Boeing 777 with 239 people on board missing.

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**djones520**

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane-missing/index.html

(CNN) -- A passenger flight carrying 239 people en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing is missing, Malaysia Airlines said Saturday.
The airline said in a statement that Subang Air Traffic Control in Malaysia lost contact with Flight MH370 at 2:40 a.m. (1:40 p.m. ET Friday).
The Boeing 777-200 departed Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m., a 2,300-mile (3,700 kilometer) trip.
It was carrying 227 passengers, two of them infants, and 12 crew members, it said.
"Malaysia Airlines is currently working with the authorities who have activated their Search and Rescue team to locate the aircraft," the statement said. The public can call +603 7884 1234 for further information.
The airline operates in Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and on the route between Europe and Australasia.
The airline's roots date back to 1937, when it operated passenger and cargo flights in Malaysia.
In April 1942, it was incorporated as Malaysia Airways Limited; it later became Malaysia Airlines.
The airline has its headquarters and registered office at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Malaysia, and its main airline hub is at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, according to its website.

This is the type of thing I dread hearing in my line of work. I really hope this has a good ending...

**Relapse**

Definitely bad. I can't imagine the helpless feelings the family of these passengers and crew must be going through.

**Iron_Captain**

Oh dear, this is bad indeed. I really hope those people are okay.

**Dark Apostle 666**

That's awful - I'm surprised it's even possible to "lose" a 777 nowadays - surely they should have a GPS system or something? I'm no aviation engineer though.

I suppose at this point it's just a wait and a hope that they find survivors quickly.

**Khornholio**

I was just on a plane recently and we had some heavy duty turbulence over the ocean which felt like a magnitude 7 earthquake and it was scary as all get out. My condolences to the families of the passengers and crew.

**marv335**

I'd have to say, if they've not heard from the aircraft by now, all they're going to find is wreckage and bodies.

**Bromsy**

Probably aliens.

Sucks.

**Grey Templar**

Seeing news that the plane crashed off Vietnam.

Hopefully there are survivors.

**djones520**

Yeah, Vietnamese military seems to say it was a crash. It hasn't been made "official" yet though.

**Relapse**

At least there is some small measure of celebration, as these tweets from someone that missed that flight show.

http://twitchy.com/2014/03/08/thank-you-god-amazing-tweets-tell-story-of-missed-flight-mh370-to-beijing/

**Glaiceana**

They have found oil slicks in the sea off Vietnam, no wreckage yet.

**-Shrike-**

feth me. They don't have GPS on something the size of a 777?
Anyway, really sorry to hear this; my thoughts go out to all those affected.

**Seaward**

-Shrike- wrote:
feth me. They don't have GPS on something the size of a 777?
Anyway, really sorry to hear this; my thoughts go out to all those affected.

Of course they do. A GPS would tell the drivers where they are, but wouldn't be much good for people looking for wreckage.

What you're asking 'bout is a transponder, which the plane also certainly had. They'd more likely than not have a general fix of where they last were while still squawking. They also had radar contact with it, from what I understand. The fact that there was some initial uncertainty about the plane's fate suggests that either they didn't squawk 7700 before going down (or call in a mayday for that matter), or else nobody noticed it, which is pretty unlikely.

**-Shrike-**

^Transponder! I knew there was a name for those devices...

**SagesStone**

It travelled through time accidentally they'll have it found in about 2-5 days depending on wind flow.

**Overlord Thraka**

Khornholio wrote:
I was just on a plane recently and we had some heavy duty turbulence over the ocean which felt like a magnitude 7 earthquake and it was scary as all get out. My condolences to the families of the passengers and crew.

Turbulence isn't actually dangerous. Scary yes but to Pilots it's more an annoyance than a threat.
As for the whole thing, horrible, I hope there are survivors and plenty of 'em

**Flashman**

Aside from the jet that landed in the Hudson following a bird strike, there are very few examples of a successful ditching at sea by a plane the size of a 777.

Sadly, I think we're just waiting for a confirmation that the plane crashed and there were no survivors.

EDIT - Although miracles do happen...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/02/yemenia-crash-survivor-flies-home

**Relapse**

Flashman wrote:
Aside from the jet that landed in the Hudson following a bird strike, there are very few examples of a successful ditching at sea by a plane the size of a 777.

Sadly, I think we're just waiting for a confirmation that the plane crashed and there were no survivors.

