Airliner missing between Malaysia and Cambodia/Vietnam, terrorism possible

[Dayuhan]

Does that map include all the old WWII airfields?

I don't think they'd be anywhere close to big enough, and very few would still be in usable condition. I've seen lots of those old fields, Philippines is riddled with them (there's an old Japanese strip maybe 3km from where I'm sitting). They are a reminder of how much aircraft have changed.

[carl]

This is in reference to what American Pride brought up, the cargo/freight. They say there was nothing hazardous on board. They say. Also somebody previously suggested that all the govs involved are lying. And if it was a normal terror attack they probably would have crowed about it even if it failed and crashed.

So my cool but far fetched theory is that there was something on-board that should not have been on-board, which is why all the govs are lying (if they are). I dont mean gold or diamomnds, I mean something that should so not have been there. And somebody or somebodies snatched it but they don't want to brag about it yet because they have a further use for it. That would account for all the misinformation, the govs are frantically covering up and the thieves have something else in mind.

I think they should look more closely at what that plane was actually carrying and also look at that crew again.

Or the plane flew into through the Stargate and got ripped into pieces by Scotty's errant transporter beam.

There. That's my wild theory for the day.

[Biggus]

Or the Chinese shot it down, subsequently realized that a bunch of their citizens were on board, and decided not to mention it... there are places along the China/Myanmar border for a downed plane to disappear.

That's only slightly less farfetched than the idea that it's hidden in Pakistan.

I'd expect the Chinese to resolve a siege pretty quickly, though not necessarily cleanly.

Yes, we're heading towards the 'stolen by alien space bats' end of the spectrum with just about any theory that doesn't end with 'It's at the bottom of the ocean in location unknown for reason unknown and won't be found for some time, if at all', just as happened several decades ago with another Malaysian passenger flight.

[Biggus]

This is in reference to what American Pride brought up, the cargo/freight. They say there was nothing hazardous on board. They say. Also somebody previously suggested that all the govs involved are lying. And if it was a normal terror attack they probably would have crowed about it even if it failed and crashed.

So my cool but far fetched theory is that there was something on-board that should not have been on-board, which is why all the govs are lying (if they are). I dont mean gold or diamomnds, I mean something that should so not have been there. And somebody or somebodies snatched it but they don't want to brag about it yet because they have a further use for it. That would account for all the misinformation, the govs are frantically covering up and the thieves have something else in mind.

I think they should look more closely at what that plane was actually carrying and also look at that crew again.

Or the plane flew into through the Stargate and got ripped into pieces by Scotty's errant transporter beam.

There. That's my wild theory for the day.

Or there's something on board as you describe and the aircraft has had a decompression event caused by a maintenance oversight and there's a mad scramble to secure the cargo.

So who ships something that valuable on an airline?

[carl]

I don't think they'd be anywhere close to big enough, and very few would still be in usable condition. I've seen lots of those old fields, Philippines is riddled with them (there's an old Japanese strip maybe 3km from where I'm sitting). They are a reminder of how much aircraft have changed.

If you were only going to land with no intention of taking off again and didn't mind beating up the airplane, the strip may not have to be on such good condition. A fully loaded B-24 would have needed a pretty long strip, far more than a fighter strip. But it has been along time.

Also, here in the states there are a lot of old abandoned fields from the cold war that would be more than adequate. In Congo too. Congo has some huge ones. Are there fields like that in Asia that you know of?

[carl]

So who ships something that valuable on an airline?

Who ships something that valuable that they are going to tell the truth about? Somebody may be lying big time about this.

But as much fun as it is to think of this stuff, you are right, we'll probably never know.

[Dayuhan]

Yes, we're heading towards the 'stolen by alien space bats' end of the spectrum with just about any theory that doesn't end with 'It's at the bottom of the ocean in location unknown for reason unknown and won't be found for some time, if at all', just as happened several decades ago with another Malaysian passenger flight.

Yes, combine that northern arc with 7 hrs flying time and almost any scenario you come up with makes a Bond film look realistic. The ocean is by far the most likely end to the story. I hope they do find it, though they may not. If nothing else, it would be good to have some idea what happened.

[Biggus]

If you were only going to land with no intention of taking off and didn't mind beating up the airplane, the strip may not have to be on such good condition. A fully loaded B-24 would have needed a pretty long strip, far more than a fighter strip. But it has been along time.

Also, here in the states there are a lot of old abandoned fields from the cold war that would be more than adequate. In Congo too. Congo has some huge ones. Are there fields like that in Asia that you know of?

Agreed that a B-24 would need a long runway to get off the ground with full tanks and max payload, but B-24s were designed with rough strips in mind.

You'd be better off looking for a 1.5nm long section of widely divided dual carriageway highway with nothing between the strips of tarmac, no power lines and probably somewhere where nobody would notice the stench of 239 people who have just shat themselves.

Who ships something that valuable that they are going to tell the truth about? Somebody may be lying big time about this.

But as much fun as it is to think of this stuff, you are right, we'll probably never know.

Oh, somebody's been lying alright. That is beyond dispute. The first question is, is the lie malicious in nature, or is it just face-saving?

[slapout9]

The data pings from the aircraft confirm the flying time. Whether it landed or crashed at the end of that time, or whether anyone on board was conscious or even alive for much of that time, remains unknown, but we know how long it was in the air.

