Tight security at bizarre royal divorce case

Police personnel and members of the Johor Military Force made their presence felt at the Syariah Court of Appeal in Johor Bahru this morning, during a bizarre divorce hearing involving the Johor royalty.

Former sultanah Tuanku Zanariah Tuanku Ahmad isappealing a backdated divorceapplication that had been filed some months after the death of her husband, Tuanku Mahmud Iskandar on Jan 22, 2010.

Tuanku Zanariah’s lawyer Kamar Ainiah Kamarulzaman(left) said her client and children were not allowed to enter the court room. Even her lawyers were escorted out by the police, with the exception of the lead counsel Afshah Ariffin.

Kamar Ainiah said there were four high-ranking police officers, 13 uniformed police personnel and seven others believed to be Special Branch officers outside the court.

"There are also several police Special Action Unit members and also Johor Military Force personnel,” she claimed.

“The Syariah Court of Appeal made sure that all of us except for the lead counsel are not in the courtroom before they began the proceedings.”

This afternoon, the court allowed an application by the state Islamic Council (MAIJ) to be an intervener in the case.

The three-member panel comprising Justices Syed Ali Syed Abu Bakar, Marsid @ Morsid Mahrof and Jainuddin Mt Sum found that the application had met the requirements of Section 18 and 19 of the Johor Syariah Procedure enactment.

Section 18 involves combining parties in an application and Section 19 is on a change of parties.

The court also ordered that MAIJ be placed as a respondent in all documentation relating to the appeal, and that Tuanku Mahmud Iskandar's name be deleted as a respondent.

Tuanku Zanariah had named Tuanku Mahmud Iskandar as respondent, as the divorce application had allegedly been made by him.

Last Thursday, the three-member panel had declared that the proceedings were to be conducted behind closed doors.

Fresh documents

The divorce application had been heard at the Lower Syariah Court without Tuanku Zanariah's presence or knowledge in August or September 2010.

She was only informed of this last August in a letter from the state mufti and former Johor menteri besar Abdul Ghani Othman (right).

The divorce was backdated to Jan 23, 2009 after the Johor Fatwa Committee accepted a statutory declaration by Abdul Ghani and Johor royal committee chairperson Tengku Osman Tunku Temenggong Ahmad, verifying that the application was genuine.

On Jan 1 this year, Tuanku Zanariah had filed a review application at the Johor Syariah High Court seeking to annul the divorce certificate.

On Jan 20, the Johor Syariah High Court had upheld the lower court's decision as valid, resulting in the appeal.

Kamar Ainiah and Afshah said dates have yet to be fixed to hear the appeal, and that the relevant documents will have to be filed again following today's decisions.

Search area littered with rubbish

DAY 24 MH370 The search for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 enters its 24th day but its trail is increasingly cold in the Indian Ocean at an area some 1,850km west of Perth, Australia.

However, things are heating up in Malaysia as several families of Chinese MH370 passengers have now taken their protestcloser to Putrajaya.

The families, which began arriving from Beijing yesterday, have demanded the Malaysian government to apologise over what they call a premature declaration that the ill-fated flight had "ended' in the Indian Ocean.

MAS insists the conclusion is based on rational deduction as satellite analysis showed the aircraft was lost in the Indian Ocean with no land mass nearby.

Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:

3.46pm: Timor-Leste prime minister today commends the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) over their handling of the missing MAS flight crisis, Bernama reports.

"Malaysia is to be applauded for leading the multi-national search effort which has been an outstanding example of leadership and co-operation among the international communities," says Xanana Gusmao.

At a joint press conference with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak after a bilateral meeting in Putrajaya, Gusmao also expresses his condolences to the families of the aircraft passengers and crew over their loss.

Search area littered with rubbish

2.35pm: While the new search area 1,100km north east of the old site has better weather, operations are being hampered by higher volume of ocean trash that may be mistaken for wreckage.

Reuters reports the search zone is an area of the Indian Ocean where currents drag in all manner of flotsam and rubbish.

"I would say the search area is located just outside of what we call the garbage patches," says Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales.

"There is much more debris there than in the Southern (Indian) Ocean. Debris from Western Australia that ends up in the garbage patches will have to move through the search area," she adds.

