|
Post by ErrolC on Mar 11, 2014 21:15:56 GMT 12
This article has just been updated, reporting retraction of earlier official statements. Sent via Proboards Android App
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 12, 2014 1:48:47 GMT 12
Does anyone recall about three or so years ago a Boeing 727 disappeared over Africa in mysterious circumstances and for weeks reports were saying searchers had no clues, then I heard nothing more of it. I wonder if they ever found that one.
|
|
|
Post by hardyakka on Mar 12, 2014 8:12:17 GMT 12
Does anyone recall about three or so years ago a Boeing 727 disappeared over Africa in mysterious circumstances and for weeks reports were saying searchers had no clues, then I heard nothing more of it. I wonder if they ever found that one. 2003 Boeing 727-223 disappearanceMore like 11 years ago, Dave...
|
|
|
Post by ErrolC on Mar 12, 2014 9:04:54 GMT 12
It's looking more and more likely that either or both of the Malaysian military or Government have been withholding information, probably for non-valid reasons.
Sent via Proboards Android App
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 12, 2014 10:28:06 GMT 12
Surely not 11 years ago? Has it happened twice there? Confused now.
|
|
|
Post by machpants on Mar 12, 2014 11:06:56 GMT 12
Heard on the news that it would be carrying a crew of 12 including a pilot. Always a handy person to have aboard when flying I would have thought! Well that is better than the report about an RAF E-3D going to eastern Europe to monitor the region (from within NATO airspace) apparently that was just one aircraft and one pilot. He's a hard working bugger that guy, to do the job of around 20 people! www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26523816
|
|
|
Post by machpants on Mar 12, 2014 11:09:39 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 12, 2014 11:20:23 GMT 12
Missing plane changed course, Malaysian military says AP | Mar 12, 2014, 03.39 AM IST
KUALA LUMPUR: The missing Boeing 777 jetliner changed course over the sea, crossed Malaysia and reached the Strait of Malacca — hundreds of miles from its last position recorded by civilian authorities, Malaysian military officials said on Tuesday, citing military radar data.
The development added confusion and mystery into one of most puzzling aviation incidents of recent time, and it has raised questions about why the Malaysia Airlines flight apparently was not transmitting signals detectable by civilian radar, why its crew was silent about the course change and why no distress calls were sent after it turned back.
Many experts have been working on the assumption there was a catastrophic event on the flight — such as an explosion, engine failure, terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, pilot error or even suicide. The director of the CIA said in Washington that he still would not rule out terrorism.
READ ALSO: Indian Navy joins search for missing Malaysian plane
Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12.41am on Saturday, bound for Beijing. Authorities initially said its last contact with ground controllers was less than an hour into the flight at a height of 35,000 feet, when the plane was somewhere between the east coast of Malaysia and Vietnam.
But local newspaper Berita Harian quoted Malaysia's air force chief, Gen Rodzali Daud, as saying that radar at a military base had tracked the jet as it changed its course, with the final signal at 2.40am showing the plane to be near Pulau Perak at the northern approach to the Strait of Malacca, a busy waterway that separates the western coast of Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island. It was flying slightly lower, at around 29,528 feet, he said.
"After that, the signal from the plane was lost," he was quoted as saying.
A high-ranking military official involved in the investigation confirmed the report. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose sensitive information.
Authorities had said earlier the plane may have tried to turn back to Kuala Lumpur, but they expressed surprise it would do so without informing ground control.
The search was initially focused hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the east, in waters off Vietnam, with more than 40 planes and ships from at least 10 nations searching the area without finding a trace of the missing aircraft.
Earlier on Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that search-and-rescue teams had expanded their scope to the Strait of Malacca. An earlier statement said the western coast of Malaysia was "now the focus," but the airline subsequently said that phrase was an oversight. It didn't elaborate.
Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the search remained "on both sides" of Malaysia.
Attention will now likely focus on the condition of the Boeing 777's electronic systems as it charted its new course back toward and then across Malaysia.
