10 years on and Malaysian Flight 370 still has to be solved

[Anthea]

Flight 370 Search Just Got A Lot More Interesting

As the search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 nears the two-month mark, frustrated investigators have yet to find any tangible evidence of the missing fuselage or any of the 239 passengers aboard. A recent report by Malaysian newspaper the New Strait Times, however, suggests that might be because they are looking in the wrong place.

Shortly after the disappearance, investigators began an exhaustive search of the area above which authorities were last able to track the flight. That effort, near the eastern coast of Vietnam, was scrapped when evidence showed the plane might have gone down elsewhere.

Experts have recently targeted their search to an area of the Indian Ocean off of Australia’s western coast. As Western Journalism previously reported, a series of pings believed to be from the plane’s black box were recovered from the area; and a deep-sea explorer was sent down to map the ocean floor for signs of the wreckage.

The Malaysian report, however, indicates at least some within the search team think that area could be another false lead.

“The thought of it landing somewhere else is not impossible,” the newspaper quoted one source, “as we have not found a single debris that could be linked to the MH370.”

Rumors that some nation is hiding the plane, however, “seems absurd,” the source cautioned.

Instead, the article suggests experts are now beginning to embrace the idea that the plane crash landed in a remote area. The search effort was reportedly limited from the beginning by the fact that communications satellites offered little concrete evidence of the plane’s speed, altitude, and direction for much of the flight.

“The reason investigators were forced to adopt a new algorithm to calculate the last known location of MH370 was because there was no global positioning system following the aircraft as the transponder went off 45 minutes into the flight,” a source confirmed.

Finding evidence by using the underwater explorer would rely solely on luck, the report concluded, noting that some on the team are recommending switching search locations.

“We can’t focus on one place too long as the ocean is very big,” a source explained.

Further hindering the search is the fact that some countries have apparently been less than forthcoming in releasing radar and other tracking information regarding the flight. In some cases, releasing all related data would be considered a security risk.

Malaysia, for instance, denied investigators any information after insisting no satellites had made contact with the flight.

“They informed us that not contact was made [and] that was the end of it,” a source concluded. “We can’t be forcing them to show us the data as they had already said there was nothing. However, if these countries do want to come forward, be it old or new data that has yet to be analyzed by our team, they are very welcome to do so.”

The ongoing saga surrounding this missing flight has captured the interest of individuals around the world, including millions of Americans who have paid close attention to the ongoing search efforts. If these latest concerns are valid, the long-awaited resolution might still be far off.

http://www.exposeobama.com/2014/04/23/m ... ng-flight/

[Anthea]

First Leg:

1. Flight 370 took off at 16:41 (all times UTC), on a direct path to IGARI, following route R208--a pretty straight path with a slight deviation at VKR.

2. We know from the secondary radar that MH370 achieved waypoing IGARI at about 17:20; then presumably a turn was initiated to follow route M675 (IGARI VENLI VKB), and then B219 (VKB VPG/Penang). However, as 7BOEING7 and Pihero have pointed out, since the turn is so sharp, it would not be a "fly-by" turn that cut the corner: rather, it would overfly IGARI, and then loop around to regain route M675.

3. At the south of Penang Island (VPG), there was a turn to the right toward Pulau Perak and VAMPI, where it would then pick up route N571 (VAMPI MEKAR NILAM IGOGU etc.). We know from the radar slide at the news conference that Pulau Perak was passed at 18:02, and that the last radar contact occurred at 18:22.

3.1 Yes, the last radar contact was labeled R295 200 nm from Butterworth AB, but that must have been a mistake IMHO, because when that point is actually plotted (see chart below), it is not very close to the depicted radar track. In addition, the label "R295 200 nm" was accompanied with an arrow that points directly to a position just a few miles to the west of waypoint MEKAR.