China urges angry citizens to be rational

1.50pm: China's state media urges rationality among its citizens after the outburst of anger following Malaysia's announcement that Flight MH370 has "ended" in the Indian Ocean, reports AFP.

A commentary in China Daily under the headline 'Treat MH370 tragedy rationally' reads: "It is certain that flight MH370 crashed in the Indian Ocean and no one on board survived."

"We should not let anger prevail over facts and rationality... We need to comply with the fundamental norms of a civilised society and need to show the demeanour of a great power."

The author, Mei Xinyu, a researcher with the commerce ministry institute, says irrational behaviour will not help matters and families should prepare to make funeral arrangements.

"Although the Malaysian government's handling of the crisis has been quite clumsy, we need to understand this is perhaps the most bizarre incident in Asian civil aviation history.

It is understandable that as a developing country, the Malaysian government felt completely at a loss," he adds.

He adds they should not accuse Malaysia of covering up information without hard evidence.

Pilot's daughter will not forgive British tabloid

12.45pm: Daughter of the MH370 pilot, Aishah Zaharie haslashed out at British tabloid Daily Mail for reports putting her father in bad light.

"Dear Daily Mail, you should consider making movies since you are so good at making up stories and scripts out of thin air...

"May god have mercy on your souls. You can bet you're a** I will not forgive you," she writes in a Facebook posting yesterday.

The remarks come after Daily Mail on March 29 quoted a source "close to the family", claiming Aishah had supposedly said her father was "disturbed and lost in his own world" prior to his ill-fated flight.

Kin: We know who are the good guys and the bad

12.45pm: The Chinese families have left Wisma Fo Guang Shan after prayers and speaking to the press.

Jiang Hui, one of the relatives of the Chinese passengers, thanks the Chinese and all of the governments of the countries participating in the SAR operations.

Speaking on behalf of the families, he also thanks the Malaysians who have prayed for them, the media who have voiced on their behalf and the MCA crisis relief squad for assisting them in their stay here.

"The Chinese community is a friendly one. We can tell the good from the bad.

"We will not forgive those who had killed our loved ones, those who are hiding the truth and those who are delaying the SAR operations," he says.

10.30am: The families from Beijing arrive at Wisma Fo Guang Shan to pray for their missing.

About 40 arrive with police escort, and they wear white T-shirts that say 'Pray for MH370, please come home as soon as possible' in Chinese.

The prayer session is expected to take an hour.

The press are told to wait at the lobby for a photo session after the prayers and interviews are expected after that.

Aussie PM: Najib right about MH370 ending in ocean

10.24am: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott defends his Malaysian counterpart Najib Abdul Razak over the latter's conclusion that Flight MH370 has "ended" in the Indian Ocean amid queries from Chinese families.

"The accumulation of evidence is that the aircraft has been lost and it has been lost somewhere in the south of the Indian Ocean.

"That's the absolutely overwhelming wave of evidence and I think that Prime Minister Najib Razak was perfectly entitled to come to that conclusion, and I think once that conclusion had been arrived at, it was his duty to make that conclusion public," UK-based The Telegraph quoted Abbot saying.

The Chinese are angry that Najib had made the announcement based on satellite calculations, without first finding the wreckage.

Chinese families pray for passengers

10.20am: MH370 Chinese next-of-kin, who arrived Malaysia yesterday to seek explanation from the Malaysian government, are scheduled for prayers at Wisma Fo Guang Shan in Petaling Jaya.

The Buddhist temple's administrator allows media to wait inside while the families arrive, but are asked not to interview them until prayers are complete.

Some media personnel say they will join in the prayer session to observe the proceedings.

Aussie PM: We're in for a long search

9.12am: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott soothes fears that the search operation will give up on finding Flight MH370 after PM Najib Razak earlier declared the plane had "ended" in the Indian Ocean.

"I'm certainly not putting a time limit on it.

“We can keep searching for quite some time to come, and we will keep searching for quite some time to come.

"The intensity of our search and the magnitude of operations is increasing, not decreasing,” Reuters quotes him saying.

Abbott is at the Royal Australian Air Force Base Pearce in Perth, the launchpad of the aerial search operations.

Time running out on black box

6am: The search operation in the Indian Ocean begins, says the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa).

