It takes very little oil/jet fuel whatever to form a long/large slick on water. Yes of course the a/c would have carried enough to form a slick like that. These questions are very simple to answer, someone is on the way to look at it, they will take a sample, and we will know the source.

Post 357
 

The picture of 'a slick' in post #357 looks like coral spawn.

A marine scientist has stated on another forum that what NBC is running as pictures of the oil slick spotted from a Vietnamese aircraft is indeed sea sawdust...

In June 2012 a couple of hijackers tried to break into the cockpit of a Chinese airliner. They had explosives but these did not detonate.
Three Chinese sentenced to death over plane hijack attempt - BNO News

Does anyone know the actual correct time it was last known to be a physical known object? Airspace timings are follows ZJSA- 2hrs after DEP "BUNTA A1 IKELA"

Because Malaysian Airlines still say so on their website (posted at 4:20PM today): "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."

If we ever learn the details of this loss, it will be a while. In the interim, someone please tell me that this loss is NOT the result of a high altitude stall, similar to AF447. Please... If the drivers know what they are doing, such events ARE recoverable.

why is everyone so shocked at no wreckage???

Look at AF447 it was a while before anything was found and that landed low speed and relatively flat angle

If MAH370 and i say IF it disintegrated in flight or exploded or slammed nose first into the sea at 600+ MPH then there will not be a lot left of it, could take days to see wreckage appear

i think people forget sometimes about the complexity of SAR, the area these guys are covering is enormous!

tonight's MAH370 has just taken off in a T7....i can image the atmosphere on that flight is awkward....

@Ivanbogus- if it's 'amateur's night' I would suggest the amateurs are MAS management and whoever is supposedly searching. JMO

At best it looks a bit like emulsified heavy oil rather than aviation fuel. But agree with others, looks more like bio.

Both stolen passports were used to buy tickets from China Eastern (codeshare flight):

Stolen passports were used to buy two tickets for Malaysia Airlines missing flight | South China Morning Post

And how is this relevant to MH370? FFS, could people stop posting for the sake of posting unless they have something relevant to contribute? How sad that Pprune is now being taken over by spotters and SLF's who really have NFI. :rolleyes:

I hear you.
I posted a plea (back on page 12) for people to stop spouting nonsense and it was immediately deleted. I guess it wasn't rumor enough.

We know almost nothing about this incident, and yet people are talking about meteors. It took two years to get the relevant facts for AF447

Smiling Monkey: >>>...and SLF's who really have NFI.<<<

But perhaps some insight.

Agree. And in any case, in light seas I find it hard to imagine that a 15 mile slick can form in 12 hours.

It was stated in official releases that the air search is suspended for the night, while surface vessels are heading to the general area. I don't expect any further information before a couple of hours after daybreak, so until then it's amateurs night.

@ Ivanbogus - Uncontained Failure - Structural Failure
 

Not 'amateur night' at all. You need to look at the number of Trent 700 and 800 engines that have suffered Fan Blade release over the past 7 years. You then need to ask Airbus and RR how one event was categorised as 'contained', when the blade had enough energy to exit the engine, through the inlet cowl, through the wing to body fairing and then scuffed the fuselage. If the blade had a little more energy then it could have punctured the skin at pressure. You also need to ask RR and Airbus how another event on a T700 engine resulted in an engine fire which was not extinguished by 2x fire bottle shots, a basic ETOPS requirement.

Then again I'm no expert and this is pure speculation, but I certainly wouldn't rule out other posters stating engine failure as a potential cause....

LegallyBlonde,
 

It has been said on this and other sites that airborne search is paused for the night, but ships are on their way to the search area.

Local sunrise tomorrow is approx 0611 Vietnam time (UTC+7, i.e. 2311Z).

EDIT: Here's a picture showing today's observations, including the Vietnamese AN26 sightings (as well as an earlier, since recalled, Vietnamese info).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2020140308.JPG

And here's a picture from the Vietnamese news site showing today's search area allocations. The hatched area was the responsibility of Vietnam, light green Malaysia and darker green Singapore. Tomorrow this map will most probably look different.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...roi1-23466.jpg

Quote: The wingtip repairs are unlikely to be a factor, the aircraft has been back in service for around a year, any problems would have shown up earlier (the Ancient Greek).


In previous accidents it took many years for botched repairs to manifest; JAL 123 and China Airlines 611 come to mind.

Please, if you are going to speculate, get your facts right.
It wasn't a turbine blade that failed QF32, it was a disc. Turbofan engines are tested for blade off events.
There is no evidence of any failure of this or any kind in this incident.
The only actual hard information we have is the disappearance of the aircraft. The "oil slick" stuff is conjecture. The sea is full of oil-slicks.
The stolen passports are worrying, but not that unusual either. Bad documents don't cause airplanes to disappear.