Vietnam Searchers Report Spotting Plane Debris

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 9 Mar 2014 | JASON NG, GAURAV RAGHUVANSHI and JAKE MAXWELL WATTS

[mandaladon]

KUALA LUMPUR—A Vietnamese search aircraft located fragments Sunday floating in waters off southern Vietnam that are suspected of coming from a Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU 0.00% jetliner that went missing a day earlier with 239 people on board.

The fragments were believed to be a composite inner door and a piece of the tail, Vietnam's ministry of information and communication said in a posting on its website. They were located about 50 miles south-southwest of Tho Chu island.

Officials released photograph of one fragment floating in the water. Malaysia Airlines said it had received no confirmation regarding the suspected debris. Flight MH370 went missing early Saturday on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing and ships and planes scouring the waters had been unable to find it. Vietnam said earlier in the day that a Singaporean aircraft had found a yellow floating object south-southwest of Thu Chu and dispatched ships toward the area. Singapore has declined to comment.

The Vietnamese statement said that the aircraft could not land near the objects to investigate them further because of darkening conditions but would continue the identification process Monday morning.

The disappearance of the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing triggered a search and rescue operation across portions of the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea, involving the armed forces of several nations, including the United States, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.

[mandaladon]

The investigation into the fate of the plane has been complicated further by revelations that two passengers appeared to have boarded the plane with stolen passports, prompting airline executives and aviation officials to say that foul play can't be ruled out.............I still think there's a good chance that foul play is involoved.

[mandaladon]

A European security official said it wasn't uncommon for passengers to board flights using stolen passports...................WTF!

[fiftymegaton]

BUMP

[mandaladon]

On Sunday afternoon, a statement issued in the name of a previously unknown group claimed that the disappearance of the plane was a political act aimed at the Chinese and Malaysian governments and referred to last week's attack in a Chinese train station by alleged Uighur separatists....................More interesting info

[Principled]

UPDATE — 9:20 a.m.: The strange object found floating is not debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, a U.S. official said, according to CNN.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/09/wsj-suspicious-floating-object-spotted-off-vietnams-tho-chu-island/

[FAA]

“A European security official said it wasn’t uncommon for passengers to board flights using stolen passports...................WTF! “

I guess we’ve been doing it wrong all of these years. I guess I need to steal my next passport since it’s no apparent big deal.

[cincinnati65]

I’m still betting Chinese air-defense missile.

[mandaladon]

This is shocking!

[fiftymegaton]

I think there is new debris that was found very recently including what looks like a door and reportedly part of the planes tail. And the denial by the US official was pertaining to a different find much earlier.

[bgill]

The strange yellow object was Kerry trying to find a river in Cambodia, again?

[bgill]

That or those 4 stolen passports.

[Principled]

He fought in Viet Nam you know

[a fool in paradise]

Call Jane Fonda in for questioning.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I’m going with the EgyptAir flight 990 theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990

[depressed in 06]

My reading of google maps puts Tho Chu Vietnam about a hour out of Kuala Lumpur.

[Mmogamer]

Kinda surprised no group came forwards to take responsibility for that, perhpas he was a lone wolf and crashed it to kill military staff?

[red-dawg]

My guess is that the stolen passports attempted to hijack the plane and then there was a fight in the cockpit, like flight 93.
Straight into the ocean like a dart.

That would explain both the lack of radio contact and the lack of debris field.

[Usagi_yo]

Anybody envision a scenario that starts off with a hi-jacking and ending up crashing the plane while struggling for control of the cockpit or hi-jacked and then shot down by somebodies military? Could it have gotten droned?

[alrea]

My guess is that the stolen passports attempted to hijack the plane and then there was a fight in the cockpit, like flight 93.

Would a black box show whether this happened?

[wtd]

via WSJ Quote:

"On Sunday afternoon, a statement issued in the name of a previously unknown group claimed that the disappearance of the plane was a political act aimed at the Chinese and Malaysian governments and referred to last week's attack in a Chinese train station by alleged Uighur separatists. It stopped short of a claim of responsibility. Malaysian officials said that they were unaware of any claim of responsibility but would investigate all possibilities.