A year after MH370, Chinese aircraft maker unveils better black box

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-03-08

A COMAC booth at the 15th China International Industry Fair in
Shanghai. (File photo/CFP)

In the event of a test model plane crash, an emergency recorder and tracking system is separated from the tail section of the plane.

The test, which is shown in a video clip, is part of a series of tests run since October by the US subsidiary of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) on a comprehensive emergency information recorder and tracking system.

COMAC America Corporation says its emergency recorder system includes a data storage device and transmitter called Harbinger. It claims it has been applying new methods that transcend traditional designs of black box recorders used in commercial aircraft.

The yearlong searching effort for Malaysia Airlines' missing flight MH370 has turned up with no sign of the plane, but it has fueled the company's resolve to come up with a more efficient system.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200, disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board. So far no trace has been found despite a massive surface and underwater hunt, in what has become one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history.

The search continues to be jointly carried out by Australia, Malaysia and China over vast swaths of the Indian Ocean some 1,600 kilometers off Australia's west coast, with four ships using sophisticated sonar systems to scour a huge underwater area.

The protracted search for the missing plane's black boxes, or the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, are presenting new demands for aviation security and rescue. Major aircraft makers of the world continue to contribute to black box technologies.

A traditional black box emits distress signals for 30 days after sinking with the plane. It stores 30-minutes of cockpit voice conversation and two hours of flight data before the crash.

However, when the plane crashes and goes down at sea, the sonar signal emitted from the black box only transmits several kilometers, therefore requiring a rather definitive search area, which is often difficult in sea crashes.

If the black box becomes covered in seabed sludge (or heavy snow, in the case of a mountainside crash), distress signals are weak and hard to detect, making it difficult to locate the crash site in a timely manner for rescue.

COMAC America believes that the Harbinger emergency system is a useful supplement to existing black box designs that sink with the plane after a crash.

Engineers of the company say, the Harbinger emergency system is able to capture images of the last few minutes of the plane before it crashes. With the system, the last few minutes of the plane's position, black box data, and video footage is uploaded through cloud technology to a satellite.

The system can also save a copy of the data and is equipped with a parachute and inflation system to enable it to stay afloat at sea. The inflation system can also protect hardware when the Harbinger lands on hard surfaces. It will also transmit distress signals to help rescue teams locate its position.

Based on repeated tests of the system, the video footage of the last few minutes of a plane crash, for instance, offers invaluable insight into the data captured in a traditional black box. The position tracking system and cloud data transmission function also increases the probability of rapid location of the crash site and the survivability of the captured flight data.

"Being able to find the true cause of an air disaster is a crucial step towards improving aircraft designs for safer air travel tomorrow," said Wei Ye, president of COMAC America Corporation told Xinhua. "The Harbinger emergency system will bring revolutionary changes to air rescue and aviation security."

The company has filed a patent application of the Harbinger emergency system with the US Patent and Trademark Office, said Ye, adding that "we believe new models of commercial aircraft in the future will benefit from using this system."

Search team remains hopeful of finding MH370: coordinator

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-03-08

Family members of the missing passengers hold up paintings at a prayer
event at the Yonghe Temple in Beijing, March 8. (Photo/CNS)

Exactly one year ago, a Malaysia Airlines aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur airport and disappeared in the darkness of the sky, leaving the world with one of the greatest aviation mysteries in history. Twelve months on, search vessels are working non-stop in the heart of the southern Indian Ocean, hoping to bring an answer to the tragedy.

Four ships, each carrying a crew of 35, are working in 12-hour shifts to scan the ocean floor. Every 45 days, the ships go back to Freemantle in Western Australia to stock up on supplies. It takes them six days of sailing from the search area to Freemantle and another six days to go back.

So far, 26,000 square kilometers of area has been searched and not a single piece of debris has been found.

"I am frustrated like the families. And the rest of the team also. Having said that though, we still have over 50% of the search area to go. We still have a sizable area that we haven't searched. We need to remember that," said Judith Zielke, chief coordinator of the Joint Agency Coordination Center for the search of the MH370 (JACC).

