Above is a picture that Neels Le Roux Kruger recently posted on the ‘MH370 In search of the truth’ website. He writes:
An interesting development with regards to “Klein Roy”.
‘This morning I was in contact with an individual from the town of George inland from Mosselbay in South Africa. The person, who is a frequent visitor to Klein Brak beach, was walking on the beach at Klein Brak on 23 December 2015 on an amateur ocean photo assignment. He captured images of the ocean and the beach – and he also took a photo of an object he though was part of a signboard. He said he did not think much of the object at the time and he didn’t examine it (or handle it) since it smelled of decomposing marine life. The fragment was covered in barnacles and mussels. He took a random photo and also notes that when he returned later the day the fragment was gone – probably washed back out to sea by the incoming tide. After reading about the investigation into the MH370 debris and the identification of “Roy” he made the connection to my photos of the piece and came into contact with the media.
Quite amazing – this is definitely the “Rolls Royce” fragment I picked up 3 months later in the same area!This is exciting since it brings the time frame for the washing up of the RR fragment 3 months forward to at least December 2015. It is also an indication of the presence of substantial amounts of marine life on the fragment when it first washed up along the South African coast.
For reference, here’s an image of the piece as it was found by Kruger in March near Mossel Bay, South Africa:
Taken together, these photos make a compelling case for the idea — which I have strongly disputed here — that barnacle-encrusted pieces could be thoroughly cleaned by wave, sand, and sun after coming ashore.
The implication, then, is that the pieces were not “ineptly planted,” as I asserted, but that the lack of biofouling is due to the pieces spending time ashore before they were discovered.
UPDATE 5/18/16: Today an Afrikaans-language website published an article entitled “MH370 piece all photographed in December” by Eugene Gunning explaining how the photograph at top came to be taken. Below is the translation courtesy of Google Translate with a bit of cleanup on my part. Obviously parts are still pretty baffling, if anyone cares to help to polish up them up in the comments section that would be most welcome. Thanks to readers @SA Reader and @Afrikaans for alerting me to this story.
The debris of the missing flight MH370 Malaysia Airlines which was conducted in December on the beach of Little Brak River by a resident of Knysna.
Dr. Schalk Lückhoff, a retired physician from Knysna, may help to solve the mysterious disappearance of the missing flight MH370 Malaysia Airlines.
In December last year Lückhoff came accross a piece of debris on the beach of Klien-Brakrivier, which is presumaby from the missing aircraft. He didn’t realise at the time that it is from the missing aircraft.
This is the same debris that more than two months later by Neels Kruger, an archaeologist from Pretoria, seen on the beach and picked up.
The debris has been sent to the Malaysian government.
The plane went missing on March 8, 2014, shortly after it Kuala Lumpur took off en route to Beijing. There were 239 passengers and crew on board.
The Australia Transport Safety Board announced Thursday that the debris probably came from the plane.
Lückhoff said he walked at Klein Brak River on the beach on 23 December. It was about 07:22 when he saw an object on the beach. It lay on the riverbank. He took a picture of it.
“I was really busy,” he told to take pictures of fast-flowing water for a photography project. “The piece caught my attention because it was the only thing on the bare expanse of sand. Because it stank because of the decaying barnacles, I did not touch it and took a casual photo.
“I did not recognize what it was and thought it might be part of an old notice board. It was full of sand and mussels and just a small part of the letters put out.
“After the next high tide I haven’t seen it again and supposed that it washed back into the sea.”
When he saw the story about Kruger in the Cape, he recognized it.
Kruger said on inquiry that he is very excited about it. “It can make a contribution to the investigation.”
@ Gysbreght
“The distance between YPXM (23:46) and the 6th arc crossing (00:11) is 123 nm”
Is that based on:
“Overhead YPXM at 23:46 turning on to 047”
Because my contact says it is 155nm to 00:11 and it appears to be on a direct path towards waypoint IPKON.
@Freddie: “Is that based on: “Overhead YPXM at 23:46 turning on to 047””
Yes.
@Gysbreght. What Oxy was projecting was right engine fuel exhaustion leading to the 7th arc log-on rather than the left, as now assumed. Since the 7th arc log-on time is fixed that means the aircraft in his scenario would need to have 15 mins more fuel than assessed previously, both engines failing 15 mins later than they did before with single engine time remaining the same. If tolerances in the assessed fuel consumption will not extend to that 15 mins extra, his scenario is unrealistic. I hope that helps.
