Tracking down MH370 black boxes a Herculean challenge

Recovering the black boxes from the Malaysia Airlines jet that crashed into the southern Indian Ocean is a Herculean task, even with the wealth of sophisticated equipment being deployed.

Any hope of finding survivors from the missing plane was extinguished on Monday when Malaysia's prime minister announced satellite data showed MH370's journey had "ended in the southern Indian Ocean" off the west coast of Australia.
Seventeen days after the Boeing 777 disappeared, distraught relatives were forced to accept what they had long feared -- that the 239 passengers and crew on board were never coming home.
The plane's two black boxes are key to solving the mystery of why the plane veered so far off course and its final fate, but experts say that the search for them will be long and difficult.
In theory, the black boxes containing flight data and cockpit voice recordings will continue emitting tracking signals for about another two weeks, with an average audible range of two to three kilometres (nearly two miles).
But with no debris in the remote search area confirmed as linked to the plane, it is still a case of looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Picking up a signal from the beacon seems an outside chance," said a member of the team that hunted the black boxes from Air France flight AF447 that crashed in the Atlantic in 2009.
- Vast search zone -
The investigator, who asked to remain anonymous, noted that in the Air France case the signals were not heard at all. One transmitter had failed and the other had fallen off on impact and was never found, he said.
"So I'm fairly pessimistic about this approach," he said, recommending that the immediate priority should be to catalogue every piece of debris that is discovered.
"Then, ideally, data buoys should be deployed," he said. These instruments, commonly used for meteorological data, are tracked by satellite and give an idea of ocean currents in the area to help confirm mathematical models.
But he warned that the 17 days that have elapsed since the crash and the "uncertainty associated with these models will combine to make the search zone quite vast".
Commercial airliners are obliged to carry two black boxes -- the Digital Flight Data Recorder which logs the speed, altitude and direction, while the Cockpit Voice Recorder keeps track of cockpit conversations and other sounds and announcements.
Even before the official announcement that the plane had crashed, the US navy said it was flying a black box locator to Perth. The Pinger Locator, weighing 35 kilogrammes (80 pounds), is attached to a cable and towed by a ship.
It is equipped with a listening device that can detect the signals of a black box at a depth of up to 6,000 metres (20,000 feet).
- Scouring the sea floor -
If a signal is not picked up, the next stage would be to deploy lateral scanning sonars after determining the variations of the sea floor to pick up any anomalies.
All the experts who spoke to AFP believed the search operation could last a very long time -- months or more.
In the Air France crash it took 23 months to locate the main wreckage and retrieve the black boxes at a depth of 3,900 metres.
"An underwater phase to try to locate the plane from flight MH370 can only be started if the activity under way allows us to define a search zone more limited than the current search zone," France's air accident investigation bureau (BEA) said Monday.
Once such a zone is set, if it is over a flat and sedimentary seabed, investigators can use "towed sonars and get a good coverage".
If, however, the zone is over a broken, irregular seabed, they could call in the Remus submarine drones used for the Air France search plane.
Remote operating vehicles (ROVs) could also be used in a later stage to check topographical anomalies with high-definition cameras.
"These remote-controlled robots, which have a cable linking them to the surface, move forward slowly and thus have a more reliable coverage," said the investigator, who was formerly with the BEA.
"But there as well, a very precise position is needed to use them at depth."
And even if the black boxes are found, there are no guarantees they will be in a state to give up their data.
The Malaysian authorities have said a deliberate act made MH370 disappear from civilian air control radars -- and the big question is whether the Cockpit Voice Recorder was immobilised.
"You only need to pull the breaker that is by the pilot's seat and it is taken off-line electrically," explained one aviation expert.
MH370's disappearance has prompted a major debate over inflight communications, including the benefits of live streaming black box data.

Why and how did MH370 end up in the Indian Ocean?

The Doppler effect helped investigators pinpoint flight MH370 to the southern Indian Ocean but they are still puzzled about the reasons that sent the lost Malaysia Airlines jet the opposite way from its intended destination – Beijing.