That 260,000 square kilometer area includes the 60,000 square kilometer priority search area, which has been set by a group of international experts based on the "handshake" data provided by the satellite provider Inmarsat. The widest feasible search area is 1.1 million square kilometers.

"The wide search area, which is 1.1 million square kilometer, has remained the same since April last year. It's based on original 'handshake' information released by Inmarsat. That's factual information. It shows where the aircraft turned and it turned south. That can't be questioned: it's factual information," Zielke said.

"We are confident the aircraft is in that wide search area of 1.1 million square kilometers. Our challenge is to find where within that huge area. The size and scale of the search is unprecedented. This has not been attempted before. We are talking about an area that ultimately is about two thirds the size of the Australian continent. The area we are searching at the moment is slightly smaller than Tasmania."

The most recent update to the search area were announced in October last year. Since then, more analysis work has been done, Zielke said.

Despite the fact that no debris has been found, the crew on the ships are highly motivated by keeping regular contact with families through the JACC, whose job is to "keep the communications flow."

Zielke said JACC receives emails every day, expressing gratitude for what Australia is doing. Australia committed AU$90 million (US$70.2 million) to the search, of which AU$60 million has been paid directly for vessels and equipment aiding in underwater search activities. Malaysia matched Australia's contribution.

Zielke wouldn't predict what moves would be taken if the search of the remaining half of the priority area is completed in May with no luck, saying it is for the governments of Malaysia, China and Australia to decide, taking into account many possible scenarios.

"You may be aware that Australia recently, through Australian Transport Safety Board, went out with a tender process and ask for the expression of interest from firms around the world to give an indication of what equipment and vessels would be required for a recovery operation. Obviously, that information has been thought to be able to inform decisions for governments in relation to what would be undertaken in a recovery scenario just as we are also planning for decisions on other scenarios moving forward as well."

"At this moment, we are focused on locating in the current priority area. We have over 50% of the area still to be finished. I remain hopeful we can locate the aircraft in that area," she said.

Related Article:

One year on, international team 'committed' to finding Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

Harrison Ford Plane Crash Probe Will Take a Year: Officials

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Mar 08, 2015

Firefighters and an aviation official remove the 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR
 plane that crashed onto a golf course and was piloted by US actor Harrison Ford in
 Venice, California on March 6, 2015. Hollywood star Harrison Ford was injured March 5,
2015 when the small plane he was flying suffered engine failure and crash-landed on a
 golf course outside Los Angeles, officials said. The 72-year-old "Indiana Jones"
and "Star Wars" actor suffered multiple gashes to his head and was left bleeding
after the crash of the vintage two-seater plane. (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

Los Angeles. An investigation into what caused Hollywood star Harrison Ford to crash the single engine plane he was piloting will take about a year to complete, US aviation officials said on Friday.

Ford was injured Thursday when the vintage aircraft suffered engine failure and crash-landed on a golf course outside Los Angeles.

Patrick Jones, an official with the National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB), told reporters in Venice, California that investigators were inspecting the wreckage as well as reviewing documents pertaining to the upkeep of the plane.

“The aircraft will be examined, the engine will be examined, the records of the aircraft will be examined and ultimately we’ll submit a factual report,” Jones said.

“All of that process is going to take probably a couple of weeks to a month or so,” the NTSB official said.

“The final report probably will not be out for a year.”

Ford, an aviation enthusiast with years of flying under his belt, flew out of Santa Monica Airport in a Ryan PT-22 Recruit, when he experienced engine trouble just minutes into the flight. He was trying to return to the airport when he crashed.

Experts pegged the aircraft he was flying as a World War II vintage two-seater plane that was more than 70 years old.

Authorities said they have not yet had the opportunity to interview Ford, but plan to do so over the course of their probe

The actor suffered multiple gashes to his head and was left bleeding after the crash.

A family spokesman said Ford’s injuries were not life threatening. His son Ben, in a tweet late Thursday said his father was “battered, but OK.”

Agence France-Presse

Tesla cutting 30% of staff in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-07

Customers visit a Tesla showroom in Beijing on July 9, 2014. (Photo/CFP)

US electric car innovator Tesla Motors is in the process of cutting 30% of its staff in China, reports the Beijing-based China Times.

