That could be foul play directed at the airplane, or just run of the mill foul play in the form of people or drug smuggling.
It pains our Hollywood trained story expectations to accept this, but we might not ever have the evidence to know. That will not stop the many media and political outlets from pretending they know.
Foul play maybe, but I doubt intentional terrorism. After all, there’s little point to terrorism unless it’s declared as such - someone’s got to take responsibility.
I wouldn’t rule out terrorism entirely just yet, but it has been a rather long time for no credible “we did it!” type news releases from whatever organization has a beef against something and wants to kill people to make a point.
The stolen passports might be a red herring at this point. It could have just as easily been mechanical trouble. Hopefully they’ll find the black box like they did for Air France 447.
I have not followed this story much at all, I don’t know if there was bad weather in the area or anything.
they found a large debris field today off the southeastern coast of vietnam. the kicker: it’s almost 300km from the aircraft’s last known position.
… trying to link to avherald and it looks like they’re swamped. i’ll keep trying.
Just read that the debris field was likely unrelated.
Supposedly, travel w/ false passports is routine in Asia. They need to investigate that thoroughly, but I’m going to guess this ends up being a mechanical failure.
Don’t worry, our submarines are listening for the black box pinger, although the credit will be given to ships in the area.
My bet is that it will turn out to be Rustin Cohle.
The Malaysian press is linking the knife attacks in China last week to the disappearance of the aircraft; although that obviously sensationalises and ensures copies get sold.
Calm weather, 777 probably maintained by Singapore airlines (contract with MAS), got to cruise altitude with no apparent issues. 777 is very modern, and had a 33 year veteran at the wheel, with a co-pilot with more than 2,000 hours flight time who had just transitioned onto the aircraft, so had recent training.
The news here is reporting that they’re widening the search area to west of the Malaysian peninsula - which seems very odd, given that it would have had to re-cross the landmass after having headed NNE. The flight-tracking world dispute any suggestion the aircraft turned around. Possibly it dropped to the deck and scooted under radar back over Malaysia … ?
Embarrassing, severely, for Malaysia that the two fake passport people boarded. Also that the tracking gear can’t reveal data about a flight 1 hour old.
I figured catastrophic failure, likely a bomb, but really don’t understand why they’d check west of the peninsula unless they thought the plane headed back over the country. Sea currents?
It’s dreadfully sad.
And I think it will turn out to be Jacob and the Man In Black.
It is odd that the NSA seemingly can collect the personal data of everyone on the internet, yet no official agency will claim to manage better real-time tracking of the weapons platform responsible for the largest terrorist attack ever.
Still, as someone who grew up fascinated by the Bermuda triangle, whatever happened is terribly sad.
News recalls Lockerbie - no-one declared it as their hit. Good, calm weather, it was though nighttime. It is not unknown for pilots to become disoriented as to which way is up, but very weird if that happened in a passenger aircraft - multiple failsafes around every conceivable angle.
Comparisons to 447 are limited to the “odd disappearance” angle - that flight flew into a monstrous storm head-on, and the pilots appear to have lacked the training and nouse to realise they were in a high speed, high-altitude stall - they became disoriented in a chaotic environment.
This article certainly thickens the plot:
Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Passengers’ Mobile Phones Ring But Not Answered http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-passengers-mobile-phones-ring-not-answered-1439560
I’m wondering if it’s not a hijack situation - which would account for looking for the aircraft west of the peninsula. Were that true, and negotiations were ongoing, you wouldn’t want 100 news helicopters buzzing around the playfield.
If a hijacking went wrong and crashed the plane rather than taking control then there may not be anyone left to claim responsibility. (not suggesting that happened)
Yes this was particularly true for Hong Kong, where passports continued to travel for years after the owner died.
Just a thought…is it like in the movies, where once a plane flies under radar, it can’t be seen? Maybe a safe landing, but taken low and slow to its alternate destination?
I think there’s a profound misunderstanding there about where the ringing noise comes from. With cell phones, that sound is just to give you something to listen to while the connection is made or dropped or hung, it doesn’t mean anything is on the other end.
The people with the stolen passports were booked through to Europe. Apparently their tickets were booked by an Iranian businessman who’s done lots of business with the agent before. Sounds a lot like a couple of potential illegal immigrants skirting the higher-security airports.
Plenty of people here might know more than me about cellphones, but when a friend of mine died last year, I accidentally called his cell number and got a ring followed by a hangup. Checked with his wife to make sure she had closed that account, and she had not. My guess was that voicemail was full. I do not think he’s still alive hiding out in Area 51.
It looks freaky now, but once the wreckage is found (and it will be, eventually), it will seem obvious why the plane is wherever it is. But it might not happen for a few weeks or months, and by that time the conspiracy theorists will have invested too much time and effort to admit it and the rest of the world will have moved on to the latest celebrity scandal.
My gut feeling is a hijack or bomb, but I have only negative evidence to support it.
We’re so spoiled by real-time tracking and instant information that we forget that there are areas where it doesn’t work, and that a shallow, muddy sea or jungle-covered mountainside can swallow even something as big as an airliner quite effectively. Heard an interview with one of the Vietnamese pilots, and he seemed disappointed but not surprised that they hadn’t found anything. He said the sea is bigger than it looks on maps and it’s easy to miss things by a few miles, only to be shocked when they turn up where you thought you’d looked.
Patience, patience.
