'Deliberate Action' Diverted Missing Plane

Was Flight MH370's Transponder Turned Off?

Updated: 12:57am UK, Friday 14 March 2014

The transponder on the missing Malaysia Airlines jet is likely to have been deliberately turned off by one of the crew, aircraft experts have told Sky News.

A massive search effort, using military warships and planes to scour a massive expanse of water, has failed to find any sign of the plane since it vanished on Saturday.

Theories about its mysterious disappearance include a structural fault causing explosive decompression, a terrorist attack or pilot suicide.

The transponder - a crucial device that identifies the plane, its position and altitude - stopped working just 40 minutes into Saturday's flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Radar systems engineer Daniel Holland believes it was intentionally disabled.

"The evidence points that way," he said.

"The pilots have never made a 7500 - the international code for 'my plane is hijacked'; it is the pure lack of transponder information (that is suspicious).

"For myself, you would look at the communications panel just behind the throttle quadrant on the Boeing 777 to either switch it off there, or even just removing the fuses."

Mark Weiss, a former commercial pilot now working as an aviation consultant, said he agreed that someone in the cockpit had probably disabled the transponder.

"I don't believe it was an explosive decompression," said Mr Weiss.

"In the US a few years ago we had a Southwest Airlines plane that had an explosive decompression and still maintained the basic structural integrity of the aircraft."

Disabling of the transponder might lend weight to the theory that one of the pilots sabotaged the flight.

However, it is also possible it was turned off for other reasons - for example if it was giving out faulty data.

Malaysia Airlines has opened an investigation into the conduct of one of the pilots, Fariq Abdul Hamid, after pictures emerged of himself with two women he allowed into the cockpit during a flight two years ago.

However, it has said it has "no reason to believe" the pilots had anything to do with the disappearance.

At a news conference on Thursday, Malaysia's transport minister, Hishammudin Hussein, denied reports the homes of crew members had been searched by police.

The plane was last heard from when the pilot responded to a message confirming it was moving from Malaysian to Vietnamese air traffic control.

The pilot replied "Okay, received, goodnight", but Vietnamese officials have said they never heard from flight MH370. 

Not all aviation experts agree that foul play is likely to be to blame for the disappearance.

Dr Colin Brown, director of engineering at Institution of Mechanical Engineers, told Sky he still believes the plane was ripped apart by "explosive decompression".

However, he admitted that the lack of any wreckage or 'black box' signal was hard to make sense of.

"This thing is 300 tons of metal with 239 people on board - I cannot understand how you can hide something that size."

18.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane: Questions Remain For Relatives

For the relatives of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the revelation that "deliberate action" diverted the flight still leaves many questions unanswered.

Nearly two-thirds of the 239 people on board were Chinese, and relatives gathered at a hotel in Beijing to watch Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak address the world's media.

He did not confirm an earlier claim the Boeing 777 had been hijacked, but did reveal he could say "with a high degree of certainty" that communications on the flight had been disabled.

His remarks did little to ease the nerves of those inside the Lido Hotel, with some openly suggesting foul play.

Wen Wancheng's son was on board the jet, and he said afterwards: "I feel (Malaysia Airlines) had a role to play in this incident."

He called the disappearance "a conspiracy … from the beginning".

"The original time they gave was 1.21 am., and today it was officially changed to 8.11 am.

"It's the prime minister who said it. You can tell from the timing whether they're hiding anything or not."

Malaysia Airlines representatives held a two-hour meeting with relatives earlier on Saturday, and speaking afterwards several said they remain frustrated with the lack of definite information.

One woman said: "I'm very disappointed in all of them," a reference to both the airline and the Chinese and Malaysian governments.

"They haven't told us anything. I'm anxious. Extremely anxious."

Conspiracy theories have inevitably emerged, and many users of China's social networks shared a news report of a woman who claimed she had received a missed call from her father on the plane.

The Beijing Times reported the unnamed woman "got a missed call from her father on board, and the number said 'powered off' later when she called back".

Some reacted with relief to the possibility the incident might have been a hijacking rather than a crash.

One user of Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, said: "A hijacking is better than a crash. Hope Malaysia will not come out and deny it later."

China's foreign ministry continued to press Malaysia for clarity, with spokesman Qin Gang calling for "thorough and exact information".

Chinese "technical specialists" are on their way to Malaysia to help with the investigation.

18.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Plane Search Switches To Two Air Corridors

A week after it went missing, the search for the Malaysian Airlines plane is now being moved further west to two "air corridors" as it enters a "new phase".

One is from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and the other is further south, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

It comes after authorities confirmed the jet's last communication with a satellite was in one of those areas after it picked up a "ping" from the airliner.

This was nearly seven hours after the flight dropped off civilian air traffic control screens.

The corridors represent a satellite track, which appears as an arc on a map.

The Boeing 777 did not necessarily follow the corridor, but was at some point along its path at the moment the signal was sent.

Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak said that searching in the South China Sea, where the plane first lost contact with air traffic controllers, would be ended.

The Boeing has been missing for a week

Authorities believe Flight MH370 had its communications and tracking systems deliberately turned off amid reports that it had been hijacked.

Investigators have increasingly focused on the possibility it was flown off-course by the pilot or co-pilot, or someone else on board with detailed knowledge of how to fly and navigate a large commercial aircraft.

The plane, with 239 people on board, left Kuala Lumpar at 12.40am on Saturday March 8 and headed to Beijing.

About 40 minutes into the flight, the jet's communications with civilian air controllers were severed.

Investigators believe one of the aircraft's communications systems - the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System - was disabled before the plane reached the east coast of Malaysia.

Shortly afterwards, someone on board then switched off the aircraft's transponder, which communicates with civilian air traffic controllers.

At 2.15am Malaysian air force defence radar picked up traces of the plane turning back westwards, crossing over Peninsular Malaysia before turning north west into the stretches of the Strait of Malacca.

But the last confirmed signal between the aircraft and a satellite was at 8.11am - seven and a half hours after take-off, meaning it could have flown as far north as Kazakhstan or the southern Indian Ocean.

Airline officials have said the plane had enough fuel to fly for up to about eight hours.

The PM said authorities were still looking at all possibilities and did not confirm the hijacking claim which was made by an unnamed Malaysian official.

18.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Was Missing Plane's Transponder Turned Off?

The transponder on the missing Malaysia Airlines jet is likely to have been deliberately turned off by one of the crew, aircraft experts have told Sky News.

A massive search effort, using military warships and planes to scour a massive expanse of water, has failed to find any sign of the plane since it vanished on Saturday.

Theories about its mysterious disappearance include a structural fault causing explosive decompression, a terrorist attack or pilot suicide.

The transponder - a crucial device that identifies the plane, its position and altitude - stopped working just 40 minutes into Saturday's flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The transponder is constantly 'pinged' for data by air traffic radar

Radar systems engineer Daniel Holland believes it was intentionally disabled.

"The evidence points that way," he said.

"The pilots have never made a 7500 - the international code for 'my plane is hijacked'; it is the pure lack of transponder information (that is suspicious).

