Bump.

Glad everyone is contributing relevent info and I'm praying everyone in the plane is found alive and safe.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Southern search area seen as most likely
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- The missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is more likely to be in the southern search area identified by investigators, which stretches far into the Indian Ocean, a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation told CNN on Wednesday.

"This is an area out of normal shipping lanes, out of any commercial flight patterns, with few fishing boats and there are no islands," the official said, warning that the search could well last "weeks and not days."

The search for the passenger jet and the 239 people on board is now in its 12th day, covering a total area roughly the size of the continental United States.

Searchers from 26 countries are trying to pinpointing the plane's location somewhere along two vast arcs, one stretching deep into the Asian landmass, the other far out into the Indian Ocean.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference Wednesday that both search areas are of equal importance.

Here are other highlights from the news conference:

-- Some data had been deleted from the flight simulator found at the home of the pilot, Hishammuddin said. Forensic work is under way to try to recover it, he said.

-- Malaysian authorities have received background information from all countries with passengers on board the plane except Russia and Ukraine. So far, no information of significance has been found about any passengers, Hishammuddin said.

-- Malaysia has received some radar data from other countries, he said, but "we are not at liberty to release information from other countries."

-- Reports that the plane was sighted by people in the Maldives are "not true," Hishammuddin said, citing the Chief of the Malaysian Defense Force who contacted his counterpart in the Maldives.

Ticking clock

The latest news conference took place as the clock ticked on search efforts.

The box containing the flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders of the missing plane has batteries designed to keep it sending out pings for 30 days. That leaves 18 days until the batteries are expected to run out.

Investigators hope the recorders may reveal vital information about why the passenger jet carrying 239 people veered dramatically off course and disappeared from radar screens. But they have to find them first.
"The odds of finding the pinger are very slim," said Rob McCallum, an ocean search specialist. "Even when you know roughly where the target is, it can be very tricky to find the pinger. They have a very limited range."

Technology put to use

Some of the nations involved in the hunt are deploying an impressive array of technology, including satellites and high-tech submarine-hunting planes, as they try to narrow the search area.

They're also trawling through existing radar and satellite data for clues.

Australia said Wednesday that the area of the southern Indian Ocean where it is searching for the plane has been "significantly refined."

The new area is based on work done by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on "the fuel reserves of the aircraft and how far it could have flown," said John Young of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

But Australian ships and aircraft have so far seen nothing connected to the missing plane, Australian authorities said.

Small details emerge

Much of what has emerged in recent days has filled in a few more details about the early part of the missing Boeing 777-200's flight.

But clear information on what went on in the cockpit and where exactly the errant jet went after it vanished from Malaysian military radar remains frustratingly elusive.

On Tuesday, for example, a law enforcement official told CNN that the aircraft's first major change of course was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit. The change was entered into the plane's system at least 12 minutes before a person in the cockpit, believed to be the co-pilot, signed off to air traffic controllers.

But that disclosure only left more questions about the reason behind the reprogrammed flight path.

Some experts said the change in direction could have been part of an alternate flight plan programmed in advance in case of emergency; others suggested it could show something more nefarious was afoot.

And Hishammuddin said Wednesday that "there is no additional waypoint on MH370's documented flight plan, which depicts normal routing all the way to Beijing."

The Thai military, meanwhile, said it had spotted the plane turning west toward the Strait of Malacca early on March 8. That supports the analysis of Malaysian military radar that has the plane flying out over the Strait of Malacca and into the Indian Ocean.

But it didn't make it any clearer where the plane went next. Authorities say information from satellites suggests the plane kept flying for about six hours after it was last detected by Malaysian military radar.

Who was at the controls?

Malaysian authorities, who are coordinating the search, say the available evidence suggests the missing plane flew off course in a deliberate act by someone who knew what they were doing.

Figuring out who that might be has so far left investigators stumped.

Particular attention has focused on the pilot and first officer on Flight 370, but authorities are yet to come up with any evidence explaining why either of them would have taken the jetliner off course.

And some experts have warned against hastily jumping to conclusions about the role of the pilots.

"I've worked on many cases were the pilots were suspect, and it turned out to be a mechanical and horrible problem," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "And I have a saying myself: Sometimes an erratic flight path is heroism, not terrorism

China says it has found nothing suspicious during background checks on its citizens on the flight -- a large majority of the plane's passengers.

Searchers face deep ocean

Hishammuddin, the country's public face of the search efforts, has repeatedly said at news conferences that little is likely to be established about the mysterious flight until the plane is found.

But in the Indian Ocean, where Australia and Indonesia have taken the lead in the hunt, some of the depths searchers are dealing with are significant.

The Bay of Bengal, for example, which lies between Myanmar and India, has depths of between about 4,000 and 7,000 meters (13,000 feet and 23,000 feet), according to McCallum.

Wreckage and bodies of passengers from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, were found at depths of around 12,000 feet by unmanned submarines.

It took four searches over the course of nearly two years to locate the bulk of the wreckage and the majority of the bodies of the 228 people on board Flight 447. It took even longer to establish the cause of the disaster.

Right now, authorities don't even know for sure if the missing Malaysian plane crashed or landed -- or where.

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.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: U.S. government official: The plane is more likely in the southern search area
NEW: Malaysian official says both search areas are of equal importance
NEW: Forensics is trying to recover deleted data from the pilot's flight simulator, Malaysia says
NEW: No "information of significance" has so far been found on any passengers, authorities say
Attachments:

Deepsix Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> V4GVc Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> >
> > 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!
Attachments:

Malaysia Airlines passenger's partner says she's certain her soul mate is alive
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-passenger-girlfriend/index.html?hpt=bosread

Beijing (CNN) -- Sarah Bajc has a bag packed, ready to join her partner of two years, a passenger on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, wherever he is.

She has included an outfit for him.

"Because he wouldn't want to wear his dirty old stuff anymore," she said of Phil Wood, a 51-year-old IBM executive. "And he probably wouldn't want to wear a hospital gown, if that's the case. So it's all ready."

She is the first to admit that some of her friends say she is in denial about his fate, but Bajc is on a desperate search to find the man she calls her soul mate. She believes he is still alive and being held hostage somewhere.

"This is a planned activity. Somebody wants to do something and make a message out of it," she said.

Bajc, 48, said her logic tells her that there are hostages and it would serve no good for the captors to kill the passengers. The hijackers would look callous and brutal, and they wouldn't have as much bargaining power, she believes.

"I have to believe the hostages are valuable to them," she said.

If there was a hijacking or other emergency, Wood would have been one of the passengers who steadied the ship.

"He's very level-headed," she said. "And I think he is the kind of person who would help to calm a really chaotic situation."

She said she's not ready to take the path at the fork in the road that leads to bad news, but she has prepared.

"Because no matter what, I still have to go forward, and no matter what, his family still has to go forward," she said, standing among moving boxes.

She and Wood were about to move from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur and were going to get married this year.

They met in 2011 at a bar in Beijing called Nashville. They soon moved in together, along with her teenage son.

Wood and Bajc have new jobs in Kuala Lumpur (she will work at a school there), and the movers showed up the day the plane disappeared. She had to send them away.

The news said the plane was missing. Her stomach crashed. Then she just didn't believe it. The 10 days since have been surreal, she said.

Wood was one of three Americans on the plane, which went missing on March 8.

Bajc started a Facebook page and a Twitter account called "Finding Philip Wood" to gather and share information about the flight.

Some people are sending comforting thoughts -- "I so believe in my heart they are at out there!! Praying for all and safe return home!!!!" writes Debbie Walton Vaughan.

Others are sharing theories and news reports.

In one post, Bajc writes: "Facebook and Twitter are resources. Perhaps there are other useful platforms as well. If we keep sharing this, you never know who will see it and be able to answer some questions."

She told CNN that people ask her what Wood is like, and she said if you were in his presence, you'd see him as a good, generous and thoughtful man who loves his family and friends.

He made her feel a way that "I didn't believe was possible to feel," she said.

And she feels him still.

"I genuinely feel his presence," she said. "I don't believe he has left us yet."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Sarah Bajc says she still feels Philip Wood's presence
NEW: She writes on Facebook: You never know who might see a post and offer help
She says she thinks her partner is a hostage and is more valuable alive
Wood would remain calm, help ease tensions, she says
Attachments:

Astronaut: New satellites could track missing planes
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/opinion/hadfield-ted-satellites-imagery/index.html?hpt=op_t1&hpt=hp_t4

(CNN) -- A fleet of tiny satellites released from the International Space Station could be a tool to help solve future aviation mysteries like the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, said retired astronaut Chris Hadfield, who commanded the space station for five months last year.

Speaking to the media after giving a talk at the opening session of the TED2014 conference Monday, Hadfield said that the shoebox-sized satellites, once fully deployed, will cover the entire planet with frequently refreshed images at a resolution down to 4 meters and could have helped in a mystery such as the question of what happened to the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777.

Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based company, arranged for the first group of the satellites to be released from the space station last month. Hadfield said those satellites are in initial testing.

Asked by CNN to comment, Planet Labs provided a statement by its co-founder and CEO, William Marshall, a former NASA scientist, who is due to speak later this week at TED: "Planet Labs just last month deployed a fleet of 28 satellites, Flock 1, from the International Space Station. This is the largest Earth imaging constellation in history. We are turning on each of the satellites and are now putting them into position. With this constellation, we will measure the planet on a more regular basis to enable various applications. One of those applications is disaster response, including natural and man-made disasters. Other applications range from monitoring deforestation to helping to improve agricultural yields to monitoring urban growth." Another 100 such satellites are in the works, according to the Financial Times.

Hadfield said "tracking one thin aluminum tube" like the Boeing 777, in a place that is not heavily covered by radar is very hard.

"Obviously something happened fast and deliberate, exactly what process, whether it was the crew themselves or someone forcing themselves in, we don't know," Hadfield said. He said he suspects that if the aircraft did crash, wreckage will eventually be found.

How TED got famous

In his talk on the TED stage, Hadfield gripped the audience's attention with a message urging people to conquer irrational fears, with images of the Earth's beauty from space and with a performance on guitar of a portion of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," a song he also sang while weightless on the space station. His video, one of about 100 he shot on the space station, went viral.

Astronauts train themselves to overcome fear, and thus are willing to take considerable risks, whether being launched on a rocket or walking in space, Hadfield said. By contrast, some people will let themselves be paralyzed by unreasoning fear of spiders; the way to conquer that is to walk through spider webs (assuming the spiders aren't venomous).

"There's a difference between danger and fear," he said after the talk. And Hadfield said that, incongruously, "I'm afraid of heights," but had mostly overcome it through training.

Anything could have tracked the damn plane. Your phone GPS app. If there was a phone on the plane, with a GPS app, it could have easily been tracked. So for basically $50 we could have tracked the damn plane. Instead, you have this old technology, transponders? Really? All you need is any kind of GPS, to blip every 5,10, or how about even just 1 second? Easiest thing to prevent, really losing anything is impossible these days. It's like losing the other end of your jump rope. It is not possible. Liberalism is ignorance.

A phone on the lost plane with a GPS app might determine its location if the speed of the plane wasn't too fast, but could not report that to any outside location as there is no cellphone coverage at that altitude and distance from land.

The primary purpose of radar transponders is to make it easier to identify the radar spots on the display so air traffic controllers can see the relative position of planes under their control when giving instructions to the pilots. They have an On/Off switch so they can be turned off at the request of air traffic control in cases where the transponder tags on the radar screen are causing confusing clutter.

The current level of equipment, radar transponders and black box flight recorders for crash analysis, represents the least cost solution to those problems. Better technology is available but isn't going to be widely used unless the commercial airlines are required to upgrade.

Why were there no phone calls?

It's a popular question on social media: Why didn't passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 make mobile calls?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/travel/malaysia-airlines-no-phone-calls/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

(CNN) -- It's a popular question on social media: Why didn't passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 make mobile calls?

Many recall that when United Flight 93 was hijacked on September 11, 2001, passengers were able to make two cell phone calls during the flight's final moments. Several other calls were made using airphones.

If metadata was detected from cell phones on Flight 370, surely it would shed more light on the missing plane's flight path?

The plane may have been flying too high or too fast to register with cell towers, according to telecoms experts, but careful analysis of the passengers' cell phone records will need to be completed to be certain.

"So far, we have not had any evidence of any telephone company of any member trying to contact," said Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya at a news conference on Monday.

