do you really think that debris in the Indian Ocean or Gulf of Thailand is that easy to find?

Typically there is some debris floating on the surface SOMEWHERE near a crash site, napkins, baggage, seat cushions. I can't imagine a plane hitting the ocean and staying in one piece.

Mico Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As more and more information comes out, I'm really
> starting to to believe this was a terrorist attack
> gone wrong.
>
> What I mean is that hijackers (or the pilot, if he
> was involved) may have taken over the plane and
> flown it for those 4+ hours. Something happened
> and the plane went down. Maybe it was an error on
> the perpetrator(s)'s part, maybe it was a Flight
> 93-type situation where the passengers figured out
> what was going on and fought back. Whatever it
> was, the plane went down and now its remains are
> on land or - more likely - in the ocean.
>
> It would explain the transponder cutting off, the
> lack of communication from the pilots, the plane
> flying for an additional 4 or 5 hours, the fact
> that no terrorist group has taken credit for it,
> why the plane began acting erratically (going from
> 45,000 feet altitude to 23,000 in a very short
> amount of time), and - most importantly - why the
> plane disappeared.
>
> I hope I'm wrong and that this is a hostage
> situation and that the authorities aren't
> releasing that information so they don't
> jeopardize the investigation and the 227 lives
> involved. But I don't have much faith in that
> possibility.
>
> My thoughts go out to the friends and family of
> everyone on board. I hope you get to learn what
> happened to your loved one, whatever it may have
> been.

gone wrong? they've gotten away scot free so far.. i think the plane is landed somewhere, debris would have been found by now otherwise.. you must remember ships aren't actually required to search the ocean, people have been pouring over the satellite images for a week now and turned up nothing.. there are many airstrips both north and south where this could have landed, much of this region is undeveloped.. there's hundreds of islands in the Andaman chain alone.. and then there's always the possibility the hijackers parachuted, possibly with any passenger targets they were after (there are several high-profile on this flight), in which case they may never be discovered.. this is a very bad situation

I don't buy Barbara Starr's hypothesis that passengers did not know the plane was hijacked. As I understand, the plane was flow up to 45,000 feet and dropped to 5,000 feet in a minute. That's a nosedive! If this was before a depressurization by someone in the cockpit, followed by a nosedive...it is quite obvious that the idea was to disable any passengers who would have revolted.

could there be a time when muslims have to fly certain airlines only ?

Let's assume, for sake of argument, that the pilots were involved and acted because of their faith ?

It really would mean that no-one is safe and the only choice for safety would be segregation.

the bermuda triangle is the only answer

evkM6 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't buy Barbara Starr's hypothesis that
> passengers did not know the plane was hijacked. As
> I understand, the plane was flow up to 45,000 feet
> and dropped to 5,000 feet in a minute. That's a
> nosedive! If this was before a depressurization by
> someone in the cockpit, followed by a
> nosedive...it is quite obvious that the idea was
> to disable any passengers who would have revolted.

I want to clear something up - a passenger jet pressurizes the cabin so the people inside feel like they are at 8,000 feet.

It does not matter if the plane is at 20,000 feet or 45,000 feet. It's still going to feel like 8,000 feet inside.

Why would someone change course and fly and aircraft for 8 hours for no reason? There was a reason. They were headed towards a destination, and not to crash-Kazakhstan or one of the old soviet republics or even North Western China, which is home to muslims fighting the Chinese. Easy to see how local air forces' never picked it up. 100% believe they are all alive and safely landed. Their cell phones keep ringing.
Attachments:

The thuth is; the chineses government doesnt care his own people,
they are not trying hard enough to findthe airplane, not like the US,
when it citizens have a issue or in danger outside the country will
always send rescue team and will do all they can.

now, the other thing is, ( Im not a racist, just precaution) if the
pilot is muslin or even a good muslim i wouldnt flight in that plane,
because you never know, I just dont trust their unstable religion, little crazy

I constantly hear about how the malaysian government is this and that, one thing that stuck out was your media sources stating how loosely the malaysian government and airline treat air travel safety by letting people into the cockpit. However we must not forget roughly 13 years ago that 4 American jets were brought down because of the American airline incompetence, so what right does your American government have to criticize the Malaysians and their security protocols. And just another FYI, all these reports about it was pilot suicide and the pilots crashed this plane intention is a crock of crap. Truth is no one has any idea where this plane is and how it got there. Until they recover the black boxes only then will we know the truth, it completely unfair to pin this on two pilots for all we know tried to save these passengers. Let's wait before we jump to conclusions, cnn has reported many different outcomes, just because they have a hundred experts in the field guessing what they think happened doesn't make it any closer to the truth than what I predict over the dinner table. First it was technical difficulty, than it was terrorism or hijacking, pilot suicide, lithium batteries and now pilot hijacking? These are all therioes cnn has produced and at one point they had an article stating there is a likely hood this plane could have landed in the Indian islands, a terrible thing to guess when families are praying for this kind of outcome when you truly have no idea where this plane is and that's proven by coming out and saying two hours later that this plane is probably at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, shut up until we find it.

usa needs to shut its mouth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I constantly hear about how the malaysian
> government is this and that, one thing that stuck
> out was your media sources stating how loosely the
> malaysian government and airline treat air travel
> safety by letting people into the cockpit. However
> we must not forget roughly 13 years ago that 4
> American jets were brought down because of the
> American airline incompetence, so what right does
> your American government have to criticize the
> Malaysians and their security protocols. And just
> another FYI, all these reports about it was pilot
> suicide and the pilots crashed this plane
> intention is a crock of crap. Truth is no one has
> any idea where this plane is and how it got there.
> Until they recover the black boxes only then will
> we know the truth, it completely unfair to pin
> this on two pilots for all we know tried to save
> these passengers. Let's wait before we jump to
> conclusions, cnn has reported many different
> outcomes, just because they have a hundred experts
> in the field guessing what they think happened
> doesn't make it any closer to the truth than what
> I predict over the dinner table. First it was
> technical difficulty, than it was terrorism or
> hijacking, pilot suicide, lithium batteries and
> now pilot hijacking? These are all therioes cnn
> has produced and at one point they had an article
> stating there is a likely hood this plane could
> have landed in the Indian islands, a terrible
> thing to guess when families are praying for this
> kind of outcome when you truly have no idea where
> this plane is and that's proven by coming out and
> saying two hours later that this plane is probably
> at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, shut up until
> we find it.


Malaysia's government makes our look competent.

Except for the fact that they just imprisoned the leading political opposition leader accusing him of homosexuality.

That is one thing our Conservative friends would see as a more advanced social norm.

Why doesn't anyone suspect Zoolander

Gerrymanderer2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Except for the fact that they just imprisoned the
> leading political opposition leader accusing him
> of homosexuality.
>
> That is one thing our Conservative friends would
> see as a more advanced social norm.


Please go away you racist. Thanks.

--Everyone on the board.

Keep quiet. Raid on Entebbe II.

Plane Search Now Spans 11 Countries, 25 Nations Involved
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/plane-search-now-spans-11-countries-25-nations-involved-n53981

The number of countries involved in the search effort for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet has jumped from 14 to 25, Malaysian transport officials said Sunday.

The search area also expanded to include the territory of 11 countries, "which brings a new challenge and calibration and diplomatic effort," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said during a news conference Sunday.

"From focusing mainly on shallow seas, we are now looking at large tracts of land, crossing 11 countries, as well as deep and remote oceans," Hussein said.

Malaysian officials leading the search are focusing on two "corridors" stretching north across most of South Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and south through Indonesia, Australia and the Indian Ocean, after officials revealed Saturday the plane sent communication "pings" for over six hours after veering off course.

Malaysian officials have requested countries in South, Central and Southeast Asia provide assistance with satellite and radar data analysis, ground-searching and maritime and air surveillance, the Malaysian Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

"Countries with satellite assets such as U.S., China and France are asked to help," Hussein added.

"Both the northern and southern corridors are being treated with equal importance," according to the statement, but Hussein said, "surveillance is needed specially for southern corridor."

Malaysian authorities are also waiting on some countries to provide background checks on passengers who were on the missing plane.

"There are still a few countries yet to respond to our requests," Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar said Sunday. "The investigation covers everybody on board," he added.
Attachments:

Malaysia Jet Crew Made Contact After Data System Shut Down
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/malaysia-jet-crew-made-contact-after-data-system-shut-down-n53881

The flight crew of the missing Malaysian jet made its last radio contact with air traffic controllers after the aircraft's automatic signaling system was disabled, a Malaysian transport official said Sunday.

"The ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) communications system was disabled before last radio contact between plane and air traffic," said Malaysian Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak said early Saturday that the aircraft’s ACAR system was disabled first, and then the aircraft’s transponder was shut off before the flight veered off course.

The ACARS is located on a lower-level of the plane, while the transponder is housed in the cockpit, Tom Casey, a retired pilot who used to fly the giant Boeing 777 told NBC News on Saturday. In order to disconnect the ACAR system, a person would have to pull a series of circuit breakers, but also know where to find them, Casey noted.

Razak also said Saturday that the plane was diverted because of a "deliberate action by someone on the plane.” He said the investigation would focus on the passengers and crew.

Malaysia's acting minister of transport Hishamuddin Hussein, second from right, speaks during a press conference as director general of the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, second from left, and Malaysia Airlines Group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, left, and Malaysia Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, right, looks on at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, March 16, 2014.
Attachments:

Please resize that gigantic pic.

Six Important Facts You’re Not Being Told About Lost Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
http://www.realfarmacy.com/six-important-facts-youre-not-being-told-about-lost-malaysia-airlines-flight-370/

There are some astonishing things you’re not being told about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the flight that simply vanished over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board.

The mystery of the flight’s sudden and complete disappearance has even the world’s top air safety authorities baffled. “Air-safety and antiterror authorities on two continents appeared equally stumped about what direction the probe should take,” reports the Wall Street Journal.



WSJ goes on to report:

“For now, it seems simply inexplicable,” said Paul Hayes, director of safety and insurance at Ascend Worldwide, a British advisory and aviation data firm.



While investigators are baffled, the mainstream media isn’t telling you the whole story, either. So I’ve assembled this collection of facts that should raise serious questions in the minds of anyone following this situation.



• Fact #1: All Boeing 777 commercial jets are equipped with black box recorders that can survive any on-board explosion

No explosion from the plane itself can destroy the black box recorders. They are bomb-proof structures that hold digital recordings of cockpit conversations as well as detailed flight data and control surface data.



• Fact #2: All black box recorders transmit locator signals for at least 30 days after falling into the ocean

Yet the black box from this particular incident hasn’t been detected at all. That’s why investigators are having such trouble finding it. Normally, they only need to “home in” on the black box transmitter signal. But in this case, the absence of a signal means the black box itself — an object designed to survive powerful explosions — has either vanished, malfunctioned or been obliterated by some powerful force beyond the worst fears of aircraft design engineers.



• Fact #3: Many parts of destroyed aircraft are naturally bouyant and will float in water

In past cases of aircraft destroyed over the ocean or crashing into the ocean, debris has always been spotted floating on the surface of the water. That’s because — as you may recall from the safety briefing you’ve learned to ignore — “your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device.”

Yes, seat cushions float. So do many other non-metallic aircraft parts. If Flight 370 was brought down by an explosion of some sort, there would be massive debris floating on the ocean, and that debris would not be difficult to spot. The fact that it has not yet been spotted only adds to the mystery of how Flight 370 appears to have literally vanished from the face of the Earth.



• Fact #4: If a missile destroyed Flight 370, the missile would have left a radar signature

One theory currently circulating on the ‘net is that a missile brought down the airliner, somehow blasting the aircraft and all its contents to “smithereens” — which means very tiny pieces of matter that are undetectable as debris.

The problem with this theory is that there exists no known ground-to-air or air-to-air missile with such a capability. All known missiles generate tremendous debris when they explode on target. Both the missile and the debris produce very large radar signatures which would be easily visible to both military vessels and air traffic authorities.



• Fact #5: The location of the aircraft when it vanished is not a mystery

Air traffic controllers have full details of almost exactly where the aircraft was at the moment it vanished. They know the location, elevation and airspeed — three pieces of information which can readily be used to estimate the likely location of debris.

