Indonesian fisherman says he saw MH370 crash

Regular readers of WWW will know of my abiding interest in the flight of MH370, the Malaysian Airlines B-777 which vanished from the face of the earth on 8 March 2014. The Malaysian and Australian governments have been working, off and on, to find more than a few fragments of the plane, but admitted last fall that they still don't know what happened to it, or where. For a recap of the more recent developments, see "More pieces of MH370 (?) spark calls for renewed search", WWW 30/11/18.

Theories, including conspiracy theories, abound. My own, as posted several times in the years between then and now, is that the plane crashed into the northern part of the Indian Ocean, somewhere east of the island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a huge US military base. I believe the Pentagon, which has kept shtum on the matter, knows what happened and who is responsible, if only through a regrettable accident. Of course I could be wrong, but... lifetime pct .988.

Still, the mystery remains unsolved a new clues continue to surface. [Was that pun intended? Ed.] Today Yahoo News UK reports that an Indonesian fisherman claims he knows exactly where the missing aircraft went down. He is seen here pointing to the location, in the Strait of Malacca, a busy shipping lane wast of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Rusli Khusmin, a 42-year-old fisherman, says he saw the plane go down in a plume of thick black smoke. "I saw the plane moving from left to right like a broken kite," he told the meeja. "There was no noise, just black smoke as a result of fires before it crashed into the water." He added that there was a strong smell of acidic fumes in the air before the plane crashed. As he watched he recorded his co-ordinates on a GPS, which has now been handed over to investigators.

Mr Khusmin did not say why he waited nearly five years to come forward, but swore an oath of truth on the Koran. His evidence will be sent to Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. Stay tuned.

More pieces of MH370 (?) spark calls for renewed search

This is the 42nd post in which Walt has discussed or mentioned the mystery of the Malaysian Airlines B-777, operating as flight MH370, which vanished off the face of the earth on 8 March 2014. Here are the links to some of the key pieces.
14/3/14 "MH370: Three guesses from Walt" - Note the third suggestion!
19/3/14 "MH370: 1 + 3 = ??? Walt puts two possibilities together"
26/3/14 "For the second time: Diego Garcia is a key piece of the MH370 puzzle" - Diego Garcia is the site of a huge US military installation which dominates south Asia and the Indian Ocean
17/6/14 "Latest on MH370: Inmarsat says search was off target; Canadian ex-pilot blames Malaysian authorities for "bungled inquiry", suggests ulterior motive"
18/12/14 "MH370 - Just fancy that!"

Up to this point, not a trace of the missing aircraft had been found. The theories of Walt and others as to what happened to MH370 were based largely on speculation. Then, in July of 2015, pieces of debris started to turn up. See
29/7/15 "Wreckage of MH370 (?) surfaces" and
31/7/15 "Current thinking on MH370" - Here's where I made a diagram of the currents which brought the debris to the shores of Réunion and (later) Mozambique, Madagascar and South Africa. See
24/3/16 "Wreckage on shores of WESTERN Indian Ocean IS from MH370" and
12/5/16 "MH370: 5 pieces now, all in "the wrong place"

For reasons about which we can only speculate, the "authorities" and "experts" kept searching off the west coast of Australia, and, as Walt predicted, came up with nothing. Nada. Zippo. Lifetime pct .984.
20/12/16 "'Experts' admit looking in the wrong place for MH370"
6/1/18 "New search for MH370 - Walt's advice on how to get answers"
30/7/18 "MH370: 'Third party interference' (= hijacking?) can't be ruled out" - The final report of the official investigation, in which the "authorities" concede that they had no explanation whatever for one of the Great Mysteries of the Sea. Having ignored Walt's advice, they said they really didn't have a clue. Nothing to see here, folks. Fuggedaboutit.

But the families of the 239 people who went down with the plane don't want to forget. They want answers, and are demanding another search, the more so since more pieces of wreckage keep turning up. Here we see the Malaysian Transport Minister, Anthony Loke, examining a piece of debris believed to be from the missing aircraft. This is one of five pieces presented to the Malaysian government today by representatives of people who perished.

Their spokesperson, whose mother was on flight MH370, said the new debris was found by villagers in Madagascar (again!) over the past two years as part of a privately funded search. She said one of the pieces has a readable label and is believed to be a floor panel from the plane. She urged the Malaysian government to make a thorough search in the area Walt suggested years ago -- for debris that could be either buried in sand or floating in waters off the coast of southern Africa and the adjacent islands.

Minister Loke said the debris will be verified by investigators but the government is only open to continuing the search if there is credible evidence of the plane's location. Kind of a funny condition when you consider that without a search, the location of the plane (or what's left of it) can't be determined.

American wreckage hunter Blaine Gibson, on the right in the picture, said the debris has been inspected by independent experts, who believe it is from a Boeing 777. The piece that may be a floor panel indicates the plane may have shattered on impact and that there is no intact fuselage underwater, he said.

As Walt reported, the Malaysian-led independent investigation report released in July highlighted shortcomings in the government's response to the plane's disappearance, including lapses by air traffic control, and a failure to monitor radar continuously and immediately initiate an emergency response.

It also raised the possibility of "intervention by a third party" -- not the US military, of course -- and reiterated the Malaysian theory that the plane was deliberately diverted and flown (by whom?) for over seven hours after severing communications. The report said there was insufficient information to determine if the aircraft broke up in the air or during an impact with the ocean. In summary, the authorities don't have a clue, and, for some mysterious reason, don't seem to want one. Nothing to see here, folks. Fuggedaboutit.

