Why They Can't Find MH370 and AirAsia QZ8501!

Hantu Laut

A lot have been said of this small wonder of technological achievement that supposedly can survey the seabed and look for wreckage of ships and aircraft on the seabed to a depth of 4500 metres.MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014, with all the boasted technology the West possessed, no wreckage or shred of evidence of the plane's whereabout so far.

The Bluefin Robotics was deployed to search for MH370 in the depth of the southern Indian Ocean, weeks passed by, but no sign of the plane's watery grave, either this piece of technology is a tank full of shitty hot air, or the search was done in the wrong place.

Another serious blow to many of these highly acclaimed but untested aviation technologies are those gadgetry wonders installed on planes that supposedly help to locate any aircraft that crashed at sea in quick time by them transmitting pings and giving the exact location.

One particular pretty useless gadget fitted on most commercial aircraft is the ULB ( Underwater Locator Beacon), which pinger supposed to send ultrasonic pulse giving its position to SAR vessels. The problem with this gadget is, it has very short transmitting range, depending on the type installed, it is detectable from the surface from a measly 1 to 2 kilometres in poor weather conditions to about 17-22 kilometres in very good conditions.

Now you know why they still can't find the wreckage of Air Asia Flight 8501. It was not just bad weather the cause, the aviation industry is caught in a time warp, they have failed to take advantage of new technology available to constantly monitor planes in flight. Not only it is available, it is also very cheap to put in place.

It is people like Boeing and Airbus, the two major manufacturers of commercial airliners that should take the rap for the tedious task of finding a lost aircraft quickly. I suppose it's a matter of both economics and negligence, not very often a plane fall out of the sky or disappeared into thin air, so there was no pressure to change the antiquated technology.

The disappearance of MH370 and the crash of Air Asia QZ8501 may be the biggest game changer for the aviation industry.

I have both free and paid version of Flightadar24. They are not always accurate, but this is were the technology starts and can be perfected for the airline industry to keep their planes under constant watch.

English Idioms: Malaysians Banana Skin

Hantu Laut

Hair-splitting, nitpicking and quibbling over nothing has become a remarkable feature of Malaysian society, some worthy of scorn.

The guy who tweeted "the disappearance of Flight MH370 was a blessing in disguise" did so because he noticed one or two things.............. either the incident has brought Malaysians close together, or a revelation of the division between patriotic and unpatriotic Malaysians.

There is nothing wrong in saying "blessing in disguise" if one means something positive came out of it. 

Journalist Ismail Amsyer, who tweeted his thought on the positive outcome of the tragic disappearance of Flight MH370 and agreed empathically by Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in his tweeted response should not have apologised, should have explained and stood by their tweets.

Here, a British tabloid, which has from day one maligned Malaysia on the tragedy, is stirring shit on the journalist and the minister. Shit sells shitty media, I suppose.

Most Malaysians do not understand the versatility of the English language, its idioms, or its "banana skin".The sensitivity arose because most of the younger generation Malaysians are products of an education system not based on English and not intensely schooled in the language. So, don't use it if you don't understand its actual meaning.

Idiom is a phrase where the words put together have meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for the uninitiated person to understand. Even if you know the meaning of every word in the sentence, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it.

Idioms are often metaphorical and make the language more colourful.

"My father's death was a blessing in disguise, it has brought the family closer together." Does it literally mean I am happy that my father is dead? 

For the less discerning it may be so and carry a negative connotation. It should not be, the imperative was on the positive outcome.

The lost of Flight MH370 has cast shocking revelation of unpatriotic behaviour among Malaysians living a false-hearted life of perfidious loyalty. People with highly suspect allegiance.

This is the type of Malaysian I am talking about helping foreign media to lambaste leaders of the country.

As I have said before, we can always criticise our government's shortcomings, but when it comes to external aggression, we should rally behind our government no matter how much dislike we harbour against them.

Without any qualm whatsoever, these ingrates furiously condemned their own country for an incident completely beyond the control of the country's leaders. 

It is not often that a plane disappear into thin air without a trace. The incident has baffled the whole world. The mystic and the intellect are still out there looking for answers, which they may never found.

The Malaysian government is saddled with the greatest aviation mystery unprecedented in the history of civil aviation.Even the best of technology from the most powerful nation in the world has not been able to find the plane, or its debris. Looking for "needle in a haystack" seems must easier.

As "time is of the essence" Prime Minister Najib did not allow "the grass to grow under his feet" and after getting confirmation from Inmarsat satellite pings of the flight path of the plane, he announced that Flight MH370 has ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.

One should never "put one's foot in one's mouth"

The disappearance of Flight MH370 did expose the ugly side of Malaysians. 

FLIGHT MH370:FOREIGN MEDIA GIVING MALAYSIA A BAD NAME

Hantu Laut

The foreign media is doing Malaysia a lot of harm with its unreasonable and unfair criticism of the government for the disappearance of Flight MH370. No one want this to happen and the Malaysian government was not at fault for something beyond her control. It is unprecedented and the greatest aviation mystery ever.

These foreign monkeys make all kind of nasty comments about our government without looking themselves in the mirror. They should also question the capability of the greatest nation on earth. The US, also actively involved in the search, boasted to have the most advanced technology on the entire planet, yet unable to locate the plane with all state of the art and super sophisticated gadgetry in their possession.This trigger happy cowboy is only good at shooting and mass killing people with its sophisticated weaponry.

If the US and China can't find this needle in a haystack, do you expect Malaysia to do better?

These foreign reporters not only come here to collect information, but they also come with an agenda. They have openly incited families and relatives of  passengers on board the ill-fated plane, particularly, those from China, to cast aspersion on the Malaysian government. 

In the same breath, the people from China had also behaved appallingly, proffering extreme unreasonableness and intolerance compared to other nationalities, who had shown fair degree of patience and decorum.

The disaster is not an aircraft crashing along its planned flight path making search and rescue easier to pinpoint the crash site. MH370 deviated from it authorised flight path and went incognito flying undetectable on radar for almost seven hours and disappeared into thin air. It could be anywhere on the globe, dead or alive, no one knows for sure.

