There was last month the Ethopian Airlines (or Egyptair?) plane hijacked on route to Zurich which landed safely.
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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 missing!
- Thread starter hlo1
- Start date
There was last month the Ethopian Airlines (or Egyptair?) plane hijacked on route to Zurich which landed safely.
genetic
Honorary Master
Thats what gets me, the technology exists for "them" to track cell phones, smart phones, they can even track a flipping jihadist across the mountains of Afghanistan and drop a bomb on his outhouse while he is sitting in it from thousands of kilometres away.
So with all this electronic real time tracking around the globe how the F do you lose a bloody great plane?
Baffles me too.
AfricanTech
Honorary Master
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
MEN WITH STOLEN PASSPORTS ON JET 'NOT TERRORISTS'
Associated Press
Two men traveling with stolen passports on a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner were Iranians who had bought tickets to Europe and were probably not terrorists, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
The announcement is likely to dampen, at least for now, speculation that the disappearance of the Boeing 777 was linked to terrorism. Police said both men bought their tickets in Thailand and entered Malaysia together.
No debris from the plane has been found. On Tuesday, baffled authorities expanded their search to the opposite side of Malaysia from where it disappeared more than three days ago with 239 people on board.
The airline says the pilots did not send any distress signals, suggesting a sudden and possibly catastrophic incident. Speculation has ranged widely about possible causes, including pilot error, plane malfunction, hijacking and terrorism.
News that two of the passengers were traveling with stolen passports immediately fueled speculation of foul play. However, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told a news conference Tuesday that investigators had determined one was a 19-year-old Iranian, Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad, and that it seemed likely that he was planning to migrate to Germany.
"We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group," Khalid said.
Interpol identified the second man as a 29-year-old Iranian and released an image of the two boarding a plane at the same time. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the two men traveled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
He said speculation of terrorism appeared to be dying down "as the belief becomes more certain that these two individuals were probably not terrorists."
Khalid said the 19-year-old man's mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and had been in contact with police. He said she contacted Malaysian authorities to inform them of her concern when her son didn't get in touch with her.
He also said there was no truth to a statement by at least one other government official that five passengers had checked in for the flight but never boarded the airplane.
The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, on the western coast of Malaysia, early Saturday en route to Beijing. It flew across Malaysia into the Gulf of Thailand at 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) and then disappeared from radar screens.
Authorities have said the plane may have attempted to turn back toward Kuala Lumpur.
The hunt began on Saturday near the plane's last known location. But with no debris found there, the search has been systematically expanded to include areas the plane could have reached with the fuel it had on board. That is a vast area in which to locate something as small as a piece of an aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines said search and rescue teams have expanded the scope beyond the flight path to the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia's western coast and Indonesia's Sumatra island - the opposite side of Malaysia from its last known location.
An earlier statement said the western coast of Malaysia was "now the focus," but the airline subsequently said that phrase was an oversight.
"The search is on both sides," Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said.
The search currently includes nine aircraft and 24 ships from nine countries that have been scouring the Gulf of Thailand on the eastern side of Malaysia. Land areas also are being searched.
China, where two-thirds of the passengers are from, urged Malaysian authorities on Tuesday to "speed up the efforts" to find the plane. It has sent four ships, with another four on the way.
A shopping mall in Beijing suspended advertising on its large outdoor LED screen to display a search timer - an image of an airplane along with a digital clock marking the time since contact with the flight was lost.
Assuming the plane crashed into the ocean or disintegrated in midair, there will likely still be debris floating in the ocean, but it may be widely spread out, and much may have already sunk. In past disasters, it has taken days or longer to find wreckage.
The United States has sent two navy ships, at least one of which is equipped with helicopters, and a Navy P-3C Orion plane with sensors that can detect small debris in the water. It said in a statement that the Malaysian government has done "tremendous job" organizing the land and sea search effort.
Vietnamese planes and ships are also taking part.
Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese People's Army, said authorities on land had also been ordered to search for the plane, which could have crashed into mountains or uninhabited jungle. He said military units near the border with Laos and Cambodia had been instructed to search their regions also.
"So far we have found no signs ... so we must widen our search," he said.
Source : Sapa-AP /ge
Date : 11 Mar 2014 14:50
Associated Press
Two men traveling with stolen passports on a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner were Iranians who had bought tickets to Europe and were probably not terrorists, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
The announcement is likely to dampen, at least for now, speculation that the disappearance of the Boeing 777 was linked to terrorism. Police said both men bought their tickets in Thailand and entered Malaysia together.
