On Saturday flight MH370 disappeared around 100 miles north of the Malaysian coast carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.
The plane is presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast after losing contact with air traffic controllers. The plane was last detected on radar at 5.30pm UK time on Friday.
Flight MH370 can be seen progressing towards the South China Sea before suddenly turning red and disappearing.
Ships and planes looking for MH370
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
Malaysia’s major dailies mourn loss of MH370
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/malaysias-major-dailies-mourn-loss-mh370-20140325
I pray for the families. I only hope they know the world shares their grief & weeps with them. We here at 3ChicsPolitico are so very sorry.
Breaking News
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I’m so sorry! So very sorry for the families. *tears*
Breaking
The Malaysian Prime Minister will have a press conference at 10am est to announce new developments on the missing flight.
Flight MH370 Live Blog
http://live.aljazeera.com/Event/Flight_MH370_Live_Blog/110523343
Breaking:
RSCU74 is the US Navy P-8 Poseidon heading towards MH370 search zone
http://planefinder.net/
Flight 370 Satellite Image May Show Possible Oil Slick: Expert
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/flight-370-satellite-image-may-show-possible-oil-slick-expert-n57606
An oceanographer who specializes in analyzing satellite images said he has spotted a possible oil slick in photos released Thursday that may show debris from missing Flight 370.
The search for the Malaysia Airlines 777 was narrowed down to a remote area of the Indian Ocean after Australian authorities unveiled images appearing to show two large pieces of debris.
“I spend a lot of my life looking at these sorts of things, and the first thing I thought when I saw the photo was, ‘there’s a slick in that one,'” said Dr. Simon Boxall, a lecturer at the government-funded National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, U.K. “If you look at the one they have labeled ‘Object 2’ there is an interesting spot under the object itself.”
Live video: Australian officials hold press conference on search for missing Malaysia Airlines jet
http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/malaysia-airlines-loses-contact-with-flight-march-8-2014/
Australian authorities say it is not clear whether possible objects seen on satellite are from missing jet.
US Navy Poseidon aircraft should be on scene now, four aircraft total deployed.
Australia minister on potential Malaysia Airlines debris: “The largest image I’ve seen is 24 meters.” via @ajamlive ·
Breaking News
Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: PM Tony Abbott says satellite images could be wreckage of crashed plane
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-pm-tony-abbott-says-satellite-images-could-be-wreckage-of-crashed-plane-20140320-354ij.html
The Australian-led search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight has had an apparent breakthrough, with satellite images showing two objects in waters off Perth.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Parliament on Thursday afternoon that an Australian P-3 Orion aircraft had been diverted to check out the objects and would be followed by other planes.
The first Orion was due to arrive on the scene about 2pm, he said.
Mr Abbott stressed it was not yet clear whether they were parts of the plane.
But Mr Abbott described the breakthrough as “new and credible information”
“The Australian maritime safety authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search,” Mr Abbott said.
“Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified.”
Breaking News: Objects related to Flight MH370 possibly found in the Indian Ocean.
Australian PM Tony Abbott: Two ‘possible objects’ found in search for missing Malaysian flight.
Breaking News: The Malaysian Government has asked the Indian Government to search a new area in the southern part of the Indian Ocean. This only includes air assets.
Malaysia Airlines Missing Crash: Relative of Missing Passenger is DRAGGED Away by Officials
Chinese relatives continue to call MAS liars as search for MH370 falters
BEIJING, March 19 — Tempers flared today among Chinese relatives of passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, as frustration grew with what one called the airline’s “shameful role” and the search entered its 12th day.
“We do not have any other way of dealing with this other than to be angry and to cry. Your way of dealing with it is either lying or playing a shameful role,” one relative shouted, waving his arms furiously at a representative from the airline.
The angry exchanges took place at a daily meeting between company officials and family members at a hotel in Beijing, as multinational efforts have failed to find any trace of the plane which had 153 Chinese aboard.
“Look what we have been talking about today — trivial matters,” the man shouted angrily. “What are we coming here for? We just want to know where our relatives are and where the plane is.”
Malaysia: Files were deleted from flight simulator
http://news.msn.com/world/malaysia-files-were-deleted-from-flight-simulator
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Investigators are trying to restore files deleted last month from the home flight simulator of the pilot aboard the missing Malaysian plane to see if they shed any light on the disappearance, Malaysia’s defense minister said Wednesday.
Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference that the pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, is considered innocent until proven guilty of any wrongdoing, and that members of his family are cooperating in the investigation. Files containing records of simulations carried out on the program were deleted Feb. 3, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu said.
Deleting files would not necessarily represent anything unusual, especially if it were to free up memory space, but investigators would want to check the files for any signs of unusual flight paths that could help explain where the missing plane went.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people aboard disappeared March 8 on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanations, but have said the evidence so far suggests the flight was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next and why.
Investigators have identified two giant arcs of territory spanning the possible positions of the plane about 7½ hours after takeoff, based on its last faint signal to a satellite — an hourly “handshake” signal that continues even when communications are switched off. The arcs stretch up as far as Kazakhstan in central Asia and down deep into the southern Indian Ocean.
Police are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board, and have asked for background checks from abroad on all foreign passengers.
This graphic released by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Tuesday, March 18, 2014 shows an area, left bottom, in the southern Indian Ocean that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
WHAT TOOK THESE FAMILIES SO LONG TO DEMAND ANSWERS?
Angry Chinese family members storm Malaysia press briefing to protest slow MH370 search
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 19 March, 2014, 5:39pm
Distraught family members of Chinese passengers who were on Malaysia Airlines flight 370 stormed a meeting room at a Kuala Lumpur hotel where government officials were due to hold a daily press briefing.
“Where are my sons, I need to know where they are,” wailed one woman from Beijing.
A handful of relatives evaded heavy security at the Sama Sama Hotel near Kuala Lumpur International Airport and unfurled a banner: “We protest against the Malaysian government withholding information and wasting time and hampering search efforts.”
The relatives burst into the hall as reporters were preparing for the latest update on search efforts to find the missing airplane.
“It’s been 12 days. How can the Malaysian government not let us know of our son’s whereabouts?” one woman demanded.
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1452492/angry-families-storm-malaysia-press-briefing-protest-slow-mh370-search
China says has 20 satellites looking for missing MH370
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/china-says-has-20-satellites-looking-for-missing-malaysian-jet
BEIJING, March 18 ― China said today that China has deployed 20 satellites to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner with 239 people on board.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comments at a daily news briefing.
China has begun to searching for the missing jet in Chinese territory which covers a northern corridor through which the aircraft could have flown, state media said earlier in the day.
No trace of the plane has been found more than a week after it vanished but investigators believe it was diverted by someone with deep knowledge of the plane and commercial navigation.
