Malaysia Airlines MH370

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/analysis-sabotage-most-common-factor-in-en-route-accidents-396830/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/03/10/malaysia_airlines_passports_travel_agent_says_tickets_for_men_traveling.html

da-da-da!

what does that sound effect mean?

sorry, corny comment on fabricated espionage/international drama angle

i read it as the sound when link finds the map or compass or key in a chest.

-- people moving esp into china from a southeast asian country on a fraudulent or stolen passport isn't shocking at all. the flight also doesn't seem like a serious terrorist target, originating in a muslim state and landing in china. it's not at the top of my list for potential causes.

-- the talk of xinjiang-related terrorism and mentioning the kunming attack is crazy, too, i think, and shows a lack of understanding of the situation of xinjiang separatist or even islamist or whatever terrorism in china.

Good summary so far: http://theaviationist.com/2014/03/11/mh370-known-unknown-facts/

One of the people on a stolen passport was an Iranian kid who wanted to migrate to Europe.

http://i.imgur.com/T254OOk.jpg

Not a great resemblance to Balotelli, tbh.

IIRC, Iranians don't need visas to get into Malaysia so it's a popular transport hub to Europe for illegal migrants.

guy on the left maybe Ronaldo-ish

nearly punched a student in the pub last night giving out the most whitebread blatherwitted bollocks about this to his friends re: Malaysia

The other country is Australia

Yep, this. I used to work at the passport office/DFAT. We were extremely thorough about this stuff and our passports use the 2 row digital code and all the fancy new watermarked plastic and such, but I guess if there's a ton of countries not even bothering to crosscheck these things on an Interpol database, kind of whats the point?

I'd assume, as it appears is the case here, a large majority of these are for immigration purposes. And then possibly trafficking of people and/or parents spiriting kids away from ex partners (based on my experience seeing this stuff in action anyway)

Yeah the more details that come out about the stolen passports the less credence I give (if I gave any at all) to that angle being related to terrorism

Elvis' link OTM in that the only reason it's even in play at all is because we literally know absolutely nothing about what happened

the other country is uae wrt interpol passport database

i agree the stolen passports are most likely a red herring. though i imagine there are a fair few people rubbing their hands in glee at the iranian connection

i think the only reason xinjiang came up was because there was something about one of the artists on board being uyghur and the chinese state media blacking out his name to avoid causing panic? something like that

then there's the five passengers who checked in but didn't fly. i don't fly that often but it's pretty normal to have a number of absentees on flights right?

shit like this chills me to the bone but it's impossible not to want to speculate

The passenger who was a uyghur was actually a CCP official I think

Even the airliners.net folks have run out of steam... One speculation is that the crew became hypoxic - bleurgh...

Reminded of these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SilkAir_Flight_185
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Air_Flight_574
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611

Brief article on stolen passports on Radio 4 last night, they said that Spain tried to adopt a system like the US after the Madrid bombing but it was abandoned on the grounds of cost and that no air carrier would support it for fear of it deterring customers.

The US are the only country that takes it really seriously, even in the UK and Aus the check is entirely delegated to air carriers and they take it seriously at they think they have to demonstrate - the US has grounded planes in foreign countries before apparently the federal government weren't happy they had all the details, and they also require it for flights to Mexico and the Caribbean as they are claimed to be US air space.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/03/11/the-difficulty-and-mystery-of-mh370-search-explained-in-two-graphics/

then there's the five passengers who checked in but didn't fly. i don't fly that often but it's pretty normal to have a number of absentees on flights right?

Police chief now saying that apart from one woman who missed the flight completely, everyone who booked a ticket boarded the plane. No explanation about the five passengers mentioned earlier. I don't even know what to think anymore.

Anyway, once I missed a flight after I checked in early, because I lost track of time reading at the airport cafe and didn't hear them paging for me. Arrived at the gate just in time to see them take my luggage out of the plane. -_- Dumbest and prob the most expensive mistake I've ever made.

Five people doing it at once though... seems kind of unlikely, but I guess it's possible if they were travelling in a group.

i spent about an hour today at work reading wikipedia pages about aviation disasters

yeah I did that yesterday :(

Really don't know much about this stuff but seems like the most plausible explanation so far? http://mh370lost.tumblr.com/post/79214607814/my-recommendation-to-the-ntsb

Wow

a horrifying possibility.