3.2 If the assumption that the position at 18:22 is a few miles west of MEKAR and not at "R295/200 nm" is correct, then that allows a precise determination of the ground speed: 486 knots

4. According to the Inmarsat Doppler chart, there is a "possible turn" starting at 18:25. Given a velocity of 486 knots, Flight 370 would have been at waypoint NILAM at precisely[I] 18:25. Now it just so happens that NILAM resides at the intersection of route N571 and route P627 that leads out of the north end of the Strait of Malacca through the so-called Great Channel separating the northern horn of Sumatra and the Nicobar Islands. Thus, it is quite likely IMHO that the plane at this point (NILAM) turned to the left on to route P627 (NILAM SANOB IGEBO POVUS BEDAX etc.). At 18:28, it would have passed waypoint SANOB. At [I]precisely 18:29, it would have crossed the Duncan Steel 18:29 "ping ring" LOP.

4.1 Many people have criticized the Duncan Steel ping rings as having no basis in reality. I have tried to explain how they were constructed. IMHO the reasoning is sound. Moreover, due to the Butterworth radar data, we can accept the above scenario with a high degree of certainty. Since almost certainly the a/c crossed the 18:29 LOP at precisely 18:29, then that tells me at least that the Duncan Steel ping rings have some credibility and deserve to be taken seriously. In Lizzie's Bayesian terms, the posterior probability that the ping rings are correct goes up because of the fact that the a/c evidently did cross the line at the predicted time.

4.2 According to SkyVector, the total distance from KUL to the 18:29 ping ring is ~800 nm. Assuming a speed of 486 knots, it should take about 1 hour, 39 minutes. Since the flight started at 16:41, then the predicted time of the 18:29 ping ring crossing should have been 18:20--quite close to the observed time, and reasonable, since a few minutes must be allowed for getting up to cruising speed after takeoff, plus the wide turn at IGARI.

5. After 18:29 is when things start getting speculative. So I must invoke some psychology at this point. Now, consider the flight path outlined so far: Number 1--it is obviously purposeful IMHO. It is a flight path that someone who just stole an entire Boeing 777 would take. If you've ever stolen a car, you know your first instinct is to haul ass and avoid locations where cops are likely to be found. This is what we have here: an a/c flying at a high rate of speed, and making moves to avoid radar: the last thing the thief wants is to be intercepted by a fighter or surface-to-air missile. Admittedly, the cut across the Malaysian Peninsula was a risky move, but he rightly gambled that it was too soon after the initial theft for the Malaysian authorities to react. No point in compounding the risk by overflying Indonesia though: hence the turn up the Strait of Malacca and out the Great Channel.

5.1 Note that I am not making any assumptions in this scenario regarding who the actual culprit(s) was/were: it could have been one or both of the pilots, it could have been the white guy from Boeing who gave away his watch and wedding ring beforehand, it could have been Iranian terrorists flying on stolen passports, it could have been Ukrainian neo-Nazis, Chinese Falun Gong zealots, Malaysian gay activists or anybody else with an axe to grind. Doesn't matter for my purposes....

6. The next thing to note is that whoever was at the controls followed named routes and waypoints, evidently entered by him into the Flight Management Computer (FMC). Therefore, it is quite likely IMHO that he would continue to fly a preprogrammed flight path consisting of named waypoints after escaping through the Great Channel. Only one problem: route P627 leads straight to the British and American B-52 base in Diego Garcia; the "cops" there ain't gonna fool around. Therefore, he would turn more directly south at some point. However, thanks to the Duncan Steel "ping rings", I believe he turned south at POVUS, because that best fits the next (19:40) ping ring. After POVUS, it was ISBIX, with a possible detour to BULVA.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... 31#menu127

[Anthea]

What it is not: (1) it is not a plot of dots on a SkyVector chart, although it shows the waypoints and routes that are on the SkyVector chart; (2) it is not a picture of an old fashioned, oscilloscope radar screen: it is a screenshot of a computer screen.

Things to note:

1. If you'll blow it up, you'll see that each individual contact consists of a bright dot, followed by a fuzzy description of some kind off to it's right.

