Wednesday 26 March 2014
95% of worship places put to commercial use: Survey
ILLUSTRATION: FAIZAAN DAWOOD
ISLAMABAD: Out of 428 minorities’ places of worship in the country, 408 have been converted into toy stores, restaurants, government offices and schools after 1990, a survey has found.
Another shocking figure disclosed in the survey conducted by the All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement (PHRM) was that only 20 Hindu temples out of the 428 places of worship are operational.
“The remaining places of worship have been leased for commercial and residential purposes by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), said PHRM Chairman Haroon Sarab Diyal. The 135,000 acres of land owned by around four million Hindus is now under ETPB’s control.
Representatives of the Hindu community also wrote to all the chief ministers of the four provinces but have not received a response yet, Diyal added. He urged the government to hand over these religious places to the Hindu community to mitigate their resentment and fear of being forced to leave their homeland.
Sharing documents with The Express Tribune, he revealed that Kali Bari Hindu Temple has been rented out to a Muslim party in Dera Ismail Khan. This historic temple is being used as Taj Mehal Hotel, he added.
The documents also allege that Frontier Constabulary officials, with the help of the ETPB, occupied the Shamshan Ghaat, also in Dera Ismail Khan. The Hindu community is unable to cremate their dead because of the unavailability of Shamshan Ghaat and is forced to bury them in a graveyard shared my members of other faiths.
A Hindu temple in district Bannu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, is now a well-known sweets shop. Meanwhile, the Holy Shiv Temple in Kohat has been converted into a government primary school.
Government Girls High School, Peshawar Cantt, now stands where a historical Hindu temple used to be; other historic temples such as the Asamai temple has been closed down in the K-P capital.
Meanwhile, Guru Duwara Gali, a Sikh religious place, has been converted into a garments shop in Abbottabad.
In the federal capital, Islamabad, the Raam Kunde Complex of Temples at SaidPur Model village is now a ‘picnic site’. A second temple at Rawal Dam, Islamabad, has been shut down and the Hindu community believes that it is going to dilapidate day by day without being handed over to them.
In Punjab, a Hindu temple was demolished and reconstructed as a community centre in Rawalpindi, while in Chakwal, ten famous temples collectively known as Bhuwan are being used by the local Muslim community for commercial purposes, despite being handed over to the Hindus.
“Even if we have control of the temples, local residents dump oil drums, utensils and animals around them,” complained Diyal.
However, Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Yousaf assured that the Evacuee Trust has already been directed to gather the data pertaining to all religious places owned by minority communities. “At least, [all this] did not happen during our government’s tenure,” he said when he was informed of the survey’s findings. “I’ll take up this matter with minorities’ leaders. It’s a serious matter.”
A committee will be constituted to address these concerns, he routinely added.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2014.
Malaysia says evidence of final ‘ping’ from MH370 at 8.19am
The
graphic shows the final location of MAS flight MH370 as concluded by
experts based on data from the Inmarsat satellite. - The Malaysian
Insider graphic, March 25, 2014.Satellite data that confirmed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, missing for more than two weeks, had crashed in the Indian Ocean included a final electronic signal at 8.19am (Malaysian time) on March 8, that is still being investigated, Malaysian acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today.
"There is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station at 0019 UTC (GMT)," Hishammuddin told a news conference.
"At this time, this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work."
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said on Sunday that groundbreaking satellite-data analysis by the British company Inmarsat had revealed that MAS flight MH370, which vanished while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, had crashed thousands of kilometres away in the southern Indian Ocean.
Preliminary analysis of the satellite "pings" had only been able to place the plane's final position in one of two vast arcs stretching from the Caspian Sea to the southern Indian Ocean. – March 25, 2014.
Wan Junaidi wants rape remarks out of Hansard
However, despite admitting that his statement could have caused hurt if read "out of context", Wan Junaidi did not apologise for what he had said."If you read the sentence on its own, out of context, maybe it can be offending," Wan Junaidi said in Parliament today.
Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia agreed to the request to expunge the remarks from the Hansard.
Wan Junaidi made his request when responding to a motion by Chong Chieng Jen (DAP-Bandar Kuching) to refer Wan Junaidi to the Rights and Privileges Committee for his racist remarks.
"Maybe I overspoke the answer, but I am not racist. My wife is Chinese," Wan Junaidi said.
Chong said the decision to expunge the remark was equivalent to a retraction and as such, he accepted Wan Junaidi's decision.
Pandikar had earlier asked Wan Junaidi to state whether he would like to apologise or retract his statement.
Wan Junaidi faced a barrage of criticism last week for making the suggestion, but said today in Parliament that he uttered the statement because he had statistics to back up his claims.
“I have the statistics with me, I could read it out if you want to,” he said, referring to statistics regarding how many under-16 non-Malays have children out of wedlock and the amount of police reports lodged in comparison.
‘Why Uthaya’s sentence harsher than Karpal’s’
Makkal Sakthi Youth is questioning why P Uthayakumar was given a harsher sentence than Karpal Singh for sedition.
PETALING JAYA: Hindraf de facto leader P Uthayakumar should have been given a lesser sentence similar to DAP chairman Karpal Singh for sedition, said Makkal Sakthi Youth chief J Vasanth.
On Feb 18, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Uthayakumar’s appeal against his 30-month jail sentence for sedition.
Karpal Singh was fined RM 4,000 fine by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on March 11.
“Karpal received a lesser sentence due to Umno’s fears that the DAP leader had the backing of economically and politically powerful Chinese and Malay voters,” Vasanth said in a statement today.