Remember: air safety investigators are not stupid people. They’ve seen mid-air explosions before, and they know how debris falls. There is already a substantial data set of airline explosions and crashes from which investigators can make well-educated guesses about where debris should be found. And yet, even armed with all this experience and information, they remain totally baffled on what happened to Flight 370.

• Fact #6: If Flight 370 was hijacked, it would not have vanished from radar

Hijacking an airplane does not cause it to simply vanish from radar. Even if transponders are disabled on the aircraft, ground radar can still readily track the location of the aircraft using so-called “passive” radar (classic ground-based radar systems that emit a signal and monitor its reflection).

Thus, the theory that the flight was hijacked makes no sense whatsoever. When planes are hijacked, they do not magically vanish from radar.
Attachments:

This is clearly going to be Muslim terrorist activity. TWO confirmed persons used false identities, traveled TOGETHER on false passports, stolen in Thailand, and bought sequential tickets. At least TWO MORE false passports have been identified. Indonesia is predominantly Muslim. Finally, does anyone believe for even a moment that there are no military or civilian satellites that show exactly what happened? The information simply isn't being released to the public, because it is more Muslim terrorism, and the powers that be seem to love them, for some unGodly reason..

My hunch was this was a planned detour and they were able to enlist inside help to disappear from radar. There is probably something on that flight who means a lot to someone somewhere.

I watched the first press conf on the missing plane and the speaker was referring to everyone in the past tense. The pilot WAS a good pilot, the air crew WERE experienced. Something very fishy going on. They knew there were no survivors on the first day.

Seems like horseshit to me. Maybe it's a hoax, Like huvr tech. Maybe its a diversion tactic by the Powers that be to avoid publicity of crimea referendum. They almost sold us a hover board. And they paid tony hawks to lie to us. These people can stoop to any level. And who knows even we would stoop, we've never seen that lot of money. billions!

www.designbill.com

Six Important Facts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Six Important Facts You’re Not Being Told About
> Lost Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
> http://www.realfarmacy.com/six-important-facts-you
> re-not-being-told-about-lost-malaysia-airlines-fli
> ght-370/
>
> There are some astonishing things you’re not
> being told about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the
> flight that simply vanished over the Gulf of
> Thailand with 239 people on board.
>
> The mystery of the flight’s sudden and complete
> disappearance has even the world’s top air
> safety authorities baffled. “Air-safety and
> antiterror authorities on two continents appeared
> equally stumped about what direction the probe
> should take,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
>
>
>
> WSJ goes on to report:
>
> “For now, it seems simply inexplicable,” said
> Paul Hayes, director of safety and insurance at
> Ascend Worldwide, a British advisory and aviation
> data firm.
>
>
>
> While investigators are baffled, the mainstream
> media isn’t telling you the whole story, either.
> So I’ve assembled this collection of facts that
> should raise serious questions in the minds of
> anyone following this situation.
>
>
>
> • Fact #1: All Boeing 777 commercial jets are
> equipped with black box recorders that can survive
> any on-board explosion
>
> No explosion from the plane itself can destroy the
> black box recorders. They are bomb-proof
> structures that hold digital recordings of cockpit
> conversations as well as detailed flight data and
> control surface data.
>
>
>
> • Fact #2: All black box recorders transmit
> locator signals for at least 30 days after falling
> into the ocean
>
> Yet the black box from this particular incident
> hasn’t been detected at all. That’s why
> investigators are having such trouble finding it.
> Normally, they only need to “home in” on the
> black box transmitter signal. But in this case,
> the absence of a signal means the black box itself
> — an object designed to survive powerful
> explosions — has either vanished, malfunctioned
> or been obliterated by some powerful force beyond
> the worst fears of aircraft design engineers.
>
>
>
> • Fact #3: Many parts of destroyed aircraft are
> naturally bouyant and will float in water
>
> In past cases of aircraft destroyed over the ocean
> or crashing into the ocean, debris has always been
> spotted floating on the surface of the water.
> That’s because — as you may recall from the
> safety briefing you’ve learned to ignore —
> “your seat cushion may be used as a flotation
> device.”
>
> Yes, seat cushions float. So do many other
> non-metallic aircraft parts. If Flight 370 was
> brought down by an explosion of some sort, there
> would be massive debris floating on the ocean, and
> that debris would not be difficult to spot. The
> fact that it has not yet been spotted only adds to
> the mystery of how Flight 370 appears to have
> literally vanished from the face of the Earth.
>
>
>
> • Fact #4: If a missile destroyed Flight 370,
> the missile would have left a radar signature
>
> One theory currently circulating on the ‘net is
> that a missile brought down the airliner, somehow
> blasting the aircraft and all its contents to
> “smithereens” — which means very tiny pieces
> of matter that are undetectable as debris.
>
> The problem with this theory is that there exists
> no known ground-to-air or air-to-air missile with
> such a capability. All known missiles generate
> tremendous debris when they explode on target.
> Both the missile and the debris produce very large
> radar signatures which would be easily visible to
> both military vessels and air traffic
> authorities.
>
>
>
> • Fact #5: The location of the aircraft when it
> vanished is not a mystery
>
> Air traffic controllers have full details of
> almost exactly where the aircraft was at the
> moment it vanished. They know the location,
> elevation and airspeed — three pieces of
> information which can readily be used to estimate
> the likely location of debris.
>
> Remember: air safety investigators are not stupid
> people. They’ve seen mid-air explosions before,
> and they know how debris falls. There is already a
> substantial data set of airline explosions and
> crashes from which investigators can make
> well-educated guesses about where debris should be
> found. And yet, even armed with all this
> experience and information, they remain totally
> baffled on what happened to Flight 370.
>
> • Fact #6: If Flight 370 was hijacked, it would
> not have vanished from radar
>
> Hijacking an airplane does not cause it to simply
> vanish from radar. Even if transponders are
> disabled on the aircraft, ground radar can still
> readily track the location of the aircraft using
> so-called “passive” radar (classic
> ground-based radar systems that emit a signal and
> monitor its reflection).
>
> Thus, the theory that the flight was hijacked
> makes no sense whatsoever. When planes are
> hijacked, they do not magically vanish from radar.


A few realities for a few of the items:

#2 - the ocean is deep, very deep in many places. There could be a LOT of water between the box and a receiver.

#3 - the ocean is very big. Little plane, big ocean. The same sort of 'principal' is used to partially explain why planes don't crash into each other much - little plane, big sky. The sky simply is not as crowded as the highways.)

#5 - the "air safety investigator" SYSTEM has seen mid-air explosion. They really don't happen very often - so very, very, very few "air safety investigators" will have 'experience' with mid-air explosions. Indeed, so few have occurred that even the modeling can't be that great. Ball park, sure. But - the ocean is very big.

I kinda thought EVERYBODY knew facts 1 & 2. Hardly astonishing.

Fact #3 - well, yes and no. Remember Air France 447? It took TWO years to find the black boxes and the MAJORITY of the wreckage. Admittedly, it crashed in much deeper water than MalaysiaAirways 370 probably did.

Same with Fact #5 - yes & no. I'm speaking of the possibility that the plane had "turned back"/changed course - it could have gone hundreds of miles east or west in just a few minutes.

This article is a flaming turd of sensationalistic crap :) Yes, I'm sure the 'mainstream media' is hiding the facts. Lol.

As sad as it is, especially for the relatives...what if....it was a fake OR with the technology we have today, it was made to 'disappear'. Are we being distracted from something bigger and dodgier that the powers that be are trying to hide from us?

So was it Aliens? act of God? a time portal? wonder where are they now??? like that series 'Lost'!

Walter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This article is a flaming turd of sensationalistic
> crap :) Yes, I'm sure the 'mainstream media' is
> hiding the facts. Lol.

Thank you Walter! All of these facts have been addressed in the media. There is no new information here. Apparently, Mike Adams doesn't seem to comprehend the vastness of the area they are searching. For reference, the wreckage of the Air France flight that crashed on the way from Rio to Paris over the Atlantic, took 2 years to locate and recover.

I'm so glad you posted this!! I couldn't agree more! I mean it's 2014... How could NO country have the technology to locate a plane that big?!

TPncj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As sad as it is, especially for the
> relatives...what if....it was a fake OR with the
> technology we have today, it was made to
> 'disappear'. Are we being distracted from
> something bigger and dodgier that the powers that
> be are trying to hide from us?

I was thinking that this morning... It's all too strange!

I would like to point out that there is a caveat to number 6. Yes radar works even if the transponder is off (the xpndr reports altitude, callsign, etc) but bUT this plane was over the ocean which is outside any radar coverage and therefore a hijacking to another costal based country is very VERY feasible. Myanmar?

I think the signs are pointing more and more toward the pilot or copilot, or both, flipping out and crashing the plane. If this had been an organized terror plot, someone would have taken credit by now. That's how terrorists create terror and get attention.

Stabitha Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think the signs are pointing more and more
> toward the pilot or copilot, or both, flipping out
> and crashing the plane. If this had been an
> organized terror plot, someone would have taken
> credit by now. That's how terrorists create terror
> and get attention.

I'm not so sure, seems to be more of a coordinated effort. It could be they took the plane and then the passengers took it back, only for it to crash into the sea...Or it landed at some pre-determined location. Very, very strange either way.

Madison '03 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm so glad you posted this!! I couldn't agree
> more! I mean it's 2014... How could NO country
> have the technology to locate a plane that big?!


We do, the USS Kidd has the most advanced capability or even the only capability of spotting it on the bottom of the Indian Ocean out there. It being mountainous and very deep doesnt help though.

Other countries have called off their efforts, India for example can only search the surface of the ocean and doesnt have the expendable resources.

If the last satellite ping was in fact the last transmission before it landed in whatever, they should have a more defined search zone.

Does anyone have any info on how far a black box ping travels under water?

Black box pings are detectable by sonar systems for only a few miles. The plane may be thousands of feet down so they will still have to get vertical to it to hear it. They're searching.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2014 08:40PM by Gerrymanderer2.

My hunch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My hunch was this was a planned detour and they
> were able to enlist inside help to disappear from
> radar. There is probably something on that flight
> who means a lot to someone somewhere.

I was thinking the same thing. There were a lot of intelligent microchip developers on that plane, some who undoubtedly worked on electronics that are classified, or could hold value in some sort of weapons development. Also possible that it was instigated by a company that is a competitor and they are trying to steal secrets or information, or eliminate the "brains" of their operations.

Help from above: Satellite signals can confirm a plane's identity
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/satellite-signals-plane-identity-flight-370/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- There's a reason why Malaysian officials are so confident it was Flight 370 that sent signals to a satellite many hours after the plane disappeared from radar March 8. That's because CNN has learned signals from commercial aircraft to Inmarsat satellites always include a code confirming the identity of the plane.

An Inmarsat official, while declining to discuss specifics of Flight 370, tells CNN the satellite system is highly reliable, that each signal to an aircraft is met by a return signal and that those signals always contains a code verifying the identity of the aircraft.

It is "virtually impossible" to change an aircraft's identifying code or to confuse one aircraft with another, the Inmarsat official said.

Further, after a satellite link is established at the beginning of a plane's flight, it makes automatic, periodic checks until the end of the flight -- helping investigators determine the duration of the flight, if not its location.

That could explain why Malaysian authorities now say they have a "high degree of confidence" that Flight 370 continued flying well after it disappeared from civilian radar screens.

Government officials now believe the plane continued flying until at least 8:11 a.m. -- almost seven hours after disappearing from radar at 1:21 a.m.

Malaysian officials, citing "satellite information" but giving scant details, this weekend refocused the search for the missing Boeing 777, moving attention to massive arcs on both sides of the equator.

Malaysian authorities believe someone disabled several communications systems, perhaps to conceal the plane's location. One of those systems was a digital data system known as ACARS, which uses the satellite to relay messages to the ground.

But while it is possible for someone in the cockpit to turn off ACARS, the system's powered antenna remained on, receiving and responding to hourly checks from a ground station, via the satellite.

Inmarsat technicians continue to help, the company said.

"Our experts have been pulled into the investigation. We've had people in Kuala Lumpur," said Inmarsat subject expert David Coiley. "We are putting everything into this to assist the investigation as best we can, because it seems there's no other data set."

