Beijing-bound MAS plane carrying 239 people missing as of 20 mins ago.

So, with the latest news saying that authorities suspect the MH370 could have possibly been flying for several hours after it's last known position, and they are consequently expanding their searches into the Indian Ocean ... I started to think "What is in the Indian Ocean that would be a possible terrorist target for a 9/11-type attack?".

The idea being that possibly some extremist group had gotten influence of the aircraft, and was going to perpetrate a 9/11-type attack against some US or NATO interest. The general public always seems remember that on 9/11 the World Trade Center was attacked, but they often forget the Pentagon was also attacked.

So, with that in mind, one answer that I thought of was ... Diego Garcia.

For those who don't know what Diego Garcia is, it is a little place in the middle of the Indian Ocean that US, UK and probably in a broader sense NATO use as a hub for all kind of operations in that side of the world. Here is a Wikipedia Link with more information about Diego Garcia.

Out of sheer curiosity, to see if MH370 would even have the range to reach Diego Garcia, I used this web-site to calculate the distance between the coordinates (LAT/LONG) for MH370's last know position, and Diego Garcia's LAT/LONG. As it turn's out, that distance is approximately 3,802 kilometers / 2,362 miles / 2,052 nautical miles.

06°55′15″N 103°34′43″E = MH370's last known location (MH370)
07°18′48″S 072°24′40″E = Diego Garcia (DG)

3,802 km (to 4 SF*) = Distance between MH370 and DG
- 3,802 KM = ~2,362 miles
- 3,802 KM = ~2,052 nautical miles
245°59′32″ = Initial Bearing
F246°06′09″ = Final bearing

Web-site used to calculate this:
www.movable-type.co.uk...

I couldn't find a source to tell me the estimated range that MH370 would have been able to travel after it's last known location - based on estimated fuel remaining, etc. However, in the related Wikipedia Page, it does mention that MH370's aircraft was a particular 777 model - "Boeing 777-200ER". Looking at the Wikipedia Page for Boeing 777, it notes that model has "maximum range is 7,700 nautical miles (14,300 km)". Of course, that's probably with maximum fuel capacity, which might not have been the case with MH370's intended route.

I certainly have no information (like anybody else) that the MH370 situation really is the result of a hi-jacking or terrorist plot, much less that it was intended to be part of a 9/11-type attack on Diego Garcia - or for that matter any other location. I just figured it was an "interesting" line of thought that somebody would appreciate.

On second thought, maybe the MH370 thing is just a big Internet hoax.

Does anyone know if the Malaysian Police Department released an updated version of their photocopying error, of the two men travelling on stolen/missing passports? I don't want to get to hung up on this but with the recent terror alert that went out on the 19th of Feb to airlines warning them of new intelligence on terrorists working on new 'shoe bomb designs' it is a bit unsettling.

" to be on the lookout for explosives hidden in shoes on flights from overseas to the United States"

www.cnn.com...

Is it possible this plane actually vanished?
Like beamed to a different dimension or something else weird.

There is something bothering me about those two guys with the stolen passport. Don't know if it has been mentionned.

But I would like to know where this following photo has come from : (the one when they are apprently with friends)

this photo

And how did the news get hold of this ?

As they are deressed the same as in the airport camera shots :

the doctered legs photos

And the photo with friends isn't taken with the airport cameras, that's for sure !

The black guy in the middle could be the balotelli look alike lol

Just curious

There was a sequntial shutdown of the plane's communication which suggest not a mechanical error. Experts saying the person who did this must have pilot experience. Possible pilot suicide situation.

Data communication system 1:07am

Transponder 1:21am

rigel4
Is it possible this plane actually vanished?
Like beamed to a different dimension or something else weird.

I don't know..but your avatar just vanished in front of me...lol

My heads about to spin like Linda Blair.

Now they are saying the data reporting system was shut down at 1:07 am and the transponder shut off at 1:21 am. CNN quoting sources at ABC.

reply to post by game over man


This would be more murder-suicide.

Somehow I don't think this is what it was.

reply to post by Myrtales Instinct

Methinks they need to stop saying. My head is about to explode. I think the cloaking device deal sealed it for me.


ETA: Seriously. Search East. Then West. Then East again. Now West again? What are these people smoking indeed. So much for all the super secret spy satellites.

