Air Malaysia Has Lost Contact With Plane

[miffy]

A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew lost contact with air traffic controllers early on Saturday en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the airline said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/ ... 1720140308

[FakePigtails]

I just saw that. How terrible - I think the expected outcome is obvious :-(. I was surprised it was a 777. The safety record on those is excellent.

[Kailash]

This is so terrifying to me. It just disappeared, with absolutely no warning. I feel terrible for the families of the passengers and crew. Presumed to have crashed in the South China Sea.

[DGayle]

So far they're found a couple oil slicks, but nothing else, no debris or bodies. Pretty scary.

[FakePigtails]

Here's a little new info: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/08/world/asi ... ?hpt=hp_t1

Bits and pieces of information have begun to form, but it remains unclear how they fit into the bigger picture, if at all.

For instance, after the airline released a manifest, Austria denied that one of its citizens was aboard the flight. The Austrian citizen was safe and sound, and his passport had been stolen two years ago, Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss said.

Similarly, Italy's foreign ministry confirmed that no Italians were on Flight 370, even though an Italian was listed on the manifest. Police in Italy said the man's passport was stolen last year.

A U.S. intelligence official said authorities are aware of reporting about lost or stolen passports used by passengers on the missing flight.

"No nexus to terrorism yet," the official said, "although that's by no means definitive. We're still tracking."

[DGayle]

Here's a little new info: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/08/world/asi ... ?hpt=hp_t1

This is really worrisome. No wreckage, and at least a couple passengers with stolen passports. I don't usually scream terrorism about things, but and going to think that until the plane is found.

[crazyforkate]

It's now been said that the two passengers with stolen passports bought tickets together. Yeah, that looks bad.

[doggie]

If it was terrorists they usually would be bragging right now. P

[FakePigtails]

If it was terrorists they usually would be bragging right now. P

Agreed, it's very strange.

[Emkay]

Agreed, it's very strange.

This is what I was wondering- wouldn't someone have claimed this by now? Obviously, that the stolen passports were used to buy tickets at the same place, and to buy consecutively numbered tickets (same time) is very suspicious. I wonder if we'll find out what happened and if so, how long it will take to piece the puzzle together. Hopefully someone was very careless and left clues.

I have heard that they have found what they believe may be debris, but they weren't able to get close enough to identify it and had to return to base because of the dark. They speculate that it may be a door from the aircraft.

[FJismyheadship]

They mentioned calling one of the cell phones, but nobody answered? Why is this weird?

[FakePigtails]

They mentioned calling one of the cell phones, but nobody answered? Why is this weird?

I'm chalking that speculation up to conspiracy-theorism. The discussion at Websleuths (websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237325&page=30) had a lot of that and jumping on every rumor. The discussion at FlyerTalk doesn't allow random speculation and discussion of unsubstantiated rumors, plus has people more familiar with aviation so I'm finding it much more informative: flyertalk.com/forum/other-asian-australian-south-pacific-airlines/1558464-mh-370-772-kul-pek-missing-1730-gmt-7-mar-2014-sar-underway-99.html

[DGayle]

They mentioned calling one of the cell phones, but nobody answered? Why is this weird?

Because a phone that's got a dead battery or water damage wouldn't ring at all. If a phone rings, it's got juice and isn't broken.

[DGayle]

If it was terrorists they usually would be bragging right now. P

Maybe. Maybe not. Terrorists sometimes make plans that take a while. They could be sorting out hostages and reconfiguring plans based on their home countries.

[Rebelwife]

This is what I was wondering- wouldn't someone have claimed this by now? Obviously, that the stolen passports were used to buy tickets at the same place, and to buy consecutively numbered tickets (same time) is very suspicious. I wonder if we'll find out what happened and if so, how long it will take to piece the puzzle together. Hopefully someone was very careless and left clues.

I have heard that they have found what they believe may be debris, but they weren't able to get close enough to identify it and had to return to base because of the dark. They speculate that it may be a door from the aircraft.

Although from what I've read, the main market for stolen passports is for people trying to immigrate illegally - it's apparently a huge industry. If two people bought stolen passports and then made reservations together that would make sense. I also heard that those passengers didn't request that specific flight through the travel agency they used; that it was just the cheapest option to Europe. (Where they had tickets, via Bejing.) Who knows, though.

