Ukraine: Two Killed Ahead Of Crimea Vote

Two people have been shot dead in clashes between pro-Kiev and pro-Moscow activists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

Ukraine's interim interior minister said the two men, aged 20 and 31, were killed and several others wounded during the late-night gun battle.

Arsen Avakov wrote on his official Facebook page that around 30 people "from both sides" were arrested.

He accused Russian activists of provoking the clashes, urging Ukrainians not to be goaded into fighting back.

Mr Avakov wrote: "Don't let them manipulate you! Stop this hysteria... This isn't a game of toy soldiers - this is a real conflict and people's real lives."

Thousands of anti-war protesters have gathered in central Moscow

Violence has escalated in the Russian-speaking east of the country since Moscow's military invention in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula following the ousting of Kremlin ally, President Viktor Yanukoych last month.

Sunday's referendum on Crimea joining the Russian Federation have further ratcheted up the tensions.

A day ahead of the planned vote, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow to protest against Russian intervention in Ukraine.

Protesters, waving Ukrainian flags, called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw troops from Crimea.

An estimated 15,000 people staged a rival rally nearby in support of Putin.

Speakers at the pro-Putin rally denounced Ukrainian "fascists"

The clashes in Kharkiv were the second turn fatal this week, after on person was killed and at least 17 wounded in the eastern city of Donetsk on Thursday.

Friday's gun battle reportedly broke out after pro-Russian activists attempted to storm the headquarters of a Ukrainian nationalist group.

Russian state news agency Itar Tass said the shots were fired from the offices of the far-right group, Right Sector.

It said the nationalists later surrendered.

Ukraine's east has seen regular clashes between rival groups in recent days

The Russian Foreign Ministry's special representative for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov, responded to the fatalities by calling on Ukraine to outlaw all ultra-nationalist groups.

Using the Russian spelling of Kharkiv, Mr Dolgov wrote on Twitter: "Arresting neo-fascists in Kharkov should mark the beginning of large-scale activities to neutralise and punish the extremists who are getting out of hand."

Russian media is increasingly referring to nationalist groups such as Right Sector to illustrate an apparent fascist threat to Russians in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow justified last week's military occupation of Crimea by saying it wished to protect ethnic Russians.

It has also said it hasn't ruled out moving its troops further afield to protect its compatriots.

Mr Lavrov and Mr Kerry could find no common ground on the Crimean vote

US Secretary of State John Kerry met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in London on Friday in an attempt to diffuse the crisis.

But the talks, lasting more than five hours, failed to reach a deal.

Russia's promise to "respect" the outcome of the referendum in Crimea has angered Western powers who have branded the vote "illegal" and "Illegitimate."

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia's approval of the referendum result would amount to "a backdoor annexation of Crimea".

Ballots are already being counted ahead of Sunday's referendum

America and the European Union have warned Russia of sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans unless the vote is called off.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "The United Kingdom is strongly of the view that there must be a firm and united response from the European Union… and that the time has come for tougher restrictive measures to be adopted as previously agreed by EU nations."

Mr Lavrov has said such measures would be a "counter-productive instrument".

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Plane Search Switches To Two Air Corridors

A week after it went missing, the search for the Malaysia Airlines plane is now being moved further west to two "air corridors" as it enters a "new phase".

One is from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and the other is further south, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

It comes after authorities confirmed the jet's last communication with a satellite was in one of those areas after it picked up a "ping" from the airliner.

This was nearly seven hours after the flight dropped off civilian air traffic control screens.

The corridors represent a satellite track, which appears as an arc on a map.

The Boeing 777 did not necessarily follow the corridor, but was at some point along its path at the moment the signal was sent.

Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak said that searching in the South China Sea, where the plane first lost contact with air traffic controllers, would be ended.

The Boeing has been missing for a week

Authorities believe Flight MH370 had its communications and tracking systems deliberately turned off amid reports that it had been hijacked.

Investigators have increasingly focused on the possibility it was flown off-course by the pilot or co-pilot, or someone else on board with detailed knowledge of how to fly and navigate a large commercial aircraft.

The plane, with 239 people on board, left Kuala Lumpur at 12.40am on Saturday March 8 and headed towards Beijing.

About 40 minutes into the flight, the jet's communications with civilian air controllers were severed.

Investigators believe one of the aircraft's communications systems - the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System - was disabled at 1.07am before the plane reached the east coast of Malaysia.

Several minutes later, there was the last verbal contact with the plane, when the flight crew said goodnight to Malaysia traffic control.

And at about 1.20am, someone on board switched off the aircraft's transponder near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control.

At 2.15am Malaysian air force defence radar picked up traces of the plane turning back westwards, crossing over Peninsular Malaysia before turning north west into the stretches of the Strait of Malacca.

But the last confirmed signal between the aircraft and a satellite was at 8.11am - seven and a half hours after take-off, meaning it could have flown as far north as Kazakhstan or the southern Indian Ocean.

Airline officials have said the plane had enough fuel to fly for up to about eight hours.

The PM said authorities were still looking at all possibilities and did not confirm the hijacking claim which was made by an unnamed Malaysian official.

The massive search involves 14 countries which are using 43 ships and 58 aircraft to scour vast areas of ocean.

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Missing Plane: Questions Remain For Relatives

For the relatives of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the revelation that "deliberate action" diverted the flight still leaves many questions unanswered.

Nearly two-thirds of the 239 people on board were Chinese, and relatives gathered at a hotel in Beijing to watch Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak address the world's media.

He did not confirm an earlier claim the Boeing 777 had been hijacked, but did reveal he could say "with a high degree of certainty" that communications on the flight had been disabled.

His remarks did little to ease the nerves of those inside the Lido Hotel, with some openly suggesting foul play.

Wen Wancheng's son was on board the jet, and he said afterwards: "I feel (Malaysia Airlines) had a role to play in this incident."

He called the disappearance "a conspiracy … from the beginning".

"The original time they gave was 1.21am, and today it was officially changed to 8.11am.

"It's the prime minister who said it. You can tell from the timing whether they're hiding anything or not."

Malaysia Airlines representatives held a two-hour meeting with relatives earlier on Saturday, and speaking afterwards several said they remain frustrated with the lack of definite information.

One woman said: "I'm very disappointed in all of them," a reference to both the airline and the Chinese and Malaysian governments.

"They haven't told us anything. I'm anxious. Extremely anxious."

A massive search is taking place for the missing plane

Sky's Jonathan Samuels in Beijing said it was a "very tense atmosphere" as relatives watched the prime minister's address.

He added: "People were crying and holding onto each other for comfort. I saw one man shaking uncontrollably as he listened to the news conference.

"People are now even more bewildered. There is this slight glimmer of hope that their relatives may return. However implausible it may be, they are not being allowed to start that grieving process."

Conspiracy theories have inevitably emerged, and many users of China's social networks shared a news report of a woman who claimed she had received a missed call from her father on the plane.

The Beijing Times reported the unnamed woman "got a missed call from her father on board, and the number said 'powered off' later when she called back".

Some reacted with relief to the possibility the incident might have been a hijacking rather than a crash.

One user of Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, said: "A hijacking is better than a crash. Hope Malaysia will not come out and deny it later."

China's foreign ministry continued to press Malaysia for clarity, with spokesman Qin Gang calling for "thorough and exact information".

Chinese "technical specialists" are on their way to Malaysia to help with the investigation.

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'Deliberate Action' Diverted Missing Plane

Was Flight MH370's Transponder Turned Off?

Updated: 12:57am UK, Friday 14 March 2014

The transponder on the missing Malaysia Airlines jet is likely to have been deliberately turned off by one of the crew, aircraft experts have told Sky News.

A massive search effort, using military warships and planes to scour a massive expanse of water, has failed to find any sign of the plane since it vanished on Saturday.

Theories about its mysterious disappearance include a structural fault causing explosive decompression, a terrorist attack or pilot suicide.

