Reports are coming in of searches in the Malacca Straits, 45 minutes flying time from the point of last contact.
Not necessarily. Also, any Jet A1 would probably have evaporated within 12-24 hours of the plane going down. There are thousands of fishing vessels operating in this area, and they are known to regularly purge their tanks at sea, leaving slicks all the time.
Yes.
Fuel dumped at altitude and at speed will dissipate in the atmosphere. Those particles that don’t would leave a thin film miles long, and then evaporate quickly.
[quote]The water off the coast of Vietnam is not really that deep. The transponder would have been picked up by now if it was working.
If the oil slick is from the plane, then it must have been dumped. But why?[/quote]
The locationing of transponders relies on several factors, notably the terrain of the sea bed, the transponders being intact after the crash and the quality of equipment deployed to search for them.
Aircraft don’t generally go way off course, away from both military and civil radar. The plane in question was also equipped with ADS-B, which is a system which transmits its current position to ground stations. This signal was lost at FL35 at 1721UTC.
So basically, all we know now are the following facts:
Transponder response ceased after 17:21 UTC (01:21 LT), about 40 minutes into the flight
There was no verified communication with the aircraft after this time
Last reported position, altitude, speed and heading as reported by FR24 (radar sector) correct
There was no significant weather in the area of last contact
No unusual ACARS (flight information downlink) messages received
At last known position aircraft had a remaining endurance of approximately 6.5 hours, equating to a range of about 2800NM
Subsequently aircraft did not enter any area with civilian primary radar coverage
There were two passengers with confirmed false identities on board, further two suspect.
Same airframe suffered substantial wingtip damage in a ground accident in Shanghai in August 2012 which was repaired
Untill now no part of the aircraft had been located.
Yeah, I was just sort of assuming they wouldn’t want the outside world to see contemporary Malay culture in all it’s fetidness. Apparently they’re not that bothered
Is that possible? A military takedown? I can’t imagine what motive might be behind such a thing, but it would certainly be rapid enough to catch them unawares, and it wouldn’t be the first time.
I think it is most likely related to the Shanghai incident where the tip of one wing was embedded in the tail of another airplane. I think it is not exceptional for someone to be flying on a false passport. In the Air India crash of recent years 10% of the passengers were flying on false passports. That is par for the course. Plus if it had have been a terrorist action why wouldn’t the perpetrators claim responsibility. Terrorism only has value in being ascribed otherwise it is just an incident. If the wing had come off, it could leave a wide debris field. Why not? I think one of China Airlines’ planes went down some time ago because they hadn’t closed the door properly. I tend to think the most likely scenario is a mishap, braking up of the airplane or even a stall. It happens. But that is only guessing.
In Pakistan, Afganistan, Iraq, Iran and every other muslim country in the world that is divided by Sunni and Shia, there are daily bombings and atrocities!
A muslim would stick a knife in your eye for being the wrong type of ‘muslim’ as soon as look at you!
They chose to fly that plane from Kuala Lumpur with help from ground staff muslim sympathisers. It all makes complete sense to me…
In Pakistan, Afganistan, Iraq, Iran and every other muslim country in the world that is divided by Sunni and Shia, there are daily bombings and atrocities!
A muslim would stick a knife in your eye for being the wrong type of ‘muslim’ as soon as look at you!
They chose to fly that plane from Kuala Lumpur with help from ground staff muslim sympathisers. It all makes complete sense to me…[/quote]
So the ground staff have to be Muslim sympathizers? They can’t be actual Muslims, as would be likely in Malaysia? And of all the people they choose to help, they choose Caucasians traveling on false passports?
I was considering the possibility of a structural failure of the wing tip which was repaired, due to the aircraft encountering clear air turbulence (CAT). If the wing had partially sheared off at that altitude, the aircraft could have, in the thin atmosphere where aircraft are at the edge of their flight envelope, entered a flat spin which would not necessarily have caused the aircraft to break up. No break up means no, or at the most, a very confined debris field. A flat spin would see the aircraft encounter between 1 and 2 G.
However, this does not explain why comms and downlinks were not sent out on the 4 or so minutes it would have taken for the aircraft to descend into the sea, why no mayday message was sent out and why the aircraft stopped squawking.
If there was an explosion in mid air, it would have been picked up by military units. The area where the flight went missing is very sensitive, and the area is riddled with military systems operated by several countries monitoring the skies for explosions and rogue missiles. They would have monitored an explosion or even perhaps impact with the ocean.
There are so many strange questions regarding this. I personally think it is within the realms of possibility that the aircraft kept flying and is well out into the Pacific Ocean. Who knows?
Ok, oil slick was not from the plane. We have something.
It can take months, even years, to find wreakage. I feel for the families. One cousin died in a landslide -reporter on duty- and his body was not recovered for months. It is a horrible trial.
One passport was stolen last year. Curious and curioser.
Icon, on the passports: as both Fox and I have said above, that needn’t mean very much. There seem to be quite a few stolen passports floating around.
I’m sure many of you have already read “Ask the Pilot” on this. It’s a moderately long post, but here’s one paragraph:
One takeaway: the ocean is really, really, really, really big.
cfimages, your patience in dealing with the, er, well, I’ll try to avoid pejoratives, shall we say more interesting posts, never ceases to amaze. Kudos to you.
The two suspects who boarded the flight on missing passports have been identified by officials and are said to be of “non-Asian” appearance. Malaysia’s civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said that CCTV images of the passengers boarding the flight showed that that one, or both of the men, resembled the black Italian footballer Mario Balotelli. Meanwhile, a Thai travel agent who booked them onto the plane, told the FT that the tickets were arranged with an “Iranian contact” on behalf of clients looking for cheap tickets to Europe.
Two passports were stolen, two tickets were purchased, both with consecutive numbers… Someone call Sherlock Holmes![/quote]
Ehem, read the whole sentence: stolen a year ago. Emphasis on time, a whole year. Means planning, stocking, carefully keeping at least. And stinkier than the famous exploded whale in Tainan. One would suppose a passport stolen a year ago would be more easily detected than one just stolen and not in the system yet-probably. Again, if they are not even bothering to check the system in a drug trade and human cargo trade area, that is another story. And if someone was paid to turn the other way, then that would be even more curioser, wouldn’t you agree?
And hold your horses on the Muslims. Whenever the Chinese are involved, it has a tail longer than a brachiosaurus. This is gonna get ugly and not for obvious reasons.