Chinese MH370 relatives threaten ‘hunger strike’
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/chinese-mh370-relatives-threaten-hunger-strike
BEIJING, March 18 — Desperate relatives of Chinese passengers aboard flight MH370 threatened to go on hunger strike today as they demanded answers about the missing aircraft from Malaysian officials.
“Now we have no news, and everyone is understandably worried. The relatives say they will go to the (Malaysian) embassy to find the ambassador,” said Wen Wancheng, whose son was aboard the missing flight.
“The Malaysian ambassador should be presenting himself here. But he’s not,” Wen said, updating reporters after a regular meeting between Malaysia Airlines officials and family members at a hotel in Beijing.
“Relatives are very unsatisfied. So you hear them saying ‘hunger strike’,” added the 63-year-old from the eastern province of Shandong, speaking as the search entered its 11th day.
Two-thirds of the passengers on the flight, which had 239 people on board, were Chinese.
Outside the meeting room, a woman clutching a placard reading “Respect life. Give us back our families” told reporters that the relatives were going on hunger strike.
Missing MH370: Anwar now admits Capt Zaharie related to son’s in-laws
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/18/Missing-MH370-Capt-Zaharie-related-to-Anwar-inlaws/
KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has now admitted that MH370 pilot Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah is related to his son’s in-laws.
“I am not denying that he (Zaharie) is related to one of my in-laws and that I have met him on several occasions. In fact, he is a close friend of (PKR supreme council member and Subang MP) R. Sivarasa, as we said before,” Anwar told reporters at the Parliament lobby here Tuesday.
“However, to politicise it is not right. We should respect the family’s rights and pray for them instead of prosecuting him before the investigation is completed.”
Anwar further admitted that Zaharie was a staunch opposition supporter and that he had met the pilot on a few occasions at party functions.
“I am not one to hide my associations with others. I have met him once or twice but I do not remember how many times,” he said.
Anwar then hit out at pro-Umno bloggers for attempting to tarnish Zaharie’s reputation despite so many others painting him as a “professional, a decent family-oriented man and someone who believed in fighting for justice”.
When asked to comment on speculation that Zaharie may have committed “pilot suicide” on account of Anwar’s recent conviction by the Court of Appeal, the opposition leader said that it was illogical as there were many other Malaysians who were not happy with his sodomy conviction.
“I believe 90% of taxi drivers support me and are not happy with the decision. But they did not hijack their taxi to Kajang,” he said.
He added that the sense of disappointment over his sodomy conviction was also noted by foreign media who may have drawn their own conclusion.
Earlier, Anwar was quoted by South China Morning Post as saying: “I don’t recollect the name (Zaharie), but when the photographs were shown, I remembered I had seen him at party meetings.”
He also said they had had no personal contact, but Zaharie was a follower of his Twitter account.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331
There have been a number of key developments today.
It emerged the missing plane may have secretly flown at just 5,000 feet to avoid radar.
Taking a plane to such a low altitude – a technique called “terrain masking” – would have avoided detection on standard commercial radar equipment.
Investigators believe whoever was flying the Boeing 777 used terrain masking, which uses natural contours like hills and mountains, to hide the plane from satellite systems.
The airline’s chief executive also revealed it was the co-pilot who said “all right, good night” before the aircraft went missing.
Malaysia not disclosing all details: Indian officials
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Malaysia-not-disclosing-all-details-Indian-officials/articleshow/32212698.cms
KOLKATA: Nearly a week after officially joining the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that went missing with 239 people on board since March 8, India has expressed displeasure over claims by a section of Malaysian officials that the aircraft could have used runways at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to land. The Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) had confirmed a couple of days earlier that there is no evidence of an air crash on or near any of the islands in the archipelago.
“We had also made it clear that the aircraft couldn’t have entered Indian airspace without being detected. Today, we have come across reports that suggest that there are runways in the Andamans where the large Boeing 777-200 ER could have landed. Just because there are runways in the Andamans that are large enough to accommodate it doesn’t mean it could have landed in any of those. Both runways are considered extremely sensitive and are well protected,” an official said.
Of the runways mentioned are the ones at Car Nicobar and Port Blair. Car Nicobar is a full-fledged air base of the Indian Air Force. The IAF operates assets from this base routinely and any aircraft, military of civil, approaching it without necessary clearance would have been challenged. The only other option is the runway at Veer Savarkar International Airport at Port Blair. This is also a very secure establishment as it shares airside facilities with the INS Utkrosh, a naval air station of the Indian Navy. The navy operates surveillance and reconnaissance flights from here.
“There has been an effort to indicate that these runways could have been used as they are on islands that are at a distance from the mainland. People should understand the strategic importance of the Andamans for India. It is preposterous to even consider that an unscheduled flight could have landed at a runway there. We have gone through all data but there is no indication that any suspicious aircraft passed through the area on that date,” the official added.
Breaking: USS Kidd to leave the Indian Ocean search area.
Barbara Starr says the USS Kidd will leave in the coming days & the P8 long range Navy surveillance aircraft will move in to Perth Australia.
Peter King’s idiot ass continues to hurt the family of the pilot by throwing out accusations against the pilot w/o an ounce of proof. Just stfu already, Peter King!
Give him strength, Lord!
A relative of a passenger onboard flight MH370 waiting for new information at a hotel in Beijing
Flight MH370 Crew Members
1. Zaharie Bin Ahmad Shah (Tech Crew), Malaysian
2. Fariq Bin Ab Hamid (Tech Crew), Malaysian
3. Patrick Francis Gomes, Malaysian
4. Andrew Nari, Malaysian
5. Goh Sock Lay, Malaysian
6. Tan Ser Kuin, Malaysian
7. Wan Swaid Bin Wan Ismail, Malaysian
8. Junaidi Bin Mohd Kassim, Malaysian
9. Mohd Hazrin Bin Mohamed Hasnan, Malaysian
10. Ng Yar Chien, Malaysian
11. Foong Wai Yueng, Malaysian
12. Tan Size Hiang, Malaysian
Thank you for this, Yahtc!
No ransom demand over MH370, Hisham says
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/no-ransom-demand-over-mh370-hisham-says
SEPANG, March 16 — Malaysia has not received any ransom demand over missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today.
Speaking during a daily press conference on the search and investigations into the Beijing-bound plane that went missing with 239 on board, Hishammuddin said no group has come forth to claim responsibility for the plane’s disappearance.
“No, there has not. And that makes it very difficult for us to verify whether it is hijacked or an act terrorism.
“We are looking into all possibilities and we are not taking anything for granted,” Hishammuddin said today.
Praying with you, Lai Chew Lai! God have mercy on the lives of all the passengers.
This is what a mother does; she holds out hope for her child. Holding out hope with you Lai Chew Lai.
Father of engineer on missing jet says son ‘soft and gentle’
Graphic explainer of why satellites indicates Flight 370 was still flying seven hours after takeoff
http://wapo.st/1gvZliD
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that a missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was steered off course after its communications systems were intentionally disabled and that it could have flown for seven additional hours.