A total of 10 aircraft and 10 ships from Australia, Malaysia, US, China, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea will be involved in the search today.

It expects low clouds and rain throughout the day in some parts of the search area.

The black box detector, borrowed from the US, will also be in action today after being fitted onto the ADV Ocean Shield which will depart from Perth.

However, US Navy captain Mark Matthews who will be leading the search using the black box detector yesterday expresses pessimism it will yield any results until the search area can be further narrowed.

"Right now, the search area is basically the size of the Indian Ocean, which takes an untenable amount of time to search." he says in Sydney Morning Herald.

The black box is nearing the end of its 30-day battery life, so the detector will only be useful for only a few more days.

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 the plane intentionally made a turn-back and altered its course shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons.
   
Its whereabouts is now narrowed to the southern Indian Ocean after employing "new analysis" methods to deduce the location based on six pings the aircraft sent out to British satellite communications provider Inmarsat's satellite.

 

Black box developer doubts it will be found

A scientist who was part of the team to develop the black box says he is doubtful the device on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be found.

'I've got to say I think their chances of finding this black box in very deep water when they don't know where it went down within an area of 1,000 km, are practically nil," Bill Schofield was quoted saying in an interview with China's official news agency Xinhua.

Schofield worked as a researcher for Australian black box inventor, David Warren, at the now defunct Royal Aeronautical Society in the 1960s.

Flight MH370 is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean but an extensive multinational search operation has yet to yield any results after 24 days.

The black box records every activity and maneuver experienced by an aircraft.

It is an essential and perhaps the only lead for investigators probing the disappearance of Flight MH370.

Schofield said going forward, the aviation industry may need to look at alternatives for collecting flight data such as through satellite transmission.

"It could transmit it all up to a satellite, but can you imagine how many aeroplanes are flying at any one time in the world and all of them saturating the satellite time? Satellite time is very valuable anyway. It would mean an awful lot of satellites," he said.

He added that another method could be to prolong the black box's battery life to ensure its beacon stays active so searchers can pick up its signal.

At present, the black box battery can only last for around 30 days and during this period, it will emit a ping that can be picked up by a pinger locator hydrophone if it is within a two nautical mile radius.

Such a detector has already been deployed in the Indian Ocean but the US Navy says it is pessimistic about finding the black box any time soon until the search area can be further narrowed.

Veteran activist Irene Fernandez passes away

Veteran activist Irene Fernandez today passed away after being hospitalised for heart failure since last Tuesday. She was 67.

Her sister Josie said that Irene died at 10.58am at the Coronary Care Unit at Serdang Hospital.

"Her organs were all fine but her heart stopped. The doctors tried their best to resuscitate her.

"Irene was very brave and courageous and as I speak to you now, I can see that her face is so serene, so calm," she told Malaysiakini after the family performed their prayers.

Josie, Irene's husband Joseph Paul (left) and the couple’s three children were with her at the time.

The founder of migrant rights NGO Tenaganita was admitted at the Serdang Hospital after complaining of breathing difficulties.

Her remains will be brought to her home in Seremban later today and a public wake will be held in Subang on Wednesday.

"Prayers and a mass to celebrate her life will be held on Thursday. We will announce the details later," Josie said.

The family will also honour her request to be cremated and have her ashes buried with her late parents in Sungai Petani.

A dedicate civil rights activist, Irene was on her way to hear the findings of the coalition for clean and fair elections (Bersih)'s tribunal when she faced breathing difficulties.

She gained international attention when she became the subject of the country's longest criminal trial after being charged with publishing falsehoods in a report on migrant detention centres.
          
She was once again investigated for her activism in 2012, when a sedition probe was launched over an interview about migrant rights with an Indonesian newspaper.

MH370: “Pesawat MH370 Sah Dirampas” itulah yang tersiar TV2 RTM semalam

Pada jam 12.05 pagi 29 Mac 2014 ketika tayangan Telemovie keudara, RTM TV2 telah memaparkan apa yang dikenali sebagai "rerayap" mengenai insiden MH370 dengan mesej "PESAWAT MH370 SAH DIRAMPAS".

Walaupun perkara ini berlaku tengah malam (pagi) ada yang sempat 'capture' dan memuat naik di media sosial.

