Chinese Satellite Spots Possible Debris from Flight MH370

At BCF, "Chinese satellite spots possible plane debris in southern Indian Ocean - again."

And at Telegraph UK, "MH370: Chinese satellite detects 'floating object'."

Still more at London's Daily Mail, "MH370 LATEST: China says satellite has located 72ft object in Southern Indian Ocean 75 miles from where previous possible wreckage was located as Australian pilots spot small objects."

Transcript of Final Moments of Flight MH370

It's interesting, even if it's not telling us a whole lot.

Revealed: the final 54 minutes of communication from #MH370. http://t.co/1IHo0Wvovp

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 21, 2014

CNN's been getting a ratings boost out of the tragedy. But you can't keep this clunker of a story around much longer. Sad.

Days Passed Before Officials Acted on Malaysia Airlines Satellite Data

At the Wall Street Journal, "Critical Data Was Delayed in Search for Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight: Investigators Are Still Working to Recover From the Delay":

Four days went by before officials acted on satellite data showing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 flew for several hours away from the area being covered by a massive international search, people familiar with the matter said—a delay from which investigators are still working to recover.

The satellite's operator, Britain's Inmarsat PLC, on March 11 turned over to a partner company its data analysis and other documents indicating that the plane wasn't anywhere near the areas on either side of Malaysia where more countries and ships had been searching for three days since the plane disappeared. The documents included a map showing two divergent north and south corridors for the plane's route stretching some 3,000 miles from the plane's last previously known location, the people said.

The information was relayed to Malaysian officials by Wednesday, March 12, the people said. Inmarsat also shared the same information with British security and air-safety officials on Wednesday, according to two of the people, who were briefed on the investigation.

Two additional people familiar with the Malaysian side of the probe said the information could have arrived in Kuala Lumpur as late as the morning of March 13.

Malaysia's government, concerned about corroborating the data and dealing with internal disagreements about how much information to release, didn't publicly acknowledge Inmarsat's information until March 15, during a news conference with Prime Minister Najib Razak. Malaysia began to redirect the search effort that day to focus on the areas the information described, and said for the first time that deliberate actions were involved in the plane's disappearance.

The disclosures about how the information made its way into the investigation underline how international efforts to find the plane have been repeatedly marred by distrust among the countries involved, confusion in many of Malaysia's public statements, and criticism from many countries that has led some to suspend or change their search efforts in frustration.

The lost days and wasted resources have threatened to impede the investigation, according to some officials involved with the probe.

The delay also means that 12 days after Flight 370 vanished, investigators are still refining search maps, dividing regions to cover and seeking satellite-surveillance records from several countries along the routes the aircraft is now suspected of taking...

Yes, and it's not hard to understand the anger of all the passengers' families.

More at that top link.

RELATED: At the New York Times, "Newly Detected Objects Draw Searchers for Malaysian Plane," and "Plane Debris Would Be Modest Clue Two Weeks After a Crash, Experts Say."

Relatives of Missing Flight 370 Passengers Dragged Away at Press Conference

At NYT, "Distraught Relatives of Missing Flight 370 Passengers Dragged Away From TV Cameras by Malaysian Officials."

Two Dead in Helicopter Crash Near Seattle Space Needle

At the Seattle Times, "‘Unusual noise’ before helicopter crashed near Space Needle."

And a news roundup at the Lede, "TV News Helicopter Crashes in Seattle, Killing at Least Two."

Mysterious Lack of Cellphone Calls from Missing Flight MH370

One of my biggest questions this whole time, since the plane went missing. How come we haven't heard from any of the passengers?

At the New York Times, "Questions Over Absence of Cellphone Calls From Missing Flight’s Passengers":

SEPANG, Malaysia — When hijackers took control of four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, and sent them hurtling low across the countryside toward New York and Washington, frantic passengers and flight attendants turned on cellphones and air phones and began making calls to loved ones, airline managers and the authorities.

But when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn in the middle of the night over the Gulf of Thailand and then spent nearly half an hour swooping over two large Malaysian cities and various towns and villages, there was apparently silence. As far as investigators have been able to determine, there have been no phone calls, Twitter or Weibo postings, Instagram photos or any other communication from anyone aboard the aircraft since it was diverted.