MH370: "Third party interference" (= hijacking?) can't be ruled out

Walt is still following the investigation into what happened to Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared somewhere over -- or into -- the Indian Ocean on 8 March 2014. Today, investigators released yet another report on their findings, which so far have amounted to, errr, just a tad more than nothing. Today's report says the controls of the Boeing 777 were likely "deliberately manipulated" to take it off course, but they were not able to determine who was responsible.

Thus the aviation experts reached no conclusion about what happened aboard the plane that vanished with 239 people on board en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, leaving one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries unsolved. Kok Soo Chon, head of the safety investigation team, told the meeja "The answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found."

Walt suggests (again) that the wreckage won't be found until hunters stop looking in the southeastern part of the Indian Ocean (off the west coast of Australia) and start looking in the western part. The bits of debris found to date have all been located on the shores of southern Africa and nearby islands. See "New search for MH370 - Walt's advice on how to get answers", WWW 6/1/18.

Experts believe someone may have deliberately switched off MH370's transponder before diverting it over the Indian Ocean. There has been speculation that either the pilot or the co-pilot did that, and then flew the aircraft into the sea in an act of murder suicide. Mr Kok-up thinks not. "We are not of the opinion it could have been an event committed by the pilots," he said, but added they were not ruling out any possibility since the in-air turn back was done manually and the systems in the plane were also manually turned off.

Who else might have done it, then? Said Mr Kok, “We cannot exclude that there was an unlawful interference by a third party." Perhaps he and his colleagues have read "Could MH370 have been hacked? It's possible!", WWW 12/6/18. If not, they should!

UPDATE ADDED 31/7/18: Fox News reports that Malaysia's civil aviation chief resigned today, taking responsibility for shortcomings during the disappearance of MH370. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in a statement the report referred to above showed failures by Kuala Lumpur air traffic control to comply with standard procedures.

MH370 search vessel inexplicably turns off tracking system

More mystery from somewhere in the south Indian Ocean. A month ago tomorrow, Walt reported that a US company, Ocean Infinity, had sent a specially equipped vessel out from Durban, South Africa, to search again for the remains of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which vanished in mysterious circumstances on 8 March 2014.

Previous searches in an area to the west of the Australian coast turned up nothing. A decision to stop looking was made in December of 2016, but late last year the authorities decided to let Ocean Infinity have a go.

While the first search was in progress, debris from the Boeing 777 had washed up on the shores of South Africa, Moçambique and Réunion Island, in the southwestern part of the Indian Ocean, leading Walt and many others to suggest that the searchers would do well to look to the northeast, to the area around Diego Garcia, the site of a huge American military base. So guess where the search ship, the MV Seabed Constructor, headed? You got it! Due east, right back to the area that had already been scoured without success.

But when they reached the search area, something happened. This weekend News.com.au, an Australian news site, reported that the Seabed Constructor mysteriously switched off its Automatic Identification System (read: tracking system) near an object which the first search teams had not only spotted, but tentatively identified as the fuselage of MH370. Here's the sonar image.

What do you think, boys and girls? Does it look like the wingless body of an aircraft to you? Me either. Turns out that's now thought to be the wreck of the Peruvian transport vessel SV Inca, which vanished en route to Sydney in 1911. Picture: State Library of South Australia

THE state-of-the art vessel tasked with finding missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 mysteriously switched off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) for more than three days, sending some observers into meltdown. But it seems the searchers decided to stop for a better look. Who knows? The sunken ship might be filled with treasure!

But was that the real reason why the search vessel "went dark" last Wednesday? Might it have just been a case of someone adjusting the AIS system settings ahead of departing for Fremantle (Australia), or was it a deliberate action because something else is going on? Is it possible that someone aboard the Seabed Constructor read Walt's advice and had another think about the proposed search area?

People following the progress of the search online have also been made with the missing plane itself. MH340 vanished from radar after its aircraft communications, addressing and reporting system (ACARS) was switched off less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. One Reddit user commented, "Rogue captain?" Another replied, "If it starts pinging in the Malacca Strait that would be something."

Like the Indian Ocean itself, the mystery deepens. Your comments are welcome. If you know something, tell us! If you're on the landing page and have something to say, click on the headline of this post, and a comments window will open. You never know who's reading WWW!

"Experts" admit looking in the wrong place for MH370

Looks like this second-last week of 2016 is going to be the biggest newsweek -- not to be confused with the useless magazine of the same name -- of the year. It's only Tuesday and so far we've got four Islamic terrorist attacks, the election of Donald Trump by the Electoral College [not really news. Ed.] and now... wait for it... confirmation of what Walt has been saying for well over a year: The "experts" conducting the search for Malaysian Airlines MH370 have been looking in the wrong place!

That's right, folks. You read it here as early as 18 December 2014 ("Just fancy that!"), and even before! (Click here to see all of Walt's posts on MH370.) For two years, in spite of questions raised by my goodself and numerous other sceptics, the Australian-led search team have been looking for debris from the missing B-777 in a remote patch of the Indian Ocean west of Australia. Today, at last, the sleuths made what was surely a painful admission: they've probably been looking in the wrong place. Probably? Hah! Definitely is the correct word. And I have no hesitation in saying: I told you so!

The latest analysis by a team of international investigators concluded the vanished aircraft is "highly unlikely" to be in the current search zone and may instead be in a region farther north. Since the plane disappeared in March 2014, the "experts" have analyzed a series of exchanges between the aircraft and a satellite to estimate a probable crash site somewhere in a vast arc of ocean in the southeastern part of the Indian Ocean. A deep-sea search of a tens of thousands of square miles of water along the arc came up empty.

To make matters worse, as Walt told you last May ("MH370: 5 pieces now, all in 'the wrong place'"), pieces of debris kept turning up on shores at the western end of the Indian Ocean, in such places as Madagascar, Réunion, Mozambique and South Africa. To elucidate the fuzzification, the "experts" went back over the satellite data and did a drift analysis of the (by now) more than 20 items of debris likely to have come from the plane. The analysis, based on where the items washed up and when, suggested the debris originated somewhere "farther north".