How Inmarsat works

Inmarsat, which is prohibited from discussing details of the Malaysia Flight 370 investigation, was able to provide CNN with a detailed explanation about how its system works.

The London-based satellite communications company owns and operates 10 satellites, all in geostationary orbit some 22,200 miles above the equator.

Since a single satellite can see one-third of the Earth, multiple satellites are needed to provide seamless coverage and provide redundancy and reliability, the company said.

Among other services, Inmarsat provides satellite communications for the ACARS, the acronym for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. It's a digital datalink for short messages between an aircraft and an airline operations center, air traffic controllers and others.

ACARS can be used to send messages and data of all types, including text messages from pilots to dispatchers, or automatically generated data on the health of the plane.

When a plane is over land, ACARS messages typically are sent via VHF radio. But when a plane is in remote regions, or over water and out of range of VHF radio, the signal is seamlessly switched to satellite. "The pilot doesn't have to do anything," said Coiley said.

At its most fundamental, the satellite is a simple relay, transferring signals from ground stations to the aircraft, and back again, not unlike a cell phone tower, Coiley said.

'Handshakes' help determine location

When an aircraft powers up, the airplane automatically sends a signal logging onto the communications network. Thereafter, the ground station sends "polling signals" to the satellite, which relays them to the aircraft. When the aircraft responds, it is known as a "handshake." The information relayed during the handshake is very limited, but it contains a unique identifying code to identify the aircraft.

The purpose of the hourly "handshakes" is to allow the satellite to know the approximate location of the aircraft so that it can efficiently relay any messages. For this, the satellite needs to know the angle of the aircraft from the satellite.

An aircraft directly under the satellite would be at a 90 degree angle to the satellite; an aircraft at the poles would be at 0 degrees.

In the case of Malaysia Airlines 370, authorities have said, the last message sent was at 40 degrees.

Accident investigators, with the help of satellite experts, have used that information to determine the possible location of the plane.

"We're trying to get up to speed on what that means and how to interpret it," one U.S. official told reporters. "It's sort of a new technology for us."

"We have never had to use satellite handshaking as the best possible source of information," the official said.

A completed handshake also suggests the plane was operational because the plane needs electrical power to send the return signal.

A plane's return signal is an acknowledgment that, "Yes, I'm still here," Coiley said.

In the case of Flight 370, the "last successful handshake occurred somewhere along that circle," the U.S. official said.

"A lot of that semicircle is over land; a lot of it is over water," he said. "We are trying to figure out how we can use that information to give us an idea of what the last known location of the airplane might have been."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
London-based satellite communications company Inmarsat talks to CNN
Official says signals from aircraft to Inmarsat satellites always include an ID code
It is "virtually impossible" to change an aircraft's identifying code, official says
This could explain why Malaysia is sure plane continued flying long after radar contact was lost
Attachments:

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Get up to speed on the latest developments
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/malaysia-plane-up-to-speed/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- As investigators search for clues to unravel the mystery of where Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went, there were several key developments over the weekend.

But major questions still remain.

Here's a cheat sheet to help you get up to speed on the latest developments:

Where are investigators searching now?
The search has expanded to cover large swaths of land and sea, including 11 countries and deep oceans. Where the plane went is anybody's guess. As 25 nations help try to find where the missing plane is, there's also a process of elimination in which investigators try to piece together where the aircraft isn't. Pakistan said Sunday that the plane never showed up on its civilian radars and would have been treated as a threat if it had. The Times of India reported that India's military also said there was no way the plane could have flown over India without being picked up on radar.

What's one main focus of the investigation?

Malaysia's Prime Minister has said that somebody deliberately steered the plane off course. That means the pilots have become one obvious focus for investigators. On Sunday, Malaysian police said they were still investigating a flight simulator seized from pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home. Peter Chong, a friend of the 53-year-old pilot, said it's unfair to imply Zaharie had anything to do with what happened to the plane. He told CNN he'd been to Zaharie's house and tried out the flight simulator. "It's a reflection of his love for people," Chong said, "because he wants to share the joy of flying with his friends."

A 29-year-old Malaysian civil aviation engineer, Mohammed Khairul Amri Selamat, who works for a private jet charter company was on the flight. Police are investigating all passengers and crew, but he is likely to be of particular interest because of his aviation knowledge. "I am confident that he is not involved," his father told CNN. "They're welcome to investigate me and my family."

What do we know about key moments on the flight?

For days we've been talking about the last transponder signal the plane sent. And now it appears another system that sends data about the plane, the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was shut off, too. Authorities say that system was disabled early on in the flight, just before the plane flew over the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Before the transponder was deactivated, the co-pilot is believed to have made the plane's last verbal communication with air traffic controllers. "All right, good night." (1:19 a.m.). At 2:40 a.m., military radar spotted the plane hundreds of miles off course. And at 8:11 a.m. -- more than seven hours after takeoff -- a satellite tracked the plane as it attempted a series of "handshakes" -- or electronic connections -- with it.

While some details have come into focus, major questions remain unanswered:

Where's the plane?

Satellite and radar data have given authorities some clues, but not enough to pinpoint the plane. Right now investigators are focusing on two corridors where the plane might have either crashed or landed: a northern arc that stretches from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in central Asia to northern Thailand, and a southern arc that spans from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. Because the northern parts of the traffic corridor include some tightly guarded airspace over India, Pakistan and even some U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S. authorities believe it's more likely the aircraft crashed into waters outside of the reach of radar south of India, a U.S. official told CNN. If it had flown farther north, it's likely it would have been detected by radar.

Who would deliberately divert it?
In addition to the pilots, other passengers and crew members onboard the plane, as well as any ground staff who came into contact with it, are under investigation. The bottom line, investigators say, is that whoever flew the plane off course for hours appeared to know what they were doing. Investigators are looking into the backgrounds of the passengers to see whether any of them were trained pilots. "There are still a few countries who have yet to respond to our request for a background check," said Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector general of the Royal Malaysian Police Force. "But there are a few ... foreign intelligence agencies who have cleared all the(ir) passengers." According to The New York Times, one of the passengers was an aviation engineer on his way to Beijing to work for a private-jet company.

Why would they do it, and how?

Finding a motive behind the plane's disappearance is a key problem investigators must solve. So far, they haven't released any concrete details. Speculation has surged about the possibility of terrorism or hijacking, but that hasn't been confirmed.

Is there any chance the passengers and crew survived?

It's possible the plane's last satellite contact could have been made from the ground, as long as the airplane still had electrical power, Malaysia's civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said Sunday. For the families and loved ones of those aboard Flight 370, some find comfort that there's no evidence the plane crashed. The father of one passenger, who watched updates from Malaysia in a Beijing hotel, said he hoped the plane was hijacked because that gave him reason to think his son had survived. "I hope they are alive," he said, "no matter how small the chance is."

Does the possibility that the plane is on land change anything about the investigation?

Yes, analysts told CNN. It means it's even more pressing that authorities find the plane. "Time is even more of the essence. If this airplane has been taken to be used as a weapon, then the time that has been taken to prepare the aircraft for whatever deed is the plan -- obviously to thwart that, it's all about time," said Shawn Pruchnicki, who teaches aviation safety and accident investigation at Ohio State University. CNN aviation analyst Jim Tilmon, a former American Airlines pilot, said whoever deliberately steered the plane off course likely did it with help. But what's next is anyone's guess, he said. "We have been behind them all along," he said. "So now, if they had a plan, and if that plan included being able to set down someplace and refuel a little bit, we are looking at something that we may never see the end of."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
~There were major developments over the weekend, but key questions remain unanswered
~The search area for the plane covers sea and land, including 11 countries
~The plane's pilots are a main investigation focus
~Details have emerged about some key moments during the flight
Attachments:

Thanks for keeping us updated. Did they all live in Fairfax?

Priapus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for keeping us updated. Did they all live
> in Fairfax?

Not anymore. Heheh

My guess after 7 1/2+ hours of flight time like they have confirmed...

It landed somewhere. Safely like they planned it. Too much planning obviously went into this for the pilot to just commit suicide in the Indian Ocean.

To a point - a missing airplane should not be the leading, headline-blaring 24 hours story for a full week like they've made it. Not saying that this isnt a story worth note, but it does NOT warrant the level of attention they have given it.

TOOOO CREEEEEEPY!!! Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Passenger leaves family eerie gift
> http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2014/03/
> 13/pmt-wife-of-man-missing-on-flight-370.cnn&hpt=h
> p_t1&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2
> Fwww.cnn.com%2F%3Fhpt%3Dsitenav
>
> Danica Weeks, whose husband is among the missing
> from Flight 370, joins Piers Morgan for an
> emotional live interview.
>
>
> Watch the news story here:
> http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2014/03/
> 13/pmt-wife-of-man-missing-on-flight-370.cnn&hpt=h
> p_t1&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2
> Fwww.cnn.com%2F%3Fhpt%3Dsitenav#/video/bestoftv/20
> 14/03/13/pmt-wife-of-man-missing-on-flight-370.cnn

Why hasn't anyone conducted a background check on the husband who gave the ring to his wife before the flight saying that he may not come back. Sounds a bit weird.

It has been so long now; I think that whatever they might have been planning went wrong. By 8 in the morning, the passengers would have known they were way off course. They probably figured it out long before then, because most of the flight was supposed to be over land, but the diversion took them over water apparently (in order to avoid radar.)

The cabin crew may well have realized the problem very early in the flight, if they worked that route very often they would notice something was different when the plane turned. It's hard to imagine that the whole cabin crew would have been in on it (whatever "it" was.) There must have been some very anxious people on that plane.

One thing we learned from 9/11... don't let them finish what they started. Passengers have a different mindset now. They don't sit still and hope for the best: when they realize something is wrong, they do something.

On a different note, I've recently have acquired a slightly used Boeing 777, with less miles than one would expect. Missing black box and transponder. Sold as is. Interested parties, hit me up on Craigslist.
Attachments:

My guess is that the media is trying to sidetrack us with this story going in repeated circles having us talk about the same things over and over and over and over and over

Not funny at all. As a matter of fact, it is insulting and disrespectful to those who are missing their loved ones and those who are working hard to find them. Imagine for a moment, if someone commented like this about 9/11 or Boston marathon tragedy, would it not be hurtful? We are hated as is by everyone in the world, we don't need to make it worse. And all those who are thumbing up, absolutely no respect.

relax, yes the west is hated for our freedom and our freedom of speach - people die tragically everyday, trees get cut down, teams lose.

Sidetracked? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My guess is that the media is trying to sidetrack
> us with this story going in repeated circles
> having us talk about the same things over and over
> and over and over and over

If you're being sidetracked, it's not by the media. They're telling you exactly what they are able to find out, and scrambling to be the first network to say it. The distraction would be by those who hold and control the release of info. And of course they aren't releasing every bit of information they have. No competent investigation would.

4wXpu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not funny at all. As a matter of fact, it is
> insulting and disrespectful to those who are
> missing their loved ones and those who are working
> hard to find them. Imagine for a moment, if
> someone commented like this about 9/11 or Boston
> marathon tragedy, would it not be hurtful? We are
> hated as is by everyone in the world, we don't
> need to make it worse. And all those who are
> thumbing up, absolutely no respect.


We did comment like this after 9/11 and that other thing you mentioned.

4wXpu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not funny at all. As a matter of fact, it is
> insulting and disrespectful to those who are
> missing their loved ones and those who are working
> hard to find them. Imagine for a moment, if
> someone commented like this about 9/11 or Boston
> marathon tragedy, would it not be hurtful? We are
> hated as is by everyone in the world, we don't
> need to make it worse. And all those who are
> thumbing up, absolutely no respect.

What @Zoidberg was actually really funny.

Lighten up Francis.

150,000 people a day die. They don't get a CNN page. Just to put things in perspective.

Life is tragic. Try smiling more... or win the lottery. Whatever works for you.

The story has all the right ingredients to make for a good sell - heartache and tears (notice that the media is saying
"200+ souls" instead of "200+ people"... tear jerking is what that is), mystery, possibilities galore, lots of uninformed commentary ("we don't have all the facts BUT...") that the viewer takes as truth. And it's simple. No in depth coverage need be done. How does this effect the world writ large? It doesn't except that everyone can shed a collective tear and gasp a collective gasp, and so the journalist has no responsibility to the reader or watcher to explain the ins and outs of the effects on policy or the economy or national security or regional stability because there are no effects. No responsibility except to incite the collective tear and draw out the collective sigh.

