New York has obtained a
confidential document from the Malaysian police investigation into the
disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that shows that the
plane’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep
into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane
vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. The revelation, which
Malaysia withheld from a lengthy public report on the investigation, is
the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a
premeditated act of mass murder-suicide.
The document presents the findings of the Malaysian police’s
investigation into Zaharie. It reveals that after the plane disappeared
in March of 2014, Malaysia turned over to the FBI hard drives that
Zaharie used to record sessions on an elaborate home-built flight
simulator. The FBI was able to recover six deleted data points that had
been stored by the Microsoft Flight Simulator X program in the weeks
before MH370 disappeared, according to the document. Each point records
the airplane’s altitude, speed, direction of flight, and other key
parameters at a given moment. The document reads, in part:
Based on the Forensics Analysis conducted on the 5 HDDs
obtained from the Flight Simulator from MH370 Pilot’s house, we found a
flight path, that lead to the Southern Indian Ocean, among the numerous
other flight paths charted on the Flight Simulator, that could be of
interest, as contained in Table 2.
Taken together, these points show a flight that departs Kuala Lumpur,
heads northwest over the Malacca Strait, then turns left and heads
south over the Indian Ocean, continuing until fuel exhaustion over an
empty stretch of sea.
And the comparison I made with EgyptAir 990 a few days after the disappearance (see first link above) was apt for another reason.
The newly unveiled documents, however,
suggest Malaysian officials have suppressed at least one key piece of
incriminating information. This is not entirely surprising: There is a
history in aircraft investigations of national safety boards refusing to
believe that their pilots could have intentionally crashed an aircraft
full of passengers. After EgyptAir 990 went down near Martha’s Vineyard
in 1999, for example, Egyptian officials angrily rejected the U.S.
National Transport Safety Board finding that the pilot had deliberately
steered the plane into the sea. Indonesian officials likewise rejected
the NTSB finding that the 1997 crash of SilkAir 185 was an act of pilot
suicide.
Left unsaid, there's something every one of those airlines has in common: They're from countries that aren't Amish.
Of course, the better question is why the FBI kept this quiet for so long.
I wonder if you can file a lawsuit in Malaysia....
Russian plane brought down by 'external force' in Sinai
Russia is saying that a Kogalymavia Airlines passenger jet that crashed in Sinai on Saturday while enroute from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg was brought down by an 'external force.' ISIS has claimed that it shot the plane down presumably as revenge for Russian military activity in Syria. All 224 passengers and crew on the plane were killed.
"We exclude technical problems and reject
human error," Alexander Smirnov, a Kogalymavia airline official, said at
a Moscow news conference as he discussed possible causes of the crash.
He
added that the crew did not issue any warnings or communications during
the final moments, indicating that the flight crew must have been
disabled and not able to radio out.
However,
Smirnov said that while the plane's flight and voice data recorders had
been recovered, they had not been read or decoded.
But no one else wants to believe that ISIS is responsible. No one, that is, except Lufthansa, Air France, Emirates, Air Arabia and Air Dubai, all of which have announced that they will not be flying over Sinai until further notice. This is from the first link.
Officials have played down an apparent
claim by Islamic militants in Sinai that they brought down the Airbus
A321-200, saying technical failure is the most likely reason for the
crash.
But so far, they haven't been
able to give a definitive explanation for what happened, with the
Egyptian President suggesting investigations could take months.
This is not the first flight out of Sharm to crash since Israel returned the resort to Egypt as part of the Camp David treaty. In 2004, a Flash Airlines charter flight from Sharm to Paris crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff. A former work colleague of mine who had subsequently moved to France was aboard that flight.
You might recall that in 2006, El Al announced that all of its planes are equipped with the Flight Guard anti-missile system. In 2008, American Airlines decided that the system was too expensive for its planes. Given that this is the second time in the last 16 months that a commercial passenger jet has been shot down, perhaps the airlines ought to consider installing the Flight Guard system.
Greetings once again from thirty-something thousand feet. This time I'm on my way to... Philadelphia (sorry Philly fans - not staying very long and not planning to leave the airport).
Remember President Hussein Obama's and Hillary Clinton's non-existent 'Asia re-pivot' from the first term? Michael Rubin argues that it's Israel that ought to be re-pivoting toward Asia and away from the Jew-hating Europeans.
Israel has long considered itself almost a European country; the
European immigration that marked early Zionism shaped that character,
even if geography and immigration from Turkey, Iran, India, and the Arab
world also bestowed Israel with a Middle Eastern character. Indeed, Tel
Aviv is much like Alexandria and Beirut once were, and like Istanbul
still is, at least for the time being: a veritable mixing grounds of
east and west.
For too long, however, Israel has if not ignored Asia than put it on
the backburner. Sure, there was been sporadic outreach to China, but
this was both half-hearted and misguided: When it comes to the Middle
East, Beijing is the ultimate realist. Immediate commercial concerns
means everything, broader principle mean little if anything.
India—the world’s largest democracy—was largely hostile to the Jewish
state for the same reason it was hostile to the United States. Indian
nationalist diplomat Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon coined the term
‘non-alignment’ in a 1953 United Nations speech, and the following year
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, co-founded the
Non-Aligned Movement. In theory, it sought a third path separate from
the Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States but
in practice it was marked by disproportionate hostility to the West.
Non-alignment, a fondness for socialism, and a suffocating
bureaucracy hostile both to direct foreign investment and free market
enterprises long restrained India’s economic potential. While India
still has a way to go, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to bring
India’s economy, political culture, and foreign into the 21st
century. He recognizes how much India and Israel have in common. They
are both democracies in a region where democracies otherwise have not
thrived. And Islamist radicals target them both. In the case of both,
land disputes — be they have Jerusalem and its environs in Israel’s
case, or the Kashmir in India’s — are only an excuse for a far more
murderous agenda.