The report identifies a 25,000 square kilometre area to the north of the current search zone as the most likely place where MH370 hit the water, the report said. The investigators concluded with "a high degree of confidence" that the plane is not in the current search area, and that the new area needs to be searched.

So will they extend the search to that area, beyond the planned completion date of 31 December? Errr, no. Australia’s transport minister, Darren Chester, who has to wear this one, suggested the analysis wasn't specific enough to justify continuing the hunt. In other words: show us where it is, and we'll have a look. Besides, there's no more money. So that's it, then. MH370 and over 200 pax and crew can rest undisturbed in their watery grave. Let's move on to other things that are less likely to prove embarrassing for all concerned.

Investigators not interested in picking up more MH370 debris

Things other than the decline and fall of Hellery Clinton are transpiring elsewhere in the world. On the southeastern coast of Madagascar, for instance, where Blaine Gibson, the debris hunter who found parts of the Boeing 777 which flew as Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 has found five (5) new pieces.

Two fragments appear to show burn marks, which, if confirmed as such, would be the first time such marks have been found. The presence of burn marks would suggest that a disastrous fire would be the proximate cause of the plane's fall into the Indian Ocean. Another small piece was found in the same area. Two more turned up on the northeastern beaches of Antsiraka and Riake, where debris had already been found. Pictures of all five fragments have the "honeycomb" material found in other MH370 debris.

Time for another look at Walt's diagram of the currents prevalent in the Indian Ocean, previous posted on 31/7/15 in "Current thinking on MH370".

I'm putting this up again to underscore my theory that the Australian and other "experts" who have allegedly been searching for the remains of the ill-fated flight have been looking in the wrong place. You'll see Madagascar sandwiched in between the Aquinas and Moçambique currents, at the western edge of the Indian Ocean. The "authorities" have insisted that the plane went down in the search area off the western coast of Australia, 1000s of miles away.

Why would they do that? Let me suggest (again) that it's deliberate misdirection, to keep us from asking questions about the involvement of the US millitary, which maintains a huge base on the British island of Diego Garcia, For more, see "MH370: 5 pieces now, all in 'the wrong place'", WWW 12/5/16.

If they really wanted to get at the truth, you'd think the Australians and/or Malaysians would hie themselves off to Réunion, Madagascar, Moçambique and South Africa, where bits and pieces of the missing aircraft have been located. But noooo. Mr Gibson -- a lawyer from Seattle -- is the only one searching there.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is supposed to be leading the investigation, couldn't be bothered to come and get the pieces, so Mr Gibson has sent them to Australia at his own expense. What does the ATSB think of the latest discoveries? Will they be undertaking a new search after they finish up the current one [Watch it! Ed.] in December? Answer comes there none.

VIDEO: Canuck expert says MH370 deliberately flown into ocean

Just as the search for MH370 is about to be wound down -- December 31st is the ABF closing date -- a new piece of evidence emerges to support the theory of Larry Vance, a Canadian aviation expert, that the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines plane in March of 2014 was no accident.

Walt has asked before -- click here for a complete list of WWW posts on "MH370" -- why the FBI is involved in the search for answers to the riddle, but involved they are. This week CNN reported that an FBI forensic examination shows the pilot of MH370 conducted a flight simulation on his home computer that closely matched the suspected route of the missing Boeing 777 in the southern Indian Ocean, according to a Malaysian government document obtained by New York magazine.

The confidential document summarizes Malaysia's police investigation into Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the captain of the plane that has been missing for more than two years. Mr Shah was a Muslim, by the way. Just thought I'd throw that in. Why would an Islamic extremist commit suicide just to kill 238 innocent people? Oh, wait...

According to the magazine, citing the document, the FBI analyzed hard drives from a flight simulator Mr Shah had built using Microsoft Flight Simulator X software. The FBI was able to recover data points from a simulated flight made less than a month before the plane vanished that pointed to the southern Indian Ocean, which is where the Americans and other "authorities" have claimed the plane went down. Why they haven't been able to find it remains a mystery.

Larry Vance, the Canuck expert, doesn't say anything about terrorism, nor does he mention the new flight simulator evidence. All he says is that some of the pieces of debris found on Réunion and other shores of the western part of the Indian Ocean had a specific type of erosion on them, which leads him to believe the plane was deliberately landed in the sea.

Speaking to Canada's Global News via Skype from his home in Ottawa, he said "I believe that somebody intended to take the airplane to someplace out in the ocean, and to land it on the ocean in a place where it was the least likely to be found." He added that the plane was "landed in such a way that it would sink to the bottom without any -- or very much -- wreckage appearing at the surface." Could be. As Mr Vance says, the mystery is why!

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MH370: 5 pieces now, all in "the wrong place"

Speaking of airplanes -- see yesterday's post (with video!) about the amazing An-225 Mriya -- you may be wondering what's become of the search for the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean in March of 2014. When last we checked (WWW 24/3/16), two more pieces of debris had been found on the western fringes of the Indian Ocean, 1000s of miles from the search zone in the southeastern quadrant of said ocean.

Walt and others have suggested all along that the "authorities" are looking for the wreck in the wrong place. Whether they're doing so as a result of lack of information or deliberate disinformation is part of the Mystery of MH370. But more evidence that the search has somehow been misdirected surfaced (if you'll forgive the pun) yesterday, when the Malaysian government confirmed that two more pieces of debris have been found, making the total number recovered five. Can you guess where the two new pieces were discovered? Yes, in the same general area -- the coast of South Africa and Rodrigues Island, just to the east of Mauritius. Check out this map.