Why did the Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) carrying 239 people end up in the Indian Ocean? How did the wide-body passenger jet turn from a routine red-eye flight into an "unprecedented aviation mystery"? And, who did it?
These are the questions uppermost on the minds of investigators and families of the 239 people on board flight MH370 that flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in the early hours of March 8 but ended up lost within an hour of its six-hour flight.
After 17 days and a multinational hunt that began in the South China Sea, in-depth communication satellite data from British investigators and debris spotted by American, Chinese and French satellites finally zeroed in on MH370's last position – the southern part of the Indian Ocean.
The why and how about MH370 ended up in the remote rough seas will only be known once investigators get to fish the black box of the Malaysian jet that is registered as 9M-MRO.
Until then, the race to trace its route after vanishing off Malaysia's east coast city of Kota Baru to the Indian Ocean has become an amazing story by itself.
Reuters reported that British satellite provider Inmarsat used a wave phenomenon discovered in the 19th century to analyse the seven pings its satellite picked up from the Malaysia Airlines jet to determine its final destination.
The new findings led Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to conclude last night that the 11-year-old jet crashed thousands of kilometres away in the southern Indian Ocean, killing all 239 people on board.
The pings, automatically transmitted every hour from the aircraft after the rest of its communications systems had stopped, indicated it continued flying for hours after it disappeared from its flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
From the time the signals took to reach the satellite and the angle of elevation, Inmarsat was able to provide two arcs, one north and one south that the aircraft could have taken.
Inmarsat's scientists then interrogated the faint pings using a technique based on the Doppler effect, which describes how a wave changes frequency relative to the movement of an observer, in this case the satellite, a spokesman said.
Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch was also involved in the analysis.
The Doppler effect is why the sound of a police car siren changes as it approaches and then overtakes an observer.
"We then took the data we had from the aircraft and plotted it against the two tracks, and it came out as following the southern track," Jonathan Sinnatt, head of corporate communications at Inmarsat, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The company then compared its theoretical flight path with data received from Boeing 777s it knew had flown the same route, he said, and it matched exactly.
The findings were passed to another satellite company to check, he said, before being released to investigators yesterday.
The paucity of data – only faint pings received by a single satellite every hour or so – meant techniques like triangulation using a number of satellites or GPS (Global Positioning System) could not be used to determine the aircraft's flight path.
Keeping track
Stephen Wood, CEO of All Source Analysis, a satellite analytic firm, said it seemed that the investigators had narrowed down the area substantially.
“But it's still a big area that they have to search," he said.
The incident is likely to spur a review of aviation rules, especially related to communications equipment and the ability to turn off a plane's transponder, he added.
But it is too early to say what that would entail because it remains unknown what caused the plane to divert from its original course.
"This type of incident will cause everyone who flies airplanes commercially with passengers to be really pressed for a whole new line of ways to keep track of their precious cargo," said Wood, a former American intelligence officer who headed the analysis unit of DigitalGlobe Inc, a satellite imagery firm, until July 2013.
Inmarsat said for a relatively low cost, its satellites could keep tabs on flights and provide the data exchanged between the air and the ground to help organise routes to save time and fuel.
Its systems, which are widely used in shipping, have been embedded into surveillance and communications technologies that allow air traffic controllers to build up a picture of where aircraft are, and to better manage routes.
"If you have that (...) capability you get a preferred routing at the right altitude that makes your aircraft more fuel efficient, but if you don't have it you have to fly lower and get less priority in air-traffic control," he said.
The system is used in planes in the North Atlantic, Inmarsat's vice-president for aeronautics, David Coiley, told Reuters earlier this month, but it is not commonly used in all parts of the world.
Sinnatt said yesterday that such a facility would cost about US$10 (RM33) per flight.
"It is something we have been pushing the industry to do because it significantly adds to safety," he said. Other satellite providers are also developing tracking systems. – March 25, 2014.

Missing Malaysia plane: The passengers on board MH370

Among the 239 people on board flight MH370, which disappeared on 8 March, was a party of Chinese calligraphers, a couple returning to their young sons after a beach getaway and a construction worker making his first trip home in a year.

There were 14 nationalities represented in the 227 passengers and 12 crew travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The majority - 153 people - were Chinese.
Here are some of their stories.

Seeking a new life in Europe Suspicions of a terror link to the disappearance of the aircraft were rejected by Malaysian authorities once the true identities of the men carrying the stolen passports of Italian Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel became known.

Police released pictures of Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, left, and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza

They were both young Iranian men seeking a new life in Europe far from home.
Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 18, was hoping to join his mother in Germany. He chose a long and circuitous route from Iran to Kuala Lumpur, to transit through Beijing and onwards to Amsterdam and then Frankfurt.
"His mother was waiting for him," officials said, confirming she had been in touch with the authorities.
Hundreds of comments have been left on his Facebook page. He had posted a status update of "feeling excited" upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur from the city of Karaj in Iran two weeks before.

Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad is second from the left. Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, on the far right, travelled with him on the missing plane.

Interpol identified the other man as Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29, but less is known about his origins.
A young Iranian in Kuala Lumpur, Mohammad, told the BBC that both men had stayed with him before taking the Malaysia Airlines flight, and that they had hoped to settle in Europe.
"They were nervous," Mohammad told the BBC's Jonathan Head. They checked in separately. But he insists they were not terrorists.
"They were young like me," he said. "Pouria was quiet, nice, he was never naughty. So was his friend. I heard them talking - they wanted to go to Europe to seek asylum."
He said that Pouria's mother had been calling from Hamburg ever since MH370 vanished, asking how her son was during his brief stay in Malaysia.

Prominent engineer in a new job

Dr Yuchen Li, left, was on the flight, but his wife was not

Dr Yuchen Li recently finished his doctoral engineering degree from Cambridge University.
The university confirmed that he had recently begun working in a prominent "geotechnical position" in Beijing.
"Yuchen was a hugely talented and likeable person with a brilliant career ahead of him," a spokesman at Cambridge said.
Dr Li had only recently married, but his wife, Mingei Ma, was not on the flight with him, Cambridge News says.
A Facebook page from Churchill College congratulated the couple on their recent marriage in Hubei, China, adding: "We think they look fabulous!"
Dr Li previously studied civil engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, reports say.

A generation of distinguished calligraphers

Continue reading the main story

Manifest for Flight MH370

• 153 Chinese
• 38 Malaysians
• 7 Indonesians
• 6 Australians
• 5 Indians
• 4 French
• 3 Americans
• 2 each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada
• One each from Russia, Taiwan, Netherlands
• Two men - one confirmed as Iranian - travelling under stolen Italian and Austrian passports

Source: Malaysia Airlines

• Full passenger manifest

A feted group of 24 Chinese artists and five staff accompanying them were returning home after attending a cultural exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. They came from all over China: Jiangsu, Sichuan and also Xinjiang province.

