Flight MH370 Is Now a Criminal Investigation, but No Passengers Are Suspects

The Wire ^ | 04/02/2014 | BRIAN FELDMAN

[SeekAndFind]

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has now been classified as a criminal investigation, according to Malaysia’s police chief. He also cautioned that the investigation may still not arrive at any concrete conclusions.

Specifically, authorities believe the plane's deliberate and abrupt turn off course could not have been simply the result of an accident. However, officials also announced on Wednesday, none of the passengers are suspected of any wrongdoing, leaving the investigation to focus solely on the crew at this time.

The current consensus is that radar and satellite data show the flight turning off course and flying back across Malaysia before heading out over the Indian Ocean. That change of course is being investigated as a “criminal act.” There is no information as to who committed the supposed criminal act.

Meanwhile, lawyers have already begun contacting families of those on board about possible multi-million-dollar settlements in U.S. courts over the incident. One law firm is floating the idea of legal action against Boeing, the plane’s manufacturer, although the obviously the lack of any real proof about what went wrong makes it unprecedented. From The New York Times:

"The rush is on to secure compensation for families of the flight’s 227 passengers, about two-thirds of whom are Chinese. Insurance companies [in China] have already made payments to some relatives. On top of that, the families can expect to receive compensation from Malaysia Airlines because of guarantees in an international treaty. They can also opt to sue the airline for more damages, or sue Boeing or a component manufacturer. Any lawsuit could take years to conclude."

Some families are reluctant to take legal action or even accept the payments required by international treaties in an event such as this one, instead hoping that the plane will still be found or suspecting that there is still information being covered up.

[pfflier]

A large portion of the planet surface is desolate and unpopulated.

All the people in the world would fit in part of Texas if stood shoulder to shoulder.

If not an answer at least it is a perspective.

[irish guard]

OK...this might be a bit whacky, but here goes. I think someone was able to hack into the plane's flight capabilities and shut the pilots' ability to fly the plane down, along with any ability to communicate. They then were able to fly the plane remotely. Not sure the result is any different, it's probably at the bottom of the ocean......but that's my guess.

The reason there isn't more out there about this is it would scare the sh*t out of everyone who flies, so China and the US settled on this way out of the way part of the Indian Ocean to search, while they figure out who did this cyber hijacking.

[The Sons of Liberty]

For the short attention span public, this has pretty much dropped out of the news.

Is the theory that it was hijacked to a raghead country waiting to be used as a weapon against us, still considered valid?

[Mr. K]

i think the radio would still work, wouldnt it?

and manual controls always override electric ones don’t they?

[Spitzensparkin1]

"i think the radio would still work, wouldnt it?"

They have several frequency agile voice radios on board for trans oceanic flights including some very expensive SSB HF radios for long range comms. Of course any or all of them become inoperable when the circuit supplying them with power is turned off.

That being said, I still wonder if there wasn't some radio contact with this plane after it turned that we are not being told about by Malaysian officials. If the pilot was in such a disturbed mental state and suicidal, wouldn't he have wanted to vent about it, make some demands, etc.? That could have been most embarrassing to the officials in the gov't there.

I still believe they know more than they are letting on.

SS1

[DoodleDawg]

They should take the same type of plane, outfit it with drone control and equivalent weight, fly it to it’s last location, turn off the engines, and see where it goes and what’s left.

Kind of an expensive proposition considering these things cost about a quarter billion dollars each.

[Jaded]

No ransom demand? No ransom demand the Malaysian government publicized?

[ilovesarah2012]

Yeah - messing with China isn’t like messing with the USA.

[irish guard]

Not sure. Like I said, I’m guessing at this. But with all the geeks that try to hack their way into financial services companies every day, or government intelligence agencies, or power plants, I’m pretty sure there’s someone out there who could figure out how to take over a jet.

[dforest]

Probably as valid as anything else we have heard, in fact, that is even more likely.

[Star Traveler]

This story is almost done and over with. The next step is “legend status”.

It’s getting into “DB Cooper” territory now, with all the crazy speculation. This will join DB Cooper in the mystery hall of fame.

For a list of Freeper articles on it ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/mh370/index

[Star Traveler]

Well ... because in spite of the perception by many that mankind is infinitely powerful and capable, it’s not - but is puny and incapable, compared to our Creator God and the world that He has made, that we live in.

That’s one of mankind’s infinite failings - thinking that it is bigger than it really is.