Earlier this year, Modi announced that he would become the first Indian leader to visit Israel. Among tech-savvy Indians, the twitter hashtag #IndiaWithIsrael is trending. Nor does it seem that Modi’s looming visit will be the end-all and be-all of warming ties. As COMMENTARY readers know, the UN Human Rights Council has long been a cesspool of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias. Consider these statistics
of cumulative Council condemnations from its founding in 2006 to the
present: Israel has been condemned more than 60 times, yet slave-holding
Mauritania, blogger-whipping Saudi Arabia, journalist-repressing
Turkey, freedom-extinguishing China, migrant worker-killing Qatar, and
expansionist Russia have faced no condemnation. Condemning Israel has
become a knee-jerk reaction around the world and, for decades, it has
been India’s position as well. But on Friday, July 3, India shocked
the Council by abstaining on its condemnation of Israeli actions in
last year’s Gaza War. Now an abstention isn’t the same as a vote
against, but clearly India-Israel relations are on the upswing, or could
be if Israeli leaders are willing to work hard to cultivate them.
But India is not alone. The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)
has long sought to cultivate ties between Israel and other Southeast
Asian countries—Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, and
even Malaysia. The momentum is promising, as have been the results
considering the relatively small scale. If Israel made a concerted
effort to cultivate these ties, they might find a much more receptive
audience than in past years. Not only would this create a strategic
buffer, but it might also correct the narrative that all Muslims embrace
the radical, anti-peace positions put forward by more rejectionist Arab
states and European and American proponents of the Boycott, Divestment,
and Sanctions (BDS) movement. After all, Indonesia is the largest
Muslim country on earth by population, and India the second largest,
even though it is not even majority Muslim.
Such diplomacy need not be an either-or scenario, but just as
Washington navel-gazes and forgets that the United States and the
targets of our interest are not alone in the sandbox, so, too, do
Europeans forget that they are not the world’s moral barometer or the
doyens of the elite club with which everyone wants favor. Not only is
Southeast Asia booming as many of its countries largely abandon ruinous
socialist practices and authoritarianism, but many now also face the
same Islamist terror threat which Israel has been confronting for
decades.
By the way, found out yesterday that someone we know - an American married to a Spaniard living in France for more than 20 years - is immigrating to Israel this summer with her family. Last Jew out of Europe should please shut the lights of decency, human rights and intellectual achievement. Europe's brain drain is exactly what it deserves.
Report: Lubitz tweeted "A Germany in which religious feelings have more rights than the meaning of freedom - is not my Germany"
Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane who deliberately crashed in the Alps on Tuesday killing 150 people, retweeted (actually looks more like shared on Facebook) the photo above, with the caption "A Germany in which religious feelings have more rights than the meaning of freedom - is not my Germany." (Hat Tip: Mike K).
And the New York Times reported on Friday that Lubitz "lived, at least part time, with his parents. Mr. Lubitz’s mother was an organist at a Protestant church near the town center.”
Mike K adds:
Here is the sad, but probably true story.
He is not a murderer or Muslim.
He took medications which overcame him as he flew. The
Pharmaceuticals do not tell the public all the
side-effects of their meds. They put people into murderous, zombie
like states. Most school shooters were on anti-depressants.
There is every reason to believe that this guy may have been overcome by
his medications. Medications
which are legal for pilots to take. The FAA allows pilots to fly on
SSRI anti-deressants (Click
Here)
SSRI medications are chemically similar to LSD-25. He could
have had a flash back without warning.
He did not say Allahu Aqbar. Those are the magic words required to
get 72 virgins. So he was probably
NOT Muslim.
His heart rate remained steady. Not something one would expect from a
man soon expecting death.
His medication probably did this to him, or a medical condition.
Morally, his culpability may be minor or non-existent.
German media: Germanwings co-pilot did it for Allah
German media is confirming that Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Gunter Lubitz had converted to Islam. Lubitz was the co-pilot of the Germanwings Airbus A-320 who deliberately flew the plane into a mountain in the French Alps on Tuesday killing all 150 people on board, after locking the pilot out of the cockpit cabin.
A German news website claims Andreas Lubitz was a Muslim convert. Speisa.com reported:
According to Michael Mannheimer, a writer for German
PI-News, Germany now has its own 9/11, thanks to the convert to Islam,
Andreas Lubitz.
Translation from German: All evidence indicates that the copilot of Airbus machine in
his six-months break during his training as a pilot in Germanwings,
converted to Islam and subsequently either by the order of
“radical”, ie. devout Muslims , or received the order from the book of
terror, the Quran, on his own accord decided to carry out this mass
murder. As a radical mosque in Bremen is in the center of the investigation, in which the convert was staying often,
it can be assumed that he – as Mohammed Atta, in the attack against New
York – received his instructions directly from the immediate vicinity
of the mosque. Converts are the most important weapon of Islam.
Because their resume do not suggests that they often are particularly
violent Muslims. Thus Germany now has its own 9/11, but in a reduced
form. And so it is clear that Islam is a terrorist organization that are
in accordance with §129a of the Criminal Code to prohibit it and to
investigate its followers. But nothing will happen. One can bet that the
apologists (media, politics, “Islamic Scholars”) will agree to assign
this an act of a “mentally unstable” man, and you can bet that now, once
again the mantra of how supposedly peaceful Islam is will continue. And
worse still, the attacks by the left against those who have always
warned against Islam, will be angrier and merciless.
For now the German Islam supporters like never before have their backs against the wall.
Michael Mannheimer, 26.3.2015
Apparently from the comments at German PI – Andreas Lubitz was Muslim convert from his Facebook page.
Of course, in much of the West it remains politically incorrect to mention these facts. And there is little hope that the airlines will screen their pilots for religious beliefs. Until they get hit with a huge lawsuit because they should have known something like this.
