Malaysian PM: 'According to This New Data, Flight MH370 Ended in S. Indian Ocean'

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Mon Mar 24, 2014, 07:35 PM - Edit history (3)

Source: Associated Press

@BreakingNews: Malaysian PM: 'I must inform you that according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean' - live video

@AP: MORE: Malaysian PM Najib Razak says the information was based on an unprecedented analysis of satellite data: http://t.co/nOMG0m4JqK

MALAYSIA: MISSING FLIGHT CRASHED IN INDIAN OCEAN

By ROB GRIFFITH and TODD PITMAN
— Mar. 24, 2014 10:29 AM EDT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says a new analysis of satellite data indicates the missing Malaysia Airlines plane plunged into a remote corner of the Indian Ocean.

The news is a major breakthrough in the unprecedented two-week struggle to find out what happened to Flight 370, which disappeared shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew aboard on March 8.

Dressed in a black suit, Najib announced the news "with deep sadness and regret" in a brief news conference late Monday night.

He said Malaysia Airlines has informed the families of passengers of the plane's fate.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/chinese-plane-spots-object-indian-ocean

[herding cats]

1. The text just sent to the family members by Malaysia Airlines

Breaking News
The following SMS message has been sent to relatives: "Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia's Prime Minister, we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean."

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26711298#TWEET1080950

[lostincalifornia]

2. Unfortunately it isn't really a surprise. The media should be ashamed of themselves the way they

covered this story, but since the media now immerses themselves in speculation, rumors, and innuendo, it is no wonder that facts take a back seat.

I suspect this report is pretty much the case, but who knows

[djean111]

3. I am betting that some of the media - Faux, I am sneering at you - will switch to

saying it is a coverup. Like they say about Benghazi.
About Benghazi - I get the feeling the GOP paid quite a bit for that story, are pissed because it did not work as expected on Obama, but are intent on using it on Hillary. Because they can't get their money back.

[alsame]

6. A Faux watching neighbor told me that Faux

is convinced the plane was hijacked to Pakistan where it's waiting to be loaded with nukes to hit Israel and the US. They even have retired Generals swearing this is true

[Helen Borg]

10. Some psychic I saw on CNN (or some other network)

said she saw it land safely somewhere...

[mopinko]

13. woo is mean.

that is the thing about it. lies are never REALLY comforting.

[lostincalifornia]

27. faux should NOT be allowed to advertise their station as a news network

[Beacool]

29. Nothing surprises me from them.

They keep having on their shows people who make the wildest accusations against Democrats.

[npk]

64. "If only President Obama had acted sooner those poor people would still be alive."

"That's our top story tonight on The Factor." FAUX NEWS

I am sure they are just holding out for some disgruntled former NTSB member to spill the beans on how we, meaning "we" as in the US, and the US, as in "President Obama" could have and should have seen this coming.

Either way they will demand congress open a full investigation on something even more pointless than Benghazi.

[passiveporcupine]

68. The media should be ashamed of themselves

K&R this post

What bothers me most is the sensationalism of the grief of the family members. This part of their lives should be private and sacrosanct, not spread all over the news to get people to buy the stories. Stop being voyeurs. Stop taking photos and writing stories about how they are suffering. You aren't making it any easier on them.

[jakeXT]

4. Looks like someone finally really looked at the data

"Based on their new analysis, Inmarsat & the AAIB concluded that the last position of #MH370 was in the middle of the Indian Ocean."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/24/mh370-chinese-plane-spots-white-objects-live-updates

[marions ghost]

5. When they show the image from the Australian plane

it appears that something in the water is steaming or smoking. What is that?

[marions ghost]

11. To answer my own question--

"We saw smoke flares dropped, gps locators too. HMAS Success was v close and will be trying to find and bring inboard objects now"

From BBC News re. the Australian search

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Well, that's bullshit.

"Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived."

Until they find the wreckage, they don't know if it augured in at full speed, or managed a soft water landing. The possibility may be remote, but there could be some poor bastard clinging to some wreckage or something. Not for long, given the lack of water, but assuming everyone on the plane is dead is problematic.

They don't know for sure they have recovered a single scrap of that plane, yet. Quit reaching for 'closure' when the facts aren't in yet.

(Not directed at the person posting the OP)

Saying where it went down, cool beans, but assuming everyone IS dead, assumes facts not in evidence.

