BULLETIN — Malaysia Airlines says Flight 370 crashed in Southern Indian Ocean, no survivors

[90dayz]

I think Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government just wants to make the quick announcement so they could all get over with, without ever having to explain where it all went wrong and to finally stop the search (which is costing their embezzlement money). Kinda like when the US finally killed bin Laden in Pakistan. They did acknowledge that the plane was carrying lithium-ion batteries. They'll leave the people to assume that it caught fire and that cabin lost pressure when it tried to turn around.

Edited March 24, 2014 by 90dayz

[webfact]

MISSING MH 370
Missing jetliner crashed at sea : Malaysian premier
Agence France Presse


Najib at the press conference.//Photo : EPA

KUALA LUMPUR: -- Malaysia said Monday the passenger jet which went missing more than two weeks ago crashed in the Indian Ocean, but shed no light on the mystery of why it veered from its intended course.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said new satellite analysis of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370’s path placed its last position in remote waters off Australia’s west coast, and far from any landing sites.

The sombre announcement on the fate of the plane ended 17 days of agonising uncertainty for relatives of those on board -- two thirds of them Chinese.

"It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," Najib said.

He said the flag carrier had already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew aboard the jet which disappeared on March 8 on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking; I know this news must be harder still."

Najib said he had been briefed by representatives from Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, which relayed further analysis of satellite data by British company Inmarsat.

’No words to ease pain’

The airline, in a statement sent to families, said "we have to assume" the plane was lost. "Our prayers go out to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and colleagues at this enormously painful time," it said.

"We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain." The airline said the multinational search, which is scouring a stretch of the forbidding Indian Ocean to find any debris, would continue "as we seek answers to the questions which remain"

Malaysia believes the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board. But the absence of firm evidence has fuelled intense speculation and conspiracy theories, and tormented the families of the missing.

Leading theories include a hijacking, pilot sabotage, or a sudden mid-air crisis that incapacitated the flight crew and left the plane to fly on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel.

MH370 last made contact over the South China Sea halfway between Malaysia and Vietnam. For reasons unknown, it backtracked over the Malaysian peninsula and then flew on for hours.

The search swung deep into the Indian Ocean last week after initial satellite images depicted large floating objects there.

Hopes of a resolution to the mystery rose after a weekend in which an Australian aircraft spotted a wooden pallet, strapping and other debris, and French and Chinese satellite information indicated more floating objects.

An Australian-led multinational air and sea search has been scouring the vast ocean and there were two separate sightings Wednesday of possible debris from the plane.

Crew members of an Australian P-3 Orion plane reported seeing two objects, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament.

Australian officials said they were different to pieces seen by a Chinese plane earlier in the day. The Australian naval ship HMAS Success, equipped with a crane, was in the area, about 2,500 kilometres (1,562 miles) southwest of Perth, and will attempt to recover the objects.

Abbott cautioned that it was not known whether the objects came from the missing Boeing 777. "Nevertheless we are hopeful that we can recover these objects soon and they will take us a step closer to resolving this tragic mystery," he said.

Hunt for ’black box’

The US Navy has added to the sense of an approaching denouement, ordering a specialised device sent to the region to help find the "black box" flight and cockpit voice data -- crucial in determining what happened to the plane.

The high-tech device can locate black boxes as deep as 20,000 feet (6,060 metres), the US Seventh Fleet said in a statement. The search area ranges from 3,000-4,000 metres deep.

The 30-day signal from the black box is due to fail in less than two weeks.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the search grew to 10 aircraft on Monday with the inclusion of two Chinese military aircraft joining Australian, US, and Japanese planes.

China has also dispatched seven ships, adding to British and Australian naval vessels involved.

If a crash is confirmed, recovering the black box will be even more difficult than the case of the Air France jet that went down in the Atlantic in 2009, said Charitha Pattiaratchi, an oceanographer at the University of Western Australia.

"We have to remember that Air France 447 took two years to find and this is a more challenging region where the environment is much, much harsher. There are bigger waves and it’s windier," he said.

As part of an investigation into the crash, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said police have interviewed more than 100 people, including families of both the pilot and co-pilot.

Malaysia Airlines said Monday that 27-year-old co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid was flying the Boeing 777 for the first time without a so-called "check co-pilot" looking over his shoulder.