Airlines are changing procedures to ensure two crew are in the cockpit at all times following the Germanwings tragedy that killed 150 people.
...
Now budget carrier EasyJet has announced the move will come into force tomorrow - and aviation insiders say there are moves to make it 'mandatory' across airlines.
The move comes after the Civil Aviation Authority urged airlines to review their policies to avoid the pilot or co-pilot being alone at the controls.
An easyJet spokeswoman said: 'easyJet can confirm that, with effect from Friday 27 March, it will change its procedure which will mean that two crew members will be in the cockpit at all times.
'This decision has been taken in consultation with the Civil Aviation Authority. The safety and security and of its passengers and crew is the airline's highest priority.'
EasyJet said a cabin crew member will temporarily enter the cockpit if the pilot or co-pilot needs the toilet. The airline will not have a third trained pilot on board.
And a spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said: 'We always ensure we have the highest safety standards and, while it is our common practise to have two members of our crew in the flight deck at all times, in light of recent events we are now in the process of formalising this to be policy.'
So now commercial air travel will be safe so long as both pilots are not Muslims... and so long as a flight attendant is willing and able to overpower a suicidal pilot.
Questions about the religious background of Andreas Lubitz, the
Germanwings pilot who investigators said deliberately crashed a plane in
the French Alps this week, killing all on board, have sparked outrage
and debate about whether such information is relevant to the
investigation. When a reporter asked French Prosecutor Brice Robin of
Marseille, during a news conference Thursday, whether he knew Lubitz’s
religion, Robin said he did not know and added, “I don’t think that’s
where the answer to this lies.”
The question suggested that Lubitz’s religious background was
relevant to the investigation behind the pilot’s alleged deliberate
downing of Germanwings Flight 9525 on Tuesday. Robin said the crash did
not show any signs of terrorism. Some were appalled by the reporter’s
inquiry.
“This line of questioning makes no sense to me whatsoever,” said
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, an associate professor of political science with
a courtesy appointment in religious studies at Northwestern University
in Illinois. “I find it disturbing and depressing that at a time like
this some people feel compelled to search desperately for explanations
that presume religious causation.”
Really, Professor Hurd? NO SENSE? It's all just a coincidence?
In 1999, the pilot of a Boeing 767 intentionally plunged the fully
loaded plane into the Atlantic Ocean 30 minutes after takeoff from New
York City on a nonstop flight to Cairo. An investigation found the
pilot, Gamal al-Batouti, had said several times in
Arabic, “I rely on God,” as the plane's autopilot function was
disconnected and Egypt Air 999 plunged. The phrase is often associated
with the moments before death.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that no
mechanical event could have caused the plane to dive. But Egyptian
officials never accepted the conclusion that al-Batouti had
intentionally crashed, and conspiracy theories spread.
Investigators are now telling the London Telegraph that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was taken on a suicide mission.
The team investigating the Boeing 777’s disappearance believe no malfunction
or fire was capable of causing the aircraft’s unusual flight or the
disabling of its communications system before it veered wildly off course on
a seven-hour silent flight into the sea. An analysis of the flight’s
routing, signalling and communications shows that it was flown “in a
rational way”.
An official source told The Telegraph that investigators believe “this has
been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed
knowledge to do what was done ... Nothing is emerging that points to
motive.”
Asked about the possibility of a plane malfunction or an on-board fire, the
source said: “It just does not hinge together... [The investigators] have
gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight
hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way.”
...
The flight remains shrouded in mystery and misinformation. Malaysia Airlines
revealed for the first time yesterday that Fariq Abdul Hamid, the
27-year-old co-pilot, was on his first flight aboard a Boeing 777 as a
fully-approved pilot. Fariq joined the airline seven years ago and had flown
2,763 hours but was only on his sixth flight in the cockpit of a 777 – and
his first without a check pilot overseeing him.
But analysts said the co-pilot’s inexperience in a 777 cockpit would probably
not have posed a risk.
Somewhat surprisingly, Malaysia Airlines said last night its “prayers go out
to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and
colleagues” – even though the passenger manifest shows 227 passengers and 12
crew. The airline has not yet explained the discrepancy.
Would not have posed a risk, but would have made it much more likely
that it took him a while to figure out what was going on. And most of
the passengers probably never knew what happened. Unless someone had a
transponder (unlikely), most passengers on a flight like that would just
go to sleep. The crew probably served dinner without realizing what
their captain had done. From the families' perspective, they might take
some solace in the fact that the passengers probably died peacefully -
many of them in their sleep.
The captain - distraught over a divorce and over his political idol
being jailed, and devout in his Muslim religion (that which must never
be mentioned) - took them all down with him.
It was said that Lubitz had a Muslim girlfriend. It is unclear if she
was still dating Lubitz at the time of the crash. It is unclear if he
met the woman through his Muslims friends.
One said that Lubitz had broken off the relationship after he pledged to commit Jihad for Allah.
We do know that Lubitz trained at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Bremen, Germany.
Bremen is home to the Mosque Masjidu-l-Furqan Mosque:
This Mosque was raided by the police in December 2014
BERLIN, Dec 5 (KUNA) — German authorities have closed a mosque in the
northern city of Bremen, after it was accused of encouraging youth to
join the extremist Islamic State group (known as ISIL), which is
carrying out violent killings across Syria and Iraq.
In unprecedented circumstances, more than 100 German police personnel
carried out a search of Masjidu-l-Furqan and its accompanying cultural
office, which had both been under police radar since 2007.
The decision comes amid the fight against ISIL ideology, Bremen Interior
Secretary Ulrich Maurer said, accusing the mosque’s management of
promoting ISIL values and encouraging young Muslims in the city to
travel to Syria and Iraq, and join the ranks of the group, along with
Al-Nusra Front – another extremist group in Syria.
The centre have so far succeeded in inspiring a total eight men, seven
women and 11 juveniles to travel to Syria and join ISIL, according to
the official.
