Too true, anything without logic is quickly jumped on which is good, either by removal or several posts quoting & disproving with there own evidence.

At least here, most posts have a link to their source, so forum users & judge for themselves about the factuality of a comment. A very good habit to be in.

@bubbers44
It took two years to get the answers for AF447

It took but a day to find debris

I am not surprised at all the speculation going on here - this is clearly a very unusual accident and the eventual explanation will be of a very unusual and rare nature. One would not have expected that the pilots of AF447 would display such levels of inability to fly their aircraft and would crash it in such a way.

However, it would be wise to wait until at least a little more information emerges. One should also not expect British or American levels of transparency from the Malaysian authorities. Other countries organisations don't necessarily share the view that all items of information should be released and so withhold certain items. They also get very prickly when challenged (bureaucrats are like that). Military involvement will also limit the amount of information released. Military organisations are past masters at operating the 'need to know' principle to its fullest. Add in possible turf wars and one begins to think that it is amazing that so much has been released. All this, though, doesn't help the search which would benefit from sharing information. But then a search involving a lot of different agencies always has the flavour of trying to herd cats.

OBD - it would be either the National Reconnaissance Office or the DOD itself whose SBIRS satellites would have seen a flash, not NASA.
A few pages back, there was an explanation as to why an in-flight breakup in the cruise might not necessarily result in an explosion.
Agree with the above poster.
This is a part of the world where there is a fair bit of military tension at the moment.
If military radar is being used as source data to try and help in the search, I would imagine there would be huge sensitivity and scrutiny before releasing anything that might give a clue to operational capabilities.
I suspect that's the real reason for the Civil Aviation guy's rather mysterious comment that he `can't tell the press everything.'
I also suspect that's why they're looking in the Straits of Malacca as well... they know something we don't yet.
Some insight can be gained here as to how any search involving military capabilities there might be a little `delicate' so to speak.

The two individuals with stolen passports bought the cheapest flight available for their routes, so they flew economy.
Sitting in the back of the airplane, they would draw attention just by coming forward into the first class/cockpit area. That seems inconsistent with a planned hijacking. They are more likely just two of the victims rather than perpetrators.

@Tartare
 

Thanks for the correction. I couldn't remember.

I did see the previous posts about the no flash break up. I'm just not sure

I agree with the above poster as well.

Have a good evening.

Interesting new tidbit:

CNN' chief national security correspondent said the revelation that Mr Ali bought passports and tickets for the two Iranian passengers adds to concerns the loss of the Flight MH370 might have been a terrorist atrocity.

Jim Sciutto said: "This adds to the concerns because a terrorist group would go to a fixer too."

"They piggyback on drug smugglers and immigration smugglers, so absolutely they could go to this guy. He may know nothing about it. He would be just given a sum of money and told 'get these people on an airplane, get them passports'."

MH have decided to bring the families of all the 'lost' passengers to Kuala Lumpur as soon as possible. There is an additional service from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur today especially for the families, the details being highly confidential. The overflow passengers will be accommodated on scheduled services. The OneWorld partners of MH have been requested to assist with transport to KUL from all parts of the World except China.

The reasons for this action appear to be due to the unrest and problems being caused by the families of 'missing' passengers in China. All costs including medical and cash are being borne by MH. Each family is being provided with at least one MH staff member acting in the role of a caregiver. MH staff from Australia have been sent to KUL to assist with the families of 'missing' non Asian passengers.

The name of the Chinese passenger whose name was obscured on a passenger namelist released has now been released. The investigation team now believe there is a link between the 2 passengers using fake passports and the disappearance of the aircraft which could be anywhere.

A disaster recovery management specialist from Atlanta has been engaged to assist MH with dealing's with Authorities

Earlier in the thread, there were quotes from the ticket agent who sold the tickets. If accurate, it really doesn't sound like there was any particular requirement to get the two with stolen passports on the same flight - never mind a particular flight. If that's true, then it seems unlikely they were terrorists.

From CNBC World:
Updates on MH370: Malaysian authorities have postponed news conferences indefinitely.

I am kind of amazed that nothing has turned up after 3 days. I still don't think weather is an issue but I went ahead and assembled a collection of charts profiling the upper-air data, sea-surface temperature, and currents for you all to peruse. I saw several pages back that people were asking about winds aloft, so I have included some radiosonde profiles from both Ho Chi Minh City and the Malaysian coast.

Tim Vasquez
Weather Graphics

Link:
Collection of meteorological and oceanographic images for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 - Weather Graphics

Sample chart: FL340 chart for 08/0000 UTC with observed radiosonde and interpolated winds:
http://www.weathergraphics.com/malay..._250_small.gif

Debris
 

Sadly, the South China Sea, at least the stretch between Kota Kinabalu, in Malaysian Borneo, and Hong Kong, is incredibly littered with debris and garbage. There are also plenty of large patches of oil. If the rest of the SCS is similarly polluted, wouldn't this increase the difficulty of locating debris from MH 370?