"For myself, you would look at the communications panel just behind the throttle quadrant on the Boeing 777 to either switch it off there, or even just removing the fuses."

A US Sea Hawk helicopter prepares to join the search

Mark Weiss, a former commercial pilot now working as an aviation consultant, said he agreed that someone in the cockpit had probably disabled the transponder.

"I don't believe it was an explosive decompression," said Mr Weiss.

"In the US a few years ago we had a Southwest Airlines plane that had an explosive decompression and still maintained the basic structural integrity of the aircraft."

Disabling of the transponder might lend weight to the theory that one of the pilots sabotaged the flight.

One pilot apparently allowed two women to fly with him in the cockpit

However, it is also possible it was turned off for other reasons - for example if it was giving out faulty data.

Malaysia Airlines has opened an investigation into the conduct of one of the pilots, Fariq Abdul Hamid, after pictures emerged of himself with two women he allowed into the cockpit during a flight two years ago.

However, it has said it has "no reason to believe" the pilots had anything to do with the disappearance.

The search is taking in a massive area of ocean but no trace has been found

At a news conference on Thursday, Malaysia's transport minister, Hishammudin Hussein, denied reports the homes of crew members had been searched by police.

The plane was last heard from when the pilot responded to a message confirming it was moving from Malaysian to Vietnamese air traffic control.

The pilot replied "Okay, received, goodnight", but Vietnamese officials have said they never heard from flight MH370. 

Not all aviation experts agree that foul play is likely to be to blame for the disappearance.

Dr Colin Brown, director of engineering at Institution of Mechanical Engineers, told Sky he still believes the plane was ripped apart by "explosive decompression".

However, he admitted that the lack of any wreckage or 'black box' signal was hard to make sense of.

"This thing is 300 tons of metal with 239 people on board - I cannot understand how you can hide something that size."

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Photo Shows Oscar Pistorius Drenched In Blood

Pistorius Trial: Evidence Summary

Updated: 11:44am UK, Thursday 13 March 2014

A summary of the evidence heard in the first two days of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.

Day 8

South African police forensic expert Johannes Vermuelen knelt down in court and swung Pistorius' cricket bat at the door as part of a reconstruction of the night in question.

He said the angle of the marks on the door suggest they could only have been made by someone much shorter than him.

It appeared to contradict his earlier affidavit in which he stated that he had put on his prostheses before smashing down the door.

Mr Vermuelen said: "The marks on the door are actually consistent with him not having his legs on and I suspect they must be similar to the height that he was when he fired the shots."

But defence lawyer Barry Roux suggested that even with his legs on, Pistorius would not be swinging a bat at the same height as an able-bodied person.

Day 7

Friend Darren Fresco told the court Oscar Pistorius "laughed" after firing his gun through the sunroof of a car.

Mr Fresco said he asked Pistorius if he was "******* mad". "He just laughed about what had happened. It felt as if my ear was bleeding," he said, referring to the episode in late 2012.

The court was told the athlete had a "big love for weapons" and Mr Fresco also recalled an occasion when Pistorius asked him to pass him his gun at Tasha's restaurant in Johannesburg on January 13 last year.

He said he warned Pistorius his Glock pistol was "one-up" - meaning it had a bullet in the chamber - and that he thought he saw the runner remove it.

The gun went off under the table, followed by a "deafening hush" - and Pistorius "instantly" passed the weapon back to him and asked him to "take the rap for it" because there was "too much media hype" around him, Mr Fresco said.

Pathologist Gert Saymaan, who conducted a post-mortem examination on Reeva Steenkamp, also finished giving his evidence as a court ban on tweeting during his evidence was lifted by Judge Thokozile Masipa.

The court heard the amount of urine in Ms Steenkamp's bladder at the time of her death amounted to the rough equivalent of a teaspoon - and that the model's last meal was consumed no more than two hours before her death.

Ms Steenkamp was shot after 3am, which means she must have eaten after 1am. Pistorius had said the couple were in the bedroom by 10pm.

Prof Saayman admitted he was not "an expert in this field" but his conclusions were based on scientific probability.

Day 6

Oscar Pistorius threw up in court as details of the post-mortem examination of Reeva Steenkamp were read out.

A live video feed of the trial was cut while a pathologist gave "graphic" evidence of his examination.

Professor Gert Saayman said Ms Steenkamp had bullet wounds to her head, right hip and right arm.

He said the Ranger branded bullets used were designed to "expand and mushroom" and cause substantial damage.

Prof Saayman said the head wound would have been incapacitating but added Ms Steenkamp may not have died straight away.

 Earlier in the day a security guard finished giving his evidence.

Chief security guard Pieter Baba says Pistorius told him all was fine when he called after receiving reports from other residents that they had heard gunshots.

 But Mr Roux insisted to him that it was Pistorius who phoned the security guard, rather than the other way round.

Mr Baba denied this.

Day Five

Prosecution witness Samantha Taylor, ex-girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius, broke down in court as she told how the athlete cheated on her with Reeva Steenkamp.

Miss Taylor also told the court how Pistorius once fired a gun out of the sunroof of a car after being stopped by police.

The star's ex-lover described how Pistorius would sometimes "scream at her" and often carried a gun with him.

The court was told how Pistorius once woke Ms Taylor fearing there was an intruder in the house and got up to investigate with his gun.

Security guard Pieter Baba described the moment he saw a distressed Pistorius carrying Reeva down the stairs.

The guard said that Pistorius assured him everything "is fine" after shots were reported. 

More evidence from Ms Taylor suggested that Pistorius once feared he was being followed and waved his gun at the suspect car until it drove off near his home.

Day Four

Prosecution witness Dr Johan Stipp told the court how he went to Oscar Pistorius' residence after hearing shots fired on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed.

He said he saw Ms Steenkamp lying on her back and Pistorius by her side, frantically trying to resuscitate her.

It was clear Ms Steenkamp was mortally wounded, he said, and Pistorius was crying and praying that she'd survive. During his evidence, Pistorius broke down in the dock, sobbing as he held his head in his hands.

Earlier, Pistorius' defence team said it would have been "impossible" for neighbours to hear screams on the night Ms Steenkamp died.

Lawyer Barry Roux said neighbour Charl Peter Johnson's claim that he heard gunshots followed by a woman screaming was incorrect.

"You cannot hear it inside your house," he said. "At any distance, she was in a locked bathroom."

Mr Johnson also claimed to have heard five or six shots on the night of the killing. But Mr Roux pointed out that in his initial notes he wrote that he "did not count the number of shots fired".

Day Three

Mr Johnson's evidence continued, and he was repeatedly challenged by Mr Roux who at one point said: "You are saying all the evidence that your wife gave us yesterday."

Mr Johnson replied that it was not unusual for two people to use the same words when describing an incident.

He mentioned some notes that he'd taken after the shooting, which are on his laptop and iPad. He was asked to end his evidence for the day and come back the next day, so the defence team had the opportunity to view his notes.

Pistorius' friend Kevin Lerena was then called, who described an incident in January last year in which Pistorius allegedly discharged a firearm by mistake while eating with friends in a restaurant.

He said the athlete then asked his friend Darren Fresco to take the blame.

