MH 777 missing - MH370 media statement

[Oxy]

Whoever was controlling the plane has seemed very well planned. Who's to say they couldn't have had a refuelling stop organised and ready to go, say near Pakistan for example. Most of the world wouldn't have known 370 was missing until after it could have been refuelled.

The fact it took 4 days or so to work out it was in the air for so long shows how much catching up there is to do in this case, still a week behind.

I really hope they know a lot more behind the scenes than what they are letting on...

 

[markis10]

Whoever was controlling the plane has seemed very well planned. Who's to say they couldn't have had a refuelling stop organised and ready to go, say near Pakistan for example. Most of the world wouldn't have known 370 was missing until after it could have been refuelled...

The world would have been looking before she got to Pakistani airspace, not to mention they are on somewhat of a high alert when it comes to radar and incursions. Keep in mind last contact is now timed 11 minutes after this thread was started

 

[DaveB]

Bloomberg for the past three days has been saying the plane was last recorded being 1600km west of Perth with no one seriously thinking the plane headed back overland to the north.
The off the record US gov't info says the last satellite reading was 7 hours after the last official recording putting the plane near the limits of its fuel load.


Ocean Off Perth Called Diverted Malaysian Plane's Most Likely Last Position - Bloomberg

 

[Flying mermaid]

Well there is a point of hijacking if the idea is to get something on the plane or the plane itself, no need for demands if you have what you want!

I agree with this - there appears to have been meticulous planning and no demands. So - Great Plane Robbery?

 

[boomy]

Bloomberg for the past three days has been saying the plane was last recorded being 1600km west of Perth with no one seriously thinking the plane headed back overland to the north.
The off the record US gov't info says the last satellite reading was 7 hours after the last official recording putting the plane near the limits of its fuel load.


Ocean Off Perth Called Diverted Malaysian Plane's Most Likely Last Position - Bloomberg

Where could it land if it was flying that direction?

 

[legroom]

Could you parachute down to a waiting boat / sub from a 777 ?

Tom Clancy speaking !

Or transfer to another plane (a la Air Force One - Harrison Ford)

 

[Trakman]

I agree with this - there appears to have been meticulous planning and no demands. So - Great Plane Robbery?

That is what it increasingly looks like. From my point of view - discount terrorism: no demands and if they wanted to use it as a weapon they would have done it by now. If they have the resources to store and refuel it then they could charter one to do the same thing - now everyone is on alert. Discount suicide - he would have crashed it into the sea near takeoff not try to elude everyone and disappear without a trace.

The authorities are silent on what was in the cargo manifest, and have admitted that it did not go through normal x-ray processing. Did I read somewhere that they carried reduced passengers to normal because of an increased cargo load?

But it still raises questions: if the pilot was in on it then they need to see how he managed to arrange to be on that particular flight, and why did they take so long to raid his house? If the pilot was not involved, then in this age of security, how did they take control of a plane and manipulate it for so long without detection? It also suggests that the oil rig worker's observation was a red herring - have they actually interviewed him personally and verified it?

But number one question is - what was in that cargo hold?

 

[robd]

Special report on CNN now.

 

[DaveB]

No doubt a well laid out plan though doubt it ran smoothly.
Besides some good looking blonde terrorists flying business who the captain couldn't wait to let into the cabin pretty much as soon as he could, hard not to go past the crew.
My guess is down to two possibilities - terrorism that got foiled midflight resulting in no-one flying the plane or the more likely suicide, possibly with elements of cold feet and wanting to ensure it didn't look like one.

 

[samh004]

Could you parachute down to a waiting boat / sub from a 777 ?

Tom Clancy speaking !

Or transfer to another plane (a la Air Force One - Harrison Ford)

I know some planes have a top-hatch in the coughpit for use in emergencies, but not sure if this is the case on the 777. Either way, if you're travelling at speed you'd want to make sure you didn't hit the tail or get sucked into an engine, and also be at a low enough altitude that you could even open the hatch/a door. You might not have much time to pull a chute... IMO.

 

[Trakman]

Interesting comment over on the FT forum stating that the pilot was a political fanatic and supporter of the opposition leader who has just been found guilty of sodomy. Said he was at the trial 7 hours before the flight.

