Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 missing

[Drift]

Apparently it quite simply disappeared. Last contact at 35k feet over South China Sea.

[viewer]

They said on the tv news that it was last reported in a steep dive..

[Drift]

Lots of different stories floating about. Apparently one of the flight tracking sites last reported it having suddenly dropped 200m.

[Coldamus]

At that altitude and in good weather, terrain is not a factor, so why no distress call? That leads me to think it could only be due to catastrophic failure, either structural or due to hostile act. I've being holding out hope it might be a hi-jack but it would have to have landed by now and there'd surely be some communication or demands. It is not looking good.

[leginau]

Have you got your tin foil hats on? It may be aliens and they will probe them all

[Downunder35m]

Some more details (cbsnews.com), about 30 minutes old:

A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday, prompting China to send ships to scour the water for possible wreckage.

The airline, speaking several hours after the plane had been due to land in the Chinese capital, said it was still too early so say whether the aircraft had crashed. It said there had been no distress signal and it cited early speculation that the plane may have landed in Nanming in southern China.

As news of the disappearance filtered through to distraught friends and relatives who had been waiting for the flight to arrive in Beijing, Malaysia Airline said it was still investigating and took no questions at a brief news conference.
"Our team is currently calling the next-of-kin of passengers and crew," the airlines' group chief executive officer, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said in a statement. "Focus of the airline is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilize its full support."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members," he said.
The airline said that the Boeing 777-200 aircraft had 227 passengers, including two infants, and 12 crew members on board.

It said the passengers were of 13 different nationalities, including 153 from China and four from the United States.

Flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. Saturday local time, according to a statement from the airline. It was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m.

The plane last had contact with air traffic controllers two hours after it took off 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, the airline said on Saturday.

Malaysian and Vietnamese authorities were working jointly on search operations in the area. China has dispatched two maritime rescue ships to the South China Sea to help in rescue work, state television reported.


An official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said the plane had failed to check in as scheduled while it was flying over the sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City.

"Its code didn't appear in our system," Bui Van Vo, the authority's flight control department manager, told Reuters by telephone.

China's official Xinhua news agency also quoted the Civil Aviation Administration of China as saying the flight lost contact while flying through Vietnamese airspace.

No signal had been picked up from the plane in Vietnam, a Vietnamese rescue official said on Saturday.

"We have been seeking but no signal from the plane yet," Pham Hien, director of a Vietnam maritime search and rescue coordination center in Vung Tau, told Reuters by telephone.

Vietnamese and Chinese media had reported that a signal from the plane had been picked up. The reports did not identify what kind of signal.

"The information on local media about the signal near the Cape Ca Mau was inaccurate," Pham said.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters, "We are extremely worried. We are doing all we can to get details. The news is very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe."

China is helping to locate the aircraft, Chinese state television said on one of its official microblogs.
The flight was piloted by Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a Malaysian aged 53, according to the airline. He has a total of 18,365 flying hours and joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981.

Same story with other info (Reuters):

(Reuters) - A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew went missing over the South China Sea on Saturday, presumed crashed, as ships and planes from countries closest to its flight path scoured a large search area for any wreckage.

Vietnamese state media, quoting a senior naval official, had reported that the Boeing 777-200ER flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing had crashed off south Vietnam. Malaysia's transport minister later denied any crash scene had been identified.

"We are doing everything in our power to locate the plane.

We are doing everything we can to ensure every possible angle has been addressed," Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

"We are looking for accurate information from the Malaysian military. They are waiting for information from the Vietnamese side," he said.

Vietnamese Admiral Ngo Van Phat later qualified his earlier remarks about a crash site having been identified and told Reuters he was referring to a presumed location beneath the plane's flight path, using information supplied by Malaysia.

A crash, if confirmed, would likely mark the U.S.-built Boeing 777-200ER airliner's deadliest incident since entering service 19 years ago.

The plane disappeared without giving a distress signal - a chilling echo of an Air France flight that crashed into the South Atlantic on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people on board. It vanished for hours before wreckage was found.

Search and rescue vessels from the Malaysian maritime enforcement agency reached the area where the plane last made contact at about 4.30 p.m. Singapore time (0830 GMT) but saw no immediate sign of wreckage, a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency told Reuters.