The transponder - a crucial device that identifies the plane, its position and altitude - stopped working just 40 minutes into Saturday's flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Radar systems engineer Daniel Holland believes it was intentionally disabled.

"The evidence points that way," he said.

"The pilots have never made a 7500 - the international code for 'my plane is hijacked'; it is the pure lack of transponder information (that is suspicious).

"For myself, you would look at the communications panel just behind the throttle quadrant on the Boeing 777 to either switch it off there, or even just removing the fuses."

Mark Weiss, a former commercial pilot now working as an aviation consultant, said he agreed that someone in the cockpit had probably disabled the transponder.

"I don't believe it was an explosive decompression," said Mr Weiss.

"In the US a few years ago we had a Southwest Airlines plane that had an explosive decompression and still maintained the basic structural integrity of the aircraft."

Disabling of the transponder might lend weight to the theory that one of the pilots sabotaged the flight.

However, it is also possible it was turned off for other reasons - for example if it was giving out faulty data.

Malaysia Airlines has opened an investigation into the conduct of one of the pilots, Fariq Abdul Hamid, after pictures emerged of himself with two women he allowed into the cockpit during a flight two years ago.

However, it has said it has "no reason to believe" the pilots had anything to do with the disappearance.

At a news conference on Thursday, Malaysia's transport minister, Hishammudin Hussein, denied reports the homes of crew members had been searched by police.

The plane was last heard from when the pilot responded to a message confirming it was moving from Malaysian to Vietnamese air traffic control.

The pilot replied "Okay, received, goodnight", but Vietnamese officials have said they never heard from flight MH370. 

Not all aviation experts agree that foul play is likely to be to blame for the disappearance.

Dr Colin Brown, director of engineering at Institution of Mechanical Engineers, told Sky he still believes the plane was ripped apart by "explosive decompression".

However, he admitted that the lack of any wreckage or 'black box' signal was hard to make sense of.

"This thing is 300 tons of metal with 239 people on board - I cannot understand how you can hide something that size."

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Missing Plane 'Flown Towards Andaman Islands'

Missing Plane: 13 Things You Need To Know

Updated: 7:33am UK, Thursday 13 March 2014

As the search for Flight MH370 continues, we answer 13 questions about the disappearance and what could have happened.

When did the plane disappear?

Flight MH370 vanished from radars early on Saturday local time, an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. When it last made contact, the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet over the South China Sea.

There are reports that the plane tried to turn around, but this would give rise to the question why didn't the pilot communicate this decision to air traffic control? Meanwhile, at an undisclosed time a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers. Investigators have repeatedly tried to call the same number without success.

Who was on board?

The plane's manifest contained 12 crew members from Malaysia and 227 passengers from 14 different countries.

There were 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two each from Iran (both travelling on fake passports), New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada, and one each from Russia, Taiwan and The Netherlands.

Among the passengers was a 19-strong group of prominent artists returning from an exhibition in Malaysia. Five children - aged two to four - were on board. The oldest person on the plane was 79.

What are the main theories?

Mechanical error remains the most likely explanation. Poor conditions and strong turbulence always have to be considered, but weather conditions were good in this instance. Four areas of investigation are focused on the possibility of human involvement: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

Could there have been a mechanical error?

Inquiries into Air France Flight 447 that dived into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Brazil to Paris, killing 228 people, blamed both technical and human error.

However, in the event of engine failure, a plane such as the Boeing 777-200 could glide for 80-90 miles (128-145km), giving the pilot time to issue a distress signal. The descent would also have been traced by radars. The lack of any Mayday call makes an explosion a possibility.

Could the plane have broken up in the air?

The apparent lack of wreckage from MH370 does point to a high-altitude disaster. In such an event the debris would be spread far and wide, making it difficult to find.

A smaller debris field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up on impact with the water. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure due to a window blowing out the crew would dive the plane in order to lose altitude - but this would not cause the plane to disintegrate.

How about the plane's safety record?

Sudden, accidental, structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

One of the missing plane's wingtips was clipped in an incident while taxiing in 2012, but it was repaired and certified as safe.

Could it have been a terrorist attack or hijacking?

In the event of a hijacker trying to enter the cockpit, a pilot can send a secret distress code - something that wasn't done on Flight MH370.

The profiles of all 239 passengers are being checked against databases worldwide, but the terrorism theory was weakened on Tuesday when Malaysian police confirmed it had identified the two passengers who were travelling on fake passports. Both were said to be seeking asylum in Europe.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster - but no one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Human error?

The 53-year-old pilot was experienced, having amassed more than 18,000 flying hours since being employed by the airline in 1981.

However, in Indonesia in 2007, Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared with 102 passengers during a domestic flight, where the authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

Former naval pilot Dr Simon Mitchell told Sky News: "We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made."

Why was there no distress signal?

One explanation is that the plane fell into a communications black spot. Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer explained: "These are very sophisticated (items of) equipment that should have been working under any conditions - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you cannot communicate for some reason. Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots."

Where is the search taking place?

A number of aircraft and ships have been taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, New Zealand and the US are assisting.

Officials said on Tuesday that the search was being conducted on both sides of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula. The search area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane disappeared - over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam - to 100 nautical miles (115 miles; 185km).

This expansion was a result of a new report from the Malaysian military, which said it tracked the plane in the Strait of Malacca - a long distance from where it last made contact - in the hours following its disappearance.

Why has no wreckage been found?

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find. It took two years to find the main wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in 2009.

In 2007, in the case of the Adam Air flight, it was a week before an Indonesian naval vessel detected metal on the ocean floor. It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

If the plane had crashed on land, chances are the wreckage would have been found by now. At sea, much of the plane would have sunk, but some debris should remain on the surface. But the longer the search takes the harder it becomes as the wind and tide spread any debris further from the initial crash zone.

Could the flight data recorder provide answers?

As well as wreckage, search teams are looking for the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) - though these do not always work if a plane hits water. However, attached to the plane's "black box" is a device known as a pinger. This can emit radio signals deep underwater for up to 30 days - or 40 days in warm water.

Has a plane ever simply vanished?

Since the start of the jet age in the 1950s, nearly every major aircraft that disappeared was found - eventually - and the rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 plunged into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel. The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

Another Boeing 727 transporting diesel to diamond mines in Africa took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Morrisons Suffers Staff Payroll Data Theft

Data from supermarket chain Morrisons' staff payroll system, including bank account details, has been stolen and published on the internet, the company has confirmed.

In an email sent to staff and seen by Sky News, the company called it an "illegal theft" of data.

The information has since been taken off the website that published the details.

A data disk was also sent to a regional newspaper with the stolen data.

The theft included names, addresses and bank account details of an unspecified number of staff. It employs around 100,000 people.

The email warned that "this affects colleagues from all levels of the organisation".

Morrisons, which became aware of the theft on Thursday, said: "Initial investigations suggest that this theft was not the result of an external penetration of our systems.

"We can confirm there has been no loss of customer data and no colleague will be left financially disadvantaged."

The email warning was sent to senior staff who were asked to inform workers

So-called insider threats have become a serious concern for companies in recent years, due to the volume of data stored and its accessibility.

Sky News has confirmed that the data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), has been alerted to the theft and may launch a probe.

An ICO spokesman said: 'We have been made aware of reports that Morrisons have suffered a potential data breach, and we will be making enquiries."

Morrisons, which is Britain's fourth biggest supermarket group, said it had called in police and cyber crime experts.

The criminal inquiry into the data theft from Bradford-based Morrisons is being led by West Yorkshire Police.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Wallen said: "We are aware of the situation and are supporting Morrisons and their investigation into these matters."

It has also started communications with banks handling staff accounts and a credit rating agency, and has set up a helpline for employees.

The group has come under pressure recently over its performance in the ultra-competitive sector.

On Thursday, it launched a counter-attack in the supermarket price war after losing more than just ground to its rivals in its last financial year.