Though, I sympathise and share their grief of this most unfortunate and unforeseen disaster that the Malaysian government had no control of, patience and tolerance in the face of adversity is a virtue one should adopt. 

Yelling and wailing is not going to help find the plane other than upsetting the very people who want to help you.

As in the old adage "man proposes, God disposes", fate is something we mortals can't control.

I have also criticised the government of its mishandling of the crisis in the initial stage, but as much as I sympathise with the families and relatives of the passengers on the ill-fated plane, I now do understand the immense difficulty and most distressing and trying situation our government is working under of this most unfortunate incident. 

Also, of greatest disappointment is the Malaysian opposition, instead of closing rank in a national crisis, Anwar and his gang took advantage and make political mileage out of it.

I sincerely hope the families and relatives stay patient and give the authorities more time to seek the truth and be prepared for the worst that the aircraft may not be found for a long long time.

The government should blacklist and ban those nasty journalists from covering the press conference.

I Tell You Why We Can't Find Flight MH370

Hantu Laut

Are the radar placed at strategic points in the country switched on round the clock and constantly being watched by people assigned to watch them, or occasionally goes unwatched when there are less traffic in the sky.

The root of the problems are people who manned the radar in this country.Are they competent and discipline? Have lackadaisical attitude been the cause of conflicting reports and this humiliating debacle?

When this national humiliation is all over, an exhaustive investigation no less a Royal Commission should be conducted to establish whether there had been misconducts in the conflicting reports given by DCA and the military that have embarrassed the country's leaders.

Planes don't simply disappear from radar screen and can continue flying without active radar detection, unless they are flying below radar range. No commercial planes have stealth capability to fool radar from picking it up and the people at DCA and the military should have known better.

Simply put, the plane must have gone down when it disappeared from radar screen and must have gone down in the vicinity of that last contact.The coordinate off the radar should have been taken and given to search and rescue team.

Incompetence and couldn't care less attitude is rampant in this country that had retrogress the country to a worrying state.

We have been overtaken by countries that used to be behind us, and I don't really have to mention who they are to draw even bigger embarrassment to our leaders.

A government who only interest is to muffle the people from speaking out and exhibits such nauseating ineptitude and contradictions.

Fundamentally, people who do not know their jobs.

From our national education to managing out national economy, we have accepted and rewarded mediocracy.

Flight MH370: Malaysia's Conundrum Of Inconsistencies

Hantu Laut


Suddenly, Malaysia is full of clever people, yet they make one blunder after another, the latest being the military revelation that they tracked the plane over our airspace  to the Malacca Strait as far as Pulau Perak before it disappeared from radar at 2.40 a.m, and for reason only known to themselves, they only disclosed this information four days later, after four days of wild and frantic search for the plane in the wilderness of the South China Sea.

I am now beginning to doubt whether this information is reliable after getting so many misleading information from people who are called experts in their field.

If Flight MH 370 actually flew in that direction with its transponder switched off or broken, which means the plane is unidentified and flying incognito in Malaysian airspace, why did not the military scramble its fighter jet to investigate this flying object. The civil aviation radar tells a different story, claimed it last contact was at 1.30 a.m.

Now we have another expert in fuck I don't what, who also want to be in the limelight, dishing out balderdash nobody really want to know at this moment. Who is really interested to know that those poor souls can survive two months at sea when you can't even locate the bloody plane?

I know of the meaning of geopolitical, geostationary and geostrategic. Can someone tell me what does a geostrategist do?

Malaysia is now becoming the biggest joke to the world and in a "State of Inconsistencies"

1.DCA"s DG announced 5 people checked-in, but didn't board the plane and their luggage were off loaded, MAS was silent, much later the IGP says no such thing, all passengers boarded the aircraft, MAS in the affirmative. Why?

2.The case of wrong colour bar, Asian, Black or Caucasian.Different version by different people, Zaid Hamidi, Hishamuddin Onn and the DG of DCA. Why?

3.More serious and a logistic nightmare, two completely different stories by the military and civil aviation. One radar made in Bangladesh (pun intended) and the other one made in China (pun intended) which can't agree with each other and the military taking four days to reveal such vital information because of complete system failure. Why?

If you don't know, say you don't know, or just fuck the shut up!

Don't you think we are now a laughing stock to the world?

Bomoh Gila Babi

Hantu Laut

Read here our wonderful minister with his outrageous encouragement for a bomoh to locate the missing Flight MH370.

 He says:

"As long as they do not contravene Islamic teachings"

This guy must be a joker.

All rituals by bomohs contravened Islamic teachings.

If the practice is in accordance with Islam, they would not be called bomoh, they would be called ustaz and imam and provide prayers for the people on board the ill-fated plane not singing some gibberish and nonsensical chants.

I am sure as a Muslim he should know Islam forbids any form of wizardry, black magic, bomoh, or any thing of supernatural nature are....................SYIRIK!

Read here what the bomoh gila babi soothsaying came up with. 

Those who do not understand Islam may think it is Islamic practice.

Let me assure you it is not. It is a form of animism that still run strong in the Malay and many other culture.

"Sesungguhnya Allah tidak akan mengampuni dosa syirik dan Dia mengampuni segala dosa yang selain dari (syirik) itu bagi siapa yamg dikehendakinya.Barangsiapa yang mempersekutukan Allah maka sungguh ia telah berbuat dosa yang besat"

I would like to hear what JAKIM has to say about the minister and the bomoh.

MAS: National Pride Or National Shame ?.....Reposted!

Hantu Laut

MAS announced another massive loss close to RM1.2 billion for financial year ending December 2013. Story here.

The airline should be destined for the graveyard before more taxpayers money are wasted in propping it up for some stupid national pride. Irresponsible leaders who couldn't care less how the people's money being spent.

Some two years ago, I wrote the article below on MAS. Not missing a heartbeat, the airline remained  beyond hope in spite of the many changes in top management.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

MAS:National Pride Or National Shame?

Hantu Laut

There have been many fatalities in the airline business.

