Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Disappearance

Posted June 30, 2014 410 am CST

Another shift in the search for Malaysian Airlines.

Authorities now believe that MH370 flew on auto pilot before crashing to a remote part of the Indian Ocean. Because of that, the search for the aircraft and its passengers and crew will now be shifted to a different search area. Read more...

• Hunt for MH370 will be wider in scope, harder, deeper, broader, and pricier. 

Updates: March 25, 2014, Monday 18th Day

News conference in Australia:

Posted 12:05 am, CST Tuesday, March 25, 2014

• The Defense Minister of Australia and the military head of operations announced that due to the weather, the search will be halted until Wednesday. He stated: "we are not searching for the needle in the haystack, we are still looking for the haystack".
• The Chairman of Malaysia Airlines held a press conference and when asked why there was an announcement that the flight "ended" in the Indian Ocean, he explained that after the engineers studied the images and the IMARSAT, they concluded that the aircraft was not going away from the satellite, but going into the satellite, and after an old method of using trigonometric mathematical calculations, the engineers concluded that the South Indian Ocean is where the aircraft ended.
• Malaysia Airlines chairman stated that the relatives of each passenger will be given a caregiver, and $5,000.00. He also said that they "do not know what happened and how it happened, but we can only pray for the souls of those involved" and everything based on the engineers' analysis of the IMARSAT.
  

Updates: March 24, 2014, Monday 17th Day

• Malaysian Prime Minister announced with certainty that MH370 ended in the Indian Ocean.
• Chinese and Australian satellites found some objects: two large ones and some smaller ones floating in the Indian Ocean. The search ships were radioed so that they could get to the debris right away. http://www.wafb.com/story/25052599/report-chinese-plane-spots-suspicious-objects-in-search-for-flight-370
  
• The wife of the flight instructor onboard the missing flight continues to text her husband. Her husband is a flight instructor onboard the flight.
• Yesterday,  France also found some debris and were captured by their satellites

Updates: March 24, 2014, Sunday, 16th Day

• The maritime ship from Norway with all-Filipino crew left the search area. The ship delivered cars to Australia and was on their way back home when they started to help the search for MH370.
• Reports from Malaysia authorities indicated that the aircraft flew down 12,000 feet as soon as it made a left turn. Some aviation consultants, however, are doubtful that the aircraft flew very high and very low and still managed to fly more than 6 hours. They indicated that the ups and downs would have considerably consumed more fuel than the aircraft was fueled for.
  

Updates: MH 370 Disappearance|
Posted March 16, 2014 821am CST
=>Both pilots did not request to work together
=>No additional fuel requested for the jet
=>Friends of both pilots do not believe they are involved
=>Latest satellite signal might have come from the ground
=>Captain's flight simulator at home examined
=>Airplane went up to 45,000 ft. then down to 25,000 ft; signs
    of being hi-jacked.
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Malaysia's Prime Minister Announced that the actions done to MH370 "were deliberate",  by "someone on the aircraft". Posted March 15, 2014 1250am.CST
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Investigators Looking at Possibility that Jet Landed Somewhere!

Posted March 13, 2014 450pm CST

The Search for Malaysia Airlines Flt 370 is now moving to the Indian Ocean. (See Arrow).

March 13, 2014

Mystery Compounded by Conflicting Statements

If the mystery of the disappearance of Malaysia Airline Flight 370 with 239 people on-board is confusing enough, the conflicting information from the Malaysian authorities compound it.

When the initial report was sent by Malaysian authorities, the time that the flight stopped responding was different from the various that they later on provided. Wednesday, Malaysian police reported that they are investigating the home of the captain of MH 370. Yesterday, they stated that the police were there but just outside observing.

Today, Malaysian authorities announced that there were no signals received from the aircraft after the transponder stopped. Later they announced again that the satellites were getting strong "pings" from the ACARS system of the aircraft, indicating that it flew for several hours to the Indian Ocean after losing the transponder communication.  The "pings" are strong enough to convince the authorities and the U.S. Navy to move the search operations there.

