Disappearance of Malaysian jet appears 'deliberate': PM

[heybuz]

if it flew south towards australia,you would think australian defence force radars would have picked something up ,besides australia has probably some of the most sophisticated stuff in the area including over the horizon radar which can pick up aircraft landing and taking off from changi singapore,but nothing?

[Lite Beer]

Families face worst nightmare of mid-air ordeal on MH370

KUALA LUMPUR: -- New revelations about a missing Malaysia Airlines plane have left anguished relatives contemplating the prospect that those on board endured a terrifying, high-altitude hijack ordeal that may have lasted nearly eight hours.

But while the disclosures have led to increased speculation of a terror plot or pilot suicide, for some they offered a glimmer of hope -- that the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 passengers and crew may have landed safely and that, somehow, loved ones may be alive.

For relatives of Bob and Cathy Lawton, a missing Australian couple, the possibility of a terrifying drawn-out fate at thousands of feet reflected their deepest fears.

"That’s one of the worst things I could have hoped for," Bob’s brother David Lawton told News Limited newspapers.

"Even if they are alive, what did they have to put up with?"

Briefing the press on Saturday, Prime Minister Najib Razak declined to use the word hijack, but said new data suggested a "deliberate action" to divert the plane.

The Boeing 777’s communications appear to have been switched off manually before the jet veered westward and flew for hours.

What happened during that time remains a mystery. But one report of the plane fluctuating from low to high altitude fuelled fears the passengers may have been well aware they were in terrible danger.

The New York Times said the jet had reached 45,000 feet -- above its approved altitude limit -- before it "descended unevenly to 23,000 feet".

It cited Malaysian military radar signals, but the data has not been confirmed by the authorities.

For relatives in China, which had 153 citizens on the flight, the investigators’ breakthrough just brought more distress and frustration.

"We are experiencing an ordeal. We are still waiting for (more information)," said one tearful man emerging from a meeting between Malaysia Airlines and relatives in Beijing on Sunday morning.

"We are extremely anxious. A long time has passed and they don’t disclose (more) information," he said.

Another branded the meeting "a joke".

"Until they say what really and truly happened, what good is it?" he said.

- Clinging to hope -

====================

Yet for others the new evidence brought relief -- and a reason for hope.

"Our family is relieved that there’s an official statement from the Malaysian government, delivered by the Malaysian prime minister, that there’s a possibility that the aircraft might have been hijacked," said Indonesian Santi, 42, who goes by one name.

Her brother Sugianto Lo was on the flight with his wife Vinny Chynthya.

"There have been too many speculations about the missing plane so this official statement has helped to quash some of them.

"At least it gives us hope that our loved ones are still safe. We really hope that the various governments will help to look for the plane," she said.

While the theory that the plane landed somewhere and has remained hidden is seen as improbable by experts, most do not discount it as impossible.

The multi-nation search is now focused on two vast areas, stretching from Kazakhstan to the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysian Subramaniam Gurusamy, 60, whose 34-year-old son Puspanathan Gurusamy was on board, refused to believe the worst.

"I am praying every day for divine help. I will not lose hope. I want to hear my son cry out ’Father!" he said.

Selamat Umar, 60, also from Malaysia, placed his faith in his 29-year-old son Khairul Amrison’s ability to survive whatever he confronted.

He said the new evidence was "a good sign which shows the plane can be detected and the passengers are safe -- if not all, then some".

"It may be a hijack, but why have there been no demands?" he said.

Although so many questions remain, he is clinging to the belief that his son may one day come home.

"We are definitely worried about his safety but confident that those on the plane will do what they can to survive," said Selamat.

"My son is a Muslim who fasts every Ramadan so I am sure he has strength."

-- The Nation 2014-03-16

[DLP]

When the truth finally does come out i dont think anybody will believe it anyway.

There will be accusations of cover ups ect, ect,

If there are survivors maybe the truth will come to light.