@Warren
@Richard Cole
According to latest ATSB progress report, Equator is currently carrying out bathymetry outside the arc, ie to the south. Luckily, bathymetry is not as dependent on weather conditions as towfish ops.
I hope they find it or else the rabbit hole will go deeper.
@Trond
Shades of Alice in Wonderland! I hope they find it too.
@Geysbreght @VictorI Notwithstanding the simulator experiments, could the Flight Envelope Control system on a 777 conceivably provide some semblance of a glide pattern upon fuel exhaustion without human input? Apologies if this is a rather rudimentary question of if it has been covered previously; I ask it purely for my edification. Thanks.
@Tom Lindsay, @DennisW, There may well be an innocent explanation for the lack of metadata, presumably before long the original picture will be released with metadata intact. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be right away. Frankly at this point I’m baffled by the behavior of the secret Facebook group. Blaine Alan Gibson, too, was very secretive when he first announced his “No Step” find, circulating it around the closed group (of which I was a member at the time) with every message including a postscript saying that the copyright belonged to him and it could not be reproduced elsewhere. Eventually he relaxed about that and eventually of course the pictures and his descriptions spread far and wide. I’m not sure what his initial attitude of secrecy was supposed to achieve, or prevent. My attitude is that we’re all trying to solve this mystery, if you find a clue, why not share it right away?
BTW, I frankly find it all a bit odd that all these pieces of evidence are coming out via a secret Facebook page. Per @Jay, this may come across as paranoia but I do think we need to look carefully at things.
On March 8, 2014, within hours of MH370’s disappearance, the China-based website china.com and the Taiwan-based China Times released a story attributed to the US Embassy in Beijing, which is roughly translated as:
“The US Embassy in Beijing claims that USAF Base at U-Tapao in Thailand monitored a distress call from Malaysia Airlines MH370 at 2.43 am. The pilot said that the cabin was breaking apart and he was making a forced landing. Malaysia Airlines was notified.”
The US has never confirmed this story, nor has China ever produced evidence that it received this information from the US despite media requests.
Author Florence de Changy will be releasing the English version of her book “MH370 Didn’t Just Disappear” where she discloses that these reports came from a message on the Chinese social media site Weibo. The message was from an account claiming to represent the US Embassy, but upon further inspection, the account was an imposter account that was made to look like the US Embassy account.
This shows that almost immediately after the disappearance, there was already an effort to plant false information.
As explained earlier, the FCS goes into secondary mode after 2nd flameout. So there is no envelope protection. Opinions differ as to the degree of attitude and speed stability provided by the FCS secondary mode.
That’s a really dense coating of barnacles on all edges. Bearing in mind the many earlier discussions about how the flaperon must have floated, is this distribution reasonable?
Sorry, I have to correct what I just posted. There is no envelope protection until the APU comes online, and after the APU has been starved of fuel.
@Jeff
I agree, the sudden appearance of this photo does seem strange, but then everything connected with MH370 has seemed strange, right from day one.
Don’t worry about the paranoia. You are in good company (me, for one) 🙂
@David. In the Left engine electrical power disabled scenario, when the right engine fails, the loss of AC disconnects the autopilot. After the APU autostarts the autopilot will not reconnect. However with the AC busses repowered by the APU and left engine operating and supplying hydraulic power (Left IDG and Left BU gen disabled), flight envelope protection is enabled even if the autopilot is off.
Bank angle protection supplies a roll command opposite to the bank if the bank angle exceeds 35 degrees.
Overspeed protection supplies a pitch up command if airspeed is more than the maximum.
Stall protection provides a pitch down command.
Thrust Asymmetry Compensation automatically controls the rudder movement to make allowance for asymmetrical thrust from the engines.
When we simulated this scenario, the aircraft ended up in either orbits or gentle S-turns. The maximum distance after 15 minutes single engine in nil wind was 90 nautical miles. But the simulator is not the real aircraft.
Fuel exhaustion calculations would need to be considered and vary depending on altitude, speed, weight and temperature.
