I continue almost on an hourly basis, to hope beyond hope that this missing aircraft is located.

It is a very peculiar thing for an aircraft to virtually disappear. Each time we hear some news I feel hopeful of the wreckage if it has indeed crashed, almost certainly things that are loose, like passengers' seats which are not tied down so to speak - would have surfaced before now, if the correct areas are being searched.

I think a lot of time was lost and wasted (not deliberately) when the flight was first reported missing or overdue in that first week. Now, looking off Australia and the vast and very deep ocean, we are getting more information with so many countries joining in the search.

This is the biggest search to my knowledge there has ever been in flight history.

Part of me is pleased, and part of me is so sad, because it would confirm the deaths of so many people, including those on the flight deck, to the waiting families.

No-one can possibly know what it must be like to go through this for the families.

This is the missing aircraft in flight - picture taken in 2011.

_________________
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

I have just read Ozzies confirm some wreckage that they have ship en route to.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Chinese plane sees floating 'white objects' in search for Malaysian jet
By Jane Wardell and Matt Siegel
SYDNEY/PERTH Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:55am EDT

(Reuters) - A Chinese military aircraft searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner spotted several "suspicious" floating objects on Monday in remote seas off Australia, raising hopes wreckage of the plane may soon be found.

The latest sighting followed reports by an Australian crew over the weekend of a floating wooden pallet and strapping belts in an area of the icy southern Indian Ocean that was identified after satellites recorded images of potential debris.

...more at link
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/ ... 1720140324

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Thanks for moving this, I realized after I'd opened up a discussion that I'd put it in the wrong place, then I got disturbed by my 'drain' man.

If any aircraft can get sight of this missing one, it will be either of the P3 or P8, then followed by one or more ships in an effort to collect debris which is of value and proof that the flight went down.

the 'P' aircraft are excellent at low flying long flights and detecting sonics from the ocean, even a deep ocean bed, so that's why I say if any can find this flight - it will be them - the P3 has been around since the 60s and is extremely reliable, as is the P8. I'm using a certain amount of educated guessing here, as I was an Air Traffic Controller until I took early retirement in 2002, when we frequently dealt with such flights, military and civil.

The sad thing is that there is an emergency meeting between the families and the authorities in Beijing taking place right now, so I think this will only confirm if the debris is from the missing flight, that they've got proof of the deaths of their family members. My heart goes out to them.

_________________
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

Courtesy of the BBC

Two Chinese military planes flew out to the search area, around 2,500 km (1,550 miles) south-west of Australian city Perth, on Monday morning, while two Japanese P-3 Orion aircraft set off later in the day.

What they're up against in the Roaring Forties is the tides, moving rapidly, means these parts of a plane might already have moved miles from where they first descended.

I hope one day we can find out exactly what happened to this flight.

_________________
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

At the news briefing this afternoon from Kuala Lumpur the Malaysian Prime Minister said that the British Air Accident Investigation Branch, that Inmarsat who had originally notified them of the sighting from the satellite, that they had looked further at the satellite information, and taken more calculations etc.,
it was determined that the flight ended in the Indian Ocean, he announced with deep sadness and regret. Immarsat were very sure of their information and further calculations.

They assume beyond reasonable doubt that there were no survivors of this flight. This actually confirms the area they are searching now, is the right area.

We still don't know why it went where it did, with approx 5 hours flying time in terms of fuel left, why would this flight have deliberately flown into the Indian Ocean which is vast, with nowhere to go or end up, other than in the sea - it's astounding and doesn't tell us why instruments were turned off or by whom. We know they were looking for a needle within a needle in a haystack, but it shows they were looking in the right area right enough.

It was this satellite that held the key all along.

It's just tragic news for the families involved, once again.

_________________
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

This flight was so far from land, that it had to end up in the sea, it didn't have enough fuel in such a vast area to make it to any land base at all. So immarsat went back to look at their own data, because that first piece of data had them thinking the aircraft was still in flight, it wasn't until they did these new calculations that they knew with a fair degree of certainty the flight was no more.

_________________
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

Until I see a flight data recorder I don't believe anything. If it did take that path why were there no RADAR returns from Sumatra or from Australia?

The thing is a bit too scary for me to contemplate... whatever happened.

I have flown in and out of Kuala Lumpur (KL) and always fly with Singapore Airlines... Malaysian airlines not the same... but pilots and crew look like a similar bunch.

I am on the edge of being afraid of flying... I am an ostrich... I don't want to know about air disasters

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I have always been afraid of flying. I think it's because I'm afraid of heights. I can't even get up enough nerve to stand on a chair to change a light bulb! I have been coerced into flying a couple of times though. Once was in a plane so small I felt as though I was in a flying coffin. I was almost ready for a coffin by the time I reached my destination. That was my last flight.

I'm sceptical that any debris from MH370 will be recovered from the southern Indian Ocean.
My opinion is that the entire MH370 story stinks & that we'll know why prior to the mid term elections.