No debris from the plane has been found. On Tuesday, baffled authorities expanded their search to the opposite side of Malaysia from where it disappeared more than three days ago with 239 people on board.
The airline says the pilots did not send any distress signals, suggesting a sudden and possibly catastrophic incident. Speculation has ranged widely about possible causes, including pilot error, plane malfunction, hijacking and terrorism.
News that two of the passengers were traveling with stolen passports immediately fueled speculation of foul play. However, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told a news conference Tuesday that investigators had determined one was a 19-year-old Iranian, Pouria Nourmohammadi Mehrdad, and that it seemed likely that he was planning to migrate to Germany.
"We believe he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group," Khalid said.
Interpol identified the second man as a 29-year-old Iranian and released an image of the two boarding a plane at the same time. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the two men traveled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
He said speculation of terrorism appeared to be dying down "as the belief becomes more certain that these two individuals were probably not terrorists."
Khalid said the 19-year-old man's mother was waiting for him in Frankfurt and had been in contact with police. He said she contacted Malaysian authorities to inform them of her concern when her son didn't get in touch with her.
He also said there was no truth to a statement by at least one other government official that five passengers had checked in for the flight but never boarded the airplane.
The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, on the western coast of Malaysia, early Saturday en route to Beijing. It flew across Malaysia into the Gulf of Thailand at 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) and then disappeared from radar screens.
Authorities have said the plane may have attempted to turn back toward Kuala Lumpur.
The hunt began on Saturday near the plane's last known location. But with no debris found there, the search has been systematically expanded to include areas the plane could have reached with the fuel it had on board. That is a vast area in which to locate something as small as a piece of an aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines said search and rescue teams have expanded the scope beyond the flight path to the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia's western coast and Indonesia's Sumatra island - the opposite side of Malaysia from its last known location.
An earlier statement said the western coast of Malaysia was "now the focus," but the airline subsequently said that phrase was an oversight.
"The search is on both sides," Civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said.
The search currently includes nine aircraft and 24 ships from nine countries that have been scouring the Gulf of Thailand on the eastern side of Malaysia. Land areas also are being searched.
China, where two-thirds of the passengers are from, urged Malaysian authorities on Tuesday to "speed up the efforts" to find the plane. It has sent four ships, with another four on the way.
A shopping mall in Beijing suspended advertising on its large outdoor LED screen to display a search timer - an image of an airplane along with a digital clock marking the time since contact with the flight was lost.
Assuming the plane crashed into the ocean or disintegrated in midair, there will likely still be debris floating in the ocean, but it may be widely spread out, and much may have already sunk. In past disasters, it has taken days or longer to find wreckage.
The United States has sent two navy ships, at least one of which is equipped with helicopters, and a Navy P-3C Orion plane with sensors that can detect small debris in the water. It said in a statement that the Malaysian government has done "tremendous job" organizing the land and sea search effort.
Vietnamese planes and ships are also taking part.
Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese People's Army, said authorities on land had also been ordered to search for the plane, which could have crashed into mountains or uninhabited jungle. He said military units near the border with Laos and Cambodia had been instructed to search their regions also.
"So far we have found no signs ... so we must widen our search," he said.
Source : Sapa-AP /ge
Date : 11 Mar 2014 14:50
grim
Expert Member
Yeah, that was one of the pilots that hijacked it. He was arrested in the plane after it landed in Zurich. It was on the way to Rome originally.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Plane may have changed course and headed West....
Malaysia Airlines MH370: Plane 'changed course'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26527439#TWEET1068639
Malaysia Airlines MH370: Plane 'changed course'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26527439#TWEET1068639
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
NeonNinja
Neon Resident
And the plot thickens.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
HUNT FOR MISSING JET WIDENS TO DISTANT WATERS
Authorities are expanding their search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane to the Malacca Strait, far from its last confirmed location, the airline said Tuesday, injecting new mystery into an investigation that so far has failed to come up with any answers.
More than three days after the Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, no trace of the plane has been found in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam that have been scoured by more than 40 planes and ships from at least 10 nations.
The plane, carrying 239 people, dropped off radar less than an hour into the flight without sending out a distress signal. Authorities have said it may have attempted to turn back to Kuala Lumpur, but they expressed surprise that it would do so without informing ground control.
