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MH370 may have crashed near Madagascar, underwater microphones suggest. Death threats force Blaine Gibson into hiding

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Item 5 is an update following on item 4. Item 4 considers two acoustic events at 11.57 UTC and 1.58 UTC; item 5 considers the 25-minute shutdown (in the acoustic record) beginning at 3.07 UTC.

(1) MH370 may have crashed near Madagascar, underwater microphones suggest

(2) Death threats force MH370 hunter Blaine Gibson into hiding

(3) Blaine Gibson: MH370 "shattered on impact"

(4) MH370: Acoustic Data cf Maldives siightings & Field McConnell's claim

(5) MH370: Acoustic Data cf Maldives sightings & 25 minute shutdown

(1) MH370 may have crashed near Madagascar, underwater microphones suggest

(1) MH370 may have crashed near Madagascar, underwater microphones suggest

By Anne Barker

Updated 31 Jan 2019, 6:57pm



A study of underwater sound waves recorded on the day the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared suggests a different route and a possible crash site north-east of Madagascar, if indeed the data is from the missing plane.

Key points:

Authorities previously thought the plane crashed south-west of Western Australia

Two searches for MH370 have failed to find the wreckage

The new data points to a crash site north-east of Madagascar, if the signals are from the missing aircraft

Scientists at Cardiff University in the UK have examined acoustic-gravity waves picked up by two hydroacoustic stations in the Indian Ocean, one off Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia and the other at Diego Garcia further north.

Each of the two stations, operated by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation, has three "hydrophones" or underwater microphones, which continuously record sound waves in the ocean.

Signals from both stations show sound waves that could have come from a large object, such as a meteorite or an aircraft hitting the water.

Previous studies by both Cardiff University and Curtin University in Western Australia have mostly looked at signals from the Cape Leeuwin station between 12:00am and 2:00am UTC on March 8, 2014, which covers the timeframe when authorities believe the plane crashed, based on satellite data from the plane.

But a new understanding of how fast and far acoustic-gravity waves travel under water led the Cardiff scientists to examine signals over a wider timeframe — from 11:00pm on March 7, 2014 to 4:00am the next day — and include data from the more distant hydroacoustic station at Diego Garcia.

"We have now been able to identify two locations where the aeroplane could have impacted with the ocean, as well as an alternative route that the plane may have taken," Cardiff University's Dr Usama Kadri said.

New findings point to Madagascar

An analysis of acoustic waves picked up by the station in Western Australia would suggest a crash site in the southern Indian Ocean that largely includes an area already covered by previous searches for MH370.

But signals from the Diego Garcia station — if indeed they are from the missing aircraft — would indicate a crash site much further north than originally suspected, and mean the missing aircraft must have taken a different route to the one long assumed.

Authorities have long thought the plane crashed somewhere south-west of Western Australia.

The two searches conducted so far have failed to find it.

Dr Kadri said the new findings were based on a better understanding of "sea floor elasticity" or flexibility, which affects how sound waves travel underwater.

"Our research into these waves has moved on since we first proposed the idea in 2017," Dr Kadri wrote in The Conversation.

"Previous analysis considered the sea floor to be rigid, which would not allow the radiating waves to move through it.

"However, if the elasticity of the sea floor is taken into account, then the waves will travel at this enhanced speed.

"When acoustic-gravity waves start travelling through the sea floor their propagation speed boosts to over 3,500 m/s, from the 1,500m/s they would have been travelling at through the water."

Allowing for this sea floor elasticity, the site of impact would be much further away from the hydrophone station than previously thought.

Thus, data from the Diego Garcia would point to a crash site north-east of Madagascar, if the signals are from the missing aircraft.

And it is a big if.

Calls for further analysis

Dr Kadri said the sound signals from this northern hydroacoustic station were distorted by "noise" believed to have been caused by a military exercise, known to have been in place around the time on that side of the Indian Ocean.

He said it is feasible that these large sound waves may instead have come from a rocket or missile being fired, rather than a Boeing 777 crashing into the ocean.

"The bearings of some of these signals fall within the area where signals from the military action were picked up, so it is possible that the signals are associated with the military action," Dr Kadri said.