The owner of the restaurant, Jason Loupis, and his wife Maria, later confirmed the incident after taking the stand.

Mrs Loupis said there was a child nearby when Pistorius' gun went off in the restaurant.

Day Two

The evidence of Ms Burger continued.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux said her evidence had been influenced by media coverage of the shooting, but she denied this.

Mr Roux said that evidence later in the trial would show that Ms Steenkamp would not have been able to scream after the final shot hit her in the head.

Ms Burger stood by her initial statement that she heard Ms Steenkamp after the final shot.

Another neighbour then took the stand for a short time, before Ms Burger's husband gave his evidence.

He told how he thought Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp were being held up in their house and said he looked at additional security measures for his own home the next day.

He backed up his wife's evidence, saying he heard screams after the final shot.

Day One

The first witness, university lecturer Michelle Burger, took the stand.

She says she woke on the night of the killing to the sound of gunshots and a woman screaming.

She described hearing "bloodcurdling screams" and four shots.

She is a key witness for the prosecution, as her evidence would appear to contradict Pistorius' claims that he thought he was shooting at an intruder.

The defence argued she is unreliable due to alleged discrepancies between her police statement and court testimony.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane 'Flown Towards Andaman Islands'

Missing Plane: 13 Things You Need To Know

Updated: 7:33am UK, Thursday 13 March 2014

As the search for Flight MH370 continues, we answer 13 questions about the disappearance and what could have happened.

When did the plane disappear?

Flight MH370 vanished from radars early on Saturday local time, an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. When it last made contact, the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet over the South China Sea.

There are reports that the plane tried to turn around, but this would give rise to the question why didn't the pilot communicate this decision to air traffic control? Meanwhile, at an undisclosed time a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers. Investigators have repeatedly tried to call the same number without success.

Who was on board?

The plane's manifest contained 12 crew members from Malaysia and 227 passengers from 14 different countries.

There were 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two each from Iran (both travelling on fake passports), New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada, and one each from Russia, Taiwan and The Netherlands.

Among the passengers was a 19-strong group of prominent artists returning from an exhibition in Malaysia. Five children - aged two to four - were on board. The oldest person on the plane was 79.

What are the main theories?

Mechanical error remains the most likely explanation. Poor conditions and strong turbulence always have to be considered, but weather conditions were good in this instance. Four areas of investigation are focused on the possibility of human involvement: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

Could there have been a mechanical error?

Inquiries into Air France Flight 447 that dived into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Brazil to Paris, killing 228 people, blamed both technical and human error.

However, in the event of engine failure, a plane such as the Boeing 777-200 could glide for 80-90 miles (128-145km), giving the pilot time to issue a distress signal. The descent would also have been traced by radars. The lack of any Mayday call makes an explosion a possibility.

Could the plane have broken up in the air?

The apparent lack of wreckage from MH370 does point to a high-altitude disaster. In such an event the debris would be spread far and wide, making it difficult to find.

A smaller debris field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up on impact with the water. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure due to a window blowing out the crew would dive the plane in order to lose altitude - but this would not cause the plane to disintegrate.

How about the plane's safety record?

Sudden, accidental, structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

One of the missing plane's wingtips was clipped in an incident while taxiing in 2012, but it was repaired and certified as safe.

Could it have been a terrorist attack or hijacking?

In the event of a hijacker trying to enter the cockpit, a pilot can send a secret distress code - something that wasn't done on Flight MH370.

The profiles of all 239 passengers are being checked against databases worldwide, but the terrorism theory was weakened on Tuesday when Malaysian police confirmed it had identified the two passengers who were travelling on fake passports. Both were said to be seeking asylum in Europe.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster - but no one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Human error?

The 53-year-old pilot was experienced, having amassed more than 18,000 flying hours since being employed by the airline in 1981.

However, in Indonesia in 2007, Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared with 102 passengers during a domestic flight, where the authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

Former naval pilot Dr Simon Mitchell told Sky News: "We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made."

Why was there no distress signal?

One explanation is that the plane fell into a communications black spot. Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer explained: "These are very sophisticated (items of) equipment that should have been working under any conditions - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you cannot communicate for some reason. Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots."

Where is the search taking place?

A number of aircraft and ships have been taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, New Zealand and the US are assisting.

Officials said on Tuesday that the search was being conducted on both sides of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula. The search area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane disappeared - over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam - to 100 nautical miles (115 miles; 185km).

This expansion was a result of a new report from the Malaysian military, which said it tracked the plane in the Strait of Malacca - a long distance from where it last made contact - in the hours following its disappearance.

Why has no wreckage been found?

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find. It took two years to find the main wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in 2009.

In 2007, in the case of the Adam Air flight, it was a week before an Indonesian naval vessel detected metal on the ocean floor. It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

If the plane had crashed on land, chances are the wreckage would have been found by now. At sea, much of the plane would have sunk, but some debris should remain on the surface. But the longer the search takes the harder it becomes as the wind and tide spread any debris further from the initial crash zone.

Could the flight data recorder provide answers?

As well as wreckage, search teams are looking for the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) - though these do not always work if a plane hits water. However, attached to the plane's "black box" is a device known as a pinger. This can emit radio signals deep underwater for up to 30 days - or 40 days in warm water.

Has a plane ever simply vanished?

Since the start of the jet age in the 1950s, nearly every major aircraft that disappeared was found - eventually - and the rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 plunged into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel. The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

Another Boeing 727 transporting diesel to diamond mines in Africa took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Malaysia 'Nothing To Hide' Over Plane Search

Missing Plane: 13 Things You Need To Know

Updated: 7:33am UK, Thursday 13 March 2014

As the search for Flight MH370 continues, we answer 13 questions about the disappearance and what could have happened.

When did the plane disappear?

Flight MH370 vanished from radars early on Saturday local time, an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. When it last made contact, the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet over the South China Sea.

There are reports that the plane tried to turn around, but this would give rise to the question why didn't the pilot communicate this decision to air traffic control? Meanwhile, at an undisclosed time a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers. Investigators have repeatedly tried to call the same number without success.

Who was on board?

The plane's manifest contained 12 crew members from Malaysia and 227 passengers from 14 different countries.

There were 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two each from Iran (both travelling on fake passports), New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada, and one each from Russia, Taiwan and The Netherlands.

Among the passengers was a 19-strong group of prominent artists returning from an exhibition in Malaysia. Five children - aged two to four - were on board. The oldest person on the plane was 79.

What are the main theories?

Mechanical error remains the most likely explanation. Poor conditions and strong turbulence always have to be considered, but weather conditions were good in this instance. Four areas of investigation are focused on the possibility of human involvement: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

Could there have been a mechanical error?

Inquiries into Air France Flight 447 that dived into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Brazil to Paris, killing 228 people, blamed both technical and human error.

However, in the event of engine failure, a plane such as the Boeing 777-200 could glide for 80-90 miles (128-145km), giving the pilot time to issue a distress signal. The descent would also have been traced by radars. The lack of any Mayday call makes an explosion a possibility.

Could the plane have broken up in the air?