"But anyway, we are still checking. There are millions of records to process. It is being done as part of the investigation."

Was the plane too high?

According to radar analysis, the plane is believed to have been flying as high as 45,000 feet and as low as 23,000 feet.

But even this lower altitude is too high to register with mobile towers, experts say.

"If you look at the data in this case, the altitude at which the planes were traveling is too high," Vincent Lau, wireless communications specialist and professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, told CNN.

"Even on the ground it wouldn't be easy to pick up from that distance, and if you are flying it's even more difficult because at those angles you are only picking up what we call leakage from the side loops of the antennas, which are substantially weaker than the signals from the main loops of the base stations."

While business class seats on the aircraft are known to have been equipped with phones that worked via satellite, it would be easy to strike down that system from inside the plane, said Lau.

Reports on Monday that the plane flew as low as 5,000 feet or less over mountainous terrain -- possibly in order to evade radar detection -- haven't been confirmed.

"In terms of the altitude it would have to be no higher than around 10,000 feet. Anything higher ... would be problematic," according to Bill Rojas, director of telecom research at IDC Asia Pacific.

Unlike in urban areas, where cell phone antennae are typically pointed down toward the ground, cell towers in rural areas are up to 30-45 meters high and are often pointed at an angle meant to cover wider distances.

So if you're up in the sky, you can receive the signal as well, Rojas said.

"If the airplane were flying over northern Malaysia or southern Thailand -- basically the rural area -- then it's very possible that a cell tower could register the signal from the phones, assuming they were on," said Rojas.

"Technically it is possible."

Retrieving the data

If smartphones had been on and registered with a cell tower, the records would be relatively easy to retrieve.

"The registrations would typically be logged and depending on the operator they will be kept for hours, days or months," said Rojas.

The telecom expert said that he'd place particular focus on the phone numbers of passengers from Thailand or Malaysia.

"I would assume that the authorities are checking with the mobile operators by comparing known passenger cell numbers to see if there were any pings or attempted or successful network registrations in northern Malaysia or southern Thailand or possibly even Indonesia," said Rojas. "Any passenger who had roaming capabilities or a local Malaysian number -- if the plane were over Malaysia -- could in theory have been registered on the network if their phone was on.

"If a passenger does not have international roaming then their access would be rejected by the network and for a period of time that metadata might be stored by the network."

If the metadata records were erased automatically after a few days or a few hours, could they be retrieved?

"Each mobile operator will have its own guidelines for the duration of metadata storage and would not normally be made public for obvious national security and law enforcement reasons."

Rojas said as far as speed was concerned, the aircraft would need to have been flying at speeds below 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph) in order for passengers to make or receive calls.

Passengers on high-speed trains in Japan and other countries can make calls via 3G networks at speeds of up to 240 kilometers per hour, but cell towers aren't able to register a signal beyond those speeds, Rojas said.
Attachments:

sms receiving possible at flight altitude and flight speed.

A few weeks ago I was flying from a business meeting in Erbil (Iraq) back to Vienna, and had forgotten to switch off my mobile. When landing in Vienna, I had SMS-welcome messages from my phone company from Turkey, Romania and Slovakia on my phone - Turkey and Romania have been crossed at at flight altitude of approx. 36.000 feet; Slovakia is close to Vienna, so there the plane was already lower for approach. It is obviously possible for a mobile to log into a network from flight altitude and at flight speed. As it is very likely, that at least one passenger on the plan had forgotten to switch off his phone, I wonder why it was not one of the first activities to collect the phone numbers of the passengers from their relatives and have the logs checked by the respective cellphone companies.

What they need to do is check the logs of all the registered phones on the Malaysian systems shortly after takeoff. These would likely include phones that were left on after departure. That list should be joined with tables from every other system along any of the possible flight paths. Get someone from Google to work on it, they'd find the path in an hour. They give harder problems during their job interviews. (some sarcasm intended)

Frequent fliers would be sure to notice immediately. When the lights of major cities do not show up, you have a tendency to notice! Even solid cloud cover cannot hide city lights of a major city.

Frequent flyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frequent fliers would be sure to notice
> immediately. When the lights of major cities do
> not show up, you have a tendency to notice! Even
> solid cloud cover cannot hide city lights of a
> major city.


But what can they do?

I'm interested to know -- what is the exact reason you can't use your phone on the plane, what prevents it?

Experts answer #370Qs tweets about missing Malaysian flight
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-twitter-questions/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 raises countless questions. CNN analysts, contributors and correspondents have been searching for answers.

Here are some of the viewer questions posted to Twitter with the hashtag #370Qs and addressed by a panel assembled by CNN's Don Lemon.

@markydcote asked, "The Himalayas are vast. Is it possible the plane could have crashed there where radar coverage may be spotty?"

CNN correspondent Martin Savidge checked out that possible path in a flight simulator: "Well, essentially here's the scenario we set up. These are the Himalayan Mountains, and what we're trying to do is simulate flying through them. Apparently trying to do it below radar. In other words, using the mountain as kind of cover. The 777 was never designed to be a fighter aircraft, and even though we're in a simulator and even though I know that none of this is real, I've got to say that the way that the whole horizon keeps banking and yanking here is really uncomfortable. The aircraft is doing over 230 knots, as we find our way through the steep, narrow mountain passes here. You can hear all the alarms going off warning that we're way too low, and even though we're 1600 feet in the air, we're actually only 320 feet off the deck." "It is a simulation, but if somebody was trying to do this at night, there's no way. You would end up on one of these mountainsides here. So, it's impressive to watch, but really, this is just fantasy here. There's no way an aircraft like this would fly this low in the Himalayan Mountains."

@sharma_thakur99 asked, "Is there a possibility that it caught fire and radar, etc., wasn't manually shut off but an accident?"

CNN Reporter Stephanie Elam spoke with former Trans World Airlines captain Barry Schiff about this: "You know, what we're given here is a large jigsaw puzzle that has 1,000 pieces and someone tossed 20 pieces at us and said, "Here figure out what this is supposed to represent,'" Schiff said, who flew jet liners for 34 years. His theory about what happened on flight 370? A problem on board. "If you have a serious problem aboard a jetliner like a fire, one thing you're going to want to do is get on the ground as soon as possible. And turning back towards Malaysia, towards a large airport is the first thing I would do. The most imperative thing is to take care of that fire. The last thing you're going to do is communicate unless you have the time to do it because no one on the ground can help you." He doesn't believe the idea that the pilots tried a water landing. "I seriously doubt that anyone would try to land a jetliner in the water at night. Imagine hitting the water at 100, 200, 300 miles an hour. It's going to make the airplane splatter into pieces."

@fstaylor asked, "Anyone been able to investigate the men traveling on the passports yet, any connection to the pilots?"

Jeff Beatty, national security expert: "I think that really leads to the question of: 'Were there people that were helping the pilots.'" "Obviously, there was no duress signal given from the pilots to the people they were communicating with." "There is a way to communicate duress not only with the transponder codes but also what you say verbally. So, if, in fact...(had they) been coerced and unwillingly turned the airplane, they could have given a verbal distress indicator... They didn't do that." "Perhaps they did have other people on the airplane with them; they willfully made this course deviation, and when we look at, well, who's suspicious? The mere act of taking and traveling with false passports certainly makes those people suspicious."

How do passenger jets change flight paths?

@742carol asked, "Often thieves get away with big heists. 777 would (be) worth money in the black market."

Science writer Jeff Wise: "There's a secondary market. You can go online and find them listed, and they are not worth a gigantic amount of money. It's like $50 million for a secondhand 777. Bear in mind that is not one that is hot. You've got to file off the serial numbers and so forth. So there's probably easier ways to get your hands on a few million bucks."

@michaelbuis asked, "What intelligence value (is there) to the employees of Semiconductor China Telecom and business machines ZTE and Huawei (being on the plane)?"

Arthur Rosenberg, aviation lawyer, aviation engineer and pilot: "It's my understanding those employees actually had a background in sophisticated radar, and there may have actually been at least one of those employees who had some piloting experience. So, the fact that they were actually on this plane, I think, is significant." "I have to say, at 1:07, when the ACARS system reported that there was a program change for the heading in the airplane, followed by 12 minutes later when the pilot made his infamous remark 'all right, good night'... pilots don't make their change in course mid-flight without getting permission from air traffic control. They had 12 minutes to talk to air traffic control...and did not do that. I think that this -- this was a well-laid plan."

@tristanrachman asked, "Why would one program a computer system if they didn't plan on landing somewhere?"

Mary Schiavo: "Ordinarily, you program your flight computers for places you don't intend to land, because you have to have secondary airports, and you have to have emergency plans before you ever take off. You have to have enough fuel to get to your primary and secondary (destinations) in case something happens. So, you actually...program and have flight coordinates for airports other than the ones that you're going to, but it's to deal with emergencies or weather or problems at the airport." "So, it's just a backup plan."

@bibisir asked, "Could pilot depressurize plane to cause passengers to pass out?"

CNN aviation analyst and retired commercial pilot Jim Tilmon: "Yes, it can deprive the cabin of oxygen. And they don't have to do it for a very long time because you just cannot survive -- just a matter of minutes -- without oxygen. You go into kind of a hypoxia sleep, and you just don't wake up. And the crew has, of course, oxygen masks. They have a different source of oxygen that they can use, and they can put that mask on. It's a full face mask, and they can indeed breathe 100% oxygen for a while. It's far-fetched. It's awful to think of, but it is possible ... The masks would drop automatically. They do when you go through a certain altitude in the cabin. They automatically drop. The thing is that you have a tiny canister in each one of those overhead bins, and they are your oxygen generators. They only run for a relatively short length of time. That's why the protocol is if you do have an oxygen problem, you immediately go into a descent to get down into breathable oxygen, so that your passengers are going to be all right. And that's a pretty good drop -- that's a controlled dive, you might say, to about 14,000 feet."

@HerbOkam asked, "Is there any possibility of the airplane being completely intact at the bottom of the ocean hence the reason for no floating debris?"

Science writer Jeff Wise: "If it was in one piece, that would imply that the pilot had come in and done a gentle sort of Sullenberger kind of landing like he did on the Hudson where everything is in one piece. The problem with that is that you get the life rafts, deploying the life rafts, which are equipped with emergency locator beacons. In a way, It's either that or you do a high speed sort of supersonic descent where the thing just breaks into a million pieces. And if your goal is to leave no trace, then you'd be better off like that. That leaves millions of tiny pieces floating around. It's hard to imagine a scenario in which you ditch or crash in the ocean and there isn't some trace left."

@Bevie246 asked, "Are the authorities looking at the possible scenarios should the plane be intact and in the hands of hijackers?"

Former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo: "I certainly hope that they're looking at that, because there were so many lessons in the investigations after September 11. But one that was clear in the investigation following September 11 and that was the plot, the hints, the clues, it was imagined and imaginable. We had a lot of intelligence, and as soon as it happened, evidence starting pouring in. I got two key pieces of evidence in plain brown envelopes delivered to my office anonymously. Just everyone wanted to help. And here we don't have that, which is disconcerting, so the authorities, governments around the world really have to dig deep because there doesn't seem to be any information forthcoming. I've called it an eerie silence right now."

@AdSecurity asked, "Is it possible someone 'stole' the plane to use if later on in a terror attack and they wanted us all to believe that it crashed in the ocean?"

Jim Tilmon: "Yes, that's possible, but there's so many possibilities that we just have to put this on a long list."

Former CIA counter-terrorism officer Jeff Beatty: "That certainly is one of the possibilities. There's about three other scenarios that I'd like to just highlight. One of them could be a high-value cargo. The aircraft might have been taken for a high-value cargo. Now that cargo could possibly be people, high-value people that are on board, or that cargo could possibly be something of great value in the hold. The second one is in the past, we've actually had aircraft become the venue for murder ... and finally, there's always ransom."

@Lavender4CC asked, "What have we been told about the absence of #MH370 cell phone contact? No photos, texts, calls ... That's incredible!"

