Malaysian Airliner missing?

airguy said:
Assuming this airplane landed somewhere and is being hidden rather than crashed into the ocean somewhere (apologies to the families, but...) then the passengers are done for - there can't be any witnesses. I just don't see any possible positive outcome here.
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How about this-

The plane was hijacked with intent to be used as a airborne delivery system for an atomic bomb. The hostages are retained to be used as human shields to allow the aircraft to get within strike range of a US city. The terrorists know we will never allow an airliner to crash into a building again, but they also know that we will do all we can to possibly save nearly 300 innocent lives. Negotiations to persuade the terrorists to give up their plans and let the people go buy them time to get closer to a city and airborne detonation.

The only positive outcome for this scenario is if we discover the plot and the location of the plane prior to departure for America. Then there is a chance the hostages could be rescued.
 
Dav8or said:
How about this-

The plane was hijacked with intent to be used as a airborne delivery system for an atomic bomb. The hostages are retained to be used as human shields to allow the aircraft to get within strike range of a US city. The terrorists know we will never allow an airliner to crash into a building again, but they also know that we will do all we can to possibly save nearly 300 innocent lives. Negotiations to persuade the terrorists to give up their plans and let the people go buy them time to get closer to a city and airborne detonation.

The only positive outcome for this scenario is if we discover the plot and the location of the plane prior to departure for America. Then there is a chance the hostages could be rescued.
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That's very similar to what I thought on day two. I hope we're wrong.
 
I suspect that whatever the outcome the cause will be more likely related to incompetence than evil intent. Criminals are usually not this slick.
 
steingar said:
I suspect that whatever the outcome the cause will be more likely related to incompetence than evil intent. Criminals are usually not this slick.
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Usually criminals are more slick than the governments that hunt them
 
timwinters said:
That's already been debunked.

But...considering how this has been unfolding...it wouldn't be surprising if that debunking is debunked before day's end.
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Have they confirmed that the plane actually took off? Or that it even existed? Maybe this whole flight is a hoax.
 
Nah, they're just still waiting for a gate at Beijing...
 
A dumb blonde looking talking head on CNN said something pretty accurate: After six days we should be checking things off -- it couldn't be this, it couldn't be that. Instead, we still must say that nothing can be excluded.

The interviewer asked who was flying the plane after they lost contact -- the pilot, the auto pilot, someone else, or no one?

Ans: We don't know.
 
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Dav8or said:
How about this-

The plane was hijacked with intent to be used as a airborne delivery system for an atomic bomb. The hostages are retained to be used as human shields to allow the aircraft to get within strike range of a US city. The terrorists know we will never allow an airliner to crash into a building again, but they also know that we will do all we can to possibly save nearly 300 innocent lives. Negotiations to persuade the terrorists to give up their plans and let the people go buy them time to get closer to a city and airborne detonation.

The only positive outcome for this scenario is if we discover the plot and the location of the plane prior to departure for America. Then there is a chance the hostages could be rescued.
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DavidWhite said:
That's very similar to what I thought on day two. I hope we're wrong.
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There is no way they're sneaking a 777 across the world to the United States to attack us. Could it be used to attack someone? Sure. But not the mainland United States.
 
jesse said:
There is no way they're sneaking a 777 across the world to the United States to attack us. Could it be used to attack someone? Sure. But not the mainland United States.
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That (and the using pax as human shields) is where my theory differed.

If I lived in a big city in Asia though I would be very unsettled.
 
Props to the first joker to file an IFR flight plan to any major American city in a 777:lol:
 
My question: Would a 777 not show up as a radar blip even after the transponder was turned off? My flying experience is limited to GA so it may be different at those altitudes.
 
david0tey said:
My question: Would a 777 not show up as a radar blip even after the transponder was turned off? My flying experience is limited to GA so it may be different at those altitudes.
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Depends on how good the radar coverage is out there - plenty of airline pilots that fly through that area saying it's pretty weak.
 
I know at least, KRDU can see me flying around in a cub at 1000agl w no transponder. I monitor approach on my handheld and hear them calling me out to other traffic.
 
File as a Gulfstream or something similar. Would not be a problem to hit a US city with a 777.
 
dans2992 said:
File as a Gulfstream or something similar. Would not be a problem to hit a US city with a 777.
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Wouldn't it be easier to steal (or buy) a GII or GIII? A missing 777 raises a LOT of flags.
 
WBI Flyer said:
Except.... that you would have to get that piece of electronic kit onboard with you. I'm sure with planning that it could be disguised as a laptop or whatever... but it would probably take a good bit of power... especially to run over time.
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You're kidding me right ? I've had a 3G cellular blocking device in my carry on bags for the last three years. Bought it in China on a layover. It used to be great fun to switch it on if I was seated near someone having a very animated conversation. I would never have it on inflight though. It's been thru security checkpoints all over the world and not single soul have been able to recognize it.

Trouble is most stuff is 4g now so it's pretty much useless but it was fun while it lasted particularly at stop lights. It was all of $30 bucks.
 
Art VanDelay said:
You're kidding me right ? I've had a 3G cellular blocking device in my carry on bags for the last three years. Bought it in China on a layover. It used to be great fun to switch it on if I was seated near someone having a very animated conversation. I would never have it on inflight though. It's been thru security checkpoints all over the world and not single soul have been able to recognize it.

Trouble is most stuff is 4g now so it's pretty much useless but it was fun while it lasted particularly at stop lights. It was all of $30 bucks.
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Gosh. Hopefully you pay more attention to FAA regulations than FCC regulations.