You can't see southern Africa on the map, but trust me, it's just to the west (left) of the area shown. To get from there to Mauritius, you fly more or less due east from Maputo (capital of Moçambique), over Madagascar, passing by Réunion (where the first piece of debris was found) and there you are. Keep going, and the next stop is Rodrigues.

Notice anything else? Ah yes... Make a left turn at Rodrigues, head northeast, and you'd wind up at... wait for it... Diego Garcia! Does that name sound familiar? It's the site of a gigantic US military base. And that, IMHO, is where the answer to the Mystery of MH370 is likeliest to be found.

Returning to yesterday's announcement, the "authorities" and "experts" seem to be stealthily backing away from their position that MH370 slipped into the sea somewhere off the west coast of Australia. Geoff Dell, a specialist in accident investigation at Central Queensland University in Australia, told AP that the latest discovery "shows they're looking in the right ocean — that's about it."

To make matters murkier, the five pieces of debris found so far don't offer much in terms of figuring out what happened to the Boeing 777. There don't appear to be any scorch or burn marks which would indicate an explosion and/or fire. Investigators are examining marine life attached to the debris to see if it could somehow help them narrow down where the plane entered the ocean, but haven't discovered anything useful yet.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the investigation, says one of the pieces found recently is a panel from the main cabin, probably part of a door closet, identified by its decorative laminate. But even this interior piece is unlikely to prove very helpful, said Mr Dell.

It won't, for example, answer the question that some have raised about whether anyone was still at the controls of the plane at the end of its flight, or whether the plane spiraled uncontrollably into the water after running out of fuel. "I wouldn't hang your hat too much on what it says, other than it's got to come out of the airplane somehow and that suggests there was a structural failure in the fuselage that allowed it to get out," he said. "But how, exactly — who knows?"

Wreckage on shores of WESTERN Indian Ocean IS from MH370

This is the third time I've posted a map of the Indian Ocean, to which I've added arrows showing the direction of key ocean currents, and a red star showing the location of the US military base at Diego Garcia. Look at this as you read my list of the three pieces of aircraft wreckage which have washed up on the shores of Réunion, Mozambique and South Africa. Australian authorities have now confirmed that the second piece, recovered earlier this month, is "highly likely" to have come from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared just over two years ago.

To summarize... MH370 was carrying 239 pax and crew when it vanished shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia, just above centre right on the map) bound for Beijing on 8 March 2014. When last "observed" by radar, it was heading to the northwest, roughly in the direction of the West Equatorial current, which I've drawn on in black.

For reasons about which we can only speculate, the Australian authorities who took charge of the search thought that the plane then made a turn of roughly 180 degrees, flying on southeasterly course for as long as five hours before plunging into the ocean somewhere off the west coast of Australia, which is where they've been searching ever since.

Even though the search area has been doubled from 60,000 square kilometres (as shown) to 120,000 sq.km., they've found... wait for it... nil, nada, bupkis... nothing at all.

Meanwhile... in July of 2015 a piece of aircraft wreckage was found on the island of Réunion. You'll find it on the other side of the map, in the western part of the Indian Ocean, 1000 of kilometres from the search area. The wreckage turned out to be a flaperon, which French experts confirmed in September came from the ill-fated B-777.

Fast forward to the first week of this month, when a US adventurer who was carrying out his own independent search for MH370 found a white, metre-long chunk of metal off the coast of Mozambique. That's in the southeastern part of Africa, at the west end of the Indian Ocean. The Aquinas Current flows in a southerly direction between the island of Madagascar and the African mainland. Today, Reuters reports that a Malaysian government investigation team has found that "both pieces of debris" [sic] are consistent with panels from a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft.

Reuters quotes Australia's minister for infrastructure and transport, Darren Chester, as saying that "The analysis has concluded the debris is almost certainly from MH370. That such debris has been found on the east coast of Africa is consistent with drift modelling...and further affirms our search efforts in the southern Indian Ocean."

Excuse me for doubting, but it seems to me equally if not more plausible that the wreckage found along the paths of the Aquinas and Moçambique Currents -- see map!!! -- drifted south from from the site of a "water landing" somewhere in the northwest sector of the Indian Ocean. Let's say somewhere around, oh, Diego Garcia!

But wait (as Vince Offer would say), there's more! Just yesterday we learned that yet another piece of debris -- an inlet cowling from a Rolls Royce jet engine -- had been found. Guess where? Off the coast of Australia? Errr, no. See "Piece of MH370 engine cover washes up on South African shore". A Malaysian team is en route to Seff Africa to retrieve this latest find. Walt waits with bated breath to hear what Mr. Chester will say if this piece too turns out to belong to MH370.

What investigators really need to find is the main underwater wreckage, which would hold the plane's "black boxes" (flight data recorders). These should reveal details related to the plane's controls, including whether aircraft systems that might have helped track the plane were deliberately turned off, as some investigators believe. Walt suggests (once again) that the investigators ask the US military for a little help. They would surely lend a hand, wouldn't they... unless of course they had something to hide.

Further reading: Walt presented this map for the first time in "Current thinking on MH370", 31/7/15. I'll wait until the Americans fess up before saying I told you so.

Credible report of another piece of MH370 found far from search area

About five weeks ago Walt passed on a report of the finding, on a beach in southern Thailand, of what looked like a piece of wreckage from some sort of aircraft. The accompanying pix were far from proof that the debris was from a B-777, the kind of plane operated by Malaysian Airlines as flight MH370, or indeed from an airplane, period. The flotsam could have been part of a surfboard, as some experts suggested at the time.

