Missing Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 triggers Southeast Asia search

[geriatrickid]

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 its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet? Seriously?????

[geriatrickid]

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.

Fortunately, it was over in a matter of seconds. I have to cling to this sentiment because I am a frequent flyer and as I get older, I see flying as less an adventure, but an activity that I do not like.

[geriatrickid]

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.

The beacon was not located after the Air France crash off Brazil and the plane was off course at the end. Means nothing except that there was a catastrophic event.

[Taggart]

From CNN:

"Meanwhile, Thailand's navy is shifting its focus in the search away from the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, Thai Navy Rear Adm. Karn Dee-ubon told CNN on Sunday. The shift came at the request of the Malaysians, who are looking into possibilities the plane turned around and could have gone down in the Andaman Sea, near Thailand's border, Karn said.

The Andaman Sea lies to the west of a narrow strip of Thailand that ends in the Malaysian peninsula, while the Gulf of Thailand lies to the east of that Thai isthmus."

[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

At its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet? Seriously?????

A bird strike was recorded in 1973 at 37000 ft. THere have been other high altitude ones too. It looks as if your search skills which are usually very good are slipping.

[JesseFrank]

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 its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet? Seriously?????

A bird strike was recorded in 1973 at 37000 ft. THere have been other high altitude ones too. It looks as if your search skills which are usually very good are slipping.

You're sure they had airplanes that could fly that high in 1973 ?

[3NUMBAS]

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.

have you seen tests on wings at the factory ? ,they bend them up vertically until they break into pieces ,far more than would ever happen in real life

[culicine]

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 its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet? Seriously?????

What puzzles me is that communications were lost barely a few minutes after reaching cruising altitude. Yep, not too many birds or bats up that high:)

[coma]

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

Highly unlikely at 35000 ft.

[coma]

Vietnamese searchers have spotted possible aircraft debris after combing the sea

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2014/03/10/00/05/malaysia-says-plane-may-have-turned-back

[JesseFrank]

Vietnamese searchers have spotted possible aircraft debris after combing the sea

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2014/03/10/00/05/malaysia-says-plane-may-have-turned-back

Nooooo, wasn't that reported 15 pages ago and declined 3 pages later and a few more times thereafter ?

Did you bother to read other posts or were you just interested in increasing your post count ?

[intravox]

The passport and stolen identities and the ticket routings suggest another new refugee processing corridor to Europe. The Euro direct route through Sri Lanka and other transits are long since policed out of existence. Probably hapless Syrians or other ethnicities paying their way to Europe through the usual immigration gangsters in Thailand. Routed out of countries where it is not suspicous to see Arab-looking males or females routed through onward destinations or transits where no one is looking for them, and they are fitted with 'kosher' stolen passports with pix fixed to match - an easy fix these days. The same might apply for the method being used to smuggle in coke since they are coming from non-coke origins but with bags of it easily sourced in Thailand or Asia, wherever you see the west African cartel mules...the drugs smuggling option would explain why a Chinese face or two was involved...long shots but...

Edited March 9, 2014 by intravox

[MaxYakov]

New information / theory that the aircraft turned back before it went missing rules out catastrophic failure.

I don't see how. The crew of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 troubleshot a jammed stabilizer for some time before it went catastropic, for example. Without knowing exactly what happened with MH370 (or even if a turn back actually happened and that it was not a result of a loss of control) it's just speculation (similar to this reply).

Why wasn't there communication from the plane? Either they were too busy to communicate or the failure affected communications. Maybe they were following the 1) Aviate, 2) Navigate, 3) Communicate priority.

[mauGR1]

Vietnamese searchers have spotted possible aircraft debris after combing the sea

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2014/03/10/00/05/malaysia-says-plane-may-have-turned-back

Nooooo, wasn't that reported 15 pages ago and declined 3 pages later and a few more times thereafter ?

Did you bother to read other posts or were you just interested in increasing your post count ?

Methinks it's other debris in another place, which is going to be investigated in daylight.. At least this seems to be the last significant update.

[wooloomooloo]

Pretty damning article from Interpol.

http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News/2014/N2014-038

[Old Croc]

Currently there are six undocumented Syrians being held at Phuket airport. They were refused entry at Beijing and returned to Thailand when it was discovered they had false passports. Their plan was to travel onwards to Europe and claim asylum.

Coincidence?

[Chalard]

Pretty damning article from Interpol.

http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News/2014/N2014-038

And seeing that the tickets for the 2 stolen passport holders were bought in Pattaya, Thai immigration has also missed these 2 people if they travelled from Pattaya to KL via Swampy to catch that flight???

Or did they travel to KL by road???

