MH370

[justginger]

I am so very sad for all of the people, around the whole world, who are trying to go to sleep this evening, wondering where their loved ones are. Hoping against hope.

Being on a flight that goes down is my worst nightmare. The more I travel, the more anxious I grow about flying. I tally up all the flights I've been on and thank God that I've stepped off every single one of them.

Lots of prayers for those who have been affected by such a traumatic event, and I hope the answers they seek are revealed soon.

 

[missy]

I feel the same way. Keeping all affected in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[April20]

I feel that same way. I've traveled a lot over the last five years (think 300+ flights) and the more I fly, the more terrified I am.

I cannot even begin to imagine what these families are going thru right now.

 

[kenny]

+1

I read about it while my SO was 35,000 feet up in a jet.

 

[kenny]

Two passengers carried passports that were stolen.
Hmmmm.
I wonder if this suggests terrorism.

But then they spotted an oil slick on the ocean surface that was six to nine miles long which is likely from the downed jet.

At first I thought such a long slick must be from a slow leak.

But then commercial jets cruise near 500 MPH and an explosion 35,000 feet up would not all come down in the same place, especially if there was wind.
Plus, ocean currents can elongate the oil slick.

This should be an interesting and lengthy investigation.

 

[Dancing Fire]

This is crazy...after 3 days they still couldn't find the plane...

 

[TooPatient]

I hope they find this airplane soon. I can't imagine what the families are going through not knowing where their loved ones are.

 

[arkieb1]

People in Asia steal passports and travel on planes regularly there was an Indian plane crash that had I think it was 10 people with fake passports on it that crashed ages ago (and none of them were terrorists) so that doesn't necessarily prove foul play. If it was a bomb there would be pieces, fragments that the search teams could see from the air.

The plane had had an accident before, the tail of it might not have been structurally repaired properly. So it could have lost control and gone into the ocean in one piece and sank to the bottom and not broken up on impact or it will take a while for it to break up - this seems like a more logical explanation for why they can't find any trace of it. Either that or the search teams are looking in the wrong place.

 

[Dancing Fire]

With today's technology it should be found by now where ever it is on earth.

 

[arkieb1]

With today's technology it should be found by now where ever it is on earth.

Normally airlines have equipment that tracks where all of their planes are at any given time and where they end up, for some very odd reason this was not working or not turned on, so YES in theory it should have been found, but allowing for human error means it has not.

 

[JewelFreak]

The plane had had an accident before, the tail of it might not have been structurally repaired properly. So it could have lost control and gone into the ocean in one piece and sank to the bottom and not broken up on impact or it will take a while for it to break up - this seems like a more logical explanation for why they can't find any trace of it. Either that or the search teams are looking in the wrong place.

777s have technology reporting performance of all systems to control while they're in the air; that way, if there's a problem, necessary parts to fix it can be ready on the tarmac when it lands in order to shorten any delays. If something had failed in flight, it would have been automatically reported as it happened. There was no indication of any trouble & the pilot did not press the Emergency button.

Even if the pilot had ditched the plane purposely, as that Egyptian pilot did several yrs ago, it would show both on radar & in automatic systems reporting. This was a sudden & catastrophic failure; a bomb is the most likely cause -- what else wouldn't show up?

They must be looking in the wrong place -- a huge plane and 380 people don't just vaporize & leave no trace anywhere. They have widened the search area today -- let's hope they find something.

--- Laurie

 

[ksinger]

Well, I am not going to speculate on whether it was a terrorist act. It's far too early. I say let the investigators - who go through some wicked training for their jobs - do their jobs and don't armchair quarterback.

Here is an interesting Q&A on the status so far. Apparently radars don't always have good water coverage, the plane's automatic systems send the info to a maintenance base, not ATC, and the plane was flying 10 miles per minute and they don't know exactly when it went down (hence, maybe not looking in the right place) among other interesting facts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/world/asia/q-and-a-on-the-disappearance-of-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370.html?_r=0

 

[chrono]

Totally puzzling; a plane that large and with modern technology doesn't just disappear without a trace. It also highlights that there is little enforcement of the global passport/background checks.

 

[arkieb1]

The plane had had an accident before, the tail of it might not have been structurally repaired properly. So it could have lost control and gone into the ocean in one piece and sank to the bottom and not broken up on impact or it will take a while for it to break up - this seems like a more logical explanation for why they can't find any trace of it. Either that or the search teams are looking in the wrong place.

777s have technology reporting performance of all systems to control while they're in the air; that way, if there's a problem, necessary parts to fix it can be ready on the tarmac when it lands in order to shorten any delays. If something had failed in flight, it would have been automatically reported as it happened. There was no indication of any trouble & the pilot did not press the Emergency button.

Even if the pilot had ditched the plane purposely, as that Egyptian pilot did several yrs ago, it would show both on radar & in automatic systems reporting. This was a sudden & catastrophic failure; a bomb is the most likely cause -- what else wouldn't show up?

