Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam

I hope to God that when I look at this thread again there will be some good news.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2576087/Malaysia-Airlines-says-plane-missing.html

Boeing 777 carrying 239 people vanishes over Vietnam 'after abruptly plunging 200ft' two hours after take-off amid fears of crash

A major search has been launched for a Malaysian Airlines jet with 239 people on board after it lost contact flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Airline officials admitted they were gravely concerned for the safety of the aircraft.

It was not immediately known which nationalities were on board the jet which was flying on a popular route.

An unconfirmed report on a flight tracking website said the aircraft had plunged 200m and changed course shortly before all contact was lost.

The route would have taken flight MH370, a B777-200 aircraft, across the Malaysian mainland in a north easterly direction and then across the Gulf of Thailand.

Those on board included two infants and 12 crew members, Malaysian Airlines said in a statement, adding it was working with all authorities in the region and search and rescue teams had been mobilised.

The aircraft had been due to land in Beijing at 6.30am local time but at 7.54am the airline issued a statement saying it had not landed and was officially missing.



Aviation experts said that if the report of the aircraft suddenly plunging was correct it could be due to a number of factors.

These include a catastrophic engine failure, the pilots taking evasive action to avoid another aircraft, or an explosion.

The airline has not said whether the pilots were able to issue a distress call - but if they did not, experts said this could indicate a catastrophy that had occurred without warning.

Malaysian Airlines said it would issue updates as soon as more information became available.

The aircraft had enough fuel on board for a seven hour flight and and the airline said that given the time it has been missing it would have already run out of fuel.

Fearing the worst, the airline has begun contacting relatives of the passengers warning them that the flight has not arrived and they should prepare themselves for bad news.

The Boeing jet lost contact with Malaysian air traffic controllers a little over two hours into its flight.


Reports from China's Xinhua news agency said later that the aircraft was lost in air space controlled by Vietnam and did not enter Chinese airspace or make any contact with Chinese controllers.

Vietnam is heavily shrouded in forest and there were no immediate reports coming from that country of an aircraft crashing.
Vietnamese authorites said they were investigating the aircraft's disappearance.

Malaysian Airlines said the passengers on board were of 13 nationalities.

'Our team is currently calling the next of kin of passengers and crew,' said the airline's chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, as the airline issued a statement saying its 'thoughts and prayers' were with all those on board as well as their families.

Unconfirmed reports said it was believed the missing aircraft was involved in a crash in August 2012 when it damaged the tail of a China Eastern Airlines plane at Shanghai Pudong Airport.
The reports said that in that incident the tip of the wing of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 broke off.

Crying relatives of Chinese passengers on board the plane wept at Beijing airport as it became clear the jet had probably crashed.

Retired American Airlines captain Jim Tilmon told CNN today (Sat) that 'it doesn't sound very good,' as the search continued for the missing jet.

'The route is mostly overland, which means there would be plenty of radars and radios to contact the plane. But if nothing has been heard...
'I've been trying to come up with every scenario that I could just to explain this away, but I haven't been very successful.'

Mr Tilmon said the jet was 'about as sophisticated as any commercial airplane could possibly be.'

Afraid not, Lily. There's still no news; it looks like it went into the sea off Vietnam.  

That airline is considered on of the safest in the world - no incidenbts since mid 1990's I saw on CNN. LL

There was the San Francisco crash, but you can't blame the airplane for that, especially as one of the two dead was run over by a fire truck.

Let's hope for the best, while being only too aware that the worst has probably happened.

bb1 wrote:There was the San Francisco crash, but you can't blame the airplane for that, especially as one of the two dead was run over by a fire truck.

Let's hope for the best, while being only too aware that the worst has probably happened.

That was an Asiana Airlines plane, not Malaysia Airlines as far as I recall. LL

Sorry, cross purposes, I thought you meant the plane....which also has a near-immaculate record.

Not good news, I fear. And also today it was announced that hairline cracks have appeared in Dreamliner wings under construction. LL

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-boeing-cracks-idUSBREA261QG20140307

bb1 wrote:http://news.sky.com/story/1222740/live-updates-search-for-malaysia-airlines-plane

Vietnamese state media quoted a navy official as saying Flight MH370 crashed near Tho Chu island, off Vietnam's south coast.
All ships in the local area have been sent to the scene to look for survivors.

Air force jets have spotted two large oil slicks off Vietnam.

