Where in the world is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?

[HunkyBill]

All this is nothing more than a gong show. Many people no longer pay attention to the news stories about flight 370, they're simply tuning out all the jibber jabber that proves nothing.

 

[tokugawa]

Interesting perspective....

Malaysia Airlines MH370: China's unusual anger and finger-pointing
Regional tensions and rivalries only partly explain Beijing's 'campaign of vilification'
By Patrick Brown, CBC News Posted: Mar 27, 2014 11:21 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 27, 2014 1:09 PM ET

Disaster often brings out the best in us, setting the stage for demonstrations of ingenuity, heroic self-sacrifice, altruism and kindness to strangers.

The loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 hasn't worked out like that. In the face of an extraordinarily difficult challenge, few have excelled.

The two countries most deeply involved, Malaysia and China, have allowed petty national pride to get in the way of quiet efficiency and co-operation, blaming each other for incompetence as they stumbled through the frustrating effort to find the lost plane.

It is still not clear why it took a whole week for Malaysia to announce that traces of the plane were picked up by military radar, and by the British satellite company Inmarsat, not that many hours after civilian air traffic control had reported it missing.

Inmarsat's analysis was announced only on March 15, when Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak revealed that an armada of 43 ships and 58 aircraft from 14 countries had been looking in the wrong place for a week.

China's official news agency Xinhua then accused Malaysia of "either dereliction of duty or reluctance to share information in a full and timely manner," and Beijing's foreign ministry has been subjecting Malaysia to almost daily harangues demanding "more thorough and accurate information” ever since.

In response, Malaysia's Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein pointed out: "Can I also remind you that we received satellite data from China, regarding sightings in the South China Sea, which made us distract ourselves from the search and rescue to search areas that had already been searched?"

Not exactly the way for two neighbours and close trading partners to be coordinating their efforts on something as important as this.

Heroic national effort

China's contribution to the search for the lost plane, undeniably larger than any previous such international outreach, is being reported in the official media as a great national effort to recover citizens and assist less grand neighbours.

The gigantic Ilyushin IL-76 cargo planes sent to Australia to help in this latter stage of the search — "with a rich-red Chinese flag, and a sky-blue hull" — were greeted "with a rare ripple of enthusiasm" when they landed, Xinhua reported.

The fact that they first landed at the wrong airport, Perth International instead of the Pearce military airbase, where the international search is being coordinated from, has not been mentioned in the Chinese press.

And while the planes have no particular search and rescue capability or equipment, Xinhua underlines that the planes’ windows give them " a very good visual search capacity."

Of course it is arguable whether any country leading the search in such an extraordinary case would have produced faster or better results.

But the recriminations, and the unspoken national stereotypes behind them, are symptomatic of the tensions in the region associated with China's growing strength and assertiveness.

In addition to a reluctance on all sides to be candid about satellite and radar capacities and weaknesses, there's a sense that China's motives for dispatching a large chunk of its navy and aircraft in this effort might not be entirely altruistic.

This is, after all, a chance for a good look around a neighbourhood rife with territorial disputes. The search doubles as the kind of military exercise that would normally be impossible to mount without provoking a regional crisis.

India is reported to have refused permission for China to join its search zone when it was thought the plane might have headed in that direction, on the grounds that the offer was a pretext for spying.

Manipulating the grieving relatives

These last days I have been very glad not to be in Beijing reporting on China. If I had, I would surely have been assigned to the Lidu Hotel for the announcement to the relatives of those doomed passengers that Malaysia is now certain that the plane crashed in the vast reaches of the southern Indian Ocean — far from the original search site — and that there were no survivors.

The relatives, in the limbo of a depressing hotel near the Beijing airport for more than three weeks, have been simmering with rage over the way they have been treated by Chinese, Malaysian and airline officials.

Frustrated by the slowness of the search and the poor provision of information, they have been fiercely nursing vain hopes of a miracle.

There was surely a dignified and compassionate way to tell them that hope is lost. But instead many of them heard it first via a text message in English, which most of them don't speak.

They were then given the bad news in a confined space with an uncontrollable herd of reporters and camera operators on hand to record the ensuing mayhem.

China, where demonstrations are forbidden, and people are locked up for speaking out against injustice, is now encouraging the MH370 relatives to take to the streets in a campaign of vilification against Malaysia.

The families have enormous public sympathy in China, and it’s convenient for a government which is claiming credit for heroic efforts to find the plane to blame Malaysia for the unsatisfactory results.

Earlier this week, officials even handed out professionally printed placards and T-shirts, and escorted the relatives down to the Malaysian embassy to shout slogans accusing the Malaysian government of murder and cover-up.