[cbdo2007]

15. LOL

They can't find any of the plane or any of the passengers....and you think they can find someone drifting aimlessly on a liferaft in the near future? They are just telling them that it probably didn't land somewhere and chances of survival int he middle of the ocean are slim to none. Finally at least they're being honest with the most plausible scenario.

[AtheistCrusader]

20. I agree, the odds are super slim.

But until we find the plane, which we are likely to do very soon with the homing equipment for the black boxes, we can't know for sure. we WILL know once we find the remains of the plane. Why bother jumping the gun?

[MicaelS]

30. What if we don't find the black boxes?

Because they were destroyed on impact or the batteries fail before we can find them?

What if the main wreckage isn't found for years?

What then?

[AtheistCrusader]

32. We keep looking.

We owe the dead at least that much.

The boxes should still have about 2 weeks of battery power left for their locator beacons. Equipment specially designed to find them is en route to the suspected site as we type this.

[Submariner]

70. Didn't you see the movie "Castaway"?

They'll find and rescue a few in 4 or 5 years on a remote island.

I expect a new reality show next season; "Search for the Boeing 777 Starship".

After 2 to 3 seasons Sarah Palin will be brought into the search to boost ratings because Alaska is next to cold water also just like between the Australian and Antarctic continents. It's all purely logical.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. "not for long" - it's been 16 days now

The southern Indian Ocean isn't somewhere you can survive 16 days clinging to wreckage, without fresh water.

[sufrommich]

18. Not to mention being able to survive with

what would have to be very serious injuries.

[AtheistCrusader]

19. Cases of bottled water have enough air in them to float.

Look, I know it's long odds, possible every single passenger died of hypoxia long before it crashed, but it is only a possibility. We don't know shit yet.

I don't know. I'm just frustrated with people making pronouncements that frankly, are unnecessary. There was NO need to declare it lost with all hands today. None. They think they know where it is. Cool. Go check it out. The black box detection equipment will probably lead us to the fuselage. That will give us an idea what the deal is with any possible survivors, or how, and when they died.


Why make a declaration that could potentially be wrong? What is gained? It's not like the survivors of the victims are going to be assuaged by such a claim.

[marions ghost]

21. My guess would be

they know more than we know. Considering how cagy they've been, I think they wouldn't risk making such an announcement unless they have come to a defendable conclusion, based on the UK satellite analysis.

That's what makes me think this is the precursor to pulling actual debris.

[AtheistCrusader]

23. I suppose it is possible the

location fits with the 'express elevator to hell' dive that the engine monitoring radio system supposedly reported.

If that was the case, the plane will be in pieces, after hitting the water at that speed.

[cosmicone]

43. Actually, they should have made the "everyone is lost" announcement

weeks ago. No one would have blamed them much if some or all people were found alive later. However, stringing them along with a flicker of hope was torture.

The families would have accepted the fate far less painfully than what transpired.

It is something I learned in medicine. If the family of an ICU admission is told that the condition is critical and there is probably no chance of survival, the families handle it a lot better. If your intervention is then successful and the patient lives, no one is angry about the earlier discussion. If you do the reverse, give hope and the patient dies, you're in for a lawsuit.

[marions ghost]

52. I don't think the authorities in this gave hope

or didn't give hope. They were non-committal, which was appropriate when nobody really knew what happened. Of course that drives people crazy, but it did reflect the truth.

So your analogy doesn't work for me.

The families took hope from the fact that bad news didn't come right away--but not because anyone gave them false hope. There was nothing deliberate or involving liability. Plenty of speculation from the media, but not the authorities. All the shoulds won't bring them back. You might not have liked how it was handled, but the survivors were never given false hopes.

[cosmicone]

53. Not stating something expressly

is giving false hope.

In the past 40 years, other than the Sully Sullenberger US Airways incident, and the minor crash of the Korean Air jet at SFO which happened in plain view and at low speed/altitude, the odds of surviving a plane crash have been very very small.

By not explicitly stating that the odds that there are any survivors are non-existent, the authorities could have lessened the torture of the families.

Now, like Jahi McMath's family, some families will never believe their loved ones are dead and keep thinking that they are on some island somewhere clinging to life.

[marions ghost]

65. Everybody knows the odds

of surviving a plane crash are small. Duh. Nobody officially in charge of the investigation needed to tell the families that. Better to leave that hard reality check to counselors and psychologists and other family and friends. People who can console and deal with grief.

Without real evidence and such conflicting stories about what happened, the families were going to hang on any shred of doubt for as long as they could. Trying to convince them otherwise at that point would certainly not have "lessened the torture."

