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Friday, April 11, 2014

Air Force chief: CNN report totally false


Latest development:
  • RMAF denies report that search planes were scrambled
     
  • M'sia starts probe into initial blunders over MH370
     
  • No major breakthrough', fifth ping unrelated to MH370
     
  • Australian PM Tony Abbot says earlier signals from missing plane
     
  • Hisham denies report RMAF scrambled search aircraft
Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:

RMAF chief 'confirms' allegations untrue

6.45pm: Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) chief Rodzali Daud echoes Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussien’s earlier statement denying a CNN report which claims the air force had sent out search planes to the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea on the day MH370 went missing.

Rodzali also denies the claim RMAF failed to inform the relevant parties, including search and rescue operations, of this fact until days later.

"In my capacity as the Chief of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, I can confirm that the above allegation is totally false," reads the brief statement.

Report: Probe launched into initial blunders

6.05pm: While the military says it only saw MH370 heading westward after reviewing a recording of military radar data,Reuters has offered a different account of events.

Quoting an unnamed ‘senior military official’, the report says the military was alerted of a missing aircraft at 2am that day, and saw an unidentified aircraft when they checked their radar.

“Based on the information we had from ATC (Air Traffic Control) and DCA (Department of Civil Aviation), we did not send up any jets because it was possibly mechanical problems and the plane might have been going back to Penang,” the source said.

That unidentified aircraft would turn out to be MH370, which was flying towards the Andaman Sea before making a turn for the southern Indian Ocean.

The report also says Malaysia has started its investigations into the initial confusion and poor response to the MH370 incident leading to lost opportunities in tracking down the plane sooner.

Read full Reuters report here.

Don't sugarcoat strained M'sia-China ties, says Nazri

4.45pm: Tourism Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz says people should not pretend that ties between Malaysia and China remain intact despite MH370's disappearance and other incidents involving Chinese tourists in Malaysia.

“All these happened in a time when Malaysia-bashing is going on, let’s not be in denial syndrome and say everything is okay,” he tellsChannel News Asia.

Nevertheless, he says Chinese ambassador Huang Huikang assured him yesterday that the 40 years of diplomatic relations would not be soured by “one unexpected incident”.

Of those onboard MH370 when it went missing on March 8, 153 out of 239 people were Chinese nationals.

On April 2, gunmen kidnapped a Chinese tourist for ransom at a resort in Sabah, while another Chinese tourist drowned off the coast of Terengganu on April 7.

Negri Sembilan ruler expresses regret over MH370

4.10pm: Yang di-Pertuan Besar Negri Sembilan Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir today expresses his regret, as well as that of his wife and the people of Negri Sembilan over the fate of MH370.

"I hope family members of the passengers and crew of the aircraft will be strong in facing the challenge and fate," he is quoted saying by Bernama.

Police take 205 statements, more planned

12.10pm: IGP Khalid Abu Bakar says as at yesterday evening, more than 205 statements have been recorded in the ongoing probe into the disappearance of Flight MH370.

He adds more statements are to be recorded.

Fifth signal not from black box

11.32am: The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston says the fifth signal detected yesterday is found "unlikely to be related" to aircraft black box pingers.

The signal had been picked up by a sonobuoy dropped from a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft.

The aircraft, an Australian-variant of the P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft, will continue working with ADV Ocean Shield to attempt  to detect more signals from the black box.

Three more such missions have been planned for today.

"On the information I have available to me, there has been no major breakthrough in the search for MH370," Houston adds, apparently in response to earlier rumours that the black box has been found.

Claim black box found untrue

11.30am: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he is “very confident” that the underwater signals that ADV Ocean Shield have detected are from MH370’s black box.

However, contrary to rumours on Twitter earlier, he did not announce that the black box has been found.

Instead, the Sydney Morning Herald quotes the prime minister saying that he would make no further announcement on MH370 until he has met Chinese President Xi Jinping this evening, and that the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) has scheduled no major announcements.

Aviation editor for The West Australian Geoffery Thomas had set off a brief storm on Twitter this morning when he tweeted that the black box has been found and that Abbott is due to make an announcement at 11.45am Malaysian time.

IGP: Mangosteens not from Muar

11.05am: Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar clarifies the mangosteens on board MH370 are not from Muar, but were merely collected there from other orchards before being sent to Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

This followed assertions by Federal Agricultural Marketing Council (Fama) that mangosteens are not in season in Johor when MH370 disappeared last month.