A radar antenna on the ground sends electromagnetic waves that reflect from the surface of an aircraft and almost instantly return, allowing controllers to calculate how far away a plane is. The antenna is mounted on a rotating platform, sending and receiving signals 360 degrees across the sky, enabling the plane's direction to be tracked by constant sweeps.
The system has limitations: Military and civilian air traffic controllers know something is moving through the air but might not know what it is. So planes were outfitted with transponders that can send a unique signal back to the radar station, which can differentiate them from other aircraft. From this signal, controllers can tell the flight number, heading, speed and altitude.
Radar stations at airports are designed to track planes up to about 60 miles. They are used to help sequence and space landing aircraft. Another series of stations called air route surveillance radar can track planes 200-250 miles away, depending on weather and the age of the technology. Station locations are selected to allow for a slight overlap so planes in heavy-traffic areas are never out of reach of radar.
While radar black spots can exist, experts said the plane's transponders normally would have been emitting signals that would have been picked up by civilian radar. The fact that it apparently wasn't detected suggests they were either disabled or switched off. Planes with no transponders can still be tracked by radar.
Low-flying planes can sometimes avoid radar detection. There is no set height they must be under, but the farther away they are from a radar station, the higher they can be because of the angle of the radar antenna and the curvature of the Earth.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar, who has been ordered to look at possible criminal aspects in the disappearance of Flight MH370, said hijacking, sabotage and issues related to the pilots' psychological health were all being considered.
An Australian TV station reported that the first officer on the missing plane, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had invited two women into the cockpit during a flight two years ago. One of the women, Jonti Roos, described the encounter on Australia's "A Current Affair".
Roos said she and a friend were allowed to stay in the cockpit during the entire one-hour flight on December 14, 2011, from Phuket, Thailand, to Kuala Lumpur. She said the arrangement did not seem unusual to the plane's crew.
"Throughout the entire flight, they were talking to us and they were actually smoking throughout the flight," said Roos, who didn't immediately reply to a message sent to her via Facebook. The second pilot on the 2011 flight was not identified
Malaysia Airlines said it took the allegations very seriously, which it said it was not able to confirm, adding: "We are in the midst of a crisis, and we do not want our attention to be diverted."
Also Tuesday, Malaysian and international police authorities said two people who boarded Flight MH370 with stolen passports were Iranians who had bought tickets to Europe, where they planning to migrate. Their presence on the flight had raised speculation of a possible terrorist link.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said investigators had determined one was a 19-year-old Iranian, Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad. "We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group," Khalid said.
Interpol identified the second man as Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, a 29-year-old Iranian, and released an image of the two boarding at the same time. Interpol secretary general Ronald K Noble said the two men traveled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
CIA director John Brennan said in Washington that Malaysian authorities "are looking very carefully at what went wrong; you know, if these individuals got onto the plane with these stolen passports, why they were not aware of it."
He also said there has been "a lot of speculation right now — some claims of responsibility that have not been, you know, confirmed or corroborated at all. We are looking at it very carefully."
Asked if terrorism could be ruled out, Brennan replied, "No, I wouldn't rule it out. Not at all."
The United States has sent two navy ships, at least one of which is equipped with helicopters, and a navy P-3C Orion plane that can detect small debris in the water. It said the Malaysian government had done a "tremendous job" organizing the land and sea effort.
Vietnamese planes and ships also are a major component of the effort.
Lt Gen Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of Vietnamese People's Army, said authorities on land had also been ordered to search for the plane, which could have crashed into mountains or jungle. He said military units near the border with Laos and Cambodia had been instructed to search their regions.
"So far we have found no signs ... so we must widen our search on land," he said.
|
|
|
Post by skyhawkdon on Mar 12, 2014 11:43:41 GMT 12
This is getting fishier by the hour...
|
|
ul450
Flight Sergeant
Posts: 27
|
Post by ul450 on Mar 12, 2014 12:12:46 GMT 12
Maybe, just maybe this is some epic season opener for new season of Lost...
