Moderator: gatso76
...because ofSeptember 27, 2016
The Chinese embassy in Canberra has strongly denied accusations
that a Chinese government ship involved in the international effort to find the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is spying on the Royal Australian Navy.
The ship, the Dong Hai Jiu 101, is a salvage and rescue vessel built in Shanghai in 2012 and currently sailing under the Chinese flag. In April, the Chinese government contracted the Dong Hai Jiu 101 to join the international search effort for the wreckage of Flight MH370.
... http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-37437651MH370 search: Doubts over 'debris burn marks'
22 September 2016
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-37437651
Australian authorities have cast doubt on the theory that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have had a fire on board before it went missing.
Earlier this month, pieces of debris appearing to show burn marks were recovered in Madagascar.
However, authorities say there is no evidence yet that the debris came from MH370 - and the dark marks were caused by resin on the debris, not fire.
However, Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said on Thursday that an initial investigation showed that "contrary to speculation there is no evidence the item was exposed to heat or fire".
The dark markings on the two pieces of debris "related exclusively to a translucent resin that had been applied to those surfaces", a report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.
http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5771773/ae ... ov2016.pdfThe new report says a wing flap which carried MH370's unique numbers
was "most likely in the retracted position at the time it separated from the wing",
meaning it had not been readied for landing.
A 120,000 sq km area of seabed has already been scoured by China, Australia and Malaysia. Barring a major new discovery, the search is due to end early next year.
So far only seven of the 20 pieces of recovered debris have been identified as definitely or highly likely to be from the missing plane.
http://www.ibtimes.com/flight-mh370-upd ... er-244537211/12/16 AT 7:12 AM
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is leading the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370,
will not release a report by international experts reviewing the strategy to find the missing plane until the search is complete, authorities said.
The move by the Australian authorities has given rise to speculation
that ATSB is using a public relations cover for its decision to base
the search on its “death dive” theory of an unpiloted rapid descent at the end of the flight,
the Australian reported Friday.
Alternately, it is also suggested that authorities may be reviewing to identify a new search area.
http://www.atsb.gov.au/mh370-pages/upda ... al-update/Chinese ship pulls out of search for missing Malaysian airliner MH370
Only one survey ship now still searching in area of the Indian Ocean more than two years after the aircraft carrying 239 people disappeared
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 07 December, 2016, 2:39pm
The sea bed search for the missing Malaysian airliner MH370 has been left to a single ship, with a Chinese vessel heading home to Shanghai, officials said on Wednesday.
A Dutch survey ship would finish the search of the southern Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 alone after resupplying at the southwest Australian port of Fremantle, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which coordinates the search, said in a statement.
The Chinese ship joined three search vessels operated by the Dutch underwater survey company Fugro in February in the hunt for the Boeing 777, which the authorities say crashed with 239 people on board far off the southwest coast of Australia in March 2014.
Fugro Equator is expected to finish its search by February 2017, the statement said.
Key developments this week
•Fugro Equator paused underwater search operations on Tuesday, 6 December 2016, and commenced passage to Fremantle for a routine re-supply. It will then return to the search area to continue using the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Over the past week, Fugro Equator completed a total of 4 successful AUV missions, with an average duration of 23 hours.
•On Saturday, 3 December 2016, Dong Hai Jiu 101 concluded underwater search operations and commenced passage to Fremantle to demobilise the Phoenix Remora III Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) before the vessel returns to Shanghai.
Dong Hai Jiu 101 has completed 33 dives with the ROV since October 2016.
The search vessel, Dong Hai Jiu 101, provided by the People’s Republic of China, departed the search area on 3 December 2016 and has completed its missions in the search for MH370.
Fugro Equator’s missions in the remaining parts of the 120,000 square-kilometre search area are expected to be completed in January/February 2017.
29 minutes ago
Experts leading the hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have said the plane is unlikely to be found in the current search area, and recommended looking further north.
With the search to end soon, Australian officials say it will not be extended.
Australia's Transport Minister Darren Chester said the search would not likely go beyond the scheduled end of January or February 2017 as the report does not give a "specific location" for the aircraft.
The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China, who are funding the search, had previously agreed that "we will be suspending the search unless credible evidence is available" that identifies the location, he said.
Experts identified a new area of approximately 25,000 sq km to the north of the current search area that had the "highest probability" of containing the wreckage.
"The participants of the First Principles Review were in agreement on the need to search an additional area representing approximately 25,000 km²".
This was the last area the plane could possibly be located, given current evidence, the report said.
Their conclusion was based on new flight simulations and analysis of satellite communications, as well as drift modelling patterns based on the timing and locations of the discovery of debris.
MH370: Search for vanished Malaysian airliner suspended
1 minute ago
The search for the Malaysian airliner that disappeared three years ago with 239 on board has been suspended.