By all accounts Malaysian authorities have either been wholly incompetent or maliciously withholding details from the rest of the world... or both. Mind you, I don't care if the press has to... you know... commit journalism in order to get the story. HOWEVER, I do care that surrounding nations and nations with a vested interest in learning the facts had to badger Malaysian authorities to get any information out if them and/or to get them to act as necessary to figure this out.

By always assuming a conspiracy theory is at play you are no different then a religious person that when confronted with an unexplained phenomena, simply says, "God did it". How about you use your brain a little more and look for more parsimonious answers

FpuTc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> By all accounts Malaysian authorities have either
> been wholly incompetent or maliciously withholding
> details from the rest of the world... or both.
> Mind you, I don't care if the press has to... you
> know... commit journalism in order to get the
> story. HOWEVER, I do care that surrounding nations
> and nations with a vested interest in learning the
> facts had to badger Malaysian authorities to get
> any information out if them and/or to get them to
> act as necessary to figure this out.

"By all accounts Malaysian authorities have either been wholly incompetent or maliciously withholding details" By WHAT accounts? If you mean they haven't solved the riddle of the flight disappearance, don't you think your jumping to judgment, and slander, a little too quickly?

Aliens shouldn't be ruled out. You think I'm joking, I'm not. We've really been screwing up lately as the human race. No better way to send a message to pull it together.

I am assuming that there is more information that is not being released. Yes, just enough news to satisfy, and to confirm other leaks, but I don't think the whole story is being let out... yet.

slander much? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FpuTc Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > By all accounts Malaysian authorities have
> either
> > been wholly incompetent or maliciously
> withholding
> > details from the rest of the world... or both.
> > Mind you, I don't care if the press has to...
> you
> > know... commit journalism in order to get the
> > story. HOWEVER, I do care that surrounding
> nations
> > and nations with a vested interest in learning
> the
> > facts had to badger Malaysian authorities to
> get
> > any information out if them and/or to get them
> to
> > act as necessary to figure this out.
>
> "By all accounts Malaysian authorities have either
> been wholly incompetent or maliciously withholding
> details" By WHAT accounts? If you mean they
> haven't solved the riddle of the flight
> disappearance, don't you think your jumping to
> judgment, and slander, a little too quickly?

Just theories. Such as what if a government had an unidentified plane fly over a military installation.. and perhaps they sent aircraft to determine who it was... and perhaps the unidentified aircraft did not identify itself...and had the ability crash into say a large building in their country...what would be 1 possible outcome? Then what if you did not want to deal with the aftermath of such an action so you sent the rest of the world far and wide of the possible outcome for days and days

Noah Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> By always assuming a conspiracy theory is at play
> you are no different then a religious person that
> when confronted with an unexplained phenomena,
> simply says, "God did it". How about you use your
> brain a little more and look for more parsimonious
> answers


I agree with you but it's a funny comment coming from a guy called "Noah"...:)

I .... can't ... help .... myself. "Parsimonious?"

So, here's another theory, although it's probably quite far fetched. The pilot seems to have been concerned about the decline of democracy and human rights (support of gay politician who is being jailed). His family leaves the home the day before the flight (does anyone know where they are?). Maybe, just maybe, he wanted political asylum because he knew the Malaysian gov't was watching him (because of his vocal support of this guy) and the only way to do it was to go to work and take a plane. You turn off all communications with the ground and quietly turn the plane in a different direction, the passengers wouldn't suspect a thing until they got to their destination and authorities are now saying that there probably wasn't a rapid ascent and descent at the beginning of the disappearance. Australia would be his best bet for asylum and the southern corridor that they have mapped would have taken him there. Maybe he thought there was enough fuel to make it, but there wasn't and they crashed into the ocean in that direction. It might also explain why the Australians have been asked to lead the search closer to that area. Again, just another crazy theory...

Does the transponder always give out the SAME code? Does it get changed or is it like a VIN of a car fixed to that particular vehicle.

Could it have been switched off, reprogrammed somehow, then switched back on

giving a false transponder code to confuse the ATCs of India or whoever. Maybe it was spotted but with false id then landed somewhere.

Have they checked that all planes that went through the Maylay airspace are

accounted for on the ground at their destination?

I'm sure this has been checked into and is only plausible if the transponder ID code can be hacked while in flight.

My bet is that it landed in Somalia... kidnapping ships is getting harder... I hope the Americans are scanning that area with UAVs.

dHe9T Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I .... can't ... help .... myself. "Parsimonious?"

Think (i.e., "Google") Occam's razor. It's a fundamental scientific principle that essentially posits that we ought not seek out more convoluted and complex explanations when a more simple one will do. That is, suppose the questions are: what happened to the plane and why can' we find it? One answer might be, a massive multi-governmental cover-up is behind the disappearance and the media is in on it trying to confuse the public further. A more parsimonious answer would one or two individuals were involved in bringing the plane to land somewhere or it crashed during an attempt to do the former and no government or media is involved. The answer with the most parsimony is the more simplistic one, yet has equal explanatory power. I am clearly droning on and wasting our time, but the point is given the data, go with the most logical and parsimonious solution.

It's kind of funny how the US dumps billions of dollars to develop a stealth jet fighter to avoid radar at any altitude and now all of sudden a Boeing 777 can go undetected by radar "impossible". GPS can track a car to and within 50 feet and commercial airline navigation relies on GPS now for about 90% of navigation except on final approach were they use ILS and VOR approaches to form a left, right, up and down approach kind of like the cross hairs in a riffle scope. GPS especially is relied on for crossing oceans and unpopulated areas overland were traditional navigation is available. For the authorities to say they were not able to track that plain are full of "BS" they know what happened to this plane.

My guess is it went to Iran or Kazackstan, they're gonna load a nuclear bomb from the old Soviet Union, and then fly it on a suicide mission into Israel!!! It's probably orchestrated by the Chechens!

new theory Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, here's another theory, although it's probably
> quite far fetched. The pilot seems to have been
> concerned about the decline of democracy and human
> rights (support of gay politician who is being
> jailed). His family leaves the home the day before
> the flight (does anyone know where they are?).
> Maybe, just maybe, he wanted political asylum
> because he knew the Malaysian gov't was watching
> him (because of his vocal support of this guy) and
> the only way to do it was to go to work and take a
> plane. You turn off all communications with the
> ground and quietly turn the plane in a different
> direction, the passengers wouldn't suspect a thing
> until they got to their destination and
> authorities are now saying that there probably
> wasn't a rapid ascent and descent at the beginning
> of the disappearance. Australia would be his best
> bet for asylum and the southern corridor that they
> have mapped would have taken him there. Maybe he
> thought there was enough fuel to make it, but
> there wasn't and they crashed into the ocean in
> that direction. It might also explain why the
> Australians have been asked to lead the search
> closer to that area. Again, just another crazy
> theory...

If he were concerned about human rights, why did he kill a whole planeload full of people?

this is a ploy to show us that hijackings are very real 2 scare us back to the days of code orange purple and skittles green ie giving the 2 iran guys with stolen passports to put us back on the war path for a possible freedom saving invasion of a oil rich country

Help from above: Satellite signals can confirm a plane's identity
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/satellite-signals-plane-identity-flight-370/index.html?hpt=bosread

(CNN) -- There's a reason why Malaysian officials are so confident it was Flight 370 that sent signals to a satellite many hours after the plane disappeared from radar March 8. That's because CNN has learned signals from commercial aircraft to Inmarsat satellites always include a code confirming the identity of the plane.

An Inmarsat official, while declining to discuss specifics of Flight 370, tells CNN the satellite system is highly reliable, that each signal to an aircraft is met by a return signal and that those signals always contains a code verifying the identity of the aircraft.

It is "virtually impossible" to change an aircraft's identifying code or to confuse one aircraft with another, the Inmarsat official said.

Further, after a satellite link is established at the beginning of a plane's flight, it makes automatic, periodic checks until the end of the flight -- helping investigators determine the duration of the flight, if not its location.

That could explain why Malaysian authorities now say they have a "high degree of confidence" that Flight 370 continued flying well after it disappeared from civilian radar screens.







































































































































































































































































































































































Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370








Flight 370: The search in the ocean







Police search pilots' homes







Families wait for word of missing flight
Map it: What happened to Flight 370?

Government officials now believe the plane continued flying until at least 8:11 a.m. -- almost seven hours after disappearing from radar at 1:21 a.m.

Malaysian officials, citing "satellite information" but giving scant details, this weekend refocused the search for the missing Boeing 777, moving attention to massive arcs on both sides of the equator.

Malaysian authorities believe someone disabled several communications systems, perhaps to conceal the plane's location. One of those systems was a digital data system known as ACARS, which uses the satellite to relay messages to the ground.

But while it is possible for someone in the cockpit to turn off ACARS, the system's powered antenna remained on, receiving and responding to hourly checks from a ground station, via the satellite.

Inmarsat technicians continue to help, the company said.

"Our experts have been pulled into the investigation. We've had people in Kuala Lumpur," said Inmarsat subject expert David Coiley. "We are putting everything into this to assist the investigation as best we can, because it seems there's no other data set."

How Inmarsat works

Inmarsat, which is prohibited from discussing details of the Malaysia Flight 370 investigation, was able to provide CNN with a detailed explanation about how its system works.

The London-based satellite communications company owns and operates 10 satellites, all in geostationary orbit some 22,200 miles above the equator.

Since a single satellite can see one-third of the Earth, multiple satellites are needed to provide seamless coverage and provide redundancy and reliability, the company said.

Among other services, Inmarsat provides satellite communications for the ACARS, the acronym for Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. It's a digital datalink for short messages between an aircraft and an airline operations center, air traffic controllers and others.

ACARS can be used to send messages and data of all types, including text messages from pilots to dispatchers, or automatically generated data on the health of the plane.








Tracking Malaysia Air flight 370







Waiting is the hardest part for families







Private ships search for missing flight







WEB EXTRA: A timeline of flight 370
When a plane is over land, ACARS messages typically are sent via VHF radio. But when a plane is in remote regions, or over water and out of range of VHF radio, the signal is seamlessly switched to satellite. "The pilot doesn't have to do anything," said Coiley said.

At its most fundamental, the satellite is a simple relay, transferring signals from ground stations to the aircraft, and back again, not unlike a cell phone tower, Coiley said.

'Handshakes' help determine location

When an aircraft powers up, the airplane automatically sends a signal logging onto the communications network. Thereafter, the ground station sends "polling signals" to the satellite, which relays them to the aircraft. When the aircraft responds, it is known as a "handshake." The information relayed during the handshake is very limited, but it contains a unique identifying code to identify the aircraft.

The purpose of the hourly "handshakes" is to allow the satellite to know the approximate location of the aircraft so that it can efficiently relay any messages. For this, the satellite needs to know the angle of the aircraft from the satellite.

An aircraft directly under the satellite would be at a 90 degree angle to the satellite; an aircraft at the poles would be at 0 degrees.

In the case of Malaysia Airlines 370, authorities have said, the last message sent was at 40 degrees.

Accident investigators, with the help of satellite experts, have used that information to determine the possible location of the plane.

"We're trying to get up to speed on what that means and how to interpret it," one U.S. official told reporters. "It's sort of a new technology for us."

"We have never had to use satellite handshaking as the best possible source of information," the official said.

A completed handshake also suggests the plane was operational because the plane needs electrical power to send the return signal.

A plane's return signal is an acknowledgment that, "Yes, I'm still here," Coiley said.

In the case of Flight 370, the "last successful handshake occurred somewhere along that circle," the U.S. official said.

"A lot of that semicircle is over land; a lot of it is over water," he said. "We are trying to figure out how we can use that information to give us an idea of what the last known location of the airplane might have been."

Pilot: Was that Boeing 777 diverted deliberately? Not necessarily
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/16/opinion/palmer-malaysia-flight-370/index.html?hpt=bosread

Editor's note: Bill Palmer, an Airbus A330 captain for a major airline, is the author of "Understanding Air France 447," an explanation of the details and lessons of the crash of that aircraft in June 2009.

