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

[revampz]

Maybe the 5 persons who didn't board the plane had made their check-in online and never showed up at the airport. From what I've seen on Malaysia Airline website you can check in online up to 48 hours in advance, plenty of time for something to go wrong and miss the flight.

But they checked in luggage, so therefore had to have been at the airport at some stage.....

 

[teedie2]

Unbelievable...not that it is possible, but that some magazine would publish it.

:banghead:

What is the mindset (if any) of a person who writes such an article in the first place?

 

[RT51]

I've been following this thread, but first time posting on it.

I work at an airport in Communications/Emergency Dispatch. While we are not big, we do have our weird things that happen.

Regarding the passports: A few years after 911, an aircraft came into our airport as a terminator, meaning that it would stay overnight, be cleaned, then depart the next morning.

During cleaning, 3 passports were discovered in a seat back pocket. Their pictures had been ripped out. They were from a foreign country, and it was determined the passengers in those seats had deplaned at a stop before my airport. Most likely illegal aliens, so therefore I wouldn't assume those using stolen passports on this flight were terrorists. Yes, it is a possibility, but who knows?

Most aircrafts in the US have locator alarms. I've gotten calls from NORAD regarding beacons that have been accidentally activated. I'm not sure if international flights have something like this.

I just hope and pray that when this aircraft went down, the passengers did not have to deal with the terror of going down. I am trained for a catastrophe such as this, and I hope and pray I never have to deal with it.

 

[iulia]

But they checked in luggage, so therefore had to have been at the airport at some stage.....

Oops, missed that info. There are airports in Africa where you can check-in your luggage 12-16 hours before the flight, but I don't think that's the case here. This is so strange..

 

[MsFacetious]

UPDATE [3.04pm]: A veteran Malaysian military and commercial pilot said that with radar and transponder information alone, investigators would be able to tell if the plane blew up mid-air.

http://my.news.yahoo.com/radar-data-tell-plane-blew-063502425.html

 

[Waddles]

from that link "Authorities will investigate why immigration officers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport had no questions about Italian and Austrian passengers with Asian facial features, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said."

Despite my comments on this yesterday, there was a Chinese New Zealander and Chinese Americans on the plane etc. I know it should have been a red alert for a person with Asian features to have both a first and last name Italian and first and last name Austrian but I'm guessing the people checking were used to foreign passports with Asian features, just saying.

 

[RT51]

I don't see how you could question passports by the ethnicity. I am Caucasian, my Uncle married a Korean woman, their child looks Korean, but his name is totally English sounding.

In this day of blended ethnicity, I don't see how the customs/immigration staff could have determined they were not authentic. Most passports these days have special imprints/holograms to determine if they are authentic. That is what they go by. If someone managed to find a fantastic counterfeiter, then they would have no way of knowing. ( I've have training in authenticating passports.)

Unfortunately, no system is infallible. Technology has helped the system along, but then again, it can work against it too. As the old saying goes "When then is a will, there is a way."

 

[Derryn Hunch]

I don't see how you could question passports by the ethnicity. I am Caucasian, my Uncle married a Korean woman, their child looks Korean, but his name is totally English sounding.

In this day of blended ethnicity, I don't see how the customs/immigration staff could have determined they were not authentic. Most passports these days have special imprints/holograms to determine if they are authentic. That is what they go by. If someone managed to find a fantastic counterfeiter, then they would have no way of knowing. ( I've have training in authenticating passports.)

I'm not - I'm just saying that a distinct lack of ability to speak a word of italian would be a bit of a red flag...

 

[Waddles]

well I think it's very common in New Zealand, Australia and in the US but much less common for an Italian Asian to have both a first and last name Italian, we know that but they wouldn't necessarily know that and as has been said their job was to check the passport appeared valid and it's going down dangerous territory to start challenging people's ethnicity based on their first and last name

 

[RT51]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean "you" as any particular poster on this site. I should have used "one" instead. The "you" was supposed to mean anyone.

 

[Waddles]

I'm not - I'm just saying that a distinct lack of ability to speak a word of italian would be a bit of a red flag...

