Malaysian Airlines 777 with 239 Aboard Missing

The distance from where the plane was last known to be and the closest point in Iran is about 3000 miles, and that's flying over central India. Around the Indian peninsula, about 4000 miles.





Might be possible (though circumventing India would REALLY be pushing it, fuel-wise), but the big question would be...why?

If Iran took hostages this way, that would simply be the end of the regime.

It's hard to imagine what value someone would get from taking the plane and passengers.

They are now saying that terrorism is "unlikely."

I'd be more at ease if the explanation turned out to be terrorism.

What are the alternatives?

1. Sudden, catastrophic mechanical failure.

2. Pilot/co-pilot suicide.

3. Shot down.

4. Unknown atmospheric/meteorological phenomenon.

5. Collision.

6. Hijacking.

7. Navigation failure.

I think all of these except #1 and #2 are pretty unlikely.

I'm beginning to agree. I'm of the mind that they had some catastrophic event that simply prevented the pilots from sending a mayday call and the plane crashed.

It makes no sense to be a hijacking because if you needed a plane for future terrorism there has got to be far easier ways to get one.

Perhaps aliens abducted them?

I'm hearing that they're looking for the plane in the Straits of Malacca which is in the opposite direction they were headed. Very strange.

Maybe they had some in-flight emergency that took out their comms and they were trying to return to Kuala Lumpur? If so, the plane could be down very far from its original flight path.

Malaysian military tracked the plane to the Straits of Malacca. There's speculation that they were trying to return to Kuala Lumpur using the western coast of Malaysia for navigation. If so, that would mean their usual navigation systems--and, presumably, communication systems--were not functioning.

Villagers on the east coast of Malaysia reported a loud, unusual airplane engine noise that lasted for two minutes. This was about 20 minutes prior to the plane reaching its last known location over the Gulf of Thailand.

Speculation: someone (one of the crew?) tried to sabotage/crash the plane, control was regained, but the flight was forced to return to KL without navigation or comms, so the pilot attempted to navigate via visible landmarks (the western coast). But what would've brought the plane down? Perhaps it had suffered damage in the earlier event. Or maybe fuel was jettisoned. Perhaps the person in control of the plane was not a trained pilot.

A plane heading for Peking took a wrong turn into another dimension three days ago, and no trace of it has been found since.

That's about all that's known for sure.

If they are not broken up in order to harvest their organs, it's just not much of a story.

I think I've figured it out. I hear they're bringing back "Heroes."

I suspect this is all a publicity stunt to promote the return of "Lost."

Turns out it's a jimmy Kimmel hoax....

OK, OK. I was able to find a relevant infographic on the 777:

I'll tell you what's wrong with this thread. None of you have blamed Obama yet.

No one flies to Peking anymore, just like no one flies to Constantinople anymore.

Lemme guess, you wouldn't fly to Saigon either?

I'm not sure I recognize the official name for Saigon.

I have no desire to spill blood or treasure over it, but if I can thumb my nose at the North Vietnamese government, so be it.

So the real terrorists are Ancalagon, Paladin, and John.

It's the Langoliers.

That must be why they didn't get there.

Asnycritus wanders away singing "Take me Back to Constantinople"...

With names like that, I think it's time we produce a gospel album.

This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen after they stopped flying the Concord:

Malaysia Flight Passengers Cell Phones Still Ring, which doesn't mean much, since the phone only has to be powered on, but maybe they didn't crash into the ocean. A cell phone signal wouldn't get far underwater, would it?

The ringing doesn't mean anything. The ring isn't generated by the phone, it's generated by the network trying to communicate with the phone. I can turn my phone off and you'll still get a ring if you dial me.

Also, for passengers' phones to connect to the network, they'd have to be in range of a cell tower, and I don't think it likely they are. The phones (and their owners) are most likely pulverized and settled on the bottom of the ocean somewhere.

Edit: found a link that backs up what I'm saying...

eCommerce Times linkage

After three days, I'd have thought that cell phones would be out of power.

Yes, that too.

This is people clinging on to false hope. All the people who were on that plane are dead. The question is: where?

Wrong number?

Phone missed the flight?