Malaysian Airlines News

China has shown "great restraint" in the South China Sea by not seizing islands occupied by other countries even though it could have, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday ahead of two regional summits where the disputed waterway is likely to be a hot topic. Beijing has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Reclamation work and the building of three airfields and other facilities on some of China's artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago have alarmed the region and raised concern in Washington that China is extending its military reach deep into maritime Southeast Asia.

Lessons learned from recent international search and rescue operations, including the ongoing search for MH370, were discussed during an East Asia Summit (EAS) seminar in Sydney this week. Co-chaired by Australia and Thailand, the EAS Rapid Disaster Response: Search and Rescue Lessons Learned Seminar considered the challenges of coordinating search and rescue operations in response to mass-casualty disasters, drawing on the experiences of EAS member states. The seminar focused on search and rescue operations requiring interagency and international coordination and cooperation, particularly those with joint civilian and military contributions.

Malaysia confirmed early on Thursday that a piece of a wing washed up on an Indian Ocean island beach last week was from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the first trace of the plane found since it vanished last year with 239 people on board. "Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts have conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed from MH370," Prime Minister Najib Razak said in an early morning televised address. "I would like to assure all those affected by this tragedy that the government of Malaysia is committed to do everything within our means to find out the truth of what happened," Najib said.

Indonesian rescuers searching for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo on Tuesday, prompting relatives of those on board watching TV footage to break down in tears. Indonesia AirAsia's Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. The navy said 40 bodies had been recovered. The plane has yet to be found. "My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ8501," airline boss Tony Fernandes tweeted. "On behalf of AirAsia, my condolences to all.

Two Australian Defense Force (ADF) medical officers have joined the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) - Navy hospital ship Peace Ark on its medical assistance mission currently under way in the South Pacific. The deployment results from an invitation from the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Peoples’ Republic of China, General Fan Changlong, during his visit to Australia in July this year. From August 31 to September 11, the ADF medical officers will work closely…

More than 800 Australian Navy, Army and Air Force personnel are on their way home after taking part in RIMPAC, the world’s largest naval exercise, which concluded in Hawaii today. Australia sent the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship HMAS Success and Submarine HMAS Sheean, a rifle company from 5th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment and three Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion aircraft to the exercise to conduct military training with defense forces from 21 other Pacific Rim nations.

The seafaring Netherlands prides itself on being a trading nation, reluctant to let politics get in the way of a good deal. But since the downing, allegedly by Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 with the loss of 193 Dutch lives, a growing Dutch chorus has called for the country to use its trade power to hit Russia in the wallet. Dozens of Russian firms have chosen to incorporate in the Netherlands to save money on tax, taking advantage of an extensive network of double taxation treaties. The country is also one of Russia's largest trade partners. Rotterdam, the world's fourth largest port, is a major distribution hub for fossil fuels and minerals and was the single largest destination for Russian exports in 2013…

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday questioned France's plan to sell Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, saying fulfilling such an order would be unthinkable in Britain after the downing of the Malaysian Airlines plane in Ukraine. When asked about France's plan to press ahead with a 1.2 billion-euro ($1.66 billion) contract to sell the ships to Russia, Cameron said: "Frankly in this country it would be unthinkable to fulfil an order like the one outstanding that the French have. "But we need to put the pressure on with all our partners to say that we cannot go on doing business as usual with a country when it is behaving in this way." (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and William James; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Dutch engineers this week started a months-long survey to map unchartered deep-sea terrain at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, the next step in the search for the wreck of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a company official told Reuters. A survey ship from Dutch engineering company Fugro , carrying 40 crew and technicians, began mapping out an area larger than the Netherlands, some 1000 miles (1,600 km) east of the northwest coast of Australia. The search for the lost plane is…

Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre informs that no signs of aircraft debris have been found by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 'Bluefin-21' since it joined the search effort. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has advised that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections can now be considered complete and in its professional judgement, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370. acquiring the specialist services required for a comprehensive search of the sea floor in that area. The expert satellite working group continues to review and refine complex analyses of radar and satellite data and aircraft performance data to determine where the aircraft most likely entered the water.

Europe has launched the first satellite of its multibillion-euro 'Copernicus' Earth observation project that will supply valuable images in the event of natural disasters, ocean oil pollution, or even a plane crash. The Sentinel-1a satellite, which blasted off into Earth's orbit from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana, carries a 12-metre-long (40-foot-long) radar antenna and has two 10 metre-long solar panels, and is now orbiting the planet at 693 km (439 miles) above the earth.

According to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), five aircraft have spotted “multiple objects of various colors” during Friday’s search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Authorities will assess the photographic imagery of the objects overnight. This comes after international air crash investigators in Malaysia provided a credible lead to AMSA, causing Friday’s search area to be shifted north on the advice of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). AMSA said today’s search activities concluded with a total of 256,000 square kilometers searched.

The Royal Australian Navy reported that its assets on both sides of Australia were active last night in search and rescue operations. As HMAS Success continued her mission searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, a Navy Seahawk helicopter from 816 Squadron was sent to assist in locating seafarers who had activated a distress beacon offshore on the east coast. Late in the evening of March 23, Navy received a request for assistance to support Search and Rescue efforts after the activation of a distress beacon 27 miles southwest of Mallacoota, a small holiday and fishing town situated at the mouth of Mallacoota Inlet in the far eastern corner of Victoria.