"But if the signals are related to MH370, this would suggest a new possible impact location in the northern part of the Indian Ocean."

Inexplicably, 25 minutes of data from the Diego Garcia station — where the US has a secretive military base — is missing.

Dr Kadri said the signals his team analysed indicated a 25-minute shutdown that cannot be explained by a technical failure or maintenance, given the three hydrophones operate independently of each other.

He said the CTBTO has failed to give any reason why the data is missing, though either military action or Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have caused the system shutdown.

The Madagascar site is also a long way from the so-called "seventh arc" — the imaginary line that maps possible locations of the aircraft based on satellite signals from the plane that were picked up by Britain's Inmarsat satellite.

But given there are so many variables in what is known about the plane — including these satellite "pings" — Dr Kadri believes search authorities including Australia should carry out more detailed analysis of the data from both hydroacoustic stations.

"In light of this research we recommended that signals at all times between 23:00 (March 7) and 04:00 (March 8) UTC, at both stations … are analysed with no exception," he said.

"And that this is done independently from other sources [such as satellite data], to minimise the inclusion of uncertainties related to them."

Dr Kadri said he has communicated these recommendations to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which oversaw the first search for MH370 in the Indian Ocean, as well as the MH370 Investigation Team in Malaysia and other relevant authorities, in the hope that the search will resume to find the missing aircraft.

The Cardiff research team also plans to carry out a series of field experiments in the field, to see if they can isolate "hidden signals" in the ambient noise to extract more information from the data picked up by the two hydroacoustic stations.

(2) Death threats force MH370 hunter Blaine Gibson into hiding



Death threats force MH370 hunter Blaine Gibson into hiding

Authorities are investigating a link between the discovery of two suspected MH370 fragments and the assassination of a diplomat.

Marnie O’Neill @marnieoneill7 .au

MARCH 15, 2019 9:17AM

Authorities are actively investigating a possible link between the discovery of two suspected MH370 fragments that washed up on Madagascar and the assassination of a Malaysian diplomat, it can be revealed.

Honorary Consul of Malaysia Zahid Raza was gunned down in the centre of the island nation’s capital Antananarivo on August 24, 2017 — eight days after American plane hunter Blaine Gibson handed over the “promising” pieces of debris to local police via an associate.

Mr Raza had been tasked with the job of escorting the wreckage to Kuala Lumpur for analysis but was murdered before he could do so.

In an exclusive interview with .au, Mr Gibson has revealed those two fragments never made it to Malaysia.

Instead — more than 18 months on — they are gathering dust in an undisclosed location in Madagascar while the probe into Mr Raza’s murder continues.

Mr Gibson said MH370 investigation team chief Kok Soo Chun told him Malaysia had requested delivery of the fragments but had yet to receive a response.

“The diplomat was murdered eight days after I handed those pieces in,” Mr Gibson told .au.

“I don’t know if they are related, but the timing is highly suspicious.”

The refusal of Madagascar police to surrender the parts suggests they are not ready to rule out a possible link between the diplomat’s murder and MH370.

That’s despite speculation Mr Raza was killed as payback for his alleged involvement in the 2009 abduction of several residents of Indo-Pakistani descent known collectively as Karens.

“Zahid Raza was the manager of an office supply business, Z & Z Center, in the Malagasy capital. He lived a few years in La Reunion before returning to Madagascar about three years ago to take up the post of consul in Antananarivo,” French-language news website ZINFOS 974 said in an article published a day after the slaying.

“In Madagascar, his name is associated with the kidnapping of members of the Karen community in Fianarantsoa in 2009. Suspected of having participated, he is imprisoned in Tsiafahy and then in Antanimora prison. He was able to return to his country freely in December 2010, provoking indignation within the Karen community.”

‘HE WILL NOT LEAVE MADAGASCAR ALIVE’

Mr Gibson has been credited with finding more than half of 32 pieces of suspected MH370 wreckage that have washed up on the Indian Ocean islands of La Reunion, Rodrigues, Madagascar and Mauritius and the coastlines of South Africa and Mozambique.

While only three parts have been declared “100 per cent” because they feature serial numbers that could be matched to the missing Boeing 777, several others are categorised as “highly likely” to have come from MH370.