The three most well-known demises of national airlines were Pan Am, Swissair and Sabena of the U.S, Switzerland and Belgium respectively. 

I have had the honour of having flown with all three airlines before they were destined to the graveyard.

One must not have false sense of pride or foolish sentiments when come to running a business. If the business continued to lose money, sell it or close it down. Pouring taxpayer's money into this bottomless pit is completely irresponsible of the government, which eventually would become even more costly to shut down.

The Malaysian taxpayers should not be made to pay money to this sick child just because the government think they are beholden to keep employing those 20,000 grossly overstaffed MAS bumiputra employees and maintain a false and costly national pride.

The government should not be beholden to those good-for-nothing MAS management and employees, but should protect taxpayers money as trustee of the people.

MAS losses were not due to external market forces.It's just incompetence and bad management. Its major losses were due to gross mismanagement arising out of over staffing, overpricing of supplies by sub-contractors, high fuel prices due to poor financial planning and in a nutshell a blundering amateurist management team headed by people who have no knowledge of the aviation industry. MAS has enough business in the air, but excessively high expenditure caused the massive losses.

Its airline core business revenue increased by 2% to RM13.9 billion in 2011 but suffered a massive loss of RM2.52 billion.Higher fuel costs were due to management lack of foresight. A competent management would know how to hedge fuel prices.Since passengers help subsidised fuel cost by paying fuel surcharges, MAS management cannot claim that most of it losses were due to higher fuel costs.

Using the 2011 loss as a yardstick, MAS would have lost 10 Boeing 737-800 in 2011, literally chopping them up for the scrapyard, which hypothetically also means it could have paid the purchase of 10 units of new Boeing 737-800 in cash.Current price of Boeing 737-800 is at US$83-100 million depending on the configuration.

The airline had gone through various management changes over the past decade, yet nothing good had come out of it.

As I have predicted correctly of past management failures, I am still not convinced the new management team put in recently would be able to save the airline.There will be lots of talk but little improvement.

Political interference and corrupt practices are rampant in the airline.Many MAS supply contracts were given to relatives and cronies with highly inflated prices. Remember the RM75 or RM150 per serving of nasi lemak episode not long ago?

Can MAS pay for air crafts due for delivery this year and next? 

They are 5 units A-380, 13 B737-800 and 5 A330-300 awaiting delivery. MAS needs almost RM10 billion for the next two years to pay for aircraft deliveries.

How are they going to pay when they only have RM1.1 cash reserve, which will be exhausted soon to pay for the continuing losses. 

With a severe red balance sheet will the banks lend them money or they may have to go to Santa Clause to get the money, the people's money.

Three things the government can do, forget about national pride, it's a national shame.............sell the damned thing to a private concern, close it down, or chop it up, bit by bit, and feed to the dogs.

MAS, national pride or national shame?

Blast from the past, read here, talk is cheap!

MAS: "Mana Ada System" atau "Mesti Ada Salah" ?

Hantu Laut

MAS, true acronym should be "Mana Ada System" or "Mesti Ada Salah", but still a great way to fly, if you fly business or first class and paid for by your company.

Now that I am retired and pay from my own pocket, I only travel economy.

I booked my flight online for 14 November on flight MH 2640 departing 15.50 from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu and also booked and paid for two emergency exit seats for my wife and me....... to be precise Seat No.11B and 11C on a Boeing 737-400 configuration. 

I usually booked first row in economy which gives better leg room, but since all seats on the first row were already taken I opted for the emergency exit seats, which also give much better leg room.

Sitting at the holding departure lounge and looking out through the smudged glass ( typical MAB bad maintenance and bad housekeeping. Unlike Changi, where you always see cleaners constantly cleaning the glass panels, MAB never cleaned those huge glass panels at the airport) I can see the aircraft parked at the aero-bridge is not a 737-400 but a bigger aircraft, a 737-800, which I have flown with umpteen times and knew that the seat configuration is not the same.

We boarded the aircraft and true enough our seats were not at the emergency exit. I explained to one of the crew and she told me to wait for the ground supervisor to come to the aircraft, who eventually turned up and apologised for the mixed up. I told him there was no mixed up, it's the airline that caused the confusion without informing me of the change of aircraft.As I have paid extra for the seat the ground crew at the drop bag counter (we kiosk checked-in) should have noticed and moved us to the proper seats.

Next, I was horrified when the ground supervisor foolishly turned to two kampong folks in the seats behind us to exchange seats with us.I politely declined and told him it is not nice to ask them to move since they are already seated. This clueless guy than advised me to seek refund from the airline. I flatly told him I won't want to waste anymore time and spend more money to seek refund of RM40.00, which will take ages to resolve.

I have flown with many other airlines over the decades and I must confess MAS is still a better airline than many that I have flown with, but occasionally they do infuriate you with the "tidak apa" attitude of their staff.

From my past experience some airline would just bump you up to empty seats in business class if they were in the wrong and there were many empty seats in business class that day.

Najib, Close Down MAS And F.O The Union.

Hantu Laut

I still remember the day Lee Kuan Yew threatened to close down SIA.That was in 1980 when I still lived in Singapore.

Lee's fiery speech telling the Singapore Airlines' Pilot Association, in no uncertain term, what he intends to do if they continue with their 'work to rule' action that have disrupted several of the airline flight's schedule.The pilots were asking for higher salaries and greater benefits.

At that time SIA had many expatriate pilots.



Lee personally confronted the pilot and told them he would close down the airline, sack all of them, if he had to, and start a new airline.

As a consequent, the association was de-registered and its officials prosecuted and SIA continued to soar into the blue yonder.

Lee has shown how tough he can get when facing a threat.This is what true leader should do when confronted with threat from a small group of people, too selfish to care about the nation's interests.



The great Mr. Lee taking on the Americans.

In 2004, Lee, this time not as PM, but as minister mentor had head-on collision with the SIA pilot union again.Taking up a personal charge to clean up the problem posed by the SIA pilot union Lee warned of "cracking head" if the pilot union moved toward a strike.His concern is two of Singapore's biggest assets, SIA and Changi Airport, which is already facing severe challenges from budget airlines and long-haul air crafts which could bypass Singapore as stopover point.