[intravox]

QED Interpol:

"Last year passengers were able to board planes more than a billion times without having their passports screened against INTERPOL's databases. As far back as 2002 following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, INTERPOL created its SLTD database to help countries secure their borders and protect their citizens from terrorists and other dangerous criminals known to use fraudulent travel documents.

Since then INTERPOL's database has grown from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year, averaging 60,000 hits. The US searches this database annually more 250 million times; the UK more than 120 million times and the UAE more than 50 million times.

Unfortunately, few member countries systematically search INTERPOL's databases to determine whether a passenger is using a stolen or lost travel document to board a plane."

[Thai at Heart]

They just entered from thailand. The passport had been stolen. So would have had valid visas.

They enter malaysia on a tourist visa by road?. If it doesn't flash a problem they are free to come and go.

Its not a new passport, its a stolen passport. The visas would have been ok. If this comes about to have been stolen it makes Thailand look terrible.

The passport should have flashed up when whoever had it exited Thailand . That is where it was stolen, and thus the thai immigration system should have caught it.

Just shows what a den of international fraud Thailand is.

And who said they exited Thailand on the stolen passport ?

Maybe the exited on their own passport and entered Malaysia on the stolen one.

And you think that a passport that was stolen 2 years ago will have valid visa in it ?

If someone's been using it for 2 years, why not.

I had a passport of my own that was passed out to Burma by my company to renew a visa. I never left.

It would be pretty risky to leave Malaysia without a valid entry. Corruption or a valid entry Malay visa would be necessary.

The paasport was stolen 2 years ago e.g. nobody was using it the past 2 years.

Your company has some has some pretty illegal practices . Are they even registered ?

Hahaha.

64 year old company with the partner having been a former prime minister. Immigration gave them a very very respectful treatment.

Why did u assume it hasn't been used ? It doesn't say that at all. It was stolen 2 years ago. It could have been used in and out of thailand for the last 2 years.

Edited March 9, 2014 by Thai at Heart

[intravox]

Currently there are six undocumented Syrians being held at Phuket airport. They were refused entry at Beijing and returned to Thailand when it was discovered they had false passports. Their plan was to travel onwards to Europe and claim asylum.

Coincidence?

I rest my case....

[Carmine6]

Pretty damning article from Interpol.

http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News/2014/N2014-038

And seeing that the tickets for the 2 stolen passport holders were bought in Pattaya, Thai immigration has also missed these 2 people if they travelled from Pattaya to KL via Swampy to catch that flight???

Or did they travel to KL by road???

They're traveling with stolen passports and somehow that implies that they only have the one passport?? They could easily have their real own passports or any number of other passports used for various situations.

[geriatrickid]

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 its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet? Seriously?????

A bird strike was recorded in 1973 at 37000 ft. THere have been other high altitude ones too. It looks as if your search skills which are usually very good are slipping.

A bird strike would have to impact both engines. The likelihood of an airplane encountering a flock of birds that would impact both engines of a B777 is negligible. Let's get rid of the unsupported conclusions of bird strikes by going to the source of your 37,000 ft impact. It comes from the Transport Canada review and must be taken in context. I am posting the relevant sections from the Wildlife Strike Statistics

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/publications/tp11500-sectionb-sectionb8-1681.htm

Distribution by Altitude

Only a small percentage of strikes occur at heights above 3,000-feet AGL. Transport Canada data shows that within the airport environment 90 percent of bird-strikes in which altitude is recorded occur below 500-feet AGL. The highest reported bird-strike took place at 37,000 feet on November 29, 1973; a commercial jet airliner collided with a Ruppeli's Griffon Vulture over Abijan, Ivory Coast. It is also common for strikes to occur at 0 feet AGL, immediately prior to takeoff and just after landing. (Comment:. The plane did not crash)

Distribution by flight phase

Most birds fly at altitudes below 500-feet AGL, where flight-phase strike statistics indicate the majority of collisions are likely to occur. In civil aviation, about 38 percent of strikes happen during takeoff; approximately 41 percent occur while aircraft are landing. These numbers support research and development efforts aimed at reducing bird hazards in the immediate vicinity of airfields. However, off-airport strikes during climb-cruise-descent may be more hazardous not only because they are more likely to involve large soaring birds and migrating flocks of waterfowl, but also because aircraft are traveling at higher speeds. Strikes that occur en-route also pose serious hazards, since flight crews cannot benefit from the control and warning systems often afforded in close proximity to airports. Strikes that occur outside airport airspace-above 500-feet AGL on takeoff and 250-feet AGL on approach-are deemed to be beyond airport operators' direct spheres of influence. In response, researchers are currently developing radar systems capable of detecting such bird movements.