A further problem with that report was the location of the finding -- a beach in southern Thailand, far from the island of Réunion, in the western Indian Ocean, which was where the only authenticated part from the missing aircraft washed up months earlier. Nothing further was heard about this, so the initial suspicion must be assumed to have been well founded.

Today, however, AP reports that debris that washed up in Moçambique (or Mozambique, using the English spelling) has been tentatively identified as a part from a Boeing 777, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly. (Walt asks again why these reports about a Malaysian aircraft which supposedly disappeared in international airspace/waters always seem to come from unnamed American officials!)

According to AP, photos of the debris that washed up over the weekend appear to show the fixed leading edge of the right-hand tail section of a B-777. People who have handled the part, called a horizontal stabilizer, say it appears to be made of fibreglass composite on the outside, with aluminum honeycombing on the inside, the official said. The part is being transported to Malaysia.

Joao Abreu, Mozambique’s National Director of Civil Aviation, denied that authorities have found part of the missing plane, but Malaysian transport minister Liow Tiong Lai tweeted to confirm the discovery. "Based on early reports, high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to a B777," he wrote. "It is yet to be confirmed & verified. dca—malaysia working w Australian counterparts to retrieve the debris." He also urged "everyone to avoid undue speculation as we are not able to conclude that the debris belongs to #mh370 at this time."

A glance at the atlas tells us that Mozambique is on the southeast coast of Africa, to the west of Madagascar which in turn is west of Réunion. As the map in "Current thinking on MH370" (WWW 31/7/15) shows, the Aquinas and Moçambique currents could easily have carried debris to Réunion or Madagascar or Moçambique from the site of a "water landing" somewhere around... wait for it... Diego Garcia, the location of a massive US military base.

The map also shows that Diego Garcia and the possible site of the crash are in the north central part of the Indian Ocean, 1000s of miles from the search area suggested by, errr, the US military. Draw your own conclusions.

Could it be MH370? Wreckage found on Thai beach

Walt has spent much of this weekend meditating [= dozing off. Ed.] so has just now seen a report of the finding, on a beach in southern Thailand, of what looks like a piece of wreckage from some sort of aircraft.

Reuters reports that villagers in the Pak Phanang district of Nakhon Si Thammart province found a large piece of curved metal, measuring about 6 feet by 9 feet, heavily encrusted with barnacles, and reported the find to authorities for identification. We have a couple of photos.

The presence of numerous barnacles suggests that the piece of metal was in the ocean for some length of time. Note the resemblance to the condition of the flaperon (a part of the wing of a Boeing 777) which washed up on the French island of Réunion in July of last year.

The site of this week's discovery is 1000s of miles east of Réunion, but only a couple of hundred miles to the northwest of the last reported radar "sighting" of the B-777 flown by Malaysian Airlines as flight MH370, which vanished in March of 2014.

The find has therefore fuelled speculation in the Thai media that the debris could belong to MH370. If this turns out to be the case, much doubt will be cast on the officially approved theory that the plane flew (either on autopilot or under the control of suicidal pilots) into the south Indian Ocean, to the west of Australia. That would mean that the "authorities" are looking in the wrong place. Which is what Walt has said all along.

We must take note, however, of the opinion of "experts" like Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor at Flightglobal, an industry publication. He is quote in the Australian meeja as saying that while powerful currents sweeping the Indian Ocean could deposit debris thousands of kilometres away, wreckage was extremely unlikely to have drifted across the equator into the northern hemisphere.

Mr. Waldron goes so far as to suggest that the wreckage is not from an airplane at all, but perhaps something that dropped into the sea from outer space! "The markings, engineering, and tooling apparent in this debris strongly suggest that it is aerospace related," he said. "It will need to be carefully examined, however, to determine its exact origin."

A spokesthingy for the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, the Australian authority that is overseeing the international search for MH370, told Reuters it was "awaiting results of the official examination of the material". So are the families of the hundreds of (mostly Chinese) pax on board the ill-fated flight. So are we all...

Further reading: "MH370 passengers alive and being held captive?" WWW 7/1/16

UPDATED: Wreckage of MH370 (?) surfaces

Walt found it hard to believe that no trace of the Boeing 777 being flown by Malaysian Airlines as flight MH370, which vanished in March of 2014, would ever be found. Regular readers of WWW will remember that Walt maintained from the get-go that searchers were looking in the wrong place, and that if they really wanted to know where to look, they should ask the US military.

Before saying "I told you so", I'll summarize today's news, as reported by the BBC. Then I'll ask a couple of pertinent questions.

La Réunion is a small island in the Indian Ocean, located just to the east of Madagascar. It is technically a part of France, a relic of the French Empire. So, when something that looked like part of an airplane wing washed up on its shores, it was a matter for the local gendarmerie.

Experts, including at least one American, were called right sharpish, and are conducting tests to ascertain whether the single piece of debris was in fact a wing component from a 777. There have been a number of crashes much closer to the island than the sport west of Malaysia where MH370 was last "seen" on radar.

Malaysia is sending a team to investigate the debris discovered today. Australian investigators, who are leading the hunt, are also reported to be in touch with manufacturers over the find. However, an anonymous US official told Associated Press that investigators had a "high degree of confidence" that the part was a "flaperon" unique to a Boeing 777 wing.

BBC News also quotes an aviation expert, Xavier Tytelman, as saying it presented "incredible similarities" to a Boeing 777 flaperon. [Perhaps Agent 17 could e-mail us an explanation of what a "flaperon" is. "Ailerons" we've heard of, but "flaperons"? Errr, no.]

French experts, however, say it is too early to tell. An anonymous member of the French Air Force told CNN it was "way too soon" to say if it was from the missing flight. BBC News points out that La Réunion is over 3700 miles west of the search area, in the southeastern quadrant of the Indian Ocean, off the western coast of Australia.