We would need to see;
The fuel and endurance report showing estimated fuel remaining at regular intervals, starting from the last ACARS report,
The 10 sec primary radar data up to 18:01:49, and
The Indonesian Military Primary Radar
“This shows that almost immediately after the disappearance, there was already an effort to plant false information.”
Well, well, an imposter. How many imposters do we have on this blog?
@oxy
What has been released by the radars including military is the only data there is. Indonesia did not see it. Mh370 turned circlewise before heading out into the sio.
I’m actually wondering how this thing managed to float at all considering the sheer amount of wildlife clinging on to it for a ride.
Would the buoyancy of it counter such a drag?
@Owen Wiseman
That picture message was sent to his mother while seated on MH370 (so I assume it was a text). I need to apologize about one thing though – ‘while the plane was taxiing to the runway.’ Sorry, that was my own lazy assumption – I take it back. I don’t claim to know specifically when this pic was taken. The flight was more likely still boarding at this moment – doors open. Apologies if I misled anyone.
Indeed Philip Wood never texted Sarah Bajc as he usually did. So it is quite possible something happened in the intervening few minutes once the doors closed. I was never able to find any other mention of texts/phone calls despite obsessively searching online. Part of the internet – written in Chinese and Malay – is out of bounds for me.
But you’re absolutely right. One would imagine there would be a plethora of social media posts floating about. Travellers are annoying, they’ll comment on just about any old crap. So, it begs the question… where have all those damn posts gone?
We have seen twice now people discovering physical ‘debris’ and not bothering to report it. Is the same possible with ‘written’ evidence?
As regards Beijing/Peking, I’m afraid I can’t say, hopefully there are Malaysian posters on here who can clarify that.
@ Trond
I’ve something to share with you. I was told that as late as December 2015 passengers were still being held captive but slowly dying off to ill health. But I never believed this claim was genuine.
@ DL
Your human trafficking scenario may still hold true. This pic was quite likely taken while the flight while still boarding (i.e. an early passenger on board before the others). Who knows what could’ve happened in the intervening moments once boarding was complete? Again, apologies for my misleading ‘taxiing to the runway’ comment.
@all
Reading Jeff’s excellent last article on the SDU re-logon, it occurred to me that such a hijack (if it were a hijack) would’ve been infinitely easier (or probably more likely) by having a renegade/disgruntled Boeing employee/ employees on board your ‘hijack team,’ or at the very least the opportunity to avail yourself of such insider knowledge. Remember, its not just Americans who work for Boeing, the company has offices in Russia and China also. From the Boeing Russia website: “Boeing has about 1200 engineers leading Russian design (and) engineering companies and 150 full-time employees, including project managers and leading engineers.” Moscow has the “largest Boeing engineering unit outside the United States…”
This article is in Afrikaans and explains how the person who discovered the barnacle encrusted piece came across it. Good to see how a real journalist seeks clarification directly from the source.
http://www.netwerk24.com/Nuus/Algemeen/mh370-stuk-al-in-desember-gefotografeer-20160517
http://www.netwerk24.com/Nuus/Algemeen/mh370-stuk-al-in-desember-gefotografeer-20160517
Local news story posted last night (South African time)which you seem to have missed. Hope it helps.
@Sajid UK
Interesting you mention Philip Wood didn’t text Sarah Bajc when he would normally been expected to.
Makes me think that something unusual happened in the cabin before takeoff. I don’t think there’s credible evidence of a hijack by persons unknown. Possibly the captain gave instructions that no one should use mobile phones, on the pretense that they could interfere with the avionics. I know it sounds improbable, but something out of the ordinary mus definitely happened for there to have been no mobile traffic.
@Sajid UK
Lets say i know something. The passengers are not being held captive. They were not murdered.
The only possible passenger that got off was at china sea, dead when found. Hence the bloodsamples from nok.
@all Everything i post that is far out there must be taken that way. Attack my statements.
@rob
“I know it sounds improbable, but something out of the ordinary mus definitely happened for there to have been no mobile traffic.”
Exactly, and that is why information is being withheld from malaysia and others.
@VictorI
I know for a fact that message got through about the cabin disintegrating.
@SA Reader, @Afrikaans, Thanks to you both for letting us know. I’ll add it to the post.
@Trond said, “I know for a fact that message got through about the cabin disintegrating.”
I don’t know what you mean, but I do know that you claim to know many things and yet you substantiate nothing. That makes your statements useless.