(CNN) -- Those trying to draw conclusions from the information trickling from the investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 should go carefully.

It is plausible that, as Malaysia's Prime Minister asserted, the plane's flying for hours after losing contact with air traffic control was "consistent with deliberate action," but it's not the only logical explanation of the airplane's bewildering trajectory.

Statements that the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System was intentionally disabled, for example, leave out the fact that the ACARS is required to send the satellite contact requests (so-called "handshakes") that, according to news reports, were reported to have occurred for hours after the flight's disappearance.

The plane has multiple functions and channels connected to the ACARS and at least some of it must have still been working.

For example, one part of this communications system is used for messages between the airplane and air traffic control (clearances, position reports, etc). Another is used to communicate, essentially with text messages, between the airplane and the airline. Messages can also be sent automatically for maintenance functions such as reporting faults and sending routine engine data. The range of functions that would have been available for someone to disable is not yet clear.

And at least one news report described altitude excursions between 45,000 feet and 23,000, which one pilot suggested might have been done willfully to render passengers unconscious. But this strikes me as behavior that would also be consistent with the airplane flying completely unattended with the autopilot off. Though these oscillations are larger than I might expect, it would be a natural behavior for the airplane to fly relatively large but gentle pitch oscillations.

This would be true especially if the airplane's auto-throttles were also for some reason disabled. There have been statements made that such changes could only be made by a skilled aviator, but what "skilled aviator" cannot hold altitude within 20,000 feet?

Incapacitation or something else that could prevent the crew from controlling the plane -- fire, collision, explosive depressurization -- could also be indicated, which wouldn't necessarily mean the cockpit was breached by anyone.

The airplane reportedly made "suspicious turns." However, it is the nature of those turns that will reveal if it was deliberate "heading" (directional) changes or if nobody was flying the airplane at all. If the autopilot was off and the airplane was essentially flying on its own, I would expect a variety of heading changes. These changes could be initiated by turbulence during flight.

If the airplane's routes were controlled intentionally by selecting the heading or by programming the flight management computer, the flight path would be very straight, then a turn that would last usually from 10 to 30 seconds, followed by more straight flight.
While a close-up analysis of the flight path would be required to determine the case, it seems that officials are not even sure if the flight path headed northwest toward Pakistan or southwest into the vast Indian Ocean.

On the technical side, the Boeing 777-200ER is a fly-by-wire airplane -- that is, movement of the controls is converted into electrical signals that interact with flight-control computers and instruct the plane's control surfaces on the wings and tail. Its characteristics may be able to explain much of the airplane's behavior.

With the autopilot off, the airplane will adjust the pitch (the up or down movement of the nose of the plane) to maintain a speed set by the pilot. It will pitch up if it's going faster than the desired speed and pitch down if slower. This is called pitch trim. Anyone who has flown even a small aircraft will be familiar with this concept. Therefore, when disturbed, it will fly a series of pitch changes as it settles down on the trimmed airspeed.

Pitch protections built into the system ensure that the airplane never goes too fast or too slow. Temporary input on the control wheel, or changes in the airplane's weight as it burns off fuel, temperature and other normal atmospheric changes along the course can initiate the altitude changes as the airplane continues to seek its trimmed speed.

Heading changes are also what I would expect to see in an autopilot-off situation. The 777's fly-by-wire roll control law controls the tilt of the wings. The airplane would be subject to atmospheric disturbances that could act to tip a wing up every now and then, but built-in protections prevent the plane from exceeding bank angles in excess of 35°. While a conventional airplane would tend to spiral down in that situation, the 777 incorporates automatic pitch compensation, so the airplane could easily hold its altitude in these turns.

The fly-by-wire control system on the 777 makes it a very stable airplane, capable of flying for hours with the autopilot off without crashing.

If the flight path can be shown to be very straight lines with neat turns followed by another straight line, then I would throw out the "autopilot-off" theory, but it seems as though officials can't even determine where the plane was heading, much less the nature and cause of some heading changes.

The consistent theme in the mystery of this flight has been very little data, and the exact nature of that scant data is vague and changing.

Whatever exact scenario can account for the possible incapacitation or deliberate actions of the crew, the loss of the transponder and other communications and the airplane's mysterious flight path is likely to be a situation we have not seen before.

I would urge that we not jump to conclusions based on inconclusive evidence. The evidence we have may be "consistent with deliberate acts," but it is also consistent with other explanations as well.

Malaysian government uncomfortable in spotlight over missing plane
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/16/world/asia/malaysia-profile/index.html?hpt=bosread

(CNN) -- Before the mysterious disappearance of one of its passenger jets this month, Malaysia wasn't a country used to finding itself dominating headlines around the world.

Some of its Southeast Asian neighbors, like Indonesia and the Philippines, have suffered devastating natural disasters in recent years and are all too familiar with the media frenzy that accompanies a major crisis.

But Malaysia has largely managed to stay out of the international spotlight since its independence from British colonial rule more than half a century ago.

"It is one of these countries, because of its geography, that doesn't have earthquakes," said Ernest Bower, senior adviser for Southeast Asia studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It doesn't have tsunamis, it hasn't been tested with a disaster like this."

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has thrust the government into the dazzling glare of worldwide attention. And it hasn't emerged with very good grades.

"I think on a stress test, they're failing," Bower told CNN's Jake Tapper, pointing to the government's coordination of different agencies and communication with other countries.

China among critics

Criticism and complaints have come from other countries involved in the search for the missing plane, like China and Vietnam, and from the relatives of passengers. Malaysian officials have created confusion by issuing contradictory statements on key aspects of the investigation.

The majority of the people on board the plane were Chinese, and Beijing has increasingly voiced its displeasure with the search, especially after Malaysia announced over the weekend that evidence suggested the plane had been deliberately flown west into the Indian Ocean, away from its last confirmed location over the South China Sea.

"The new information means the intensive search in the South China Sea for the whole past week was worthless and would never bear fruit," said a commentary published by China's state-run news agency Xinhua. "Even worse, the golden time for saving possible survivors, if any, was generously wasted."

"It is widely asked why the Malaysian government failed to provide such crucial information as early as possible to avoid futile search by around a dozen countries," the commentary said.

China's Foreign Ministry urged Malaysia to keep providing more "thorough and correct information."

Malaysian officials have defended their handling of the crisis, stressing that the situation is unprecedented.

"This is not a normal investigation," Hishammuddin Hussein, the country's defense and transport minister, said last week.

The shock of scrutiny

But some analysts say the missteps are symptomatic of a governing elite that's grown increasingly aloof.

"Although theoretically a democracy with regular, contested elections, Malaysia has been ruled since independence by the same governing coalition that has become known for its lack of transparency and disinterest—even outright hostility—toward the press and inquiring citizens," Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an article for Bloomberg Businessweek.

That resistance to scrutiny has come to haunt Malaysian government officials.

"It's not surprising. The Malaysian government has been able to live on its own terms for a very, very long time," said Clive Kessler, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney who specializes in Malaysian studies.

The governing Barisan Nasional coalition and its predecessor have been in power for more than five decades. Prime Minister Najib Razak, the son and nephew of former prime ministers, has been in office since 2009.

Najib maintained a conspicuously low profile during the first week of the plane's disappearance. He appeared before the news media over the weekend to announce that the government believed the plane had flown off course as the result of deliberate actions. But he refused to take questions from journalists.

Decades of dominance

Malaysia is an Islamic state with a Muslim majority. But it's also a multiethnic country with a wealth of varying opinions, experts say, including from within different ethnic and religious groups.

Ethnic Malays enjoy government preferences for positions due to their status as "sons of the soil," or Bumiputera, a term that comes from the Sanskrit word "bhumiputra" -- "bhumi" can mean land or earth, and "putra" means son.

"They have historically enjoyed political dominance," said Donald K. Emmerson, the director of the Southeast Asia Forum at Stanford University.

But the governing coalition's grip on power isn't as strong as it used to be. In elections last year, it failed to secure more than half of the popular vote, its worst ever performance. It kept its majority in parliament in part thanks to voting district boundaries that favored its candidates.

The government is finding itself increasingly fragile, analysts say, and the popularity of social media has undermined the clout of state-run news organizations.

"It's starting to open up," said Bower. "Social media has opened it up, a growing middle class has opened it up."

Tensions with opposition

Human rights activists say the repeated prosecution of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges is evidence of the lengths the Malaysian government will go to in order to sideline its opponents.

After being acquitted of the charges in 2012 after a lengthy legal battle, Anwar was found guilty again this month when a court overturned the previous verdict. The decision prevented Anwar from entering the race for important regional elections.

"The trial and conviction of Anwar should be seen for what it is: an underhanded move by the ruling party to tarnish and weaken the political opposition without regard to the harm caused to the nation's judiciary and democratic process," said Graeme Reid, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch.

The government has repeatedly denied that the case against Anwar is politically motivated.

To shore up support, Najib's government has become increasingly reliant on a populist, religiously conservative approach that caters to ethnic Malays in rural areas, said Kessler, who has studied Malaysian society and culture for about 50 years.

The government's approach has fueled increasing disillusionment among other ethnic groups, notably the Chinese, and urban dwellers, he said.

Against that backdrop, dissatisfaction over the handling of the search for the missing plane could be a moment of truth for the government, according to Kessler.

"It may well be that Malaysia will not be the same after this because it has only served to exacerbate all the tensions in Malaysian society between the government and many of the people it rules over," he said.

Watch this video here:
See new video of Flight 370 pilot
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/16/world/asia/malaysia-profile/index.html?hpt=bosread
Attachments:

This is a nation borne out of racist policies, corruption & greed to the core and this MH370 incidence is coming back to roost for the world to see. The current PM is tainted with womanizing & murder of a Mongolian mother where C4 explosives were used to eliminate her just to shut her mouth. Opposition members were jailed just for speaking the truths using the compliant judiciary while those in power have a different standards of justice compared to the rest of the people.

Logical : Plane originated from Muslim country with Muslim pilots. More than half the passengers on board where Chinese as would be somewhat expected if the flight is going to Beijing. The Muslims HATE the Chinese, and for decades fought for equality in Xinjiang Province, China. The Muslins and Chinese have been killing each other for decades, evidence the train station massacre in Kunming.

If history plays out true, the CIA has known where this plane is and will delay it's knowledge until the incidents benefit to the empire of the Machine, CIA/NSA/US Military and all their cohort defense contractors has been exhausted. When it comes to survival the "Machine" will do ANYTHING including murder, treason, lying, and disregard for hundreds of families and victoms to protect the growth of their empire.

The racial divide in Malaysia is between Malays and others. If you are a Malay, you get special discounts, loans, higher positions, even construction contracts. Tax time is coming up and majority of Malays do not pay income tax. They make a "donation" to their mosque. The others are the ones that have to pay all the taxes, get no breaks, and always get's push down into the gutters. The others are the ones that work extremely hard to make it. All the talent in Malaysia moves to Singapore or elsewhere. There is no chance of promotions when faced against a Malay.
Malaysia from the top is completely corrupt and it shows when you don't have strong leader. This event highlights how any disaster would be handled. The government knows best and silences anyone that says otherwise. Majority of Malaysians cannot speak English properly, much less understand it. Having to deal with many in government positions, they are extremely lazy and no incentive to work hard.
To be honest, a disaster is not the place to show "face". It's all about working together to find the plane. It is ok to say, "we don't know the location of the plane however we are looking through all data to determine this". Bring in outside consultants with the experience right away, instead of sitting on their thumbs and crying foul when others say "what are you guys doing?"

must be ranting of ethnic chinese. if you want some of them in your country please take some from our hands. they are leeches. be warned, they want their own chinese type school and chinese language priority over National Language.

Malaysia is another example that apartheid exists still in some form even today.
If you're not a Malay chances are your boss is a Malay and you'll never get his job. And his kids get a free pass to universities.

Sure they call it a democracy but its a sham democracy.
It's a one party dictatorship where media is state controlled and anyone who criticizes the govt gets thrown in jail. Freedom of the press is non existant.

It's no wonder the govt is having a hard time being transparent and releasing information in this current incident - it's not in their DNA.

It's not in the spotlight worldwide as South Africa once did because the oppressors aren't White but Malays and the disadvantaged here aren't black south africans but ethnic Chinese and Indians whose roots date back for several generations.

