05 April 2014 (11:56 UTC-07 Tango)/04 Jumada t-Tania 1435/16 Farvardin 1393/06 Wu-Chen 4712
“Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 searching for flight MH370 discovered a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz per second in south Indian Ocean waters Saturday.”-Xinhua
The People’s Liberation Army Navy says they detected pings consistent with an airliner black box. This has upset Malaysian and Australian officials, supposedly because of the way China made the announcement. The Chinese announcement was made through state run TV news rather than through the Australian/Malaysian led public relations operation.
The signal is located at 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude. The stuck up British empire Australians say they might “consider” sending their own search vessels to the area.
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force also says they’ve spotted wreckage floating in the area.
There are now conflicting reports about the pinger battery life. The U.S. company that made the batteries, Dukane Seacom, said the batteries should have been replaced back in 2012. Malaysian Airlines officials say their maintenance records show the batteries were replaced and are good until June 2014!
Making things more confusing, the Malaysian government is creating three new committees, and a new international investigation team, to oversee the search. In typical bureaucratic contradiction, Malaysian officials claim this is their attempt to make things more efficient. The new committees are the Next of Kin, Investigation, and Search Coordination. The new Investigation Team will be led by an independent Investigator in Charge, and will include people from Australia, Malaysia, China, United States, United Kingdom and France. This is interesting because we’ve all been led to believe the investigation and search was already a coordinated international effort!
Datuk Zolkipli Abdul, chairman of Malaysian based Advanced Air Traffic Systems, is attacking Boeing and Rolls Royce for their seeming lack of participation in the search for MH370/CZ748: “We have been seeing MAS [Malaysian Airline System] handling the press conferences alone and answering on behalf of Boeing and Rolls-Royce……..Even when we were told that the two agencies have cooperated with the United States aviation security investigation team, as the manufacturer for Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing should have the technical capacities to significantly contribute to MH370’s search and rescue operation. It is not acceptable for Rolls-Royce being the engine maker of an engine that costs more than RM500- million [$156-million USD] to not have the technology to track the engine from the plane. We can use the same analogy as buying a luxury car, every engine will be installed with a tracker that allows the maker to track the engine in case of theft or loss. MAS spend a great deal of money to secure the best services from both Boeing and Rolls-Royce but when this incident happened, both of them seemed to have clammed up!”
Malaysian Defense Minister/Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein revealed that the missing MH370/CZ748 is of concern to dozens of military agencies in the area. Hussein attended the U.S.-ASEAN Defense Forum held in Hawaii just a few days ago.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations consists of ten countries; Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Here’s what they officially stated: “We, the Defence Ministers of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations express our deepest sympathies to the family members of the passengers and crew on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
We acknowledge that the member nations of ASEAN have participated in the search operations directly and indirectly since the plane went missing on 8th March 2014.
From the South China Sea, the Andaman Sea to the Indian Ocean – ASEAN has continued to assist in every way possible, true to the spirit of regional cooperation and friendship without any hesitation in sharing of information, assets and expertise.
We believe that Malaysia has done its level best in its response to this unprecedented predicament given the sheer scale of the Search and Rescue operation which is the biggest and most complex we have ever seen.
We reaffirm our commitment for greater cooperation between each member nation especially in the field of disaster management under the framework of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response. This incident stressed upon us the importance of information and resource sharing as we strive to be in the utmost state of readiness in mitigating potential calamities and risks.
ASEAN’s unity will remain solid and is totally committed to assisting Malaysia in coordinating this massive SAR to locate MH370. We are resolute in finding a closure to this tragic chapter in aviation history. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families in these difficult times.”
Why are so many military agencies involved in searching for a missing airliner? The search for Air France 447 involved the militaries of Brazil, France and U.S. The Brazilian navy found wreckage and human bodies five days into the search.
The search for MH370/CZ748 involves more than 20 militaries, and they’ve found neither wreckage (connected to the plane) nor human bodies, after a month of searching.