Lubitz did his time in Bremen when the Mosque was under surveillance.
...
Lubitz converted to Islam during his break.
Reason that pushed Lubitz over the edge? The raid on the Mosque in Breman this past December?
The Police say they found a significant discovery in his home - not a suicide note:
Police investigating the Germanwings crash said they had made a
'significant discovery' at the home of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who
deliberately ploughed the Airbus A320 into the French Alps. Officers
refused to reveal details of the potential breakthrough but said it was
not a suicide note. Speaking outside the flat on the outskirts of
Dusseldorf, police said they had 'found something' that would now be
taken for tests, adding it may be a 'clue' as to what happened to the
doomed jet. Daily Mail Read More>>>
Is the significant discovery something Islamic? Something on his computer? A Koran? A Muslim prayer rug?
And for those of you who - like me - have the choice of flying Israeli, European or American airlines, here is a sobering thought:
The A320 is designed with safeguards to allow emergency entry if a
pilot inside is unresponsive, but the override code known to the crew
does not go into effect — and indeed goes into a lockdown — if the
person inside the cockpit specifically denies entry, according to an
Airbus training video and a pilot who has six years of experience with
the jets.
Airlines in Europe are not required to have two people
in the cockpit at all times, unlike the standard U.S. operating
procedure after the 9/11 attacks changed to require a flight attendant
to take the spot of a briefly departing pilot.
Sounds like the US procedure is a good idea. I don't know what the Israeli procedure is, but I would guess there is some kind of safeguard to keep a lone pilot from crashing a plane.
What a sad commentary on our times that these things are necessary.
Russia Today has published a list of the nationalities of the passengers and crew of Germanwings 9525, which crashed on Wednesday in the French Alps. The list is not just Spaniards and Germans. It includes two Iranians, two Venezuelans, an Israeli and two Americans.
12:47 GMT:
AFP reports that these are the
nationalities of the A320 victims, which have been confirmed by either
Germanwings or the country’s governments:
72 Germans
35 Spaniards; Spain says there may be up to 39
3 British, confirmed by the government, which says there may be more.
3 Kazakhs
2 Americans
2 Argentines
2 Australians
2 Colombians
2 Iranians
2 Japanese
2 Venezuelans
1 Belgian
1 Dane
1 Dutch
1 Israeli
1 Mexican
1 Moroccan
1 Turk
Obviously, the nationalities could be totally innocent and I would not suspect that, for example, the Israeli and the Americans were involved in any foul play. Or the nationalities could be less than innocent.
Here's a report from the Guardian's website on the ongoing search and rescue operations for Germanwings flight 9525, which crashed on Tuesday in the French Alps.
In Washington, the White House said the crash did not appear to have
been caused by a terrorist attack. Lufthansa said it was working on the
assumption that the tragedy had been an accident, adding that any other
theory would be speculation. French president Francois Hollande will
visit the area on Wednesday along with German chancellor Angela Merkel
and Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy.
Germanwings said the plane started descending one minute after
reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight
minutes.
“The aircraft’s contact with French radar, French air traffic
controllers, ended at 10.53 am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The
plane then crashed,” Germanwings’ Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann
told a news conference.
Winkelmann later said some Germanwings crew members had declared
themselves unfit to fly, leading to some cancellations. “We understand
that on a day like today, they wouldn’t feel able to fly,” he told
German broadcaster ZDF.
Experts said that while the Airbus had descended rapidly, it did not seem to have simply fallen out of the sky.
A Lufthansa flight from Bilbao to Munich on Nov. 5 lost altitude
after sensors iced over and the onboard computer, fearing the plane was
about to stall, put the nose down. As a result, the European Aviation
Safety Agency ordered a change in procedure for all A320 jets.
Asked whether something similar could have occurred on Tuesday,
Winkelmann said, “At this time this evening, we are ruling out a
possible cause in this area.”
France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has told RTL radio all
options must be looked into to explain why the Airbus A320 ploughed into
an Alpine mountainside on Tuesday but a terrorist attack is not the
most likely scenario.
A journalist, speaking with a Spanish accent, asked during a press
conference: “Germanwings this morning explained something about this
flight, what do you think of that?”
It’s not clear to what she was referring but the Lufthansa representative seemed to understand.
Heike Birlenbach, Lufthansa vice-president for Europe initially
blocked the question with a fairly standard ‘No Comment’ but then turned
to her advisors and added in German.
“That was what he was not supposed to say.”
What was the question and why was it (apparently) not to be brought up at the press conference? Let's look at the press conference first.
Let's go to the videotape.
I watched the press conferences given by Germanwings' CEO and by the Deputy Interior Minister of France, and I didn't find anything suspicious. Hmmm.
Egypt Air 990, Malaysia Air 370 and... Germanwings 9525?
Am I the only one with the sickening feeling that the unexplained loss of Germanwings 9525 may be yet another pilot suicide? (I know I'm not because someone already emailed me with the same suspicion).
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve
said a black box had been found, but did not say whether it was a data
recorder or a cockpit voice recorder.
“A black box was found and will be delivered to investigators,” Cazeneuve told reporters.
The crew of the Germanwings flight did not send a distress signal, civil aviation authorities told AFP.
“The crew did not send a Mayday. It was air
traffic control that decided to declare the plane was in distress
because there was no contact with the crew of the plane,” the source
said.
France’s junior transport minister said there were no survivors from the crash.
Photos of crash site from the La Provence
newspaper showed scattered black flecks across a mountain and several
larger airplane body sections with windows, five in one chunk and four
in another. French officials said a helicopter crew that landed briefly
in the area saw no signs of life.
“Everything is pulverized. The largest pieces
of debris are the size of a small car. No one can access the site from
the ground,” Gilbert Sauvan, president of the general council,
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, told The Associated Press.