Oh dear. You can imagine that the black boxes will be recovered soon? Not that that is any comfort to those close to the ones who went down in the plane.

Lamplighter wrote:Not good news, I fear.  And also today it was announced that hairline cracks have appeared in Dreamliner wings under construction.  LL

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-boeing-cracks-idUSBREA261QG20140307

The 777 is an excellent plane and forms the workhorse of lots of international carriers. Have been on too many to count, ditto Airbus A320 but I am a Boeing fan myself. Pilot friends love the 777.

LL, I have been on the Dreamliner and have to tell you that it is the most amazing, quiet, comfortable and high tech plane I have ever been on. I hope they get the glitches fixed quickly.

I do feel for the families and friends of those missing.

Odd.

http://news.sky.com/story/1222740/live-updates-search-for-malaysia-airlines-plane

Malaysia Airlines listed one of the passengers on the plane as a 37-year-old Italian called Luigi Maraldi.

However, according to reports in Italy, Mr Maraldi has contacted his parents to say he was not on the airliner.

He had his passport stolen in Thailand several months ago, leaving questions over who had used his passport to board the plane and whether that has anything to do with the airliner's disappearance.

I am sure questions will be being asked as to how an airliner can just vanish mid-flight. This has always been an odd one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerolinee_Itavia_Flight_870

I refused to fly home from Singapore on a Boeing, so Her Majesty's Royal Navy put me on an Airforce airliner to save themselves the embarrassment of dragging me up the steps kicking and screaming.
Not that I was all that happy about that either.

bb1 wrote:Austria's foreign ministry has confirmed that an Austrian citizen reported to be on the flight is safe at home. His passport was stolen two years ago while he was travelling in Thailand, a spokesman said.

One time when I was in the First Class Lounge in Singapore, I saw two young local looking guys taking a brief case from the luggage area.  Then an announcement was made that a briefcase was stolen.  Naturally I talked to the staff about it and they informed me that 2 US passports were inside. They are very valuable and often stolen. They had me walk the whole of the 747 which happened to be my flight, up and down the aisles to see if I recognized them.  I pointed one out to the flight attendants who accompanied me.

The American guys were on board, so I knew they had some 'pull' there.

Talk about a weird experience.

ETA: The stolen passports may be the clue to what may have happened? Hope not....

Still no sign of the plane, but this is worrying:

http://news.sky.com/story/1223036/malaysia-airlines-suspect-passengers-probe

The Malaysian military says there is radar data which indicates that the flight turned back before it disappeared.

The poor people on board.   

We can see that everything is being done to locate the wreckage and of course, the so called black boxes. Until then we can only speculate?

Remembering that my scant knowledge comes from watching Aircrash Investigation, I really don't think the plane blew up, for whatever reason, mid-air. The wreckage would have been found earlier, and the debris would have shown on radar.

Nothing was heard from the cockpit, so it's unlikely that the crew did a repeat of the Air France crash.

The only other crash I can think of that is remotely similar is, unfortunately, Flight 93.

I have the ghastly feeling those poor people have been murdered for some -ism or other. I hope I'm wrong, an accident is bad enough.

http://news.sky.com/story/1222942/malaysia-airlines-suspected-fragments-found

Suspected fragments from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people have been found off Vietnam.

The Vietnamese navy said objects, one thought to be an aircraft door, were spotted by a rescue plane off the country's south coast.

Security services are investigating whether the Boeing 777-200 was destroyed in a terror attack.

That's an excellent point about the debris, Bonny.

I also hope that they were not murdered for some sick reason. It will all come out eventually in the meantime, I hope their loved ones receive some answers soon.

Let's hope they are totally wrong, and it was a tragic accident of some kind.

Absolutely, Bonny. The FBI have been known to be wrong before.

http://news.sky.com/story/1223246/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-remains-mystery

Investigators say a yellow object seen floating in the sea is not a life raft from the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared with 239 people on board.

The reported sighting, made by the crew of a Vietnamese jet around 90 miles southwest of Tho Chu island, was another false alert for the international teams of rescuers searching for flight MH370.

Authorities remain "puzzled" by the plane's "unprecedented" disappearance mid-flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.


Odder and odder.

If that door is intact it means that it got blown out from inside of the main passenger cabin.

It's not known if its even the door, though, Sabot, and the TV news just stated that the oil slick is not from a plane.