The dilemma of Dr Wan Azizah

Hafiz Noor Shams has written a very good article in the Malay Mail Online titled The Kajang Farce. I won't say anything about it save encourage you to read his views.

Let's put that aside for now though we shall concur with Hafiz that Dr Wan Azizah, despite her recent show of disloyalty to Captain Azaharie, will win the by-election partly because of the sympathy votes for Anwar, and where (in Hafiz's words) MCA’s Chew Mei Fun's candidacy is but "an exercise in futility" as her party is "a spent force", and must have sent her out to be slaughtered just to assess "how unpopular MCA is", wakakaka.

So let's consider Dr Wan Azizah's ADUN-ship is virtually in her gloved hands.

But we all know three things about her, namely:

• she is a reluctant politician who has come out twice to pick up the pieces and mess her husband has caused,
• she supports Khalid Ibrahim rather than the Dökkálfar Dwarf, wakakaka (and we needn't go into the why's and wherefore's of this), and
• she's the perfect Muslim wife, totally devoted to her husband and family - this is both her strength and her weakness, the former (strength) being her utter devotion to Anwar even to the over-indulgent extent of describing him as God's gift to the people, wakakaka, and the latter (her weakness) being demonstrated by her over-earnestness to protect Anwar, even at the expense of her Islamic values and sense of loyalty to a family member, in fibbing so as to disassociate and distance Anwar from Captain Azaharie because there were then insinuations (totally unjustified) of the pilot being terrorist-linked or ideologically deviant. 

Be that as it may, I wonder how would above 2nd and 3rd dot-points work out for her as the new ADUN for N25-Kajang as they conflict with each other - knowing how loyal Anwar is to Azmin, hence the excuse for PKR's Kajang Betrayal and also how she detests Azmin hence (probably so?) her support for Khalid.

On her instinct and personal preference I would say she would continue backing Khalid as MB. But let's not forget Pakatan's OTHER parties, wakakaka, namely PAS and DAP.

We know PAS hasn't been enchanted with both the Dökkálfar Dwarf and Anwar, while DAP, leery of the Dwarf, would have supported Anwar.

But now that Anwar is (theoretically) out of the DUN, it may well be that DAP, though somewhat disenchanted with Khalid and his lonesome (or wayward) way as a MB, may well stick with the current MB because the Dwarf-ish alternative is not palatable, wakakaka, ...

... unless of course Dr Wan Azizah throws her tudung (or hat) into the MB ring.

Yet we know she's a reluctant politician who wants to retire as she has openly declared, only coming back reluctantly into active politics, as usual to pick up hubby's mess.

But then, according to TMI, she says she’s in the dark over talks of a new Selangor menteri besar, wakakaka.

Everyone in Malaysia knows what PKR's Kajang Betrayal has been for, and by telling us she is in the dark about a new MB for Selangor, she seems to be the ONLY person who doesn't, wakakaka - and that's what's probably sweet about her, the reluctant politician. 

But in the "unlikelihood" she tries for MB, I am confident DAP will support her while I am afraid PAS won't. That's something we'll have to see.

Now, why have I even supposed the "unlikelihood" of her throwing her hat-tudung into the ring for the MB position when she obviously has no such ambitions or thoughts about the MB position, other than to be the compromise candidate to replace hubby in Kajang?

Because the most powerful faction in the weakest Pakatan link, having in the first place engineered the Kajang Betrayal, is hardly likely to give up.

Besides, they will whisper in Anwar's ears, and of course Anwar will then have to whispers in Dr Wan's ears, wakakaka, and therein we will see how Dr Wan deals with her coming dilemma - loyalty to her own instinct or loyalty to hubby even if against her instinct?

I can of course guess, having seen how she had sadly disowned a family relative and party supporter, Captain Azaharie Shah, for what she believed to be in hubby's interests.

Oh, incidentally before I forget, Mr Henny-Penny may wish to know that despite Anwar Ibrahim not standing as a candidate in, and thus not winning the Kajang by-election, the sky has NOT fallen down at all, wakakaka.

Politicizing MH370

Anwar Ibrahim just can't help himself in politicizing the tragedy of MH370.

He claimed the Malaysian (presumably ATC) radar system should have been able to detect MH370's movement when it made a turn back to westward from its original track towards Beijing.

CNN reported Anwar saying: “They had the capability to detect any flight from the west — or from the east to the west coast, from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean.”

