Is this as mysterious as the incident of the two BSAA planes going down in the Bermuda Triangle in the 50s? Or the 727-223 that flew out of Angola and was never seen again?

(Written on 12.03.2014)(Permalink)

“Embarrassment and anger” are mounting in Malaysia at the confusing and contradictory information issued by the authorities, according to the Malaysia Insider. In an opinion piece it said: Do we have to wait and wonder for more than 24 hours the reasons for the expanded search at the Sumatra coast and the Andaman Sea because [Civil Aviation Chief] Azharuddin could only say cryptically: “There are some things that I can tell you and some things that I can’t.” More importantly, will any of this delay make it even harder to find the 239 people onboard flight MH370 which has been missing for more than 100 hours now? The whole world is watching Malaysia now because an aircraft with a wingspan of 61m does not fall off the sky or disappear into thin air just like that.

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Maybe the INSAT-4F will be able to help the SAR teams in the Andaman Sea. It carries carries the payloads in UHF, C-band and Ku band and has immensely improved India's blue water capabilities. The Andaman Sea, however, is a vast section of the Indian Ocean with an average depth of 3,500 feet.

(Written on 12.03.2014)(Permalink)

"The Indian Navy has joined the search by mobilizing its vessels in the Andaman Sea as well as utilizing its GSAT-7 satellite."

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“It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait,” the military official, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters. he Malaysia Airlines plane was last detected by military radar at 2:40 a.m. on Saturday, near the island of Pulau Perak at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca. It was flying at a height of about 9,000 metres (29,500 ft), he was quoted as saying. If the reports from the military are verified, it would mean the plane was able to maintain a cruising altitude and flew for about 500 km (350 miles) with its transponder and other tracking systems apparently switched off.

(Written on 11.03.2014)(Permalink)

Hong Kong’s Air Traffic Control Center reported on Mar 10th 2014 around 17:30L (09:30Z) that an airliner enroute on airway L642 reported via HF radio that they saw a large field of debris at position N9.72 E107.42 about 80nm southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, about 50nm off the south-eastern coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea and about 281nm northeast of the last known radar position. Ships have been dispatched to the reported debris field.

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BREAKING via THE NEW STRAITS TIMES: A sample of the oil slick spotted on Saturday in the South China Sea has been found to have no connection to the missing plane.

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One of the two suspects who boarded flight MH370 is not from Xinjiang, the north-west region of China racked by violent clashes between native Uighurs and the authorities, according to Malaysia’s Star Online citing a Malaysia police official.

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The Guardian's graphics team has put together this map showing the flight path and the two main search sites: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/3/10/1394448464928/967f1f35-06f3-4140-ba2f-509a95372457-486x540.jpeg

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One of the two suspects who travelled on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 using stolen passports has been identified. "I can confirm that he is not a Malaysian, but cannot divulge which country he is from yet," said Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar. He added that both suspects had no record of entering the country legally.

(Written on 10.03.2014)(Permalink)