Among them was the oldest person on board, 79-year-old Lou Baotang, whose calligraphy has been included in dictionaries by many cultural institutions in China, Britain and the US, state media say.
He was on the plane with Zhao Zhao Fang, a 73-year-old calligrapher and retired professor who had collected a litany of titles for her work.
The wife of Memetjan Abra, a Uighur painter on board, told Xinhua news agency that she was able to speak to him briefly before his flight.
"He is a good painter, husband and father," she said.

Returning home to their sons Muktesh Mukherjee, 42, an Indian-born Canadian employed by US firm XCoal, met his wife, Bai Xiaomo, while on business trip in China in 2002, reports in Canada say.
They lived in Montreal before moving to Beijing.
The couple were heading home to Beijing after a beach getaway in Vietnam. Bai Xiaomo, 37, had posted pictures of their holiday shortly before boarding their flight.
The couple's two young sons were waiting for them at home.
Mr Mukherjee's grandfather, a former Indian government minister, died in a plane crash outside New Delhi in the 1970s.
His family were praying the couple had not suffered the same fate: "Miracles do happen. We pray it will happen this time and Muktesh will come back to us," his uncle, Manoj Mukherjee, in India told AFP news agency.

On a delayed honeymoon

Razahan Zamani, bottom right, and his wife Norli Akmar Hamid, were on their delayed honeymoon

Norli Akmar Hamid, 33, and her husband Razahan Zamani, 24, from Malaysia met while working at a supermarket chain in Kuala Lumpur, local reports say.
They decided to get married in 2012 and were on a long-delayed honeymoon trip to Beijing.
A relative told Malaysian state news agency Bernama that the couple planned the holiday after Ms Norli suffered a miscarriage.
Before the trip, Ms Norli posted a picture on social media of one of her cats sitting on her suitcase.
The Wall Street Journal quoted friends as saying that this was the couple's first time on a plane.

On the way to new jobs

American Philip Wood, an IBM employee, was also on the Malaysia Airlines flight

IBM executive Philip Wood, 50, originally from Texas, was one of three Americans on the plane.
Mr Wood - an avid traveller - had just been transferred to Malaysia and was excited about the new beginning, his younger brother James told the Wall Street Journal.
It was his last planned trip to Beijing before settling in Kuala Lumpur. He has two sons from a previous marriage who are based in Texas, reports say.
"We are all sticking together," his father, Aubrey Wood, told the New York Times. "What can you do? What can you say?"
Another passenger on the way to a new job was mechanical engineer Paul Weeks from New Zealand.
The former soldier moved his family to Perth, Australia, after the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, reports say.
Before he left home, he took off his wedding ring and watch and gave them to his wife for his two young sons.

A vigil for the missing passengers has been held in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur

"If something should happen to me then the wedding ring should go to the first son that gets married and the watch to the second," his wife Danica Weeks was quoted by media as saying.
Malaysian Mohd Sofuan Ibrahim was reportedly heading to Beijing to report for duty at Malaysia's Ministry of International Trade and Industry branch office there.
His father, Ibrahim Abdul Razak, told Malaysia's state news agency Bernama that the 33-year-old had never disappointed him. Mr Sofuan was to have held his post in Beijing for six months, Bernama adds.

Friends on a journey A veteran martial arts expert and stunt double for actor Jet Li was also on board flight MH370.
According to reports, 35-year-old Ju Kun - who had worked on films such as The Forbidden Kingdom - was in Malaysia choreographing a production.
He was on the plane with Chinese national Ding Lijun, who had moved to Malaysia about a year ago to work on construction sites, and was making his first trip home to Beijing since then, a relative told US media.
Nine of those on the plane were old friends, pensioners who made a journey to Nepal, and were on their way back home.
Australian couple Mary and Rodney Burrows are also among the missing. Their son, Jayden, said his family was "heartbroken this stage of their life has been cut short".

Reports say passengers Mary and Rodney Burrows had been married for 30 years

Reports say they had been travelling with friends and fellow passengers Catherine and Robert Lawton.
Mr Lawton's brother, Robert, said: "Dad phoned this morning and said 'Bobby's plane's missing'. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. We just want to know where it is, where the plane's come down, if there's anything left."
Rodney Burrows had planned his trip to China after being laid off last year, Australian Associated Press reports.

The youngest At just 23 months old, Wang Moheng was one of the youngest passengers on board flight MH370. He was returning from a week's holiday in Malaysia with his mother Jiao Weiwei, 32, and father, Wang Rui, 35.
Two of his grandparents were also on board the plane.
The families of other children at Moheng's day care centre joined his family in Malaysia, but returned on separate flights, the New York Times reports.
His family reportedly said they were trying to get away "from the bad air in Beijing for a while".

