Manodh Monaragala Marks, a Sri Lankan man who threatened to set off a bomb on-board a flight bound to Kuala Lumpur from Melbourne, is facing a maximum 20 years’ jail after pleading guilty to attempting to take control of an aircraft.

The 25-year-old catering student forced Malaysia Airlines flight MH128 to turn back shortly after take-off when he tried to enter the cockpit while screaming that he had a bomb. He had been overpowered by passengers who tied him up with belts until the flight landed at Melbourne Airport in June.

Though he was initially charged with multiple offences, some of which carried a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, prosecutors dropped a number of charges, leaving Mr Marks to plead guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to a single charge of attempting to take control of an aircraft.

The court was told Mr Marks, who had been living at Dandenong in Melbourne’s south-east, has a psychiatric illness.

Malaysia Airlines is launching a four day promotion applicable for Economy Class travels only and valid for travel from Dec 19, 2017 to Aug 31, 2018, where passengers could enjoy savings up to 30% of the cost. Passengers can visit Malaysia Airlines’ website www.malaysiaairlines.com,?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss participating travel agents and also on the MHmobile app.

Its known as double 12.12 deal which starts on Tuesday.

The deal includes direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Guangzhou, Beijing, Nanjing, Xiamen, Haiku and Hong Kong. It also offers discounted fares from Kota Kinabalu to Taipei and Shanghai. The airline said the economy class fares include 30kg check-in baggage allowance, complimentary meals and in-flight entertainment.

AirAsia Cabin crew

The upper house of the Parliment of Malaysia considered the two airlines’ stewardess uniforms are too revealing to be something that may arouse passengers. They said, that the “eye-catching outfits” uniforms don’t adequately reflect the identity of an Islamic nation. Senator Hanafi Mamat said, “When our flight stewardesses dress sexily and disrespectfully, this will give tourists who use the services of our national carriers the wrong impression.”

AirAsia’s stewardess uniform is a collared white shirt underneath of a red, fitted jacket. It’s also paired with a skirt that hits mid-thigh length and boasts a slit up the side. Firefly Airlines’ stewardess uniform, however, is an orange dress that ends right above the near. It also features a slit up the side.

This wouldn’t be the first time the Malaysian Parliment has addressed its concerns over the revealing stewardess uniforms. Mamat suggested on Dec.12 that the government introduces a law that would make flight stewardess’ uniforms fall in accordance with the Sharia Law, a religious law that cultivates part of the Islamic tradition.

Government of Malaysia says it has approved a new search for MH370 by a private seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity. The Houston, Texas-based company has dispatched a search vessel to look in the southern Indian Ocean for debris from the MH370, which disappeared four year ago on March 8, 2014.

MH370, a Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members disappeared without any trace on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The governments of Malaysia, China and Australia called off the $200 million, 1,046-day search on January 17, 2017 after conceded that authorities were no closer to knowing the reasons for the Boeing 777’s disappearance, or its exact location.

Then in October, Malaysia said it agreed to an offer by Ocean Infinity to resume the search based on ‘no cure, no fee’, means payment will be made only if the company finds the wreckage.

However, the Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Saturday that “I don’t want to give too much hope … to the [next of kin].”

Ocean Infinity earlier said the search vessel was left the South African port of Durban on Tuesday towards “the vicinity of the possible search zone”.

Malaysia Airlines Group CEO said, the company aims to at least break even this year after suffering financial loses in the past years. The CEO Captain Izham Ismail said in a TV3 interview “No doubt we have reset ourselves, we’ve shrunk slightly, we will grow again, but (my) first job is to make this company sustainable again”..and “We can still go to four corners of the world through good partnerships with other airlines, synergy with other airlines, but we taking few steps back and I don’t see why we can’t grow again,”

According to CEO, the airline is looking to include new routes catering to its business model, rather than competing with low cost carriers specially Air Asia.
He took the office last year December after two successive foreign chief executive officers withdraw and seems committed to make use of home grown talents and said “Our value (is) very strong, it’s our tradition, we are humble people, caring people, we help each other, we smile always, not negative towards others, I don’t see anything wrong with the brand, we probably had some issues in 2014, but the brand is stronger than ever (now),”

Captain Izham’s intension is to consolidate the airline’s business model before expanding the number of fleet to 120. He also highlighted that Airline will make use of its A380s to shuttle people on haj and umrah pilgrims called “Project Amal”