Mary Schiavo: "The first question is why not the calls from the plane or calls to and from the plane and that's because this plane was not equipped with the most modern equipment to have on board wifi and cell phone service, so that means that these cell phones would have to rely upon going near a tower. Now, the plane did pass back over Malaysia, and that was a possibility but it would have had to hit a tower just like anyone else driving around on the ground or being lucky to get a tower. And then, actually, some phone company officials have said that the cell phone ringing was not indicative that the phone was still working, but merely that it was simply ringing through to the area or the switching station to go ahead and meet the cell phone. It didn't mean the cell phone itself was working."

thisisajokeright Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frequent flyer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Frequent fliers would be sure to notice
> > immediately. When the lights of major cities do
> > not show up, you have a tendency to notice!
> Even
> > solid cloud cover cannot hide city lights of a
> > major city.
>
>
> But what can they do?
>
> I'm interested to know -- what is the exact reason
> you can't use your phone on the plane, what
> prevents it?


A) cloud cover definitely hides city lights, and B) are you normally awake at 1am on red-eye flights? I like looking out the window, and I may well notice if I was supposed to be flying North that the Moon, which should be in the South, is plainly visible out of my left side window. If I'm sitting on the right side? I don't notice anything wrong, because I can't navigate by stars. This coming from someone who would pay attention.

Take the other 99.5% of people on that plane? They're passed out sleeping, not caring what is going on. Heck, I may not even put 2 and 2 together for a while, if I can't see the moon.

@742carol asked, "Often thieves get away with big heists. 777 would (be) worth money in the black market."

Science writer Jeff Wise: "There's a secondary market. You can go online and find them listed, and they are not worth a gigantic amount of money. It's like $50 million for a secondhand 777. Bear in mind that is not one that is hot. You've got to file off the serial numbers and so forth. So there's probably easier ways to get your hands on a few million bucks."


LOL!!!

If I would take the seat of the potential hijackers, I would consider a jamming device a backup. Getting such a device on board is already an increased risk, even if it can be rather small and disguised as something else. And furthermore, since you probably don't have a spare 777 in your backyard, you do not know how this equipment will operate in the real situation. And simply the best solution to silence all potential leaks is to get rid of the potential transmitters and use a jamming device for the ones you didn't catch.

(And yes... I was actually involved in interference testing of 4G technology on HFC cable infrastructure...)

NWEeU Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> thisisajokeright Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Frequent flyer Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Frequent fliers would be sure to notice
> > > immediately. When the lights of major cities
> do
> > > not show up, you have a tendency to notice!
> > Even
> > > solid cloud cover cannot hide city lights of
> a
> > > major city.
> >
> >
> > But what can they do?
> >
> > I'm interested to know -- what is the exact
> reason
> > you can't use your phone on the plane, what
> > prevents it?
>
>
> A) cloud cover definitely hides city lights, and
> B) are you normally awake at 1am on red-eye
> flights? I like looking out the window, and I may
> well notice if I was supposed to be flying North
> that the Moon, which should be in the South, is
> plainly visible out of my left side window. If I'm
> sitting on the right side? I don't notice anything
> wrong, because I can't navigate by stars. This
> coming from someone who would pay attention.
>
> Take the other 99.5% of people on that plane?
> They're passed out sleeping, not caring what is
> going on. Heck, I may not even put 2 and 2
> together for a while, if I can't see the moon.


Even if there were cell towers, if this was a planned hijacking and they wanted to make the plane disappear, a cell-phone-jammer would disable all wireless devices in the plane, easily and quickly.

They are easy to buy and easy to use. Nobody on the plane be able to make any calls, and no cell tower would be able to ping the phones at all.

thisisajokeright Wrote:
---------------------------------
> But what can they do?

I would storm the cockpit, that's what I'd do!

why isn't there any investigation into the wife and 3 kids of the pilot who moved out of the house the day before the plane flight? If he was upset because of this, he probably killed everyone and himself.

Even if the passengers were incapacitated some of their mobiles/tablets would have likely been turned on. These would have potentially been connecting with mobile base stations as the plane lost altitude. I believe that this would then show up on their mobile provider's records.....could give a pointer into the actual arc to check????

Why??? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> why isn't there any investigation into the wife
> and 3 kids of the pilot who moved out of the house
> the day before the plane flight? If he was upset
> because of this, he probably killed everyone and
> himself.

I find this one of the most interesting pieces to this puzzle. Where are they, and why did they leave? Marital problems, or were they moved for protection--part of a plan knowing he wouldn't be returning to Malaysia? And, the aircraft engineer who left his ring/watch for his sons in case "something happened to him"--did he also know he would not be returning?

Since it was an International flight for around 6hours, mobile phones which might had been switched on, will get into searching network mode. Which generally consumes more battery, resulting into dead battery. As per data shared, assuming if the plan flew over any on the network covered area, which is likely to be after 6hrs after takeoff, then the battery might have died. The exception can be, only if some has connected the phone to battery charger.

Not expecting passengers to be making calls however would expect that if the mobile connects with roaming data enabled it will start downloading email/txt etc....this will register on the passengers mobile providers systems for billing purposes.........
As a frequent long haul traveller i've often not shut down my phone properly before stowing it in my laptop bag.....often land 8-12 hours later with a couple of connection messages to random mobile networks

fyi...i'm a telco engineer ;-)

priss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why??? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > why isn't there any investigation into the wife
> > and 3 kids of the pilot who moved out of the
> house
> > the day before the plane flight? If he was
> upset
> > because of this, he probably killed everyone
> and
> > himself.
>
> I find this one of the most interesting pieces to
> this puzzle. Where are they, and why did they
> leave? Marital problems, or were they moved for
> protection--part of a plan knowing he wouldn't be
> returning to Malaysia? And, the aircraft engineer
> who left his ring/watch for his sons in case
> "something happened to him"--did he also know he
> would not be returning?

If your idea is to commit suicide by crashing the plane into the ocean, then why would you go to the trouble of turning off the transponder? Its not like anyone would be able to stop you from outside the aircraft.

I wonder how much insurance the pilots had. Suicide wouldn't pay out. Lost would, eventually.

Good point but if there was a cockpit struggle the cockpit voice recorder would have picked it up. The CVR records back over itself every two hours so if you want to make it appear that the plane crashed for reasons beyond your control you just need to cruise around for 2+ hours after the struggle then crash the plane. Perhaps you interject some false conversation regarding fire, terrorists, etc.

9NUMM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder how much insurance the pilots had.
> Suicide wouldn't pay out. Lost would, eventually.

Insurance money for family? Suicide may invalidate insurance on pilot.

vWehK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> priss Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why??? Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > why isn't there any investigation into the
> wife
> > > and 3 kids of the pilot who moved out of the
> > house
> > > the day before the plane flight? If he was
> > upset
> > > because of this, he probably killed everyone
> > and
> > > himself.
> >
> > I find this one of the most interesting pieces
> to
> > this puzzle. Where are they, and why did they
> > leave? Marital problems, or were they moved for
> > protection--part of a plan knowing he wouldn't
> be
> > returning to Malaysia? And, the aircraft
> engineer
> > who left his ring/watch for his sons in case
> > "something happened to him"--did he also know
> he
> > would not be returning?
>
> If your idea is to commit suicide by crashing the
> plane into the ocean, then why would you go to the
> trouble of turning off the transponder? Its not
> like anyone would be able to stop you from outside
> the aircraft.


I have an answer to that question. Suppose that either the pilot or copilot had suicidal thoughts or was seriously disgruntled about something and had concocted a plan to commit suicide. Turning of the transponder and disabling all forms of communication would maximize the chance the plane would not be found after crashing it in order to inflict maximum damage on those who wronged this person. In such a scenario, it wouldn't be about suicide per se, but about revenge, for example, on the employer, Malaysia airlines, or on humanity itself. It's about denying those that wronged you closure.

Maybe, but we're talking about one individual taking on the rest of the crew. I don't know how many people are on this jet but I would think that there would be a pretty slim chance of one person pulling that off. I could be wrong though.

Why has there been so little attention paid to the massacre of 33 Chinese people at a train station in China? I believe there might be a link to this missing plane.

370QS: - Isn't it possible that because transponders and other communication devices were turned off for some unknown reason (Could be anything malfunction or sabotage) and plane flew as an unidentified aircraft in some country's airspace and shot down unfortunately because there would be no reply from cockpit to the calls to identify from ground.....and then realising that they have shot down a civilian commercial plane , now, some country e.g.China trying to cover it up??

I would like to know why the over the horizon phased array radar at Diego Garcia did not report any findings. They should have been able to light up the 777 quite easily given their proximity to the reported (believed) flight path.

Why doesn't Malaysia Airlines offer a $5 Million reward to any individual via boating, private air plane, searching,etc. for identification of the location of any wreckage. You would get a whole lot more people searching than just the limited military in the nations currently involved??? It could be in the jungle somewhere; Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam...etc..

The very first question I just heard was about the ACARS being turned off 12 minutes before the voice call -- it's explained on the basis of the last ACARS having been at 1:07. But. We've already been told - and I've seen this confirmed elsewhere - that the ACARS only "handshakes" every half hour. So what was heard at 1:07? Just another handshake? We can't think of it not broadcasting until 01:37 when it should have handshaked and didn't.

Then they focus on the fire thing. But they insist in focusing only on fire (as opposed to say systems failures), and the fire they only look at like the towering inferno.

I've got better things to do with my time than this. When CNN keeps beating the same points after they're already been questioned or rebutted, you know they have an agenda. And the agenda is: what's the sexiest story. As with the Ukraine. As with Zimmerman. These guys have some great guests - but they themselves are a tabloid.

I don't understand a simple thing and perhaps someone can give me an answer. We know that ACARS comunication system went off short after the departure, but the system's antenna doesn't go completely off...it keep on receiving electric power and it keep on receiving and sending very simple and short messages. That's why the system made several "Handshakings" with INMARSAT satelittes also after the ACARS systems went off. Well, but we know those automatic handshakings are every 1 hour ! So why do the experts focus their attention only on the last ping at 8:11 ?? There must be other 6 or 7 pings on their computers and they could be important to understand something more about the airplane's route ! Don't you ?

To my knowledge, on viewing the cctv camera footage released on the net, the 2 pilots crossing the security barrier in KL airport, the "first officer" back to the Kapten zaharie ahmad shah seemed tense at the time of the security check and i can notice he gets a big breath relief when he crosses that. If the flight is very much delayed of the scheduled time, then there is a chance of getting tensed. But flight MH 370 is scheduled on time. Could the investigators look in the video again and investigate the first officer's all kind of records, personal and professional. I would be very happy if that could help in any manner.

I was stationed in Thailand and Vietnam 68-69. I know there is Airbases in Thailand capable of handling this aircraft. Look at Ubon, Udorn, Utopa and one more up north i cannot remember. All could handle B-52's, C-5's etc. One in particular is Utopa which was at southern tip of Thailand

HvMpu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't understand a simple thing and perhaps
> someone can give me an answer. We know that ACARS
> comunication system went off short after the
> departure, but the system's antenna doesn't go
> completely off...it keep on receiving electric
> power and it keep on receiving and sending very
> simple and short messages. That's why the system
> made several "Handshakings" with INMARSAT
> satelittes also after the ACARS systems went off.
> Well, but we know those automatic handshakings are
> every 1 hour ! So why do the experts focus their
> attention only on the last ping at 8:11 ?? There
> must be other 6 or 7 pings on their computers and
> they could be important to understand something
> more about the airplane's route ! Don't you ?


Yes, I have the same question: why we haven't seen those arcs? - there must be another 11-12, and one close to the last military radar data point. The spacings of the arcs tell us when the plane made changes in heading and/ or speed, and long sequences with steady spacing tell us the plane likely flew in one direction at a constant speed. Enter typical aircraft speed, and you should have enough information to reconstruct the actual flight path, within some error bars.

My current hypothesis: Chinese dissidents have taken plane and passengers with plan to exchange Chinese passengers for friends, relatives, colleagues being held for political reasons in Chinese prisons. Chinese are in negotiations with the hijackers but are unwilling to reveal this to world thus their 'contributions' to where plane might be not helpful. Took 1 year to plan - plane at remote airport, unused since say Viet Nam war, long runaway and hanger to prevent plane from being seen by satellite. Stocked with food and water for passengers - 10-12 dissidents could do it. Chaos around plane location because if public especially Chinese knew passengers being held hostage pressure on China to give in to dissidents would be tremendous - world would demand China do whatever it took to get (innocent) passengers back. Likely some in US government know if this is true but are not saying anything at Chinese request. Just an idea!

Do you think that the plane is in a hangar, getting re-painted to look like a Southwest Airlines plane or American Airlines to make it fit in with our aircraft? If so, do you think this plane would be fitted with a nuclear warhead to be used against the U.S.?

why was there no communication by ground or pilots when new heading was entered12 minutes is plenty of time and pilot signed of after this and then 1 minute later turned to new heading.?if we know about the new heading ground controll also knew and nothing was said about any problem they knew before the actuall turn took place and before pilot signed off???

