Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane Hijacked, Official Confirms

[morningfog]

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A Malaysian government official says investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

The official, who is involved in the investigation, says no motive has been established, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory. "It is conclusive.''

The Boeing 777's communication with the ground was severed under one hour into a flight March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian officials have said radar data suggest it may have turned back and crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula westward, after setting out toward the Chinese capital.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/15/missing-plane-hijacked_n_4968635.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

[morningfog]

1. Now the questions really start. By whom? Why? Are the passengers still alive? And of course,

where? And to what end?

[Renew Deal]

2. And if they are alive, who goes to get them?

[morningfog]

3. This is all absolutely surreal.

[Cooley Hurd]

7. This truly is surreal.

Unprecedented, for sure.

[Aerows]

38. Weirdest thing I've seen in a while

Where are the poor souls that were on the plane?

[MADem]

4. Dust off the Israelis' old Entebbe plan.

That worked fairly well...and they did it without the covert surveillance abilities that we have now. They probably would have come away with no friendly casualties if they'd had some of the tools we have these days.

What about the guy who said he saw the thing on fire, though?

It's a mystery.

[rainbow4321]

77. Totally just my opinion...did the hijackers plant witnesses?

Just conspiracy #21,542, but if the highjackers were trying to mislead or buy time, perhaps they paid off people to come forward as witnesses who claimed to see things when they didn't really see shit. Witness comes forward, search and rescue teams then relocate to the area where the "witness" was at the time of the "sighting"...each time the search and rescue teams shifted it seemed to take a day of getting to the location/exploring the area. Get enough paid off "witnesses" and you have search and rescue scrambling to different spots day after day to spots far away from the real path that the plane took.

[MADem]

78. Could be...or it could be "helpful" people who just want to be a part of history...

A shooting star turns into a plane, or they imagined they saw something or they dreamed about it. Happens all the time; eyewitnesses can be very unreliable at times.

We're all guessing and speculating, here--your theories are just as good as anyone else's at this stage of the game!

I hope they find the damn plane in one piece, with the passengers alive. It's probably a long shot, but one can only hope. I feel terribly for the families of those people, they must be sick and frantic and sad and angry and the whole range of frustrated, frightening emotions that come from an event of this magnitude.

[Aerows]

36. My biggest question

Where are the passengers and the people on the plane!

[maced666]

70. Really? Take a wild guess.

[morningfog]

115. How about you give me your wild answer, because I have none.

[morningfog]

5. Link to AP:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MALAYSIA_PLANE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-14-23-57-32

[Adam051188]

6. ?

my gubermint knows what kind of pornography i watch but loses track of brand new 777s. and then they say I'm the one who has ADD.

[Chan790]

14. Are you Malaysian?

As I said earlier today, I'd be very surprised if the US government and the USDoD didn't know exactly where the plane was and simply didn't consider that to be classified information they wouldn't divulge as it would tip our hand to Beijing as to exactly how much surveillance and intelligence-gathering...and how...we had going on in East and Southeast Asia.

There's a difference between the US government losing track of a plane and "losing track of a plane."

[Keefer]

49. If the U.S. knows where that plane is,

then they should recall all of the military assets immediately. Why waste money on trying to disprove a negative?

[Chan790]

56. Maintaining appearances?

I don't know...I just find it suspect that we'd lose a plane in one of those places on Earth where DoD has spent billions to have 24/7/365 surveillance/SIGINT/monitoring/radar of every square inch for intelligence and security purposes. (That'd be like losing track of a plane over DC...someone's getting fired in the worst possible sense if they fucked up that bad.)

Not knowing where the plane was would seemingly be more embarrassing then getting caught-out knowing and not saying anything. It also seems a lot less likely. A 777 is not a ping-pong ball, it not easy to pull off that kind of slight of hand. From human eyes, maybe...but not satellites.

[Travis_0004]

62. I don't know why everybody thinks satellites can see everything.

They have a limited field of view. They can't just take a picture of half the earth at a time. During the cold war, US and Russian's would play hide and seek from satellites. They knew when they would be passing overhead, and could hide when the satellite was passing. When it was gone, they got back to work.

