[travelworld2]

Anthony Dunn@ 24/03/2014 00.08GMT
+1

[SimonS1]

Indeed it would Martin. The public utterances of the Malaysian PM remind me very much of Comical Ali of Baghdad. Another day, another story.

[SimonS1]

So now it has been clarified that shortly before yesterday’s announcement by the Malaysian PM, the airline advised relatives of their conclusion that the flight had been lost by text message!!

Two weeks of investigations and it suddenly became so urgent that the only way they could communicate with grieving relatives was by SMS??

Honestly, you couldn’t do a better job of looking incompetent. No wonder the CEO of Malaysian is being challenged to resign.

[PerthWA]

Notwithstanding all the immigration fails etc etc i feel incredibly sorry for Malaysia who have, in my humble opinion, been given the complete runaround by the world.

Everyone is watching everyone, the plane was heading for Beijing, not Western Australia! If Russia wasn’t so involved in Crimea they would have the answer and no one has bothered to ask North Korea as far as I can see/hear!

Given the world watch that we normal humans don’t have access to, I find it inconceivable that an aircraft of that size can just cruise past southern Western Australia without ANYONE noticing for two weeks just to dock in the ocean. Until that plane is found as a plane, I’m not buying anything from those images except possible slipped containers, great white sharks and probable upturned yachts sailed by single handed nutters in the great southern hoping that Australia would rescue them!

Call me stupidly optimistic but I’m hanging onto the possibility that the plane is on a disused unseen and forgotten jungle covered runway somewhere north of Vietnam! And then, who only knows for what use!

[SimonS1]

PerthWA – I agree it hasn’t been easy, a complicated case investigated in the glare of 24/7 media. However sometimes it is better to say less than make statements that get exposed later on.

The continual drip drip of revelations has created a corrosive effect here – communications were lost, but they weren’t. The plane suffered a catastrophic failure, or maybe it didn’t. The plane crashed in Vietnam airspace. Or India. Or make that Australia. OK, doesn’t look good, but there was confusion so give them the benefit of the doubt.

However what about the relatives hauled out of press conferences. The Co-Pilot had previously allowed girls into the cockpit. The lithium batteries reportedly carried in the cargo. That was somewhat careless.

However the use of a text message to tell the relatives it was finally all over was shocking. Really – no-one from the PM of Malaysia and the CEO of the airline downwards ever paused to think ‘is this a dignified way to treat relatives whose lives have been in utter turmoil for 2 weeks’? Did they stop to think that many of those involved don’t speak English? That is totally indefensible. The story has been running for 2 weeks, would another 6 hours to tell relatives personally have been such a problem? I’m afraid to act in such a way reflects a very serious lack of judgement. Let’s hope it’s not indicative of the overall level of competence shown in the investigation.

[AnthonyDunn]

@ SimonS1 – 25/03/2014 16:03 GMT

+1

[PerthWA]

SimonS1 I think you’ll find that the relatives were called to various locations to be given the news by a human HOWEVER they had also been asked previously if they couldn’t get to one of those locations if they would like to be kept informed by text, it was their choice to opt in and this snippet is just another sensationalist media beat up on a story that is already tragic. Some clown journo in the channel 7 newsroom was last night posting on Facebook about finding “evidence” … What evidence? Grainy satellite pictures? No plane, no evidence. No answer, yet.

[SimonS1]

PerthWA – there is a world of difference between being “kept informed” by text and being told the airline has concluded your loved ones are deceased. It is also somewhat unhelpful to send a text message in English to people who don’t speak a word of it. Imagine some people showed up at the press conference having not been able to understand the message, thinking it was good news they would hear.

Sadly a group of GCSE students would have done a better job. In fact with what is starting to come into the public domain about the contents of the cargo, the co-pilot’s habits in having female guests in the cockpit, the cargo not being scanned fully because the equipment wasn’t all working it does not look as if the Malaysians will cover themselves with glory on this sad occasion. As I don’t often head that way for business I don’t have need to use MH, however right now the chances of me ever using them are somewhat less than zero.

[PerthWA]

Totally agree SimonS1 but unless you personally were on the receiving end of one of those texts, how do you know what language it was sent in? Malaysia is a multi-cultural society and although I truly believe their PR people could do with a crash course (pardon the pun) in crisis management 101, I somehow doubt that they would be that insensitive.

Still stand by my stupidly optimistic outlook, no plane, no evidence and as of Perth time this evening, where the world has congregated to help, no one has found anything! Weather notwithstanding.

[SimonS1]

PerthWA – because the media have seen the text message and know very well what language it was in. You may have your doubts, however the BBC would not say “The BBC has seen a text message sent to families by the airline” if it hadn’t.

In fact if you still doubt it, see it for yourself:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-distraught-families-told-by-text-message-to-assume-beyond-doubt-no-one-survived-9212722.html

[MartynSinclair]

Can someone explain please these continual “We have spotted debris with our satellite” but still nothing has been picked up by rescue boats.

Various news agencies have been reporting these finds for nearly a week…. yet still no one has yet picked up any of the debris….

[AnthonyDunn]

Martyn,

I surmise that it’s because the locations of the reported debris are extremely remote, away from most well-frequented shipping lanes and that to get there requires the deployment of dedicated naval (military) assets. These are slowly being deployed to the area with the RAN, USN, RN, PLA(N) and others sending surface ships and capabilities. No one would ever let on that they’d deployed submarines but it’s not entirely outwith the bounds of possibility that the Australians, Americans and others possibly have subs in the area listening for pings from the FDR. Towed array sonar has a quite remarkable range and listening capability.

The other point is that as the area where all of this debris is reported is within the “Roaring Forties”, it is pretty inhospitable – even if you’re onboard some serious naval hardware. Sooner them than me.

[MarcusUK]

I am sure the Airline crews for malaysia Airlines are also feeling much grief and elements of fear. This never gets mentioned on the news.
Colleagues , friends, and those crews flying the same route must feel very somber.

They have always been an excellent Airline, and KUL a good secure Airport, well run and maintained.

So also my thought and prayers for the Airline as a whole, which has always been run with such care to detail and good spirit.
I hope we find answers at least to enable closure for many who will desperately need it, though all the mysteries surrounding this, indicate it will be far from conclusive.

[PerthWA]

Well said MarcusUK.

My brother flew out on MH a few days ago and will be home on Saturday with the same.

Can’t imagine what it must feel like for the rest of the MH family.

Thankfully and hopefully some of the pompous indignant pigeons on this thread won’t inflict themselves on the airline in the future either!

[SimonS1]

If it feels like that for the crews, imagine what it feels like for the people who have lost their loved ones and had to learn of their fate from MH in such a callous way.

And Marcus – if it is all so well run why have the Malaysians still refused to release the cargo manifest three weeks in? Or denied the reports that the hundreds of kgs of lithium batteries from Motorola weren’t scanned as one of the scanners at KL was not working and they had relied on the packing agent to do it?

;It seems the search has now shifted by 1,100km following more “credible information”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26780897

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