Tak lama kemudian, melalui facebook RTM telah meminta maaf atas kesilapan atau kecuaian berkenaan dan berjanji siatan dalaman akan dilakukan untuk mengenalpasti kecuaian tersebut.

Nampaknya semua orang lebih cenderung MH370 dirampas daripada jatuh di lautan Hindi.

http://tempayanretak.blogspot.com

SHOCK FOR CHERAS RESIDENTS: Man, wife & two dogs found dead with throats slit

KUALA LUMPUR - A man and his wife were found dead with their throats slit at the Kampung Muhibbah people's housing project in Cheras here early today, police said.

Cheras Police chief ACP Mohan Singh Tara Singh said their two dogs were also found dead with their throats slit.

He said the couple, both Malaysians and aged 32, were found lying prone in the bedroom of the house.

The police found a penknife near the body of the man, he said, adding that the slash wounds on the necks of the couple were between 10cm and 15cm long.

A preliminary investigation showed that the deaths were related to an attempt by the man to commit suicide at about 10pm yesterday, he said.

Mohan Singh said police did not suspect foul play.

The bodies of the couple were taken to the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, he said.

The case had been classified as sudden death, he added. – Bernama

MH370: Who is lying, INTERPOL or the Malaysian government?

The Malaysian government maintained that it did not consult INTERPOL’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database because it (SLTD) is “too large” and would overwhelm Malaysia’s database management which led to two Iranian nationals boarding the ill-fated Malaysian carrier Boeing 777 with fake and stolen passports, .

In short, INTERPOL has a facility that is inadequate. Hence the world is not secure from potential terrorists and illegals from easily entering nations with fake documents.

Mlaaysia cannot be blamed.

The Malaysian Home Minister has in effect, informed all law makers, all Malaysians and the eventually reaching the world at large – including INTERPOL, through the august House of the Malaysian Parliament, that here was a system that was, in other words, not practical and cumbersome. The Home Minster’s claim certainly smacks of a failed if not an unreliable and impractical system being provided by INTERPOL.

Hence Malaysia has taken an official stand why it has not and probably will not use INTERPOL’s SLTD and thus absolves itself of any blame for allowing would-be terrorists and illegal travels to depart from Malaysia on-board its national carrier to any destination in the world serviced by the airlines.

INTERPOL however has rejected Malaysia’s claim – outright.

In its official website posting, INTERPOL states, “Malaysia’s decision not to consult INTERPOL's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database before allowing travelers to enter the country or board planes cannot be defended by falsely blaming technology or INTERPOL. If there is any responsibility or blame for this failure, it rests solely with Malaysia's Immigration Department.

It further established that its database is consulted “230 million times per year; the UK more than 140 million times; the UAE more than 100 million times and Singapore more than 29 million times.”

“Not one of these countries, or indeed any INTERPOL member country, has ever stated that the response time is too slow,” it asserted, while revealing to the world that Malaysia “did not conduct a single check of passengers’ passports in 2014 prior to the tragic disappearance” of MH370.

Lazy Malaysia caught making excuses

Now, citizens around the world, the suffering families of those victims who may have perished on MH370, governments whose citizens are afflicted, lawyers representing the next-of-kin of the victim-passengers, nation leaders who are fighting hard to safeguard their lands from potential terrorism and Malaysians who are pledged to nation building and nation status need to know who is lying.

If INTERPOL is pulling wool over the global eyes then there must be a vehement outcry and unreserved condemnation.

Will the United States of America’s President, Barrack Obama, lead the way for redress? Let us not forget 9/11 which was turning point for the world.

Let us also recall the promise of the American President when in his Victory Speech of November 4, 2008, he declared, “And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.” (Newsweek Commemorative Issue, Obama’s American Dream, pp.80, 2008).

Will the French citizens too not want to save their dignity and honor?

Will not Malaysians throw their national weight of 30 million citizens, State and Rulers together to hold INTERPOL guilty as charged?

Likewise, if the Malaysian government has lied and blasphemed INTERPOL by tarnishing the latter’s services for an unreliable and impractical SLTD, then all Malaysians – leaders, citizens and Rulers, owe the world an accountable, immediate correction.

And that correction is to be spearheaded by none other than the premier of Malaysia, Najib Razak. He must without delays (which are unfortunately touted as his world renowned trademark), immediately sack the Home Minister Zahid.

