Malaysia Airliner Disappearance

[CougarKing]

A sinister development...

Perhaps terrorist suicide bombers (from a Malaysian Islamic group such as KMM? Or from a southern Thai Islamic separatist group called PULO?) were the ones who stole the passports?

Canadian Press link

Stolen Italian, Austrian passports on missing Malaysian airlines plane
The Canadian Press

By Colleen Barry

MILAN - Foreign ministry officials in Rome and Vienna confirm that names of two nationals listed on the manifest of the missing Malaysian airlines flight match passports reported stolen in Thailand.

Italy's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that an Italian man whose name was listed as being aboard is travelling in Thailand and was not aboard the plane.

(...EDITED)

Plus an update on the search so far:

Wreckage nearby?

Canadian Press link

Vietnamese planes spot 2 oil slicks close to where Malaysian jetliner vanished
The Canadian Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Vietnamese air force planes on Saturday spotted two large oil slicks in the area where a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanished earlier in the day, the first sign that the aircraft carrying 239 people — including two Canadians — on board had crashed.

The air force planes were part of a multinational search operation launched after Flight MH370 fell off radar screens less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday morning.

A Vietnamese government statement said the slicks were spotted late Saturday off the southern tip of Vietnam and were each between 10 kilometres and 15 kilometres long. There was no confirmation that the slicks were related to the missing plane, but the statement said they were consistent with the kinds that would be produced by the two fuel tanks of a crashed jetliner.

(...)

 

[Robert0288]

WAY too early to tell if there was any malicious act.  There is also a lot of smuggling, both human and drug, which is much more likely.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

And also no claim from any terrorist organization......

 

[Fishbone Jones]

WAY too early to tell if there was any malicious act.  There is also a lot of smuggling, both human and drug, which is much more likely.

Not trying to be smart or get in a pissing match. However, I'm wondering what insight you have that makes you fairly certain it was smuggling, human, drugs, or otherwise and why you think that.

Is dissecting this stuff part of your job or are you just taking a WAG (wild assed guess)?

 

[The_Falcon]

And also no claim from any terrorist organization......

Yet

 

[Nfld Sapper]

True.....

 

[tomahawk6]

What emergency can happen in flight where the crew is unable to issue a distress call ? I suspect foul play. This reminds me of Lockerbie.In that case debris hit the ground.If the bomb had gone off later in the flight while it was over the Atlantic,who knows if the cause would have been solved.

 

[OldSolduer]

What emergency can happen in flight where the crew is unable to issue a distress call ? I suspect foul play. This reminds me of Lockerbie.In that case debris hit the ground.If the bomb had gone off later in the flight while it was over the Atlantic,who knows if the cause would have been solved.

I will admit I am no expert here, but having seen enough news reports and TV documentaries about aircraft incidents I would hazard to say a catastrophic failure, which is obvious I would think. What caused it? I am not sure anyone will know.

 

[Old Sweat]

There are multiple reports, including one of a statement by a senior Malaysian air force officer, that radar indicates that the aircraft had turned and appeared to be returning.

The absence of a debris field is unusual.

 

[vonGarvin]

And here's a link on that:

Military radar indicates that the missing Boeing 777 jet may have turned back before vanishing, Malaysia's air force chief said Sunday as authorities were investigating up to four passengers with suspicious identifications.

 

[tomahawk6]

Australia is providing 2 P3C Orions based at Darwin to assist in the search effort.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/australia-sending-two-p3c-orions-from-darwin-to-malaysia-to-aid-with-the-search-for-missing-malaysian-flight-mh370/story-fnizu68q-1226849663966

The USN has dispatched a DDG and a P3 Orion to assist the search.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-navy-sends-destroyer-plane-search-22832565

 

[Robert0288]

Not trying to be smart or get in a pissing match. However, I'm wondering what insight you have that makes you fairly certain it was smuggling, human, drugs, or otherwise and why you think that.

Is dissecting this stuff part of your job or are you just taking a WAG (wild assed guess)?

I'm not "fairly certain", however it is much more likely and reasonable explanation that it wasn't as there are many more cases stolen and misused passports coming out of Asia then are generally reported and most linked to human and drug smuggling.  From everything I've seen so far, there hasn't been any of your normal indicators of it being an attack.  Could it?  Sure.  And if it does turn out to be the case, I'm willing to eat my words.

The pair traveling on the stolen passports had further flights booked from Beijing on a KLM flight to Amsterdam, at which point one was supposed to go to Copenhagen on 8 mar, and the other to Frankfurt on the same day.

Can any SAR experienced guys weigh in on what kind of fault(s) would knock out the Emergency Locator Beacon(s)?  Also taking a look at some depth charts of the waters where it supposedly went down, it doesn't seem all that deep compared to other oceans.  Again, I'm not an expert, but aren't these things designed to be able to transmit from fairly deep water?

 

[tomahawk6]

The big mystery is why there hasnt been any wreckage found.

 

[Zoomie]

Can any SAR experienced guys weigh in on what kind of fault(s) would knock out the Emergency Locator Beacon(s)?  A

Two very separate systems aid searchers in finding downed aircraft.  ELT is good for crashes on the ground - ULB is what ultimately led to the discovery of the Air France wreck over the south Atlantic.  Underwater Locator Beacons are usually salt water activated and are co-located with the aircraft's data recorders (aka black box).  You would need to have someone listening for the sonar pings of an ULB (can only assume that they are doing this).

An ELT won't go off unless there is a semi-survivable crash - if the plane blows up in flight, no ELT activation.  If the plane landed somewhere sinister (ie highjacked), the ELT won't go off.  If the crew was somehow overpowered and forced to go somewhere, a smart villain would have the Mode 3C transponder turned off - thus removing the aircraft symbology from RADAR.

Anyone watch LOST?  I've been catching all the episodes again on Netflix - sounds very similar.

 

[Robert0288]

I would think kicking over the squawk codes to 7000/7500/7600/7700 should be pretty quick.  (But I'm not a pilot)

 

[Nfld Sapper]

The big mystery is why there hasnt been any wreckage found.

Agreed T6, something doesn't seem right either way.....

 

[Jarnhamar]

Agreed T6, something doesn't seem right either way.....

Like a fake oil spill to misdirect searchers.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

:dunno:

 

[tomahawk6]

Some debris has been located near the fuel slick.Its too dark and will have to wait until morning.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26506961

 

[Colin Parkinson]

things get shredded pretty good when a plane nose dives at high speed into the water. I don't see the "win" here for destroying a Malaysian Airlines plane for any of the typical groups. If it was a Chinese connected group, why not take on one of the Chinese planes flying out of KL?