The Mystery of Missing Malaysia Airlines 370

[alfred russel]

Oh christ someone stole the plane. The PM's confirming it, too.

I'm confused. Like stole as in took in order to get money or future use out of the asset? That makes no sense to me. This is so high profile how could anyone expect success?

There must be a terrorist angle...

[Sheilbh]

Viable airports or strips it could've landed in:

Data from X-Plane provides coordinates for runways around the world. A Boeing 777 pilot is quoted in Slate as estimating a runway length requirement of 5,000 feet. A recent Wall Street Journal article quoted sources stating the flight could have continued for 2,200 nautical miles from its last known position.The WNYC Data News team found 634 runways that meet these criteria, spread across 26 different countries. including such far-flung places as:Gan Airport (Maldives), Dalanzadgad Airport (Mongolia), Yap Airport (Micronesia), Miyazaki Airport (Japan)

Apparently the Malaysians are briefing that they think it went to the Chinese-Kyrgyz border. But it barely seems plausible that a plane could travel over north India, Pakistan or near Afghanistan without it being picked up by someone

[Jacob]

It's entering James Bond like territory.

[Beenherebefore]

Good narrowing-down job there.

[Monoriu]

The Malaysian government has become the laughing stock in this part of the world.  They tell at least a different story every day.  Different departments contradict themselves within the same day.  One day we see high ranking generals denying that the plane went west, the next day we see their PM confirming the same reports.  It took the US to leak the info to the media for them to admit the truth.  And they treat the relatives of the passengers like they are a nuisance. 

[Monoriu]

Viable airports or strips it could've landed in:


Apparently the Malaysians are briefing that they think it went to the Chinese-Kyrgyz border. But it barely seems plausible that a plane could travel over north India, Pakistan or near Afghanistan without it being picked up by someone

I've read somewhere that it is possible to land a plane on a highway.

[grumbler]

I've read somewhere that it is possible to land a plane on a highway.

The 777's wings don't retract into the fuselage, so even if the plane landed on a highway, it wouldn't blend into the traffic well.

[Liep]

It's entering James Bond like territory.

It will definitely get a movie.

[lustindarkness]

It's entering James Bond like territory.

It will definitely get a movie.

But it won't be as good as the book. They never are.

[alfred russel]

It's entering James Bond like territory.

It will definitely get a movie.

I see a future of full employment for the asian american segment of the screen actors guild. At least for a few months.

[Liep]

BBC need to make sure that 6 year old articles doesn't end up in the most read section. For a moment I thought a SAS plane had just crashed with 172 passengers.

[PJL]

Here's another thing that supports the pilot is a highjacker theory - this was done on a overnight flight, and the plane makes a move west rather than continues east, in the opposite direction of the earth's rotation. This won't matter for radar etc, but whoever flew the plane definitely wanted to keep the passengers literally in the dark for as long as possible in order to minimise panic. Though if the last pinger was recorded 8 hours later then there would have been daylight or at least twilight. But I expect by then the passengers were either dead or incapacitated.  This definitely looks like it was meticulously planned, and not just a spur of the moment thing, like a pilot suicide would have been.

[lustindarkness]

What is scarier? If they figure out what happened or someone takes responsibility? Or that we never find out what really happened?

[PJL]

What is scarier? If they figure out what happened or someone takes responsibility? Or that we never find out what really happened?

I rather they figure out who did it, rather than we never find out. Hell, we're not even sure if the plane did crash. Until even that is ascertained, we may end up with another 9/11 tomorrow for all we know.

Or as Rumsfeldt might say, a known known is better than a unknown known, no better how bad the known known might had.

[The Brain]

It's entering James Bond like territory.

A volcano?