According to an anonymous company insider, at least 30% of Tesla's 600 staff in China will be culled across the board, including nearly half the staff in the sales department. The decision came directly from US headquarters, the insider said.

"In addition to the technical support and procurement departments, the marketing, public relations, legal, administrative and sales departments will also be downsized," said the insider, adding that the process began before the Chinese New Year break last month.

When contacted by China Times, Tesla did not deny the claims outright but responded that the information was "not accurate."

The expected downsizing comes as Tesla China business director Sam Shen confirmed his resignation to reporters on March 3. Shen is one of several high-profile executives to leave the company in the last year. Last month, Tesla Greater China chief marketing officer June Jin stepped down for unspecified reasons. In December, Tesla China president Veronica Wu also resigned, just nine months after she replaced her predecessor, Kingston Chang, the original spokesperson for Tesla's China division.

One of the major problems facing Tesla in China has been high inventory levels. Available numbers reveal that Tesla imported 4,800 vehicles in 2014, but only 2,499 of those vehicles were registered for road use by the end of the year. Sources said while there may be some buyers who have not yet registered their vehicles, this number is likely to be very low.

A significant portion of the inventory is said to have come from cancellations of pre-orders, in particular the Model S P85D. Last October, Tesla announced that it had managed to upgrade the model's acceleration speed so that it took only 3.1 seconds instead of 4 seconds to hit 100 kilometers per hour, but that it was also increasing the price by 120,000 yuan (US$19,150). As a result, many customers reportedly canceled their pre-orders, preferring to forgo the 15,000 yuan (US$2,395) first-stage deposit than go through with the purchase.

The poor results mean that Tesla did not even reach a third of its Chinese market sales target of 10,000, which had been upgraded from 3,000 and 5,000 earlier in the year. Tesla founder Elon Musk even admitted during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January that the company's performance in China has been "unexpectedly weak."

Company insiders say that downsizing in China is inevitable given that Tesla's operations on the mainland grew from less than 20 people to nearly 600 people in just two years. The rapid expansion has not been in line with market developments, one insider said.

While most automobile manufacturers see China as a major untapped market, Tesla's performance in the region has so far been largely unsuccessful. In 2014, Tesla manufactured a total of 35,000 vehicles and sold 31,700 units globally. North America account for the bulk of the purchases with 55%, with Europe making up another 30%, meaning the Asian market contributed only 15%.

Route Expansions, New Planes for Thai Lion Air

Jakarta Globe, Farouk Arnaz, Mar 06, 2015

A Batik Air aircraft at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s Terminal 3
in Jakarta on April 25, 2013. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)

Bangkok. Thai Lion Air, the Thailand-based unit of Indonesia’s biggest low-cost carrier, Lion Air, is expanding its routes with an extra 11 new aircraft this year, its director said on Friday.

Capt. Darsito Hendroseputro, director of Thai Lion Air, announced Thai Lion had ordered new aircraft from the Boeing 737-900 extended range.

“With the arrival of 11 new aircraft, Thai Lion Air’s fleet will reach 20 units. There are currently 60 departures to eight destinations which accommodate 10,000 passengers every day to, and outside, Bangkok,” he said.

The aircraft are part of Lion’s purchase placed with the US-based aircraft manufacturer in 2008.

Lion Group’s owner and founder, Rusdi Kirana, placed a $14 billion order for 178 Boeing planes which will be gradually delivered until 2017.

This was followed by a record-setting Boeing order as Lion sealed a $22 billion deal for 230 aircraft to be delivered in stages from 2017 to 2025, as part of the company’s plan to expand in the Southeast Asia region.

Darsito said Thai Lion Air, which launched operations in late 2013, will expand both domestic and international routes.

“In 2015 we will expand our routes to China — Shijiazuang and Chongqing — and Singapore for the international routes,” said the former Indonesian Navy captain.

Domestic route expansions include flights to Chiang Rai, Ubon Ratchathani, Trang and Khon Kaen. Thai Lion Air served 1.8 million passengers in 2014, with local travelers making up more than 70 percent.

Darsito said Thai Lion Air’s passenger load factor with the current nine aircraft reached 82 percent and scored 92 percent on time performance.