Read more here.

Singapore gov't: MP's view is his own

10.50am: The Singaporean government is distancing itself from one of its parliamentarian’s criticisms of Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 incident, saying that it does not represent the government’s views.

"It is an unprecedented and very difficult situation and, as (Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong) said, the Malaysian government has done a 'manful job'," the Singaporean daily Todayquotes the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign affairs as saying.

It is responding to an interview given by the Government Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs chairperson Dr Lim Wee Kiak, who is a member of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

He reportedly said that Singaporean Airlines had better media management than Malaysia, and Asean needs to be more coordinated in managing its airspace or risk giving China an excuse to manage the skies over the South China Sea.

Lim has since retracted his criticism, saying that he has reflected on his comments and now concurrs with the government’s view.

Ministry: Claim RMAF sent plane untrue

10.00am: Acting Transport Minister and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein denies a report alleging that the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) had scrambled search aircraft on the day of MH370's disappearance.

"Latest from CNN claiming that Malaysian Air Force aircraft scrambled soon after MAS reported MH370 missing early March 8 is a false allegation," his communications team says in a  late last night tweet, which is later retweeted by the minister himself.

A second tweet by the communications team also denies the allegation that the military only informed the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) and the search and rescue operations of this three days later.

Quoting a source, CNN reports that the RMAF had scrambled search aircraft to the South China Sea and Straits of Malacca just after MH370 was reported missing.

This was reportedly before authorities corroborated data showing that the aircraft had turned west before flying across Peninsular Malaysia.

Fifth acoustic signal being analysed

9.50am: To recap, An aircraft that has been dropping sonobuoys in the same area had detected a fifth signal yesterday, but requires analysis before it can be determined if it is related to MH370.

This comes after Australian Defence Vessel (ADV) Ocean Shield's towed pinger locator detected four transmissions earlier in the week, two of which were assessed to have come from a man-made electronic equipment consistent with a flight data recorder in a plane's black box.

Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston has previously said he is confident that they are searching the right area, but insisted on a visual sighting of a wreckage first before confirming that MH370 has been found.

Searchers are trying to detect more signals while the pingers - which emit a sound at one-second intervals - are still transmitting. They have a guaranteed lifespan of 30 days and today is Day 35 of the search.

Detecting additional signals will help searchers determine a smaller search area for the autonomous underwater robot Bluefin-21 later. It is equipped with sonar to map the seafloor as well as a camera.

US tanker joins search efforts

9.00am: The US Navy says its tanker USNS Cesar Chavez has joined the search team and will help refuel some of the search vessels.

Meanwhile, there is still no official word on the status of the signals detected on April 4 and 5 by the Chinese patrol vessel Haixun 01 about 300 nautical miles (about 556 kilometres) south of where ADV Ocean Shield had detected signals.

However, a map from the marine traffic tracking service shows that the area has been abandoned, with Haixun 01 apparently joining the visual search area.

The British hydrographic survey vessel HMS Echo was supposed to help verify Haixun 01’s signals, but appears to have moved near ADV Ocean Shield’s location since yesterday.

Search continues with pinger locator

6am: Search crews are continuing to narrow down on MH370’s final position today, after the Australian vessel ADV Ocean Shield detected signals consistent with an aircraft’s black box pinger on four separate occasions in the same area earlier in the week.

The JACC says today's search will involve 12 military, three civilian aircraft, and 13 ships.

They will scour two search areas in the Indian Ocean, totalling 46,713 square kilometres and centred 2,312 kilometres northwest of Perth.

“Yesterday there were no sightings reported by search aircraft or objects recovered by ships,” it adds in a statement today.

Meanwhile, a visual search by ship and aircraft is ongoing in a separate area of the ocean, where debris is thought to have drifted.

Background:
  • The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200ER aircraft went missing not long after taking off from KL International Airport in the early hours of March 8, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers.
     
  • Authorities have determined  that the plane intentionally turned back and altered its course shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons.
     
  • "Groundbreaking" data analysis on the six last 'pings' between MH370 and British company Inmarsat's communications satellite has yielded clues to the aircraft's position and heading, leading investigators to narrow down the search area to the south Indian Ocean.
     
  • Australia leads the search in the south Indian Ocean. As of March 30, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is tasked with overseeing the operations, led by retired air chief marshal and former defence chief Angus Houston.

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