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

[MsFacetious]

If this was a terrorist incident, wouldn't there have been a claim of responsibility by now? :waitasec:

I don't know... I'm not that familiar with other countries terrorists.
The theory is that this is Chinese targeted terrorism because of all the current issues in China.
Along with the number of Chinese nationals on the plane.

Do they take credit the way other terrorists do?
Did the suspects in the Chinese train attack "take credit" for it? :waitasec:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/world/asia/han-uighur-relations-china.html?_r=0

 

[Steely Dan]

Same thing with TWA 800. If not for the eyewitness on the ground and other planes around the area, nobody would have known anything for hours. I know there is controversy on why the flight 800 exploded but, I'm strictly speaking on the lack of distress signal being sent.

Just for a reminder the recording of TWA. You hear the pilot of TWA 800 at first reporting position and climbing to the ATC (Air Traffic Control Center), and you never hear anything else from the pilot.

Trans World Airlines Flight 800 ATC Recording July 17, 1996 - YouTube

An interesting factoid about flight 800. Eddie George was a high draft pick of the Houston Oilers that year. His NFL contract had just been negotiated and he wanted his mother to be there when he signed it. She told him she had to work and couldn't attend, but he wore her down and she switched with another flight attendant. She had been scheduled to work flight 800. Just one of those eerie things in life.

 

[catatonia]

Shouldn't they have found debris by now, if there was a bomb or a missile, as some suggest?

It's also strange that neither calls were made, nor any messages sent (referring to the passengers, not pilots).

Sounds almost as if magnetic fields caused a technical blackout/breakdown (both the plane system as well as mobile phones etc.)

 

[Elley Mae]

I would have to think that the authorities have already looked with eagle eyes though all the cctv footage of the two that boarded with passports that bore names of the same that were stolen. I would hope that they have done that.jmo

 

[Sleuthster]

What I find interesting is that both passports that had been reported stolen prior, where stolen in Thailand 2 years apart. I wonder how common it is to have 2 people on a plane that goes down who where using passports reported stolen in Thailand? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ea-in-search-for-missing-Malaysian-plane.html

 

[panthera]

This is what leads me to believe they were either shot down or it was a bomb. The pilot had no indication something was wrong...

Eerily reminiscent of TWA 800. Fortunately in that crash it was witnessed by many.

 

[Herding Cats]

it is not unusual for terrorists to NOT claim an attack for a while afterwards; as a matter of fact, Bin Ladin did NOT claim responsibility for 9/11 until sometime in 2004 (iirc), and denied it many times previously. (However, it was well known that OBL was, in fact, responsible, due to many, many links connecting him/AQ with the plotting, the 19 hijackers, and many other aspects of things).

And, in more recent attacks, the Benghazi attack STILL has not been 'claimed'.

So no, a claim is not always quick in forthcoming. I don't know anything about Chinese terrorists, so can't find a track record for them claiming/not claiming their attacks, but even though we think of terrorists claiming responsibility for attacks right away, that's not always the case.

I still go with my theory of some sort of baggage compartment explosion, set to detonate at 35000 feet (cruising altitude). This is similar to the Locherbie, Scotland plane explosion, except that it was over water and not over a town. If you consider how widespread the debris field was for Locherbie, and add to it ocean currents and items sinking due to both gravity, saturation and the force of impact, then you may see why it would take a long time to figure out where the plane came down.

And MsF., it would seem to me that oil, being more buoyant than water, would rest on the top of the ocean; ocean surface winds as well as currents would definitely 'spread' out the oil slick, and could easily be the reason the slicks are called 6-10 miles long.

Best-
Herding Cats

 

[popsicle]

It will be getting light soon. Hopefully they will find the plane then.

 

[panthera]

Curious regarding the actual flight path versus this map which indicates the only body of water being the Gulf of Thailand.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-loses-contact-with-plane-en-route-to-beijing-with-239-aboard/

:waitasec:

 

[catatonia]

I wonder how common it is to have 2 people on a plane that goes down who where using passports reported stolen in Thailand?

Yes, it sounds suspicious, especially under these circumstance, but atm all we can do is speculate. It could also be a coincidence, but until more information is released, nothing can be ruled out.

 

[K_Z]

I have NO clue how this works... so help me out here someone who does.
If this plane fell out of the sky like a meteorite and hit the water going 400MPH would the oil be like that?
Or do that imply that they made some attempt to "land" on the water and then continued moving along it?

That is a LONG distance for the oil slick to be... but maybe it just spreads quickly?

Fuel "dumped" at altitude vaporizes. If the plane broke up at altitude, fuel would be vaporized. It would be unlikely that the fuel tanks would remain intact with a water impact if plane was in free fall from 35,000 ft (water is not "soft-- like hitting cement).