The chain, which has struggled amid strong challenges from discounters and because of its slow response to the online grocery and convenience markets, confirmed a pre-tax loss of £176m for 2013/14 after a profit of £879m in the previous 12 months.

Like-for-like sales fell 2.8% in the period, and its share price suffered a 10% drop on Thursday.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Searching For Malaysian Jet: 'We Never Give Up'

Missing Plane: 13 Things You Need To Know

Updated: 7:33am UK, Thursday 13 March 2014

As the search for Flight MH370 continues, we answer 13 questions about the disappearance and what could have happened.

When did the plane disappear?

Flight MH370 vanished from radars early on Saturday local time, an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. When it last made contact, the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet over the South China Sea.

There are reports that the plane tried to turn around, but this would give rise to the question why didn't the pilot communicate this decision to air traffic control? Meanwhile, at an undisclosed time a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers. Investigators have repeatedly tried to call the same number without success.

Who was on board?

The plane's manifest contained 12 crew members from Malaysia and 227 passengers from 14 different countries.

There were 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two each from Iran (both travelling on fake passports), New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada, and one each from Russia, Taiwan and The Netherlands.

Among the passengers was a 19-strong group of prominent artists returning from an exhibition in Malaysia. Five children - aged two to four - were on board. The oldest person on the plane was 79.

What are the main theories?

Mechanical error remains the most likely explanation. Poor conditions and strong turbulence always have to be considered, but weather conditions were good in this instance. Four areas of investigation are focused on the possibility of human involvement: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

Could there have been a mechanical error?

Inquiries into Air France Flight 447 that dived into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Brazil to Paris, killing 228 people, blamed both technical and human error.

However, in the event of engine failure, a plane such as the Boeing 777-200 could glide for 80-90 miles (128-145km), giving the pilot time to issue a distress signal. The descent would also have been traced by radars. The lack of any Mayday call makes an explosion a possibility.

Could the plane have broken up in the air?

The apparent lack of wreckage from MH370 does point to a high-altitude disaster. In such an event the debris would be spread far and wide, making it difficult to find.

A smaller debris field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up on impact with the water. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure due to a window blowing out the crew would dive the plane in order to lose altitude - but this would not cause the plane to disintegrate.

How about the plane's safety record?

Sudden, accidental, structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

One of the missing plane's wingtips was clipped in an incident while taxiing in 2012, but it was repaired and certified as safe.

Could it have been a terrorist attack or hijacking?

In the event of a hijacker trying to enter the cockpit, a pilot can send a secret distress code - something that wasn't done on Flight MH370.

The profiles of all 239 passengers are being checked against databases worldwide, but the terrorism theory was weakened on Tuesday when Malaysian police confirmed it had identified the two passengers who were travelling on fake passports. Both were said to be seeking asylum in Europe.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster - but no one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Human error?

The 53-year-old pilot was experienced, having amassed more than 18,000 flying hours since being employed by the airline in 1981.

However, in Indonesia in 2007, Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared with 102 passengers during a domestic flight, where the authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

Former naval pilot Dr Simon Mitchell told Sky News: "We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made."

Why was there no distress signal?

One explanation is that the plane fell into a communications black spot. Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer explained: "These are very sophisticated (items of) equipment that should have been working under any conditions - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you cannot communicate for some reason. Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots."

Where is the search taking place?

A number of aircraft and ships have been taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, New Zealand and the US are assisting.

Officials said on Tuesday that the search was being conducted on both sides of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula. The search area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane disappeared - over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam - to 100 nautical miles (115 miles; 185km).

This expansion was a result of a new report from the Malaysian military, which said it tracked the plane in the Strait of Malacca - a long distance from where it last made contact - in the hours following its disappearance.

Why has no wreckage been found?

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find. It took two years to find the main wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in 2009.

In 2007, in the case of the Adam Air flight, it was a week before an Indonesian naval vessel detected metal on the ocean floor. It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

If the plane had crashed on land, chances are the wreckage would have been found by now. At sea, much of the plane would have sunk, but some debris should remain on the surface. But the longer the search takes the harder it becomes as the wind and tide spread any debris further from the initial crash zone.

Could the flight data recorder provide answers?

As well as wreckage, search teams are looking for the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) - though these do not always work if a plane hits water. However, attached to the plane's "black box" is a device known as a pinger. This can emit radio signals deep underwater for up to 30 days - or 40 days in warm water.

Has a plane ever simply vanished?

Since the start of the jet age in the 1950s, nearly every major aircraft that disappeared was found - eventually - and the rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 plunged into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel. The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

Another Boeing 727 transporting diesel to diamond mines in Africa took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Photo Shows Oscar Pistorius Drenched In Blood

Pistorius Trial: Evidence Summary

Updated: 1:39pm UK, Friday 14 March 2014

A summary of the evidence heard in the first 10 days of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.

:: Day 10

Photographs of Oscar Pistorius taken after Reeva Steenkamp's death are seen in court, showing him drenched in blood from the waist down.

An image of his girlfriend's injuries was again shown by mistake, forcing television screens in the courtroom to be blacked out.

Evidence from retired police colonel Schoombie van Rensburg dominated the day's proceedings.

He repeatedly denied tampering with evidence but admitted a white iPhone which was obscured by a towel when he first entered the room appeared to have been moved for a later photo, showing the handset lying in clear view on the bathroom floor.

During cross-examination by defence lawyer Barry Roux, he also failed to spot a door in Pistorius' home had been sealed in different ways in two photographs.

:: Day Nine

There were gasps in court as images of Ms Steenkamp's body, including close-ups of her various injuries, were accidentally shown.

Ms van Rensburg, who went to Pistorius' home after the shooting, used photographs to outline the route he took through the house.

The court was shown images of the blood-soaked bathroom where Ms Steenkamp was shot, as well as blood-stained towels and pools of blood on the floor.

Mr Roux grilled South African police forensic expert Johannes Vermuelen about missing splinters from Pistorius' bathroom door, through which he shot Ms Steenkamp.

He said he asked a colleague about the missing splinters but repeatedly said he "couldn't remember" who he spoke to.

:: Day Eight

Mr Vermuelen knelt down in court and swung Pistorius' cricket bat at the door as part of a reconstruction of the night in question.

He said the angle of the marks on the door suggest they could only have been made by someone much shorter than him.

It appeared to contradict his earlier affidavit in which he stated he had put on his prostheses before smashing down the door.

Mr Vermuelen said: "The marks on the door are actually consistent with him not having his legs on and I suspect they must be similar to the height that he was when he fired the shots."

But Mr Roux suggested that even with his legs on, Pistorius would not be swinging a bat at the same height as an able-bodied person.

:: Day Seven

Friend Darren Fresco told the court Pistorius "laughed" after firing his gun through the sunroof of a car.

Mr Fresco said he asked Pistorius if he was "******* mad".

"He just laughed about what had happened," he said, referring to the episode in late 2012. "It felt as if my ear was bleeding."

The court was told the athlete had a "big love for weapons" and Mr Fresco also recalled an occasion when Pistorius asked him to pass him his gun at Tasha's restaurant in Johannesburg on January 13 last year.

He said he warned Pistorius his Glock pistol was "one-up" - meaning it had a bullet in the chamber - and that he thought he saw the runner remove it.

The gun went off under the table, followed by a "deafening hush" and Pistorius "instantly" passed the weapon back to him and asked him to "take the rap for it" because there was "too much media hype" around him, Mr Fresco said.

Pathologist Gert Saymaan, who conducted a post-mortem examination on Ms Steenkamp, also finished giving his evidence as a court ban on tweeting during his account was lifted by Judge Thokozile Masipa.

The court heard the amount of urine in Ms Steenkamp's bladder at the time of her death amounted to the rough equivalent of a teaspoon, and that the model's last meal was consumed no more than two hours before her death.

Ms Steenkamp was shot after 3am, which means she must have eaten after 1am. Pistorius had said the couple were in the bedroom by 10pm.

Prof Saayman admitted he was not "an expert in this field" but his conclusions were based on scientific probability.