-- The Nation 2014-03-25

[webfact]

ILL-FATED MH370
Malaysia Airlines tells families it will keep searching for jet


Grieving Chinese relatives of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 console each other after being told of their deaths at a hotel in Beijing on March 24.//AFP

BANGKOK: -- Malaysia Airlines on Monday told relatives of the 239 people on board a missing passenger jet that "we have to assume" the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean, but vowed the search for the jet would continue.

Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," the airline said in a statement to the families, citing new analysis of satellite data.

"On behalf of all of us at Malaysia Airlines and all Malaysians, our prayers go out to all the loved ones (of those on board) at this enormously painful time," the statement continued.

"We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain. We will continue to provide assistance and support to you."

The airline vowed in its statement that the ongoing search for the plane and an intensive investigation into its fate "will continue, as we seek answers to the questions which remain".

The statement echoed the words of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who -- also citing satellite data -- told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur late Monday: "It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

MH370 vanished without warning on March 8 while flying over the South China Sea en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board.

Malaysia believes the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board. But the absence of firm evidence has fuelled intense speculation and conspiracy theories, and tormented the families of the missing for 16 days.

The search swung deep into the Indian Ocean last week after initial satellite images depicted large floating objects there, and further sightings of possible debris in the area energised the massive, multinational operation.

It has not yet been confirmed that the debris spotted in the area is from MH370, and officials have voiced caution. It is also still unclear why the plane ended up so far off course over the southern Indian Ocean.


-- The Nation 2014-03-25

[webfact]

MH 370
Too soon to launch undersea search : French investigators
Agence France Presse

Paris - French investigators said Monday it was too soon to consider launching undersea searches for the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines jet that officials said went down in the Indian Ocean.

France’s BEA accident investigation service, which had sent three investigators to Kuala Lumpur, said the "vast area (involved) does not, at present, make it feasible to conduct undersea searches."

"An undersea phase to localise the aeroplane from flight MH370 could be launched only if the operations under way today enable a more limited search area to be defined than the current search areas," the BEA said in a statement.

It said its investigators, who had returned from Kuala Lumpur at the weekend, had discussed possible techniques for undersea searches with Malaysian authorities.

In particular they discussed "their experience... acquired during the search between 2009 and 2011 for the wreckage of Rio-Paris flight AF447," it said.

It took 23 months for BEA investigators to find the wreckage of the Air France flight after it went down in the Atlantic in 2009.

Malaysia on Monday said the MH370, which went missing more than two weeks ago, crashed in the Indian Ocean, but shed no light on the mystery of why it veered from its intended course.


-- The Nation 2014-03-25

[sirchai]

The airline has dispatched a text message to impacted families stating that "MH370 has been lost" and "none of those on board survived."

"For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. I know this news must be harder still," Razak said.

Earlier Monday, Australian and Chinese search planes spotted more objects in the southern Indian Ocean that were identified as possible debris from the missing jet.

What a bunch of rubbish. So again, some possible debris of the plane, how many times will the story change?

I won't fly with them ,that's a fact. Hope those people who'd lost their lives will live forever. Rest in Peace.

[metisdead]

Conspiratorial nonsense posts and replies have been removed.

[chooka]

This is such a cover up. Of course they are calling off the search, they know they will never find anything. It is a wild goose chase right now.

Does it not strike anyone as odd that they are looking for a 22m piece of something off the West Coast of Australia? If not, would you please enlighten me as to which part of a Boeing 777 is that long and will still be floating after 3 weeks?

The aircraft was deliberately taken over. No catastrophic emergencies or failures and no explosions.

The guys running this show are a bunch of clowns and dismissing data that they should be investigating further.

Actually Australia is coordinating and running the search off the coast of Australia. A lot of very experienced professionals and if you think the Aussies are a bunch of clowns then your entitled to that opinion but I think you are being a little harsh.

Where do you suggest they should be searching with all this data that you are aware of?

[orosee]

What an odd statement to make in the absence of hard evidence.......Unless yet again Malaysia Air

is privy to information they are not releasing..

"We deeply regret that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost".....

Indeed.... one of my first bosses as a young man told me the meaning behind the word assume...

Make an ass out of u and me.