The airline’s ambitious expansion plans have been dogged by criticism of punctuality and service to customers.

Its Indonesia parent company suffered severe delays during the Chinese New Year period, which lasted for three days and left thousands stranded in several airport across the country.

Investor Daily

Garuda Expansion a Warning for Rivals

Get Moving Already: Soekarno-Hatta Airport is well over the capacity it was designed for and among the busiest in the world

Jakarta Globe, Bloomberg, Harry Suhartono, Mar 05, 2015

Garuda plans to acquire 250 aircraft over 10 years and increase the fleet of its
 low-cost carrier unit Citilink Indonesia four-fold to 120 planes by 2022, its
chief Arif Wibowo said. (JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport, among the world’s 10 busiest by passenger traffic, handles twice the volume it was designed for; Arif Wibowo plans to push that limit further.

The new chief executive of Garuda Indonesia wants to take over the airport’s third terminal next year after a revamp and reserve it for the state carrier’s expansion. Garuda plans to acquire 250 aircraft over 10 years and increase the fleet of its low-cost carrier unit Citilink Indonesia four-fold to 120 planes by 2022, Arif said in an interview on March 3.

“By next year, we will make terminal three a dedicated terminal for Garuda Indonesia, and Garuda will make it the base for SkyTeam in the southern hemisphere of the Asia Pacific region,” Arif, 49, said in an interview at his Jakarta headquarters, referring to the alliance of 20 airlines including Air France-KLM and China Southern Airlines, Asia’s biggest carrier by passengers.

A Jakarta hub for SkyTeam would help its members tap the Australian market and put it into competition with Singapore’s Changi Airport and a larger Star Alliance carrier network that includes Singapore Airlines.

Singapore is not standing still, with plans to almost double the capacity of its airport over the next decade, as economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region makes it more affordable for people to travel by air.

Garuda’s competitors aren’t idling either. Lion Group, Indonesia’s biggest carrier, plans to have a fleet of 1,000 planes, its founder Rusdi Kirana said last year, after he agreed to buy 230 Boeing 737 planes in 2012 and another 234 Airbus jets in 2013.

Garuda’s shares rose as much as 1 percent on Thursday to Rp 530.

The shares have risen 9.5 percent in the past year, trailing the 17 percent gain in the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index and the 36 percent advance in the Asia Pacific Airlines Index.

Soekarno-Hatta handled 60 million passengers in 2013, the 10th-most in the world and ahead of Singapore and Hong Kong, according to data from the International Air Transport Association.

State airport operator Angkasa Pura II plans to sell as much as Rp 6 trillion ($460 million) of bonds this year and next to fund renovations to the Jakarta airport, president director Budi Karya Sumadi said in February.

Jakarta airport’s terminal one, dating from 1985, handles domestic routes. About 1.6 million Indonesians flew from Soekarno-Hatta across the world’s largest archipelago in January, according to government data. Apart from revamping the terminal buildings, the government is building a rail line to improve transport to Jakarta’s center.

Citilink

The second terminal, used by Garuda and most international carriers, presents visitors with a warren of hallways to navigate immigration, before a gauntlet of baggage handlers and taxi touts.

The third terminal, the most modern, is currently reserved for low cost carriers and used by AirAsia.

Arif, who spends his free time racking up road miles on his bicycle, said Citilink would serve its first international routes in 2016, to compete with AirAsia and Tiger Airways.

President Joko Widodo’s government tapped Arif, formerly the chief of Citilink, to run Garuda in December.

The president has called for reviews of the country’s aviation industry after AirAsia’s Flight 8501 from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the Java Sea on Dec. 28, killing all 162 on board.

So far the government has suspended the license of AirAsia for that route, found other airlines in breach of permits and removed state officials involved.

More planes

Garuda plans to increase its fleet size by an average of 6 percent to 7 percent a year over the next decade and most of the plane orders will be for single-aisle jets to expand domestic and regional destinations as feeders for its long-haul aircraft to Europe, Middle East and North Asia, Arif said.

It currently flies to London, Amsterdam and Tokyo, after a European Union ban was ended in 2009.

