Malaysia airlines plane may have crashed 239 people on board #1

[Isabelle]

*Malaysia Airlines CEO: No Plan To Ground Boeing 777 Planes

*Malaysia Air Force Chief: Military Radar Indicates Possible Turn Back

*Malaysia Air Force Chief: Radar Reading Corroborated By Some Civilian Radar

*Malaysia Air Force Chief: Still Studying Radar Data On Missing Plane

http://stream.wsj.com/story/malaysia-airlines-flight-370/SS-2-475558/

(I believe this is a press conference, there was one scheduled 35 minutes ago that was delayed.

Would a turn back be due to problems?

 

[Leilei]

This looks more to me like a pic out of an airplane window high above a city. Not debris in water?? <modsnip>

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/arti...a-sends-warships-join-search-missing#comments

Fishing boats? The pilot forum is saying they may be the greenhouses on the coast. Apparently they glow at night. Another new thing I've learned today.

 

[Elley Mae]

Flight tracking website flightaware.com showed it flew northeast after takeoff, climbed to 35,000 feet and was still climbing when it vanished from tracking records.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/08/us-malaysiaairlines-flight-idUSBREA2701720140308

......

The stolen Austrian passport used to board Flight 370 was from a 30-year-old who reported the theft in 2012 in Thailand, while the Italian was Luigi Maraldi, who disclosed the theft of his documents in August, according to the countries&#8217; foreign ministries. Neither man was on the jet, their governments said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...jing-flight-with-239-aboard-goes-missing.html

 

[MsFacetious]

UPDATE [2.05pm]: AFP reports that Vietnamese military has found a bigger and clearer oil slick, but nothing else.

http://my.news.yahoo.com/malaysia-airlines-investigation-live-report-042933746.html

 

[PHB]

Derryn,

Do you think the aircraft may have been shot down by Vietnamese air defense? I just looked at their wikipedia page, they still have well over 100 MIG-21's, as well as a few more modern aircraft, and a lot of SAM's and AAA. Do they have any missiles capable of downing an aircraft @ 35k feet?

IIRC, the Soviets accidentally shot down a Korean airliner in the 80's, and I think we did the same to the Iranians around the same time.

 

[Karmady]

I think it actually does look like a bunch of airplane seats, floating. So horrible to just look at, if that's the case. I think if this is the debris, then they hit the water intact - and the passengers were aware the plane was going down. :no:

From the article about the source of the photo

The poster, whose profile information says he is a banker working for China Minsheng Bank in Beijing, wrote that he took the snaps from his window at a height of 11,000 metres, at about 6.45am on Sunday.

Photos showing possible debris floating on the sea uploaded to Chinese social media by a user. Photo: SCMP PicturesWhile it is not immediately clear what the suspected debris consisted of, the area where the passenger said he spotted it appears to be roughly consistent with where the missing plane lost contact with aviation authorities and where ships from Malaysia and Vietnam were already searching since Saturday afternoon.

 

[belimom]

Fishing boats? The pilot forum is saying they may be the greenhouses on the coast. Apparently they glow at night. Another new thing I've learned today.

That sounds plausible, except that the passenger who took them was on a later flight soon after the plane that went missing. He took these photos 90 minutes after take-off, over the sea, at about 11,000 meters. It does kind of line up with when/where the plane went missing.

ETA - Jinx, Karmady!

 

[Leilei]

Is it possible that the plan just plummeted into the sea as a whole and there wouldn't be much debris and the plan would remain mostly in tact just sunken? Just curious.

Once it hit the water, at that speed, there wouldn't be much intact, I wouldn't think. Of course, it depends on what exactly happened up there.

Hate to even type that

 

[Linda7NJ]

Weren't there early reports of what was described as a meteor falling?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MsFacetious]

Is it possible that the plane just plummeted into the sea as a whole and there wouldn't be much debris and the plane would remain mostly in tact just sunken? Just curious.

Maybe Derryn can help with this question?

I thought that too... but people keep saying no, that's crazy.
People say if it hit the water going that fast even nose first, there is no way it wouldn't have exploded.

Would a turn back be due to problems?

Yes. When Captain Sully hit the birds he attempted to turn back to the airport.
He didn't make it and landed in the river.
He had a 6 minute flight and still communicated with ATC several times.

 

[Plumeria5]

Possible debris sightings.

http://www.scmp.com/frontpage/international

"The poster, whose profile information says he is a banker working for China Minsheng Bank in Beijing, wrote that he took the snaps from his window at a height of 11,000 metres, at about 6.45am on Sunday."

Is it just me or is it rather disappointing that it takes a banker on a flight to possibly find the debris from the crash when they have aircraft, submarines, and ships, as well as recorders to locate this plane??

 

[Leilei]

Weren't there early reports of what was described as a meteor falling?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, ma'am, but it was reported north (I think) of Ho Chi Min city, if I'm not mistaken. I think it was MsF that linked that report last night.

 

[ilovepierre]

What is the significance of Frankfurt?

 

[belimom]

I don't think this has been posted here yet; if so, I missed it.

The Austrian and Italian passport purchasers had consecutive numbers for this flight. (They were stolen passports.) The travel schedules of the Italian and Australian passengers have been posted on a Chinese forum.

According to Google Translate, the ticket numbers are:

Ticket number: 784 - 099 *******
Ticket number: 784 - 100 *******

Could be they were illegals trying to get out of the country, of course.

Those ticket numbers are very telling, IMO. If purchased online, there has to be a credit card trail. I'm sure it's being checked out.

 

[margarita25]

What is the significance of Frankfurt?

mohammed atta, iirc

 

[MsFacetious]

I think it actually does look like a bunch of airplane seats, floating. So horrible to just look at, if that's the case. I think if this is the debris, then they hit the water intact - and the passengers were aware the plane was going down. :no:

But they are 35,000 feet in the air.... and it's dark... so not a single cloud in 35,000 feet?
Plus they are GLOWING! Why would airplane seats (or ANY debris) be glowing? :waitasec:

Just think about how FAR away he is from the water... there is no way!
And if he got that picture in the dark, from 35,000 feet, I want his camera. :twocents:

I could understand MAYBE if they were going the opposite direction from Flight 370.
If they were coming INTO land at the airport right there on the coast.
Then I could maybe see this... but from 35,000 feet? There is just no way. :twocents:

 

[PHB]

Maybe Derryn can help with this question?

I thought that too... but people keep saying no, that's crazy.
People say if it hit the water going that fast even nose first, there is no way it wouldn't have exploded.




Yes. When Captain Sully hit the birds he attempted to turn back to the airport.
He didn't make it and landed in the river.
He had a 6 minute flight and still communicated with ATC several times.

True, but he was dealing with 2 disabled engines, not smoke and fire as capt. Shah may have been.

 

[MsFacetious]

Bumping this post about the meteorite, didn't come from me!

There are some reports now from Chinese media that the plane has been found 100 KM north of Ho Chi Minh. According to the report from witnesses it looked like a meteorite coming down. The place has a dense jungle and difficult access.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/6013600#64


Just seen the above posted on the airliners message board I hope it isn't true that it came down like a meteorite.

 

[Elley Mae]

Using a system that looks for flashes around the world, the Pentagon reviewed preliminary surveillance data from the area where the plane disappeared and saw no evidence of an explosion, said an American government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject matter is classified.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight.html?hp&_r=0

 

[mrsu]

Yahoo says the plane would indeed break apart from a nosedive. The first answer is helpful. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110605093125AAlkI6c