Well, they didn't, having lost MH370 at the IGARI waypoint when Malaysian ATC handed MH370 over to Vietnam ATC, but obviously Anwar knows more than the Malaysian air traffic controllers.

The cause for ATC losing SSR (secondary surveillance radar) contact had already been traced to MH370's transponder being off. 

But WTF because Anwar then said what he had wanted to, which was: “I find it shocking that (the government officials) are not able, that they were not able, or they give some very scanty sort of information.”

“The problem is credibility of the leadership. They are culpable because there is a general perception that they are not opening up, that there is an opaque system at work.”

Okay, we all know Hishamuddin and gang have not been doing well for two reasons:

(a) Other than guesses and speculations, they don't know what had happened to MH370, nor does any other government in the world.

Well, how about Anwar Ibrahim? Can he please tell us what has happened apart from claiming the air traffic control radar could have done something that air traffic controllers said couldn't?

Talk is cheap lah!

(b) Hisham and his gang have been contradicting each other for the reason they aren't clued on the issue, with some clowns (one in particular, wakakaka) trying to show he knows more than others.

But does Anwar with his insistence on the super-supra-capability of our ATC radar system, even when air traffic controllers said otherwise, give you any confidence he does?

One week ago, Mike Smith, an Australian crisis management expert and chief executive of Inside Public Relations, and someone who had worked in both Airservices Australia (its nationwide ATC system) and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) had said that in the initial stages of the crisis MAS had actually handled the crisis quite well, but the public relation situation went to shits (kaytee's words, not Mike Smith's) as more government officials began to open their big fat mouths publicly (my choice of words again, wakakaka).

He asserted that a fundamental rule of good crisis management would be for one person, or a limited number of people, to release the information to the public.

Mike Smith stated: "In the first couple of days, the airline was doing that job pretty well, but once it became an international issue, an international hunt, an international crisis, it was really up to the Malaysian government to take control and to have an emergency crisis control point - to manage the information and make sure it was distributed responsibly and truthfully."

He said that after that, other parties had started to comment publicly, and "finger-pointing, rumours and innuendo" had started to emerge.

"This seems to be coming from Malaysian officials, whose motives we can only speculate about."

I dare say it's no different from the PKR party situation where in recent times and associated with the Kajang Betrayal, we get conflicting statements from a number of PKR party leaders, each obviously having what Smith had alluded to: "... whose motives we can only speculate about."

Anwar had also attempted to show how the current government is ballsing up the MH370 tragedy by comparing it to the Japanese Red Army hostage crisis in 1975.

For a start, there is no necessity to tell us what we and most people in the world already know, of the PR debacle that is the Malaysian authority, but wait wait, he was talking to CNN lah.

Secondly and more tellingly, there's hardly any comparison on two vastly different issues. How does MH370 missing aircraft compares to the Japanese Red Army hostage crisis?

Even Singapore's handling of Silkair crash and SIA's Taiwan runway disaster should not be used as comparison because those two events obviously weren't like the MH370 missing aircraft case.

There's no doubt Anwar is politicizing the MH370 saga.

I suspect he has done so in view of mounting criticisms of Dr Wan Azizah's lamentable earlier lie that Anwar does not know Captain Azaharie, when the missing pilot is the uncle of Anwar's daughter-in-law?

Don't know Azaharie, the uncle of your daughter-in-law, and one of your most ardent supporters? How shocking, and which following criticisms required Anwar to come out quickly to acknowledge their family relationship.

Yeah, I also remember that once PKR dismissed Saiful Bukhari as merely one of the thousands of coffee boys in PKR, when he had already gone on a number of overseas trips with Anwar Ibrahim.

But whatever memory deficiency PKR leaders may be suffering from, let us please stop politicizing MH370, as the families of the missing crew and passengers have already much to grieve over, without the additional benefit of Anwar's amazing knowledge of the extraordinary capabilities of Malaysia's ATC radar system or his bizarre and unrelated historical lesson on the Japanese Red Army hostage crisis of 1975.

And just in case someone is going to ask or say: No, I don't hate Anwar, wakakaka.

MH370- Good night or Goodbye?

Let's start off with the Malay Mail Online's Non-Malays more accepting of child rape, says deputy home minister.

Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi has hit the jack pot ... of shit ... when he opined that there are more reports of statutory rapes among Malays ONLY because, as have been interpreted, the nons are more tolerant of bonking young sweeties or bonking among young kids, take your pick.

trust me, I'm UMNO

Note that I described him making that statement as 'opined', meaning he didn't and doesn't have any credible studies to back his idiotic and very racist statement.