[miffy]

Although from what I've read, the main market for stolen passports is for people trying to immigrate illegally - it's apparently a huge industry. If two people bought stolen passports and then made reservations together that would make sense. I also heard that those passengers didn't request that specific flight through the travel agency they used; that it was just the cheapest option to Europe. (Where they had tickets, via Bejing.) Who knows, though.

One of the people travelling with a stolen passport has turned out to be a 19 yr old kid with no terror links & his mum was waiting for him in Europe. Very sad!

This is turning out to be very mysterious.

[Peas n carrots]

This reminds me of Air France Flight 447, the one that crashed in the Atlantic between Brazil and France. IIRC it seemed as if it that flight had just "disappeared" for several days too before the wreckage was found.

If the plane diverted off course over the ocean it could be like finding a needle in a haystack.

I feel for all the victim's families. Not knowing is worse than knowing.

[Emkay]

One of the people travelling with a stolen passport has turned out to be a 19 yr old kid with no terror links & his mum was waiting for him in Europe. Very sad!

This is turning out to be very mysterious.

I hadn't read that (about the 19-yr-old), but I did read later that the man who purchased the tickets for them did so on a regular basis, so that dropped the suspicion level quite a bit. How horrific for that poor kid's mother!

That could explain why the man purchasing the tickets and the two traveling on the stolen passports were all reported to be Iranian yet Interpol says no terror links are apparent- just some people trying to get the hell out of Iran. It probably happens more often than most people realize (people flying with stolen passports to immigrate- I would have thought most people would use them on ground transport due to security levels while flying) but this time it was made into more than that because the plane disappeared.

[Rebelwife]

The Diane Rehm Show on NPR had a an interesting episode on the flight this morning. It was mostly from the angle of how the plane might have disappeared and how they're looking for it and what the technical difficulties are in finding the plane in these circumstances.

[CallmeChaCha]

This reminds me of Air France Flight 447, the one that crashed in the Atlantic between Brazil and France. IIRC it seemed as if it that flight had just "disappeared" for several days too before the wreckage was found.

If the plane diverted off course over the ocean it could be like finding a needle in a haystack.

I feel for all the victim's families. Not knowing is worse than knowing.

Same here, about Air France 447. I looked it up (has it really been 5 years?!) to see how long it took to find anything. I think it was 5 days after the plane disappeared. I also found this article summarizing what happened with Air France 447: popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/what-really-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877

Some news articles about the Malaysian Air flight indicate the weather was clear, so they don't believe it was a similar situation as AF447. It's certainly very mysterious but we don't have much to compare to so it's difficult to know if it really does take this long to find an airplane in the ocean*. I can't imagine what the families are going through and how many are still hoping for a miracle. So sad.

* It certainly puts into perspective how small we are compared to Earth's size. I'm surprised they were able to find the black boxes for AF447 two years after the plane went down.

[FJismyheadship]

Because a phone that's got a dead battery or water damage wouldn't ring at all. If a phone rings, it's got juice and isn't broken.

How long would it take for water to get in the plane if it crashed? How does that work? I have no expertise on matters like this, but its interesting.

[Peas n carrots]

Tomnod is a crowdsourcing website where they have satellite photos up of the areas where the aircraft was believed to have gone down. Essentially, the public has access to the photos and if they see anything that could be related to the aircraft (rafts, debris etc) you can tag the photo and teams working on the search can check it out further.

Right now it's hard to access the site as they have seen a lot of traffic from helpers around the world.

http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/malaysiaairsar2014

[miffy]

How long would it take for water to get in the plane if it crashed? How does that work? I have no expertise on matters like this, but its interesting.

It would have broken up when it hit the water.

[DGayle]

Well, if it slammed into water from that height, the plane may as well be crashing into concrete. So if the plane crashed into water, it's not going to stay in one piece. Pretty damned quick for water to get into a phone. Plus the phone would probably sink, which would mean no satellite connection, meaning right to voicemail.

[uber frau]

Except that (depending on the carrier) it's not uncommon to get a ring tone if the phone you're calling is off, especially if the person you're trying to reach has some sort of call diversion service.

Getting a ring tone from a passenger's phone means nothing at all about whether the phone is working or not.

How long would it take for water to get in the plane if it crashed? How does that work? I have no expertise on matters like this, but its interesting.