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that search and rescue teams expanded their scope to the Malacca Strait between Malaysia's western coast and Indonesia's Sumatra island - the opposite side of Malaysia from the plane's last known location.
To reach the strait, a busy shipping lane, the plane would have had to cross over the country, presumably within the range of radar.
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 the country.
Also Tuesday, authorities said two people who boarded the flight using stolen passports were Iranians who had purchased tickets to Europe. Their appearance 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, and that it seemed likely he was planning to migrate to Germany.
"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 a plane at the same time. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the two men traveled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
He said speculation of terrorism appeared to be dying down "as the belief becomes more certain that these two individuals were probably not terrorists." He appealed to the public for more information about the two.
The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, on the western coast of Malaysia, early Saturday en route to Beijing.
It flew across Malaysia into the Gulf of Thailand at 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) and then disappeared from radar screens.
The hunt began on Saturday near the plane's last known location. But with no debris found there, the search has been systematically expanded to include areas the plane could have reached with the fuel it had on board. That is a vast area in which to locate something as small as a piece of an aircraft.
China, where two-thirds of the passengers are from, urged Malaysian authorities on Tuesday to "speed up the efforts" to find the plane. It has sent four ships, with another four on the way.
A shopping mall in Beijing suspended advertising on its large outdoor LED screen to display a search timer - an image of an airplane along with a digital clock marking the time since contact with the flight was lost.
Assuming the plane crashed into the ocean or disintegrated in midair, there will likely still be debris floating in the ocean, but it may be widely spread out and much may have already sunk. In past disasters, it has taken days or longer to find wreckage.
The United States has sent two navy ships, at least one of which is equipped with helicopters, and a Navy P-3C Orion plane with sensors that can detect small debris in the water.
Vietnamese planes and ships are also taking part. Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese People's Army, said authorities on land had also been ordered to search for the plane, which could have crashed into mountains or uninhabited jungle. He said military units near the border with Laos and Cambodia had been instructed to search their regions also.
"So far we have found no signs ... so we must widen our search," he said.
Source : Sapa-AP /um
Date : 11 Mar 2014 15:38
Authorities are expanding their search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane to the Malacca Strait, far from its last confirmed location, the airline said Tuesday, injecting new mystery into an investigation that so far has failed to come up with any answers.
More than three days after the Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, no trace of the plane has been found in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam that have been scoured by more than 40 planes and ships from at least 10 nations.
The plane, carrying 239 people, dropped off radar less than an hour into the flight without sending out a distress signal. Authorities have said it may have attempted to turn back to Kuala Lumpur, but they expressed surprise that it would do so without informing ground control.
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that search and rescue teams expanded their scope to the Malacca Strait between Malaysia's western coast and Indonesia's Sumatra island - the opposite side of Malaysia from the plane's last known location.
To reach the strait, a busy shipping lane, the plane would have had to cross over the country, presumably within the range of radar.
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 the country.
Also Tuesday, authorities said two people who boarded the flight using stolen passports were Iranians who had purchased tickets to Europe. Their appearance 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, and that it seemed likely he was planning to migrate to Germany.
"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 a plane at the same time. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the two men traveled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
He said speculation of terrorism appeared to be dying down "as the belief becomes more certain that these two individuals were probably not terrorists." He appealed to the public for more information about the two.
The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, on the western coast of Malaysia, early Saturday en route to Beijing.
It flew across Malaysia into the Gulf of Thailand at 35,000 feet (11,000 meters) and then disappeared from radar screens.
The hunt began on Saturday near the plane's last known location. But with no debris found there, the search has been systematically expanded to include areas the plane could have reached with the fuel it had on board. That is a vast area in which to locate something as small as a piece of an aircraft.
China, where two-thirds of the passengers are from, urged Malaysian authorities on Tuesday to "speed up the efforts" to find the plane. It has sent four ships, with another four on the way.
A shopping mall in Beijing suspended advertising on its large outdoor LED screen to display a search timer - an image of an airplane along with a digital clock marking the time since contact with the flight was lost.
Assuming the plane crashed into the ocean or disintegrated in midair, there will likely still be debris floating in the ocean, but it may be widely spread out and much may have already sunk. In past disasters, it has taken days or longer to find wreckage.
The United States has sent two navy ships, at least one of which is equipped with helicopters, and a Navy P-3C Orion plane with sensors that can detect small debris in the water.
