Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanishes without trace

[QueenOfGoths]

Tbf I am not sure how mysterious the two stolen passports are. Two people who either purchased the passports or had them purchased for them could be anything from drug mules to 'illegal immigrants' (hateful phrase but can't think of a better one, sorry) to terrorists.

Tbf the former options seem more likely than the latter, someone trying to get somewhere under the radar, as it were.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/contiguous-tickets-for-mh370-deepens-mystery

and from that article

“There are only two passengers on record on this aircraft with false passports and we have the CCTV recordings of those passengers from check in, right to the departure point and this record of the CCTVs are now being used in investigations on this,” Department of Civil Aviation Director-General Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters at the Sama Sama Hotel in Sepang earlier today.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Just found this

KAJANG: The stolen passports used to board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH307 went undetected because the documents could have lacked sophisticated security features.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said this was among the possibilities which authorities would look into when determining how two impostors could have boarded the Beijing-bound plane.

Zahid said he had directed the Immigration Department to initiate investigations, headed by director-general Aloyah Mamat.

"We will also question personnel on duty at the KL International Airport at the time when passengers were to board the aircraft.

"We want to find out how the two impostors could pass through Immigration and board the plane," he said.

The Minister said it was possible for stolen passports to be used, especially when it did not have sophisticated security features.

"Unlike Malaysian passports which have a chip, biometric and barcode features, passports issued by some countries are not as sophisticated," he added.

He said Malaysian Immigration would...

which I found quite strange considering when I got a biometric passport issued in Singapore and then crossed the Malaysian border, a lot of interest was shown and then security said to me that guy he was training had never seen that kind of passport. Maybe he was talking about a British biometric one, because on searching for "biometric" and "Malaysian passport" it would seem that Malaysia was the first country to use them, years before the UK. Looks like Italy only got them in 2006 which would mean it was still possible for Italian to have a non-biometric one. Would have still thought the passport number would be flagged up though, but I don't know how these things work so...

 

[Ranu]

Interpol have raised concern that people were able to use passports that were registered on their databases as stolen. Databases were not checked by Malaysian staff. (Source: Sky News)

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Interpol have raised concern that people were able to use passports that were registered on their databases as stolen. Databases were not checked by Malaysian staff. (Source: Sky News)

Check in staff could have been in on it, but just as likely is that check-in staff were too busy to check it. I managed to fly out of a UK airport on an out-of-date passport because someone missed it/didn't check

 

[N_igma]

Does anyone know why there's not a tracking device on all planes that gives the exact coordinates of a plane in the event of a crash? Surely we have the technology to do that instead of having to trawl the ocean floor?

 

[N_igma]

.

Check in staff could have been in on it, but just as likely is that check-in staff were too busy to check it. I managed to fly out of a UK airport on an out-of-date passport because someone missed it/didn't check

Damn phone lol. I went from Perth to Sydney and all they checked was my boarding pass. No id check from walking into airport at Perth and leaving at Sydney pretty mad.

 

[tombowler]

Does anyone know why there's not a tracking device on all planes that gives the exact coordinates of a plane in the event of a crash? Surely we have the technology to do that instead of having to trawl the ocean floor?

from the reports there is but they can fail to function if too deep under water, and iirc they can be switched off.

 

[weltweit]

Does anyone know why there's not a tracking device on all planes that gives the exact coordinates of a plane in the event of a crash? Surely we have the technology to do that instead of having to trawl the ocean floor?

That is partially answered in this article :

Malaysia Airlines: What we know about Flight MH370
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26503141

Flight recorders, or "black boxes" as they are often known, emit ultrasonic signals that can be detected underwater. Under good conditions, the signals can be detected from several hundred miles away.

 

[maomao]

Interesting from the BBC article:

When an Air India plane crashed in Mangalore in 2010 en route from Dubai, with the loss of 158 lives, as many 10 fraudulent passports were recovered.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

.

Damn phone lol. I went from Perth to Sydney and all they checked was my boarding pass. No id check from walking into airport at Perth and leaving at Sydney pretty mad.

Probably more lax with internal flights

 

[2hats]

That is partially answered in this article :

Most likely the Singaporean submarine rescue vessel that has just arrived in the area is equipped to locate the FDR/CVR 'pinger'.

Positional information can only be broadcast down to the point of impact if the relevant transponders are powered (no equipment failure or intentionally turned off) and the orientation of the aircraft provides a favourable geometry from it to the receiving satellite. No (correct) positional information will be broadcast after submergence in water (even if it were possible to still transmit), not least because the GPS signal will be attenuated too highly (in salt water the signal will be gone within a metre or so). This is why the data recorders are fitted with ultrasonic locators.

 

[2hats]

There are additional reports in the last few minutes that the Vietnamese navy has located parts of the plane (from spotter aircraft).

