Just came across this on the evening news:

Sabotage fears on Perth-bound flight
From correspondents in Kuala Lumpur
October 5, 2003

WIRE cutting that grounded a Perth-bound Malaysia Airlines plane could have been sabotage, and local police were not ruling out "an inside job".
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement late last night two hours before its scheduled departure to Perth in Western Australia, its engineers conducted a mandatory pre-flight check which showed a malfunction signal in the cockpit when it was powered up.

"(The plane) was not released when pre-departure checks indicated inoperable wiring on board," the carrier said.

"Upon further inspection, it was learnt that there could be a possible security breach and the police were promptly notified," it said.

The Malay-language Mingguan Malaysia quotes a police source as saying that it was sabotage and did not rule out the possibility that it was an "inside job" by someone with knowledge of airplanes.

Initial police investigations also show that the plane had suffered massive damage which could cause it to lose control if allowed to fly, the source said.

"What's certain is that the damage was quite severe and now we are focusing on who is responsible for this," the unnamed source was quoted as saying.

If the malfunction had not been detected, it would have caused a disaster, he said.

At least seven bundles of wires were on Thursday found cut on the A-330 aircraft, including those under an instrument panel located under the captain's seat.

The aircraft had arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on October 1 from Singapore and was later sent to the maintenance bay for a routine inspection.

A replacement was deployed following the discovery of the malfunction.

"There were some discrepancies in the aircraft's systems," said the carrier's corporate services senior general manager Mohamaddon Abdullah.

"We do not compromise on the safety and security of our passengers and aircraft," he said.



Just media-hype, or what???

Cheers,

Soulman.

>>...including those under an instrument panel located under the captain's seat<<

I always find that instrument panel under the captain's seat hard to scan...

Sounds to me like a classic case of poor ergonomics...

It's probably for folks with their head up their arse

If it's true, it's bad news. Things like this will fortunately be detected but there are ather types of sabotage which are only apparent too late.

In any case it's a hell of a cost replacing aircraft wiring looms and tremendous work involved.

I'm going with them via KL to Tokyo next week. I hope they have enough ships left and I hope it was an outside, rather than inside job.

It's a salutary lesson for all of us on on-ground security too.

Before we have too many stupid comments please note the original source has been translated. However the basic facts are no doubt correct.

Hmm this, combined with the re-spray/structural problem encountered with B747's recently, does not give a very good impression of Malaysia.

Lots of nice folks there (know quite a few), but the good Doctor 'in charge' seems to be headed in the wrong direction....for a rather long time.

If memory serves, it was an Australian Prime Minister who said... "a good place to fly over..."

Many would say the same about the big island - except the world cup happens to be there.

MAS also managed to have an A330 written off from a chemical spill. As SLF on their B772' and 744's I've noticed wiring problems too - the hand controllers for the seat back TV's are generally ******ed in about 40% of the seats.

Hmmmmmmm, if you can't trust your Avionics Technicians, who can you trust?

411A

Right Prime Minister, wrong circumstances.

The unlamented Mr Keating described the northernmost Australian capital city, Darwin, as being best seen from 35,000ft on your way to Paris. (One of his Ministers also suggested depopulating the area using machine guns - apparently we weren't voting the right way.)

His Malaysian interlude was to refer to Dr M as 'a recalcitrant' - apparently an obscure but nonetheless effective Asian insult.

And had half the country scurrying for the dictionary in the process!

The defect was detected prior to departure. The generator were not able to go online after eng started. Acft changed. Further investigation found a bundle of wire being cut. Looks like inside job.
The issue of acft not controllable in the air does not exist, as acft was not despatchable.
Heard the rumours, money is the main issue. The LAEs signed new CA which discouraged overtime. The mechanics which depends on overtime not very please..
Wait till final investigation..

The defect was detected prior to departure. The generator were not able to go online. Acft changed. Further investigation found a bundle of wire being cut. Looks like inside job.
The issue of acft not controllable in the air does not exist, as acft was not despatchable.
Heard the rumours, money is the main issue. The LAEs signed new CA which discouraged overtime. The mechanics which depends on overtime not very please..
Wait till final investigation..

Maybe they should have paid the employees demands - they can't claim that as an insurance loss, and I bet the repair is more than the wages for a year for the techs.

ASO - Al Capone would have beeen proud of you. That was just his Unique Selling Point.

In some places they would have dispatched it on MEL, ground tested, Found OK, please report back!!!