Malaysian Airline loses contact with passenger airline

[hud 91gt]

I don't think stealing a plane for the money, or cash savings is the point. It's having one of the longest range aircraft, with one of the largest cargo capabilities can do for you. Stealing a plane for the money is useless. You couldn't sell it without getting caught.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by xpl0sive

I wasn't talking about someone seeing a plane fly by. I'm talking about landing the plane in Iran or wherever and hiding it there. Do they execute 200+ people and then just hang onto the plane for future use? It sounds like pulling off something like this would take quite a bit of planning and everything would have to go right. What's the reward? A Boeing 777?
You'd think if someone is willing to do all that work they would do it for something a little bit more valuable. I don't know how much a plane costs nowadays... price list from Boeing suggests they are $300mil? What's it worth on the black market... $50mil?
I mean $50mil is a ton of money, but in the grand scheme of things, highjacking a plane and killing 200+ people over it doesn't sound plausible.

Boeing: Jet Prices

It has been hinted at that the intended target may have been cargo, not the plane or the passengers. People have been killed for less, and there are people out there who have zero concern over the lives of others, just look at drug cartels. And that's assuming the passengers were killed, is hiding 240 people in the desert that inconceivable? And it doesn't even have to be in the desert anymore, after a week it could have easily been flown just about anywhere so long as there was somebody waiting to refuel it. They could land it, refuel it, more thoroughly disable/remove/jam any kind of comms or pings and take off again.

If it went south, based on the sat pings it would have to be down near the coast of Australia, in which case the Australian radar systems posted earlier should have picked it up, or they should at least be currently picking up the ELT pings. I'm guessing they're currently focusing their efforts up north until Australia has a chance to review all their data, since sending SAR down there would be a huge waste of effort if the Aussie's didn't pick up anything.

[boostfever]

plane couldn't make it to Iran, it's too far. unless it stopped somewhere to refuel.
considering iran is trying to get rid of of the sanctions at the moment and collaborate more closely with the west, it wouldn't make any sense for them to pull a hijack like this.
Obviously not everyone is following the news in Iran and middle east.

[Domani]

what has me wondering is, if the plane isn't in the ocean..... some say it landed somewhere, flew over Thailand even Kazakstan, why aren't there any cellular activities being picked up by carriers? passengers would prob try to turn on there cell phones and call out. So I think the plane is underwater

[xpl0sive]

Originally Posted by Domani

what has me wondering is, if the plane isn't in the ocean..... or it actually stopped for fuelling, why aren't there any cellular activities being picked up by carriers? passengers would prob try to turn on there cell phones and call out. So I think the plane is underwater

if it really is highjacked, first thing the highjackers would do is walk around and take everyone's phone away from them. If they are smart enough to steal a plane, they are smart enough to realize everyone on that plane has a phone

[bballguy]

Originally Posted by Domani

passengers would prob try to turn on there cell phones and call out.

Wow, why didn't I think of that...You're a pretty smart guy.

[Domani]

Originally Posted by xpl0sive

if it really is highjacked, first thing the highjackers would do is walk around and take everyone's phone away from them. If they are smart enough to steal a plane, they are smart enough to realize everyone on that plane has a phone

I don't know anything about plane hijacking, what you say may be plausible.

[Harvey Specter]

Cell phones only work if there's a siginal, they could be in the region of the world were there is no cell coverage hence they can't find signals for cell devices.

The other thing I find odd about the Malaysian officials is that there's been no talk whatsoever about the security at KLIA. Did the staff at the airport see anyone suspicious board the plane? What about the baggage handlers, food caterers and cleaners? I read that the x-ray machines for cargo was down, is this true or not?

Like I said a few days, I feel that Malaysian officials are hiding information to protect someone or something that would hurt them. The information coming out is very slow with a lot of holes. Remember, 2 of the hijackers for 9/11 spent time in Kuala Lumpur so they're very sensitive about terrorism.

[bballguy]

Originally Posted by Domani

I don't know anything about plane hijacking, what you say may be plausible.

Doesn't take a masters in plane hijacking to realize that hijackers would do something to prevent passengers from communicating via cellphones if they planned on landing the plane somewhere...............


'Oh, well, what if the passengers are still on the plane and are thus being instructed to keep their phones on airplane mode? I've never hijacked a plane before, so I don't know if this is plausible or not.'

[underscore]

Originally Posted by xpl0sive

if it really is highjacked, first thing the highjackers would do is walk around and take everyone's phone away from them. If they are smart enough to steal a plane, they are smart enough to realize everyone on that plane has a phone

You don't even need to take the phones, a cell phone jammer would stop them all from working. And even if they had working phones, you still need to be in an area with cell towers that work on the right frequencies for the phones. Just because your phone always works in Vancouver doesn't mean it'll work in the bush.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by Lord Disick

The other thing I find odd about the Malaysian officials is that there's been no talk whatsoever about the security at KLIA. Did the staff at the airport see anyone suspicious board the plane? What about the baggage handlers, food caterers and cleaners? I read that the x-ray machines for cargo was down, is this true or not?

Personally I haven't got a lot of confidence in the security at KLIA at this point, even though they've sorted out two passengers had stolen passports, others could have had fraudulent ones. Or if someone wanted to hijack an aircraft and kidnap 240 people, they probably wouldn't hesitate to kidnap someone and use their passport to board.

Additionally, someone came up with the theory that because this was the F/O's first flight on a 777 (allegedly) that the rest of the flight crew wouldn't have been familiar with him and so someone could have impersonated him to get on the plane. That would be a pretty gutsy move though, as I'm sure other staff at the airport would recognize him.

[Manic!]