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Mar 12, 2014 12:43:32 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by pjw4118 on Mar 12, 2014 13:26:48 GMT 12
All good stuff and most puzzling. Sitting around the smoko table at MOTAT this morning the ex Air NZ , Air Force and others questioned how close would an aircraft be to our coast before Airways radar detected it. Further out , the higher it was we guessed , but at low level ??. Maybe somebody with Airways experience could answer that. So could MH 370 have gone to very low level and avoided detection completely.
|
|
|
Post by komata on Mar 12, 2014 14:14:31 GMT 12
Does anyone else find it more than somewhat-strange that, despite being over one of the most crowded waterways on the planet, with everything from merchant ships to small craft scattered all over the place, there has not been one report by any mariner of any shade, of an aircraft going into the sea (even if it was actually in pieces)? In waters that crowded, such an event could never be kept quiet.
Therefore, because of the 'deafening silence' from that quarter, logic would now indicate that land-based searches are the only alternative; an option that, so far as I can determine, does not seem to have yet been mentioned.
Most odd...
|
|
|
Post by ErrolC on Mar 12, 2014 14:26:47 GMT 12
... Therefore, because of the 'deafening silence' from that quarter, logic would now indicate that land-based searches are the only alternative; an option that, so far as I can determine, does not seem to have yet been mentioned. Most odd... It's been mentioned in some of the specialist blogs etc that I follow. Sent via Proboards Android App
|
|
|
Post by Andy Wright on Mar 12, 2014 14:46:29 GMT 12
Curiouser and curiouser. Now they're saying it wasn't detected far off track. It's doing my head in trying to work it out. Baffling. Not the complete article below just the bits that refute the military rader tracking it flying west. The rest of the article is just a repeat of several before it. www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-12/malaysian-military-denies-detecting-missing-plane/5314212The Malaysian air force has denied reports a passenger plane that vanished with 239 people on board was detected on radar far west of its flight path. ... Air force chief General Rodzali Daud was this morning quoted by Malaysian media as saying that radar had last detected the plane over the Strait of Malacca off western Malaysia. That location would have indicated the flight had banked far to the west of its intended flight path over the South China Sea. But Mr Rodzali says he "did not make any such statements," and that newspaper Berita Harian published "what is clearly an inaccurate and incorrect report". However, he says authorities have not ruled out the possibility the airliner inexplicably changed course before losing contact. "The [air force] has not ruled out the possibility of an air turn-back on a reciprocal heading before the aircraft vanished from the radar," he said. "This resulted in the search and rescue operations being widened to the vicinity of the waters [off the west coast of Malaysia]." A spokesman for the Malaysian prime minister's office earlier said he had not been informed by the military of evidence showing the plane had reached the Malacca Strait. The spokesman said all that had been confirmed to him was that military radar suggested it could have turned back from its scheduled flight path and the search of the Malacca Strait was in order to cover all possibilities...
|
|
|
Post by flyjoe180 on Mar 12, 2014 14:54:33 GMT 12
Given the technology involved, the sheer number of sea vessels and aircraft transiting that area, and the fact that the South China Sea area must be one of the most watched areas militarily on the planet, this is all very odd indeed. China among others must have dozens of surveillance craft out there watching and listening, satellites overhead, and listening devices under the ocean.Even in the scenario that a pilot went berserk, the aircraft should have been seen or heard by something.
|
|
|
Post by harrysone on Mar 12, 2014 15:13:48 GMT 12
how about these guys?
|
|
|
Post by flyjoe180 on Mar 12, 2014 15:31:04 GMT 12
Is that the North Korean leadership?
|
|
|
Post by shorty on Mar 12, 2014 18:55:30 GMT 12
Any truth in the rumour that Amelia Earhart was the captain?
|
|
|
Post by Luther Moore on Mar 12, 2014 20:18:43 GMT 12
Langoliers maybe?
|
|