“Even the previous sedition cases of Ooi Kee Siak and Fan Yew Teng were only fined RM2,000 after the May 13 riots while Lim Guan Eng was sentenced to one-and-a-half years imprisonment in 1994.
“Is Uthaya the softest political target and the Indians can be easily bullied by the Umno-led government?” asked Vasanth.
Vasanth said despite all the challenges Uthaya was still persistent in fighting for poor Indians and refused to come out on bail pending the Court of Appeal’s decision.
Last June, Session Court judge Ahmad Zamzani Mohd Zain found Uthaya guilty under the Sedition Act 1948, for writing seditious letters to then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007.
The Hindraf leader had first refused to submit his defence at the Sessions Court in protest against the alleged discrimination suffered by Indians in the country.
Justice Azman Husin ruled that the Sessions Court did not err in its verdict but said Uthaya could appeal against the decision in the Court of Appeal.
On Feb 18, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed Uthayakumar’s appeal against his 30-month jail sentence for sedition.
Karpal Singh was fined RM 4,000 fine by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on March 11.
“Karpal received a lesser sentence due to Umno’s fears that the DAP leader had the backing of economically and politically powerful Chinese and Malay voters,” Vasanth said in a statement today.
“Even the previous sedition cases of Ooi Kee Siak and Fan Yew Teng were only fined RM2,000 after the May 13 riots while Lim Guan Eng was sentenced to one-and-a-half years imprisonment in 1994.
“Is Uthaya the softest political target and the Indians can be easily bullied by the Umno-led government?” asked Vasanth.
Vasanth said despite all the challenges Uthaya was still persistent in fighting for poor Indians and refused to come out on bail pending the Court of Appeal’s decision.
Last June, Session Court judge Ahmad Zamzani Mohd Zain found Uthaya guilty under the Sedition Act 1948, for writing seditious letters to then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007.
The Hindraf leader had first refused to submit his defence at the Sessions Court in protest against the alleged discrimination suffered by Indians in the country.
Justice Azman Husin ruled that the Sessions Court did not err in its verdict but said Uthaya could appeal against the decision in the Court of Appeal.
Hisham: Satellite data conclusive
Analysis done by Inmarsat and AAIB was convincing to conclude on MH370's last position, says Hishammuddin Hussein.
PETALING JAYA: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein provided more information today on the new analysis based on satellite data that concluded that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 did indeed end in the southern Indian Ocean.
Last night, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said the new analysis of satellite data from Inmarsat and UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
The new analysis considers the velocity of the aircraft relative to the satellite.
Depending on this relative movement, the frequency received and transmitted will differ from its normal value, in much the same way that the sound of a passing car changes as it approaches and passes by. This is called the Doppler effect.
The Inmarsat technique analyses the difference between the frequency that the ground station expects to receive and one that is actually measured.
This difference is the result of the Doppler effect and is known as the Burst Frequency Offset.
The Burst Frequency Offset changes depending on the location of the aircraft on an arc of possible positions, its direction of travel, and its speed.
In order to establish confidence in its theory, Inmarsat checked its predictions using information obtained from six other B777 aircraft flying on the same day in various directions. There was good agreement.
Flight MH370 transmitted several messages during the early stage to the Kuala Lumpur Internationl Airport.
At this stage, the location of the aircraft and the satellite were known, so it was possible to calculate system characteristics for the aircraft, satellite, and ground station.
During the flight, the ground station logged the transmitted and received pulse frequencies at each handshake. Knowing the system characteristics and position of the satellite it was possible, considering aircraft performance, to determine where on each arc the calculated burst frequency offset fit best.
The analysis showed poor correlation with the Northern corridor, but good correlation with the southern corridor, and depending on the ground speed of the aircraft it was then possible to estimate positions at which the last complete handshake took place.
MH370′s final position
Hishammudin, however, emphasised that this was not the final position of the aircraft.
“There is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station. At this time this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work,” he said.
No response was received from the aircraft at 0115 UTC, when the ground earth station sent the next log on/log off message. This indicates that the aircraft was no longer logged on to the network.
Therefore, sometime between 0011 UTC and 0115 UTC the aircraft was no longer able to communicate with the ground station. This is consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft.
This analysis by Inmarsat forms the basis for further study to attempt to determine the final position of the aircraft.
Accordingly, the Malaysian investigation has set up an international working group, comprising agencies with expertise in satellite communications and aircraft performance, to take this work forward.
Hishammuddin said the analysis was convincing enough for the AAIB to brief the Prime Minister that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.
“As the Prime Minister stated, this type of analysis has never been done in an investigation of this sort.
“There remains more work to be done, and we are grateful to Inmarsat, AAIB and the international investigations team, who are continuing to work with the Malaysian authorities.
“This is a developing situation, and as soon as we know more, we will share it,” said Hishammuddin.
Hishammuddin’s explanation today comes at a time when family members of the missing passengers are demanding for concrete and tangible proof that their loved ones had perished in a crash, if at all there has been a crash.
Search efforts in the new target area in southern Indian Ocean were called off today due to bad weather and is set to continue tomorrow with searchers trying to gain possession of two objects found floating two days ago.
MH370 disappeared from the radar on March 8 while on its journey from KLIA to Beijing, carrying 239 passengers and crew members.
Investigators found that the plane’s communications and transponder were deliberately disabled, and the plane flying away from its original journey towards the Indian Ocean.
Last night, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said the new analysis of satellite data from Inmarsat and UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
The new analysis considers the velocity of the aircraft relative to the satellite.
Depending on this relative movement, the frequency received and transmitted will differ from its normal value, in much the same way that the sound of a passing car changes as it approaches and passes by. This is called the Doppler effect.
The Inmarsat technique analyses the difference between the frequency that the ground station expects to receive and one that is actually measured.
