Plane missing with 236 people on board

[freakiness]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-08/malaysia-airlines-lost-contact-with-plane/5307888

Malaysia Airlines says one of its planes has gone missing on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

A statement from the airline says flight MH370 lost contact with air traffic controllers at 2:40am local time, just over two hours into the flight.

The plane, a Boeing 777-200, left Kuala Lumpur at 12:41am on Saturday, and had been due to arrive in Beijing at 6:30am local time.

The company says the plane was carrying 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew members.

The airline says it is contacting the next-of-kin of all passengers and crew, which includes people of 13 different nationalities.

In a statement on the airline's website, group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the airline was working with authorities to locate the aircraft.

"Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilise its full support," the statement said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members."

The airline says it will provide regular updates on its website.

The ABC understand Malaysia Airlines will hold a press conference on the incident shortly.

[azureline**]

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@gkam2 wrote:

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@ufo_investigations wrote:

The devil's sea is located south of japan. It is asia's bermuda triangle. A lot of unexplained phenomena has been going on there for decades. It is rumoured an extra terrestrial base is at the bottom of the ocean as strange craft have been seen flying out of the water and towards the sky at great speed. Maybe this had something to do with the disappearance of the plane.

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Particularly unhelpful to speculate re. alien abduction..

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no more unhelpful than any other theory, I think?

[gkam2]

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@azureline** wrote:

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@gkam2 wrote:

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@ufo_investigations wrote:

The devil's sea is located south of japan. It is asia's bermuda triangle. A lot of unexplained phenomena has been going on there for decades. It is rumoured an extra terrestrial base is at the bottom of the ocean as strange craft have been seen flying out of the water and towards the sky at great speed. Maybe this had something to do with the disappearance of the plane.

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Particularly unhelpful to speculate re. alien abduction..

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no more unhelpful than any other theory, I think?

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I would think that the families and loved ones of the 236 people would hope for a more substantial theory than speculation  that they had all been beamed up into the mother ship  by ET launching himself from some secret underwater base in the ocean. 

[green.fields]

I also can not believe that if it had disintegrated mid air that not a thing has been found, you'd think they would find something. I'm told, but really don't know it it's true, that if the aircraft turned around that some sort of warning would have gone off.

5 people checked in but did not get on the plane, their bags got off loaded.

I hope they find something soon, for the families sakes.

[azureline**]

I think the families are probably hoping for their relatives to turn up somewhere and don't really pay any attention to any theories.

Any news at all would be welcome.

[cq_tech]

In the absence of any mayday radio transmission from the flight crew, one can only imagine that whatever happened to the aircraft must have been immediate and catastrophic. 😞

[azureline**]

A man who says he is a friend of the two men has now told how they are Iranian nationals who travelled to Kuala Lumpur from Tehran several days ago.

The unnamed friend says the pair bought the stolen passports in the Malaysian capital as well as tickets to Amsterdam via Beijing. 

One of the men wanted to eventually end up in Frankfurt, where his mother lives, while the other wanted to travel to Denmark.

BBC Persia’s UN correspondent Bahman Kalbasi said the pair were “looking for a place to settle”.

[jimmy*part4]

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@cq_tech wrote:
In the absence of any mayday radio transmission from the flight crew, one can only imagine that whatever happened to the aircraft must have been immediate and catastrophic. 😞

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Unless the flight crew is behind it all.

[twyngwyn]

http://www.educateinspirechange.org/2014/03/six-important-facts-youre-told-lost-malaysia-airlines-fl...

[cherry*135]

This disappearance brings back memories of Air France flight 447, which went missing over the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009. It was five days before any debris was found, and nearly two years before the [black boxes] FDR (flight data recorder) and CVR (cockpit voice recorder) were found.

That link ^^ says the black box will transmit signals for 30 days. Who can hear/receive those? If they don't know the location of the plane?

Edit to add: The Air France plane black box was faulty.

Once active, the Dukane DK120 emits a pulse once a second that can be detected by sonar equipment up to two nautical miles away. The beacon works at a depth of 20,000 feet — far deeper than the waters where officials believe the Malaysian plane went down.

It’s made to stay active for at least 30 days, per an FAA requirement, but may last a few days longer than that, depending on when it was made.

Lawrence Stone, chief scientist at Metron Scientific Solutions, says the beacons weren’t found after the Air France crash because they didn’t function properly.

[jimmy*part4]

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@twyngwyn wrote:
http://www.educateinspirechange.org/2014/03/six-important-facts-youre-told-lost-malaysia-airlines-fl...

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I looked at that link, but have a few questions about that info (questions I had already and don't think anyone here could answer).

Hijacking an airplane does not cause it to simply vanish from radar. Even if transponders are disabled on the aircraft, ground radar can still readily track the location of the aircraft using so-called “passive” radar (classic ground-based radar systems that emit a signal and monitor its reflection).

That radar....what is it's range? Being ground based it has limits. Also, you can fly below it and I'm pretty sure there would be gaps.....gaps that an ex military pilot would be aware of. Don't most commercial pilots come from a military background?