Lost generations The Wall Street Journal reports that many members of the same families were lost on flight MH370.
Six members of one Chinese family are missing, the paper says, including a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, who were both US citizens.
French national Laurence Wattrelos, 52, was returning from a beach holiday in Malaysia with two of her three children, Hadrien, 17, and Ambre, 14.
Hadrien's girlfriend, Zhao Yan, 18, was also on board.
Reports say the French teenagers had been attending the French school in Beijing and that Laurence was active in the school's parent-teacher association.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Laurence's husband, Ghyslain Wattrelos, flew into Beijing from Paris the same day flight MH370 went missing, and was expecting to be reunited with his family.
He was instead met by two French diplomats, who broke the news of the missing flight.

The co-workers Also on the plane were 20 staff members from a US technology company, Freescale Semiconductor, which makes powerful microchips for industries, including defence.
Twelve employees were from Malaysia and eight were from China. The company said it was "deeply saddened" by the news, in a statement on its website.

The Austin-based company said 20 of its employees were on the flight

Why did somebody doctor photo of men who took Flight MH370? Fears of a cover-up amid claims pictures show passengers with the same set of legs

• Both men pictured boarded missing Flight 370 with stolen passports
• Fears pictures were doctored as both of the men have the same legs
• Trousers, shoes, and shadows all identical, but upper bodies are different
• Chinese aircraft spots 'suspicious objects' in Indian Ocean
• More images of debris adrift in the Indian Ocean were released
• French satellite image taken 850km from current search zone
• Australia-led operation 'clutching' at any new information
• Search continues but so far no wreckage has been recovered

By Ian Drury and Candace Sutton In Perth

Fears of a cover-up over the fate of flight MH370 grew yesterday after claims that a photo of two passengers was tampered with.
Images of two men who boarded the Malaysian Airlines jet with stolen passports appear to show them having the same set of legs.
CCTV footage stills released by officials three days after the Boeing 777-200 vanished from the skies shows the pair with identical green trousers and brown shoes. 
Scroll down for video

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Spot the similarity: The legs of these two men, named as 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad (left), and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29, (right), appear identical, leading to suspicions of tampering

Their feet and shadows are also in the same position, while their faces, T-shirts and bags are different.
The photo last night fuelled conspiracy theories over the fate of the aircraft, which disappeared with 239 passengers and crew more than a fortnight ago.
One Twitter user wrote: ‘They both have the same legs, edited or coincidence? And you guys believe our gov is not hiding anything.’
Malaysian police admitted the image of one man had been placed on top of the other when they were photocopied.

 

More...

• Now France says it has satellite images of objects that could be from missing MH370 as photo taken by New Zealand search team emerges and police seize crew's bank data
• Australian pilot leading search for missing Malaysian airliner becomes internet sensation after being labelled a 'hottie'

But a spokesman said it was not ‘done with malice or to mislead’.
The men – thought to be Iranian asylum-seekers – have been named as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 19, and 29-year-old Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza.
They travelled to Malaysia on Iranian passports before switching to stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
It comes as a Chinese military aircraft today spotted 'suspicious objects' in the search zone, reporting what appeared to 'white, square' material floating on the surface of the Indian Ocean.
The plane was guided by a satellite image released Saturday by China and reportedly sighted 'floating white objects' in the zone some 2,500 kilometres off the coast of Perth.
Last night France became the latest country to say it has spotted debris that could be part of the missing jet - but it was revealed that sighting was 530 miles (850km) from the primary search zone.
The objects were discovered on satellite images of the southern Indian Ocean, a direction the Boeing 777 may have taken after making a U-turn on its scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

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A Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft pictured this solid matter floating in the Indian Ocean, but it is not confirmed if the debris is from the missing plane

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Chinese satellites have also picked up images of debris floating in the Indian Ocean, which rescue workers hope could be from the aircraft which vanished more than two weeks ago

It's the third time sightings of possible wreckage have been announced and Malaysia has received the latest news with caution.
The French satellite image was earlier thought to have been much closer to areas of the Indian Ocean where Australia and China provided satellite photographs of objects that could be debris from MH370.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss described the search operation as 'clutching' at information, as flight and sea crews embarked on their fifth day of sweeps.
Images ‘mistakenly’ released by China last week were later withdrawn.
And search planes have so far failed to locate two objects that Australia said it had identified in the Indian Ocean.

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Families of those missing have become increasingly frustrated with a lack of information about the jet, and the latest claims of pictures being tampered with are likely to increase tensions

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Day five of the search reveals numerous planned search areas for doomed flight MH370 in the southern search corridor off the coast of Perth. French authorities reported a satellite sighting of objects in the Indian Ocean

A US air-to-air refuelling tanker has been ordered to boost potential search times of aircraft in the Southern Indian Ocean, and Chinese airplanes will be flying out of Perth airport to maximise search capacity.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told the MailOnline a US military KC-10 extender tanker - an aerial refuelling aircraft - would be joining the search fleet, in particular to assist the US Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft, which is out on mission today.
'The United States is going to send a KC-10 tanker, which means the Poseidon will be able to stay out there virtually forever, instead of these two hour limits for actual search time,' he said.

SEARCH LATEST: DAY FIVE

 The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) announced Monday the search would be made difficult by adverse weather stemming from Tropical Cyclone Gillian, near Christmas Island.
Search teams re-commenced targeted sweeps of the Indian Ocean bolstered by 10 aircraft, including three civil planes, two Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft from China and two P3 Orions from Japan.
'The weather forecast in the search area is expected to deteriorate with rain likely,' AMSA said.
'Today's search is split into two areas within the same proximity covering a cumulative 68,500 square kilometres.