New evidence is emerging about the missing Malaysia Airways flight – but are we really any closer to knowing what happened to the jet?
Theories about what happened to flight MH370 range from the plausible to the bizarre.
One is that the aircraft has been hijacked for later use as a flying bomb in a 9/11-style terrorist attack.
One of the oddest is that the passengers could even have been kidnapped for ransom.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331
This entire situation has creeped me out. It’s like a bad Hollywood movie.
Too scary! All I want is those passengers found safe. God have mercy upon their lives. Bring them home to their families.
Extensive training required to disable missing MAS Boeing 777’s systems
http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/extensive-training-required-disable-missing-mas-boeing-777s-sy
KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – If multiple communication systems aboard flight MH370 were manually disabled, as investigators increasingly suspect happened, it would have required detailed knowledge of the long-range Boeing 777’s inner workings.
The Wall Street Journal said the first loss of the jet’s transponder, which communicates the jet’s position, speed and call sign to air traffic control radar, would require disabling a circuit breaker above and behind an overhead panel.
Pilots rarely, if ever, need to access the circuit breakers, which are reserved for maintenance personnel.
Pulling one specific circuit breaker, which is labelled, would render inoperative both of the 777’s transponders, according to documents reviewed by WSJ and bolstered by comments from aviation industry officials and those who have worked with the 777.
Becoming familiar with the 777’s systems requires extensive training for pilots and aircraft mechanics alike, experts said. However, considerable technical data on the airplane is also available online in discussion groups or other websites.
Investigators are trying to establish a sequence of events that transpired on the jet, which vanished from radar on March 8, most critically the loss of communication.
The shutdown of the on board reporting system shortly after the jet was last seen on radar, can be performed in a series of keystrokes on either of the cockpit’s two flight management computers in the cockpit.
The computers are used to set the performance of the engines on takeoff, plan the route, as well as other functions to guide the 777.
After vanishing, the jet’s satellite communications system continued to ping orbiting satellites for at least five hours.
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Since extensive training is required to disable Boeing 777’s systems, how long have they been training for this & what are they planning next? FIND THAT PLANE!
Missing MH370: Bangladesh joins search, India intensifies efforts
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/15/Missing-MH370-Bangladesh-in-India-intensifies/
NEW DELHI: Bangladesh has joined the search and rescue (SAR) mission for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
“Bangladesh patrol aircraft will be launched at dawn while ships tomorrow,” sources close to the development told Bernama.
“All of Bangladesh’s available resources will be deployed to assist Malaysia,” said the source, who did not want to be quoted.
Among the first to join the mission would be two patrol aircraft and two frigates.
“We will begin seaching in the Bay of Bengal and coordinate with your (Malaysian) navy to seach the Indian Ocean,” he said.
OK, here we go.. Malaysia press conference. PM Razak is speaking right now!
As of today, 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft are involved in the search.
Malaysian Prime Minister: We can say with a high degree of certainty that aircraft communications system was disabled.
Prime Minister Razak : Movement of missing Malaysia Airlines plane was consistent with deliberate action of someone on plane.
ABC News is reporting: Families of Flight 370 passengers to watch PM’s press conference on TV, psychiatric staff on standby.
BBC News Asia
Malaysia plane: News conference
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26590990
LIVE. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 press conference
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/category/234796/live-video2
Breaking
WHERE is the plane with all those passengers?
India scours jungle islands for lost Malaysian jetliner
http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/india-scours-jungle-islands-lost-malaysian-jetliner-20140315
PORT BLAIR, India (REUTERS) – Indian aircraft on Friday combed Andaman and Nicobar, made up of more than 500 mostly uninhabited islands, for signs of a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner that evidence suggests was last headed towards the heavily forested archipelago.
Popular with tourists and anthropologists alike, the islands form India’s most isolated state. They are best known for dense rainforests, coral reefs and hunter-gatherer tribes who have long resisted contact with outsiders.
The search for lost Flight MH370 has expanded dramatically in the past week but failed to locate the plane or any wreckage, making it one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history.
Initially focused northeast of Malaysia, search operations took a new turn after Malaysia’s air force chief said military radar had spotted an unidentified aircraft, suspected to be the lost Boeing 777, to the west of Malaysia early on March 8.
US ship, plane to search Bay of Bengal for missing jet
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/us-ship-plane-to-search-bay-of-bengal-for-missing-jet
WASHINGTON, March 15 ― A US naval ship and surveillance plane are heading to the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal to search for a missing Malaysian airliner that vanished a week ago, officials said yesterday.
US media reports, meanwhile, suggested the plane experienced marked changes in altitude after it lost contact with ground control, and altered its course more than once as if still under the command of a pilot.
A P-8 Poseidon aircraft and a guided missile destroyer, the USS Kidd, were due to aid the international hunt for the jet as the search effort extended further west, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said.
“At Malaysia’s request, the USS Kidd is north of the Straits of Malacca in what we’re calling the western search area,” Warren told reporters in Washington.
The Kidd was preparing to search the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal for the Malaysia Airlines plane.
Update
There are 57 ships and 48 aircraft from 13 countries involved in the search.
The speculations is growing as to whether this planed was hijacked and plunged into the Indian Ocean. Lord, let it NOT be TRUE.
It’s so thoughtful of you to post this gallery of photos of the families, SG2. We must put faces to this incident, so that the focus is not just on a plane. These are HUMAN lives here.
AMEN!
I would want someone to report/search/pray for my family if ever caught in this situation. I have cried along with these families. I don’t have to know them, they’ve touched my heart. I’m going to do what I can to help them…even if it’s in this small way.
The Timeline for Missing Flight MH370
http://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-missing-flight-mh370/story?id=22912595
12:41 a.m.: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia heading for Beijing, China. The plane shows up on radar two minutes after taking off.
1:07 a.m.: The last automated data transmission is sent from the plane. U.S officials told ABC News they believe that sometime after this transmission the data reporting system was shut down. Sometime after this transmission Kuala Lumpur’s air traffic control tells the plane’s pilot they are handing off to air traffic control based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The pilot responds, “All right. Good night.”
1:21 a.m.: The plane’s transponder, which transmits location and altitude, shuts down. Sources told ABC News that U.S. officials are “convinced that there was a manual intervention.”
1:22 a.m.: MH370 should have come to the navigational way-point called Igari point. Before it reached this point, Vietnamese air traffic control noticed they had lost contact with MH370, according to the Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority.
1:30 a.m.: The last moment that the plane was seen by Malaysian radar.
1:38 a.m.: Air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City informs Kuala Lumpur air traffic control about the signal loss. Ho Chi Minh City asks two other planes to contact MH370. Neither plane is able to raise the pilot of MH370. At least of the planes report getting a “buzz signal” and no voices, then losing the signal.
2:15 a.m.: A Malaysian military defense radar pick up a plane that is hundreds of miles west of MH370’s last contact point. It’s unclear if that is the missing plane.