2. The routes and waypoints can be clearly seen, although the waypoint labels are fuzzy; nevertheless, you can make out some of them: e.g., VAMPI, where the empty circle crosses over the "M" and "P". BOSTI to the right can be made out; MEKAR is at the very right of the screen.

3. Note that the label for 02:22H: it says "295R 200 nm from Butterworth AB", yet there is an arrow pointing to the edge of the screen toward the last radar points west of MEKAR.

4. If you were to plot 295R 200 nm, it would be at the corner of the label box.

5. The white circle is meant to indicate the period of time MH370 was lost from radar.

6. The lower label box "TIME - 02:02H PERAK ISLAND 279R 89nm from Butterworth AB" is actually fairly accurate--but we can't be sure how accurate because we don't know the exact location of the Butterworth radar antenna.

Conclusion: (a) the actual track of the aircraft follows the green dots with their descriptions; (b) it passes through the empty circle where radar contact is temporarily lost; (c) radar contact is regained at VAMPI, and goes to the end of the screen a little past MEKAR (aka route N571); (d) the "295R 200nm" must be some kind of mistake, because when taken in the context of everything else in the screenshot, it just doesn't fit.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... 31#menu127

[Londoner]

New facts have come to light. Apparently the plane had the means of remote control as a measure against hijacks. Whoever has control on this remote control on the plane, is responsible for what has happened to this plane.

Please read the post by TLEsley:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threa ... 79/page-18

[Anthea]

New facts have come to light. Apparently the plane had the means of remote control as a measure against hijacks. Whoever has control on this remote control on the plane, is responsible for what has happened to this plane.

Please read the post by TLEsley:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threa ... 79/page-18

Thank you very interesting - but it raises yet more questions:

What else are we not being told?
Who would benefit from such a kidnap?
Who would be capable of planing and carrying out such an action?
Who has managed to keep so much information hidden and why?

[Anthea]

We do not know where it is.
- We do not know how it went across Malaysia
- We do not have a single source for the timings of the chain of events, in particular the radar plot, therefore
- We cannot do a calculation on how much fuel was burnt during the time it was detected, therefore
- We cannot do a calculation on the speed and altitude combination possibilities in order to reach the last ping arc.
- More than one accident investigation agencies from other countries have called up the Air Accident Inspectorate of the Malaysian DCA to offer assistance, and not one has been replied to or answered to date. This event can be deemed as not being handled as an official air accident investigation as per ICAO Annex 13 to which Malaysia is a signatory party, therefore,
- Although pilot intervention is the most likely and cannot yet be ruled out, we cannot jump to conclusions about why and where it went to based solely on the intervention.

So not a great deal of positive information there then

What if this plane was indeed hijacked using remote control - is it being held in readyness to turn it into a flying bomb?

Will the next time we hear anything about this plane be when it crashes into a tower-block somewhere - perhaps on the anniversary of the 9/11 crashes

[Anthea]

There is talk amongst some people in Malaysia that MH370 was carrying an advanced missile which had been stored at the Chinese embassy in Malaysia for some time and had been sold to Russia. It is also believed by some of my friends' pilot friends at MH that the plane definitely landed and either took off again to end up in the Indian Ocean, or was destroyed if it landed next to Russia.

It seems implausible and verging on a crazy conspiracy theory to me, but the fact remains that there is still 2.3 tonnes of unaccounted for cargo.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... 84#menu202

[Anthea]

Malaysian plane's likely flight path gets 2nd look

SYDNEY (AP) — An international panel of experts will re-examine all data gathered in the nearly two-month hunt for the missing Malaysia jet to ensure search crews who have been scouring a desolate patch of ocean for the plane have been looking in the right place, officials said Monday.

Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China met in the Australian capital to hash out the details of the next steps in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which will center on an expanded patch of seafloor in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. The area became the focus of the hunt after a team of analysts calculated the plane's likeliest flight path based on satellite and radar data.