The two Russian made Ilyuchin IL-76 aircraft deployed by the Chinese government flew from Pearce airbase to Perth airport and off to the target area early Monday.
Mr Thomas said the Ilyuchins, which were used by Australian forces in Afghanistan to deliver supplies and ordnance, needed the longer Perth international runway for take-off once they were fully loaded with fuel for maximum flight capacity.
'The IL-76s will use Perth airport as their take-off point for the length of this search,' he said.
The Ilyuchin planes are also designed as airborne refueling craft, and have been used by China as emergency response planes, evacuating Chinese citizens out of Libya in 2011.
Meanwhile a team of Malaysian government officials faced anger during a six-hour briefing session with relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers on the jet.
Earlier today, France provided Malaysia with satellite images of objects adrift in the Indian ocean that it believes could be from the wreckage of the plane, which has been missing for more than two weeks.
It is the latest of such images that officials are hoping will help solve one of the world's great aviation mysteries.
Meanwhile, it was claimed that police have seized the personal financial records of all 12 crew members of the flight MH370 - including bank statements, mortgage documents and credit card bills.
And an image of solid matter floating in the southern Indian Ocean was released, as seen from a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft searching for the flight.
Families of the victims, who have been attending meetings on the search's progress, have become increasingly frustrated over the lack of information.
Air and sea searches since Thursday have not produced any results.
There have been no sightings of any wreckage since Flight 370 dropped off air traffic control screens on March 8 over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board.
Planes and a ship are still looking for a pallet and other debris to determine whether the objects were from the missing jet.
The pallet was spotted by a search plane Saturday, but has not been closely examined. Wooden pallets are commonly used in shipping, but can also be used in cargo containers carried on planes.
Mike Barton, chief of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's rescue coordination centre, told reporters in Canberra that the wooden pallet was spotted by a search aircraft yesterday.
He added that it was surrounded by several other objects, including what appeared to be strapping belts of different colours.
A New Zealand P3 Orion military plane was then sent to find it but failed, he said.

S&P cuts Brazil credit rating in blow to Rousseff

By Alonso Soto

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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's cut Brazil's sovereign debt rating closer to speculative territory on Monday in a blow to President Dilma Rousseff, whose efforts to stir the economy from a years-long slump have eroded the country's finances.

Brazil had its long-term debt rating downgraded to BBB minus, the agency's lowest investment-grade rating. S&P changed its outlook to stable from negative, meaning further downgrades are unlikely for now, which will come as a relief for both politicians in Brasilia and financial markets.
The move was widely expected but the timing surprised some investors.

As it came ahead of an October election in which Rousseff will seek a second term, the downgrade will expose her left-leaning government to further accusations that it has squandered the goodwill built during a long economic boom last decade.

Brazil has suffered from slow growth that averaged about 2 percent in recent years. Rousseff has tried to revive the economy with tax cuts and social spending but has been widely criticized for intervening too much and resorting to sometimes opaque accounting moves to meet budget targets.
"The downgrade reflects the combination of fiscal slippage, the prospect that fiscal execution will remain weak amid subdued growth in the coming years, a constrained ability to adjust policy ahead of the October presidential elections, and some weakening in Brazil's external accounts," S&P said.
The agency said that fiscal credibility had been "systematically weakened" following cuts in the government's main budget target, and that loans by state-run banks had "undermined policy credibility and transparency."
The Brazilian finance ministry rejected S&P's arguments and said the downgrade contradicted Brazil's solid economic fundamentals and healthy standing compared with other major economies.
"The Brazilian economy has low external vulnerability because it holds the fifth largest volume of international reserves among G20 nations," it said in a statement.

The short-term effect of the move on financial markets was unclear, analysts said. Some investors could sell Brazilian assets because of policies forcing them to hold higher-quality stocks and bonds, while others may focus on the fact that S&P is unlikely to downgrade Brazil any further.

S&P's move could prompt peers Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings to signal they may follow with a downgrade of their own.
"The natural tendency for markets tomorrow is the fear that there could be a chain reaction and other agencies may do the same," said Ariovaldo Santos, manager of floating-rate assets at H.Commcor in Sao Paulo.

Moody's and Fitch, which still rate Brazil two notches into investment-grade territory, have indicated, however, that they do not intend to downgrade Brazil before the elections.

Rousseff's government has worked to restore its credibility on budget targets in recent months, but investors are worried that she will resort to more unorthodox accounting moves and raise spending as she seeks re-election.

The downgrade is unlikely to undermine Rousseff's popularity among voters, but potential rivals blamed her management of the economy for Brazil's fall from grace on financial markets.

Opposition leader Aécio Neves said the downgrade was due to the "manipulation" of fiscal accounts by her government, "exorbitant" public spending and "leniency" with inflation.