:nono:
 
First believable article on the accident:

Malaysia Airlines Expands Investigation To Include General Scope Of Space, Time

‘Why Are We Even Here?’ Officials Probe

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KUALA LUMPUR—Following a host of conflicting reports in the wake of the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 last Saturday, representatives from the Kuala Lumpur-based carrier acknowledged they had widened their investigation into the vanished Boeing 777 aircraft today to encompass not only the possibilities of mechanical failure, pilot error, terrorist activity, or a botched hijacking, but also the overarching scope of space, time, and humankind’s place in the universe.

The airline, now in its fifth day of searching for the passenger jet carrying 239 passengers and crew, has come under fire for its perceived mishandling of the investigation, whose confusing and contradictory reports has failed to provide definitive answers on everything from how long the missing plane remained aloft after losing contact with air traffic controllers, to whether the flight made a radical alteration in its heading, to the very dimensions of space-time and the nature of reality, and what exactly it is that brought us into existence and imbued us with this thing we call life.

Additionally, the airline confirmed it had expanded its active search area to include a several hundred-square-mile zone in the Indian Ocean as well as each of the seven or 22 additional spatial dimensions posited by string theory.

“We continue to do everything in our power and explore every possible lead—both Cartesian and phenomenological—to locate the aircraft as quickly as possible,” said Malaysia’s civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, who went on to say that authorities were still actively seeking tips from anyone claiming knowledge related either to the flight, or to the mechanisms by which consciousness arises, or to the question of why anything physical and finite exists instead of nothing at all. “At this stage, we can’t rule anything out: not crew interference with the transponders, not a catastrophic electrical failure, not the emergence of a complex topological feature of space-time such as an Einstein-Rosen bridge that could have deposited the flight at any location in the universe or a different time period altogether, nothing.”

“Could a parallel universe have immediately swelled up from random cosmological fluctuation according to the multiverse theory and swallowed the flight into its folds, or could ice have built up on an airspeed sensor? Those are both options we are currently considering,” Rahman added. “Everything’s on the table. That is, insofar as anything exists at all, which we’re also looking into.”

Rahman assured the press and families of passengers that officials would not rest until they locate the plane, provided that sensory experience can be verified beyond the existence of one’s own mind. Malaysian authorities also cautioned that they were dealing with an unprecedented aviation mystery and that it could take months to ascertain the airliner’s exact fate as well as, for that matter, the fate of mankind itself, assuming a linear theory of space-time in which the future is unknowable and objects travel in a forward trajectory which, authorities hasten to add, is not necessarily the case.

In addition, airline sources attempted to assuage an uneasy public by noting they had brought in top crash investigators from the Malaysian, Vietnamese, and Chinese governments, as well as U.S. Navy personnel, Boeing technicians, leading quantum physicists, theoretical cosmologists, metaphysicians, epistemologists, and determinist philosophers to help scour all conceivable and as yet inconceivable locations in which the plane might be located.

“The bottom line is that we have a sophisticated aircraft fresh off a safety inspection with no prior incident of malfunction, flying in good weather at a cruising altitude,” Rahman continued. “Why didn’t the pilot send a distress signal? Why aren’t we finding a debris path? What are we to make of the contradictory radar information? Where did the universe begin and can it be said to have a limit or an edge? What is mankind’s role in it? Is there a God? If so, what is God’s nature?”

“It’s too early to answers these questions right now, but I can assure you that Malaysia Airlines will get to the bottom of it,” Rahman added. “Our top people are on it right now.”
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jesse said:
There is no way they're sneaking a 777 across the world to the United States to attack us. Could it be used to attack someone? Sure. But not the mainland United States.
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That's a pretty conclusive statement, Jesse. I can think of a number of ways it might be done. Some require more intelligence than others. But there are plausible ways to achieve the desired result (not going to put them here for the obvious reason).

Beyond that, they don't even need to get the plane inside the US to have a substantial impact. Hit a major US asset outside the US, or destroy some commodity we use heavily. Heck, their threats have put us in a panic before.... no action needed.

Panic would ensue with almost any action on their part. There would be economic repercussions and most likely additional restrictions on freedoms.

With all respect to the passenger families, I hope the plane is destroyed.
 
I'm guessing we've covered this... but:

If the plane was hijacked, and if the intelligence community was certain of that... and they had some idea of location, wouldn't they be letting the official search... and especially the media remain completely in the dark?

If it was hijacked (doubt it), and if it was successfully secured somewhere (doubt it more), the perpetrators are most certainly watching the news coverage like hawks. (or buzzards).
 
WBI Flyer said:
I'm guessing we've covered this... but:

If the plane was hijacked, and if the intelligence community was certain of that... and they had some idea of location, wouldn't they be letting the official search... and especially the media remain completely in the dark?

If it was hijacked (doubt it), and if it was successfully secured somewhere (doubt it more), the perpetrators are most certainly watching the news coverage like hawks. (or buzzards).
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So I will pose the moral dilemma that I posed to someone else:

Suppose the US IC/Security Officials knew what happened to the plane and where it is. And suppose that (per the suggestion in the article) that it's intact and may be used for "another purpose".

Do the folks in the know release the information? Or do they keep it highly classified so as not to disclose the techniques and capabilities that the US possesses to identify and track such things? Do they keep it secret to spy on the plans that the evildoers are plotting & potentially take covert action (or publicized action) to stop a threat (which might kill far more innocent people)?

Consider that the likelihood is very low that the passengers are alive because if they were hostages there would be a ransom demand by now. Consider the method by which Bin Laden was captured. Consider the international political repercussions of the various alternatives given the number of Chinese citizens on the plane.

It is quite a set of moral questions to answer.
 
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