The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Jet ‘flew for hours’ after losing contact
Missing Malaysian airliner: On Day 6, no headway in one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation

Kuala Lumpur/Ho Chi Minh City, March 13
Malaysian authorities said on Thursday that there was no evidence that a jetliner missing for almost six days flew for hours after losing contact with air traffic controllers and continued to transmit technical data.

The Wall Street Journal said that US aviation investigators and national security officials believed the Boeing 777 flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from its Rolls-Royce Trent engines as part of a standard monitoring programme.

"Those reports are inaccurate," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference. "As far as both Rolls-Royce and Boeing are concerned, those reports are inaccurate. The last (data) transmission from the aircraft was at 1.07 am(local time) which indicated that everything was normal."

Boeing and Rolls-Royce have yet to comment. Reuters has previously reported that the plane's transmission of the so-called ACARS technical data ceased after it lost contact with air traffic control.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 persons on board, dropped off air traffic control screens at about 1.30 am on Saturday, less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

There were no reports of bad weather or mechanical problems. It is one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation -- there has been no trace of the plane nor any sign of wreckage despite a search by the navies and military aircraft of over a dozen countries across Southeast Asia.

"It's extraordinary that with all the (satellite and telecommunication) technology that we've got that an aircraft can disappear like this," Tony Tyler, the head of the International Air Transport Association that links over 90 per cent of the world's airlines, told reporters in London.

“It will trigger a desire to see how we can avoid this from happening again... I wouldn't be surprised that the technology didn't exist already but is not being used."

The last definitive sighting of MH370 on civilian radar screens came as the plane flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand. — Reuters

Aircraft will be found by Saturday: Vasthu expert

Kuala Lumpur: While scores of aircraft are still scouring the seas of southeast Asia for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, a Vasthu Shastra expert has claimed the aircraft will be found on or before Saturday. Yuvaraj Sowma, a Chennai-based Vasthu Shastra expert, told the Malaysian Star that he was making the prediction based on the alignment of the planets, the sun and stars.

Unprecedented mystery

Saturday March 8: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 departs from Kuala Lumpur at 12:21 am (local time) and is due to land in Beijing at 6.30 am the same day. On board are 227 passengers and 12 crew

Around 1.30am (approx) the airline loses contact. No distress signal, weather clear. Its last contact was with air traffic controllers off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu

Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority says plane failed to check in as scheduled between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City

Flight tracking website flightaware.com shows plane climbed to 35,000 feet. It vanishes from website's tracking records a minute later

Malaysia search ships see no sign of wreckage. Vietnam says giant oil slick and column of smoke seen in its waters

Sunday, March 9: Malaysia Airlines says fears worst and is working with a US company that specialises in disaster recovery

Radar indicates flight may have turned back from its scheduled route to Beijing before disappearing

Interpol says two men from Austria and Italy, listed among passengers, are not in fact on board. They say their passports were stolen

Investigators narrow focus on possibility the plane disintegrated mid-flight

Monday, March 10: A US review of spy satellite imagery shows no signs of mid-air explosion

Dozens of ships and aircraft from seven countries scour the seas around Malaysia and south of Vietnam

Hijacking not ruled out, says head of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority, Azharuddin Abdul Rahmanthe

Tuesday, March 11: Interpol names the two men who boarded with stolen passports as Iranians, aged 18 and 29.

Malaysian police say they are investigating whether anyone on the plane had personal or psychological problems

Malaysia's military believes missing jet turned and flew hundreds of km to the west after it last made contact

The jet made it into the Strait of Malacca

Wednesday, March 12: The search expands to an area stretching from China to India

Indian Navy joins search oprations

Indian warships, planes join search efforts
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 13
India, to aid the Malaysian authorities’ search for the missing jet, has launched four ships with helicopters on board and specialised reconnaissance planes. It has promised that its naval planes will be searching non-stop over the south Andaman Sea. The Integrated Tri-services Command was today asked by the Ministry of Defence to deploy ships, aircraft and helicopters to search for the missing Malaysian airliner.

Two of the three Indian Navy ships -- the INS Kesri and INS Kumbhir -- are amphibious vessels and can go very close to the shore. These have compartments which can open out to the sea and launch small teams on boats and rafts. The third ship -- INS Saryu -- is an off-shore patrol vessel that is easy to operate on shallow waters. Coastguard vessel ICG Kanaklata Barua has also been deployed. These ships sailed out this afternoon and will reach the designated search area by late evening, sources said.

