239 Feared Dead in Missing Malaysian Airlines Flight

[RASQ]

 

[Jagger69]

A Chinese satellite picked up images of what appears to be floating debris in approximately the same area where Flight 370 would have been when it disappeared from radar.

(CNN) -- A Chinese satellite looking into the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 "observed a suspected crash area at sea," a Chinese government agency said -- a potentially pivotal lead into what has been a frustrating search for the aircraft.

China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense announced the discovery, including images of what it said were "three suspected floating objects and their sizes."

The objects aren't small: 13 by 18 meters (43 by 59 feet), 14 by 19 meters (46 by 62 feet) and 24 by 22 meters (79 feet by 72 feet). For reference, the wingspan of an intact Boeing 777-200ER like the one that disappeared is about 61 meters (200 feet) and its overall length is about 64 meters (210 feet).

The images were captured on March 9 -- which was the day after the plane went missing -- but weren't released until Wednesday.

The Chinese agency gave coordinates of 105.63 east longitude, 6.7 north latitude, which would put it in waters northeast of where it took off in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and south of Vietnam, near where the South China Sea meets the Gulf of Thailand.

"It's where it's supposed to be," Peter Goelz, a former National Transportation Safety Board managing director, told CNN's Jake Tapper, noting the "great skepticism" about reports the plane had turned around to go back over Malaysia. "I think they've got to get vessels and aircraft there as quickly as humanly possible."

This isn't the first time authorities have announced they were looking at objects or oil slicks that might be tied to aircraft. Still, it is the latest and comes on the same day that officials, rather than narrowing the search area, more than doubled it from the day earlier to nearly 27,000 square nautical miles (35,000 square miles).

Bill Palmer -- author of a book on Air France's Flight 447, which also mysteriously went missing before its remnants were found -- said having a search area of that size is immensely challenging. He compared it to trying to find something the size of a car or truck in Pennsylvania, then widening it to look for the same thing in all of North America.

"It's a very, very difficult situation to try to find anything," Palmer told CNN's Brooke Baldwin. "Looking for pieces on the shimmering water doesn't make it any easier."

The Chinese satellite find could help, significantly, in that regard.

"I think the size of the pieces ... everything we've heard... gives good cause to believe that we've now (refocused) the area," former Federal Aviation Administration official Michael Goldfarb told CNN. "And that's a huge relief to everybody ... I think it's a high chance that they're going to confirm that these (are) pieces of the wreckage."

But not every expert was convinced this is it. Clive Irving, a senior editor with Conde Nast Traveler, said that the size of the pieces -- since they are fairly square and big -- "don't conform to anything that's on the plane."

Regardless, time is of the essence -- both for investigators and the loved ones of the plane's 239 passengers and crew, who have waited since Saturday for any breakthrough that would provide closure.

The flight data recorders should "ping," or send out a signal pointing to its location, for about 30 days from the time the aircraft set off, noted Goldfarb. After that, Flight 370 could prove exponentially harder to find.

Vietnamese minister: Info being provided 'insufficient'

The Malaysia Airlines flight set off seemingly without incident Saturday, not long after midnight, en route to Beijing.

Then, around 1:30 a.m., all communication was cut off. Authorities haven't said much, definitively, about what they believe happened next.

That and the fruitless search has frustrated some like Phan Quy Tieu, Vietnam's vice minister of transportation, who characterized the information that Malaysian officials have provided as "insufficient."

"Up until now we only had one meeting with a Malaysian military attache," he said.

For now, Vietnamese teams will stop searching the sea south of Ca Mau province, the southern tip of Vietnam, and shift the focus to areas east of Ca Mau, said Doan Luu, the director of international affairs at the Vietnamese Civil Aviation Authority.

At a news conference Wednesday, Malaysian transportation minister Hishamuddin Bin Hussein defended his government's approach.

"We have been very consistent in the search," he said.

Confusion over flight path

But even figuring out where authorities believe the plane may have gone down has been a difficult and shifting proposition.

In the immediate aftermath of the plane's disappearance, search and rescue efforts were focused on the Gulf of Thailand, along the expected flight path between Malaysia and Vietnam.

Over the weekend, authorities suddenly expanded their search to the other side of the Malay Peninsula, in the Strait of Malacca, where search efforts now seem to be concentrated.

