MH370 transcript released
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E-mail Xinhua, April 1, 2014
The Malaysian government released the full transcript of communications between missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and ground controllers Tuesday, but reveals nothing abnormal.
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Pg-1 Full transcript of communications between missing flight MH370 and Air Traffic Control Kuala Lumpur. |
The transcript's publication came amid growing global doubts over the Malaysian government's efficiency and transparency when handling one of the most mysterious civil aviation tragedies in human history.
The release also came after it was revealed that the last message received from the plane was "Goodnight Malaysian three-seven-zero," not "All right, good night," as had previously been reported.
In a statement released along with communication records, acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the transcript, which suggests nothing "abnormal," had been shared with the families of passengers and crew members aboard the missing plane.
He added a closed-door briefing meeting for the families would be held Wednesday.
The statement also noted a police investigation was still underway to confirm whether the transcript's ending words were from the co-pilot or not, and a "forensic examination of the actual recording is ongoing."
An international investigation team and Malaysian authorities remain of the opinion that MH370's movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane, Hishammuddin said.
Meanwhile, the on-going Australia-led multinational search mission in the southern Indian Ocean is seemingly running into a dead-end, with the battery powering the locator signal of the black box expected to run out in days.
It has already been almost two weeks since Australian authorities announced on March 20 that suspicious objects possibly linked to the missing plane were spotted in satellite images, yet nothing substantial has been recovered and confirmed so far.
Also on Tuesday, new Australian coordination chief Angus Houston told reporters the ongoing search for the missing plane could drag on for a long time.
The ex-Australian defense chief said the search and recovery operation "is the most challenging one that I have seen."
Houston, who leads the newly established Joint Agency Coordination Center, said the crucial job now was to find the debris or wreckage of the missing plane to reduce the search area and use advanced equipment to locate the black box.
There are 11 planes and nine ships joining Tuesday's search, according to Houston.
A Chinese escort naval fleet heading for anti-piracy duty off Somalia also reached waters south of Australia's Christmas Island on Tuesday.
The China Maritime Search and Rescue Center and the Chinese navy ordered the fleet to join the Chinese vessel Haixun 31 already in the 100,000-square km search area.
The fleet, consisting of Changchun, Changzhou and Chaohu warships, has helicopters that can be deployed in the search.
The fleet left Zhoushan, in east China's Zhejiang Province, on March 24, and will carry on to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia after completing the MH370 search mission.
Earlier in the day, Jiang Long, captain of the Chinese vessel Haixun 01, said nothing related to the missing plane had been found so far in the southern Indian Ocean.
Chinese ships had already checked and ruled out a total of 11 locations in waters where suspicious objects had been spotted in airborne observation or satellite images, Jiang told a Xinhua reporter aboard the vessel.
Despite the massive multinational search efforts, no hard evidence has been acquired about the whereabouts of the ill-fated Boeing 777-200 jetliner, which disappeared early March 8 while carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the search in the southern Indian Ocean ended Tuesday again with "no significant developments."
"All aircraft assisting in the MH370 search have returned to Perth. No significant developments to report," AMSA tweeted.
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