As they say 'the rest is history' and without me saying, you should know who  the winner was?

I must say, I am disappointed with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.He succumbed to too many demands made by the oppositions, his own party belligerents and now he seemed to have succumbed to the MAS employees union and the root of the matter is not even over wages and benefits for the union workers but about who can buy into MAS and who can't.


The union is now interfering in the business and management of the company.

Obviously, Najib is listening to the wrong people advising him how to deal with MAS woes.

MAS massive losses of MR2.5 billion incurred last years has nothing to do with the share swap.The share swap was done in August 2011 which is slightly over six months now.

Any nincompoop would know there are gestation periods involved before the company can show profitability. To say MAS is at the losing end of the deal is preposterous.If you replaced one shitty management with another one of the same standing should you expect any better?

Like the carpenter who blame the tools for his shoddy work, MAS management keep harping on increased cost of fuel as the gremlin of their problem. 

What about SIA and other profitable airlines, are their planes running on water? What about Air Asia, the cheapo airline, how the hell they can show profits for the same period? Maybe, their planes are running on sugarcane juice?

It's a shame that this bunch of Malay technocrats never seemed to get their act together, more attune to playing the blame game than getting down to serious work of saving the airline.

Instead of looking into cost cutting, redundancy, retrenchment and boosting sales, they found a new rat on board that may be cutting the ground under their feet.

The rat is no other than Tony Fernandez, whom they see as a threat.

It was reported that officials of MAS union went to see the PM to state their displeasure and opposition to the share swap with Air Asia.The PM should have showed them the door and tell them it is not their business to tell him how to run the government, their business is to look after the welfare of their members.If MAS goes down, they all be out of a job, anyway.

Would 20000 MAS employees scare him into breaching the MAS/Air Asia tie-up? Would a new government entity taking over the airline makes it profitable? I cast my doubt.

Quote (The Malaysian Insider has learnt that Putrajaya officials are working on a plan for Khazanah to divest its stake in MAS first before a general offer is made for the remaining shares from other shareholders, including tycoon Tan Sri Tony Fernandes’ Tune Air, which owns a 20.5 per cent stake in the national airline. In the August 2011 deal, Khazanah got a 10 per cent stake in Asia’s biggest budget carrier AirAsia.) Unquote.

Food for thought!What happened if Tony Fernandez refused to sell after the restructuring. What you do? Shoot him,ISA him or sent him to Ceylon?

Najib should make business decision, not political decision.He should not entertain the MAS union's demand.It absurd that 20000 MAS employees can save his premiership and he sacrificing more taxpayer's money to appease them.

Najib is moving in the right direction but he must show that he is control, he is the boss, not swayed by people who are harbingers of doom.

Quote (Failing to placate the union could turn into a political hot potato for Najib as MAS operations are centred in Selangor, an important industrial state Najib wants to wrest back from the opposition in elections that could be held within months. MI) Unquote.

Close down the damned airline and F.O the MAS union.It's the people money that's going down the drain.

Alternatively, sell MAS to Tony Fernandez for a song.

MAS:National Pride Or National Shame?

Hantu Laut

There have been many fatalities in the airline business.

The three most well-known demises of national airlines were Pan Am, Swissair and Sabena of the U.S, Switzerland and Belgium respectively. 

I have had the honour of having flown with all three airlines before they were destined to the graveyard.

One must not have false sense of pride or foolish sentiments when come to running a business. If the business continued to lose money, sell it or close it down. Pouring taxpayer's money into this bottomless pit is completely irresponsible of the government, which eventually would become even more costly to shut down.

The Malaysian taxpayers should not be made to pay money to this sick child just because the government think they are beholden to keep employing those 20,000 grossly overstaffed MAS bumiputra employees and maintain a false and costly national pride.

The government should not be beholden to those good-for-nothing MAS management and employees, but should protect taxpayers money as trustee of the people.

MAS losses were not due to external market forces.It's just incompetence and bad management. Its major losses were due to gross mismanagement arising out of over staffing, overpricing of supplies by sub-contractors, high fuel prices due to poor financial planning and in a nutshell a blundering amateurist management team headed by people who have no knowledge of the aviation industry. MAS has enough business in the air, but excessively high expenditure caused the massive losses.

Its airline core business revenue increased by 2% to RM13.9 billion in 2011 but suffered a massive loss of RM2.52 billion.Higher fuel costs were due to management lack of foresight. A competent management would know how to hedge fuel prices.Since passengers help subsidised fuel cost by paying fuel surcharges, MAS management cannot claim that most of it losses were due to higher fuel costs.

Using the 2011 loss as a yardstick, MAS would have lost 10 Boeing 737-800 in 2011, literally chopping them up for the scrapyard, which hypothetically also means it could have paid the purchase of 10 units of new Boeing 737-800 in cash.Current price of Boeing 737-800 is at US$83-100 million depending on the configuration.

The airline had gone through various management changes over the past decade, yet nothing good had come out of it.

As I have predicted correctly of past management failures, I am still not convinced the new management team put in recently would be able to save the airline.There will be lots of talk but little improvement.

Political interference and corrupt practices are rampant in the airline.Many MAS supply contracts were given to relatives and cronies with highly inflated prices. Remember the RM75 or RM150 per serving of nasi lemak episode not long ago?

Can MAS pay for air crafts due for delivery this year and next? 

They are 5 units A-380, 13 B737-800 and 5 A330-300 awaiting delivery. MAS needs almost RM10 billion for the next two years to pay for aircraft deliveries.

How are they going to pay when they only have RM1.1 cash reserve, which will be exhausted soon to pay for the continuing losses. 

With a severe red balance sheet will the banks lend them money or they may have to go to Santa Clause to get the money, the people's money.

Three things the government can do, forget about national pride, it's a national shame.............sell the damned thing to a private concern, close it down, or chop it up, bit by bit, and feed to the dogs.

