This article says that if you're just relying on radar you can't actually tell the difference between a cargo transport and a commercial plane:
Latiff said that if they had only one radar, as Ukrainian officials suggest, it would have been pointed at the target. A second, rotating one would normally have been part of a battery to pick up other planes in the immediate vicinity, but he said even that would not have established whether it was a commercial plane and there would normally have been communications equipment to pick up signals showing the plane was non-military.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/separatist-links-malaysia-airlines-mh17-removed
― dem bow dem bow need calcium (seandalai), Friday, 18 July 2014 22:58 (nine years ago) link
The United States government has concluded that the passenger jet felled over Ukraine was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched from rebel-held territory and most likely provided by Russia to pro-Moscow separatists, officials said on Friday.
While American officials are still investigating the chain of events leading to the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Thursday, they pointed to a series of indicators of Russian involvement. Among other things, military and intelligence officials said there was mounting evidence that a Ukrainian military plane shot down just three days earlier had been fired upon from inside Russian territory by the same sort of missile battery used to bring down the civilian jet.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-plane-ukraine.html
So if this is correct, then it wasn't the BUK system that they took from the Ukrainian military.
― o. nate, Saturday, 19 July 2014 02:25 (nine years ago) link
Doesn't seem to be any solid evidence there. The allegation about Russia firing missiles into Ukraine related to a different missile system (GRAD rather than Buk). You couldn't hit anything in Ukraine from Russia with the latter and there has been no suggestion so far that the separatists have the former.
― Wristy Hurlington (ShariVari), Saturday, 19 July 2014 07:37 (nine years ago) link
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/07/nato-general-warned-of-russian-anti-aircraft-training-for-separatists/
USAF and NATO said back on June 30 they had intelligence indicating Russia had been training the separatists to use "vehicle-born" surface to air missiles.
― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 19 July 2014 07:59 (nine years ago) link
Still waiting for someone to blame Israel for all this
― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Saturday, 19 July 2014 12:20 (nine years ago) link
israel more interested in killing children on the ground than adults in the air
― balls, Saturday, 19 July 2014 13:57 (nine years ago) link
i'm pretty cynical but given the fact that there were children on board that post is pretty gross
― I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 19 July 2014 14:00 (nine years ago) link
you're right, maybe israel was involved then. branching out and killing children wherever they may find them - on the beaches, in the air.
― balls, Saturday, 19 July 2014 14:02 (nine years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-plane-ukraine.html
<-- rebels and kyiv jockeying to handle bodies, recovery of debris, etc.
also more details about what military tech the rebels may have had, when, and where
― I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 19 July 2014 14:04 (nine years ago) link
xpost
i'm not exactly zionist no. 1 but that's still pretty gross, but whatever, it's ilx.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 19 July 2014 14:05 (nine years ago) link
ugh please don't bring Israel/Palestine into this.
― Roz, Saturday, 19 July 2014 17:31 (nine years ago) link
i agree
― I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 19 July 2014 19:14 (nine years ago) link
(btw i think i have spent the past year or two thinking "balls" was "cutty." does "cutty" post on ilx anymore? he was the lawyer, right?)
― I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 19 July 2014 20:09 (nine years ago) link
balls is not cutty.
― a biscuit/donut hybrid called “bisnuts” (stevie), Saturday, 19 July 2014 20:25 (nine years ago) link
cutty posts as underrated aerosmith etc now iirc
― balls, Saturday, 19 July 2014 20:36 (nine years ago) link
i thought that was t0m h4milt0n, so confused
― I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 19 July 2014 21:13 (nine years ago) link
anyway, let's not dwell on this here. sorry.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 19 July 2014 21:14 (nine years ago) link
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118770/who-igor-bezler-russian-rebel-implicated-malaysia-flight-17
― balls, Saturday, 19 July 2014 21:25 (nine years ago) link
started new thread for discussion of current events: Malaysian flight MH17 / Ukraine conflict 2014
― I dunno. (amateurist), Monday, 21 July 2014 03:38 (nine years ago) link
PBS' Nova covers the disappearance.Good summary of everything.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/why-planes-vanish.html
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 23 October 2014 00:34 (nine years ago) link
Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Hampered by Disagreements
The five teams of investigators were made up of officials from Boeing, Inmarsat, France’s Thales Group , the U.S.’s National Transportation Safety Board, and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation. Each was asked by the ATSB to analyze the data independently and draw their own conclusions.“Originally we thought we had a consensus among the five groups, based on the best data available at the time,” Mr. Dolan, head of the Australian air-accident investigator, said in an interview. “Once we refined the data again the methodologies diverged.”Investigators haven’t made clear why using an autopilot would result in such a different flight path from that suggested by the plane’s satellite signals. Mr. Dolan declined to say which of the experts supported which of the crash-site theories. Representatives from the NTSB, Inmarsat, and Thales said they couldn’t immediately comment, and a Boeing spokesman declined to comment[
“Originally we thought we had a consensus among the five groups, based on the best data available at the time,” Mr. Dolan, head of the Australian air-accident investigator, said in an interview. “Once we refined the data again the methodologies diverged.”