There is a lot of new technology since the cold war, and satellites have improved. I don't know what a spy satellite is capable of, but the fact that they are flying U2 planes, and a lot of drones (some of the drones do not have any weapons, so they are not being used as attack vehicles) tells me that satellites can not just see everything at once. If they could, they would not spend the money to fly a spy plane over dangerous territories. If the US wanted to view my backyard, they could wait until a satellite is overhead, and take a picture. It would happen quickly, within a few hours, but they can't just pull up a picture of my backyard at a specific time in the past, and they probably can't spot a plane. If they suspected it was on an island, they could check the island quickly, but you can't just scan every island on earth in a few minutes.

[functioning_cog]

67. it's all part of the charade. they're giving hints along the lines of "you're getting warmer"

and such based on new "data" the Malaysians are being fed.

[sabrina 1]

26. Amazing, isn't it? Every time they could actually prove their claims of how this whole meta data

collection is supposed to work, it doesn't. Bostom Bomber, missing plane.

They DO know your shopping habits however.

[kelliekat44]

87. On the contrary, its the corporations you buy from who know your shopping

habits. They then give the info to the info to the government. They should ask the mega retailers to track down the plane using their credit card finders.

[JeaneRaye]

61. really?

Interesting how you spelled all the words in your post correctly except one...I think you meant to say "government".

[Skittles]

80. it's a play on a word

it's how a lot of stupid conservatives pronounce that word, that which they heartily USE yet claim to DESPISE

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. For once, when worst since 911 crosses somebody's lips

Unfortunately they will be correct. And how the hell do you hide a plane that size fron satellites?

[morningfog]

11. Skill and planning. It is about to get intense.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Yup

And TSA will get more...

[go west young man]

30. At least we learned that after all the security checks

they are not even running passports against Interpol databases. That says quite a bit about "National Security" and all the dollars spent. We still haven't figured out how to fight smart all this time after 9/11.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. That was not TSA

Each nation state is responsible. If that plane was flying into the US, or a few other places, likely they would have been prevented from boarding. The us checks manifest lists and passports against those databases. This flight was not en route to the US though.

[go west young man]

39. The US has applied rules to most European countries

in regards to security checks so how did this get missed? Interpol themselves say a billion people flew last year but they haven't been being checked against their database of 40 million lost or stolen passports. This WP story says they are just implementing checking now, for the first time, due to this event. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/interpol-shows-image-of-2-iranians-on-missing-jet/2014/03/11/ee170fa8-a909-11e3-8a7b-c1c684e2671f_story.html According to the story US airlines haven't been checking either.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Yes, but malasya is not in Europe.

If you are flying to the US you need to follow rules set by FAA regarding safety. And they could potentially order a plane off US airspace (like actually happened during 911) to nearest airport off US borders.

This flight was coming nowhere close to the US.

[go west young man]

48. You may be missing my point Nadine..

the article states all flights in all countries no matter where they originate have not been checking stolen or lost passports against Interpols database. It hasn't been happening. Interpol tried to get them to do it previously and apparently they felt it wasn't worthwhile.

[nadinbrzezinski]

52. I am not missing your point

I know that when planes fly to the US, it's not Interpol, is a department of state and Feds database they check against.

As is, they will start now.

[pnwmom]

91. Actually, US TSA runs 250 million checks against the Interpol database every year,

out of 800 million checks worldwide.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/10/travel/malaysia-airlines-stolen-passports/

Interpol's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database was created in 2002, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, to help countries secure their borders. Since then, it has expanded from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year.

About 60,000 of those 800 million searches yield hits against stolen or lost documents, according to Interpol.

The United States searches the database more than 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, according to the U.S. State Department, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.)

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection vets all travelers booked on flights to, from and heading through the United States through the Advanced Passenger Information System.

[go west young man]

98. From the Washington Post link.

Excerpt:


Up to now, only national authorities such as border police have been allowed to verify whether passengers’ passports turn up in the database of some 40 million stolen or lost passports in the computer systems of the Lyon, France-based international police agency — not airlines or other private sector companies.




