had been confirmed as coming from the missing craft.

Chester said confirmation fuelled confidence in modelling used by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in charge of the search for the plane to inform its 120,000 sq km search area.

“That such debris has been found on the east coast of Africa is consistent with drift modelling performed by CSIRO and further affirms our search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean.

“The search for MH370 continues. There are 25,000 sq km of the underwater search area still to be searched. We are focused on completing this task and remain hopeful the aircraft will be found.”

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport has also confirmed it advised Australian authorities that the paint and stencilling on the debris matched those used by Malaysia Airlines and are “almost certainly from MH370”.

Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), meanwhile, said Malaysia was working with South African officials to arrange for the examination of another piece of debris “suspected to be the cowling from an engine”.

South African authorities said on Tuesday that the fragment was picked up near Mossel Bay, a small town in Western Cape province.

Mossel Bay is more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) from Vilankulo, the Mozambican resort where one of the pieces being examined in Australia was found.

MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014 during a Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Australia is leading the search for the missing passenger jet in the southern Indian Ocean, where the aircraft was believed to have crashed after diverting from its route.

More than 95,000 sq km (36,700 sq miles) of the 120,000 square kilometre target zone has been searched so far, with investigators due to wrap up the hunt in June-July if the plane is not found.

Martin Dolan, head of the Australian authority scouring the Indian ocean, is confident aircraft will be located

But on the two-year anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, Martin Dolan, the head of the ATSB, told Guardian Australia he was confident the craft was in the area yet to be searched.

For the second time a “towfish” – an underwater sonar vehicle pulled behind a search ship – had been lost to the ocean floor during the search. Options to recover it are being considered.

The towfish was lost on 21 March after a tow cable connecting it to the Dong Hai Jiu 101 search ship failed, the JACC said.

The Chinese-flagged ship is en route to Western Australia’s Fremantle port while a team assesses recovery options for the sonar device.

Another towfish was temporarily lost in January after it crashed into a 2,200 metre mud volcano.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... sing-plane

[Anthea]

Our thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones R I P

Firstpost

Australia says possible MH370 debris found on island in Mauritius

Sydney: Australia's transport minister said new debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius would be examined to see if it belonged to MH370, just weeks after two Mozambique fragments were linked to the missing flight.

The debris was found on the Mauritius island of Rodrigues by a vacationing couple, news.com.au reported citing Reunion island website Clicanoo.

"The Malaysian government is working with officials from Mauritius to seek to take custody of the debris and arrange for its examination," Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said.

"This debris is an item of interest however until the debris has been examined by experts it is not possible to ascertain its origin."

However, it remains unclear which country would examine the debris.

Aviation expert Don Thompson told the Australian news website the fragment could be the internal bulkhead from the Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777 business or economy class cabin.

The latest discovery came less than two weeks after Australian and Malaysian authorities said two pieces of debris found in Mozambique were "almost certainly from MH370".

Another fragment picked up near Mossel Bay, a small town in Western Cape province in South Africa, would also be analysed to see if it came from MH370, South African officials said last month.

Before the latest discoveries, only a wing part recovered from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, which lies east of Mozambique and neighbours Mauritius, had been confirmed as coming from the jet that disappeared two years ago.

Australia is leading the search for MH370 in the remote Indian Ocean, where the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight is believed to have diverted when it disappeared on March 8, 2014 carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Chester added that authorities "remain hopeful the aircraft will be found". More than 95,000 square kilometres (36,700 square miles) of the target zone of 120,000 square kilometres has been scoured so far, but no crash site has been found.

The governments of Australia, China and Malaysia have said they will end the hunt when the target area is fully searched unless new, credible information emerges.

http://www.firstpost.com/world/australi ... 09524.html

[Anthea]

It is with great sorrow and sympathy for the families concerned, that we post the following article:

MH370: Mauritius and South Africa debris 'almost certainly' from missing plane

Two pieces of aircraft debris found on beaches in Mauritius and South Africa almost certainly came from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, say Malaysian and Australian officials.

It is the latest development in efforts to solve the mystery of the aircraft, which went missing in March 2014.

The plane, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, had 239 people on board when it vanished.

It is presumed to have crashed into the sea after veering off course.

Three ships are searching a 120,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean but have so far found no trace of the plane.

Five pieces of debris have been confirmed as definitely or probably from the plane.

Each was found thousands of miles from the search zone, though within the area models of ocean currents have indicated debris could wash up.

1. A section of wing called a flaperon, found on Reunion Island in July 2015 - confirmed as debris in September 2015

2. Horizontal stabilizer from tail section, found in Mozambique in December 2015

3. Stabilizer panel with "No Step" stencil, found in Mozambique in February 2016

4. Engine cowling bearing Rolls-Royce logo, found in March 2016 in Mossel Bay, South Africa

5. Fragment of interior door panel found in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius in March 2016

All the debris is being examined in Australia by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and other experts.

They use manufacturing marks on the pieces as well as samples of marine ecology like barnacles to help confirm whether they are likely to have come from the missing Boeing 777.

Speaking on Thursday, Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the team had "confirmed that both pieces of debris from South Africa and Rodrigues Island are almost certainly from MH370".

The ATSB also said both sections were "almost certainly" from 9M-MRO, which is the plane's registration.

No other 777 has ever crashed in the southern hemisphere, and none has reported missing pieces.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36273194

What happened that day remains a mystery but we would hope that the families of those missing will now be able to feel some closure - but we are certain they will NOT until they know exactly what happened to their loved ones

R I P