BRITISH AIRWAYS TO FLY TO KLIA IN 2015.

Malaysian Reserve : Thursday, 18 September 2014

Hello again,

 

After an absence of 14 years, British Airways (BA) will fly directly to Kuala Lumpur from London beginning next year.

The airline will be making its presence felt at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) with a daily flight beginning May 27, 2015.

BA quit the London-KL route in 2001 due to a slowdown in global travel demand following the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US.

BA’s GM (Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa) Jamie Cassidy said Malaysia has been on the airline’s radar for “quite some time now” amid the significant rise in passenger movements between KLIA and Heathrow International Airport.

“About 460,000 people are travelling the KL-London route yearly. Malaysia has grown into a tourism hub from the last time we were here.

“Malaysian projects in London such as the Battersea mega-redevelopment has also spurred travel between both destinations. We cannot find a better time to come here,” he told a media conference yesterday in Kuala Lumpur.

Another airline plying the same route is the financially bleeding Malaysia Airlines (MAS), who is a code-sharing partner with BA via the oneworld alliance.

In reference to this, Cassidy said alliances do not stop competition in the ever-competitive airline industry. He said BA will still work with the national carrier to cater to various transit passengers from London and KL respectively.

“There was no discussion about our launch with MAS. That would be anti-competitive,” he replied when asked whether BA consulted MAS before deciding on the route.

The restructuring plan unveiled by Khazanah Nasional Bhd in end-August to save the ailing MAS included rationalisation of routes, which might witness the national airline cutting operational cost by suspending its long-haul routes — London, Paris and Istanbul.

MAS now utilises the new Airbus A380 to serve its daily London service.

BA’s KL-London flight is open for booking from today, with all-inclusive return fares starting from RM3,696 for economy class, RM5,390 for premium economy, as well as RM15,264 and RM29,658 for business and first class seats respectively.

Till then, see ya~

DETAILED ANALYSIS OF FDR NEEDED.

Published : NST on 2 October 2014 

Hello again,

KUALA LUMPUR: AIR crash investigators and forensic experts are counting on a more detailed analysis of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17’s flight data recorder (FDR) and the remains of passengers to build a comprehensive picture of how the airliner was brought down and where the “high-energy objects” that penetrated the aircraft had originated from.

 

Currently, the probe is being conducted in tandem.

One area is focused on the painstaking analysis of the FDR, while the other involves a more detailed look at the wounds on the remains of passengers. This covers entry wounds, depth of projectile in the remains, type of projectile, entry angle and exit wounds, if any. 

Dutch Safety Board spokesman Sara Vernooij told the New Straits Times that data from the FDR on board the Boeing 777-200ER jetliner could help narrow down the coordinates where the aircraft was shot down.

Vernooij said besides narrowing down the coordinates, the FDR would also reveal additional information about the status of the engines, the aircraft’s altitude, acceleration force and the status of the onboard systems. 

It can also help investigators determine the position of flight control surfaces, such as the flaps, aileron, horizontal stabilisers, slats, spoilers and rudder.

 “However, the process of encrypting the FDR will take time, as it contains binary data (zeros and ones) that needs to be converted into workable data before it can be analysed. 

“A more detailed analysis of the data is also needed before we can say what kind of ‘high-energy objects’ had penetrated the aircraft,” she said.

When asked about the key information that the probe team would focus on in the hope of pinpointing the perpetrators, Vernooij refused to comment, adding that it would be covered in the final report. 

Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said he could not say for certain if the FDR could determine the trajectory of the high-speed objects that had penetrated the aircraft and brought it down.

“I was there in Farnborough in the United Kingdom when the investigators analysed the data from both black boxes.

“As stated in the preliminary report, there were no abnormalities or warning signs heard in the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). The recording stopped abruptly.”

However, he said, investigations were still in the early stages, and experts would analyse the FDR and CVR more thoroughly.

Azharuddin touched on the characteristic scouring mark on the underside of the jetliner’s left wing.

Whether the FDR or CVR could have recorded the impact of the missile on the underside of the left wing “depends on certain circumstances”, he said.

“It depends on whether the missile exploded above or below the aircraft, how severe the glancing blow was to the left wing and how it had affected the handling of the airplane.”

On the forensic side of the investigations, Kuala Lumpur Hospital pathology consultant Dr Mohd Shah Mahmood said once all the victims had been identified and accounted for, investigators would move to the next phase of the probe, which was to study the pattern of the victims’ injuries and check them against their seating arrangements.

“You can see that the remains that were either intact or relatively intact were (those of victims) sitting in the front and at the back of the aircraft, while those who suffered the most injuries were (seated) in the centre.

“Investigators may also notice that those who had sat in the centre of the aircraft, near the engines, suffered more serious injuries compared with those seated in the front and at the back, who did not suffer any burns.

“There are a lot of theories going around, but since the plane had just begun its flight, the fuel tank would have been full and those sitting near the wings (where the fuel bladders are located) would have sustained more burns compared with the others,” he said in an exclusive interview at the hospital. 

Dr Shah said most of the remains had multiple injuries from the impact of falling from more than 30,000 feet to the ground, adding that many had fractured or crushed bones in several places.

“Most of the remains in the first few batches were intact.

“That is why the process of identification was faster compared with the later remains.”

He said the investigators, however, had yet to enter the next phase of investigations as there were still victims unaccounted for, including two Malaysians: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s step-grandmother, Siti Amirah Parawira, and Shaliza Zaini Dewa, who was on board the aircraft with her Dutch husband and three children.

He said the remains had been analysed by the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team, comprising experts from Germany, Belgium, Australia, United Kingdom and Malaysia.

However, Dr Shah said, remains with possible criminal evidence would be examined by the DVI team from the Netherlands. 

“The Malaysian DVI team had no opportunity to examine the remains of MH17 passengers with possible criminal evidence, as they had gone straight to the criminal investigation team handled by the Dutch DVI team.”

He said upon the remains’ arrival in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and later, Amsterdam,  they were first scanned for chemical, biological, radiology and nuclear explosives before going through the computed tomography (CT) scan.

“Using the CT scan, the DVI team would later separate the remains, which may contain embedded
metals or other evidence, from the rest.

“Remains with foreign object embedded in them would be subjected to further investigation.

“This is important, as the objects could be evidence that could help in the investigations into the downing of the airplane.”

Till then, see ya~

PRELIMINARY REPORT MH17.

Hello again,

Please refer to the attached link :

http://www.dca.gov.my/mainpage/Preliminary%20Report%20MH17.pdf


Till then, see ya~