PhillyGirl
Member
Friday night, a Boeing 777 disappeared off flight radar at 35,000 feet somewhere over the Gulf of Thailand, about an hour after departing Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur airport, en route to Beijing. Military radar detected it about an hour later, over the Strait of Malacca (200-300 miles southwest of the last contact, and quite far off the flight route, indicating it flew back OVER Malaysia, undetected).
239 passengers are on board, majority being Chinese. There are also 3 Americans, including 2 toddlers.
2 passports were discovered to be stolen (in Thailand), and two Iranians (including a teenager) were found to be using the passports. Most intelligence agencies involved believe that the two Iranians were seeking political asylum in Europe, and are not linked to a hijacking/terrorism. But it is still being investigated, of course.
The creepiest part of it all? No mayday calls, distress calls, or emergency warnings were sent from the plane. Whatever happened, happened fast. Planes don't just "vanish" off radar barring something catastrophic.
The leading theory at the moment is in-flight disintegration, but this raises questions given what information has been publicly released. Why would the flight radar lose the plane in an instant over the Gulf of Thailand, but then military radar would suddenly pick it up almost an hour later, in the complete opposite direction? Also, why wasn't the military radar information released sooner? The first few days' SAR efforts were entirely focused in the Gulf of Thailand region, yet Monday it was revealed that the Strait of Malacca was being searched (very odd given the fact that it is on the other side of Malaysia), with no explanation given until today. It just seems odd. They are now also searching the Malaysian mainland.
I'm wondering if there was some sort of catastrophic explosion that led to decompression, and then to hypoxia (such as in the Payne Stewart crash in '99, and the Helios Flight 522 crash in '05). Despite the T7's stellar record, anything can happen and perhaps something crazy happened (meteorite?) and the plane was disabled, shutting down communications and radar. The jet was then disabled, but flyable and continued on, turning back to Kuala Lumpur. But with no communications, and it being night, and maybe no working instruments, and perhaps a lack of oxygen (explosive decompression), the pilots were confused. They were flying in the right general direction, but missed the airport (confusion, unconsciousness, etc).
But again, it's BIZARRE that no radar picked up a random T7 flying over Malaysia. And bizarre that nobody saw the presumed crash, given the vast number of cargo ships and fishing boats out there (I have an uncle who flies jets out there and he says it's like a city under the plane when flying over the sea at night, with so many lights from ships/boats). And if hypoxia is the case, and the pilots were unconscious/dead .. the plane would have continued on until it ran out of fuel, and it had another 6 hours worth of fuel. Meaning it could potentially have crashed in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We only have the last radar spots to go on (flight radar in the Gulf of Thailand, and military radar in the Strait of Malacca). So we could very well be looking in the wrong place ..
Based on what we know, terrorism seems unlikely. But SOMETHING caused the plane to "disappear" from radar, then turn back. Given the amount of litter in the sea all over that area (heavily trafficked trade routes), I doubt we will find debris soon. It's like finding a needle in a needle-stack .. But what happened? Terrorism? Hijacking? Pilot suicide? In-flight disintegration? Explosion? Missile? Mechanical failure? North Korea took it? There's not much to go on.
At this point .. it doesn't look good. My thoughts and prayers go out to the 239 souls abroad that flight. It's things like this that remind us that it doesn't matter what country or religion or culture people belong to .. We are all people, and 239 families have lost a loved one. And they may never know what happened to them. It's amazing to see the various nations involved banding together to find answers, despite their differences (and rough histories for some). Please keep the passengers, their families, the SAR teams, and all involved in your thoughts and prayers.
239 passengers are on board, majority being Chinese. There are also 3 Americans, including 2 toddlers.
2 passports were discovered to be stolen (in Thailand), and two Iranians (including a teenager) were found to be using the passports. Most intelligence agencies involved believe that the two Iranians were seeking political asylum in Europe, and are not linked to a hijacking/terrorism. But it is still being investigated, of course.
The creepiest part of it all? No mayday calls, distress calls, or emergency warnings were sent from the plane. Whatever happened, happened fast. Planes don't just "vanish" off radar barring something catastrophic.
The leading theory at the moment is in-flight disintegration, but this raises questions given what information has been publicly released. Why would the flight radar lose the plane in an instant over the Gulf of Thailand, but then military radar would suddenly pick it up almost an hour later, in the complete opposite direction? Also, why wasn't the military radar information released sooner? The first few days' SAR efforts were entirely focused in the Gulf of Thailand region, yet Monday it was revealed that the Strait of Malacca was being searched (very odd given the fact that it is on the other side of Malaysia), with no explanation given until today. It just seems odd. They are now also searching the Malaysian mainland.
I'm wondering if there was some sort of catastrophic explosion that led to decompression, and then to hypoxia (such as in the Payne Stewart crash in '99, and the Helios Flight 522 crash in '05). Despite the T7's stellar record, anything can happen and perhaps something crazy happened (meteorite?) and the plane was disabled, shutting down communications and radar. The jet was then disabled, but flyable and continued on, turning back to Kuala Lumpur. But with no communications, and it being night, and maybe no working instruments, and perhaps a lack of oxygen (explosive decompression), the pilots were confused. They were flying in the right general direction, but missed the airport (confusion, unconsciousness, etc).
But again, it's BIZARRE that no radar picked up a random T7 flying over Malaysia. And bizarre that nobody saw the presumed crash, given the vast number of cargo ships and fishing boats out there (I have an uncle who flies jets out there and he says it's like a city under the plane when flying over the sea at night, with so many lights from ships/boats). And if hypoxia is the case, and the pilots were unconscious/dead .. the plane would have continued on until it ran out of fuel, and it had another 6 hours worth of fuel. Meaning it could potentially have crashed in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We only have the last radar spots to go on (flight radar in the Gulf of Thailand, and military radar in the Strait of Malacca). So we could very well be looking in the wrong place ..
Based on what we know, terrorism seems unlikely. But SOMETHING caused the plane to "disappear" from radar, then turn back. Given the amount of litter in the sea all over that area (heavily trafficked trade routes), I doubt we will find debris soon. It's like finding a needle in a needle-stack .. But what happened? Terrorism? Hijacking? Pilot suicide? In-flight disintegration? Explosion? Missile? Mechanical failure? North Korea took it? There's not much to go on.
At this point .. it doesn't look good. My thoughts and prayers go out to the 239 souls abroad that flight. It's things like this that remind us that it doesn't matter what country or religion or culture people belong to .. We are all people, and 239 families have lost a loved one. And they may never know what happened to them. It's amazing to see the various nations involved banding together to find answers, despite their differences (and rough histories for some). Please keep the passengers, their families, the SAR teams, and all involved in your thoughts and prayers.
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