Border agents have been checking and airlines haven't. That is the discrepancy. Every time someone approaches a check in counter and gives their passport to the agent they have not been checked. Considering todays security atmosphere you would have thought that would have been the first place to start checking


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/interpol-shows-image-of-2-iranians-on-missing-jet/2014/03/11/ee170fa8-a909-11e3-8a7b-c1c684e2671f_story.html

[pnwmom]

101. Our TSA/Customs is one of the national organizations that have been using the database.

It's not just the border police. That's how, out of 800 million checks annually around the world, 250 million of them have been done in the U.S.

The new experiment is letting private entities also use the database. In some other countries, the government hasn't started using the Interpol database, so Interpol is going to try letting private airlines handle it instead.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/10/travel/malaysia-airlines-stolen-passports/

The United States searches the database more than 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, according to the U.S. State Department, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.)

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection vets all travelers booked on flights to, from and heading through the United States through the Advanced Passenger Information System.

It conducts a thorough review of all relevant domestic and international criminal databases, including Interpol's, for any issues of concern. This review includes reports of stolen documents.

"If Malaysia Airlines and all airlines worldwide were able to check the passport details of prospective passengers against Interpol's database, then we would not have to speculate whether stolen passports were used by terrorists to board MH 370," Interpol's Noble said.

[Renew Deal]

63. I'm not sure that's accurate

[kelliekat44]

88. Here we go again. We hate when the government tracks us except we hate when they don't nt

[pnwmom]

90. The article was referring to airlines checking, not governmental entities like the TSA.

As an experiment, they are now allowing two airlines to use the database, in addition to governments, which have always been allowed to.

Overall, 800 million checks against the Interpol database are being conducted ANNUALLY, and of those, 250 million of them are done in the U.S.


http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/10/travel/malaysia-airlines-stolen-passports/

Interpol's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database was created in 2002, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, to help countries secure their borders. Since then, it has expanded from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year.

About 60,000 of those 800 million searches yield hits against stolen or lost documents, according to Interpol.

The United States searches the database more than 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, according to the U.S. State Department, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.)

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection vets all travelers booked on flights to, from and heading through the United States through the Advanced Passenger Information System.

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. Oh and I don't know about that.

We fly international and our passports go through some kind of a system.

Though I will be honest, I feel safer flying out of Mexico City than San Diego. They check all cargo, trusted shippers are not in the US.

[pnwmom]

89. The US doesn't check every traveler in the whole world, that's why.

It only checks travelers using our airports -- and it runs 250,000,000 of those checks every year.


http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/10/travel/malaysia-airlines-stolen-passports/

Interpol's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database was created in 2002, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, to help countries secure their borders. Since then, it has expanded from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year.

About 60,000 of those 800 million searches yield hits against stolen or lost documents, according to Interpol.

The United States searches the database more than 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, according to the U.S. State Department, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.)

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection vets all travelers booked on flights to, from and heading through the United States through the Advanced Passenger Information System.

[pnwmom]

92. Here's where your misunderstanding is coming from, I think.

The WA post article you just linked to acknowledges that the US has been actively using the database:

"While the database has been available to authorities for more than a decade, only a handful of countries actively use it — primarily the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. Noble said that more than 1 billion times last year, travelers boarded planes without their passports being checked against the database."


So what is different now?
Up till now, only government agencies -- like our TSA -- have been able to run checks against the Interpol database. In the US, we run about 250 million of these checks a year.

Now, as a test, they are allowing a couple private entities -- airlines -- to do the checks themselves. This may work better for some countries.

But in the US, we've been making full use of the database through the TSA.

[tavalon]

74. What? The Dog and Pony show has been shown to be......................

A Dog and Pony Show. Yup, nothing surprising there. Now, losing a whole airplane is pretty weird but I've said from the beginning, you and I are no more, nor are we less safe getting on a plane than we were on Sept 10th 2001. Proven right again. Now, we are far more hassled, so much so that I've curtailed my airline travel to almost nil.

[pnwmom]

84. (self-delete)

[pnwmom]

85. Wrong. The US uses the Interpol database more than any other country in the world.

Britain is #2 on the list. Out of 800,000,000 annual searches, the US performs 250,000,000 of them. Unfortunately, most other countries don't use the database at all.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/10/travel/malaysia-airlines-stolen-passports/

Interpol's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database was created in 2002, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, to help countries secure their borders. Since then, it has expanded from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year.

