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Being a frequent flyer site, many our members pay close attention when aviation items hit the news. The news of a Malaysian B777 going missing certainly got our members talking.
777-200 enroute to Beijing lost contact with ground a few hours into the flight.
With the world getting a smaller place, many were left wondering how you can lose a plane in this era of technology. After all, if we lose our phone, we just turn on the computer and it will tell us where it is. Technology also helps the public make up their mind on what they are being told. Our members were quick to pick up some of the inconsistencies in the initial statements. Inconsistencies that were to prove significant later
If Subang ATC lost contact 2 hours into the flight, wouldn’t that give an indication of where the aircraft was at that time? If so it would place it near southern Laos or mid Vietnam.
From the data accessible to the outside world, contact seemed to be lost around 40 minutes into the flight. This placed the aircraft almost on the boundaries of airspace between Vietnam and Singapore/Malaysia. This agreed with the official statement saying contact was lost at the boundary, but at some two hours into the flight. How could a flight have been flying for 2 hours, which was one third of the total time aloft, only have travelled 1/6th of the distance?
The mystery was soon thought to have been resolved the following day when officials soon corrected their reports and said the plane lost contact 40 minutes after departure. At the same time, reports were surfacing of radar contact on the other side of the country with the place some 2 hours after departure. Soon we were also hearing news that the search areas had been expanded to cover the Malacca Straits and the Andaman Sea, on the other side of Malaysia.
What followed day after day were reports of sightings of fires in the sky, satellite images showing debris, data streaming from the plane hours after its lost etc etc. Most if not all, denied as being accurate at subsequent official press conferences.
Clearly, this story still has a way to go. One of our members probably summed up the collective feelings frequent flyers have with this post
Events like this make our “upgrades” and “lounge access” quibbles pale into insignificance. Be thankful for flights that simply take off and land without incidence. Our AFF group thoughts (are) to those Australians missing, and their families waiting for news.
Where did MH370 go and why, have we been told the facts, join the conversation HERE.
