Airliner missing between Malaysia and Cambodia/Vietnam, terrorism possible

[AmericanPride]

Well... as far as a dry run... wouldn't it be important for the plane to at least be found so that assessments could be made about how difficult it was to penetrate security, seize the aircraft, etc? If this was a dry run, the perpetrators would only know the external search and rescue response.

[carl]

Calling JMM 99.

Mike, this is an idle question but I'm curious. Can the flight crew hi-jack their own airplane? They are the final authority on what the plane does and where it goes while it is in the air and can always argue flight safety. They can be charged with stealing the airplane and kidnapping I suppose once they land but can they be charged with hi-jacking?

[TheCurmudgeon]

More information: http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2...atellite-data/

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from civilian radar at 1:21 a.m. on March 8 over the Gulf of Thailand. Just two minutes before that, the co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had said a routine goodnight over the radio to the control tower in Kuala Lumpur, where the plane had taken off 40 minutes earlier. If there was anything amiss, Fariq’s voice didn’t betray it. Was he hiding malicious intentions well? If he was innocent, was someone else in the cockpit at that very moment, forcing him at the point of a weapon of some kind to feign calm? Or did someone take control of the plane immediately after that last goodnight and shut off the plane’s transponder in a carefully planned hijacking, just as the plane was exiting Malaysian airspace?

The problem is that none of these theories are especially plausible. So far, Malaysian authorities have searched Fariq’s home and that of the captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah. Their personal histories don’t suggest they were dangerous people, though that investigation is not yet concluded. On the other hand, if there were sophisticated hijackers aboard the plane who knew exactly when the plane would be flying out of range of Malaysian civilian radar, then what were their goals? Why hasn’t anyone heard from the plane in more than a week?

What are the odds that the Malaysian radar tracking is wrong and we are all chasing ghosts?

[slapout9]

What are the odds that the Malaysian radar tracking is wrong and we are all chasing ghosts?

Wouldn't surprise me at all. This whole thing is about chasing ghosts, nobody seems to know anything for sure. That is why we should stick with the backrounds of all the people involved, the hardware answers just don't seem to be working out.

[TheCurmudgeon]

Wouldn't surprise me at all. This whole thing is about chasing ghosts, nobody seems to know anything for sure. That is why we should stick with the backrounds of all the people involved, the hardware answers just don't seem to be working out.

I would agree with you. I will admit I am, perhaps unnecessarily, interested in this incident. I wish I knew more about the key players, but I also realize that I am just a spectator.

I keep coming back to what I term my "worst case scenario" - that the plane was stolen (and all aboard who were not in on the plan, killed) in order to use it to fly something big and nasty into the US. The saving grace seems to be that, from what I can tell, even if fully refueled, it could not make it to the US from, lets say, Pakistan. (Sorry to everyone in London, I am pretty sure it could reach you.)

Again, it is probably just the Irish Whiskey speaking, but I do have a small concern that this plane could be used to devastating effect as part of a larger plan.

[TheCurmudgeon]

More news that makes things less clear.

Malaysian authorities, in the latest of a series of U-turns, reversed themselves Monday on a key detail of what happened in the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the minutes before it vanished from civilian radar nine days ago.

The government had previously said that a key satellite communications system had been disabled some time before the cockpit made final radio contact with air traffic control — and before the plane disappeared from civilian radar contact with 239 passengers and crew on board.

That sequence of events suggested that something suspicious was already underway before that final radio call was made, and that one or both pilots were either involved in a plot to commandeer the Boeing 777 or acting under duress.

But authorities acknowledged Monday that they do not know exactly when that data system went dark, making it harder to pinpoint when the suspected act of hijacking or sabotage was initiated.

The new disclosure does not change the criminal nature of the probe into the missing airliner — an investigation that now has countries from Australia to Kazakhstan scouring radar and satellite data for signs of the plane, and deploying sea and air search teams to hunt for evidence of the aircraft. It still appears likely that somebody was trying to cover their tracks as the plane was deliberately flown off-course.

[Dayuhan]

Wouldn't surprise me at all. This whole thing is about chasing ghosts, nobody seems to know anything for sure. That is why we should stick with the backrounds of all the people involved, the hardware answers just don't seem to be working out.

True enough, though if anything really interesting or suspect has been found out about any of the people, it has yet to be revealed... which is of course not surprising.

I keep coming back to what I term my "worst case scenario" - that the plane was stolen (and all aboard who were not in on the plan, killed) in order to use it to fly something big and nasty into the US. The saving grace seems to be that, from what I can tell, even if fully refueled, it could not make it to the US from, lets say, Pakistan. (Sorry to everyone in London, I am pretty sure it could reach you.)

I just can't see how you'd get it to Pakistan, or any similar place. To fly it to Pakistan you'd have to cross India and/or China, and how do you do that without triggering some kind of alert? Given the combination of having to fly through heavily watched airspace, finding a place to land, refuel, and take off again undetected... it just doesn't come off as very probable, at least not without active complicity from one or more governments..

If I had to guess, I'd guess somebody had a plan, and it failed catastrophically, leading to the plane cruising off over and eventually into the ocean. It would not be a guess with a very high confidence level, but at this point none of them have a very high confidence level.

[TheCurmudgeon]

True enough, though if anything really interesting or suspect has been found out about any of the people, it has yet to be revealed... which is of course not surprising.


I just can't see how you'd get it to Pakistan, or any similar place. To fly it to Pakistan you'd have to cross India and/or China, and how do you do that without triggering some kind of alert? Given the combination of having to fly through heavily watched airspace, finding a place to land, refuel, and take off again undetected... it just doesn't come off as very probable, at least not without active complicity from one or more governments..

You would have to trace the route of a normal commercial airline. For all intents and purposes it would look like a normal commercial airline. Flown close enough to a plane already on that route, it could look like an echo.

Yes, there would be complicity from Pakistan (or elements in the Pakistani security services who are pissed about the murder of bin Laden), but I am not sure that is really a stretch.

[anotherguy]

Re: possibility of the pilot being homosexual. Somewhere earlier today I read that his wife and children moved out of their home the day before the flight disappeared, but as with everything surrounding this, hard facts seem tough to come by.

ETA: Wife and kids moving out mentioned here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...detection.html

Maybe he came out, they moved out and instead of going to prison he ended it in protest? Although, it's curious that it has been disclosed that they had moved out, but no explanation is given. Why the secrecy?

I have been catching up on this discussion in bits and pieces so forgive me if it has already been mentioned, but has anyone mentioned possibility of testing an exploit of whatever the exact vulnerability mentioned here is:

https://www.federalregister.gov/arti...ctronic-system