Inmarsat interrogated MH370's pings to plot final route

BY PAUL SANDLE

LONDON Mon Mar 24, 2014 2:06pm EDT

(Reuters) - Britain's Inmarsat used a wave phenomenon discovered in the nineteenth century to analyze the seven pings its satellite picked up from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to determine its final destination.

The new findings led Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to conclude on Monday that the Boeing 777, which disappeared more than two weeks ago, crashed thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean, killing all 239 people on board.

The pings, automatically transmitted every hour from the aircraft after the rest of its communications systems had stopped, indicated it continued flying for hours after it disappeared from its flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

From the time the signals took to reach the satellite and the angle of elevation, Inmarsat was able to provide two arcs, one north and one south that the aircraft could have taken.

Inmarsat's scientists then interrogated the faint pings using a technique based on the Doppler effect, which describes how a wave changes frequency relative to the movement of an observer, in this case the satellite, a spokesman said.

Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch was also involved in the analysis.

The Doppler effect is why the sound of a police car siren changes as it approaches and then overtakes an observer.

"We then took the data we had from the aircraft and plotted it against the two tracks, and it came out as following the southern track," Jonathan Sinnatt, head of corporate communications at Inmarsat, said.

The company then compared its theoretical flight path with data received from Boeing 777s it knew had flown the same route, he said, and it matched exactly.

The findings were passed to another satellite company to check, he said, before being released to investigators on Monday.

The paucity of data - only faint pings received by a single satellite every hour or so - meant techniques like triangulation using a number of satellites or GPS (Global Positioning System) could not be used to determine the aircraft's flight path.

KEEPING TRACK

Stephen Wood, CEO of All Source Analysis, a satellite analytic firm, said it seemed that the investigators had narrowed down the area substantially. "But it's still a big area that they have to search," he said.

The incident is likely to spur a review of aviation rules, especially related to communications equipment and the ability to turn off a plane's transponder, he added.

But it is too early to say what that would entail because it remains unknown what caused the plane to divert from its original course.

"This type of incident will cause everyone who flies airplanes commercially with passengers to be really pressed for a whole new line of ways to keep track of their precious cargo," said Wood, a former U.S. intelligence officer who headed the analysis unit of DigitalGlobe Inc, a satellite imagery firm, until July 2013.

Inmarsat said for a relatively low cost its satellites could keep tabs on flights and provide the data exchanged between the air and the ground to help organize routes to save time and fuel.

Its systems, which are widely used in shipping, have been embedded into surveillance and communications technologies that allow air traffic controllers to build up a picture of where aircraft are, and to better manage routes.

"If you have that (...) capability you get a preferred routing at the right altitude that makes your aircraft more fuel efficient, but if you don't have it you have to fly lower and get less priority in air-traffic control," he said.

The system is used in planes in the North Atlantic, Inmarsat's vice-president for aeronautics, David Coiley, told Reuters earlier this month, but it is not commonly used in all parts of the world.

Sinnatt said on Monday that such a facility would cost about $10 per flight. "It is something we have been pushing the industry to do because it significantly adds to safety," he said. Other satellite providers are also developing tracking systems.

(Additional reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Corporate Governance as a management science (a reevaluation) - Nik Zafri

(The author would like to thank The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the promotion of policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world including the proper implementation of Corporate Governance)

Despite being popular for more than a decade, many corporations still tend to view Corporate Governance as some "legal constraints" on them. While this is not entirely true, we still find corporate leaders and the executive board fear the auditors with the notion that they might have broken the law or some misdeeds may have occurred.

As a result we still see corporations winding up - some did not even have to. It's shocking to find corporations being liquidated simply because they did not submit the proper papers on time to the authorities.

Citing OECD - Implementing Governance, Chapter 6, Page 162. 2nd para :

"Following the series of scandals in the US and elsewhere involving big corporations, the market has become increasingly demanding regarding improvements in corporate governance practices and INTERNAL CONTROL to increase investor confidence. The awareness that followed the scandals created an environment conducive to better governance. This was seen in Latin America, in countries like Brazil; after the initial period when investors were pushing for basic governance measures, they now are refining their requests by seeking improvement in QUALITY of disclosure, composition of boards and more. Lessons learned from the BENCHMARKING process can be used as the starting point and as a CONTINUOUS LEARNING PROCESS."

When corporate governance been too intertwined with rules and regulations, there is no room for management tools to come in. Corporate Governance is not merely about legalities as "hijacked" by scholars, company secretaries and authorities. 