Maybe something just snapped....

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Discount suicide - he would have crashed it into the sea near takeoff not try to elude everyone and disappear without a trace

Perhaps not.

A person intent on suicide does have mental issues. What if a pilot obsessed with aviation (as an example, to the extent of building his own simulator) contemplated committing suicide but wanted his posthumous notoriety to include an entry in aviation annals as being the one able to make a plane completely disappear without trace in this modern era of electronic "big brother" wizardry?

Note - This is a hypothetical and I thought hard about whether or not to post it as I am not intending to cloud the good name of the pilot, but it's an example as to why the authorities cannot discount suicide.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Interesting comment over on the FT forum stating that the pilot was a political fanatic and supporter of the opposition leader who has just been found guilty of sodomy. Said he was at the trial 7 hours before the flight.

Maybe something just snapped....

So if he was really upset at the Govt over the outcome of the trial he might seek ways to embarrass the Govt & seek revenge of some kind.

 

[medhead]

I don't believe I've ever heard a FA announce that cushions may be used as a flotation device but only if you're in a lucky seat!!

I have. Mid 80s, 727s I'd guess.

 

[Trakman]

Interesting comment over on the FT forum stating that the pilot was a political fanatic and supporter of the opposition leader who has just been found guilty of sodomy. Said he was at the trial 7 hours before the flight.

Maybe something just snapped....

All reference to that has just been removed from the FT site. It referred to an article in today's daily mail at dailymail.co.uk. Probably not the most credible of sources...

 

[boomy]

But what worries me is that it was a terrorist plot and their idea is to create the greatest amount of doubt and anxiety into the travelling public.What better way than having the plane disappear with no evidence of how it was done.Either crashed into the Indian Ocean where the depth reaches up to 7000 metres in that arc or landing or crashing in an isolated region of the Stans where others on the ground collect the black boxes so no record of the whys and wherefores of the hijack are known.

I think most people treat it as a mystery waiting to unfold with more curiosity rather then anxiety.
The traveling community will keep on traveling and, in the short run, MH will likely suffer a decline in bookings, mostly from a lot of angry Chinese.

 

[Robbi]

No, you were talking about the flow of data supposedly able to narrow down the search area, its turned out there was no engine or other data flow from the aircraft. Someone has gone into the Immarsat logs and looked at what the transceiver and antenna on the plane is saying, rather than ACARS data. As a result we now have a search area that extends over half the earth latitudes, which means we are in a lot better position than yesterday where clearly the wrong area was being searched.

It would be nice to now how often the satellite transceiver pings the sat, it its once a second great, I have a feeling it might be in the minutes, and every minute interval widens that search area by 400 sq km.

When I was in LHR Friday Sky News and BBC were following up on the RR engine data that was received hours after the plane was supposed to gave disappeared and as part of the discussion said that even if the ACARS transceiver module was switched off in the coughpit the transceiver would still ping hourly to try to find a satellite network connection. This was reported as still being the case even if MH did not have ACARS subscription.

 

[markis10]

Interesting comment over on the FT forum stating that the pilot was a political fanatic and supporter of the opposition leader who has just been found guilty of sodomy. Said he was at the trial 7 hours before the flight.

Maybe something just snapped....

This is the article from http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...ial-of-opposition-leader-hours-before-flight/

 

[spudseamus]

What if this is the new face of terrorism ? Just look at the amount of grief and disquiet amongst the people !

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I know some planes have a top-hatch in the coughpit for use in emergencies, but not sure if this is the case on the 777. Either way, if you're travelling at speed you'd want to make sure you didn't hit the tail or get sucked into an engine, and also be at a low enough altitude that you could even open the hatch/a door. You might not have much time to pull a chute... IMO.

once the aircraft is depressurised you could theoretically open a inwards opening door or hatch (at least one large pax aircraft has this as an option to remove smoke from the cabin). How exactly you'd jump from a passenger jet without hitting the fuselage I don't know... you could have lots of time to jump out and open a chute from say 10,000 feet. If you didn't get killed by hitting the plane first.