I've a gut feeling that Iran's model of the USS Nimitz & the missing Boeing 777 are somehow connected.
I wonder if Islamists could lure the USS Nimitz carrier group to within attack range of a weaponized Boeing 777 (packed with explosives) & how much damage such an attack could inflict upon a Nimitz class super-carrier?


training apparatus? http://www.debka.com/article/23789/Iran ... ndar-Abbas

First of all you have to remember that RADAR is land based technology, it would not exist that far out into the ocean, perhaps about 300 knots is the widest cover - out in the Indian Ocean there IS no Radar.

I don't believe that the current information we have is new - it is new to us, but for this information to have been given out in the past couple of days, tells me that the experts have been working on the first information, and doing calculations on it since the first hit from the Satellite.

It could be all conjecture - none of us were in that cockpit, if the pilot and co-pilot were knocked out, say by smoke or whatever in the cabin - then the a/c would continue to fly on auto pilot, but something certainly happened to turn that plane around very quickly - which you can see, it more or less therefore kept flying until the fuel ran out - that's what I think happened - but it is the whys we don't know and I hope one day we shall.

_________________
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

One of the major things I personally dislike when an event similar to this happens, is all of the media (studio newsroom or live) speculation with experts being brought in to say what they think happened.

There has been today also, oh it was a suicide mission. Now, they have not located the flight data records, so how the heck does anyone know, someone on that flight - be they cabin crew or passengers, downed that flight in order to commit suicide - I know this has happened before, but there is nothing to prove this happened here. Even the previous case involving an Egyptian flight has not been proved to my knowledge.

I wish they would stop it for lack of actual physical evidence of such.

_________________
Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

MH370: Planes, ships deployed to investigate signals detected by Chinese ship



PERTH (AFP) - Planes and ships were being diverted on Sunday to the area where a Chinese vessel detected signals consistent with a black box beacon in the hunt for missing flight MH370, the search chief said.

"Today Royal Australian Air Force assets will deploy to assist in further examining the acoustic signals in the vicinity of where the Chinese ship has detected the sounds," said Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre leading the search.

“HMS Echo and Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield are also being directed to join Haixun 01 as expeditiously as possible to assist with either discounting or confirming the detections.”

Mr Houston said the Australian vessel Ocean Shield would be delayed while it investigated a separate acoustic signal in its current search location that had only been detected in the last hour.

...more at link
http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-sto ... cted-chine

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

MH370 live: Australian vessel detects signals consistent with transmissions from aircraft black boxes

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news ... ve-3383414

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA)

Press releases, maps etc.

http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/incidents/mh370-search.asp

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Seems there are more rumors than facts. The latest that I've heard is that the plane may be on the island of Diego Garcia a part of the British Indian Ocean which holds a naval air facility.

Missing flight MH370: Live updates as two more 'pings' are detected in hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines plane
Apr 09, 2014 07:03
By Sam Adams, Richard Hartley-Parkinson

There have now been four 'pings' detected in the last few days, sparking optimism in the search teams looking for the missing jet


A handout photo taken on April 7, 2014 and released on April 8 by Australian Defence shows Able Seaman Clearance Divers Matthew Johnston (R) and Michael Arnold from the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield scanning the water for debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370


...more at link
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mi ... es-3390995

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 ‘thrown around like fighter jet’ in bid to avoid radar, source claims
April 13, 2014 10:25PM

MISSING Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 was “thrown around like a fighter jet” in the moments after it lost contact with authorities in a bid to avoid radar, an investigator has said.

The plane climbed 10,000ft above its cruising altitude to 45,000ft, then dropped to just 5,000ft. “It was being flown very low at very high speed. And it was being flown to avoid radar,” a source close to the investigation told the Sunday Times.

Flight MH370 was carrying 239 people — many of them Chinese — when it disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing.

After a week of optimism over four underwater signals believed to be coming from the missing Malaysian plane, the sea has gone quiet and Prime Minister Tony Abbott is warning that the massive search will likely be long.

No new electronic pings have been heard since April 8, and the batteries powering the locator beacons on the jet’s black box recorders may already be dead. They only last about a month, and that window has already passed. Once officials are confident no more sounds will be heard, a robotic submersible will be sent down to slowly scour for wreckage across a vast area in extremely deep water.

...more at link
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-up ... 6883092654

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 set to go under water
April 14, 2014 3:40PM

THE search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 is set to shift to the vast depths of the Indian Ocean.

The Australian vessel Ocean Shield will stop seeking pings today and the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 will be deployed this evening to search the ocean floor, search co-ordinator Angus Houston has announced.

Crews are also to investigate an oil slick close to the search area, he added.

The Bluefin 21 autonomous sub can create a 3D sonar map of the area to chart any debris on the seafloor.

Retired defence chief Air Chief Marshal Houston told a media conference in Perth that the chances of any floating material from MH370 being recovered from the ocean has greatly diminished.

“We haven’t had a single detection in six days - it’s time to go under water,” he said.

“The deployment of the autonomous underwater vehicle has the potential to take us a further step towards visual identification since it offers a possible opportunity to detect debris from the aircraft on the ocean floor,” he said.

..more at link
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-up ... 6883719376

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light