Missing Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 triggers Southeast Asia search

[F430murci]

This time, it took TWO YEARS to locate the wreckage:

On June 1, 2009, Air France flight 447 was en route from Rio De Janeiro to Paris' Charles de Gaulle International Airport when communications ended suddenly from the Airbus A330, another state-of-the-art aircraft.

"One of the first things we had was a series of ACARS messages that showed failure of the aircraft and degradation of the systems," Quest said. "What we didn't know was why. We knew what had gone wrong; we knew how it had gone wrong; we didn't know why it had gone wrong."

It took four searches over the course of nearly two years to locate the bulk of flight 447's wreckage and the majority of the 228 bodies in a mountain range deep under the ocean. It took even longer to find the cause of the disaster.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/08/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-jet-missing/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

yes it is true. But the searching area was much much huger than in this case.

For the sake of accuracy, they found wreckage pieces, luggage and bodies immediately after the crash. Took two years to find the boxes. They were in pretty deep water. I was impressed they found them at all.

[sirchai]

I read somewhere that the 2 stolen passport holders were booked through to Amsterdam, so the chances are they are just illegal immigrants since their stolen EU passports will not be checked on arrival. They don't need a visa for China as they are in transit.

Why would they fly Malaysia - China - Amsterdam if you can fly Malaysia - Amsterdam ?

Because it's cheaper ?

"AND SOME PEOPLE ON THIS FORUM CAN'T EVEN PURCHASE AN ONLINE TICKET".

P.S. Was never my intention of making fun on what is happening right now. Guess we're all left blank. -

[Basil B]

Don't flight recorders have a transmitter in them to aid recovery after an air crash?

Any comments?

All have an ELT (Emergency Location Transmitter) that activates on impact or manually. It sends out an emergency signal for 30 days or more. If under water, it can still be seen but distance may be shortened depending on water depth.

Also both the FDR (flight deck recorder) and the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) black boxes (orange) have ''Pingers'', sending out signals to make it easier to locate them.

The pingers work in water and are short range.

[Solditallandmovedhere]

My Thai better half said that a news report was on Thai news saying that two people from M'isa, man and women, used stolen passports from some Italians and basically hijacked the place crashing it. Anyone else hear something like that?

[JesseFrank]

My Thai better half said that a news report was on Thai news saying that two people from M'isa, man and women, used stolen passports from some Italians and basically hijacked the place crashing it. Anyone else hear something like that?

If it was on Thai news it must be true

Especially if they said that a male and a female used 2 male passports.

[jpinx]

Sorry -- on double-checking it looks like a dubious source

[sirchai]

My Thai better half said that a news report was on Thai news saying that two people from M'isa, man and women, used stolen passports from some Italians and basically hijacked the place crashing it. Anyone else hear something like that?

Thought they were tow men?

[Tayida]

My Thai better half said that a news report was on Thai news saying that two people from M'isa, man and women, used stolen passports from some Italians and basically hijacked the place crashing it. Anyone else hear something like that?

The stolen passport belongs to two men......one italian and one from austria

[sirchai]

My Thai better half said that a news report was on Thai news saying that two people from M'isa, man and women, used stolen passports from some Italians and basically hijacked the place crashing it. Anyone else hear something like that?

The stolen passport belongs to two men......one italian and one from austria

Wasn't it about two passports before?

[harrry]

My Thai better half said that a news report was on Thai news saying that two people from M'isa, man and women, used stolen passports from some Italians and basically hijacked the place crashing it. Anyone else hear something like that?

The stolen passport belongs to two men......one italian and one from austria

Round here it seems they would be more likely to say it was two people from Burma

[schondie]

This scenario seems suspect, two or four non European passengers with stolen Caucasian people's passports manage to get on a plane without alarm bells ringing. In this day and age I find that a little hard to believe.

No SOS or mayday is made, the plane disappears off radar in an area which is well covered by radar and the plane is wildly off course.