Who has the technolegy and the power to make a plane vanish into thin air.

METEORS can be tracked in outer space and they are not fitted with transponders.

[umbanda]

When the truth finally does come out i dont think anybody will believe it anyway.

There will be accusations of cover ups ect, ect,

If there are survivors maybe the truth will come to light.

Who has the technolegy and the power to make a plane vanish into thin air.

METEORS can be tracked in outer space and they are not fitted with transponders.

Who has the technolegy and the power to make a plane vanish into thin air???

Few countries....and more...the team of Chinese experts on the plane, working exactly in that kind of project for the military...

It is the talk of the world at this moment...

[metisdead]

A nonsense movie script post has been removed, again.

[pasak]

A perfectly reasonable theory was put forward this afternoon Thai time as to the actions and outcome of this mystery but that post has been removed, goodness knows why, so I am proposing a variation.

That a group of hijackers, possibly with the backing of North Korea, Burma or other rogue nation or Al Qaeda (though the latter unlikely as the plane belongs to a Muslim country) and with aviation and other skills, possibly military related, took over the plane by blasting into the cockpit with a shoe bomb or other method, then took control and changed course, direction Andaman Islands or other, robbed the passengers possibly, ascended to 45,000' to asphyxiate the passengers, descended to 23,000' to open the doors and dump their bodies in the Indian Ocean and then flew to a deserted location. Most of the Andaman Islands are densely forested and uninhabited but there may be certain places where you could land the plane, which possibly has a relatively short runway requirement for its size, especially by clearing and preparing the area beforehand.

Then the plane could be easily hidden by vegetation. And we would hear nothing in the news and there would be no evidence. The reward would be the aircraft and all its cargo and passenger's valuables. The aircraft could be then either flown to a second location such as some secret North Korean or other military base or much of it disassembled and its cargo packed into a vessel and shipped to anywhere in the world.

I agree a high risk and high loss of life for a relatively small reward (but what about 9/11?). It would at least explain the absence of demands or news or the reason why the plane has not been spotted.

[Jaggg88]

They have no evidence this plane was hijacked. They are still guessing. Here's an interesting article about another ghost plane

http://www.avweb.com/news/aeromed/181893-1.html?redirected=1

[Credo]

If you land it on one of those islands, you have the problem of getting it back out. They take a lot of fuel -- and if it's going to be used for a terrorist attack, it's got a long way to travel. It will also might need a longer runway for take off than landing.

[Jaggg88]

Here's another ghost plane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522

[jpinx]

Landing full of passengers and cargo might need almost the same runway length as taking off with minimal fuel and just crew.

[pasak]

Just looked at the map. They would have an extra 2 hours of fuel (beyond the planned distance to Beijing) so that would mean that Madagascar, Somalia or Yemen (for example) would be within range without needing to enter Indian airspace. Plenty of options to land undetected in those countries if planned with military precision.

[Bung]

I'm pretty sure they would have looked at any runways big enough to handle a 777 already. Besides, even in those country's word would get out about a Malaysian airways plane siting there. It isn't all that backwards and remote.

[3NUMBAS]

A perfectly reasonable theory was put forward this afternoon Thai time as to the actions and outcome of this mystery but that post has been removed, goodness knows why, so I am proposing a variation.

That a group of hijackers, possibly with the backing of North Korea, Burma or other rogue nation or Al Qaeda (though the latter unlikely as the plane belongs to a Muslim country) and with aviation and other skills, possibly military related, took over the plane by blasting into the cockpit with a shoe bomb or other method, then took control and changed course, direction Andaman Islands or other, robbed the passengers possibly, ascended to 45,000' to asphyxiate the passengers, descended to 23,000' to open the doors and dump their bodies in the Indian Ocean and then flew to a deserted location. Most of the Andaman Islands are densely forested and uninhabited but there may be certain places where you could land the plane, which possibly has a relatively short runway requirement for its size, especially by clearing and preparing the area beforehand.