Germanwings said Flight 9525 carried 144
passengers, including two babies, and six crew members. Officials
believe 67 German nationals were on board, including 16 high school
students on an exchange program from the German town of Haltern. Dutch
officials said one citizen was killed.
And apparently one Israeli according to the article linked above. His name, like the pilot's, has not yet been released.
At 0147:55, the relief first officer stated, "Look, here's the new first officer's pen. Give it to him please. God spare you,"9
and, at 0147:58, someone responded, "yeah." At 0148:03, the command
captain stated, "Excuse me, [nickname for relief first officer], while I
take a quick trip to the toilet...before it gets crowded. While they
are eating, and I'll be back to you." While the command captain was
speaking, the relief first officer responded, "Go ahead please," and the
CVR recorded the sound of an electric seat motor as the captain
maneuvered to leave his seat and the cockpit. At 0148:18.55, the CVR
recorded a sound similar to the cockpit door operating. At 0148:30, about 11 seconds after the captain left the cockpit, the CVR recorded an unintelligible comment.10 Ten seconds later (about 0148:40), the relief first officer stated quietly, "I rely on God."11
There were no sounds or events recorded by the flight recorders that
would indicate that an airplane anomaly or other unusual circumstance
preceded the relief first officer's statement, "I rely on God."
At
0149:18, the CVR recorded the sound of an electric seat motor. FDR data
indicated that, at 0149:45 (27 seconds later), the autopilot was
disconnected.12
Aside from the very slight movement of both elevators (the left
elevator moved from about a 0.7° to about a 0.5° nose-up deflection, and
the right elevator moved from about a 0.35° nose-up to about a 0.3°
nose-down deflection)13
and the airplane's corresponding slight nose-down pitch change, which
were recorded within the first second after autopilot disconnect, and a
very slow (0.5° per second) left roll rate, the airplane remained
essentially in level flight about FL 330 for about 8 seconds after the
autopilot was disconnected. At 0149:48, the relief first officer again
stated quietly, "I rely on God." At 0149:53, the throttle levers were
moved from their cruise power setting to idle, and, at 0149:54, the FDR
recorded an abrupt nose-down elevator movement and a very slight
movement of the inboard ailerons. Subsequently, the airplane began to
rapidly pitch nose down and descend.
Between 0149:57 and 0150:05, the relief first officer quietly repeated, "I rely on God," seven additional times.14 During this time, as a result of the nose-down elevator movement, the airplane's load factor15 decreased from about 1 to about 0.2 G.16
Between 0150:04 and 0150:05 (about 10 to 11 seconds after the initial
nose-down movement of the elevators), the FDR recorded additional,
slightly larger inboard aileron movements, and the elevators started
moving further in the nose-down direction. Immediately after the FDR
recorded the increased nose-down elevator movement, the CVR recorded the
sounds of the captain asking loudly (beginning at 0150:06), "What's
happening? What's happening?," as he returned to the cockpit.
The
airplane's load factor decreased further as a result of the increased
nose-down elevator deflection, reaching negative G loads (about -0.2 G)
between 0150:06 and 0150:07. During this time (and while the captain was
still speaking [at 0150:07]), the relief first officer stated for the
tenth time, "I rely on God." Additionally, the CVR transcript indicated
that beginning at 0150:07, the CVR recorded the "sound of numerous
thumps and clinks," which continued for about 15 seconds.
According
to the CVR and FDR data, at 0150:08, as the airplane exceeded its
maximum operating airspeed (0.86 Mach), a master warning alarm began to
sound. (The warning continued until the FDR and CVR stopped recording at
0150:36.64 and 0150:38.47, respectively.)17
Also at 0150:08, the relief first officer stated quietly for the
eleventh and final time, "I rely on God," and the captain repeated his
question, "What's happening?" At 0150:15, the captain again asked,
"What's happening, [relief first officer's first name]? What's
happening?" At this time, as the airplane was descending through about
27,300 feet msl, the FDR recorded both elevator surfaces beginning to
move in the nose-up direction. Shortly thereafter, the airplane's rate
of descent began to decrease.18
At 0150:21, about 6 seconds after the airplane's rate of descent began
to decrease, the left and right elevator surfaces began to move in
opposite directions; the left surface continued to move in the nose-up
direction, and the right surface reversed its motion and moved in the
nose-down direction.
The FDR data
indicated that the engine start lever switches for both engines moved
from the run to the cutoff position between 0150:21 and 0150:23.19
Between 0150:24 and 0150:27, the throttle levers moved from their idle
position to full throttle, the speedbrake handle moved to its fully
deployed position, and the left elevator surface moved from a 3º nose-up
to a 1º nose-up position, then back to a 3º nose-up position.20
During this time, the CVR recorded the captain asking, "What is this?
What is this? Did you shut the engine(s)?" Also, at 0150:26.55, the
captain stated, "Get away in the engines,"21 and, at 0150:28.85, the captain stated, "shut the engines." At 0150:29.66, the relief first officer stated, "It's shut." Between
0150:31 and 0150:37, the captain repeatedly stated, "Pull with me."
However, the FDR data indicated that the elevator surfaces remained in a
split condition (with the left surface commanding nose up and the right
surface commanding nose down) until the FDR and CVR stopped recording
at 0150:36.64 and 0150:38.47, respectively. (The last transponder
[secondary radar] return from the accident airplane was received at the
radar site at Nantucket, Massachusetts, at 0150:34.)22[Footnote links may not work. CiJ]
As
some of you may recall, after the NTSB investigation, the Egyptians
continued to deny that the co-pilot had committed suicide and would not
accept the NTSB report.
As the video reports, the pilots apparently turned the jet at the
perfect spot - at the point where the jet was handed off from Malaysian
to Vietnamese controllers. But if the Malaysian authorities found
anything in their homes, they're not saying.
