Malaysian airlines has lost a 777

[88keys]

So what is to keep any terrorist organization from claiming responsibilty? Why wouldn't they all try? I am surprised we haven't heard more about that.

Nothing really, it mainly depends on the organization responsible and what their ultimate goals are.

Does anyone know how much of the plane is designed to float? Should we be seeing many pieces floating or would about all of it usually sink anyways?

Nothing on the plane is "designed" to float, and infact would begin to sink immediately even after a successful water landing (like Hudson River landing). My guess is that an intact commercial jet might stay afloat for several hours at most.

It's far more likely that you would find floating debris in an explosion or a break up as you would find seats, luggage and individual pieces of the aircraft.

On a side note, I recall a plane crash that had a co-pilot who took the jet into a nose dive reaching mach 0.99 and crashed into the ocean. Don't recall much else. I wonder how much floating wreckage that left behind. parts of the airframe had to have been coming apart at those speeds.

 

[88keys]

One thing to think about is radar coverage. Despite what you would like to believe, there are large areas of airspace without radar coverage. Air traffic Control (ATC) relies on the aircraft to report location in these instances.
I can't tell you about coverage in that area, only someone who has direct experience can. I have flown IFR where I had to report my position and ATC could not "see" me at all.

So in area without radar coverage, would a commercial jet seemingly just disappear if the transponder malfunctioned or had been disabled? Or would its just show up as an unidentified object?

I can't imagine that disabling a transponder would be easy to do, especially after 9/11.

Probably really far fetched, but I wonder if the jet could have been commandeered and had landed elsewhere. It would be an amazing feat to steal a state of the art jet airliner that would surely require the efforts of more than 2 people with stolen passports. Really not worth speculating I suppose.

 

[Humpy]

One thing to think about is radar coverage. Despite what you would like to believe, there are large areas of airspace without radar coverage. Air traffic Control (ATC) relies on the aircraft to report location in these instances.
I can't tell you about coverage in that area, only someone who has direct experience can. I have flown IFR where I had to report my position and ATC could not "see" me at all.

It would be interesting if the hijacker/pilot understood the limitations of radar coverage and was able to fly the plane somewhere undetected before gently crashing it.

A new Titanic type of mystery where it isn't found for years.

 

[darkxshade]

It's no surprise they can't find it, everyone is looking down when they should be looking up. The plane probably flew into a very dense cloud and got stuck.

 

[Svnla]

This is a list of what is known so far about this case = http://news.yahoo.com/known-missing-malaysia-airlines-jet-152530808.html

 

[Humpy]

This is a list of what is known so far about this case = http://news.yahoo.com/known-missing-malaysia-airlines-jet-152530808.html

Essentially: They don't know where the plane is or who all was on it.

 

[norseamd]

Essentially: They don't know where the plane is or who all was on it.

exactly

they know about as much now as they did 2 days ago

 

[Artorias]

Seriously though this is one of the strangest stories.

 

[88keys]

Too lazy to make a meme but:

Conspiracy Keanu

Maybe it's like the Philadelphia Experiment.

It went back in time and crashed into itself.

 

[Svnla]

Essentially: They don't know where the plane is or who all was on it.

Information about the case is hard to come by because the area to be search is about the size of the state of Pennsylvania (assuming the plane went down at the assumption point).

A pilot (real one, NOT ATOT pilot) point of view = http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/10/opinion/palmer-malaysia-aircraft-air-france/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

[John Connor]

So it looks like the oil slick isn't from the plane. I call terrorism!

 

[Jay5]

cant forget the snakes

maybe samuel L jackson has the answer to what went wrong

 

[skyking]

So in area without radar coverage, would a commercial jet seemingly just disappear if the transponder malfunctioned or had been disabled? Or would its just show up as an unidentified object?

I can't imagine that disabling a transponder would be easy to do, especially after 9/11.

Probably really far fetched, but I wonder if the jet could have been commandeered and had landed elsewhere. It would be an amazing feat to steal a state of the art jet airliner that would surely require the efforts of more than 2 people with stolen passports. Really not worth speculating I suppose.

The transponder works with the radar; it does nothing for Air Traffic Control (ATC) in those vast areas without radar coverage.
As far as disabling a transponder, you simply switch it off. It is simple.

