[naturalman1975]

Repeating what I just posted (which you probably didn't see), it's been clarified on news here that Angus Houston's comments were not referring to the Prime Minister's statements, but to earlier media reports. Unfortunately because of timing overlap, initially it looked like he was referring to the PMs statements, but he expressly was not.

[Sarah Barracuda]

But its true that the 5th ping has been confirmed to NOT be related to the plane? If thats the case then how do we know the rest of the pings have any relation to the plane..for days all I have been hearing is that these types of pings are not created by anything natural in the ocean, only from man made technology, if this 5th ping thing is true I guess it can be

[Praxeologue]

I am following this at two commercial pilots forums, airliners.net and PPRuNe.org.

Abbott's comments in Peking were appropriate and diplomatically sensitive to Chinese concerns.

The comments of these forums turned political when an American pilot called Abbott a "clown" and said his comments were political grandstanding. I expected the Aussie contingent to jump on him. Instead, they agreed with him and piled on Abbott ... unfairly, of course.

What's happened to Australians? Do you let an foreigner call your PM a clown, even if you're a Labour supporter? Also, CNN was doing this more subtly an hour ago in their fit of pique when the rumour, unconnected to Abbott, turned out to be untrue. The Australian who stuck up for Abbott was dissed.

This behavior must drive you around the bend. What strikes me is the lack of backbone.