This is one disaster that seems not to have brought out the best in anyone. And the fight over compensation hasn't even begun.


Malaysia Airlines MH370: China's unusual anger and finger-pointing

 

[sdw]

I think the fault is all on Malaysia. They have withheld information and deliberately misstated information and have been caught at it. Especially on what their Military Radar saw on the 8th. That misstatement resulted in searching for the plane where it could not be for 4 days. Since they are the "Man in the Middle" for all information, each time they delay giving information to Australia, they risk having the information having no value due to winds and currents in a very remote area. Of course China is angry.

China has made what resources they have available, available to the Australians. It's more than finding the bodies of their own citizens. Snow Dragon was also made available for the rescue of the environmentalists who seem to have been surprised to find Ice at the South Pole. It seems that there is a policy change at high levels in the Chinese government and they are attempting to interact with the rest of the world.

 

[PlayfulAlex]

To add to all the mystery, we can always count on the conspiracy theorists for their comments:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-eight-3232666

 

[sdw]

The Telegraph seems a little saner than CNN, etc

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...a-Airlines-MH370-March-29-as-it-happened.html

 

[bcneil]

If Iran was clever. They would put out a press release. That the 2 Iranians with the stolen passports....were well known terrorists in Iran with links to al-Qaida, and one was a bomb maker.
CNN would eat it up!

Iran has nothing to lose, as they were both just guys who wanted out of Iran.

 

[sdw]

The UK has sent the nuclear submarine HMS Tireless and the ship HMS Echo to assist in the search. It'll probably be HMS Tireless that finds the plane if it can be found at all. Since weather doesn't affect her, and her passive system is very good at listening - she'll be able to pass through the search box in a little over a day. If the flight recorder is pinging and they are within 10 miles, they'll hear it. The reason is that she's 250 meters below the surface and away from a lot of stray noise.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-26845118
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/01/opinion/goyer-search-for-flight/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar-class_submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonar_2076

Swiftsure and Trafalgar Update manager, Captain Ian Hughes said, "A good analogy for the performance of Sonar 2076 is that if the submarine was in Winchester it would be able to track a double decker bus going round Trafalgar Square" (a distance of 60 miles).[7]

 

[james1944]

It was captured by aliens.

 

[sdw]

Well, it would be nice to think that the Chinese have found the right pinger - however there have been a few premature announcements during this search.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/05/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/malays...70-pulse-signal-reportedly-detected-1.2599494
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26902127
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-...a-chinese-search-vessel-detects-pulse/5370186

 

[sdw]

Australia has reported at a news conference that the Chinese Coast Guard ship has made a second detection of the pinger when they circled back over the area. Ocean Shield, the Australian ship with the "black box detector" has also detected a pinger. Ocean Shield is currently turning to make another pass over the area. (6,000 meters of cable, it takes a while)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-06/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370/5370558

 

[sdw]

It looks like a good bet that the Australians have found MH370.

The Australian ship Ocean Shield found and held a pinger signal for 2 hours and 20 minutes, circled back and found two separate pinger signals at the same location. This could indicate the presence of both "Black Boxes" on MH370.

The UK ship HMS Echo is also working a pinger signal that was first found by the Chinese.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-07/ocean-shield-detects-possible-mh370-black-box-signal/5372616

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/06/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26917934

edit - The Australians are sending the ROV/Mini-Sub to examine the are where the pings are coming from.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/malaysi...attempt-deep-sonar-search-for-pings-1.1765641

 

[sdw]

Ocean Shield had the signal, lost the signal and now has found the signal again. http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/09/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

[badbadboy]

Here is some fuel for all the conspiracy theorists. IMHO it sounds more like a plot for a Steven Segal Seal Team Movie but here it is:


MH370...word on the street


While the USA is withdrawing from Afghanistan one of their
command and control system (used for controlling the pilotless drones)
was hijacked by the Taliban while the American transport convoy was
moving down from one of the hill top bases. TheTaliban ambushed the
convoy and killed 2 American Seal personnel, seized the
equipment/weapons, including the command and control system which
weighed about 20 tons and packed into 6 crates. This happened about a
month ago in Feb 2014.

What the Taliban want is money. They offered to sell the system
to the Russians &r the Chinese. The Russians are too busy in Ukraine
but the Chinese are hungry for the system's technology. Just imagine if
the Chinese master the technology behind the command and control
system, all American drones will become useless. So the Chinese sent 8
top defense scientists to check the system and agreed to pay millions
for it.

