KEHILANGAN MH370: LAPORAN AWAL MALAYSIA HANYA SETEBAL 5 MUKASURAT?

SEMALAM, pemangku Menteri Pengangkutan Hishammuddin Hussein mendedahkan kandungan laporan awal kepada ICAO mengenai kehilangan pesawat MAS MH370.

Berikut laporan yang dikeluarkan oleh CNN:

(CNN) -- Confusion, misleading information and then long periods of nothing marked the first hours of what's now known as the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

It took air traffic controllers more than four hours after the last conversation with the cockpit to activate rescuers to look for the missing plane, which left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8 with 239 people on board. (NOTA: PENGAWAL TRAFIK UDARA HANYA MENGERAKKAN OPERASI MENGESAN PESAWAT YANG HILANG 4 JAM SELEPAS KEHILANGANNYA)

Some delays in communication with an airliner over the ocean are normal, says CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest.

But time was of the essence, and eventually, a lot was lost.

The plane probably ran out of fuel about 7½ hours into the flight, a Malaysia Airlines official has said. That means MH370 might have been flying during that four-hour gap.

The flight radioed its last words to the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre at 1:19 a.m. local time, according to an attachment to a preliminary report by Malaysia's Transportation Ministry. The report was released to the public Thursday.
'Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero'If so, it seems the Boeing jet only had 2½ hours of fuel left when rescuers first began searching for it.

The report itself is scant. Just five pages in length, it contains only a small fraction of the content of similar preliminary reports from past air disasters. (NOTA: LAPORAN AWAL MENGENAI KEHILANGAN PESAWAT HANYA 5 MUKA SURAT. LAPORAN AWAL CNN MEMBANDINGKAN LAPORAN YANG DIHANTAR OLEH AIR FRANCE MENGENAI KEHILANGAN PESAWAT MEREKA SETEBAL 128 MUKASURAT DAN QANTAS MENGENAI LETUPAN ENJIN PESAWATNYA SETEBAL 40 MUKASURAT).

But combined with the air traffic transcript also released to the public, it gives a picture how the first hours progressed after MH 370 signed off.

Controllers told the airliner to check in with their counterparts in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. "Good night, Malaysian Three Seven Zero," someone in the cockpit answered.

That check-in never happened, but something else did. The plane dropped off radar, and the clock ticked.

"Control of the aircraft had left Malaysia to Vietnam. Even so, for 17 minutes, neither Kuala Lumpur nor Ho Chi Minh noticed nor acted," Quest said. 

Then at 1:38 a.m., Ho Chi Minh contacted Kuala Lumpur to let the controllers know that it had not heard a word from the plane. "Verbal contact was not established," the transcript said. (NOTE: SELEPAS 17 MINIT, MENARA KAWALAN TRAFIK VIETNAM MEMAKLUMKAN  MALAYSIA IA TIDAK MENERIMA APA-APA HUBUNGAN DARI MH370)

The two control centers began a conversation about communications attempts with Flight 370 and previous radar blips along its path.

They spoke every few minutes.

Reassuring messages cost precious time

Then two messages came from Malaysia Airlines that may have taken more precious time.

At 2:03 a.m. came the first seemingly reassuring message from the airline. The plane was in Cambodian airspace, the airline told Kuala Lumpur air traffic control.

The Malaysians passed the message on to Vietnamese controllers. They then tried to confirm Malaysia Airlines' news with Cambodian air traffic controllers.

The airline later confirmed its reassuring message. It had been able to "exchange signals with the flight," which was in Cambodian airspace, the transcript read.

But an hour after Flight 370 signed off, Vietnamese air controllers poked holes in Malaysia Airlines' message. The flight had not been scheduled to fly over Cambodia, and officials there had no information on the plane -- nor contact with it.

Malaysian air traffic controllers kept in communication with the airline, which gave them yet another seemingly reassuring message at 2:35 a.m.

The airliner was "in normal condition based on signal download," which placed it off the coast of Vietnam.

The flight probably appeared to be on track to its destination of Beijing.

"We have two very unhelpful contributions from Malaysia Airlines -- one suggesting the plane is in Cambodia, the other saying everything's normal. Neither's true," Quest said.

Information 'not reliable for aircraft positioning'

If precious time had been lost by the trickle before, now it began to gush away.

Nearly an hour later, Malaysia Airlines qualified its previous information. Its new message: "The flight tracker information was based on flight projection and not reliable for aircraft positioning," the transcript read.

It was 3:30 a.m., but two more hours would pass before air traffic controllers notified rescuers.

In the meantime, controllers in Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City queried each other and the airline. Kuala Lumpur air traffic control contacted counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Then at 5:20 a.m., a Malaysian official pronounced, based on what was known, "MH370 never left Malaysian airspace."

Ten minutes later, Malaysian air traffic controllers alerted a rescue coordination center.