This difference is the result of the Doppler effect and is known as the Burst Frequency Offset.
The Burst Frequency Offset changes depending on the location of the aircraft on an arc of possible positions, its direction of travel, and its speed.
In order to establish confidence in its theory, Inmarsat checked its predictions using information obtained from six other B777 aircraft flying on the same day in various directions. There was good agreement.
Flight MH370 transmitted several messages during the early stage to the Kuala Lumpur Internationl Airport.
At this stage, the location of the aircraft and the satellite were known, so it was possible to calculate system characteristics for the aircraft, satellite, and ground station.
During the flight, the ground station logged the transmitted and received pulse frequencies at each handshake. Knowing the system characteristics and position of the satellite it was possible, considering aircraft performance, to determine where on each arc the calculated burst frequency offset fit best.
The analysis showed poor correlation with the Northern corridor, but good correlation with the southern corridor, and depending on the ground speed of the aircraft it was then possible to estimate positions at which the last complete handshake took place.
MH370′s final position
Hishammudin, however, emphasised that this was not the final position of the aircraft.
“There is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station. At this time this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work,” he said.
No response was received from the aircraft at 0115 UTC, when the ground earth station sent the next log on/log off message. This indicates that the aircraft was no longer logged on to the network.
Therefore, sometime between 0011 UTC and 0115 UTC the aircraft was no longer able to communicate with the ground station. This is consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft.
This analysis by Inmarsat forms the basis for further study to attempt to determine the final position of the aircraft.
Accordingly, the Malaysian investigation has set up an international working group, comprising agencies with expertise in satellite communications and aircraft performance, to take this work forward.
Hishammuddin said the analysis was convincing enough for the AAIB to brief the Prime Minister that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.
“As the Prime Minister stated, this type of analysis has never been done in an investigation of this sort.
“There remains more work to be done, and we are grateful to Inmarsat, AAIB and the international investigations team, who are continuing to work with the Malaysian authorities.
“This is a developing situation, and as soon as we know more, we will share it,” said Hishammuddin.
Hishammuddin’s explanation today comes at a time when family members of the missing passengers are demanding for concrete and tangible proof that their loved ones had perished in a crash, if at all there has been a crash.
Search efforts in the new target area in southern Indian Ocean were called off today due to bad weather and is set to continue tomorrow with searchers trying to gain possession of two objects found floating two days ago.
MH370 disappeared from the radar on March 8 while on its journey from KLIA to Beijing, carrying 239 passengers and crew members.
Investigators found that the plane’s communications and transponder were deliberately disabled, and the plane flying away from its original journey towards the Indian Ocean.
Malaysian Airlines’ Troubled History
Corporate mismanagement goes back
Malaysian Airlines, the flag carrier whose MH370 Boeing 777-200 disappeared on March 8 without a trace into the Indian Ocean, has been given high marks as a quality airline. Nonetheless it has a troubled corporate history and a series of scrapes going back almost to the launch of its flying operations in 1972.
The publicly traded airline’s most recent annual reports indicate losses skyrocketed by 171 percent to RM1.17 billion ($359.12 million). That follows years of lackluster performance, management changes and exploitation by cronies connected to the country’s ruling Barisan Nasional, or national coalition, particularly the United Malays National Organization. It has been the subject of repeated “turnaround plans” that turned out to be cul-de-sacs. The 2013 losses followed 2011 losses of RM2.52 billion, the largest in the airline’s history. The losses were laid to rising fuel costs and mismanagement, forcing it to cut back eight international routes.
That isn’t to say the airline’s management woes had anything to do with the disappearance of the airliner, with 239 passengers and crew aboard on the way to Beijing. They didn’t. But mismanagement and other sloppy practices have belied MAS’s record of excellent service and its flight safety record, which is on a par with other regional carriers. When it has needed to import foreign expertise – pilots – it has done so.
Nonetheless, MAS has been required to do national service, flying into low-passenger-volume areas to keep local politicians happy and has seen low-cost airlines like AirAsia, controlled by private entrepreneur Tony Fernandes, eat its lunch on both high-profit domestic and international routes. An attempt to sell the airline to Fernandes last year foundered because of union opposition and a political furor.
Cronies have repeatedly very nearly ruined the business operations, requiring a long series of government bailouts. It is now controlled by Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd., a government holding company. Kazanah Nasional, another government sovereign fund, holds a minority share.
In 1994, according to affidavits filed by one-time CEO Tajudin Ramli after a falling out with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Tajudin bought a controlling 32 percent of MAS shares at an inflated price of RM8.00 at Mahathir’s behest – while the shares were trading at RM3.30 – using disguised funds from government-linked companies to shift the excess to cover massive speculation losses in foreign exchange by Bank Negara, the country’s central bank.
When Tajudin took control of MAS in 1994 through his company, Naluri Bhd, MAS had a cash reserve in excess of RM600 million. Seven years later, in 2001, when the government bought back the airline for RM8 a share although their worth had plummeted, the state-owned airline had accumulated losses in excess of RM8 billion. The government bought back an almost bankrupt airline for the same price that it sold to Tajudin.
According to a long list of whistle-blowers within the airline, court records and investigators, Tajudin and his associates were involved in looting it of tens of millions of dollars and very nearly putting it into bankruptcy before the government buyback. When officials not connected to the United Malays National Organization recommended prosecution, they came under fire that nearly ruined their careers and almost put them in jail. Ultimately, despite evidence of Tajudin’s actions, the government settled out of court, paying him the equivalent of US$293.2 million, raising suspicions the government wished to cover up the entire affair.