:: Day Six

Pistorius threw up in court as details of the post-mortem examination of Ms Steenkamp were read out.

A live video feed of the trial was cut while a pathologist gave "graphic" evidence of his examination.

Professor Gert Saayman said Ms Steenkamp had bullet wounds to her head, right hip and right arm.

He said the Ranger-branded bullets used were designed to "expand and mushroom" and cause substantial damage.

Prof Saayman said the head wound would have been incapacitating but added Ms Steenkamp may not have died straight away.

Earlier in the day, a security guard finished giving his evidence.

Pieter Baba says Pistorius told him all was fine when he called after receiving reports from other residents of gunshots.

But Mr Roux insisted to him it was Pistorius who phoned the security guard, rather than the other way round.

Mr Baba denied this.

:: Day Five

Prosecution witness Samantha Taylor, the ex-girlfriend of Pistorius, broke down in court as she told how the athlete cheated on her with Reeva Steenkamp.

Miss Taylor also told the court how Pistorius once fired a gun out of the sunroof of a car after being stopped by police.

The star's ex-lover described how Pistorius would sometimes "scream at her" and often carried a gun with him.

The court was told how Pistorius once woke Ms Taylor fearing there was an intruder in the house and got up to investigate with his gun.

Security guard Pieter Baba described the moment he saw a distressed Pistorius carrying Reeva down the stairs.

The guard said Pistorius assured him everything was "fine" after shots were reported. 

More evidence from Ms Taylor suggested Pistorius once feared he was being followed and waved his gun at the suspect car until it drove off near his home.

:: Day Four

Prosecution witness Dr Johan Stipp told the court how he went to Pistorius' residence after hearing shots fired on the night Ms Steenkamp was killed.

He said he saw her lying on her back and Pistorius by her side, frantically trying to resuscitate her.

It was clear Ms Steenkamp was mortally wounded, he said, and Pistorius was crying and praying she would survive.

During his evidence, Pistorius broke down in the dock, sobbing as he held his head in his hands.

Earlier, Pistorius' defence team said it would have been "impossible" for neighbours to hear screams on the night Ms Steenkamp died.

Mr Roux said neighbour Charl Peter Johnson's claim that he heard gunshots followed by a woman screaming was incorrect.

"You cannot hear it inside your house," he said. "At any distance, she was in a locked bathroom."

Mr Johnson also claimed to have heard five or six shots on the night of the killing.

But Mr Roux pointed out that in his initial notes he wrote he "did not count the number of shots fired".

:: Day Three

Mr Johnson was repeatedly challenged by Mr Roux, who at one point said: "You are saying all the evidence that your wife gave us yesterday."

He replied it was not unusual for two people to use the same words when describing an incident.

He mentioned some notes he had taken after the shooting, which are on his laptop and iPad. He was asked to end his evidence for the day and come back the next day, so the defence team had the opportunity to view his notes.

Pistorius' friend Kevin Lerena was then called and described an incident in January last year in which Pistorius allegedly discharged a firearm by mistake while eating with friends in a restaurant.

He said the athlete then asked Mr Fresco to take the blame.

The owner of the restaurant, Jason Loupis, and his wife, Maria, later confirmed the incident after taking the stand.

Mrs Loupis said there was a child nearby when Pistorius' gun went off in the restaurant.

:: Day Two

The evidence of Ms Burger continued.

Mr Roux said her evidence had been influenced by media coverage of the shooting but she denied this.

Mr Roux said evidence later in the trial would show Ms Steenkamp would not have been able to scream after the final shot hit her in the head.

Ms Burger stood by her initial statement, which said she heard Ms Steenkamp after the final shot.

Another neighbour then took the stand for a short time before Ms Burger's husband gave his evidence.

He told how he thought Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp were being held up in their house and said he looked at additional security measures for his own home the next day.

He backed up his wife's evidence, saying he heard screams after the final shot.

:: Day One

The first witness, university lecturer Michelle Burger, took the stand.

She says she woke on the night of the killing to the sound of gunshots and a woman screaming.

She described hearing "bloodcurdling screams" and four shots.

She is a key witness for the prosecution, as her evidence would appear to contradict Pistorius' claims that he thought he was shooting at an intruder.

The defence argued she is unreliable due to alleged discrepancies between her police statement and court testimony.

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Malaysia 'Nothing To Hide' Over Plane Search

Missing Plane: 13 Things You Need To Know

Updated: 7:33am UK, Thursday 13 March 2014

As the search for Flight MH370 continues, we answer 13 questions about the disappearance and what could have happened.

When did the plane disappear?

Flight MH370 vanished from radars early on Saturday local time, an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. When it last made contact, the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet over the South China Sea.

There are reports that the plane tried to turn around, but this would give rise to the question why didn't the pilot communicate this decision to air traffic control? Meanwhile, at an undisclosed time a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers. Investigators have repeatedly tried to call the same number without success.

Who was on board?

The plane's manifest contained 12 crew members from Malaysia and 227 passengers from 14 different countries.

There were 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two each from Iran (both travelling on fake passports), New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada, and one each from Russia, Taiwan and The Netherlands.

Among the passengers was a 19-strong group of prominent artists returning from an exhibition in Malaysia. Five children - aged two to four - were on board. The oldest person on the plane was 79.

What are the main theories?

Mechanical error remains the most likely explanation. Poor conditions and strong turbulence always have to be considered, but weather conditions were good in this instance. Four areas of investigation are focused on the possibility of human involvement: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

Could there have been a mechanical error?

Inquiries into Air France Flight 447 that dived into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Brazil to Paris, killing 228 people, blamed both technical and human error.

However, in the event of engine failure, a plane such as the Boeing 777-200 could glide for 80-90 miles (128-145km), giving the pilot time to issue a distress signal. The descent would also have been traced by radars. The lack of any Mayday call makes an explosion a possibility.

Could the plane have broken up in the air?

The apparent lack of wreckage from MH370 does point to a high-altitude disaster. In such an event the debris would be spread far and wide, making it difficult to find.

A smaller debris field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up on impact with the water. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure due to a window blowing out the crew would dive the plane in order to lose altitude - but this would not cause the plane to disintegrate.

How about the plane's safety record?

Sudden, accidental, structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

One of the missing plane's wingtips was clipped in an incident while taxiing in 2012, but it was repaired and certified as safe.

Could it have been a terrorist attack or hijacking?

In the event of a hijacker trying to enter the cockpit, a pilot can send a secret distress code - something that wasn't done on Flight MH370.

The profiles of all 239 passengers are being checked against databases worldwide, but the terrorism theory was weakened on Tuesday when Malaysian police confirmed it had identified the two passengers who were travelling on fake passports. Both were said to be seeking asylum in Europe.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster - but no one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Human error?

The 53-year-old pilot was experienced, having amassed more than 18,000 flying hours since being employed by the airline in 1981.

However, in Indonesia in 2007, Adam Air Flight 574 disappeared with 102 passengers during a domestic flight, where the authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

Former naval pilot Dr Simon Mitchell told Sky News: "We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made."

Why was there no distress signal?

One explanation is that the plane fell into a communications black spot. Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer explained: "These are very sophisticated (items of) equipment that should have been working under any conditions - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you cannot communicate for some reason. Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots."

Where is the search taking place?

A number of aircraft and ships have been taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, New Zealand and the US are assisting.

Officials said on Tuesday that the search was being conducted on both sides of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula. The search area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane disappeared - over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam - to 100 nautical miles (115 miles; 185km).

This expansion was a result of a new report from the Malaysian military, which said it tracked the plane in the Strait of Malacca - a long distance from where it last made contact - in the hours following its disappearance.

Why has no wreckage been found?

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find. It took two years to find the main wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in 2009.

In 2007, in the case of the Adam Air flight, it was a week before an Indonesian naval vessel detected metal on the ocean floor. It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

If the plane had crashed on land, chances are the wreckage would have been found by now. At sea, much of the plane would have sunk, but some debris should remain on the surface. But the longer the search takes the harder it becomes as the wind and tide spread any debris further from the initial crash zone.