Investigators haven’t made clear why using an autopilot would result in such a different flight path from that suggested by the plane’s satellite signals. Mr. Dolan declined to say which of the experts supported which of the crash-site theories. Representatives from the NTSB, Inmarsat, and Thales said they couldn’t immediately comment, and a Boeing spokesman declined to comment[
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 30 November 2014 02:07 (nine years ago) link
Because 2014 is the worst: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2888817/Flight-Indonesia-Singapore-loses-contact--media.html
― Roz, Sunday, 28 December 2014 03:34 (nine years ago) link
Ugh. So sorry
― Pigbag Wanderer (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 28 December 2014 04:53 (nine years ago) link
exact same make/model i just took to heathrow. yikes.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 28 December 2014 13:09 (nine years ago) link
Agence France-Presse ✔ @AFPFollow
#BREAKING AirAsia Flight #QZ8501 likely 'at bottom of sea': Indonesia search chief2:26 AM - 29 Dec 2014
― Enterprise Lesotho (nakhchivan), Monday, 29 December 2014 02:31 (nine years ago) link
sigh: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/44cf5b6b38ba4c1d8c7cbcf0c9a3f152/indonesia-bodies-found-near-site-where-plane-disappeared
― Roz, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 08:39 (nine years ago) link
Well, someone's gone off the deep end.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/jeff-wise-mh370-theory.html
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 04:25 (nine years ago) link
I have some clients at Baikonur - i'll ask around.
I have no idea how something this crazy actually ends up being published.
― Rainbow DAESH (ShariVari), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 08:25 (nine years ago) link
richard belzer's new book will answer all our questions...
http://www.amazon.com/Someone-Is-Hiding-Something-Happened/dp/1632207281/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0
― scott seward, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 18:12 (nine years ago) link
https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/ice-t-confused.gif?w=650
― bizarro gazzara, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 18:16 (nine years ago) link
seems legit
― when is the new Jim O'Rourke album coming out (spazzmatazz), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 20:09 (nine years ago) link
in re: nymag's jeff wise article. the biggest weakness in his theory is the total lack of a coherent motive for such an elaborate plot. even the most off-the-wall speculative motives seem far too weak to justify the theorized actions. one simply asks why on earth would anyone conceivably do this?
as long as you disregard this glaring hole, his theory hangs together fairly well.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 03:45 (nine years ago) link
It's still pretty impossible for someone to do this undetected while crossing over land borders too, even by flying close to territorial boundaries, as Wise suggest.
somewhat related: I've found that it's not a good idea these days to tell cab drivers in Malaysia I'm a reporter. Every single one of them is a Jeff Wise.
― Roz, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 08:46 (nine years ago) link
xp wise did a q&a on gawker and was asked about motive a couple of times - his response was basically ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 09:32 (nine years ago) link
that is my motivation for most things so im a believer baby
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 12:55 (nine years ago) link
Tbf, I think he was less :shrug: and more admitting that lack of motive is a major missing component of his theory.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 14:53 (nine years ago) link
seems kinda nuts to dream up an outlandish and insanely detailed theory without also coming up with an answer to the very first question any rational person will ask - 'why'?
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link
Well, once you move well beyond the realm of Occam's Razor, I imagine "why" becomes less important.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:05 (nine years ago) link
also, when there's no clear indication of who or why, it perhaps makes (or seems to make) more sense to deal with the evidence you do have than to speculate about motives.
― describing a scene in which the Hulk gets a boner (contenderizer), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:31 (nine years ago) link
when you hypothesize a state-funded and state-planned crime on this scale, yet you cannot supply the first idea of what possible benefit they could derive from it, as opposed to the massive risks involved, then you have a deeply, deeply flawed hypothesis. because equipment malfunction followed by a crash does not require a crime, a criminal, or motives, it becomes the most reasonable default explanation.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:44 (nine years ago) link
otm
― bizarro gazzara, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 16:50 (nine years ago) link
love the bit about the Kazakh Cosmodrome and the big pile of dirt just exactly right for covering a plane that size with
― nashwan, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 18:02 (nine years ago) link
As far as I know, Baikonur cosmodrome is actually a really busy "spaceport" full of non-Russian scientists and engineers working to get stuff up and down to the International Space Station and the like--you'd think they'd notice a massive jet landing there and being buried.