That's way off, a long way off indeed. Have a look at this map, which shows the Indian Ocean and its currents.

Madagascar is the large island east of Africa. La Réunion is just to the east of Madagascar, at the tip of the long red arrow extending southwest from the middle of the Indian Ocean. Australia... well, you know which landmass is Australia, right? The area which was being searched for the remains of MH370 is close to the black arrow pointing northeast, next to the number 14. Diego Garcia, site of a huge US military base, is located about at the foot of the "A" in "INDIAN". So let me ask...

* Would debris found on Réunion more likely have floated there from the search area or from somewhere in the centre of the Indian Ocean? Note the direction of the currents represented by the black and red arrows.

* Why were American "experts" called in by the French at the first moment? The search was being carried out mainly by the Australians and Malaysians.

* Who told the searchers to look in the location represented by "14", to the exclusion of the northeast and central parts of the Indian Ocean, in spite of considerable doubt expressed by Walt [and others! Ed.] as to why MH370 would have made a turn of some 270 degrees away from its last observed course?

To whom should these questions be addressed? Walt suggests... again... asking the US military, particularly those authorities responsible for operations at the US base on Diego Garcia. Of course the buck doesn't stop at the Pentagon. If no answers are forthcoming from that quarter, perhaps the Republican presidential candidate [Donald who? Ed.] could ask Hellery Clinton.

Previously on WWW: "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (18/12/14) and "Search for MH370 being quietly scaled down" (3/6/15)

"Fancy that!" Dept: Dawn is breaking to the east of Walt's cabin in the pines. CBC News has an update titled "MH370 search: Indian Ocean currents could have deposited debris on Réunion Island, experts say". Perhaps some of the experts have read this post. Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at Imperial College London, is quoted as saying that, if the debris on Reunion was indeed from MH370, "this westward drift from near Australia all the way across the Indian Ocean can really only happen if the plane went into the water relatively close to the equator."

Or perhaps not. All that Charitha Pattiaratchi, Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the University of Western Australia, could add is that the point of origin of the debris "will definitely be in the Southern Hemisphere." Mind you, "the southern Hemisphere" could include the island of St. Helena and the Andes mountains, so no matter where the decide the "flaperon" came from, the good doctor will be proven right! Brilliant!

MH370 officially "an accident"; take the money and STFU

"We officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident... and that all 239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are presumed to have lost their lives." That's the party line, given out yesterday by Azharuddin Abdul Raham, Director-General of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation.

That clears the way for the airline to pay compensation to the next-of-kin of the 239 people who went down with the plane. Mr. Azharuddin said the airline would start the compensation process immediately. Whether the payoff money would come from the airline or its insurers would not made clear, raising the question (in Walt's mind) of whether the insurers accept the official explanation.

Meanwhile -- again according to Mr. Azharuddin -- the search for the plane goes on. You haven't heard much about that since the search, in the southeastern quadrant of the Indian Ocean, 1000s of miles off the airliner's scheduled route, has yet to turn up Clue One.

Why the Boeing 777 should have veered so far off course is also said to be the subject of an international investigation. And -- get this -- Mr. Azharuddin says that Malaysia is also conducting a criminal investigation!

A criminal investigation? Really? Into what, if the disappearance of MH370 was indeed an accident? Could we have some details please? Without any bodies or even a shred of the supposed MH370 wreckage, what clues have the Malaysian investigators uncovered? Who are they talking to? Have they asked the US military what they know? Have they visited the US military base at Diego Garcia?

Why do I ask those questions? Because I believe, as do many aviation experts, that MH370 was flying west-northwest, towards Diego Garcia, after it was last "seen" by radar, and either crashed or was shot down somewhere in the vicinity of the Maldives. See "MH370 - Just fancy that!", posted on WWW just before Christmas.

Until the Malaysian government (or anyone else) produces at least a scintilla of evidence that MH370 flew 1000s of miles in the opposite direction before plunging into the briny depths, I take Mr. Azharuddin's statement as one of policy -- "politics" is a better word -- not of fact.

As for the compensation to be paid to the victims' families, I call it hush money. Take the money and stop asking questions!

MH370 - Just fancy that!

We haven't heard much about the search for the Malaysian Airlines B-777, flight MH370, which went "missing" back in March. Buried on the inside pages of the mainstream papers, some weeks back, was a squib about the search being resumed in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, west of Australia, but when or if this actually happened was unclear.

Regular readers of WWW [and if you're not one, why not?! Ed.] will recall Walt's repeated advice to search near the British territory of Diego Garcia, a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, graciously leased to the US military for use as a strategic air force and intelligence base. See "Latest on MH370: Inmarsat says search was off target; Canadian ex-pilot blames Malaysian authorities for 'bungled inquiry', suggests ulterior motive" and "Aussie officials now say maybe MH370 WAS hijacked", both posted in June.

Well, guess what, boys 'n' girls? There are others who think that there's a lot more to the story than we've been told by "the authorities" in general and the US military in particular. France 24 reports that French author Marc Dugain -- a former CEO of Proteus Airlines -- theorizes, in a six-page article in Paris Match, that there has been a cover-up in the disappearance of the airliner, which could have been hacked and then shot down by the Americans!

M Dugain believes argues that MH370 crashed near... wait for it... Diego Garcia. The Americans have always officially denied that flight MH370 came anywhere near Diego Garcia, but then, what else would they say. After all, the US military does not have a sterling record of truth-telling.

M Dugain's theory into the disappearance has all the ingredients of a spy thriller and, says France 24, has grabbed the French public’s attention. His investigation took him to the neighbouring Maldives -- nice place to go for business purposes if you can manage it! -- where residents told local media on March 9th (the day the plane disappeared) that they had seen an airliner fly in the direction of Diego Garcia.

