MH370 - Missing

[Montague S]

quite concerning to know that two of the passengers on the plane were traveling on stolen passports..The Austrian & Italian were actually never on the flight.

[Grahame Hutchison]

From Google News ...

Vietnamese air force planes have spotted two large oil slicks off the southern tip of Vietnam which may be from a missing Malaysian jetliner that was carrying 239 people, including six Australians.

The discovery of the slicks provided the first clue in the disappearance of Flight 370, a Boeing Co. 777-200 that was an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Twin sheens of oil spread as long as 15 kilometers south of Vietnam's Tho Chu island, the country's government said.

Disappointing that it has taken so long to locate the aircraft in this busy airspace.

Malaysia are best equipped to support the sea search, with 12 EC725s helicopters, having a 723nm range and just over 6 hours endurance. They also have C-130 aircraft employed in the search, however it will take some time to deploy these assets to the search area.

Vietnam only has one Antonov An-28 and four Beriev Be-12 seaplanes.

• Two passengers travelling on stolen passports could suggest a hijacking, although physical security at the airport, and on the aircraft, should make this difficult. There have been no confirmed reports of the aircraft landing at any other airport. The recent hijacking of an Ethiopian B767 was by the co-pilot, not a passenger.

• Previous wing tip damage from an accident back in 2012 should not be related.

• Fuel system icing issues with the B777 Trent 800 powerplants, similar to the British Airways accident back in 2008, is a potential cause, although Rolls Royce developed a fix to prevent the problem recurring.

[Philip Argy]

The two travelling on false passports, combined with the FR plot showing that although altitude reduced to zero, speed remained almost constant, does make this disappearance a little more troubling at this early stage.

But analogies with AF447 are also there. Will be interesting to see what telemetry was sent in the moments before the a/c disappeared.

[Laurent Sanhard]

you would think that if someone's passport was stolen last year then this would alert passport controls in all countries to be extra vigilant when a passenger shows up with that passport , also the passport number should show up as stolen once scanned . And once the genuine owner of the passport has their passport re-issued they would need to provide additional proof of id each time checking in and going through security if needed ,
An italian and an Austrian both had their passports stolen while in Thailand last year ? ( according to BBC ) sounds a bit odd , I travelled through Thailand / Singapore and Malaysia last year , and in my opinion the only weak link was thailand .... Singapore and Malaysia are very strict with passport controls and its hard to believe in this day and age that people still get away with travelling on false passports . if that is indeed what has happened

[Philip Argy]

Ostensibly on the grounds that US citizens were on the aircraft, but I'm not sure the FBI gets involved as a matter of course ...

[Mark Grima]

Originally Posted by Philip Argy

Ostensibly on the grounds that US citizens were on the aircraft, but I'm not sure the FBI gets involved as a matter of course ...

I'd imagine they would need an invite from the lead nation, who ever that may end up being. I can't imagine there is an jurisdictional nexus that allows the FBI to get involved simply because Americans were on board.

Cheers

M

[Steve S... 2]

There could not have been any fuel issues with the aircraft, as it would have flown for quite some time regardless, and communications would have been received from the pilot.

Something sudden and catastrophic has happened which prevented time for any communications from the pilots.

Something else to be considered would be the aircraft having been overpowered, and flown into the sea intentionally, also explaining the no communications.

We will find out...