A frequent flyer of AirAsia has made a written complain to Malaysian Senator Hanafi Mamat about Airline’s scantily dressed flight attendants . The letter written by Dr June Robertson, from Wellington in New Zealand reads, “I have felt very offended by the extremely short skirts these females wear on AirAsia. The European airlines, NZ, Australian or American airlines do not wear such short skirts.I found it quite disgusting myself as not everyone appreciates this”

and it further reads, “One of the AirAsia women bent over in the supermarket in KLIA2, and I seen her underwear, terrible!”…”On an AirAsia Flight from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur in October 2017 the woman serving us in the premium business class seats had her blouse opened and I could see the top of her breasts”

The letter was addressed to Senator Mamat as he raised the sexy uniforms issue last month, recommending flight attendants serving all airlines in Malaysia wear sharia-compliant uniforms to avoid giving tourists the wrong impression of Malaysia and claimed flight attendants uniforms of AirAsia and Firefly flight could “arouse passengers”.
The letter was posted on facebook and there are many comments for and against the issue.

The Malaysian Civil Aviation regulator body known as DCA (Department of Civil Aviation) has been transformed into the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) effective 19 February 2018, through the formulation of the 2016 Civil Aviation Authority Bill.

The Bill, among others, provides provisions for the Ministry of Transport to appoint a chief executive officer (CEO) who is authorised to develop and encourage national civil aviation industrial development programmes, conduct research and be involved in search and rescue operations. 

According to Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai,  the statutory body, will be overseen by the transport ministry, and would regulate the safety and security aspects in line with the international civil aviation standards.

“The body will also be responsible to provide air navigation services within the Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu Flight Information Region, co-operate with any authority in charge with investigation of aircraft accident and serious incident,” he said in a statement

The CAAM will be helmed by;
Chairman: Azharuddin bin Abdul Rahman
CEO: Ahmad Nizar bin Zolfakar

Board Members, namely:
1. Dr. Chuah Hean Teik
2. Prof. Datuk Razali Mahfar
3. Kapten Ahmad Ridzwan bin Mohd Salleh
4. Kapten Mohamed Azharuddin bin Osman

Malindo Air tied up a passenger in mid-air over indecent exposure. A 20 year old man on Malindo air flight OD162 from Kuala Lumpur to Dhaka, Bangladesh was watching porn, stripped himself naked and walked around attacking the flight attendants in mid flight.

The airline confirmed the incident and said “With regards to the incident….on March 3, the crew on board followed the standard operating procedure and restrained the passenger from any further disruption to the crew and passengers,” the airline said in a statement.

According to local news, “The mess started shortly after the plane took off from Kuala Lumpur Airport. Student stripped naked in his seat, opened the laptop and started watching pornography not minding passengers around him…he even went to the toilet completely naked….After flight attendants approached the student requesting to put on the clothes, surprisingly he did not conflict a lot and dressed up….again he began to misbehave. At first, youngster tried to hug one of the flight attendants when another. As a result, the head stewardess tried to talk to the passenger asking to act appropriately.”

Upon arrival at Dhaka, Malindo said the passenger was arrested by Bangladeshi authorities.

A Ukrainian fighter pilot blamed for downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, has died. Moscow blamed Capt. Vladyslav Voloshyn, 29, of downing MH17 flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, over Ukraine.

Mykolaiv police said in a statement,  Voloshyn commit suicide and a military service pistol was found at the scene of his death, but the case will be probed under the “premeditated murder” section of Ukraine’s penal code.

Voloshyn received medal for bravery and had flown 33 combat missions in a Su-25 ground attack jet against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The Dutch investigators concluded, a Buk missile that had been moved from Russia into eastern Ukraine had destroyed the Boeing 777 jet, killing 298 people on July 17, 2014, but the Moscow claims that the was brought down by the Ukrainian military.

Photo: Aviation For All

A Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380 was grounded for 11 days at London Heathrow due to a fuel quantity indicator issue.

The flight MH2, Reg 9M-MNF was grounded on arrival from Kuala Lumpur on 26 July, due to reported issued with fuel quantity indicator, and was resolved by replacing the faulty fuel tank probe. The aircraft flown back to Kuala Lumpur on 6 August, 2018.

The aircraft is scheduled for an in-house maintenance before being redeployed for service.