But with this announcement today, which I think is based on evidence of the plane's location or the PM would not have made it, the families can begin to accept. I think there will be enough evidence for them not to hold out further hope, unless they are severely delusional. This definitive announcement today came at the right time IMO.

[muriel_volestrangler]

54. The plane had flown thousands of miles off course, beyond the limit to return to land

It was not under the control of someone who was both able and willing to try to land it safely.

[Xithras]

46. It's the Southern Ocean. If you're in the water, survivability is measured in minutes.

If you're in a life raft, maybe a few days. The water temps down there are in the 50's at the northern end and just get colder as you go south. It's cold enough that small icebergs aren't an uncommon sight in those waters during the summer months.

Even if someone managed to get off the jet and into a life raft without getting wet, AND the life raft has stayed in one piece and dry until now, AND the survivor(s) had sufficient food and water on board to stay alive for two weeks, they would still be dead...life rafts aren't insulated, and it's a fair bet that nobody was dressed for the subantarctic weather they would have faced over the past couple of weeks. Without a way to start a fire or generate heat, exposure would have killed them within days.

[AtheistCrusader]

47. That's a good point

I hadn't considered the water temps.

That does narrow the survival rate. Not far from where Japan was going after the minke whales, and Sea Shepard doing their thing. You do need a survival suit to be in that water for long. Excellent point.

[Yo_Mama]

50. It's been more than two weeks. Everyone's dead

if they can confidently say it went down in the Indian Ocean. Between the lack of water and exposure, survival past a few days is doubtful. After two weeks, not a chance, surely?

The question is whether they can really say that the plane did come down in that region or not.

[DFW]

8. In the southern Indian Ocean?

Well, that really narrows it down.

At least they got the right planet.

[Helen Borg]

9. Shouldn't that be "These New Data"?

....

[Iggo]

12. These New Datums.

[NutmegYankee]

17. I'm still waiting for that moment that Malaysia anounces that according to their data:

The world is round.

[Sunlei]

22. reported low flight over malaysia? was correct and out to sea until altitude met sea level

Almost as if the turn around was a 'pre-programed' emergency last reaction & the plane flew itself out to sea, after the turn. All those poor people, wonder if the pilots were dead and if any of the people survived to the end.

[marions ghost]

24. So as to avoid crashing on land

you're saying.

[Sunlei]

34. I think pilots can program a turn around, so with an emergency they can hit one button.

Then for some reason the pilots never completed the back to airport emergency turn around. The plane will continue to fly on that low path & run out of gas.

[marions ghost]

39. yeah

but what about the fact that it wasn't a clear turn around--more of a zig zag. Not the usual pattern for a turnaround or is it?

Don't know much about piloting planes.

[AtheistCrusader]

41. The zig zags were based on possibly spurious radar contacts.

The flight data recorder from the aircraft may be the only reliable record of the actual path the plane took.

It's possible the contacts were of higher confidence than I am aware, but reading what they've released, some of them might not be accurate.

[marions ghost]

44. reasonable

--further info needed. I think they'll eventually be able to put it together.

[AtheistCrusader]

48. I'm hopeful they will recover the FDR and CVR.

Whether they are still functional... depends on the depths involved where they lay.

[marions ghost]

51. Huge variations in depths out there...

hope so too.

[muriel_volestrangler]

63. We have both Thai and Malaysian radar saying the plane flew roughly west to the Malacca Strait

Montol said that at 1:28 a.m., Thai military radar "was able to detect a signal, which was not a normal signal, of a plane flying in the direction opposite from the MH370 plane," back toward Kuala Lumpur. The plane later turned right, toward Butterworth, a Malaysian city along the Strait of Malacca. The radar signal was infrequent and did not include data such as the flight number.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-finds-terror-link-nationals-jet-22951466

In a far more detailed description of military radar plotting than has been publicly revealed, two sources told Reuters an unidentified aircraft that investigators suspect was missing Flight MH370 appeared to be following a commonly used navigational route when it was last spotted early on Saturday, northwest of Malaysia.

That course - headed into the Andaman Sea and towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean - could only have been set deliberately, either by flying the Boeing (BA.N) 777-200ER jet manually or by programming the auto-pilot.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/malaysia-airlines-radar-idINDEEA2D05S20140314

Butterworth is on the mainland opposite the island of Penang: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterworth,_Penang

To get to the southern Indian Ocean, the plane would have had to turn south. Separate radar systems put it flying west, after the initial turn off the planned route. This is not a pre-programmed emergency route.