In October, the airline placed a $4.9 billion order from Boeing for 50 single-aisle Boeing 737 series planes.

“We just entered the global arena, but right now our size is not enough,” Arif said.

“We need to capitalize on what we have and become a global player. That is our task going forward.”

Garuda expects to carry a total of 36 million passengers this year, an increase from almost 30 million in 2014.

Garuda is expected to report a $184 million loss for 2014, according to the median estimate of analysts in a survey.

That would be its first annual loss since listing in 2011.

The drop in oil prices should help Garuda’s financial performance in 2015, with 80 percent of its fuel use unhedged, said Alan Richardson, whose Samsung Asean Equity Fund outperformed 96 percent of peers tracked by during the past five years.

“I hold the stock for oil price,” he said by e-mail. “Profits will benefit greatly,” he said.

The company, which uses the national symbol of a mythical eagle as its insignia, plans to sell the country’s first corporate global sukuk next month to cut its funding costs.

Arif said the company is using an exchange rate assumption of 13,000 rupiah per dollar for its 2015 planning, and is already working on several scenarios should the currency weaken to 14,000 per dollar, without giving details.

“Looking at our operating performance for the first two months, we are performing better than last year,” Arif said.

Bloomberg

M503 route a path of peace: TAO chief

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-06

Zhang Zhijun talks to the press. (Photo/CNS)

Zhang Zhijun, minister of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the M503 flight route that goes along the Taiwan Strait's median line is a path of peace between Taiwan and China, but refused to reveal when the route will be implemented, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

During a press conference with reporters on Thursday, the official said the route will only be used by civilian aircraft and is set up to resolve the problem of crowded airspace around the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas. The aircraft will fly closer to China and within the Shanghai Flight Information Region, said Zhang, who added that the International Civil Aviation Organization has approved the route and assigned a code for it.

He said Taiwanese and Chinese officials reached an initial agreement over the issue on March 2 in Shanghai, when Chinese authorities agreed to a delay in the adoption of the M503 route and the three feeder routes W121, W122 and W123. W121 connects with Dongshan, W122 connects with Fuzhou, and W123 with Xiamen.

Zhang said the route will be a good thing for both Taiwanese and Chinese travelers and that commentators should not read too much into the politics of it.

In January, China declared the plan to launch the north-south M503 route without consultation with Taiwan along with the three other east-west feeder routes, which immediately drew protest from the Taiwanese government.

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'We'll continue to seek the truth about Flight MH370'

Almost a year after its disappearance, the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 remains a mystery - a painful situation that has impacted the lives of many, as Sarah Bajc, whose partner was on the jet, tells DW.

Deutsche Welle, 5 March 2015

It has been a painful year for the grieving families and friends of the victims of Flight MH370. Despite the most expensive search and rescue operation in history, an international team of investigators has yet to find evidence of any wreckage.

Some family members are unwilling to accept the Malaysian government's conclusion that the passenger jet was lost as the result of an accident and that all people on board are dead. They are angry over how both the airline and the authorities have handled the passenger jet's disappearance, arguing no evidence has been found to support such claims. They have also expressed fears that the search operations might be called off.

The fate of the plane has been shrouded in mystery ever since it left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing in the early morning hours of March 8 last year with 239 people on board. Investigators believe an area west of Perth, Australia - along a narrow arc in the southern Indian Ocean - is the most likely resting place of the jet.

One year after the plane's mysterious disappearance, Sarah Bajc, whose partner Philip Wood was on board the flight, talks in a DW interview about how the incident has changed her life, why the victims' relatives mistrust the authorities' claims and how the incident has led to positive changes in the aviation industry.

Bajc: 'Philip's disappearance has
impacted my life in every possible way'

DW: One year on, to what extent has the MH370 incident impacted your life?

Sarah Bajc: Philip's disappearance has impacted my life in every possible way. My daily life, and my future have changed dramatically.

On a personal level, besides the time that we were both at work, we did everything together: drinking coffee on the balcony in the morning, doing yoga, cooking dinner, exploring the city, and sharing our thoughts and feelings.