@VictorI
Because it doesnt help anything. It makes no difference. Besides a clue about what did not happen and that is there was no hijacking.
I dont know for a fact if malaysia detected two altitudes at the same time at the street, but i know something flew high and something flew low — very close to the water. But no one from the boats saw anything.
@Trond, I know that some concern has been expressed that I will ban you if you make statements that seem to come from beyond conventional space-time reality. Be assured that I never ban anyone lightly, and I’m willing to let off-the-wall statements stand if they contribute to an open-minded atmosphere. Where I get protective is when people seem to be intentionally disruptive, abusive, or persistently misleading. I don’t think that you are any of these things. However, @VictorI is correct for chastising you for making strong statements for which you do not have–and indeed, seemingly could not have–any evidence. If you are basing these statements on, say, a dream or psychic vision in which something occurred, and are of the strong belief that such a vision is actually true, then please do us the courtesy of using language that makes this clear. For instance, rather than “I know for a fact that message got through about the cabin disintegrating,” please say, “I had a psychic vision that that message got through about the cabin disintegrating, and I am confident that my psychic vision was correct.” I think this is a solution that will resolve the issue.
@jeffwise
I understand.
Add the mumbling to the hijack scenario and it is crystalclear. They could have chosen radiosilence as they later did, but chose to communicate in a haze.
@JeffWise
Or suggest that Trond (and everyone) only post if they have
evidence to present, or evidence in support of a theory, anything,
say, if you thought you knew what the (floating debris) ‘blue panel’
was or why it is more probable it came off a ship…
About the only thing I understand (and agree with) from Tronds
series of posts is that he’s flying high…
“The school building came down on the beach at Little Brak River in December last year on a piece of wreckage believed to be from the missing plane. He did not at the time realize that it is probably a piece of the plane was not.”
needs to be something like:
“In December last year Lückhoff came accross a piece of debris on the beach of Klien-Brakrivier, which is presumaby from the missing aircraft. He didn’t realise at the time that it is from the missing aircraft.”
““After the next high tide I have seen again and took it back the sea washed into.””
needs to be:
“After the next high tide I haven’t seen it again and supposed that it flooded back into the sea.”
The rest looks ok, just a bit of grammatical clean up will do.
@Trond, Let’s be crystal clear — the rumor that someone contact MH370 by radio and heard only mumbling is not only unconfirmed but ridiculous on its face. If they heard only mumbling, what grounds could they possibly have for confirming that the mumbler was MH370? Lots of people share radio frequencies.
@Nederland, thank you, I’ll update.
@Trond: First of all, can you find a source for this story? I doubt it.
Secondly, how did this pilot who supposedly heard this mumbling know that it came from MH370? Radios don’t have caller ID.
@Susie: I had assumed the outside-the-lines area was just due to the ships moving far enough so that the towed apparatus would reach the line, behind them, before turning.
It could be them doing a bathymetric survey before they do the detailed sonar scan.
@ROB: As a matter of interest, what’s your definition of the absolute glide limit?
It could be a full 2 degrees of latitude (120-130 nm), but the final BFO suggests a relatively steep rate of descent, at least initially, so it may not be that far (if the glide theory is true). I think they’re doing it right, working their way south from the hotspot on the 7th arc.
@Ge Rijn: I rather assume the co-pilot was locked out and tried everything in the ee bay to unlock the door
That’s interesting. I think there was like a Boeing engineer onboard as well, who could have helped out such an endeavor. If the plane was depressurized, the switches could have been restored at a later time.
@Mike Gibben/ir1907 re: population of debris objects: The cross sections of the three Mascarene islands together are about 80 nn across or 4/3 of a degree of latitude, and happen to be smack in the middle of that westerly flowing equatorial curren. These islands are densely populated as well, and the people there seem to be tuned to the MH370 tragedy, so the rate of sighting is going to be high, and the rate of false negatives (e.g., seeing a piece, taking a picture of it, and then walking away, or taking a piece home without realizing where it came from) would be low. So even if the initial population of debris objects was on the order of 100, it’s not surprising IMHO that a couple have been found on those islands.
@jeffwise: The story originally appeared in the New Straits Times on March 9, 2014, and was picked up by other news organizations. Unfortunately, the pilot’s name was not disclosed which makes it impossible to verify anything.