[marions ghost]

66. That's what I understood

--that the plane did not simply turn around but veered off course erratically and was not on a pre-programmed emergency route.

WAPO seems to verify what you posted:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/world/what-happened-to-flight-MH370/

[marions ghost]

55. This WAPO series of images shows the zigzag

I think in these graphics it's clear they think this is a reliable path:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/world/what-happened-to-flight-MH370/

[Orrex]

25. CNN should formally apologize for its idiotic God/UFO/black hole speculation

And then it permanently should sign off in disgrace.


Sad news for the family, but ultimately not surprising.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Of course it did. Memo to Don Lemon:

It wasn't a black hole, or God.

[Orrex]

31. Your input is appreciated.

I look forward to following your insights on DU for many years to come.

[sufrommich]

33. The bad english was good for a laugh.

" and this stock system are looking very nice.

Thank you"

[Orrex]

38. I applaud The Powers That Be for catching it so quickly.

I miss him already.

[catbyte]

35. We'll probably never know the "why" of it, but

I just keep thinking about the Payne Stewart plane crash & what happened to them. A slow oxygen leak in the fuselage could've disoriented the MH-370 pilots & caused them to do weird stuff without realizing anything was wrong. Hypoxia is a very insidious thing. Stewart's pilots didn't detect anything amiss either, but started veering off course before blacking out. When the MH-370 leak got worse, the passengers & crew were rendered unconscious & the plane flew until it ran out of fuel just like Payne Stewart's. That seems more plausible than anything else to me.

[MicaelS]

36. I think you're right.

Or a fire. Or a combination of the two.

[sailfla]

45. but the transponder was turned off N/T

[catbyte]

58. Hypoxia makes you do weird things

[sailfla]

62. you're right about that

I guess if it happened slowly like the Lear with Payne Stuart

[Mister K]

37. There is something amiss here....

If the plane broke up and is in pieces, there would be a whole lot more floating objects in the sea. Seat cushions all float, plastic parts float...

[TorchTheWitch]

71. not necessarily

The Air France 447 crash into the Atlantic produced some bits of wreckage, but most of the broken up plane along with 104 of the passengers were still inside the broken up plane most of whom were still belted into their seats. strapped into their seats. Hitting the ocean would break up the plane though were it to have broken up in the air the debris field would have been a whole lot wider.

Stuff doesn't float on top of the water for very long though it depends on what it is. Seat cushions will become waterlogged and sink. Even life rafts sink without air inflation. The rougher the seas are the faster stuff sinks as well. This is why it's so important to find a debris field quickly... it's not going to stay together or on top of the water for long or even anywhere near the crash site.

At this point I think they'd be far better off with under water searching.

[Mojo Electro]

40. Translation:

"We don't know where the plane is, or what happened, but we'd like this story to start winding down"

While I do believe the plane going down in the Indian Ocean is the most likely outcome, I don't believe that this statement was based on very much new or earth-shattering information.

[Zorra]

42. Fuck. nt

[WhoWoodaKnew]

49. Really sad

[Gin]

56. IMO they had to bring an end to the story if for no other reason than the cost of taking care of so

Many for so long. It is sad, sad, sad.

[hugo_from_TN]

61. Malaysian Grand Prix race is this weekend

[Kingofalldems]

57. Does anyone have a clue as to what exactly happened?

Hijacking? A bomb seems impossible since the plane kept flying.

[cbdo2007]

59. LOL

[LongTomH]

60. From the AP Story.......

On Monday, an Australian navy support vessel, the Ocean Shield, was headed toward the search zone and was expected to arrive in three or four days, a defense official said. The ship is equipped with acoustic detection equipment that can search for the black box.

The U.S. Pacific Command said it is also sending a black box locator in case a debris field is located.

The Towed Pinger Locator, which is pulled behind a vessel at slow speeds, has highly sensitive listening capability that can hear the black box pinger down to a depth of about 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), Cmdr. Chris Budde, a U.S. 7th Fleet operations officer, said in a statement. He called it "a prudent effort to pre-position equipment and trained personnel closer to the search area."

Next step will be to dispatch ships with deep-diving robots to recover the boxes, and ships with side-scan sonar to locate any large pieces of wreckage on the ocean bottom.

[lovemydog]

67. So sad for the families

of the passengers.

[Jesus Malverde]

69. bump... nt