Vietnamese planes and ships are also taking part. Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese People's Army, said authorities on land had also been ordered to search for the plane, which could have crashed into mountains or uninhabited jungle. He said military units near the border with Laos and Cambodia had been instructed to search their regions also.
"So far we have found no signs ... so we must widen our search," he said.
Source : Sapa-AP /um
Date : 11 Mar 2014 15:38
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
FRANCE OPENS MANSLAUGHTER PROBE OVER LOST MALAYSIAN JET
French prosecutors on Tuesday opened a judicial investigation for manslaughter following the mystery disappearance of a Malaysian plane with 239 people on board.
The move by the Paris prosecutors is standard practice since four of the missing passengers are French nationals.
On Tuesday, the head of Interpol said the disappearance of the plane, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was not likely the result of a terror attack.
"The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it was not a terrorist incident," Ronald Noble said in the eastern French city of Lyon, where Interpol is headquartered.
Source : Sapa-AFP /um
Date : 11 Mar 2014 15:54
French prosecutors on Tuesday opened a judicial investigation for manslaughter following the mystery disappearance of a Malaysian plane with 239 people on board.
The move by the Paris prosecutors is standard practice since four of the missing passengers are French nationals.
On Tuesday, the head of Interpol said the disappearance of the plane, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was not likely the result of a terror attack.
"The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it was not a terrorist incident," Ronald Noble said in the eastern French city of Lyon, where Interpol is headquartered.
Source : Sapa-AFP /um
Date : 11 Mar 2014 15:54
WaxLyrical
Honorary Master
Malaysian Plane MH G Spot.
Nuff said.....
Nuff said.....
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
MALAYSIAN MILITARY SAYS MISSING JET CHANGED COURSE
Associated Press
The Malaysian military has radar data showing the missing Boeing 777 jetliner changed course and made it to the Malacca Strait, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the last position recorded by civilian authorities, according to a senior military official.
The development injects more mystery into the investigation of the disappearance of Saturday's flight, and raises questions about why the aircraft was not transmitting signals detectable by civilian radar.
Local newspaper Berita Harian quoted Malaysian air force chief Gen. Rodzali Daud as saying radar at a military base had detected the airliner at 2:40 a.m. near Pulau Perak at the northern approach to the strait, a busy waterway that separates the western coast of Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island.
"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 and also said the plane was believed to be flying low. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Authorities had earlier said the plane, which took off from Kuala Lumpur on the western coast of Malaysia at 12:40 a.m. Saturday en route to Beijing, may have attempted to turn back, but they expressed surprise that it would do so without informing ground control.
The search for the plane was initially focused on waters between the eastern coast of Malaysia and Vietnam, the position where aviation authorities last tracked it. No trace of the plane, which was carrying 239 people, has been found by than 40 planes and ships from at least 10 nations searching the area.
Earlier Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that search and rescue teams had expanded their scope to the Malacca Strait. 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 the country.
Also Tuesday, authorities said two people who boarded the flight using stolen passports were Iranians who had purchased tickets to Europe. Their use of stolen documents 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, and that it seemed likely he was planning to migrate to Germany.
"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 a plane at the same time. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the two men traveled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
He said speculation of terrorism appeared to be dying down "as the belief becomes more certain that these two individuals were probably not terrorists." He appealed to the public for more information about them.
Noble said neither of the men had a criminal record.
Malaysia Airlines, meanwhile, said it is investigating an Australian television report that the co-pilot on the missing plane had invited two women into the cockpit during a flight two years ago.
Jonti Roos described the encounter on Australia's "A Current Affair." The airline said it wouldn't comment until its investigation is complete.
Roos said she and her 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," Roos said.
Roos didn't immediately reply to a message sent to her via Facebook.
---
Associated Press writers Chris Brummitt and Jim Gomez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
Source : Sapa-AP /ge
Date : 11 Mar 2014 19:41
Associated Press
The Malaysian military has radar data showing the missing Boeing 777 jetliner changed course and made it to the Malacca Strait, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the last position recorded by civilian authorities, according to a senior military official.
The development injects more mystery into the investigation of the disappearance of Saturday's flight, and raises questions about why the aircraft was not transmitting signals detectable by civilian radar.
Local newspaper Berita Harian quoted Malaysian air force chief Gen. Rodzali Daud as saying radar at a military base had detected the airliner at 2:40 a.m. near Pulau Perak at the northern approach to the strait, a busy waterway that separates the western coast of Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island.
