MAS B772 9M-MRO Flight MH370 KUL-PEK Missing with All 239 POB Presumed Killed

[Craig 0]

It's Fox news. Take it with a grain of salt!

[zamim 0]

How the hack they got this info?

This guy Scott Brenner knew because he's the mastermind behind it

[S V Choong 4]

Thank you for clearing up that bit

Would the aircraft then have had to depend on any 'external' input eg. satellite signals (GPS?) for navigating about ?

If so, are those signals traceable back to the aircraft ?

Just to clarify what is written on the Russian Intelligence report. Is it theoretically possible the Americans to control the "fly-by-wire system" of an aircraft via external source? Literally remote control the aircraft's flight management system to alter its course and head for Diego Garcia?

 

I would have thought there is no way they can do that, but I guess we never know!

[Cire 0]

All those news makes quite an exciting event for outsiders, but saddening to the folks who have to endure the pain of uncertainty. Really understand their situation. Hope come, hope gone. Then it rebound, and then is taken away. Its total anguish.

[S V Choong 4]

All those news makes quite an exciting event for outsiders, but saddening to the folks who have to endure the pain of uncertainty. Really understand their situation. Hope come, hope gone. Then it rebound, and then is taken away. Its total anguish.

Literally emotional roller coaster ride...

[geoff.leo 0]

There's a lot of bad journalism out there. And so far most of the "experts" that have appeared on the international news networks have delivered a whole lot of rubbish. Then again, these news networks are just doing their job. Filling the airtime and keeping the layman glued to the TV is the primary job. Accuracy and relevance comes second.

 

If you were to bring a B777 pilot on air with a good knowledge of operating around Southeast Asia, a lot of these theories would be shot down in a blink.

[V Wong 0]

There's a lot of bad journalism out there. And so far most of the "experts" that have appeared on the international news networks have delivered a whole lot of rubbish. Then again, these news networks are just doing their job. Filling the airtime and keeping the layman glued to the TV is the primary job. Accuracy and relevance comes second.

 

If you were to bring a B777 pilot on air with a good knowledge of operating around Southeast Asia, a lot of these theories would be shot down in a blink.

Hear hear! I'm guilty of visiting these rubbish websites, which I wouldn't have normally done so. All in the name of increasing viewership. I've taken so much salt the last 10days, I'm getting hypertensive.

Edited March 19, 2014 by V Wong

[Mushrif A 3]

A lot of guys actually believe that Russian intelligence reports are published on websites for the world to read?

 

...where's the intelligence there?

[Izanee 0]

I agree with you guys, it's not the radar but what u do with the information. People sleeping on the job, or makan gaji buta or couldn't be bothered to scramble jets or at least speak to their seniors about this unidentified aircraft. How do they know it's NOT hostile when it is unidentified? Could be a bloody TU-160 blackjack bomber with a nuclear warhead.

Shocking news.

And that Maldivian report is a little glimmer of hope for us

I really hope the pax is safe somewhere on the ground. Really really hope. What else can I do?

Edited March 19, 2014 by Izanee

[Cire 0]

While we share grief with the missing passengers' families, some of us too will feel somewhat perplexed and shameful at the same time that our military's weakness have to be exposed in such a dramatic way. However good or bad of it, it is still our armies, and our country. It is hope that all parties concerned will truly take a look at the whole military forces' operations and revamp where needed to ensure not only our integrity is restored, but also our country's pride and image.

 

It so happens that Hishamuddin is both the MOT and MOD at the moment, he will surely need to buck up and blare some trumpets to whip the Generals up to speed, that if he himself could do it.

[Wong Kok Choy 0]

Hi Guys, been following this thread for quite a while and it's a really sad incident. I'm just curious about one thing. Early on, there were reports that people were able to call the cellphones of some of the passengers and the phones rang.

 

My question would be, has this been completely debunked, and that the numbers being called are really uncontactable and that it was just a rumour.

 

However, if it was something that really occured, anyone knows a place or person I can get the list of numbers that really rang?

[Cire 0]

ha..IGP disclosed that 3 flight data logs were erased from Capt.Zaharie's flight simulator. Experts are looking over the simulator system.