"Brazil is going through a sad moment of loss of confidence and ruined credibility," he said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Priscila Jordao; Editing by Brian Winter, Kieran Murray, Bernard Orr and Lisa Shumaker)

MH 370 Passenger list as provided by Malaysia Airlines

(Sorted by nationality)

NO	NAME	NATIONALITY	AGE
1	BURROWS/RODNEYMR	AUS	59
2	BURROWS/MARYMRS	AUS	54
3	GU/NAIJUN	AUS	31
4	LAWTON/CATHERINEMRS	AUS	54
5	LAWTON/ROBERTMR	AUS	58
6	LI/YUAN	AUS	33
7	KOZEL/CHRISTIAN	AUT	30
8	BAI/XIAOMO	CAN	37
9	MUKHERJEE/MUKTESH	CAN	42
10	AN/WENLAN	CHN	65
11	BAO/YUANHUA	CHN	63
12	BIAN/MAOQIN	CHN	67
13	BIAN/LIANGJING	CHN	27
14	CAO/RUI	CHN	32
15	CHE/JUNZHANG	CHN	68
16	CHEN/JIAN	CHN	58
17	CHEN/CHANGJUNMR	CHN	35
18	CHEN/YUNMS	CHN	57
19	DAI/SHULING	CHN	58
20	DI/JIABIN	CHN	36
21	DING/YING	CHN	28
22	DING/LIJUN	CHN	43
23	DING/YINGMS	CHN	62
24	DONG/GUOWEI	CHN	48
25	DOU/YUNSHANMR	CHN	61
26	DU/WEN	CHN	50
27	FENG/DONG	CHN	21
28	FENG/JIXIN	CHN	70
29	FU/BAOFENG	CHN	28
30	GAN/TAO	CHN	44
31	GAN/FUXIANG	CHN	49
32	GAO/GE	CHN	27
33	GUAN/WENJIEMR	CHN	35
34	HAN/JING	CHN	53
35	HOU/AIQINMS	CHN	45
36	HOU/BO	CHN	35
37	HU/SIWANCHD	CHN	3
38	HU/XIAONINGMR	CHN	34
39	HUANG/YIMS	CHN	30
40	HUANG/TIANHUI	CHN	43
41	JIA/PING	CHN	32
42	JIANG/CUIYUN	CHN	62
43	JIANG/XUEREN	CHN	62
44	JIANG/YINGMS	CHN	27
45	JIAO/WEIWEI	CHN	32
46	JIAO/WENXUE	CHN	58
47	JU/KUN	CHN	32
48	KANG/XU	CHN	34
49	LI/YANLIN	CHN	29
50	LI/ZHI	CHN	41
51	LI/GUOHUI	CHN	56
52	LI/HONGJING	CHN	20
53	LI/JIE	CHN	27
54	LI/MINGZHONG	CHN	69
55	LI/WENBO	CHN	29
56	LI/YAN	CHN	31
57	LI/YUCHEN	CHN	27
58	LI/ZHIJIN	CHN	30
59	LI/ZHIXIN	CHN	35
60	LI/LE	CHN	36
61	LIANG/LUYANGMR	CHN	60
62	LIANG/XUYANG	CHN	30
63	LIN/ANNANMR	CHN	27
64	LIN/MINGFENG	CHN	34
65	LIU/FENGYING	CHN	65
66	LIU/JINPENGMR	CHN	33
67	LIU/QIANG	CHN	40
68	LIU/RUSHENG	CHN	76
69	LIU/SHUNCHAO	CHN	46
70	LIU/ZHONGFU	CHN	72
71	LOU/BAOTANG	CHN	79
72	LU/JIANHUA	CHN	57
73	LU/XIANCHU	CHN	33
74	LUI/CHING	CHN	45
75	LUO/WEI	CHN	29
76	MA/WENZHI	CHN	57
77	MA/JUNMR	CHN	33
78	MAIMAITIJIANG/A	CHN	35
79	MAO/TUGUI	CHN	72
80	MENG/BING	CHN	40
81	MENG/FANQUAN	CHN	70
82	MENG/GAOSHENG	CHN	64
83	OUYANG/XIN	CHN	38
84	SHI/XIANWEN	CHN	26
85	SONG/FEIFEIMR	CHN	32
86	SONG/CHUNLINGMS	CHN	60
87	SONG/KUN	CHN	25
88	SU/QIANGGUO	CHN	71
89	TANG/XUDONG	CHN	31
90	TANG/XUEZHUMS	CHN	57
91	TIAN/JUNWEI	CHN	29
92	TIAN/QINGJUN	CHN	51
93	WANG/SHOUXIAN	CHN	69
94	WANG/SHU	CHN	61
95	WANG/XIANJUN	CHN	61
96	WANG/CHUNHUAMR	CHN	34
97	WANG/CHUNYONG	CHN	43
98	WANG/DAN	CHN	54
99	WANG/HAITAO	CHN	26
100	WANG/HOUBIN	CHN	28
101	WANG/LINSHI	CHN	59
102	WANG/YONGGANGMR	CHN	27
103	WANG/YONGHUI	CHN	33
104	WANG/YONGQIANG	CHN	30
105	WANG/LIJUN	CHN	49
106	WANG/RUI	CHN	35
107	WANG/MOHENG	CHN	2
108	WEN/YONGSHENG	CHN	34
109	WEN/HAO	CHN	32
110	WENG/MEI	CHN	39
111	XIE/LIPING	CHN	51
112	XIN/XIXIMS	CHN	32
113	XING/FENGTAO	CHN	36
114	XING/QIAO	CHN	27
115	XIONG/DEMING	CHN	63