Following hours: In the hours after contact was lost MH370 “pings” a satellite several times. It’s not clear if those pings include data that could reveal the plane’s location.
6:32 a.m.: A broadcast call was made from Kuala Lumpur’s air traffic control on emergency frequencies asking MH370 to call them.
6:51 a.m.: A broadcast call was made from Ho Chi Minh City’s air traffic control on emergency frequencies asking MH370 to call them.
Here’s how we know MH370 kept flying for hours
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/03/14/heres-how-we-know-mh-370-kept-flying-for-hours/
As the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 continues, attention is turning to the onboard technology that allowed the plane itself, rather than the pilots, to communicate with the ground.
Even if an aircraft’s transponder has been disabled, its most basic systems, such as the engines, can also send status information back to ground stations, including the engine manufacturer or the airline. Investigators have now determined that some of these systems were still active on Flight 370 hours after it initially lost contact with air traffic controllers. The question is whether this low-level data is enough to provide new insight on where the plane may have gone.
What is this technology, and how does it work?
Investigators are focusing on data relayed by a system called ACARS, or Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. In basic versions of the service, the airplane shares data automatically in short radio bursts with airline officials. ACARS allows the plane to send multiple types of messages, including information about fuel levels and engine status. In the case of Air France 447, which plunged into the ocean off the coast of Brazil in 2009, the doomed aircraft sent 29 ACARS transmissions warning of a problem before the plane crashed.
You mentioned basic implementations. There’s more than one ACARS?
Think of it like a cable TV package. According to Bill Waldock, an air crash investigator and a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, more expensive ACARS packages come with a console that can receive short faxes or send basic messages. Depending on what an airline is willing to pay for, its planes will be able to take advantage of more and better ACARS features.
Okay. So can this technology tell us where Flight 370 is?
Not necessarily — it can really only tell us whether the plane is still functioning.
“Normally, ACARS doesn’t send an actual location,” Waldock said. “They’re sending essentially system data. They don’t indicate altitude or direction. But as long as it’s pinging, you know the airplane is not down.”
CNN needs to stop reporting these contradictory reports about the missing plane. Just stop it already!
CNN is a complete debacle. Their credibility has long since left the building. Disgraceful!
**************
*weeping*
Heart rending….
I’m praying for a hijacked plane. Pease find them so they can go home to their families.
This would be the DESIRED outcome for the families, I’m sure. And if that is the case, Woe be it to the HIJACKERS!
MH370 deliberately flown to Andaman Islands, sources say
Fresh evidence has suggested that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have been ‘deliberately’ flown towards the Andaman islands, leading to rescue efforts expanded to include the Indian Ocean. — Reuters pic
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/mh370-deliberately-flown-to-andaman-islands-sources-say
KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Military radar-tracking evidence suggests a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown across the Malay peninsula towards the Andaman Islands, sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters yesterday.
Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints — indicating it was being flown by someone with aviation training — when it was last plotted on military radar off the country’s northwest coast.
The last plot on the military radar’s tracking suggested the plane was flying toward India’s Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, they said.
Six Indian ships deployed in search for Malaysian jet
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/six-indian-ships-deployed-in-search-for-malaysian-jet
NEW DELHI, March 14 — India’s navy said today it has nearly doubled the number of ships and planes deployed to search the Andaman Sea for a missing Malaysian jet which disappeared with 239 people on board.
It said six ships and five aircraft were now scouring for any sign of the vanished plane in the Andaman Sea, which surrounds India’s remote Andaman and Nicobar group of islands that lie far to the country’s southeast.
“We want to cover the area and it should be strictly done,” Indian naval spokesman D.K. Sharma told AFP.
India had earlier deployed three ships and three aircraft in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which disappeared a week ago.
Well-wishers pose for pictures next to messages written about the missing Malaysian Airline plane at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, 3rd from left, attends a special prayer at a mosque near Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
I don’t want to hear this. I’m still hoping…
Aviation lawyer: MAS obliged to pay up to RM490,000 per passenger in compensation
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/aviation-lawyer-mas-obliged-to-pay-up-to-rm490000-per-passenger-in-compensa
KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 14 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will be required to pay the family of each passenger of the missing flight MH370 up to US$150,000 (RM490,000) according to an international aviation convention, an aviation law expert said today.
In some cases, airlines do not even have to wait until a wreckage is found to start doling out compensation, as in the case of Air France which start paying out compensation just days after the its flight 447 disappeared of the coast of Brazil.
In some cases, airlines do not even have to wait until a wreckage is found to start doling out compensation, as in the case of Air France which start paying out compensation just days after the its flight 447 disappeared of the coast of Brazil.
“The airline, even if it’s not responsible, is required to compensate the victims’ families,” Mike Danko, a California-based aviation attorney told American magazine Foreign Policy.
Next Media: Engine data shows missing MH370 flight may have flown for hours after going off radar
SMGDH
Breaking: White House: The search for missing flight MH370 may expand to the Indian Ocean.
Just absolutely heart wrenching to watch.
Wife of missing flight MH370 passenger: He’s my best friend and soul mate
Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304914904579434653903086282-lMyQjAxMTA0MDEwMzExNDMyWj
U.S. investigators suspect that Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -2.04% Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, according to two people familiar with the details, raising the possibility that the plane could have flown on for hundreds of additional miles under conditions that remain murky.
Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. BA -0.99% 777’s engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program.
That raises a host of new questions and possibilities about what happened aboard the widebody jet carrying 239 people, which vanished from civilian air-traffic control radar over the weekend, about one hour into a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
Six days after the mysterious disappearance prompted a massive international air and water search that so far hasn’t produced any results, the investigation appears to be broadening in scope.
U.S. counterterrorism officials are pursuing the possibility that a pilot or someone else on board the plane may have diverted it toward an undisclosed location after intentionally turning off the jetliner’s transponders to avoid radar detection, according to one person tracking the probe.
Breaking News: REVEALED: Engine data indicates Malaysian plane flew four hours after disappearing.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/13/revealed-engine-data-indicates-malaysian-plane-flew-four-hours-after-disappearing/
Stunning new information is being reported by Andy Pasztor at the Wall Street Journal: the Boeing engines on Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on Saturday automatically downloaded information several hours after the plane was last seen on radar, indicating that it flew on to an unknown location.
After flying northeast on its scheduled path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the aircraft’s transponders stopped emitting signals about an hour into the flight, a little after 1 am, when the plane was still south of Vietnam. According to a Malaysian air force official, the plan then made a turn to the west and headed back over the Malaysian peninsula and over the Straits of Malacca. At that point, Malaysian radar lost sight of the plane at around 2:30 am.
But now, American investigators and national security officials are saying that several hours after that last radar contact, the airplane’s Boeing engines automatically downloaded information as part of their normal operation, and that signal was picked up. Writes Pasztor:
The engines’ onboard monitoring system is provided by their manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, and it periodically sends bursts of data about engine health, operations and aircraft movements to facilities on the ground.
