Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/288630
By Chris Brummit Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, MALAysiA » It may mean little to inves- tigators that the last words air traffic controllers heard from the lost jetliner were "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," rather than "All right, good night." But to Malaysian officials whose credibility has been questioned almost from the beginning, it means a great deal. Malaysian officials said more than two weeks ago that "All right, good night," were the last words, and that the co-pilot uttered them. They changed the account late Monday and said they are still investigating who it was that spoke. The discrep - ancy added to the confusion and frustration families of the missing already felt more than three weeks after Ma - laysia Airlines Flight 370 dis- appeared, and as of Tuesday officials had not explained how they got it wrong. "This sort of mistake hits at the heart of trust in their communications. If Malay - sia is changing what the pi- lot said, people start think- ing, 'What are they going to change next?'" said Hamish McLean, an expert in risk and crisis communication at Griffith University in Bris - bane, Australia. "Information in a crisis is absolutely critical. When we are dealing with such a small amount of information it needs to be handled very carefully," he said. Authorities have been forced on the defensive by the criticism, the most force - ful of which has come from a group of Chinese relatives who accuse them of lying about — or even involvement in — the plane's disappear - ance. In part responding to domestic political criticism, defense minister Hisham- muddin Hussein has taken to retweeting supportive com- ments on Twitter. The government's oppo- nents disagree. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the correction set off a "medley of shame, sadness and an - ger" and strengthened the case for creating an opposi- tion-led parliamentary com- mittee to investigate the gov- ernment's performance in the search. T he com mu n ication s skills of any government or airline would have been se - verely tested by the search for the Boeing 777-200 and its 239 passengers and crew. "There has been very lit- tle to tell and a lot of unan- swered questions," said An- drew Herdman, director- general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. "There is frustration on the lack of new information, frustra - tion over progress with in- vestigations and the search. That frustration is being channeled to the Malaysian authorities but I think it's a bit premature to use that to reflect adversely on how they are doing." The government's han - dling of information has at times fed perceptions that it was holding back. From the first day of the search, crews were looking far to the west of the plane's last point of contact with air-traffic con - trollers, but it took about a week for officials to explain that radar had detected the plane in the area. "There are some things that I can tell you and some things that I can't," Malay - sia's civil aviation chief said in the early days. "That was a terrible, ter- rible response," said Lyall Mercer, the principal of Aus- tralian-based Mercer PR, a public relations company. "It says to the families that 'we know things that we are not going to share' and that 'something else is more im - portant than you'." Missing PLAne Ma la ys ia n cr ed ib il it y qu es ti on ed New release shows last words from cockpit were different By Dee-Ann Durbin Associated Press WAsHingTOn » The fix for a faulty ignition switch linked to 13 traffic deaths would have cost just 57 cents, members of Congress said Tuesday as they demanded answers from General Mo - tors' new CEO on why the automaker took 10 years to recall cars with the defect. At a hearing on Capitol Hill before a House subcom - mittee, GM's Mary Barra acknowledged under often testy questioning that the company took too long to act. She promised changes at GM that would prevent such a lapse from happen - ing again. "If there's a safety issue, we're going to make the right change and accept that," said Barra, who be - came CEO in January and almost immediately found herself thrust into one of the biggest product safety crises Detroit has ever seen. But as relatives of the crash victims looked on in - tently, she admitted that she didn't know why it took years for the dangerous de- fect to be announced. And she deflected many ques- tions about what went wrong, saying an internal investigation is under way. Since February, GM has recalled 2.6 million cars — mostly Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions — over the faulty switch, which can cause the engine to cut off in traffic, disabling the power steering, power brakes and air bags and making it dif - ficult to control the vehicle. The automaker said new switches should be avail - able starting April 7. Barra was firm, calm and polite throughout the pro- ceedings. But she strug- gled at times to answer law- makers' pointed questions, particularly about why GM used the switch when it knew the part didn't meet its own specifications. When she tried to draw a distinction between parts that didn't meet specifica - tions and those that were defective and dangerous, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, shot back: "What