Could the flight data recorder provide answers?

As well as wreckage, search teams are looking for the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) - though these do not always work if a plane hits water. However, attached to the plane's "black box" is a device known as a pinger. This can emit radio signals deep underwater for up to 30 days - or 40 days in warm water.

Has a plane ever simply vanished?

Since the start of the jet age in the 1950s, nearly every major aircraft that disappeared was found - eventually - and the rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 plunged into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel. The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

Another Boeing 727 transporting diesel to diamond mines in Africa took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Gasps In Court As Photo Of Reeva's Body Shown

There have been gasps in court as images of Reeva Steenkamp's body were shown during Oscar Pistorius' murder trial.

Various photographs were being scrolled through on screens by the defence team when several distressing images were briefly shown to the court.

Sky's Alex Crawford, who was in court, said: "As defence lawyer Barry Roux was flicking through various photographs of the scene ... you saw very close-up pictures of Reeva Steenkamp. Close-ups of her skull, body and her various injuries.

"This caused quite a stir in court. It led to gasps from a number of people inside."

Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead by Oscar Pistorius

Pistorius began retching and coughing, and was handed a green bucket in which to be sick.

Schoombie van Rensburg - a now-retired police officer who went to the scene after the shooting - was using photographs to outline his route through Pistorius' home when he arrived, and what he saw.

Crawford said: "Van Rensburg described following a trail of blood and we've been shown a series of photographs starting from the exterior of the Oscar Pistorius' house, going inside showing splatters on the floor at the base of the stairs, blood on his cream sofas that are on the ground floor, blood leading up the stairs, and more along the wall.

Pistorius arrives at court on Thursday morning

"We know the athlete says he carried Ms Steenkamp's body down the stairs, he says to get medical help."

Photographs of the blood-soaked bathroom where Ms Steenkamp was shot were shown to the court.

Crawford said they showed blood-stained towels, and heavy blood pools on the floor.

Barry Roux (R) has been questioning a police forensic officer

Earlier, the court heard how a box of watches belonging to Pistorius went missing during the crime scene examination.

The millionaire Paralympic athlete had a "little box" containing the watches, which has disappeared and never been found.

The issue was raised by Mr Roux, who is trying to undermine the credibility of the police investigation.

Mr Vermuelen took part in a reconstruction on Wednesday

He spent the morning repeatedly challenging police forensic expert Johannes Vermuelen.

On Wednesday, Mr Vermuelen told the court Pistorius was on his stumps when he smashed down a locked toilet door to reach his shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

That contradicted Pistorius' previous claims he put on his prostheses before smashing down the door.

The home of Oscar Pistorius where the killing took place

Thursday's evidence started with Mr Roux asking for Mr Vermuelen's phone records from overnight, suggesting he may have consulted people ahead of giving his testimony.

He was then asked about missing splinters from Pistorius' bathroom door, through which he shot Ms Steenkamp.

He said he asked a colleague about the missing splinters, but repeatedly said he "couldn't remember" who he spoke to.

Mr Vermuelen also admitted he did not examine the door for evidence Pistorius had kicked it with his prosthetic leg. A footprint would show he was wearing his legs at some point.

Sky's Alex Crawford, who is in court, said: "This was such a drubbing of Vermuelen, it was like watching a blood sport."

On top of the premeditated murder allegation, Pistorius faces a charge of illegally possessing ammunition and two further counts related to shooting a gun in public in two separate incidents before the killing.

He denies all the charges against him and maintains he shot Ms Steenkamp after mistaking her for an intruder.

The athlete could face 25 years in jail if he is found guilty by Judge Thokozile Masipa. South Africa does not have trials by jury.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Missing Malaysia Jet 'One Of Great Mysteries'

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent in Kuala Lumpur

The oceanographer who helped search for the Titanic and co-led the successful recovery of a doomed Air France plane has told Sky News the case of the missing Malaysian plane is "absolutely perplexing".

David Gallo, one of the world's most accomplished scientists in his field helped locate the black box data recorders of Air France flight 447 in the South Atlantic in 2011, two years after the plane crashed.

On the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet, he said: "This has rapidly become one of the great mysteries of all time in terms of loss of an aeroplane or ship at sea."

Responding to criticism of the Malaysian authorities, Mr Gallo said he believed they were doing all they could in the face of "an unprecedented task".

Mr Gallo told Sky News: "From the outset it's easy to criticise the people in charge.

"I feel strongly that we need to lend some confidence to the Minister of Transportation in Malaysia because that position is a horrible place to be right now.

"He's got the whole world watching, he's got governmental agencies on his back, he's got the families.

The disappearance of the aircraft is "absolutely perplexing" said Mr Gallo

"It's a horrible thing what the families, loved-ones and and friends are going through right now day after day.

"When he says he's going to make every effort to get this solved and leave no stone unturned I believe him."

The Air France flight came down in mid-Atlantic in 2009, without sending out a distress signal and killing all 228 people aboard, after a combination of aircraft technical failure and pilot error.

It took five days to find any wreckage but two years to find the black box recorders.

Mr Gallo said: "In the case of Air France 477 we had a very dedicated team.

"I am hoping the same is true in this case, so that once we can begin an undersea search in earnest that that search happens fairly quick."

But of the Malaysian case he said: "Around every corner you find some fact, then three mysteries appear."

Mr Gallo believed the best hope still came from the area beneath the set flight path of the plane to the east of the Malay peninsula.

History showed most lost planes are eventually found close to where they should have been.

And if it is found east of the peninsula in the South China Sea, the chances of discovering what brought it down are far greater, he said.

The waters are not very deep and in places are shallower than the plane is long, making the recovery of the black box data more likely.

Mr Gallo helped recover the flight recorder from the Air France flight 447

The Andaman Sea and the Straits of Malacca to the west of the peninsula are extremely deep.

Mr Gallo said: "I like to use the idea we are looking for the bits of needle in a pile of hay. Ideally that pile of hay would be very small.

"So you begin by having to know the place on the ocean where the plane, if it did, impact. Where the X marks the spot.

"The way to get to that is by having the last known position, but then by finding bits of floating wreckage that are on the sea being moved around by currents, waves, and winds, and then you can backtrack those using very sophisticated models to find out where they came from, best guess, and then around there you design your search pattern.

"It's all detective work. All step-by-step very methodical, and very slow, but very precise."

He added: "You have to have several ingredients to guarantee success. You have got to have the right people on the job, the right team.

"You need to have the best instruments available - robots, sonar submarines, ships. You need to have a game plan.

"It's almost like a symphony orchestra. You need to have not just the musicians and musical instruments, but you also need to have the conductor with his music.

"When that baton comes down that team needs to play as one.

"This is tortuous for the families. The only way to know what happend, there are no witnesses, is to find those two black boxes, and hopefully the information will be there."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Eric Cantona Arrested After Reports Of Assault

Former Manchester United star Eric Cantona has been arrested in London following reports of an assault.

The Metropolitan Police said a man was arrested at an address close to Chalk Farm Tube station in north London on Wednesday.

A statement said: "Police were called to Regents Park Road, NW1, at 12.55pm on Wednesday 12th March, following reports of an assault.

"Officers from Camden Borough attended and a man in his mid-40s was arrested on suspicion of common assault.

"He was taken into custody and subsequently cautioned for common assault.

"The victim, a man, did not require medical assistance at the scene."

More follows ...

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Chris Tarrant Suffers Mini-Stroke On Plane

Television host Chris Tarrant is recovering in hospital after suffering a mini-stroke while on a flight to the UK from Bangkok.

The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter's manager, Paul Vaughan, said he was taken ill on March 1 and is being treated at Charing Cross Hospital in London.

He said: "The doctors have confirmed he has had a mini-stroke, but he is made of stern stuff, Mr Tarrant, and hopefully he will be home by Thursday or Friday."