Corporate governance prevailing practices ironically failed to be seen as a management science - as it should have been. It is about achieving corporate democracy for shareholders and "other interested parties". 

It is not always about the Board of Directors but it also concerns a network of supply chain as well ("Other Interested Parties" - such as employees, consumers, surroundings and even community at large.

Now the laws are there in place...what's next?

The issue now is how to MANAGE it?

Whenever there is a law, there will also be suggestions of the usage of standards and codes of practice. Standards give birth to Manuals, Procedures, Work Instructions and Checklist - all under "controlled conditions" (Refer to ISO 9001:2008)

Let's look back at the 5 core pillars of Corporate Governance:

1) Rights and equitable treatment of shareholders : Corporations should respect the rights of shareholders and help shareholders to exercise those rights. They can help shareholders exercise their rights by openly and effectively communicating information and by encouraging shareholders to participate in general meetings

Keyword : Communication (internal and external)

Communications can be complicated especially dealing with information being ambiguous or inaccurate. In my experience, communication is mainly the highest contributing factor towards the failure of a management system - especially dealing with unhealthy office politics.

A corporation has a business to run based on a certain core business process as stated in the Manual. It requires inputs to flow from one process and outputs to flow to another process. There is a continuous (communication) flow regarding tangible (materials and product) and intangible (information) inputs and outputs taking place within a corporation.

Thus, the board of directors should come out with methods and resources using the process and deploy these methods through ICT; logistic and HR processes (documents, meetings, directives, e-mails, intranet, visual etc) Get feedbacks from recipients and incorporate them in the policy, objectives and goals. Make your staff feel important that they are the 'guardians' and 'watchdogs'.

2) Interests of other stakeholders : Corporations should recognize that they have legal, contractual, social, and market driven obligations to non-shareholder stakeholders, including employees, investors, creditors, suppliers, local communities, customers, and policy makers.

Keyword : Stakeholders

This MUST be stated in corporate’s mission and relays the processes used to get the corporation there. Let the values guide the culture and not vice-versa. Stakeholders should always be put first. They must be made aware of what is going on in a corporation especially any new management system to support the law. They must be well briefed of the long term benefits seeking and achieving the recognitions from the relevant bodies.

3) Role and responsibilities of the board: The board needs sufficient relevant skills and understanding to review and challenge management performance. It also needs adequate size and appropriate levels of independence and commitment.

Keyword : Commitment

A successful implementation of systems and methods can positively affect the corporation’s reputation, growth and profitability. This can only happen if there is a strong commitment from the board. The willingness to invest for a long-term management program that will positive affect the corporation is very important rather than meeting the minimum, mediocre, or sub-standard requirements. And this should be communicated throughout the organization.

4) Integrity and ethical behavior: Integrity should be a fundamental requirement in choosing corporate officers and board members. Organizations should develop a code of conduct for their directors and executives that promotes ethical and responsible decision making.

Keyword : Professionalism

There is a need for a code of conduct to be developed. A typical code of conduct should not be viewed as an expression of a set of laws but also implying the management methodologies as well.

a) Duties and Responsibilities - A proper Job Description, Organizational Chart and Master Responsibility Matrix - should be in place - to also reflect the Board, Associates, Officers and Corporate Compliance Officers.

b) Honesty, Ethical Conduct, Fair Dealing

c) Procedures dealing with a bunch of issues such as Human Resources, Environmental Health and Safety, Gifts/Gratuities/Entertaintments, Records/Documentation Management, Reporting and Training

5) Disclosure and transparency: Corporations should clarify and make publicly known the roles and responsibilities of board and management to provide stakeholders with a level of accountability. They should also implement procedures to independently verify and safeguard the integrity of the company's financial reporting. Disclosure of material matters concerning the organization should be timely and balanced to ensure that all investors have access to clear, factual information.

Keyword : Transparency

Once again, a proper Job Description (JD) and documented procedures are required. When making a Job Description, ensure that the duties are arranged according to their utmost priority. A simple percentile management tool would help via a brainstorming session. 

Once the JD is in place, use the cascading principle so that the JD is related to other tools such as (pick one) - Key Performance Indicators, Key Result Areas, Balance Scorecard etc.

Secondly, you need to develop procedures with simple templates such as process flow, responsibility and reference documents/records. (Again, refer to ISO 9001:2008 Standards)

Nik Zafri is an Associate Consultant with TIJ Consultants Group (Malaysia and Singapore)