That location is hundreds of miles off the plane's expected flight path.

An explanation appeared to come Tuesday when a senior Malaysian Air Force official told CNN that the Air Force had tracked the plane to a spot near the small island of Palau Perak off Malaysia's west coast in the Strait of Malacca.

The plane's identifying transponder had stopped sending signals, too, said the official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Malaysia's civilian administration appeared to dispute the report, however.

The New York Times quoted a spokesman for the Malaysian prime minister's office as saying Tuesday that military officials had told him there was no evidence the plane had flown back over the Malay Peninsula to the Strait of Malacca.

The Prime Minister's office didn't immediately return calls from CNN seeking comment.

Then, in another shift, Malaysian authorities said at a news conference Wednesday that radar records reviewed in the wake of the plane's disappearance reveal an unidentified aircraft traveling across the Malay Peninsula and some 200 miles into the Strait of Malacca.

However, it wasn't clear whether that radar signal represented Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Gen. Rodzali Daud, head of the Malaysian Air Force, said at the news conference.

Rodzali said that officials are still "examining and analyzing all possibilities" when it comes to the plane's flight path.

Malaysian officials are asking experts from the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority and National Transportation Safety Board to help them analyze the radar data.

The FAA said Wednesday that it "stands ready to provide any necessary additional support." The agency has already sent two technical experts and another official to Kuala Lumpur as part of a NTSB investigative team.

No trace

The search zones includes huge swaths of ocean on each side of the Malay Peninsula, as well as land.

Forty-two ships and 39 planes from 12 countries have been searching the sea between the northeast coast of Malaysia and southwest Vietnam, the area where the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers.

But they are also looking off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, in the Strait of Malacca, and north into the Andaman Sea.

What happened leading to the plane's disappearance also remains a mystery. Leading theories include hijacking, an explosion or a catastrophic mechanical failure.

Suggestions that the plane had veered off course and that its identifying transponder was not working raise obvious concerns about a hijacking, analysts tell CNN. But a catastrophic power failure or other problem could also explain the anomalies, analysts say.

In a sign authorities are looking at all options, Kuala Lumpur police told CNN they are searching the home of the airliner's Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

They were also questioning a man who hosted two Iranians who boarded the flight on stolen passports, the man -- Mohammad Mallaei -- told CNN on Wednesday.

Authorities have previously said they do not believe the men had any connection to terror groups.

Families' frustration

As the vexing search drags on, frustration has grown among friends and family of those who were on board.

"Time is passing by. The priority should be to search for the living," a middle-aged man shouted before breaking into sobs during a meeting with airline officials in Beijing on Tuesday. His son, he said, was one of the passengers aboard the plane.

Other people at the meeting also voiced their frustration at the lack of information.

Most of those on the flight were Chinese, and the Chinese government has urged Malaysia to speed up the pace of its investigation.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Wednesday appealed for patience.

"The families involved have to understand that this is something unexpected," Najib said. "The families must understand more efforts have been made with all our capabilities."

This information is the closest we have come to gaining hard evidence that coincides with what the actual flight path of the aircraft was when it disappeared from radar. Still, the fact that this area has already been searched and nothing to corroborate the satellite imagery has been discovered is mystifying. There's no other floating debris like airline seats, pieces of luggage, personal effects, paper....things that are all almost universally found floating along with pieces of the aircraft in incidents like this. This is a long way from concrete proof but it makes a helluva lot more sense than any of the other theories that have been floating about the internet. I think it is far-fetched to believe that the aircraft turned around, headed back across the Isthmus of Kra and possibly into the Andaman Sea before it crashed, either on land or into the ocean in an unexpected location. No radar data would support this and, again, the lack of any jetsam would cast serious doubt on this possibility.

Far from conclusive but this is the best indication we have yet to receive that the flight may have plunged into the South China Sea as the result of a sudden and catastrophic event....certainly something that happened fast enough to prevent any distress signals or communication from the cockpit that something was wrong. Baffling and bizarre is all I can say. I certainly hope that any impending search for the balck boxes will yield positive results. Otherwise, the truth behind what really happened to Flight 370 may never be discovered.

Source is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/12/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/

 

[Lonilover]

Aliens ? No seriously I think its technical issues or a terrorist attack.