Back in the hands of government sovereign funds, MAS reported losses of RM1.3 billion in 2005 despite the fact that revenue was up by 10.3 percent and passenger traffic grew 10.3 percent. The airline has 19,000 employees and efforts to cut staff have run into trouble both from unions and from the political constituency connected to the United Malays National Organization.
Too often, as with Tajudin, political cronies rather than professionals have been put in charge of running the carrier. It did chop back its domestic routes from 113 to 22 but it continues to lag its competitors. Despite the bloated employee load, it is considered to have ignored investments in customer service, especially in comparison to Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, considered to be the region’s best carriers.
MAS’s safety record isn’t unblemished, although given the record of other carriers in the region, including Garuda Indonesia, China Airlines of Taiwan, Korean International and others, it isn’t that bad. It’s worth noting, for instance, that Silk Air, a budget subsidiary of Singapore International, suffered an apparent pilot suicide in December 1997 when the pilot apparently crashed the plane in southern Sumatra, killing 97 passengers and seven crew members on board. Singapore officials attempted to cover up the reasons for the crash.
Since 1977, 20-odd other minor incidents have been recorded by air industry officials along with three fatal crashes. In recent days, the airline suffered two minor incidents that probably would not have come to press attention without the publicity surrounding the disappearance of MH370. One was an unscheduled landing by a Seoul-bound A300-330 in Hong Kong on March 23 after an electrical generator failed on the two-year-old jet. A second occurred last week when a plane suffered a shattered windscreen when it hit birds as it landed in Kathmandu, Nepal. MH370 itself suffered wing tip damage in 2012 when it clipped another aircraft on the ground at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, although it was repaired by Boeing and cleared to fly.
A more troubling question involves credible reports that an attractive South African woman named Jonti Roos and a companion were allowed to ride in the cockpit of an MAS plane with Fariq Abdul Hamid, the 27-year-old copilot aboard MH370, on a flight last year from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur. The flight included picture-taking of one of the two young women wearing the pilot’s hat. If nothing else, it brings into question MAS’s flight deck discipline and should raise red flags at the air carrier over training.
US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules promulgated in the wake of four airliners turned into bombs on Sept. 11, 2001 required cockpit doors to remain locked during flight and restricted access to the flight deck as “essential to the safety and security of the US aviation system. The FAA urged all international airlines to adopt the same standards, which applied to all non-military aircraft with cockpit doors and more than 19 seats.
The most serious incidents involving MAS planes are as follows.
Dec. 4, 1977: Boeing 737-200 crashes in swamp on approach to Subang airport, Malaysia, killing 100 passengers and crew. Suspected cause was an attempted hijacking.
Dec. 18, 1983: Airbus 300-B4 crashes in heavy rain short of runway at Subang airport. No fatalities but the plane exploded shortly after everyone escaped the wreckage. Airport officials didn’t notice anything was amiss until the passengers walked out of the mud at the end of the runway.
Sept. 15, 1995: Fokker 50 crashes after overshooting runway at Tawau airport, Malaysia, killing 34 passengers and crew. Pilot error blamed.
Oct 10, 2013: MASWings MH3002, a Twin Otter aircraft carrying 16 passengers from Kota Kinabalu to Kudat overshoots the runway and crashes into a house. The co-pilot and one passenger died and six passengers were seriously injured. This was the first incident involving MASWings, an MAS budget offshoot.
Malaysian Airlines, the flag carrier whose MH370 Boeing 777-200 disappeared on March 8 without a trace into the Indian Ocean, has been given high marks as a quality airline. Nonetheless it has a troubled corporate history and a series of scrapes going back almost to the launch of its flying operations in 1972.The publicly traded airline’s most recent annual reports indicate losses skyrocketed by 171 percent to RM1.17 billion ($359.12 million). That follows years of lackluster performance, management changes and exploitation by cronies connected to the country’s ruling Barisan Nasional, or national coalition, particularly the United Malays National Organization. It has been the subject of repeated “turnaround plans” that turned out to be cul-de-sacs. The 2013 losses followed 2011 losses of RM2.52 billion, the largest in the airline’s history. The losses were laid to rising fuel costs and mismanagement, forcing it to cut back eight international routes.
That isn’t to say the airline’s management woes had anything to do with the disappearance of the airliner, with 239 passengers and crew aboard on the way to Beijing. They didn’t. But mismanagement and other sloppy practices have belied MAS’s record of excellent service and its flight safety record, which is on a par with other regional carriers. When it has needed to import foreign expertise – pilots – it has done so.
Nonetheless, MAS has been required to do national service, flying into low-passenger-volume areas to keep local politicians happy and has seen low-cost airlines like AirAsia, controlled by private entrepreneur Tony Fernandes, eat its lunch on both high-profit domestic and international routes. An attempt to sell the airline to Fernandes last year foundered because of union opposition and a political furor.
Cronies have repeatedly very nearly ruined the business operations, requiring a long series of government bailouts. It is now controlled by Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd., a government holding company. Kazanah Nasional, another government sovereign fund, holds a minority share.
In 1994, according to affidavits filed by one-time CEO Tajudin Ramli after a falling out with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Tajudin bought a controlling 32 percent of MAS shares at an inflated price of RM8.00 at Mahathir’s behest – while the shares were trading at RM3.30 – using disguised funds from government-linked companies to shift the excess to cover massive speculation losses in foreign exchange by Bank Negara, the country’s central bank.
When Tajudin took control of MAS in 1994 through his company, Naluri Bhd, MAS had a cash reserve in excess of RM600 million. Seven years later, in 2001, when the government bought back the airline for RM8 a share although their worth had plummeted, the state-owned airline had accumulated losses in excess of RM8 billion. The government bought back an almost bankrupt airline for the same price that it sold to Tajudin.
