Must-Read: MH370 Preliminary Report Reveals Authorities Delayed SAR Operations
Malaysian authorities are now battling to piece together MH370's final hours in the hope of finding its wreckage and bring more closure on what happened to the 239 passengers and crew. Preliminary details were released on 1 May in a short report.
By Sadho Ram — 02 May 2014, 02:10 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
On 1 May, Malaysian Government Issued A Preliminary Report On MH370. The Five-Page Report Has Only Been Released Under Intense Public Pressure.
According To The Preliminary Report, Air-Traffic Controllers Did Not Realise That MH370 Was Missing Until 17 Minutes After It Disappeared From Civilian Radar
Seventeen minutes passed after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from civilian radar screens before air traffic controllers in Vietnam and Malaysia raised any concerns about it, according to a Malaysian government report released Thursday that described confusion and miscommunication in the hours that followed.
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The Report Also Revealed That Malaysian Authorities Took Four Hours To Start A SAR Operation For MH370
The five-page report did not detail what Malaysian authorities did during that four-hour period, except that they contacted Singapore, Hong Kong and Cambodia regarding MH370. The report was dated April 9. Flight MH370 went missing on March 8. Most of the 229 passengers, who were travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, were Chinese.
nation.lk
The Government Also Released Audio Recordings Of Conversations Between The Cockpit And Air-Traffic Controller, MH370's Cargo Manifest And Its Seating Plan
It provided a map showing the Boeing 777's deduced flight path and a document detailing actions taken by authorities during the hours of confusion that followed the jet's disappearance near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace. Many of the details have previously been disclosed.
firstpost.com
The cargo manifest includes a receipt for a package containing lithium ion batteries, noting that the package "must be handled with care." Some questions had been raised in March about the batteries, but Malaysia Airlines said then that they were in compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Air Transport Association requirements and classified as "non-dangerous goods."
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The report noted that there is no requirement for real-time tracking of commercial aircraft and that the uncertainty about Flight 370’s last position made it more difficult to locate the plane. It recommended that international aviation authorities examine the safety benefits of introducing a tracking standard.
The Report Indicated The Initial Search Efforts For MH370 Were Dogged By Miscommunication And Mistakes That Began While The Plane Was Still In Flight
The plane took off at 12:41 a.m. from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, bound for Beijing. It disappeared from Malaysian air traffic controllers’ radar at 1:21 a.m. local time, when the plane was near airspace managed by controllers in Vietnam.
bostonglobe.com
17 minutes later, at 1:38 a.m., the Vietnamese controllers noted that something was amiss and “made a query” to their Malaysian counterparts, the report said. The investigation revealed that the Malaysia Airlines operations center sowed confusion when it told Kuala Lumpur air traffic control at 2:15 a.m. that the plane’s signals showed it was “flying in Cambodian airspace,” according to a timeline accompanying the report.
japantimes.co.jp
At 2:35 a.m., nearly an hour after the plane disappeared from civilian radar, the airline’s operations center told the Kuala Lumpur control center that a “signal download” from the plane indicated that it was halfway up the Vietnam coast on its regular flight path. The Kuala Lumpur controllers passed that information to Vietnam two minutes later, and for the next hour, air traffic controllers in the region tried in vain to contact the plane.
firstpost.com
Only at 3:30 a.m. did the airline tell controllers that the information it had given was “not reliable for aircraft positioning,” according to the timeline. The Kuala Lumpur Rescue Coordination Center went into action two hours later, after “all effort to communicate and locate the aircraft failed,” the report said. The plane was probably still flying at that time, investigators have concluded.
bostonglobe.com
Three Malaysian Military Bases Radar Systems Had Tracked MH370, But The Investigator’s Account Does Not Mention Any Effort To Contact Any Of Them
The report did not explain why the military radar installation at Butterworth, which doubles as a civilian air traffic control station, did not take part in communications among air traffic controllers across the region about the missing plane. Military radar last recorded a trace of the plane at 2:22 a.m., as it was flying west past the Malacca Strait and out into the ocean.
Last Week, PM Najib Appointed A Team Of Experts To Review The Info The Government Has Regarding MH370 And Decide Which Info Should Be Made Public
"The prime minister set, as a guiding principle, the rule that as long as the release of a particular piece of information does not hamper the investigation or the search operation, in the interests of openness and transparency, the information should be made public," Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in a statement Thursday.
malaysiakini.comHishammuddin said authorities reviewed data from Malaysian military radar hours after the plane vanished from civilian radar, and only discovered then that it had tracked the jet making a turn-back in a westerly direction across Peninsular Malaysia.
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He said he was informed about the military discovery two hours later and relayed this to Najib, who immediately ordered a search in the Strait of Malacca. He defended the military's inaction in pursuing the plane for identification. "The aircraft was categorized as friendly by the radar operator and therefore no further action was taken at the time," Hishammuddin said.
firstpost.com
Meanwhile, Locals Said The Government Spent Too Much Time Investigating MH370 Only To Release A Preliminary Report Without Concrete Findings
Nineteen-year-old Nor Za Wani finds it strange that, despite having so much information, authorities could not find Flight MH370
Image via solarnews.phMalaysians said on Thursday (May 1) the government spent too much time on the investigation into missing flight NH370 only to release a preliminary report on without concrete findings on the fate of the plane.
"To me it's weird because they already have a lot of information but cannot find the wreckage of the plane. And the process (to release the report) took too long yet they cannot come out any new findings," said 19-year-old Nor Za Wani about the report which was released on Thursday.
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