firstchoice essentially a Malaysian Airline Boeing 777 has gone missing en route from KL to Beijing on a night flight over a week ago. No one knows where or why. Catastrophic failure has been ruled out as it seems the plane could have been flying for up to 7 hours after last contact which was leaving Malaysian air space and going into Vietnam air space.
Tracking systems were disabled and it seems that before the last message was sent to air traffic control in Malaysia, these systems would have been tampered with.
25 countries (I think) involved in the search. US and China heavily involved. China not happy apparently with the way the search is being run.
Aeroplane could have gone north towards Kazakhstan or southwest across the Indian Ocean. Australia now coordinating southerly search.
230-odd people on board :( mainly Chinese but with a range of nationalities and also some children.
And no, people couldn't have used their mobile phones. Just getting that out of the way now.
Think that's about it in a nutshell. Don't believe what the DM says. Look at papers like the Wall Street Journal for reliable information. And read the previous 2 threads. Lots of questions answered by the redoutable goldie and others who have the knowhow. It's been very helpful.