Rolls-Royce couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
As part of its maintenance agreements, Malaysia Airlines transmits its engine data live to Rolls-Royce for analysis. The system compiles data from inside the 777′s two Trent 800 engines and transmits snapshots of performance, as well as the altitude and speed of the jet.
The engines communicate with the ground every half hour, and now U.S. investigators believe the engines indicated the plane may have been flying up to five hours after taking off from Malaysia.
A total flight time of five hours after departing Kuala Lumpur means the Boeing 777 could have continued for an additional distance of about 2,200 nautical miles, reaching points as far as the Indian Ocean, the border of Pakistan or even the Arabian Sea, based on the jet’s cruising speed.
If the plane flew that far without transponder signals or communication from the pilots, it suggests that MH370 may have been commandeered.
“The latest revelations come as local media reported that Malaysian police visited the home of at least one of the two pilots,” Pasztor writes.
Where is that plane? Malaysia: No debris at Chinese satellite spot.
http://news.msn.com/world/malaysia-no-debris-at-spot-shown-on-china-images
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — No signs of the missing Malaysian jetliner have been found at a spot where Chinese satellite images showed what might be plane debris, Malaysia’s civil aviation chief said Thursday, deflating the latest lead in the five-day hunt.
“There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Vietnamese officials previously said the area had been “searched thoroughly” in recent days.
The hunt for the Boeing 777 has been punctuated by false leads since it disappeared with 239 people aboard just hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday. The plane was heading northeast over the South China Sea when it disappeared, but authorities believe it may have turned back and headed into the upper reaches of the Strait of Malacca or beyond.
The location where Chinese images showed possible debris is not far from where the last confirmed position of the plane was between Malaysia and Vietnam. The images and coordinates were posted on the website of China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
A Xinhua report said the images from around 11 a.m. on Sunday appear to show “three suspected floating objects” of varying sizes in a 20-kilometer radius, the largest about 24-by-22 meters (79-by-72 feet) off the southern tip of Vietnam.
Breaking News:
Chinese agency on Flight 370: Chinese satellite observes “a suspected crash area at sea.” http://cnn.it/OnoIZw
How long is it going to take all involved with this pitiful investigation to piece-meal a story together that will make any sense to the victims’ families?
A journalist kisses Wan Tom Wan Chik, the mother of 33 year old MH370 passenger Mohd Sofuan Razak after interview.
Plane spotted in Straits of Malacca but may not be MH370, air force says
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysia-says-last-sighting-of-plane-possibly-off-west-coast
SEPANG, March 12 — Local authorities confirmed today that military radar spotted an aircraft in the Straits of Malacca at 2.15am on Saturday morning, but could not confirm if it was the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
At a press conference to straighten out conflicting reports on the matter here, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) chief Tan Sri Rodzali Daud and Armed Forces chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin told reporters that experts are still studying the data to obtain more conclusive evidence.
“The last plot after several intermittent primary plots was at 0215 hours, 200 miles northwest of Penang.
“We are corroborating this. I am not saying this is MH370. We are still corroborating, still working with the experts,” Rodzali said.
Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman explained that civil aviation installations use secondary radars, which receive information from aircraft transponders showing the type of aircraft along with other identification details.
The primary radar used by the military only shows the presence of an aircraft but gives no other information.
Rodzali said the aircraft in question was identified as not hostile at the time but did not elaborate.
It is now understood that MH370 disappeared from the secondary radar at 1.30am on March 8.
Within a short time, the military’s primary radar detected an aircraft around the same area appearing to make a turn back. At 2.15am, an aircraft appeared on the same primary radar northwest of Penang, in the Straits of Malacca.
I just want this plane to be found with everyone ALIVE. I don’t care if it’s in some remote area. I just want them ALIVE. I still have hope. With God all things are possible.
**tears**
*WEEPS*
Malaysia military tracked missing plane to west coast: source
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/us-malaysiaairlines-flight-idUSBREA2701720140311
(Reuters) – Malaysia’s military believes a jetliner missing for almost four days turned and flew hundreds of kilometers to the west after it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country’s east coast, a senior officer told Reuters on Tuesday.
In one of the most baffling mysteries in recent aviation history, a massive search operation for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER has so far found no trace of the aircraft or the 239 passengers and crew.
Malaysian authorities have previously said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for the Chinese capital Beijing.
“It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait,” the senior military officer, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.
That would appear to rule out sudden catastrophic mechanical failure, as it would mean the plane flew around 500 km (350 miles) at least after its last contact with air traffic control, although its transponder and other tracking systems were off.
No sign of the plane anywhere. No distress signals. No debris. Vanished without a trace. I smell fish & it ain’t Friday.
Why Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Must Have Died Instantaneously
Four days of searching hasn’t turned up a speck of debris. What’s clear though is that the pilots made no distress call, which means whatever happened, it happened fast.
From the beginning, a fog of speculation has swirled around the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. There have been the continual false reports of wreckage being found. The presence aboard the flight of passengers using stolen passports immediately raised the issue of terrorism—though exactly why this airline would have been targeted is baffling, nor has there been any claim by a terrorist group. Now Malaysian authorities have said that one of the passengers with a stolen passport was an Iranian seeking asylum in Europe (and this has opened up a tangential security concern about the volume of stolen passports and their widespread use). Then there is the uncertainty of where exactly the Boeing 777 was when it disappeared—we have no reliable timeline of its course from takeoff and exchanges between controllers and the crew. The Malaysians have now added to this confusion by raising the issue of “psychological” problems among either the crew or passengers.
At a time when surveillance intrudes into the most intimate details of our lives, it seems inexplicable that an airplane this large can vanish into thin air in an instant without explanation.
Given this perplexing picture, what, if anything, looks like a firm fact?
Whatever happened was instantaneous. There was no distress call from the pilots, and no previous hint of a technical problem.
This leaves five possible scenarios:
1. Bomb in the cabin.
2. Bomb in the cargo.
3. Accidental explosion in the cargo hold.
4. Explosion in one of the engines.
5. “Explosive decompression” where the fuselage breaks apart suddenly and catastrophically.
I’LLL BET ON ALL FIVE, FOR $1,000, ALEX!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/11/pinterest-s-most-wanted-the-cops-now-want-pinners-data-too.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
March 11th 2014
If you’re just tuning in here’s an update of everything we’ve learned today:
•The two passengers with stolen passports have been identified as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyedmohammaderza.
•Malaysian military claim to have seen the plane over an hour AFTER it went missing from air traffic control screens.
•China have deployed 10 satellites to assist with the search.
•Officials cancelled a press conference in mysterious circumstances without a reason given.
