There’s no ending to the story yet so one of the best places to go for informed speculation on MH370 is PPRUNE, the Professional Pilots Rumor Network, where imagination is tempered with knowledge. For facts without speculation the site most likely to break actual news is the 7th Fleet Twitter account which lists out the activities of the Burke-class destroyer USS Pinckney, it’s two search helicopters and a supporting P3 from US airbases in Japan in 140 characters or less.
We have a few pilots among our readers, I’m sure they’ll have something to add in the comments.
You will note that even the real pilots on PPRuNe aren’t speculating much as there is so very little information available. I am beginning to think they were hijacked and flew well off-course which may explain why there is no wreckage found yet. Who knows, maybe it landed somewhere. I am waiting to hear what Boeing has to say before speculating much.
somebody claims to have found a fuselage door…..
the blck box and the elt should have everything squared away i think its odd that the elt is not signalling it shouls send a signal stong and loud for no less than 48 hrs straight.
elt means EMERGENCY LOCATOR TRANSMITTER it is inevery single commercial carrierin the worlditi s automatically triggered by g forces or other ways like if the blackbox records a certain temprature increase or decrease or osmething along those lines and itwould without question have started signalling by the time thefuselagehit the bottom ofthe ocean with out question .
Why are the vietnamese involved in the “search”. They’re prime suspects.
Two men used stolen passports to purchase tickets within minutes of each other and had the same number sequence.
One passport was stolen/lost two years ago,
the other was stolen Aug 2013 last year.
Authority’s had computer data listing the stolen passports but the men were allowed to board anyway.
Sounds terrorized to me..
idle speculation on a slow news day
If you can’t engage in idle speculation on a blog on a Sunday evening, really – what’s there left to live for?
Exactly right Kate.
If it involved Air Force One no6 would have produced all kinds of conspiracy-idle speculation.
Kate…your best posts are when you engage in the discussion.
I may have given the impression that I frown upon speculation. Not at all. I like idle speculation just as much as the next guy, as long as I am not the subject. I just have little to add to what has already been said. Please feel free to speculate at will.
A missile? A Gadhafi MANPAD?
No question that thousands were “looted”, there for the taking by the world’s terrorists.
The underwater locator beacons (ULBs) bolted to the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Reader will ping for 30 days after immersion. The FDR on the newer aircraft monitors 500 or more different channels, including to the position of every flight control surface, every flight control in the cockpit and every input sent by the flight management system to the autopilot. Until the FDR and CVR are recovered by remotely operated submarines and the data examined speculation is pretty much pointless.
I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on the communications difficulties, a 777 will have a minimum of four electrical generators feeding two or three separate electrical busses and airliners will have three separate VHF comm radios each fed by a different buss but normal VHF comms are short ranged, HF has a much longer range but is more easily distorted by solar and atmospheric disturbances. ATC uses VHF but because of the shorter range of VHF it is fairly useless offshore or over remote areas such as the arctic and HF relays between airplanes are commonplace.
Bullfudge. Your accusatory comment is idle speculation with absolutely no basis. Don’t get all paranoid and lash out, that’s just being foolish. My comment wasn’t directed at anyone on the forum was it?
The comment about idle speculation was about the MSM, who are providing no additional information merely rehashing what’s already been reported.
Like Kate has posted, follow the story at PPRUNE for realistic assessments of the situation. Don’t pay attention to the MSM.
Got it now?
I dunno at all, but I’m sort of partial to KSM’s interpretation, myself — where is his trial going to be, anyway?
The current Attorney-General of the United States hasn’t seemed to have mentioned that at all for several years now. Not at Guantanamo Bay (brought to you courtesy of Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley), I hope (being a liberal Democrat — not!)
KSM has admitted, under “enhanced interrogation” (as that evil-genius-moron Dick Cheney describes it) that the plan, in advance of 9/11, was to bring down commercial airliners over the Pacific.
USS Pinckney, and the “investigation” is fine, and all that, but why can’t this country have many functional naval helicopters, also (without a $500 million dollar cancellation penalty, imposed by some guy from Quebec twenty years ago), quite apart from having a few capital ships, here and there.
“I hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon!”
MANPAD 31,680 feet effective range, 6 miles.
Plane was at 35,000 feet, good shot even for a Vietnamese..
Your accusatory comment is idle speculation with absolutely no basis.
Don’t get all paranoid and lash out,
–
Ha.
talk about getting all paranoid and lashing out.
I have no Paranoia or concern within a blog,
the only one I report to is the owner of this blog, (Kate.
If she tells me to shut the hell up, she stops my comments.
I don’t think any MANPAD can reach an airliner that is at altitude. MANPADs are for defending your infantry on the battlefield from ground attack aircraft. To keep the weight down the rocket propellant and warhead are necessarily small. Most have a ‘slant range’ of 6-8miles but airliners fly at 7 to 9 miles up. Compare how far you can throw a ball straight up to how far you can throw it horizontally.
