Firma Belanda diberi kontrak terajui usaha mencari pesawat MH370

Ogos 06, 2014

 

  Fugro akan menggunakan dua buah kapal yang dilengkapi kenderaan laut dalam yang ditunda dan 

 membawa pakar untuk menjalankan operasi pencarian. - Gambar Fail fugro.com 

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Australia memilih firma Belanda, Fugro Survey Pte Ltd untuk menerajui usaha pencarian laut dalam pesawat Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 yang hilang di selatan Lautan Hindi sejak 8 Mac lalu.

Timbalan Perdana Menteri Australia, Warren Truss berkata Fugro akan menggunakan dua buah kapal yang dilengkapi kenderaan laut dalam yang ditunda dan membawa pakar untuk menjalankan operasi pencarian.

"Kapal akan mencari di dasar laut menggunakan peralatan side scan sonar, multibeam echo sounder dan kamera video untuk mencari dan mengenal pasti sebarang serpihan.

"Saya tetap yakin kami akan mengesan pesawat yang hilang dalam tumpuan kawasan pencarian," katanya dalam sidang akhbar di Canberra yang turut disalur secara dalam talian hari ini.

Beliau berkata firma yang berpangkalan di Perth itu sudah biasa dengan operasi pencarian MH370 yang dilakukan Australia dengan menawarkan 'penyelesaian teknikal yang berbaloi'.

Kini kapal milik firma itu, Fugro Equator menjalankan survei 'bathymetric' di kawasan baharu pencarian bersama kapal tentera laut China, Zhu Kezhen.

Truss berkata survei itu telah meliputi 60 peratus kawasan atau kira-kira 32,000 kilometer persegi sejak April lalu.

Pesawat MH370 yang membawa 239 orang sedang menuju Beijing apabila hilang  awal pagi pada 8 Mac sebaik berlepas dari Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa KL. Ia sepatutnya tiba di Beijing pada pukul 6.30 pagi hari yang sama.

Analisis satelit menunjukkan kedudukan terakhir pesawat ialah di selatan Lautan Hindi, barat Perth, Australia.

Namun selepas itu pihak Australia mengumumkan pada 26 Jun bahawa kawasan pencarian akan diubah pula ke selatan di kawasan kira-kira 60,000 kilometer persegi di sepanjang apa yang dikenali sebagai 'lengkungan ketujuh' di Lautan Hindi.

Sementara itu Ketua Pesuruhjaya Biro Keselamatan Pengangkutan Australia, Martin Dolan berkata survei bathymetric atau pemetaan dasar laut setakat ini menemui beberapa anomali berkaitan geologi dasar lautan.

"Kawasan utara secara bandingan adalah mendatar dan dalam, dan ia menaik ke arah selatan dan permukaannya menjadi semakin sukar.

"Kami belum habis membuat pemetaan... (dan) masih mencari perincian, bentuk yang tidak kami ketahui (sebelum ini) - gunung berapi bawah laut dan pelbagai benda lain. Jadi kami menemui beberapa kejutan semasa kami melakukannya," katanya.

Dolan tidak menolak kemungkinan kanyon dasar laut 'menyembunyikan' pesawat.

MAS dilanda satu lagi tragedi apabila pesawat MH17 yang dalam perjalanan dari Amsterdam menuju Kuala Lumpur dengan membawa 239 orang termasuk 43 rakyat Malaysia terhempas di selatan Ukraine pada 17 Julai.

Penyiasat antarabangsa cuba menentukan apa yang berlaku kepada pesawat Boeing 777 itu yang terhempas dalam wilayah sedang bergolak antara Ukraine dan Rusia.

Hopes set to rise as RMN vessel joins search for MH370

August 03, 2014

KD Mutiara will set out on Monday for the southern Indian Ocean in search of MH370.

 

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Hopes are set to rise as a Royal Malaysian Navy vessel sets out tomorrow for the southern Indian Ocean in search of a Malaysia Airlines aircraft that has been missing since March 8.

