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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Oil Slick Sighting Is First Sign Malaysia Airlines Plane May Have Crashed.
 

@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.

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??

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

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 .

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.

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!

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?

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?

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.

That NYT article citied a telling quote.

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.

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.

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 :ugh:

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.