Well according to a Singapore Airforce mate the Sing Navy operate Subs in that exact area and were probably in or near the area at the time. He said they would be useful in locating debris on the sea floor using their active Sonar, advanced local knowledge and would most likely join in the search.

Yes they are being used.

Would there be someone lurking here who would have knowledge of Malaysian (and Vietnamese) primary radar coverage ? My understanding is that the typical maximum range of current civilian PSR is about 60 miles, question is where are the facilities located.

http://aip.dca.gov.my/aip%20pdf/ENR/...1.6/Enr1_6.pdf

A bit dated, but I don't think it'd change dramatically.

Update - Photo of suspected debris
 

This is a picture from Dantri of the "window liner" object that was sighted just before nightfall today.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...0Q1_-a001c.jpg

Interesting rainbow pattern on the sea as well, might indicate oil but hard to tell.

Another one.... Just released by India Today. Not sure it makes perfect sense, but...

Mystery around the 154 Chinese passengers on board the missing Malaysian airliner deepened today with a Chinese man, who was believed to be among those on the flight, saying he did not even board the jet, state media has reported.

The Chinese police said one of the persons listed did not board the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Friday. The person, a resident of Fujian Province in east China, has no departure record and is still in Fujian, Chinese police said today.

The owner said the passport has never been lost or stolen.

Why does it have to be civilian radar?

I can assure you that military early warning radars are designed to detect aircraft much further than the range you quoted and, unlike what some have said earlier, are very capable of utilising primary radar to determine the height of aircraft as well as bearing and range.

ELT???
 

It looks like the ELTs failed miserably on both this and the AF447.
Anybody with a more specific knowledge dare to comment?

Photo of Sea
 

As someone who does a lot more photography than flying these days, the colour of the sea (to me) looks more like low-light noise in the photo than anything else.

To Codyblade

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: Singapore sends 2 warships, naval helicopter to search for flight MH370

Learn to check for confirmation before you criticize. :rolleyes:

Re; reports of Chinese man on false passport, this report in the Sunday Mirror today: " Questions are now being raised about a Chinese passenger who was on the flight. Chinese authorities say the passport number of missing passenger Zhao Qiwei - in fact, matches the passport of a man whose surname is Yu. He is said to be alive and well in the Fujian Province.According to Yu, he has never lost his passport, nor has he ever used it since it was issued in 2007."


Missing Malaysia Airlines flight live: Passengers who boarded plane with stolen passports 'bought tickets together' - Mirror Online

If by ELT you mean the one putting out an electromagnetic signal, then they most likely haven't failed. Electromagnetic waves don't go so well under water, thats why they have a pinger.

Military radar range for something that big would be something like to the radar horizon with a 10 degree mask. 160nm plus I would hazard.

Although I'm not so sure about the oil colurs, I have the distinct feeling: We are getting closer. That looks indeed suspiciously like a window liner of an airliner. You don't see that floating in the water on your regular Sunday.

Edit: If the CNN message is true we are indeed back to zero.
/Edit

That said it is a fairly light part and wind will play a significant role in where and how far it will drift. Might be quite some miles away from the crash site itself.

At 18:30 local time, Dantri reports the debris at this position:

SkyVector Chart (center crosshair)

hasnt the debris been denied to have came from a 777 already ?

Remember, the Ping is 40khz. Beyond Human Hearing Range.
 

I hope the vessels "listening" for the ping from the black boxes, realize it's at 40khz, so is out of the range of human hearing. It will need to be down converted in order to hear it. As silly as it sounds, the French nuclear sub that went around listening for the ping from AF447, literally listened for it, through their headphones, without alteration, so it's no wonder they never heard it. It needs to be seen on a spectrum analyzer or down converted to human hearing range, unless, of course, you have a dog on board to listen for it.

interpol just confirmed no one could be bothered to check its database. N2014-038 / 2014 / News / News and media / Internet / Home - INTERPOL

Agree with several contributions (including a couple whose postings have disappeared). A lot of questions remain unanswered by both the airline and the authorites in Malaysia elsewhere.

Nobody seems to have addressed the question of how did those with the stolen passports enter Malayasia – if in transit at KUL from Thailand, how come that Thai exit immigration did not pick up on the stolen passports? Thailand issues entry visas, which should have expired in both the stolen passports. If they were already in Malaysia, where are their photos and fingerprints that Malaysian Immigration take for all arrivals?

Could it be corruption, incompetence or something more sinister?

I also find it more than a little puzzling that Malaysian ATC did not tell the airline that its plane was missing much sooner, and why MH’s own systems did not alert them sooner. Why, if it now appears, there are radar indications that the flight turned around has it taken 36 hours for this info to come to light?

Also, I am surprised that there seems to have been little mention of the FAA Airworthiness Directive for Boeing 777’s issued as recently as Wednesday 5th March 2014 which refers to “cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.”
(http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgad.nsf/0/d91639a24674ca8f86257c920050edf7/$FILE/2014-05-03.pdf).

One lesson that surely needs to be learned from this event is that immigration and airline security systems world-wide need to be linked to the Interpol database for missing passports and those travelling with such documents detained. Had that been the case in this instance, closer attention might now being paid to the question of the structural integrity of the Boeing 777 aircraft in this instance.

Signals detected - NO
 

@Yankee Whisky --- that Vietnamese report first came up way back at post #54 --- and was later discredited/retracted. So it is stale (not) news.

If it is only 720 kms from KL to the coast of Vietnam why do they say the plane was airborne for 2 hours ? I'm guessing time zone change to Vietnam adds one hour ?

edit: Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:41 on Saturday (16:41 GMT Friday), and was due to arrive in Beijing at 06:30. Air traffic controllers lost contact at 01:30.

Looks like 49 mins in flight total.