Malaysia Airlines MH370 "Lost Contact"

[Saint66]

Malaysia Airlines have lost contact with flight (MH370) it's last known location was 5 hour ago.

Thoughts with all those involved.

 

[alex17595]

Malaysia Airlines Plane 'Loses Contact': Malaysia Airlines says a plane - flight MH370 - carrying 239 people "has lost contact" with air traffic control.

http://news.sky.com/story/1222674/malaysia-airlines-plane-loses-contact

Reddit has a big thread on it: http://reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1zur6k/malaysia_airlines_plane_loses_contact_malaysia/

 

[bb21]

9M-MRO is the one involved.

One previous safety incident according to The Malay Mail Online.

Missing MAS plane bought in 2002, had one incident in 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 8 — The missing Malaysian Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 is a Boeing 777-2H6ER aircraft that was purchased in 2002 and has one previous safety incident on its record.

In an “airfield incursion” at the Shanghai Pudong airport in September 2012, the MAS plane bearing the registration number 9M-MRO collided with a China Eastern Airlines’ Airbus A340-600, registration B-6050, according to the French Office of Investigations and Analysis for the Safety of Civil Aviation (BEA).

“Airfield incursion” is the aviation term used to describe an unauthorized aircraft, vehicle or person on the airfield, which can affect runway safety.

 

[WestCoast]

Thoughts to all involved, the circumstances here are most unusual - talk of stolen passports e.t.c in the media.

 

[jon0844]

Until there's more information, there will be lots of speculation and jumping to conclusions I guess.

 

[richw]

Thoughts to all involved, the circumstances here are most unusual - talk of stolen passports e.t.c in the media.

Am Austrian national and an Italian national listed as on the plane have both come forward and their respective countries are stating both of their passports were stolen in. Thailand.

They've just said on the news there are another two suspected passports being used illegitimately on the flight they are now investigating 4 suspected stolen passports by passengers on the flight. Let's hope this has nothing to do I with the loss.

 

[bb21]

It is now alleged that the two identity thieves bought their tickets in the same transaction, with consecutive ticket numbers.

 

[starrymarkb]

Amsterdam bound, so probably drug mules (the direct flights are watched very closely)

 

[34D]

Official company statement http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/dark-site.html

 

[CallySleeper]

Reports that the aircraft turned round may be true, but the last known movement, a right turn from heading 025 to 040 degrees was probably in the flight plan as corresponding flights on other days also made this movement at the same location. Also, there were no emergency squawks or maydays made during transponder coverage. But the plane is unaccounted for from its last known position over the Gulf of Thailand, and in the area from this point north as far as the southern coast of Thailand it isn't unusual to loose transponder coverage.

Then there's this, which I believe could have been flight SIA638. So i'm not sure the plane went down straight away after contact was lost.

A BOEING 777 pilot, who was flying 30 minutes ahead of the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft, said he established contact with MH370 minutes after he was asked to do so by Vietnamese air traffic control.

The captain, who asked to not be named, said his plane, which was bound for Narita, Japan, was far into Vietnamese airspace when he was asked to relay, using his plane's emergency frequency, to MH370 for the latter to establish its position, as the authorities could not contact the aircraft.

"We managed to establish contact with MH370 just after 1.30am and asked them if they have transferred into Vietnamese airspace.

 

[richw]

I have suspicions they've located and are covering up something now, some of the releases don't add up.

In addition to this earlier on the radio Interpol's spokesperson said that "Interpol are helping identifying bodies" he left a long pause as if he'd finished then quickly added "if we find them". The identifying bodies he used the word "are" in present tense rather than future tense grammar.

Maybe I'm just scrutinising his comments too much?

 

[ECML180]

Something is definitely very unusual about this, whether that's due to a cover up or a truly remarkable incident-I don't think it's like anything we've seen before.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I've been hearing reports that passengers phones are ringing through to answering machine rather than going straight onto the answering machine. Coul mean a lot of things but one possibility is that it's still on the ground.

 

[GazUk]

I only heard about this news today!! And since I've got to know about it what is the common theory about what has happened? Iam going for a mechanical catastrophic malfunction or pilot error-it's got to be something like that right

And not knowing what it's like around South Asia how volatile is that region? if some people are thinking "others" might be at play for the plane and its passengers dissapearence.

 

[user15681]

The suggestion at the moment from Malaysian military seems to be that it turned around off course and flew west over to the Malacca Strait at a low altitude, with radar lost at 1,000 feet. That leaves many possibilities though.

 

[bb21]

One that is doing the rounds is that the Vietnamese accidentally shot it down and are now trying to cover it up.

No one will know the truth until the wreckage is found, if ever.