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-pilot-contacted-mh370-just-before-it-went-missing
SEPANG: A pilot said he established contact with Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 moments before it went missing.
The Boeing 777 captain, who asked to not be named, said he was flying 30 minutes ahead of the missing aircraft, and was asked to use his plane’s emergency frequency to contact MH370 by Vietnamese air traffic control officials who wanted to establish its location.
The pilot, whose plane was bound for Narita, Japan, told Malaysia’s New Sunday Times: “We managed to establish contact with MH370 just after 1.30am and asked them if they have transferred into Vietnamese airspace.
The voice on the other side could have been either Captain Zaharie or Fariq, but I was sure it was the co-pilot,” he told the newspaper.
[Note: How can he identify the pilot if he only hear mumbling and static?]
MH370 was piloted by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27.
“There were a lot of interference… static… but I heard mumbling from the other end,” said the B777 captain. “That was the last time we heard from them, as we lost the connection.”
Those on the same frequency at the time, including vessels on the waters below, would have heard the exchange, he said.
[Note: No other pilot reported hearing this exchange.]
But he said he did not detect anything unusual during the contact. “If the plane was in trouble, we would have heard the pilot making the Mayday distress call. But I am sure that, like me, no one else up there heard it.”
A Boeing 777 pilot flying 30 minutes from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane told the New Straits Times in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia that he made contact with MH370 minutes after Vietnamese air traffic control asked him to message the plane.
from The Blaze http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/08/pilot-on-way-to-japan-says-he-made-contact-with-missing-malaysian-flight/
The captain, who declined to give his name, said his Narita, Japan-bound plane was well into into Vietnamese airspace when controllers — who could make contact — requested that he relay with his plane’s emergency frequency a message to MH370 so that it would establish its position.
According to FI,
“The most recent AD, which was accomplished on 17 Jan 2014, was FAA AD 2012-13-05 (Replacement of Low Pressure Oxygen hose).”
However, according to the FAA AD website, another score of ADs were issued up until the time of the flight. Please read them, they deal with problems affecting:
radio altimeters
SDU
mode-S transponders
fuselage failures causing depressurization
failures of control surfaces causing erratic movement
arcs, sparks, fires, EE-Bay, APUs
Everything speculated to be of proximate importance to MH370 is mentioned in the seemingly unfulfilled FAA ADs. Incidentally, coincidentally, the FMT = 0.777 in MS Excel time, almost exactly, as it happens to happen.
other FAA ADs
————-
2014-11-03 8/19/2014 Flight Controls
2014-11-01 7/8/2014 Electric Power
2014-09-09 7/1/2014 Fuel System
2014-09-06 6/5/2014 Oxygen
2014-05-27 5/2/2014 Navigation
2014-05-09 4/14/2014 Landing Gear
2014-05-03 4/9/2014 Fuselage
2014-05-05 3/20/2014 Navigation
2013-11-04 7/9/2013 Equipment
2013-08-02 5/24/2013 Stabilizers
2013-08-09 5/23/2013 Oxygen
2013-07-11 5/20/2013 Fuselage
2013-05-10 5/3/2013 Equipment
2013-05-03 4/25/2013 Fuel
2013-05-05 4/25/2013 Electric power
2012-23-06 12/31/2012 AC Generator
2012-21-10 11/14/2012 Flight controls
2012-19-10 11/7/2012 Landing Gear
2012-16-04 10/3/2012 Exhaust
2012-14-03 8/27/2012 Fuselage
2012-13-05 8/16/2012 Oxygen
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/airworthiness_directives/search/?q=boeing%20777&makeModel=&type=Current&filter=&sort=effectiveDate&direction=desc&startRow=26
———————————————–
For sake of completeness, the ratio of flight-hours to landing cycles from table 1.6B of FI was almost exactly a constant 7.1 hours/flight, to be compared with the 7.5 hours of fuel mentioned on pg. 1, i.e. the plane had an extra 20min or so of reserves.
Is the SDU a directional or omnidirectional antenna ?
@jeffwise:
“Secondly, how did this pilot who supposedly heard this mumbling know that it came from MH370? Radios don’t have caller ID.”
