Flight 370 search resumes; families remain in limbo

Flight MH-370 may go down in history as one of most incredible aviation mysteries. The cruel reality is that even though we have a fair amount of information now, we still know so little.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak informed the families of the victims that the plane had crashed into the remote south Indian Ocean, and all 239 people onboard are presumed dead.

That tragic but not unexpected conclusion was based on data analysis by satellite company Inmarsat, which Malaysia now says was able to track Flight 370 until the signal ended very near where searchers are now hunting for plane wreckage.

The presumed location of the wreckage makes it all but impossible for certain scenarios to have played out as many observers insisted they must have.The location tells a lot about what might have happened to the doomed flight while telling us not a single detail about why it crashed.

The first thing to understand is altitude is everything. A turbofan powered jet like the Boeing 777-200ER relies on altitude to make good on its ultra long-range capabilities. At its normal cruising altitudes from around 35,000 to 40,000 feet, the 777 can fly very long distances, in excess of 11,000 miles. But it seldom flies long routes.

Flight 370 search unites global community

On its trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the plane would have had, according to investigators' projections, around seven hours of total endurance at a normal cruising speed of around 600 mph -- just enough to have flown its suspected flight path north for 40 minutes, west for around that much time again, and then south for many hours.

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At lower altitudes, turbofan engines like the Rolls-Royce engines on the Malaysia Airlines airplane, burn substantially more fuel than they do at typical cruise altitudes -- as much as twice depending on the altitudes one uses for comparison.

The increase in fuel burn will greatly reduce range, making it impossible for Flight MH-370 to have reached the southern Indian Ocean at a low altitude. It would need to have flown at a much higher optimum altitude in order to make it that far.

Pilots can reduce the power to cut back on fuel flow, of course, but that also reduces airspeed, which again reduces range.

There's no winning when it comes to flying a turbofan-powered airplane: If you want to fly far, you need to fly high.

So the fuel required for MH-370 to have reached the presumed crash location around 1500 miles west of Perth, Australia, means that the airplane did not do a lot of climbing or descending after it deviated from its original planned route to Beijing while it was still an hour or so north of Kuala Lumpur.

So if there was a struggle for control of the flight -- whether it was mechanical issues or a hijacker -- it could not have lasted long or involved great altitude deviations.

This means it's hard, though not impossible, to explain the disappearance as being the result of a mechanical or electrical failure. Such a scenario, as I've been saying since the beginning of the mystery, would require a kind of mechanical magic bullet, an event that would have taken out the transponder and ACARS radio, as well as the voice communications radios. Why else would they not have communicated the emergency?

Pilot: How mechanical problem could have downed Flight 370

Then one must accept that such a failure chain could then allow the crew -- or skilled intruder-- to be able to drive the airplane around the sky for a protracted period of time, eventually pointing it south, in the opposite direction from where the airplane was originally headed.

Let's remember, too, that the airplane would have to maintain an altitude sufficient to allow it to reach the southern Indian Ocean. All this must also have left the 777 in good enough shape to fly for another six hours or so before crashing.

A failure of the pressurization system might account for the scenario, but only if the pilots completely mismanaged their response to the emergency. The 777's backup and emergency oxygen systems are just as intelligently designed as the rest of the jet's redundant systems.

It's also difficult, if not impossible, to explain how the jet could have made the turns it did if the crew were unconscious during that time. Were they desperately trying to find an airport before time ran out? If so, they would have done two things they didn't do: They would have communicated the emergency and they would have descended. Neither of those things happened.

While it's horrific to imagine, a botched hijacking or failed pilot commandeering of the airplane are still the most likely scenarios.

Only when searchers have located and recovered the wreckage, as we all desperately hope they do, will we have our first good clues to what have might have unfolded on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-370.