116	XU/CHUANE	CHN	57
117	YA/NA	CHN	26
118	YAN/LINGMR	CHN	29
119	YAN/PENG	CHN	29
120	YAN/XIAO	CHN	27
121	YANG/LI	CHN	35
122	YANG/AILINGMS	CHN	60
123	YANG/JIABAO	CHN	26
124	YANG/MEIHUA	CHN	65
125	YANG/QINGYUANMR	CHN	57
126	YANG/XIAOMINGMS	CHN	59
127	YAO/JIANFENG	CHN	70
128	YAO/LIFEI	CHN	31
129	YIN/BOYAN	CHN	33
130	YIN/YUEWANG	CHN	21
131	YUAN/JIN	CHN	63
132	YUE/GUIJUMS	CHN	51
133	YUE/WENCHAO	CHN	26
134	ZANG/LINGDI	CHN	58
135	ZHANG/CHI	CHN	58
136	ZHANG/LIQIN	CHN	43
137	ZHANG/QIMS	CHN	31
138	ZHANG/YAN	CHN	45
139	ZHANG/HUAMR	CHN	43
140	ZHANG/LIJUANMS	CHN	61
141	ZHANG/NAMS	CHN	34
142	ZHANG/SIMING	CHN	71
143	ZHANG/XIAOLEIMS	CHN	32
144	ZHANG/HUALIAN	CHN	42
145	ZHANG/JIANWU	CHN	31
146	ZHANG/JINQUAN	CHN	72
147	ZHANG/MENG	CHN	29
148	ZHANG/XUEWENMR	CHN	61
149	ZHANG/YAN	CHN	36
150	ZHANG/YANHUI	CHN	44
151	ZHANG/ZHONGHAI	CHN	43
152	ZHANG/SHAOHUA	CHN	32
153	ZHAO/GANGMR	CHN	46
154	ZHAO/QIWEIMR	CHN	37
155	ZHAO/YINGXINCHD	CHN	3
156	ZHAO/PENG	CHN	25
157	ZHAO/ZHAOFANG	CHN	73
158	ZHENG/RUIXIAN	CHN	42
159	ZHOU/FENG	CHN	56
160	ZHOU/JINLING	CHN	61
161	ZHOU/SHIJIE	CHN	64
162	ZHU/JUNYAN	CHN	41
163	WATTRELOS/AMBRE	FRA	14
164	WATTRELOS/HADRIEN	FRA	17
165	WATTRELOS/LAURENCE	FRA	52
166	ZHAO/YAN	FRA	18
167	SIREGAR/FIRMAN	IDN	25
168	SUADAYA/FERRYINDRAMR	IDN	42
169	SUADAYA/HERRYINDRAMR	IDN	35
170	SUGIANTO/LOMR	IDN	47
171	TANURISAM/INDRASURIAMR	IDN	57
172	VINNY/CHYNTHYATIOMRS	IDN	47
173	WANG/WILLYSURIJANTOMR	IDN	53
174	KOLEKAR/CHETANA	IND	55
175	KOLEKAR/SWANAND	IND	23
176	KOLEKAR/VINOD	IND	59
177	SHARMA/CHANDRIKAMS	IND	51
178	SHIRSATH/KRANTI	IND	44
179	MARALDI/LUIGI	ITA	37
180	BIBYNAZLI/MOHDHASSIM	MYS	62
181	CHAN/HUANPEENMR	MYS	46
182	CHEN/WEI	MYS	43
183	CHEW/KARMOOIMS	MYS	31
184	CHNG/MEI	MYS	33
185	DAISY/ANNE	MYS	56
186	DINA/MOHAMEDYUNUSRAMLI	MYS	30
187	GUAN/HUAJINMS	MYS	34
188	HASHIM/NOORIDA	MYS	57
189	HUE/PUIHENGMR	MYS	66
190	JINGHANG/JEE	MYS	41
191	KOH/TIONGMENG	MYS	40
192	LEE/KAHKINMR	MYS	32
193	LEE/SEWCHUMDM	MYS	55
194	LIM/POWCHUAMS	MYS	43
195	MARIA/MOHAMEDYUNUSRAMLI	MYS	52
196	MATRAHIM/NORFADZILLAHMISS	MYS	39
197	MOHDKHAIRULAMRI/SELAMATMR	MYS	29
198	MOHAMADSOFUAN/IBRAHIMMR	MYS	33
199	MUHAMMADRAZAHAN/ZAMANIMR	MYS	24
200	MUSTAFA/SUHAILIMISS	MYS	31
201	NG/MAYLIMS	MYS	37
202	NORLIAKMAR/HAMIDMDM	MYS	33
203	PUSPANATHAN/SUBRAMANIAN	MYS	34
204	RAMLAN/SAFUANMR	MYS	32
205	SIM/KENGWEI	MYS	53
206	TAN/TEIKHINMR	MYS	32
207	TAN/AHMENGMR	MYS	46
208	TAN/WEICHEWMR	MYS	19
209	TAN/CHONGLING	MYS	48
210	TAN/SIOH	MYS	42
211	TEE/LINKEONGMR	MYS	50
212	TEOH/KIMLUNMR	MYS	36
213	TONG/SOONLEEMR	MYS	31
214	WAN/HOCKKHOONMR	MYS	42
215	WONG/SAISANGMR	MYS	53
216	YAP/CHEEMENGMR	MYS	39
217	YUSOP/MUZIMR	MYS	50
218	SURTIDAHLIA/MRS	NLD	50
219	WANG/XIMIN	NZL	50
220	WEEKS/PAULMR	NZL	39
221	BRODSKII/NIKOLAI	RU	43
222	CHUANG/HSIULINGMS	TWN	45
223	CHUSTRAK/OLEG	UKR	45
224	DEINEKA/SERGII	UKR	45
225	MENG/NICOLECHD	USA	4
226	WOOD/PHILIP	USA	51
227	ZHANG/YAN	USA	2