No way to know, but it is supposed that, according to radio procedures, if the pilot called MH370, then MH370 would have replied just after, while pilots on other airplanes would refrain themselves from transmitting as long as the pilot trying to call MH370 was trying to call, unless someone was purposely jamming the communication. Maybe MH370 was already out of VHF range so only a mumbling was heard.
Gybreght – You said, “Depending on altitude (which defines the max thrust) the one-engine-inoperative fuel flow will be approximately the same as the two-engine total fuel flow.”
I agree and have been promoting this concept for a while. Per various tables and calculations, this value is around 5,000 kg/hr. If the left engine flamed out around 00:17 (two minutes before the 00:19 logon) and had around 630 lb of fuel in its tank when the right engine stopped, that would put right engine flameout at (630 lb/5000 kg/hr) three and a half (not 15) minutes before the left engine at or around 00:13-00:14. This would mean MH370 was at full cruising altitude at the 00:11 arc and possibly flying faster than others have proposed allowing it to have taken straight path between the 6th and 7th arcs.
@Warren Platts.
Although I made that suggestion about maybe the co-pilot (maybe with help as you suggest)tried everything in the EE bay to get that door unlocked (which did not work), there’s still nothing to proof.
I wished there was.
It only would be logical he or someone else tried it this way for it seems the only way possible in that situation.
And only from the co-pilot they recieved a connection call made by his mobil phone above Penang. And it was the only one out of all tose phones who where onboard.
Where all those other mobil phones switched off? Or where all those other people allready ‘switched off’? (sorry if this sounds cruel or offending I sure don’t mean to)
Was the co-pilot maybe like the flight attendent on the Helios flight surviving on the last crew oxigen bottles trying everything to save the plane and establishing contact? Did he manage to get the Satcom on line at last not able to answer the calls to the cockpit?
In that hour of getting dark after ‘Goodnight’ and getting partly visible again just minutes after vanishing from primary radar a lot happened that’s for sure. But what?
This latest photo at least now seams to confirm definitely the plane went down in the Indian Ocean.
Most of the drift-data, the Inmarsat-data, the debris found and their spots, the lack of debris found anywhere else till now strongly point they are searching generaly in the right area imo but at the wrong place for nothing is found there yet.
So it must be more north or south and east or west of it.
But with no new data and other information we all will keep guessing till doomsday comes imo.
Like others suggested it’s about time the Malaysian government gets pressured seriously to give full closure of all their information. I suspect they could have a scandal to cover with tremendous consequenses for them if it comes out (Anwar Ibrahim could be a key figure imo).
And I hope France gets pressed too on giving full closure on their investigation of the flaperon soon.
Otherwise this search will end like a night candle I’m afraid. Maybe as it was supposed to.
AndyUS Posted May 17, 2016 at 11:50 AM wrote “Please also compare the heavily barnacle encrusted honeycomb and carbon fiber areas, with the absolutely barnacle-free painted surface. Barnacles seem not to like paint. I’d expect the same scenario for the other debris. “
DrD Posted May 18, 2016 at 6:32 AM wrote “That’s a really dense coating of barnacles on all edges. Bearing in mind the many earlier discussions about how the flaperon must have floated, is this distribution reasonable?”
The edges and the H/C have rough surfaces that are good for marine attachments. The paint is a two or three part epoxy that is very well chemically sealed on the surface. E.g. It was hard to get subsequent paint coatings to stick to it after only a few hours without mechanical abrading the surface. Though aged, the surface of the paint should still be resistant to attachments.
@Susie Posted May 18, 2016 at 7:47 AM wrote “I’m actually wondering how this thing managed to float at all considering the sheer amount of wildlife clinging on to it for a ride. Would the buoyancy of it counter such a drag?”
The engine cowl has a reasonably thick layer of H/C (1 inch thick) that is sealed. Without fittings it should be quite buoyant.
@Sajid UK Posted May 18, 2016 at 7:47 AM Wrote “@all ……. Moscow has the “largest Boeing engineering unit outside the United States…”
I supported and visited the Moscow office for 4 years as the Seattle manager for technology in the late 90’s. Facts: The engineers in Moscow supported a variety of projects being led by engineers at the Boeing main offices. They handled packages of work that could be parsed out to them in sections. Some of the packages were quite large and covered a variety of technologies. They did redesign work, and original design work based on Boeing standards, etc.
