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

[Living]

Arguably some terrorist groups are moving towards running a spate of similar attacks and not claiming - to cause generalised terror. Depends whether your objective is terror or publicity!

Sadly this plane is almost definitely in the sea somewhere but not where there looking at the moment. It's just odd because it's such a busy shipping route. Surprising no sightings of a low flying plane if that's what happened.

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

TheGirlFromIpanema I did wonder if the Beijing route might be cheaper but from my 'research' the difference is only about £50 compared with eg Emirates, with one stop in Abu Dhabi & 10 hours shorter

Odd

[Living]

I'd also suspect two passengers flying on stolen passports isn't particularly unusual despite the media hype on that.

[AnandaTimeIn]

I'd also suspect two passengers flying on stolen passports isn't particularly unusual despite the media hype on that.

Well, considering the plane disappeared,it is when they bought their tickets together....

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26509378

[Living]

New life in Europe using the same broker? Everything needs to be investigated. Prob more suspicious if they hadn't bought tickets together in my mind.

[Canalside]

If flying from KL you can check in at KL Sentral station before getting the train to the airport.

We fly Malaysia Airlines all the time, as do my family. They have never been anything but excellent. It is so very sad and worrying.

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

A bit of clarification about the ticket purchase. The 'Iranian Mr Ali' needs looking at.

'A Thai travel agent who booked the men with stolen passports onto the missing plane, has told the FT that the tickets were arranged with an “Iranian contact” on behalf of clients looking for cheap tickets to Europe.

'Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the Grand Horizon travel agency in Pattaya, Thailand, said the Iranian, a long-term business contact who she knew only as “Mr Ali”, first asked her to book cheap tickets to Europe for the two men on March 1. Ms Benjaporn initially reserved one of the men on a Qatar Airways flight and the other on Etihad.

'But the tickets expired when Ms Benjaporn did not hear back from Mr Ali. When he contacted her again on Thursday, she rebooked the men on the Malaysia Airlines flight through Beijing because it was the cheapest available. Ms Benjaporn booked the tickets through China Southern Airlines via a code share arrangement.

'A friend of Mr Ali paid Ms Benjaporn cash for the tickets, she said, adding that it was quite common for people to book tickets in Pattaya through middle men such as Mr Ali, who then take a commission'

From \link{http://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2014/mar/10/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-search-continues-live-updates\Guardian live blog}

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

So they were originally going to fly separately

[FabBakerGirl]

The wreckage found has been ruled out as coming from the missing plane.

Those poor families . It is probably for definite everyone has died but to have no answers must be unbearable.

[Sparklysilversequins]

Five passengers did not board and their luggage was removed from the flight? I'd be interested to know how often that happens on the average flight and who the five are. You occasionally hear a name being called for last opportunity to board a flight, but 5? That's very strange.

[Living]

looks like they've found debris off the coast of Vietnam. Guess we'll know more in the morning

[Living]

Honestly it's not unusual! I'm not saying it's above board here but really not that unusual.

[alcibiades]

There's a report that apparently debris has been seen off the south-eastern coast of Vietnam.

avherald.com/h?article=4710c69b&opt=0

I don't know how reliable that website is.

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

I have heard multiple names 'last called' & have seen a group of 4 hurtling towards the gate after a repeated last call (announcements can be very garbled)

[LoopyDoopyDoo]

Debris has been discounted again.

did anyone hear the press conference? Mario berlotelli?!

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

read about it - very weird. twitter is having fun with it

[wannaBe]

not unusual for passengers to be offloaded. people get distracted in the shops/a restaurant/lose track of time and before they realise it's too late... or spend too much time in departures and don't go through security on time, etc etc.

The south China sea is huge, and it can take less than a minute for a plane to drop from 35000 feet and hit the sea. once that happens it would break up and sink like a stone, so A, not necessarily the case that a ship/other plane would see it or B, the wreckage is immediately spottable, it could be hundreds of feet below water....

iirc it took over a week to find the air france plane which went down a couple of years ago.

These passengers are all dead, it's just a matter of finding the plane to try to establish what happened. A plane doesn't just disappear off radar unless something dramatic has happeed to it.

[Perihelion]

With regard to travelling on stolen passports, there are no immigration checks on leaving the UK or many other countries. States are quite happy for people to leave...rather more concerned when people enter. The passport checks before flying are carried out by the airlines. The airlines have no acess to the Interpol list of lost/stolen passports.

[SteveBrucesNose]

I've almost been 'that passenger' once and only managed to board my flight after a sprint through the airport and begging the airline staff to let me on or I would get back to the UK for my nephews first Christmas and 4 others on that flight weren't so lucky. Therefore I wouldn't set too much by the fact that 5 didn't board.

I do find it all very worrying though, and very sad.

[meditrina]

Kuala Lumpur has city check in, so it's probably fairly easy to lose passengers between the city and the airport, though the time limits and requirement to hold a train transit ticket would minimise it.

If the 5 were a family group or a bunch of colleagues travelling together then it becomes much easier to imagine how they might all have been held up.

Though if you're trying to assess the odds of infrequent events happening at the same time as a very rare event has definitely happened, intuition won't be a terribly good guide.

[TheArticFunky]

Some wreckage from the Air France crash was found within 24 hours of the flight disappearing off radar. The main wreckage was found 5 days later.

[AchyFox]

This is all very odd.

I know it's grim but if there was catastrophic failure of the air-frame at high altitude, there would almost inevitably be human/ cabin content debris at the surface.

I suspect they may not be looking in the right area.

[VivaLeBeaver]

It would be amazing if they have managed a crash landing on some small, uninhabited island. Sadly apart from in episodes of Lost I guess its quite unrealistic.

[TheArticFunky]

I read that only some countries carry out Interpol checks on passports it certainly isn't routine. Quite a worry.