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Malaysian Airlines MH370 contact lost

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Malaysian Airlines MH370 contact lost

Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:34
  #221 (permalink)  
 
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I dont know, but MAS is reporting this position,
Even though they got the lat/long muddled up.

Sepang, 8 March 2014: Malaysia Airlines is still unable to establish any contact or determine the whereabouts of flight MH370. Earlier today, Subang ATC had lost contact with the aircraft at 2.40am. The last known position of MH370 before it disappeared off the radar was 065515 North (longitude) and 1033443 East (latitude).
If that is indeed the splash point, it is less than a mile from IGARI on R208, just before the dogleg to M765 going northbound into the VVTS FIR. Technically, just inside the the WSJC (Singapore) FIR.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:34
  #222 (permalink)  
 
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Or it could just be a case of someone having the same name, surely Luigi isn't an uncommon name in Italy? Or have other details been released as well (DOB for example) which confirm it's the same guy whose passport was stolen?
Same name and also same age, 37?
Looks quite implausible.

The guy is actually listed in the released Malaysia Airlines flight manifest at #101, with age 37, his actual age. However, according to La Repubblica, not only his family in Cesena (Italy) has talked to him, but also the Italian authorities from the Foreign Minister contacted him and confirmed is alive and did never boarded MAS370.

Incidente Malaysian Airlines, "Papà sto bene, sono in Thailandia". La telefonata di Luigi Maraldi ai genitori - Repubblica.it
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:35
  #223 (permalink)  
 
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777 search location

Im struggling with something here...
contact lost 2hours into flight... wouldn't that put the AC between Vietnam and China? Not south of Vietnam (less than 1 hour flying time from KL)
I am confused
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:36
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This aircraft is 9M-MRO... if there was any factors contributing to an inflight breakup event then it would have more likely been 9M-MRJ, the tail strike aircraft in ZRH, required the emmpenage to be replaced.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:40
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"This would be 45 NM in direction 327 degrees from the last known position of MH370 reported by FR24, indicating some kind of flying ability"

Not so - at Lockerbie debris was scattered for mile forward of the point the plane came apart - - 7 miles and high and several hundred knots means the parabola of bits can be pretty significant.
But MAH370 was traveling roughly NE, so 327 degrees is about a 90 degree left turn. Also given normal flight speeds debris won't fall 45nm from any break up.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:40
  #226 (permalink)  
 
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An Italian living in Thailand reports his passport stolen in August last year.
The same name (and the same passport number??) shows up on the passenger manifest. The same Italian has since contacted his parents to assure them that it is not him. That definitely demands closer scrutiny.
Assuming this to be true for a moment, the alarming thing would be the major foul up in the authorities to flag out the passport.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:45
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Oil Slick Sighting Is First Sign Malaysia Airlines Plane May Have Crashed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/wo...id=tw-bna&_r=0
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 11:58
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@Kubalson

My two cents.
An oil slick itself is not yet a conclusive evidence of the crash site. I remember very well in 2009, during the early stage of the search for AF447, a long oil slick was also spotted by a Brazilian Air Force rescue aircraft. Eventually it turned out the slick was probably the result of ship leakage.
The actual debris area was found many miles away from there.

So it may be an evidence of the crash or may be not.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:01
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I'm sure we all have opinions about Immigration Officials. BUT, a Western Chinese dissident doesn't look much like an Italian, even to a totally clueless Official? Also, a Passport once reported as lost is immediately cancelled and cannot be use again??


That said, a 772 doesn't just disappear in good weather without any communication.


The problem here is going to be that the ACARS data is unlikely to help much if it just stops??

Last edited by philipat; 8th Mar 2014 at 12:16.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:02
  #230 (permalink)  
 
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Bleve

that is correct but we don't know where the plane actually broke up and what direction it was pointing when it did

you can envisage as sudden yaw that would put it at any point in the compass immediately before breakup

I have real problems with the idea that a the plane had any flyable ability and could not communicate at all
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:03
  #231 (permalink)  
 
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I don't know for sure about Malaysian ,but our aircraft are always squawking on ACARS telling tales almost to the point when the Captain goes for a pee.So conceivable if equipped with ACARS, the aircraft would still be squawking technical problems even if the crew were not able to .
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:10
  #232 (permalink)  
 
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The posting in AVHerald's chat with the AN26 observation seems to have disappeared, but here is a Vietnamese site which tells essentially the same and looks credible enough. It is apparently from the official Vietnamese search HQ, and there is even a picture of the search area division between Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.