I can agree that is is a logical conclusion, since the plane has not been found high and dry anywhere on land. However you would think that they could find a better way to say this than based on assumption.

The people who lost loved ones on that flight will have a hard time finding "closure" based on assumptions- especially those who heard a cellphone ringing after the aircraft went missing.

If I was one of those people, I would continue making my own assumptions until I was presented with irrefutable proof.

That's a lovely contradiction between your last line and everything else you wrote. :-P

But seeing as you're so close to quoting Samuel L. Jackson: "If you're making an assumption, you make an ass out of u and umption".

Xkcd has a little bit more on that as well.

[MrWorldwide]

This is such a cover up. Of course they are calling off the search, they know they will never find anything. It is a wild goose chase right now.

Does it not strike anyone as odd that they are looking for a 22m piece of something off the West Coast of Australia? If not, would you please enlighten me as to which part of a Boeing 777 is that long and will still be floating after 3 weeks?

The aircraft was deliberately taken over. No catastrophic emergencies or failures and no explosions.

The guys running this show are a bunch of clowns and dismissing data that they should be investigating further.

Actually Australia is coordinating and running the search off the coast of Australia. A lot of very experienced professionals and if you think the Aussies are a bunch of clowns then your entitled to that opinion but I think you are being a little harsh.

Where do you suggest they should be searching with all this data that you are aware of?

Agreed, Chooka - the RAAF, RAN and other agencies involved in the search have previously rescued yachtsmen in huge seas, at great risk to their own people : having some joker on an internet forum refer to these people as 'a bunch of clowns' is nothing short of pathetic. As you said, I doubt that many here comprehend just how large the search area is or how quickly wind and waves will move something spotted via satellite on Saturday to a completely new grid square several hundred kilometres away from Tuesday morning WA time. 4 hours flying time to get to the search area, 2 hours peering from portholes with varying levels of visibility depending on the weather and a 4 hour flight back to RAAF Pearce : add briefings/debriefings, chats to the media and you have crews climbing into bed at 10pm knowing they have to be back on base at 6am the following morning. I'm hopeful that the ships which are now in the zone will find something that puts this whole episode beyond further speculation, but it's still a massive body of water.

[orosee]

This is such a cover up. Of course they are calling off the search, they know they will never find anything. It is a wild goose chase right now.

Does it not strike anyone as odd that they are looking for a 22m piece of something off the West Coast of Australia? If not, would you please enlighten me as to which part of a Boeing 777 is that long and will still be floating after 3 weeks?

The aircraft was deliberately taken over. No catastrophic emergencies or failures and no explosions.

The guys running this show are a bunch of clowns and dismissing data that they should be investigating further.

Hull diameter is 6m... Eat some "Pi" and do your math, 22m (estimated, not a precise measurement) is a very good match for the circumference.

Hull length is around 60m, you could easily make two large pieces of 20x20ish m from that.

Wing span is also 60m-ish.

First one is most likely in my opinion, based on aircraft engineering techniques and structural properties of cylindrical shells. Breakage from bulkhead to bulkhead, then lengthwise split of the resulting cylinder with unraveling, resulting in a flat, nearly square surface.

[Chicog]

In a statement released on Tuesday morning, the Amsa said:

Due to rough seas, HMAS Success departed the search area early this morning and is now in transit south of the search area until seas abate. A sea state ranging between 7 to 8 is forecast today with waves up to two metres and an associated swell of up to four metres.

The area is also forecast to experience strong gale force winds of up to 80km/h, periods of heavy rain, and low cloud with a ceiling between 200 and 500 feet.

AMSA has undertaken a risk assessment and determined that the current weather conditions would make any air and sea search activities hazardous and pose a risk to crew. Therefore, AMSA has suspended all sea and air search operations for today due to these weather conditions.

AMSA has consulted with the Bureau of Meteorology and weather conditions are expected to improve in the search area in the evening and over the next few days. Search operations are expected to resume tomorrow, if weather conditions permit.

HMAS Success will return to the search area once weather conditions improve.

[shaurene]

We deeply regret that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board have survived, the airline said in a text message to relatives of the passengers. We must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean.

What is the evidence? Have they located the plane?

No information as to why it was in the air for 7 more hours with disabled systems?

It was flying for 7 more hours because someone was flying it. All the essential instrument were turned off by the captain.