I don't know how a plane could cross the Indian/Pakistan boarder without them knowing about. It's one of the most heavenly patrolled boarders in the world. I think only one airline has flights between the 2 countries and it only flies 12 times a week between the two. Also after 9/11 I don't think passengers would just let a plane be hijacked.

[multicartual]

Originally Posted by Manic!

Also after 9/11 I don't think passengers would just let a plane be hijacked.

It makes sense that the pilots did it because that is exactly how I feel about it.


If the pilots just flew the plane off course how would anyone even know?

[Harvey Specter]

Originally Posted by Manic!

I don't know how a plane could cross the Indian/Pakistan boarder without them knowing about. It's one of the most heavenly patrolled boarders in the world. I think only one airline has flights between the 2 countries and it only flies 12 times a week between the two. Also after 9/11 I don't think passengers would just let a plane be hijacked.

There's a article about spotty radar coverage over India and Pakistan so the plane could have flown right over India without them knowing. And lets not forget, Mumbai was seized by terrorist from Pakistan which came ashore without the Indian intelligence community having the slightest clue.

And what does this hijack say about the intelligence community as a whole. US intelligence has tons of assets in that region of the world but yet a 777 when undetected and still can't be found? Unless there's information that's been withheld I think there's going to be some serious questions and concerns about US intelligence.

[Manic!]

Originally Posted by Lord Disick

There's a article about spotty radar coverage over India and Pakistan so the plane could have flown right over India without them knowing.

And what does this hijack say about the intelligence community as a whole. US intelligence has tons of assets in that region of the world but yet a 777 when undetected and still can't be found? Unless there's information that's been withheld I think there's going to be some serious questions and concerns about US intelligence.

Spotty coverage over India but not the boarder.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/561779/a...tan-territory/

[bballguy]

Originally Posted by Manic!

Spotty coverage over India but not the boarder.

Originally Posted by Manic!

I don't know how a plane could cross the Indian/Pakistan boarder without them knowing about.

Originally Posted by Manic!

It's one of the most heavenly patrolled boarders in the world.

Originally Posted by Manic!

So no one on RS has a mail box across the boarder?

Originally Posted by Manic!

Legally you are supposed to pay. Next time tell the boarder agent you want to go inside and pay instead of breaking the law. Or you can just pay revenue Canada when you pay your taxes.

BORDER

[Harvey Specter]

But you have to remember this plane had no transponder and was flying below the radar. There's also spy satellites over this region but nothing was detected (that we know of).

[Manic!]

BOARDER

[Obsideon]

[underscore]

board·er
ˈbôrdər/
noun
noun: boarder; plural noun: boarders

1.
a person who receives regular meals when staying somewhere, in return for payment or services.
a student who lives at school during the semester in return for payment.
2.
a person who boards a ship during or after an attack.

bor·der
ˈbôrdər/
noun
noun: border; plural noun: borders

1.
a line separating two political or geographical areas, esp. countries.
"the German border with Denmark"
synonyms: frontier, boundary; More
borderline, perimeter;
marches, bounds
"the Canadian border"
a district near a line separating two political or geographical areas.
"a refugee camp on the border"
2.
the edge or boundary of something, or the part near it.
"the northern border of their distribution area"
synonyms: edge, margin, perimeter, circumference, periphery;

Now that we have that covered, why do you guys think it had to cross the India-Pakistan border to get near the China-Kyrgyzstan border?

[Vale46Rossi]

Trying to find source for this..... I overheard someone talking about this during dinner and googled this...

[dangonay]

Originally Posted by Lord Disick

Large police presence at the pilots home. They've finally entered the home so let's see if there's any clues from there search

Why the hell did it take so long for them to go check out the pilots residence? I would have thought they would have done this immediately after the plane went missing.

[underscore]

Twitter user FlyWithFish seems very confident that the plane was highjacked for "cargo", however the value of that cargo to the person(s) behind this may not be monetary. Also according to his sources, these actions have been state-backed (unclear on which state it is though).

Also the plane flew several other loops before this final one, so potentially something could have been stashed onboard anywhere, depending on what they're after.

KUL-DPS-KUL-BOM-KUL-DPS-KUL-DAC-KUL-HKG-KUL - - - - - - - - PEK

[underscore]

Originally Posted by dangonay

Why the hell did it take so long for them to go check out the pilots residence? I would have thought they would have done this immediately after the plane went missing.

Because they thought it had crashed?

[Soundy]

Originally Posted by xpl0sive

And what interest do the Americans have in the search...?

What modern country DOESN'T have an interest in this? Until a week ago, nobody thought it realistically possible for a plane to simply vanish like this. Now, everyone on the planet with one or more commercial air fleets has to take a serious look at how things are done and how planes are built and tracked.

Put it this way: what interest does anyone on Revscene have in the search? Well if nothing else, it's one of the biggest puzzles of the last decade or so: how the hell did an airliner simply disappear into thin air... and where is it now.

Originally Posted by xpl0sive

You'd think if someone is willing to do all that work they would do it for something a little bit more valuable. I don't know how much a plane costs nowadays... price list from Boeing suggests they are $300mil? What's it worth on the black market... $50mil?
I mean $50mil is a ton of money, but in the grand scheme of things, highjacking a plane and killing 200+ people over it doesn't sound plausible.

I think you're overestimating the "black market value" here - it's not like a car where you just swap out the VIN plate and put it back on the road. Assuming someone actually buys this plane for $50M... what are they going to do with it? Certainly not fly it anywhere - you put a jet in the air without a valid transponder, and you can probably expect to get shot down PDQ. You can't make a fake transponder code... you can't re-use one from an old plane... unless you're going to use it to fly below radar over extremely remote areas, it's not going to be of much use to anyone for anything other than scrap value, or reverse engineering.