We traveled extensively, including spending time with each other's children, family and friends. Now I'm alone. I am also constantly disrupted and distracted by my pursuit of the truth. I spend hours every day dedicated to research, discussions with experts, interface with other family members, and conducting interviews with media. It is like I have two full-time jobs: teaching high school and finding Philip.

How have the friends and families of the remaining victims dealt with the plane's disappearance?

Most of the family members have had the opportunity to meet each other, either in person or via social media. In general, it is a very supportive and valuable group.

However, our efforts to share information and help each other have been significantly hampered by the interference of the Chinese and Malaysian authorities as both governments have taken active steps to prevent the family members from organizing more formally.

Still, many of us have become quite close, and we'll continue to work actively together to find the truth.

How have the authorities prevented family members from organizing more formally?

The Chinese government has actively broken up family gatherings, saying they are illegal meetings, and have threatened some family members with prosecution or harassment.

The Malaysians are more subtle. They have discouraged public discussion by promising a sponsored "next of kin" group meeting and then doing nothing, so people are left waiting for help.

In the early stages of the crisis, we asked for help finding all those passengers' families who had not already met each other through other avenues. We wanted to include everyone in our discussions, but the authorities refused to publish central contact links, or even to acknowledge the association we established called Voice370.

What do you make of the way the authorities have handled the incident?

There is only one explanation of two unpleasant options: Either the Malaysian government is grossly negligent due to incompetence and corruption to the point that they have failed to handle even the simplest aspects of this situation, from the beginning until today, or they are intentionally covering up what really happened, either because they are to blame, or at the request of some other power.

Significant evidence that should be
 normally released in an aviation
 incident investigation has been
withheld, says Bajc

Has any member of the Malaysian government met with the victims' relatives?

There have been several very superficial meetings, mostly in the form of a government official making a statement to an audience of family members. There is no honest, interactive discussion. Most emails, letters, and requests for information have just been ignored. I have never been contacted by a government official about Philip or MH370.

You have commissioned a private investigation into the plane's disappearance. What results has it yielded so far?

The only thing we have learned conclusively is that active steps have been taken to silence witnesses and destroy or hide evidence. Dozens of people involved with the situation have been threatened to not talk.

Significant evidence that should be normally released in an aviation incident investigation has been withheld: full cargo manifest, full air traffic control records and recordings, military radar tracking and airline operations center records. If indeed this were an accident, all of those things would be released to validate that diagnosis. Yet they remain hidden. Why?

What do you make of Australia's response to the tragedy and how confident are you that the plane will be found there?

I do not believe the official story that MH370 is in the southern Indian Ocean. As such, the entire effort by Australia is in my view a complete waste of resources and public attention. The government of Australia is either very foolish to have accepted the task of searching the ocean floor without concrete evidence that the plane even went down there, or they are part of the cover-up.

Relatives and friends of the victims are angry over how the authorities have
handled the jet's disappearance

As a response to the disappearance of MH370, members of the United Nations' aviation arm, the International Civil Aviation Organization, recently endorsed a new standard that will require commercial aircraft to report their position every 15 minutes. What do you make of this step?

Yes, this is certainly a step in the right direction, though I would think every five minutes would make far more sense and still be very practical from a technical perspective. This is something that should have been done many years ago.

Other critically-needed changes include: a larger number of secured transponders that cannot be shut off, much more powerful signal beacons at various places on the plane, including the black box, with far longer-lasting batteries.

Sarah Bajc's partner Philip Wood is among the 239 passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Feeling misled by the investigating authorities, she and others have been campaigning to raise money for a whistleblower.

The interview was conducted by Gabriel Domínguez.

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Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts

Thousands stranded due to Nepal runway closure

Yahoo – AFP, 5 March 2015

Nepalese rescue workers check the area around a Turkish Airlines plane after it slid 

off the tarmac at Kathmandu airport on March 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Prakash Mathema)

Kathmandu's international airport was closed for a second straight day Thursday, leaving thousands stranded at the start of the tourist season, after a plane skidded off its only runway.

The Indian Air Force flew in experts and equipment to help Nepal remove the Turkish Airlines A330, which had to be evacuated after it skidded off the runway with 224 passengers on board early Wednesday.

All the passengers and crew were unhurt.