 

[Mayhem]

I say it's frikkin' aliens. We let them slide on the whole crop circle thing so now they're dialing it up. :tinhat:

 

[RASQ]

Life's a trip, que no?

 

[lurkingdirk]

Stranger and stranger

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/13/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Did it fly four hours longer than we thought? Some say yes, some say no.

 

[sean miguel]

This has to be maddening and sickening for the relatives of those involved. The cell phone thing has been explained but imagine calling the number and hearing it ring through and your heart wants to believe it. The conflicting info being released can't be of any help. My condolences to the families.

 

[Jagger69]

OK, this latest twist is just totally off the chain. Apparently, the plane kept flying at some altitude and direction that remains unknown for several hours after it left the radar screens at its last known position off the coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea. Why authorities are now focusing their attention on the Indian Ocean is a mystery. These "pings" given off by the aircraft's engines give no indication of direction of flight. I suspect some data they have is indicative of a westerly flight direction if this is indeed the case. The plane could have crashed into the ocean, crashed on land or, just maybe, have landed at some unknown location. The fact that friends and relatives of passengers on board have gotten rings when calling cell phones of friends of loved ones who were on the flight would lead one to believe that the plane still exists intact somewhere. WHERE THE FUCK IS IT???. This is unquestionably the most bizarre airline incident in the history of aviation. Someone deliberately deactivated the transponder and, if indeed the plane changed course, that also was a deliberate act. Fucking weird to say the least. Search attempts continue but, with a possible 4-hour continuation of the flight, it could be anywhere within a 2500 mile radius....virtually impossible to pinpoint without further evidence. Stay tuned....this is like nothing ever seen before. :dunno: :surprise:

(CNN) -- It's a mystery that authorities still haven't been able to solve: Where is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?

There were still more questions than answers Thursday as U.S. officials said investigators might start combing the Indian Ocean as they look for the missing aircraft.

Why would authorities expand their search rather than narrowing it?

New information, U.S. officials told CNN, indicates the missing airplane could have flown for several hours beyond the last transponder reading.

Malaysian authorities believe they have several "pings" from the airliner's service data system, known as ACARS, transmitted to satellites in the four to five hours after the last transponder signal, suggesting the plane flew to the Indian Ocean, a senior U.S. official told CNN. That information combined with known radar data and knowledge of fuel range leads officials to believe the plane may have made it to that ocean, which is in the opposite direction of the plane's original route.

"There is probably a significant likelihood" that the aircraft is now on the bottom of the Indian Ocean, the official said, citing information Malaysia has shared with the United States.

It's the latest twist in a case that's baffled investigators and grabbed global attention for days. Information about the missing flight has been hard to come by, and numerous leads have been revealed by some officials only to be debunked by others hours later.

There are conflicting reports about this latest lead as well.

Earlier Thursday the Malaysian government denied a Wall Street Journal report that the plane was transmitting data after the last transponder signal.

And a senior aviation source with detailed knowledge of the matter also told CNN's Richard Quest on Thursday that there was no technical data suggesting the airplane continued flying for four hours, and said specifically that the Wall Street Journal account was wrong.

But U.S. officials maintained Thursday afternoon that the information from the airplane's data system was being actively pursued in the plane investigation.

Analysts from U.S. intelligence, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have concluded that pings sent to a satellite hours after the plane's last transponder signal likely came from the missing aircraft, the senior U.S. official said.

"It appears the plane was flying most of that time," the senior U.S. official said. The "indication" that the plane kept flying is not based on U.S. government information but rather based on radar readings and plane data.

There is reason to believe the plane flew for four hours, the officials said, but there is no specific indication where the plane actually is.

Multiple bursts of data were received indicating the plane was flying over the Indian Ocean, the senior U.S. official told CNN.

And there's another confusing twist. An emergency beacon that would have sent data if the plane was about to impact the ocean apparently did not go off, the official said. The beacons, known as Emergency Locator Transmitters, activate automatically upon immersion in fresh or salt water, but must remain on the surface for a distress signal to transmit.

The failure of the beacon to activate could mean that the plane didn't crash, that the transmitter malfunctioned, or that it's underwater somewhere.

This new information has now led to a decision to move the USS Kidd into the Indian Ocean to begin searching that area, the official said.