I should have been a little clearer. I don't believe it flew for that long and landed on land somewhere. I do believe he (pilot) flew as far as it would go before taking a nosedive into the ocean. Probably Indian Ocean.

[Dayuhan]

Bit of common sense on the pilot's politics:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...terrorist.html

[Biggus]

I should have been a little clearer. I don't believe it flew for that long and landed on land somewhere. I do believe he (pilot) flew as far as it would go before taking a nosedive into the ocean. Probably Indian Ocean.

For all we know, the guy died trying to save 238 people.

Bit of common sense on the pilot's politics:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...terrorist.html

Really good article.

[slapout9]

You seriously think homosexuality is the real issue in the Anwar Ibrahim case?

Stranger things have happened. It is illegal in Malaysia to be gay, It could have embarrassing political ramifications, the pilot was a supposed to be a Good Muslim....I don't know any good Muslim Gays. So the pilot was going to be embarrassed (out of the closet or whatever the girlie men say) and gets desperate and comes up with his "Plan" and then it goes very wrong as amateur/first time criminal plans often do. And when the pilot finally realizes what he has done....as is so often the case he decides to make as big a mess as possible.....so he drives the plane till it runs out of fuel...... to the middle of the big wide Indian ocean and splash....blub, blub, blub sink, sink, sink. A big mess!

[Biggus]

Stranger things have happened. It is illegal in Malaysia to be gay, It could have embarrassing political ramifications, the pilot was a supposed to be a Good Muslim....I don't know any good Muslim Gays. So the pilot was going to be embarrassed (out of the closet or whatever the girlie men say) and gets desperate and comes up with his "Plan" and then it goes very wrong as amateur/first time criminal plans often do. And when the pilot finally realizes what he has done....as is so often the case he decides to make as big a mess as possible.....so he drives the plane till it runs out of fuel...... to the middle of the big wide Indian ocean and splash....blub, blub, blub sink, sink, sink. A big mess!

I don't really have an adequate response, other than to suggest you click Dayuhan's link.

[slapout9]

Bit of common sense on the pilot's politics:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...terrorist.html

Sounds like Bill (blow job) Clinton when he swore he did not have sex with Monica Lewinski.

[slapout9]

I don't really have an adequate response, other than to suggest you click Dayuhan's link.

I did and I responded.

[slapout9]

For all we know, the guy died trying to save 238 people.

Yes, that is a possibility.

[Dayuhan]

Stranger things have happened. It is illegal in Malaysia to be gay, It could have embarrassing political ramifications, the pilot was a supposed to be a Good Muslim....I don't know any good Muslim Gays. So the pilot was going to be embarrassed (out of the closet or whatever the girlie men say) and gets desperate and comes up with his "Plan" and then it goes very wrong as amateur/first time criminal plans often do. And when the pilot finally realizes what he has done....as is so often the case he decides to make as big a mess as possible.....so he drives the plane till it runs out of fuel...... to the middle of the big wide Indian ocean and splash....blub, blub, blub sink, sink, sink. A big mess!

The only connection between him and being gay is that he supports a political party that has a leader who has been accused of being gay, an accusation that many believe to be political harassment. The same party believes (quite reasonably) that Malaysia's laws against homosexuality are medieval and should be reformed. That hardly makes him a closet queen. As I previously noted, Anwar and the PKR have strong support among urban, educated, affluent Malaysians, a group to which a senior MAS pilot surely belongs. Many of his neighbors probably feel the same way, does that make them all gay?

I don't know if he considered himself a "good Muslim" or not. If he was a PKR supporter he was certainly not a fundamentalist Muslim, but different people have different ideas about what being a good Muslim is.

If supporting a party that stands for democracy, political reform, and tolerance makes you gay, maybe the world needs more gay folks. As a basis for speculation it seems very thin and more than a bit rancid.

[Biggus]

Latest update changes things considerably, in my opinion.

Pivotal piece of information #1: ACARS radio link did not fail at 01:07. It transmitted as per expected, and was expected to send the next transmission at 01:37. It was therefore either disabled or it failed at some point in this half hour.

Pivotal piece of information #2: The final voice comms (Malaysian ATC handoff) was spoken by the First Officer.

We're still left with the problem of the transponder going dark a couple of minutes after the handoff, that's very coincidental for an accident. I'd really like to know the time of the garbled contact from another crew to MH370.

Some other strange things apparently came out of the latest press conference. Things like suggesting that the arcs were chosen as likely areas to investigate because they corresponded with airspeed data. That's a load of crap, because we already know that the arcs were selected based upon the latency of the SATCOM ACARS pings and the coverage areas of the relevant (ie, IOR) satellite(s). I suspect someone was asked a question he didn't know the answer to, and made up something on the spot.

Oh, and there was a large quantity of mangosteens. Three to four tonnes.

There's also been reports in the last day about MH370 following a terrain-masking flightplan as low as 5000ft, which if true would substantially shorten the possible flight range (but also probably result in destruction due to overstress).

[Dayuhan]

Oh, and there was a large quantity of mangosteens. Three to four tonnes.

Aliens love those things... or perhaps rations for the 47 day layover in eastern Kazakhstan?

[Biggus]

rations for the 47 day layover in eastern Kazakhstan?