Why is it in this day and age that the black boxes can't lead you straight to the their location?

My theory is that the aircraft might have impacted the water at a steep vertical angle( possibly head on) to have left very little surface area impactng the water intially, creating a break in the water initially, and given that it must have been at a very high speed on impact it would have pushed the entire aircraft underwater and simultaneously breaking the front portion of the aircraft. this might possibly have caused the rest of the aircraft to have gone down as a single unit leaving a much smaller debris field because the brunt of the force would have been absorbed by the head region of the aircraft. Could that be a possible scenario as to why they have not been able to locate any debris ?

Have anyone tryed to take a normale routeplan WMKK to ZBAA like this: "WMKK SID PIBOS R208 IGARI M765 BITOD M755 PNH B329 NAH W1 NOB R474 NNG R343 LKO A461 VYK STAR ZBAA" and from the waypoint IGARI -where the plane turned - mirrored the flightroute, that means track cource -180 degr. to see where it´s ends. Very interesting

Flight attendants should have access to a radio (not just the intercom to front cabin pilots) in back cabin for use in emergencies to contact Air Traffic controllers, with safeguards against passenger use like passwords, etc.

Conrad Stonebanks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> vWehK Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > priss Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Why??? Wrote:
> > >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > > -----
> > > > why isn't there any investigation into the
> > wife
> > > > and 3 kids of the pilot who moved out of
> the
> > > house
> > > > the day before the plane flight? If he was
> > > upset
> > > > because of this, he probably killed
> everyone
> > > and
> > > > himself.
> > >
> > > I find this one of the most interesting
> pieces
> > to
> > > this puzzle. Where are they, and why did they
> > > leave? Marital problems, or were they moved
> for
> > > protection--part of a plan knowing he
> wouldn't
> > be
> > > returning to Malaysia? And, the aircraft
> > engineer
> > > who left his ring/watch for his sons in case
> > > "something happened to him"--did he also know
> > he
> > > would not be returning?
> >
> > If your idea is to commit suicide by crashing
> the
> > plane into the ocean, then why would you go to
> the
> > trouble of turning off the transponder? Its not
> > like anyone would be able to stop you from
> outside
> > the aircraft.
>
>
> I have an answer to that question. Suppose that
> either the pilot or copilot had suicidal thoughts
> or was seriously disgruntled about something and
> had concocted a plan to commit suicide. Turning of
> the transponder and disabling all forms of
> communication would maximize the chance the plane
> would not be found after crashing it in order to
> inflict maximum damage on those who wronged this
> person. In such a scenario, it wouldn't be about
> suicide per se, but about revenge, for example, on
> the employer, Malaysia airlines, or on humanity
> itself. It's about denying those that wronged you
> closure.

The pilot is related through marriage to Malaysia's Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who was sentenced to 5 years in jail on the same day that MH370 departed. The pilot attended the court case that morning. He is/was a great supporter of Anwar. The ruling party in Malaysia has been repeatedly charging Anwar with sodomy in that Muslim country as a means of getting rid of the people's popular choice. The charges in 2004 were eventually dismissed for lack of evidence after he had served some years in jail. Those are all factual statements.

The pilot decided that he would embarrass the Malaysians for being a corrupt, incompetent government.. He intended to fly to the Maldives (his home flight simulator has that airport in it) and create some international spotlight to shine on Anwar's case.

Probably his aircraft did not have enough fuel to reach the Maldives and they crashed into the ocean. No one seems to know definitively how much fuel was loaded.

asdfasdfasdfafd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> thisisajokeright Wrote:
> ---------------------------------
> > But what can they do?
>
> I would storm the cockpit, that's what I'd do!


You can storm my cockpit anytime asdfasdfasdfafd ;-*

????? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why is it in this day and age that the black boxes
> can't lead you straight to the their location?

Physics?

thisisajokeright Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> asdfasdfasdfafd Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > thisisajokeright Wrote:
> > ---------------------------------
> > > But what can they do?
> >
> > I would storm the cockpit, that's what I'd do!
>
>
> You can storm my cockpit anytime asdfasdfasdfafd
> ;-*

Oh my sexy witch, you have cast a spell upon me! ;)

IS THIS IT? 'Credible' but not confirmed

A plane sent to the area is unable to find the object, but bad weather is limiting visibility.


Objects spotted in Indian Ocean may be debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- Two objects spotted by satellites in the southern Indian Ocean may be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian authorities said Thursday, fueling hopes of a breakthrough in an international search of unprecedented scale.

The objects are indistinct but of "reasonable size," with the largest about 24 meters (79 feet) across, said John Young, general manager of emergency response for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

They appear to be "awash with water and bobbing up and down" in an area 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) southwest of Australia's west coast, he said.

A Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane sent to the site was unable to find the debris, the agency said Thursday on Twitter. Clouds, rain and limited visibility were hampering the search, the agency said.

An Australian naval ship was on the way, but "some days away," Malaysia's interim Transportation Secretary Hishammuddin Hussein said Thursday.

Hishammuddin said search efforts are intensifying in the area, but will continue throughout the massive search zone until the aircraft is found. he aid.

"At least there is a credible lead," Hishammuddin said. "That gives us hope. As long as there's hope, we will continue."

He said the search will continue until authorities can give families of those on board the plane answers about what happened.

"For the families around the world, the one piece of information that they want most is the information we just don't have: the location of MH370," he said.

Hishammuddin cautioned that the Australian find may not be related to Flight 370, as did David Gallo, one of the leader of the search for Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

"If that piece of the plane is that big, maybe it's the tail section" he siad. But he warned that the size gave him a degree of concern.

"It's a big piece of aircraft to have survived something like this," he said.

The tail height of a Boeing 777, the model of the missing Malaysian plane, is 60 feet.
Flight 370 vanished over Southeast Asia on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew aboard, and the announcement raised the prospect of finding parts of the plane amid a huge search that is now in its 13th day.

The Australian maritime agency warned the images may not be related to the aircraft, but one aviation analyst said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott likely would not have announced the discovery to the the House of Representatives in Canberra without being reasonably sure of their find.

"There have been so many false leads and so many starts and changes and then backtracking in the investigation," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "He wouldn't have come forward and said if they weren't fairly certain."

But officials cautioned that there were no guarantees that the objects now being investigated would prove to be from the missing plane.

At the Lido Hotel in Beijing where family members of some of the passengers on the missing plane have waited for news for days, relatives gathered around a large screen television watching the Australian news conference. They leaned forward in their chairs, hanging on every word. Some sighed loudly.

Malaysia Airlines said it won't be sending representatives or family members to Australia unless the objects are confirmed as plane debris.

'The best lead we have right now'

The images of the objects were captured by satellite and were being assessed by the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation. The images were taken near the area of the southern Indian Ocean that has been scoured by search teams in recent days.

Although the total search area for the plane spans nearly 3 million square miles, a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation said the missing plane is most likely somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

"This is an area out of normal shipping lanes, out of any commercial flight patterns, with few fishing boats, and there are no islands," the official said.

Young cautioned that the images may not be from the plane. There can be other debris out there, like containers that have fallen overboard from ships, for example.

The objects were seen in the heart of what is known as the Indian Ocean Gyre. There is little to no oceanic current movement in the region and the area is notorious for trapping debris. It's one of the five major gyres in the world's oceans and is known to contain a "garbage patch."

"It is probably the best lead we have right now," Young said. "But we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them to know whether it's really meaningful or not."

The visibility in the area is poor, Young warned. "The weather is not playing the game with us," he said.

If this is the debris of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, what happens next?

Planes arrive

A Royal Australian Air Force Orion aircraft has already arrived in the area, Young said, and three other planes are being sent there, including a New Zealand Air Force Orion and U.S. Navy P8 Poseidon.

An Australian C-130 Hercules plane has been tasked by Australian authorities to drop marker buoys in the area, Young said.

"The first thing they need to do is put eyes on the debris from one of the aircraft," said aviation expert Bill Waddock. The buoys will mark the place and transmit location data.

A merchant ship helping Australian authorities in the search was also expected to arrive in the area Thursday.

'Every lead is a hope'

The Malaysian Navy has six navy ships with three helicopters heading to the southern Indian Ocean to take part in the search, a Malaysian government source said.

"Verification might take some time. It is very far and it will take some time to locate and verify the objects," the Malaysian government source said.
Hussein, the Malaysian acting transport secretary, told CNN he couldn't disclose the information the Australians shared with Malaysia. He said he hadn't seen the images.

But he added: "Every lead is a hope. We have been consistent with our process and we want to verify properly."

Angry families want answers

The lack of progress has angered and frustrated families, who have accused Malaysian officials of withholding information.

Some family members staged a protest Wednesday at the Kuala Lumpur hotel where media covering the search are staying. Their efforts were cut short by security guards who removed them through a crush of reporters, dragging one as she screamed.

"I don't care what your government does," one woman shouted, referring to the Malaysians. "I just want my son back."

The agony of the wait is also being felt by families in Beijing, the scheduled destination for Flight 370. They gather daily for a briefing with officials.

Ye Lun, whose brother-in-law is on the missing plane, says every day is the same. He and his group leave the hotel in the morning for a daily briefing, and that's it. They go back to the hotel to watch the news on television.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Australian plane unable to find debris in clouds, rain, agency says on Twitter
"At least there is a credible lead," Malaysian transport minister says
Objects are indistinct but of "reasonable size," Australian authorities say
"Verification may take some time," a source says

Go here to watch the news video:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Attachments:

Let's spare a thought for the man who told his wife that he was going to China on the Malaysian plane and now can't leave his girlfriend's apartment.

Watching CNN's coverage is like Ted Striker telling his life story to the passengers on the plane.. makes me wanna commit suicide.

ood statement by Australian P.M. Abbott in his house. He was careful and made a very responsible and clear statement.

I'm not a religious person, but it's not unreasonable to hold out hope. That's part of human nature. It's easy for you to crack *jokes* when you don't have a loved one aboard Flight MH370. Yes, the plane is most likely at the bottom of the ocean somewhere, but that doesn't negate one's inclination to feel hopeful--at least in the sense that the passengers died a relatively quick and painless death.

Though this may not be the best news, if this is indeed the plane, I hope this brings closure to the families.

hpGbY Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ood statement by Australian P.M. Abbott in his
> house. He was careful and made a very responsible
> and clear statement.


It was a fairly good statement, but he left out one crucial piece of information. When were those satellite images taken? Were they looking at images taken the day of the crash? If so, those objects may have already sunk. But if they are recent images then hopefully the objects are still floating in same vicinity and they are able to locate them. But I'd be surprised that 12 days later, 2 objects would still be floating together.

Now if these objects do turn out to be wreckage from the plane, I can't imagine the difficult task ahead in trying to locate the black box which could have sunk hundreds of miles away from these floating objects.

I hope this is it, CNN has been milking this story to death.

I sincerely hope they found the plane this time. I really do. I feel like 13 days after it disappeared the families of the possible victims shouldn't still be under the impression their loved ones could still be alive. Someone, if this was a terrorist act, would have claimed it by now. Or, someone would have seen the plane and reported it. Or, someone (one of the passengers) would have escaped by now. It just makes no sense that any one on the plane could possibly still be alive.

NOW, why the hell did the pilot fly the plane toward Australia??

Why is this bankrupt fucking country spending money we don't have investigating a missing plane belonging to a foreign airline?

Who cares what happened to the fucking thing! That's the chance you take when you get on any plane.

In the days of the sailing ships, vessels used to disappear ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Sometimes a little flotsam was spotted by another ship, most of the time not. Vanished without a trace.

Lloyd's of London would ring the bell at headquarters, pay whatever insurance was on the vessel, strike her from records, and call it a day.

In a mystery as big as this, all leads are worth checking
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/21/world/asia/missing-plane-q-and-a/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- Fourteen days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, finding it remains a global search-and-rescue effort. The bulk of the attention is on the southern Indian Ocean, where a commercial satellite photographed objects that Australian authorities say could be related to the search.

Authorities have called the find the best lead yet on where the missing plane might be, and it has prompted a massive search in the area more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) southwest of Australia. So far, they have turned up nothing.

What's the very latest?

