Malaysia Airlines flight MH370-Updates and Discussion

eorpach

Mountainsandh wrote: »

There is a pretty isolated landing strip here in Oman, it looks within fuel range at a push ?

My understanding is that Oman is rather a peaceful state, but who knows ?

Again I have mentioned it earlier, but I think an organization able to effectively steal a plane full of people would probably have the means to organize landing somewhere for refuelling. Would foreign radars be observing a place like Oman ?

This is a huge operation, so it wouldn't make sense to me that hijakers would have omitted to think of where they would land, and how they would stopover and refuel. After taking such risks !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duqm_Jaaluni_Airport
edit : that's if it is indeed a hijack.
Would that strip accommodate a 777 ?

Yes to your second question; whilst Oman is basically entirely desert, it would be well within observational limits in terms of aircraft entering and leaving Omani airspace to use Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports - the largest in the region - it would also be pretty inconceivable that it could pass through such a busy area of the Middle East unnoticed by other aircraft or ATCs (here's a screen-grab right now of commercial air traffic in the region: Flightradar Live: UAE/Oman/Yemen )

As for the landing strip you found - that's an international airport which is presently still in the late stages of construction. It should, in theory, be able to handle a 777 without issue. However, if a hijacker were to land a plane there, wouldn't it make more sense to hijack an African airliner, from an airport where security is more lax than Malaysia, and from a starting point where re-fuelling was not a necessity to reach Oman?

irishmover

jescart wrote: »

It doesn't have the characteristics of a terror attack in my opinion, could be totally wrong though anythings possible at this stage.

This new information in the last 24 hours which has positional information pinged from the 777 to a satellite seems to suggest that something strange has happened.

Let's look at what the new information is showing us:

1. Transponder turned off south of Vietnam on it's expected path to Beijing.
2. Satellite information shows pings of locations off route over 5 hours post last known position on route.
3. These pings indicate erratic behavior from the plane. Including odd turns and a number of changes in Altitude (they're saying it rose to 40k feet (?) and dropped to 20k feet before returning back to cruising altitude).
4. Last known ping over Indian Ocean believed to be heading in one of two directions.


This sounds a lot like human interaction is most probable as Auto Pilot wouldn't have done the above. Unless Angle of Attack along with the other systems which allow AP to run malfunctioned (still makes it not that plausible that the plane could have performed such maneuvers of its own accord.)

Ruby118

Sadly though One thing for sure is the poor souls onboard the plane have perished,no doubt about it,if it was any type of ransom contact would have been made now


Question,Could the auto Pilot have changed courses without the pilots knowing or being able to correct it due to malfunction? (im 99% sure its a no just asking to be sure)


If terrorism was involved all they have to do is run any kind of decent backround check on every passenger on the plane,there would be some kind of evidence left behind surely.



I have no doubt this has crashed in a remote place and just hastn been found yet,dont think the truth will ever come out either.

hefferboi

Just on the plane reaching 43,000 feet, could this be similar to what happened the Air France flight, in that the altitude and speed readings were wrong and the pilot/co-pilot thought they were going too fast at a lower altitude?

Sorry if its been asked already.

zetalambda

<Modsnip>

Yeah, why don't you just log out.

ongarite

Investigators conclude that the flight was hijacked:

Investigators have concluded that one or more people with significant flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, switched off communication devices and steered it off-course, a Malaysian government official involved in the investigation said Saturday.

No motive has been established and no demands have been made known, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MALAYSIA_PLANE?SITE=MYPSP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-14-23-57-32

Noo

Thats pretty daring to come out with considering theres still no plane.

irishmover

This would be the most sophisticated hijacking of a flight on record. Story just doesn't cease to amaze me.

Mint Sauce

Noo wrote: »

Thats pretty daring to come out with considering theres still no plane.

More so considering that he didn't have authority to say it.

LuckyGent88

This story just gets even more crazy.

irishmover

Malaysian PM news conference soon.

irishmover

News conference on now.

Noo

Lettuce know what they say

Noo

Lettuce know what they say

irishmover

Nothing but politics at the moment. Nothing new so far either.

irishmover

Primary Radar gave unconfirmed information that the plane changed path. With new information they're confident it's changed path to westerly direction over Malaysian peninsula before turning northwest.

They're certain now the ACARS was disabled. Then shortly after the transponder was switched off deliberately.

Consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane.

Based on this information they are fully certain the primary radar which spotted a plane as mentioned earlier was definitely MH370.

Making calculations to determine how much further the aircraft has flown after the final contact with the satellite.

They're certain it's gone to one of two corridors. Either towards Kazakhstan or toward Indonesia.

Crew and passengers investigation is taken a front seat now as they look for cause of terrorism.

irishmover

Ending search operations in South China Sea.

And not much after that. Over now.

Noo

Wow, this is getting just down right unbelievable!

irishmover

'Consistent with deliberate action'

'Certain the satellite communication pings are accurate'

'Investigation into crew and passengers taking front seat'

'Approx. idea of where it could have headed after lost contact'

Sounds like exactly what we were fearing and the least transparent conference yet. Sounds like they are certain of terrorism.

ceadaoin.