Just a thought but Anwar Ibrahim (the friend of the west) has just been jailed again, could this be a warning to Malaysia?

[Basil B]

When AF plane went down

"One of the first things we had was a series of ACARS messages that showed failure of the aircraft and degradation of the systems," CNN

I think MAS have a lot of explaining to do

Does anyone know what this means?

In addition to carrying UHF and VHF radios, the planes -- which cost more than $250 million apiece -- planes are

equipped with Aircraft Communications and Reporting System technology. Embedded in the plane's computers, it tells the

airline how the aircraft is performing -- speed, fuel, thrust. "If anything fails, it will send a signal

Along with ACARS there is ADS-B which sends out a short radio burst of data at least once a second that contain Position data from GPS along with other data, The 777 Reg 9M-MRO was equipped with ADS-B.

The range on this is about 250Km and can be received with a small box and aerial connected to a computer.

[hansnl]

Italian and Austrian passports. The Italian name "Luigi Maraldi" indicates ethnic Italian i.e. European appearance. Austrian is likely Caucasian too. Not the best choices for terrorists of the usual origin, though still wouldn't rule it out.

You would be surprised how many Italian and Austrian people have a latin look.

And that might be a very good choice for a terrorist of the usual origin.

And do not forget the thousands of "new" Europeans getting a passport....................

[metisdead]

A post about a hijacking in China in 2012 has been removed as it is irrelevant to this case, a reply was removed as well. Some other off topic nonsense speculation posts have been removed as well.

[watcharacters]

.

Planes tend not to just disappear:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/08/missing-jet-terror-concern/6203027/

[Rob8891]

Some posters definitely need to wear their tinfoil hats more regularly....20 pages of speculation, random guesses and nonsense, yet not one scrap of actual valid and corroborated information.

Condolences to the victims, their families and friends. I hope that the families' agony is soon eased and they can find out the truth.

[balo]

I think this is not a terrorist attack, media are focusing too much on the stolen passports.

2 years ago this plane had an accident on the ground and lost parts of the wing. How did they repair it , did they replace the whole wing ?

If the plane lost the wing at 35000 feet , the plane would just dive and crash into the ocean , no chance for the pilots to send out a distress signal.

[JesseFrank]

I think this is not a terrorist attack, media are focusing too much on the stolen passports.

2 years ago this plane had an accident on the ground and lost parts of the wing. How did they repair it , did they replace the whole wing ?

If the plane lost the wing at 35000 feet , the plane would just dive and crash into the ocean , no chance for the pilots to send out a distress signal.

Down from 35000 ft to the ocean in a second ?

[sustento]

I think this is not a terrorist attack, media are focusing too much on the stolen passports.

2 years ago this plane had an accident on the ground and lost parts of the wing. How did they repair it , did they replace the whole wing ?

Gaffer tape and superglue. Then they just let it carry on without bothering to check it. Doh...

[Greenhill]

The 'other' newspaper is now saying that the airline tickets were purchased in Pattaya, no less!!! And please enlighten me why airline check-in counters and Immigration, of course, put your passport through those 'readers'???? What, if anything does that tell them??? You would think it would clearly alert - 'stolen passport, detain this person'!!!!???

[Julie H]

Could the plane have hit a flock of birds or bats? Its possible is it not?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Seismic]

Don't flight recorders have a transmitter in them to aid recovery after an air crash?

Any comments?

All have an ELT (Emergency Location Transmitter) that activates on impact or manually. It sends out an emergency signal for 30 days or more. If under water, it can still be seen but distance may be shortened depending on water depth.

Also both the FDR (flight deck recorder) and the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) black boxes (orange) have ''Pingers'', sending out signals to make it easier to locate them.

The pingers work in water and are short range.

Actually the pingers are ultrasonic transmitters, so under reasonable/good acoustic conditions they will be detectable over several hundred miles.

[schondie]

Some posters definitely need to wear their tinfoil hats more regularly....20 pages of speculation, random guesses and nonsense, yet not one scrap of actual valid and corroborated information.