British Newspaper The Telegraph claimed Friday that is obtained the transcripts of the final communication between the Malaysia Airlines flight cockpit and ground control. The Telegraph told CNN that the alleged transcript appears to show mostly routine technical chatter and the final message of, "All right, good night." CNN has not independently confirmed that the transcript The Telegraph has obtained is genuine.

Meanwhile, the search in the southern Indian Ocean is over for the day, and nothing was found. The CEO of Malaysia Airlines confirmed that the plane was carrying lithium-ion batteries. And authorities said they're aware of a news report that the plane's pilot placed a cell phone call shortly before the flight departed.

What's the significance of the phone call?

There may not be any, but in a mystery as big as this one, investigators will check out any lead to see if it's important.

And what about the batteries?

Lithium-ion batteries are the type commonly used in laptops and cell phones, and have been known to explode, although it is a rare occurrence.

A fire attributed to lithium-ion batteries caused the fatal 2010 crash of a UPS cargo plane in Dubai. Lithium-ion batteries used to power components in Boeing 787 aircraft were also implicated in a series of fires affecting that plane.

So, in theory, a cargo of the batteries could have caused a fire that led Flight 370 to crash.

But Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told reporters the batteries were routine cargo.

"They are not declared dangerous goods," he said, adding that they were "some small batteries, not big batteries."

It's been two days since we saw the satellite photos of floating objects. Why haven't searchers found anything?

The area being searched is enormous and remote. Aircraft can stay over the scene just two hours before having to return to base. And given that the objects spotted on satellite could have drifted hundreds of miles since they were photographed Sunday, or maybe have even sunk by now, finding them isn't a simple proposition.

Japan is sending surveillance planes, more merchant ships are on the way, and Australia, Britain, China and Malaysia are all sending ships to the area -- a remote region far from commercial shipping and air lanes.

Is it possible that the plane would have gone that far?

Investigators think so. They concluded the plane flew for hours after disappearing from radar, and calculated a pair of arcs running north and south from the Malay Peninsula for likely locations. Based on those trajectories, the amount of fuel on board and other factors, experts believe the plane could have made it to the southern Indian Ocean.

When will we know whether the objects are from the missing flight?

Maybe never. Searchers might miss them, or they might have sunk by now.

But even if they do find the objects, the process of determining whether they're from the missing flight could still be lengthy.

"We have to locate it, confirm that it belongs to the aircraft, recover it and then bring it a long way back to Australia, so that could take some time," said John Young, general manager of emergency response for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority,

Could pieces of the plane still be floating?

Probably not any big pieces, according to Steve Wallace, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's former director of accident investigation. But pieces of lightweight debris, such as life jackets and seat cushions, can float for days after an aircraft strikes the water, he said.

If it's not the plane, what else could it be?

Almost anything big and buoyant. The objects were spotted in a part of the Indian Ocean known for swirling currents called gyres that can trap all sorts of floating debris. Among the leading contenders for what the objects might be, assuming they're not part of Flight 370: shipping containers that fell off a passing cargo vessel. There are reasons to doubt that theory, however. The area isn't near commercial shipping lanes, and the larger object, at an estimated 79 feet (24 meters), would seem to be nearly twice as long as a standard shipping container.

If it is the plane, would its location tell us anything about what happened on that flight?

If it really is the wreckage of the Boeing 777-200, its far southern location would provide investigators with precious clues into what terrible events unfolded to result in the disappearance and loss of the airliner, according to Robert Goyer, editor-in-chief of Flying magazine and a commercial jet-rated pilot. "The location would suggest a few very important parameters. The spot where searchers have found hoped-for clues is, based on the location information provided by the Australian government, nearly 4,000 miles from where the airliner made its unexpected and as yet unexplained turn to the west," Goyer wrote. The first obvious clue is that the airplane flew for many hours.

What do the satellite images show?

Two indistinct objects, one about 79 feet (24 meters) in length and the other about 16 feet (5 meters) long. Though they don't look like much to the untrained observer, Australian intelligence imagery experts who looked at the pictures saw enough to pass them along to the maritime safety agency, Young said. "Those who are expert indicate they are credible sightings. And the indication to me is of objects that are reasonable size and are probably awash with water, bobbing up and down out of the surface," he said.

How old are the images?

They were taken by commercial satellite imaging company DigitalGlobe on Sunday.

Why did we first hear about them on Thursday, then?

Basically, the Australians say, it's because the Indian Ocean is a very big place. The maritime safety authority said it took four days for the images to reach it "due to the volume of imagery being searched and the detailed process of analysis that followed."

Who is running the search?

The Australians are in charge of the search in their area of responsibility, which includes a large area of the southern Indian Ocean off Australia's west coast. Malaysia remains in overall control of the search.

How did they know to look in this area?

Investigators analyzing satellite pings sent by the plane concluded it was traveling along one of two arcs away from the Malay Peninsula. U.S. officials have said they believe the plane most likely traveled south and crashed into the Indian Ocean.

Searchers narrowed the area of interest by calculating the most likely locations based on time in the air, fuel usage and other factors.

It's already been 14 days. Are we running out of time to find this plane?

The locator beacons attached to flight data recorders are designed to ping for at least 30 days, but will probably keep going at full strength up to five days longer, said Anish Patel, president of Dukane Seacom Inc., the Florida company that believes it made Flight 370's beacons.

"Our predictive models and lab tests show 33-35 days of output before we drop below the minimal values," Patel told CNN. "Depending on the age of the battery, it could continue pinging for a few days longer."

Pinging is one thing. Finding the pings is another.

Not only is the area being searched vast, it is deep -- up to 13,000 feet in many places. Given that the pingers can be detected from no more than about two miles away, they could be hard to hear if they're on the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean.

Layers of different water temperatures could also make it tough to pick up the sound of the beacons, experts say.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
What was up with pilot's call, and were batteries aboard the plane dangerous?
Day 2 of search in remote Indian Ocean ends with no sign of objects seen by satellite
Australian officials have said the objects could be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Attachments:

No one has been able to answer a simple question: because the plane contains multiple beacons that would be triggered in case of any crash into sea or land, and these have NOT been sending signals--Why are we presuming it crashed?
The facts are: the plane deviated from course. That course change happened before the co-pilot radio'ed his goodnight. Someone with knowledge/skills then deactivated the tracking systems, and flew it on a new course. Signals from the engines continued for about 6 hours. Then stopped.

I would say that the evidence points to someone hijacking the plane and flying it to a landingstrip somewhere.

As for why no passengers used their cell phones: either they landed where there was no mobile service, or the phones were all confiscated, or the passengers were all killed.

Malaysian authorities have now expanded the search area to the entire known Universe and have asked the Vulcans and Romulans for help.

Romulan Authorities reported today, that there were no signs of any debris in the Neutral Zone.
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If they don't find it conspiracy theories will be through the roof. Fox is saying terrorists have a stealth nuclear payload in route. Nonsense. The Israeli Ambassador shamelessly comes on TV and throws out victim hood projections about how they are on high alert. As though they are not capable of detecting a 777 without an active transponder code.

It's one thing that there will be conspiracy. It's another where major news organizations or governments are using this event to instill fear in people for their own agendas.

Although Malaysia wasn't getting a lot of attention before, I do have to say that their politicians, make ours seem less inept than they are.

I can get on the Internet and find the location of my cell phone to within 20' feet. Companies low-jack trucks all the time. You would think they would have the technology in place to track and find a $300 million dollar airplane that carries 300 people.

This is really sad for the people that have friends or family missing.

The sad thing is the plane has all the equipment it needs, it even has a satellite data connection. It's just not utilized in that manner which is stupid.

Tough One Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Although Malaysia wasn't getting a lot of
> attention before, I do have to say that their
> politicians, make ours seem less inept than they
> are.

Seems unlikely they could find their ass, much less a plane.

One man's quiet reckoning on Flight 370: Wife's 'goodness counts for something'
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/world/flight-370-family-missing-india/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- Malaysia Airlines offered to fly K.S. Narendran to Kuala Lumpur after Flight 370 vanished almost two weeks ago. His wife, Chandrika Sharma, was one of 239 people aboard the passenger jet.

But Narendran declined. He didn't see any point to leaving India when there was no information. He preferred to stay at home in the south Indian city of Chennai, surrounded by family and friends.

Each one of us has a different way of coping with tragedy. Others who had relatives on Flight 370 have publicly expressed anger and frustration as the days have marched on with few clues about what happened to Flight 370. Two mothers wailed at a press briefing room in Kuala Lumpur; their grief echoed around the world on television sets and on the Internet.

Narendran, a human resources consultant, closed himself off to all that. He didn't watch the news or follow it on his computer. Quietly at home, he put in words some of what was in his heart. The result was a note for friends and family with whom he was unable to stay in touch personally through his ordeal.

I asked him if he'd share what he'd written with CNN. He agreed.

His wife left Chennai on the morning of March 7. The executive secretary of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers was on her way to Mongolia for a United Nations conference. She was to return by the 15th.

Narendran is still waiting for her to come home. He is still waiting, as he says, "for the wheels of invisible diplomacy and intelligence work, and the military might of countries to come together in complementing ways to outwit and overcome sinister minds, if indeed that is what is at work."

In his note, he said:

If one were not directly and personally involved, one could have marveled at evil genius that authored a plot such as this, and the craft and research that supported it. Presently, it only brings to the fore how little we actually know, how vulnerable we are, and the things we take for granted about people, places, and things.

He knew people must be wondering how he deals with each day.

As individuals, we can do very little. We wait patiently. With every passing day and each fragment of information that comes in, we revise the narrative strung together, and articulate the new set of perplexing and urgent questions that inevitably come up. My friends and family mostly do this for me, leaving me to take stock at the day's end in what seems like a 45-minute feature of "Face the Facts."

He wrote that he did watch the press conferences on the missing plane. But those, he said, have been short in detail.

For now, I remain open to news that point to clear, incontrovertible evidence of what happened, and actions taken or afoot that can bring the whole incident to a satisfactory close. What is priority is information that is a step closer to bringing Chandrika back, and for us to plan our next steps to redesign our life from here on.

He said his daughter Meghna is evaluating how she might be able to return to college, how she might rebuild a daily routine and manage her anxiety and longing for her mother.

His wife's mother remains confident of her daughter's return. Narendran's mother is strong and steadfast in her faith. For his part, he said, he is not a believer of miracles.

Miracles, he said, is a way of making sense of what apparently does not make sense; of what is not understood or what seems improbable.

I remain focused on what we have at hand by way of information, and stay with the knowledge that Chandrika is strong and courageous, that her goodness must count for something, somewhere. I carry firmly the faith that the forces of life are eternal, immutable and ever present to keep the drama ever moving. In the ultimate analysis, I am neither favored nor deserted. No one is.

He said he has drawn strength from his recent experience with Vipassana, an ancient technique of meditation in India. Vipassana means to see things as they really are.

The essential message of transience and impermanence has lent perspective, he said. The practice of being in the "present," however difficult, he said, has helped him manage "the menace of an overworked imagination."

As family, we are not given to histrionics/theatrics. We suffer, we agonize, we tether on the edge, but seldom allow ourselves to be overwhelmed. I don't say this with any sense of self-congratulation or offer it as recommendation. I am merely saying this for those who know us from a distance or fleetingly.

Narendran ended his note by saying he felt comforted, energized and renewed by the messages of fondness, solidarity, prayer and hope that he has received from well-wishers around the world.

I told him the families and loved ones of the other passengers would find the same in his words.

It was important, he said to me on the phone, to keep the pressure on authorities to discover the truth about what happened to Flight 370. It was also important, he said, to keep calm.

Many of us know uncertainty can be a wretched foe. Not knowing the littlest things keep us on edge during the day and awake at night. I admired Narendran for his quiet strength in his hour of turmoil. I hoped for him the very best outcome, though with each day, that hope was surely fading.
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Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could spur air safety changes
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/21/world/asia/airplane-safety-changes/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- Cameras in the cockpit. Real-time streaming of communications and flight information. Increased capacity flight data and voice recorders. Transponders that detach on impact and float.

Once the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is solved, there are changes in air safety that might result from the lessons of the disappearance of a jumbo jetliner in the age of instant communications.

The technologies -- each of which has its supporters and its detractors -- come into question as the search for Flight 370 enters its third week. Here's a look at some possible technological changes:

Camera images beamed from cockpit to ground

Investigators would be able to see and hear all that transpires in the cockpit.

