A couple of thoughts before the article.   First, it’s good to see some independent analysts openly reminding people the Inmarsat data was symmetrical not directional.   Meaning the ‘handshakes’ with the satellite could have happened on either Northern or Southern arcs.    Beyond guessing, and apart from the detected 4 pings, there is no empirical evidence to suggest the flight headed South.
Secondly, the search area identified by the Towed Ping Locator, which identified four signals they thought were MH370 black boxes,  has now been completely searched, no plane.    From the location of the 1st signal to the location of the 4th signal (North and South, East and West) the entire ‘ping-grid’ per se’, has now been swept by sonar imaging and they have found nothing.

(Via Daily Mail) The fruitless search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet might have to start all over again from scratch if no clues to its fate are found in coming days, it was claimed today.
The international team searching the Indian Ocean for the Boeing 777 are now considering the seemingly impossible scenario of the aircraft having ‘landed’ somewhere, instead of crashing in the southern Indian Ocean. (more…)

One stupid 14-year-old now has a life on Interpol’s watch list to look forward to.   In the modern era of interconnected intelligence mining and social networking, the next generation of “free people” will be known as those few who remained blissfully off the grid.   Teach the youth, children, your grandchildren, all of them, to avoid this level of foolishness.   The modern world consequences are staggering. 

(USA TODAY)  A 14-year-old girl who sent a terroristic tweet to American Airlines has been arrested by authorities in the Netherlands, The Associated Press reports.
Police spokesman Roland Ekkers tells the news agency that the girl turned herself in to Rotterdam police in and is now being interrogated. The girl, who was not identified, was with a parent when she turned herself.

Ekkers said the motive for the tweet is not yet known. (more…)

Australian search team leader, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, has announced that after 6 consecutive days of no further signal detections they are calling off the use of the Towed Ping Locator.  

In addition Angus Houston says: “the chance of finding any floating debris has diminished”; and visual debris searches are due to be discontinued in the next 48 hours pending further consultation with all parties assisting in visual search…..

The search team has determined to go underwater. They are moving to deploy the autonomous underwater side scan radar known as Bluefin-21.
Each deployment of the Bluefin-21 will take 24 hours. Two hours to reach depth (approx. 4,500 meters); 16 hours “on station” as it sweeps the sea floor [5k x 8k];  two more hours to resurface, and four hours to download and prepare for redeployment.
The use of the Bluefin-21 side-scan radar begins today. (more…)

Other than Australian Search authorities saying they located four pings of similar profile to the black boxes, not so much has come to light about missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH-370.  
However, the Malaysian authorities are backtracking on their prior position that all crew and passengers were cleared with investigation and background checks.    In addition they are now saying the Co-Pilot may have tried to make a call during the odd directional changes.

(Via Daily Mail)  The co-pilot of missing flight MH370 made a call from his mobile phone while the aircraft flew low over the west coast of Malaysia, it was revealed today as the U.S. denied reports the plane landed at a military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia. (more…)

SEARCH crews have relocated signals, hoped to be from MH370’s black box, another two times.

AUSTRALIA – Search coordinator and retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston has told reporters in Perth the discovery by Australian ship Ocean is “further encouraging”.

“The detection yesterday afternoon was held for approximately five minutes and 32 seconds,” he said.  “The detection late last night was held for approximately 7 minutes.”
It takes the number of transmissions detected by Ocean Shield to four.
“Yesterday’s signals will assist in better defining a reduced and much more manageable search area on the ocean floor,” the coordinator added. (more…)

Air Chief Marshal Houston has told Radio 3AW he was concerned that there haven’t been any further signal detections today.

“The worry we have is that we haven’t been able to reacquire it,” he told 3AW radio.

“Underwater searching with an autonomous underwater vehicle takes an awful long time so it’s not like using an aircraft. You literally crawl along the ocean floor.” (link)

Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss described today as “critical”, as crews try and reconnect with the signals.

“The connections two days ago were obviously a time of great hope that there had been a significant breakthrough and it was disappointing that we were unable to repeat that experience yesterday,” Mr Truss told reporters in Sydney.
(more…)

The Australian Authorities, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, are announcing the Australian Defence Vessel, Ocean Shield, has found two distinct possibilities of independent return ping signals which align with the same frequency and identity as the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder of missing Malaysian flight MH-370.

Today, I can report some very encouraging information which has unfolded over the last 24 hours,” he told reporters in Perth

The initial signal was identified and held for two hours and twenty minutes as the Towed Pinger locator was dragged behind a 10 mile cable which suspends the sonar device at varying depths up to 3,000 meters.
The “ping signal” strengthened and weakened as both horizontal (distance) and vertical (depth) were travelled by the locator.    Two independent “ping signals” were identified.
According to U.S. authorities (in command of the locator) this solidifies a pattern consistent with both the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR).  The sonar ‘ping’ signals were each recorded visually and acoustically.  (more…)

The odds are so astronomical that China could just “happen upon” the exact location of the missing airliner’s black boxes…..  such that, something else would be ab-so-lute-ly at play if this report turns out to be accurate. 

PERTH, Australia (AP) – A Chinese ship involved in the hunt for the missing Malaysian jetliner reported hearing a “pulse signal” Saturday in southern Indian Ocean waters with the same frequency emitted by the plane’s data recorders, as Malaysia vowed not to give up the search for the jet.
The Australian government agency coordinating the search for the missing plane said early Sunday that the electronic pulse signals reportedly detected by the Chinese ship are consistent with those of an aircraft black box. But retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the search coordination agency, said they “cannot verify any connection” at this stage between the electronic signals and the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Military and civilian planes, ships with deep-sea searching equipment and a British nuclear submarine scoured a remote patch of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast, in an increasingly urgent hunt for debris and the “black box” recorders that hold vital information about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s last hours. (more…)

Open Topic Discussion – Anything Goes…

Do you think the search team, or more importantly the statistical probability team, have any real substantive chance of EVER finding it ?

Gee, ya think.  Figured that out all on your own did ya ?

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) — The investigation into Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is now classified as a criminal investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing the Malaysian police chief.

Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said authorities have already recorded more than 170 statements and will interview more people for the Flight 370 probe, the Journal said.

But Bakar cautioned that what happened with Flight 370 might still be unknown after the investigation.

He added that the investigation into the flight simulator in the pilot’s house is still inconclusive. Authorities are awaiting an expert’s report on the simulator, he said. (more…)