There has been no evidence “of any number they’re trying to contact, but anyway they are still checking and there are millions of records for them to process,” said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, at a news conference on Monday.

The apparent absence of any word from the aircraft in an era of nearly ubiquitous mobile communications has prompted considerable debate among pilots, telecommunications specialists and others. Most of the people aboard the plane were from Malaysia or China, two countries where mobile phone use is extremely prevalent, especially among affluent citizens who take international flights.

Some theorize the silence signifies that the plane was flying too high for personal electronic devices to be used. Others wonder whether people aboard the flight even tried to make calls or send messages.

According to military radar, the aircraft was flying extremely high shortly after its turn — as much as 45,000 feet, above the certified maximum altitude of 43,100 feet for the Boeing 777-200. It then descended as it crossed Peninsular Malaysia, flying as low as 23,000 feet before moving up to 29,500 feet and cruising there.

Vincent Lau, an electronics professor specializing in wireless communications at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that the altitude might have prevented passengers’ cellphones from connecting to base stations on the ground even if the phones were turned on during the flight or had been left on since departure.

The hijacked planes on Sept. 11 were flying very low toward urban targets when passengers and flight attendants made calls from those aircraft, he said.

Base station signals spread out considerably over distance. So cellphones in a plane a few miles up, like Flight 370, would receive little if any signal, he said...

And another thing: Terrorists usually claim responsibility, make demands on target nations, and crow about how they brought death and destruction to hated enemies, blah blah. Where are the claims and crowing? Terrorism's pretty pointless if no one's able to make political hay out of it.

Search for Malaysia Flight 370 Enters Daunting New Phase

At the Wall Street Journal, "Search for Flight 370 Enters Daunting New Phase: Search Moves to Two Huge New Areas Spanning Bay of Bengal":

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—The search for Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -4.17%  Flight 370 expanded by thousands of miles in an operation of unprecedented scale, marked by a series of twists that have made the least likely scenarios the most credible.

The number of countries searching for the flight, which fell off radar March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, doubled to roughly two dozen over the weekend. Searchers are now looking for debris more than 3,200 miles away from the point at which they believe the plane's transponders and another signaling system were deliberately turned off about an hour into the flight.

Malaysian authorities now say they believe foul play was behind the plane's vanishing, and police are investigating all crew and passengers on the flight as well as engineers who may have had contact with the aircraft before takeoff. Police searched the pilots' homes over the weekend, but Malaysia's transport ministry said there was no evidence so far linking the pilots to the plane's disappearance.

However, on Sunday, Malaysia's transport minister said key communication equipment that keeps the ground updated about the health of a flying aircraft and its engines was disabled on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 before the last recorded conversation with the cockpit.

"Yes, it was before," Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference Sunday in response to a reporter's question about whether the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, of Flight 370 was disabled before someone said, "All right, good night" from the cockpit.

The ACARS system being disabled before the last voice message from the cockpit backs up thinking by experts that somebody with intricate understanding of the Boeing 777-200 jet and its systems tampered with communication equipment on board. The system apparently could only have been disabled by someone in the cockpit, according to an executive of Rockwell Collins, which bought ARINC, the firm that invented the ACARS system. The executive spoke to The Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, Mr. Hishammuddin said the last automated message was sent out by the ACARS system at 1:07 a.m. Malaysia time. But he didn't say then whether the system was disabled before or after the last comment from the cockpit.

The identity of the person making the last statement— " All right, good night"—hasn't been confirmed. Pilots are expected to read back important information, such as frequency change instructions, given to them by air-traffic controllers to ensure they've received the correct message, though these rules aren't always strictly followed.

The transponder signal from Flight 370 was lost at 1:21 a.m. All radar contact with the aircraft was lost a few minutes afterwards, according to Malaysian investigators. Transponders are another set of communication devices on aircraft that help identify individual flights to controllers on the ground.

Also at Telegraph UK, "Co-pilot spoke final words - 'All right, good night'."

Malaysia to Investigate Flight MH370 Transponders

At the Wall Street Journal, "Investigators Probe Why Transponders on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Went Off" (via Google):

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysian authorities are looking into why the transponders on Flight 370 stopped transmitting data, including the possibility they were deliberately switched off, amid new information that showed the plane continued flying for hours after it fell off civilian radar a week ago.