Ambiga Sreenevasan could only respond to Wan Junaidi's moronic statement with these three simple but very telling words, "I am speechless".

You wonder why he would make such a birdbrained statement opinion?

Two reasons: one, as an UMNO minister he didn't have a clue on how to answer an embarrassing question and thus to avoid his embarrassment at Malay incidents of statutory rapes comprising 80% of such cases in 2012, he tembak kau kau - shot off from his hips which naturally resulted in him shooting his own foot; two, he is prejudiced, and must have been in order to make such a racist comment without any credible research to back his words.

Prejudice!

Many Americans and indeed generally westerners do have their prejudice as well, which brings us to MH370.

Both MH370 pilots fit the criteria that westerners have feared since 9/11, namely, being Muslims and flying big airline aeroplanes.

Truly missed, truly Malaysian

Thus there is this insistent persistent consistent push to put the two pilots nicely in a square little box that Miss Pandora opened eons ago, and then lock the two gremlins up. Mystery of missing B777 thus solved! 'Twas those Muslim pilots!

Everyone and no doubt Boeing will heave a big sigh of relief.

So much so that there has been much ado about the four words that MH copilot Fariq Abdul Hamid last said, to wit, "All right, good night".

The four words have been dissected, bisected, inspected and analysed in their numerous permutations with such discerning, detailed and demanding fashion that would have turned the staff at the Oxford Dictionary Department green with envy.

Were they (the words) indicative of 'goodbye' or 'good riddance'?

Or worse, could they be 'All night, goodbye', a portent of what was about to happen next?

As many airline pilots would have told you easily, such greetings, salutations, compliments, sign off such as "Good morning", "Good night", "Good day", etc, are normal exchanges between them and ATC controllers.

Mind you, some military fighter pilots frown on such non-standard casual ta-ta in the way that Fariq had signed off with KL Air Traffic Control, and would sneer at the 'non professionalism' of such non-standard R/T (radio telecommunication).

But then, military fighter pilots are known to be an unsocial bunch, made so in some ways by others shunning them such as air traffic controllers (whenever possible) and even their own military counterparts in Transport, Maritime and Helicopter forces.

The latter would sneer at the so-called air force elite, where it's said that in Singapore they are paid more than those in the transport, maritime and helicopter units, while in other air forces as well they would be the ones likely to be promoted to become the air force No: 1.

Hmmm, perhaps there's an element of jealousy in the 'shunning' of the fighter mob, wakakaka.

My uncle told me that years ago, the RMAF fighter pilots were jokingly (and sneeringly) referred to, but in a derogatory way, by their transport and helicopter mates as the '7-Up Gang' who flew lil' machines with 'constant speed and variable noise', wakakaka.

Anyway, back to the "All right, good night", the point is if we want to read something into those four words by Fariq, without the necessity of resorting to the Bomoh's Manual for reading tea leaves or coffee dregs or the offal of kambing tersembelih, then we could say that Fariq said those words because it was 'eight bells and all's well' (everything okay) on board MH370 at that time - and without attempting to link those words to the precise moment (before or after) when the transponder and respectively the ACARS went off.

In fact, just in from TMI, an article titled Could MH370 have flown on autopilot after pilots passed out? is now saying what I had earlier said in:

(a) Where is MH370, or where MH370 is?

(b) Futher thoughts on MH370

Look, Fariq was preparing to marry his sweetheart in the way Teoh Beng Hock was too, so how could such people with happy plans be thinking of committing suicide?

But alas for Fariq, he's a Muslim and worse, also a pilot who attends mosque prayers regularly. OTOH, attending church services regularly is good and an indication of one's fine character, but regular mosque attendance ... hmmm? And some Americans might not have comforting thoughts about those criteria and behaviour. Besides, there hasn't been any other cause or clues to suggest differently to what their prejudice have been shouting out aloud.

Yessir, there have been snide insinuations too about Azaharie Ahmad Shah, the captain of MH370, and his home-made flight simulator with software for runway approaches at several airports in India and also Diego Garcia, the latter a British possession in the South Indian Ocean but in reality an American strategic air force base - do you know what's available at a USAF strategic base?

Then there's the attempt to link him with a humongous radical revolutionary revengeful disappointment over Anwar Ibrahim's recent conviction for sodomy. A la wag the dog?