you just answered is gobbledygook." She also announced that GM has hired Kenneth Feinberg — who handled the fund for the victims of 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing and the BP oil spill — to explore ways to com - pensate victims of acci- dents in the GM cars. Barra stopped short of saying GM would establish such a fund. Some of the questioners appeared surprised that Barra hadn't reviewed the tens of thousands of pages of documents that GM had submitted to the commit - tee, and that she was un- aware of some decision- making processes at the company. Rep. Diana DeGette, D- Colo., held up a switch for one of the cars and said a small spring inside it failed to provide enough force, causing engines to turn off when they went over a bump. DeGette showed how easy it was for a light set of car keys to move the igni - tion out of the "run" posi- tion. GM has said that in 2005 company engineers pro- posed solutions to the switch problem, but the automaker concluded that none repre - sented "an acceptable busi- ness case." "Documents provided by GM show that this unaccept- able cost increase was only 57 cents," DeGette said. Barra said GM's decision not to make the fix because of cost considerations was "disturbing" and unaccept - able, and she assured mem- bers of Congress that that kind of thinking represents the old General Motors, and "that is not how GM does business" today. "I think we in the past had more of a cost culture," Barra said, adding that it is moving toward a more cus - tomer-focused culture. She testified that the in- expensive fix to the switch, if under taken in 2007, would have cost the auto- maker about $100 million, compared with "substan- tially" more now. COngRess 13 GM deaths tied to cheap part CEO testifies before House subcommittee, promises changes Scott Applewhite – the ASSociAted preSS Kim langley, from le, laura christian, randal rademaker and Shannon wooten lost loved ones in GM vehicle crashes. they gathered at the capitol on tuesday. By Lara Jakes Associated Press WAsHingTOn » Every pres- ident since Ronald Reagan has refused to release Jon- athan Pollard from prison. A CIA director once threat- ened to resign when Bill Clinton briefly considered freeing the convicted spy as part of Mideast peace talks. But now, in a gamble to ex - tend negotiations that ap- pear on the brink of collapse, the Obama administration is bringing the U.S. closer than it has been in years to grant - ing Pollard an early release. If Pollard's freedom leads eventually to a final peace settlement, it could mark a major victory for U.S. Sec - retary of State John Kerry, who has toiled to achieve an agreement between the Is- raelis and Palestinians after decades of distrust and vio- lence. But if Pollard is freed and the talks fail, it could be a costly embarrassment. Releasing Pollard now, just to keep Israeli-Palestin - ian negotiations going, "por- trays a weakness on our part and a certain amount of des- peration," says Aaron Miller, who was part of the U.S. ne- gotiating team at two rounds of peace talks during the Clinton administration. "It guarantees almost nothing." The White House in - sisted Tuesday that Presi- dent Barack Obama has not decided on whether to re- lease Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst who was sen- tenced to life in prison nearly 30 years ago for selling clas- sified military documents to the Israeli government. Kerry, asked about pros- pects for Pollard's release, told reporters at a NATO meeting in Brussels, "There is no agreement, at this point in time, regarding anyone or any specific steps." "There are a lot of dif - ferent possibilities in play," Kerry said. He added: "All I can tell you is that we are continuing, even now as I am standing up here speaking, to be engaged with both par - ties to find the best way for- ward." But Kerry abruptly can- celed plans to meet today with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, an indication that the talks are flailing as they approach an end-of-April deadline for a decision on whether to con - tinue. Israel has for yea rs pushed for Pollard to be freed, and gave him citizen - ship in the late 1990s. His re- lease now could be used to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu po- litical cover from fallout at home in exchange for con- cessions that could be made to the Palestinians to keep the talks going. People briefed on the mat - ter said those concessions could include Israel freeing Palestinian prisoners who are considered terrorists by many Israelis. The con - ditions also might require Israel to freeze construc- tion in settlements in dis- puted territory and to con- tinue in the negotiations, ac- cording to two people, both of whom spoke only on con- dition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive diplo- macy by name. Palestinians leaders have balked at pro- posals that would have them relinquish much of Jerusa- lem and recognize Israel as a Jewish state Though Pollard is serving a life sentence, he becomes eligible for parole in Novem - ber 2015. But the U.S. gov- ernment could object to let- ting him go. Pollard has been serving his sentence at a medium-se- curity prison in Butner, N.C., where inmates are awak- ened at 6 a.m. and spend their days performing vari- ous jobs. 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