The apparent lack of wreckage from MH370 does point to a high-altitude disaster. In such an event the debris would be spread far and wide, making it difficult to find.

A smaller debris field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up on impact with the water. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure due to a window blowing out the crew would dive the plane in order to lose altitude - but this would not cause the plane to disintegrate.

How about the plane's safety record?

Sudden, accidental, structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

One of the missing plane's wingtips was clipped in an incident while taxiing in 2012, but it was repaired and certified as safe.

Could it have been a terrorist attack or hijacking?

In the event of a hijacker trying to enter the cockpit, a pilot can send a secret distress code - something that wasn't done on Flight MH370.

The profiles of all 239 passengers are being checked against databases worldwide, but the terrorism theory was weakened on Tuesday when Malaysian police confirmed it had identified the two passengers who were travelling on fake passports. Both were said to be seeking asylum in Europe.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster - but no one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Human error?

The 53-year-old pilot was experienced, having amassed more than 18,000 flying hours since being employed by the airline in 1981.

However, in Indonesia in 2007, Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared with 102 passengers during a domestic flight, where the authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

Former naval pilot Dr Simon Mitchell told Sky News: "We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made."

Why was there no distress signal?

One explanation is that the plane fell into a communications black spot. Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer explained: "These are very sophisticated (items of) equipment that should have been working under any conditions - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you cannot communicate for some reason. Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots."

Where is the search taking place?

A number of aircraft and ships have been taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, New Zealand and the US are assisting.

Officials said on Tuesday that the search was being conducted on both sides of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula. The search area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane disappeared - over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam - to 100 nautical miles (115 miles; 185km).

This expansion was a result of a new report from the Malaysian military, which said it tracked the plane in the Strait of Malacca - a long distance from where it last made contact - in the hours following its disappearance.

Why has no wreckage been found?

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find. It took two years to find the main wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in 2009.

In 2007, in the case of the Adam Air flight, it was a week before an Indonesian naval vessel detected metal on the ocean floor. It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

If the plane had crashed on land, chances are the wreckage would have been found by now. At sea, much of the plane would have sunk, but some debris should remain on the surface. But the longer the search takes the harder it becomes as the wind and tide spread any debris further from the initial crash zone.

Could the flight data recorder provide answers?

As well as wreckage, search teams are looking for the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) - though these do not always work if a plane hits water. However, attached to the plane's "black box" is a device known as a pinger. This can emit radio signals deep underwater for up to 30 days - or 40 days in warm water.

Has a plane ever simply vanished?

Since the start of the jet age in the 1950s, nearly every major aircraft that disappeared was found - eventually - and the rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 plunged into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel. The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

Another Boeing 727 transporting diesel to diamond mines in Africa took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

SXSW: Two Dead As Car Crashes Into Crowd

Two people have been killed in Texas after a car drove through temporary barriers set up for a festival and hit a crowd of pedestrians.

Police in Austin, where the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) conference is taking place, said the victims were confirmed dead at the scene.

Around 23 people have been taken to hospital with five in a critical condition.

The crash happened at around 12.30am in a downtown area where there are several nightclubs.

Witnesses said the car was travelling at around 70mph and was being chased by police before the incident.

One woman said she saw "people flying".

It is believed some of the crowd were queuing to get into a bar called Mohawk on Red River Street.

Officers said the driver has been taken into custody.

SXSW is an interactive film and music festival which attracts many performers and stars.

On Wednesday night, Kanye West and Jay-Z performed a two-hour show.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gasps In Court As Photo Of Reeva's Body Shown

Pistorius Trial Focuses On Police

Updated: 4:40am UK, Thursday 13 March 2014

By Emma Hurd, Sky Correspondent

As attention shifts to forensic evidence in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, the performance of the South African police is under scrutiny, with allegations that officers made serious mistakes.

The athlete's lawyers have produced photos which appear to show that the crime scene was not properly preserved and even marked with a footprint from an officer's shoe. 

If the defence can prove their assertion that the police "contaminated and tampered with" the scene, it will damage the prosecution's assertion that Pistorius murdered Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius' legal team is expected to chip away further at the credibility of the prosecution case when the trial restarts at 7.30am on Thursday.

The focus has been on the toilet door, through which Pistorius fired the four bullets which killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, later claiming to have mistaken her for an intruder.

The actual door was brought into the court as Colonel Johannes Vermeulen, a police forensic analyst, said he had examined the damage caused when the athlete bashed through it with a cricket bat to reach his girlfriend after the shooting. 

He demonstrated the swinging of the bat against the door and said he concluded that Pistorius was on his stumps - not wearing his prosthetic legs - both when he fired his gun and when he smashed the door down.

But the athlete claims he had rushed to put on his false legs before he broke down the door after realising that Reeva could be behind it.

The defence was quick to try to show that the height of the marks could be consistent with Oscar Pistorius's version of events. 

:: A special Sky News highlights programme will be broadcast every weekday at 9.30pm.

Then things became more uncomfortable for Colonel Vermeulen, as he was forced to admit that he had not done any tests on the door to establish if the athlete had first tried to kick it down with his prosthetics, even though the police knew that was Pistorius' account. 

The forensic analyst had also not examined wooden splinters from the door - claiming not to had access to them - but a police photo clearly showed them next to the door when Colonel Vermeulen first examined.

More damaging still was another photo produced by defence advocate Barry Roux, showing a footprint - apparently from a police officer's shoe - on the door that was meant to have been so carefully preserved. 

Other photos were shown by the defence documenting further marks that had appeared on the door in the time it was in the custody of the police.

Colonel Vermeulen was unable to explain any of them.

The performance of the police in the case was the subject of controversy early on in the investigation when it emerged that the lead detective, Hilton Botha, did not follow procedures and was facing charges of manslaughter.

Detective Botha was swiftly replaced.

It was clear that the allegations of police "bungling" would play a part in the trial but we now know that the defence has amassed evidence to back up those claims. 

Further police witnesses might clarify the apparent errors, but it does not bode well for the prosecution - or the reputation of the South African Police Service - that the first representative from the force had such a tough time in the witness box.

:: Watch day nine of the trial from 7.30am on Sky News live on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane: Malaysia 'Holding Back Details'

Missing Plane: 13 Things You Need To Know

Updated: 10:52pm UK, Tuesday 11 March 2014

As the search for Flight MH370 continues, we answer 13 questions about the disappearance and what could have happened.

When did the plane disappear?

Flight MH370 vanished from radars early on Saturday, an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. When it last made contact, the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet over the South China Sea. There are reports that the plane tried to turn around but this would give rise to the question: why didn't the pilot communicate this decision to air traffic control? Meanwhile, at an undisclosed time a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers. Investigators have repeatedly tried to call the same number without success.

:: Sky News will be showing a 12-minute special report on the story so far of the missing flight MH370 at 2.30pm.

Who was on board?

The plane's manifest contained 12 crew from Malaysia and 227 passengers from 14 different countries: 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two each from Iran (both travelling on fake passports), New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada, and 1 each from Russia, Taiwan and Netherlands. Among the passengers was a 19-strong group of prominent artists returning from an exhibition in Malaysia. It is also known that five children - aged two to four - were on board. The oldest person on the plane was 79.