Distribution by aircraft speed

In civil aviation, most bird-strikes occur at relatively low altitudes and involve aircraft flying below cruise speed. In the United Kingdom, for example, more than 80 percent of all strikes occur at speeds between 80 and 160 knots. Statistics such as these explain why most aircraft certification standards are limited to testing the impact of a single, 4-lb. bird at design cruise speed.

Conclusion: It is improbable and very unlikely that there was an impact with a bird at 35,000 feet over the ocean. It is even more improbable and unlikely that there was an impact with a flight of birds that caused 2 engines to shut down at 35,000 feet. It is just as unlikely and improbable that a bird struck the windshield of the flight deck causing it to shatter and the two pilots to be sucked out of the airplane. It is also next to impossible for a solitary bird impact with a B777 to cause a catastrophic airplane disintegration.

[Ajaan]

<snip>

It is just as unlikely and improbable that a bird struck the windshield of the flight deck causing it to shatter and the two pilots to be sucked out of the airplane.

<snip>

Hahaha...at any rate, sudden decompression of an aircraft does NOT automatically cause all objects (and people) in the plane to be instantly "sucked out"...that's something invented by Hollywood, kids.

[3NUMBAS]

Director of commercial operations at Malaysia Airlines, Hugh Dunleavy, said: "As far as we're aware, every one of the people on board that aircraft had a visa to go to China, which means those passports were in the possession of the Chinese embassy before those visas were issued."

[poweratradio]

There also is the possibility that the pilots turned off their transponders dropped below radar and the plane is now sitting on a runway somewhere being rebranded with all the passengers held as hostages until the plane is on its way to who knows what????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Pretty damning article from Interpol.

http://www.interpol.int/News-and-media/News/2014/N2014-038

And look at the sidebar column as well where there's a serious of past INTERPOL statements warning about the threat of international air travel with stolen passports going back over a period of years.

One interesting stat they mention: 4 out of every 10 international air travelers do NOT have their passports checked thru the Interpol database of lost and stolen passports prior to travel. I think that's their way of saying.... 40%.

“While passengers can't understand how a bottle of water presents a security threat, they can understand why they don't want to be sitting next to a terrorist or transnational criminal who got on the plane using an unscreened stolen passport,” said Mr Noble.

[NeverSure]

<snip>

It is just as unlikely and improbable that a bird struck the windshield of the flight deck causing it to shatter and the two pilots to be sucked out of the airplane.

<snip>

Hahaha...at any rate, sudden decompression of an aircraft does NOT automatically cause all objects (and people) in the plane to be instantly "sucked out"...that's something invented by Hollywood, kids.

There are different types of decompression. The worst is called "explosive decompression." Whether caused by explosives or catastrophic airframe failure, the decompression is sudden, and fatal to all on board in just moments. The air is sucked out of their lungs, many will be hit by debris, the air temperature at 500 MPH at 35,000 feet will quickly freeze them.

It's very possible that many will be ejected from the airplane, but they won't know it.

As for bird strikes, it would take several large birds hitting both engines to shut them down. Even then the airplane would continue to function with everything but power. It would turn into a very heavy glider, as proven by captain "Sully" Sullenberger, ditching into the Hudson river where no one was injured. Sullenberger maintained constant radio contact with control people the whole time.

[F430murci]

<snip>

It is just as unlikely and improbable that a bird struck the windshield of the flight deck causing it to shatter and the two pilots to be sucked out of the airplane.

<snip>

Hahaha...at any rate, sudden decompression of an aircraft does NOT automatically cause all objects (and people) in the plane to be instantly "sucked out"...that's something invented by Hollywood, kids.

There are different types of decompression. The worst is called "explosive decompression." Whether caused by explosives or catastrophic airframe failure, the decompression is sudden, and fatal to all on board in just moments. The air is sucked out of their lungs, many will be hit by debris, the air temperature at 500 MPH at 35,000 feet will quickly freeze them.

It's very possible that many will be ejected from the airplane, but they won't know it.

As for bird strikes, it would take several large birds hitting both engines to shut them down. Even then the airplane would continue to function with everything but power. It would turn into a very heavy glider, as proven by captain "Sully" Sullenberger, ditching into the Hudson river where no one was injured. Sullenberger maintained constant radio contact with control people the whole time.

I would say asteroid strike more probable than bird strike based on what we think are facts . . .

[laobali]

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

About as possible as a herd of flying pigs.

[krisb]

Interpol reveals their stolen passport database wasn't checked.

How often does this happen? Should be cross referenced every flight automatically imo, quite shocking and pathetic.

What's the point of even having an interpol database if we don't use them?

Australia has started helping with the search.

Debris found was a door, Malaysia says it's not from the flight.

Well how does a plane this big just dissapear? Usually when a plane this size hit's the water, debris trail stretches for miles does it not?