The hydrographic vessel, KD Mutiara, has sophisticated sonar equipment that that can detect objects on the ocean bed up to 7,000 metres deep and employs the bathymetric measurement for defining the objects.

RMN fleet commander Vice Admiral Datuk Mohamad Roslan Ramli is set to flag off KD Mutiara at the RMN Lumut Base operations jetty in Perak at 8.15 am.

KD Mutiara, commissioned on Dec 18, 1977, was built in Butterworth, Penang, by Hong Leong Lurssen Shipyard Sdn Bhd and is the lead ship of the 36th Hydrographic Squadron.

Mohamad Roslan is confident that KD Mutiara would be able to unearth new leads as to the whereabouts of Flight MH370 which dropped off radar on March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.

The Boeing 777 aircraft has yet to be found, even after an exhaustive search in the southern Indian Ocean where it is believed to have gone down after veering off course.

"I am optimistic that the bathymetric measurement can have a positive impact (on the search) and identify the location of MH370," he told Bernama.

KD Mutiara will have for company the RMN Bunga Mas 6 auxiliary vessel which is already in Australia with two vessels from China and one from Australia.

Mohamad Roslan said the RMN experts and personnel for the latest SAR mission were being finalised.

"Besides the RMN experts and personnel, doctors and 'ustaz' (Islamic religious experts) will also be in the mission to the Indian Ocean," he said.

Work to map the seabed in the 7th arc of the Indian Ocean in an attempt to detect any sign of MH370 is going on smoothly.

A statement issued on July 31 by the Joint Action Coordinating Centre (JACC) stated that the process was being undertaken by the vessels Zhu Kezhen of China and Fugro Equator, a vessel contracted by Australia, and was expected to be completed next month.

The mapping exercise was being done in preparation for a seabed search JACC insists that it is important to scour the seabed in the isolated area of the Indian Ocean that has yet to be fully explored.

After aviation incidents, M'sian companies should take crisis management seriously

August 03, 2014

 

Filepic of the search and rescue operation in the MH370 incident. 

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Local companies should take their crisis management capability seriously, after the two recent aviation incidents that put Malaysia and related industry players under international scrutiny, says a communications specialist.

"Malaysian companies and their leadership need to invest more in building and strengthening their crisis preparedness and response mechanism.

"CEOs, in particular, must step out of their comfort zone and be willing to test their 'crisis quotient' through surprise simulations triggered at least twice a year," said Perception Management Sdn Bhd's CEO Kishore Ravuri.

Corporate risk management teams have a role to play in expanding the horizon to anticipate and prepare CEOs against all risks associated with their respective businesses, he told Bernama.

"The fact is, despite having crisis management policies put to test every year through simulations, many local companies do not revisit them frequently to amend obsolete processes and far-fetched scenarios.

"If executed correctly, crisis management can help businesses seek the benefit of stakeholders' engagement, which can safeguard corporate interests even in the worst case of a crisis," he said.

Citing the case of the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370, which put the country under the global spotlight with a lot of criticism, Kishore said it exposed some degree of "unpreparedness" and "vulnerable position" of spokespersons.

The Beijing-bound MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, was pronounced missing by the authorities after having left Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.

"The disconcerted execution of MAS' crisis management and communication plan, if it existed in the first place, was a disappointment from the public relation's perspective.

"The identification and mobilisation of the right spokespersons in the right place at the right time, and their preparedness to manage risks associated with their business, has become extremely critical in a globalised world. This was fundamentally a lost cause in the case of MH370," Kishore said.

However, he emphasised, a crisis of this degree or intensity is a rare phenomenon.

Malaysia and local companies can pick up a few lessons from the episode and in future, take crisis as an opportunity to demonstrate leadership, the preparedness to manage multiple-stakeholders and international media appetite, as well as communication tactics and sophistication, he said.