Prosecution rests case in Oscar Pistorius murder trial

Pretoria, South Africa  -- The prosecution rested its case Tuesday in the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius after 15 days and 21 witnesses, setting the stage for the South African sprinter to take the stand in his own defense as soon as Friday.

Pistorius is likely to be the first defense witness called.

Pistorius, 27, is accused of intentionally murdering his girlfriend, the cover model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day last year. She was 29.

He admits shooting and killing her but insists he mistook her for a burglar in his house.

Before the state rested, the court was treated to the bizarre spectacle of two middle-aged men reading out lovey-dovey texts between Pistorius and Steenkamp as the defense tried to show the couple were happy together.

Photos: Oscar Pistorius murder trial

Steenkamp: 'Sometimes you scare me'

Pistorius witness: I heard screaming

Defense attorney Barry Roux had a police cell phone officer read dozens of chat messages where Steenkamp called Pistorius "baby," "baba," "angel" and "rockstar."

Whenever the officer, Capt. Francois Moller, failed to vocalize the "xxx" in a message, Roux interjected: "Kiss kiss kiss."

In one exchange, Steenkamp asked Pistorius if she could wear a leopard-print dress to an event. He replied, "Ja I love that and you look amazing in it."

The two men also read out messages from Steenkamp to Pistorius saying, "you never cramp my style," calling him "a nice guy" and saying she wanted to cook for him on Valentine's Day.

She never got the chance. By dinnertime that night, she was dead.

'I'm scared of you sometimes'

Roux was fighting to counter the impression left by perhaps the most dramatic testimony of the trial, a text message in which Steenkamp said she was sometimes afraid of Pistorius.

"I'm scared of you sometimes and how u snap at me and of how you will react to me," she texted him in a long WhatsApp message less than a month before she died, according to Moller.

He downloaded chat messages between the two after the Olympic athlete killed the model.

Roux pointed out that Moller had found only four arguments out of more than 1,700 texts between Steenkamp and Pistorius.

In an affectionate exchange on February 11, three days before her death, Steenkamp messaged Pistorius: "Lots of hugs I hope you have a super blessed day i have said a small prayer for both of us xxx"

He responded: "Thank you so much for being strong angel that message means a lot. I'm going to take your advice...miss you x"

Roux also was allowed by the judge to show CCTV footage of Steenkamp and Pistorius at a shop that shows them acting as a loving couple on February 4.

But after the defense finished with Moller, prosecutor Gerrie Nel pointed out that the only long texts were the ones where Steenkamp expressed her unhappiness.

He also pointed out that there was no record of a response from Pistorius to a long message from Steenkamp ending: "I can't be attacked by outsiders for dating you and be attacked by you -- the one person I deserve protection from."

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Casting doubt on the defense

Moller also offered a piece of evidence that could poke a hole in Pistorius' story of what happened the night he killed Steenkamp.

Pistorius' phone was online for 309 seconds -- just over five minutes -- at 1:48 a.m. on February 14. He has said the couple were asleep at the time. He shot her just around 3:15 a.m.

Moller listed the calls that Pistorius made after the killing: first to Johan Stander, who managed the estate he lived on, then to an ambulance and estate security.

Then he called his voice mail service, but that call was likely an accident, Moller said.

Pistorius next received a call from security, before calling his friend Justin Divaris and his brother, Carl, the police officer said.

Two other witnesses testified briefly Tuesday before the state rested its case.

Police warrant officer R.H.A. Maritz testified that there was relatively little crime in Pistorius' gated community, or "secure estate."

He also said the police had no record of a crime against Pistorius in the three years before the killing. Pistorius says he has been a victim of burglaries.

The final witness was police Col. Johannes Vermeulen, who was recalled to give more testimony about the toilet door Pistorius says he bashed with a cricket bat after realizing that Steenkamp, not a burglar, was behind it.

The state rested when Vermeulen finished testifying, just after 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Roux requested an adjournment until Friday to consult witnesses who were on the state's list but were not called.