Rescue workers check the area around a

 Turkish Airlines plane after it missed the

 runway at Kathmandu's international

 airport on March 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Prakash Mathema)

The head of the civil aviation authority, Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, said the Nepal army, police and the Indian experts would work tirelessly until the plane was moved.

International flights have been suspended until 10 am (0415 GMT) Friday, affecting about 12,000 passengers so far.

"Once the airport reopens, it will stay open around the clock for three days in order to ease the backlog of flights," Suman said at a press conference.

Scores of travellers swarmed Kathmandu airport on Thursday for information, among them Lita dela Cruz, a tourist from the Philippines who said she was desperate fly back to London where she works.

"It's a huge problem for me, my employer is expecting me back tonight and I can't see how I will reach (there) on time," she told AFP.

Nepalese migrant worker, Rajman Lodh, said he worried about losing his job in Saudi Arabia if the airport failed to resume operations soon.

"I have already spent 100,000 rupees ($1,000) to get the job and organise my passport and travel, now if my flight is delayed for longer, I may not even be able to start work," Lodh, 34, told AFP.

Nepalese officials said they would launch an investigation into the accident, which damaged the aircraft's landing gear and front engines and dislodged its tyres.

The Himalayan nation is home to some of the world's most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks and terrain that poses a challenge even for accomplished pilots.

A string of crashes as well as the European Union's decision to blacklist all Nepalese airlines prompted government officials last year to announce plans to install new radar and weather monitoring systems.

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Electric bikes are catching up on traditional pedal power in the Netherlands

DutchNews.nl, March 3, 2015

The sale of electric bikes in the Netherlands rose 16% last year, almost four times as fast as the sale of ordinary bikes, according to figures from sector bodies Bovag and RAI Vereniging. 

This means one in five bikes sold in the Netherlands is an electric bike, with a small motor. E-bikes are particularly popular with pensioners. 

In total, more than one million bikes were sold in the Netherlands last year. Turnover in the sector was up 11% at €886m. 

Government cycling experts are recommending the introduction of a 25 kph speed limit on Dutch bike lanes to curb the impact of electric ‘super’ bikes. 

Electric bikes with speeds of up to 40 kph are now on sale in the Netherlands and there are concerns about their impact on cyclist safety.

Saudi Arabia gives top prize to cleric who blames George Bush for 9/11

Controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik awarded the King Faisal international prize for promoting Islam through his hugely popular Peace TV channel

The Guardian - AFP, 1 March 2015

Zakir Naik siad ‘even a fool will know’ that the 9/11 attacks were an
‘inside job’. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

An Indian television preacher who has called the 9/11 attacks an “inside job” received one of Saudi Arabia’s most prestigious prizes on Sunday, for “service to Islam”.

Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in India, was one of five recipients of the King Faisal international prize from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman during a ceremony at a luxury Riyadh hotel.

The annual prizes are a project of the King Faisal Foundation, established in 1976 by the children of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz who died in 1975.

Naik was honoured for being one of the most renowned non-Arabic speaking promoters of Islam. He founded the Peace TV channel, billed as the world’s only channel specialising in comparative religion.

It has an estimated English-language audience exceeding 100 million, according to his award citation.

“Islam is the only religion that can bring peace to the whole of humanity,” he said in a video biography aired at the ceremony.

In a July 2008 Peace TV broadcast, Naik suggested that al-Qaida was not responsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York’s World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.

“Even a fool will know that this was an inside job,” he said in the video, claiming then-president George W Bush was behind the attacks.

In 2010 Naik was reportedly barred from entering Britain for “numerous comments” which showed his “unacceptable behaviour”.

Naik said on Sunday that he would donate all of his $200,000 prize money to Peace TV.

The other prizewinners were:

In Islamic studies, Saudi Arabia’s Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Kaki for his research on the cultural heritage of the Muslim holy city of Medina

In medicine, Jeffrey Ivan Gordon of the United States, whose research has enhanced understanding of diseases such as obesity, which is a growing problem in Saudi Arabia

Michael Gratzel of Switzerland for his development of solar cells, and co-winner Omar Mwannes Yaghi of the United States for his work in the new field of metal organic frameworks

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What Really Happened on 9/11? (Matthew’s Message, April 26, 2005)

Kryon Q&A

Question (2002): Dear Kryon, A friend and I are meditating on the recent shark attacks and feel that it has to do with the planetary changes. We just can’t understand why they have become aggressive. What is the message the sharks are bringing? Why is this happening?