Also at Kabul airport about 10 years ago an Airbus was hit by a MANPAD shortly after takeoff and was able to return safely under control. As far as I remember this is the only case of an airliner being hit by a MANPAD.
If you can’t engage in idle speculation on a blog on a Sunday evening, really – what’s there left to live for?
http://youtu.be/KnBgsofm2l0
No they are not. We do not know what happened,
I think it was the Russians, they needed a way to break the new cycle away from Crimea… Nothing better than an airline going mysteriously down.
I read one of your comments earlier about the warning for the MH370,
do you have an updated link?
I suppose it is all speculation,
but terrorists enjoying bragging about what they plan to do.
Lets get real here. We all know it was Rob Ford who blew this plane up.
Its only a matter of time before the Star reveals all.
Bush did it..
4 tickets were bought in sequence, same payment method. There are 4 suspected of using stolen passports now.
It’d be a plus to be able to put the pieces of those 4 islamic terrorists together again in order to bury them in pig poo.
http://pamelageller.com/2014/03/new-terror-fears-grow-malaysia-plane-crash-four-people-boarded-using-stolen-passports.html/
So as not to offend the easily offended, lets say it was a freak meteor strike.
The key issue here is the distribution of wreckage, when found. If the plane nose-dived into the ocean, it will be concentrated in a relatively small area. Had it disintegrated at 30k feet plus, it would be widely distributed, and harder to find.
4 suicide bombers on one plane?
interesting.
Wish 230 of the Bastards would have been on board..
Actually, it was a miraculous shot from the fourth tee at the Ocean Reef Club. The ball sailed up high out of sight at tremendous speed due west. The ball entered the cockpit of MH370, knocking out both flight deck crewmembers, and disengaged the autopilot. The player, SCFOAMF, took a mulligan and re-shot the hole for par.
Once again the ELT should have made it easy to locate. North of 60 is a dipsh&t!!
IMHO
(That’s all there is right now is opinion and speculation)
If the Radar tracks do show that the flight turned around, that does suggest the crew was fighting something and trying to get back to saftey.
No radio com. suggests the initial event was catastrophic.
A catastrophic failure at the alt could be caused by a;
Bomb
Mid Air
Structural failure.
Inadvertently targeted by Military
The Radar tracks should show conflicting traffic at that altitude.
A cargo door blow-out would rip up a significant chunk of the fuselage as it tore loose. ( if not damaging the #2 eng and stbd wing also.)
Boeing had problems on the 747 but I am unaware of any issues with the 777.
In my opinion, a passenger door wouldn’t do it as they are of the plug type and don’t “blow out”.
The missile thing is a sticky one for me.
If it was a shipborne missile it would have to be a big one to get to 35’000 feet.
(China or US navy?)
But if it was a heat-seeker / radar guided one launched from an aircraft, that’s different.
A surface to air radar directed would likely hit at center mass (where the wings and fuselage join) and it’s instantaneous destruction.
However, an infrared homer would target an engine, MAYBE leaving the fuselage intact on an aircraft as large as 777 long enough for the crew to try to salvage it.
A missile might not show up on civilian radar that far off the coast.
I don’t know who was in the area at the time navy wise. (a fishing boat couldn’t carry a surface to air missile and launcher and tracking equipment that big or sophisticated IMO)
The weather seems to have been ruled out.
Bottom line,,, I don’t know.
And it’s Kate’s fault for opening the door and letting the dogs out.
(ducks,,)
Used to fly Malaysia Airlines domestically all the time, security is laughable by western standards, especially if your a card carrying member of the Muslim community.
That said, it’s not a leap to understand western passports being stolen in Buddist Tailand and finding thier way into the friendly nieghbor country to the south.
Motives for Muslim terrorism are pretty murky as so many Muslims would have been on the flight. Possibly it could have been Tai terrorists sick of the Muslim cross border attacks?
Of course with China also in the mix, any Theory is a possibility at the moment.
The chances of there being a bomb on your plane are really really really small. The chances of there being TWO bombs on your plane are even smaller than that.
Moral of the story – keep the odds in your favour, always carry a bomb with you when you fly.
Going to the very first post on the Pilots Rumor blog it says the flight was 2 hours into its flight when it disappeared. by my calculations it would have been well over Vietnam maybe as far as the gulf of Tonkin, near Hainan Island? Very volatile area? I didn’t read every post but why look at a location compatible with about one hour into the flight?
Hit submit to fast.
My condolences to the crew and passengers loved ones.
What ever happened, it sucks.
@ Jay
Well, Russians do have experience shooting down airliners, Korean Air flight 007.
And with stealth technology for fighter jets, nobody would see them coming.
But I’m still leaning towards an on-board bomb by Uyghurs.
The passports, 4 stolen passports on board … (again) ..