I have 4 nationalities and passport control officers always chat to me and ask me several questions or joke with me, who knows maybe they practiced the kinds of questions that would be asked and learned a few words of the language

 

[RT51]

Do be honest, I wonder how the lost passport process works too. We gather several over the year in our lost and found. We hang on to them a bit to see if the owner contacts us, if not, then they are turned over to the government agency. I do not know what they do after that.

Logically, I would think they would cross reference with the no fly list, reported lost passport lists, etc. But who knows. We've even had some from foreign countries that have never contacted us. I always wondered how they got out of the country if they needed to.

 

[Melly53]

http://my.news.yahoo.com/video/investigators-malaysian-airliner-may-disintegrated-024151039.html

Link to mid air disintegration video

 

[Derryn Hunch]

I have 4 nationalities and passport control officers always chat to me and ask me several questions or joke with me, who knows maybe they practiced the kinds of questions that would be asked and learned a few words of the language

Sure - definately a fairly reasonable thing to expect they might do as an a highly organised group who have had enough good communications drills that even days after the fact no one even knows if they exist...

But in order of "things that might bring us unstuck" - I would rate a stolen passport bearing a clearly italian name for one of its citizens who looks chinese, doesnt speak fluent native italian and doesn't know what the name of the main street that passes through the centre of ROME or whatever city they have written down on their immigration entry card supposedly is as right up there with serious liability.

 

[Waddles]

Sure - definately a fairly reasonable thing to expect they might do as an a highly organised group who have had enough good communications drills that even days after the fact no one even knows if they exist...

But in order of "things that might bring us unstuck" - I would rate a stolen passport bearing a clearly italian name for one of its citizens who looks chinese, doesnt speak fluent native italian and doesn't know what the name of the main street that passes through the centre of ROME or whatever city they have written down on their immigration entry card supposedly is as right up there with serious liability.

Very true, I completely agree, it's nuts that this happened. All I can think of is that with many of the other nationalities on the plane also having Asian features like the New Zealander and the Americans they just didn't pay attention. It doesn't make it any less unbelievable just trying to understand how they were thinking.

 

[Elley Mae]

Still no sign of Malaysia Airlines jetliner that vanished

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/still-no-sign-of-malaysia-airlines-jetliner-that-vanished/

Electronic booking records show that one-way tickets with those names were issued Thursday from a travel agency in the beach resort of Pattaya, in eastern Thailand.

bbm

 

[MsFacetious]

WSJ Asia ‏@WSJAsia 8s

Malaysia's agricultural minister to fisherman: look for "anything other than fish." #MH370

http://stream.wsj.com/story/malaysia-airlines-flight-370/SS-2-475558/?mod=e2fb

 

[Waddles]

I read an article saying 136 people were admitted into the US on stolen passports between 1998 and 2004 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/23/20041223-113834-2445r/?page=all

 

[Melly53]

http://my.news.yahoo.com/video/investigators-malaysian-airliner-may-disintegrated-024151039.html

Link to mid air disintegration video

After watching the above video to the end, there are 4 other videos that one can view. One entitled "Missing Malaysian Airplane Update" it shows a radar screen that shows the airplane turning back towards Malaysia. Is this just an animation of the radar?

 

[Elley Mae]

Mr. Azharuddin said investigators were reviewing video footage of the passengers in question. Malaysian officials also said five ticketed passengers failed to board the flight but said that their luggage was removed from the plane before it took off.

As they tried to deflect questions about seemingly lax security, Malaysian officials emphasized that their priority was locating the aircraft. They said they had reviewed military radar records and raised the possibility that the aircraft had tried to turn back just before contact with ground controllers was lost.

But Mikael Robertsson, the co-chairman of Flightradar24, a Stockholm-based service that tracks the majority of the world’s passenger jets, said data gathered by separate civilian receivers in the region did not appear to show the jet turning around.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight.html?ref=world

Just asking in case I missed it, have the 5 passengers been found?

bbm So I wonder did the pilot attempt to turn the plane?