This incident has blown wide open a can of worms for all to see. Disgusted at how this incident have been handled by the Malaysian authorities. Lives could have been saved if they were frank and honest with initial findings.

Plane search area: 11 countries, deep ocean
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/malaysia-plane-up-to-speed/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- As investigators search for clues to unravel the mystery of where Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went, there were several key developments over the weekend.

But major questions still remain.

Here's a cheat sheet to help you get up to speed on the latest developments:

Where are investigators searching now?

The search has expanded to cover large swaths of land and sea, including 11 countries and deep oceans. Where the plane went is anybody's guess. As 26 nations help try to find the missing plane, there's also a process of elimination in which investigators try to piece together where the aircraft isn't. Pakistan said Sunday that the plane never showed up on its civilian radars and would have been treated as a threat if it had. The Times of India reported that India's military also said there was no way the plane could have flown over India without being picked up on radar.

What's one main focus of the investigation?

Malaysia's Prime Minister has said that somebody deliberately steered the plane off course. That means the pilots have become one obvious focus for investigators. On Sunday, Malaysian police said they were still investigating a flight simulator seized from pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home. Peter Chong, a friend of the 53-year-old pilot's, said it's unfair to imply that Zaharie had anything to do with what happened to the plane. He said he'd been to Zaharie's house and tried out the flight simulator. "It's a reflection of his love for people," Chong said, "because he wants to share the joy of flying with his friends."

A 29-year-old Malaysian civil aviation engineer, Mohammed Khairul Amri Selamat, who works for a private jet charter company, was on the flight. Police are investigating all passengers and crew, but he is likely to be of particular interest because of his aviation knowledge. "I am confident that he is not involved," his father said. "They're welcome to investigate me and my family."

What do we know about key moments on the flight?

For days, we've been talking about the last transponder signal the plane sent. And now it appears another system that sends data about the plane, the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, was shut off, too. Authorities say the last transmission from that system came early in the flight, at 1:07 a.m. But they say they don't know exactly when the system was shut down, as the next transmission wasn't due until 1:37 a.m. Someone inside the cockpit, believed to be the co-pilot, made the plane's last verbal communication with air traffic controllers at 1:19 a.m., saying, "All right, good night." The transponder was then switched off at 1:21 a.m., authorities say, and all civilian radar lost contact with the plane altogether about 1:30 a.m. Military radar last detected the plane at 2:15 a.m. off Malaysia's west coast, hundreds of miles off course. And at 8:11 a.m., more than seven hours after takeoff, a satellite made the last electronic connection, known as a "handshake," with the plane.

Though some details have come into focus, major questions remain unanswered:

Where's the plane?

Satellite and radar data have given authorities some clues but not enough to pinpoint the plane. Right now, investigators are focusing on two corridors where the plane might have either crashed or landed: a northern arc that stretches from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in central Asia to northern Thailand, and a southern arc that spans from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. Because the northern parts of the traffic corridor include some tightly guarded airspace over India, Pakistan and even some U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S. authorities believe it's more likely the aircraft crashed into waters outside of the reach of radar south of India, a U.S. official told CNN. If it had flown farther north, it's likely it would have been detected by radar. However, on Monday, an Indian military official told CNN that its military radar in the area of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands isn't as closely watched as it is in other areas. This leaves open the possibility that the flight may not have been picked up by Indian military radar around the time of its last believed Malaysian radar contact, near the island of Pulau Perak in the Strait of Malacca.

Who would deliberately divert it?

In addition to the pilots, other passengers and crew members on board the plane, as well as any ground staff who came into contact with it, are under investigation. The bottom line, investigators say, is that whoever flew the plane off course for hours appeared to know what they were doing. Investigators are looking into the backgrounds of the passengers to see whether any of them were trained pilots. "There are still a few countries who have yet to respond to our request for a background check," said Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector general of the Royal Malaysian Police Force. "But there are a few ... foreign intelligence agencies who have cleared all the(ir) passengers."

Why would they do it, and how?

Finding a motive behind the plane's disappearance is a key problem investigators must solve. They haven't released any concrete details. Speculation has surged about the possibility of terrorism or hijacking, but that hasn't been confirmed.

Is there any chance the passengers and crew survived?

It's possible the plane's last satellite contact could have been made from the ground, as long as the airplane still had electrical power, Malaysia's civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said Sunday. For the families and loved ones of those aboard Flight 370, some find comfort that there's no evidence the plane crashed. The father of one passenger, who watched updates from Malaysia in a Beijing hotel, said he hoped the plane was hijacked because that gave him reason to think his son had survived. "I hope they are alive," he said, "no matter how small the chance is."

Does the possibility that the plane is on land change anything about the investigation?

Yes, analysts said. It means it's even more pressing that authorities find the plane. "Time is even more of the essence. If this airplane has been taken to be used as a weapon, then the time that has been taken to prepare the aircraft for whatever deed is the plan -- obviously, to thwart that, it's all about time," said Shawn Pruchnicki, who teaches aviation safety and accident investigation at Ohio State University. CNN aviation analyst Jim Tilmon, a former American Airlines pilot, said that whoever deliberately steered the plane off course probably did it with help. But what's next is anyone's guess, he said. "We have been behind them all along," he said. "So now, if they had a plan, and if that plan included being able to set down someplace and refuel a little bit, we are looking at something that we may never see the end of."

Report: Plane flew low to avoid radar

Malaysian officials on Monday denied knowledge of a newspaper report that the plane may have dropped to an altitude of 5,000 feet to defeat commercial radar coverage. "We are not aware of that report, and that's a thing the investigative team has to look into. It does not come from us," Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. CNN could not immediately confirm the newspaper's account.

The report, published Monday by Malaysia's New Straits Times, said the flight dropped to 5,000 feet after turning back from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route on March 8 and quoted unnamed officials as saying "it's possible that the aircraft had hugged the terrain in some areas that are mountainous to avoid radar detection." New Straits Times Editor Farrah Naz Karim told CNN's "New Day" that the newspaper spoke to sources close to the investigation and asked how flying at that altitude could be done. She added that this is one aspect that investigators could be looking into but it's all speculation at this point.

Frustrations, unknowns mount in search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 entered its 11th day Monday, saddled with the growing weight of disparate and sometimes conflicting theories as to what might have happened and where the plane might be.

Search crews from 26 nations scoured vast swaths of ocean and land for any trace of the airliner, which vanished March 8 on a flight between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Beijing.

They've turned up nothing.

Meanwhile, families struggle with the unknown.

"Surely, they must find the plane. That's all I hope for," said Gurusamy Subramaniam, whose son, Puspanathan, is among the missing. "The whole world is out looking for it."

And suggestions about what might have happened to the Boeing 777-200ER continue to multiply, drawing pleas from Malaysian officials to put an end to the theorizing.

"This is why we press on everybody not to speculate," said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's civil aviation chief. "Because when we have to look into speculative reports, it will distract us from our immediate concern, which is to find the aircraft."

Here are the latest developments in the search and investigation:

Flight evaded radar?

On Monday, the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times reported that the plane may have flown low to the ground -- 5,000 feet or less -- and used mountainous terrain as cover to evade radar detection. The newspaper cited unnamed sources for its reporting, which CNN could not immediately confirm.

However, Malaysian officials said Monday that they were not aware of the report.

"It does not come from us," said Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

Analysts interviewed by CNN said that it would be extremely difficult to fly such a large aircraft so close to the ground over a long period of time and that it's not even clear that doing so would keep the plane off radar scopes.

"Five thousand isn't really low enough to evade the radar, and that's kind of where general aviation flies all the time anyway, and we're visible to radar," said former FAA official Mary Schiavo.

Timeline clarification

Yahya said Monday that it wasn't clear whether the final words from the cockpit came before or after the plane's data-reporting system was shut down. Earlier, Malaysian authorities had said the message "All right, good night" came after the system had been disabled.

The voice message came at 1:19 a.m. Saturday, Yahya said. The data system sent its last transmission at 1:07 a.m. and was shut down sometime between then and 1:37 a.m., Yahya said.

Indian radar

A senior Indian military official told CNN on Monday that military radar near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands isn't as closely watched as other radar systems. That leaves open the possibility that Indian radar systems may not have picked up the airplane at the time of its last known Malaysian radar contact, near the tiny island of Palau Perak in the Straits of Malacca.

Earlier speculation had centered on the idea the plane may have flown over, or perhaps even landed in, the islands, but no trace of it has been found in the region despite intensive searches by Indian military officials.


Chinese response

China said Monday that it had deployed 10 ships, 21 satellites and multiple aircraft to aid in the search. Premier Li Keqiang spoke with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to ask for more information to help speed the search along, according to a statement posted on the Chinese government website.
Attachments:

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 probe digs into past of all on board missing Boeing 777
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-probe-digs-into-past-of-all-on-board-missing-boeing-777/

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- The search for the missing Malaysian jet pushed deep into the northern and southern hemispheres Monday as Australia scoured the southern Indian Ocean and China offered 21 satellites to respond to Malaysia's call for help in the unprecedented hunt.

French investigators arriving in Kuala Lumpur to lend expertise from the two-year search for an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 said they were able to rely on distress signals. But that vital tool is missing in the Malaysia Airlines mystery because flight 370's communications were deliberately severed ahead of its disappearance more than a week ago, investigators say.

"It's very different from the Air France case. The Malaysian situation is much more difficult," said Jean Paul Troadec, a special adviser to France's aviation accident investigation bureau.

Malaysian authorities say the jet carrying 239 people was intentionally diverted from its flight path during an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and flew off-course for several hours. Suspicion has fallen on the pilots, although Malaysian officials have said they are looking into everyone aboard the flight.

Malaysian police confiscated a flight simulator from the pilot's home on Saturday and also visited the home of the co-pilot in what Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar initially said was the first police visits to those homes. But the government - which has come under criticism abroad for missteps and foot-dragging in their release of information - issued a statement Monday contradicting that account by saying police first visited the pilots' homes as early as March 9, the day after the flight.

Investigators haven't ruled out hijacking, sabotage, pilot suicide or mass murder, and they are checking the backgrounds of all 227 passengers and 12 crew members, as well as the ground crew, to see if links to terrorists, personal problems or psychological issues could be factors.

For now, though, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said finding the plane was still the main focus, and he did not rule out finding it intact.

"The fact that there was no distress signal, no ransom notes, no parties claiming responsibility, there is always hope," Hishammuddin said at a news conference.

The Wall Street Journal has released a report saying "some senior U.S. officials believe that the plane may have been taken as part of a 'dry run' for a future terrorist attack, testing the ability to take a plane and hide it from radar and satellites."

Former Deputy Director of the CIA Mike Morell said it's a possibility, but it's unlikely someone would do something of this magnitude as a test.

"If you were able to get control of an aircraft, you would use it immediately," Morell said.

Malaysian Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said an initial investigation indicated that the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, spoke the fight's last words - "All right, good night" - to ground controllers. Had it been a voice other than that of Fariq or the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, it would have clearest indication yet of something amiss in the cockpit before the flight went off-course.

CBS News' Seth Doane rang the doorbell at Fariq's house over the weekend, but nobody answered. Neighbors told Doane they had seen police cars and motorcycles at the address. A CBS News crew tried Sunday to visit the gated community where Zaharie lives, but the crew was turned away by beefed-up security.

Malaysian officials earlier said those words came after one of the jetliner's data communications systems - the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System - had been switched off, sharpening suspicion that one or both of the pilots may have been involved in the plane's disappearance.

However, Ahmad said Monday that while the last data transmission from ACARS - which gives plane performance and maintenance information - came before that, it was still unclear at what point the system was switched off. That opened the possibility that both ACARS and the plane's transponders - which make the plane visible to civilian air traffic controllers - were severed later and at about the same time. It also suggests that the all-clear message delivered from the cockpit could have preceded any of the severed communications.

Although Malaysian authorities requested that all nations with citizens aboard the flight conduct background checks on them, it wasn't clear how thoroughly they were conducting such checks at home. The father of a Malaysian aviation engineer aboard the plane, Mohamad Khairul Amri Selamat, 29, said police had not approached anyone in the family about his son, though he added that there was no reason to suspect him.

