It's also strange that while Vietnam ATC made every effort to contact back the a/c, Malaysians seemed oblivious to the matter, despite having been warned by their counterpart. I think a missing plane is something to worry about.

HANG SHENG 1 - Cargo ship - Details and current position MMSI 413501228

seems to have an enormous speed for a cargo vessel. THey say it is going 49.7 knots.

Sounds more like a navy ship.
something like this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littoral_combat_ship

Buoy 14908
 

OleOle
For those interested in the surface current in the Australian search region for the last 10 days.
Buoy 14908

... here it is:

http://i57.tinypic.com/2my2cds.jpg

If you click in the 'Track' tab it seems to be performing some sort of search pattern. Not sailing a straight line thats for sure.

Press Conference
 

"Up until the point at which it left primary military radar coverage, the aircraft's movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane".

They always emphasise the deliberate action bit but for the crew's reputational sake and keeping an open mind, I wish they'd include a caveat that this could just as easily mean somebody trying whatever they could to fly/navigate an aircraft facing considerable difficulty rather than, what seems to be in vogue, assuming foul play by the crew or a passenger.

Fortunately he went on to say they are keeping an open mind and are ruling nothing out until the aircraft and FDR/CVR are found.

That Cargo Ship is never going to make Nantong the way its going,...definitely could be conducting a search....

Cheerio:

Well spotted.

It's either searching, fishing, not under control or lost.

It is certainly not doing a simple cargo run.

It isn't doing 50kts either so I would be suspicious of the track.

Looks more like fishing.

The good news to come out of this is US stealth technology R+D coats have just been slashed.

It could result in the Malaysians being reluctant to involve the Americans much because they know many things passed in confidence will be then given to the press.

I would rather the various authorities got on with the investigation rather than briefing tame reporters off the record.

There has been much talk of the Malaysian military primary radar and actions consistent with a deliberate act but I haven't seen a trace or any justification for the consistency statement. Do they mean it flew straight and level, or that it performed nice rate one turns, or an impressive aerobatic sequence? I am suspicious at the apparent confusion from the Malaysians.

If the Vietnamese were looking for it after it failed to make contact, isn't it inconceivable that the Malaysians weren't doing the same? If they were, and the military were tracking it and it was flying in a controlled manner, what would be their next actions. Intercept? Shoot it down if it was heading for land and not responding? If that had happened could they obfuscate the investigation to avoid detection of their action? Which governments would be complicit in such a cover up?

No one wants the spectre of a successful hijack to reenter the geopolitical domain.

The Reward tool
 

I think we can safely say that that is the understatement of the year/decade.

Sorry to interrupt the “smooth flow” of conversation here.

Now the 10th day, the trail of MH370 is clearly quite cold. The amount of manpower, time and finance expended is uncountable and still growing rapidly with no real results. The effects on families and friends are profound.
Discussions about the hows and whys no doubt will lead to further improvements to make our airways, airlines and lives safe and is always welcomed.

But answers will only start coming when MH370 and/or its FDR/CVR is found. The priority now is therefore on finding the a/c. No doubt many of the searchers/investigators are greatly motivated and altruistic. However the greatest motivator of human behaviour by and large is money. It would bring into play millions of people all over the world (who so far have not been involved in the SAR and have no motivation to do so), including the ordinary inhabitants of countries along the corridors of search.

Why doesn’t someone announce a reward? The Malaysian Government should be the one to initiate this. This a/c incident is unprecedented and the methods used to find it should also be.

Tin hat on.:oh:

Funny that the search area was defined so far south today. Yesterday after posting the Indian Ocean sectors at High-res visible sectors for Southeast Indian Ocean - 8 March 2014 - Weather Graphics I received a PM from a user named Chicklets. He has 0 posts to his name and is unable to get past the moderation, but he said this: "Southwest Region, 0100 UTC, four squares over and three down from top left. In the top middle/left of the square there appears to be a nice straight line."

Maybe my eyes at age 45 are already getting too weary to see it, but perhaps one of you can make it out. If it's there, that would place the coordinates at roughly near 43N 87W (within 2 deg), which is right in the area VH-XXX posted. If this artifact is really there, anything going south would easily peg it as MAS370. If you all do crosscheck and identify anything conclusive I will check the imagery and get an exact lat/long set.

I had shunned these images giving any useful information since much of the air mass is subsident, but looking at the images in those southern sectors I do see cirriform clouds south of 40N consistent with jet stream westerlies and heightened relative humidity in the upper troposphere. If the plane got that far south and was at FL450 for any extended duration it would certainly have been laying down a persistent contrail (or a shadow, as that area looks mostly cloud-covered).

I do realize at this point we're grabbing at straws, so this could just as very well be some anomaly in the cloud texture.

Regarding the mention of 250m AQUA/TERRA satellites... that would certainly be my first "go to" solution if the flights were in the air during the late morning, but by the time those satellites were overheard I'd expect any contrails to be long gone or diffused into a cirrus layer with an unidentifiable origin.

Oddly enough there seem to be two Hang Sheng 1:

HANG SHENG 1 - Cargo ship - Details and current position MMSI 413501228

and

HANG SHENG 1 - Cargo ship - Details and current position MMSI 413501230

(and one of them is where it is to be expected...).

Quote (onetrack):
If MH370 actually did go into the Indian Ocean, in the region of the latest search area - then it's highly likely a % of any floating, surviving wreckage will almost certainly, eventually wash up onto the West Australian coast, due to constant prevailing S/Westerly surface winds.

Not necessarily; one, the Leeuwin current off of West Australia runs parallel to the coast and, two the search area extend below 40˚ south latitude which puts in in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current -if it went down there debris might wash up on Tierra del Fuego or the West Antarctic Peninsula

Draw a line from KL to point of lost contact, then from this point across Malaysia to the last raw data radar position point, then from this point south towards the deepest area of the Indian Ocean. Put a X where the known fuel reserves would have been exhausted.
Put a 200 NM circle around this X and start searching within this circle 4000 meters or so down.

My guess.

ANA1936, your red blue white map spot on, well done.

The search area appears to confirm Jorn was On.

Also unusual of a merchant vessel not to have an IMO.

hope that chinese ship is an icebreaker as its on or close to continental Antarctica heading south at 51kts! Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and Positions - AIS Marine Traffic