•Phones of missing passengers continue to ring, but there may be an explanation.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331
Malaysia military tracked MH370 to Strait of Malacca, source says
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysia-military-tracked-mh370-to-strait-of-malacca-source-says
KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — Malaysia’s military believes it tracked a missing jetliner by radar over the Strait of Malacca, far from where it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country’s east coast, a military source told Reuters.
In one of the most baffling mysteries in recent aviation history, a massive search operation for the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER, now in its fourth day, has so far found no trace of the aircraft or the 239 passengers and crew.
“It changed course after Kota Baru and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait,” the military official, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.
The Strait of Malacca, one of the world’s busiest shipping channels, runs along Malaysia’s west coast. The airline said on Saturday that radio and radar contact with Flight MH370 was lost off the east coast Malaysian town of Kota Baru.
Police had earlier said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might explain its disappearance, along with the possibility of a hijack, sabotage or mechanical failure.
The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early on Saturday morning, vanishing from civilian radar screens about an hour after take-off over the sea separating eastern Malaysia from the southern tip of Vietnam.
There was no distress signal or radio contact indicating a problem and, in the absence of any wreckage or flight data, police have been left trawling through passenger and crew lists for potential leads. –
In Beijing, water bottles fly over missing MH370
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/in-beijing-water-bottles-fly-over-missing-mh370
KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — Four Malaysia Airlines (MAS) employees bore the brunt of anger from frustrated families in China as yet another day dawned without new leads on the missing flight MH370.
The MAS officials could only dodge the onslaught as family members of the 138 Chinese passengers lobbed water bottles in their direction, unable to deliver any news on the fate of the Beijng-bound jumbo jet that carried their loved ones among its 239-people load, the New York Times (NYT) reported last night.
“All Malaysians are liars!” one man yelled in Chinese, the English-language daily reported, before adding, “Do you know what ‘liars’ means?”
“Tell him in English,” the Chinese man shouted at the one woman among the four MAS employees, whom NYT said was the interpreter.
The other three men were MAS senior managers and included Ignatius Ong Ming Choy, head of a MAS subsidiary budget airline, Firefly.
NYT reported that none of the MAS officials responded to the Chinese man as it was unclear if the interpreter translated the accusation.
US firm’s loss in MH370 tragedy leads to travel policy questions
http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-us-firms-loss-mh370-tragedy-le
SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) – The loss of 20 key Freescale Semiconductor employees in the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner has raised questions about whether the company should have allowed so many of them to board the same plane, but security experts said that at big corporations it’s hard to avoid.
The disappearance on Saturday of Malaysia Airlines’ Flight MH370 about an hour into its journey to Beijing remained a mystery on Monday as a search orchestrated by 10 countries failed to find traces of the plane or the 239 people on board.
It was a blow to Austin, Texas-based Freescale. The vanished employees were engineers or specialists involved in projects to streamline and cut costs at key manufacturing facilities in China and Malaysia.
Many large companies have policies to prevent chief executives, chief financial officers and other senior executives from flying together to minimise disruption in case of a fatal crash, but few firms extend strict policies much further down the ladder.
Large organisations from corporations to sports franchises almost never prevent key employees and team members from riding together in buses, limousines or cars, which are potentially more dangerous than flying, corporate safety and security experts say.
Second Chinese warship arrives for MH370 search
Chicas!
This is puzzling to me. If the cell phone of the passengers on flight MH370 is ringing that means the phone is charged and not under water, right? Otherwise it would go straight to voice mail. Why is the phone ringing?
More than 50 people gathered for a candlelight vigil at Dataran Merdeka last night to express support for the families of the passengers on flight MH370. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, March 11, 2014.
Missing Malaysian Airlines plane: US sends second ship to help search for Malaysia plane
http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/missing-malaysian-airlines-plane-us-sends-second-ship-help-sea
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Navy has sent a second ship to the South China Sea to help in the desperate search for a missing Malaysian jet, officials said Monday.
The naval destroyer USS Kidd has joined another American destroyer, the USS Pinckney, as Malaysian authorities announced they were doubling the size of the search area for the airliner that vanished without a trace Saturday with 239 on board.
“We are continuing to assist the Malaysian government in search and rescue operations in conjunction with the disappearance of Flight 370,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.
The two US naval ships are equipped with MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters, which are equipped with infrared cameras for night-time search operations, he said.
On Sunday, the Pinckney spotted debris in the water but officers determined it was not wreckage from the missing airliner and merely “an old shipping crate,” he said.
A P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft was already in place and was conducting nine-hour flights from a base in Subang Jaya, Malaysia.
An oiler vessel also was deployed to provide logistics support, Mr Warren said.
The US government over the weekend sent a team of investigators and experts from the FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board to help with the probe into the missing plane.
US officials say it remains unclear if there was any terror link behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which had taken off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.
Sorry, NOT.BUYING.IT.
This whole thing is crazy as hell. Only in the Twilight Zone does a plane filled with passengers disappear without a trace.
Search area for MH370 to widen tomorrow
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/search-area-for-mh370-to-widen-tomorrow
SEPANG, Mar 10 — Malaysian authorities will expand the search area for the Malaysia Airline jet missing since Saturday, doubling it to 100 nautical miles starting tomorrow morning.
Over the past three days, search and rescue teams scoured a 50 nautical mile radius from the point where the plane lost contact with the Subang air traffic control, approximately 120 nautical miles off Kota Baru, Kelantan, with no success “
The east sector will be expanded to 100 nautical miles starting tomorrow, and at the same time we will also expand our operations in the South China Sea,”Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Razak said late today.
Teams were also deployed in the South China Sea after the Vietnamese navy discovered two lengthy oil slicks that were suspected to have come from the plane but later proven untrue.
There were also numerous false starts reported over the past few days, such as another oil slick found off the coast of Tok Bali in Kelantan, which was later clarified as oil from a shipping tanker and not jet fuel.
The sighting of the plane’s tail, later turned out to be “logs tied together like a pontoon”, and a moss-covered cable reel was mistaken for a lifecraft.
Azharuddin said the latest information suggested debris from the plane was in waters off Hong Kong and east of Saigon, Vietnam. Ships have since been despatched to the two areas.
“We have not verified it yet, but by tomorrow we should be able to tell (if it is from the plane),” he said.
The FBI is currently waiting to receive fingerprints from Malaysia officials as they attempt to piece together as complete a travel itinerary as possible.
Airport security took impressions from two men who boarded Flight 370 to Beijing at the Kuala Lumpur airport on March 8 using passports stolen from an Italian and an Austrian tourist.
Intelligence sources claim it appears the two men – described loosely as “Mediterranean looking” – began their journey in Qatar and at some point then made their way to Thailand, according to NBC in the U.S.