The missing jet transmitted its location repeatedly to satellites over the course of five hours after it disappeared from radar, people briefed on the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent "pings," the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. They added that it was unclear why the pings stopped. One of the people, an industry official, said it was possible that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.

If the plane remained airborne for the entire five hours, it could have flown more than 2,200 nautical miles from its last confirmed position over the Gulf of Thailand, the people said

Defense and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein declined to confirm those details "at the moment," but he said investigators will probe why the plane's transponders, which send signals about the aircraft to identify it to radar, went off.

Hong Lei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, chided Malaysia for not sharing information just three days after Beijing asked the country to accelerate its probe and speed up its search efforts on behalf of the families of passengers on the flight. Of the 239 passengers on the plane, more than 150 were Chinese.

"China urgently appeals to Malaysia for all information they have regarding the search," said Mr. Hong. "That will not only help China with its search but also help all sides in the search to make their search more effective and accurately targeted."

Malaysian authorities said they are working with experts from the U.S. and will receive help from a British team, composed of the country's Air Accidents Investigation Branch and engine maker Rolls-Royce, said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director-general of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation.

"They also have indicated that they are studying the possibility of satellite communication," Mr. Azharuddin said at a briefing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport...

More.

ADDED: "Satellite Data Reveal Route of Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane: Jetliner 'Pinged' Satellites With Location, Altitude for Hours After Disappearance":

Malaysia Airlines' missing jet transmitted its location repeatedly to satellites over the course of five hours after it disappeared from radar, people briefed on the matter said, as searchers zeroed in on new target areas hundreds of miles west of the plane's original course.

The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent "pings," the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. They added that it was unclear why the pings stopped. One of the people, an industry official, said it was possible that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.

The people, who included a military official, the industry official and others, declined to say what specific path the transmissions revealed. But the U.S. planned to move surveillance planes into an area of the Indian Ocean 1,000 miles or more west of the Malay peninsula where the plane took off, said Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

He said the destroyer USS Kidd would move through the Strait of Malacca, on Malaysia's west coast, and stay at its northwest entrance. Malaysia, which is overseeing the search effort, directed Indian forces to a specific set of coordinates in the Andaman Sea, northwest of the Malay peninsula, an Indian official said Thursday. "There was no specified rationale behind looking in those areas, but a detailed list was provided late Wednesday evening," the Indian official said.

The automatic pings, or attempts to link up with satellites operated by Inmarsat PLC, occurred a number of times after Flight 370's last verified position, the people briefed on the situation said, indicating that at least through those five hours, the Boeing Co. BA +1.00%  777 carrying 239 people remained intact and hadn't been destroyed in a crash, act of sabotage or explosion.

Malaysia Airlines said it hadn't received any such data. According to Boeing, the plane's manufacturer, the airline didn't purchase a package through Boeing to monitor its airplanes' data through the satellite system.

Malaysia Airlines said Friday that it has the required maintenance program in place for its Boeing 777, without elaborating.

If the plane remained airborne for the entire five hours, it could have flown more than 2,200 nautical miles from its last confirmed position over the Gulf of Thailand, the people said.

U.S. aviation investigators said they were analyzing the satellite transmissions to determine whether they can glean information about the plane's ultimate location or status. The transmissions were sent via onboard technology designed to send routine maintenance and system-monitoring data back to the ground via satellite links, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Among the possible scenarios investigators said they are now considering is whether the jet may have landed at any point during the five-hour period under scrutiny, or whether it ultimately crashed.

The people said aviation investigators are exploring the possibility that someone on the plane may have intentionally disabled two other automated communication systems in an attempt to avoid detection. One system is the transponders, which transmit to ground radar stations information on the plane's identity, location and altitude, and another system that collects and transmits data about several of the plane's key systems.

The widebody jet was scheduled to fly overnight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in the predawn hours of March 8. Its transponders last communicated with Malaysian civilian radar about an hour after takeoff.

Satellite Images May Show Missing Malaysia Flight MH370

At the Los Angeles Times, "China releases satellite images of possible Malaysia jet crash site":

A Chinese military agency on Wednesday released satellite imagery of large pieces of debris floating in the South China Sea along the planned flight path of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet with 239 on board, news agencies in Beijing reported.