MAS, national pride or national shame?

Blast from the past, read here, talk is cheap!

Doggoned MP Bung Mokhtar, MAS Is Not Worth Crying For

Hantu Laut

Does he know anything about doing business? 

Can he interpret a "Balance Sheet" or read and make sense of "P&L" account statement, or understand what "PE" ratio is, or what is meant when a company is "highly geared" ? Has he any idea what is quick ratio/acid test or what are the negative aspects of "LBO" and what "insider trading" are?

I am sure this kampong bully who made it to the august house do not understand the intricacies of the corporate world.
Just because some smart sounding alecs and clueless opposition leaders and equally clueless bloggers criticised the share swap between the two companies, politically motivated and out of envy rather than concerned for financial probity. 

Envy, because that Indian(Sri Lankan, if you wish, a good Ceylonese friend of mine refused to be called Indian, preferring to be called Jaffnese, which he thinks is more exotic) wiz-kid can do what they can't even dream of, let alone doing it. 

Bung Mokhtar's grandstanding here.

Tony Fernandez is an icon of corporate Malaysia, a true entrepreneur, rag to riches story that one should emulate and be proud of. He has done more for this country than some of the asses in our august house.

From opposition leaders with politically motivated agenda, the dickhead leaders of MAS Union, to this hillbilly from Sabah, I suggest you know your subject first before you open your big mouth. MAS is a public listed company, anyone can buy into it.

Business is not run on emotion or sentiment, it's fuelled by money, the more the merrier.

Get it into your thick head, MAS is a very sick company, a cash guzzling monster ran by incompetent people. 

When it was wholly owned by the government the accounts were never published publicly, so we have no way to gauge its performance then, keeping the people in the dark and it was taxpayer's money that kept it going.

We only come to know the state of its health and the incompetence of its management after it went public. The government should wash its hand off this sick baby, either privatise the airline or close it down and let free enterprise takes over the airline business in this country.

Air Asia has done more for air travel in this country than MAS ever did.It has made air travel affordable to the poor and low income group.

Unfortunately, MAS has still not woken up to its mistakes, the management is still fast asleep and they still have the highest fare among airlines in this region.They are only interested in winning stupid awards like "finest 1st class cabin service" and so forth.

While other airlines reduced fares to get bigger business volume, MAS is only interested in maintaining its "haute couture" image, which it can hardly afford.The only way it can survive is to sack half the workforce. Tony Fernandez and the new board should do just that.

To give you an idea on how incompetent those running the airline, I would like to show some online fares of various airlines from Kuala Lumpur to London.

I booked for my family of 4 adults and 2 children lowest fare of no less a premier and much superior airline than MAS on exactly the same dates.The difference is shocking.

MAS fares are an airline death wish.

Below are fare comparisons:

Adults 4, children 2. (London/KL Return)

MAS:MYR62,990

SIA:MYR22,934

EMIRATES:MYR27,264

ETIHAD:MYR26,984

KLM:MYR23,814

All are full-frills airlines. SIA is using Airbus A380 and MAS using its ageing B747 -200 and 400.

Those who think so great of MAS better think again.Just look at the prices. 

All the other airlines fares are pretty close, which means, they understand competition, while MAS is still sitting on its laurel waiting for Santa Claus to save the airline.

Tony Fernandez has a track record of turning a loss making 2-plane airline formerly owned by the government, which he bought for a song and a huge debt and turned it into the pride of the nation. The biggest low cost carrier in Asia, making air travel a reality for the ordinary people.

What has Bung Mokhtar and all the bumiputras, who ran MAS have to show the world what good they have done for this country.

People who lives in glass houses should not throw stones.

He is a coward using parliamentary immunity to shield himself from libel action. 

He should repeat what he said outside Parliament.

Is Tony Fernandez Buying Trouble?

Hantu Laut

What would be the strike price in the share swap between MAS and AirAsia ? Is the strike price going to be higher or lower than the market price?

The exercise would call for at least 1 Air Asia share for 2 MAS shares but the valuation could be more because Air Asia market share price is more than twice that of MAS. However, it is up to MAS and Air Asia, they can ignore the market price and set a strike price they both agree on.

It was initially rumoured that the cross holding would give Tony Fernandez's Air Asia majority share in MAS which was later refuted by MAS biggest shareholder Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Malaysia's Sovereign wealth fund. Khazanah has 14.06% direct holding and 52.29% indirect holding through wholly owned Penerbangan Malaysia.It appears that even after the exercise Khazanah would still be a majority shareholder in MAS.

The share swap is between MAS and Air Asia not with Tune Air as reported by the Editor of Malaysian Insider here. Tune air would have indirect interest in MAS through Air Asia.If such holdings were of significant size this would make it difficult for either company's shareholders to displace the existing management; if both were majority holdings it would be impossible to vote out either set of directors.

Unless he has control over the policies and major decisions in MAS I can't see the rational of Fernandez buying into MAS if Khazanah still call the shot.The swap, if successful, would also give Khazanah significant share in Air Asia if they have not already own some shares in Air Asia through nominees.It would also give Khazanah significant role in policy matters. However, if two firms cross hold each other, it is difficult to displace the management in one without the consent of the other corporation.Being a shrewd businessman I am sure Fernandez has something under his sleeve that we have yet to see.

MAS string of failures was not due solely to the CEO, the board of directors should take the bigger blame for the mess the airline is in. One should envisage the problem of working with a bunch of bureaucratic civil servants to appreciate the difficult working environment one can be subjected to.Remember the days when nasi lemak cost the airline RM70.00 a plate.Nasi lemak is certainly not gourmet food, you can get better nasi lemak from street vendors for as little as RM2.50.

Political interference has also contributed to some of MAS losses.The few years that MAS made money under Idris Jala was made more out of assets stripping rather than profits from its operations.Even if they did, the profits were insignificant.

Below Singapore Airlines group financial highlights.