They must be looking in the wrong place -- a huge plane and 380 people don't just vaporize & leave no trace anywhere. They have widened the search area today -- let's hope they find something.

--- Laurie

I agree with you most Boeings especially the modern ones do have reporting systems while they are in the air but where do you think they report back to? It is my understanding that people investigating so far have been suggesting that the equipment that should have been in Malaysia recording this was either turned off or not working properly. Their official line is the plane could have been out of range..... If their own equipment failed to record this data then there is no data - generally if there is time, I do agree then pilots either press the emergency button or radio that there is some issue with the plane. So I 100% agree sudden and catastrophic....

There are known instances recorded around the world with airline crashes (like in Egypt) where the pilots set out to intentionally crash the plane. If it is true their equipment wasn't working at the time, then is it possible someone turned it off?

A bomb would cause debris. It's a metal plane, there would be seats, bits of metal, luggage, and so on. It would have to have been a pretty decent sized bomb to make everything literally disappear, I don't see how they would have gotten something that size onto the plane. They have widened the search so again there can be only two answers they were looking in the wrong place and there is debris somewhere, or there is no debris and the plane is still in tact or in large pieces on the bottom of the ocean somewhere.

The two guys with fake passports they discovered in our news today were most likely people trying to flee to Europe via China not necessarily terrorists. Is it likely someone smuggled a bomb onboard? I've been to both Malaysia and China. China I'd say it was unlikely, in Malaysia the equipment at the airports security wise is outdated compared to the rest of the world, so it could be an option, but it would probably be small not something that could make a whole plane disintegrate. So at this point I am not sure you can completely rule out pilot error, the pilot intentionally wanting to kill everyone or mechanical failure.

 

[JewelFreak]

Anything would cause debris; that's the puzzle. Even if it had flown straight down into the sea, the paper said today, there would have been wreckage. That's why I agree with your 1st suggestion, that they must be looking in the wrong area. Glad they're widening the search.

--- Laurie

 

[chrono]

The update yesterday isn't good; it appears that the transponder was turned off or has been damaged somehow and that the course has veered strongly to the left instead of northeast, across the Malacca Straits. I hope the plane was not hijacked by the pilot.

 

[chrono]

Too late to edit but what I wrote was only speculation at this point since the information is still unconfirmed.

 

[JewelFreak]

Last night I saw an ex-FAA head interviewed, who said it is on radar definitely that the plane turned around after its transponders were turned off & headed at lower altitude across the Malacca Strait into the Indian Ocean, where it went out of radar range. He stated that the Malaysian gov't knew this from 1st days but didn't release the info, most likely from a wish to save face since they've been fighting the extremist element. He was quite upset that they allowed such a waste of time & money searching an area they knew was wrong.

My brother was an American Airlines pilot for 30 yrs. He mostly flew MD80s, not 777s, but knows the plane. Here's what he says:

The ACARS transmits to a big maintenance base, through Airinc, which is a global communications service. It transmits engine parameters, malfunctions, tons of info I don't even know what. Also we could use it to transmit maintenance items in need of attention, and communicate with dispatch, get weather reports, all sortsa stuff. You, or at least we, had no control over its automatic functions. As of now I think the airplane broke up for some reason.

This FAA fellow said he could not think of any scenario except hijacking where the plane would do a u-turn, decrease altitude, & go off course with communication systems turned off & pilot not indicating distress. It obviously was still flying at that point. If it broke up out over the Indian Ocean somewhere, it could be a looong time before anything turns up -- lotta real estate out there.

 

[arkieb1]

It is also possible the equipment was turned off or it wasn't working and the airline is covering it's own backside by not admitting how shabbily they operate. Here is the latest theory and an impact hole that could possibly be the plane on the ocean floor that could prove that it was not off course;

http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/21951422/scour-satellites-for-missing-plane/

I agree if it is way off course then it is terrorists, if it was not then you still can't make that assumption. My husband is respected leader in Aviation in Australia so I get exposed to the theories as well.

Either way regardless of what cause the crash I feel deeply deeply sorry for the distress it is causing the poor families.

 

[monarch64]

Something I read mentioned a very good point: that this is unlikely to have been an act of terror because no representative of a group/cause has claimed responsibility, and the whole concept of terrorism revolves around making a very public statement. So I'm going to go with that and also theorize that something just went terribly wrong or the plane was hijacked.

 

[arkieb1]

Last night I saw an ex-FAA head interviewed, who said it is on radar definitely that the plane turned around after its transponders were turned off & headed at lower altitude across the Malacca Strait into the Indian Ocean, where it went out of radar range. He stated that the Malaysian gov't knew this from 1st days but didn't release the info, most likely from a wish to save face since they've been fighting the extremist element. He was quite upset that they allowed such a waste of time & money searching an area they knew was wrong.