About 60,000 of those 800 million searches yield hits against stolen or lost documents, according to Interpol.

The United States searches the database more than 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, according to the U.S. State Department, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.)

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection vets all travelers booked on flights to, from and heading through the United States through the Advanced Passenger Information System.

[nadinbrzezinski]

105. Wrong, if you fly international you know that

[pnwmom]

83. US airport security run 250 million checks against the Interpol database annually,

putting us at the top of the list of countries using the database. Unfortunately, the majority of countries don't use it at all.


http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/10/travel/malaysia-airlines-stolen-passports/

Interpol's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database was created in 2002, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, to help countries secure their borders. Since then, it has expanded from a few thousand passports and searches to more than 40 million entries and more than 800 million searches per year.

About 60,000 of those 800 million searches yield hits against stolen or lost documents, according to Interpol.

The United States searches the database more than 250 million times annually, the United Kingdom more than 120 million times annually and the United Arab Emirates more than 50 million times annually, Interpol said. (Some 300,000 passports are lost or stolen each year in the United States, according to the U.S. State Department, which collects reports of stolen passports and sends them to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Interpol.)

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection vets all travelers booked on flights to, from and heading through the United States through the Advanced Passenger Information System.

[snooper2]

110. do we have a translator here?

[uppityperson]

117. Satellites are very good at seeing what they are directly looking at. If they are not directly looki

looking at something in the right place at the moment it is there though, they do not see it.

They have great spot vision but minimal peripheral vision.

[Cha]

9. Yes, it is "surreal".. :(

thanks morningfog

[morningfog]

16. A lot of mixed emotion right now. Hope that the passengers are alive, dread about what the

plans were/are. Fear about what happens next.

[Logical]

10. Few reporting this. nt

[morningfog]

13. AP has it and it has been picked up by LA Times, WaPo, CBSNews....

[countryjake]

44. They've just broken into the 20/20 program on ABC to report it...

saying almost exactly what you've posted. Then advising that they'd have more about this latest development on Nightline later tonight.

[countryjake]

54. The Guardian has it...

Malaysian: Investigators conclude flight hijacked

http://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/11247199

[Sarah Ibarruri]

15. I hope this isn't true. nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

22. I'm thinking the families wold rather have live hostages than fish food for relatives.

[Cha]

23. Yeah, like Hope is still alive.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

35. I just hope the passengers weren't tortured to death. nt

[mackerel]

17. is this official? annoynomous source?

[morningfog]

20. It is an anonymous official, as of now. But, it is consistent with everything we've heard

recently, including Carney. The PM of Malaysia is set to make a statement.

[morningfog]

18. Malaysian Prime Minister is going to make a statement shortly.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. And I know it's FCN but, the video with flight path

Is worth it. They are also quoting other media, so good summary. (I wonder if they asked a local affiliate, to my pleasant surprise, local they do well)

Oops, forgot link, here you go

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/14/malaysia-airlines-search-heads-toward-indian-ocean/

[herding cats]

21. FWIW the Malaysian prime minister is supposed to give an update at 1:30 AM ET

Rumor is he'll confirm the hijacking theory then.

So far, the rumor being circulated is it was flown off course by a skilled pilot. No motive. No demands. No idea where the plane is for sure or if it crashed into the Indian Ocean. Nothing is being confirmed at this time.

The poor family members of those on the plane.

[mn9driver]

24. All of us would like a "happy" ending to this story.

But the longer it goes without the aircraft being found somewhere, the less likely that becomes.

There are some isolated, abandoned airstrips in that part of the world that you could "in theory" land a 777 on, but I expect that every one of them has been looked at in the the last couple of days. And there certainly aren't a whole lot of them. You can't land an airplane this size on a beach or a jungle clearing and get a good outcome. It needs concrete.

An airplane this big is also unlikely to stay very intact and floating in a ditching situation. Even a really good water landing like the Hudson River event in a smaller aircraft resulted in enough damage to the fuselage that it sank completely as it was being tied up at the dock. I don't think a 777 would fare as well on the open ocean.

Aircraft life rafts have ELT transmitters that can be picked up by satellites. There's been no word of that. It really doesn't look good.