While several sources have described the images seen from air as oil slicks, to my knowledge there haven't been confirmed sources that have arrived and definitively said it's fuel. It's so shallow there it could be something else.

I've been reading as a couple aviation sites. One of the things I've gleaned is that flightradar24 is an indirect measure of a plane's location, once it's over water. (Relays from other indicators, versus real time satellite positioning.) Several have pointed out that it's possible the plane continued on a bit after the last known position on flightradar24.

 

[MsFacetious]

Just below the Gulf of Thailand it turns into the South China Sea.
If you click on the water below, it will come up and tell you.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/K...2!3m1!1s0x31b7099e976e862f:0x1bc0ee85cb232492

It says South China Sea up on the right side next to Vietnam.
I do not know exactly where it changes from one to the other.
It DOES appear that the flight path (where it actually went on radar) goes over the SEA however.

http://www.flightradar24.com/2014-03-07/16:50/24x/6.18,102.93/6

Curious regarding the actual flight path versus this map which indicates the only body of water being the Gulf of Thailand.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-loses-contact-with-plane-en-route-to-beijing-with-239-aboard/

:waitasec:

 

[Plumeria5]

Photos of some of the passengers from Flight 370.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...light-to-beijing/story-fnizu68q-1226848860442

And more:

http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/20...ens-believed-aboard-malaysian-airlines-flight

 

[panthera]

Just below the Gulf of Thailand it turns into the South China Sea.
If you click on the water below, it will come up and tell you.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/K...2!3m1!1s0x31b7099e976e862f:0x1bc0ee85cb232492

It says South China Sea up on the right side next to Vietnam.
I do not know exactly where it changes from one to the other.
It DOES appear that the flight path (where it actually went on radar) goes over the SEA however.

http://www.flightradar24.com/2014-03-07/16:50/24x/6.18,102.93/6

Thanks! I was going not only by the map provided at the link but the reports it had not entered Vietnamese airspace and/or was not on their radar. That was causing the confusion. I do believe, however, that it did go down in a body of water which has a current causing debris and fuel to spread over several miles.

 

[MsFacetious]

Thanks! I was going not only by the map provided at the link but the reports it had not entered Vietnamese airspace and/or was not on their radar. That was causing the confusion. I do believe, however, that it did go down in a body of water which has a current causing debris and fuel to spread over several miles.

It went down "1 minute before entering" Vietnam air traffic control.
That is what we heard last night and it makes sense given the location on the radar. :seeya:

 

[SilkySifaka]

Yes, it sounds suspicious, especially under these circumstance, but atm all we can do is speculate. It could also be a coincidence, but until more information is released, nothing can be ruled out.

I think statistically it must be miniscule chance of the two on the same plane with the thouosands and thousands of planes and people in the air daily.

If it is a terrorist attack I wouldn't want to be the terrorists left behind. The Chinese secret police don't necessarily play by a lot of restrictions on what they can do to suspects. imo

 

[panthera]

Photos of some of the passengers from Flight 370.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...light-to-beijing/story-fnizu68q-1226848860442

And more:

http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/20...ens-believed-aboard-malaysian-airlines-flight

Bless them.........may they rest in peace.

:rose: :rose:

 

[PHB]

Just adding.



Home video of the pilot is heart wrenching to hear. His helper in the video, may be his wife?

If this is terrorism, how can a human being board a plane, seeing all the innocent lives he is going to destroy? I just can't wrap my head around that kind of evil.

As per a couple of pilot friends I showed that link to, capt. Shah seemed extremely competent.

 

[panthera]

It went down "1 minute before entering" Vietnam air traffic control.
That is what we heard last night and it makes sense given the location on the radar. :seeya:

Agree. Unfortunately by the time SAR efforts were underway the debris field could be scattered for miles in the ocean. Hopefully one of the countries involved in the search has the technology and manpower to try to pinpoint where the FDR (black box) may be located while it is still active (pinging) - assuming it isn't too far down in the water.

 

[MsFacetious]

Agree. Unfortunately by the time SAR efforts were underway the debris field could be scattered for miles in the ocean. Hopefully one of the countries involved in the search has the technology and manpower to try to pinpoint where the FDR (black box) may be located while it is still active (pinging) - assuming it isn't too far down in the water.

Yes, unfortunately they spent too much time on the land... before accepting it went down in the water.
11 hours were lost so in that respect it's good their probably weren't survivors.
It'd REALLY suck to survive the plane crash and die because they thought you crashed elsewhere.

https://www.facebook.com/flightradar24