My brother was an American Airlines pilot for 30 yrs. He mostly flew MD80s, not 777s, but knows the plane. Here's what he says:

The ACARS transmits to a big maintenance base, through Airinc, which is a global communications service. It transmits engine parameters, malfunctions, tons of info I don't even know what. Also we could use it to transmit maintenance items in need of attention, and communicate with dispatch, get weather reports, all sortsa stuff. You, or at least we, had no control over its automatic functions. As of now I think the airplane broke up for some reason.

This FAA fellow said he could not think of any scenario except hijacking where the plane would do a u-turn, decrease altitude, & go off course with communication systems turned off & pilot not indicating distress. It obviously was still flying at that point. If it broke up out over the Indian Ocean somewhere, it could be a looong time before anything turns up -- lotta real estate out there.

A Qantas plane had an oxygen bottle that exploded that cause all electrical systems to fail (there are 5 on board I think) this means that the transponders were not working on that flight so it is an unlikely scenario but not impossible, an explosion cause by a bomb could cause the same thing but again there should be fragments of the plane. It is also still possible that the pilot or co-pilot turned off the equipment and flew the plane into the ocean, or they had a massive systems failure and were unable to report this and crashed into the ocean.

 

[arkieb1]

O.K you were right it looks like someone pilot or terrorist took the plane, they have recorded hours of it flying low over the ocean, transponder turned off on purpose. Which makes the whole thing even more traumatic for the families.

 

[momhappy]

With all of the technology that we have, doesn't it seem odd that they can't locate a commercial jet carrying hundreds of people?
It's so very sad. It must be an excruciating wait for those poor families

 

[lioness]

WSJ reports that data transmitted by the engines to the ground indicates that the plane flew for four hours after the time of its last known location.

http://live.wsj.com/video/flight-370s-engines-ran-long-after-contact-lost/16D14B1E-C784-4A97-915D-77236154C2C6.html?mod=trending_now_video_1#!16D14B1E-C784-4A97-915D-77236154C2C6

 

[kenny]

WSJ reports that data transmitted by the engines to the ground indicates that the plane flew for four hours after the time of its last known location.

http://live.wsj.com/video/flight-370s-engines-ran-long-after-contact-lost/16D14B1E-C784-4A97-915D-77236154C2C6.html?mod=trending_now_video_1#!16D14B1E-C784-4A97-915D-77236154C2C6

This, combined with the fact that no terror group has claimed responsibility, is ominous.
Perhaps the jet was hijacked, transponder turned off and they landed it somewhere.
It had enough fuel to reach the Pakistan border.



If so, they now have a jet to use as a missile in an attack.

Whatever has happened, even if it was mechanical malfunction, I fear the worst for all on that plane.
Commercial jets don't just go missing for six days.

 

[lioness]

WSJ reports that data transmitted by the engines to the ground indicates that the plane flew for four hours after the time of its last known location.

http://live.wsj.com/video/flight-370s-engines-ran-long-after-contact-lost/16D14B1E-C784-4A97-915D-77236154C2C6.html?mod=trending_now_video_1#!16D14B1E-C784-4A97-915D-77236154C2C6

This, combined with the fact that no terror group has claimed responsibility, is ominous.
Perhaps the jet was hijacked, transponder turned off and they landed it somewhere.
It had enough fuel to reach the Pakistan border.



If so, they now have a jet to use as a missile in an attack.

Whatever has happened, even if it was mechanical malfunction, I fear the worst for all on that plane.
Commercial jets don't just go missing for six days.

Bingo. Pakistan. That was my first thought when I saw the flight range.

Anyone have a friend who works at Rolls Royce or Pratt & Whitney? Do jet engines transmit location information? Can the engines' location at the time the data packets were sent be determined by identifying the satellite(s) that transmitted the infomation back to earth?

 

[chrono]

My father's first thought was Afghanistan.

 

[GemFever]

I don't like to play the guessing game but when I saw the news about the plane potentially flying for hours after contact was lost, I thought... maybe it's not about the plane itself, but about the people on the plane... maybe the idea was to take them hostage and make demands from the world community? Or from China? They were mostly Chinese citizens, right?

 

[chrono]

100% speculative but I hope this isn't a religious war where the hijackers plan to use the Chinese nationals as exchange hostages for the release of the Chinese Uighur detainees.

 

[JewelFreak]

The engines transmit data every 30 minutes on altitude, temperature, air pressure, but I don't think they indicate location.

The lack of any terrorist group's crowing about this occurred to me too. However, if they did take the plane for use later, I doubt they'd broadcast that until it was, well, used. As to passengers & crew, no demands have been made. Keeping 260-odd people hostage would be a huge undertaking, and IF this scenario were true, the silence leads to the possibility that the hijackers might have killed them after landing. Let's just hope it isn't true.

It would seem a flight-crew member must be involved if it is a terrorist act. Theoretically, nobody else can get onto the flight deck -- although I read reports that the crew invited up some female passengers on this flight some time ago. But if a passenger were the culprit, the pilot would have hit the May Day button, don't you think?

This is a confused & disorganized search, with so many countries involved & no clear line of command. No information, misinformation, disinformation abounds. We all hope something solid turns up very soon.

--- Laurie