The defense was not allowed to speak to them while they were potential state witnesses.

Judge Thokozile Masipa granted the request and adjourned court until Friday morning when the defense will begin its case.

Steenkamp killed almost instantly

Pistorius admits he killed Steenkamp, firing four shots through a closed door in his house in the early hours of February 14, 2013. Three hit her, with the last one probably killing her almost instantly, according to the pathologist who performed the autopsy.

But Pistorius says he thought she was a nighttime intruder in his pitch-black house and believed he was firing in self-defense. He pleaded not guilty to murder.

The trial was scheduled to last until March 20 but will now continue until the middle of May, the South African court hearing the case said Sunday.

The trial, which entered its fourth week on Monday, will continue until April 4, then break for a recess before resuming from April 14 until May 16, the Pretoria court announced in a statement. It said "all parties involved" had agreed to the dates. The trial began March 3.

Pistorius first achieved global fame as an outstanding double amputee sprinter who ran with special prostheses that earned him the nickname "Blade Runner."

The judge will decide the verdict with the help of two laypeople called assessors. South Africa does not have jury trials.

In South Africa, premeditated murder carries a mandatory life sentence with a minimum of 25 years. Pistorius also could get five years for each of two unrelated gun indictments and 15 years for a firearms charge he also faces.

If he isn't convicted of premeditated murder, the sprinter could face a lesser charge of culpable homicide, a crime based on negligence.

The sentence for culpable homicide is at the judge's discretion.

Kiev, Ukraine -- Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday dismissed acting Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh over his handling of the Crimea crisis following Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.

Parliament voted to appoint Col.-Gen. Mykhailo Koval as his successor. Koval's name was submitted for parliamentary approval by acting President Oleksandr Turchynov.

Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform said Tenyukh had tendered his resignation.

"Knowing that someone does not like what I did as acting defense minister, as well as due to disagreements in the issues that were offered from the first day until present regarding the Autonomous Republic of Crimea ... I ... am handing in my resignation," it quoted him as saying.

Tenyukh was Ukraine's acting defense minister as troops wearing unmarked uniforms -- which the West said were Russian forces -- surrounded Ukrainian bases in Crimea this month. Russia annexed Crimea last week after a controversial referendum that Ukraine and the West say was illegal.

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The new leaders in Kiev, who took office after months of protests forced pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych from office, say Crimea is still a part of Ukraine.

In an interview with American broadcaster PBS, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Ukraine is struggling to maintain a fighting capability after it was "deliberately dismantled" under Yanukovych.

"What we need is support from the international community. We need technology and military support to overhaul the Ukrainian military and modernize -- to be ready not just to fight, but to be ready to win," Yatsenyuk said.

With an estimated 30,000 Russian troops now positioned near Ukraine's eastern border, Yatsenyuk repeated his pledge to defend Ukrainian territory. His government ceded Crimea without a shot in order to demonstrate to the world that Russia was the aggressor, he said -- but if Moscow moves against another portion of Ukraine, the duty of all Ukrainians is "to protect our country," he said. "We will fight."

Russia snubbed at summit

Russia insists its actions are legitimate. Crimea belonged to Russia until 1954 when it was given to Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. The region has a majority ethnic Russian population and other long historic ties to Russia.

Speaking at The Hague on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama said Russia had a way out of tensions over the crisis: Negotiate with Kiev and be prepared to "act responsibly" and respond to international norms, such as respecting Ukraine's territorial integrity.

If Russia doesn't act responsibly, "there will be additional costs" that could hurt the global economy but will affect Russia most of all, Obama said at the Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands.

He said that Russia's annexation of Crimea "is not a done deal" because it's not internationally recognized. But he acknowledged that the Russian military controls Crimea, and said the world can make sure, through diplomacy and sanctions, that Russia pays a price.