[morningfog]

28. I don't disagree that the odds are bad. However,

who ever did this seems to have made extensive plans. I would suspect that arranging a place to land was included.

[mn9driver]

46. True

I've personally cooked up a very plausible scenario that would make a great novel, where the bad guys execute their plan and the passengers survive. It could have happened that way and I'll be thrilled if it does.

But unless the people in charge of the search are a LOT more incompetent than I am, I think that possibility is rapidly being eliminated.

[fujiyama]

25. Until we get a better idea who may have done this

or what their motive was, it still feels like speculation or another theory (albeit the most plausible one). I mean, we've been dealing with "official" things the Malaysian authorities have been saying for days, but they've been all over the place.

I just hope the officials are less in CYA mode and become more transparent, if not immediately with the public - at least with other countries' investigative agencies to help them. This upcoming press conference hopefully will shed some light.

I know I sound cynical, but I can only imagine the frustration of the families of those on board. This week must have been hell.

[morningfog]

27. I think that is what is bringing the statement now. Other countires (namely US) are more heavily

involved.

[fujiyama]

29. I just noticed the PM is giving a presser

I hope they will shed some light on what happened and get all the help they can to solve this.

[DeSwiss]

32. Saying: ''It is conclusive.''

- Doesn't make it ''conclusive.'' Especially when it seems the ''conclusion'' was reach via deduction. Something being ''conclusive'' implies that there is direct irrefutable evidence of proof, rather than indirect supposition as is the case here.

[morningfog]

33. I wonder if there is something more to the conclusion.

The AP article said the conclusion was based on the communication/detection devices being turned off at different times and the intentional flight path so as to avoid detection.

That is strong evidence. There may be something else added to it that isn't public.

[DeSwiss]

43. My point is one of semantics, maybe......

...and yet people have to choose the words they use to describe their thinking to us since we can't see it in action and how they reached their conclusions.

By choosing to use ''conclusive'' to describe their position, they are saying that that no other explanation is possible when communication/detection devices stop transmitting.

- That's a deduction.

[morningfog]

37. There is this live update from Telegraph:

04.27 A word of caution: Dean Nelson in Kuala Lumpur has spoken to the head of the investigation who denies any conclusive evidence of hijacking and said it was just one of a number of lines they're looking at.

"It is not conclusive. I'm heading the investigation and nobody is saying that. It's not true. We are looking at the possibility, we're looking at all possibilities. We're doing every profile of the passengers and crew but there is no firm evidence or leads so far," said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10687223/Malaysia-Airlines-MH370-plane-crash-live.html

[DeSwiss]

45. That makes sense. n/t

[herding cats]

58. I think everyone is sharing what they know more now.

As it began to become more likely via various evidence the plane was taken drastically off course, this became a potential major international event. Which has led to some information sharing of things which everyone may not have been as forthcoming with initially.

I don't mean that to sound cold hearted. It's just that the international intelligence community is not known for being the most open with each other, unless they feel it to be in their own best interest.

I just hope the plane is found and the families learn where their loved ones are. One way or the other, they deserve to know as soon as possible.

[Cali_Democrat]

53. True. nt

[Aerows]

34. Well that answers one question, but not the biggest one

Where are the passengers!?

Where are the people that were on the flight?

[DCBob]

40. unfortunately probably on the bottom of the indian ocean.

[Aerows]

41. I hope not

This is a very sad situation.

[HipChick]

51. All those folks would need to be fed..

I am not holding out much hope

[DCBob]

59. if its in the bottom of the ocean they are all dead.

[Samantha]

55. There was another mention on cable this evening - a report out of China

that a seismic shake was detected on the ocean floor some hours after the plane went missing (can't remember the exact amount of time, seems like it was into the next day).

There are about 45 ships plus planes in the air now scouring that area.

Sam

[Renew Deal]

64. That was 140 miles EAST of where the plane turned off communications

The belief is the plane went hundreds of miles the other way.

[herding cats]

50. Since it appears more likely it was hijacked

You know the search for the plane is now in overdrive. Even a slim chance it's intact someplace with potential to be used by some unsavory types is a huge motivator to locate this plane for everyone involved now. Which will also lead to the fate of the passengers when they eventually locate the plane.