Be that as it may, shall we then assume that Azaharie was prescient (could see into the future) and foresaw way way back months or even years ago about the recent (2014) conviction of Anwar Ibrahim and also his own associated disappointment, thus motivating him to build the flight simulator and buy those (probably US-made) software on runway approaches around the Indian Ocean, in anticipation of Anwar's trial and conviction, and of course also in anticipation of his own hijacking cum terrorism deviation?

Based on the above myth or now urban legend about Azaharie I might even dare bet he can now be found at the USAF Diego Garcia airport, probably distributing PKR leaflets to vote for Dr Wan Azizah.

USAF base at Diego Garcia

But sadly, Dr Wan Azizah has been a disappointing relative to Azaharie. According to a Malaysiakini report, Dr Wan Azizah has recently lied to disown Azaharie so as to distance Anwar Ibrahim from poor him - how heart broken would Azaharie be if he returns safely home to read about Dr Wan Azizah's betrayal of their relationship.

Azaharie has been a man who has led a happy life, playing around with his man's toys like aircraft models and the flight simulator, and making happy YouTube videos on how to repair aircon etc - he obviously had enjoyed doing all what he has done, making him one who is blessed with a joie de vivre (cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit).

He has been a granddad but one who also enjoys politics in a passionate way, and an ardent follower of Anwar Ibrahim. He's liked and respected by his friends, including Indians and Chinese.

with best friend Peter Chong (gasp, a Chinese?)

Why would a person like him want to do something silly and radical like committing suicide or hijacking a MAS aircraft? If anything, I'm convinced he wants to campaign even harder and dedicatedly for Anwar Ibrahim, where there's still so much to be done.

Well, as I had said for Fariq, I'll say the same for Azaharie - he too is a Muslim and worse, another pilot flying a big airline aircraft - and some westerners especially Americans might not have comforting thoughts about him possessing these criteria.

When in defensive or clueless mode as our remarkable Deputy Home Minister had been, it's all too easy to manifest one's prejudice into some biased comments, without any substantial evidence to back up those comments a la wagging the dog.

MH370 - another mystery, another silliness

Malay Mail Online - Lack of calls, texts from MH370 add to mystery

KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — With radar confirming that Malaysia Airline flight MH370 flew across densely-populated parts of peninsular Malaysia, investigators are baffled why none aboard the missing flight called out for help when the plane had clearly diverted.

The flight path over the peninsula would have put the plane over the cellular transmission towers on the ground, allowing any who suspected that something was amiss with the flight to use their cellphones to communicate their distress.

But according to Malaysia Airline chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya yesterday, investigators have found no signs of communication from 239 aboard the plane that was now missing for 10 days.

Indeed, what with the violent manoeuvres of the aircraft during the turn back at the point of Malaysian-Vietnamese airspace handover (even if it didn't zoom up to 45,000 feet), there is only one explanation: they were all unconscious or near unconscious. That would mean the aircraft cabin was unpressurized, or to be more exact, depressurized.

A correctly pressurized aircraft flying at 35,000 (FL350) would have a cabin altitude of usually not more than 8,000. This means the passengers would be able to breath normally (without breathing aid like oxygen masks) as if they were at, say, Genting Highlands or Dali City in the north-western sector o of Yunnan Province, China.

But if the aircraft had experienced either slow then rapid depressurization or just rapid depressurization, either by structural failure, system malfunction or through deliberate action, then the aircraft cabin altitude would zoom up to match actual altitude outside the aircraft ...

... and the aircraft safety systems would activate the emergency oxygen system and drop the breathing masks down for everyone in the aircraft, except for those stowaways bunking down in the main undercarriage bays who would be deeply frozen and very dead by the time they arrived at the destination ... unless it's a very short flight, or they have dropped out during the extension of the aircraft undercarriages.

Yes, there had been cases of stowaways found dead in the undercarriage bays at the destination airports and (if they dropped out during undercarriage extension prior to landing) along and around the flight approach path because of not only the extreme cold in an unheated section of the aircraft (around minus 50 deg Celsius) but also due to the lack of oxygen at altitudes (extreme hypoxia). There was only one case (in a short flight) who survived but suffered serious frostbites and other injuries associated with lack of oxygen and extreme cold.

Thus a depressurized airline aircraft like MH370 would have put those passengers and crew (unless they were breathing oxygen from the emergency masks) in the same situation as those silly stowaways in the undercarriage bays. Okay then, what about the oxygen masks in MH370? 

Some aviation technical buffs have said (reported in news reports) that the B777 emergency oxygen system would only be triggered if the cabin altitude (ie. the altitude inside the pressurized cabin, and not the actual altitude outside the aircraft) exceeds 13,500 feet.