Starting Wednesday, that data will be re-analyzed and combined with all information gathered thus far in the search, which hasn't turned up a single piece of debris despite crews scouring more than 4.6 million square kilometers (1.8 million square miles) of ocean.

"We've got to this stage of the process where it's very sensible to go back and have a look at all of the data that has been gathered, all of the analysis that has been done and make sure there's no flaws in it, the assumptions are right, the analysis is right and the deductions and conclusions are right," Angus Houston, head of the search operation, told reporters in Canberra.

Investigators have been stymied by a lack of hard data since the plane vanished on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A weekslong search for surface debris was called off last week after officials determined any wreckage that may have been floating has likely sunk.

"Unfortunately, all of that effort has found nothing," Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss said. "We've been confident on the basis of the information provided that the search area was the right one, but in practice, that confidence has not been converted into us discovering any trace of the aircraft."

Houston has warned that the underwater search may drag on for up to a year.

Houston and Truss met with Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Chinese Transport Minister Yang Chuantang in Canberra on Monday to map out the next steps of the underwater search, which will focus on a 60,000 square kilometer (23,000 square mile) patch of seafloor. Officials are contacting governments and private contractors to find out whether they have specialized equipment that can dive deeper than the Bluefin 21, an unmanned sub that has spent weeks scouring the seafloor in an area where sounds consistent with a plane's black box were detected in early April.

The Bluefin can dive only to depths of 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) — and parts of the search zone are likely deeper than that. Adding to the difficulties is the fact no one really knows exactly how deep the water in the search area is.

"I don't know that anyone knows for sure, because it's never been mapped," Truss said, adding that detailed mapping of the seafloor will be a key focus of the next phase of the search.

In addition to deeper diving capabilities, the new equipment will be able to send information back to crews in real time. The Bluefin's data can be downloaded only after it returns to the surface following each of its 16-hour dives.

It will likely take another two months before any new equipment is in the water, Truss said. The Bluefin will continue to be used in the meantime, though its search is currently on hold while the ship Ocean Shield, which has the sub on board, is taking on supplies at a base in Western Australia.

http://news.yahoo.com/malaysian-planes- ... 22310.html

[Londoner]

There are many things don't add up.

Please look at the following google map link and compare the distance between Malaysia and Vietnam and Malaysia and West Australia, where the plane vanished as claimed. You see the distance to West Australia is longer by at least three times to the distance to Vietnam. Now the plane could have fuel enough to fly a few hundred miles longer to Vietnam, but to West Australia it needed fuel to fly over a thousand miles more. So it was impossible for the plane to reach to West Australia.

But the distance to De Garcia Island is about one and half the distance to Vietnam. Many reports claim eye witnesses in Maldive Islands seen the plane and Maldive Islands are on the way to Degarcia Islands.

Now according to inmarsat satellites the plane went to West Australia. Now does inmarsat telling the truth or what. It is impossible for the plane to reach West Australia. But with a bit of extra fuel and the ability of boeng 777 to glide for 90 miles, it was possible fore the plane to reach De Garcia Island.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Die ... d1c5?hl=en




https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Diego Garcia/@3.362183,86.1351728,3z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x249273fe6d69b0ad:0x3b3c07570eb0d1c5?hl=en

[Anthea]

There are many things don't add up.

Please look at the following google map link and compare the distance between Malaysia and Vietnam and Malaysia and West Australia, where the plane vanished as claimed. You see the distance to West Australia is longer by at least three times to the distance to Vietnam. Now the plane could have fuel enough to fly a few hundred miles longer to Vietnam, but to West Australia it needed fuel to fly over a thousand miles more. So it was impossible for the plane to reach to West Australia.

But the distance to De Garcia Island is about one and half the distance to Vietnam. Many reports claim eye witnesses in Maldive Islands seen the plane and Maldive Islands are on the way to Degarcia Islands.

