Interpol released photos of the 2 Iranians.
Had valid passports when they entered Malaysia. Traded, apparently, passports for 2 European passports.
[Obligatory?] No sign of terrorism or terrorist ties.
Posted on 03/11/2014 1:58:23 AM PDT by Wayne07
For the record(and for those of you with sensitive sensibilities, you may want to avoid some of the other links on this site):
In a line with Sri Lanka and SOmalia
These two were apparently not emigrating legally. I wasn’t sure if they were Iranians who were already refugees in some other country, or if they were sneaking out directly from Iran.
One of them had family that had already gotten to Frankfurt, and in fact it was his mother who called police, suspecting that her son might be on that flight because she knew about his plan to rejoin the family (he had a ticket to Frankfurt).
Interpol released photos of the 2 Iranians.
Had valid passports when they entered Malaysia. Traded, apparently, passports for 2 European passports.
[Obligatory?] No sign of terrorism or terrorist ties.
That is quite a difference, isn’t it?
Can’t help being reminded of the Malachi Crunch from Happy Days
Why wouldn't China send ships to check debris near Hong Kong? It's in their waters.
It's probably related to intelligence data provided by a third nation ally. China, the U.S. and other nations have that region covered with electronic monitoring from resources on the ground, air, land, sea and from orbit. I'm guessing someone looked at super-top-secret pings of some kind and said "pssstt...look over here, but don't tell anyone we told you."
Have they tried calling this guy to help?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/us-malaysiaairlines-flight-idUSBREA2701720140311
“It changed course after Kota Bharu and took a lower altitude. It made it into the Malacca Strait,” the senior military officer, who has been briefed on investigations, told Reuters.
That would appear to rule out sudden catastrophic mechanical failure, as it would mean the plane flew around 500 km (350 miles) at least after its last contact with air traffic control, although its transponder and other tracking systems were off.
Just Sayin...
“Why would they select one single plane to destroy?”
Sometimes a government will put spy cameras on a commercial plane and have it fly over some sensitive place. A real “spy plane” would be detected, but a commercial plane, maybe would be given a pass.
Like KAL 007, shot down by Russia after they overflew Soviet submarine pens.
I doubt that is the case here, though.
Maybe. However I suspect they are stumped as well.
But for a large air liner to splash into the sea, in some of the busiest shipping lanes on earth, makes me wonder if they are looking for the right thing.
Is there a spot on land that the plan could have crashed that is remote enough to miss?
But how could the transponder and tracking systems have been turned off?
I kind of think this is a clue:
“its transponder and other tracking systems were off.”
Also flying a few thousand feet below its last radar fix.
Sounds to me like plane made left turn, decending to get into the east west flight lanes and heading for, well, what could be west of where they were? TADA: Eastern coast of Africa. 777btw has a range of over 8000 miles with full fuel load. I don’t think we have a mechanical problem here. Pilot error or errored pilot perhaps.
Seventh paragraph down ... Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said the two men had travelled from Qatar's capital Doha on their Iranian passports, and switched to stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board the Malaysia Airlines flight.
Good thought by you, TomGuy. Switched/Traded. If switched/traded whom has the switched/traded passports?
Military tracked missing plane for at least 100 miles after it vanished from civilian radar - and are sure it made it to Malacca Strait, Malaysian source reveals
it must take a while for a phone system to realize that the phone is not available and for it to move to voice mail.
I know this is not quite near the Horn of Africa or Libya, but maybe this is the first practice shot with some of our stolen MANPADS.
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