—Thank you,

Maryann

Answer: Indeed there are changes with the environment and also with biology regarding the 12-year grid change. I will first give you what was happening in general: What you are seeing are mammals, amphibians, insects, and even fish that are in areas that are new to them. Every life-form that migrates is effected by magnetics. All life forms that follows certain feeding scenarios and are “following the food” have the potential to be affected. This is due to the changing of the magnetic ley lines of the earth as we have stated before.

The areas where you can see in the ocean most clearly are within those migration patterns closest to the land. Where the ocean interfaces with the land, there are challenges for all these creatures for at least one of their generations. Whales will beach themselves by following old magnetics headings that now “drive” them into peninsula’s and other land areas that were marginally on the edge of their old paths. Birds, amphibians, and insects will be seen to do odd things for awhile.

So these shark fish may be in greater numbers in these coastal areas than in the past, but the increased aggressive behavior was actually something else: There was a tremendous “release” of energy due to the Sept. 11 event. Much like the energy of earthquakes and other earth movement, much of the environment “feels it” coming. We have spoken about how the Sept. 11 event was not a surprise to the earth. [See Lee’s article “Did Kryon give us hints”] So, some of the new actions of these fish were due to an actual energy buildup of coming events... of which you now understand.

If you are paying attention, therefore, you might ask, “Does this mean that Human consciousness issues affect the actual earth?” Yes they do! Finally you may begin to see how global consciousness is tied into the environment, and even to basic physics and reality. They are not separate, and never were. The indigenous knew it, and now the “modern” world is beginning to wonder.

Blessed is the Human Being who understands that what they think, do, and intend, actually drives the reality of the dirt of the planet!

Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia to Trial New Jet Tracking System

'It's going to make, I think, the monitoring of aircraft over these oceanic areas much more effective'

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Mar 01, 2015

Indonesia Search And Rescue vessel navigation tools display a searching
 spot area in the Indian Ocean during a s search operation for the missing
Malaysian Airlines plane flight MH370 on March 15, 2014. (EPA Photo)

Sydney. Australia on Sunday said it was trialling a “world first” system with Malaysia and Indonesia that increases the tracking of aircraft over remote oceans, allowing authorities to quickly react to abnormal situations such as the disappearance of MH370.

It raises the minimum tracking rate for planes flying over remote oceans to 15 minutes from current intervals of 30 to 40 minutes.

The technology “can increase realtime monitoring should an abnormal situation arise,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.

“In a world first, all three countries will trial a new method of tracking aircraft through the skies over remote oceanic areas,” Truss told reporters.

“Now this initiative adapts existing technology used by more than 90 percent of long-haul passenger aircraft and would see air traffic control able to respond more rapidly should an aircraft experience difficulty or deviation from its flight plan.”

The announcement came ahead almost a year after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board last March. A massive air and underwater search failing to find any evidence of the plane.

While the system was “not a silver bullet,” it would help to improve current methods of tracking ahead of other solutions being developed, Airservices Australia chairman Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said.

If an aircraft deviates more than 200 feet from its assigned level or two nautical miles from its expected track, the system would automatically monitor the jet more closely, such as every five minutes or almost continuously, he added.

“This is a big step forward. It’s not just changing things, it’s going to make, I think, the monitoring of aircraft over these oceanic areas much more effective,” the head of the air traffic control body said.

“We will have a datum close to where the aircraft ran into trouble, which is in marked contrast to MH370 where the last known position was in the Malacca Straits.”

The trial, using automatic dependent surveillance contract (ADSC) technology, will commence at the air traffic services center in the eastern city of Brisbane before being extended to Melbourne in the country’s south and to Indonesia and Malaysia.

Long-haul jets that use the existing technology include wide-bodied planes such as Boeing’s 380, 777, 330, 340 and 350 models, Truss said.

Agence France-Presse