Mr Gibson, an American lawyer and explorer who has travelled to all but 10 of the world’s 195 countries and speaks six languages, began an independent, self-funded investigation into MH370 in 2015.

At first his mission took him to Cambodia and Myanmar to explore the possibility the plane had flown north. He then travelled to the Maldives to investigate (now discredited) sightings by fishermen of a plane on the morning MH370 vanished.

He also travelled to Australia to explore coastlines on Western Australia and South Australia before the discovery of the first confirmed piece of MH370 — a wing part known as a flaperon — washed up on La Reunion and narrowed down his search.

American lawyer and adventurer Blaine Gibson holds suspected debris from MH370. Picture: Blaine Alan Gibson/Facebook American lawyer and adventurer Blaine Gibson holds suspected debris from MH370. Picture: Blaine Alan Gibson/FacebookSource:Supplied

In February 2016, Mr Gibson and a local man found a large triangular chunk of metal washed up on a sandbank in Mozambique that became known as the “No Step” piece.

“I went out and searched along the shorelines, and I started to find pieces of the plane,” Mr Gibson said.

“Many other people were also finding pieces of the plane, debris that was naturally washing ashore, and they would bring them to me. I told the local people what to look for and offered small rewards.

“People started questioning how it could be that I was finding all these plane parts — which in fact were found by many different individuals, not just me — and it became another conspiracy.

“But I was only doing as a private citizen what the authorities should have been doing themselves — which was searching the coastlines where debris started turning up.”

Inevitably, people started gossiping about Mr Gibson’s intentions, spreading false rumours about the debris having been planted and even suggesting his ability to speak six languages was proof he was a spy.

The hostility intensified when he took his search to Madagascar, and he started receiving death threats.

“The death threats began in December 2016,” Mr Gibson told .au. “(On one occasion) Someone called a friend of mine and warned them that I would not leave Madagascar alive. A few months later, the diplomat was murdered.”

This week Mr Gibson has found himself the target of a particularly vicious — albeit far fetched — smear campaign.

A pair of MH370 obsessives, Andre Milne and Daniel Boyer, have accused Mr Gibson of “pillaging” the debris field of MH17 and passing off the fragments as MH370 wreckage.

“We have identified evidence that said suspect Blaine Gibson has personally tampered with and or planted aerospace debris wreckage in the matter of MH370,” Mr Milne wrote in an email to .au.

“As such, should evidence be discovered that verifies the crash site of MH17 was pillaged, any and or all parties directly and or indirectly associated with said pillaging ‘may’ be subject to prosecution for participating in a war crime.”

Mr Boyer aired his allegations in a UK tabloid, telling the Express he found it “suspicious” Mr Gibson had found so much wreckage.

“It’s hurtful and defamatory and scary, and I’m trying to figure out why they are doing it,” Mr Gibson told .au.

“The death threats, the stalking, the intimidation has been going on for more than two years. I’ve stopped posting my location (on social media). I do find myself looking over my shoulder in a state of fear wondering if somebody is going to in fact kill me.

“I don’t know if it’s lone individuals protecting their pet (MH370) theories or if it’s part of a campaign of disinformation or something more sinister.”

Malaysian Airlines flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, 40 minutes into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.

Satellite data indicates it travelled south for several hours before crashing into the remote southern Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

However, a three-year search by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) failed to find any trace of the plane.

A second mission by underwater exploration company Ocean Infinity last year also failed to locate the wreckage.

(3) Blaine Gibson: MH370 "shattered on impact"



VICE NEWS TONIGHT ON HBO

By Andrew Potter | 29 March 2019, 4:14pm

This Man Thinks He Knows What Happened to Missing Flight MH370 “It shattered on impact.”

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Blaine Gibson's interest in the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 started as a casual curiosity. Within a year it had developed into a full-blown obsession, which has taken him to ten countries searching for debris from the missing airliner since 2015.

Remarkably, Gibson has been successful where a multi-national search effort costing hundreds of millions of dollars has not: He's actually found parts of the plane. Gibson has been involved in recovering at least 17 of the 32 pieces of debris said to be "highly likely" to come from MH370 by the Malaysian government.

The flight was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it disappeared on March 8, 2014 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport bound for Beijing. A short time into the flight Boeing 777 made an unscheduled turn and stopped communicating with air traffic control.