What are the main theories?

Mechanical error remains the most likely explanation. Poor conditions and strong turbulence always have to be considered, but weather conditions were good in this instance. Four areas of investigation are focused on the possibility of human involvement: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

Could there have been a mechanical error?

Inquiries into Air France flight 447 that dived into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Brazil to Paris, killing 228 people, blamed both technical and human error. However, in the event of engine failure, a plane such as the Boeing 777-200 could glide for 80-90 miles (128-145km), giving the pilot time to issue a distress signal. The descent would also have been traced by radars. The lack of any Mayday makes an explosion a possibility.

Could the plane have broken up in the air?

The apparent lack of wreckage from MH370 does point to a high-altitude disaster. In such an event the debris would be spread far and wide, making it difficult to find. A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up on impact with the water. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure due to a window blowing out the crew would dive the plane in order to lose altitude - but this would not cause the plane to disintegrate.

The plane's safety record?

Sudden, accidental, structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet. One of the missing plane's wingtips was clipped in an incident while taxiing in 2012 but it was repaired and certified as safe.

Could it have been a terrorist attack or hijacking?

In the event of a hijacker trying to enter the cockpit, a pilot can send a secret distress code - something that wasn't done on Flight MH370. The profiles of all 239 passengers are being checked against databases worldwide but the terrorism theory was weakened on Tuesday when Malaysian police confirmed it had identified the two passengers who were travelling on fake passports. Both were said to be seeking asylum in Europe. In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster - but no one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Human error?

The 53-year-old pilot was very experienced, having amassed more than 18,000 flying hours since being employed by the airline in 1981. However, in Indonesia in 2007, Adam Air flight 574 disappeared with 102 passengers during a domestic flight, where the authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment. Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell told Sky News: "We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made."

Why was there no distress signal?

One explanation is that the plane fell into a communications black spot. Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer explained: "These are very sophisticated (items of) equipment that should have been working under any conditions - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet. There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you cannot communicate for some reason. Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots."

Where is the search taking place?

Nine aircraft and 24 ships are currently taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, New Zealand and the US are assisting. Officials said on Tuesday that the search was being conducted on both sides of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula. The search area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane disappeared - over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam - to 100 nautical miles (115 miles; 185km). This expansion was a result of a new report from the Malaysian military, who say they tracked the plane in the Strait of Malacca - a long distance from where it last made contact - in the hours following its disappearance.

Why has no wreckage been found?

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find. It took two years to find the main wreckage of Air France flight 447 in 2009.  In 2007, in the case of the Adam Air flight, it was a week before an Indonesian naval vessel detected metal on the ocean floor. It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders and seven months for the recorder to be recovered. If the plane had crashed on land, chances are the wreckage would have been found by now. At sea, much of the plane would have sunk, but some debris should remain on the surface. Worryingly, the longer the search takes the harder it becomes as the wind and tide spread any debris further from the initial crash zone.

Could the 'black box' provide answers?

As well as wreckage, search teams are looking for the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) - though these do not always work if a plane hits water. However, attached to the plane's black box is a device known as a pinger. This can emit radio signals deep under water for up to 30 days - or 40 days in warm water.

Has a plane ever simply vanished?

Since the start of the jet age in the 1950s, nearly every major aircraft that disappeared was found - eventually - and the rare exceptions did not involve passengers. In September 1990, a Boeing 727 plunged into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel. The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered. Another Boeing 727 transporting diesel to diamond mines in Africa took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pistorius Crime Scene Reconstructed In Court

Pistorius Trial: Evidence Summary

Updated: 2:18pm UK, Tuesday 11 March 2014

A summary of the evidence heard in the first two days of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.

Day 7

Friend Darren Fresco told the court Oscar Pistorius "laughed" after firing his gun through the sunroof of a car.

Mr Fresco said he asked Pistorius if he was "******* mad". "He just laughed about what had happened. It felt as if my ear was bleeding," he said, referring to the episode in late 2012.

The court was told the athlete had a "big love for weapons" and Mr Fresco also recalled an occasion when Pistorius asked him to pass him his gun at Tasha's restaurant in Johannesburg on January 13 last year.

He said he warned Pistorius his Glock pistol was "one-up" - meaning it had a bullet in the chamber - and that he thought he saw the runner remove it.

The gun went off under the table, followed by a "deafening hush" - and Pistorius "instantly" passed the weapon back to him and asked him to "take the rap for it" because there was "too much media hype" around him, Mr Fresco said.

Pathologist Gert Saymaan, who conducted a post-mortem examination on Reeva Steenkamp, also finished giving his evidence as a court ban on tweeting during his evidence was lifted by Judge Thokozile Masipa.

The court heard the amount of urine in Ms Steenkamp's bladder at the time of her death amounted to the rough equivalent of a teaspoon - and that the model's last meal was consumed no more than two hours before her death.

Ms Steenkamp was shot after 3am, which means she must have eaten after 1am. Pistorius had said the couple were in the bedroom by 10pm.

Prof Saayman admitted he was not "an expert in this field" but his conclusions were based on scientific probability.

Day 6

Oscar Pistorius threw up in court as details of the post-mortem examination of Reeva Steenkamp were read out.

A live video feed of the trial was cut while a pathologist gave "graphic" evidence of his examination.

Professor Gert Saayman said Ms Steenkamp had bullet wounds to her head, right hip and right arm.

He said the Ranger branded bullets used were designed to "expand and mushroom" and cause substantial damage.

Prof Saayman said the head wound would have been incapacitating but added Ms Steenkamp may not have died straight away.

 Earlier in the day a security guard finished giving his evidence.

Chief security guard Pieter Baba says Pistorius told him all was fine when he called after receiving reports from other residents that they had heard gunshots.

 But Mr Roux insisted to him that it was Pistorius who phoned the security guard, rather than the other way round.

Mr Baba denied this.

Day Five

Prosecution witness Samantha Taylor, ex-girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius, broke down in court as she told how the athlete cheated on her with Reeva Steenkamp.

Miss Taylor also told the court how Pistorius once fired a gun out of the sunroof of a car after being stopped by police.

The star's ex-lover described how Pistorius would sometimes "scream at her" and often carried a gun with him.

The court was told how Pistorius once woke Ms Taylor fearing there was an intruder in the house and got up to investigate with his gun.

Security guard Pieter Baba described the moment he saw a distressed Pistorius carrying Reeva down the stairs.

The guard said that Pistorius assured him everything "is fine" after shots were reported. 

More evidence from Ms Taylor suggested that Pistorius once feared he was being followed and waved his gun at the suspect car until it drove off near his home.

Day Four

Prosecution witness Dr Johan Stipp told the court how he went to Oscar Pistorius' residence after hearing shots fired on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed.

He said he saw Ms Steenkamp lying on her back and Pistorius by her side, frantically trying to resuscitate her.

It was clear Ms Steenkamp was mortally wounded, he said, and Pistorius was crying and praying that she'd survive. During his evidence, Pistorius broke down in the dock, sobbing as he held his head in his hands.