The 67-year-old had been filming in Asia and South America before falling ill and Mr Vaughan said he would not be going straight back to work after he is discharged.

Tarrant bowed out from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? last month after a decade and a half.

During that time, the quiz show has become one of the most successful programmes in the world, inspiring spin-off games and Danny Boyle's hit film Slumdog Millionaire.

Tarrant first found fame hosting the children's show Tiswas.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Missing Plane: Malaysia 'Holding Back Details'

Missing Plane: 13 Things You Need To Know

Updated: 10:52pm UK, Tuesday 11 March 2014

As the search for Flight MH370 continues, we answer 13 questions about the disappearance and what could have happened.

When did the plane disappear?

Flight MH370 vanished from radars early on Saturday, an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. When it last made contact, the jet was cruising at 35,000 feet over the South China Sea. There are reports that the plane tried to turn around but this would give rise to the question: why didn't the pilot communicate this decision to air traffic control? Meanwhile, at an undisclosed time a relative reportedly managed to call one of the passengers. Investigators have repeatedly tried to call the same number without success.

:: Sky News will be showing a 12-minute special report on the story so far of the missing flight MH370 at 2.30pm.

Who was on board?

The plane's manifest contained 12 crew from Malaysia and 227 passengers from 14 different countries: 153 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French, three Americans, two each from Iran (both travelling on fake passports), New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada, and 1 each from Russia, Taiwan and Netherlands. Among the passengers was a 19-strong group of prominent artists returning from an exhibition in Malaysia. It is also known that five children - aged two to four - were on board. The oldest person on the plane was 79.

What are the main theories?

Mechanical error remains the most likely explanation. Poor conditions and strong turbulence always have to be considered, but weather conditions were good in this instance. Four areas of investigation are focused on the possibility of human involvement: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

Could there have been a mechanical error?

Inquiries into Air France flight 447 that dived into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route from Brazil to Paris, killing 228 people, blamed both technical and human error. However, in the event of engine failure, a plane such as the Boeing 777-200 could glide for 80-90 miles (128-145km), giving the pilot time to issue a distress signal. The descent would also have been traced by radars. The lack of any Mayday makes an explosion a possibility.

Could the plane have broken up in the air?

The apparent lack of wreckage from MH370 does point to a high-altitude disaster. In such an event the debris would be spread far and wide, making it difficult to find. A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up on impact with the water. In the event of a sudden loss of pressure due to a window blowing out the crew would dive the plane in order to lose altitude - but this would not cause the plane to disintegrate.

The plane's safety record?

Sudden, accidental, structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet. One of the missing plane's wingtips was clipped in an incident while taxiing in 2012 but it was repaired and certified as safe.

Could it have been a terrorist attack or hijacking?

In the event of a hijacker trying to enter the cockpit, a pilot can send a secret distress code - something that wasn't done on Flight MH370. The profiles of all 239 passengers are being checked against databases worldwide but the terrorism theory was weakened on Tuesday when Malaysian police confirmed it had identified the two passengers who were travelling on fake passports. Both were said to be seeking asylum in Europe. In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster - but no one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Human error?

The 53-year-old pilot was very experienced, having amassed more than 18,000 flying hours since being employed by the airline in 1981. However, in Indonesia in 2007, Adam Air flight 574 disappeared with 102 passengers during a domestic flight, where the authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment. Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell told Sky News: "We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made."

Why was there no distress signal?

One explanation is that the plane fell into a communications black spot. Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer explained: "These are very sophisticated (items of) equipment that should have been working under any conditions - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet. There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you cannot communicate for some reason. Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots."

Where is the search taking place?

Nine aircraft and 24 ships are currently taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, New Zealand and the US are assisting. Officials said on Tuesday that the search was being conducted on both sides of Vietnam's Ca Mau peninsula. The search area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane disappeared - over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam - to 100 nautical miles (115 miles; 185km). This expansion was a result of a new report from the Malaysian military, who say they tracked the plane in the Strait of Malacca - a long distance from where it last made contact - in the hours following its disappearance.

Why has no wreckage been found?

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find. It took two years to find the main wreckage of Air France flight 447 in 2009.  In 2007, in the case of the Adam Air flight, it was a week before an Indonesian naval vessel detected metal on the ocean floor. It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders and seven months for the recorder to be recovered. If the plane had crashed on land, chances are the wreckage would have been found by now. At sea, much of the plane would have sunk, but some debris should remain on the surface. Worryingly, the longer the search takes the harder it becomes as the wind and tide spread any debris further from the initial crash zone.

Could the 'black box' provide answers?

As well as wreckage, search teams are looking for the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) - though these do not always work if a plane hits water. However, attached to the plane's black box is a device known as a pinger. This can emit radio signals deep under water for up to 30 days - or 40 days in warm water.

Has a plane ever simply vanished?

Since the start of the jet age in the 1950s, nearly every major aircraft that disappeared was found - eventually - and the rare exceptions did not involve passengers. In September 1990, a Boeing 727 plunged into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel. The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered. Another Boeing 727 transporting diesel to diamond mines in Africa took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Pistorius Crime Scene Reconstructed In Court

Pistorius Trial: Evidence Summary

Updated: 2:18pm UK, Tuesday 11 March 2014

A summary of the evidence heard in the first two days of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial.

Day 7

Friend Darren Fresco told the court Oscar Pistorius "laughed" after firing his gun through the sunroof of a car.

Mr Fresco said he asked Pistorius if he was "******* mad". "He just laughed about what had happened. It felt as if my ear was bleeding," he said, referring to the episode in late 2012.

The court was told the athlete had a "big love for weapons" and Mr Fresco also recalled an occasion when Pistorius asked him to pass him his gun at Tasha's restaurant in Johannesburg on January 13 last year.

He said he warned Pistorius his Glock pistol was "one-up" - meaning it had a bullet in the chamber - and that he thought he saw the runner remove it.

The gun went off under the table, followed by a "deafening hush" - and Pistorius "instantly" passed the weapon back to him and asked him to "take the rap for it" because there was "too much media hype" around him, Mr Fresco said.

Pathologist Gert Saymaan, who conducted a post-mortem examination on Reeva Steenkamp, also finished giving his evidence as a court ban on tweeting during his evidence was lifted by Judge Thokozile Masipa.

The court heard the amount of urine in Ms Steenkamp's bladder at the time of her death amounted to the rough equivalent of a teaspoon - and that the model's last meal was consumed no more than two hours before her death.

Ms Steenkamp was shot after 3am, which means she must have eaten after 1am. Pistorius had said the couple were in the bedroom by 10pm.

Prof Saayman admitted he was not "an expert in this field" but his conclusions were based on scientific probability.

Day 6

Oscar Pistorius threw up in court as details of the post-mortem examination of Reeva Steenkamp were read out.

A live video feed of the trial was cut while a pathologist gave "graphic" evidence of his examination.

Professor Gert Saayman said Ms Steenkamp had bullet wounds to her head, right hip and right arm.

He said the Ranger branded bullets used were designed to "expand and mushroom" and cause substantial damage.

Prof Saayman said the head wound would have been incapacitating but added Ms Steenkamp may not have died straight away.

 Earlier in the day a security guard finished giving his evidence.

Chief security guard Pieter Baba says Pistorius told him all was fine when he called after receiving reports from other residents that they had heard gunshots.

 But Mr Roux insisted to him that it was Pistorius who phoned the security guard, rather than the other way round.

Mr Baba denied this.

Day Five

Prosecution witness Samantha Taylor, ex-girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius, broke down in court as she told how the athlete cheated on her with Reeva Steenkamp.

Miss Taylor also told the court how Pistorius once fired a gun out of the sunroof of a car after being stopped by police.

The star's ex-lover described how Pistorius would sometimes "scream at her" and often carried a gun with him.

The court was told how Pistorius once woke Ms Taylor fearing there was an intruder in the house and got up to investigate with his gun.