It's presumed to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean more than seven hours later. The most expensive search in aviation history was carried out but found nothing. The Malaysian transport minister says his government would be prepared to look at specific proposals to restart the search of the plane.

Gibson's strategy has been to study oceanographic patterns to try and figure out where debris might have traveled across the Indian Ocean, then go beach-combing.

"All these crazy theories that the plane is in the jungle of Cambodia, the Gulf of Thailand, the Bay of Bengal, Kazakhstan or the deep southern Indian Ocean intact underwater after a controlled ditching — those are all disproven by the debris alone," said Gibson.

Gibson found his first piece of MH370 in February 2016 on a sandbank off the coast of Mozambique. The publicity surrounding his find led other people to get in touch saying they'd found debris too, and Gibson developed a network in countries around the Indian Ocean.

"People asked me: ‘were you happy when you found a piece of Malaysia 370?’," said Gibson. "Happy would be if I'd gone out to that sandbank and found 239 people grilling seafood sipping on coconuts saying, 'hey what took you so long?'"

VICE News followed Gibson as he visited the Malaysian Ministry of Transport, where most of the recovered pieces of debris thought to be from MH370 are stored.

This segment originally aired March 8, 2019, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.

(4) MH370: Acoustic Data cf Maldives siightings & Field McConnell's claim

- by Peter Myers, April 19, 2019

Consult the acoustic map at .

The acoustic data detected at station HA08 on Diego Garcia are in two sets:

one at 247º (bearing from Diego Garcia) at 23.57, i.e. 11.57pm UTC (5.57am DG time)

another at 241º at 1.58am UTC (7.58am DG time).

In adition, there was a 25-minute shutdown from 3.07 UTC to 3.32 UTC.

Diego Garcia is about the same longitude as Male and Kudahuvadhoo; but whereas the Maldives is UTC+5, Diego Garcia is UTC+6.

Is the acoustic data compatible with the Kudahuvadhoo sightings at 6.15am Maldives time?

The site gives the flight time from Kudahuvadhoo to Diego Garcia as 1h 52 m., including 30m for takeoff & landing. If MH370 did not land at DG, but merely flew over, it would have arrived at 7.37am Maldives time, 8.37 DG time, 2.37am UTC. This is too late to match either acoustic signal.

Field McConnell, a former US airforce pilot (F4 & F16) and airline captain (747-400), flew for 31 years, but resigned in protest over - he says - government hijackings of planes.

He says that during 9/11 the planes were remotely hijacked by intelligence agencies, using Uninterruptible AutoPilot. There's a Boeing brand, and a Thales one. The pilot of American 77, which supposedly hit the Pentagon, was a friend of his.

On Feb 10, 2017, I did a Skype video call with him. He told me that MH370 was hijacked by the CIA and

flown to Diego Garcia; and that someone in Australia, connected to Boeing, rang him and told him that MH370 landed in Diego Garcia and that the engines were turned off at 6.51am Malaysia time. This is 3.51am Maldives time, 4.51am DG time, 10.51pm UTC.

Since there is no hangar on Diego Garcia big enough for a Boeing 777, because the tail is too high, MH370 would have taken off again before daylight, after passengers & cargo were offloaded. I believe it would then have been remotely flown towards Mauritius/Reunion and dumped.

On March 8, 2014, Sunrise was 6.14am at Male, and 7.15am at Diego Garcia.

Let's see if McConnell's claim fits with the acoustic data.

Flight time from DG to Mauritius is 3h 10m, incl 30 min for takeoff & landing. Obviously MH370 did not land, so this is reduced to 2h 55m. Northern parts of Madagascar are about the same distance as Mauritius.

The 247º path acoustic zone stretches from about 20m flying time from DG, to 1h. from DG, the centre being 40m (plus 15m for takeoff). The acoustic time, 11.57pm UTC (5.57 DG time) is feasible but tight. Taking the centre as our mark, MH370 would have had to leave about 5.17am DG time (11.17 UTC), allowing 11 minutes to offload cargo & passengers. Unlikely, but cannot be ruled out.