Earlier, Pistorius' defence team said it would have been "impossible" for neighbours to hear screams on the night Ms Steenkamp died.

Lawyer Barry Roux said neighbour Charl Peter Johnson's claim that he heard gunshots followed by a woman screaming was incorrect.

"You cannot hear it inside your house," he said. "At any distance, she was in a locked bathroom."

Mr Johnson also claimed to have heard five or six shots on the night of the killing. But Mr Roux pointed out that in his initial notes he wrote that he "did not count the number of shots fired".

Day Three

Mr Johnson's evidence continued, and he was repeatedly challenged by Mr Roux who at one point said: "You are saying all the evidence that your wife gave us yesterday."

Mr Johnson replied that it was not unusual for two people to use the same words when describing an incident.

He mentioned some notes that he'd taken after the shooting, which are on his laptop and iPad. He was asked to end his evidence for the day and come back the next day, so the defence team had the opportunity to view his notes.

Pistorius' friend Kevin Lerena was then called, who described an incident in January last year in which Pistorius allegedly discharged a firearm by mistake while eating with friends in a restaurant.

He said the athlete then asked his friend Darren Fresco to take the blame.

The owner of the restaurant, Jason Loupis, and his wife Maria, later confirmed the incident after taking the stand.

Mrs Loupis said there was a child nearby when Pistorius' gun went off in the restaurant.

Day Two

The evidence of Ms Burger continued.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux said her evidence had been influenced by media coverage of the shooting, but she denied this.

Mr Roux said that evidence later in the trial would show that Ms Steenkamp would not have been able to scream after the final shot hit her in the head.

Ms Burger stood by her initial statement that she heard Ms Steenkamp after the final shot.

Another neighbour then took the stand for a short time, before Ms Burger's husband gave his evidence.

He told how he thought Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp were being held up in their house and said he looked at additional security measures for his own home the next day.

He backed up his wife's evidence, saying he heard screams after the final shot.

Day One

The first witness, university lecturer Michelle Burger, took the stand.

She says she woke on the night of the killing to the sound of gunshots and a woman screaming.

She described hearing "bloodcurdling screams" and four shots.

She is a key witness for the prosecution, as her evidence would appear to contradict Pistorius' claims that he thought he was shooting at an intruder.

The defence argued she is unreliable due to alleged discrepancies between her police statement and court testimony.

18.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Malaysia Airlines Mystery: Search Stepped Up

What Has Happened To Malaysia Airlines Plane?

Updated: 6:49am UK, Wednesday 12 March 2014

The missing Malaysia Airlines flight may be proving so hard to find because it could have vanished in an aviation "black spot", an expert has told Sky News.

:: For the latest on this story click here

Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer said it was "disturbing" that there had been no distress call from flight MH370's cockpit and that the plane's emergency locator transmitters had not sent any signals.

He said: "These are very sophisticated equipment that should have been working under any condition - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you can not communicate for some reason.

"Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots, so perhaps at that time there was no data transmission between the aircraft and the airline."

Flight MH370 vanished from radar screens early on Saturday about one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

When it last made contact, the Malaysia Airlines jet was at cruising altitude, 11km (35,000 feet) above sea level, largely considered the safest part of a flight.

While there is still no confirmation that the Boeing 777-200 crashed, aviation experts have put forward possible causes of its disappearance including a terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, human error or even suicide.

The failure of the pilots to send a distress signal has given rise to speculation there was a sudden catastrophe - possibly caused by a mechanical failure or an explosion.

Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell has told Sky News that despite flying becoming safer over the years, mistakes are still made.

"We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made," he said.

Investigations into Air France flight 447 that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people, eventually concluded that both technical and human error were to blame for the disaster.

Closer to the area where MH370 vanished, Adam Air flight 574 with 102 people on board disappeared in January 2007, also at its cruise phase, during a domestic flight in Indonesia.

Authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

The lack of wreckage from MH370 also suggests a high-altitude disaster which spread debris across an area too wide to be easily detected.

Aviation experts say the size of the debris field will be one of the first indicators of what happened.

A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up upon impact with the water.

A large, widespread field would signal the plane probably broke apart at a high elevation, perhaps because of a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

But sudden, accidental structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft.

This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

Authorities have not ruled out terrorism or hijacking, though, with suspicions over two of the passengers found to be travelling on stolen passports.

"There are two categories of people who use these (stolen passports) - criminals and terrorists," Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, there was substantial wreckage despite it being a mid-air explosion, and claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster.

But no-one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find.

It took two years to find the main wreckage of the Air France plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people.

An Indonesian navy ship detected metal on the ocean floor a week after the Adam Air flight disappeared in 2007.

It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders, and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

The Malaysian jet could have made a U-turn shortly before it vanished, officials say, adding one more level of uncertainty to the effort to find it.

It is thought the plane could be hundreds of miles from where it was last detected, and the search has been widened in the hope of finding the plane.

Just about every major jet to disappear in the modern era has eventually been found. The rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 owned by the Peruvian Faucett Airlines ditched into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel on its way to Miami.

The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

More mysterious was the disappearance of another Boeing 727 being used to transport diesel fuel to diamond mines in Africa.

The owners had numerous financial problems and the plane took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

One theory, never proven, is that it was stolen so the owner could collect insurance.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Malaysia Plane: 'We Won't Give Up Hope'

The brother of one of the passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight has said he will "not give up hope", despite a warning from officials to expect the worst.

Tom Wood's brother Philip was among three Americans on board flight MH370 when it disappeared between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

"I'm reminded not to give up hope," he said. "You never know. I'm not going to close that door until we need to close it completely."

Paul Weeks, seen with wife Danica and son Lincoln in 2010, was on the plane

Also on board the Boeing 777-200 was Paul Weeks, a New Zealander who survived the devastating earthquake in Christchurch in 2011.

His wife Danica said their young son had planned to speak to his father on Skype when he landed in China and had a map on his wall, plotting where he was due to be.

"He's with his friend at the moment," Mrs Weeks said. "It's just too hard. It's too big a bridge to cross at this stage."

Some relatives have been upset at the lack of information from the airline

She added: "Our children are Paul's legacy and I think, looking forward, in the worst case scenario, I've just got to focus on them."

Many of the 239 passengers on the plane were from China, where a group of families have signed a statement, demanding Malaysia Airlines "publicise the truth" about what happened to the plane.

The have also called on the Chinese government to pay more attention to the case.

Tearful families in Beijing have been told to expect the worst

Daniel Liau, a colleague of acclaimed Chinese calligrapher Meng Gaosheng, who was on the flight with 18 other artists, six family members and four staff, said he could "only pray for a miracle".

"I feel very sad," he added. "Even though I knew them for a short time, they have become my friends."

Some relatives plan to fly to Kuala Lumpur to search for information about their loved ones but others do not want to travel.

A sand sculpture in India wishing for the well being of the passengers

Wang Aihua, the mother of missing Cheng Xudong, said: "Of course I am not going to get a passport. What for? To go to Malaysia to do what? To stare at the sea?"

For Australian grandparents Robert Lawton and his wife, Catherine, the flight was the beginning of another adventure.

