This report turned out to be untrue but it also points out that so far deliberate action by a hijacker conforms to what is known and that flying low allows a pre - planned landing almost anywhere within a few hundred miles. The simplest action would still be a powered dive into the ocean after the cockpit was taken over. this would certainly minimize the debris halo.
******
Earlier this morning we had this.
Still missing but definitely elsewhere and flying low to avoid detection? That surely means that the pilot flying this bird does know what he is doing. The sudden direction changes detected at the beginning of the event looks like an attempt to dump altitude quickly without establishing exit direction. It obviously worked.
Add in the
reality that the passenger cell phones do not appear to be destroyed at all and
we have a carefully planned hijacking that has succeeded totally so far. Also whoever planned this knew the airspace
intimately as well to have the confidence to do what we are seeing here.
It is now
completely plausible that the plane has been landed on a runway somewhere
within a five hundred mile radius of the last known location of the Malacca
straits. This location sits on top of a
complex border and provides five national jurisdictions for searchers to search
with no obvious preference shown.
Right now we
cannot rule out the possibility that the plane landed on a remote airfield and
was then immediately hidden by vegetation.
This is no trick if you are prepared for it. Even better would be to land under a
prearranged set up on a commercial field were you could take the plane into a
hanger. That makes dealing with the
passengers far more difficult. Thus an
unused jungle airfield seems plausible.
At this point we
have neither wreckage nor indication of an emergency at all. What we have is a smoothly executed hijacking
by more than one person. Yet so far the
evidence does not support that at all.
It is almost like asking if the flight crew took leave of their senses.
Malaysian
military: Missing jet changed course, was far from last reported position
By Eileen Ng, The Associated Press | The Canadian
Press – 32 minutes ago
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -
The missing Boeing 777 jetliner changed course over the sea, crossed Malaysia
and reached the Strait of Malacca — hundreds of miles from its last position
recorded by civilian authorities, Malaysian military officials said Tuesday,
citing military radar data.
The development added confusion and mystery into what is emerging
as one of most puzzling aviation incidents of recent time, and it has raised
questions about why the Malaysia Airlines flight apparently was not
transmitting signals detectable by civilian radar or sending distress calls
after it turned back.
Many experts have been working on the assumption there was a
catastrophic event on the flight — such as an explosion, engine failure,
terrorist attack, extreme turbulence, pilot error or even suicide. The director
of the CIA said in Washington that he still would not rule out terrorism.
Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, took off from Kuala Lumpur at
12:41 a.m. Saturday, bound for Beijing. Authorities initially said its last contact
with ground controllers was less than an hour into the flight at a height of
35,000 feet, when the plane was somewhere between the east coast of Malaysia
and Vietnam.
But local newspaper Berita Harian quoted Malaysia's air force
chief, Gen. Rodzali Daud, as saying that radar at a military base had tracked
the jet as it changed its course, with the final signal at 2:40 a.m. showing
the plane to be near Pulau Perak at the northern approach to the Strait of
Malacca, a busy waterway that separates the western coast of Malaysia and
Indonesia's Sumatra island. It was flying slightly lower, at around 29,528
feet, he said.
"After that, the signal from the plane was lost," he was
quoted as saying.
A high-ranking military official involved in the investigation confirmed
the report. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to disclose sensitive information.
Authorities had said earlier the plane may have tried to turn back
to Kuala Lumpur, but they expressed surprise it would do so without informing
ground control.
The search was initially focused hundreds of miles (kilometres) to
the east, in waters off Vietnam, with more than 40 planes and ships from at
least 10 nations searching the area without finding a trace of the missing aircraft.
Earlier Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that
search-and-rescue teams had expanded their scope to the Strait of Malacca. An
earlier statement said the western coast of Malaysia was "now the
focus," but the airline subsequently said that phrase was an oversight. It
didn't elaborate.
Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the search
remained "on both sides" of Malaysia.