[Aerows]

66. Weird, weird, weird

I guess we'll see what happens as it unfolds, but this gets stranger by the minute.

[herding cats]

69. You've pretty much got it right.

This whole thing had been weird and weirder. Nothing has made much sense since they lost the plane.

[Aerows]

75. I feel sorry for the loved ones

of those that were on that plane, too. They are going through the wringer hoping their family members are alive, but on the other side of the coin, pretty much preparing themselves for the worst.

[herding cats]

76. I keep putting myself in their place.

If it were me all this uncertainty would be unbearable. I know I'd keep wanting to hope, even if I knew it wasn't likely, that my loved one was alive and coming home. This has got to be pure torture to all of them. I just want them to have some type of resolution to the fate of those they're missing.

[jtuck004]

57. Are these the same government officials that invited the shaman to the airport, where he performed

some sort of "rowing the boat with coconuts in back" ceremony in the terminal...that the opposition (who isn't running the show) seemed to think was inappropriate?

Here.

No one seems to know.

Interesting ritual, wish I knew what it meant.

[countryjake]

60. Sydney Morning Herald says that Malaysian PM Najib Razak...

is expected to hold a press conference soon. They are awaiting the arrival of the Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia.

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: investigators say jet was hijacked

http://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-investigators-say-jet-was-hijacked-20140315-34tll.html#ixzz2w0V3kW3j



Also a bit more skeptical view at Business Insider:

Malaysian Official: Missing Plane Was Hijacked

http://www.businessinsider.com/missing-flight-hijacked-2014-3

[Jenoch]

65. It appears the 'how' has been answered.

Now we need to know the 'where' and the 'why'. Of course there is no way anyone on the flight is alive.

[amandabeech]

68. Al Jazeera will televise the Malaysia PM's news conference

as soon as it gets going.

CNN, which has had nearly 24/7 coverage of this story, has Anthony Bourdain's travel show on!

[countryjake]

72. It's Live Streaming online at ABCnews and Livestation, too

http://abcnews.go.com/Live/

http://www.livestation.com/reuters


CNN is airing it live on TV now, also.

[azurnoir]

71. Honestly that has been my thought since this began

now where is the plane? How much fuel did it have and far could it have gone?

[quinnox]

73. Just as I suspected. I posted saying it was probably a hijacking on Tuesday

[B2G]

97. I agreed. Now remind me again

how many DUers ridiculed the idea?

[Iwasthere]

111. Me too

I also stated on Tuesday in here that this was by design, that the flight was on a deliberate path. Also that the plane could fly more than double the distance than what they were saying.

Of course I was ridiculed

It is hard being intuitive huh?

[IDemo]

79. My guess

Is that the hijackers had enough training on 777's to convince themselves they had the stuff to fly the jet to an island in the Indian Ocean and land it, either with intents of using it later on or ransoming the passengers and crew. It doesn't make sense that they would feel motivated to train just enough to disappear a craft into the ocean for the sake of a good mystery.

The severe altitude changes make it unmistakable that non-professionals were at the controls, not the regular crew and not a ghost plane.

[muriel_volestrangler]

82. 'unmistakable'? I don't think so

Someone on DU has already suggested that the rise in altitude could have been, with whoever is piloting on bottled oxygen and the cabin pressurization system turned off, to kill/render unconscious the passengers. And I don't think the altitude changes are guaranteed to be accurate - they said data indicated a 40,000 ft drop in a minute, which they also said, at the same time, isn't feasible if the plane is still flying (I checked - it would be roughly accelerating vertically at free fall up to about the speed of sound, so I'd agree that is not data to be relied on).

[IDemo]

86. The 40,000 ft figure was from engine data which may not have been accurate

The 45,000 altitude number came from military radar and was very likely accurate, according to the expert (sorry don't recall his name).

[muriel_volestrangler]

93. Many pilots are posting on pilots' forums that they don't think a 777 can reach 45,000 feet

especially early in a flight with a load of fuel on board. What we've been hearing has been unofficial, or contradicted by later statements, so much that I don't think anything is 'unmistakable' now. If there's a .mil (or Malaysian equivalent) page with a named official stating the 45,000 feet figure is accurate and certain, then it has some credibility; if not, it's just another uncertain bit of data to add into the mix.