[Changing my nickname to this since I’ve seen someone else posting with nickname “Steve”]
@Trond, @Jeff,
I think the whole story of a pilot communicating with MH370 and not revealing his identity is complete BS.
Let’s sum the story : a 777 with hundreds of people on board goes missing, presumably crashed somewhere. You very well may be the very last person on Earth to communicate with the pilot/copilot, but yet you refuse to release your identity ? You refuse to help the ongoing investigation ? You refuse to let authorities take control of the Cockpit Voice Recorder, to prove your point ?
By the way, the copilot would have heard the exchange too, presumably… And where is the audio extract of the Vietnamese ATC asking this specific pilot to help out ? Or at least, the Vietnamese ATC could confirm that this ever happened ?
If you look at the larger picture, it’s a cool story but fake IMO. It never happened.
@Victorl
I can’t find anywhere in Florence de Changy’s book the part that you mention, where she supposedly claims that the initial “U-Tapao story” came from a fake US Embassy account on Weibo.
What I found though is that she asked the chinese journalist about his source, and that he refused to give her a definite answer. She also raises the point that there is a problem with the time given : 2h43, while the plane disappeared from Vietnamese ATC radar at 1h35. She suggests that this is a transcripted timezone mistake and the “real” time should be read as 1h43 Vietnamese local time (it is not likely for her that the distress call came more than an hour after it disappeared from the radar) .
She also wonders why would a journalist make up such an elaborate story, if there wasn’t at least some truth in it.
She finally notes that this particular information has never been confirmed, nor denied, by the US.
@ Ken Goodwin
Thanks for providing further details. We’re certainly lucky to have someone with your level of expertise and first-hand experience with us!
Thank you, Ken, that makes sense now about the honeycomb and the buoyancy.
I second Sajid’s comments above.
Rough Translation (my Afrikaans sucks, sorry):
George. – Dr. Schalk Lückhoff, ’n afgetrede geneesheer van Knysna, kan dalk help met die oplossing van die raaiselagtige verdwyning van die vermiste vlug MH370 van Malaysia Airlines.
George- Dr Schalk Lückhoof, a retired physician from Knysna, can possibly help with the solution / resolution of the mysterious disappearance of the missing flight MH370 of Malaysia Airlines.
Lückhoff het in Desember verlede jaar op die strand by Klein-Brakrivier afgekom op ’n wrakstuk wat vermoedelik van die vermiste vliegtuig afkomstig is. Hy het in daardie stadium nie besef dat dit waarskynlik ’n stuk van die vliegtuig is nie.
In December last year, Lückhoff came upon/ across a wreckage piece (literally “wreckage piece” / wrakstuk) on the beach at Klein-Brakrivier that probably (/suspected) originates from the missing flight. He had at that stage not realized that it (wreckage piece) probably was a piece of the aircraft.
Dit is dieselfde wrakstuk wat meer as twee maande later deur Neels Kruger, ’n argeoloog van Pretoria, op die strand gesien en opgetel is.
It is the same wreckage piece, that more than two months later, was picked up on the beach by Neels Kruger, an archeologist from Pretoria.
Die wrakstuk is reeds aan die Maleisiese regering gestuur.
The wreckage piece has already been sent to the Malaysian government.
Die vliegtuig het op 8 Maart 2014 vermis geraak kort nadat dit in Kuala Lumpur opgestyg het onderweg na Beijing. Daar was 239 passasiers en bemanningslede aan boord.
The flight went missing on 8 March 2014, shortly after taking off from Kaula Lumpur en-route to Beijing. There were 239 passengers and crew members on board.
Die lugvaartveiligheidsburo in Australië het Donderdag bekend gemaak dat die wrakstuk waarskynlik van die vliegtuig afkomstig is.
On Thursday, the “lugvaartveiligheidsburo” (direct translation: aviation safety bureau) in Australia announced / made known that the wreckage piece probably did originate from the aircraft.
Lückhoff het gesê hy het op 23 Desember op die strand by Klein-Brakrivier gestap. Dit was omstreeks 07:22 toe hy ’n voorwerp op die strand gesien het. Dit het teen die rivieroewer gelê. Hy het ’n foto daarvan geneem.
Lückhoff said that he was walking on the beach at Klein-Brakrivier on 23 December. It was approximately 07:22 when he saw an object on the beach. It was lying against the river bank. He took a photo of it.