The Navy destroyer is now on its way there at the request of the Malaysian government, Cmdr. William Marks of the U.S. 7th Fleet told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Thursday.

"We're not out here freelancing, and it's not just something the U.S. Navy thinks and no one else," Marks said. "So this was by request of the Malaysian government. They asked the Navy to move our ship to the west into the Strait of Malacca. ... It is coordinated, but certain ships and aircraft stay in the east, and some go to the west. And we're moving to the west."

Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, said even though it's unclear how accurate the latest information is, authorities have no choice but to pursue it.

"Well I think basically given that there is some information -- how reliable or not -- we have to respond," she said. "There is no way we cannot follow up on this lead. It would be inhumane. And it might turn out to be just the lead we need. ... There isn't much, but I think we have to do it."

So are we any closer to knowing whether a mechanical problem, terrorism or hijacking could be tied to the plane's disappearance?

Not really, said Evy Poumpouras, a former Secret Service agent.

"The sad thing here is, we don't have enough information to say, 'It's not this, it's not that,'" she told CNN's Don Lemon. "We're still at the point, six days later, it could be anything, and that's the frustrating thing."

An ABC News report added another twist to the mystery Thursday evening. Citing two unnamed U.S. officials, the network said two separate communications systems on the missing aircraft were shut down separately, 14 minutes apart.

The officials told ABC they believe the plane's data reporting system was shut down at 1:07 a.m. Saturday, while the transponder transmitting location and altitude was shut down at 1:21 a.m.

"This is beginning to come together to say that ...this had to have been some sort of deliberate act," ABC aviation analyst John Nance told CNN's Erin Burnett.

White House spokesman Jay Carney didn't go into details when he discussed the search for the plane Thursday, but he said "some new information that's not necessarily conclusive" could lead U.S. searchers to the Indian Ocean.

"We are looking at information, pursuing possible leads, working within the investigation being led by the Malaysian government, and it is my understanding that one possible piece of information or collection of pieces of information has led to the possibility that a new search area may be opened," Carney said.

Originally, a report from The Wall Street Journal said data from the plane's Rolls-Royce engine had raised questions among some U.S. officials about whether the plane had been steered off course "with the intention of using it later for another purpose," the newspaper reported, citing a "person familiar with the matter."

The newspaper later corrected its story, saying that data leading investigators to believe the plane had flown for up to five hours came from the plane's satellite-communication link, which the newspaper said is "designed to automatically transmit the status of certain onboard systems to the ground."

Malaysia's acting Transportation Minister Hishammuddin Hussein rejected the Wall Street Journal report at a news conference Thursday, reiterating that the plane sent its last transmissions at 1:07 a.m. Saturday.

And Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said that Rolls-Royce and Boeing have reported that they didn't receive transmissions of any kind after 1:07 a.m. Saturday. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane shortly afterward, around 1:30 a.m.

Erin Atan, a spokeswoman for Rolls-Royce in Asia, declined to comment on the matter, telling CNN it was "an official air accident investigation."

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility the plane continued to fly, however. And given the lack of evidence, all options remain on the table.
Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

The report threatened to open the door to a fresh round of theories about what has become of the plane, which vanished while flying over Southeast Asia on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Four more hours in the air could have put the plane many hundreds of miles beyond the area currently being searched.

But one aviation industry observer expressed skepticism about the report even before the denials by officials.

"I find this very, very difficult to believe," Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent for the magazine Orient Aviation, told CNN. "That this aircraft could have flown on for four hours after it disappeared and not have been picked up by someone's radar and not have been seen by anyone, it's almost unbelievable."

The news came after Vietnamese and Chinese search crews found nothing where Chinese satellite photographs released Wednesday showed large floating objects in the South China Sea.

The spot is between Malaysia and Vietnam and not far from the plane's expected flight path.

China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense described the images as showing "a suspected crash site."

But Chinese authorities later said the release of the satellite images was a mistake and that they didn't show any debris relating to the plane, Hishammuddin said.

The mystery over the fate of the passenger jet, a Boeing 777-200, and the 239 people it was carrying has so far left government officials and aviation experts flummoxed.

"With every passing day the task becomes more difficult," Hishammuddin said.

Searchers have already been combing a vast area of sea and land for traces of the plane. But so far, with the search well into its sixth day, their efforts have been fruitless.