Meanwhile, the specialised maritime reconnaissance plane, Boeing P8-I, has been launched from INS Rajali near Chennai.

Two Dorniers -- flying low and slow -- did a recce of the area. Batches of Dorniers are ready to take off once the first sortie returns.

Chinese satellites spot floating objects

Beijing, March 13
Mystery continued to shroud the Malaysian jetliner six days after it went missing as Vietnam said today that its aircraft and ships have not found any debris said to have been spotted by Chinese satellites.

Aircraft and vessels sent out by Vietnam today found no debris in the waters where Chinese satellites spotted three floating objects in the hunt for the missing Malaysian airlines flight, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Vietnamese Deputy Transport Minister Pham Quy Tieu as saying.

Vietnam authorities dispatched two aircraft and two ships to fly over the waters off the Vietnam's southern coast where Chinese satellites photographed suspected floating objects, Pham, who is leading a frontline command in Phu Quoc island, said.

Earlier today, China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) said a Chinese satellite has found three floating objects at a suspected site of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane but it was not sure whether it was the debris of the plane. China pressed 10 satellites besides eight ships and three aircraft to conduct search operations.

An international search operation has been mostly focused on the shallow waters of the Gulf of Thailand off Malaysia's east coast. Vietnam has been searching off its eastern coast of Phu Quoc island as well as its western shoreline. — PTI

Pak court to indict Musharraf today
Afzal khan in Islamabad

The special court constituted for treason trial on Thursday maintained its decision to indict former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on March 14. The three-member bench, led by Justice Faisal Arab, had directed the former President on March 11 to appear in person before the special court to hear the charges being read out against him.

The General faces treason charges under Article 6 for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts.

During Thursday's hearing, Musharraf's lawyer Anwar Mansoor told the special court that he suffered from food poisoning and there was no chance that he would recover and be able to present his arguments tomorrow. Justice Arab replied that they cannot force him to present his arguments but the court would not stop proceedings for this reason.

For the second day this week, member of Musharraf's legal team Rana Ijaz Ahmed Khan was not allowed to enter the courtroom. The court had asked security officials to cancel Ijaz's entry pass for his contemptuous behaviour and derogatory remarks about special court judges during proceedings on March 11 when he had called the court a "slaughterhouse".

Obama rejects Crimea referendum
Russia moves tank, infantry units along Ukraine border

Washington/Moscow, March 13
US President Barack Obama has vehemently rejected the Russian bid for a "slapdash" referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region to merge it with Russia, even as Russia said today it was stepping up field training for tank, artillery and infantry units in three regions next to the Ukrainian border in a powerful display of military might.

The move came as thousands of paratroopers also began exercises close to Ukraine today, while Russian gunmen patrol Crimea ahead of a referendum on it joining Russia on Sunday.

The defence ministry said in a statement that the exercises were being carried out in the Rostov, Belgorod and Kursk regions bordering Ukraine, as well as one non-border region. "We completely reject a referendum patched together in a few weeks with Russian military personnel basically taking over Crimea. We reject its legitimacy. It is contrary to international law. It is contrary to the Ukrainian constitution," Obama told reporters following his meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

"I know that we've heard from the Russian Federation this notion that these kinds of decisions are often made in other places, and they've even analogised it to Scotland or other situations of that sort," he said. — Agencies

Ukraine may sign EU accord next week

Washington: Ukraine's new leaders will likely sign a long-awaited political accord with the European Union next week, interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said after talks at the White House. “I’m sure that next week Ukraine is to sign a political part of the association agreement and to make a very solid and strong step in order to make Ukraine an integral part of the European Union," Yatsenyuk said.

Lanka fought LTTE, not Tamils, says Rajapaksa

Colombo, March 13
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has debunked international criticism of undermining Sri Lanka's Tamil minority on the strength of the success in crushing the LTTE through military means.

"The war was not against the Tamils. We only fought a brutal terrorist outfit that was the LTTE,” the President told a political gathering in the southern district of Galle yesterday.

"If our war was against Tamils how could the Tamils live happily and peacefully among the Sinhalese in the south of the country," Rajapaksa quipped. Rajapaksa said the religious harmony and reconciliation was visible throughout the country. — PTI