Transcript of PMs speech taken from from another site

Based on new satellite communication, we can say with a high degree of certainty, that the aircraft communications addressing and resorting system, or ACARS, was disabled just before the aircraft reached the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. Shortly afterwards, near the border between Malaysia and Vietnamese air traffic control, the aircraft transponder was switched off. From this point onwards, the Royal Malaysian Airforce primary radar shows that an aircraft which was believed - but not confirmed - to be MH370 did indeed turn back. It then flew in a westerly direction, back over peninsular Malaysia, before turning north-west, up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. Today, based on raw satellite data which was obtained from the satellite data service provider, we can confirm that the aircraft shown in the primary radar data was flight MH370.
After much forensic work and deliberation, the FAA, NTSB, AAIB and Malaysian authorities working (something) on the same data concur. According to the new data, the last confirmed communication between the plane and the satellite was at 8:11 AM Malaysian time, on Saturday the 8th of March. The investigation team is making further calculations, which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after the last point of contact. This will help us to refine the search. Due to the type of satellite data, we are unable to confirm the precise location of the plane when it last made contact with a satellite. However, based on this new data, the aviation authorities from Malaysia and their international counterparts have determined that the plane's last communication with a satellite was in 1 or 2 possible corridors: the northern corridor, stretching approximately from the borer of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, or the southern corridor stretching approx. from Indonesia to the Southern Indian ocean. The investigation team is working to further refine the information.
In view of this latest development, the Malaysian authorities have refocused the investigation into the crew and passengers on board, despite media reports that the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear - we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from this original flight path.
Not verbatim: Ending operations in South China Sea + working with relevant countries to request all information relevant to search inc. radar data - the 2 new corridors involve many countries

irishmover

CollyFowler wrote: »

EDIT : Info above

Yeh that would be pretty much right. The sat comms were pinging for 5 hours is what they been saying since yesterday.

Could only imagine if those people wee alive in that time what they were going through.

ceadaoin.

irishmover wrote: »

Yeh that would be pretty much right. The sat comms were pinging for 5 hours is what they been saying since yesterday.

Could only imagine if those people wee alive in that time what they were going through.

Is there a chance that the plane flew in the northern 'corridor' and landed safely somewhere? I don't think that the passengers would be kept alive if that was the case. Either way, it doesn't look good. Those poor people

fits

My money is that it headed towards the Stans. Plenty isolated places to hide a plane around there. Scary that any group is this organised! Must be the greatest heist in history. I only hope the passengers are still alive. This level of uncertainty must be a killer for their loved ones. Two infants on the plane and all.

booth70

sopretty wrote: »

Is that channel available on Sky basic package?

Not on the EPG ....but can be added thro' the 'Add Channels' facility

Tuning frequency .... 10773H 22000 5/6

ceadaoin.

fits wrote: »

My money is that it headed towards the Stans. Plenty isolated places to hide a plane around there. Scary that any group is this organised! Must be the greatest heist in history. I only hope the passengers are still alive. This level of uncertainty must be a killer for their loved ones. Two infants on the plane and all.

I can only imagine what the loved ones are going through. I have a 2 year old and have been on 5 long haul flights with her the past few months. The thought of something like this happening is terrifying

kippy

fits wrote: »

My money is that it headed towards the Stans. Plenty isolated places to hide a plane around there. Scary that any group is this organised! Must be the greatest heist in history. I only hope the passengers are still alive. This level of uncertainty must be a killer for their loved ones. Two infants on the plane and all.

I still dont get how a single passenger wasn't able to make a phone call or get a text message to a loved one. It would take a number of people to ensure this didnt happen on the flight.
At this stage I'm also surprised that the americans or other state bodies havent already trawled through the passenger list for suspect persons. Outside of the 4 people that have been flagged (and I recall at least two of those being discounted) they havent flagged anyone else of interest. Even those four appear to have been well investigated at this point.
Then theres the implausibility of managing to evade radar to a point where they may have actually landed safely, not just radar either, but the sight of witnesses. This isn't exactly a small quiet vehicle that you can throw a few trees over.
It's not just about hiding it either, what happens if you do manage to land it somewhere without being seen. How do you refuel it, where do you get the fuel, is there specialist equipment required to make it flight ready again?
With all these spy sats watching the earth these days one would have to wonder why they havent been able to pinpoint exactly where the plane was/is.

I do suspect now, as many on here have already stated, that there is a great deal being hidden from the public at this point in time.

irishmover

This particular plane has no on board mobile coverage/wifi. The inflight entertainment can be fully disabled with one button in the cockpit. It would have most likely been disabled immediately thus the passengers couldn't have txt or made calls.

fits

kippy wrote: »

I still dont get how a single passenger wasn't able to make a phone call or get a text message to a loved one. It would take a number of people to ensure this didnt happen on the flight.
At this stage I'm also surprised that the americans or other state bodies havent already trawled through the passenger list for suspect persons. Outside of the 4 people that have been flagged (and I recall at least two of those being discounted) they havent flagged anyone else of interest. Even those four appear to have been well investigated at this point.
Then theres the implausibility of managing to evade radar to a point where they may have actually landed safely, not just radar either, but the sight of witnesses. This isn't exactly a small quiet vehicle that you can throw a few trees over.
It's not just about hiding it either, what happens if you do manage to land it somewhere without being seen. How do you refuel it, where do you get the fuel, is there specialist equipment required to make it flight ready again?
With all these spy sats watching the earth these days one would have to wonder why they havent been able to pinpoint exactly where the plane was/is.

I do suspect now, as many on here have already stated, that there is a great deal being hidden from the public at this point in time.

there are still vast parts of the world with no mobile coverage (never mind at 30000feet)and very low population density. Given what the people responsible have achieved so far I think its entirely plausible they were able to avoid these scenarios.

irishmover

irishmover wrote: »

'Consistent with deliberate action'

'Certain the satellite communication pings are accurate'

'Investigation into crew and passengers taking front seat'

'Approx. idea of where it could have headed after lost contact'

Sounds like exactly what we were fearing and the least transparent conference yet. Sounds like they are certain of terrorism.

Actually my worst fear would be a design flaw or something that would start happening on other 777s.

Tim Riggins

i reckon it was a crew member rather than a punter.