In a statement, Australia, Malaysia and China said the decision was taken with "sadness" after a fruitless search in more than 120,000 sq km (46,300 miles) of the Indian Ocean.
Flight MH370 vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in 2014.
So far only seven of the 20 pieces of recovered debris have been identified as definitely or highly likely to be from the Boeing 777.
A report in November 2016 said the plane probably made a "high and increasing rate of descent" into the Indian Ocean.
"Whilst combined scientific studies have continued to refine areas of probability, to date no new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft," Tuesday's joint statement said.
"We remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located."
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 Search Update 2017: Potential New Debris Found in South Africa
Feb 3, 2017 | 9:35 PM
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/furt ... 4e20d119aeThe families of those aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have launched a campaign to privately fund a search for the aircraft, which disappeared nearly three years ago.
...seeMarch 3, 2017 12:00pm
THE AMERICAN adventurer who devoted years of his life to solving the MH370 mystery has called off his one-man mission after receiving death threats and being ignored by search officials.
US lawyer and blogger Blaine Gibson found over two dozen pieces of debris in Mozambique and Madagascar, several items of which have been confirmed as coming from the missing Boeing 777.
But just days out from the third anniversary of the doomed Malaysia Airlines’ flight, Mr Gibson said the personal cost of his self-funded crusade was too great for him to continue.
Relatives of those on board have praised Mr Gibson’s efforts. However the modern day Indiana Jones has been the subject of anonymous death threats over his defence of MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-19/m ... ch/9067660Thursday 19 October 2017 14.20 BST
Malaysia is negotiating a deal with a US–based seabed exploration firm to resume the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370,
which vanished three years ago in the southern Indian Ocean with 239 people aboard.
Malaysia said this week it had received proposals to continue the search from US-based Ocean Infinity,
the Dutch firm Fugro
and an unidentified Malaysian company.
Malaysia’s deputy transport minister, Aziz Kaprawi,
said on Thursday that Ocean Infinity had beaten the competition and the government had begun negotiations.
“Yes, we are negotiating with Ocean Infinity, but the agreement has not been finalised,” he said.
Kaprawi declined to comment on the potential reward for the plane’s discovery.
According to a letter sent to passengers’ families on Thursday, Ocean Infinity made an offer
on a “no cure, no fee” basis.
Aziz said Australia and China had been informed of the negotiation process and Australia had informally agreed to Malaysia’s choice. “It is still under discussion with China,” he said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mh370-sea ... ith-robotsMH370 Search Is Back on—This Time With Robots
A Texas-based company will use a swarm of drones to comb a desolate patch of the Indian Ocean and perhaps solve aviation’s greatest mystery.
12.05.17 5:00 AM ET
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is set to be resumed, almost a year after it was postponed indefinitely.
The Daily Beast has learned that Ocean Infinity, a company based in Houston, Texas, that is negotiating with the Malaysian government to undertake the search on a “no-find, no-fee bounty” principle
is now sending its search vessel to begin an operation early in January 2018.
Mark Antelme, a spokesman for Ocean Infinity, confirmed to The Daily Beast that although the company still does not have a final contract in place with the Malaysians it has decided to get its search vessel, Seabed Contractor, to the Indian Ocean.
The renewed search is a race against time.
A weather window between December 2017 and March 2018 offers the best opportunity to work at the search site in the southern Indian Ocean.
Seizing this window is vital for Ocean Infinity because they are deploying a new technology that is not suited to severe sea conditions.
Moreover, Ocean Infinity is committed to complete the search in 90 days.
The original search came up empty after 966 days of operations deploying a fleet of six vessels at a cost of at least $150 million.
But in August a team of Australian oceanographers said they had identified “with unprecedented precision and certainty” a new area, beginning about 100 miles north of the original search area, as “a most-likely location of the aircraft.”
The Australian oceanographers will help the new search with the data they used to produce the new target zone.
This data was shaped by complex calculations made by reverse-engineering the track of debris from MH370 that washed up on beaches in the western Indian Ocean.
However, it appears that, given the time pressure, Ocean Infinity is not waiting for the finalizing of the contract to get its equipment to the search site.
Seabed Constructor is heading to the port of Durban, in South Africa, where it is due to arrive on Dec. 27.
From Durban the sailing time to the search area would be around 10 days.
...and the latest "fruitcake"/alu-hoedje/paranoia conspiracy is atFamilies of MH370 to sue Boeing
Updated: 2017-12-15 07:11
Lawyers looking for quality, design issues in type of aircraft that vanished
Some of the families of passengers who went missing on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370-the jetliner that disappeared on its way to Beijing in 2014-
will go to the United States next week to file a lawsuit against aircraft maker Boeing, a lawyer involved in the case said.
"The lawsuit, which will begin on Tuesday in Washington,
focuses on whether the aircraft used for Flight MH370 had quality or other problems in design and production," Zhang Qihuai, the lawyer responsible for the litigation, said on Thursday.