"ChessBoard vs. Football Field" - Commander, U.S. Navy

The complicated task is headed by Commander William Marks, who described the area to be searched as "comparing a chess board and a football field" (CNN TV).  Commander Marks described the operations as a very complicated and "a completely new game", which involved 24/7 U.S. Navy operations. He stated that staff fatigue, physical and mental,  is now becoming a factor to all the 700 sailors onboard USS Kidd. Commander Marks was interviewed by CNN from the commanding ship, USS Blue Ridge.

Clive Irving, Senior Consultant for CNN also believes that the moving of the search and reconnaissance operations to the Indian Ocean is very significant. Bill Palmer, another CNN consultant, stated that the transponder on board the flight is "very easy to turn off", and that there may be a good reason why it was turned off. Turning off the transponder will make it easier for the radar systems to detect the aircraft's other systems.

Did the Jet Land Somewhere else?

At 517pm today, Andy Pastor, a Wall Street Journal reporter suggested that the investigators are looking at the possibility that the jet may have landed somewhere after flying for several hours. He stated that the investigators are also thinking that the transponder may have been intentionally turned off so that the aircraft may be visible to radar. This was also the opinion of CNN's senior aviation consultant Bill Palmer.

Waiting for the Mystery to be Solved

As we are all faced with numerous possibilities, some of them are unlikely, all we can do is watch and wait, and hope that the possibility that all the 239 people on board Malaysia Airline Flight 370 are still alive.

Minneapolis, MN 525pm 3/13/14

Updates: MH 370 Disappearance
Posted March 12, 2014 350pm CST

Breaking News! China Released Satellite Images of 3 Floating Objects

 March 12, 2014 335pm CST.

China has released satellite images taken on Sunday morning. The images showed floating objects of the following dimensions:

1. 42 ft x 49 ft|
2. 46 ft x 62 ft
3. 79 ft x 72 ft.

Although not confirmed until actual search operations are deployed in the area (close to the initial search area), former NTSB Managing Director Peter Goelz told CNN that the configurations may be consistent to the size of an aircraft.

The Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Continues....

Day 5 of Disappearance of MH370:

Posted March 12, 2014 1205pm CST

Edita N. Laurel

It is now on the 5th day of disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people onboard and Malaysian authorities still have no information as to its whereabouts, and the area being searched has now tripled in size - to 27,000 square miles. There were reports that radar has detected some signals at the area where the airplane was last recorded, an island on the Strait of Malacca.

According to news reports, the following information are being done.

• A letter received from an oil worker stating that he saw a burning airplane plunge into the ocean in 'one piece'.  Read here.
• The Captain of MH370 home is being investigated. Computers will be seized; medicine bottles will be examined. There were also reports that he has a Boeing 777-200 flight simulator at home. (CNN Television)
• Rolls Royce Manufacturing, the maker of the engine, has received information about the aircraft, but the information is still being studied and not being released at this time. (CNN Television)
• Is the co-pilot's being too friendliness (we reported here that he has invited CNN staffers in the cockpit and CNN has a film to show), invited undesirables into the cockpit? Two Austrian females reported that they have been in the cockpit when the co-pilot was on duty in 2011. (In the U.S., even domestic flights have secured cockpits. This raises the security concerns of flights outside the U.S.)
• NTSB is sending radar experts to Malaysia to examine the signals received or may receive from the search areas.

Posted: March 11, 2014 |1230pm CST

Edita N. Laurel

It is a real mystery. Nobody really knows, and aviation professionals are saying that they have never seen an incident like this in the past. They are referring to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to Beijing, China, that vanished without a trace (so far), and with 239 people on board. The aircraft has not been located more than 36 hours after it disappeared from the radar on March 7, 2014 about two hours after takeoff. The aircraft is a Boeing 777-200, one of the safest aircraft and one of the aircraft with fewer "incidents". The last incident recorded for this aircraft was the Asiana Airlines (OZ) flight that hit the seawall at San Francisco Airport (SFO). Three people were killed during this incident.