They cannot tell you any more because they are in the dark. They must have identified some of those pieces floating there.

[MrWorldwide]

This is such a cover up. Of course they are calling off the search, they know they will never find anything. It is a wild goose chase right now.

Does it not strike anyone as odd that they are looking for a 22m piece of something off the West Coast of Australia? If not, would you please enlighten me as to which part of a Boeing 777 is that long and will still be floating after 3 weeks?

The aircraft was deliberately taken over. No catastrophic emergencies or failures and no explosions.

The guys running this show are a bunch of clowns and dismissing data that they should be investigating further.

Hull diameter is 6m... Eat some "Pi" and do your math, 22m (estimated, not a precise measurement) is a very good match for the circumference.

Hull length is around 60m, you could easily make two large pieces of 20x20ish m from that.

Wing span is also 60m-ish.

First one is most likely in my opinion, based on aircraft engineering techniques and structural properties of cylindrical shells. Breakage from bulkhead to bulkhead, then lengthwise split of the resulting cylinder with unraveling, resulting in a flat, nearly square surface.

Thanks for that, but I think you'll find that logic doesn't sit too well with conspiracy theorists.

[jonesthebaker]

Remember they took 20 months to find AF447 so don't expect that to happen overnight.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

to remember something one must have been aware of the fact in the first place so your point is mute. also you seem to have an unusual blind faith in what is put out by authoritys. 'assume' is 'assume' yet you read it as fact. why??????

why would you ever think that autoritys tell the truth. have you been paying attention at all whilst iving on this planet

[phitsanulokjohn]

May God bless each and everyone of those people,my thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims families.RIP.

[Chicog]

Remember they took 20 months to find AF447 so don't expect that to happen overnight.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

to remember something one must have been aware of the fact in the first place so your point is mute. also you seem to have an unusual blind faith in what is put out by authoritys. 'assume' is 'assume' yet you read it as fact. why??????

why would you ever think that autoritys tell the truth. have you been paying attention at all whilst iving on this planet

Yes, and I don't have an overly fertile imagination.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[gemini81]

No conspiracy theorist; but common sense & observation here say 2+2 just doesn't equal 5. Sounds fishy.

[OMGImInPattaya]

May God bless each and everyone of those people,my thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims families.RIP.

Why would he/she/it bless them now...wouldn't it have been better to have blessed them and the plane before or during whatever caused the plane to crash? Or even better, for your all knowing and powerful being to have altered space/time and the laws of causality so that the accident never occurred? Think about it...a blessing does them little good now.

Edited March 25, 2014 by OMGImInPattaya

[Blackmirage2013]

I really thought the plane was hijacked to somewhere like Yemen.

That they believe they found it with satellite pings sound like a stretch, but I guess I have to trust technology.

Until they find the wreckage and the black box, however, the jury is still out....

I just can't fathom why the plane crashed near the Antarctic... the "Zombie Plane" theory seems most likely, but it is so strange, I just can't believe it....

[MrWorldwide]

I really thought the plane was hijacked to somewhere like Yemen.

That they believe they found it with satellite pings sound like a stretch, but I guess I have to trust technology.

Until they find the wreckage and the black box, however, the jury is still out....

I just can't fathom why the plane crashed near the Antarctic... the "Zombie Plane" theory seems most likely, but it is so strange, I just can't believe it....

For the sake of myself and everyone else who will be climbing aboard a commercial flight over the next month, which of the two possibilities would you prefer to be the reality ? Unless you are in the small minority of TVers who never goes anywhere, chances are that sooner or later you will have to get on a plane - lets think happy thoughts, shall we ? Most of us have seen enough Lockerbie / 9/11 footage and read enough conspiracy theories to last a lifetime.

That said, I'm not thrilled at the possibility that this was a pilot suicide either.

Edited March 25, 2014 by MrWorldwide

[F430murci]

"MH370 has been LOST"...

Doea anyone remember the LOST TV serie?

Where is that island?

To me, as long as they have no physical evidence to prove where this plane ended, I will keep doubts...

Not many people did talk about, confirm or decline the rumour that 20 ingeniors from Freescale Semiconductors were on board. If it was the case, I am afraid we have to consider a "Secret Defence" case!