Then the plane could be easily hidden by vegetation. And we would hear nothing in the news and there would be no evidence. The reward would be the aircraft and all its cargo and passenger's valuables. The aircraft could be then either flown to a second location such as some secret North Korean or other military base or much of it disassembled and its cargo packed into a vessel and shipped to anywhere in the world.

I agree a high risk and high loss of life for a relatively small reward (but what about 9/11?). It would at least explain the absence of demands or news or the reason why the plane has not been spotted.

theyve been thru the passenger list over and again and nobody is remotely fitting the description of a possible hijacker .they would soon establish if any pax had the necessary flying skills , then they had to get explosives and weapons onboard to blast the cockpit door off its hinges and get a gun to the pilots head . by the time this had happened he would have sent a distress call .

nobody fits the bill

[mike_rad]

'Has the US Navy said anything about their radar at Diego Garcia? If the plane went to the Ind, ocean they should have had it on their radar'

Good point.

http://twitchy.com/2014/03/15/mh370-watchers-asking-questions-about-diego-garcia/

[Tywais]

Post with racial slur removed.

[davidstipek]

Actual Sat. plotting has put last Ping to Satelites.... Right on... "Diego Garcia" Navy is not saying much now days....

How could they not have seen Aircraft????

This needs to be addressed! Now!!

[awakewarrior]

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah

The pilot was earlier on the same day the plane took off at the trial of a well-known political opposition

party leader whom he supported.

On the day of the flight (March 7 2014) Anwar_Ibrahims trial for his acquittal was overturned that along with

all of the theories and the information we all know after 10 days would point to a man who had a motive

he had the means and he had the experience as a long term pilot to actually pull off something like this and

embarass the Malaysian Government. (Which they probally already know all of this they just won't release it yet)

He had as well a flight simulator that he could have utilized to practice such a plan and the maneuvers

leading up to the trial. He may as well have decided long ago that if on that date the acquittal was

overturned he would go forward with the plan.

I am thinking more and more that this pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was in fact

directly involved & at the very least we know he was a politically involved Malaysian

man and following closely the trial of opposition leader Anwar_Ibrahims trumped up sodomy charges,

Reversal, etc. in the Malaysian court system (which is corrupt & filled with Islamic Sharia Law fanatics)

Sodomy is a crime and what if you were a political activist and a gay and or gay activist pilot who wanted to make a point?

His wife who he had three children with was divorced from him although still living in the same residence near the airport. His wife however had enough of whatever he was into up to etc. that she left him at their home and took the 3 kids only three days before. This would seem to fit. He as a man who was already having difficulties and the trial could of been the final snapping point. They should be interviewing his ex-wife thoroughly as well as his families computers & I am sure they will find the answers.

That's my take on it.

[F430murci]

Actual Sat. plotting has put last Ping to Satelites.... Right on... "Diego Garcia" Navy is not saying much now days....

How could they not have seen Aircraft????

This needs to be addressed! Now!!

What needs to be addressed and why is it any of your business. So you think what? US confiscated an airliner?

[Aasim]

I have met people from Yeman and Pakistan. They were not hostile to me....

They are wasting time looking for the plane at the bottom of the ocean... what they should be doing is scouring every airport in the Middle East of countries that are hostile to the west.... for example YEMEN and PAKISTAN.... no doubt more than a few people are involved.... the plane has not been hijacked for ransom.... it is obvious that whoever is behind this thought it through and are probably using the plane as a weapon... the passengers are in some auditorium being held hostage... but the hijackers do not want them... they are merely "collateral damage.."

Let's see how this plays out....

"they were not hostile to me"????? AND THAT INDICATES ??????

That indicates .... Don't generalize and assume stuff ... CIA drones (in the lawless regions) and satellites (in other regions) might be already searching for the plane.