But what if the MH370 aircraft had experienced slow depressurization (whether deliberately initiated or due to technical faults) which exposed the passengers and cabin crew to cabin altitudes above 10,000 but not above 13,500 feet, say 13,000 feet for 45 minutes, then they would all be pretty near unconscious or certainly very snoozy.

Though people in Tibet and the Andes live above 13,000 quite safely for years, not everyone has that same tolerant capacity for oxygen-deficiency.

MH370 took off at (all local Malaysian time) 00:41 am and would have passed actual altitude of 13,000 feet in around 5 to 6 minutes, which means if the cabin altitude was deliberately set to maintain also 13,000 feet (or there was very gradual depressurization which kept the cabin altitude at around 13,000 feet), the passengers and crew would have been exposed at that cabin altitude for almost 45 minutes until 1:30 am when it all supposedly happened.

If that slow depressurization had been deliberate, then a final but fast depressurization around 1:30 am would have completed the required task, to render everyone in the cabin unconscious.

Was that what happened? I have my theory (posted earlier) but one which still can't explain how the flight after its turn back continued on its way towards the west along established air routes.

Tail-gating SQ68?

On the report that MH370 escaped radar detection while flying over several countries (India, Pakistan etc) by tail gating a SIA aircraft (SQ68) along that route across those countries, it's nonsense.

In aviation, tail gating is just another way to describe close formation flying in 'line astern' station keping.

There are other close formation stations-keeping but only 'line astern' would have prevented anyone in SQ68 to notice MH370 behind it.

That proposition is rubbish because unless the person operating MH370 on that westbound track is a military pilot or was a former military pilot (and who has practiced regularly in close formation flying) it'll be bullshit to imagine he (or maybe even a she, wakakaka) could fly 'line astern' to SQ68. Incidentally, I believe neither pilots in MH370 had military flying background.

Another deterring factor would be the night flight condition when close formation flying would have been already difficult in daylight, ... unless of course you fly close formation for a living like fighter and air display pilots.

Even military pilots can't fly in close formation for hours as that type of flying requires utmost concentration and vigilance and thus would exhaust the pilots after an hour or so. To suggest MH370 flew in 'line astern' behind SQ68 for hours (in two B777) is to suggest near superhuman efforts.  

While it's not impossible to fly any type of aircraft in close formation, even B777 or B747 or A380, it's not easy for a variety of technical (flying) reasons. I won't go into them wakakaka - just trust me, I'm a Penangite, wakakaka again.

Additionally, to suggest that the person who had commandeered MH370 could coordinate in such precise fashion as to meet up with SQ68 and to fit gnam gnam into a 'line astern' formation with the SIA aircraft is too much of a bullshit, even for those who want to swallow bullshit, wakakaka.

In my next posting, maybe tonight wakakaka, I'll write about another aspect (I want to keep this post reasonably short, so could only fit in two issues).

Hisham's 'flight' leaves PKR behind

Malaysiakini - MH370 briefing: Pakatan MPs fume over snub

It's flabbergasting, shocking and outrageously un-Westminster-ly for acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein to hold a closed door Transport Ministry briefing on MH370 for ONLY BN MPs. Pakatan MPs have been ignored in an unprecedented manner, and PKR Ms Fuziah Salleh as Sim Tze Tzin have both voiced their annoyance at Hisham's silly game.

Usually, in such parliamentary closed door briefing there is an unwritten code for MP not to discuss the contents of the briefing in public nor for any MP to express publicly his or her opinion on it, for the precise reason the briefing is one behind CLOSED DOOR, meaning the information is confidential and should therefore be treated as such.

Obviously Hishamuddin doesn't trust Pakatan MPs to honour that code, anticipating they'll use the information to embarrass him and Najib, or that they'll jeer at him out of disbelief (wakakaka) during the briefing.

So based purely on his distrust, he has done the unprecedented, by leaving them behind on his 'flight' briefing.

PKR: We want in
Hisham: Sorry, the flight is full

wakakaka

While his distrust of the other side of politics (and vice versa) is the outcome of our terribly tattered and toxic state of politics, nonetheless Hishamuddin shouldn't have done such a shameful silly act.

Further thoughts on MH370

You know, it's quite amazing when acting Transport Minister has to declare that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his co-pilot Fariq Ab Hamid did not request to fly together, meaning that there have been suspicions that the two could have been conspiring to hijack the plane together - yes, even the pilot of a plane if intending to illegally commandeer an airline aircraft would be termed a hijacker.

