The Mystery of Missing Malaysia Airlines 370

[Razgovory]

It's being reported that two of the people who were on board according to the flight manifest - an Italian and an Austrian - were in fact not onboard, but both reported their passports stolen within the last year or so (in Thailand, I believe).

It doesn't mean that it's connected, of course, but still curious.

I wonder how common that is.

[Capetan Mihali]

Yeah, where else could they be? They clearly aren't 2nd. That leaves 1st and 3rd as the options.

The capital cities of a lot of countries are much better off than the rest of the country. I've always heard the designations applied to countries rather than splitting between regions.

The 2nd World was meant to refer to the Soviet Union and its allies (or other communist countries like China, though not in Mao's original formulation where it meant 1st World allies, pointedly directed at the USSR). 

The whole "three worlds" concept is outdated at best, probably useless when it was actually relevant, and seriously pernicious at worst; so the intricacies of designating countries or regions within the scheme strikes me as an exercise in futility.

[Monoriu]

Latest news: some families called the mobiles of the passengers, got a connection, then lost the signal well after the plane went down 

Most probably stolen phones.  Or their loved ones told them a different story than what really happened. 

[Monoriu]

Yeah, this is all over the news here, as the bulk of the passengers are Chinese.  Probably just an accident, but of course nobody is ruling anything out, as they haven't even found the debris yet (should be somewhere near Vietnam).

I think it's less likely to be an accident than an act of sabotage.  It's really unusual for airliners to just vanish mid-flight without so much as a quick distress call.  Of course, that Air France flight from Brazil to France that crashed into the Atlantic a few years back turned out to be an accident, but midflight accidents like that with not even a peep from the pilots are incredibly rare.

Terror really only works if it is obvious that it is an act of terror.  Planes disappearing in mid-air by accident is well within the realm of possibility.  We'll know when they find the wreckage.  That may take a few weeks, I think.   

[dps]

Yeah, this is all over the news here, as the bulk of the passengers are Chinese.  Probably just an accident, but of course nobody is ruling anything out, as they haven't even found the debris yet (should be somewhere near Vietnam).

I think it's less likely to be an accident than an act of sabotage.  It's really unusual for airliners to just vanish mid-flight without so much as a quick distress call.  Of course, that Air France flight from Brazil to France that crashed into the Atlantic a few years back turned out to be an accident, but midflight accidents like that with not even a peep from the pilots are incredibly rare.

Terror really only works if it is obvious that it is an act of terror.  Planes disappearing in mid-air by accident is well within the realm of possibility.  We'll know when they find the wreckage.  That may take a few weeks, I think.   

All sabotage isn't necessarily terrorism.  Could be a disgruntled airline employee or the like.

[jimmy olsen]

 
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/no-terror-group-claims-credit-missing-jet-official-says-n48481

The two stolen passports bear a troubling travel pattern, according to senior intelligence sources.

In at least one prior instance, the passports were used in tandem to board a flight.

[CountDeMoney]

Oh for fuck's sake, that side of the planet sees stolen passports every fucking day.

And quite frankly, if it was a catastrophic flight problem the pilots were probably too busy trying to control the plane to fiddle with the radio, especially if it's pitch down.  That water comes up fast.

[Admiral Yi]

Even money says it was terrorists.

Anything else the crew should have gotten off a May Day.

[CountDeMoney]

Reasons why it's not terrorism:

1.  Nobody's claimed responsibility, and you know how they love to brag.  Not even the usual crazies have said anything.
2,  Not enough Americans to make it worthwhile.  Sorry, ROTW citizens, but you're just not worth the effort.

The flight may have changed course and turned back toward Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian military officials said at a news conference Sunday.
But the pilot appears to have given no signal to authorities that he was turning around, the officials said, attributing the change of course to indications from radar data.

Could've been a significant electric/electronic failure event on board that prohibited even so much as a mayday; when you have a catastrophic systems failure like that, nothing works.

[Monoriu]

From what I've read in the newspaper and heard on the radio, most experts agree that the plane disintegrated in mid-air.  It must be very sudden so that the pilot could not react at all.  Will be years before we find out the reason. 

[jimmy olsen]

Reasons why it's not terrorism:

1.  Nobody's claimed responsibility, and you know how they love to brag.  Not even the usual crazies have said anything.
2,  Not enough Americans to make it worthwhile.  Sorry, ROTW citizens, but you're just not worth the effort.

There were plenty of Chiense though. Could have been the Uyghurs maybe?

[Monoriu]

Reasons why it's not terrorism:

1.  Nobody's claimed responsibility, and you know how they love to brag.  Not even the usual crazies have said anything.
2,  Not enough Americans to make it worthwhile.  Sorry, ROTW citizens, but you're just not worth the effort.

There were plenty of Chiense though. Could have been the Uyghurs maybe?

They will target a Chinese domestic flight.  Doesn't make sense for them to target a Malaysian air liner, because they are fellow muslims.

[CountDeMoney]

Uighurs?   

Uighur, please.   

[Jacob]

Re: the no communication thing - from what I've read, sending out a pilot triggered distress signal is secondary or tertiary in an emergency to assessing the situation and keeping the plane airborne. So if no automatic mayday signal was triggered, the pilots could very well have been too busy to send out any signals.

Re: the passports - I agree with Seedy about the common usage of stolen passports. It's just as likely that they were simply trying to go somewhere where they otherwise couldn't. Though I read a report that there's CCTV footage of the two people who used the passport currently being examined by the Malaysian authorities, so that could provide a lead (if true).

[alfred russel]

Caliga's pal that found amelia earhart's plane needs to get on this case.