Former American Airlines pilot Mark Weiss and other experts agree that images could prove highly important during investigations.

The National Transportation Safety Board has for years campaigned for cockpit video, arguing that images would have helped it solve what happened in crashes like that of EgyptAir 990 in 1999, which the agency concluded was a deliberate act by the co-pilot. A camera would have clarified who was in the cockpit and what was happening.

Opponents, however, are not ready to welcome Big Brother in the sky. Many pilots -- and unions that represents them -- worry about an invasion of privacy.

"Years ago there was an American Airlines flight that took off out of Chicago and an engine came off the wing, and that airplane went right into the ground," Weiss told CNN. "They had a camera on that airplane, and people were able to see inside the airplane exactly what was happening to them."

Union officials have said that having a camera monitor what pilots do would affect their ability to perform.

Longer life for batteries powering locator beacons

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is two weeks old. That means it's near the halfway mark in the minimum battery life for the pinging beacon device on flight recorders.

When the expected battery life runs out, possibly around April 6, the job of finding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- to which the beacons are attached -- will get significantly harder

And, thereby, so will the job of solving the mystery of Flight 370.

Every commercial airplane is required to have pingers -- technically called underwater locator beacons -- to help locate lost aircraft. One is attached to the flight data recorder; another to the cockpit voice recorder.

The depletion of a device's battery will not wipe out data, however. Data has been known to survive years on modern recorders in harsh sea water conditions.

The battery life on the beacons has been a hot subject since the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009. The flight was carrying 228 people when it disappeared from radar between South America and Africa en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. It took two years to find the aircraft's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder in oceanic mountainous terrain under 13,000 feet of water.

The battery died before searchers could locate the wreckage. Since then, regulators and the airline industry have undertaken efforts to increase the beacon battery life from 30 to 90 days. There are also efforts to require pingers to be attached to aircraft airframes, making it easier to locate wreckage.

The next-generation pingers emit pings that can be heard 6 to 10 miles away, said Anish Patel, president of beacon manufacturer Dukane Seacom Inc.

Uplinking information from plane to satellite before a crash

The Air France crash spurred U.S. aviation safety officials to look into uplinking critical flight data to orbiting satellites from airplanes flying across oceans.

Today, flight data recorders use computer chips to record information about how the plane is working in flight. The cockpit voice recorder captures audio from crew members including pilots.

But all that data could be uncollected if the plane crashes in a large body of water. Then, the devices can't be retrieved without help from special recovery teams.

The National Transportation Safety Board had been researching a new system that would uplink airplane data about a plane's location, direction, equipment functions and about 30 other parameters to orbiting satellites, which would then beam the data back to the ground for storage.

In the event of a crash, that data could be easily accessed and analyzed for clues.

Such a system would be pricey but advocates contend that it could save millions of dollars in operations to recover onboard flight data devices when a crash occurs. Searching for the Air France devices and aircraft wreckage cost $40 million, according to a report by France's aviation investigation agency, the Bureau d'Enquetes et Analyses.

But critics cite potential reasons why in-flight data uplinks might not work, including high costs, limited bandwidth, security concerns, privacy issues, and cumbersome aviation bureaucracies.

In fact, two powerful government bureaucracies with oversight of the U.S. aviation industry -- the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration -- disagree about the promise of in-flight uplinks.

Real-time streaming of flight information

In the age of Netflix streaming and trans-Atlantic Wi-Fi on flights, why can't aircraft-in-flight data come in real time?

Canadian company Flyht Aerospace Solutions says it can. The company makes the Automated Flight Information System, or AFIRS, which automatically monitors data such as location, altitude, and performance.

The data can be live-streamed when something goes wrong. The technology would have answered many questions about Flight 370, according to Flyht director Richard Hayden.

"We would know where the aircraft has gone, where it is, and we would have information on what had happened in the meantime," he said.

On a normal flight, the system would send updates every five to 10 minutes. And it could be programmed to recognize when something is wrong, such as a deviation in flight path, to automatically begin streaming second-by-second data.

The main objection has been cost, but Hayden said AFIRS is designed to save carriers money.

"A typical installation would be under $100,000 including the box and the installation parts and the labor," said Hayden. "Normally our customers recover that expense in a matter of months to, at most, a couple of years by virtue of the savings it creates." Those savings come from troubleshooting mechanical problems while the plane is in the air, he said, as well as collecting data that can help cut fuels costs.

Former Inspector General of the Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo doesn't believe carriers will get on board.

"(Airlines are) very cost sensitive," she said. "They simply will not add additional safety measures unless mandated by the federal government."

Increased capacity for data and voice recorders

Today's recorders are better than recorders of the past, when data was recorded on magnetic tape. But they fall short of current technical potential.

Voice recorders, for instance, have only two hours of recording capacity. Since Flight 370 flew almost seven hours beyond the point where something went terribly wrong, it's almost guaranteed that crucial cockpit sounds have been erased.

Cockpit voice recorders memorialize pilot's words -- from the inconsequential to the tragic. In 1999, a voice recorder captured the last words of the startled captain of EgyptAir 990 as he fought to maintain control of his plane. The cockpit voice recorder helped establish that the pilot was trying to pull the plane out if a dive while his co-pilot, investigators determined, flew it into the ocean.

Voice recorders also record clicks and hums -- sounds that can reveal pilot's actions.

Flight data recorders capture a wide array of data, including altitudes, air speeds, headings, engine temperatures, flap and rudder positions.

And the types of data recording is growing as technology advances, a National Transportation Safety Board official said.

"We see recorders that come in for the newer aircraft of at least a few hundred (types of data) if not more than 1,000," the official said.

They must record the previous 36 hours of operations.

Pilots, however, don't like being recorded -- via audio or video. "It's their work environment," said Peter Goelz, a CNN aviation analyst and former NTSB managing director. "They believe that the voice recorders intrude on their work environment."

Two hours of voice recording capacity is not adequate, he said. "It should be the last 24 hours," Goelz said told CNN. "There is no reason in the world now not to have data recorders digitally recording in 24-hour time."

Some have suggested designing flight data and voice recorders that detach from the plane on impact or shortly before impact. The transponders would then float.
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What is really needed is battery backed up GPS put into another
indestructible black box that will communicate to a satellite even
after a possible plane crash.

This GPS should be out of reach from the pilots and placed under or
rear-end of the plane by the ground crew before take off and can be
removed only by the ground crew after landing.

This GPS will use the existing electrical system of the aircraft as
long as there is power and in the event of power failure use its own
battery. In case of a crash it is a black box and so will survive and
inform the satellite as to where it is.

Also it completely out of reach of the pilots and passengers and so no one can tamper with it.

Apparently the Chinese think they've found it.... Again.

China says it has spotted possible debris in satellite images - Malaysian minister
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/mh370-china-satellite-sees-new-possible-debris-malaysia-n59396

The Chinese government has spotted possible debris in a satellite image of the southern search corridor and is sending ships to investigate, Malaysia’s transport minister said Saturday.

An object measuring 22 meters by 13 meters [72 feet by 42 feet] was seen by a Chinese satellite, Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters at the daily news briefing in Kuala Lumpur on the two-week-long search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Local reports in China said the satellite images showed the object about 74 miles southwest of the possible debris that was revealed by Australian authorities on Thursday. The China satellite image was taken on Tuesday, while the images from Australia were taken on Sunday.

China was sending ships to the area to investigate and would be giving more information later, Hishamuddin said.

The development was revealed in a dramatic fashion at the end of an otherwise routine media briefing, when Hishamuddin was passed a note by an official. “All I know is what is in this note,” he said, holding up the scrap of paper.

Chinese state television posted a picture on Twitter of a satellite image that it said showed the object. The image could not immediately be verified by NBC News.

Chinese online news site, PeopleNet, says the object was found south latitude 44.57 degrees, east longitude 90.13 degress, quoting the the State Science and Technology Industry Commission for National Defense which controls China's satellites.

The development came as the third day of air and sea search 1,4000 miles southwest off Perth, Australia ended without success.

Searches by more than two dozen countries have so far turned up little but frustration and fresh questions about Flight MH370.
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Could the Chinese possibly pixelate the picture any more? We get it, you dont want us to know the resolution of your satellites but we know you wouldnt have spent billions for resolution like that and we know what resolution you're probably working with.

Can anyone catch this debris digital globe sat so we can get a better understanding of its shape?

Angry Families Accuse Malaysia of 'Concealing' Truth About MH370
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/angry-families-accuse-malaysia-concealing-truth-about-mh370-n59496

Emotions boiled over in China on Saturday as families of missing passengers shouted angrily at Malaysian officials and accused them of “delaying, concealing and cheating” over the investigation into Flight 370.

“We want to know what happened, what the reality is!” a relative yelled in English at the delegation, which included Malaysia’s ambassador to China, Datuk Iskandar Sarudin.

Impatience turned to anger when the officials ended their daily briefing in the ballroom of Beijing’s Lido Hotel without taking any questions.

“You can’t go! You can’t leave here!” shouted the family member. “We are here waiting for you 14 days! We are not here only to listen to you!”
Others shouted in Mandarin as the officials tried to leave the room.

"The family members are extremely indignant," read a statement issued by the relatives afterwards, according to The Associated Press. "We believe we have been strung along, kept in the dark and lied to by the Malaysian government. All of the families agree that the Malaysian government has been delaying, concealing and cheating on us."

The statement said the Malaysians had “disregarded the life of the passengers,” adding: “They have been fooling the families and the people of the whole world.”

More than two-thirds of those on board the missing Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 are Chinese.

A handful of their relatives have traveled to Kuala Lumpur, but the majority remains in Beijing where they have repeatedly accused Malaysia of withholding information.

“I still believe they are continuing to hide crucial information," a man in his 40s who gave his family name as Yang told NBC News on Friday.

Nan Jinyan, sister-in-law of 29-year-old missing passenger Yan Ling, told The Associated Press she was deeply unhappy with what she called the vague and often contradictory information coming from Malaysia Airlines. "If they can't offer something firm, they ought to just shut up," she said.

Volunteer psychologist Paul Yin, who has worked with some of the relatives, said not knowing the fate of their loved ones was preventing them from confronting their grief. "When there is uncertainty for several days, people go from hope to despair, and back again, making it impossible to bring final healing," Yin told the AP.
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It's disgusting in the 21st century to lose an entire airplane with over 200 people for so long. Real-time live feed of every condition, status, measurements, location of aircraft should be available to all surrounding civil and military airports/satellites.

It's very likely that military equipment or satellites from either US, China, UK or Russia know where the plane has crashed from the beginning but they won't reveal it to hide their assets in that region.

I know right? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's disgusting in the 21st century to lose an
> entire airplane with over 200 people for so long.

You are stupid and a perfect example of why this century will fail under the weight of its own narcissistic stupidity.

You are a childish idiot who expects instant gratification. We do not monitor every square inch of the planet, you fucking idiot.



Small object.

Big ocean.

Oh, and in case you didn't know... planes sink. Relatively quickly.



Did you not that I wrote, "big ocean?" I really meant "big fucking ocean."

Have you ever been on an ocean?

On a boat or ship in the middle of an ocean?

Have you ever been on an SAR flight? Over land? Or over water? Even when your target is confined to a relatively small and known area, it can be really fucking difficult to find anything.

Did I mention that you are a childish idiot who expects instant gratification. We do not monitor every square inch of the planet, you fucking idiot.

Now go sit in the corner and be ashamed.

Fucking idiot. Your ignorance is disgusting.

Sorta obvious, but made me laugh...
Attachments:

3mevc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know right? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It's disgusting in the 21st century to lose an
> > entire airplane with over 200 people for so
> long.
>
> You are stupid and a perfect example of why this
> century will fail under the weight of its own
> narcissistic stupidity.
>
> You are a childish idiot who expects instant
> gratification. We do not monitor every square inch
> of the planet, you fucking idiot.
>
>
>
> Small object.
>
> Big ocean.
>
> Oh, and in case you didn't know... planes sink.
> Relatively quickly.
>
>
>
> Did you not that I wrote, "big ocean?" I really
> meant "big fucking ocean."
>
> Have you ever been on an ocean?
>
> On a boat or ship in the middle of an ocean?
>
> Have you ever been on an SAR flight? Over land? Or
> over water? Even when your target is confined to a
> relatively small and known area, it can be really
> fucking difficult to find anything.
>
> Did I mention that you are a childish idiot who
> expects instant gratification. We do not monitor
> every square inch of the planet, you fucking
> idiot.
>
> Now go sit in the corner and be ashamed.
>
> Fucking idiot. Your ignorance is disgusting.

