Malaysia Airlines Loses Contact With 777 en Route to Beijing

[Evan]

Shallow waters by AF447 standards but still 100/150ft deep.

I'm not sure you can see from the surface a lot of details of the sea floor 100ft below. How much light gets there and back to the surface?

A P3 will definitely see it. Do we know if it is on the job yet?

[Peter Kesternich]

BTW - I just looked at the image of the ticket receipts agin. Without any further info about where these images came from, I have a lot of doubts about their authenticity. One clue: there is a illegible stamp on them, but they lack serial numbers. Neither do they show a date and issuing agent.

[eTang]

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA280FF20140309?irpc=932

More guessing.

(link formating corrected in quote)

Well, but still in comparison to PanAm 103: big chunks of airplane debris should be existing, even if the plane disintegrated at cruising altitude. No?

[Peter Kesternich]

Retox - posting usable links would help us a lot

[Gabriel]

BTW - I just looked at the image of the ticket receipts agin. Without any further info about where these images came from, I have a lot of doubts about their authenticity. One clue: there is a illegible stamp on them, but they lack serial numbers. Neither do they show a date and issuing agent.

The stamps are too identical and too identically placed to be manual stamps.
These are no images of paper tickets, that's for sure. The quality/res0lution can be downgraded. For example, they can be a jpg of a printscreen of a website showing the tickets (a travel planning website, for example).

Agent and date you have, if you can read those characters (Chinese, else?)

I make no claim that they are real, and have no particular reason to believe that they are neither real or fake, except that I have seen no denial so far.

[AVION1]

Here is a picture of the "door" the vietnamese air force found floating in the ocean. I don't think is a door, looks like an airframe panel with an inspection hole.

[retox]

(link formating corrected in quote)

Well, but still in comparison to PanAm 103: big chunks of airplane debris should be existing, even if the plane disintegrated at cruising altitude. No?

At the very least mid-air disintegration six and a half miles up would not cause the fuel slicks they have been reporting (the green slime they claim is jet-a).

We are clearly dealing with incompetent reporting, rumor, and speculation that is no more reliable than what people are posting here. Disturbing that it's disguised as news.

[Peter Kesternich]

The stamps are too identical and too identically placed to be manual stamps.
These are no images of paper tickets, that's for sure. The quality/res0lution can be downgraded. For example, they can be a jpg of a printscreen of a website showing the tickets (a travel planning website, for example).

Agent and date you have, if you can read those characters (Chinese, else?)

I make no claim that they are real, and have no particular reason to believe that they are neither real or fake, except that I have seen no denial so far.

Compare the type setting/print of indvidual info (airport codes, flight nos.) with the form. I'm tempted to bet a month's salary, that the Chinese signs above "Agent code", "Issued by" and "Date of Issue" losely translate into "Agent code", "Issued by" and "Date of Issue" .

In any case, there's a lot of info missing from these "tickets" that I usually see on mine, like valid period and serial number.

[Gabriel]

http://avherald.com/h?article=4710c69b&opt=0

In the night of Mar 9th 2014 Vietnam's Search and Rescue Control Center released a photo of a part floating in the Gulf of Thailand, that despite darkness was discovered by a Twin Otter Aircraft of Vietnam's Coast Guard at position N8.792 E103.374 about 31nm southsouthwest of Tho Chu (editorial note: 114nm north of the last radar contact position) and is believed to be a part of the aircraft. The Control Center stated, the part is definitely made of composite material. Forces will be dispatched to the part after daybreak Mar 10th 2014.

[EDIT]
Okay. it seems that AvHerald is not permitting access to their photos from external sites.
First image shows what might be an internal sidewall panel with the window hole.
Second image shows a map with the relative locations of the route, the last point of contact, and this part.
How they could confirm that the part is definitely made of composite material is beyond me.

[retox]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304732804579427991198487418?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304732804579427991198487418.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Says "composite INNER door" and tail fragment.

[Gabriel]

I'm tempted to bet a month's salary...

For what it's worth...

I see your point. It makes sense.

[Passion for flying]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...LEFTTopStories

Says "composite INNER door" and tail fragment.

No crtiticism against your post, but having read the article, those are my thoughts:
The exact nature of the debris spotted from aircraft flying over the area will only be known when that debris has been picked up. How anyone can state that it is made from composite by looking at a photo taken from the air is hard to believe and requires more evidence. Why did they not post the photos in the article?

[retox]

@Gabriel, the best part of the article you posted:

"In the evening of Mar 9th 2014 local time Malaysia's Transport Ministry reported, that no trace of the missing aircraft has been found at dawn Mar 9th after two days of search. The oil slicks as well as debris found so far are not related to the aircraft. Rumours like other crew establishing contact to the accident flight after radar contact was lost, phone contact to a mobile phone of one the passengers of the missing flight or the aircraft having landed in China or Vietnam, are false."

[retox]

and now it's a missile?

http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2014/03/09/missile-downed-malaysian-plane-follows-recent-warning-of-nightmare-threat-airliners/

[sjwk]

I'm still not sure on the tickets. However, the Sky News page linked earlier (http://news.sky.com/story/1222942/ma...ragments-found) does contain what look like screen shots of a booking system for those two tickets. Certain information still missing (agent, date etc) and additionally no fare, but the ticket number, names, flights matches the earlier images.

The other thing that article mentions, which has also been noted in an update on the BBC is that searches are concentrating in two places - the first in the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam, where the oil slick was spotted (which Sky reports as being consistent with fuel spills) and apparently where debris has been spotted.

The other search location is North-*West* of KUL, in the Malacca Straits between Malaysia and Sumatra - the opposite direction to where it was flying and last reported position. The BBC article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26506961) does say that search switched to the second location rather than searching both, even though that isn't where the supposed slick and debris were.

If true, perhaps that does indicate there is evidence for hijacking and deviation from the route. I can't think of any reason they'd start looking in a different sea, about 500km from the last known location?