Malaysian officials say they are still trying to determine if a radar blip detected heading west soon after the plane lost contact was in fact the missing jet.

If it was, the plane would have been hundreds of miles off its original flight path and headed in the wrong direction. Malaysian officials say they have asked U.S. experts to help them analyze the radar data.

Meanwhile, India is joining the multinational search, dispatching two of its naval ships off the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, a military spokesman told CNN.

Also on Thursday, a Malaysian aviation official told CNN that the last known words from the flight crew of the missing plane were "All right, good night."

Malaysian civil aviation officer Zulazri Mohd Ahnuar said he couldn't confirm which member of the flight crew sent the message, which was transmitted from the plane back to Malaysian flight controllers as the aircraft transferred into Vietnamese airspace early Saturday.

For the families of those on board the missing plane, the wait for news is torturous.

Danica Weeks is trying to keep it together for her two young sons, though the possibility of life without husband Paul, who was on the plane, is sometimes overwhelming. She's clinging to hope even though, as Weeks told CNN's Piers Morgan, it's "not looking good."

"Every day, it just seems like it's an eternity, it's an absolute eternity," Weeks said from Australia. "We can only go minute by minute ... and hope something comes soon."

See more here:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/13/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/

 

[lurkingdirk]

Look at the government with whom we are dealing. Nothing is a guarantee here. The news says one thing, the government another. The other government involved says something different.

Life is simple, isn't it?

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

Worst game of hide and seek since Anne Frank.

 

[lurkingdirk]

Looks like it's in the Indian Ocean. But where? That's a pretty big area...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/14/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

[SabrinaDeep]

A plane is worth a lot of money. And can also be a terrible weapon. I hope i'm wrong.

 

[lurkingdirk]

What are you proposing? It landed some where, and is part of a larger plot of terrorism? I hope you're wrong, too! And, I think that it would have been spotted by this point if it were on a tarmac somewhere.

 

[SabrinaDeep]

What are you proposing? It landed some where, and is part of a larger plot of terrorism? I hope you're wrong, too! And, I think that it would have been spotted by this point if it were on a tarmac somewhere.

Well, either it crashed (and no signs so far), it got abducted by aliens, went into another dimension, was part of a Copperfield's magic or it landed. Since i know that you will discard the 2nd, 3rd and 4th and since there are no signs of a crash so far, the landing possibility is a pretty strong one. About spotting it already, that's exactly the mystery about, so i :dunno
A plane is big but earth is bigger. It sounds outrageous, but it's unfortunately a possibility.

 

[lurkingdirk]

In general, I would guess that most terrorist attacks on a scale that large are going to be aimed at the Western world. Not a conveniently located part of the world to grab a plane, unless you're going to start attacking someone over there, and who would be the target, in that case?

 

[SabrinaDeep]

In general, I would guess that most terrorist attacks on a scale that large are going to be aimed at the Western world. Not a conveniently located part of the world to grab a plane, unless you're going to start attacking someone over there, and who would be the target, in that case?

Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan...there many countries withe plenty of radical muslims and frequent terror attacks where the plane could have landed. For what we know it could have been landed even in Turkey or in Libya...who knows...since wee don'y know where it is, we just assume that it must be near where we lost contact, but if the transponders have been hacked, it might flied for hours before landing anywhere.
Again, i don't know. I'm just speculating like anybody else and i hope that i'm wrong.

 

[zeeblofowl_1969]

In general, I would guess that most terrorist attacks on a scale that large are going to be aimed at the Western world. Not a conveniently located part of the world to grab a plane, unless you're going to start attacking someone over there, and who would be the target, in that case?

Just have to get ahold of it fill it with fuel then your range grows quite a bit.
Would not be hard to hide it then move it someplace within range of your desired target. A very scary thought.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

Yeah but can you rent one that doesn't fly above 30,000 for $22,000 per day? Because I think they're going to paint it black and use it to spread chemtrails.

 

[RASQ]

weirdest shit ever. I hear it was hijacked, but don't hijackers usually ask for demands?

 

[bobjustbob]

weirdest shit ever. I hear it was hijacked, but don't hijackers usually ask for demands?

Yea, and terrorists usually jump up and claim their victories for how many that die for their cause. We will get to the bottom of this since black boxes get found.