Posted on 03/09/2014 10:47:12 AM PDT by mandaladon
Reuters) - Officials investigating the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner with 239 people on board are narrowing the focus of their inquiries on the possibility that it disintegrated mid-flight, a senior source said on Sunday.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished after climbing to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing in the early hours of Saturday. Search teams have not been able to make any confirmed discovery of wreckage in seas beneath the plane's flight path almost 48 hours after it took off.
"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," said the source, who is involved in the preliminary investigations in Malaysia. If the plane had plunged intact from such a height, breaking up only on impact with the water, search teams would have expected to find a fairly concentrated pattern of debris, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the investigation.
The source was speaking shortly before Vietnamese authorities said a military plane had spotted an object at sea suspected to be part of the missing airliner.
Asked about the possibility of an explosion, such as a bomb, the source said there was no evidence yet of foul play and that the aircraft could have broken up due to mechanical issues.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Were the people the passports stolen from connected to each other?
Lack of debris is puzzling.
Mght it be that the debris is mixed in with massive quantities of trash reportedly floating in those waters?
Part of the Space Shuttle Columbia was found in Lake Nacogdoches in 2003, after drought caused the lake level to go down substantially.
If the aircraft disintegrated, I would think that there would have been a large radar plume, if it was in range of radar.
The center fuel tank explodes...all on its own.....with a highly improbable low voltage 'spark'.
Only in that they had both been to Thailand. There was a thread recently discussing the high frequency of passports stolen (possibly sold) in Thailand
Not sure of the title as the discuss evolved iirc a link was posted to article
Re this subject
I'm reminded of the great ol' song: "Coulda been the whisky, mighta been the gin, coulda been the three or four six-packs, I don' know, but look at the mess I'm in."
Besides that, we have the "no indication of terrorism" disclaimer from the anonymous source who spoke anonymously because he needed to remain anonymous.
If it isn't known who did a deed, that leaves it open to anyone could have done the deed. A "terrorism force multiplier."
Did anyone ever see that sci-fi movie, “Millenium”?
Only for Cheryl Ladd.... : )
If there was a bomb or mid-air break up, I think there would have been some debris found already. TWA800 left lots of debris, iirc.
“I have very serious doubts about the reported cause of the crash of TWA 800 over NYC.”
You and me both. I haven’t flown commercially since; if I can’t drive there, I ain’t going there.
When I first read the report that they’d found 2 oil slicks, and no debris fields, I thought perhaps the terrorists had the pilots descend, dump fuel, fly low to avoid radar and land at a strip in either VN or TL. Kidnap scenario. With the reported cabin door found report, it becomes less likely. An explosion and disintegration at 35,000ft, the debris field would be a huge area. Would satellites pick that up?
Seat cushions and all manner of other floatable debris galore.
My possible scenario is terrorists took over the cabin and quickly killed the pilots. But they couldn’t take control of the airplane and it sank like a rock. Supposedly they think it turned back. That could just be the terrorists trying to get the hang of it.
Or, aliens took it. We’ll probably never find out exactly what happened.
Since there have not been any instances of center fuel tanks exploding,we can discount that theory
I had not seen that update. Thank you.
The shuttle is traveling at 17,300 MPH at about 500,000 ft above sea level. The comparison is like apples and crowbars.
All of our perspective is off regarding our expectation for finding a "debris field". If the plane impacted the ocean "mostly intact", their would be significant debris in a location that could be seen in a search from the air at a relatively higher altitude (2K to 5K feet). In this case you would see hundreds of parts and pieces floating that would catch an observer's eye. Now imagine searching an area of ocean the size of Ohio for debris that may only be grouped together with a few pieces of debris here and there (spread out all over). The observers in the air have to fly lower to find it thus can cover less search area per pass. Otherwise, you have boats patrolling in pattern around the area (again over an huge area). They weren't even sure the oil slicks were from the plane or naturally occurring, which does happen more than you would think.
Here is what confuses me. Usually the "black boxes" send a signal ping or something that makes them easier to locate. I'm not sure how effective those are in deep water, however.
A fellow on a radio show I listened to this morning said the black boxes have about a 3-5 mile transmission radius, and will only transmit for about 30-45 days on their battery power. He (nor I) was not sure the depth of ocean the waters in that region. As a comparison, he did mention that they only found the black boxes of the Air France crash after finding some debris. The transmitter had ceased operating long before they located the wreckage. (They got lucky to find it - or maybe more accurately, just kept at it until they did)
what if it is not where they are looking.
what if there was decompression and everyone was knocked out by sudden air loss?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.