Security guard Pieter Baba described the moment he saw a distressed Pistorius carrying Reeva down the stairs.

The guard said that Pistorius assured him everything "is fine" after shots were reported. 

More evidence from Ms Taylor suggested that Pistorius once feared he was being followed and waved his gun at the suspect car until it drove off near his home.

Day Four

Prosecution witness Dr Johan Stipp told the court how he went to Oscar Pistorius' residence after hearing shots fired on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed.

He said he saw Ms Steenkamp lying on her back and Pistorius by her side, frantically trying to resuscitate her.

It was clear Ms Steenkamp was mortally wounded, he said, and Pistorius was crying and praying that she'd survive. During his evidence, Pistorius broke down in the dock, sobbing as he held his head in his hands.

Earlier, Pistorius' defence team said it would have been "impossible" for neighbours to hear screams on the night Ms Steenkamp died.

Lawyer Barry Roux said neighbour Charl Peter Johnson's claim that he heard gunshots followed by a woman screaming was incorrect.

"You cannot hear it inside your house," he said. "At any distance, she was in a locked bathroom."

Mr Johnson also claimed to have heard five or six shots on the night of the killing. But Mr Roux pointed out that in his initial notes he wrote that he "did not count the number of shots fired".

Day Three

Mr Johnson's evidence continued, and he was repeatedly challenged by Mr Roux who at one point said: "You are saying all the evidence that your wife gave us yesterday."

Mr Johnson replied that it was not unusual for two people to use the same words when describing an incident.

He mentioned some notes that he'd taken after the shooting, which are on his laptop and iPad. He was asked to end his evidence for the day and come back the next day, so the defence team had the opportunity to view his notes.

Pistorius' friend Kevin Lerena was then called, who described an incident in January last year in which Pistorius allegedly discharged a firearm by mistake while eating with friends in a restaurant.

He said the athlete then asked his friend Darren Fresco to take the blame.

The owner of the restaurant, Jason Loupis, and his wife Maria, later confirmed the incident after taking the stand.

Mrs Loupis said there was a child nearby when Pistorius' gun went off in the restaurant.

Day Two

The evidence of Ms Burger continued.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux said her evidence had been influenced by media coverage of the shooting, but she denied this.

Mr Roux said that evidence later in the trial would show that Ms Steenkamp would not have been able to scream after the final shot hit her in the head.

Ms Burger stood by her initial statement that she heard Ms Steenkamp after the final shot.

Another neighbour then took the stand for a short time, before Ms Burger's husband gave his evidence.

He told how he thought Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp were being held up in their house and said he looked at additional security measures for his own home the next day.

He backed up his wife's evidence, saying he heard screams after the final shot.

Day One

The first witness, university lecturer Michelle Burger, took the stand.

She says she woke on the night of the killing to the sound of gunshots and a woman screaming.

She described hearing "bloodcurdling screams" and four shots.

She is a key witness for the prosecution, as her evidence would appear to contradict Pistorius' claims that he thought he was shooting at an intruder.

The defence argued she is unreliable due to alleged discrepancies between her police statement and court testimony.

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Malaysia Airlines Mystery: Search Stepped Up

What Has Happened To Malaysia Airlines Plane?

Updated: 6:49am UK, Wednesday 12 March 2014

The missing Malaysia Airlines flight may be proving so hard to find because it could have vanished in an aviation "black spot", an expert has told Sky News.

:: For the latest on this story click here

Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer said it was "disturbing" that there had been no distress call from flight MH370's cockpit and that the plane's emergency locator transmitters had not sent any signals.

He said: "These are very sophisticated equipment that should have been working under any condition - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you can not communicate for some reason.

"Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots, so perhaps at that time there was no data transmission between the aircraft and the airline."

Flight MH370 vanished from radar screens early on Saturday about one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

When it last made contact, the Malaysia Airlines jet was at cruising altitude, 11km (35,000 feet) above sea level, largely considered the safest part of a flight.

While there is still no confirmation that the Boeing 777-200 crashed, aviation experts have put forward possible causes of its disappearance including a terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, human error or even suicide.

The failure of the pilots to send a distress signal has given rise to speculation there was a sudden catastrophe - possibly caused by a mechanical failure or an explosion.

Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell has told Sky News that despite flying becoming safer over the years, mistakes are still made.

"We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made," he said.

Investigations into Air France flight 447 that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people, eventually concluded that both technical and human error were to blame for the disaster.

Closer to the area where MH370 vanished, Adam Air flight 574 with 102 people on board disappeared in January 2007, also at its cruise phase, during a domestic flight in Indonesia.

Authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

The lack of wreckage from MH370 also suggests a high-altitude disaster which spread debris across an area too wide to be easily detected.

Aviation experts say the size of the debris field will be one of the first indicators of what happened.

A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up upon impact with the water.

A large, widespread field would signal the plane probably broke apart at a high elevation, perhaps because of a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

But sudden, accidental structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft.

This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

Authorities have not ruled out terrorism or hijacking, though, with suspicions over two of the passengers found to be travelling on stolen passports.

"There are two categories of people who use these (stolen passports) - criminals and terrorists," Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, there was substantial wreckage despite it being a mid-air explosion, and claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster.

But no-one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find.

It took two years to find the main wreckage of the Air France plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people.

An Indonesian navy ship detected metal on the ocean floor a week after the Adam Air flight disappeared in 2007.

It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders, and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

The Malaysian jet could have made a U-turn shortly before it vanished, officials say, adding one more level of uncertainty to the effort to find it.

It is thought the plane could be hundreds of miles from where it was last detected, and the search has been widened in the hope of finding the plane.

Just about every major jet to disappear in the modern era has eventually been found. The rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 owned by the Peruvian Faucett Airlines ditched into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel on its way to Miami.

The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

More mysterious was the disappearance of another Boeing 727 being used to transport diesel fuel to diamond mines in Africa.

The owners had numerous financial problems and the plane took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

One theory, never proven, is that it was stolen so the owner could collect insurance.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Malaysia Airlines Plane: What Has Happened?

The missing Malaysia Airlines flight may be proving so hard to find because it could have vanished in an aviation "black spot", an expert has told Sky News.

Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer said it was "disturbing" that there had been no distress call from flight MH370's cockpit and that the plane's emergency locator transmitters had not sent any signals.

He said: "These are very sophisticated equipment that should have been working under any condition - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you can not communicate for some reason.

"Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots, so perhaps at that time there was no data transmission between the aircraft and the airline."

Flight MH370 vanished from radar screens early on Saturday about one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

When it last made contact, the Malaysia Airlines jet was at cruising altitude, 11km (35,000 feet) above sea level, largely considered the safest part of a flight.

Wreckage of Air France flight 447 is discovered after the crash

While there is still no confirmation that the Boeing 777-200 crashed, aviation experts have put forward possible causes of its disappearance including a terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, human error or even suicide.

The failure of the pilots to send a distress signal has given rise to speculation there was a sudden catastrophe - possibly caused by a mechanical failure or an explosion.

Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell has told Sky News that despite flying becoming safer over the years, mistakes are still made.

"We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made," he said.

Investigations into Air France flight 447 that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people, eventually concluded that both technical and human error were to blame for the disaster.

Authorities have extended the search area for the plane

Closer to the area where MH370 vanished, Adam Air flight 574 with 102 people on board disappeared in January 2007, also at its cruise phase, during a domestic flight in Indonesia.

Authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

The lack of wreckage from MH370 also suggests a high-altitude disaster which spread debris across an area too wide to be easily detected.

Aviation experts say the size of the debris field will be one of the first indicators of what happened.

A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up upon impact with the water.

A large, widespread field would signal the plane probably broke apart at a high elevation, perhaps because of a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

Authorities are now searching a 100-nautical mile area

But sudden, accidental structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft.

This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

Authorities have not ruled out terrorism or hijacking, though, with suspicions over two of the passengers found to be travelling on stolen passports.