Year ended	Revenue (S$m)	Expenditure (S$m)	Operating profit (S$m)	Profit before taxation (S$m)
31 March 1999	7,795.9	6,941.5	854.4	1,116.8
31 March 2000	9,018.8	7,850.0	1,168.8	1,463.9
31 March 2001	9,951.3	8,604.6	1,346.7	1,904.7
31 March 2002	9,382.8	8,458.2	924.6	925.6
31 March 2003	10,515.0	9,797.9	717.1	976.8
31 March 2004	9,761.9	9,081.5	680.4	820.9
31 March 2005	12,012.9	10,657.4	1,355.5	1,829.4
31 March 2006	13,341.1	12,127.8	1,213.3	1,662.1
31 March 2007	14,494.4	13,180.0	1,314.4	2,284.6
31 March 2008	15,972.5	13,848.0	2,124.5	2,547.2
31 March 2009	15,996.3	15,092.7	903.6	1,198.6
31 March 2010	12,707.3	12,644.1	63.2	285.5

All those years Singapore Airline were making profits MAS was losing substantially or profited under extraordinary gains while under Jala's management.It's a 5 star airline with 5 star losses.

Jala left in the nick of time when Najib pulled him out of MAS to join his cabinet.Soon after he left, the airline started showing losses again.Obviously, they have no more assets to strip or major asset unbundling, the formula used in the financial restructuring in 2002 after suffering huge losses.The Binafikir formula have a short shelf life, the airline is back in the red.

Would Tony insists to absorb Firefly into Air Asia and MAS to cease selling low fares to its passengers and stay as a full-fledged carrier? I expect these would be some of the conditions thrown at Khazanah if they were to bring Tony to the board of MAS.

Since the deal between MAS and Air Asia is not yet set in concrete anything can happen, negotiation can still break down if Tony doesn't get what he wants.

Air Asia Flying Into Turbulence

Hantu Laut

"Now Everyone Can Fly" a tag line that has become a reality not only in Malaysia but the whole wide world.

Air Asia, a fledgling airline less than a decade ago has become one of Malaysia's greatest success story.A pioneer in budget airline in Asia and Asia's largest low-fare, no frills airline.

Air Asia was founded by government linked company DRB-HICOM.The highly-indebted company was purchased by one man with one clear vision....... to provide affordable air-fare for the masses.

That one man is Tony Fernandes, who bought the loss-making company for RM1.00 and took over some RM40 million of debt and 2 ageing Boeing 737 .His stint at Virgin as a finance and accounting man may have given him the insight on how to start and run a budget airline.

Many thought him to be out of his mind to buy a debt-ridden airline and prophesied its early demise.The prophets of doom were wrong, the airline has grown from strength to strength and have now eclipsed MAS (Malaysian Airline) in term of fleet size, market capitalisation, profit and popularity.

An epitome of one man's loss is another man's gain. Fernandes has become the envy of the corporate world and his airline a household name in the region.This man had received many outstanding awards including the France government and the Queen of England.Malaysia seemed to have missed his contributions.

Air Asia has flown into turbulence in East Malaysia particularly Sabah where MAB (Malaysian Airports) had given it an ultimatum to move to the KKIA main terminal by 1st June 2011.

Moving to the main terminal would mean increase in its operating cost which would have to be passed on to passengers that would certainly cut its passenger load.Fernandes was against the idea and said he would chain himself to Terminal 2 if he had to, to stay there.

I am a proponent of budget airline which allow one to tailor the fare to suit one's pocket.

I fly with both airlines but more with Air Asia because of its better frequency of flights, newer fleet of air crafts and affordable fare.

Unless, you want to complain it is too cheap or you are just a stupid snob let me assure you there is nothing wrong with the airline, most of its planes are younger than those used by MAS on its domestic flights.

It would be silly of the Malaysian government to ignore Air Asia and give special treatment to MAS which is basically run by people with bureaucratic civil servant mentality and dare not face competitions.MAB excuse of wanting Terminal 2 as cargo terminal is just an excuse.I believe there are plenty of room for expansion where the present cargo terminal is.

Air Asia has become too big to ignore.There were rumours that the Singapore government is trying to court Air Asia to move its hub to Singapore with a promise of competitive costs and a dedicated terminal for the airline.It wouldn't take a lot of effort for Fernandes to accept the offer, if true, and move his main hub to Singapore.

I have flown once with Jetstar from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu and it was no where near as systematic and efficient as Air Asia, the queue at the check-in counter was so long I almost die standing.

The rumours of Singapore wanting another low-cost airline to make Changi its main hub may not be untrue.Air Asia is probably the most successful low-cost airline in the world.Many have tried to copy it but some have fallen by the wayside or are struggling to survive.

Read this on the screwing of Air Asia by Joe Fernandez

MAS Explained

Hantu Laut

MAS has responded to the seemingly "near miss" I witnessed on my flight between Labuan and Kuala Lumpur.

RVSM of 1000 is really not too far to get optical illusion of the distance of the moving object.The original RVSM was 2000 feet for FL290(29000 ft) to FL410(41000 ft) but was reduced by ICAO to 1000 ft and implemented between 1997 and 2008 over the world's various airspace.

MAS explained.

We refer to your blog post above regarding your flight experience on MH2609 from Kota Kinabalu with a stop over at Labuan en route to Kuala Lumpur dated 29 June 2010.

Thank you for raising your concerns. For your information, all our aircraft are equipped with the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). This system functions to detect any aircrafts that is within a flight path of our aircraft.

It’s a mandatory rule by the Department of Civil Aviation that the TCAS system on the B737 aircraft must be functioning before any flight.

We have found that the incident to which you refer to did not trigger any TCAS warning. This indicates that the other aircraft was too far away and therefore did not trigger the TCAS warning.

In addition, Malaysia Airlines strictly adheres to the Required Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) airways which dictate 1000ft minimum vertical separation between 2 aircrafts on opposite direction.

Should there have been an incident, the pilot is mandated to file an Air Safety Report (ASR) with our Flight Operations Safety Department within 24 hours.

As there was no incident, the operating Captain of the flight did not file any report. The Captain is a senior and experienced pilot who is also an Authorized Examiner by the Department of Civil Aviation.

