Malaysia Airlines has been losing money in the last three years and its CEO admits that the airline has ‘got a lot of work to do’ in restoring its image following MH370's disappearance. – The Malaysian Insider pic, April 11, 2014.As search teams for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continue to hunt for the source of the pulse signals detected over the past few days in the Indian Ocean, Britain's air accidents investigator has criticised Malaysia Airlines for failing to preserve flight recordings during an incident at London’s Heathrow Airport in 2012, the Associated Press reported today.
In the incident on August 17, 2012, a Boeing 747 bound for Kuala Lumpur with 340 passengers on board had to turn back soon after take-off because of engine and electrical failures.
The pilots flew the plane manually and returned to the airport safely.
However, the investigator from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch observed in a report that all the audio information relating to the incident was lost because the cockpit voice recorder ran on long after the landing and erased the previous data.
“The investigation determined that the operator's procedures for the preservation of flight recordings were not sufficiently robust to ensure that recordings would be preserved in a timely manner following an incident or accident,” the report was quoted as saying. It added that that the airline said it would train its staff to ensure they took steps to secure the recordings as soon as possible after an emergency.
This latest report by Britain’s air accidents expert will deal another blow to the national flag carrier that is already dealing with the loss of flight MH370 and intense competition from other airlines.
Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya had said recently that the airline has “got a lot of work to do” in restoring its image following MH370's disappearance.
"If you notice the experience of other airlines, it took them up to about six months to recover from a market reputation issue," he had said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
MH370 vanished from the radar on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
Search operations for the plane are ongoing in the Indian Ocean.
MAS and the Malaysian authorities have come under intense scrutiny following the incident and have been criticised heavily for mismanaging the search and holding back information.
Ahmad Jauhari said the incident had affected the airline but noted that investigation was still under way.
"We have a lot of work to do. The airline needs to get itself together and we intend to do that.”
The flag carrier had reported hefty losses for three years running and MH370 now raised the spectre of a potential drop in bookings over safety concerns and possible huge payouts to passengers' families.
Reuters also reported last month that Malaysia Airlines was bleeding cash, prompting talk that it may need another financial rescue from state investor Khazanah Nasional Bhd, its majority shareholder.
The flag carrier's cash and short-term investments at end-December were close to US$1.2 billion (RM3.87 billion) – less than its average operating costs of the two previous quarters, and a signal that it may soon need fresh funding or bank loans.
The search for MH370, already into its second month, is on track to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, becoming the most expensive search in aviation history with 26 countries contributing planes, ships, submarines and satellites to the international effort.
Angus Houston, who is heading the Joint Agency Coordination Centre Perth, said that a fresh signal was picked up yesterday afternoon by an Australian Air Force P-3C Orion plane somewhere near the Australian Defence vessel HMAS Ocean Shield.
The plane had detected the possible signal from the sonar buoys that are equipped to home in on underwater locator beacons built into the commercial aircraft's black box.
source from: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com
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