Condolences to the victims, their families and friends. I hope that the families' agony is soon eased and they can find out the truth.

Tinfoil hats or not, something just doesn't gel. Since 9/11 all planes on international routes have upgraded their cockpit security but this plane just stopped sending any sort of signal. Doesn't that seem strange?

No beacon after the crash and supposedly off course. Nothing to see hear, move on and stop asking questions.

[watcharacters]

.

Phuket again?

[wooloomooloo]

Could the plane have hit a flock of birds or bats? Its possible is it not?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

At 35000ft? No chance.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[harrry]

 

Could the plane have hit a flock of birds or bats? Its possible is it not?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

 

Strangely it is possible as there has in fact been a bird strike at 37000ft.

Not very likely though and the effect of most bird strikes is that they get sucked into the engine and cause the engine to fail dramaticly. I do not think a bird strike would be catastrophic enough to cause total communication loss and total loss of control as seems to have happened in this case.

[Skint]

Even tho the passports were reported missing some time ago, the passports must of had visa runs done all that time then an entry from Thailand to Malaysia then on the plane, if going to Amsterdam the stamps would be continuous and correct.

[Bruce23]

They're now saying the plane disintegrated in mid-air.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10686126/Malaysia-Airlines-Mid-air-disintegration-thought-to-be-cause-of-crash-as-Vietnam-denies-finding-wreckage.html

...perhaps something to do with the wing clip the plane suffered a couple years back.

I can't even imagine how terrifying that would have been, jesus christ.

[gbswales]

uh oh…..passport control in KL will be shitting bricks this morning...

Passport control everywhere is just a joke in most European countries for example they have no idea who has and who has not entered the country and even less information about who leaves it. If they set up a special alert for a passport or they undertake the kind of research that a terrorist incident generates they manage to find the information. Even then countries are still any good at cooperating together on preventative issues. I would imagine that the Airlines themselves probably have better computer systems than many governments - they collect passport details when booking so if they were routinely advised about every stolen or lost passport as well as any known forgeries this information could be held in their database and might flag up when a booking is made. They could then notify the country concerned so that investigation can start before a tragedy.

That said the number of stolen and lost passports must be mind bogglingly huge - and that is just people who know they have been stolen - how many more people might not even be aware yet that their passport has been stolen - if you are not a frequent travelling then your concern in a house or vehicle theft will be about items of monetary value.

Then there is passport security itself - remember it was not all that long ago in the UK that people could use the ID of someone who had died in infancy to obtain a false passport!

Sadly though this is not going to stop the problem - I suspect the vast majority of hijackers will be unknown to the authorities as a potential threat, and able to travel without fear on their own passports.

Terrorism comes mainly from two sources - Criminal intent to make money and perceived or real Injustice. Apart from catching them there is not much you can do about criminals but the world could tackle many of the injustices around if it had the will to do so. This is not an "apology" for the actions of terrorists who become criminals when they move down this path, but a suggestion that could reduce the opportunities for terror groups to radicalise youth in their countries - People don't do anything for a "cause" if their is no "cause" in the first place

[NeverSure]

Don't flight recorders have a transmitter in them to aid recovery after an air crash?

Any comments?

All have an ELT (Emergency Location Transmitter) that activates on impact or manually. It sends out an emergency signal for 30 days or more. If under water, it can still be seen but distance may be shortened depending on water depth.

Also both the FDR (flight deck recorder) and the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) black boxes (orange) have ''Pingers'', sending out signals to make it easier to locate them.

The pingers work in water and are short range.

The water probably isn't real deep. The US submarine destroyer ("the destroyer") dispatched to help has amazing abilities to hear and see at long range underwater. The US planes dispatched from Japan, and their counterparts from Australia, also have long range detection abilities.

If the plane is in the water, and if the ELTs are sending out signals, my guess is that they will be found.

Right now everything is simply a mystery to me.