Arbitrageur
Why do you say "he never should have mentioned it". Their job is to find the missing plane. Also they never said they "moved" the search there, they said they "expanded" the search to include that area, which should have been a giveaway that they weren't sure it was the missing plane. So you would have him not mention it and not search for what could have been the missing plane in an expanded search area? Is that reasonable?

Same reason China didn't want to release the satellite images. The public doesn't have to know every single thing. You're right it's their job to find the plane and telling the public they think it may have flown towards a different direction isn't going to help that (especially when that plane is actually two separate civilian aircraft on their publicly known flight paths), but rather do what it did instead, cause people to believe they saw MH370 flying off in the wrong direction. They accidentally created incorrect information that they then later have to take their time to address.

They mentioned more recently they felt duty bound to check the area because there was maybe the possibility it turned around. That is what they should have said the first time, instead of listed exact locations and times of where they saw an unknown aircraft. I don't know why they didn't do a simple flight path check before making comment on that. They know they should have, which is why later reports have them backing away from the idea it could have been MH370.

www.usatoday.com...

Malaysian officials backed away today from assertions that the missing Malaysian Airlines flight made it to the Strait of Malacca after turning away from its intended course.

The country's air force chief said in a statement today the missing Boeing 777 may have attempted to turn back before it vanished from radar, but there is no evidence it reached the Strait of Malacca off the western coast of Malaysia.

I've got news for you. People see people differently especially if they are mixed race. This is not a story changing, it's two different people talking.

These are officials that should be working with the same knowledge. They have shown numerous other times that each official is going off of different knowledge. That is unacceptable and thankfully they are finally starting to get their stuff together.

And I saw your mention of WSJ retracting their statement (as well as it on the Guardian's website), but has the White House Press Secretary also retracted his statement that the engines sent data? Washington Post had also cited "Obama administration officials". I was wondering about those.

reply to post by WeSbO


One of their friends they spent the night with, before the flight, sent it to CNN.

As for the Mario Balotelli reference:

Asked if they looked African, Mr Rahman would not comment except to point out that footballer Mario Balotelli was Italian but was not Italian-looking. He was apparently misquoted as saying the men looked like Balotelli, which added to general confusion about official explanations.

www.news.com.au...

And the picture with duplicate legs is because the photos were not the same height, and they simply put the shorter one over the taller one when making the scan/photocopy.

reply to post by EnhancedInterrogator


Refer to pages 125-127 for the DG discussions.

game over man
There was a sequntial shutdown of the plane's communication which suggest not a mechanical error. Experts saying the person who did this must have pilot experience. Possible pilot suicide situation.

Data communication system 1:07am

Transponder 1:21am

edit on 13-3-2014 by game over man because: (no reason given)

And why would a suicidal pilot CARE about turning off communications and a transponder?
WHY?

It is much more likely that someone forced the pilots to do that or equipment failure/fire on board.

Edit: Even a terrorist attack aka "blowing up the plane"...why would they care about turning off equipment?

The equipment gets turned off if they want to HIDE the plane's position (hijack)...or through some electrical malfunction, in my opinion.
I have to say that the hijack theory becomes more and more plausible to me.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


Someone, yes, or something, like a cloaking machine? Or maybe off-world technology?

I think everyone should take a five minute time out and consider the fact that most of us are very skeptical of what the media tells us. And governments too! So just because they say an airliner is missing, how do we really know it's missing? Because they say so? And they have news footage of passengers loved ones distraught? That could be from some incident in the past. I'll be the 1st (possibly) to declare this a complete hoax! After 5 minutes carry on...

Here's a Google Earth view of a 777 that's the same model as MH370. For the Tomnod satellite searchers. 199 feet wingspan and 205 feet long. And a airline photo search website. www.airliners.net...

ManiShuck
has the White House Press Secretary also retracted his statement that the engines sent data? Washington Post had also cited "Obama administration officials". I was wondering about those.

The white house is not a place I'd look for reliable information.

Some aspects of the investigation they can keep from the public and they probably shouldn't share every single lead since there will be so many false leads that don't pan out. The Rolls Royce engine data indicating the plane flew for 4 more hours is an example of something that never should have been shared, if it was wrong which according to the WSJ's correction, it was.

However, when the lead involves expanding the search area, given the number of different countries involved in the search, such a lead is going to become more or less public knowledge. In a case like this if you get 10 different leads on a possible location, you already know at least 9 of them have to be wrong and maybe all 10, but you can't ignore them just because they might be (and probably are) wrong. It's not pretty but that's just the way it is in this case.

