VIDEO: MH370 - Time for one last search?

It's now been 8 years and 2 weeks since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 (MH370) went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean, during a flight which was supposed to have gone from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. I have been following this story since Day One, and have always maintained that there's more to it than what the "authorities" are willing to tell us. Click here to see the complete list of our posts on this topic.

The mystery of what happened to MH370 is such that it has become one of the most controversial hull losses in the history of aviation. There are many theories, including conspiracy theories. My own theory -- call it crazy if you like -- is that there was some kind of interaction with a military airplane or missile coming from the American military base at Diego Garcia.

The prevailing theory  -- the party line, if you will -- is that MH370 was deliberately flown into the sea by the pilot, in an act of murder-suicide. The "authorities" searched in an area (shown on the map included in my post) which they say is where the wreckage should be, based on their theory and on radar/Inmarsat tracking.

Curiously, while there search has turned up absolutely nothing, debris from the lost airliner keeps washing up far to the west of the area in which they've been searching, along the shores of Madagascar and South Africa, closer to Diego Garcia than to the west coast of Australia, which is where the search was conducted.

A professor of oceanography who appears in this video from Sky News Australia, predicted before the debris was found, that it would turn up where it did. But he was never invited to be part of the search team. In this video, he and other aviation experts debunk the official story, and raise the possibility that searching in the wrong place is part of a cover-up. 

Since this video was made as a TV special, it takes a while to get to the revelation of the exact location which the experts think should be searched. I won't be the guy who spoils it for you.  

  

If the "authorities" really want to find MH370's black boxes, in order to learn what really happened, they have been told yet again where to look. Walt would be happy to see them do so, even if it turns out my theory was wrong. But I won't hold my breath.

VIDEO: "Madagascar Crash Landing" - A reindeer tale

It's only a week until Christmas Eve! What better time for a nice fairy tale about flying reindeer, to show your kids? Here's a ten-minute tale by an old friend of one of Walt's agents (who admires her greatly!) -- English traveller and writer Christina Dodwell. Watch her pets fly into an adventure in the exotic land of Madagascar!

   

If you like this, be sure to watch previous episodes: "Teaching Reindeer to Fly", "Kidnapped - Reindeer on the Run", "Battle for the Manor" and "Splash and Dash". You'll find links on the YouTube page.

Christina Dodwell is an old friend of one of Walt's agents, who admires her greatly! She was born and raised in west Africa, and became known as an explorer after her three-year (1975-8) journey through Africa, often on her own, by horse and dugout canoe. This was followed by two years travelling through Papua New Guinea living with remote tribes, and many other journeys over the course of 20 years.

The reindeer tales are part of Ms Dodwell's efforts to publicize the work of The Dodwell Trust, a British registered charity, which she founded in 1995 to help the people of Madagascar, one of the poorest countries on earth. Follow the link to learn more.

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.

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.

Dark continent celebrates half-century of corruption and misrule

Africans from Casablanca to Cape Town are looking forward -- or maybe not -- to Sunday, when many of Africa's states will celebrate the 50th anniversary -- more or less -- of the "liberation" of the Dark Continent -- or much of it -- from the white settlers. If this sentence seems a little vague, that's because things in Africa are always vague.

A couple of African writers have noted that in throwing off the shackles of the European colonialists, the Africans (in the lands below the Sahara, at least) seem to have liberated themselves from the bonds of peace, order and good government -- indeed, of civilization itself. Vince Musewe (Zimbabwean) writes that "Africa remains in the economic backwoods and torn apart by civil wars, coups and counter-coups."

In Malawi (formerly known as Nyasaland, and before that British Central Africa) violence erupted during Tuesday's presidential elections. No-one was killed though, so that's considered a peaceful election by African standards.

In northern Africa, Al-Qaeda terrorises the Sahel region and is fomenting jihad against Christians in the Central African Republic and Mali south of the Sahara. That there hasn't (yet) been mass genocide is due mainly to the presence of armed forces from France, which happens to be, errr, the former colonial power.