Immediately after day break March 9, 2014 the search for MH370 restarted. The night before, a reconnaissance aircraft photographed some oil slick of about 5 to 9 miles long in a part of the South China sea.

Several rescue ships from several countries have been deployed, but as of the time of this writing, the mystery of the location of, or whatever happened to the aircraft is still a mystery. It was reported that at about 45 minutes after take off, the aircraft slowed down, and made a turn - and simply disappeared. There were no distress signals, no communication from the pilots, and no indication that the two points of contacts that are located on two places in the airplane emitted any signals. Although it is presumed that the aircraft has crashed, the airlines is very careful in making an announcement to that effect, until any clue or clues surface to prove that it indeed crashed.

The relatives of the passengers on board have reported that the cell phones rang but were never answered.

All those involved in the rescue have expanded the search areas to include the Gulf of Thailand and other areas near Vietnam.

In Beijing, China, the arrival board shows MH 370 as "delayed". Although presumed to have crashed, officials are very careful not to  mention the word "crash" to the family members and press. Family members of the passengers and crew onboard the flight are staying in hotels both in Beijing and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Director General of Civil Aviation in Malaysia has told reporters that they haven't located anything yet, and that the closes clue was a series of oil slicks reported by a rescue aircraft the night before. They were located on the Gulf of Thailand, about 90 miles from Vietnam. There were also  reports that an aircraft door and a yellow life buoy were located, but they were all false alarms. There were no distress signals emitted or communicated by the crew of the aircraft, which indicated that whatever happened, it happened very quickly. That is according to Captain Chesley Sullenberger,  a retired airline pilot who piloted the famous United States Airways Flight 1549 which landed in the middle of the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York on January 15, 2009 after striking a flock of birds. Capt. Sullenberger stated during an interview with CNN that flight crews' duty was to navigate, investigate, and communicate any incidents occurring during the flight, in that particular order.

Flight Crew of MH 370.

Reports from the press indicated that both the Captain and the Second Officer flying the aircraft were seasoned airline pilots.  The Captain is a training instructor who also has a flight simulator for Boeing 777 at home. The co-pilot is a 27 year-old officer who started with the airline in 2007 and has garnered more than 2,500 hours. When CNN's staffer interviewed and filmed him a while back, he was just transitioning from flying a narrow-body aircraft to the the Boeing 777-200, a wide-body one.  Yesterday and today, CNN has shown the film, showing the co-pilot on CNN television.

Plane was Severely Off-Course

On March 11, 2014, an anonymous Malaysian Airlines airforce authority has reported anonymously that MH370's transponder stopped working for reasons still not known. The plane continued to fly slowly and headed back towards Malaysia. This was after an hour after the flight, and continued on to the direction of a small island at the Strait of Malacca (Sumatra, Indonesia).

Police Looking at All Possibilities; Terror Acts not Ruled-out

Malaysian and other authorities are looking at various reasons for the disappearance:

1. Terrorism. Malaysian authorities are ruling out this possibility. However, the Director of CIA does not rule this out.
2. Mechanical/Communication Instruments Failure. This is likely, just like other reasons. The transponder stopped working after more than one hour on the flight (the time it left Kuala Lumpur and turned back toward Strait of Malacaa). Aviation professionals interviewed by CNN indicated that the back-up power would last about this long (2 hours).
3. Foul Play. It is possible that someone took control of the cockpit and intentionally steered the aircraft away from its final destination. If this is what happened, the foul player could also intentionally turn off all communications for the aircraft. From the knowledge that I have, however, regarding the cockpits, it is almost impossible for some unauthorized persons to enter this area since security precautions were put in place after the terrorist attacks of September 11. When a pilot leaves the cockpit, it is locked and needed a key to re-enter.
4. Pilots' Psychological and Mental State. There have been incidents where pilots tried and successfully committed suicide while they were on duty, causing fatality to all on board.