Now according to inmarsat satellites the plane went to West Australia. Now does inmarsat telling the truth or what. It is impossible for the plane to reach West Australia. But with a bit of extra fuel and the ability of boeng 777 to glide for 90 miles, it was possible fore the plane to reach De Garcia Island.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Die ... d1c5?hl=en

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Diego Garcia/@3.362183,86.1351728,3z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x249273fe6d69b0ad:0x3b3c07570eb0d1c5?hl=en

Thank you I followed your link looking for a picture of Diego Garcia found these:





Then it becomes even MORE INTERESTING :

[Anthea]

Did Hijacked Malaysia Flight 370 Passenger Phillip Wood Send Photo From Hidden iPhone?

Is passenger Phillip Wood and others still alive after Malaysia flight 370 was hijacked then taken to a secret U.S. military base located on a remote island in the Indian Ocean?

INDIAN OCEAN (INTELLIHUB) — According to freelance journalist Jim Stone, one of the American passengers, Phillip Wood, a technical storage executive at IBM, who was aboard the now missing Malaysian Airlines flight, hid his iPhone 5 in his rear end after the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people was hijacked by military personnel while on route to China.



Was Malaysia Flight 370 hijacked and taken to the highly secretive US Military base on Diego Garcia? The American military base on the island of Diego Garcia is one of the most strategically important and secretive U.S. military installations outside the United States. Located near the remote center of the Indian Ocean and accessible only by military transport, the base was a little-known launch pad for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and may house a top-secret CIA prison where terror suspects are interrogated and tortured. But Diego Garcia harbors another dirty secret, one that has been kept from most of the world–until now.

As reported by Stone, the picture was posted along with the following text allegedly from Wood:

“I have been held hostage by unknown military personal after my flight was hijacked (blindfolded). I work for IBM and I have managed to hide my cellphone in my ass during the hijack. I have been separated from the rest of the passengers and I am in a cell. My name is Philip Wood. I think I have been drugged as well and cannot think clearly.”

Anthea: Could all be sheer fantasy but makes a great story - remember the site is run by CRAZY Christians

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=17904

[Anthea]

Was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Redirected to Diego Garcia?

It has now become fairly evident that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing is not accidental. In fact, there is a strong possibility that the flight was commandeered to the US military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. A bizarre “extraordinary rendition“?

Please note that this article is being expanded and updated regularly. I have decided to keep all the information in one place, as opposed to having it scattered across several different posts. So do check back. Also note that some commentators have posted very insightful information.
Why did Flight 370 try to hide its whereabouts?

MH370 was a 777-200 service carrying 239 passenger and crew on a regular Kuala Lumpur to Beijing service. To recap, it left KL at 12.40 am, it disappeared as a commercial radar trace at 1.22 am close to the area where such radar visibility to the Malaysia air traffic control system drops off, and was never observed as entering Vietnam controlled air space on a path intended to cross that country to the South China Sea and continue past Hong Kong toward its destination. The transponders on Flight 370 was switched off immediately after it was outside the visibility of Malaysia’s air traffic control! To quote a poster GarageYears on a forum for professional pilots,

Turning off the transponder isn’t just a toggle or push-button, the switch is a rotary and you’d have to move it two positions to get it into the standby condition.

This could only have been done by a compromised crew, or by hijackers. To quote another forum member Tfor2,

1. It was a hi-jack (transponder turned off, no Mayday), and the plane was not under the control of the pilots. It flew to wherever was demanded, and something happened thereafter causing it to crash, probably from an effort to regain control (as with United 93 during events of 9/11). So it could be anywhere. An eye-witness will eventually come forward. 2. The most fearsome worry to come out of this is how come an aircraft can invade national territory without military or civil or satellite detection? This leaves a hole in the defense systems of all countries.

To quote a professional A330 pilot,

"I think the flight deck was compromised."