Attention will now likely focus on the condition of the Boeing
777's electronic systems as it charted its new course back toward and then
across Malaysia.
A radar antenna on the ground sends electromagnetic waves that
reflect from the surface of an aircraft and almost instantly return, allowing
controllers to calculate how far away a plane is. The antenna is mounted on a
rotating platform, sending and receiving signals 360 degrees across the sky,
enabling the plane's direction to be tracked by constant sweeps.
The system has limitations: Military and civilian air traffic
controllers know something is moving through the air but might not know what it
is. So planes were outfitted with transponders that can send a unique signal
back to the radar station, which can differentiate them from other aircraft.
From this signal, controllers can tell the flight number, heading, speed and
altitude.
Radar stations at airports are designed to track planes up to
about 60 miles. They are used to help sequence and space landing aircraft.
Another series of stations called air route surveillance radar can track planes
200-250 miles away, depending on weather and the age of the technology. Station
locations are selected to allow for a slight overlap so planes in heavy-traffic
areas are never out of reach of radar.
While radar black spots can exist, experts said the plane's
transponders normally would have been emitting signals that would have been
picked up by civilian radar. The fact that it apparently wasn't detected
suggests they were either disabled or switched off. Planes with no transponders
can still be tracked by radar.
Low-flying planes can sometimes avoid radar detection. There is no
set height they must be under, but the farther away they are from a radar
station, the higher they can be because of the angle of the radar antenna and
the curvature of the Earth.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar, who has been ordered to
look at possible criminal aspects in the disappearance of Flight MH370, said
hijacking, sabotage and issues related to the pilots' psychological health were
all being considered.
An Australian TV station reported that the first officer on the
missing plane, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had invited two women into the cockpit during
a flight two years ago. One of the women, Jonti Roos, described the encounter
on Australia's "A Current Affair."
Roos said she and a friend were allowed to stay in the cockpit
during the entire one-hour flight on Dec. 14, 2011, from Phuket, Thailand, to
Kuala Lumpur. She said the arrangement did not seem unusual to the plane's
crew.
"Throughout the entire flight, they were talking to us and
they were actually smoking throughout the flight," said Roos, who didn't
immediately reply to a message sent to her via Facebook. The second pilot on the
2011 flight was not identified
Malaysia Airlines said it took the allegations very seriously,
which it said it was not able to confirm, adding: "We are in the midst of
a crisis, and we do not want our attention to be diverted."
Also Tuesday, Malaysian and international police authorities said
two people who boarded Flight MH370 with stolen passports were Iranians who had
bought tickets to Europe, where they planning to migrate. Their presence on the
flight had raised speculation of a possible terrorist link.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said investigators had
determined one was a 19-year-old Iranian, Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad.
"We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group,"
Khalid said.
Interpol identified the second man as Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar,
a 29-year-old Iranian, and released an image of the two boarding at the same
time. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the two men travelled to
Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen
Austrian and Italian documents.
CIA Director John Brennan said in Washington that Malaysian
authorities "are looking very carefully at what went wrong; you know, if
these individuals got onto the plane with these stolen passports, why they were
not aware of it."
He also said there has been "a lot of speculation right now —
some claims of responsibility that have not been, you know, confirmed or
corroborated at all. We are looking at it very carefully."
Asked if terrorism could be ruled out, Brennan replied, "No,
I wouldn't rule it out. Not at all."
The United States has sent two Navy ships, at least one of which
is equipped with helicopters, and a Navy P-3C Orion plane that can detect small
debris in the water. It said the Malaysian government had done a
"tremendous job" organizing the land and sea effort.
Vietnamese planes and ships also are a major component of the
effort.
Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of Vietnamese People's
Army, said authorities on land had also been ordered to search for the plane,
which could have crashed into mountains or jungle. He said military units near
the border with Laos and Cambodia had been instructed to search their regions.
"So far we have found no signs ... so we
must widen our search on land," he said.
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