X, 9, and XFlightM..

 

MOT - Southern corridor will be given more emphasis as it involves a vast open ocean. Any further answers will have to wait until the black box is recovered. All on board is assumed innocent until proven otherwise.

[Robert 0]

I've seen several pictures of a message wall at KLIA however last weekend I looked around and couldn't see where it was located. Any ideas?

[V Wong 0]

ha..IGP disclosed that 3 flight data logs were erased from Capt.Zaharie's flight simulator. Experts are looking over the simulator system.

X, 9, and XFlightM..

 

MOT - Southern corridor will be given more emphasis as it involves a vast open ocean. Any further answers will have to wait until the black box is recovered. All on board is assumed innocent until proven otherwise.

IGP said log were erased on 3rd Feb. I had erased some of my iPhone, iPad, iPod and Kindle stuff numerous times since then due to device memory shortage or to clear off unwanted stuff. Even if retrieved data showed he simulated landings in Diego Gargia, Ulan Bator, Maldives etc, it does not mean anything.

Edited March 19, 2014 by V Wong

[leon t 0]

doubt there's anything of significance in the CPT's simulator - as the name implies it is a simulator with various airports and runways.

The main thing is that the RMAF radar that supposedly tracked the unidentified plane - and that they did absolutely nothing about it - or were they even noticed it then in real time. If things were done right and the RMAF sent out its planes to intercept the unidentified plane - then all these issues and speculations would have ended and the fact known. In fact even asclaimed the plane after Penang made a southernly track down the Malacca Straits - again the RMAS radar all the way down the peninsula did not track the plane? - even subang radar should have detected it. Something is not right with RMAF and whether Malaysia's air space is really protected or have effective adar coverage or they are even watching the skies. Its scary that any unidentified planes can intrude into our airspace just like that and pass through "if its not hostile?"

[Victor A. 2]

Capt Nik Huslan is on TV3 now..

[V Wong 0]

doubt there's anything of significance in the CPT's simulator - as the name implies it is a simulator with various airports and runways.

Forgot to mention it is just a computer game. I am sure the captain has had enough real landings to want to practise landing in some unfamiliar airport. It is just his passion for flying.

[KK Lee 5]

haiyoo..this MOT bashing is getting really really old...come on lah, they are tired, overworked, frustrated because they haven't found the plane, along with everyone else...I admit our team are not as media savvy as some of the western organizations are, but that does not make us incompetent..If you have the expertise, lend your 'intelligence' to find the missing plane, then you can sit on your high horses and criticize all you want...

 

If this is not incompetent than is cover up?

[shahjees 0]

 

If this is not incompetent than is cover up?

 

Several unanswered questions; I agree. I'm sure the next of kin want those answers too. Makes sense during an investigation not to reveal everything. Updates will come out in due time..

[KK Lee 5]

EXCLUSIVE: Did MH370 crew succumb to fire catastrophe?

The former head of security for the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration insists that rather than portraying the crew of the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 as saboteurs, the pilots struggled heroically to save their aircraft until overcome by smoke from a catastrophic cargo fire.

Billie Vincent who served as the FAA’s civil aviation security chief played a key policy and crisis management role in the handling of all hijackings of US aircraft in the 1980s. He was also in charge of the agency’s armed Federal Air Marshals and served as an expert witness in the trial of the Pan Am 103 terrorist bombing.

After leaving the FAA he led an international consulting firm which was contracted in the 1990s to design and implement the security system of Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport where Flight 370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, started its journey at 12.41 am on March 8 before disappearing from civilian radar en route to Beijing at 1.21 am.

Officials in Malaysia claim that, based on ‘pings’ sent from the aircraft to an Inmarsat satellite, the aircraft was deliberately diverted and may have flown as far north as Central Asia or south over the Indian Ocean. They suspect that someone on board the aircraft first disabled one of its communications systems – the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) around 40 minutes after takeoff before switching off the aircraft’s transponder in a systematic effort to render the aircraft invisible to air traffic surveillance.

Speaking exclusively to Air Traffic Management, Vincent dismisses the likelihood of a bomb being detonated on board which would have ruptured the pressure hull of the aircraft citing the fact that the aircraft was tracked by a series of satellite ‘pings’. That would indicate that Flight MH370 flew for up to seven more hours which would not have been possible if it had been compromised.

