Live Press Briefing
 

My take on the press briefing taking place live (09.40 GMT) is that the official verbal statement seems honest, open and clear. He has dispelled the "engine data" rumours as not true, also that the Chinese satellite photos were released in error. In any case a Malaysian aircraft dispatched to search the area found nothing. He said they were duty bound to search the Malacca straights area because of the 'possibility' of evidence that the aircraft had turned back; nevertheless he said their main search area remained to the east of Malaysia. He also said they had accepted all offers of help from other nations, and particularly referred to the FAA and NTSB assistance they were receiving. Briefing Q & As continue.

What can I say having just watched the debacle of the news conference, it is clear that the Malaysian Authorities are in over their abilities and it's starting to fall apart. Sense of panic on their faces. A very sorry and unacceptable state of affairs for those awaiting news of kin.

Chinese 'leak' was the result of an individual action, not sanctioned by China. This individual is now under investigation.

Clarification ACARS can be programmed to report on events & or time.

Events like Takeoff, TOC (Top of climb), reach waypoint
Time e.g. every 30mins

OR if an abnormality occurs...

The ACARS report at 1:07am local time indicated no issues with the aircraft.

FMC,


'sense of panic' ? not sure you have watched the same press conference. As the minister said, this is an 'unprecedented situation' (in the modern age any way). If journalists/others have been propagating unchecked rumours and wasting everyones time then maybe some self examination should be performed later.

I think the truth is probably the simplest solution.

I expect the a/c suffered something sudden and catastrophic close to LKP.
Debris has not been found because it ditched and no large floating debris broke off at this time. Eventually smaller pieces will be found or wash up in Vietnam.

Press Conference in a Nutshell
 

43 ships and 40 a/c searching (26/25 in S China Sea, 17/15 in Malacca Straits). Some key points to clarify ...

1 Reports of a/c continuing to fly for some time after its last transmission are "inaccurate" - and specifically Boeing and RR agree they are "inaccurate"

2 SAR assets couldn't find anything at the position of the Chinese satellite image and the Chinese Embassy has since said the image was released by mistake

3 A/c had been fully serviced and up to date with FAA ADs, was fit to fly and all maintenance checks were in order. Last routine maintenance on 23Feb14

4 Have a duty to investigate any possibilities, eg radar track in Straits of Malacca, however main effort has always been in S China Sea.
FAA and NTSB agree reasonable grounds to investigate turnback to the western side of Malaysian peninsular

5 On release of raw data, they wish to corroborate data before release, eg radar tracks west of planned route, doing so too early could add anguish to relatives, Malaysia has nothing to hide and is sparing no expense

6 Reports that the flight crew's homes have been searched are not true.

No the ACARS does not report constantly, it reports on events....The last ACARS was 1:07am but the last signal at all from the aircraft was 1:22am.

Seems almost all the information is bad. And it's coming from sources that ought to be credible. A lot of contradictions and back tracking. Zero leads. I'm finding it hard to swallow. Something's rotten.

We'll see if the WSJ stands behind their article or it vanishes as quickly as the plane did.

ACARS does not equal transponder so what you see on FR24 is not ACARS data.

Press Briefing
 

Continuing to watch. I also do not agree that there is any sense of panic shown by the 3 briefing personnel, actually the opposite. They answered most of the questions in a calm and confident manner. They not surprisingly didn't answer a Sky question on the range or capability of their military radar.

Malaysian Airlines MH370 contact lost
 

No one knows where to peek. Everyone is clueless. And that is our understanding if it. If there is a cover up we will still be clueless.

Malaysia does their best with what they have. No need to rub their faces about their inabilities. They do what can be done best on their part with the resources they have including $$ budgets.

When the big boys get there with all of their resources we will know what we will "need" to know and news crews will "show it all".

pberrett i belive its +8

Last contact Acars\ engines 1:07am GMT+8

No the ACARS does not report constantly, it reports on events....The last ACARS was 1:07am but the last signal at all from the aircraft was 1:22am.

I repeated exactly what was said at the press briefing. He said 1.07

Just to clarify, on a plane the
ACARS only transmits on events. i.e. not constantly last report was at 1:07am

ADS-B transponder transmits twice a second (used by flightradar 24)
How it works - Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker! - last report 1:21am

The Radar transponder responds to a air traffic control radar painting the aircraft, the transponder then transmits information such the planes registration number, speed & altitude. Secondary surveillance radar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - last report 1:21am

After 1:21am the plane ceased to transmit anything at all.

using language accurately
 

They say "inaccurate", not "false"…

Accurate would be, if precise data would be named, not only "some time"…

just saying… :cool:

Livery Man

The Minister was asked that question and his answer was, effectively, yes.

Thats about it...

I would add: no emergency beacon so either under water or intact on land.

For those wanting to read the Wall St Journal's reaction to the news conference, here is the link to their twitter stream.

Rolls-Royce, Boeing Decline to Comment on Jet Report - Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com

The original WSJ article appeared to have been heavily sourced to U.S. national security officials in Washington. And as Mr. Snowden has revealed, the U.S. captures everything in the ether. You are free to infer whether this capture includes ACARS data.

The ELT could have been completely destroyed.