A bit farther south, civil strife in the diamond-rich Congo (Kinshasa -- not to be confused with Congo Brazzaville) never seems to end. The UN has a token force in the Congo's far east, but local people seem to fear them as much as any of the other gangs of marauders.

In western Africa, Boko Haram continues to wreak havoc in Nigeria. #BringBackOurGirls slacktivism doesn't seem to have had much impact on them. Just yesterday, suicide bombers killed scores of people in marketplaces in two northern towns. The Disunited Nations is threatening to impose sanctions. US assistance in searching for the missing schoolgirls has been delayed by "technical problems".

Want more? In Zimbabwe, Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe, once touted to by western liberals as a great freedom fighter and another Mandela, clings to power at age 90-odd, crushing opposition and establishing a de facto one-party state, while turning the former Rhodesia into an economic basket case.

Like Zimbabwe, most of the states of central Africa have failed, collapsed or are weak. South Sudan -- the world's newest nation! -- has collapsed into tribal war. Guinea, Niger, Mauritania, and Guinea Bissau are failing as a result of coups and civil uprisings. Walt's agent in Madagascar reports that water and power outages, banditry and looting are daily occurrences.

Corruption is out of control in every African state, with one or two possible exceptions. African society laughs at honest and accountable leaders and cherishes "big men" like Mugabe and South Africa's Zuma.

In Liberia, from whence Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei writes, about 75 people of Afro-American descent have held power for over 40 years, circulating the leadership amongst them to keep up appearances. The rest of the population still lives in poverty and hopelessness. Corruption is at its peak, casting doubts on the credibility of the regime and eroding public confidence in the state as a whole.

Conclusion: "Uhuru" (freedom/independence) remains an empty event for the majority of Africans. Why so? Could it be that the fact that blacks look like human beings and act like human beings, does not necessarily make them sensible human beings? This the theme of "Are we beast or man?", by Vince Musewe, an economist and author based in Harare.

Musewe quotes (with sorrow) from a speech made by former South African President P.W. Botha, speech made in that country's Parliament in 1987.

“We are not obliged even the least to prove to anybody and to the blacks that we [whites] are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the blacks 1001 ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking. We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and blood. We do not pretend like other whites that we like blacks.

"The fact that blacks look like human beings and act like human beings does not necessarily make them sensible human beings. If God had wanted us to be equal to blacks, He would have created all of a uniform colour and intellect. By now every one of us has seen it practically that blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other.

"They are good at nothing else, but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex. Let us all accept that the black man is a symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence."

President Botha was a co-winner, with Nelson Mandela, of the Nobel Peace Prize, not because he changed his views on the fitness of blacks to run a modern nation-state, but because he worked with Mandela to ensure that the transition to "majority rule" in 1994 was as smooth and peaceful as possible, in the circumstances. Since then, South Africa has sliding the slippery slope downward, much like Zimbabwe, only not as quickly. It could take another 20 years or so under ANC rule before it hits bottom.

In his article, Musewe asks his fellow Zimbabweans: "What have we to show as a country since our independence in 1980?

"Horrifying corruption and outright theft, a leadership with an inexplicable obsession with luxury cars and sexual encounters, the destruction of prodigious value in all sectors of our economy, the use of arms of war against our Ndebele brothers and sisters, the decimation of agriculture and the dogfight over diamonds, the deliberate extermination of a national indigenous bourgeoisie, the destruction of our environment that is now happening particularly by small-scale tobacco growers and small-scale miners all under the name of indigenisation.

"In addition, just look at the dirt in our cities and townships, the noise that goes on daily, the potholes and sewage all over, the overcrowding and the common face of poverty, hopelessness and serious deterioration of our living standards. Look at our values and morals as a society and what we have become; the greed and selfishness all around us; all this, despite having the highest literacy rate in Africa!"

Can it there be said that Botha was fundamentally wrong or blinded by racism? Corruption, autocratic leadership, mismanagement, incompetence and misrule are the norms in today's Africa. Such is the fruit of the "liberation struggle" of the 60s which will be celebrated on Sunday.