These queries on and indeed doubts as to the innocence of the two pilots of MH370 have taken the inquiry into new territory, what with the IGP stating that police investigations are now focusing on four possibilities, namely, hijacking, sabotage, psychological and personal problems, ...

... the last two possibilities being directed at the two pilots or at least one of them, while the former two possibilities, hijacking and sabotage, have not excluded their (or his) possible involvement.

It's fortunate the investigators didn't mention anything about Captain Azaharie being a strong supporter of Anwar Ibrahim because to link the missing flight with Mr Manmanlai, much as it might be a wet dream for some UMNO people wakakaka, it's a ludicrous notion.

But it's a salutary lesson for some Pakatan supporters not to moronically attribute the missing MH370 to divine retribution for the conviction of Anwar for sodomy. Remember the lesson of the revolving door frog in Bota, Perak and how that PKR boast bounced back to hurt Pakatan in Perak. Now that's retribution, whether divine or otherwise, wakakaka.

Anyway, as we have heard, even if the two pilots were not involved, there was nonetheless a person or persons who knew how to operate a B777 involved in its hijacking (let's call it that in the meantime until we know more) because of the 'expert' way in which the flight was flown away to the west along established air routes..

But I'm not all that convinced that two or one MH370 pilot were/was involved or that there was a third person, someone who knew how to operate a B777.

Why?

Let's return to one of my earlier posts on the MH370 saga, namely, Where is MH370, or where MH370 is? in which I wrote (relevant extracts):

Let's recapitulate what we have learned from Rodzali's statement: "Based on military radar readings from its station in Butterworth, MH370 may have turned west after Kota Bahru and flew past the east coast and Kedah", and that "The last time the plane was detected was near Pulau Perak, in the Straits of Malacca, at 2.40am".

• There was a turn back.
• not in above statement but in another Rodzali's briefing, that MH370 changed level to a lower one (am not sure by one thousand metres or one thousand feet). Though a report said that Singapore ATC also recorded data from MH370 indicating a change of level, that report suggested the aircraft climbed to a higher one. I'll ignore the report about Singapore ATC (though it won't make any difference to what I want to say) and accept the earlier one by the RMAF that MH370 descended to a lower level - I'll come back to this later.

The above two points are very significant because they denote that MH370 was still being flown by a professional pilot, whether he was in full consciousness or partially physically impaired, more likely the latter.

Then, I was not aware of the full information in the turn back of MH370 because the RMAF did not reveal all of them other than its tentative information of the aircraft's radical directional change to the west.

Based on that limited information I had then believed the remaining semi-conscious pilot (in a severe state of hypoxia due to suspected slow depressurization) in his desperate turn back had also made an instinctive professional attempt to comply with the appropriate cruising level required by Instrument Flight Rules, to fly at EVEN thousands of feet (32,000 or 34,000 feet) to KL instead of the ODD thousands of feet it had earlier cruised at to Beijing (35,000 ft).

Let's re-examine what I wrote in the 2nd dot-point of extract above, to wit (underlining below are mine):

• ... in another Rodzali's briefing, that MH370 changed level to a lower one (am not sure by one thousand metres or one thousand feet). Though a report said that Singapore ATC also recorded data from MH370 indicating a change of level, that report suggested the aircraft climbed to a higher one. I'll ignore the report about Singapore ATC (though it won't make any difference to what I want to say) and accept the earlier one by the RMAF that MH370 descended to a lower level ...

Actually both RMAF and Singapore radar (civilian or military?) were right!

How, you may ask?

Three days after I had written Where is MH370, or where MH370 is?, that was on 15 March 2014 (yesterday), the Malay Mail Online published Radar data shows MH370 flew erratically, NYT reports in which it stated (underlining below are mine):

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 climbed to 45,000 feet ― above the Boeing 777’s approved operating altitude ― in the moments after its transponders stopped communicating, according to raw military radar data released by Malaysia.

MH370 then fell sporadically before reaching 23,000 feet ― well below the 35,000 feet cruising altitude — as it flew over Penang, the New York Times reported yesterday citing US government officials and sources familiar with the investigation. [...]

One aviation specialist told the NYT that the erratic changes in altitude suggested it was pilot-induced rather than mechanical. [...]

Others said it may be due to MH370 being flown manually after autopilot was disengaged by the plane veering off its pre-programmed flight path to Beijing.