According to a long list of whistle-blowers within the airline, court records and investigators, Tajudin and his associates were involved in looting it of tens of millions of dollars and very nearly putting it into bankruptcy before the government buyback. When officials not connected to the United Malays National Organization recommended prosecution, they came under fire that nearly ruined their careers and almost put them in jail. Ultimately, despite evidence of Tajudin’s actions, the government settled out of court, paying him the equivalent of US$293.2 million, raising suspicions the government wished to cover up the entire affair.
Back in the hands of government sovereign funds, MAS reported losses of RM1.3 billion in 2005 despite the fact that revenue was up by 10.3 percent and passenger traffic grew 10.3 percent. The airline has 19,000 employees and efforts to cut staff have run into trouble both from unions and from the political constituency connected to the United Malays National Organization.
Too often, as with Tajudin, political cronies rather than professionals have been put in charge of running the carrier. It did chop back its domestic routes from 113 to 22 but it continues to lag its competitors. Despite the bloated employee load, it is considered to have ignored investments in customer service, especially in comparison to Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, considered to be the region’s best carriers.
MAS’s safety record isn’t unblemished, although given the record of other carriers in the region, including Garuda Indonesia, China Airlines of Taiwan, Korean International and others, it isn’t that bad. It’s worth noting, for instance, that Silk Air, a budget subsidiary of Singapore International, suffered an apparent pilot suicide in December 1997 when the pilot apparently crashed the plane in southern Sumatra, killing 97 passengers and seven crew members on board. Singapore officials attempted to cover up the reasons for the crash.
Since 1977, 20-odd other minor incidents have been recorded by air industry officials along with three fatal crashes. In recent days, the airline suffered two minor incidents that probably would not have come to press attention without the publicity surrounding the disappearance of MH370. One was an unscheduled landing by a Seoul-bound A300-330 in Hong Kong on March 23 after an electrical generator failed on the two-year-old jet. A second occurred last week when a plane suffered a shattered windscreen when it hit birds as it landed in Kathmandu, Nepal. MH370 itself suffered wing tip damage in 2012 when it clipped another aircraft on the ground at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, although it was repaired by Boeing and cleared to fly.
A more troubling question involves credible reports that an attractive South African woman named Jonti Roos and a companion were allowed to ride in the cockpit of an MAS plane with Fariq Abdul Hamid, the 27-year-old copilot aboard MH370, on a flight last year from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur. The flight included picture-taking of one of the two young women wearing the pilot’s hat. If nothing else, it brings into question MAS’s flight deck discipline and should raise red flags at the air carrier over training.
US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules promulgated in the wake of four airliners turned into bombs on Sept. 11, 2001 required cockpit doors to remain locked during flight and restricted access to the flight deck as “essential to the safety and security of the US aviation system. The FAA urged all international airlines to adopt the same standards, which applied to all non-military aircraft with cockpit doors and more than 19 seats.
The most serious incidents involving MAS planes are as follows.
Dec. 4, 1977: Boeing 737-200 crashes in swamp on approach to Subang airport, Malaysia, killing 100 passengers and crew. Suspected cause was an attempted hijacking.
Dec. 18, 1983: Airbus 300-B4 crashes in heavy rain short of runway at Subang airport. No fatalities but the plane exploded shortly after everyone escaped the wreckage. Airport officials didn’t notice anything was amiss until the passengers walked out of the mud at the end of the runway.
Sept. 15, 1995: Fokker 50 crashes after overshooting runway at Tawau airport, Malaysia, killing 34 passengers and crew. Pilot error blamed.
Oct 10, 2013: MASWings MH3002, a Twin Otter aircraft carrying 16 passengers from Kota Kinabalu to Kudat overshoots the runway and crashes into a house. The co-pilot and one passenger died and six passengers were seriously injured. This was the first incident involving MASWings, an MAS budget offshoot.
MH370: Britain finds itself at centre of blame game over crucial delays
Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Inmarsat played crucial role in search for missing plane
With all hope now lost of finding their loved ones alive, relatives of the 239 people on board flight MH370 were increasingly expressing anger and resentment towards those they believe are to blame for the failure to locate the missing aircraft.
By singling out the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the British satellite firm Inmarsat as the source of the information that confirmed the Boeing 777 went down in the Indian Ocean, Malaysia’s prime minister may have directed part of that anger towards Britain.
The AAIB, working with Inmarsat, provided the only credible information on the Malaysia Airlines flight’s whereabouts, but a series of delays meant ten crucial days were lost before search teams began looking in the southern Indian Ocean, where it now seems certain the aircraft went down.
Inmarsat knew the day after MH370’s disappearance that it was likely to have flown along one of two “corridors” that later became the focus of the investigation, but vital resources were expended on looking in the wrong places because of a seeming breakdown in communications.
Exactly what went wrong, and who was to blame, remained unclear last night, but both the British and Malaysian authorities must brace themselves for a barrage of uncomfortable questions from loved ones of the dead.
The search for MH370 would have been hopeless had it not been fitted with a system called Classic Aero, a type of Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) which transmits data on location, altitude, heading and speed.
ACARS, as we now know, can be turned off manually, via a switch on the ceiling of the cockpit or behind the throttles between the pilot and co-pilot. MH370’s ACARS system was switched off at 1.21am on March 8, two minutes after the pilots’ last verbal communication with the ground. It is this deliberate act that has convinced investigators the pilots were on some form of suicide mission.
But Classic Aero also has a second terminal that operates independently of ACARS and cannot be switched off while the aircraft still has power.