Not a great resemblance to Balotelli, tbh.

Turns out the aviation chief wasn't comparing their looks to Balotelli at all: he was using Balotelli to make a point about race and nationality not being the same thing, re: his "not Asian-looking" comment.

“Do you know a footballer by the name of Bartoli (sic)? He’s an Italian. Do you know what he looks like? Balotelli,” he told reporters late on Monday.
“I don’t want to dwell about this but they (nationality and race) are not the same thing.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j4-AFCn1jZNe3jDmr0d6r-ab5B3A?docId=20d66805-865b-428e-9a8a-ea382e9ea846

Roz that is fascinating/scary, but I gotta say that it beats the hell out of all the other ways to die in an airplane that I can think of, just drift off slowly.

I remember watching live coverage of this hypoxic plane on autopilot on TV:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

was that the payne stewart plane?

yep and from the "Similar Incidents" on that wiki page:

2000 Australia Beechcraft King Air crash
Main article: 2000 Australia Beechcraft King Air crash

On September 4, 2000 a Beechcraft 200 Super King Air departed from Perth, Australia, destined for Leonora, a mining town 370 miles (600 km) away, carrying seven passengers plus the pilot.[13][14] After 22 minutes of flight, the aircraft had passed through its assigned altitude. It was at this point that Air Traffic Control noticed that the pilot's speech had become significantly impaired and he was unable to respond to instructions.[13] Communications continued with the pilot for a further eight minutes before he lapsed into unconsciousness and no sounds of life on board could be heard.[13]

so the plane crashed on camera? jesus

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- [Breaking news update at 1:23 p.m. ET]

The Malaysian Air Force has traced the last known location of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 to a spot above Pulau Perak, a very small island in the Straits of Malacca and hundreds of miles from the usual Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path, according to a senior Malaysian Air Force official. The official declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

If the Malaysian Air Force data cited by the source is correct, the aircraft was flying the opposite direction from its scheduled destination and on the opposite side of the Malay Peninsula from its scheduled route.

which is to say if this is true, that possibility Roz cited seems vv plausible

wow, that is radically off course.

I don't think autopilot would take a plane that far off vector though.

When autopilot disengages the plane would basically go straight down, not loop back in a reverse direction hundreds of miles off course.

maybe it's possible that the pilot attempted to turn it around manually and then engaged autopilot at some point, not due to any logical reason but due to disorientation due to lack of oxygen? cf "mumbling" and what not.

i'm no pilot obv.

what a crazy story.

The pilot would need to report/radio any change of course before taking it off vector. That type of drastic redirection is simply not something you do without telling anyone. Even in dire, dire, dire aircraft emergencies, the pilot or co-pilot is constantly monitoring and reporting over the radio even in the black. They were not in the black though, there are several dozens of air traffic control stations/airports across Northern Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Southern Vietnam.

Crazy indeed.

This is starting to seem a lot more like hijacking - either by passengers or with collusion of one or more of the crew. Turning off the transponder, flying below radar in the opposite direction of planned route...

Meanwhile this sounds weird.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Airline-probing-report-2-visited-cockpit-in-2011-5306680.php

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140311134342-flight-course-00001224-story-top.jpg

Meanwhile this sounds weird.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Airline-probing-report-2-visited-cockpit-in-2011-5306680.php

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, March 11, 2014 2:20 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/11/article-2578146-1C31386700000578-612_634x382.jpg

player's ball

is that Samantha Fox in the middle?

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140311134342-flight-course-00001224-story-top.jpg

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Tuesday, March 11, 2014 2:22 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

based on this it seems likely that they decided to turn back to kuala lampur but lost control of the plane for some reason after that?

why is the new radar info/location just being released

According to the Malaysian Air Force official, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media

777 Passenger Oxygen masks do not deploy until cabin altitude reaches 13,500. Passengers were likely already unconscious by then, if it was a slow decompression

uh, no. you might get oxygen sickness but you are not unconscious. la paz is at 13,300 ft.

ha i meant altitude sickness

Okay the NYT story right now suggests MASS confusion:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/world/asia/malaysia-jet.html

Which Roz has already mentioned, but now, even more so?