It was true that 20 Freescale employees were on board, but they were not the super top secret weapons or electric car development team or whatever people were saying they were. All non-western engineers, flying to their production operations in China.

Last I checked, American companies don't develop or produce world changing, top secret electronics in Chinese factories. Nor do they entrust a team of foreign national engineers who aren't in the executive team with the keys to that technology. Ok, I never checked that, but it just implausible. That's why that story went nowhere.

Haha, why speak common sense around here. Most cannot hear anything but little paranoid voices in their head.

[coma]

All most everyone is getting ahead of things here. Give it time and the answers to all your questions will surely come. Just don't know if anybody will believe what they come up with. But there will be answers. Patience !!!!!!!

[masuk]

All over the news...al,jazeera UK fox... Aussie warship steaming to where the Aussie Orion dtopped flares and captain of Orion went to a briefing instead of facing media. AND relatives getting ready to fly to,OERTH plus US warship with sophisticated detection equipment on board.

Sounds like they found it to,me

Marcusd. Via tapatalk

I don't buy / accept this .... just more major BS to camouflage something ....Pfffffffffff!!

Australian newspapers are reporting that Malaysian Airlines will not release the cargo manifest, and wondering if they have something to hide.

[Chicog]

May God bless each and everyone of those people,my thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims families.RIP.

Why would he/she/it bless them now...wouldn't it have been better to have blessed them and the plane before or during whatever caused the plane to crash? Or even better, for your all knowing and powerful being to have altered space/time and the laws of causality so that the accident never occurred? Think about it...a blessing does them little good now.

Don't be so petty.

[kevkev1888]

Missing plane: How did a UK firm track the plane?

It has been announced that the missing flight MH370 crashed in the southern Indian Ocean - with information based on analysis from British satellite firm Inmarsat.

They were able to work out the flight went south after comparing previous Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 flights' satellite data with flight MH370.

Inmarsat's senior vice president for external affairs, Chris McLaughlin, told the BBC's Richard Westcott that the firm studied electronic "pings" sent from the plane.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26723980

Edited March 25, 2014 by kevkev1888

[connda]

I'll believe it when an agency equivalent to the NTSB has the one of the "Black boxes".

[Chicog]

You should believe it if they actually find them where they are looking.

[bkksteviejai]

A sad but inevitable end to a mystery which may never be fully resolved - especially considering where it finally hit the water. I feel so very sorry for the relatives (the majority being Chinese) who hold such store on being able to visit a grave side or funeral urn to mourn the loss of their loved ones.

I so totally agree with an earlier post - I hope the Malaysian authorities are going to specifically apologize to the families of the Pilot and Co-pilot for the way these folk had their reputations so badly slighted by the reckless spate of reporting on this planes' disappearance.

Must be horrific to have to be interviewed by police whilst your having to start a grieving process, but it has to be done I guess in order to cover every angle. Let's see what happens if they can get hold of the flight data recorder, remember the Air France crash a few years back?, well once they got that and looked at it.......well, it didn't reflect too well on the co-pilots (the Captain was having a nap, but by the time he got back to the cockpit it was FUBAR). You can find the transcript on the internet.

[Chicog]

A sad but inevitable end to a mystery which may never be fully resolved - especially considering where it finally hit the water. I feel so very sorry for the relatives (the majority being Chinese) who hold such store on being able to visit a grave side or funeral urn to mourn the loss of their loved ones.

I so totally agree with an earlier post - I hope the Malaysian authorities are going to specifically apologize to the families of the Pilot and Co-pilot for the way these folk had their reputations so badly slighted by the reckless spate of reporting on this planes' disappearance.

Must be horrific to have to be interviewed by police whilst your having to start a grieving process, but it has to be done I guess in order to cover every angle. Let's see what happens if they can get hold of the flight data recorder, remember the Air France crash a few years back?, well once they got that and looked at it.......well, it didn't reflect too well on the co-pilots (the Captain was having a nap, but by the time he got back to the cockpit it was FUBAR). You can find the transcript on the internet.

But they'd actually worked out what happened to the plane from ACARS data and inspecting the wreckage; for example, they knew that the plane literally fell out of the sky. The FDR really just told them why.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Chicog

[Blackmirage2013]

Until they find the wreckage, everything is theory, educated guesses and pinging....