Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over Vietnam

Truth is often stranger than fiction.  This is another possibility.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10687223/Malaysia-Airlines-MH370-plane-crash-live.html


12.07 Malaysia’s Berita Harian newspaper quoted air force chief Rodzali Daud as saying the missing plane was last detected by military radar at 2:40 a.m. on Saturday, near the island of Pulau Perak at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca.
The time given by Rodzali was an hour and 10 minutes after the plane vanished from air traffic control screens over Igari waypoint, midway between Malaysia and Vietnam.

11.07 "It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait," the military official, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.

The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early on Saturday morning, vanishing from civilian radar screens about an hour after take-off over the sea separating eastern Malaysia from the southern tip of Vietnam.

10.57 Our correspondent in Beijing, Malcolm Moore, sheds some light on the news the military tracked the plane hundreds of miles away:

The Malacca Strait runs all the way down the west side of Malaysia, quite close to Kuala Lumpur. There has been some speculation that if the plane suffered a problem with its computer systems and the pilots wanted to return to the airport, they could have been trying to track the west coast back down to KL.

That is speculation, but what we do know is that if they are now focusing attention on the Malacca Strait, they must give some credence to the early report that a military radar had seen the plane turn around, or change course.

10.30 A military source has told Reuters news agency that it believes it tracked the missing plane of the radar to the Strait of Malacca. What this suggests is that the plane tried to turn back, which is why they have now widened their search.

Members of a Chinese emergency response team prepare to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane

La La.

It looks like there may be something in that report, Lily.

http://news.sky.com/story/1223813/missing-malaysia-jet-tracked-miles-off-course

Interpol believes it unlikely the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane was the result of terrorism, as it was suggested the aircraft may have veered hundreds of miles off course.

Four days after flight MH370 and its 239 passengers and crew went missing without trace, the search has been extended far from its last confirmed location off Malaysia's east coast to the Malacca Strait on the other side of the country, after it was reported military radar had tracked the plane to this area.

I confess, I am none too sure how this is Interpol's domain, I thought their remit stopped at passengers on fake passports. The whole thing is beyond strange.

This isn't like the Air France plane that crashed into the vast Atlantic due to pilot error. These are busy shipping lanes, and the water isn't that deep:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/359411/Strait-of-Malacca

In the south of the strait, water depths rarely exceed 120 feet (37 metres) and are usually about 90 feet (27 metres). Toward the northwest, the bottom gradually deepens until it reaches to about 650 feet (200 metres) as the strait merges with the Andaman Basin.

It's as if a plane vanished between the UK and Scandinavia, and no-one, not a ship, not a fishing boat, not a rig, saw anything.

It is perplexing isn't it? I think it might seem more reasonable if it HAD been over the Bermuda Triangle.

It was a revelation to me that there really are 'blank spots' where communications, etc., don't work, Lily. I thought that was the stuff of urban myth and legend.

I know, Bonny. Will see what I can find out.....

Thanks, Lily, it will be interesting to know more about this. There must be a simple reason for it, the blank spots can't be portals to the Atlanteans' sub-sea fleet of UFOs.

Have received this information, Bonny.


Radio transmissions are routinely inoperative over long water stretches. It happens on every long flight. The aircraft is just too far away from a station.
The black boxes, etc, only have about a 100 mi range so we will have to wait until a ship or sub can pick up their sounds.
If at the bottom of the ocean (depending on the depth) the pickup range will be greatly reduced.

He believes that is why we have heard nothing so far.

Hmm, not sure if that works here, as land, islands, etc., are abundant, the shipping lanes are very busy and the water's shallow.....all very odd.

Don't take any notice of me. There is nothing terribly strange about black spots.

http://news.sky.com/story/1224215/malaysia-airlines-investigates-missing-co-pilot

Malaysia Airlines is investigating claims the co-pilot on its missing plane invited two women into the cockpit for the duration of a flight two years ago.

Sad to think that used to be normal, in more innocent days. Even I can boast of having been allowed in the cockpit of a jet, many years ago. But I didn't touch anything!

bb1 wrote:http://news.sky.com/story/1224215/malaysia-airlines-investigates-missing-co-pilot

Malaysia Airlines is investigating claims the co-pilot on its missing plane invited two women into the cockpit for the duration of a flight two years ago.

Sad to think that used to be normal, in more innocent days. Even I can boast of having been allowed in the cockpit of a jet, many years ago. But I didn't touch anything!

Wot? For the whole flight? Whose knee did you sit on?

She was in the cockpit Sabot. She says she didn't touch anything so the joystick was safe.   

And still no news, just more rumours and speculation.

http://news.sky.com/story/1224430/malaysia-airlines-mystery-search-stepped-up

Can't imagine what the people waiting for news about their loved ones must be feeling.

Good way to get it out there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579524/Chinese-satellite-finds-suspected-crash-site-Malaysian-Airlines-flight-370-South-China-Sea-did-three-days-release-them.html

Is this the plane?

I have no idea what that is, I wonder why there was a delay in releasing the images and information. Oh wait, Chinese satellite is why?

I would think that is the reason, Bonny.

ETA: I hope it is so that they can get some closure.

I did read earlier that there is a site for people to peer at satellite images of the area being searched in the hope someone will see something. But the site crashed.

Frankly, armchair defectives are bad enough now without letting them loose on missing planes.

We know what some of them would say.

"It's their own fault for getting on the plane." "Prove it is missing, you can't can you? So where is it?"

Things like that?

Still no news, just a press conference denying the wilder stories.

http://news.sky.com/story/1225034/malaysia-nothing-to-hide-over-plane-search

Malaysia 'Nothing To Hide' Over Plane Search
Officials have dismissed reports the plane continued flying for four hours after its last transmission early on Saturday morning.

So what's with Rolls Royce having a monitor on their engines? I am going to go on hoping for a minute.

Seems to be standard these days, Sabot. It's sensible - it means RR can easily keep track of flying hours, when engines are due to be serviced, etc., without relying on people to fill in paperwork.