"I saw a huge plane fly over us at low altitude," a fisherman on Kudahuvadhoo island told Dugain. "I saw red and blue stripes on a white background" –- the colours of Malaysia Airlines. Other witnesses confirmed the sighting, but their claims were promptly dismissed by "the authorities".

So what happened? M Dugain speculates that a modern aircraft such as Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777 could have been hijacked by a hacker. "In 2006, Boeing patented a remote control system using a computer placed inside or outside the aircraft," he wrote. This technology led him to the idea of a "soft" remote hijacking.

But the writer also suggests that a fire could have led the crew to deactivate electrical devices, including transmission systems.Whatever the initial reasons for leaving its flight path, M Dugain suspects that the plane headed to Diego Garcia, where a number of scenarios may have played out, including the US Air Force shooting it down for fear of a 9/11-style attack.

M Dugain met the mayor of neighbouring Baarah island, who showed him pictures of a strange device found on a beach two weeks after the plane had disappeared. The object was immediately seized by the Maldives military. Two aviation experts and a local military officer concluded that the object was a Boeing fire extinguisher.

For the extinguisher to have floated, the writer says, it must have been empty, having been automatically triggered by a fire. He adds that precedent exists in which fires on board aircraft caused all passengers and crew to die of asphyxiation, while the plane’s automated systems extinguished the blaze and kept it in the air.

The rest of his article draws more conclusions from the information that has remained buried than from new facts. He notes that the search operation in the southern Indian Ocean was based on satellite data from the last organization to receive a signal from the airliner. That would be Inmarsat, a British company which is "very close to intelligence agencies".

For M Dugain, the suppression of testimonies from the Maldives, the unlikely event that Diego Garcia’s US intelligence officers "equipped with the best technology in the world may have 'lost' a 63-metre-long object", and the secrecy surrounding the cargo in the plane’s hold all point towards a large-scale cover-up.

And that, dear readers, is exactly what Walt said, about half a year ago. But why (I hear you asking) would the Americans shoot down a civilian airliner which was, for whatever reason, off-course? Because they're paranoid! That's why!

Latest on MH370: Inmarsat says search was off target; Canadian ex-pilot blames Malaysian authorities for "bungled inquiry", suggests ulterior motive

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 vanished on March 8th. Since then, we have learned very little about where it went and what happened to it. Speculation abounds. What we know for sure is that it never arrived at its destination. That's all.

The most probable answer to the question of what happened to MH370 is that it crashed. But where? The official line is that it crashed into the sea -- the Indian Ocean -- but a "premature landing" in the jungles of Malaysia, Thailand, Burma or Yunnan (the southwestern cannot be ruled out. So thick is the canopy of treetops in such places that it's nigh well impossible to see from the air anything more than a blanket of foliage.

The search at sea has concentrated on a small part of the southeastern Indian Ocean off the coast of Perth, Australia. Hopes were raised when "pings" were heard such as might be generated by the aircraft's black boxes. A thorough search by the Bluefin robot sub found nothing, nothing.

Now Inmarsat, the UK satellite company, has told the BBC that the searchers have been looking in the wrong place! Its scientists think the plane more likely crashed in a part of the ocean further to the southwest.

Inmarsat's communications with the aircraft are seen as better clues to the whereabouts of the lost flight than the radar data so far provided by Malaysian or other authorities. The hunt for the lost jet is currently taking a short break while ships map the Indian Ocean floor. When the search resumes, the Inmarsat "hotspot" will be a key focus.

But so too will a number of areas being fed into the investigation by other groups. Australian authorities are expected to announce where these are shortly. Walt is waiting to see if his suggestion that Diego Garcia be looked at will at last be heard. If not, well, I can only cast the pearls...

If they don't listen to Walt, perhaps the "authorities" will have some regard to the opinions of Christopher Goodfellow, a retired businessman and former pilot who lives in Florida. He is a graduate of McGill and Cornell universities and a former director of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. In ‘A bungled inquiry’: 100 days after MH370 went missing it is clear Malaysia officials hiding information he blames Malaysian officials for mishandling the investigation and for hiding vital information. [You seem to have read the headline thoroughly. Ed.]

Mr. Goodfellow isn't big on the conspiracy theories, preferring to think that the loss of the aeroplane might have been the result of an accident. He wrote about this possibility before, "as a pilot with some knowledge of the issues defending two fellow pilots who were being much maligned and who could not defend themselves."

What is wanted, he continues, is full disclosure by the owners of Malaysian Airlines -- the Malaysian government holds a majority stake --of information about possible causes of such an accident. Mr. Goodfellow would like to know about the cargo MH370 might have been carrying. Walt has seen suggestions ranging from a large quantity of gold -- good reason for a hijacking -- to crates of mangosteens -- not such a good reason.

And what about failure to properly maintain the aircraft or correct deficiencies which caused at least one crash previously? Mr. Goodfellow refers to procedures by which aircraft manufacturers and regulators handle design flaws and other problems revealed by the operation of airliners. Service Bulletins issued by manufacturers, and Airworthiness Directives issued by regulators keep the industry informed.

The Boeing 777 has had its share of such notices. Two in particular are relevant to MH370: one involving a short-circuit in the hose feeding emergency oxygen to the crew, and one warning of possible rupturing of the aircraft pressure vessel due to the mounting of a satellite communications antenna.

The former was responsible for a well-documented accident (fortunately on the ground at Cairo) involving an Egyptair 777. The resultant fire destroyed the cabin and burned a hole through the plane, and would have been catastrophic if it had occurred in mid-air. The satellite antenna issue could also be fatal, tearing the aircraft’s skin and resulting in rapid depressurisation. It is time, Mr. Goodfellow says, for the Malaysian authorities to show that checks and modifications regarding these issues were complied with.