MH 370 TECH & CABIN CREW

NO	NAME	NATIONALITY
1	ZAHARIE BIN AHMAD SHAH (TECH CREW)	Malaysian
2	FARIQ BIN AB HAMID (TECH CREW)	Malaysian
3	PATRICK FRANCIS GOMES	Malaysian
4	ANDREW NARI	Malaysian
5	GOH SOCK LAY	Malaysian
6	TAN SER KUIN	Malaysian
7	WAN SWAID BIN WAN ISMAIL	Malaysian
8	JUNAIDI BIN MOHD KASSIM	Malaysian
9	MOHD HAZRIN BIN MOHAMED HASNAN	Malaysian
10	NG YAR CHIEN	Malaysian
11	FOONG WAI YUENG	Malaysian
12	TAN SIZE HIANG	Malaysian

Source: Malaysia Airlines

Iraq Buys Massive 36 Tonnes Of Gold In March

by GoldCore

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,314.75, EUR 951.82 and GBP 796.87 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,322.00, EUR 960.34 and GBP 801.94 per ounce.

Gold dropped $23.40 or 1.76% yesterday to $1,309.50/oz. Silver fell $0.31 or 1.53% at $19.98/oz.

Gold in U.S. Dollars, 5 Year – (Thomson Reuters)

Gold rallied from the lowest price in more than four weeks on safe haven demand after the G7 nations threatened more sanctions against Russia after the annexation of Crimea.

Meeting for the first time since last week’s annexation of Crimea by Russia, G7 leaders said they won’t attend a G8 meeting that had been set for Sochi, on Russia’s Black Sea coast, and will instead hold their own summit in June in Brussels. The G7 said in a statement that they remain ready to “intensify actions”, including coordinated sectoral sanctions.

Trading volumes on the COMEX in New York today are 49% higher than the average for the past 100 days for this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Palladium fell 1% to $786.20 an ounce. The precious metal rose above $800/oz yesterday, the highest  since August 2011, on concern that supplies from top producer Russia will be disrupted.

The Central Bank of Iraq said it bought 36 tons of gold this month to help stabilise the Iraqi dinar against foreign currencies, according to a statement from the bank that was emailed this morning.

It is very large in tonnage terms and Iraq’s purchases this month alone surpasses the entire demand of many large industrial nations in all of 2013. It surpasses the entire demand of large countries such as France, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Italy, Japan, the UK, Brazil and Mexico. Indeed, it is just below the entire gold demand of voracious Hong Kong for all of 2013 according to GFMS data (see chart).

Demand By Country (GFMS via Thomson Reuters)

Iraq had 27 tonnes of gold reserves at the end of 2013 according to the IMF data and thus Iraq has more than doubled their reserves with their allocations to gold this month. Gold remains less than 5% of their overall foreign exchange reserves showing that there is the possibility of further diversification into gold in the coming months.

The governor of the Iraqi Central Bank, Abdel Basset Turki, told a news conference that, “the bank bought 36 tonnes of gold to boost reserves and this move is to strengthen the financial capacity of the country and increase the elements of security and insurance reserves of the Central Bank of Iraq.”

He said, “the purchase quantity comes with the aim of achieving the highest stages of the financial soundness for Iraq”. He pointed out that the measure comes within the purview of the central bank in the use of the fiscal policy tools  of Iraq.

“The Bank has purchased large quantities of gold bullion with a very high purity and in accordance with the approved international standards,” according to the Iraqi central bank.

He added that “the central bank seeks through the purchase of large quantities of gold to stabilize the Iraqi dinar against foreign currencies.”

Iraq quadrupled its gold holdings to 31.07 tonnes over the course of three months between August and October 2012, data from the International Monetary Fund shows. The IMF’s monthly statistics report showed the country’s holdings increased to some 23.9 tonnes in August 2012 to 29.7 tonnes.

That was followed by a 2.3-tonne rise in September to 32.09 tonnes and then a cut of 1.02 tonnes in October 2012 to 31.07 tonnes.

It is Iraq’s first major move to bolster its gold reserves in months.

The central bank of Iraq’s doubling of its gold reserves this month is important as there are many oil rich nations in the world with sizeable foreign exchange reserves, primarily in dollars, and only a small allocation to gold by these central banks alone could lead to higher gold prices.

36 tonnes is a lot of physical gold, however in terms of dollars it is worth just $1.522 billion which is a tiny fraction of the $80 billion of foreign exchange reserves that Iraq holds.

Energy rich Russia alone has foreign exchange reserves of some $440 billion. Should they decide to allocate a sizeable portion of their reserves to gold, it would rapidly result in materially higher prices.

Signs that the global economy is slowing down and the most serious confrontation between Moscow and the U.S. and its allies since the end of the Cold War is likely to lead to central banks continuing their foreign exchange diversification.

Central banks and the smart money will continue to dollar cost average and accumulate bullion on dips.

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