"I think it would be dishonest to suggest there is a simple solution to resolving what has already taken place," Obama said, dismissing any suggestion that Russia's intervention in Crimea -- and hints that it could intervene in Ukraine to support Russian speakers -- was similar to NATO's intervention in Kosovo.

Obama also said Russia was more isolated now than it was roughly five years ago during its war with the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and more than it was during most of the 20th century, when it was part of the Soviet Union.

Moscow has doggedly pursued its own course, even as Western leaders have denounced its actions as violations of Ukraine's sovereignty and a breach of international law.

In what has become the biggest East-West confrontation since the Cold War, the United States and European Union have imposed visa bans and asset freezes on some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest political and business allies. Russia responded with its own list of sanctions against a number of U.S. lawmakers and officials.

The G7 group of leading industrialized countries has condemned both the Crimean vote to secede and Russia's annexation of Crimea. Russia has now been excluded from what was the G8. Moscow had joined the G7 group in 1998 to form the G8.

Russia initially reacted to the snub by saying "the G8 is an informal organization that does not give out any membership cards and, by its definition, cannot remove anyone."

But on Tuesday, the Kremlin said it wants to maintain contact with G8 partners.

"As for the contacts with the G8 countries, we are ready for them, we are interested in them, but the unwillingness of other countries to continue the dialogue, in our view, is counterproductive both for us and our partners," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's state ITAR-Tass news agency.

Ahead of the G7 gathering, a representative for British Prime Minister David Cameron said that no G8 meeting would take place in Russia this year as previously planned.

Concerns over military buildup

Also at the nuclear summit Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Deshchytsia, and, separately, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

During his meeting with Lavrov, Kerry expressed concern about Russian troops amassed on the Ukrainian border, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Other officials, including NATO's top military commander, have already expressed concern about the buildup of Russian forces on Ukraine's border.

Russia has added 10,000 troops, along with air defense artillery and wheeled vehicles, to its positions near Ukraine's eastern border in the last week to 10 days, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation. Russian forces in the vicinity now total 30,000, according to U.S. estimates.

Russia had maintained a level of about 20,000 troops in the area but began reinforcing and adding to their positions in recent days, the official said, leading to U.S. concern that they are positioned to move into Ukraine if and when they are ordered to do so.

Separately, a senior U.S. defense official told CNN that Russia "has enough troops that we believe they could move against Ukraine at any time now."

The official emphasized the United States still does not know Russia's intentions on the border despite statements by its defense minister that the troops are there only for exercises.

U.S. intelligence also indicates the Russian forces are positioned possibly to go after three Ukrainian cities -- Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk -- to establish a "land bridge" of access into Crimea. Russian forces have moved so close to the border, there would be no warning time, and the United States would likely only see an incursion as it was happening.

Far-right group leader killed

Separately, a Ukrainian leader of a far-right group was shot dead in what Ukraine's Interior Ministry called a shootout with police.

Ukrainian special forces were trying to arrest Oleksandr Muzychko, better known as Sashko Biliy, in a cafe in the western city of Rivne, the ministry said. Muzychko was wanted "for his criminal background and illegal carrying of weapons," the ministry said.

"He tried to escape and used gun shots against the police," the ministry said. "Shots were fired in response, injuring Muzychko, who died soon after."

Muzychko was a leader of Right Sector, a far-right group prominent in the recent anti-government protests. Three others were arrested and taken to Kiev, the ministry said.

A Ukrainian lawmaker, Oleksandr Doniy, whose constituency is in Rivne, gave a different version of events. In a post on his Facebook page, he said two vehicles had forced Muzychko's car to stop, and he had then been dragged into one of the other cars.

"Then they threw him out of the car on the ground, with hands handcuffed behind his back, and shot twice in his heart," Doniy wrote, without saying where he got his information.

This is my very first post in my blog

Student ID: 213210027

Full Name: Nwaiwu Nnaemeka Patrick

Nick Name: Nwa-Enyi

Major: Information Technology

Study Year: 2013-2016