MH370 Update

Once again the Malaysian officials demonstrate why they really cannot be trusted with just about any detail.  Today they've contradicted their initial reportage on the final transmission from MH370 before disappearance, amending it as such:

On Monday, Malaysia's Transport Ministry said the final voice transmission from the cockpit of Flight 370 was "Good night Malaysian three seven zero." That's a departure from earlier language in which Malaysian authorities said the final transmission was "All right, goodnight."

Which sounds perfectly normal.  The other version was not entirely unbelievable, but this sounds absolutely non-controversial.  Interestingly enough, if (and that's a BIG if) it's accurate then it pretty much shows that the London Telegraph was punked when they published the unofficial transcript some time ago, which included the original "alright, good night" verbiage. So, either that version was true and this is a lie (which the Malaysians have decided to fabricate for some reason) or someone sold the Telegraph a bill of goods and they ran with it.

One would think the Malaysian government (via their air traffic control facility) would be the sole owner of the taped transcript.  A good question would be whether they've allowed the NTSB or anyone else to listen to it.   Such a conversation might not be on the CVR assuming it's a standard final 2 hour tape (and the earlier activity is not digitally retrievable). 

A few more things of note. The CNN report indeed clarifies something written here (and elsewhere) regarding the Malaysian PM's finality statement about the passengers and plane being lost--the intentional avoidance of the word 'crashed'.  The Malaysians admit this word was not used because it's not known whether the plane crashed or perhaps did a Sully-like splash down, etc.

Finally, the web site Avherald.com is a good source of info because they preserve a running account of the coverage from most aviation events for posterity.  The discussion of late indicates the ACARS unit was only placed into a mode where it would not report data as opposed to being absolutely turned off (circuit breaker pulled). Pulling a breaker would indeed have required someone to pull up a section of carpet in the first class galley and open a floor hatch to reach the E&E bay.  Confirmation of such doesn't rule out terrorists completely, but it certainly makes it easier for a rogue pilot to take over the plane and do what we know was done without having to access the compartment. 

Assuming the final gibberish transmission was actually received from MH370, which would have come from First Officer Hamid, then it points strongly to Captain Shah as the number one suspect.  Whatever the case, the recent relocation of the search area based on the aircraft 'flying faster' than previously thought (determined by the last few actual radar fixes) while at the same time traveling a shorter distance, all while the ACARS data stayed on 6-8 hours, suggests the aircraft might have done the splash down thing, to the point of remaining afloat long enough to produce a few pings.  Otherwise this theory seems weird because again, the radar tapes shouldn't take 3 1/2 weeks to analyze.  Then again, it's the Malaysians.

Which gets us back to square one. Things remain pretty much right where we found them the week after the disappearance.  But it sure has given CNN something to do with themselves.