The 241º path heads towards the middle of Madagascar. The acoustic zone stretches from about 1h 40m flying time from DG, to 2h 40m from DG, the centre being 2h 10m (plus 15m for takeoff). Taking the centre as our mark, the acoustic time, 1.58am UTC (7.58 DG time) is compatible with McConnell's claim, if MH370 left about 5.33am DG time. This would have allowed 42 minutes to offload cargo & passengers.

I'm not suggesting that we should dump the Maldives sightings and go with the acoustic data. Rather, we should pursue both lines until the case is resolved.

For more details see

NOTE (May 20, 2019):

Reunion/Madagascar is the area where Blaine Gibson discovered about 23 pieces of debris from MH370;. He has recently received death threats:



(5) MH370: Acoustic Data cf Maldives sightings & 25 minute shutdown

- by Peter Myers, April 20, 2019

The report on the acoustic data "MH370 may have crashed near Madagascar, underwater microphones suggest"

at

states, regarding the shutdown:

"Inexplicably, 25 minutes of data from the Diego Garcia station — where the US has a secretive military base — is missing.

"Dr Kadri said the signals his team analysed indicated a 25-minute shutdown that cannot be explained by a technical failure or maintenance, given the three hydrophones operate independently of each other.

"He said the CTBTO has failed to give any reason why the data is missing, though either military action or Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have caused the system shutdown."

I have now learned that the 25-minute shutdown began at 3:07 UTC.

Let us now consider the possibility that MH370 crashed during that shutdown; say at the mid-point, 3.20 UTC. (9.20am Diego Garcia time); and that the shutdown may have been staged to conceal that event.

If MH370 had landed at Diego Garcia at 4.51am DG time as Field McConnell says, then unloaded passengers and cargo, then taken off again heading for Mauritius/Reunion, the crash location could be anwhere up to about 3 hours after departing DG. But we require that it have left before sunrise at 7.15am DG time (1.15 UTC). A crash at 3:20 UTC would be quite feasible, thus Field McConnell's scenario is possible.

What of the Maldives sightings (6.15am at Kudahuvadhoo) - are they compatible with this scenario?

MH370 was detected half-way between Banda Aceh at the tip of Sumatra, and Phuket on the Thailand coast, at 2.22am Malaysia time.

From that waypoint to the Maldives is about 4 hours' flying time, which means that if MH370 went west, it would have arrived there about 6.20am Malaysia Time (UTC+8), which is 3.20am Maldives time (UTC+5).

Yet the sightings at Kuda Huvadoo atoll were about 6.15am Maldives time. This would require that MH370 have landed somewhere. And if it landed, it would have refuelled.

The witnesses at Kudahuvadhoo said it came from the north-west, and headed south towards Diego Garcia. But Malaysia is to the east. Why was the plane coming from the wrong direction?

Kuda Huvadhoo is in the southern Maldives - south of Male, but north of Gan.

Blaine Gibson's sketch of the path of the plane sighted at Kuda Huvadhoo is at:

MH370 could have landed at Male or Maamigili in the Maldives, about 3.20am Maldives time, and taken off around 5.45am. The site gives the flight time from Male to to Kudahuvadhoo as 13 minutes plus 15 minutes for takeoff.

Both Male and Maamigili are international airports, with runways long enough for a Boeing 777.

Male International Airport is also called Velana International Airport; it has a 3000m runway, and routinely takes Boeing 777s. There were no scheduled arrivals or departures at those early hours on March 8, 2014.

MH370 could have touched down at the southern end of the runway, pulled up at the northern end, which is remote from houses and buildings, and unloaded cargo and passengers. They would have been transferred to Diego Garcia by either a small plane, or a boat (the water is close to the runway).

The site gives the flight time from Kudahuvadhoo to Diego Garcia as 1h 52 m., including 30m for takeoff & landing.

But MH370 did not take off from Kudahuvadhoo, and it would not have landed at Diego Garcia because it would have arrived after sunrise. Thus the flight time would be 1h 22m.

If MH370 flew over (or near) DG, it would then have arrived at 7.37am Maldives time, 8.37 DG time, 2.37am UTC. Sunrise being 7.15am DG time.

If it then continued towards Mauritius/Reunion, a crash at 3:20 UTC is quite feasible. This would mean about 43 minutes flight time from Diego Garcia.

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