But that’s not the only sign that Flight 370 was trying to hide its whereabouts. Immediately after shutting off its transponders, Flight 370 made a U-turn and headed in the direction of Diego Garcia, crossing Malaysia in the process. If there indeed had been a massive technical failure, the crew would have tried to safely ditch the plane at sea, not return to Malaysia. And if there had been a cabin decompression, the plane would have slowly lost altitude, crashing into the Gulf of Thailand. Malaysia’s Air Force Chief General Rodzali Daud first raised the possibility that the plane had reversed course the very next day (9th March), and he was quoted by a Malay-language paper as saying the jet had been tracked hundreds of miles from its intended flight path, over the Strait of Malacca off western Malaysia, and up to 320 kilometres northwest of the Malaysian state of Penang, after which it either disappeared or Malaysian radar lost capability to track it. It was clearly flying low, as if to avoid detection by radar.

Anthea: This site has lots of real information on it and well worth looking at

http://www.cabaltimes.com/2014/03/12/ma ... go-garcia/

[Anthea]

The investigation team maps released last week indicates that the plane had flown 811 nm at 1822 Z at the last defence radar point. KUL - IGARI is 275 nm and IGARI - VKB - VPG - VAMPI - MEKAR - NILAM is 493.7 nm according to Skyvector. If we substract half of the MEKAR - NILAM distance of 34 nm (to approximate the last defence radar point), we get around 476 nm. That leaves 811 - 275 - 476 = 60 nm unaccounted for beyond disappearing from secondary radar at IGARI. That results in an average ground speed of 528 kt between IGARI at 172104 Z and last defence radar point at 182200 Z.

I suppose that means something to someone

At IGARI, a left turn back towards Malaysia would have been "sharp", whereas the large right loop shown in that one slide, would be "gentle"?
Is this possibly why that loop is illustrated?

Why would the plane loop round in such a manner?

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... 88#menu152

[Anthea]

Director defends movie about missing Malaysian plane



The director of a movie based on the disappearance of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has apologised for a promotional trailer that portrays a love triangle among members of its crew.

Rupesh Paul unveiled "The Vanishing Act" at the Cannes Film Festival.

A brief trailer for the film appears to show a flight attendant kissing another crew member on the cheek while a third employee looks on.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Rupesh Paul Productions said that element of the teaser trailer was to be removed soon "so as not to hurt sentiments" of the families of those on the plane.

Flight MH370 became invisible to civilian radar when its transponder stopped transmitting during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March.

Delays in confirming the flight's change of direction led to several days of wasted searching for wreckage in the South China Sea along the airliner's original course, before an analysis of satellite data identified the southern Indian Ocean as a more likely crash site.

Paul told AP that until he arrived in Cannes it never occurred to him that the families of those on the missing plane might think the film had been made too soon.

Paul said the plot will revolve around an investigative report by a Malaysian journalist, which the teaser trailer does not reflect.

http://tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news/di ... ne-5980684

[Anthea]

emirates247

5 conspiracy theories gaining traction

The fruitless MH370 search has breathed new life into conspiracy theories on the plane's fate, with a book, two films and even a former prime minister pushing ideas ranging from diversion by the CIA to an accidental shoot-down.

A host of wild theories including a Taliban hijack or meteor strike had emerged to fill the information vacuum in the days following the plane's disappearance on March 8 with 239 aboard as authorities across Asia scrambled to figure out what happened.

The speculation abated after Malaysia said in late March the plane was believed to have gone down in the Indian Ocean for unknown reasons, but has revived due to the failure of an international search effort to find any trace of the plane.

In a blog posting Sunday, former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad put his weight behind online rumours that the Boeing 777 had a feature allowing the plane's controls to be taken over remotely.

The still-influential Mahathir, 88, said the US Central Intelligence Agency might have taken control of the American-made plane after it was commandeered by terrorists, adding it was possible "the plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS (Malaysia Airlines) markings".

"Can it not be that the pilot of MH370 lost control of their aircraft after someone directly or remotely activated the equipment for seizure of control of the aircraft?" Mahathir wrote.

"Someone is hiding something. It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the blame," said Mahathir.

Very Interesting article:

http://www.emirates247.com/news/mh370-l ... 5-1.546548