VANISHED AFTER REACHING 35,000 FEET

Flight MH370, operating a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said in a statement read to an earlier news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

There were no reports of bad weather in the area.

The airline said people from 14 nationalities were among the 227 passengers - at least 152 Chinese, 38 Malaysians, seven Indonesians, six Australians, five Indians, four French and three Americans. A Chinese infant and an American infant were also on board.

"The Australian government fears the worst for those aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370," a spokeswoman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

Flight tracking website flightaware.com showed the plane flew northeast over Malaysia after takeoff and climbed to an altitude of 35,000 feet. The flight vanished from the website's tracking records a minute later while it was still climbing.

Malaysia and Vietnam were conducting a joint search and rescue operation, while China and the Philippines have sent ships to the South China Sea to help. The Philippines also dispatched a military plane to help in the search.

China has also put other ships and aircraft on standby, said Transport Minister Yang Chuantang.

"EXTREMELY WORRIED"

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing before the initial Vietnamese report that the plane had crashed that China was "extremely worried" about the fate of the plane and those on board. "The news is very disturbing. We hope everyone on the plane is safe," Wang said.

The flight was operating as a China Southern Airlines codeshare.

The flight left Kuala Lumpur at 12.21 a.m. (11.21 a.m. ET Friday) but no trace had been found of the plane more than eight hours after it was due to land in the Chinese capital at 6.30 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET Friday) the same day.

"We deeply regret that we have lost all contacts with flight MH370," Jauhari said.

Malaysia Airlines has one of the best safety records among full-service carriers in the Asia-Pacific region.

It identified the pilot of MH370 as Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a 53-year-old Malaysian who joined the carrier in 1981 and has 18,365 hours of flight experience.

Chinese state media said 24 Chinese artists and family members, who were in Kuala Lumpur for an art exchange program, were aboard. The Sichuan provincial government said Zhang Jinquan, a well-known calligrapher, was on the flight.

If it is confirmed that the plane crashed, the loss would mark the second fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year and by far the worst since the jet entered service in 1995.

An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crash-landed in San Francisco in July 2013, killing three passengers and injuring more than 180.

Boeing said it was monitoring the situation but had no further comment. The flight was operating as a China Southern Airlines codeshare.

An official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said the plane had failed to check in as scheduled at 1721 GMT while it was flying over the sea between Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh city.

(Additional reporting by Anuradha Raghu in KUALA LUMPUR, Ben Blanchard, Jonathan Standing and Natalie Thomas in BEIJING, Martin Petty in HANOI, Alwyn Scott in NEW YORK, and Morag MacKinnon in PERTH

Although speculations are not helping, in these times a modern airliner does not simply vanish.
No distress call, no signals from a black box would also rule out a massive failure within the plane.
Must have been something very serious or even an attack, although I doubt it.

[LeroyPatrol]

I've been watching this as we've flown Malaysian serveral times on their 777's and found them to be great with great service. they moved away from 747's years ago in favour of the 777. We've since been on Emirates the last few trips and found them to be the best.

Leroy

[Uncle Fester]

Sudden catastrophic structural damage / explosion or suicide mission.
Unlike a similar disappearance in 2009, Air France 447, there are no automated failure reports through ACARS that can usually be picked up with satellites, well at least nobody has mentioned any yet.

Crash: Malaysia B772 over Gulf of Thailand on Mar 8th 2014, aircraft missing

By Simon Hradecky, created Saturday, Mar 8th 2014 01:10Z, last updated Saturday, Mar 8th 2014 09:01ZAn Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200, registration 9M-MRO performing flight MH-370 from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Beijing (China) with 227 passengers and 12 crew, was enroute at FL350 about 120nm northeast of Kota Bharu (Malaysia) over the Gulf of Thailand in contact with Subang Center (Malaysia) just about to be handed off to Ho Chi Minh Air Traffic Control Center (Vietnam) when radar and radio contact was lost at about 01:22L (17:22Z Mar 7th). Subang Air Traffic Control Center officially told the airline at around 02:40L (18:40Z Mar 7th) that the aircraft was missing. The aircraft would have run out of fuel by now, there have been no reports of the aircraft turning up on any airport in the region.

The airline confirmed the aircraft is missing, a search and rescue operation has been initiated. Subang Air Traffic Control reported at 02:40 local Malaysian time, that radar and radio contact with the aircraft had been lost.

