[Peetwo]

Captain's Log 09.03.17: Boeing v 44NOK in US courts...

Via news.com.au:

MH370 families launch court cases against Boeing, Malaysia Airlines
March 8, 201712:42pm

New lawsuits have been filed against Boeing and Malaysia Airlines over the disappearance of the Boeing 777 MH370 in March 2014.

A LAWSUIT filed in the US suggests a series of catastrophic electrical and other failures may have led to the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 over the Indian Ocean.

Only small pieces of debris from the plane have been found since it disappeared in March 2014. It was carrying 239 people including six Australians.

The lawsuit, filed against Boeing in US District Court in South Carolina, says an electrical fire could have caused the Boeing 777 plane to depressurise, incapacitated the crew, caused the transponder to fail and led to the plane flying undetected until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

The suit argues a long list of manufacturing defects in the missing airliner had been produced before the aircraft disappeared.

Already, the Australian Defence Science and Technology report officially acknowledged the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight suffered a sudden electrical failure before its disappearance.

This backs the popular “zombie plane” theory, whereby the missing plane’s avionic systems are ravaged, rendering the flight crew helpless, and the aircraft continued flying on autopilot until it ran out of fuel.


The MH370 search area, where investigators found nothing. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

“The defects caused and/or allowed a massive and cascading sequence of electrical failures on-board the lost plane which disabled vital systems, including the lost plane’s ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) and Mode S Transponder,” the lawsuit alleges.

Such failures would have prevented the crew from properly flying the aircraft or communicating with the ground, it says.

“Boeing elected to equip the lost plane with these ineffective ELTs (Emergency Locator Transmitters) and ULBs (Underwater Locator Beacons) despite the presence of other readily available and reasonable alternative technologies that would have allowed the lost plane, the FDR (Flight Data Recorder), and the CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) to be tracked in real-time anywhere in the world, especially in cases of crashes, disruption of communications and other losses,” it reads

The suit was filed by Gregory Keith who is a special administrator for families who lost loved ones on the flight. It names 44 victims as plaintiffs.

Boeing says it doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits.


Children write messages of hope for passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Picture: ReutersSource:Supplied

Meanwhile, the Chinese next-of-kin of 15 passengers on Tuesday filed papers announcing their intention to sue Malaysian Airline System BHD (MAS), the parent company of Malaysia Airlines.

Malaysian media reports the families argue the disappearance of MH370 cannot have happened without culpable negligence by MAS, the Department of Civil Aviation, the Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Malaysian Government.

The writ seeks damages for ‘wrongful acts’ which have caused the defendants losses in financial support, family members and has produced irreparable psychological harm.


A girl has her face painted during the Day of Remembrance for MH370 event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Picture: APSource:AP

FAMILIES SEEK TO RAISE $20 MILLION

The families of those on board missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 also have launched efforts to raise at least $US15 million ($A19.75 million) to fund a private search as they mark the third anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

The nearly three-year search in the southern Indian Ocean was suspended on January 17 with no trace of the plane, which disappeared March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Jacquita Gomes, whose husband was a flight attendant on the plane, said at the weekend families have no choice but to take matters into their own hands. She said Flight 370 “should not go down in history books as a mystery”.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said a final report on the plane’s disappearance will be released this year.

And today via the Oz:

MH370 mystery goes to court

12:00amEAN HIGGINS

The debate over the biggest aviation mystery this century will be fought out in a US courtroom.

The debate over the biggest aviation mystery this century will be fought out in a US courtroom where aircraft manufacturer Boeing may argue that a rogue pilot brought down Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 rather than any ­inherent mechanical defect in the Boeing 777.

The civil action, launched by aviation lawyer Mary Schiavo from US firm Motley Rice on behalf of the relatives of 44 of the 239 people who perished, could also apply more pressure on Boeing to contribute to a fund established by the families aimed at renewing the search for the aircraft.

Ms Schiavo, a former US ­Department of Transportation ­inspector-general and a regular commentator on CNN, lodged the suit against Boeing in a South Carolina court at the weekend on ­behalf of Gregory Keith, a special administrator for the relatives of three US citizens or permanent residents lost on MH370 and 41 Chinese victims.

The suit, publicly revealed yesterday on the third anniversary of MH370’s disappearance, alleges the crash of MH370 “was caused or partially caused by defects in the design, manufacture and/or ­assembly of the aircraft”.

The suit states the failure to ­locate the plane caused a “lack of finality and an enduring mystery that has caused unprecedented levels of economic and non-economic losses, emotional and physical pain, distress and mental pain and suffering to those lost on the plane and to their families”.

MH370 vanished on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with its radar transponder turned off and radio communications cut 40 minutes into the flight, after which, primary radar and automatic satellite tracking shows, the aircraft doubled back over Malaysia and flew up the Malacca Strait until turning on a long track to the southern Indian Ocean.

The plaintiffs’ case focuses on an alleged complex series of failures and adverse events starting with an electrical fault and fire ­disabling communications on MH370 and leading to decompression of the aircraft, with the ­pilots unable to fully regain control, ultimately leaving the plane flying on autopilot at high altitude until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

The scenario is similar to a theory developed by former RAAF supply officer, retired Ansett logistics manager, private pilot and amateur aviation investigator Mick Gilbert. In Mr Gilbert’s narrative, a windshield fire caused by an electrical fault becomes a conflagration when one of the pilots’ oxygen hoses comes loose, damaging the radio and controls, and leading to rapid decompression, with the pilots, possible seriously injured or with one dead, only able to make limited manoeuvres before they run out of oxygen. Mr Gilbert’s work was described as well-researched by respected US former airline pilot and air crash investigator John Cox, who has placed equal weight on the probability of a series of adverse mechanical events, and pilot hijack.

Most airline pilots and air crash investigators, however, believe Mr Gilbert’s scenario involves too many highly improbable events happening in a particular ­sequence, and think it unlikely the pilots would have flown the aircraft for an extended period of time during the emergency without issuing a distress call.

The majority of professional aviation opinion holds that Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah ­hijacked his own plane, killed the passengers and remaining crew by depressurising the aircraft while he remained on a long oxygen supply, and flew the aircraft to the end.

(P2 comment - Mick Gilbert a former RAAF/Ansett baggage chucker...   Now why does that sound so familiar... - )




MTF...P2