MH370: New last words from cockpit: 'Good night Malaysian three seven zero'

CNN ^ | April 1, 2014 | Catherine E. Shoichet, Faith Karimi and KJ Kwon, CNN

[Uncle Chip]

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- They were words heard around the world as investigators searched for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

Weeks ago, Malaysian authorities said the last message from the airplane cockpit was, "All right, good night."...

There's only one problem. It turns out, it wasn't true.

On Monday, Malaysia's Transport Ministry said the final voice transmission from the cockpit of Flight 370 was actually "Good night Malaysian three seven zero."

Malaysian authorities gave no explanation for the discrepancy between the two quotes. And authorities are still trying to determine whether it was the plane's pilot or copilot who said them.

The new language is routine and is not a sign that anything untoward occurred aboard the flight, said CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.

But the change in wording weeks into the search for the missing plane raises questions about how Malaysian officials have handled the investigation.

"It speaks to credibility issues, unfortunately," Schiavo said.

"We haven't had a straight, clear word that we can have a lot of fidelity in," said Michael Goldfarb, former chief of staff at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

"We have the tragedy of the crash, we have the tragedy of an investigation gone awry and then we have questions about where we go from here."

No matter what the pilots' last words were, it's hard to understand what they mean without more details from authorities about what they said and how they said it, CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien told "The Lead with Jake Tapper" on Monday.

"Without the preceding information ... either the transcript or the recordings themselves, it's difficult to know what any of that really means," he said. "And that's the problem with this investigation, which has been so opaque."

[Uncle Chip]

I noticed that in the newly formed transcript now coming from Malaysia that they have changed all the “MH”s to “MAS”s or “Malaysian”s.

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/malaysia_airlines_flight_mh370_update_cockpit_transcript_released_to_public/

They are rewriting the entire transcript now telling us that he never said “Em Ach” at all but only “Malaysian”.

[hamboy]

Malaysia Airline System call sign is Malaysia. As rotuine the pilot contact Clearance Delivery then to the Ground Control to Aerodrome (Tower) Control to Kuala Lumpur Departure/Approach Centre. Kuala Lumpur Departure/Approach Control’s call sign is “Lumpur Approach.” Something is missing in the trascript. Lumpur Approach must had told MH370 to contact Subang Area Control Centre, supposedly the last contact. It’s not the job of Approach controllers to endrose the flight to Ho Chi Min ATC. I guess they’d need to tweak their supposedly ATC transcript.

[editor-surveyor]

My Casio G-zone gives GPS coords within about 20 meters when location is turned on.

[Uncle Chip]

So then what is the likelihood of the pilot using “Malaysia” as opposed to “Em Ach” and then releasing a transcript that has him saying “MH”???

[hamboy]

I've yet to hear the actual recording which is nowhere online.  There's also another version of transcript here [link] with added Lumpur Radar not Lumpur Control or Subang Control (whatever).  As far as I know Subang ARTCC was the last contact. MH370 either pilots calling locally "Em Ach three seven zero" just normal but not for SQ68 using "Ess Keu Six Eight."

[Uncle Chip]

Yep --

They are trying to make flight MH370 disappear for the second time by switching identifiers to MAS370 and Malaysian 370.

Wouldn't the call sign for MH370 be more like "Malaysian Hospitality" especially for a young co-pilot doing it by the books rather than just shortening it to "Malaysian"???

[hamboy]

I’d seen several transcript versions so far, may be based all on speculation. Malaysian government need to release the actual audio.

[Uncle Chip]

It’s official now —

Flight MH370 has officially been dropped off the transcript and disappeared:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_7440/transcript.pdf

12:46:51 MAS 370 Lumpur Control Malaysian Three Seven Zero
12:46:51  ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero Lumpur radar Good Morning
climb flight level two five zero
12:46:54  MAS370 Morning level two five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero
12:50:06 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero climb flight level three five zero
12:50:09 MAS370 Flight level three five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero
01:01:14 MAS370 Malaysian Three Seven Zero maintaining level three five zero
01:01:19 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero
01:07:55 MAS370 Malaysian...Three Seven Zero maintaining level three five
zero
01:08:00 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero
01:19:24 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Ho Chi Minh 120
decimal 9 Good Night
01:19:29 MAS370 Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero

[blueplum]

Plane was highjacked and shot down by the Malay government . . imho

The engines of MH370 were pinging until 8:11am, which is being assumed as the spashdown. I don't think Malaysia has a fighter that can fly 4000 miles without refueling, and, if they had flown any of their fighters, there would have been identifying handshakes on military frequencies popping up by now, so I think Malaysia splashing their own plane is pretty much off the table as a possibility.

[ßuddaßudd]

OK, my theory 2 - In Pakistain or Iran getting refitted for a flight back to... ?