MH370 not deliberately crashed by pilot: Investigators
Canberra, May 23: Australian investigators have rejected claims that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was deliberately brought down by the pilot.
Speculation that the jet was the subject of a "controlled ditching" into the sea was dismissed on Tuesday by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the BBC reported.
The bureau maintains that the pilot was unconscious during the final moments. The passenger plane disappeared in 2014 while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board.
The official search for the wreckage of MH370, also involving Malaysia and China, was called off in January in 2017, after 1,046 days.
Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) have said that the plane was out of control when it plunged into the southern Indian Ocean.
The theory that the pilot was in full control of the plane at the time of the crash was revived of late in a new book by former Canadian air crash investigator Larry Vance, the BBC reported.
However the ATSB's search director, Peter Foley, on Tuesday defended the bureau's findings, insisting that investigators had explored all the advice and analysis provided.
"We have quite a bit of data to tell us that the aircraft, if it was being controlled at the end, it wasn't very successfully being controlled," he added.
Flight MH370 disappeared after it stopped sending communications hours into its flight on March 8, 2014.
The subsequent hunt formed one of the largest surface and underwater searches in aviation history. Underwater searches turned up nothing, but small pieces of debris from the plane were washed up on islands in the Indian Ocean and on the African coast.
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Karnataka cabinet approves formation of separate Dharwad Municipal Corporation
Bengaluru: The Karnataka Cabinet has approved a formation of separate Dharwad city corporation. Alongside, a 15% hike in fares across the four state transport corporations was also approved. The revised fares will come into effect on January 5.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.K. Patil, addressing the media at the Committee Hall of Vidhana Soudha, provided details about the decision. He explained that the last fare revision for BMTC was a decade ago when diesel cost Rs 60.98 per litre. Since then, operational costs have risen significantly.
Diesel expenditure for the four corporations has increased from Rs 9.16 crore to Rs 13.21 crore, and personnel costs have grown from Rs 12.85 crore to Rs 18.36 crore. The daily operational burden now stands at Rs 9.56 crore. The fare hike is expected to generate an additional Rs 74.85 crore in monthly revenue without burdening the state exchequer, as Rs 5,015 crore has already been allocated for the Shakti Yojana this fiscal year.
Minister Patil announced that the Cabinet has decided to bifurcate the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation into two independent municipal bodies.
The Cabinet approved the construction of a fishing port in Hejamady village, Udupi, with a revised estimate of Rs 209.13 crore. Additionally, Rs 84.57 crore has been sanctioned for the modernization and dredging of fishing ports.
In a move to strengthen cow shelters, Rs 10.50 crore has been allocated for projects in 14 districts. The Cabinet also approved constructing a building for Visvesvaraya Technical University in Chikkaballapur district at Rs 149.75 crore.
The Cabinet sanctioned a state-of-the-art bus stand in Bannimantap, Mysuru, at a cost of Rs 120 crore. Spread over 14 acres, the facility will include a divisional office, bus units, and commercial shops.
Approval was also granted to utilize Rs 137.85 crore, provided by the Union Finance Ministry under the Special Capital Assistance Scheme, for capital expenditure.
The Kalyana Karnataka Regional Development Board will use Rs 56.92 crore from its SCP/TSP scheme to supply bed sheets, mosquito nets, and clothing to government residential schools and hostels.
The Cabinet approved Rs 100 crore to construct new buildings for 200 veterinary institutions currently housed in rented or dilapidated structures, using NABARD assistance.
In Davangere, a site was allotted to the Karnataka Working Journalists' Association for constructing a civic facility. A plot in Avaragere village was also leased for 30 years at a concessional rate to Nayaka Vidyarthi Nilaya.