“The data released thus far most likely points to a problem with hazardous materials. This scenario begins with the eruption of hazardous materials within the cargo hold – either improperly packaged or illegally shipped – or both,” says Vincent.

In his view, a fire which started in the cargo hold progressively and serially destroyed the aircraft’s communications systems; toxic fumes quickly overwhelmed the passenger cabin and the cockpit where at least one of the flight crew managed to don an oxygen mask allowing them to turn the aircraft back to Kuala Lumpur.

Flight 370 is reported to have climbed to 45,000ft which Vincent believes could have been due simply to the inability of the flight crew to clearly see and set the controls for a return to Kuala Lumpur.

Vincent guesses that control could have been regained and the aircraft sent back to a lower altitude of around 23,000 ft – which is a diversion altitude set by manufacturers of large transport aircraft to prevent a fire taking further hold and which both allows better survivability for those on board and vents the avionics bays.

The final report of a UPS B747 crash in Dubai in 2010, details how that crew similarly attempted to depressurise the freighter aircraft to slow down the fire 30 seconds after the loss of aircraft systems and flight controls. In that accident, the time interval between fire detection and the onset of aircraft system failures was around two and a half minutes.

The last verbal communication from Flight 370 was issued at 1.19 am as the aircraft left Malaysian airspace. It then disappeared from air traffic controllers’ screens at 1.21 am whilst flying over the South China Sea.

Vincent guesses that the crew did manage to stabilise the aircraft and set it on a new course before once again succumbing to either a loss of oxygen or the remaining toxic fumes.

“The airplane then continues flying until no fuel remains and crashes – most likely into the ocean as there has been no report of any Emergency Locater Transmitter (ELT) signal which can be received by satellite if the crash were on land,” says Vincent.

Vincent insists other scenarios involving hijacking and sabotage are improbable. “For instance, there is no indication that either of the pilots was criminally involved in the disappearance of this airplane. Neither has Malaysia released any data indicating anything amiss in the security clearance of the passengers for this flight. The one question raised about the two passengers travelling on stolen passports has been cleared indicating that they were planning on illegally claiming refugee status in another country, probably Germany.”

“I have yet to see anything released about the nature and content of the cargo carried in the cargo hold of Flight 370. Hazardous cargo can be legally carried on passenger aircraft. However, the amount and type of such hazardous materials are strictly controlled,” says Vincent.

While all hazardous materials must be properly contained and labelled – and declared to the airline transporting it, Vincent notes that hazardous materials have been – knowingly and unknowingly – labelled improperly for carriage on passenger aircraft in addition to having been carried on board unlawfully by passengers.

 

http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2014/03/exclusive-mh370-crew-succumbed-to-fire-catastrophe/

 

A plausible theory

 

 

 

 

 

[geoff.leo 0]

Personally, I think it's difficult to say if the RMAF did the right thing, or was wrong not to do anything.

 

We know that the last ATC transmission from Lumpur to MH370 was at 1:19am. We also know that the transponder was presumably shut off shortly thereafter, at 1:21am, as that was the time it disappeared off civilian radar. MH370 was over the FIR boundary between Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh at this point. They had a positive handoff from Lumpur but Ho Chi Minh never heard them.

 

These things happen everyday. Negative radar contact, negative voice contact. It happens. All the time. All over world. No cause for alarm.

 

Ho Chi Minh, who would be expecting MH370, would make several attempts on the VHF frequency to contact them. After several tries, the norm would be to ask any traffic in the vicinity to relay a message to MH370. Other traffic would try contacting them on the VHF frequency for that area, or 121.5, the universal on-guard frequency. The controller may even try contacting MH370 on other published VHF or HF frequencies for the Ho Chi Minh FIR. In parallel, the Ho Chi Minh controller would contact his Lumpur counterpart. One can imagine him asking "are you sure MH370 acknowledged your handoff and you had him on your radar?". And Lumpur, I'd imagine would say yes, all was good and normal.

