Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

(24-03-2014 14:13 )king of a lost kingdom Wrote:  if terrorism was the reason for the plane's disappearance I'd say it's far more likely to be Uighur terrorists from China than the usual suspects, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

I couldn't agree more, bearing in mind that most of the victims were Chinese. I don't know why Al-Qaeda would have a problem with China, but the Uighur obviously do.

Look at this from Reuters - Uighur leader vows revenge on China:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/1...PF20140314

The plane was flying with 54 vacant seats - handy as it turns out because it meant less loss of life. But what cargo was being carried so heavy that 54 seats couldn't be sold? We know the plane was officially full because 5 people didn't take their places on the plane, so another 5 stand bys were allowed on. 54 seats which couldn't be sold is rather a lot.

(25-03-2014 03:10 )lauderdale Wrote:  The plane was flying with 54 vacant seats - handy as it turns out because it meant less loss of life. But what cargo was being carried so heavy that 54 seats couldn't be sold? We know the plane was officially full because 5 people didn't take their places on the plane, so another 5 stand bys were allowed on. 54 seats which couldn't be sold is rather a lot.

It does seem a lot of empty seats maybe they were carry extra cargo of some description or some people were warned beforehand not to board the flight.

Malaysia Airlines mentioned yesterday the loss of "226 passengers and our 13 friends and colleagues” although the passenger manifest shows 227 passengers and 12 crew. Has the airline explained the discrepancy?

One thing that doesn't get much of a mention in all of this is that the plane was equipped with Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), a beacon which should switch on automatically in the event of a crash to transmit signals to guide search and rescue efforts. It's another mystery of this case that no signal was ever transmitted from MH370 even though it's now officially acknowledged to have crashed into the sea.

(25-03-2014 10:11 )babelover48 Wrote:  some people were warned beforehand not to board the flight.

As I said before 5 people didn't take their places on the plane, so 5 stand by passengers were allowed on instead. That's nothing to do with the 54 seats which were never made available for sale in the first place.

(25-03-2014 11:54 )dark skies Wrote:  the plane was equipped with Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), a beacon which should switch on automatically in the event of a crash

The Boeing 777 has not 1 but 4 ELTs but they would be undetectable in this case because 4 metres of water is enough to block their signals. An undetectable ELT was one of the reasons it took 2 years to find the wreckage of Air France Flight AF447 which went down in the Atlantic in 2009.

One of the items of debris seen on the satellite images has been tracked down by a Chinese search ship and identified as a whale carcass.

(25-03-2014 00:51 )dominar rygel xvi Wrote:  most of the victims were Chinese. I don't know why Al-Qaeda would have a problem with China, but the Uighur obviously do.

If the Uighur had committed a terrorist attack against China surely they would have chosen a Chinese airliner? There are plenty of domestic flights within China they could have easily chosen.

I see we're back to the terrorist scenario again, but as no terrorist organisation has claimed responsibilty it's hard to see what their motive would be for this act. There isn't any clear purpose.