In a press conference the airline stated, the last contact with the aircraft had been about 120nm northeast of Kota Bharu (Malaysia), over the Gulf of Thailand. The aircraft was piloted by an experienced captain (53, 18,365 hours total) and a first officer (27, 2,763 hours total). The aircraft carried 153 Chinese citizens, 38 Malaysians, 7 Indonesians, 6 Australians, 5 Indian, 4 citizens of USA, 3 French, 2 New Zealanders, 2 Ukrainians, 2 Canadians, 1 Russian, 1 Italian, 1 Dutch and 1 Austrian.

Search missions have been launched along the estimated flight track of the aircraft from Gulf of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos to China (South China Sea).

At about noon local time Vietnamese search personnel reported they have detected an ELT signal about 20nm south of the coast of Ca Mau. Vietnam officials subsequently stated that they have not yet detected flight MH-370.

In the afternoon local time an Admiral of the Vietnamese Navy was understood to indicate that the crash site of the aircraft has been located about 130nm south of the Vietnamese Island Tho Chau (110nm southwest of main land Ca Mau), the Navy later said that the admiral only referred to the position of last radio/radar contact with the aircraft, the aircraft has not yet been found.

China reported that the aircraft did not enter Chinese airspace (editorial note: which effectively discounts rumours and false reports by a Malaysian outlet of the aircraft having landed in Nanning (China)).

Nanning Airport stated the aircraft did not arrive at the airport.

According to The Aviation Herald's radar data the aircraft was last regularly seen at 17:22Z (01:22L) about half way between Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) at FL350 over the Gulf of Thailand about 260nm northnortheast of Kuala Lumpur and 120nm northeast of Kota Bharu 40 minutes into the flight, followed by anomalies in the radar data of the aircraft over the next minute (the anomalies may be related to the aircraft but could also be caused by the aircraft leaving the range of the receiver).

Aviation sources in China report that radar data suggest a steep and sudden descent of the aircraft, during which the track of the aircraft changed from 024 degrees to 333 degrees. The aircraft was estimated to contact Ho Chi Minh Control Center (Vietnam) at 01:20L, but contact was never established.

Infrared VISSR Satellite Image Mar 7th 18:00Z (Graphics: AVH/Meteosat):

[LeroyPatrol]

just heard another report that it's landed in china but not where it was supposted to. don't know who to believe.

Leroy

[Coldamus]

New information is that two of the passengers were using stolen passports. The Italian and Austrian on the passenger list were not actually on board. Their passports had been stolen separately some time ago in Thailand. The fact that the passports were stolen on separate occasions some time apart yet both used together on this same flight can surely not be a coincidence.

[Tiny]

Oil slicks found in sea. Possibly from plane.

[hoe]

looks like 2 stolen passports were used to board the plane.......

[jok11n]

looks like 2 stolen passports were used to board the plane.......

Stolen a year apart and both on the same plane, doesn't sound good

[hoe]

at least one of the stolen passports was on the interpol database, so it makes you wonder how they got on the plane with it.....

[jok11n]

Not that I like the idea but a terrorist act is a better explanation than just a plane randomly falling out of the sky

[enf]

New information is that two of the passengers were using stolen passports. The Italian and Austrian on the passenger list were not actually on board. Their passports had been stolen separately some time ago in Thailand. The fact that the passports were stolen on separate occasions some time apart yet both used together on this same flight can surely not be a coincidence.

My thoughts exactly when I read this....

[mtv]

Authorities have yet to confirm the identities of two more European passengers on flight MH370, adding to two others using stolen passports in the Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished over the Malaysia-Vietnam maritime border yesterday.
The Malaysian Insider understands that all four had bought their flight tickets from China Southern Airlines, the Malaysia Airlines codeshare partner for the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route.

This certainly suggests an act of terrorism.

[jok11n]

It was a code share flight so I don't think there's too much significance to where they bought the tickets, there was just a terrorist attack about a week ago in China at a railway station with about 30 people killed and many more injured, related, not sure

[mtv]

The point was that there are another two passenger identities that may be false, in addition to the two confirmed stolen passports used.

[enf]

The point was that there are another two passenger identities that may be false, in addition to the two confirmed stolen passports used.

What I don't get is why no message by terrorists. Whats the point if there is none?

Could be coming later of course...