Beijing bound Air Malaysia flight loses contact

[Thorough Pro]

That plane is "huge" only when you are standing next to it, and btw do you have any idea how many planes are in the air around the globe at given point? take a look at this

Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!

I m surprised that in this very advance electronics time where so many systems are there to communicate and keep eye on earth how the hell a huge plane got lost without any clue?

 

[MarveL]

That plane is "huge" only when you are standing next to it, and btw do you have any idea how many planes are in the air around the globe at given point? take a look at this

Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!

That plane is "huge" only when you are standing next to it, and btw do you have any idea how many planes are in the air around the globe at given point? take a look at this

Flightradar24.com - Live flight tracker!

 

[Al Bhatti]

one - as of now you can't make a call from a flying plane via cell phone (you can however do so using pay phone, provided airline provides that facility)

Two - I don't think any normal passenger would ever know if their plane is on course or has veered off (even the most experienced pilots can't tell that without some kind of NAVAID equipment

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Staying Connected | The Emirates Experience | Emirates United Kingdom

 

[Krueger]

Missing MH370: South Korea, Japan and India join search for missing plane
Saturday March 15, 2014

PETALING JAYA: South Korea has joined in the search for the missing flight MH370, bringing the total number of countries involved to 14.

South Korean Ambassador to Malaysia Cho Byung-jae said two aircraft – a P-3 and a C-130 – of the country’s air force with 39 supporting personnel would be deployed today.

Cho said Wisma Putra was informed of the decision yesterday.

Japan is adding further assets in its quest to expand the search area for MH370.

The Japanese Embassy, in a statement, added that two P-3C Orion patrol craft from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force would commence search operations today.

“Two C-130 transport aircraft from the Air Self-Defence Force are currently on search operations as part of the Japan Disaster Relief Team,” the statement added.

Both aircraft were joined by a Japan Coast Guard Gulfstream V aircraft which started its search operations yesterday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of islands by the Andaman Sea will be searched by Indian aircraft, as five ships have been deployed in the hunt for the missing aircraft.

The Wall Street Journal wrote that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which come under Indian jurisdiction, were being searched by aircraft from yesterday morning.

Indian tri-service command spokesman Col Harmit Singh said that only 37 of the stretch’s 572 islands were inhabited, with the rest being dense tropical jungle and that Malaysia had not directly asked them to search them.

No airstrips were on these uninhabited islands, he said, adding that they would search using heat-seeking devices.

He said that an air search over the Bay of Bengal was likely to commence.

The Times of India also reported that five vessels, namely INS Kumbhir, INS Kesari,offshore patrol vessel INS Sarayu and two Coast Guard fast patrol vessels, were sent to search an area covering 35,000 sq km south of the Andaman Sea.

India’s Air Force also dispatched five planes including C-130J Super Hercules and P-8i long-range reconnaissance aircraft to look for the missing plane.

Missing MH370: South Korea, Japan and India join search for missing plane - Nation | The Star Online

 

[BoQ77]

Malaysia authorities concluded that the search should be moved to India ocean

 

[Mighty Caty]

Malaysian government officials say plane was hijacked

Malaysian government officials say plane was hijacked - Yahoo!7

A Malaysian government official says investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

The official, who is involved in the investigation, says no motive has been established, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory. "It is conclusive."

The Boeing 777's communication with the ground was severed under one hour into a flight March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian officials have said radar data suggest it may have turned back and crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula westward, after setting out toward the Chinese capital.

New type of satellite data

A US official told Associated Press that investigators looking for the plane have run out of clues except for a type of satellite data that has never been used before to find a missing plane, and is very inexact.

The data consists of attempts by an Inmarsat satellite to identify a broad area where the plane might be in case a messaging system aboard the plane should need to connect with the satellite, said the official. The official compared the location attempts, called a "handshake," to someone driving around with their cellphone not in use. As the phone from passes from the range of one cellphone tower to another, the towers note that the phone is in range in case messages need to be sent.

• Jungle-covered Andaman Islands scoured for plane
• Plane 'at the bottom of the ocean'
• Malaysia plane may have had transponder shut down deliberately
• Engine data shows missing flight was airborne for five hours: WSJ sources
• No debris at 'crash site': Malaysia

In the case of the Malaysian plane, there were successful attempts by the satellite to roughly locate the Boeing 777 about once an hour over four to five hours, the official said. "This is all brand new to us," the official said. "We've never had to use satellite handshaking as the best possible source of information."

The handshake does not transmit any data on the plane's altitude, airspeed or other information that might help in locating it, the official said. Instead, searchers are trying to use the handshakes to triangulate the general area of where the plane last was known to have been at the last satellite check, the official said.