Apart from the oil slick, the AN26 also reported an unspecified smoke sighting some 10 miles south of the oil slick and approx 28 NM / 312 degrees from the FR24 LKP.

Airborne search was terminated because of local sunset, but ships are continuing during darkness.

I'm still puzzled because an oil slick 45NM from LKP indicates to me that the plane would have been at least somewhat flyable, but the smoke debris 10 NM away indicates some parts have separated in the air.

Of course this may all still be false spottings and conclusions. Tomorrow will tell more.

Anyone knows the sea currents in the area? A 2 kts current during 12 hrs would account for a 24 NM drift, but to drift 45 NM the current needs to be almost 4 kts which is not that common.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:11
  #233 (permalink)  
 
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A quick one about the Italian passport....

I) Major screw-up not to nullify that passport number to render it useless.

II) That WTC bomber from 1993 (don't remember his name) was some kind of Middle Eastern guy who posed as Italian to get on his trial run flights.

III) Wasn't he operating from Indonesia? Malaysia? Something like that. Thankfully the police force in whatever country it was, was quick to react and managed to track him down. Now he is safe in prison in the US. Thankyou, police force!
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:12
  #234 (permalink)  
 
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So there may have been a passenger on board travelling under a false name.

While this may well be an authority screw up to allow this to happen and, as has been mentioned, fail to flag down this passport as stolen and invalid, I would hesitate to see a bigger problem with this.

Independent of what name any passenger chooses to travel under, there still is a security control to be passed before boarding. Both for people and for their luggage. So if someone travels incognito or not, for him to take along something untoward would need minding of this little detail as well.

Now if one finds a way to bypass security checks and bring something nasty, he surely would not need to draw suspicion by additionally travelling with a stolen passport?
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:14
  #235 (permalink)  
 
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Yes, AF ACARS transmitted data all the way down through the multiple failure chain. However, and I don't wish to speculate, ACARS would NOT help much in the event of some type of catastrophic failure which resulted in an immediate stop in transmission?
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:15
  #236 (permalink)  
 
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For an Italian going to China he would need a visa before he could board the aircraft.. To get a Chinese visa you have to present a recent photograph of yourself with the application form. I'm sure a Chinese visa official would know the difference between an Italian and a Chinese.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:17
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That NYT article citied a telling quote.

One uncertainty about the flight involved when it disappeared from radar and how quickly the search began in the Gulf of Thailand. Malaysia Airlines said that the plane took off at 12:41 a.m. Malaysia time, and that the plane disappeared from air traffic control radar in Subang, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, at 2:40 a.m.

That timeline seemed to suggest that the plane stayed in the air for two hours — long enough to fly not only across the Gulf of Thailand but also far north across Vietnam. But Mr. Lindahl of Flightradar 24 said that the last radar contact had been at 1:19 a.m., less than 40 minutes after the flight began.
The FR24 people should know their data well enough, why everyone else didn't is a mystery. At least that confirms a splash site in the entrance to the Gulf of Thailand - best news on a bad situation.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:17
  #238 (permalink)  
 
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HK atc called in the blind to the "unidentified" a/c, whih was squawking 1400 to initially identify itself, and when that did not work, to press ident, to which she got a "reply". She was able to verify their level. This went on till we transfered to Sanya, but the ANA guys were able to see the a/c and it was clearly "shadowing" them. I know the Chinese and Americans have being shadow boxing in the region of late, but this is the first time I have heard of a civilian a/c being caught up... At the time it was unnerving. Now,.... Just saying...
Interesting that you mention this. I just watched the series "Air Crash Investigation" on the episode regarding the mid air collision between a F-4 and a DC-9 in 1971. The vertical stabiliser of the F4 sliced the DC cockpit clean off. No comms from either pilots, fell off radar contact. Only survivor was the RIO on the F4.
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:18
  #239 (permalink)  
 
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Our old friend who knows everything about aviation David learmount is comparing AF 449 with MH370 and suggesting that at 1-2am people are at their lowest mentally and physically.

Malaysia Airlines Plane 'Crashes In Vietnam'

Simon Calder suggest the comments on social media sites are wrong. Surely he can't be thinking of pprune
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Old 8th Mar 2014, 12:18
  #240 (permalink)  
 
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CNN reporter Richard Quest had interview on today's TV program that he flew with the F/O that was listed on MH370 several weeks ago for some sort of CNN program. Had a short video clip of him in the jumpseat while in-flight.
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