[TorchTheWitch]

120. The 777 is capable of cruising at altitudes up to 43,100 feet

That's from here...
http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/777family/pf/pf_facts.page

And then there's this:

http://www.businessinsider.com/missing-flight-hijacked-2014-3
"An aircraft which was believed but not confirmed to be MH370 did indeed turn back," Razak told reporters. "It then flew in a westerly direction back over Peninsular Malaysia before turning northwest. Up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage, these movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane."

As a number of commercial pilots told NPR's "All Things Considered" on Friday, with the exception of the transponder, which can be shut off at the flick of a switch, other onboard tracking systems are not as easy to disable.

"They said you'd have to go through big checklists, you'd have to possibly pull circuit breakers if you wanted to deactivate [all the communications equipment]," NPR's Geoff Brumfiel said, citing interviews with pilots. "So, to do this, you'd have to have some degree of premeditation and a lot of knowledge of the aircraft."

[pnwmom]

103. Not necessarily. They might have been trying to avoid radar detection.

Some think that only a skilled pilot would have been able to fly like that.

[IDemo]

104. Avoiding whose radar?

The Malaysian military radar that determined the altitude changes wasn't fooled.

Altitude- or height-finding search radars use a beam that is very narrow in the vertical plane. The
beam is scanned in elevation, either mechanically or electronically, to pinpoint targets.

http://www.navymars.org/national/training/nmo_courses/nmoc/module18/14190_ch1.pdf

[pnwmom]

106. Then why couldn't they track the plane? Why do they still have no idea

which way it went?

They had some brief and intermittent radar sighting, but not enough to follow its path.

[IDemo]

107. The radar has limited range

About 200 miles if I recall. It flew through that range and made several dramatic altitude changes before leaving it.

[Iwasthere]

112. Unless they were taking it to high altitude for a reason

To incapacitate a plane full of passengers

[B2G]

122. Yep. That's it exactly.

Much easier to kill them all quickly rather than dealing with them for a 7 hour flight.

[dipsydoodle]

81. Missing jet: Piracy would require special skills

To steal Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 out of midair would require a pilot who knew how to elude detection by both civilian and military radar. It would take a runway at least a mile long to land the wide-body jet, possibly in the dark, and a hangar big enough to hide it. All without being seen.

Improbable but not impossible, experts say.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MALAYSIA_PLANE_PIRACY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-14-22-50-11

[ok_cpu]

94. Unfortunately, I don't think this changes what happened to the plane

I think the plane crashed.

If it was hijacked and landed for ransom, wouldn't there be a demand by now? And if you just want to steal a 777, wouldn't a cargo plane be much easier? Unless the plane was taken over by a passenger and not diverted by the pilot.

The whole thing is crazy and feels like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Those poor families.

[morningfog]

95. I can't imagine such a sophisticated plan not having a landing plan.

[ok_cpu]

96. I don't disagree at all.

But to what end? I suppose one of the pilots could have done it for his own reason(s). Wasn't there a commercial plane diverted by a pilot looking for asylum not too long ago?

But if that was the case, would you harm or hold the passengers? My thought is whatever the plan, it appears to have gone wrong.

I guess what others have said is probably true: Not much use speculating until the plane is found and facts are known.

[distantearlywarning]

99. They took the plane to use for some other purpose later

For example, they have a nuclear weapon but no means by which to deliver it to the target (e.g., an ICBM).

[HereSince1628]

114. Of course, the number of places a 777 could be clandestinely taken, serviced, refueled

possibly repainted (at least the tail number), have it's tech-data transponders disabled and it's air control transponder modified/switched out so that the plane could squawk a false identity making it possible to merge with routine traffic as it approached it's future target. and if the destination is outside the range of the plane as it is configured, modifications must be made to provide fuel to extend the range, or arrangements must be made to land and refuel the plane along the flight path to it's target.

All this without consideration of the issue of holding and loading a stolen nuclear weapon.

The number of qualified correctly placed people within the aviation support industry and need to tap legitimate sources of parts and equipment gets large pretty quickly.