We would like to assure you that the safety of our passengers is our top priority. In everything that we do, there is absolutely no compromise on safety.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Captain Mohamed Azharuddin Osman
Director of Operations
Malaysia Airlines

July 2, 2010 6:50 PM

MAS Aircraft "Near Miss" Civil Aviation Should Investigate.

Hantu Laut

Our flight MAS MH2609 that was supposed to depart Kota Kinabalu at 4.10 p.m. was delayed for about 25 minutes. The stopover at Labuan for 30 minutes was the result of my carelessness for not reading the fine prints.Didn't notice the tiny (#1) print just below the particular flight indicating 1 stop over when I booked online.As time was of constraint did not bother to change the flight.MAS must have learned from insurance companies how to trap its costumers what they see is not what they buy.

I have been here many times but Labuan has never been my favourite town.It simply has no real attractions, no sensuality, no colour. It's a real dump, pallid and charmless, where only cheap cigarettes, cheap booze, honky-tonk bars and cheap sex the only attractions.No bona fide tourist in his right mind would go to Labuan.Its history of being a colonial outpost in days bygones left no visible relics whatsoever.

I expected the flight from Labuan to Kuala Lumpur to be quite empty and even told my wife to reassure her.This is one of the few times I hated myself for being cocksurely wrong.The almost endless stream of people boarding the plane was enough to amuse my wife that a few hours ago was fuming mad that she has to be on this plane.It amused her because I was wrong.It was packed like sardines.

The flight took off smoothly although there were low clouds everywhere during the ascend.

Almost 50 minutes out of Labuan and looking out of the window I told my wife how beautiful those clouds were adorned with reflection of the setting sun giving them a golden tinge.Flying in westerly direction we were actually chasing the sunset. Good God! Next moment, another jet plane, much smaller than the Boeing 737 that we were on passed split second just below the wing tip of our plane going in the opposite direction.

It gave my wife and I the biggest jolt of our life and we exclaimed so loudly we actually woke up our fellow passenger in the next seat.Being frequent flyer and knowing some aviation rules I know that was almost a disaster.I hope I was wrong in my assumption.

I hope the captain of MAS flight 2409, if he is aware of the near miss or close call, unless his radar did not pick up the other flying object, has lodged a report with the Civil Aviation Department to investigate.It happened at about 6.45 p.m. on 29 June, Labuan to KL Flight MH2609 and the other aircraft looked like a private jet.

A near miss, a close call or near collision are terms used when aircraft passed each other too close for comfort.

Commercial airliners are considered dangerously close if they are one mile apart.A quarter of a mile apart or less is a "near miss" and more or less on a collision course and what we saw was pretty pretty close. Normally, three miles is the minimum separation in some airspace.

(I have reported by email the incident to the DG of the Department of Civil Aviation to determine whether the incident has been reported or was I wrong in my assumption what construes a 'near miss' ?)

Unfortunately, the email bounced back.

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

azhar@dca.gov.my

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.7.1 Message rejected as spam by Content Filtering. (state 18).

For some unknown reason many government department's email seems to behave rather strangely and are difficult to get through.

MAS, Why Are You Afraid Of Competition?

Hantu Laut

Competition pushes you to become better.It pushes others to become better.The world has become a better place because of competition.

Competition is good for everyone.It improves quality of products and services.It brings down costs. It gives cheaper alternatives. It increases volume of business. It spares those who are competitive and kill those who are not.Most of all it benefits consumers, people like you and me.

Without competition the world's economy would have stagnated.There wouldn't be any kind of sports, no new inventions, no new technology and absolutely no advancement of the human race.

The breakup of the Soviet Union is proof that communism and monopolistic policy can't survive the competitive world.China, opened its doors to capitalism and the free market economy because they knew without competitiveness they wouldn't survive the world's competitive markets.Anti-trust law introduced in the US and some Western countries was to ensure that competition stays for the benefit of consumers.

Why is it that when the rest of the economically vibrant world are in competitive mode Malaysia regress to outmoded economic practices? Isn't it against the very spirit of NEM (New Economic Model) purveyed by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to make this nation competitive.

Why must MAS be shielded from competition that is in collision course with Najib's new economic policy.Isn't the PM involved in the construction and decision making of the economic policy or was it left to the civil servants and political leaders who put a blind eye to fair trade practices simply to protect themselves.

At whose feet the ball stops? The PM,the Cabinet or some nitwitted minister?

Let me tell you why I agree with Air Asia here.

Before the advent of Air Asia we have no choice but to travel all domestic routes with MAS.The airline has the monopoly and screwed its costumers with high fares and bad ground services.Delays were commonplace those days and there was nothing one can do as there were no other choice.In spite of being given monopoly MAS kept saying they were losing money as they have to subsidise the fare.That is now proven untrue.How come, now in stiff competition with Air Asia they are making money on this sector?

Air Asia came on the scene with its no frills and cheap air fare that gave air travel a new meaning....affordable fare for the common people and hence its slogan 'Now Everyone Can Fly'.
The airline was transformed from a one plane airline to become the most successful rag to riches story and a household name in Asia, true to it name.The rest is history.

On the other hand, MAS, the spoon fed sick baby, in spite government protection, was sliding down the hill gathering mosses and losses that needed government bailout with massive injection of fresh capital and the appointment of an oil man to lead the company.

The first thing the new management did was to go on asset stripping exercise, selling its building and all aircraft to a new GLC company with a lease back agreement. The exercise cleaned up the balance sheet giving the impression that MAS has become a profitable concern in its first year under the new management.A closer look at the balance sheet in the first year revealed that the profits were not from its operations but extraordinary profits from sales of assets.

I started using Air Asia about 5 years ago but since MAS introduced its cheap fare I have switched back to MAS and have been using it for the past one year.