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1445128/malaysia-airlines-has-previous-conviction-falsifying-passport-details
“I am still puzzled how come (immigration officers) cannot think: an Italian and Austrian but with Asian facial features,” Home Minister Zahid Hamidi was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s national news agency Bernama.”
“We will conduct an internal probe, particularly on the officers who were on duty at the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) immigration counter during flight MH370,” Mr Zahid said.
Note: this was the weak link in my above comment as well, that the airport officials tasked with overseeing security of who boards the jet, is suspect / weak.
The italian national states on the video news feed at this site that nobody can use his passport now, as it was “locked” (his terminology).
and, video of the door that the vietnamese military state that they cannot now find…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/passengers-on-stolen-passports-in-missing-malaysian-plane-had-asian-faces/story-e6frg95x-1226849854051
Concerning the stolen passports. I may be all wrong about this but to me the most important thing about a passport is the paper it is printed on. Steal a passport, sell it to a forger. He replaces one or two digits on the passport and the photo. Security at said airport enters the number of the passport and because a passport is tracked by name and number it comes back as okay. Maybe the forger has a inside friend who has access to validation procedures. It seems to me if you buy a forged passport what you are really buying is the guarantee that it will go un-noticed, at least the first time it is used. And where the passport is used is another big thing. Have your travel documents ready, security looks and punches in the number and waves you thru. It isn’t as if there is a huge run on illegal immigration from Malaysia to China. Just speculation.
My prayers are with the families of all who were on board.
That’s what I pondered here:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/those-m.html#comment-884193
After all, the flight was headed to Beijing and these Chinese Muslims launched a terrorist attack just last week.
This was a false flag operation by vietnamese commies.
However, searchers in a low-flying plane spotted an object that appeared to be one of the plane’s doors, the state-run Thanh Nien newspaper said, citing the deputy chief of staff of Vietnam’s army, Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan.
In the link I posted at 12.17am, the Malaysian Airlines employee entered into their system, numbers different from those on the passport, in order for the ticket holder to gain access to the flight. A New Zealand court found them guilty of this.
I don’t know if Malaysian Airlines takes a digital snapshot of all passports and those holding tickets, it seems that the ministry in Malaysia is aware the photos don’t match.
James, I don’t know if it was “false flag” … It was simply shown on the video from http://www.theaustralian.com and I can’t vouch for it. I cite them, and the South China Morning Post as they at least in similar time zones to the current search, whereas all the north american journalists will be sound asleep at the moment.
I have been a member of PPRuNe for over 8 years (helicopter division) …. it can be one of the best sources of minute by minute information …. pilots are generally very observant , trustworthy , and are all over the world at all times .
for example , when the Cougar Helicopter S92 crashed off Newfoundland the pilots and mechanics on PPRuNe determined the cause within the first 13 hours ….. keep in mind the aircraft was still on the bottom of the ocean …. Official investigators took another 3 years to come to the same conclusion (broken bolts on an oil filter base mount)
Problem is so many newspapers and TV stations began to use PPRuNe for their source information a lot of the pilots became cautious what to say (or not say)
Nevertheless it can be enlightening to read , the speculation is professional speculation , and the debates aim for the eventual truth. Remember these guys actually fly the airplanes and have everything at stake
Best wishes
“Bush did it.”
Acting on orders from Cheney, the Freemasons and the Vatican.
But Mossad conducted the actual operation of course.
The aim was to deflect world attention from the Zionists at that university in Ireland.
“It isn’t as if there is a huge run on illegal immigration from Malaysia to China. Just speculation.”
That’s as valid speculation as any.
The mass illigal immigration and illicet drug industries across the globe, produce all forms of theft and forgery.
If were are to speculate, then I add this: the event is related to the train station throat slashing, and is a clear signal to China to stay the hell away from the Ukraine situation, nicely wrapped in plausible deniability for broadcast over the captured media in USA. After the Syria debacle last September, I now think “USA proxy black-ops” rather than “terrorist” when I see this kind of news.
This event seems to already have a rough coat of false flag varnish conveniently slathered all over it.
See about half-way down in this following article. Another more promising debris field has been sighted, but it is off the East coast of Vietnam, well past it’s last known position.
http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4710c69b&opt=0
Co-pilot showed pilot a picture of his favourite Aunt. Happens to be Nancy Pelosi, maybe.
Pilot figures “this guy can’t be allowed to reproduce….”
The End
“Five booked passengers failed to show up for the flight, according to The Wall Street Journal.
…
Other troubling details emerged when a telephone operator on a China-based hot line for KLM airlines confirmed Sunday that the passengers traveling with the stolen passports had booked one-way tickets on the same KLM flight from Beijing to Amsterdam on Saturday.”
http://nypost.com/2014/03/10/missing-airplane-likely-disintegrated-investigator/
*this is from the article, beside the photo of the Pan-am terrorist attack.