They used an Iranian middleman to purchase tickets for them in Thailand for the circuitous route from Kuala Lumpur through China to Europe.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331
A MAN who whose passport was stolen and used to board missing flight MH370 has revealed how it vanished in bizarre circumstances while he was travelling in Thailand.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/travel/travel-news/italian-man-luigi-maraldi-reveals-how-his-passport-used-on-flight-mh370-was-stolen-in-bizarre-circumstances-in-thailand/story-fniztvnh-1226849959855?sv=69b0ee8c36c4fa488adffb8a7701b651
Italian Luigi Maraldi said he lost his passport while on the island of Phuket last year.
The revelation comes as it emerged another man boarded the missing Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing impersonating the 37-year-old Italian traveller.
A second mystery man also boarded the flight under Austrian man’s Christian Kozel’s passport, sparking an investigation by Thai police as to whether his passport was also stolen.
Mr Maraldi revealed how he arrived in Phuket on March 1 last year for a two-week holiday, but lost his passport in a deal gone wrong at a Patong motorcycle rent shop, Phuket Wan Tourism News reported.
He said the woman at the shop had told him she gave his passport to another man who said Mr Maraldi was his “husband” and he was only able to return home using a temporary travel document.
He said he only learned of the Malaysian Airlines plane going missing when his family called to check whether he was the same Luigi Maraldi that Italian officials told them had been on the flight.
DCA: Mystery duo on MH370 not Asian, but Balotelli lookalikes
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/dca-mystery-duo-on-mh370-not-asian-but-balotelli-lookalikes
SEPANG, Mar 10 — Malaysian authorities today said they could conclusively say that the two passengers who boarded flight MH370 using stolen passports were not Asian, though it has not brought them any closer to discovering their identities.
Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Razak said that investigators scrutinising the CCTV footage and screen captures of the two suspects confirmed that the suspects were not “Asian-looking” males. “Do you know a footballer named Balotelli? They look like that,” he said at the day’s last press conference, referring to Italian national striker Mario Balotelli, who was born in Italy to Ghanaian parents. There is intense speculation that an act of terrorism may have led to the airliner’s disappearance at 1.30am Saturday, especially after it was discovered that two passengers were travelling on passports stolen separately from an Italian and Austrian.
Despite the Balotelli reference, the DCA chief later said that he was not in a position to describe the appearance of the men or to infer their nationalities based on the CCTV footage and screen captures as investigators believe they may be part of a wider passport theft ring.
It’s beyond DISTURBING that this aircraft and the passengers have not been found. It’s the 21st century, for God sakes! Technology has advanced, and there’s just no way I can fathom a plane just disappearing since Friday with NO concrete and conclusive evidence of it’s whereabouts.
How can a Boeing 777 just go missing without a trace? It’s like something out of the Twilight Zone.
Was this the work of a terrorist organization, and officials don’t want to set off a panic?
Note to officials, the families of the missing passengers are waaaaaay beyond panic right now.
It’s unbelievable. No sign of the missing plane anywhere. Just vanished without a trace. WTF?
Buddist monks offer special prayers for passengers aboard the missing Malaysia flight MH370 at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on March 9th 2014 Photo AFP
Iranian Bought Tickets For Fake Passport Passengers: Report
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/iranian-bought-tickets-fake-passport-passengers-report-n49016
The tickets used by the fake passport carrying passengers aboard the missing Air Malaysia Flight 370 bought their tickets through a travel agency in Pattaya, Thailand, according to a report in a British newspaper.
The tickets were booked through an Iranian middleman known as “Mr Ali” a Thai travel agent told the Financial Times newspaper (registration required).
The newspaper quoted Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the Grand Horizon travel agency in Pattaya, as saying the Iranian had asked her to book the two men to travel to Europe on March 1, specifying only that she find them cheap tickets.
She initially booked them on two separate flights -– one on Qatar Airways and another on Etihad airline –- but the tickets expired before she heard again from the Iranian, she said.
After he contacted her on Thursday, she rebooked the men on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, though the Iranian again did not specify a flight. This time a friend of the Iranian paid in cash, she said. Benjaporn then arranged for a larger agency, Six Stars Travel, to issue the tickets, according to Thai police.
NBC News was not immediately able to contact Benjaporn to confirm the account.
The Financial Times said it was unable to reach “Mr Ali” via a cellphone number provided by Benjaporn.
Benjaporn said that she had known “Mr Ali” for about three years, when her periodically stayed in in Pattaya. The newspaper noted that there is no evidence that the Iranian knew the two men were traveling on stolen passports.
The regular traveler between Tehran and Pattaya had been using her agency for about three years, she said, although there is nothing to suggest that he knew the two men were imposters.
Malaysia to release pictures of MH370 passengers with stolen papers
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysia-to-release-pictures-of-mh370-passengers-with-stolen-papers
SEPANG, Mar 10 — Malaysia will release pictures of the two passengers who travelled with stolen passports on board the missing Malaysia Airline flight MH370, Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today.
He said the photos, captured from CCTV footage at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), have so far been shared with local and international intelligence agencies, as the authorities probe a possible terrorist link among other possibilities in the plane’s sudden disappearance. “We will give the media copies of the photos of the two suspects,” he said at a press conference. He did not say when the pictures will be released.
Intense speculation is swirling around the two passengers on the missing Boeing 777-200 who had boarded the plane using stolen Italian and Austrian passports.
Subsequent reports later claimed that two Asian men using the stolen passports had jointly purchased their tickets in Phuket to board the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, enroute to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Flight International’s air transport editor has tweeted this picture, showing the huge task ahead for the search teams looking for flight MH370.
The red areas of the map show the search zones being covered by those trying to find the Malaysian Airlines flight that has not been heard from since Friday night.
By way of comparison, the yellow area shows the search are for Air France flight AF447, which crashed in the Atlantic in 2009.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331
Seriously, none of these countries want to claim any responsibility for this disaster.
OMG!
There is a 10 nation search for MH370
40 ships and 34 aircraft from Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, China, United States, Indonesia, Australia, The Philippines, and New Zealand have joined the search for the missing plane.
Rahman said Malaysia was intensifying efforts to find the plane, stressing the search would “take as long as it takes”.
He added: “We are every hour, every second looking at every area of the sea.”
There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine countries taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331
Chinese warship arrives at search zone for missing plane
The prayers to the families. This is just horrible. All those lives gone.
Interpol: Airlines should have access to database, not just security agencies
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/interpol-airlines-should-have-access-to-database-not-just-security-agencies
ROME, March 10 — Interpol is investigating more suspect passports used to board a missing Malaysia Airlines flight, in addition to two European ones that were falsely used by unidentified passengers, the global police agency said yesterday.
An Italian man and an Austrian man were falsely listed as passengers on Beijing-bound flight MH370, which disappeared after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur early on Saturday with 239 people aboard. Authorities later confirmed the two men — Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi — were not on the plane, and their passports had been stolen in Thailand within the last two years. An Interpol spokeswoman said a check of all documents used to board the plane had revealed more “suspect passports” that were being further investigated.
She was unable to give further information on the number of documents or the country they related to.
