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

Train, I've no idea what you are hinting at...probably rather naive but I don't get it.

Ah so the simulator is irrelevant then.

Made a tit of myself for nothing.

I hope they find something soon, the families and friends of the passengers and crew must be absolutely past themselves, just waiting and waiting. Awful

No hints, I have no idea what has happened to the plane. My point was only that this is a highly sensitive situation, geopolitically - lots of potential for various states not to be very happy. IF (big if) the US reporting that they have one evidence from satellite or radar data of where the plane went is correct, it isn't a very comfortable place for the Malaysian government to be in, if US data is better than their own in tracking one of their own planes diverting on an unofficial course back across their own country (if that is indeed what happened). The US has a lot of military capability in this region (post-Vietnam); it's also China's sphere of influence. Both China and the US have an interest in concealing exactly how capable their monitoring is (or isn't) in this region. So negotiating between Chinese and US assistance must be particularly difficult for Malaysia, and not comfortable for either the US or China. Everything must be very delicate politically. And that's without even touching on the awful situation for the passengers' and crew's families :(

There was a post on pprune that the Malaysians were saying that they had now found jet fuel in one of the oil slick samples.

But I can't find anything to verify this was said.

"The US has a lot of military capability in this region (post-Vietnam); it's also China's sphere of influence. Both China and the US have an interest in concealing exactly how capable their monitoring is (or isn't) in this region. So negotiating between Chinese and US assistance must be particularly difficult for Malaysia, and not comfortable for either the US or China"

That is a very good point.

Yes, it was said at this morning's press conference. Two slicks have been investigated, one had no aviation fuel. The other had a small amount, but there was no other debris whatsoever at or near that site, so it has has been ruled out.

meditrina

That seems potentially very significant to me.

I wonder why it is not being investigated further.

Well, I took it to mean that it had been investigated, and the plane isn't there.

After all, just because it's aviation fuel doesn't mean that it's anything whatsoever to do with this plane.

Do they have enough assets to keep going over an area already shown to be free of debris?

I am also hoping for a happy ending here but does anyone else remember LOST from Sky one ? My first thought when they mentioned un-inhabited? islands.

I assumed the fuel didn't match with what was in the plane

Achy I used to work on oil tankers, many of which change cargo regularly from petrol to aviation fuel etc. Tanks are "washed" and the residue discharged overboard. It is possible for it to contain traces of previous cargos.

room are you on Sentosa Island then?

Thanks Chaffinch, I've ordered that book.

Another GG (Goldie Groupie) here too.

Well I would want to know proportions and precise types of fuel for a start.

Then scans of the sea bottom.

Seems they'll be coming back to this if they don't find anything in the Indian Ocean.

It really is one of the very few pieces of evidence they have.

it sounds as if this prune thread is full of conspiracy theorists.

Let's look at the real possibility of a plane being highjacked in order to carry explosives to a specific target. First of all you would have to highjack it. fair enough, do-able enough. Then you would have to land it on a big enough surface. (potentially difficult, although there are plenty of remote parts of the world). Then you have to be able to refuel it etc and stock it with explosives and so on, while in the meantime the world's military is aware that it's missing and is looking out for it. 239 bodies probably aren't that hard to dispose of - the kinds of people who will highjack a plane and kill themselves and thousands of others in the name of whatever they represent aren't the kind to have much issue with killing a few passengers and crew who are in the way of their plans. but...

Then this plane has to take off from whatever location it's being kept in and fly, unseen, to whatever location is the target. And whatever location that is surely going to be a prominent location and thus said aircraft will need to fly over land in order to get to said location. And people think this is possible without the military seeing it? Not going to happen.

But there's nothing US news loves more than whipping up a bit of muslim hatred....

As fuel jettison isn't particularly uncommon, it is not suspicious to find aviation fuel floating in the ocean. They have no said exactly what investigations were carried out at the site, but they have said no debris there.

And people think this is possible without the military seeing it?

Urrmmm, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this precisely what is mooted to happen with MH370 ?

hope you enjoy it, kenadams

achy I think in that post it meant in the context of approaching a high value target (where there may well be continuous real-time monitoring) which is not the case for this poor flight.

\link{http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304185104579437573396580350\a recent update from the WSJ}

US surveillance planes are heading for an area 1000 miles W of KL

'The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent "pings," the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. They added that it was unclear why the pings stopped. One of the people, an industry official, said it was possible that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.'

Crazy situation. US media would have us believe it was hijacked/stolen. I think that sounds implausible personally but just to explore that further, how does it actually help anyone with criminal motives to have a passenger plane? Surely even if you pck it with a bomb and attempt another 9/11 it would be an unidentified airplane and therefore be suspicious. How could you use it to your advantage at a later date?!?

Apparently channel 5 have a programme on about it tonight. Unlikely to be particularly insightful I imagine but might be interesting.

... interesting.

Tunip - jet fuel is the same all over the world.

The grade commonly used is known as Jet A1 and is a kind of kerosene and has to be interchanageable all over the world otherwise planes could not refuel.

It's that time of day when we all want goldie back

MoreBeta is there not even small differences in additives between, say, BP and Shell fuel?