[breaking] Malaysian Airlines loses contact with Beijing-bound flight, 239 on board

Their cruising altitude of 35,000 feet would have been more than enough to wipe everybody out under that scenario. There would have been no need for the aircraft to climb in order to achieve this effect. And for what it's worth, it sounds like whoever was piloting this plane knew what he was doing and weather issues were seemingly minimal. That 777 could likely fly at 45,000 feet without issue (despite being above it's approved operational limit).

Overall, I just really wish I could trust a single thing the Malaysian government has told us up until this point.

I'm very curious to find out how sophisticated and advanced Malaysian radar systems are compared to ours and other major countries. Radar accuracy depends upon many factors (i.e. distance from target, how advanced the system is, how many stations are scanning the area, etc). And the fact that this plane almost assuredly flew over the Malay Peninsula (land), and the the BEST information the Malaysian government can provide are a couple of hard-to-believe altitude changes and headings; I find hard to believe.

Malaysian Airlines is state-owned. How, upon realizing this plane was hundreds of miles off-course and heading in the opposite direction of its filed flight plan, did the Malaysian Military not scramble fighter jets to at least check things out and provide escort?

 

Dude, your post is a ****ing joke. How in the world could you hope for an entire plane full of people who have sons,daughter, fathers, mothers, wives, and husbands to just perish and meet such a cruel death?

Despite the anonymity of the internet, I don't see how you can bring yourself to say something like this, it is quite troubling.

 

Judging by all of your post you must be like 11...

 

Are you new to the internetz?

 

What...you think even if he was being sarcastic or joking it was ok? Jesus Christ.

Oh yea, I iz so news to the ineternetz!

 

I don't know if it's been mentioned on this thread or not, but if this happened gradually, why didn't ANYONE onboard the plane try to text message or attempt a call to their friends or family?

 

Okay, I'm new here so not sure if this has been posted yet or not, but can any 'professional' person on this planet please tell me why no text messages or phone calls were made from any of those people on the plane during this occurrence? I mean, if the cabin was depressurized while they were going over the standard altitude, or the plane was going down "gradually", wouldn't there be some sort of communication from the passengers...trying to reach out to their friends and family? I'm boggled.

 

Domestic airlines fly over that route all the time, especially since all the attention was focused on the south china sea wouldn't it be possible for a plane to simply blend in with normal air traffic?

 

whoops I mean international.

 

For example the Singapore to Moscow flights fly along the same flight path.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SIA62/history/20140314/1830Z/WSSS/UUDD

 

I don't get it. If military radar was tracking these strange maneuvers, why did they not send out a fighter pilot to check it out. Were they like not watching their radar or seeing the alerts going off?

Something is weird with this news. The US military would have sent out a fighter immediately to get eyes on that plane, just like they did with Payne Stewart's plane.

 

I now believe this plane landed. For sure. And I think they know where it is. I think Singapore is embarrassed that one of their own pilots did this. I think there was something on that plane (money, gold, etc...) which they were sending to China that they don't want the rest of the world to know about. I think the people on board were killed via oxygen depravation. I think they landed that plane, took the valuables and ran off with the valuables. And there is a plane full of dead people sitting somewhere. All speculation of course.

This will be made into a movie.

 

also all the phones would've died by now right? unless somebody has a nokia that is still rattling around...

 

Yep Batteries Dead. Unless the pilot along with whomever was helping him took the people's iPhones and Wallet's as part of the heist.

 

Doesn't explain why military radar picked up the plane, but they apparently did not send out a fighter pilot to get eyes on it. They saw all those strange maneuvers, but did not send out a fighter escort? How incompetent is that...unless they did send out fighters

I'm thinking it got shot down, because it turned back for Kuala Lumpur with all those huge skyscrapers. They sent a fighter or two out to escort it. When it failed to comply, they shot it down on orders. They are arguing over whether and how to tell the true story or not.

 

nice graphic from BBC to summarise where the plane may be:

 

Why would Singapore be embarrassed?

Malaysia != Singapore.

 

The distance form last communication to last radar contact looks to be over 200 miles. I don't get it. Why did they not send out fighter pilots? Has there been any explanation for why they didn't scramble a fighter escort for a 777 that changed course and turned off their communications.

Oh, and what does "possible last known position" even mean?

 

I believe because Malaysia knew about 'last contact' (over the Gulf), but did not definitively know about 'last radar contact', since that was just radar picking up the plane, rather than the plane communicating with anybody. there was some information about Malaysia Airlines not being subscribed to the satellite information. A possible reason is that, at the time, they simply did not expect a plane that was supposed to have be nearing Hanoi to suddenly turn up over the Strait of Malacca instead. It's easy to connect the dots now, but at the time, they had no reason to suspect that some random radar data, signalling a plane over the Strait, to be MH370, when everybody was expecting it to have crashed in the Gulf.

 

I don't buy this.

If a 777 loses contact, alerts go out to immediately help find it. If military radar then picks up that plane, they will know what they are looking at. What else would be flying at 45,000 ft not talking to anyone?

Naval Radarman -- "hmmm, sergeant, I just found an unidentified plane flying at 45,000 ft."
Sergeant, "that's weird. Well, just keep an eye on it. Let me know if it does any unusual maneuvers."
Radarman: "Wow, it just dove down to 25,000 ft now."
Sergeant, "Well, planes do that sometimes if they hit bad turbulence. Just log it. No need to wake up anyone."