Thus the Sing radar saw MH370 zooming up to 45,000 feet or FL450 while the RMAF radar saw it dropping down to 23,000 feet (and not 32,000 feet as was published by the media earlier).

In these, we can see how both Singapore and Malaysian radar authorities were initially reluctant to fully 'tell' what they had seen, probably because of fear of comprising their true defence capabilities inasmuch as China was initially reluctant to release their satellite photos, and then only did so because of mounting Chinese public anger and, as alleged by western defence analysts, after deliberately degrading the quality of those photos to mask their true satellite intelligence gathering capabilities - see my post MH370 shows Chinese government as S.N.A.G.

Be that as it had been, that MH370 zoomed up to FL450 and then dropped to FL230 would be termed as very very violent air manoeuvres.

Therein in those violent air manoeuvres lies my lack of conviction in the current official belief that one or two of the MH370 pilots or a third party who's an expert in or at least very familiar with B777 operations and systems had made the turn back and flown the flight towards the west.

Why would such very violent manoeuvres be required in the turn back and amended direction if MH370 was operated by one (or both) of the pilots or a 3rd party B777 expert?

All the person in control would need to do was to re-program the aircraft FMS (flight management system) including modifying the flight plan for the aircraft to take up a new flight level and a new flight route. This could be conveniently done by selecting that route from a saved library of routes used by MAS in the FMS or by manually programming the required new waypoints into the FMS, all with push buttons technology and not by manually flying the aircraft.

Thus there could be two possibilities for those very violent manoeuvres, namely:

(a) there was a fight or struggle over the aircraft controls, or 

(b) a severely hypoxic-affected pilot had in his impaired state attempted to change level but erratically muddled that manoeuvre, first yanking the control stick backwards (thus zooming the aircraft to way above the B777 maximum operating altitude, meaning the hypoxic conditions for the crew and passengers would have worsened or even if there was no depressurization already, took the cabin altitude to above 10,000 feet but why would he do that if he was not suffering from hypoxia?) and ...

... subsequently in attempting to correct that initial error, shove the controls forward to descend the aircraft violently, losing more than 20,000 feet to reach FL230, before he became unconscious and the aircraft FMS then took over to re-stabilize the aircraft at the programmed flight level. 

Let's examine each possibility respectively:

(a) why should there be a violent struggle when a 3rd party (if he had entered the cockpit cabin to seize command of the flight) could have easily knock the two pilots out with a heavy weapon (butt of a gun?) or shot them, dragged them aside and assumed the pilot seat, or ...

... if it had been one of the pilots, used some pretext to render the other pilot unconscious (stood behind his colleague and knocked him unconscious) or even sent him to the back on some fabricated reason and then locked him out of the cockpit cabin!

And if the two pilots were collaborating, then where was the problem or reason for those very violent manoeuvres?

With the aircraft in such violent manoeuvrings, with drinks and whatnot on cabin tables flying all over the show, why hadn't the cabin crew or passengers reacted, say, by phoning their relatives or someone on the ground? Perhaps they were all unconscious!

Thus I'm not in the least convinced, principally because of those inexplicably very very violent manoeuvres.

Okay, the police has seized Captain Azaharie's home made flight simulator to investigate for possible links to any untoward plans for Flight MH370.

Look, I could be wrong about Captain Azaharie but he has been not only a very experienced B777 pilot but also a DCA appointed pilot examiner for the B777 - do you believe he needed that home made simulator to plan a hijack? Hey, perhaps to simulate (rehearse) a turn from a north-easterly direction to a south westerly one? I find that notion quite ridiculous and laughable.

(b) Okay then, how did the flight then assume a flight track via new waypoints on a new air route (airways)?

I can't answer that. Anyone out there can help with this one, like for example, could a hypoxic-affected pilot, already suffering from severe euphoria (in an equivalent of a drunken state due to lack of oxygen, and not by an abundance of alcohol in his blood system), in attempting to re-program the FMS back to KL inadvertently re-program it to take Flight MH370 on its new path (by mistakenly selecting one of the stored MAS flight plan programs to the west via the northern route?).

I admit I have some doubts on this inadvertent flight plan amendment to the west, but look I am wildly speculating, because I cannot explain the violent manoeuvres of the flight zooming up to FL450 and them plummeting down to FL230 unless it was carried out by a severely hypoxic-affected pilot or, ...

... by a violent struggle in the cockpit which I had already explained away.