3mevc: You're being way too kind here. The post you're responding to is beyond stupid. The scariest part: there are lots of people who think that way.

Greybeard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 3mevc Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I know right? Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > It's disgusting in the 21st century to lose
> an
> > > entire airplane with over 200 people for so
> > long.
> >
> > You are stupid and a perfect example of why
> this
> > century will fail under the weight of its own
> > narcissistic stupidity.
> >
> > You are a childish idiot who expects instant
> > gratification. We do not monitor every square
> inch
> > of the planet, you fucking idiot.
> >
> >
> >
> > Small object.
> >
> > Big ocean.
> >
> > Oh, and in case you didn't know... planes sink.
> > Relatively quickly.
> >
> >
> >
> > Did you not that I wrote, "big ocean?" I really
> > meant "big fucking ocean."
> >
> > Have you ever been on an ocean?
> >
> > On a boat or ship in the middle of an ocean?
> >
> > Have you ever been on an SAR flight? Over land?
> Or
> > over water? Even when your target is confined to
> a
> > relatively small and known area, it can be
> really
> > fucking difficult to find anything.
> >
> > Did I mention that you are a childish idiot who
> > expects instant gratification. We do not
> monitor
> > every square inch of the planet, you fucking
> > idiot.
> >
> > Now go sit in the corner and be ashamed.
> >
> > Fucking idiot. Your ignorance is disgusting.
>
> 3mevc: You're being way too kind here. The post
> you're responding to is beyond stupid. The
> scariest part: there are lots of people who think
> that way.

You're both idiots if you think it's alright to let something as big as a 777 just drop off the face of the earth with 300 people on it. Technology is the answer here to resolving these issues.

asdfdasafdasdf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Greybeard Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 3mevc Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I know right? Wrote:
> > >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > > -----
> > > > It's disgusting in the 21st century to lose
> > an
> > > > entire airplane with over 200 people for so
> > > long.
> > >
> > > You are stupid and a perfect example of why
> > this
> > > century will fail under the weight of its own
> > > narcissistic stupidity.
> > >
> > > You are a childish idiot who expects instant
> > > gratification. We do not monitor every square
> > inch
> > > of the planet, you fucking idiot.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Small object.
> > >
> > > Big ocean.
> > >
> > > Oh, and in case you didn't know... planes
> sink.
> > > Relatively quickly.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Did you not that I wrote, "big ocean?" I
> really
> > > meant "big fucking ocean."
> > >
> > > Have you ever been on an ocean?
> > >
> > > On a boat or ship in the middle of an ocean?
> > >
> > > Have you ever been on an SAR flight? Over
> land?
> > Or
> > > over water? Even when your target is confined
> to
> > a
> > > relatively small and known area, it can be
> > really
> > > fucking difficult to find anything.
> > >
> > > Did I mention that you are a childish idiot
> who
> > > expects instant gratification. We do not
> > monitor
> > > every square inch of the planet, you fucking
> > > idiot.
> > >
> > > Now go sit in the corner and be ashamed.
> > >
> > > Fucking idiot. Your ignorance is disgusting.
> >
> > 3mevc: You're being way too kind here. The post
> > you're responding to is beyond stupid. The
> > scariest part: there are lots of people who
> think
> > that way.
>
> You're both idiots if you think it's alright to
> let something as big as a 777 just drop off the
> face of the earth with 300 people on it.
> Technology is the answer here to resolving these
> issues.

Have we sent any search teams over there? I feel like we (the US) would have found it by now... But I'm obviously biased.

Still a lot of area to search, but all they have to do is get within a fairly close proximity to pick up the signals from the black box. Problem is, the water there can be pretty deep.

Satellite images from France aid in search for missing Malaysian airliner
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/23/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/

(CNN) -- Now a third set of satellite images point to possible debris in the southern Indian Ocean, where an international team led by Australia is scouring the waters for remnants of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

French authorities passed on images showing "potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor" of the search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Malaysia's acting transportation minister said Sunday.

"Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue coordination center," Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Satellite images issued by Australian and Chinese authorities have previously pointed to possible large floating objects, stoking hopes searchers may find debris.

The added images from France were coupled with the addition of new planes that have joined the search.

On Sunday, eight airplanes flew over the southern Indian Ocean searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, said Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Andrea Hayward-Maher.

That's two planes more than Saturday and the most aircraft involved in the search lead by Australia so far, she said.

Two more planes that have arrived in Australia from China will join the search on Monday. Two Japanese planes in Australia are also readying to participate, Hishammuddin said.

Sunday's search was a visual search, AMSA rescue spokesman Mike Barton told reporters. Eyes will take precedence over radar.

The planes will base their movements on Chinese satellite images of debris and drift modeling, the AMSA said.

On Saturday, searchers found a wooden pallet as well as strapping belts, AMSA's John Young said. The use of wooden pallets is common in the airline industry.

"It's a possible lead...but pallets are used in the shipping industry as well." he said Sunday. Authorities have said random debris is often found in the ocean.

The Sunday search has been split into two areas that cover 59,000 square kilometers (22,800 square miles) about 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) southwest of Perth.

Only one ship, the HMAS Success, an Australian naval vessel, will be involved in the Sunday search, Barton said. A Norwegian merchant ship previously involved was released in anticipation of rough weather.

The flying distance to and from the search area presents a big challenge for search aircraft. "They're operating at the limits of their endurance," Barton said. The distance is forcing searchers spread the search out over several days.

Hope, only hope

One official, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, voiced hope.

"We have now had a number of very credible leads, and there is increasing hope -- no more than hope, no more than hope -- that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft," Abbott said at a press conference.

In one of the great aviation mysteries in history, the airliner carrying 239 people disappeared March 8 after it took off from Kuala Lumpur on a flight to Beijing, China. An exhaustive search covering 2.97 million square miles -- nearly the size of the continental United States -- has yielded some clues, but no evidence of where the Boeing 777 is or what happened to it.

The international search for the missing aircraft resumed early Sunday near Perth, with a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon rejoining the effort, according to a naval spokesman.

Planes from the United States, New Zealand, Australia and China will be flying. All the planes were airborne by 2:30 a.m. ET, the AMSA reported.

NASA satellites to be employed

The P-8 Posideon, grounded for two days to give its crew rest, will likely refocus on an area highlighted in Chinese satellite images of a large object floating in the area. The object the Chinese satellite photographed is 22.5 meters long and 13 meters wide (74 feet by 43 feet), officials said.

But Australian-led search teams in the southern Indian Ocean found no sign of it Saturday.

As a result of the satellite sighting, plans are underway to acquire more imagery within the next few days, NASA said Saturday.

The space agency said it will check archives of satellite data and use space-based assets such as the Earth-Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite and the ISERV camera on the International Space Station to scour for possible crash sites. The resolution of these images could be used to identify objects of about 98 feet (30 meters) or larger.

The floating object reported in the Chinese satellite images was about 77 miles from where earlier satellite images issued by Australia spotted floating debris.

During Saturday's search, a civil aircraft reported sighting with the naked eye some small objects floating, including the wooden pallet, AMSA said. These objects were within a radius of 5 kilometers (3 miles).

A New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion reported seeing clumps of seaweed, AMSA said.

Debris is a common sight in that part of the ocean and includes containers that fall off ships.

Countries from central Asia to Australia are also engaged in the search along an arc drawn by authorities based on satellite pings received from the plane hours after it vanished. One arc tracks the southern Indian Ocean zone that's the focus of current attention.

The other arc tracks over parts of Cambodia, Laos, China and into Kazakhstan.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Images show "potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor"
Sunday searches are more visual and less technical
Wooden pallet on Saturday could be lead from plane but is also commonly used on ships
Number of planes searching grows

Watch the news video here:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/23/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/
Attachments:

asdfasdfasfdads Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Still a lot of area to search, but all they have
> to do is get within a fairly close proximity to
> pick up the signals from the black box. Problem
> is, the water there can be pretty deep.


Well yeah but you'd think there would be a debris field. Clearly we just haven't located it yet.

thisisajokeright Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Well yeah but you'd think there would be a debris
> field. Clearly we just haven't located it yet.

You are so smart. No one would have possibly thought of this if it weren't for you. No wonder only a beaner would have you.

thisisajokeright Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> asdfasdfasfdads Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Still a lot of area to search, but all they
> have
> > to do is get within a fairly close proximity to
> > pick up the signals from the black box. Problem
> > is, the water there can be pretty deep.
>
>
> Well yeah but you'd think there would be a debris
> field. Clearly we just haven't located it yet.

It's been two weeks, so there's been too much time for that debris to sink or to be moved away by the current & the winds. I did hear that the authorities in several companies, including the US, are studying that data in hopes of trying to find the spot. I can't imagine what it must be like for those families.

Landing Strips and timeline...
Attachments:

YerSoSmart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> thisisajokeright Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Well yeah but you'd think there would be a
> debris
> > field. Clearly we just haven't located it yet.
>
> You are so smart. No one would have possibly
> thought of this if it weren't for you. No wonder
> only a beaner would have you.

Lol! I know, I immediately regretted posting it.

About the 45k to 23k drop -- do we know for a fact it got that high and abruptly dropped?

thisisajokeright Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> About the 45k to 23k drop -- do we know for a fact
> it got that high and abruptly dropped?

Yes

Meanwhile deep in the ocean onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370...
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Out of sheer coincidence, William Shatner's "Horror at 37,000 feet" has just come out on DVD...

http://www.1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewsh-m/horrorat37000feet.htm
Attachments:

CNN is now reporting that military radar has determined that the plane dropped rapidly to 12,000 feet at the time it made the sharp left turn. This lends credence to the idea that there was a catastrophic event causing decompression with a rapid dive to restore oxygen. We shall see.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Do new accounts debunk cockpit foul play theory?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/23/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- As a growing number of airplanes scoured the southern Indian Ocean in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, authorities released new details Sunday that paint a different picture of what may have happened in the plane's cockpit.

Military radar tracking shows that the aircraft changed altitude after making a sharp turn over the South China Sea as it headed toward the Strait of Malacca, a source close to the investigation into the missing flight told CNN. The plane flew as low as 12,000 feet at some point before it disappeared from radar, according to the source.

The sharp turn seemed to be intentional, the source said, because it would have taken the Boeing 777 two minutes to execute it, a notable time period for anyone on board to notice.

The official, who is not authorized to speak to the media, told CNN that the area the plane flew in after the turn is a heavily trafficked air corridor and that flying at 12,000 feet would have kept the jet well out of the way of that traffic.

Earlier Sunday, Malaysian authorities said the last transmission from the missing aircraft's reporting system showed it heading to Beijing -- a revelation that appears to undercut the theory that someone reprogrammed the plane's flight path before the co-pilot signed off with air-traffic controllers for the last time.

That reduces, but doesn't rule out, suspicions about foul play in the cockpit.

The new details give more insight about what happened on the plane, but don't explain why the plane went missing or where it could be.

Analysts are divided about what the latest clues about what happened aboard the plane could mean. Some argue the new information is a sign that mechanical failure sent the plane suddenly off course. Others say there are still too many unknowns to eliminate any possibilities.

CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien called the fresh information about the flight a "game changer."

"Now we have no evidence the crew did anything wrong," he said. "And in fact, now, we should be operating with the primary assumption being that something bad happened to that plane shortly after they said good night."

If a crisis on board caused the plane to lose pressure, he said, pilots could have chosen to deliberately fly lower.

"It's called a high dive, and you go as quickly as you can down that to that altitude," he said.

As speculation over what led to the flight's disappearance showed no signs of slowing, investigators appeared to be beefing up their efforts to comb the southern Indian Ocean.

Buoyed by a third set of satellite data that indicated possible debris from the plane in the water, the international team led by Australia fought bad weather as it looked for signs of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people who were aboard when the plane went missing on March 8.

Four more jets -- two from China and two from Japan -- are set to join the reconnaissance team on Monday, authorities said.

France's Foreign Ministry said Sunday that radar data from a satellite pointed to floating debris in the Indian Ocean 2,300 kilometers (1,430 miles) from Perth, Australia. The data were immediately passed along to Malaysian authorities, and French satellite resources will home in more on the area, the ministry said.

Satellite images previously issued by Australian and Chinese authorities have also captured possible large floating objects, stoking hopes searchers may find debris from the missing plane.