 

[skyking]

It would be interesting if the hijacker/pilot understood the limitations of radar coverage and was able to fly the plane somewhere undetected before gently crashing it.

A new Titanic type of mystery where it isn't found for years.

Whatever happened, I will toss my hat in for the aircraft being found more or less in one place. If it came apart at altitude near the last reported location, there would have been enough floating things to find.

 

[Dari]

Stolen passport 'no terror link'

Malaysia Airlines MH370: Stolen passport 'no terror link'
PreviousLatest What we know Who's searching? Video reports Passengers? NextAdvertisementPolice chief Khalid Abu Bakar: "He [Iranian man] is not likely to be member of terrorist group"
Continue reading the main story MH370 mysteryWhat we know Search logistics The passengers MH370.com on eBay
A man travelling on a stolen passport on a missing Malaysian jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links, Malaysian police say.

It is thought the 19-year-old was travelling to Germany where he was hoping to seek asylum, they say.

The Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished on Saturday shortly after it left Kuala Lumpur. There were 239 people on board.

Search teams have expanded their scope to the Straits of Malacca.

Police hold handout pics Police released pictures of the young Iranian man
The young Iranian was one of two passengers travelling on stolen passports on board the flight.

Experts have said their presence was a breach of security, but is relatively common in a region regarded as a hub for illegal migration.

Malaysia's police chief Inspector Gen Khalid Abu Bakar said the young Iranian was "not likely to be a member of a terrorist group", adding that the authorities were in contact with his mother in Germany, who had been expecting her son to arrive in Frankfurt.

Without a trace

The authorities' statement supports an account given to the BBC by a young Iranian in Kuala Lumpur who says he was a school-friend of one of the men who boarded the airliner using a stolen passport.

He says the friend and another Iranian, also using a stolen passport, stayed with him before taking the Malaysia Airlines flight, and that they had hoped to settle in Europe.

Reports from Thailand suggest that the tickets of the two men, routing them to Amsterdam via Beijing, had been bought through a Thai travel agent and an Iranian middleman.

Officials say they still have no idea what went wrong.

None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proven to be linked to the disappearance.

Four areas of investigation for the disappearance of the aircraft were focused on the possibility of human agency, the police chief said: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.

The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.

Iranians? Check

Young? Check

Using stolen documents? Check

Seeking asylum in Europe by going all the way to China? Check


Nah...no terrorism here

 

[dmcowen674]

They found more metal debris in the water.

 

[Zee]

They could be stuck on a island with mysterious hatches buried all over the place

4 8 15 16 23 42

 

[xanis]

A pilot (real one, NOT ATOT pilot) point of view = http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/10/opinion/palmer-malaysia-aircraft-air-france/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

That running argument in the comments about cell phones is making my head hurt.

 

[Sulaco]

They found more metal debris in the water.

Where are you finding this? None of the major news sites are reporting that.

 

[DrunkenSano]

Maybe they flew into a wormhole and will reappear in a year!

Edit: Seems like military radar may have picked up the plane changing course and going west for few hundred kilometers.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Maybe they flew into a wormhole and will reappear in a year!

Edit: Seems like military radar may have picked up the plane changing course and going west for few hundred kilometers.

Battlestar Galactica?

Was Starbuck the pilot? Is she going to lead us to the real Earth?

 

[slicksilver]

Anybody also thinks that Malaysia is hiding something? My gut feeling is that their radars had a problem or were malfunctioning at the time of the incident. There is no way Vietnam or China or any other nearby country would have missed the plane on their radars.

 

[xanis]

Anybody also thinks that Malaysia is hiding something? My gut feeling is that their radars had a problem or were malfunctioning at the time of the incident. There is no way Vietnam or China or any other nearby country would have missed the plane on their radars.

I think there's *something* fishy going on, but I don't know what. Serious question from an aviation noob: Is it that easy to lose a plane? Aren't they usually tracked closely by ground control for the entire flight?

 

[DrunkenSano]

I think there's *something* fishy going on, but I don't know what. Serious question from an aviation noob: Is it that easy to lose a plane? Aren't they usually tracked closely by ground control for the entire flight?

I believe only if they are within range of radar or have the transponder on.

 

[slicksilver]

I believe only if they are within range of radar or have the transponder on.

That doesn't make sense. So if a plane or object does not have a radio or transponder radars cant detect them?