Walt agrees. And if the Malaysian authorities produce logs and records and reports showing that the plane was in tiptop condition, and carrying no dangerous cargo, so much the better, for such disclosure could only reinforce the theory that MH370 was hijacked and taken to parts unknown by ___________ ... you fill in the blank.

FOLLOW-UP - If you're following all the twists and turns in the MH370 saga, you must read "Aussie officials now say maybe MH370 WAS hijacked" (June 30th)

MH370: Suppose it was a test...

Virtually nothing has happened since I posted "Latest developments in the MH370 mystery". There's a report going around the Net this morning that a Chinese search ship has detected a pulse signal of some sort somewhere in the south Indian Ocean. That's all.

Meanwhile, conjecture -- including the Diego Garcia theory -- intensifies. New possibilities keep emerging. In last week's Economist, "Lexington" writes about "remote warfare", e.g. drone operators shoot missiles or spy on enemies while safely seated at desks somewhere in, ohhhh, let's say Nevada.

He (or she) probably wasn't thinking about MH370, but consider the opening lines of the column:

Some time soon, it is possible to imagine, an American cyber-warrior will end a conflict, almost single-handed. With the right acts of digital sabotage, attack aircraft will be grounded, infrastructure disrupted and communications severed, reducing the enemy to a state of raging, pre-modern impotence. [My emphasis. Walt]

"Digital sabotage..." Hmmm... One of the theories advanced for why MH370 made almost a 300-degree turn away from it's northward course was that "someone" changed the programming in the aircraft's computer and navigation system. Hmmm... Just a few keystrokes would do it, they said, the implication being that the pilot or the co-pilot could easily have done it before or during the flight.

But what if it were done by remote control, from, ohhhh, Diego Garcia? The aircraft is (or was) a Boeing 777, designed and manufactured in the US of A by an American corporation, a part of the so-called US military-industrial complex. The plane is certified airworthy by the US government. Is it possible that US systems experts took over MH370 "by wire", just to see if they could do it? Hmmm...

It might not be Americans who did it. Skilled systems hackers live and work in other countries -- China, Russia, or even India. If the plane was diverted and/or brought down by the US military as a test of their capabilities, naturally they're not going to say anything. Readers will recall Walt's questioning of why the Prez hasn't made any comment on the deepening mystery.

But if another nation did it, the Americans would still say nothing, because they wouldn't want to admit the existence of the requisite technology, let alone the possibility that some other country has more advanced "weapons of remote destruction". Think about it while you wait for the new Chinese "sighting" to be confirmed...or not.

MH370: 1 + 3 = ??? Walt puts two possibilities together

The afternoon is pretty well over. Walt has been watching the idiot's lantern all day, hoping to see some encouraging news -- anything at all -- about the situation in Ukraine and the Western response -- anything at all -- to Russia's annexation of the Crimea.

I thought I might see a statement from the Jaw That Walks Like A Man -- the Secretary of State -- or perhaps "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," meaning the Prez. But noooo, I saw only the man who uttered those words*, Veep Joe Biden, who was apparently in Lithuania and not happy to be there. I've seen more animated fenceposts.

What all this has to do with the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will now be explained.

In "MH370: Three guesses from Walt", I gave you three possible answers to the question of what happened to MH370.
1. It was hijacked -- by whom or for what reason unknown.
2. Nobody was flying the plane -- appears to be partly correct, in that it is now suspected that the big U-turn to the southwest was programmed into the plane's computer.
3. It was shot down -- by the Chinese or American military, by design or by accident.

I think now that the explanation may be a combination of Nos. 1 and 3. For the purposes of this theory, let's fold No. 2 into No. 1. Here's how it might have played out.

MH370 makes the big turn, as commanded by its computer, and flies across the Malay peninsula and the Strait of Malacca, where it is "seen" by Malaysian radar. Whether it's under the control of one or both pilots or someone else doesn't matter. The plane is headed WSW to a destination unknown. According to some experts, it may have been flying under the radar -- literally -- below 5000 feet to avoid detection.

Nevertheless, somewhere over the southern part of the Indian Ocean, MH370 is spotted by a ground or airborne radar system, perhaps the radar of a military aircraft on patrol over that fairly empty part of the sea. What nation keeps its eye on that part of the ocean? Well, the USA for one, from its base at Diego Garcia.

The American (just sayin') aircraft intercepts the unidentified aircraft -- its transponder and other communications systems were turned off, remember -- and fires a missile, either as a warning or intending to hit it. If the missile hits the airliner, there should be a big bang, with 1000s of pieces of debris plunging into or onto the sea. Yet no wreckage has been seen. Why?

I'll tell you. Consider this possibility... Whoever's flying MH370 sees the missile coming and tries to take evasive action. A B-777 isn't as easy to manoeuvre as, say, an F-18. If it were put into a too-tight turn or a too-steep dive, it could plummet into the water at such an angle that it wouldn't break up -- straight down, like the Titanic only nose-first.

Either way, whoever shot at MH370 would know what happened to it. And they would tell their commanders, wouldn't they? Probably even the Commander-in-Chief would be notified. But would the rest of the world be told? See Walt's scenario No. 3.

Not only would "mum" be the word, but the country whose air force did the deed might even deliberately put searchers off the scent. I note that the USS Kidd, which was searching to the west of Malaysia, was withdrawn from the operation yesterday, supposedly at the request of the Malaysian government. "Nothing to see here, folks!"

Walt's latest theory also gives a reason for the invisibility of Messrs Obama and Kerry. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been huddling all day trying to figure out how to put the best face on the truth, when it comes out, as it must.

* Quoted in The New York Observer on 31 January 2007, quoted in Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (Harper Collins 2010).