The images were captured early Sunday, a day after Malaysia Airlines flight 370 was last heard from on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said, the Associated Press quoted the New China News Agency as reporting. Bloomberg and CNN also carried reports citing the Chinese government.

The Chinese military agency described the site as "a suspected crash area," based on its location along the jet's flight path and the size of three, light-colored debris pieces spotted on the water's surface, the largest estimated to measure more than 70 feet in length and width.

RELATED: At Wired, "Inside the Nearly Impossible Task of Finding an Airplane in the Ocean."

Stolen Passports Deepen Mystery Surrounding Missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

At LAT, "Malaysian flight leaves trail of anguish, mystery":

Despite the efforts of some 40 boats and three dozen planes, the three-day search for the missing Boeing 777 off the southern coast of Vietnam has yielded nothing but dashed hopes for the friends and family members of the 239 people aboard. By Monday evening, Malaysian and Vietnamese authorities said they had yet to find anything linked to the airliner and that the search area was being expanded and the operation “intensified.”

With no material evidence from the aircraft, however, attention was focused on the fact that two passengers had used stolen passports, one Italian, one Austrian, to board the plane.

Malaysian authorities, who said earlier that they had closed-circuit video recordings of the passengers, revealed Monday that they had identified one of the two men who used the passports.

“I can confirm that he is not a Malaysian, but cannot divulge which country he is from yet,” Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar told the Star, a major Malaysian newspaper. He added that the man is also not from Xinjiang, China -- a northwestern province of the mainland that is home to minority Uighurs.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's civil aviation chief, said the two men were “not Asian-looking men.”

That dampened speculation that Uighur separatists might have been behind the jet’s disappearance. Uighur separatists have been blamed for a knifing rampage in southwestern China this month that left 29 dead.

Security authorities have cautioned that use of stolen or forged passports is more frequent than commonly assumed and does not necessarily indicate that terrorist forces might have been involved in the plane’s disappearance.

Also at NYT, "Use of Stolen Passports on Missing Malaysian Airliner Highlights Air Security Flaw." And at CBS News, "No evidence of terrorism in Malaysia Airlines plane's disappearance."

Race for Clues in Malaysia Airlines Jet's Fate

At WSJ, "Air-Safety and Antiterror Authorities Appeared Stumped on Investigation's Direction":

As a search for clues to the fate of Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -8.00%  Flight 370 resumed in the waters off Vietnam on Monday, air-safety and antiterror authorities on two continents appeared equally stumped about what direction the probe should take.

The Boeing BA -0.25%  777 was cruising over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board when it suddenly dropped off air-traffic radar screens less than an hour after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur early Saturday morning. None of the Beijing-bound plane's transmitters appeared to signal distress before shutting down.

In a massive international investigation, no early theory has emerged about what transpired on the airplane traveling at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet in good weather. The known sequence of events includes elements that seem different from anything in the annals of recent jetliner accidents.

"For now, it seems simply inexplicable," said Paul Hayes, director of safety and insurance at Ascend Worldwide, a British advisory and aviation data firm. "There's no leading theory," he noted, but jetliners "simply don't vanish or disintegrate" and fall out of the sky without warning, unless there is sabotage or some catastrophic structural failure. So far, investigators haven't hinted that they have firm leads on either front.

More.

Possible Terrorist Attack on Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

Well, no one has a bloody clue what happened to that plane, so wtf?

At LAT, "Terrorism not ruled out in disappearance of Malaysia Airlines jet."

And at CBS News, "Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes with 239 aboard: Search intensifies for missing."

"Really CNN? A 'Bowing' 777?"

Well, if you're going to screw up, best to screw up royally.

At Twitchy, "‘Really, CNN?’: Viewers are certain it’s not a ‘Bowing’ 777 [pics]."

Really @CNN? A "Bowing" 777? pic.twitter.com/SE9KatG1cY

— Travel Summary (@TravelSummary) March 8, 2014

Malaysia Airlines Flight Goes Missing

It's the big news on television this evening.

At LAT, "Search and rescue effort launched for missing Malaysia Airlines plane," and the Sydney Morning Herald, "Australians among 227 passengers feared dead after plane goes missing."