"There are two categories of people who use these (stolen passports) - criminals and terrorists," Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, there was substantial wreckage despite it being a mid-air explosion, and claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster.

The Lockerbie bombing killed 270 people, including 11 on the ground

But no-one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find.

It took two years to find the main wreckage of the Air France plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people.

An Indonesian navy ship detected metal on the ocean floor a week after the Adam Air flight disappeared in 2007.

It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders, and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

An Indonesian fisherman holds up part of the Adam Air aircraft

The Malaysian jet could have made a U-turn shortly before it vanished, officials say, adding one more level of uncertainty to the effort to find it.

It is thought the plane could be hundreds of miles from where it was last detected, and the search has been widened in the hope of finding the plane.

Just about every major jet to disappear in the modern era has eventually been found. The rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 owned by the Peruvian Faucett Airlines ditched into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel on its way to Miami.

The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

More mysterious was the disappearance of another Boeing 727 being used to transport diesel fuel to diamond mines in Africa.

The owners had numerous financial problems and the plane took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

One theory, never proven, is that it was stolen so the owner could collect insurance.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Missing Malaysia Jet Suspect 'Not Terrorist'

What Has Happened To Malaysia Airlines Plane?

Updated: 7:50am UK, Tuesday 11 March 2014

The missing Malaysia Airlines flight may be proving so hard to find because it could have vanished in an aviation "black spot", an expert has told Sky News.

Former Boeing 777 instructor and United Airlines captain Ross Aimer said it was "disturbing" that there had been no distress call from flight MH370's cockpit and that the plane's emergency locator transmitters had not sent any signals.

He said: "These are very sophisticated equipment that should have been working under any condition - in the water, in the jungle, after a fire, after an explosion - and none of them have talked to the outside world yet.

"There are spots in the world, however, that are called blind spots, where you can not communicate for some reason.

"Unfortunately, that area near Vietnam, over the Gulf of Thailand, those are some of the black spots, so perhaps at that time there was no data transmission between the aircraft and the airline."

Flight MH370 vanished from radar screens early on Saturday about one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

When it last made contact, the Malaysia Airlines jet was at cruising altitude, 11km (35,000 feet) above sea level, largely considered the safest part of a flight.

While there is still no confirmation that the Boeing 777-200 crashed, aviation experts have put forward possible causes of its disappearance including a terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, human error or even suicide.

The failure of the pilots to send a distress signal has given rise to speculation there was a sudden catastrophe - possibly caused by a mechanical failure or an explosion.

Former Navy pilot Dr Simon Mitchell has told Sky News that despite flying becoming safer over the years, mistakes are still made.

"We've expended billions of dollars on developing very sophisticated aids to make the life of the pilot safer and more straightforward, but there are still opportunities whereby mistakes can be made," he said.

Investigations into Air France flight 447 that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people, eventually concluded that both technical and human error were to blame for the disaster.

Closer to the area where MH370 vanished, Adam Air flight 574 with 102 people on board disappeared in January 2007, also at its cruise phase, during a domestic flight in Indonesia.

Authorities found the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

The lack of wreckage from MH370 also suggests a high-altitude disaster which spread debris across an area too wide to be easily detected.

Aviation experts say the size of the debris field will be one of the first indicators of what happened.

A smaller field would indicate the plane probably fell intact, breaking up upon impact with the water.

A large, widespread field would signal the plane probably broke apart at a high elevation, perhaps because of a bomb or a massive airframe failure.

But sudden, accidental structural failures are considered extremely unlikely in today's passenger aircraft.

This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200, which has one of the best safety records of any jet.

Authorities have not ruled out terrorism or hijacking, though, with suspicions over two of the passengers found to be travelling on stolen passports.

"There are two categories of people who use these (stolen passports) - criminals and terrorists," Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said.

In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, there was substantial wreckage despite it being a mid-air explosion, and claims of responsibility came soon after the disaster.

But no-one has come forward to claim the Malaysia incident as their attack.

Whatever caused the apparent crash, there would be some debris - but it could take a while to find.

It took two years to find the main wreckage of the Air France plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people.

An Indonesian navy ship detected metal on the ocean floor a week after the Adam Air flight disappeared in 2007.

It was a further two weeks before the US Navy picked up signals from the flight data and cockpit recorders, and seven months for the recorder to be recovered.

The Malaysian jet could have made a U-turn shortly before it vanished, officials say, adding one more level of uncertainty to the effort to find it.

It is thought the plane could be hundreds of miles from where it was last detected, and the search has been widened in the hope of finding the plane.

Just about every major jet to disappear in the modern era has eventually been found. The rare exceptions did not involve passengers.

In September 1990, a Boeing 727 owned by the Peruvian Faucett Airlines ditched into the North Atlantic after running out of fuel on its way to Miami.

The accident was attributed to poor pilot planning and the wreck was never recovered.

More mysterious was the disappearance of another Boeing 727 being used to transport diesel fuel to diamond mines in Africa.

The owners had numerous financial problems and the plane took off without clearance and with its transponder turned off. It is believed to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean.

One theory, never proven, is that it was stolen so the owner could collect insurance.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Bob Crow: Sudden Death Of Union Leader

The general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, Bob Crow, has died at the age of 52 after suffering a suspected heart attack.

Mr Crow was taken to hospital after reportedly complaining of feeling unwell on Monday but died in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The union confirmed his sudden death in a short statement.

There have been tributes from across the political spectrum to a man viewed by some as a working class hero and by others simply as a force for disruption.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who regularly sparred with Mr Crow, said he was a "fighter and a man of character".

"Whatever our political differences, and there were many, this is tragic news," he added.

Mr Crow was a divisive figure

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone said Mr Crow's work had a huge influence on young people coming up through the trade union movement and would create a "better generation of trade union leader in the future".

He told Sky News: "He fought really hard for his members. The only working-class people who still have well-paid jobs in London are his members."

Sky News' Political Editor Adam Boulton described Mr Crow as a man of complexity, who dined at Scott's of Mayfair but continued to live in a council house.

He became general secretary of the RMT in 2002

"Bob Crow was a man who believed there was nothing too good for the workers and who was very much prepared to fight for it," he said.

"In a sense he was also someone who saw the way the wind was blowing between Labour and the trade unions before many others, taking his union out of affiliation with the Labour party, using its political funds for its own campaigns."

Mr Crow's brother, Richard, told Sky News that he and his brother were "politically totally different" but that he was a great brother to grow up with. 

He recounted fondly: "He was an annoying little rascal to me when he was a kid. He would forever be telling me that he would tell my mum and dad the sort of thing that I got up to but he was one of those loveable little rogues."

Mr Crow is understood to have suffered an aneurysm and heart attack and was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone.

Mr Crow on the phone to Boris Johnson

In a brief statement the RMT confirmed the "distressing" death of its leader.

Mr Crow's supporters cast him as a man who fought for his beliefs and credited him with revitalising the RMT, while his detractors highlighted his significant salary and holidays abroad.

Most recently he led a 48-hour Tube strike in protest at the closure of Underground station ticket offices, with the loss of 750 jobs.

He telephoned Mr Johnson to tackle him live on-air during the mayor's LBC radio programme, accusing the politician of refusing to hold talks with him over the threat of industrial action.

East London-born Mr Crow left school at 16 and got a job felling trees and fixing rails on the London Underground.

Mr Crow in 1992

The Millwall supporter rose through the ranks to become general secretary of the RMT in 2002 and by 2008 the union's membership had swelled from 57,000 to 80,000, making it the fastest-growing in the country. 

His refusal to back down and determination to fight for his beliefs soon cemented his standing as a member of the "Awkward Squad" of union leaders.

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, said: "Bob Crow was admired by his members and feared by employers, which is exactly how he liked it.

"It was a privilege to campaign and fight alongside him because he never gave an inch."

Mr Crow, lived in Woodford Green, east London, with his partner Nicola Hoarau, 50. He leaves four children.

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