Once every hour the system sends out a “ping” to satellites operated by Inmarsat. The pings play no part in ACARS, and merely serve to synchronise timing information and keep the connection to the satellite network alive.
Inmarsat, which owns 11 telecommunications satellites, supports the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System free of charge, as a public service, to help locate stricken ships and aircraft.
The day after MH370 disappeared, Inmarsat began calculating the aircraft’s movements based on the hourly pings, which carried on until 8.11am on March 8, meaning the 777 had flown for around six hours after it was last tracked by military radar off the west coast of Thailand.
The pings contain no information about location, heading or speed, meaning the only information Inmarsat had to go on was the wavelength of the pings when they reached its satellite orbiting 22,245 miles above the earth.
Variations in the wavelengths proved that the aircraft was still moving until at least 8.11am. But they did not provide any clues about direction, meaning Inmarsat could only predict that it flew either north or south along two curved “corridors”.
By adding in the aircraft’s expected speed, Inmarsat worked out that the 777 was likely to have come down somewhere at the end of the two arcs.
The firm’s spokesman Chris McLaughlin said: “What we discovered was a correlation with the southerly route and not with the northern route after the final turn that the aircraft made, so we could be as close to certain as anybody could be in that situation that it went south.
"Where we then went was to work out where the last ping was, knowing that the aircraft still had some fuel, but that it would have run out before the next automated ping. We don't know what speed the aircraft was flying at, but we assumed about 450 knots."
Inmarsat also refined its prediction by comparing the ping data with pings from previous, normal flights.
The firm’s calculations were based on inexact science, but they quickly predicted the Texas-sized area of the southern Indian Ocean where it is now accepted that the aircraft crashed.
Yet it took until March 18 before rescue teams announced they had narrowed down the search area to the location 2,000 miles west of Perth, where several sightings of debris have been made.
The terrible question now being pondered by relatives is whether anyone might have survived and could have been saved if the message had got through sooner. At the very least, opportunities to locate the aircraft’s wreckage and all-important Black Box data recorders may have been missed.
What caused the delay? Inmarsat initially shared its data with SITA, a Swiss aviation IT company, but for reasons which are not yet clear, Inmarsat’s calculations did not reach the Malaysian investigators until Wednesday, March 12.
Even then, it would be another three days before the Malaysians shared the information with the passengers’ families and the public. And it took a further three days, until Tuesday, March 18, before Australia announced it had narrowed down the search area to a defined patch of the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak, is reported to have told his investigators that all raw data had to be corroborated with other agencies before it was released to the public, to avoid the white noise of information and misinformation.
The Malaysian government has also suggested that it took a week to process all of the data it was receiving from multiple international sources and to eliminate red herrings.
According to the New York Times, US investigators tried telling the Malaysians they were looking in the wrong place a week after the aircraft disappeared, but their warnings were not heeded for several days.
France was said to have offered help on March 9 but was ignored for a week before the Malaysians finally agreed to meet experts who took part in the two-year search for the flight data recorders of the Air France jet that crashed into the sea north of Brazil in 2009.
Malaysian officials have also been accused of failing to share all the information from their own systems because they did want to admit weaknesses in their radar and satellite operations.
And while international experts would normally be told within 24 hours about ACARS data the Malaysians withheld it for several days. It was this information that suggested the Boeing 777 was deliberately turned to the west, away from its planned route to Beijing.
The most likely explanation for the delays appears to be distrust between Malaysia and the other countries involved in the search operation.
Mr Najib has said that his country “shared information in real time with authorities who have the necessary experience to interpret the data”.
The Chinese government begged to differ, asking Kuala Lumpur to provide “more detailed information in its possession, including third-party information, in a timely, accurate and comprehensive manner”.
While the arguments went on, British and US intelligence agencies were gathering military and civilian satellite images to analyse them for possible debris. Images of two pieces of suspected debris were captured by an American satellite on March 16, but it was a further three days before the centralised analysis centre in the UK reviewed them. This was blamed on the “significant volume of imagery it was handling”.
On March 19, Malaysia Airlines told SITA to use the AAIB as the main analyst of the Inmarsat data. The AAIB, part of the Department for Transport, passed on its own interpretation to Malaysia, but it was not until Sunday, March 23 that a further calculation by Inmarsat convinced the Malaysians of the aircraft’s whereabouts.
Analysts realised that their calculations had not taken into account the geostationary satellite’s very slight movements in relation to the earth. Once that was factored in, the northern corridor was ruled out completely. The calculations were sent off to be checked over the weekend before being passed to Malaysia on Sunday.
The breakthrough led to Mr Najib’s announcement at 10pm local time last night that Inmarsat and the AAIB “have been able to shed more light on MH370’s flight path”.
He said the new analysis showed that the aircraft’s last position was “a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean”.
Inmarsat is developing a new system to replace Classic Aero, that will automatically transmit location data, but international bodies have not yet made such a system mandatory.
James Healey-Pratt, a lawyer representing some victims' families, said: "This Investigation does not compare favourably to that of Air France 447, where the Families felt they received information more accurately and quickly - without the trauma of having to endure an emotional roller coaster of wildly varying theories over the causes.
"Live Streaming Black Box type data is the simple solution.”
Both Inmarsat and the AAIB declined to comment on Malaysia’s handling of the investigation.
With all hope now lost of finding their loved ones alive, relatives of the 239 people on board flight MH370 were increasingly expressing anger and resentment towards those they believe are to blame for the failure to locate the missing aircraft.
By singling out the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the British satellite firm Inmarsat as the source of the information that confirmed the Boeing 777 went down in the Indian Ocean, Malaysia’s prime minister may have directed part of that anger towards Britain.