And at AP, "Raw: Malaysia Airlines Loses Contact With Plane," and CNN, "Malaysia Airlines' VP: Plane would have run out of fuel."

Severe Turbulance on United Airlines Flight Causes Injuries

At USA Today, "Passengers recount fears after turbulent United flight":

One woman hit the ceiling so hard it cracked the panel above her, passenger said.

Kerri Mullins had just taken a picture of the clear blue skies over Montana moments before she says she experienced the scariest 25 seconds of her life.

Mullins, from Arvada, Colo., was aboard United Airlines Flight 1676 from Denver to Billings when it hit turbulence so severe that people were tossed from their seats. Three flight attendants and two passengers were injured.

"I thought 'Wow! Yeah, this is it,' " Mullins said. "It's the most helpless feeling ever — to just be sitting there and not have any control over anything."

Mullins said the plane turned sharply to the right and started plunging.

"Everything flew out of everybody's hands," she said. "It was quite surreal."

More.

Worst of all is a woman lost hold of her baby, which flew into another seat but was unharmed. At London's Daily Mail, "Extreme turbulence throws child from mother's arms and woman hits plane roof as five are hospitalized in United landing."

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 Hijacked and Flown to Geneva

At the Wall Street Journal, "Authorities: Co-Pilot Took Control of Ethiopian Airlines Plane, Wanted Asylum: Police Arrest Co-Pilot of Flight 702 After Flight Forced to Land in Geneva."

Also at the Los Angeles Times, "Ethiopian plane hijacked to Geneva by co-pilot."

Confessions of a Former TSA Agent

You gotta read this, at Politico, "I Saw America Naked - Confessions of a TSA Agent":

I hated it from the beginning. It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.

Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.

There I was, an aspiring satire writer, earnestly acting on orders straight out of Catch-22.

I quickly discovered I was working for an agency whose morale was among the lowest in the U.S. government. In private, most TSA officers I talked to told me they felt the agency’s day-to-day operations represented an abuse of public trust and funds.

RTWT.

Mozaffar Khazaee, Former Pratt & Whitney Engineer, Tried to Smuggle F-35 Blueprints to Iran

Well, we're definitely in some intense period of hardcore geopolitics. This sounds like a throwback to the Cold War.

At LAT, "Engineer accused of trying to send F-35 fighter jet papers to Iran":

Customs agents in Long Beach were shocked after opening boxes labeled "House Hold Goods" bound for Iran and finding thousands of documents outlining secret information on the military's $392-billion fighter jet program.

The treasure trove of technical manuals, specification sheets and other proprietary material was being sent by Mozaffar Khazaee, a former engineer with military jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, to the city of Hamadan in northwest Iran, authorities said.

A federal grand jury indicted Khazaee, 59, Tuesday on two counts of interstate transportation of stolen property. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.

The criminal case casts a pall over foreign-born workers handling sensitive government information, experts said. But they noted that some of the more notorious cases have involved U.S. citizens such as Edward Snowden, the analyst who leaked National Security Agency secrets.

In an affidavit summarizing the evidence against Khazaee, a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security said the government uncovered 44 boxes of material that contained technical data on military engines and the largest weapons program in history: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

"The documents contained language regarding the technical specifications of the JSF engine program, as well as diagrams, blueprints and other documentation relating to the inner workings of the jet's engine," the affidavit by special agent Breanne Chavez said.
"Several of the documents also bore markings indicating that they were the property of at least three defense contractors," it said. The companies are only identified as A, B and C.

Matthew C. Bates, spokesman at Pratt & Whitney, confirmed his company is part of the investigation, prompted by the seizure Nov. 26.

Keep reading.

Asiana Airlines Crash Video Shows Body of Victim Before She Was Run Over by Firetrucks

At CBS News, "New video shows chaos, miscues before injured passenger was run over - twice."

They should have checked to see if the girl was alive. Apparently at least five firefighters saw the body but no one checked her vital signs. Check the link for the full report.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Completes Supersonic Test Flight

I love this ship (I just hate the political hypocrisy).

Via Theo Spark, "SpaceShipTwo's 3rd Powered Flight Soars to New Heights."


Also at Daily Mail, "Giant leap for space tourism! The moment Virgin Galactic's third test flight reaches an all time high altitude of 71,000 FEET."