"It is telling us the airplane was continuing to operate," the official said, plus enough information on location so that the satellite will know how many degrees to turn to adjust its antenna to pick up any messages from the plane.


The official confirmed prior reports that following the loss of contact with the plane's transponder, the plane turned west. A transponder emits signals that are picked up by radar providing a unique identifier for each plane along with altitude. Malaysian military radar continued to pick up the plane as a whole "paintskin" — a radar blip that has no unique identifier — until it traveled beyond the reach of radar, which is about 320 kilometers (200 miles) offshore, the official said.

The New York Times, quoting American officials and others familiar with the investigation, said radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military appear to show the airliner climbing to 45,000 feet (about 13,700 meters), higher than a Boeing 777's approved limit, soon after it disappeared from civilian radar, and making a sharp turn to the west. The radar track then shows the plane descending unevenly to an altitude of 23,000 feet (7,000 meters), below normal cruising levels, before rising again and flying northwest over the Strait of Malacca toward the Indian Ocean, the Times reported.

TWO POSSIBLE PATHS SUGGESTED

Analysis of electronic pulses picked up from a missing Malaysian airliner shows it could have run out of fuel and crashed into the Indian Ocean after it flew hundreds of miles off course, a source familiar with official U.S. assessments told Reuters.

The source, who is familiar with data the U.S. government is receiving from the investigation into the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane, said the other, but less likely possibility, was that it flew on toward India.

The data obtained from pulses the plane sent to satellites had been interpreted to provide two different analyses because it was ambiguous, said the source, who declined to be identified because of the ongoing investigation.

A U.S. official said in Washington that investigators are examining the possibility of "human intervention" in the plane's disappearance, adding it may have been "an act of piracy." The official, who wasn't authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said it also was possible the plane may have landed somewhere.

Earlier Friday, acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the country had yet to determine what happened to the plane after it dropped off civilian radar and ceased communicating with the ground around 40 minutes into the flight to Beijing on March 8.

He said investigators were still trying to establish with certainty that military radar records of a blip moving west across the Malay Peninsula into the Strait of Malacca showed Flight MH370.

"I will be the most happiest person if we can actually confirm that it is the MH370, then we can move all (search) assets from the South China Sea to the Strait of Malacca," he told reporters. Until then, he said, the international search effort would continue expanding east and west from the plane's last confirmed location.

A Malaysian official said it had now been established with a "more than 50 percent" degree of certainty that military radar had picked up the missing plane.

 

[Mujraparty]

It WAS hijacked: Malaysian official says it's CONCLUSIVE jet carrying 239 was hijacked at 35,000 ft by individual or group 'with significant flying experience'

Read more: It WAS hijacked: Malaysian official says it's CONCLUSIVE jet carrying 239 was seized at 35,000 ft by individual or group 'with significant flying experience' | Mail Online

 

[drunken-monke]

A press conference by Malaysian PM that Plane has been hijacked...

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Oh Yes!

Police investigating the backgrounds of all 239 people aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight are paying “special attention” to a 35 year-old Chinese Uighur man who undertook flight simulation training, according to a report in a leading Malay language newspaper in Kuala Lumpur.

Missing Malaysia Airlines jet: Investigation paying 'special attention' to Chinese Uighur passenger

 

[Mujraparty]

https://twitter.com/x/status/444722302609920001

The last communication between plane and satellite was at 8:15am on Saturday

 

[45'22']

Malaysia Airlines flight hijacked, conclude investigators: official | NDTV.com

 

[Edison Chen]

Malaysia PM confirmed the contact system was shut down by someone, not a breakdown.

 

[jian-10]

if it indeed was hijacked, then they pulled it off masterfully if they didn't crash the plane, wow!

 

[bolo]

Oh Yes!

Police investigating the backgrounds of all 239 people aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight are paying “special attention” to a 35 year-old Chinese Uighur man who undertook flight simulation training, according to a report in a leading Malay language newspaper in Kuala Lumpur.

Missing Malaysia Airlines jet: Investigation paying 'special attention' to Chinese Uighur passenger

So taking flight simulation training will make you an expert in flying a real 777 ? I have hundreds of hours playing F15 strike eagle and ms flight simulator. I can fly a jet fighter and boeing 747.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

So taking flight simulation training will make you an expert in flying a real 777 ? I have hundreds of hours playing F15 strike eagle and ms flight simulator. I can fly a jet fighter and boeing 747.

Cool down brother. I am just providing URLs.

Ishallah, the plane be found..