“Ek was eintlik besig om foto’s te neem van die vinnig vloeiende water vir ’n fotografieprojek,” het hy vertel. “Die stuk het my aandag getrek omdat dit die enigste voorwerp op die kaal stuk sand was. Omdat dit weens die verrottende eendmossels gestink het, het ek dit nie gehanteer nie en ’n terloopse foto geneem.
“I was actually busy taking photos of the fast flowing water for a photography project,” he told/said. “The piece attracted my attention because it was the only object on the bare/naked piece of sand. Due to the rotted/ rotten (eendmossels*), it stank, (and) I did not handle it and (by the way**) took a photo of it.
{Me:
*eendmossel = either a type of mussel or barnacle. I don’t know if the word refers to a specific type of mussel or mollusc- and and if so which one.
** terloops = closest I can think of is “by the way”, but maybe per chance or co-incidentally or similar type of meaning is what he says, but co-incidentally is something like “toevallig” so it’s not the same word.)
“Ek het dit nie herken vir wat dit was nie en gedink dat dit dalk deel van ’n ou kennisgewingbord is. Dit was vol sand en mossels en net ’n deeltjie van die letters het uitgesteek.
“I did not recognize it for what it was and thought that it was part of an old notice/sign board. It was full of / covered with sand and mussels and just a small part of the letters was showing.
{Me: here he refers to mussels specifically = mossels}
“Ná die volgende hoogwater het ek dit nie weer gesien nie en aangeneem dat dit weer die see in gespoel het.”
“After the following high tide, I didn’t see it again and supposed that it was again washed into the sea.”
Toe hy later die berig oor Kruger in Die Burger sien, het hy dit herken.
Later, when he saw the report about Kruger in Die Burger, he recognized it.
Kruger het by navraag gesê hy is baie opgewonde daaroor. “Dit kan ’n bydrae lewer tot die ondersoek.”
Kruger, upon enquirey, has said that he is very excited over it. “It can make a contribution to the investigation.”
Trond said;
“And the mumbling was more like speaking in tongues with no words not even halfwords.”
Trond, you have been asked to provide proof, reference in your
posts when you make an assertion, so why did you fail to do so
for your last post?
@JeffWise , @Carla
Small point – you will note in the New Straits Times article that the unknown pilot is mentioned as having talked to the
“New Sunday Times”. Apparently the ‘New Sunday Times’ is a
Malaysian ‘feel good’, ‘family’, tabloid format newspaper;
http://www.publicitas.com/singapore/media-solutions/factsheet/mediadata/the-new-sunday-times/?PARAM1=NS5NK2
I wondered why the New Straits Times article had no attributation as to the article author, as I see the author is usually listed
at the head of their articles in the New Straits Times. Therefore,
it seems the ‘New Sunday Times’ was the actual source of that
information, and therefore, that tends in my eyes, to lessen the
probability that the (article) information is genuine – other
readers should form their own view.
Trond,
The world is a game of our imaginations. Either you tell us more than you know, or you know a lot more than you tell. Which one?
@all
I beg your pardon, here is the original ‘New Straits Times’
article, (rather than ‘The Blaze’ rehash of it), so you may
proof check the “New Sunday Times” point I made.
http://web.archive.org/web/20140309013208/http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/pilot-i-established-contact-with-plane-1.503464
Some of the things @Trond is saying has more than a germ of truth attached to them. But I won’t say which,suffice to say certain theories will never get traction here @Trond for that will flush out “diverters” and “misinformers” in equal measure. Cryptic am I?
I often wonder with several pieces found in Africa, why a fraction of the budget has not been alloted by the three nation search team to scour places like Madagascar, Mozambique et al for more debris/wreckage by roping in the locals as well.
Could it be that they well know nothing of that sort is there and as such need not bother suffice to whistle a now familiar tune which goes like this “we are more than 90% certain, those parts are from MH 370 ” or other similar variations. Guess the Fat Controller must be pretty proud of his handiwork till now.
Yeah, this plane never got close to any of those places it’s now legendarily associated with. So come July, we will be left with greatest solved but unrevealed aviation mystery of all time. Yeah, you read ithat right, folks.
@All
The Star Online is reporting the Malaysian Ministry of Transport as stating that they will accept whatever decision is made by the ATSB on the search for flight MH370.