"It is impossible for him to be involved in something like this," said the father, Selamat Omar, 60. "He is a good boy ... We are keeping our hopes high. I am praying hard that the plane didn't crash and that he will be back soon."

Malaysia's government in the meantime sent out diplomatic cables to all countries in the search area, seeking more planes and ships for the search, as well as to ask for any radar data that might help narrow the task.

Some 26 countries are involved in the search, which initially focused on seas on either side of peninsular Malaysia, in the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca.

Go here to watch the news video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-probe-digs-into-past-of-all-on-board-missing-boeing-777/

wonder if they were navigating via a phone GPS app at some point..

http://forums.androidcentral.com/droid-razr-maxx/256314-gps-navigation-app-works-without-cellular-connection.html

If news sources are to be believed, the two men with the stolen passports have been as thoroughly investigated as possible without themselves being interviewed. No one involved in the investigation is giving them a further thought.

It's now been ten days and remarkably little is known for sure. If the jet crashed at sea which appears likely, there is a very good chance it and its passengers will never be found.

Malaysia needs to be open and honest. If they had nobody staying up at night to monitor the military radar, they need to say so. They also need to hire somebody to do this from now going forward, for obvious reasons. So no need to hide the fact that it was not done in the past, because that weakness is no longer an issue and does not need to be secret.

Seems like a plane with this many people would be easy to find...Just follow the sharks.

I recently watched the CBS television show Amazing Race, and I noticed that the people who were boarding the airline flights in Kuala Lumpur had to walk OUTSIDE to get on the plane (versus boarding the plane through a completely indoor terminal). Presumably, people who don't work at the airport aren't allowed to just walk around outside where the planes are, but what if one or more hijackers found a way to bypass the passenger security checkpoint by simply gaining access to the outdoor boarding area. All they would have to do is pretend to be passengers, board the plane, and occupy the empty seats. As long as no one on the plane checked their tickets, no one would notice that there were extra passengers since those seats were already paid for.

How could someone gain unauthorized access to the boarding area? The easy way would be to have AUTHORIZED access. In other words56t5, buy a ticket on another plane that is boarding at the same time and merely walk over to a different plane. Did anyone bother to check to see if there were missing passengers on flights that boarded at the same time?

If fact, if you were the one planning this hijacking and you were prepared to put some real effort into this operation, you could drive up to the flight crew as they were walking to the plane, kidnap them, and have a substitute crew board the plane instead. Would anyone (such as the flight attendants) be suspicious about the presence of an unfamiliar crew?

Based on the articles I'm reading, I feel as though too many assumptions are being made. Just because crew and passenger manifests state the identity of various people doesn't mean that those are the same people who boarded the plane. Anywhere between the purchase of the tickets and the actual boarding, passengers can be kidnapped or killed and replaced with doubles. For that matter, even the tickets could be bought with fake identities. Did every country check to make certain that all of those people are actually REAL people (who were alive at the time of boarding)?

Conspiracy theory Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I recently watched the CBS television show Amazing
> Race, and I noticed that the people who were
> boarding the airline flights in Kuala Lumpur had
> to walk OUTSIDE to get on the plane (versus
> boarding the plane through a completely indoor
> terminal). Presumably, people who don't work at
> the airport aren't allowed to just walk around
> outside where the planes are, but what if one or
> more hijackers found a way to bypass the passenger
> security checkpoint by simply gaining access to
> the outdoor boarding area. All they would have to
> do is pretend to be passengers, board the plane,
> and occupy the empty seats. As long as no one on
> the plane checked their tickets, no one would
> notice that there were extra passengers since
> those seats were already paid for.
>
> How could someone gain unauthorized access to the
> boarding area? The easy way would be to have
> AUTHORIZED access. In other words56t5, buy a
> ticket on another plane that is boarding at the
> same time and merely walk over to a different
> plane. Did anyone bother to check to see if there
> were missing passengers on flights that boarded at
> the same time?
>
> If fact, if you were the one planning this
> hijacking and you were prepared to put some real
> effort into this operation, you could drive up to
> the flight crew as they were walking to the plane,
> kidnap them, and have a substitute crew board the
> plane instead. Would anyone (such as the flight
> attendants) be suspicious about the presence of an
> unfamiliar crew?
>
> Based on the articles I'm reading, I feel as
> though too many assumptions are being made. Just
> because crew and passenger manifests state the
> identity of various people doesn't mean that those
> are the same people who boarded the plane.
> Anywhere between the purchase of the tickets and
> the actual boarding, passengers can be kidnapped
> or killed and replaced with doubles. For that
> matter, even the tickets could be bought with fake
> identities. Did every country check to make
> certain that all of those people are actually REAL
> people (who were alive at the time of boarding)?

The airport that was shown was one in Borneo, not Kuala Lumpur.

China finds no terrorism link among its passengers on Malaysia Airlines plane
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/

(CNN) -- China says it has found no evidence that any of its citizens on board Malaysia Airlines' missing Flight 370 were involved in hijacking or terrorism.

Background checks on all passengers from the Chinese mainland on the plane have found nothing to support such suspicions, Huang Huikang, the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, said Tuesday, according to the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Authorities have said they are investigating all 239 people who were on board the Boeing 777-200, which disappeared over Southeast Asia more than 10 days ago en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

According to the airline, 153 of the 227 passengers on board the plane came from mainland China or Hong Kong.
Malaysia says the evidence gathered so far suggests the plane was deliberately flown off course, turning west and traveling back over the Malay Peninsula and out into the Indian Ocean.

But they so far don't know who was at the controls or why whoever it was took the plane far away from its original destination.

They're also not sure where it ended up, saying its last known location detected by a satellite is somewhere along two wide arcs, one stretching north over Asia and the other south into the Indian Ocean. The plane's last electronic connection with the satellite was about six hours after it last showed up on Malaysian military radar.

The total area now being searched stands at 2.24 million square nautical miles, Hishammuddin Hussein, the Malaysian defense and transport minister, said at a news conference Tuesday.

"This is an enormous search area," Hishammuddin said. "And it is something that Malaysia cannot possibly search on its own. I am therefore very pleased that so many countries have come forward to offer assistance and support to the search and rescue operation."

Dampening speculation

By effectively ruling out suspicions for a large majority of the passengers, Chinese authorities appear to have significantly shortened the list of possible suspects in the investigation.

The Chinese ambassador's statement is also likely to greatly dampen speculation that Uyghur separatists from China's far western region of Xinjiang might have been involved in the plane's disappearance.

One of the two long corridors where authorities say the plane was last detected stretched over Xinjiang, and unconfirmed reports had suggested the possibility that Uyghurs might be connected to the case.

Chinese authorities have accused separatists from Xinjiang of carrying out a terrorist attack this month in which eight attackers armed with long knives stormed a train station in Kunming, a city in southwestern China, killing 29 people and wounding more than 140.

China said Tuesday that it had begun to search for the plane in the parts of its territory that fall under the northern corridor, deploying satellite and radar resources.

Experts are analyzing past and present data along the arc stretching through Chinese territory, Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news briefing Tuesday in Beijing.

Turn made by computer?

The pilot and first officer of the missing plane, both of them Malaysian, have come under particular scrutiny in the search for clues. Investigators say that whoever flew the plane off course for hours appeared to know what they were doing.

But officials have so far reported no evidence to tie the pilot and first officer to the plane's disappearance.

Supporting the case that whoever took the plane off course had considerable aviation expertise, The New York Times reported that the aircraft's first turn to the west was carried out through a computer system that was most likely programmed by somebody in the cockpit.

The person who programmed the change of course would have been somebody "knowledgeable about airplane systems," The Times reported, citing unidentified American officials.

The information has increased investigators' focus on the pilot and first officer, the newspaper reported. CNN wasn't immediately able to confirm the report.

Asked about the report Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said: "As far as we're concerned, the aircraft was programmed to fly to Beijing. That's the standard procedure."

But he didn't rule out the possibility the flight path had been reprogrammed.

"Once you're in the aircraft, anything is possible," he said.

Could Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have slipped by radar?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- Could a massive passenger jet slip past radar, cross international borders and land undetected?

That's a key question investigators are weighing as they continue the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished March 8 on a flight between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Beijing.

Radar does have some blind spots, and it's possible to fly at lower altitudes to avoid being spotted, analysts told CNN.

But experts are divided over whether that could be what happened to the missing Boeing 777.

Jeffrey Beatty, a security consultant and former FBI special agent, says someone could have planned a route that avoided radar detection.

"It certainly is possible to fly through the mountains in that part of the world and not be visible on radar. Also, an experienced pilot, anyone who wanted to go in that direction, could certainly plot out all the known radar locations, and you can easily determine, where are the radar blind spots?" he said. "It's the type of things the Americans did when they went into Pakistan to go after Osama bin Laden."

On Monday, the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times reported that the plane may have flown low to the ground -- 5,000 feet or less -- and used mountainous terrain as cover to evade radar detection. The newspaper cited unnamed sources for its reporting, which CNN could not immediately confirm.

And a senior Indian military official told CNN on Monday that military radar near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands isn't as closely watched as other radar systems. That leaves open the possibility that Indian radar systems may not have picked up the airplane at the time of its last known Malaysian radar contact, near the tiny island of Palau Perak in the Strait of Malacca.

U.S. officials have said they don't think it's likely the plane flew north over land as it veered off course. If it had, they've said, radar somewhere would have detected it. Landing the plane somewhere also seems unlikely, since that would require a large runway, refueling capability and the ability to fix the plane, the officials have said.

Malaysian officials said Monday that they were not aware of the Malaysian newspaper's report.

"It does not come from us," said Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

Analysts interviewed by CNN said that it would be extremely difficult to fly such a large aircraft so close to the ground over a long period of time, and that it's not even clear that doing so would keep the plane off radar scopes.

"Five-thousand isn't really low enough to evade the radar, and that's kind of where general aviation flies all the time anyway, and we're visible to radar," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

"It just seems really highly improbable, unless we've been overestimating a lot of other countries' radar system capabilities," said Daniel Rose, an aviation and maritime attorney.

Buck Sexton, a former CIA officer who's now national security editor for TheBlaze.com, said radar would have detected the plane if it flew over land.

"This is a bus in the sky. It's a lot harder to get under the radar with this kind of thing than I think most people realize," he said. "So really, while the search I know has extended to this vast area stretching up into (the nations and central or south Asia), clearly there really should be much more of a search over open water, because this is not getting past people's radars."

It wouldn't be easy to avoid radar detection, experts say, but it could be done.

"Anything like this is possible," radar expert Greg Charvat told CNN's Piers Morgan Live. "But to do it, you'd have to have very detailed information of the type of radars, their disposition, their heights and their waveforms to pull that off."

Different countries would likely be using different radar systems, he said, but it's unclear how advanced the technology is in many countries.

"It took a great deal of skill to do this," CNN aviation analyst Jim Tilmon said. "I think somebody was at the controls who understood the value of altitude control to eliminate the possibility of being spotted and tracked on radar."

Whoever was in control in the cockpit, he said, "really had the ability to map out a route that was given the very best chance of not being detected."

One other possibility, he said: the plane could have shadowed another plane so closely that it slipped by radar detection.

Other analysts say that would require so much skill that it would be nearly impossible to pull off without getting caught.

There's another possible wrinkle, experts say. Some countries may be hesitant to reveal what they've seen on radar.

"They want to protect their own capabilities," Beatty said. "Their intelligence services are not going to want to publicize exactly what their capabilities are."

Here are other developments in the search and investigation, as search crews from 26 nations continue scouring vast swaths of ocean and land for any trace of the airliner:

Timeline clarification

Ahmad Jauhari said Monday that it wasn't clear whether the final words from the cockpit came before or after the plane's data-reporting system was shut down. Earlier, Malaysian authorities had said the message "All right, good night" came after the system had been disabled.

The voice message came from the plane's copilot at 1:19 a.m. Saturday, March 8, Ahmad Jauhari said. The data system sent its last transmission at 1:07 a.m. and was shut down sometime between then and 1:37 a.m. that day, Ahmad Jauhari said.

Grief counselor: Families holding on to hope

As authorities keep searching for the plane, the loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew members who were on board are left in limbo.

Helping them has been difficult, grief counselor Paul Yin told CNN's "AC360."