But so far, searchers have turned up empty-handed after more than two weeks of scouring land and sea.

Challenging search

Eight aircraft and one ship conducted Sunday's search, and there were no sightings of significance, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.

On Saturday, searchers found a wooden pallet as well as strapping belts, AMSA's John Young said. The use of wooden pallets is common in the airline industry.

"It's a possible lead ... but pallets are used in the shipping industry as well," he said Sunday. Authorities have said random debris is often found in the ocean.

The Sunday search was split into two areas that cover 59,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles), about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth.

The flying distance to and from the search area presents a big challenge for search aircraft. "They're operating at the limits of their endurance," Barton said. The distance is forcing teams to spread the search out over multiple days.

Only one ship, an Australian naval vessel called HMAS Success, was involved in the Sunday search, Barton said. A Norwegian merchant ship previously involved was released in anticipation of rough weather.

Nothing but water, and questions

Was turn reprogrammed?

Malaysian officials, in a written update Sunday on the search, cast doubt on the theory that someone, perhaps a pilot, had reprogrammed the aircraft to make an unexpected left turn during the flight.

"The last ACARS transmission, sent at 1:07 a.m., showed nothing unusual. The 1:07 a.m. transmission showed a normal routing all the way to Beijing," it read.

The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System measures thousands of data points and sends the information via satellite to the airline, the engine manufacturer and other authorized parties, according to CNN aviation and airline correspondent Richard Quest.

Had the plane been reprogrammed to change course, the ACARS system should have reported it during its last communication at 1:07. The ACARS is supposed to report new information every 30 minutes, but it was silent at 1:37.

"It is important because it is more consistent (with an emergency). In other words, if the pilots had put in this waypoint that they were going to turn to and that they knew in advance of their last communication that they were going to turn, then everyone was (saying) that this had to be a premeditated act," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and a former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation. "Now if this information is correct, and it was not premeditated, then it does fit very closely with the scenario that, whatever happened, happened suddenly and they turned perhaps to go back to an emergency airport."

Hope, only hope

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott voiced hope that investigators could be closing in on an answer to questions that have dogged authorities for days: What happened to the plane, and where is it?

"We have now had a number of very credible leads, and there is increasing hope -- no more than hope, no more than hope -- that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft," Abbott said at a news conference.

In one of the great aviation mysteries in history, the airliner carrying 239 people disappeared March 8 after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on a flight to Beijing. An exhaustive search covering 2.97 million square miles -- nearly the size of the continental United States -- has yielded some clues but no evidence of where the Boeing 777 is or what happened to it.

Whole world listens for slowly fading pings

NASA satellites to be employed

A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon, one of the military's most sophisticated reconnaissance planes, on Sunday refocused on an area highlighted in Chinese satellite images of a large object floating in the southern Indian Ocean. The object the Chinese satellite photographed is estimated to be 22.5 meters long and 13 meters wide (74 feet by 43 feet), officials said.

The plane was forced to fly at an altitude of just 300 feet because of low cloud ceilings and poor visibility.

Conditions were terrible, said Lt. Cmdr. Adam Schantz, the officer in charge of P-8 operations in Perth.

Ocean search has many challenges

As a result of the satellite sighting, plans are under way to acquire more imagery within the next few days, NASA said Saturday.

The space agency said it will check the archives of satellite data and use space-based assets such as the Earth-Observing-1 satellite and the ISERV camera on the International Space Station to scour for possible crash sites. The resolution of these images could be used to identify objects of about 98 feet (30 meters) or larger.

The floating object reported in the Chinese satellite images was about 77 miles from where earlier satellite images issued by Australia spotted floating debris.

Countries from central Asia to Australia are also engaged in the search along an arc drawn by authorities based on satellite pings received from the plane hours after it vanished.

One arc tracks the southern Indian Ocean zone that's the focus of current attention. The other arc tracks over parts of Cambodia, Laos, China and into Kazakhstan.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
~NEW: Source: Plane changed altitude, flying as low as 12,000 feet after making short turn
~NEW: Analysts: New accounts of flight paint a different picture of what happened
~French satellite data show "potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor"
~Eight planes find nothing of significance during Sunday's search of 23,000 square miles

Watch the news story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/23/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Attachments:

Chinese plane spots possible jet debrisA crew spotted an object in an area identified by satellite imagery as containing possible debris from the missing Malaysian jet, Chinese media said Monday.

http://news.msn.com/world/chinese-plane-spots-object-in-indian-ocean

PERTH, Australia (AP) — A Chinese plane on Monday spotted two white, square-shaped objects in an area identified by satellite imagery as containing possible debris from the missing Malaysian airliner, while the United States separately prepared to send a specialized device that can locate black boxes.

The crew aboard an IL-76 plane sighted the object in the southern Indian Ocean and reported the coordinates to the Australian command center, which is coordinating the multinational search, as well as the Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon, which is en route to the area, China's Xinhua News Agency reported.

The spotters saw two larger floating objects and some smaller, white debris scattered over several square miles, the report said. It gave no other details.

Satellite images released by Australia and China had earlier identified possible debris in the area that may be linked to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on March 8 with 239 people aboard.

The U.S. Pacific command said it was sending a black box locator in case a debris field is located. The Towed Pinger Locator, which is pulled behind a vessel at slow speeds, has highly sensitive listening capability so that if the wreck site is located, it can hear the black box pinger down to a depth of about 20,000 feet, Cmdr. Chris Budde, a U.S. Seventh Fleet operations officer, said in a statement.

Gallery: Missing Malaysia Airlines jet

"This movement is simply a prudent effort to preposition equipment and trained personnel closer to the search area so that if debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box's pinger is limited," Budde said.

There was no sign the move was because of any break in the mystery of the plane that went missing March 8 with 239 people on board, but rather as a preparation.

The Chinese plane was one of two Ilyushins that joined the search Monday from Perth, increasing the number of aircraft to 10 from eight a day earlier.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the objects spotted Monday were "within today's search area and attempts will be made to relocate them."

Bad weather was threatening the search efforts in the area, about 1,550 miles southwest of Perth. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology reported increased winds, low cloud and a reduction in visibility on Monday. On Tuesday, a cold front was expected to move through the search area from the west, bringing showers, more low cloud and less visibility. Tropical Cyclone Gillian, which is further to the north, will not impact the area.

Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss said "nothing of note" was found Sunday, which he described as a "fruitless day."

"It's going to be a challenge, but we'll stick at it," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio before the first aircraft left Perth at dawn. "We're just, I guess, clutching at whatever little piece of information comes along to try and find a place where we might be able to concentrate the efforts."

The search was given added momentum when a French satellite detected potential debris on Sunday, after Australia and China earlier released satellite images identifying suspect objects.

Related: Malaysia Airlines jet in emergency landing in HK

Australian authorities had sent planes and a ship to try to locate a wooden pallet that was spotted on Saturday from a search plane, but the spotters were unable to take photos of it.

Wooden pallets are most commonly used by ships but are also used airplane cargo holds, and an official with Malaysia Airlines said Sunday night that the flight was, in fact, carrying wooden pallets. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with company policy.

In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said in an interview with The Associated Press that the satellite radar echoes "identified some debris that could be from the Malaysian Airlines plane."

The spokesman said that these echoes "are not images with a definition like a photograph, but they do allow us to identify the nature of an object and to localize it."

Reuters: CCTV

A still image taken from video on March 22, 2014, shows an image of an object spotted in the southern Indian Ocean by the Gaofen-1 high-resolution optical Earth observation satellite of the China National Space Administration.

Gathering satellite echo data involves sending a beam of energy to the Earth and then analyzing it when it bounces back, according to Joseph Bermudez Jr., chief analytics officer at AllSource Analysis, a commercial satellite intelligence firm.

Satellite radar echoes can be converted into an image that would look similar to a black-and-white photo, though not as clear, he said. "You'd have to know what you're looking at," Bermudez said.

A Malaysian official involved in the search said the French data located objects about 575 miles north of the spots where the objects in the images released by Australia and China were located.

One of the objects located was estimated to be about the same size as an object captured Tuesday by the Chinese satellite that appeared to be 72 feet by 43 feet, said the official, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

U.S. underwater wreck hunter David Mearns on Monday described the French satellite sighting of potential debris as a "positive development," although he was unaware of the full details.

Mearns was an adviser to British and French search authorities following the loss of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean during a flight from Brazil to Paris in 2009.

He warned that time was running out to find confirmed wreckage that could lead searchers back to the aircraft's black box.

Related: Relatives of jet's passengers struggle to cope

The southern Indian Ocean is thought to be a potential area to find the jet because Malaysian authorities have said pings sent by the Boeing 777-200 for several hours after it disappeared indicated that the plane ended up in one of two huge arcs: a northern corridor stretching from Malaysia to Central Asia, or a southern corridor that stretches toward Antarctica.

Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanation for what happened to the jet, but have said the evidence so far suggests it was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next.

Authorities are considering the possibilities of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or someone else on board.

In the U.S., Tony Blinken, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, said on CNN: "There is no prevailing theory."

"Publicly or privately, we don't know," he said. "We're chasing down every theory."
Attachments:

*yawn*

NBC4 reporting that the Malaysian PM is confirming the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean. He's putting a lot of stock into the circular and rectangular objects located overnight.

Malaysia's PM: Flight 370 crashed in southern Indian Ocean After more than two weeks of mystery & speculation, Najib Razak announced the Boeing 777's last position 'with sadness & deep regret.'

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/missing-mh370-ended-indian-ocean-malaysias-pm-says-n60221


New satellite data analysis has confirmed that missing Flight 370 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysia's prime minister told a news conference on Monday.

Najib Razak said flight data suggested the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777's "last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth, [Australia]."

He added: “This is a remote location, far from any possible landing site. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that according to this data the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

The prime minister said his conclusion was based on work by the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch and satellite firm Inmarsat, which had been "performing further calculations on the data, using a type of analysis, never before used in an investigation of this sort."


After more than two weeks of mystery and speculation, Najib's announcement was the first official confirmation of the fate of the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8.

“Malaysia Airlines have already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew to inform them of this development,” the prime minister added. “For them the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. I know this news must be harder still.”

"We accept the news of the tragedy. It is fate"

The families of Flight 370's passengers were sent text messages by the airline telling them that the plane had been "lost and that none of those aboard have survived."

Selamat Omar, the father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer who was on the flight, said some members of families of other passengers broke down in tears at the news. "We accept the news of the tragedy. It is fate," Selamat told The Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur.

Earlier, an Australian plane spotted an "orange rectangular object" and a "gray or green circular object" while searching for the aircraft, officials said. They were seen around 1,550 miles southwest of Perth, Australia.

Flight 370 disappeared from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board.

Attention and resources in the search for the Boeing 777 have shifted from an initial focus north of the equator to an increasingly narrowed stretch of rough sea, thousands of miles from the plane's original flight path.

A spokeswoman for Britain's Department for Transport refused to comment on the AAIB's involvement, saying it was a “live investigation” being led by the Malaysian authorities.

In a statement, Malaysia Airlines said that the "ongoing multinational search operation will continue, as we seek answers to the questions which remain."

Watch the news video here:
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/missing-mh370-ended-indian-ocean-malaysias-pm-says-n60221
Attachments:

thisisajokeright Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NBC4 reporting that the Malaysian PM is confirming
> the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean. He's
> putting a lot of stock into the circular and
> rectangular objects located overnight.

I'm sure at this point, he and his government want this whole incident over and done with. The scrutiny will continue though for years to come. You can bet the conspiracy theorists will be out in droves, but to be fair, they might be on to something here.

In e-mail to reporters, partner of Flight 370 passenger Philip Wood writes she has no closure because there's "no confirmed wreckage."
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/15/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-passenger-vignettes/index.html

asdfasdfasd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> thisisajokeright Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > NBC4 reporting that the Malaysian PM is
> confirming
> > the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean. He's
> > putting a lot of stock into the circular and
> > rectangular objects located overnight.
>
> I'm sure at this point, he and his government want
> this whole incident over and done with. The
> scrutiny will continue though for years to come.
> You can bet the conspiracy theorists will be out
> in droves, but to be fair, they might be on to
> something here.


Hi you! (if it IS you LOL)

I can't imagine how much money it's cost several nations to look for this plane. I sincerely hope they've found it because, 17 days later, I'm tired of hearing about it.