The AAIB, working with Inmarsat, provided the only credible information on the Malaysia Airlines flight’s whereabouts, but a series of delays meant ten crucial days were lost before search teams began looking in the southern Indian Ocean, where it now seems certain the aircraft went down.
Inmarsat knew the day after MH370’s disappearance that it was likely to have flown along one of two “corridors” that later became the focus of the investigation, but vital resources were expended on looking in the wrong places because of a seeming breakdown in communications.
Exactly what went wrong, and who was to blame, remained unclear last night, but both the British and Malaysian authorities must brace themselves for a barrage of uncomfortable questions from loved ones of the dead.
The search for MH370 would have been hopeless had it not been fitted with a system called Classic Aero, a type of Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) which transmits data on location, altitude, heading and speed.
ACARS, as we now know, can be turned off manually, via a switch on the ceiling of the cockpit or behind the throttles between the pilot and co-pilot. MH370’s ACARS system was switched off at 1.21am on March 8, two minutes after the pilots’ last verbal communication with the ground. It is this deliberate act that has convinced investigators the pilots were on some form of suicide mission.
But Classic Aero also has a second terminal that operates independently of ACARS and cannot be switched off while the aircraft still has power.
Once every hour the system sends out a “ping” to satellites operated by Inmarsat. The pings play no part in ACARS, and merely serve to synchronise timing information and keep the connection to the satellite network alive.
Inmarsat, which owns 11 telecommunications satellites, supports the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System free of charge, as a public service, to help locate stricken ships and aircraft.The day after MH370 disappeared, Inmarsat began calculating the aircraft’s movements based on the hourly pings, which carried on until 8.11am on March 8, meaning the 777 had flown for around six hours after it was last tracked by military radar off the west coast of Thailand.
The pings contain no information about location, heading or speed, meaning the only information Inmarsat had to go on was the wavelength of the pings when they reached its satellite orbiting 22,245 miles above the earth.
Variations in the wavelengths proved that the aircraft was still moving until at least 8.11am. But they did not provide any clues about direction, meaning Inmarsat could only predict that it flew either north or south along two curved “corridors”.
By adding in the aircraft’s expected speed, Inmarsat worked out that the 777 was likely to have come down somewhere at the end of the two arcs.
The firm’s spokesman Chris McLaughlin said: “What we discovered was a correlation with the southerly route and not with the northern route after the final turn that the aircraft made, so we could be as close to certain as anybody could be in that situation that it went south.
"Where we then went was to work out where the last ping was, knowing that the aircraft still had some fuel, but that it would have run out before the next automated ping. We don't know what speed the aircraft was flying at, but we assumed about 450 knots."
Inmarsat also refined its prediction by comparing the ping data with pings from previous, normal flights.
The firm’s calculations were based on inexact science, but they quickly predicted the Texas-sized area of the southern Indian Ocean where it is now accepted that the aircraft crashed.
Yet it took until March 18 before rescue teams announced they had narrowed down the search area to the location 2,000 miles west of Perth, where several sightings of debris have been made.
The terrible question now being pondered by relatives is whether anyone might have survived and could have been saved if the message had got through sooner. At the very least, opportunities to locate the aircraft’s wreckage and all-important Black Box data recorders may have been missed.
What caused the delay? Inmarsat initially shared its data with SITA, a Swiss aviation IT company, but for reasons which are not yet clear, Inmarsat’s calculations did not reach the Malaysian investigators until Wednesday, March 12.
Even then, it would be another three days before the Malaysians shared the information with the passengers’ families and the public. And it took a further three days, until Tuesday, March 18, before Australia announced it had narrowed down the search area to a defined patch of the southern Indian Ocean.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak, is reported to have told his investigators that all raw data had to be corroborated with other agencies before it was released to the public, to avoid the white noise of information and misinformation.
The Malaysian government has also suggested that it took a week to process all of the data it was receiving from multiple international sources and to eliminate red herrings.
According to the New York Times, US investigators tried telling the Malaysians they were looking in the wrong place a week after the aircraft disappeared, but their warnings were not heeded for several days.
France was said to have offered help on March 9 but was ignored for a week before the Malaysians finally agreed to meet experts who took part in the two-year search for the flight data recorders of the Air France jet that crashed into the sea north of Brazil in 2009.
Malaysian officials have also been accused of failing to share all the information from their own systems because they did want to admit weaknesses in their radar and satellite operations.
And while international experts would normally be told within 24 hours about ACARS data the Malaysians withheld it for several days. It was this information that suggested the Boeing 777 was deliberately turned to the west, away from its planned route to Beijing.
The most likely explanation for the delays appears to be distrust between Malaysia and the other countries involved in the search operation.
Mr Najib has said that his country “shared information in real time with authorities who have the necessary experience to interpret the data”.
The Chinese government begged to differ, asking Kuala Lumpur to provide “more detailed information in its possession, including third-party information, in a timely, accurate and comprehensive manner”.
While the arguments went on, British and US intelligence agencies were gathering military and civilian satellite images to analyse them for possible debris. Images of two pieces of suspected debris were captured by an American satellite on March 16, but it was a further three days before the centralised analysis centre in the UK reviewed them. This was blamed on the “significant volume of imagery it was handling”.
On March 19, Malaysia Airlines told SITA to use the AAIB as the main analyst of the Inmarsat data. The AAIB, part of the Department for Transport, passed on its own interpretation to Malaysia, but it was not until Sunday, March 23 that a further calculation by Inmarsat convinced the Malaysians of the aircraft’s whereabouts.
Analysts realised that their calculations had not taken into account the geostationary satellite’s very slight movements in relation to the earth. Once that was factored in, the northern corridor was ruled out completely. The calculations were sent off to be checked over the weekend before being passed to Malaysia on Sunday.