 

[weltweit]

Missing Malaysian Airlines flight may have disintegrated mid-air
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...turned-back-before-vanishing/article17384880/

Officials investigating the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner with 239 people on board are narrowing the focus of their inquiries on the possibility that it disintegrated in mid-flight, a senior source said on Sunday.

 

[weltweit]

A Vietnamese aircraft thinks they have spotted something from the plane in the sea but it is now midnight, ships are on their way to the area. (BBC Radio)

 

[2hats]

Missing Malaysian Airlines flight may have disintegrated mid-air

That could be consistent with the primary radar returns that have been reported. The jet stream (and lower altitude winds) at the time would have driven debris back towards the SW turning W (of last reported position), ie the Malaysian coast. Primary returns would have been recorded heading in that direction. Ocean currents would then take greatly scattered debris towards points both west and south.

 

[maomao]

That could be consistent with the primary radar returns that have been reported. The jet stream (and lower altitude winds) at the time would have driven debris back towards the SW turning W (of last reported position), ie the Malaysian coast. Primary returns would have been recorded heading in that direction. Ocean currents would then take greatly scattered debris towards points both west and south.

Does mid air disintegration = bomb?

 

[2hats]

Does mid air disintegration = bomb?

That's one possibility. It means structural break up leading to compromise of the pressure hull and all aerodynamic control surfaces - a major structural failure. Now whether that's in turn due to a manufacturing/repair fault, catastrophic equipment failure, pilot error, explosive device, impact with other object or meteorological event (unlikely here), is another question.

 

[Barking_Mad]

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch)
March 9, 2014
777crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China. Chance for US to make common cause, befriend China while Russia bullies.

 

[maomao]

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch)
March 9, 2014
777crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China. Chance for US to make common cause, befriend China while Russia bullies.

Maybe gabi is Rupert Murdoch.

 

[emanymton]

Maybe gabi is Rupert Murdoch.

Oh come on that's not fair, Rupert Murdoch isn't that bad!

 

[MikeMcc]

Does anyone know why there's not a tracking device on all planes that gives the exact coordinates of a plane in the event of a crash? Surely we have the technology to do that instead of having to trawl the ocean floor?

Depends on the aircraft and airline. After the Air France crash a few years ago most of the major airlines fitted aircraft with navigational uplinks to store aircraft positions on a regular basis. looks like this one didn't have that functionality. Given that they haven't found debris it suggests that the aircraft didn't break up massively before impact, but then that raises questions of a shallow glide path on impact to keep the aircraft intact(ish) and why the crew couldn't message anyone if that happened. It's still a very strange disappearance.

 

[Sirena]

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch)
March 9, 2014
777crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China. Chance for US to make common cause, befriend China while Russia bullies.

The neocon press is all getting their sly digs in about Russia.....

 

[maomao]

Just been reading about the Sky Air and Air Egypt alleged pilot suicides and I am never getting on a bloody plane again.

 

[ruffneck23]

I'm sure the press is now drooling with anticipation of major terror headline , btw Barking Mad , put your user name next to the the post about Murdoch and it still makes sense

 

[weltweit]

Interpol says no country checked its database before Malaysia flight
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/0...-loses-contact-with-plane-carrying-23-people/

Interpol says no country checked its database for information about stolen passports that were used to board the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared with 239 people on board Saturday less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, bound for Beijing.

In a sharply worded criticism of shortcomings of national passport controls, the Lyon, France-based international police body said information about the thefts of an Austrian passport in 2012 and an Italian passport last year was entered into its database after they were stolen in Thailand.

 

[Errol's son]

Interpol says no country checked its database before Malaysia flight
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/0...-loses-contact-with-plane-carrying-23-people/

Stolen passports are common and many flights every day carry impostors and persons using stolen, altered and fraudulently obtained passports.

I would, however, imagine this is a route where there is not a huge amount of trafficking so it is slightly surprising.

But, so far, I am not very convinced these stolen passports have anything to do with whatever happened.

 

[weltweit]

Stolen passports are common and many flights every day carry impostors and persons using stolen, altered and fraudulently obtained passports.

I would, however, imagine this is a route where there is not a huge amount of trafficking so it is slightly surprising.

But, so far, I am not very convinced these stolen passports have anything to do with whatever happened.

I am just a bit surprised an airport does not scan all passports against the database.

 

[not-bono-ever]

alot of passports used like this are trashed/ flushed away when the users arrive in the EU airpspace- they are just to get the holder into a place they can seek alylum or whatever

 

[Gingerman]

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch)
March 9, 2014
777crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China. Chance for US to make common cause, befriend China while Russia bullies.

One of the people responding to him said it best, "You stupid old cunt. Fuck off and die of old age already"