"They mentioned in passing they were going on another big trip and they were really excited," one of their neighbours told ABC Australia.

A relative's picture of her stepbrother and his wife who were on the flight

Sharing their adventure was another Australian couple, Rodney and Mary Burrows.

Neighbour Don Stokes said the trip was to be the start of the "next step in their life".

Also on board were teenage sweethearts Hadrien Wattrelos and Zhao Yan, students at a French school in Beijing who were returning from a two-week holiday with Hadrien's mother and younger sister.

Under Zhao's Facebook picture of her and Hadrien he had commented "Je t'aime" followed by a heart, and she had "liked" his comment.

Some families have asked for more support from Beijing

While expecting the worst, colleagues of Indian passenger Chandrika Sharma remained optimistic.

"There must still be hope," said one. "She was friendly and very loveable, very industrious and astute. We will miss her."

For Firman Chandra Siregar, from Indonesia, the flight was a new chapter. In Beijing, he was about to begin a new contract with an oil company.

Tearful relatives and neighbours gathered at his family's home, praying or watching news of the search operation, while at the same time realising there is little hope of him being found alive.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pistorius Throws Up During 'Graphic' Evidence

Pistorius Trial: Evidence Summary

Updated: 1:26pm UK, Friday 07 March 2014

A summary of the evidence heard in the first two days of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.

Day Five

Prosecution witness Samantha Taylor, ex-girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius, broke down in court as she told how the athlete cheated on her with Reeva Steenkamp.

Miss Taylor also told the court how Pistorius once fired a gun out of the sunroof of a car after being stopped by police.

The star's ex-lover described how Pistorius would sometimes "scream at her" and often carried a gun with him.

The court was told how Pistorius once woke Ms Taylor fearing there was an intruder in the house and got up to investigate with his gun.

Security guard Pieter Baba described the moment he saw a distressed Pistorius carrying Reeva down the stairs.

The guard said that Pistorius assured him everything "is fine" after shots were reported. 

More evidence from Ms Taylor suggested that Pistorius once feared he was being followed and waved his gun at the suspect car until it drove off near his home.

Day Four

Prosecution witness Dr Johan Stipp told the court how he went to Oscar Pistorius' residence after hearing shots fired on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed.

He said he saw Ms Steenkamp lying on her back and Pistorius by her side, frantically trying to resuscitate her.

It was clear Ms Steenkamp was mortally wounded, he said, and Pistorius was crying and praying that she'd survive. During his evidence, Pistorius broke down in the dock, sobbing as he held his head in his hands.

Earlier, Pistorius' defence team said it would have been "impossible" for neighbours to hear screams on the night Ms Steenkamp died.

Lawyer Barry Roux said neighbour Charl Peter Johnson's claim that he heard gunshots followed by a woman screaming was incorrect.

"You cannot hear it inside your house," he said. "At any distance, she was in a locked bathroom."

Mr Johnson also claimed to have heard five or six shots on the night of the killing. But Mr Roux pointed out that in his initial notes he wrote that he "did not count the number of shots fired".

Day Three

Mr Johnson's evidence continued, and he was repeatedly challenged by Mr Roux who at one point said: "You are saying all the evidence that your wife gave us yesterday."

Mr Johnson replied that it was not unusual for two people to use the same words when describing an incident.

He mentioned some notes that he'd taken after the shooting, which are on his laptop and iPad. He was asked to end his evidence for the day and come back the next day, so the defence team had the opportunity to view his notes.

Pistorius' friend Kevin Lerena was then called, who described an incident in January last year in which Pistorius allegedly discharged a firearm by mistake while eating with friends in a restaurant.

He said the athlete then asked his friend Darren Fresco to take the blame.

The owner of the restaurant, Jason Loupis, and his wife Maria, later confirmed the incident after taking the stand.

Mrs Loupis said there was a child nearby when Pistorius' gun went off in the restaurant.

Day Two

The evidence of Ms Burger continued.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux said her evidence had been influenced by media coverage of the shooting, but she denied this.

Mr Roux said that evidence later in the trial would show that Ms Steenkamp would not have been able to scream after the final shot hit her in the head.

Ms Burger stood by her initial statement that she heard Ms Steenkamp after the final shot.

Another neighbour then took the stand for a short time, before Ms Burger's husband gave his evidence.

He told how he thought Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp were being held up in their house and said he looked at additional security measures for his own home the next day.

He backed up his wife's evidence, saying he heard screams after the final shot.

Day One

The first witness, university lecturer Michelle Burger, took the stand.

She says she woke on the night of the killing to the sound of gunshots and a woman screaming.

She described hearing "bloodcurdling screams" and four shots.

She is a key witness for the prosecution, as her evidence would appear to contradict Pistorius' claims that he thought he was shooting at an intruder.

The defence argued she is unreliable due to alleged discrepancies between her police statement and court testimony.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane Remains Mystery

Investigators say a yellow object seen floating in the sea is not a life raft from the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared with 239 people on board.

The reported sighting, made by the crew of a Vietnamese jet around 90 miles southwest of Tho Chu island, was another false alert for the international teams of rescuers searching for flight MH370.

Authorities remain "puzzled" by the plane's "unprecedented" disappearance mid-flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

Investigators say Vietnam has not confirmed a possible plane door sighting

Security services are investigating whether the Boeing 777-200 was hijacked or destroyed in a terror attack.

Earlier reports of debris spotted in the South China Sea, including an aircraft door, have not been confirmed, while a possible sighting of a section of the plane's tail has been ruled out.

Sky's Jonathan Samuels, in Beijing, said authorities had warned against giving "false hope" to relatives by reporting every sighting of debris.

Paul Weeks, seen with wife Danica and son Lincoln in 2010, was on the plane

"They say it's very distressing and very upsetting for families to hear there may be something like a life raft out in the ocean, only to have their hopes dashed just a short time later," he said.

The search for the missing plane, which involves teams from seven countries, has been widened after radar suggested the aircraft may have turned back before it vanished.

Tests are also being carried out on oil from two slicks in the South China Sea, which may finally provide answers for relatives of those on board.

Spotter planes and ships are involved in the search for the missing flight

At least two passengers boarded the flight using stolen passports and additional "suspect" documents are being investigated by Interpol.

The men using the false passports - one issued in Italy and the other in Austria - bought their tickets together and were due to fly to Europe after landing in Beijing.

Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said one of the mystery passengers had been identified as a non-resident of the country using CCTV footage from Kuala Lumpur airport.

Investigators have told relatives to 'prepare for the worst'

Officials are discussing whether images of the mystery passengers should be made public as part of an appeal for information.

Initial investigations suggest the plane disintegrated at about 35,000ft, according to the Reuters news agency.

Had the plane plunged into the sea and broken up on impact, search teams would have expected to find a concentrated pattern of debris, a source involved in the probe said.

Relatives of those on the flight are enduring an agonising wait for information and anger is growing in China about the lack of progress with the investigation.

Nearly two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese and if the loss of the plane is confirmed, it would be the country's second-worst air disaster.