Interpol maintains a vast database of more than 40 million lost and stolen travel documents, and has long urged member countries to make greater use of it to stop people crossing borders on false papers. Few countries systematically do so, it said in a statement.
As we’ve already reported, among the 227 passengers on missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were 20 employees from US chip-making firm Freescale
Semiconductor.
It has since emerged that these workers were doing “sophisticated work” for the company, based in Austin, Texas.
They were mostly engineers and other experts working to make the company’s chip facilities in Tianjin, China, and Kuala Lumpur more efficient, said Mitch Haws, vice president, global communications and investor relations.
“These were people with a lot of experience and technical background and they were very important people,” Haws said.
“It’s definitely a loss for the company.”
Twelve of the staff came from Malaysia and eight came from China.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331
Rosmah Mansor, wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, cries with family members of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
http://backpackerlee.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/malaysia-airlines-flight-370/
US sends investigators to join search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/us-sends-investigators-fbi-malaysia-airlines-plane
An FBI team has flown to Malaysia to join the search for the Malaysia Airlines flight that went missing over the South China Sea early on Saturday. Three Americans were among the 239 people on board flight MH370, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
On Sunday Tony Blinken, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, confirmed that the US government was aiding the investigation into what caused the plane to come down.
“The FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board, the [Federal Aviation Administration], all of them are heading to the area to help with the investigation,” he told NBC. “Lots of questions have been raised, we don’t have the answers yet. We’ll get them.”
An oil slick spotted in the sea off Vietnam which authorities believe may be jet fuel. Photograph: Tienphong.vn/EPA
If that plane went down in the sea, It’s more of a RECOVERY effort now
Malaysian Airlines: families should ‘prepare for the worst’
Lord have MERCY.
It’s just too much!
Vietnamese air force crew prepare to head out from Tan Son Nhat airport to search for the Malaysian airliner. AP PHOTO
This whole incident is a MYSTERY. Heart-breaking really.
Missing Malaysia Airlines flight may have turned around before it vanished
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-turned-around-search
Airline warns families of 239 people on board to expect the worst as search for flight MH370 widens in waters near Vietnam.
The Malaysia Airlines flight missing with 239 on board may have turned around just before it vanished from radar screens, the country’s air force chief said on Sunday as the government said it had contacted counter-terrorism agencies around the world following concerns over unidentified passengers.
Transport and defence minister Hishamuddin Hussein said officials were considering all possible explanations for the disappearance of flight MH370, adding: “We cannot jump the gun. Our focus now is to find the plane.”
The airline warned families to prepare for the worst as the search widened amid inconclusive reports that debris had been spotted floating in the sea between Vietnam and Malaysia.
At least two people on the plane were travelling together on stolen passports, fuelling concerns about the Boeing-777’s abrupt disappearance in the early hours of Saturday. However, experts said there were many possible reasons for why it vanished and for people to travel on false documents.
Malaysian officials said they were looking at four suspect identities and were examining the entire passenger manifest. Interpol confirmed that at least two passports were listed in its database as stolen and that it was examining other documents.
So the planes went down in the waters in Vietnam?
Not sure but they’re searching the waters near Vietnam.
Just getting in from a class. So what’s happening? Has the plane with passengers been found?
Not yet. But Vietnam it reporting they have found flight MH370 in pieces. Nothing official from Malaysia tho.
The sister of Chinese man among the 239 people feared dead on flight MH370 rang his phone live on TV.
What happened to MH 370?
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/what-happened-to-mh-370
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — The sudden disappearance yesterday of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 — with no distress call or other signs of trouble — has ignited intense speculation over what happened to the jet and its 239 passengers.
Following are some of the scenarios being mulled over by regional authorities, investigators and industry experts.
Q: Is mechanical or structural failure likely?
Sudden, accidental structural failures leading to explosions or a sudden loss of cabin pressure are considered extremely unlikely in today’s passenger aircraft. This is especially so with the Boeing 777-200 model, which has one of the best safety records of any jet. “From a crack, there can be a whole structure breakdown that allows for no response. But in the last two to three decades there have been next to nil such incidents,” said Ravi Madavaram, an aviation analyst with Frost & Sullivan. Indonesia-based aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said based on the MH370 plane’s maintenance records, “there is nothing that would jump straight out of the page”.
Q: How likely is human error in this case?
The MH370 case may draw comparisons with the crash in 2009 of an Air France into the Atlantic Ocean, which killed more than 200 people. An investigation said speed sensors failed, causing the Airbus jet to stall and lose altitude. But it also said pilots failed to react correctly, losing control of the jet. Soejatman said despite all the safety features on modern aircraft, well-trained pilots taking proper action in an emergency also is essential.
“If the crew is not on the ball, they quickly lose control of the situation,” he said.
Q: Was it an attempted hijacking or terror attack?
This spectre has loomed after authorities said at least two passengers had boarded with stolen passports. Malaysian officials also said Sunday radar data indicated the pilot may have inexplicably tried to turn back to Kuala Lumpur. Analysts said the absence of any distress signal raises eyebrows, as it could indicate an event so sudden that the crew could not respond. “There was not even time for the pilot or crew to raise an alarm. It could have happened due to a deliberate act — by a pilot or a terrorist — but this is all very speculative,” Ravi said.
The terror theory’s credibility is hurt by the fact that — so far — no claim of responsibility has surfaced.
“What’s the motive? If they didn’t bring any weapons, it is extremely difficult to get into the cockpit,” said Shukor Yusof, aviation analyst with Standard & Poor’s.
He also noted that stolen passports do not necessarily equate to terrorism.
Large numbers of illegal workers, as well as criminal syndicates, are known to move between Malaysia and neighbouring countries such as Thailand. The two suspect passports were reportedly stolen in Thailand.
So heartbreaking.
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*tears*
Who are the Uyghurs? Islamic militants in China who could be linked to missing Malaysia Airlines flight
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-who-3222758
As the search for clues begins, Chinese authorities look to Islam militants who were also blamed for the recent train station stabbing spree
Islam militant group the Uyghurs could be linked with the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.
Just last week the group was blamed for a violent attack at a Chinese train station.
On Saturday flight MH370 disappeared around 100 miles north of the Malaysian coast carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.
The plane is presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast after losing contact with air traffic controllers.
The plane was last detected on radar at 5.30pm UK time on Friday.
An airline tracking website suggested it plunged 650ft and changed direction before it vanished.
Who are the Uighurs?
The northwestern region on Xinjiang, which borders central Asia is home to the Uighurs, an ethnic Muslim minority.
The region was brought under Chinese control in 1949 and since then the Uighurs have battled for independence.
The minority group – who have known terrorist links – are again being looked at as the hunt for clues on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight begins.
What a mystery!
How can a Boeing 777 just go missing? What has happened to those poor people? What’s going on?
My prayers are with the families and loved ones.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families. I can’t imagine the anguish they’re feeling. This is too much!