EDIT - Although miracles do happen...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jul/02/yemenia-crash-survivor-flies-home

p

The girl is described by her father in the article as fragile, but damn if her spirit wasn't harder than a sack of hammers to give her strength to survive that ordeal.

**Peregrine**

Flashman wrote:
Aside from the jet that landed in the Hudson following a bird strike, there are very few examples of a successful ditching at sea by a plane the size of a 777.

Just as a guess I doubt that was even a possibility. If they actually had time to attempt a safe landing then they should have been able to report the emergency. Suddenly disappearing while within radar and radio range suggests some kind of instantly-fatal disaster: in-flight collision, flying into the side of a mountain, etc. TBH I'm surprised there's no speculation about hijacking or a bomb yet.

**the ancient**

Damn dodgy asian maintenance probably. Nearly another story for the Dragons Triangle

**Sturmtruppen**

Relapse wrote:
At least there is some small measure of celebration, as these tweets from someone that missed that flight show.

http://twitchy.com/2014/03/08/thank-you-god-amazing-tweets-tell-story-of-missed-flight-mh370-to-beijing/

Well it didn't even occur to me to get on that plane, so God must be telling me I'm Jesus.

**trexmeyer**

Dark Apostle 666 wrote:
That's awful - I'm surprised it's even possible to "lose" a 777 nowadays - surely they should have a GPS system or something? I'm no aviation engineer though.

I suppose at this point it's just a wait and a hope that they find survivors quickly.

The a 777 is literally smaller than a pixel on your computer screen relative to the rest of the world. Electromagnetic distortion, piss poor weather conditions, etc can easily lead to it being lost.

**Peregrine**

trexmeyer wrote:
The a 777 is literally smaller than a pixel on your computer screen relative to the rest of the world. Electromagnetic distortion, piss poor weather conditions, etc can easily lead to it being lost.

But an airline flight is supposed to be in constant radar and radio contact, and the entire system depends on that tracking to function. Obviously there's some uncertainty about the exact crash location when something bad happens and contact is lost, but "disappeared" tends to mean "crashed and killed everyone". Any talk of finding it at some other airport or whatever is little more than wishful thinking and reluctance to admit that 239 people are dead.

**Seaward**

Not as much radio contact as you'd think.

Anyway, it happened over the sea, so a collision's unlikely. Nothing to hit but other aircraft. It didn't (entirely) explode in midair if they're finding oil slicks. Best guess is some kind of fire or explosion in the cockpit. Hypoxia is a possibility too, I guess, but very unlikely.

**djones520**

It's now being reported that two people on the plane had stolen passports...

So that throws a whole new mix into this thing.

**Glaiceana**

To be honest I'm not sure the passport thing is going to be related, they were stolen a long time ago, and plus passport forgery, stealing, and dealing over in that area of the world is pretty common, so a lot of people probably have stolen/forged/altered passports anyway.

**Kanluwen**

Glaiceana wrote:
To be honest I'm not sure the passport thing is going to be related, they were stolen a long time ago, and plus passport forgery, stealing, and dealing over in that area of the world is pretty common, so a lot of people probably have stolen/forged/altered passports anyway.

I'm pretty sure that Austria isn't really a hotbed of stolen passports.

**djones520**

Kanluwen wrote:
Glaiceana wrote:
To be honest I'm not sure the passport thing is going to be related, they were stolen a long time ago, and plus passport forgery, stealing, and dealing over in that area of the world is pretty common, so a lot of people probably have stolen/forged/altered passports anyway.

I'm pretty sure that Austria isn't really a hotbed of stolen passports.

They were stolen in Thailand. At least one of them last August.

**SilverMK2**

the ancient wrote:
Damn dodgy asian maintenance probably. Nearly another story for the Dragons Triangle

I've flown MA a few times and they have always had really good service and well maintained (at least in terms of the cabins anyway

) aircraft.

**Kanluwen**

djones520 wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
Glaiceana wrote:
To be honest I'm not sure the passport thing is going to be related, they were stolen a long time ago, and plus passport forgery, stealing, and dealing over in that area of the world is pretty common, so a lot of people probably have stolen/forged/altered passports anyway.

I'm pretty sure that Austria isn't really a hotbed of stolen passports.

They were stolen in Thailand. At least one of them last August.

That makes more sense then.

The bit I had read earlier was suggesting that the owner of one of the passports had it stolen in Austria and they were in an Austrian airport when the plane went down.