 

So now the Ho Chi Minh guy is really confused. Nothing on the radar, nobody can contact him on whatever frequency, yet all was ok with Lumpur just seconds before he was supposed to talk to Ho Chi Minh Control. And no emergency squawks either.

 

It's important at this juncture to keep in mind that both Ho Chi Minh and Lumpur do not have the benefit of hindsight. You do not expect an aircraft to just vanish, without any emergency squawks. And the minutes are ticking by.

 

Confusion sets in.

 

Imagine if you were a Ho Chi Minh controller. Lumpur told him he's here but he isn't. No signs of distress. He could be ANYWHERE in my airspace. But WHERE? And then imagine if you were a Lumpur controller. Ho Chi Minh can't see or talk to him, but it sure was ok when I talked to him. Surely he's SOMEWHERE in Ho Chi Minh FIR. I'd be a blind man to miss an emergency squawk on my screen if he came back in. MH370 has to be in Ho Chi Minh airspace.

 

Many minutes have now passed.

 

Both have now exhausted their resources and it's time to push the panic button. Activate SAR? Never mind, lets buzz the military in Gong Kedak (presumably).

 

It's important at this juncture to remember that military IFF primary radar only raises an alarm if you're identified as a positive threat. A commercial aircraft with its transponder turned off (important here to note that they did not know this yet at this point in time) isn't necessarily a threat. I'm no military expert, but I would assume there would be different levels of alert. In short, for a peacetime country like Malaysia, and with no intelligence reports of threats against the country, the military would at most times, be at a lower level of alert. In other words, you're not gonna eyeball every aircraft passing through Malaysia like a hawk.

 

So you ring the RMAF controller, and on his radar, all he sees are friendly commercial "blips". Even at that time of the night, the skies over Peninsula Malaysia, the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea are busy with lots of traffic going in all sorts of direction.

 

The Lumpur controller tells his RMAF controller to look for something, but has zero idea of where the aircraft is. Seriously dude, says the RMAF controller, you gotta tell me something. I've got blips everywhere. You can only tell me the last known position, which was donkeys minutes ago, you think he's in Ho Chi Minh airspace but want me to check anyway without knowing where he's coming from and no hint where he's going to? Lumpur says, dude, we have nothing!

 

At this juncture, it's important to note the aircraft's trajectory towards the Straits of Malacca also crossed substantial parts of Southern Thailand. As such, it may gone in and out of RMAF's radar coverage intermittently. It's an assumption since we won't know how far is the extent of RMAF's coverage.

 

So while the RMAF is trying to pick out a blip, the aircraft at this point in time, may or may not be under his coverage. And with so many friendly blips in the sky, where do you start? But the RMAF looks anyway. Surely if MH370 came back, it should appear somewhere by now around the Kelantan or Northern Peninsula.

 

The situation is well and truly out of control at this stage. Nobody in RMAF's other control centres, presumably Penang, Kuantan or Subang would have known if MH370 came under their primary radar. Who in the world that night would have looked all the way to the other side west of the peninsula, close to Sumatra for MH370, just one of many friendly blips?

 

Of course we now know after investigation that MH370's final blip on the military's radar was at 2:15am.

 

All this was happening in less than 1 hour from the time of the last ATC transmission with Lumpur. Sounds like a long time when you're lying comfortably on the sofa. But nothing more than a blink when all that is happening.

 

The RMAF never stood a chance of scrambling their fighters in time.

[JuliusWong 0]

This is just too heart wrenching.......https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=504255733018464&set=vb.499020940208610&type=2&theater

 

To those who have families or relative members on-board, only God knows what they are going through right now.

 

For those who keep bashing the families' members of being irrational, I don't think you have ever been in such a situation. If you are in their shoes, what you will do? Leave this question to you...............

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Shame on the security. Totally unacceptable.

[Azman MN 1]

Went thru KLIA security last night, no one looking at the X-ray monitor properly, all chatting. WTF?

 

KLIA is the only airport I fly through these days where there is double security checks, and it is the only one which I feel that is most useless.

[BC Tam 2]

Those couple of arcs to north and south can easily be misread as the plane's possible flight path

My understanding is that the search areas should be everything within an hour's flight time from any point within those arcs - correct ?

That is one heck of a big haystack