Zhang said he represents more than 60 plaintiffs, "because the litigation involves 28 Chinese passengers on Flight MH 370, and at least two family members of each victim found me to initiate the lawsuit".
All the plaintiffs are seeking compensation from Boeing, "but different families are asking for different amounts, and the exact amount for each can't be disclosed now", Zhang said.
A spokesman for Boeing said on Thursday that the company does not comment on pending litigation.
In November, there was a pretrial meeting for a separate lawsuit in Beijing Railway Transport Court. Thirty-seven cases related to the missing flight were ready to be heard.
In Beijing, the families of passengers are each seeking compensation ranging from 10 million to 74.9 million yuan ($1.5 million to $11.3 million) from
five defendants-
Malaysia Airlines Systems, which operated the flight and was subsequently renamed Malaysia Airlines Berhad;
aircraft maker Boeing;
engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce;
and German insurance company Allianz.
The latest search for MH370 starts tomorrow off the WA coast
Saturday, 20 January 2018 3:04AM
Blaine Gibson, the real life Indiana Jones in the search for MH370, says the new effort to find the missing Boeing 777,
which starts tomorrow 1800km west-south-west of Perth, will almost certainly be successful.
Mr Gibson has found MH370 debris and raised awareness
around the Indian Ocean
of the importance of collecting the vital clues
that have enabled the CSIRO and UWA to virtually pinpoint
where MH370 is in the Indian Ocean using reverse drift modelling.
More than 30 pieces have been found.
Mr Gibson told that “if anyone can find MH370 the Ocean Infinity team can”.
Mr Gibson visited Ocean Infinity’s ship, the Seabed Constructor, in Durban 10 days ago and
attended top-level meetings in London to discuss the search.
While the content of those meetings is secret, Mr Gibson said everyone was impressed.
“The Ocean Infinity team listened to all views expressed and the science behind them,” he said.
“The technology they are using is a great leap forward.
“If the Inmarsat data is correct they will find it.”
The Inmarsat data,
which is not disputed by all the agencies and most professional observers,
is the hourly tracking of the plane off the WA coast.
The Seabed Constructor will arrive at the location identified last year by the CSIRO and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
That total area covers 25,000sqkm just outside, and at the northern end, of the previous search.
There are four hot spots.
The first of those is latitude 35.6°S and longitude 92.8°E, near the seventh arc defined by satellite data.
That location is also supported
after re-examination of French satellite images
taken weeks after MH370 disappeared
that show possible debris in the water.
Ocean Infinity has a contract with Malaysian that no fee will be paid if it does not find MH370.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-up ... 667d2e24aaFebruary 5, 2018
MH370 search vessel Seabed Constructor switches off tracking system
THE search vessel tasked with finding MH370 mysteriously switched off its tracking system near a “treasure filled” sunken shipwreck.
THE state-of-the art vessel tasked with finding missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 mysteriously switched off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) for more than three days, sending some observers into meltdown.
Seabed Constructor’s AIS was disabled on January 31 — exactly 10 days into the new search — and not reconnected until last night, leaving approximately 80 hours unnaccounted for.
Amateur aviation specialists and MH370 watchers have been charting Constructor’s progress since it left Port of Durban on January 2 for the new search area, located just outside the previous 120sq km previously scoured along the 7th Arc.
The vessel has been contracted by Texas-based exploration company Ocean Infinity, which signed a “no cure, no pay” deal with the Malaysian Government which will see it receive more than AUD$70 million if it finds the plane within 90 days.
But unlike its predecessors Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery and Havila Harmony, whose progress was meticulously mapped via satellite by investigators, both amateur and professional, at their own expense, following the Constructor has proved more challenging.
It reached the new search on January 21 and trusted observers such as UK-based space scientist Richard Cole and US-based precision machinist Kevin Rupp were able to post regular maps to followers on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit.
But that changed last Wednesday when Constructor “went dark”, sending everyone into a spin.
“I think that the AIS transmission from Constructor has been disabled. The question is whether this is finger-trouble by someone adjusting the AIS system settings ahead of departing for Fremantle, or deliberate action.” Mr Cole posted in a subreddit dedicated to Seabed Constructor position updates.
Some speculated the Constructor took a secret detour to check out the wreckage of what is believed to be the S.V Inca, a Peruvian-built transport ship that vanished en route to Sydney more than 100 years ago.
In January 2016, MH370 search vessel Havila Harmony stumbled across the shipwreck almost four kilometres below the surface inside the 7th Arc, initially mistaking it for the plane’s fuselage.
S.V Inca was last seen on March 10, 1911 when it set sail from Callao, Peru bound for Sydney. There has been speculation about what cargo the vessel may have been carrying and inevitable chatter about sunken treasure.
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