The Malaysian government
had been looking for a reason to search the home of the pilot and the
co-pilot for several days. But it was only in the last 24 to 36 hours,
when radar and satellite data came to light, that authorities believed
they had sufficient reason to go through the residences, according to
the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The Malaysians don't do
this lightly," the official said. It's not clear whether the Malaysian
government believes one or both the men could be responsible for what
happened when the Boeing 777-200 ER disappeared March 8 en route from
Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The officials emphasize that they don't know yet what really happened to
the plane. But here's the best theory. To those of you who have been
following it should sound familiar. It's the southern corridor theory.
Flight 370 took off from
Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. on March 8. The last satellite communication
from the plane occurred at 8:11 a.m., Najib said, well past the
scheduled arrival time in Beijing.
That last communication,
Najib said, was in one of two possible traffic corridors shown on a map
released to the press. A northern arc stretches from the border of
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and a southern arc
spans from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
"Due to the type of
satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the
plane when it last made contact with the satellite," Najib said.
Because the northern
parts of the traffic corridor include some tightly guarded airspace over
India, Pakistan, and even some U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S.
authorities believe it more likely the aircraft crashed into waters
outside of the reach of radar south of India, a U.S. official told CNN.
If it had flown farther north, it's likely it would have been detected
by radar.
Nonetheless for the last
36 hours, the U.S. military and intelligence community has been
reviewing all satellite imagery and electronic data it collects from the
region for any sign of an explosion or crash, according to another U.S.
official directly familiar with that effort.
Najib said authorities were ending search operations in the South China Sea and reassessing the deployment of assets.
"This new satellite information has a significant impact on the nature and scope of the search operation," he said.
Investigators, he said,
have confirmed by looking at the raw satellite data that the plane in
question was the Malaysia Airlines jet.
The same conclusion was
reached by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board, the British Air Accidents Investigation
Branch and the Malaysian authorities, all of whom were working
separately with the same data, he said.
Well, if it didn't crash it landed on some abandoned island somewhere in
the middle of the Indian Ocean and we'll hear a ransom demand sometime
soon. That appears unlikely. Given the level of satellite information
available today, it seems really unlikely that there would be an
airstrip in the middle of nowhere that could land a 777 that hasn't
shown up on the satellite data.
If you're wondering how they flew out of the corridor undetected, this might have had something to do with it.
Hours before Najib's
announcement, U.S. officials told CNN the flight had made drastic
changes in altitude and direction after disappearing from civilian
radar.
Malaysian military radar
showed the plane climbing to 45,000 feet -- which is above its approved
altitude limit -- soon after disappearing from civilian radar screens
and then dropping to 23,000 feet before climbing again, a U.S. official
familiar with the investigation said.
The jetliner was flying "a strange path," the official said on condition of anonymity. The details of the radar readings were first reported by The New York Times on Friday.
What's unsaid in all this is that Malaysia is - you guessed it - a Muslimcountry. As is Egypt.
Here's betting that the pilot is not Amish, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish.... Hmmm.
PS My travel agent talked me out of that flight a few months ago. She hates double connections.
Evelyn Gordon reports that while the West is willfully blind to the connection between Ukraine and Gaza, many Ukrainian officials do get it.
Three weeks ago, Andriy Parubiy, the head of Ukraine’s National
Security and Defense Council, compared eastern Ukraine’s situation to
what Israel faces and warned that terrorists would likely adopt similar
tactics in other countries if the West didn’t take a firm stance against
them.
“We, of course, studied the experience of both Croatia and Israel, but here a lot of new features are added,” Parubiy said.
“And, if Russia sees that this experience is successful, this
experience can very easily be used in any Baltic countries, and even in
Belarus and Kazakhstan.”
Yesterday, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Henadii Nadolenko made both the comparison and the warning even more explicit in an op-ed in Haaretz.
Unambiguously titled “Ukraine and Israel: Together in fighting
terrorism,” it declared, “We, the representatives of Ukraine, have,
together with the people of the State of Israel, personally felt the
totality of the threat posed to civilians by the criminal activities of
the terrorists.”
After enumerating the losses both countries have suffered, Nadolenko
continued, “I am convinced that the huge loss of civilian and military
life might have been avoided had the activities of terrorist
organizations had been condemned by the international community.” Then,
citing the recent downing of a civilian airliner over eastern Ukraine,
he drove the point home:
I would like to emphasize once again that the crime,
which killed 298 innocent civilians from around the world, is another
confirmation of the fact that today’s terrorism is not constrained by
borders…
In this regard, once again I would like to appeal to the thinking and
caring people of the world to demonstrate their support for these
peoples, who came upon a fight with an evil that threatens the security
of everyone, regardless of nationality or place of residence.
I believe that the countries that are faced with terrorism and who
try to fight this evil should support each other, and should join their
efforts in order to draw the world’s attention to our cause. We must
begin to receive real help and support from international organizations
in order to combat this threat.
I feel sorry for the Ukrainians. They cannot fight Russia on their own, and the odds of them getting any help from the West so long as the Hussein Obama administration is in power are not good. They have to hold out for at least another two and a half years (longer if Obama is replaced by Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren).
The Malaysia Airlines plane, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala
Lumpur, was travelling at an altitude of 33,000 feet (10,000 metres)
when it was shot down, Russia's Interfax reported.
An adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry said the Boeing 777 was brought down by a Buk ground-to-air missile.
All 280 passengers and 15 crew members who were on the plane are believed to have died, he added.
A spokesman for Malaysian Airlines, still reeling from the loss of
flight MH370 in March, confirmed it had lost contact with flight MH17,
which took off from Amsterdam at 12.15pm local time.
The flight disappeared from radar as it flew over Ukrainian airspace, the spokesman said.
A number of videos apparently filmed near the village of Grabovo,
Donetsk, where the plane came down, show plumes of thick, black smoke
rising high into the air.