80% of the patent holders die on that plane.
Freescale Semiconductor now becomes sole patent owner of chip/wafer tech.
Blackstone holds major shares in FS- Jake Rothschild is advising member of Blackstone.
Four days after the flight goes missing, this patent is approved by the Patent Office for maximizing dies on a wafer. Coincidence?

~Lucidity

This has to be the biggest cluster flock ever.

That sentence sums up the whole event.

I'm wondering when in recent decades at least we have seen such prolonged confusion about something so simple as a 'crash' or 'accident'. (I had to chose my words carefully in case anyone mentioned 9/11 or the second Iraq War as a sarcastic reply)

All sides have been either misquoted, things lost in translation, have made statements and subsequently retracted them, have denied what HAS been said or discovered, discredit the 'opposition' etc. All of this in the first week of a suspected Air Disaster. One week and we've found absolutely nothing.

If MH370 crashed, even on land or if the pilots managed the unthinkable and pulled off something reminiscent Ches Sullenberger, then what hope now does those passengers and crew have at surviving after such a lengthy delay?

Because I can't remember in the past 3 decades such confusion around an 'accident' (International confusion that is), I am beginning to suspect that perhaps it isn't an accident after all. I think it's possible the reason there is such confusion is to throw off what is really going on, and whether it can be solved diplomatically before MH370 lives or lost, or indeed, subsequent lives if whatever is being hashed out behind the curtains doesn't work out.


But I put it to all of you at ATS, to investigate and meditate on every piece of information as it comes out. Most of you on this thread have done a bang up job reporting on what has been found thus far (even if it's been debated or retracted etc). If MH370 simply crashed, it still warrants investigation, not just from a mechanical point of view, but at the actions of nations, their responses and the general "cluster flock" of information.

We owe it to the passengers and crew of MH370.

reply to post by hardwarexpert


That blows my mind

About transponder,
The transponder controls are located at the co-pilots left hand on the center console and it is usually his job to operate it. In addition to broadcasting other data, the transponder can be used to squawk additional codes that tell critical things to the people on the ground. If my memory is correct, a 7500 means a hijacking and a 7700 is a general SOS.
It could well be that the co-pilot switched the transponder to STANDBY in order to enter the emergency code and lost consciousness in the seconds that it would have taken him to enter the code in an extremely chaotic environment and possible while dying from oxygen starvation.

Mikeultra
I think everyone should take a five minute time out and consider the fact that most of us are very skeptical of what the media tells us. And governments too! So just because they say an airliner is missing, how do we really know it's missing? Because they say so? And they have news footage of passengers loved ones distraught? That could be from some incident in the past. I'll be the 1st (possibly) to declare this a complete hoax! After 5 minutes carry on...

Here's a Google Earth view of a 777 that's the same model as MH370. For the Tomnod satellite searchers. 199 feet wingspan and 205 feet long. And a airline photo search website. www.airliners.net...

edit on 13-3-2014 by Mikeultra because: us

That's a good synopsis of why we are skeptical, but WHY the hoax?

Why would governments, corporations, and media try to hoax most of the whole world at this point in time?

reply to post by Mikeultra


Oh man., M. My son and I were just sitting here discussing the missing plane. Know what he said? How do we know there was really a plane? Do you know anyone who was on the plane? Have they proved there was a plane? And I was just going to post that.

Then I log back in here and read this?

You're both right. There could very well not have been a plane. We've theorized before about people acting as victims' relatives. Today the crying woman who was everywhere with the ring and watch story...maybe that's starting now too? I'm not saying it is and heaven forbid we disrespect anyone living or dead, but....

If this is the case, what are we being diverted/distracted from? What are we not talking about anymore? You have to wonder. Because it is ATS.

ETA: I can't convey how shaken I was to read M's post right after the conversation about this very thing. It makes sense.

auroraaus

Because I can't remember in the past 3 decades such confusion around an 'accident' (International confusion that is), I am beginning to suspect that perhaps it isn't an accident after all. I think it's possible the reason there is such confusion is to throw off what is really going on, and whether it can be solved diplomatically before MH370 lives or lost, or indeed, subsequent lives if whatever is being hashed out behind the curtains doesn't work out.

We owe it to the passengers and crew of MH370.

Absolutely. And you know what's even insulting? The attempts to say that the search is taking a long time because that region of the world "backwards?" Ummm excuse me? They've had the finest helping them, and they have some pretty sophisticated equipment. So I find that reprehensible too.