PERLU PENGETAHUAN TERPERICI MATIKAN KOMUNIKASI MH370

Bagi membolehkan sistem komunikasi MH370 dimatikan secara manual, jika itu adalah kesnya, ia akan memerlukan pengetahuan terperinci tentang mekanisma dalaman untuk penerbangan jarak jauh Boeing 777 ini, lapor Wall Street Journal, hari ini.

Kehilangan pertama transponder pesawat, yang memberitahu kedudukannya, kelajuan dan tanda panggilan untuk radar kawalan trafik udara, memerlukan pemutusan litar yang terletak di atas dan di belakang panel depan kapal terbang, lapor akhbar itu.

Mengakses pemutus litar biasanya dikhaskan untuk kakitangan penyelenggaraan, dan jarang dilakukan oleh juruterbang.

Dalam usaha untuk melumpuhkan kedua-dua transponder pada 777, menarik satu pemutus litar tertentu cukup untuk menyelesaikan kerja itu, kata WSJ selepas mengkaji dokumen dan bercakap dengan pegawai-pegawai industri penerbangan yang biasa bekerja dengan model itu.

Pakar berkata, untuk membiasakan diri dengan sistem dalam 777, juruterbang dan mekanik akan memerlukan banya latihan, walaupun banyak data teknikal kepada jenis kapal terbang boleh diakses dalam talian melalui kumpulan perbincangan dan laman web.

Laporan itu berkata, penutupan sistem laporan di atas kapal terbang selepas kali terakhir ia dilihat pada radar boleh dilakukan dengan siri ketukan kekunci pada salah satu daripada dua komputer pengurusan penerbangan kokpit, di mana komputer digunakan untuk menetapkan prestasi enjin apabila berlepas, merancang laluan dan fungsi lain untuk membimbing pesawat.

Penyiasat sedang mengkaji ada atau tidak 'sesuatu bencana berlaku atau seseorang mematikan' sistem komunikasi satelit, kata WSJ memetik kenyataan seorang daripada dua orang yang biasa dengan kedudukan terahir pesawat ini.

Profesional penerbangan berkata, untuk mengetahui apa yang perlu dilakukan bagi melumpuhkan sistem, ia memerlukan pemahaman terperinci mekanisme dalaman yang digunakan pesawat itu.

Katanya, beberapa syarikat penerbangan menggunakan skru khas untuk memasuki kawasan di bawah lantai pesawat bagi mencegah pencerobohan yang tidak dibenarkan.

Dilaporkan, sistem komunikasi automatik penerbangan itu masih utuh sehingga lima jam, kerana ping daripada sistem diterima selepas transponder terakhir dipancarkan isyarat.

Pada mulanya, sumber asal ping daripada MH370 seolah-olah luar biasa kepada penyiasat, memandangkan pesawat itu dipercayai terhempas di luar pantai Vietnam, yang beratus-ratus batu dari lokasi ping terakhir.

Laporan WSJ menyatakan, sehingga beberapa tahun lalu, sistem komunikasi satelit yang digunakan oleh pesawat tidak termasuk data tentang lokasi ping pesawat, di mana elektronik digunakan untuk mewujudkan hubungan awal.

Apabila Air France penerbangan 447 merempuh lautan Atlantik pada 2009, pesawat itu menghantar beberapa data diagnostik menunjukkan masalah dengan pelbagai isyarat di atas kapal, termasuk penyahaktifan autopilot, menyebabkan kedudukan pesawat tidak dihantar melalui data.

Dalam kes MH370, lokasi tepat disediakan, tetapi ia masih tidak jelas mengapa penghantaran itu terhenti dan di mana pesawat itu mungkin berakhir selepas ping akhir, lapor WSJ. 

British satellite received signals from missing Malaysian plane

LONDON, March 15 (IANS) British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat has said that its network has received signals from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that went missing March 8.

In a statement, Inmarsat said: "Routine, automated signals were registered on the Inmarsat network from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 during its flight from Kuala Lumpur."

"This information was provided to our partner SITA, which in turn has shared it with the Malaysia Airlines," Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.

BBC reported Friday that a satellite system operated by Inmarsat received an automated signal from flight MH370 at least five hours after the plane was reported lost.

That could mean that the plane may have been flying for more than five hours after it disappeared, according to the BBC report.

Inmarsat is a provider of global mobile satellite communications services.

The Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 passengers and crew on board vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur early morning March 8. It was presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea.

The 227 passengers on the flight included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.

Contact with the plane was lost along with its radar signal when it was flying over the air traffic control area of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Search and rescue operations by many nations have not yet found any trace of the plane.

‘Bomoh’ trending worldwide, tweeted 200,000, says BBC

KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia): The word “bomoh” is trending worldwide and has been tweeted more than 200,000 times, with the most obvious sentiment expressed being shame, the BBC reported. 

"It's so embarrassing to have 'Malaysia' and 'Bomoh' in the same sentence," tweeted one. 

"Stupid, shameful" and "ignorant", others tweeted back to BBC Trending, the BBC said

.

The tweets were in response to the bomoh who showed up at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport twice, initially claiming that he was invited by a government leader to help solve the mystery of the missing flight MH370, although he later said he was there on his own will.

Using coconuts, bamboo binoculars and a fish hook and esoteric mumbo-jumbo, bomoh Ibrahim Mat Zin reportedly said his spells would "weaken the bad spirits".

The curious and the gullible might like to visit the website, Bomoh Gadgets Malaysia.

Among the many items on sale is a magic flying carpet at RM99,900. The site is also offering a 20% discount on magical bubu fishing trap and magical bamboo sticks.

Eddin Khoo, a Malaysian cultural commentator, reportedly said that the bomoh episode was hardly surprising, adding that it had been "very much a problem of the cultural politics of Malaysia over the last 30 or 40 years", according to the BBC report.

He said that Islam had traditionally been interpreted in a mystical way and, in recent years, this has been taken more literally.

According to Khoo, many politicians were known to summon the help of bomoh to advance in their careers, and that these bomoh also make regular appearances during national crises in the country, the BBC reported.

On Thursday however, Pertubuhan Ilmuan Malaysia chief executive officer Ahmad Fazrin Yahaya condemned the “bomoh act” at KLIA, saying that his nonsensical rituals were an embarrassment to Malaysian Muslims and was a mockery of true Islamic teachings.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had also questioned who in Putrajaya had sanctioned the bomoh to conduct rituals inside KLIA to locate the missing jetliner.

He had said the presence of the bomoh had made Malaysia a laughing stock.

However, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, minister in the prime minister's department had denied claims that Putrajaya had hired the bomoh, adding that it was not a directive from the government.