Flight MH370 ?? What happened?

[deep]

.

[Hewson]

[anitram]

What a bizarre (and sad) story.

I'm surprised that in this day and age we don't have the technology to track the location of an airplane at all times. I guess we don't have satellite coverage over open waters, etc but you would think they'd have developed some sort of GPS so that planes can't disappear.

[mikal]

I think at this point, they just discovered that the French Woman's distress call has been playing in a loop for the last 15 years.

[deep]

It is either foul play or an accident.

both are causes for serious concern.

In the last 20 or so years we have had a few planes go down unexplained. With enough parts collected and analyzed, a most likely cause can be presented. I don't think much of this plane will ever be collected.

[prbiker15]

This occurrence is really, really strange - nonetheless unfortunate. Reminds me of Air France Flight #447, but in this case the aircraft is nowhere to be found.

As to what really happened, with all these claims of passports stolen and 'suspicious' identities, I guess we can only speculate. I'm quite surprised they have not found any trace or piece of the aircraft at all. We'll see if this develops any further.

[Earnie Shavers]

Really strange that they're searching over in the Malacca Straight.

[the iron horse]

CBS NEWS one hour ago:

Interpol: Two Iranians "probably not terrorists."
Flight 370: Search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane widened, intensifies focus on land - CBS News

[BoMac]

The mystery deepens:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/missing-...rait-1.1723453

[Irvine511]

i can't stop reading about this. i worry about myself sometimes.

morbidity aside, it's always a good geography lesson. i learned a lot about Fernando de Noronha after Air France 447.

[Earnie Shavers]

I can't stop reading about it either. There's such a strange mix of potential scenarios.

[Axver]

The announcements from the Malaysian authorities of late have been veering from the baffling to the bizarre, and if I knew somebody on the flight I'd probably find them rather distressing or offensive (certainly it seems some of the families are becoming rather angry!). It's as if in the absence of any concrete information, they feel they must say something, anything to placate the feverish public interest, so they blurt out the first thing to come into their heads. The suggestion that the plane was downed by somebody wanting to claim a life insurance policy belongs to outlandish speculation the comments section of a tabloid news website, not an official spokesperson, and mentioning that Italian soccer player who looked nothing like either of the men on fake passports was just all-round strange.

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by Axver

The announcements from the Malaysian authorities of late have been veering from the baffling to the bizarre, and if I knew somebody on the flight I'd probably find them rather distressing or offensive (certainly it seems some of the families are becoming rather angry!). It's as if in the absence of any concrete information, they feel they must say something, anything to placate the feverish public interest, so they blurt out the first thing to come into their heads. The suggestion that the plane was downed by somebody wanting to claim a life insurance policy belongs to outlandish speculation the comments section of a tabloid news website, not an official spokesperson, and mentioning that Italian soccer player who looked nothing like either of the men on fake passports was just all-round strange.

All I saw about that was that it was one of the threads they were perusing in trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. Never did I actually hear that they thought that was what was going on.

[corianderstem]

I saw something that had a spokesman basically breaking it down to say it was either:

a) terrorism

b) (I actually forgot what the second thing was; I don't think it was something obvious, like "mechanical failure")

c) a "psychological problem" among the crew or passengers; or

d) a "personal problem" among the crew or passengers.

I can see how they'd land at c (i.e., someone was mentally unstable), but with d, I'm stymied.

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by corianderstem

I saw something that had a spokesman basically breaking it down to say it was either:

a) terrorism

b) (I actually forgot what the second thing was; I don't think it was something obvious, like "mechanical failure")

c) a "psychological problem" among the crew or passengers; or

d) a "personal problem" among the crew or passengers.

I can see how they'd land at c (i.e., someone was mentally unstable), but with d, I'm stymied.

I saw the same list, we must have read the same article. I think the last one was the one that was basically someone that might have been trying to commit insurance fraud.

[corianderstem]

Ahhh, okay.

[Irvine511]

I still think it had to be some catastrophic mechanical error, but what kind of error could it have been? With AF447 they just needed to find the wreckage in the deep Atlantic, but they knew basically where it was. Here, they seem as flummoxed as anyone.

I'm "enjoying" (not the right word) the conspiracy theories -- everything from the plane is in North Korea to the plane landing safely in a friendly country and being readied to be used as a bomb.

[Axver]

Originally Posted by bono_212

All I saw about that was that it was one of the threads they were perusing in trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. Never did I actually hear that they thought that was what was going on.

Here's the quote:

“Maybe somebody on the flight has bought a huge sum of insurance, who wants family to gain from it or somebody who has owed somebody so much money, you know, we are looking at all possibilities,” Bakar told a news conference.

“We are looking very closely at the video footage taken at the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport), we are studying the behavioral pattern of all the passengers.”

It's one thing to look up all leads, but this reads rather like any other strange theory posted in news comment sections, especially after other strange or contradictory announcements.

The New Zealand Herald has a good interview that notes Malaysia Airlines were accustomed to dealing with a more compliant local media, not the pressure being applied by overseas journalists. That would explain at least some of the awkward conduct and eagerness to say anything, even if it's contradictory (time and location of last contact with plane), half-baked (Italian footballer comparison), or speculative (life insurance policy theory).

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by Axver

Here's the quote:

It's one thing to look up all leads, but this reads rather like any other strange theory posted in news comment sections, especially after other strange or contradictory announcements.

The New Zealand Herald has a good interview that notes Malaysia Airlines were accustomed to dealing with a more compliant local media, not the pressure being applied by overseas journalists. That would explain at least some of the awkward conduct and eagerness to say anything, even if it's contradictory (time and location of last contact with plane), half-baked (Italian footballer comparison), or speculative (life insurance policy theory).

Ah, thanks, that's actually the same quote I read, but in the context of the larger article, I guess I didn't find it so strange the first time.

I found it kinda funny that the two guys with the fake passports ended up being from Iran. The reason being that I found this quote hilariously awkward to begin with:

Malaysia’s home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has also slammed immigration officials over border control checks.
“I am still perturbed. Can’t these immigration officials think? Italian and Austrian but with Asian faces,” he told state news agency Bernama in comments that appear to have been made late on Sunday.

Though I suppose Iran is in Asia, isn't it...

[youarenotimmune]

What the fuck...

The mystery surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has deepened with the Chinese media reporting that several of the passengers' mobile phones were connecting when called by relatives, but the calls were not picked up.
The sister of one of the Chinese passengers among the 239 people on board the vanished flight rang his phone live on TV, the Mirror reports.
"This morning, around 11:40 [am], I called my older brother's number twice, and I got the ringing tone," said Bian Liangwei, sister of one of the passengers. At 2pm, Bian called again and heard it ringing once more.
"If I could get through, the police could locate the position, and there's a chance he could still be alive." She has passed on the number to Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese police.
A man from Beijing also called his missing brother on the plane, and reported to the airlines that the phone connected three times and rang before appearing to hang up, according to Shanghai Daily. Media reports claim that the brother had called the number in the presence of reporters before informing the airline.
The Strait Times reported that many of the family members told MAS commercial director Hugh Dunleavy that the commuters' mobile phones were ringing but they were not picked up.
To this, Dunleavy replied that MAS was calling the mobile phones of the crew members as well, which were ringing, and that he had given the numbers to Chinese investigators.

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