[webfact]

Chinese slam Malaysia for 'contradictory' jet information
Agence France-Presse
BEIJING

Malaysia drew a fresh round of scathing criticism from China Monday over conflicting information on missing jet MH370, with state media and social media users voicing increasing skepticism as the search enters its 10th day.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Saturday announced that the Malaysia Airlines flight’s disappearance may have been "deliberate" and that the aeroplane flew for several hours after leaving its intended flight path.

In an editorial, the China Daily newspaper questioned why the announcement from Kuala Lumpur came more than a week after the flight vanished and wondered whether Malaysia was sharing all of the information it had gathered.

"The contradictory and piecemeal information Malaysia Airlines and its government have provided has made search efforts difficult and the entire incident even more mysterious," the newspaper wrote.

"What else is known that has not been shared with the world?" it asked.

Two-thirds of the passengers on board the flight were Chinese, and Beijing has been critical of Malaysia’s sharing of information -- a concern reiterated Monday as fears mounted that the plane might have been hijacked.

"It is of the utmost importance that any loopholes that might have been exploited by hijackers or terrorists be identified as soon as possible because we need counter-measures to plug them," the China Daily wrote.

Yao Shujie, the head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, wrote in an op-ed in China’s state-run Global Times newspaper that Malaysia "has lost authority and credibility" due to its chaotic response.

"The lack of national strength and experience in dealing with incidents has left the Malaysian government helpless and exhausted by denying all kinds of rumours," Yao wrote.

He added: "If the search continues to be fruitless even following the new information, Malaysia would be better off handing over its command in the international rescue operation."

The plane’s disappearance remained the most hotly debated topic on China’s popular social networks, with many users of Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, echoing concerns over the Malaysian government’s release of information.

"Why is it only now that they’ve confirmed it may have been hijacked?" one Sina Weibo user wrote Monday morning in response to the latest revelations by Kuala Lumpur. "Malaysia, what else are you hiding?"

Another posted: "I’m really getting more and more disappointed in Malaysia and their unreliable government. I’m not planning on travelling there anytime in the future."

Last week, one of the most widely forwarded messages was a posting that read: "Vietnam keeps discovering. Malaysia Airlines keeps denying. China keeps sending rescue teams."

On Monday, the meme had taken a new twist.

"Malaysia has been telling a week’s worth of lies. Vietnam has fished out a week’s worth of trash. China has forwarded a week’s worth of news," read the latest viral message.


-- The Nation 2014-03-17

[khwaibah]

As I have been saying..Malaysia has NO credibility or respect on this mater.

[bendejo]

For one week they had all neighboring countries searching in an area where they knew it was not.

Took a week to mention the last communication.

Whatever it is those clowns are up to I give up, no more listening to their bs.

I used to stay in Malaysia a few months per year. This fellow who is transport minister (Hussein) used to be the country's top cop, made him for a dunce years ago. Same ol' bunch of stooges.

[umbanda]

Can somebody explain why the "hijackers", or anybody in control of the plane, will cut communications, change route, fly for hours, climb to 45000', dive to 5000', before crashing or landing somewhere???? If a very sophisticated scheme was put in place to hijack the plane, that will include to make everybody and every country involved in the rescue confused and lost with contradictory leads and information.

NOBODY will say who is behind this...and WE never will know.......JUST ANOTHER "MYSTERY"...

[3NUMBAS]

this is the clincher ,the final words saying everything was ok were spoken after the comms had been shut down ,so things were not ok in fact

the malaysians would suffer a loss of face to admit it so they will always say its a mystery bla bla bla

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/final-words-jet-came-systems-shutdown-171209863--finance.html#t6IN8uM

quote

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — When someone at the controls calmly said the last words heard from the missing Malaysian jetliner, one of the Boeing 777's communications systems had already been disabled, authorities said, adding to suspicions that one or both of the pilots were involved in the disappearance of the flight.

[Scott]

Posts with links to conspiratorial blogs have been deleted along with off-topic post and replies.

