You probably have heard of this terrible news by now. There is a lot of speculation at present, and most of it has proven to be false over time, thus I thought to publish the link to the only official source of information from Malaysia Airlines.
Updated information from Malaysia Airlines is here:
MH370 Flight Incident Reply to this Four passengers on the manifest considered suspect.
I'm a bit of an armchair air disaster expert in my spare time.
I offer no speculation.
[Edited: 2014 Mar 09 16:36 - aspiringnomad:90 ]
Reply to this it is very very weird. hope they find the plane, and answers soon 😞
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Photo taken on March 13, 2014 shows "MH370, We Are Waiting for You Back Home" displayed on a skyscraper (on the far right) from the Bund, Shanghai.
Reply to this Everyone here in Malaysia is utterly mystified. There are vigils going on around the country, and I attended a travel fair in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and it was, of course, the subject of conversation there as well.
Reply to this This is truly a puzzle, and I'm hoping there are some answers n the not too distant future.
Reply to this It has been very interesting to see everything unfold here in Malaysia and to see the influence of social media.
Virtually every theory promoted via social media - the plane landed in Naning, a Vietnamese Air Force Official who supposedly said "the plane crashed into sea" (he actually said "the plane may have crashed into the sea"), oil slicks, wreckage, the motives of people with false passports, that a plane was heard to fly over the Maldives - has proved wrong. I included the link above since it is the only official source of information.
One should remember that a disappearing plane is not without precedence. A large aircraft that flew from Angola in 2003 has never been found:
The 727 that vanished. I offer none of the suspected reasons in that case to be related to the current one, except that a plane was never found.
Reply to this I asked several people I was interviewing over the weekend their theories and it seems that in China the parallel universe theory is quite commonplace.
Perhaps the most famous "disappearance" in aviation history was that of Flight 19, when five planes disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle in 1945.
Every year, authors, documentary writers and producers do research on Flight 19, including the History Channel, Travel Channel, Discovery, the National Geographic, Sci-Fi Channel, NBC and the BBC, as well as others.To this day none of those planes, or their crews, have been found.
Reply to this In response to: Msg #180035
Flight 19 is a very famous case, it is the one that most typifies the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. I remember seeing documentaries about it in the 1970s and reading stories in books at the same time. The fact that all five planes (and a sixth if you include a search aircraft) vanished is truly incredible.
People may need to prepare themselves for the possibility that MH370 will never be found. I sincerely hope that I'm wrong and that evidence is uncovered - somewhere.
Parallel universe - interesting that people would think that. But then again, people will reach for any theory in an attempt to explain a mystery.
Reply to this Since Tony Abbott has publicly announced planes have been scrambled to debris sited one would imagine this new development is more than mere speculation.
Reply to this Still speculation and not confirmed; as stated at the conference it was "possibly related". That was exactly what happened with the oil slicks a few days after the plane went missing - boats mobilised, but the slicks were from naval craft.
Let's wait to see what transpires, but we'll need to be patient until either the Australian or Malaysian authorities are able to confirm what those objects were. That will only occur once a boat arrives in the area, or unless some very identifiable objects are found floating in the interim.
Reply to this Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and relatives of the passengers on MH370 and appreciate the inportance of knowing what happened for closure.
Had dinner with a woman in her 80s last week whose brother and his wife went missing on a flight to Norfolk Island many years ago. No sign of the aircraft has ever been found. Her closure is only speculation of the inevitable by effluxion of time.
Let us hope the massive search for MH370 will provide answers to help the living.
Reply to this So sad to hear the latest news - thinking of all the passengers and crew's families and hope the media give them the privacy they will be needing at this time.
Reply to this This is the statement from the Malaysian Prime Minister overnight here in Malaysia:
"This evening I was briefed by representatives from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). They informed me that Inmarsat, the UK company that provided the satellite data which indicated the northern and southern corridors, has been performing further calculations on the data. Using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort, they have been able to shed more light on MH370’s flight path.
Based on their new analysis, Inmarsat and the AAIB have concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.
This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
We will be holding a press conference tomorrow with further details. In the meantime, we wanted to inform you of this new development at the earliest opportunity. We share this information out of a commitment to openness and respect for the families, two principles which have guided this investigation.
Malaysia Airlines have already spoken to the families of the passengers and crew to inform them of this development. For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking; I know this news must be harder still. I urge the media to respect their privacy, and to allow them the space they need at this difficult time."
Malaysia Airlines then released this statement shortly after:
"It is with deep sadness that Malaysia Airlines earlier this evening had to confirm to the families of those on board Flight MH370 that it must now be assumed the flight had been lost. As the Prime Minister said, respect for the families is essential at this difficult time."
The media has already incorrectly reported that the PM or Malaysia Airlines have said that there are no survivors. There will be a media briefing in a few hours, so we should receive more clarification.
Reply to this This was a comment left on Al Jazeera by a person called Andrew Karney. It is illuminating to read a detailed reason why this search has been difficult:
"I just watched your ex pilot from United Airways. He was asked about the time taken to position the Malaysian aircraft from the satellite pings. It was quite clear that he had no idea what he was talking about and made some very typically arrogant remarks about a super power needing to run the search operation. I would not expect a pilot to understand the details of the technology that the ACARS system uses especially when, as far as the pilot is concerned, is switched off.
I worked for a number of years for Inmarsat the satellite company based in the UK that picked up the pings and though it was a while ago have some understanding about how the system works. The system was never intended to be one for aircraft location but rather to receive information from the aircraft and engines (ACARS)when the system was switched on. However Inmarsat was able (very rapidly) to identify two corridors into which the aircraft might have flown and also said that the system was still powered up about 6.5 hours after it had apparently disappeared. This in itself was a remarkable feat and involved some very clever people doing some very clever work on timings and phase of the signals etc. As soon as they were reasonably sure of this Inmarsat passed this information to Malaysian Airways and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (an entirely proper thing to do).
Today these very clever people were able to do amazingly clever things and state that it was the end of the Southern Corridor where the last signal was received from. The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch immediately passed this to the Malaysian authorities. Do not underestimate how difficult this is and the level of mathematics involved.
No regular airline pilot would have any idea about all of this.
Please try and find people to interview who actually know their topic."
They used the Doppler effect and shift (timing and frequency) to determine the location of the pings. Incredible work.
Video here:
How British satellite company Inmarsat tracked down MH370
[Edited: 2014 Mar 25 02:20 - The Travel Camel:11053 ]
Reply to this Senor Andrew Karney's ad hominem attack on nameless ex United Airlines Pilot concluded that: "some very clever people doing some very clever work...were able to do amazingly clever things and state that it was the end of the Southern Corridor where the last signal was received from"
Seems now Australia has a "credible lead" they should begin searching 1,100 kilometres north-east of this previous zone.
The search continues.
Reply to this I'm Malaysian.. deeply touched with all your concern.. Thank you very much for the prayer and support ...
Reply to this In response to: Msg #181715
I was in Malaysia during the entire month of March so was able to see for myself the sadness it was causing the entire nation. Unsure what the mood is there now, but when I left people were starting to accept that it was a mystery that may never be solved. I sincerely hope evidence is found to bring closure as so far all leads have produced nothing.
Reply to this Latest news: debris has been found and conclusively identified:
http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/mh370
Full analysis:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26503141
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