Missing Malaysia Air plane

[KenAdams]

It's so sad. They still haven't found anything, but thinks it's crashed into the sea.

For anyone that hasn't heard

[FabBakerGirl]

Tess, it was flying over sea though.

Two passengers using fake passports could mean something criminal has taken place.

I really hope it is just an accident rather than something sinister.

[Bassetfeet]

The air France disaster was pilot error . Makes such sad reading . Sorry can't link here. I wonder if similar has happened here . Bad weather and senior pilot on break added to the Air France series of events that lost the aircraft with no mayday call.

[FrankelInFoal]

I know the plane was nowhere near North Korea, but they've certainly claimed to have missiles with that sort of range before. I also don't think they'd deliberately target a passenger plane, but they don't seem to care about firing off other test missiles into known flight paths, as evidenced by the events of a few days ago.

I sincerely hope it is just a tragic accident, but there is the glaring fact that no mayday call was made, it simply dropped off radar without any warning. The Air France flight from Brazil, as mentioned up thread, was flying through a known ATC black spot when it crashed, so no mayday call would have been received. As far as I know there are no such black spots in the area this plane went down.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I had a look at flight paths for other Korean missiles (not in the interest of sleuthing, that is macabre but to see where they usually do end up) It seems that at least some of them end up off the east coast of the Philippines (poor sods).
link with map

Anyway, we just don't know and those poor relatives and family will be suffering terribly :(

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

And of course the splash down area is sea level not flying planes level.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Sorry. I think my musings are inappropriate.

[FabBakerGirl]

The Air France crash was also caused by a technical error.

[Beaverfeaver]

The stolen passports were both stolen in tailand within a few weeks of eachother.

Doesn't sound good.

The poor families of all the passengers and crew.

The pilot had been working for the airline since 81 and had excellent record.

[alcibiades]

I've also been watching this awful situation. I think it's natural to want answers when something like this happens. From what I gather, the type of aircraft involved has a very good track record, as does the airline itself, and the captain was very experienced with both the plane and the route.

But very occasionally something unexpected happens. In the Air France case, it started with inconsistent reports of air speed, most likely caused by blocked pitot tubes. When the unexpected happens, the standard procedure is: aviate - navigate - communicate, in that order. Which might explain why there was no distress call.

A couple of other points: The presumed area where the plane came down is the Gulf of Thailand, which is relatively shallow. There are a lot of fishing boats out there, and some oil-drilling platforms with submersibles. The chances of finding the plane soon are quite high.

That sea area is between Malaysia and southern Vietnam, but there's a time-zone difference of an hour, which may be confusing in media reports.

[TooOldForGlitter]

Hadn't heard this news. Just awful. So sad for the families.

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

The Austrian passport was stolen 2 years ago, the Italian one last summer (both in Thailand but not even close, timewise)

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

I don't understand, as both passports were clearly reported as stolen & new ones issued, how come the stolen ones weren't flagged up at passport control in Kuala Lumpur - surely they would have been reported as stolen & in these days of heightened security, there must be a central database of lost & stolen travel documents?

[KenAdams]

I doubt South Korea would dare - China is where their electricity etc comes from iirc.

Two false passports is a bit strange, but people must travel on false passports all the time. If it was a terrorist attack, wouldn't someone have claimed responsibility by now?

[KenAdams]

*North Korea

[LoopyDoopyDoo]

I'm in Malaysia. Feeling very horrible about all of this, and following very closely.

Reports that 4 (including the stolen Austrian and Italian) passport holders with dubious identification, possibly also a Chinese passport number of a man in China (not on flight).

Oil slicks and reports of debris in various places, nothing identifying.

Possible change of route.

5 passengers apparently not allowed to board, luggage removed before takeoff.

Also, reports of phones of passengers being contactable, but not answered. Would this be the case under the ocean?

We don't know what to think. Everyone is very shaken by this. Could it be a terrorist attack? By whom? What for?

Mechanical fault? Why no distress signal? Especially if they headed back.

It makes no sense

[LoopyDoopyDoo]

Yeah, and the two tickets of stolen passport people were bought together, in Thailand, so were seated together. Malaysian authorities talking of four suspicious passengers (Malaysian Insider says 4 Europeans).

:(

[LoopyDoopyDoo]

The first major breakthrough appears to have been made after a Vietnamese search team found what they believe is part of a door and an aeroplane tail.

The suspected fragments have been located around 50 miles from southwest of Tho Chu Island, according to the Wall Street Journal.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-live-3219331#ixzz2vTQtPbWt

[KenAdams]

Malaysia Air updated their Twitter about 40 mins ago saying that there was no new information yet.

[KenAdams]

Clicky for Loopys article

[VivaLeBeaver]

I guess a catastrophic mechanical failure might mean no distress call. Something like either the plane blew up from a mechanical problem or the pilot was so busy trying to sort it out that a distress call was the last thing he'd think of??

Its quite unusual for five people to check in but not get on a plane isn't it? Which again makes me think of terrorism and five people bottled it. But enough got on to overpower the pilot?

I've been reading on the Internet the other possibility of pilot suicide. Though its a bit distasteful to speculate that really with no evidence when the pilot I guess has family still alive. Its believed that at least 4 large passenger plane crashes in the last 20 years have been pilot suicide.

[ohfourfoxache]

If it was a terrorist attack would someone have "claimed" it by now?

[phantomnamechanger]

whatever happened here its clearly a tragedy and I hope the poor families get some answers soon

[AnnoraT]

I agree that it was a terror attack someone would have 'claimed' it by now, but this was a plane with a stellar safety record, flown by an experienced pilot, in the safest part of the flight in clear weather conditions. I think foul play was involved, but would like to proved wrong.

[ohfourfoxache]

All of which probably make it worse for the families, Annora

Surely it must be easier when there are some concrete answers, but because everything about it seems so safe it must be so much worse for those involved.

Please excuse my ignorance on this subject, but does anyone think that here is any chance that the plane has been high jacked, communication has been cut and the plane diverted?

[FabBakerGirl]

The filming of weeping adults was bad enough but to show distraught children on the tv was a bit much imo.