[umbanda]

I just saw online news saying that the Malaysian authorities are contemplating the possibility that the plane was landed on a Taliban base in Pakistan/Afghanistan....Why in the world the Taliban will hijack a plane from a Muslim country, with Muslim civilians aboard, and creating confrontation with China at the same time? How the Taliban will hide and fly a plane that big in a region under permanent US aerial surveillance? How about the 200+ passengers? That doesn't makes any sense....

[3NUMBAS]

cooked up stories to sell newspapers ,they can get the story to run for months with all sorts of crazy stories

[GentlemanJim]

Can somebody explain why the "hijackers", or anybody in control of the plane, will cut communications, change route, fly for hours, climb to 45000', dive to 5000', before crashing or landing somewhere???? If a very sophisticated scheme was put in place to hijack the plane, that will include to make everybody and every country involved in the rescue confused and lost with contradictory leads and information.

NOBODY will say who is behind this...and WE never will know.......JUST ANOTHER "MYSTERY"...

The why could have very scary consequences, too scary to consider. Following your post, IF and I say IF this were done as you suggest, here is an explanation. Somebody very skilled was involved, either one of the pilots, or another 777 pilot was onboard, up near the front. Access to the cockpit would have been easy when the door was opened for coffee or meals or a pilot went to the toilet. The latter example of course being easy for a rogue pilot when the other goes for a pee. Lock the door, don the emergency oxygen mask and depressurize the cabin, everyone unconscious and subdued within tens of seconds and dead within minutes. Climbing to 40K + would have made sure all aboard were dead (the only reason I can think of for doing this). Pilot could engage auto pilot and he or an accomplice could go and pull any circuit breakers required. The aircraft is descended either controlled or as a result of a stall at max height. take the aircraft down to a relatively low level, fly on the edge of any known radar coverage (as the sat pings suggest). You could even 'slot' underneath another jet to ensure that ATC would not notice any radar return off you. Land at anyone of the estimated 600 airfields or a prepared surface in the range of arc of the aircraft endurance. Erect camouflage, repaint, fill with high explosives, chemical weapons, biological weapons or a nuke, wait your moment and then fly to wherever you want to hit. An aircraft this size could carry enough ordnance to level a city or worse. It would be possible to 'replace' any aircraft you want. Lets say for example, Karachi to London, take off from runway or desert (yes there are desert surfaces that will permit this), wait for accomplice to gain access to real aircraft cockpit and turn off transponder etc etc. Rogue aircraft starts squawking for real aircraft and takes over planned route and all radio calls. Do something with other aircraft (go in desert, sea, land, or fly underneath - need to do at night as other pilots would get a visual during daylight) Package delivered to target without any suspicion, bam.

The only problem with the scenario is I would have thought it would be easier just to purchase an old aircraft with a made up aviation company (say a cargo company), but having never purchased a 50 million dollar plus jet, I don't know the background checks involved for purchasers, but there are some real clowns own aircraft like this. Don't forget that the shoe bomber after interrogation revealed that a sophisticated Malaysian terrorist cell would do something like this. So the pieces all start to fit into a very scary jigsaw puzzle.

Personally I am still going for (hoping for) a catastrophic failure or event (only hoping for because of the potential alternative) but all the information being revealed now is pointing to something much more sinister.

In many ways it would be a relief to find wreckage and evidence of high speed ocean impact etc, as it is, I don't like it, and I am sure that people who are really in the know like it even less.

Time will reveal all.

[notmyself]

Land at anyone of the estimated 600 airfields or a prepared surface in the range of arc of the aircraft endurance.

The 777-200 is a large commercial airliner which would require a very strong and pretty damn long runway to land and take off from. You might be able to get it on the ground at Samui airport for example which handles well over a million passengers a year but the undercarriage (due to the weight) would trash the runway as well as itself.

[3NUMBAS]

looks like all available facts are known so the story will peter out until the wreckage is found ,not much more speculation one can add .that could take years or never