"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 and also said the plane was believed to be flying low. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Authorities had earlier said the plane, which took off from Kuala Lumpur on the western coast of Malaysia at 12:40 a.m. Saturday en route to Beijing, may have attempted to turn back, but they expressed surprise that it would do so without informing ground control.
The search for the plane was initially focused on waters between the eastern coast of Malaysia and Vietnam, the position where aviation authorities last tracked it. No trace of the plane, which was carrying 239 people, has been found by than 40 planes and ships from at least 10 nations searching the area.
Earlier Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that search and rescue teams had expanded their scope to the Malacca Strait. 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 the country.
Also Tuesday, authorities said two people who boarded the flight using stolen passports were Iranians who had purchased tickets to Europe. Their use of stolen documents 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, and that it seemed likely he was planning to migrate to Germany.
"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 a plane at the same time. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the two men traveled to Malaysia on their Iranian passports, then apparently switched to their stolen Austrian and Italian documents.
He said speculation of terrorism appeared to be dying down "as the belief becomes more certain that these two individuals were probably not terrorists." He appealed to the public for more information about them.
Noble said neither of the men had a criminal record.
Malaysia Airlines, meanwhile, said it is investigating an Australian television report that the co-pilot on the missing plane had invited two women into the cockpit during a flight two years ago.
Jonti Roos described the encounter on Australia's "A Current Affair." The airline said it wouldn't comment until its investigation is complete.
Roos said she and her 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," Roos said.
Roos didn't immediately reply to a message sent to her via Facebook.
---
Associated Press writers Chris Brummitt and Jim Gomez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.
Source : Sapa-AP /ge
Date : 11 Mar 2014 19:41
SaiyanZ
Executive Member
Mortymoose
Honorary Master
Would make an amazing Stephen king novel, if the plane suddenly reappeared on it's original flight path six days later.....
Grant
Honorary Master
China has deployed 10 satellites to help in the massive air-and-sea search
China has deployed 10 satellites to help in the massive air-and-sea search for the Malaysia Airlines plane missing with 239 people on board.
About two-thirds of the 227 passengers and 12 crew, now presumed to have died aboard the plane, were Chinese.
China has urged Malaysia to speed up efforts to find the aircraft and if the loss is confirmed it will be China's second-worst air disaster.
The high-resolution satellites, which are controlled from the Xian Satellite Control Centre in northern China, will be used for navigation, weather monitoring, communications and other aspects of the search-and-rescue.
Crews from nine countries have joined the international search effort, including China, Malaysia, Australia, the United States, Singapore, Vietnam, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Experts remain mystified as to what caused the plane to suddenly disappear from radar.
Neither Malaysia's Special Branch - the agency leading the investigation locally - nor spy agencies in the United States and Europe have ruled out the possibility that militants may have been involved in downing the flight.
But Malaysian authorities have indicated the evidence so far does not strongly back an attack as a cause for the aircraft's disappearance, and that mechanical or pilot problems could have led to the apparent crash, US sources say.
"There is no evidence to suggest an act of terror," said a European security source, who added that there was also "no explanation what's happened to it or where it is."
Spy satellites find no evidence of explosion
Also raising doubts about the possibility of an attack is that the United States extensively reviewed imagery taken by spy satellites for evidence of a mid-air explosion, but saw none, a US government source said.
The source described US satellite coverage of the region as thorough.
The aircraft was equipped with a maintenance computer capable of talking to the ground automatically through short messages known as ACARS.
"There were no signals from ACARS from the time the aircraft disappeared," a source involved in the investigations said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-...search-for-missing-malaysian-jetliner/5312848
China has deployed 10 satellites to help in the massive air-and-sea search for the Malaysia Airlines plane missing with 239 people on board.
About two-thirds of the 227 passengers and 12 crew, now presumed to have died aboard the plane, were Chinese.
China has urged Malaysia to speed up efforts to find the aircraft and if the loss is confirmed it will be China's second-worst air disaster.
The high-resolution satellites, which are controlled from the Xian Satellite Control Centre in northern China, will be used for navigation, weather monitoring, communications and other aspects of the search-and-rescue.
Crews from nine countries have joined the international search effort, including China, Malaysia, Australia, the United States, Singapore, Vietnam, New Zealand, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Experts remain mystified as to what caused the plane to suddenly disappear from radar.