 

[phil8715]

It wouldn't surprise me if had been shot down. But if that's the case surely it wouldn't take 4 days and not find any wreckage.


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[ModernRailways]

It wouldn't surprise me if had been shot down. But if that's the case surely it wouldn't take 4 days and not find any wreckage.


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If it was shot down, then nothing will be found - it will but we won't know.

 

[Darandio]

The suggestion at the moment from Malaysian military seems to be that it turned around off course and flew west over to the Malacca Strait at a low altitude, with radar lost at 1,000 feet. That leaves many possibilities though.

Which is also now being denied.

Nearly everything that has been reported so far has been either denied or classed as not related a few hours later.

Certainly something strange seems to be going on.

 

[jon0844]

I think the media is too quick to pick up on ANYTHING. So if someone said something like 'well it could have...' then that's not only news, but possibly the answer.

I'm on another forum where people are seriously suggesting that with no debris, we can't rule out it having flown up into space, having been met with aliens or even going into another dimension. Or there was a mid-air collision (someone posting a photo of what was a different airline code showing as missing - not realising about codeshare flight agreements) that has been covered up, ignoring the fact that IF there was a second plane then someone might just have mentioned it - like the family of those onboard perhaps?!

And on Twitter, it's all about a real live copy of Lost and they all landed on some island.

All of this seems rather disrespectful to me, as far too many people are now just having fun when the right thing to do, hard as it might be, is to just wait and listen for news.

 

[Greenback]

Whatever happened this must be one of, if not the, most weird aviation incidents ever.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Amsterdam bound, so probably drug mules (the direct flights are watched very closely)

Flight MH370, you mean? It was bound for Beijing.

 

[fowler9]

Flight MH370, you mean? It was bound for Beijing.

The tickets on the stolen passports were through to Amsterdam. Possible human trafficking as opposed to drugs. Passport theft is not rare in Thailand. I'' not sure it is that odd that nothing was found quickly. Unlike the Air France A330 that went down in the Atlantic the 777 doesn't have a carbon fibre vertical stabiliser that would float.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

A cover up by Vietnam sounds unlikely, I simply don't think they have the resources to do so when China is actively hunting the plane too and given the tense situation in that area a missle launch would hardly go unnoticed.

 

[ainsworth74]

If it had been shot down by a missile even if it hadn't been detected they would have found debris by now.

 

[Darandio]

If it had been shot down by a missile even if it hadn't been detected they would have found debris by now.

Most likely even more so, as it would surely be scattered over a wider area.

 

[fowler9]

If the aircraft went down in one piece the debris field wouldn't be that big. There are lots of previous examples of planes going down in one piece where no mayday call was made. I believe the rule of thumb is aviate, navigate, communicate in that order.

 

[ECML180]

The most interesting thing is that to avoid the radar picking up the aircraft it would have to do one of these things:

1) Disintegrate
It's definitely possible to cause an explosion on board, but very hard to break the aircraft into pieces small enough to avoid creating a radar signal.

2) Descend Rapidly
By flying very low the aircraft could avoid detection, but from the altitude it is alleged to have disappeared at the descent would be noticeable, unless some strange quantum physics allowed it to teleport (in which case it's probably teleported to a far more interesting place than a few hundred feet below itself). Authorities have reported indications of a rapid descent, but this has not been confirmed.

3) Have Stealth Capabilities
Aircraft can be built to avoid radar detection, the 777 is not included in this list!

4) Actually Disappear
Right now, this seems to be a reasonable conclusion, after all nothing has been found to eliminate it or to lend credence to any other theories. Has anyone checked the location of Derren Brown at the time of the incident?


NB I wish everyone on board and their families well, it's clearly a very difficult time. However as it stands I believe it is possible that the aircraft and it's occupants are intact and well. This is certainly a very interesting incident.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
*Additional*

As for the fact that the authorities aren't saying much, it seems unusually quiet, but really they won't give too many details, there have been aircraft crashes before where components were stolen because the crash site was announced before the emergency services had set up an effective cordon. Likewise if it has been hijacked the last thing you want is civilians wandering around whatever obscure airport it's been landed at!

 

[anthony263]

This whole incident does sound very starnge and I think the Chineese authorities are getting a bit fed up with the chaotic bits of information being out out which are then proven to be incorrect a little later.

Still I think this will be a very interesting episode of air crash investigations in a few years time if we ever find out what happnned to this aircraft.

 

[fowler9]

It would be hard to disappear off radar unless you are in an area with low radar coverage. I am purely guessing here but I wouldn't think the southern tip of Vietnam was a Radar hotspot. The chances of a 777 descending below radar level and then continuing to fly below it are I would say far less than the chances of it diving in to the sea in a freak accident.