In a scathing editorial, the Global Times newspaper, which has links to the Chinese Communist Party, said: "The Malaysian side cannot shirk its responsibilities. The initial response from Malaysia was not swift enough.

"There are loopholes in the work of Malaysia Airlines and security authorities."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Malaysia Airlines Plane: What Happened?

A "very sudden and very violent" event is likely to be responsible for the loss of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, according to aviation experts.

The aircraft was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when air traffic control lost contact some two hours into the flight.

No distress calls were sent from the aircraft, leading experts to assume that whatever happened to the plane occurred quickly and left the pilots little time to respond.

"Either you had a catastrophic event that tore the airplane apart, or you had a criminal act," said Scott Hamilton, the managing director of aviation consultancy Leeham Co.

"It was so quick and they didn't radio."

The plane is suspected to have suffered a sudden break-up, or a failure which caused a steep dive. Some experts say an act of terrorism may also be responsible.

William Waldock, who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona, said the absence of a distress call "suggests something very sudden and very violent happened".

One of the first indicators of what exactly occurred on Flight MH370 will be the size of the debris field.

An information message at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang

If it is large and spread out over tens of miles, then the plane likely broke apart at a high elevation. That could signal a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

If it is a smaller field, the plane probably fell from 35,000 feet intact, breaking up upon contact with the water.

Captain John M Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said whatever took place occurred very quickly.

"We know the airplane is down. Beyond that, we don't know a whole lot," he said.

Airplane crashes typically occur during take-off and the climb away from an airport, or while coming in for a landing.

Only 9% of fatal accidents happen when a plane is at cruising altitude, according to a statistical summary of commercial jet airplane accidents done by Boeing.

Aviation expert David Learmount told Sky News the Boeing 777-222 had an "absolutely superb" safety record.

"Aviation safety now is quite extraordinarily good. It's far better than it was 20-30 years ago - I mean massively better," he said.

"That's why things like this are so surprising. They just should not happen any longer."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Co-op Set To Hand Senior Staff Large Pay Boost

The Co-operative Group is set to hand senior staff large pay rises and bonuses, as the troubled mutual prepares to announce losses for 2013 which are expected to be its worst ever.

Chief executive Euan Sutherland is set to receive a salary of more than £3.6m, it has been claimed.

He said last month the mutual had "lost touch" with customers and launched an online poll so people could make suggestions about its future direction.

It comes amid plans to sell parts of its business that have left question marks over thousands of jobs.

Co-op Group chief executive Euan Sutherland

The Co-op runs supermarkets, pharmacies and funeral services. It is owned by its eight million members.

The Observer has seen documents that say the pay packages are necessary because "the (Co-op's) executive agenda is possibly the most complex one facing a large business in the country today", a reference to the recent troubles at the bank.

Mr Sutherland will be given a base salary of £1.5m this year, with a £1.5m retention payment, the paper claims.

It says that when pension contributions and extras are included, this rises to £3.66m.

Mr Sutherland's predecessor, Peter Marks, received around £1.3m last year.

Chief operating officer Richard Pennycook will receive a salary of £900,000 and a retention payment of the same amount.

Six other executives will be paid salaries of between £500,000 and £650,000, with the same amount in retention.

Ursula Lidbetter, chair of the Co-operative Group, said: "The remuneration packages of our executives are in the middle of a range of comparable companies.

"This represents an increase on the pay of their predecessors to reflect the greater commercial, management and turnaround experience they are bringing to bear.

"Euan and his team have already made a significant contribution to the group and we are confident that they will continue to do so."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Malaysia Airlines: False Passports Terror Probe

Security services are investigating whether a passenger plane that vanished in South East Asia was destroyed in a terror attack.

The Malaysia Airlines jet, carrying 239 people, disappeared off the south coast of Vietnam almost two days ago, but there is still no sign of the aircraft or any wreckage.

The circles show the two areas the search is focusing on

The search area has been widened after radar data indicated the Boeing 777-200 may have turned back.

The FBI and Boeing have joined the investigation after it was revealed four passengers may have been travelling on false passports.

Two passengers used passports stolen from Christian Kozel and Luigi Maraldi

Malaysia's defence and transport minister Hishamuddin Hussein told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur: "All the four names are with me."

He confirmed Malaysian investigators have met counterparts from the FBI, and said the operation is focusing on "the entire passenger manifest".

Prayers are said at Kuala Lumpur airport for the missing passengers

It emerged on Saturday that two people boarded the plane using stolen European passports.

"On the issue of the passports, I'm in touch with the international intelligence agencies," he said.

"At the same time our own intelligence has been activated, and of course, the counter-terrorism units...from all the relevant countries have been informed."

The two oil slicks seen off Vietnam

Asked whether he believes the plane was hijacked, he would only say: "We are looking at all possibilities."

The two men using stolen passports reportedly bought their tickets together from a travel agency in Pattaya, Thailand.

They were due to fly on to Europe from Beijing, meaning they did not have to apply for a Chinese visa and undergo further checks.

Flight MH370 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished around two hours into the flight.

Journalists try to interview a grieving relative in Beijing

The plane disappeared from radar at 1.30am (5.30pm UK time) on Friday, about 85 miles (135km) north of the Malaysian city of Kuala Terengganu.

A huge search involving 22 aircraft and 40 ships is continuing in the vast waters of the Gulf of Thailand, between Vietnam and Malaysia.

It concentrated around the Vietnamese island resort of Phu Quoc after Vietnamese air force jets spotted two huge oil slicks.

The parallel slicks - both between 10 miles (16km) and 12 miles (19km) long and 500 metres apart - were consistent with the kind of spills caused by fuel from a crashed airliner, a Vietnamese government statement said.

A photo of the missing plane - seen taking off in Paris in 2011

The search has now widened to the sea off Malacca, on the west coast of Malaysia, after radar data indicated the plane may have turned back before disappearing.

US federal safety officials said a team of experts are heading to Asia to help in the investigation.

The team includes accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing.

Family members have complained of a lack of information

Earlier today, Malaysia's Civil Aviation chief Azaharudin Abdul Rahman said search teams have not found any debris from the plane.

He said no other aircraft in the Malaysia Airlines fleet would be grounded and indicated there were "no abnormalities" in the data received from the flight.

Two-thirds of the jet's passengers were from China. The rest were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

The plane's disappearance is especially mysterious because it happened when the plane was at cruising altitude, not during the more dangerous phases of take-off or landing.

Malaysia's Civil Aviation chief says no wreckage has yet been found

Officials are examining CCTV footage of passengers boarding the plane after it emerged two passengers had been travelling on stolen passports.

The airline listed one of the passengers as a 37-year-old Italian called Luigi Maraldi. He has contacted his parents in Italy to say he was not on the airliner.

He had his passport stolen in Thailand several months ago, leaving questions over who used his passport to board the plane and whether that has anything to do with the airliner's disappearance.

Another passenger used a passport belonging to Austrian citizen Christian Kozel. He is listed as one of the passengers although he has been confirmed as safe and well by authorities.

His passport was stolen in Thailand two years ago.

Relatives are still waiting anxiously at Beijing airport for news of their loved ones.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

18.25 | 0 komentar | Read More