Sometime in early Mar 2014, The 8 scientists and the 6 crates
made their way to Malaysia, thinking that it was the best covert way to
avoid detection. The cargo was then kept in the Embassy under
diplomatic protection. Meanwhile the Americans engaged the assistance
of Israeli intelligence, and together they were determined to intercept
and recapture the cargo.

The Chinese decided that it will be safest to transport it via
civilian aircraft so as to avoid suspicion. After all the direct flight
from KL to Beijing takes only 4 and half hours, and the American will
not hijack or harm a civilian aircraft.. So MH 370 is the perfect
carrier.

There are 5 American and Israeli agents onboard who are familiar
with Boeing operation. The 2 "Iranians" with stolen passports could be
among them.

When MH 370 is about to leave Malaysian air space and was
reporting to Vietnamese air control, one American AWAC jammed their
signal, disabled the pilot control system and switched over to remote
control mode. That was when the plane suddenly lost altitude
momentarily.

How AWAC can do this ? Remember the 911 incident ? After the
911 incident, all Boeing aircraft (and possibly all Airbus) were
installed with a remote control system to counter terrorist hijacking.
Since then all Boeings could be remote controlled by ground control
tower. The same remote control system used to control the pilotless spy
aircraft and drones.

The 5 American/Israeli agents soon took over the plane, switched
off the transponder and other communication systems, changed course and
flew westwards. They dare not fly east to Philippines or Guam because
the whole South China Sea air space is covered by Chinese surveillance
radar and satellite.
The Malaysian, Thai and Indian military radars actually detected the
unidentified aircraft but did not react professionally.

The plane flew over North Sumatra, Anabas, South India and then
landed at Maldives (some villagers saw the aircraft landing), refuelled
and continued its flight to Garcia Dei go, the American Air Base in the
middle of Indian Ocean. The cargo and the black box were removed. The
passengers were silenced via natural means, lack of oxygen. They
believe only dead person will not talk. The MH 370 with dead passengers
took off again via remote control and crashed into the South Indian
Ocean, causing the world to believe that the plane eventually ran out
of fuel and crashed, and hence blame the defiant captain and co-pilot.

The Americans have put up a good show. First diverting all the
attention and search effort into the South China Sea while the plane
made its way to the Indian Ocean. Then they came out with conflicting
statements and evidence to confuse the world. Austral ia is complicit.

The amount of effort put up by China, in terms of the number of
search aircraft, ships and satellites, searching first the South China
Sea, then the Malacca Straits and the Indian Ocean is unprecedented.
This showed that China is very concerned, not so much because of the
many Chinese civilian passengers, but mainly the high value cargo and
its 8 top defense scientists.

Don't believe the story? I don't expect you to but let's wait
and see how the episode unveils itself. Or perhaps it will never be
known until the next Edward Snowden emerges.

 

[badbadboy]

Before anyone else points this out the Command and Control Systems for the Drones or UAV's are located in Virginia and Colorado IIRC. That is the beauty of the system they can use it like a video game on their own turf.

Other than that, its an interesting twist on this mystery.

 

[uncleg]

 

[sdw]

Only one reason that I don't buy the story. Obama would have to have signed off on it and would have had to give a Presidential Finding to each and every person involved.

The simple fact of his giving out that many Presidential Findings would have lead to the leaking of the information. As we are always finding out, there are moles (they describe themselves as "American Heroes"), embedded throughout the system.

BTW, the CIA flew unarmed drones in Afghanistan from 2000 onwards. The armed drone flights started in 2002. The early drones did require a nearby command and control center that was shipped in 8 20' shipping containers. Once the US had orbited specialized satellites to control their "forward deployed" drones, the local command and control centers were passed over to the Army for local tactical control of unarmed reconnaissance drones.

The UK purchased 3 Reaper drones and a command and control system in 2007, also the UK has purchased 54 Watchkeeper drones from Israel and several command and control systems.

So, the story doesn't fail because of the command and control system.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/12/clinton-usatcov.htm
http://www.thenation.com/article/166124/brief-history-drones#
http://dronewars.net/aboutdrone/

Here is some fuel for all the conspiracy theorists. IMHO it sounds more like a plot for a Steven Segal Seal Team Movie but here it is:


MH370...word on the street


While the USA is withdrawing from Afghanistan one of their
command and control system (used for controlling the pilotless drones)
was hijacked by the Taliban while the American transport convoy was
moving down from one of the hill top bases. TheTaliban ambushed the
convoy and killed 2 American Seal personnel, seized the
equipment/weapons, including the command and control system which
weighed about 20 tons and packed into 6 crates. This happened about a
month ago in Feb 2014.