TV channel Russia 24 broadcast similar pictures, while a Reuters
correspondent at the scene said he could see the wreckage of a burning
aircraft and bodies on the ground.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk ordered an immediate
investigation into what he described as a "catastrophe", while his
Malaysian counterpart Mohd Najib Tun Razak said he was "shocked".
Alexander Borodai, the eastern Ukraine separatist leader, claimed the
airliner was shot down by Ukrainian government forces, although
officials in Kiev denied any involvement.
There has been no official comment from authorities in Russia.
Sky's Katie Stallard, in Moscow, said media reports suggest the plane
came down in an area where there has been recent heavy fighting amid
continuing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
An Australian company claims to have located the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in the Bay of Bengal, in the north eastern part of the Indian Ocean. The flight disappeared while enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. 239 people were on board.
In the Bay of Bengal, in the north-eastern part of the Indian
Ocean, the company found chemical elements on the ocean floor that are
consistent with a Boeing 777 crash, reports International Business Times.
Those findings were not present in imaging from before the day
of the crash, strengthening the argument for their being from the
disappeared plane.
GeoResonance spokesperson Pavel Kursa stated that at the at the
site "we identified chemical elements and materials that make up a
Boeing 777...these are aluminum, titanium, copper, steel alloys and
other materials."
David Pope, a fellow spokesperson of the company, added that
"the wreckage wasn't there prior to the disappearance of MH370. We're
not trying to say it definitely is MH370. However, it is a lead we feel
should be followed up."
Using various images and information, the company scanned an area of
2,000,000 square kilometers (nearly 800,000 square miles), and in the
end located the suspected crash site 5,000 kilometers (around 3,000
miles) away from the current focal point of the search.
Hmmm. (PS Could not find this story in International Business Times).
It starts: American commentator blames Israel for Malaysian plane disappearance
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
It was inevitable that someone was going to blame Israel for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, and now it's happened. An American commentator for Iran's Press TV, Dr. Kevin Barrett, says Israel is to blame.
Malaysia Airlines' captain's friend says he was in no state to fly and could have taken plane for final 'joyride'
The New Zealand Herald interviews a friend of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 captain Zaharie Ahmed Shah, who says that his friend was in no state to fly, and could have taken the plane on a final 'joyride' to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's world was crumbling, said the long-time
associate. He had been facing serious family problems, including
separation from his wife and relationship problems with another woman he
was seeing.
The man, who spoke to the Herald on condition
of anonymity, said Captain Zaharie was "terribly upset" when his wife
told him she was leaving and believed he may have decided to take the
Malaysia Airlines plane to a part of the world he had never flown in.
...
However the fellow pilot raised questions about the captain's state of mind.
He
guessed that Captain Zaharie may have considered the flight a "last
joyride" - the chance to do things in a plane he had previously been
able to do only on a simulator.
The friend said Captain Zaharie, who he chatted to when they met
several times a year through work, was a fanatic for "the three Fs" -
food, family and flying.
When he wasn't working he spent hours
cooking or using his home-made flight simulator for a variety of
situations he wouldn't experience at the controls of a commercial
airline, such as flying at the highest and lowest possible altitudes.
The simulator was seized last week and is being analysed by the FBI.
Investigations
so far found that, up to the point when the co-pilot said "all right,
good night" to Malaysian traffic controllers, the plane had been flying
normally. Military radar tracking showed the aircraft made a sharp turn
soon after and started flying at altitudes as high as 45,000ft (13,716m)
and as low as 12,000ft before it disappeared.
The associate believed the co-pilot must have been incapacitated and the other flight crew kept out of the cockpit.
"It is very possible that neither the passengers nor the other crew on-board knew what was happening until it was too late."
The friend said the disappearance of the Boeing 777 happened as Captain Zaharie's world was crumbling.
"He's
one of the finest pilots around and I'm no medical expert, but with all
that was happening in his life Zaharie was probably in no state of mind
to be flying."
...
New Zealand aviation expert Peter Clark said he believed Captain Zaharie may have been responsible.
...
He said Mr Fariq was "too inexperienced" to carry out the takeover -
it was his first flight as co-pilot without a third pilot in the cockpit
overseeing him.
Mr Clark said it would have been very simple for the pilot to reprogramme the flight management computer to fly a new course.
"All
you need to do is fly it to high altitude, de-pressurise the aircraft,
you kill everybody on-board including yourself and you have the flight
management programmed in and it just continues to fly to the South
Indian Ocean until it runs out of fuel."
But Mr Clark said it would be very hard to prove it was pilot suicide even if the data recorders were found.
The voice recorder would have been overwritten every two hours and the
flight recorder would most likely record that the plane was operating
normally and crashed because it ran out of fuel.
The only positive thing that can be said here is that at least he planned the flight so that it was unlikely to encounter other planes and so that it would crash in an area where it would be unlikely to hurt those not on board. Still, if this is true, he took 239 lives because he wanted to kill himself. And it sounds like we may never know the full story.
As someone who flies frequently, this makes me wonder what, if anything, the airlines can do to examine the mental state of pilots before they fly.
Telegraph: Malaysia Airlines flight was 'suicide mission'
I wrote it ten days ago and thought it even sooner. Investigators are now telling the London Telegraph that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was taken on a suicide mission.
The team investigating the Boeing 777’s disappearance believe no malfunction
or fire was capable of causing the aircraft’s unusual flight or the
disabling of its communications system before it veered wildly off course on
a seven-hour silent flight into the sea. An analysis of the flight’s
routing, signalling and communications shows that it was flown “in a
rational way”.
An official source told The Telegraph that investigators believe “this has
been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed
knowledge to do what was done ... Nothing is emerging that points to
motive.”
Asked about the possibility of a plane malfunction or an on-board fire, the
source said: “It just does not hinge together... [The investigators] have
gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight
hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way.”
