Malaysia Jet missing-Officials conclude crash in Indian ocean/all lives presumed lost

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Canadians have been identified. Muktesh Mukherjee and Xiaomo Bai. Married couple with 2 kids. Terrible news. I'm not sure if they are travelling with their children, but it looks to be so (btw, don't think children are Canadian citizens).

[Peanut]

Austrian government saying that Austrian passenger listed on the manifest was not on board, and had their passport stolen 2 years ago. Italian government also stating the Italian listed on the manifest was not on board, trying to confirm if their passport was also stolen in the past. Could be nothing, but could also be a bad sign?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/08/world/...html?hpt=hp_t1

[nik-]

yeah, that would be an amazing "coincidence" two people with stolen passports on board?

[TheyCallMeBruce]

I know this is speculative, but since I was in Kuala Lumpur only 3 weeks ago, and went through their airport screening process, I'll share my experience here.

I went through 2 security screening. First was at the main airport area before taking the express rail link to the departure zone. The second was at the departure zone right before boarding. The security screen was, for a lack of a better word, terrible. I had forgotten my bottle of water and had left it in my bag. Both times I was able to pass security without being asked to get rid of it. It was definitely more than the limit of 100ml. Furthermore, the gate had beeped as I passed through, signaling that I had metal objects with me. I realized I had forgotten my belt and promptly took it off, thinking I'd have to pass through the gate again. TSA just waved me through.

Like I said, it's speculative, I hope this isn't the case of some terror plot, but based on my experience with security, I would not be surprised.

[nik-]

Also wildly speculative, but they just had that terror attack in that Chinese train station. Considering that the plane was mostly chinese nationals, perhaps China has a terrorism problem.

[InSutterWeTrust]

A person I follow on Twitter who does some work in the aviation world tweeted the Air France flight that crashed in 2009 had failure reports and warnings before it crashed. There appears to be no such warnings or failures from the Malaysia flight. Makes you wonder what happened.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by InSutterWeTrust

A person I follow on Twitter who does some work in the aviation world tweeted the Air France flight that crashed in 2009 had failure reports and warnings before it crashed. There appears to be no such warnings or failures from the Malaysia flight. Makes you wonder what happened.

That was because the Air France aircraft had ACARS messages being transmitted to the AF control centre, I do believe I have read that this aircraft did not have that option. So we have no reports of that nature in this case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraf...porting_System

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

That was because the Air France aircraft had ACARS messages being transmitted to the AF control centre, I do believe I have read that this aircraft did not have that option. So we have no reports of that nature in this case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraf...porting_System

Since you're an aviation fanatic, in terms of major crashes, what is the ratio of plane crashes that happen at altitude?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by nik-

Since you're an aviation fanatic, in terms of major crashes, what is the ratio of plane crashes that happen at altitude?

Not too sure, but they are probably in the minority, I do believe the majority of incidents happen in the time around takeoff and landing.

[gordo67]

My brother in law works in Malaysia. That is one of the planes he takes home every 3 weeks. Luckily he just went back to work.

[prime333]

Can the families sue the company for lost of love ones?

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeBruce

I know this is speculative, but since I was in Kuala Lumpur only 3 weeks ago, and went through their airport screening process, I'll share my experience here.

I went through 2 security screening. First was at the main airport area before taking the express rail link to the departure zone. The second was at the departure zone right before boarding. The security screen was, for a lack of a better word, terrible. I had forgotten my bottle of water and had left it in my bag. Both times I was able to pass security without being asked to get rid of it. It was definitely more than the limit of 100ml. Furthermore, the gate had beeped as I passed through, signaling that I had metal objects with me. I realized I had forgotten my belt and promptly took it off, thinking I'd have to pass through the gate again. TSA just waved me through.

Like I said, it's speculative, I hope this isn't the case of some terror plot, but based on my experience with security, I would not be surprised.

I accidentally flew from Toronto to Vancouver and back with a knife in my computer case. It's pretty much a crap shoot that they find anything. In fact, it wasn't even discovered in my bag until I was going through security in Fort St. John of all places.

A co-worker of mine is in SE Asia right now and has Malaysia and China in his itinerary (Hong Kong though, so I figured he wouldn't be on a plane to Beijing). Not that I would want anyone to be in that situation, but I was glad he wasn't on this one.

Back in 2000, there was an Alaska Airlines flight that experienced cruising altitude problems that led to a crash off the coast of California. They did have contact with ATC during their situation though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261

[JonDuke]

Originally Posted by nik-

Since you're an aviation fanatic, in terms of major crashes, what is the ratio of plane crashes that happen at altitude?

I was always told that the high majority (80%) of crashes happen within the first 3 or last 8 minutes of a flight.

[JonDuke]

Originally Posted by prime333

Can the families sue the company for lost of love ones?

I'm sure they could...eventually, but am guessing that's the last thing on their minds right now.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Back in 2000, there was an Alaska Airlines flight that experienced cruising altitude problems that led to a crash off the coast of California. They did have contact with ATC during their situation though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261

That accident was straight up horrible. Can't imagine what it was like for passengers in the cabin, the pilots fought that plane right until the end.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

That accident was straight up horrible. Can't imagine what it was like for passengers in the cabin, the pilots fought that plane right until the end.

That crash was one of the worst from that perspective. I hated watching the animation of the plane's descent on mayday.

[nik-]

Yeah, two 80 second dives. I would have been dead of a heart attack long before we hit the water.

[transplant99]

This sounds very much like a "terrorist" type situation for sure. No contact from the pilots in any way about an issue with the aircraft, screams out that they were incapacitated by something or other.

Something catastrophic happened without question.

Awful stuff.

[Minnie]

A friend said she just read that 2 stolen passports (one Australian, one Italian) were used to board the flight. I'm off to google to see if I can find anything about that.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Minnie

A friend said she just read that 2 stolen passports (one Australian, one Italian) were used to board the flight. I'm off to google to see if I can find anything about that.

Yes that's been reported but really may not have anything to do with the fate of the plane. Lots of stolen passports used around the world for lots of reasons, not exclusively the realm of terrorism.