Oh, by the by, before I end this post, one full of questions rather than explanations, for those of you who believe that MH370 escaped radar detection by flying low, remember what I had said, that 'how both Singapore and Malaysian radar authorities were reluctant to 'tell' what they had seen, because of fear of comprising their defence capabilities just as China was initially reluctant to release their satellite photos .....' etc etc.

Yessiree, they might have seen and known but nosiree won't tell!

Besides, a low flying jet, assuming that was even true, won't fly very far because jet engines at low altitudes drink up fuel the way the way fish drink (a la the saying 'he drinks like a fish').

No way that presumed low flying B777 could have reach the shores of India, let alone Kazakhstan - perhaps at the most, somewhere in Myanmar or eastern Bangladesh!

Wagging the dog

Remember in a previous post Where is MH370, and where MH370 is? I wrote about the Australian media and how a TV Channel aired an incident about the copilot of MH370, Fariq Abdul Hamid, allegedly inviting two South African women to the flight deck of an aircraft flying from Phuket to KL (maybe a B737?).

It was tasteless and shameful of that TV Channel to rubbish a man who has gone missing in a lost aircraft, and one who won't be able to answer back (at least until he's found alive somewhere if he's not already dead).

I mentioned that unfortunately that's the downside of a free Australian media which for the purpose of ratings and their commercial viability would not hesitate at times to stoop down real low (like paying questionable but controversially delightful-for-TV interviewees) to air sleazy scandalous stuff.

The recent Schapelle Corby case was an example of the vulture-like antics of the Aussie news media where Schapelle's sister was rumoured to have been paid to give a TV review on Schapelle's case following her recent release on parole by the Indonesian authorities.

Some of her reckless allegations (good for TV ratings) so riled the Indonesian government that it considered cancelling Schapelle's parole and re-imprisoning her. Now, wouldn't that just be further great TV news?

Yes, some of the media misuse their freedom of speech/expression during their strive for higher ratings by promoting gossipy scandals without a shit of a care for those affected, like digging up and revealing the identity of a man who won the Aussie lotto of $60 million dollars and who obviously had wanted his identity to remain confidential for his personal security, or like poor Fariq Abdul Hamid who now isn't around to provide his side of the story.

But these haven't been as bad as wagging the dog, which would consist of 'leaking' so-called 'news' but always from an 'un-named source' or 'an official who spoke on conditions of anonymity', and which 'leak' would hopefully trigger some juicy but injudicious response from a bono fide source, for example, like a minister or an IGP, wakakaka.

We have been getting a lot of so-called 'un-named officials' apparently leaking all sorts of theories, as if by claiming such sources are 'insiders' or 'officials who prefer to be un-named', the media stories would sound both plausible and credible.

The latest is that MH370 has been hijacked and taken somewhere in the direction of the Andaman Islands.

Quite frankly, on a personal basis I love a happy ending too and only wish this story is true and that the B777 had landed safely on one of the Andaman islands on a secret strip prepared by the hijackers, and all on board are still alive but constrained by armed air-pirates who will demand several billions of dollars for their release, or the release of political prisoners from Country X, Y or Z.

Anyway, with each passing day of the missing MH370 I notice and grudgingly concede our Minister for Foot-in-his-Mouth seems to be getting better at handling the press, wakakaka.

In the Malay Mail Online report titled Malaysia to widen search for MH370, says satellite signals unconfirmed, when Hishammuddin, wakakaka, was asked to confirm reports (from ‘un-named’ US officials in the Pentagon, wakakaka) that satellites had picked up signals from MH370 long after it disappeared, he replied that investigators were well aware of the reports, but said they had come from ‘unnamed officials’ and thus remain ‘unverified’.

When pressed on what information Malaysia has with regards to Pentagon (again ‘un-named’) officials saying MH370 might have been diverted towards the Indian Ocean, he stated: “I said a lot of unnamed officials are making certain suggestions. I think we need to go deeper into who actually made those statements. At the moment, I don’t have that information.”

Bravo Minister, I’m glad you’re showing the cool clinical composure we want to see in our officials, and f**k those ‘un-named officials’, wakakaka,

I know the media is hungry for new angles in the news and there’s a hungry public out there ranging from China to all around the world, but don’t let the tail wag the dog.

Incidentally, WSJ has corrected one of its reports (about Rolls Royce receiving MH370 ACARS transmissions during the 5-hour period after its last known position in the South China Sea) which Hisham had asserted as incorrect, and which of course now means poor Hisham had been correct all along but we (including distrusting kaytee, wakakaka) had rather believed WSJ than him, wakakaka. Poor Hisham.

The Israeli tail wagging the American dog