Otherwise, the entire UMNO-BN led bandwagon of leaders must resign or be sacked by a nation of virtuous people for culpability. For the nation’s dignity and honor has been destroyed. The price must be paid to amend and resurrect the pride of nation status, King and citizens. - MAILAG

SHOCK REVELATION: 'He wasn't the father I knew. He was lost and disturbed' - daughter of MH370 pilot

The pilot of the missing Malaysia  Airlines flight was in emotional turmoil over the break-up of his marriage, his family have revealed.

Speaking about the mystery for the first time, the wife and daughter of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah said the 53-year-old pilot had been distracted and withdrawn in the weeks before the aircraft’s  disappearance – and refused pleas to attend some marriage counselling sessions.

Three weeks after Flight MH370 went missing with 239 crew and passengers aboard, investigators in Malaysia believe that someone – possibly the captain – deliberately steered the Boeing 777 off course after communications were cut.

No suicide note has been found and no motive established, but police are continuing to concentrate their inquiries on the pilot’s  background and whether his state of mind before the flight may be a factor.

Close: MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah with his daughter Aishah. She has claimed he had been distracted and withdrawn in the weeks before the aircraft's disappearance

The plane is thought to have flown hundreds of miles out over the southern Indian Ocean where it eventually ran out of fuel and plunged into the sea.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the pilot’s wife, Faizah Khanum Mustafa Khan, has told investigators that he stopped speaking to her in the weeks before the fateful flight on March 8, and spent time alone in  his room where he had built a flight  simulator. ‘He just retreated into a shell,’ she said.

Meanwhile, Aishah Zaharie, 28, the pilot’s daughter, said that in her last conversations with her father, she barely recognised the man who used to dote on her. ‘He wasn’t the father I knew. He seemed disturbed and lost in a world of his own,’ she said.

Last week, Faizah and Aishah, along with other family members, were interviewed in detail by police in Kuala Lumpur. The lengthy interviews, described in detail to The Mail on Sunday by a source close to the pilot’s family, revealed that:

• Zaharie was on the brink of divorcing his wife after nearly 30 years of marriage.
• He refused to attend marriage counselling with Islamic elders.
• He shunned family and spent hours alone on his flight simulator.
• He expressed ‘utter frustration’ at the jailing of his political hero, Anwar Ibrahim, hours before the flight.

Family portrait: Captain Zaharie with wife Faizah and two of their children. He was reportedly on the brink of divorcing her after nearly 30 years of marriage

Plush: The family home in an upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb

Despite the pilot’s behaviour, his family are convinced that he was  not responsible for the plane’s disappearance

Faizah, who was just 16 when she first met Zaharie, broke down repeatedly during two lengthy interviews with police, the family source said. One of the interviews lasted more than four hours.

She was initially reluctant to discuss the breakdown of her marriage, and refused to accept her husband might be involved in the flight’s disappearance, protesting: ‘It’s unfair to blame my husband.’

However, over the course of the interviews, she told police how her husband became increasingly distracted in the months leading up to the flight. 

‘I found him distant and difficult to understand,’ she said. She told investigators that although they continued to live in the same house, Zaharie spent his time alone.

Faizah said her husband was so withdrawn he hardly spoke to his sons and was not close to them. ‘He just retreated into a shell,’ she said.

When he wasn’t working, Zaharie spent ‘more time with friends than with family members’. She confirmed they had spoken of separating but had not taken any formal steps towards getting a divorce.

The 53-year-old pilot had been under suspicion after investigators discovered a flight simulator at his Kuala Lumpur home

The pilot's wife has told investigators that he stopped speaking to her in the weeks before the fateful flight on March 8, and spent time alone in his room where he had built a flight simulator

She said he appeared agitated and to be suffering from ‘frayed nerves’. Of his three children, Zaharie appears to have been closest to Aishah, who flew back from Melbourne, Australia, to be with her family after MH370 went missing.

She spoke to her father by phone in the weeks before the flight,  and told investigators: ‘He wasn’t his usual self. He was distant and cranky.’

NINE SHIPS LEAD VAST SEARCH

The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft was set to resume today.

Nine ships and ten planes  will cover a 97,000sq mile  area where search teams  have so far failed to recover  any confirmed debris from  flight MH370.