The Malaysian authorities are handling the situation rather respectably. Their efforts to take care of the families are First world standards, in my opinion. There are enough experts and assets allocated to the search and I am certain the boots on the ground are doing all they can, systematically. Taking care of the families is now the priority as the 'rescue' efforts become 'recovery'. Those in the business would understand the meaning and mindset shift.

Having a loved one missing is horrible. I was once in a flight that was diverted, delayed and then returned to the place of origin. It was before the days of cellphones. My fiancee then was worried sick and could not find a means of finding out what went wrong and fearing the worse. In such situation, they will cling to any hopes, any theory that offers a chance of survival. They are extremely vulnerable. I find that in such circumstances those that try to profiteer are the scums. Reporters that try to sensationalise, clairvoyants that claim that they can help to locate the missing, lawyers that circle to get a class action suit, etc. The NST already reports that 'Bomohs' (the local title for clairvoyants) are joining the search.

MISSING MH370: Help from bomohs must be in accordance to Islam - Latest - New Straits Times

http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-co...plane-1.506402

Conjecture
 

Given the massive amounts of speculation on this event which in all honesty is bizarre given the lack of physical evidence so far might I suggest this accident/ unlawful interference or what ever the cause is a good catalyst for ICAO to revisit Interpol procedures for passport databases/ info sharing and also real or semi realtime data transmission or alternative methods of flight data retrieval to what is current installed.

Similarly, and not that this implies a cause in this case- merely another Achilles heel to address, look at the U tube link below which highligts what I believe is a weak spot in a 777 ( in fact all Boeings greater than 767 in size as fitted) defences. I have been banging away trying to mandate a fix for several years but frankly am getting a sore head doing so. Although I honestly believe this will most likely turn out to not be relevant in the MH case, it provides information that might be in need of attention by authorities ( IMHO only)

Woodja,

Would someone accessing this area be able to shut down all coms/transponder/etc by pulling appropriate C/Bs?

No it isn't. There are damn good reasons why no one cared before and those damn good reasons will continue to exist after the cause of this accident has been determined.

The fact is that the illegal passport has nothing to do with the incident. The entire airline security apparatus is designed to make sure that the authenticity of the passport is irrelevant to the actual security of the plane. There is nothing a terrorist can do with a fake passport that he or she cannot also do with a real one.

If this does wind up being a terrorist incident the focus will be...rightly so...on how the explosives got on the plane...a fact for which the passport is not relevant. There is no good reason to turn the airline industry into the goon squad for the immigration authorities.

apparently not
 

No , nothing to worry about according to several very large carriers ,
Boeing, FAA, Homeland security , FBI , OTS (Australia ) .. hmmm anyone else
I have advised.

I might add I have 3000 command hours B777 ( among other types ) so not just an academic ..

Maybe there might be some traction on this, if there can be said to be anything
good about any crash occurring changing the status quo at all

Jugofpropwash: the breakers are on the flight deck, but most of the radios and fancy electronics are in the e&e bay. So yes I could start pulling boxes.

Don't have a layout of a 777 bay handy, but in general HF and Sat Comms are in the tail.

Amen
 

@Passenger_389: Completely agree with every statement you made. Couldn't have said it better myself. The theories are getting more bizarre, and are becoming less factual. And it's a stretch to say there are many facts to begin with.

Anything is possible, within reason. A plane lost without debris, at least at this point in time, narrows things down only marginally: e.g. areas searched, mechanisms of crash.

Apologies for putting it bluntly, but this story is in its infancy and has yet to be told. It will be fascinating once discovered, but until then, everything is mere speculation. Being a pathologist (side job as pilot) it's akin to trying to postulate a cause of death and not even having a body to autopsy yet. We're still at the "missing person" stage. Once the correct areas are searched thoroughly, evidence will be uncovered. Undoubtedly it will. Until then? Not much to go on, in my humble opinion.

Of course the theories will continue to run wild...

Not quite, in many countries a known terrorist can't get on an airline using his own identity.
Yes, in its present state, the concept of using an immigration document for security is partially flawed because the most careful examination of identity happens when a passenger[B]arrives[/B at the destination.

Passports can be stolen (even blank ones), pictures photoshopped, facial features altered…

Lets keep passports for proof of nationality and that can continue to be run and governed by each country, but why not add a second, robust and modern layer of identity check which could be managed and implemented by interpol.

Something along the lines of a retina scan, so no additional documents to carry, can't be faked, sold or manipulated by corrupt officials.

Essentially a bad guys record would stay with his retina record.

So after passport control you'd step up to the Interpol Retina Scanner™, wait a few seconds then continue on your merry way.

Sure the rollout would take many years, but reliance solely on a piece of paper and a photo is not the future!

Transport bodies have mandated numerous restrictions on the flying public, no smoking, X-ray radiation, shoes off, belts off, physical searches, no liquids, metal and explosive detectors, all of which target trying to catch the implements of terror rather than the terrorist.

If airlines and airports the world over can agree on such a wide range of security impositions a retina scan can be achieved.