Slightly less than two weeks from the first known U.S. case (Indiana) comes the second case; this time in Orlando Florida.

ASSOCIATED PRESS – Health officials have confirmed a second U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East.

The latest case is not an American – he is a resident of Saudi Arabia, visiting Florida, who is now in an Orlando hospital.

He was diagnosed with MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Sunday night. It is a respiratory illness that begins with flu-like fever and cough but can lead to shortness of breath, pneumonia and death. (more…)

(New York Post)  Members of a violent cell of al Qaeda-linked terrorists are being questioned in connection with the disappearance of Flight MH370, according to several British press reports.

International law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Britain’s MI6, asked Malaysian authorities to conduct intense interrogations of the 11 militants, who range in age from 22 to 55 and include students, business professionals and a young widow, the Mail newspaper said.

They were all arrested in Malaysia last week. (more…)

Head’s up Indiana – The MERS virus is widely thought to be a virus spawned from bacterium in Camels.   People who drink camel urine could be spreading the virus into surrounding geographies.

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials on Friday confirmed the first case of an American infected with a mysterious Middle East virus. The man fell ill after arriving in the U.S. about a week ago from Saudi Arabia where he is a health care worker.

The man is hospitalized in Indiana with Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is investigating the case along with Indiana health officials.

Saudi Arabia has been the center of an outbreak of MERS that began about two years ago. At least 400 people have had the respiratory illness, and more than 100 people have died. All had ties to the Middle East or to people who traveled there. Infections have been previously reported among health care workers. (more…)

MALAYSIA – A PRELIMINARY report into MH370’s disappearance reveals that there was a four-hour gap between the time officials realised that the jetliner was missing and when the rescue was officially activated.

As well as the report, officials released the audiotapes of the last transmissions from the missing plane’s cockpit, the cargo manifest and the seating plan.

The report noted that 1.38am on March 8, 17 minutes after the Boeing 777-200 disappeared from radar, the Vietnamese air traffic control questioned the whereabouts of the plane, which was to have entered their airspace.

They told their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur that verbal contact had not been made with MH370.  Other air traffic controls in the region also reported no contact.

A table was released showing what happened in the four hours after MH370 went missing showed Kuala Lumpur air traffic control querying other countries about knowledge of the plane and a request to another Malaysian Airlines plane in the region to make contact with MH370 on emergency frequencies.  (continue reading)

A couple of thoughts before the article.   First, it’s good to see some independent analysts openly reminding people the Inmarsat data was symmetrical not directional.   Meaning the ‘handshakes’ with the satellite could have happened on either Northern or Southern arcs.    Beyond guessing, and apart from the detected 4 pings, there is no empirical evidence to suggest the flight headed South.
Secondly, the search area identified by the Towed Ping Locator, which identified four signals they thought were MH370 black boxes,  has now been completely searched, no plane.    From the location of the 1st signal to the location of the 4th signal (North and South, East and West) the entire ‘ping-grid’ per se’, has now been swept by sonar imaging and they have found nothing.

(Via Daily Mail) The fruitless search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet might have to start all over again from scratch if no clues to its fate are found in coming days, it was claimed today.
The international team searching the Indian Ocean for the Boeing 777 are now considering the seemingly impossible scenario of the aircraft having ‘landed’ somewhere, instead of crashing in the southern Indian Ocean. (more…)

One stupid 14-year-old now has a life on Interpol’s watch list to look forward to.   In the modern era of interconnected intelligence mining and social networking, the next generation of “free people” will be known as those few who remained blissfully off the grid.   Teach the youth, children, your grandchildren, all of them, to avoid this level of foolishness.   The modern world consequences are staggering. 

(USA TODAY)  A 14-year-old girl who sent a terroristic tweet to American Airlines has been arrested by authorities in the Netherlands, The Associated Press reports.
Police spokesman Roland Ekkers tells the news agency that the girl turned herself in to Rotterdam police in and is now being interrogated. The girl, who was not identified, was with a parent when she turned herself.

Ekkers said the motive for the tweet is not yet known. (more…)

Australian search team leader, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, has announced that after 6 consecutive days of no further signal detections they are calling off the use of the Towed Ping Locator.  

In addition Angus Houston says: “the chance of finding any floating debris has diminished”; and visual debris searches are due to be discontinued in the next 48 hours pending further consultation with all parties assisting in visual search…..

The search team has determined to go underwater. They are moving to deploy the autonomous underwater side scan radar known as Bluefin-21.
Each deployment of the Bluefin-21 will take 24 hours. Two hours to reach depth (approx. 4,500 meters); 16 hours “on station” as it sweeps the sea floor [5k x 8k];  two more hours to resurface, and four hours to download and prepare for redeployment.
The use of the Bluefin-21 side-scan radar begins today. (more…)

Other than Australian Search authorities saying they located four pings of similar profile to the black boxes, not so much has come to light about missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH-370.  
However, the Malaysian authorities are backtracking on their prior position that all crew and passengers were cleared with investigation and background checks.    In addition they are now saying the Co-Pilot may have tried to make a call during the odd directional changes.

(Via Daily Mail)  The co-pilot of missing flight MH370 made a call from his mobile phone while the aircraft flew low over the west coast of Malaysia, it was revealed today as the U.S. denied reports the plane landed at a military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia. (more…)

SEARCH crews have relocated signals, hoped to be from MH370’s black box, another two times.

AUSTRALIA – Search coordinator and retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston has told reporters in Perth the discovery by Australian ship Ocean is “further encouraging”.

“The detection yesterday afternoon was held for approximately five minutes and 32 seconds,” he said.  “The detection late last night was held for approximately 7 minutes.”
It takes the number of transmissions detected by Ocean Shield to four.
“Yesterday’s signals will assist in better defining a reduced and much more manageable search area on the ocean floor,” the coordinator added. (more…)

Air Chief Marshal Houston has told Radio 3AW he was concerned that there haven’t been any further signal detections today.

“The worry we have is that we haven’t been able to reacquire it,” he told 3AW radio.

“Underwater searching with an autonomous underwater vehicle takes an awful long time so it’s not like using an aircraft. You literally crawl along the ocean floor.” (link)

Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss described today as “critical”, as crews try and reconnect with the signals.

“The connections two days ago were obviously a time of great hope that there had been a significant breakthrough and it was disappointing that we were unable to repeat that experience yesterday,” Mr Truss told reporters in Sydney.
(more…)