[FarCenter]

100. Terror in the sky: MH370 deliberately diverted by an experienced pilot

Mr Najib said investigators were ‘‘making further calculations which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after the last point of contact.’’

But he said authorities in Malaysia and other countries had determined the plane’s last satellite communication was in one of two possible corridors taking in multiple countries. One is a corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand. The other is a southern corridor stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean, off Australia’s coast.

...

While the media focus has so far been on the so-called 27-year-old ‘‘party pilot’’ Fariq Abdul Hamid, who broke airline rules by inviting two women passengers into the cockpit of a plane in 2011, attention has now swung to the 53 year-old senior pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Television journalists in Kuala Lumpur reported that police had raided Mr Zaharie’s home as evidence emerged pointing to piracy or pilot suicide, but officials denied it, saying his background was under the same scrutiny as all the 239 people on board.

Malaysia Airlines played down the significance of Mr Zaharie having a flight simulator built into his home using three large computer monitors and other accessories. Asked of its was unusual to have such equipment at home, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said: ‘‘Everyone is free to do his own hobby.’’

Born in northern Penang state, Mr Zaharie is passionate about aviation, posting Facebook pictures of himself posing with his remote-controlled aircraft, which included a lightweight twin-engine helicopter and an amphibious aircraft.

He is a grandfather who played football with neighbourhood youngsters, is known as a good cook and has supported Malaysia’s opposition parties. He had more than 18,000 hours’ flying experience.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/terror-in-the-sky-mh370-deliberately-diverted-by-an-experienced-pilot-20140315-34u3n.html

My money is on the senior pilot flying it to the southern Indian Ocean and crashing it. His flying it to the Himalayas and crashing it is second choice.

[morningfog]

109. WHy not just crash it?

It seems like a plan to be undetected and to land.

[FarCenter]

113. A crash would just be a crash. This will be a mystery and enduring legend.

If he carefully ditched it in the middle of the Indian Ocean, it would sink without significant flotsam. It will never be found.

Also, his insurance will pay off if suicide cannot be proven.

[Zorra]

102. Silly me, I'm still holding out hope that the people are alive somewhere.

March 10

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4639323

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4639408

[Baclava]

108. pissing everybody off... "China demands Malaysia give more accurate information on plane"

(Reuters) - China on Saturday demanded that Malaysia keep providing more thorough and accurate information about a Malaysia Airlines flight that was on its way to Beijing when it disappeared a week ago, after Malaysia said the plane was deliberately diverted.

"We demand that the Malaysian side continue to provide to China more thorough, accurate information," the ministry said, adding that it was sending a technical team to Malaysia to help with the probe"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/15/us-malaysia-airlines-china-idUSBREA2E06120140315

[DCBob]

116. wasnt it china that dropped those bogus sat photos on us a few days ago??

[Baclava]

118. They aren't running the operation and two-thirds of those on-board were Chinese.

I can't blame the Chinese for wanting more information.

[DCBob]

119. sure.. but they themselves sent many on a wild goose chase with those photos.

They have participated in the very problem they are complaining about.

[Warren DeMontague]

121. This story gets weirder by the minute.

[roamer65]

123. I am betting the passengers put up one heck of a fight.

Ever since 9/11, the assumption now is that the plane is going to be flown into something as a terrorist attack. I am betting the passengers put up a fight and something went very wrong.
My feeling is that it was being flown westward to attack an Indian or Saudi city.

[anneboleyn]

124. ABC/CNN Breaking: Focus now on"deliberate action" of pilots (live now)

Don Lemon is discussing this breaking news now on CNN. The "breaking news" is that US gov. sources are saying that the focus is now on the pilots. Apparently various key systems were turned off, and the plane's flight pattern became highly suspicious. Malaysian gov. searched the homes of the pilots today. Focus is on Indian Ocean again.

I personally can't imagine why none of the passengers sent out text messages or cell calls but obviously we know very little at this point.

[morningfog]

125. With it being an overnight flight and if it was done by the pilot, none would

likely be the wiser until well out of range of a cell tower. At some point, whoever commandeered the plane, would likely have confiscated all of the passengers' belongings. Depending on the level of sophistication and number involved, who knows under what pretense communications with the passengers would have been.