Chinese aircraft have spotted objects that were white and red – the same colours as the aircraft – but these items have yet to be conclusively linked to the passenger jet, which disappeared three weeks ago with 239 passengers and crew on board. Investigators hope that locating debris will help narrow the search for the ‘black box’ recorders. However, a shortage of live satellite data and adverse weather conditions are hampering the operation.

The investigation is being led by the Malaysian authorities. Meanwhile, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority is  co-ordinating the search 1,150 miles off the coast of Perth in an area of the Indian Ocean that is one of the world’s  most remote and least researched areas.

Aishah said her father spoke to her about his marital problems and told her he didn’t think they could reconcile. In their conversations, he asked her how she would feel if her parents divorced. 

Aishah said she tried to persuade her father to seek the help of Islamic elders to try to mend the relationship but he refused. 

The daughter told investigators she did not know if there was another woman in her father’s life.

Although Aishah does not appear to have spoken to her father on  the day the flight disappeared, she told investigators she knew from friends in Kuala Lumpur he was upset and felt ‘utter frustration’ over the jail sentence given to Anwar Ibrahim.

Zaharie was a fervent supporter of Anwar, a pro-democracy icon in Malaysia who was jailed for five years for sodomy hours before Flight MH370 took off for the final time. 

Anwar’s supporters believe it was a politically motivated prosecution.

Despite her father’s personal problems, Aishah told investigators she did not believe he could be in any way responsible for the flight’s disappearance. 

‘I don’t believe he would ever intentionally endanger the lives of his crew and passengers,’ she insisted.

Investigators also spoke to the pilot’s two sons – Ahmad Seth Zaharie, 26, a languages student, and Ahmad Idris Zaharie. 

Ahmad Seth told them he had ‘barely spoken’ to his father in the weeks before the flight disappeared, even though they shared the same house.

Ahmad Idris posted a message on Facebook thanking someone for a poem written in support of his father which he said had helped to counter the ‘wounds and sadness’ from ‘baseless accusations made against my father’.

Police interviews with family members have confirmed that the pilot – who lived with his family in an upmarket suburb of the Malaysian capital, close to the international airport – did not have any obvious financial problems.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last weekend that police had not, at that time, interviewed the pilot’s wife in detail, partly because of cultural sensitivities in asking direct questions to people in grief or distress.

The plane is thought to have flown hundreds of miles out over the southern Indian Ocean where it eventually ran out of fuel and plunged into the sea

The softly-softly approach frustrated FBI officials working alongside Malaysian federal police. British intelligence agents are also helping in the investigation, The Mail on Sunday has been told.

News of the interviews came as the search for remains of the  plane continued. 

A Chinese and an Australian ship retrieved objects from the sea 1,150 miles off Perth, Western Australia, but none was confirmed to be from the missing flight.

Chinese aircraft also flew over the search area, and reported spotting three orange, white and red objects floating in the sea.

However, officials cautioned that they may be junk rather than wreckage from the aircraft.

FORMER BRITISH DEFENCE CHIEF BLASTS LACK OF UK HELP

Britain's only contribution to the vast fleet of vessels scouring the Indian Ocean in search of the jet is not expected to arrive until ‘mid to late this week’.

Survey ship HMS Echo is sailing 6,000 miles to join the operation after its captain received orders in the Arabian Gulf to head for the west coast of Australia.

Last night former Defence Intelligence chief Air Marshal Sir John Walker said Britain’s contribution of one ship and no aircraft ‘is an indictment of how we’ve disarmed ourselves’. 

He added: ‘We decommissioned the RAF’s fleet of Nimrod [patrol aircraft] and failed to replace it. With this we lost our maritime surveillance capability and a lot of expertise that would also have proved ideal.’

Personnel from the Met Office, the Hydrographic Office and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) are providing behind-the-scenes support to the search operation. 

The Ministry of Defence is also assisting  the Malaysians with  imagery analysis.

Meanwhile, China has sent the largest number of ships assembled outside its national waters in modern history. 

Defence experts in the region claim that China’s vast flotilla of search vessels has a dual purpose – to send a warning signal to Japan and the Philippines, its maritime rivals in the Far East, with whom it is embroiled in a number of territorial disputes. - Daily Mail