"Grief counseling, or any kind of recovery from this, has to have a starting point. And the starting point is having a verdict of what happened," he said. "Without a starting point, every day people's emotions go up and down, from hope to despair."

He heard some family members cheer when they learned that hijacking was possibly what caused the plane's disappearance.

"Because that means they could still be alive," he said. "They're trying to hold onto any little bit of hope."

Chinese response

China said Monday that it had deployed 10 ships, 21 satellites and multiple aircraft to aid in the search.

Premier Li Keqiang spoke with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to ask for more information to help speed the search along, according to a statement posted on the Chinese government website.

A top Malaysian official denied the allegation that his country had held back information about the missing flight.

"Our priority has always been to find the aircraft. We would not withhold any information that could help," Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Haishammuddin Tun Hussein told reporters. "But we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by the international investigations team."

U.S. Navy pulls out destroyer

The USS Kidd and its helicopters have stopped combing the Andaman Sea and are no longer part of search efforts for the missing plane, the Navy said.

The move is partially because Australians are taking over the majority of the searching in that area, U.S. officials said. A U.S. P-8 aircraft will move to Perth, Australia, to be based there for searching.

Fewer U.S. assets will be involved in the search for the missing plane, but U.S. officials said the P-8 will be able to cover a wider range of ocean more quickly than the ship could.

"This is actually much more effective for the overall search," Cmdr. William Marks of the U.S. 7th Fleet told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Monday.

"The real challenge is this huge expanse of water. I keep saying, if you superimposed a map of the U.S. on here, it'd be like trying to find someone anywhere between New York and California. so that's the challenge here," he said. "We have amazing, dedicated air crews. it's just a matter of how much area we can search."

Watch the news story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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If the plane was running out of fuel, and flew low enough, (or made a water landing as did an airliner which landed in the Hudson River in 2009, or flight 961 which ditched in the Indian Ocean in 1996), people could have bailed out into the ocean, using vests and rafts to remain afloat, while the plane sank thus became undetectable. If there were hijackers, perhaps they communicated, before the crash, to accomplices to send a rescue boat (so as to escape imprisonment)-- meaning that the passengers may still be alive somewhere.

In order to verify the assumption that someone might have hijacked the 'plane, they should check the passenger lists of at least the last one week's scheduled flights of Malaysian Airlines of the same time & route, i.e. MH 370. If anyone (or more persons) did plan to hijack this flight, they must have prepared & planned well for it and as part of their such preparations, he/they must have undertaken flying on board similar route/schedule, at least once if not several times.

Has anyone considered the passengers on board and who they were? The clue maybe lies in the twenty ethnic Chinese passengers belonging to the defense firm Freescale which has links to both China and the US and the manufacturer of micro processors and chips that power and control the Military might of China and Russians war capabilities. Especially drones and Missiles systems... (This is just me trying to draw conclusions and dont take what I am saying as an absolute, but then again, there really is nothing absolute about the entire situation..)

There are two things that should NEVER be under the control of the pilot, crew or passengers - release of oxygen masks when the cabin depressurizes (ie, preventing their release), and a GPS location transmitter hidden deep in the fuselage that no one can access. Apparently, it is a simple task to render all passengers unconscious, and abscond with a Boeing 777 without being traced. Can't even do that with many cars that have transmitters installed.

You have a point read my posts on this subject. You would be amazed that it is possible to fly this plane to Xinjian, Lop Nur, a dry lake bed. It's perfect place to hide out, refit a plane, refuel a plane, have everything you need really, and yet is very remote and autonomous area of China. It has a nearby reactor that said to still have weapons stock piled, and likely "hot" materials that could be used in a dirty bomb. It has militant groups who live in that area, in fact if you search around you can find compounds with lager walls and small building just off some highways. What they are used for is anyones guess.

If you like neat places check out Lop Nur salt mine and it's really neat reactors cooling towers, as well very long branches of aqueducts , one furthest to the west, at the very end has a neat little runway, and huge building, power lines, and lager steel shed. Really interesting place.

Lup Nur, Yuli county, Xinjina, China 40º54'51.64"N 90º55'11.32"E

neat end point of the western most branch running from pools north 40º54'52.53"N 90º55'13.64"E

Enjoy looking at this strange location. If you have up to date satellite images please search this area closely, and or other remote locations where this plane could land.

Courtney Love found it, you guys.
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New evidence in Flight 370 search explains plane's path
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- New information from the Thai government bolsters the belief that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took a sharp westward turn after communication was lost.

And it looks like that turn was no accident.

A law enforcement official told CNN Tuesday that the aircraft's first turn to the west was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit.

There is no indication of when the coordinates were entered into the computer. It could have been done during the flight or, as is more common, during preflight preparations, the official said.

A relative of a Chinese passenger aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 tells reporters in Beijing on March 18 about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet.

Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on Thursday, March 13. The search area for Flight 370 has grown wider. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, efforts are expanding west into the Indian Ocean.

Iranians Pouri Nourmohammadi, second left, and Delavar Seyed Mohammad Reza, far right, were identified by Interpol as the two men who used stolen passports to board the flight. But there's no evidence to suggest either was connected to any terrorist organizations, according to Malaysian investigators. Malaysian police believe Nourmohammadi was trying to emigrate to Germany using the stolen Austrian passport.

Italian tourist Luigi Maraldi, who reported his passport stolen in August, shows his current passport during a news conference at a police station in Phuket island, Thailand, on March 9. Two passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight were reportedly traveling on stolen passports belonging to Maraldi and an Austrian citizen whose papers were stolen two years ago.

Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9. The vessel is carrying 12 divers and will rendezvous with another rescue vessel on its way to the area where contact was lost with Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported March 8. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10.

That evidence and the Thai data that surfaced Tuesday corroborate a leading theory from Malaysian investigators: The missing plane veered off course in a deliberate act by someone who knew what they were doing.

But investigators still don't know who was at the controls, or why whoever was flying the plane apparently took it far from its original destination.

An initial search of the pilots' personal computers and e-mails found nothing to indicate that the sudden deviation in the aircraft's route was planned, U.S. officials said Tuesday after being briefed by Malaysian authorities.

The officials said they had also reviewed cockpit conversations between the plane and air traffic controllers and heard nothing suspicious or anything that would explain why the jetliner changed course.

And a flight simulator belonging to pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah did not show any of the unexplained paths the plane may have flown after it went off the grid, officials said.

Thailand: Plane sent intermittent signal

The Thai military's revelation that it also spotted the plane turning west toward the Strait of Malacca is one encouraging sign that investigators could be on the right track after days of searching for the missing plane have failed to turn up any answers about its location.

The Thai military was receiving normal flight path and communication data from the Boeing 777-200 on its planned March 8 route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing until 1:22 a.m., when it disappeared from its radar.

Six minutes later, the Thai military detected an unknown signal, a Royal Thai Air Force spokesman told CNN. This unknown aircraft, possibly Flight 370, was heading the opposite direction.

Malaysia says the evidence suggests that the plane was deliberately flown off-course, turning west and traveling back over the Malay Peninsula and out into the Indian Ocean.

The Thai data are the second radar evidence that the plane did indeed turn around toward the Strait of Malacca.

It follows information from the Malaysian air force that its military radar tracked the plane as it passed over the small island of Pulau Perak in the Strait of Malacca.

"The unknown aircraft's signal was sending out intermittently, on and off and on and off," the spokesman said. The Thai military lost the unknown aircraft's signal because of the limits of its military radar, he said.

Investigators say they're still not sure where the plane ended up.

The latest findings say the plane's last known location detected by a satellite is along two wide arcs: one stretching north over Asia and the other south into the Indian Ocean. The plane's last electronic connection with the satellite was about six hours after it last showed up on Malaysian military radar.

Did plane drop 5,000 ft. to avoid radar?

The total area now being searched stands at 2.97 million square miles -- or an area nearly the size of the continental United States -- Hishammuddin Hussein, the Malaysian defense and transport minister said.

"This is an enormous search area," Hishammuddin said. "And it is something that Malaysia cannot possibly search on its own. I am therefore very pleased that so many countries have come forward to offer assistance and support to the search and rescue operation."

Turn made by computer?

The pilot and first officer of the missing plane, both of them Malaysian, have come under particular scrutiny in the search for clues.

But officials have reported no evidence to tie the pilot and first officer to the plane's disappearance.

One aviation expert, writing an opinion piece for CNN.com, floated the idea last week that whoever changed the plane's course was an expert.

The cockpit computer programming analysis, first reported by The New York Times Tuesday, has increased investigators' focus on the pilot and first officer, the newspaper said.

Asked about the report Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, "As far as we're concerned, the aircraft was programmed to fly to Beijing. That's the standard procedure."

But he didn't rule out the possibility the flight path had been reprogrammed.

"Once you're in the aircraft," he said, "anything is possible."

China clears citizens

China says it has found no evidence that any of its citizens on board the missing plane were involved in hijacking or terrorism.

Background checks on all passengers from the Chinese mainland on the plane have found nothing to support such suspicions, Huang Huikang, the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, said Tuesday, according to the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Authorities have said they are investigating all 239 people who were on board the flight, which disappeared more than 10 days ago.

According to the airline, 153 of the 227 passengers on board the plane came from mainland China or Hong Kong.

By effectively ruling out suspicions for a large majority of the passengers, Chinese authorities appear to have significantly shortened the list of possible suspects in the investigation.

The Chinese ambassador's statement is also likely to greatly dampen speculation that Uighur separatists from China's far western region of Xinjiang might have been involved in the plane's disappearance.

One of the two long corridors where authorities say the plane was last detected stretched over Xinjiang, and unconfirmed reports had suggested the possibility that Uighurs might be connected to the case.

Chinese authorities have accused separatists from Xinjiang of carrying out a terrorist attack this month in which eight attackers armed with long knives stormed a train station in Kunming, a city in southwestern China, killing 29 people and wounding more than 140.

China said Tuesday that it had begun to search for the plane in the parts of its territory that fall under the northern corridor, deploying satellite and radar resources.

Experts are analyzing past and present data along the arc stretching through Chinese territory, Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news briefing Tuesday in Beijing.

Still a mystery

Eleven days after Flight 370 disappeared, the bottom line is that the fate of the flight remains a mystery. As time has passed, initial theories about mechanical error have led to more elaborate ideas about complicated hijacking or commandeering plots.

Former Malaysia Airlines pilot Nik Huzlan has flown the same aircraft that is now missing.

"I know, I flew this plane," he said. "This is very, very strange. The lack of communication is puzzling. How the pilots are not communicating."

Huzlan has come up with his own theories.

"From (the) second or third day, I've come to my own private conclusion that it must have been unlawful human interference," he said. "It could have been anyone on the airplane."

CNN has talked to more than half a dozen U.S. military and intelligence officials who emphasize that while no one knows what happened to the plane, it is more logical to conclude it crashed into the Indian Ocean.

The officials say there is no evidence that any U.S. satellite data registered an unknown aircraft in any of the Asian countries along the path the plane may have taken. According to these officials, it is overwhelmingly likely if the plane had crashed on land, there would be some evidence of that, and if it had landed, someone would have seen it.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel raised the issue of transparency when he spoke with his Malaysian counterpart Monday, according to two U.S. officials.

Both officials said it was not a criticism of the Malaysians, but more a discussion about the need to share information with the world on one of the most complex search operations in history.

"He was saying the best way to handle this is to continue to be transparent and tell what you know when you know it," one official said of Hagel's conversation. In the first days after the incident, some U.S. officials had said the Malaysian government did not share enough radar and technical data about the flight.

Malaysian officials have defended their handling of the crisis, stressing that the situation is unprecedented.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
~Law enforcement official: Plane's turn almost certainly programmed from cockpit
~Officials say nothing on pilots' computers, e-mails indicates deviation was planned
~Thai data are second radar evidence that plane turned toward Strait of Malacca
~The total search area now stands at 2.97 million square miles

V4GVc Wrote:
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>
>
> Lup Nur, Yuli county, Xinjina, China
> 40º54'51.64"N 90º55'11.32"E
>
> neat end point of the western most branch running
> from pools north 40º54'52.53"N 90º55'13.64"
>

You mean here? I think I see it!
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If they film a Die Hard 6 base it off this.

Die Hard
Sky Hard
Fly Hard