AIR-ASIA

Depart

AK 5121 Kota Kinabalu(BKI) to Kuala Lumpur LCCT(KUL)

Wed 12 May 2010

Depart 0725 Arrive 0955

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193.00 MYR1 Guest @ 193.00

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6.00 MYR Airport Taxes and Fees

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Return

AK 5100 Kuala Lumpur LCCT(KUL) to Kota Kinabalu(BKI)

Sun 16 May 2010

Depart 0650 Arrive 0920

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193.00 MYR1 Guest @ 193.00

---

6.00 MYR Airport Taxes and Fees

---

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398.00 MYRTotal

MAS

• 
• Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu ECONOMY
• From MYR399ReturnBook now

Book: 11 Feb 10 - 30 Jun 10 Depart: 18 Feb 10 - 31 Dec

Both airlines offered very competitive fares as shown above but MAS has the added attraction of full frills services.

What Azran Osman said about MAS being profitable in the domestic and Asean sector is true.MAS, introduced the low fare to hit Air Asia below the belt.I am sure there are many like me who switched back to MAS, paying low fare and found the benefits of full frills.... free baggage allowance and free meal.It was competition that gave MAS that increased volume of business and profitability, not the monopoly that it is used to in the past.

MAS like most other GLCs such as TMNet, Proton, Tenaga and so forth are spoiled by government protection and monopoly.It kills enthusiasm, loses the competitive edge and makes those managing the company lazy.

TMNet, the sole fixed line Internet provider has not improved its services much since the Internet first introduced to this country, selling broadband that ain't broadband, fleecing costumers and not giving what they paid for.Its broadband speed and coverage is a shame.

Countries like South Korea which used to be behind us in the seventies now has the highest broadband coverage per capita and the fastest connection, at an astounding 14.6 megabits per second, better than many areas in the US.

Compare to Malaysia which has a bigger land mass, tiny Singapore has four Internet Service Providers namely Starhub, Singnet,M1 and Pacnet and some can deliver up to 100 Mbit/s.

I need not go into more details the misfortunes of Malaysians because of our government fear of competition....as they say if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.Government has no business to be in business if they can't run it properly and without protection.

Many of us are victims of false promises and misrepresentation. TmNet Streamyx fastest package is the Streamyx Corporate ADSL promising 2 Mb/sec.You have to pay a whopping RM1188 per month.Can it deliver the speed?

I have Streamyx Basic at 1 Mb/sec and it can hardly deliver half the speed.If any of you have bought so-called Celcom 3G wireless broadband you might consider throwing it in the rubbish bin.I have done exactly that and will be informing Celcom to cancel the service.It's a pain in the ass and money for nothing.

Why are the government giving protection to all these companies run by incompetent and non-competitive minded people who can't spell the word competition let alone pronounce it.

So, who flies to Pyongyang, Peshawar in Pakistan, Dili in East Timor, Almaty in Kazakhstan, Mahe in the Seychelles and Darwin, Australia?

Here, is a typical run of the mill crappy response from a politician.

I think it's about time Najib tells his boys what he promised the people.

As Mahathir says he doesn't need protection from the government on the controversial book written about him.

MAS, should select the men between the boys, tell the government it doesn't need protection.

A Deserving Apology To MASwings

Hantu Laut

When I wrote 'MAS and MASwings,Shame On You' I based my information on what was reported in the mainstream media and concluded that MASwings tried to muscle its way using its status to monopolise the Sibu-KK air route without knowing the history that gives RAS (Rural Air Services) exclusivity (inherited from FAX, an Air Asia subsidiary) to MASwings.Sibu is included in the RAS.

The Managing Director Encik Mohd Salleh Tabrani of MASwings has kindly clarified the case and it would be rude on my part if I do not bring it to light.

Below is his response

Malaysia Airlines said...

Hi Hantu Laut, everyone,

I'd like to take this opportunity to comment on this conversation, and to help clarify the situation revolving around the Kota Kinabalu-Sibu route.

The Kota Kinabalu-Sibu route is exclusive to the operator of Rural Air Services (RAS) because AirAsia had in fact requested for routes exclusivity when its subsidiary, FAX operated the RAS.

This took place during the domestic rationalisation exercise of March 2006, and AirAsia demanded for exclusive rights to almost all of the air routes within and intra Sabah and Sarawak, which naturally included the Kota Kinabalu-Sibu route. Only AirAsia's subsidiary, FAX had the exclusive rights to ply these routes.

Therefore, we were following the RAS Agreement that is in place, and allegations of us forcing AirAsia out of the KK-Sibu route is in fact untrue. In addition, it should also be pointed out that AirAsia is bound by the RAS Agreement and as such, cannot fly these routes, which is only afforded to FAX.

Perhaps a little more history behind what actually took place: AirAsia, through FAX, took over RAS from MAS in 2006, and received higher subsidies as compared to MASwings for the same scope of air services. However, AirAsia quickly surrendered (13 months) RAS back to Malaysia Airlines when they realised how unprofitable the routes were. Is this a case of cherry picking and choosing only to operate on profitable routes? I leave it to your kind selves to make your own conclusion.

Regardless of how this is perceived, it is clear that loss of taxpayer’s money is involved here. As many of you may know, we cross subsidise profitable routes (such as the KK-Sibu route) with other unprofitable routes. By doing this, we in fact help save taxpayer’s money, as MASwings’ P&L is born by the government. There is also the untold story of job loss, as we were forced to retrench hundreds of long serving staff in Sabah and Sarawak under a Mutual Seperation Scheme, due to the initial handover handover in 2006.

Lastly, it is also noteworthy to mention that MAS handed over seven Fokker 50 as well as five Twin Otter aircraft to FAX, all of which were in excellent flying condition. When MASwings resumed RAS operations in 2007, 50% of the Fokker 50 aircraft and almost all of the Twin Otter aircraft were not airworthy. As a result, we spent an additional RM36 million to restore these aircraft back to operational conditions.

I hope that with this, you have a clearer picture of what has transpired, and will help everyone to better understand the situation with the facts in hand.
Thank you.

Encik Mohd Salleh Tabrani
Managing Director
MASwings

I hope the above clear the air.

However, I still think competition is the way to go and is healthy and should be encouraged.What I still would like to know is the fare disparity, why the huge difference between the two airlines?