Neither Malaysia's Special Branch - the agency leading the investigation locally - nor spy agencies in the United States and Europe have ruled out the possibility that militants may have been involved in downing the flight.
But Malaysian authorities have indicated the evidence so far does not strongly back an attack as a cause for the aircraft's disappearance, and that mechanical or pilot problems could have led to the apparent crash, US sources say.
"There is no evidence to suggest an act of terror," said a European security source, who added that there was also "no explanation what's happened to it or where it is."
Spy satellites find no evidence of explosion
Also raising doubts about the possibility of an attack is that the United States extensively reviewed imagery taken by spy satellites for evidence of a mid-air explosion, but saw none, a US government source said.
The source described US satellite coverage of the region as thorough.
The aircraft was equipped with a maintenance computer capable of talking to the ground automatically through short messages known as ACARS.
"There were no signals from ACARS from the time the aircraft disappeared," a source involved in the investigations said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-...search-for-missing-malaysian-jetliner/5312848
Kosmik
Honorary Master
Langoliers? Sortof.
Datura
Captain Faptastic
Help search here: https://www.digitalglobe.com/
genetic
Honorary Master
Map does not load my side.
Datura
Captain Faptastic
Yep, just read that it got a little bit cramped there with 600 000 users helping out:
Denver - A Colorado-based company has put “crowdsourcing” to work in the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet, enlisting Internet users to comb through satellite images of more than 3 200 square kilometres of open seas for any signs of wreckage, the company said on Tuesday.
At least 600 000 volunteers have logged onto a website run by DigitalGlobe to scan images the company uploaded from two of its five satellites covering an area between the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea where the jetliner was first believed to have vanished on Saturday.
The Boeing 777-200ER, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board, had taken off from Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, on a flight bound for Beijing when it lost contact with civilian air traffic controllers.
The Malaysia Airlines aircraft was initially thought to be roughly midway between Kota Bharu, a town on West Malaysia's eastern coast, and the southern tip of Vietnam, flying at an altitude of 35 000 feet (about 10 000m), when it disappeared.
The country consists of West Malaysia, a peninsula south of Thailand, and East Malaysia in northern Borneo.
Navy ships, military aircraft, helicopters, coast guard and civilian vessels from 10 countries have crisscrossed both coasts of West Malaysia in an effort to find the plane, deepening one of the most baffling mysteries in recent aviation history.
DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont, Colorado, began placing satellite images on its crowdsourcing website, Tomnod, on Monday and invited the public to join in the search by closely examining the pictures for any sign of the plane.
“We have hundreds of thousands of users combing pixel by pixel through our imagery. Even if we don't find something, that's an indication there might not be anything there,” said Shay Har-Noy, the founder and director of research and development at DigitalGlobe.
He compared the search to trying to find a needle in a haystack.
“If you can rule out portions of that haystack as not having that needle, then that's a value as well,” he said.
Volunteers and company analysts have spotted what appeared to be some patterns of unrecognisable objects in the sea that they could not explain but which might warrant closer scrutiny, he said.
“We've found a bunch of clues, no smoking gun yet,” he said.
Questions about the plane's flight path have complicated the search. The crowdsourcing effort was launched just before Malaysia's military indicated the flight might have strayed far off course, which would have placed its last known location hundreds of kilometres from where DigitalGlobe was collecting satellite pictures.
A Malaysian military officer told Reuters the flight appears to have turned around and made it to the Straits of Malacca, to the west of peninsular Malaysia, instead of to the north-east of the country where initial search efforts were conducted.
The flood of volunteers also caused some technical glitches for the project, Har-Noy said.
Examination of the satellite imagery by more than 600 000 visitors to the site generated 6.5 million map views and slowed the Tomnod platform, leading to complaints from some would-be participants who were thwarted from joining the search.
“It's been the most overwhelming response, considerably higher than any response we had in the past,” Har-Noy said. “It's honestly slammed our servers.”
DigitalGlobe's satellites will be in position to capture more imagery on Wednesday morning and may turn its focus to the Straits of Malacca, Har-Noy said. But he added the firm may look elsewhere, including over land masses, depending on the latest information from media reports and other sources.
DigitalGlobe, plans to at least double the amount of search imagery it uploads to Tomnod on Tuesday, Har-Noy said.
DigitalGlobe in 1993 became the first private company allowed by the US government to create a satellite system for gathering high-resolution images for commercial sale. Besides the federal government, its customers include corporations and other countries. - Reuters