The breakthrough led to Mr Najib’s announcement at 10pm local time last night that Inmarsat and the AAIB “have been able to shed more light on MH370’s flight path”.
He said the new analysis showed that the aircraft’s last position was “a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean”.
Inmarsat is developing a new system to replace Classic Aero, that will automatically transmit location data, but international bodies have not yet made such a system mandatory.
James Healey-Pratt, a lawyer representing some victims' families, said: "This Investigation does not compare favourably to that of Air France 447, where the Families felt they received information more accurately and quickly - without the trauma of having to endure an emotional roller coaster of wildly varying theories over the causes.
"Live Streaming Black Box type data is the simple solution.”
Both Inmarsat and the AAIB declined to comment on Malaysia’s handling of the investigation.
Karpal appeals against fine
The New Straits Times
By HIDIR REDUAN
By HIDIR REDUAN
SEDITION CONVICTION: Notice filed at Kuala Lumpur High Court Criminal Registry
PUTRAJAYA:
DAP chairman and Bukit Gelugor member of parliament Karpal Singh filed
a notice of appeal against the High Court's decision ordering him to
pay a RM4,000 fine for committing sedition against the sultan of Perak
five years ago.
"The
notice of appeal against the sentence was filed at the Kuala Lumpur
High Court Criminal Registry today (yesterday) and copies have been
served on the Attorney-General and the Court of Appeal Registry," said
Karpal's counsel Zaleha al-Hayat.
On
whether veteran lawyer Karpal has filed a notice of appeal against his
conviction as well, Zaleha said the notice was filed a day after
Karpal's conviction on Feb 21. The High Court here found Karpal, 73,
guilty of committing the offence at a press conference held at his law
firm here between noon and 12.30pm on Feb 6, 2009.
However,
judge Datuk Azman Abdullah allowed the defence's application for
sentencing be deferred to allow Karpal to prepare mitigation for a
lenient sentence.
On
March 11, the High Court fined Karpal RM4,000 after submissions by the
defence and deputy public prosecutor Noorin Badaruddin. Karpal paid the
fine.
Search For Debris, Framework, Objects Linked To MH370 Can Go On For Weeks, Months
KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 (Bernama) -- After the fate of Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370 was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib
Tun Razak yesterday, the search for concrete evidence is now focused on
the southern part of the southern corridor in the Indian Ocean.
"What we have to do in the coming weeks and months is to look for the debris, framework and objects linked to MH370 so that we can confirm unequivocally that the flight went down in the southern Indian Ocean," Najib said.
The prime minister had announced last night that the flight path of the aircraft had "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".
In a special motion tabled in the Dewan Rakyat Tuesday, Najib also recorded condolence to all the families, friends and acquaintances of the 227 passengers and 12 crew of Flight MH370 that disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.
Najib said that though the real answer to the mystery of the lost aircraft could only be gleaned from the cockpit conversation recorded in the black box, a thorough investigation must be carried out in a professional manner and with commitment.
As a result of this new data analysis, the search and rescue operation in the northern corridor and northern part of the southern corridor, close to Indonesia, had been called off.
The northern corridor stretches from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) in a statement today said the search for missing flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean has been suspended due to bad weather and rough seas.
It said the area was expected to experience waves of up to two metres and an associated swell of up to four metres, strong gale force winds of up to 80km per hour, periods of heavy rain, and low cloud with a ceiling between 60 and 150 metres.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said MAS had provided an initial financial assistance of US$5,000 (RM16,000) per passenger to the next-of-kin of passengers of Flight MH370.
Ahmad Jauhari said that since the disappearance of Flight MH370 on March 8, MAS' focus had been to comfort and support the families of those involved and support the multi-national search effort.
Meanwhile, Inspector-general of police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said police would not release any findings on the passengers and crew of the Boeing 777 plane, as it will jeopardise the ongoing investigation.
He, however noted that the initial four areas of focus -- hijacking, sabotage, psychological and personal problems, had not changed.
"What we have to do in the coming weeks and months is to look for the debris, framework and objects linked to MH370 so that we can confirm unequivocally that the flight went down in the southern Indian Ocean," Najib said.
The prime minister had announced last night that the flight path of the aircraft had "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".
In a special motion tabled in the Dewan Rakyat Tuesday, Najib also recorded condolence to all the families, friends and acquaintances of the 227 passengers and 12 crew of Flight MH370 that disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.
Najib said that though the real answer to the mystery of the lost aircraft could only be gleaned from the cockpit conversation recorded in the black box, a thorough investigation must be carried out in a professional manner and with commitment.
As a result of this new data analysis, the search and rescue operation in the northern corridor and northern part of the southern corridor, close to Indonesia, had been called off.
The northern corridor stretches from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) in a statement today said the search for missing flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean has been suspended due to bad weather and rough seas.
It said the area was expected to experience waves of up to two metres and an associated swell of up to four metres, strong gale force winds of up to 80km per hour, periods of heavy rain, and low cloud with a ceiling between 60 and 150 metres.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said MAS had provided an initial financial assistance of US$5,000 (RM16,000) per passenger to the next-of-kin of passengers of Flight MH370.
Ahmad Jauhari said that since the disappearance of Flight MH370 on March 8, MAS' focus had been to comfort and support the families of those involved and support the multi-national search effort.
Meanwhile, Inspector-general of police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said police would not release any findings on the passengers and crew of the Boeing 777 plane, as it will jeopardise the ongoing investigation.
He, however noted that the initial four areas of focus -- hijacking, sabotage, psychological and personal problems, had not changed.
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