MH370 – No news is good news

To all those who are suffering from having loved ones in the flight MH370, the waiting for news on what really happened to the aircraft and the fate of the passengers is like a living nightmare. Every moment, every second is pain and agony. In despair and desperation, let there be hope. As long as there is no confirmation that the aircraft had crashed or exploded in mid air, as long as there is no evidence of any debris in the sea or on land, there is a possibility that the aircraft is safe somewhere with all its passengers and crew.

The possibility of the aircraft being hijacked and flown to an unknown destination cannot be ruled out, until such a time when the wreckage is found and confirmed. Let me hazard to try to create a possible scenario of what could have happened given the sparse information available. This is just a theory and could be proven totally wrong when the truth is out. Assuming that this is a hijack, it is a very professional job done with meticulous planning and expertise in aviation knowledge.

At the moment many have in mind that this is likely to be the works of the Uighurs or the same group of people that struck at Kunming Railway Station. I would like to differ from this view given the complexities of this operation that is showing all the signs of familiarity in the operations of air traffic, flight path, aircraft and radar performances. The people involved in this operation cannot be unsophisticated Uighurs, or if indeed committed by them, they must have received professional training and technical support from experts in insurgency. And there are a handful of western expert organisations that could conduct this operation the way it was done.

The first point to note is the location where the aircraft went missing. It was at the edges of both Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control zones and also at the limits of their radar coverage. It was like a no man’s land or space. The second point is that the aircraft could fly east or west in airspace that are not under radar surveillance. The western route would be the Gulf of Thailand and at the fringes of Malaysia and Bangkok air traffic control zones. Towards the east into the South China Sea is wide open space, away from Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines air traffic control zones. The aircraft could fly at normal cruise level undetected. The third point is the lost of RT and radar contact in almost an instance, indicating that it was likely a deliberate act to get out of radar surveillance, to shake loose it trails, and this could only be done by diving down and flying low level. This is a reflection of the intimate knowledge of radar performance and how to avoid radar surveillance. Once out of radar range, the aircraft could then return to its cruising flight level and on its way unknown to anyone. Fourth, the fact that it broke away just an hour from take off meant that it would have another 5 to 6 hours of fuel left and can fly off to a chosen destination quite a distance away, a lot of room to play with. The islands in southern Philippines look very attractive.

What could happen inside the MH 370 prior to the hijacking could be the most unsuspecting to the crew members. The hijackers could put the crew at ease with things familiar and lower their guards before crashing into the cockpit and immediately restrained the pilot and co pilot. They could even be invited and shown around the cockpit if they could win the confidence of the crew members. Taken by surprise, the pilot and co pilot had no chance to send out any distress signal and became captives of the hijackers.

At this point there were two possibilities. The hijackers could have been trained to fly the aircraft and simply took control from the pilot. Alternatively, the pilot could be under duress to do as the hijackers wished, and flew the aircraft as commanded. And the aircraft disappeared from the radars of Malaysia and Vietnam, destination unknown, but safe.

The intent of this hijacking is still unclear but could be narrowed down to a few possibilities. One obvious objective is to make demands from China by the separatist group in Xinjiang. This is top in the list of speculations. It is less likely to be targeting Malaysia as the dominant active terrorist groups are not hostile to Malaysia at this moment. It could also be groups that are supported by state agencies that are hostile to China and intent to give China some severe headache to deal with.

Hopefully this is the scenario and the passengers and crew are still safe and sound and waiting for the next chapter of this drama to unfold. And this could be the most optimistic picture for those hoping that their loved ones are still alive. Would there be any announcement from a terrorist group to confirm that this is indeed what the whole mystery is all about? Any other scenario would likely be a confirmation of an unfolding tragedy.

Let there be hope that things could still turn out not as bad as it is now. The fact that the black boxes of MH370 are not beeping is a good sign that all is well. This is just an imagination of what could have happened but could be furthest from the truth.

Pray all is well.

The mysterious disappearance of MH370

There are many theories regarding the disappearance of MH370. The aircraft was flying a normal route from KL to Beijing and nothing untoward is expected. It was a routine commercial flight. It took off and was in contact with the Malaysian air traffic control until prior to the handover to Vietnam’s air traffic control when radio and radar contact were lost. Malaysian sources claimed that their radar showed that the aircraft was turning back before it disappeared.
 
In normal cases of aircraft developing engine trouble, the pilot would have time to contact air traffic control or send out emergency signal. The absence of distress signal indicates that the pilot did not have the time to do so, for whatever reasons. What could these reasons be, an explosion, no one in the cockpit to trigger the distress signal or the pilot was restrained from doing so.
The question then is, how could the aircraft disappear from radar contact? And the transponder was not on or switched off too? Without radar contact means it was not there or had descended quickly to be out of radar envelop. This possibility could mean that the aircraft has been hijacked and went low level to escape radar detection…and a glimmer of hope that it would appear somewhere.
 
