Re: Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam

**bb1** Sun Mar 16, 2014 10:25 pm

It's mind-boggling, Lily. I hope it is on the ground, because then there's a chance the passengers are still alive, though God knows in what state, mentally or physically.

**lily** Sun Mar 16, 2014 10:30 pm

I believe that we have experienced a wide range of emotions ourselves? Heaven knows what the people involved have been through?

It has been an outrageous number of days when you thought it could not get any more weird? Then it does....

**bb1** Sun Mar 16, 2014 11:03 pm

A long piece:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10701706/MH370-pilots-calm-last-words-said-after-plane-seized.html

Quote:

The final words from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, "All Right, good night", apparently delivered in a calm voice, were spoken after the plane was seized and transmission equipment disabled, it was revealed on Sunday.
It separately emerged that the aircraft, which went missing over nine days ago, could have landed and continued to submit the hourly 'pings' to a satellite receiver for up to seven hours after the last contact.

Don't know what to say to any of that.

**lily** Sun Mar 16, 2014 11:12 pm

I imagine that they did a voice analysis so they know whose voice it was? Mind boggling!

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:41 am

http://news.sky.com/story/1227014/missing-plane-police-probe-flight-engineer

Investigators say they are looking into the background of one of the passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat said on social media sites he was a flight engineer working for a Swiss-based private jet charter company.

The 29-year-old's apparent experience means he would have a knowledge of in-flight computer systems and be able to carry out repairs.

However, as an engineer specialising in executive jets, he would not necessarily have had the skills required to divert and fly a Boeing 777.

A senior police official with knowledge of the investigation said: "The focus is on anyone who might have had aviation skills on that plane."

Authorities have also been focusing on the men at the controls - Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid.

Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said US intelligence was focusing on the two pilots.

Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam - Page 9 Artwork-1-626x352

Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam - Page 9 Artwork-1-626x352

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:50 am

Just more nothing from today's press conference, plus these:

Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam - Page 9 MH370_North

Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam - Page 9 MH370_South

I don't know which is worse, some kind of accident in an area where the plane is unlikely to ever be found. Or some kind of criminal enterprise years in the planning.

ETA, pics first posted here:

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/535538-malaysian-airlines-mh370-contact-lost-257.html

**Sabot** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:03 am

Dear God. Don't know what to say. Excepting that I think they know more than they are letting on. This gives me hope.

Why put it down in the middle of an ocean? What would be the point of that? And if it had crashed on land then someone would have noticed.

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:12 am

Agree, Sabot. Whatever's happened, it seems to have been deliberate, which as you say would make ditching it in the vastness of the Southern Ocean pretty pointless.

And right from the start, no-one in authority seems to have been telling the whole truth.

If there is a chance the passengers are still alive, and can be rescued, we actually have NO right to know what is going on behind the scenes - their lives outweigh everything else.

The Malaysian officials could try looking a bit less shifty, though.

**Sabot** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:26 am

Well, if someone is going to dive in and rescue them, then the less anyone knows the better.
Let's just hope it won't be the Americans. They don't have a very good record at this sort of thing.

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:29 am

No, they certainly don't. They're almost as bad at 'rescuing' people as the Russians.

Mossad and the SAS are pretty good.

**Sabot** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:42 am

I had forgotten about Mossad. They are indeed very good. As also are The SAS, but Britain might be barred from interfering for some inexplicable reason.

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:53 am

Unlikely, Sabot, Malaysia is a member of the Commonwealth. And the Rolls Royce engines are obviously British.

If the passengers are alive and hostages, there is far more chance of them being rescued safely by discreet special forces than a Shock and Awe special.

**lily** Mon Mar 17, 2014 4:29 pm

I hope they get the best people there are for the job. As you have said, rightly, the US has a poor record on this.

I'm sure you realize that Boeings are made in America......

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:04 pm

That was why the crash investigators and FBI were there so fast, wasn't it, Lily? Also, there were US citizens on board.

**lily** Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:19 pm

That is why the FBI were quick off the mark, Bonny.

This airplane crime is not easy whichever way you look at it.

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:53 pm

http://news.sky.com/story/1227274/missing-malaysia-plane-what-we-know-so-far

Timeline of events. Sadly, we know little more than we did a week ago.

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:03 pm

Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam - Page 9 Daily-express-1-329x437

Just what's not needed, more hysterical headlines.

**lily** Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:14 pm

That's what happens in a vacuum?

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:30 pm

Indeed, and this is a huge vacuum - little more known than you posted ten days ago to say that a plane had disappeared.

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:40 pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10700652/Malaysia-Airline-MH370-911-style-terror-allegations-resurface-in-case-of-lost-plane.html

The disclosure that Malaysians were plotting a 9/11-style attack raises the prospect that both pilots were overpowered and the plane intended for use as a fuel-filled bomb. One possible target, if the scenario is correct, will have been the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, a symbol of Malaysia’s modernity and the world’s tallest buildings from 1998 until 2004.

In that case, they are the world's most inept hi-jackers.

**lily** Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:54 pm

Absolutely, Bonny. Somehow I don't think that was it....

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:05 pm

The missing Malaysian plane may have secretly flown at just 5,000 feet to avoid radar, it was claimed tonight.

Taking a plane to such a low altitude - a technique called “terrain masking” - would have avoided detection on standard commercial radar equipment.

Investigators believe whoever was flying the Boeing 777 used terrain masking, which uses natural contours like hills and mountains, to hide the plane from satellite systems.

Malaysian investigators now think the plane flew at such low heights over three unnamed countries.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh370-3254484#ixzz2wGvFBLR5
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

If there is any truth at all in that, I can't see anyone being able to do it, besides an experienced pilot. The likes of the 9/11 hijackers would have flown it into a mountain fairly quickly?

**lily** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:14 pm

I read about that the other day, Bonny and thought that it might be a way to go. As they said, that would take a very skilled pilot to do that.

The skills of the 9-11 ones were horribly minor in comparison.

**bb1** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:38 pm

Investigators told the New Straits Times that they were now convinced the aircraft flow low over Kelantan, which is in the north east - exactly the same area where the villagers and fishermen who saw bright lights in the sky on the night the jet vanished are living.

At least nine people - fishermen, farmers and villagers - have made reports to police about seeing lights in the sky and some said they heard the loud noise of an engine.

These accounts appear to match the conclusions of investigators who say the jet flew low after making a sharp turn and heading west from its course over the South China Sea.

OMG, the poor passengers!

**lily** Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:52 pm

Yes Bonny. It's just awful beyond words for the people on that plane. They must have been terrified times 100.

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