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Thursday, 26 February 2015 00:46 (nine years ago) link
It's basically the centre of day-to-day space transit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikonur_Cosmodrome
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Thursday, 26 February 2015 00:47 (nine years ago) link
Was the suggestion that something was buried? I thought the implication was that this was a disused temporary way station that got torn down after the plane landed, refueled/etc., and then was flown out somewhere else within Russian-controlled airspace where no one else's radar was going to notice.
Anyway, the topic most here and elsewhere seem to be missing and perhaps part of the reason this was published is that this is supposed to illustrate in passing how easy it is for someone who leans rational and skeptical to fall down the rabbithole of a theory of their own invention. Both this and the theory itself are somewhat unclear on the face of the piece, because it appears to be overly-abbreviated, not necessarily by the author.
― Banned on the Run (benbbag), Thursday, 26 February 2015 04:53 (nine years ago) link
I'm not saying I agree with the theory by any means, but it's not completely implausible.
― Banned on the Run (benbbag), Thursday, 26 February 2015 04:55 (nine years ago) link
http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-airlines-towelette-found-western-australia-beach-202221818--abc-news-topstories.html
― o. nate, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 03:14 (nine years ago) link
Search for Missing Plane Spots Unknown Shipwreckhttp://www.archaeology.org/news/3283-150513-australia-unidentified-shipwreck
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 14 May 2015 00:49 (nine years ago) link
Debris on an Island Is Examined for Links to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
A large object that appeared to be an airplane part washed up Wednesday on the shore of Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, prompting speculation that it might be debris from Flight 370, the Malaysia Airlines jetliner that disappeared in March 2014.A French official with knowledge of the investigation said that the object appeared to be a wing flap, possibly from a Boeing 777, the type of aircraft used on the flight. The official said that the object was about 9 feet long and 3 feet wide, and that it appeared to have been in the water for a very long time.The French aviation safety bureau, known as BEA, said in a statement on Wednesday that it “is studying the information on the airplane part found in La Réunion, in coordination with our Malaysian and Australian colleagues and with the judicial authorities.” It added that “it is not possible at this hour to ascertain whether the part is from a B-777 and/or from MH370.”The French official said that the authorities were in the process of designating a laboratory in France where the object would be taken for examination, and that pinning down exactly which plane the object came from may take several weeks.Agence France-Presse reported that the object was found by people cleaning a beach, and cited a witness who said it was partly encrusted with shells.Even so, aviation experts who viewed published photos of the object said it strongly resembled a part of a modern jetliner wing known as a flaperon, one of the control surfaces that pilots use to guide the aircraft in flight.Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said it seemed clear from the photos that the object “is a wing flap, and it’s about the right size.”Whether it came from a 777 was another matter.
A French official with knowledge of the investigation said that the object appeared to be a wing flap, possibly from a Boeing 777, the type of aircraft used on the flight. The official said that the object was about 9 feet long and 3 feet wide, and that it appeared to have been in the water for a very long time.
The French aviation safety bureau, known as BEA, said in a statement on Wednesday that it “is studying the information on the airplane part found in La Réunion, in coordination with our Malaysian and Australian colleagues and with the judicial authorities.” It added that “it is not possible at this hour to ascertain whether the part is from a B-777 and/or from MH370.”
The French official said that the authorities were in the process of designating a laboratory in France where the object would be taken for examination, and that pinning down exactly which plane the object came from may take several weeks.
Agence France-Presse reported that the object was found by people cleaning a beach, and cited a witness who said it was partly encrusted with shells.
Even so, aviation experts who viewed published photos of the object said it strongly resembled a part of a modern jetliner wing known as a flaperon, one of the control surfaces that pilots use to guide the aircraft in flight.
Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said it seemed clear from the photos that the object “is a wing flap, and it’s about the right size.”
Whether it came from a 777 was another matter.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 29 July 2015 23:51 (eight years ago) link
They've now found a suitcase, some bottles, and a plane door. All almost certain to be from MH370 but we'll get confirmation by tomorrow at the earliest.
Possibly more debris might have washed ashore in the past few months: http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh370-search-plane-seat-washed-up-on-reunion-island-in-may-20150802-gipl4t.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn:twi-13omn1677-edtrl-other:nnn-17/02/2014-edtrs_socialshare-all-nnn-nnn-vars-o&sa=D&usg=ALhdy28zsr6qiq
― Roz, Sunday, 2 August 2015 07:13 (eight years ago) link