The fact that no debris was found so far is a good sign that the aircraft did not crash into the sea. Even with an air explosion, there must be plenty of pieces floating in the sea. An aircraft of that size cannot plunge into the sea in one piece unless it successfully dived to sea level before entry into the water. In that case the pilot would have time to make an emergency call.
 
And the black boxes are not transmitting location signals. It is very unlikely that the two boxes would be quiet if an accident had happened. This added to the mystery. Could the aircraft still be around somewhere after being hijacked by professionals who knew how to fly the aircraft outside of radar coverage and landed somewhere, intact, in one piece? The aircraft has enough fuel to fly to Beijing and thus could be flown to another destination as well.
 
The crash or explosion theory is not confirmed by the absence of debris and the transmissions from the black boxes. The Malaysian report of the aircraft turning back indicated that the aircraft had changed course. Could it make a turn and a steep dive to low level and flown to another destination under the radar cover? As long as no debris is found, the probability of the aircraft in one piece somewhere cannot be ruled out. 

Just a possibility until a crash is confirmed.

Foreign job seekers taking their chances in Sin City

It is reported that many foreigners arrived in Sin with only a suitcase and hope to land a job here. And quite a number made it as jobs for foreigners seem to be quite easily available. Compare this to jobs for the locals, be they experienced PMEs or new graduates, and going by the MOM statement this is going to be tough for them. Why is this so is still a mystery, or should it be?
 
Many of the recruitment agencies are run by foreigners who somehow have a penchant to recruit foreigners for jobs here. The locals are more like aliens to them and the employers who gave the contracts to these recruitment agencies. In Sin City, the citizens are the aliens and the foreigners have taken over as the locals. And it is all legal and in a way supported by the govt. The proliferation of foreign employment agencies and their successes here speak for itself. Of course the familiar statement of hard truth is that these agencies must also be run by more talented foreigners recruiting more talented foreigners for jobs that Sinkies did not have the talents to do. Looks like the Sinkies are going the way of the dodos.
 
As it goes, it is far easier for foreigners to land jobs in this island with low unemployment and many jobs available. And they came from all corners of the world. The only people that cannot find jobs or good jobs are the local graduates, and if the comments by the minister are a harbinger for things to come, the intake of universities would have to be cut to avoid having too many unemployed local graduates. Alternatively the places would be filled by foreign students.
 
Now is this a joke or what?

Gap in skills or too many graduates?

Just a couple of days back Chuan Jin was quoted to have said that the reason why Sinkies are losing out on jobs is due to ‘gap in skills’ or Sinkies do not have the required skills for the jobs. And 3rd World talents have all the skills needed to work in a 1st world metropolis. How could a 1st World education system failed to produce the right skills for its economy while 3rd World education systems could do so and with all the experience needed in a 1st World economy is a big puzzle. Should we send a team of educationists to learn from the 3rd World on how to produce talents for 1st World economy? Looks like they are much smarter than out super talents in training their graduates for our economy and we did not have a clue what is going on.
 
In today’s paper, Chuan Jin is again quoted that we are producing too many graduates who could not find jobs and creating a new problem. We have already a pool of experienced graduates that are no longer good enough for employment and are driving taxis. Now we are producing new graduates, or over producing graduates that could not find jobs.
 
Why are these new graduates unable to find jobs when jobs are aplenty, when the whole world is queuing up outside our gate to apply for jobs? What is the truth? Didn’t our economy provide a million jobs with many very well paying to foreigners? Why is there a problem providing jobs for a few thousand new graduates? Oh, skill gaps, and lack of experience working in 3rd World economies that are more sophisticated than our 1st World economy.
 
And we are still so short of talents that we are recruiting all over the world except that we don’t have enough jobs for our local graduates. So?
 
The solution is not to train too many local graduates. Then they can become crane drivers and hawkers and cooks. And the talents we need can come from the rest of the world, and the best talents are those from the 3rd World.
 
The more I write, the more confused I become. Maybe only the super talents can understand what is happening. We are producing too many local graduates that are unfit for employment and we need to take in more foreign talents that are very fit for employment even if the CVs and degrees are suspect.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Bigger, better heart centre

A new $266m heart centre to accommodate twice as many patients as the present one will open for business on Monday.  The 12 storey building can house 38 outpatient clinic rooms and a capacity to see 1000 patients daily or 200,000 patients a year.

Wow, this is a great improvement. It is quite surprising that so many Sinkies have bad hearts and needed such a big facility. And the good news is that many will have their bad hearts treated and go on living with a good heart, or a new heart.

It must be the affluence and too much money and too good a life that result in Sinkies having bad hearts, or it is the other way? Sinkies with bad hearts need not fear anymore and can live fearlessly.