...
The flight remains shrouded in mystery and misinformation. Malaysia Airlines
revealed for the first time yesterday that Fariq Abdul Hamid, the
27-year-old co-pilot, was on his first flight aboard a Boeing 777 as a
fully-approved pilot. Fariq joined the airline seven years ago and had flown
2,763 hours but was only on his sixth flight in the cockpit of a 777 – and
his first without a check pilot overseeing him.
But analysts said the co-pilot’s inexperience in a 777 cockpit would probably
not have posed a risk.
Somewhat surprisingly, Malaysia Airlines said last night its “prayers go out
to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and
colleagues” – even though the passenger manifest shows 227 passengers and 12
crew. The airline has not yet explained the discrepancy.
Would not have posed a risk, but would have made it much more likely that it took him a while to figure out what was going on. And most of the passengers probably never knew what happened. Unless someone had a transponder (unlikely), most passengers on a flight like that would just go to sleep. The crew probably served dinner without realizing what their captain had done. From the families' perspective, they might take some solace in the fact that the passengers probably died peacefully - many of them in their sleep.
The captain - distraught over a divorce and over his political idol being jailed, and devout in his Muslim religion (that which must never be mentioned) - took them all down with him.
Breaking: Malaysia Airlines 370 found in Indian Ocean, all passengers dead
Israel Radio reports that Malaysia's President just announced that Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has been found in the Indian Ocean. All the passengers are dead.
The captain of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 received a two-minute call shortly before take-off from a mystery woman using a mobile phone number obtained under a false identity.
It was one of the last calls made to or from the mobile of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah in the hours before his Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur 16 days ago.
Investigators are treating it as potentially significant because anyone buying a pay-as-you-go SIM card in Malaysia has to fill out a form giving their identity card or passport number.
Introduced as an anti-terrorism measure following 9/11, this ensures that every number is registered to a traceable person.
But in this case police traced the number to a shop selling SIM cards in Kuala Lumpur.
They found that it had been bought ‘very recently’ by someone who gave a woman’s name – but was using a false identity.
The discovery raises fears of a possible link between Captain Zaharie, 53, and terror groups whose members routinely use untraceable SIM cards.
Everyone else who spoke to the pilot on his phone in the hours before the flight took off has already been interviewed.
...
In a separate development, The Mail on Sunday has learned that investigators are now poised to question Captain Shah’s estranged wife in detail.
They have waited two weeks out of respect, but will now begin formally interviewing Faizah Khan following pressure from FBI agents assisting the inquiry.
Although the couple – who have three children – were separated, they had been living under the same roof.
A source said: ‘Faizah has been spoken to gently by officers but she has not been questioned in detail to establish her husband’s behaviour and state of mind in the days leading to the incident.
‘This is partly for cultural reasons. It is not considered appropriate in Malaysia to subject people in situations of terrible bereavement to the stress of intensive questioning.’
The softly-softly approach has been challenged by the team of FBI agents working with Malaysian police. They have pointed out that she may hold ‘vital clues and information’ to Zaharie’s mental state.
‘The whole world is looking for this missing plane and the person who arguably knows most about the state of mind of the man who captained the plane is being left alone,’ said a source close to the FBI team.
The source added: ‘If we want to eliminate the chief pilot from the inquiry, we must interview her in detail to find out what his state of mind was.’
The mystery caller emerged when Malaysian investigators examined the phone records of both Zaharie and his co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid.
Investigators were keen to trace the caller and interview them, although they have stressed that the fact the SIM card was registered to a non-existent ID card does not necessarily indicate a criminal or terrorist connection.
Political activists in Malaysia sometimes use SIM cards bought with bogus identity cards if they fear that their phones may be bugged by the country’s authoritarian ruling party.
The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that Zaharie is an avid supporter of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a distant relative, and may have attended a controversial court hearing where Anwar was jailed for five years. It took place only a few hours before the flight.
The new potential sighting was dramatically announced by Malaysia's
acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, after he was handed a
note with details during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, scooping the
official announcement from China.
"Chinese ships have been dispatched to the area," Hishammuddin told reporters.
China
said the object was 22 meters long (74ft) and 13 meters (43ft) wide,
and spotted around 120 km (75 miles) "south by west" of potential debris
reported by Australia off its west coast in the forbidding waters of
the southern Indian Ocean.
The image was captured by the
high-definition Earth observation satellite "Gaofen-1" early on March
18, two days after the Australian satellite picture was taken, China's
State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National
Defense (SASTIND) said on its website.
It could not easily be
determined from the blurred images whether the objects were the same,
but the Chinese photograph could depict a cluster of smaller objects, a
senior military officer from one of the 26 nations involved in the
search for the plane said.
The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is
approximately 27 meters long and 14 meters wide at its base, according
to estimates derived from publicly available scale drawings. Its
fuselage is 63.7 meters long by 6.2 meters wide.
"New and credible information has come to light in relation to the
search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean,"
Abbott told the Australian parliament.
"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has received
information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to
the search."
"Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible
objects related to the search have been identified," he said.
Abbott said he had already spoken with his Malaysian counterpart Najib
Razak and cautioned that the objects had yet to be identified.
"The task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and it
may turn out they are not related to the search for MH370," Abbott said.
...
Australia is leading the search in the southern part of the southern corridor, with assistance from the US Navy.
The exact location of the possible debris was not clear, and Abbott did not say if it was in the search area set out by AMSA.
The area that Australia was searching on Wednesday was mostly around
2,000-3,000 meters deep, although that part of the ocean does go as deep
at 4,000-5,000 meters.
That would make recovering the "black box" voice and data recorders that
may finally unlock the mystery of what happened aboard Flight MH370
extremely challenging.
I'm still leaning toward one of the pilots deciding to commit suicide as happened with EgyptAir 990. Too bad he had to take all those people with him.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