What the Taliban want is money. They offered to sell the system
to the Russians &r the Chinese. The Russians are too busy in Ukraine
but the Chinese are hungry for the system's technology. Just imagine if
the Chinese master the technology behind the command and control
system, all American drones will become useless. So the Chinese sent 8
top defense scientists to check the system and agreed to pay millions
for it.

Sometime in early Mar 2014, The 8 scientists and the 6 crates
made their way to Malaysia, thinking that it was the best covert way to
avoid detection. The cargo was then kept in the Embassy under
diplomatic protection. Meanwhile the Americans engaged the assistance
of Israeli intelligence, and together they were determined to intercept
and recapture the cargo.

The Chinese decided that it will be safest to transport it via
civilian aircraft so as to avoid suspicion. After all the direct flight
from KL to Beijing takes only 4 and half hours, and the American will
not hijack or harm a civilian aircraft.. So MH 370 is the perfect
carrier.

There are 5 American and Israeli agents onboard who are familiar
with Boeing operation. The 2 "Iranians" with stolen passports could be
among them.

When MH 370 is about to leave Malaysian air space and was
reporting to Vietnamese air control, one American AWAC jammed their
signal, disabled the pilot control system and switched over to remote
control mode. That was when the plane suddenly lost altitude
momentarily.

How AWAC can do this ? Remember the 911 incident ? After the
911 incident, all Boeing aircraft (and possibly all Airbus) were
installed with a remote control system to counter terrorist hijacking.
Since then all Boeings could be remote controlled by ground control
tower. The same remote control system used to control the pilotless spy
aircraft and drones.

The 5 American/Israeli agents soon took over the plane, switched
off the transponder and other communication systems, changed course and
flew westwards. They dare not fly east to Philippines or Guam because
the whole South China Sea air space is covered by Chinese surveillance
radar and satellite.
The Malaysian, Thai and Indian military radars actually detected the
unidentified aircraft but did not react professionally.

The plane flew over North Sumatra, Anabas, South India and then
landed at Maldives (some villagers saw the aircraft landing), refuelled
and continued its flight to Garcia Dei go, the American Air Base in the
middle of Indian Ocean. The cargo and the black box were removed. The
passengers were silenced via natural means, lack of oxygen. They
believe only dead person will not talk. The MH 370 with dead passengers
took off again via remote control and crashed into the South Indian
Ocean, causing the world to believe that the plane eventually ran out
of fuel and crashed, and hence blame the defiant captain and co-pilot.

The Americans have put up a good show. First diverting all the
attention and search effort into the South China Sea while the plane
made its way to the Indian Ocean. Then they came out with conflicting
statements and evidence to confuse the world. Austral ia is complicit.

The amount of effort put up by China, in terms of the number of
search aircraft, ships and satellites, searching first the South China
Sea, then the Malacca Straits and the Indian Ocean is unprecedented.
This showed that China is very concerned, not so much because of the
many Chinese civilian passengers, but mainly the high value cargo and
its 8 top defense scientists.

Don't believe the story? I don't expect you to but let's wait
and see how the episode unveils itself. Or perhaps it will never be
known until the next Edward Snowden emerges.

 

[Elle Diablo]

This scenario brings to mind two movies:

'Event Horizon' and 'Sphere' ... both awesome if you are into science fiction horror/thrillers. :thumb:

(not to be morbid or anything like that)

 

[girth-brooks]

I am at the point with this story that we will probably never know. A sad situation with very little closure for the people involved.

 

[sdw]

I am at the point with this story that we will probably never know. A sad situation with very little closure for the people involved.

Tony Abbott said this morning at the press briefing that they are confident of the location of the MH370 black boxes to within kilometers. That is still a lot of area to search with the ROV they have, unless they get really lucky and the wreckage is easily visible - laying on top of the silt.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/11/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

There is a possibility that the impact of the plane with the water was sufficient to separate one or more of the pingers from the black box they were attached to. That could explain the distance between the pingers. It would be practically impossible to visually locate a pinger that is separated from the equipment it was attached to.

 

[sdw]

Malaysia has an information page on MH370 http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/dark-site.html

The Guardian is reporting that the co-pilot attempted to make a cell-phone call just before the Malaysian Military lost radar contact with the plane. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/12/mh370-co-pilot-phonecall-malaysia

This is what is driving people crazy. Malaysia hides information and wastes other nation's time and resources. Just like it would have been valuable for other nations to know the aircraft had headed back over Malaysia, it would have been valuable to know that the co-pilot attempted to use his cell-phone.