All the above reasons are still being investigated to find the clues and hopefully solve the mystery of disappearance of Malaysia Airline Flight 370.

Questions About Two Passengers on the Flight.

See the MH 370 flight manifest here.

When the flight manifest was examined, the airline determined that two of the passengers on board the flight were using stolen passports. After every airline incident, the airline looks at the passenger list (also called passenger manifest)  and starts the process of calling the closest relatives. When the airline notified the foreign ministers of the countries where the passengers are citizens of, it was found that two of the passengers on board were using stolen passports. One passport belonged to, and reported stolen by Luigi Maraldi, an Italian citizen; and the other passport belonged to and was also reported stolen by an Austrian citizen two years ago. Both passport owners were confirmed not to be on board MH 370, therefore, two of the passengers on board used their stolen passports. There is no report yet if those two passengers were responsible for the disappearance of the aircraft. There were conflicting stories from the press as to the county where the passports were stolen. Some report that they were stolen in Thailand; some reports show Malaysia. According to reports, the two tickets, both one way (one indicator that the booking should be examined), were both booked by a certain "Mr. Ali", a regular customer at a travel booking office in Pattaya, Thailand on March 1, 2014. When Mr. Ali did not show up to purchase the tickets on March 1, the reservations were rebooked on March 3 for the March 6, 2014 flight. Both tickets were paid for with cash. According to reports, it is very common for customers to purchase tickets in cash, and also that the number of passengers using fake passports were in millions every year.  Interpol had been notified of the lost of the two passports, but the countries fail to double check with the Interpol if the passports used by the passengers were legitimate and not stolen. When the video cameras were examined, the authorities found that the two passengers were not "Asian"-looking, although they did not divulge their specific looks or nationalities. Some reports indicated that the two passengers have links to Iran. 

Two Suspects not Terrorists but Human Smugglers?

Today, March 11, 2014, however, CNN reports that one of the two young Iranian men were not in any of the terrorist list, and is trying to illegally enter Germany by using a fake passport.  The faces of Reza and Mohammadi, 18 and 29 year old Iranians, were captured at an airport video. Their fingerprints were also captured at the airport and were checked against known terrorists but no results. The 18 year old was trying to join his mother in Germany; the 29 year old was going to Copenhagen.

Unknown Terror Group Taking Responsibility?

On March 10, 2014, an unknown Chinese group has taken responsibility for the disappearance of the aircraft but that has not been checked to be true.

Although some aviation professionals have not experienced or known of any 'ghost flights', there was at least one named 'ghost flight' - a flight that disappeared from Guam on its way to the Philippines, with more than 128 people on board.

Malaysia Airlines is Careful not to Use the Word "Crash".

During informational press releases, Malaysia Airlines is careful not to use the word "crash", although it was presumed that the aircraft could have crashed. The airlines is continuing to release whatever new information that is communicated to them by the search teams. In the meantime, family members of the passengers on board are seeking answers which at this time, the answer as to what happened to MH 370 flight is unknown.

The Aircraft: A Boeing 777-200ER, one of the safest in the industry.

Boeing 777-200 (also called "Triple 7 in the industry), s one of the safest in record, having been involved in only one fatal accident before this Malaysian Flight disappearance. The first incident was the Asiana Airlines Flight that hit the seawall at the San Francisco Airport (SFO) in July 2013. Three people were killed, two of them were hit by a rescue truck while waiting to be rescued. Here is the picture of a Boeing 777-200.

Malaysia Airlines is Cooperating with Authorities

On its website, Malaysian Airlines has indicated that the airline is cooperating with the authorities fully, and will be reporting any information to the family members and to the public as they arise. The airline does not want to speculate on the reasons why the flight vanished without a trace.