Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

(20-03-2014 20:42 )event horizon Wrote:  MH370 had on it's passenger list as many as 20 engineers from a major defence contractor, a company called Freescale. What a nice collection of brains that would be for anyone who wanted to get hold of cutting-edge military technology.

Totally wacko. If anyone had the resources to plan and pull off an operation of that kind, surely they would have the resources to buy any armaments they wanted anyway? From media reports these people weren't working on anything top secret and none of their knowledge or information they carried was classified.

(21-03-2014 00:03 )Glenn Miller Wrote:  How are background checks on the passengers coming along? Have they all turned up as nothing suspicious?

The countries who have passengers on the plane were asked to carry out background checks on the people concerned and all complied, except Russia and Ukraine which leaves 3 people unchecked. The other 224 passengers have all been reported to be free of suspicion, as far as can be told from the checks carried out so far.

(21-03-2014 04:44 )babelover48 Wrote:  How or why they chose to ignore the information from Inmarsaat is beyond me.

In this morning's press conference the Malaysian authorities denied ignoring the satellite information from Inmarsaat. They said they received the information on 12 March and as it wasn't the kind of information that they usually dealt with and weren't expert on they immediately asked the US for assistance in interpreting it. They said that stories about them ignoring the Inmarsaat information are completely wrong.

(19-03-2014 22:45 )babelover48 Wrote:  But what is bugging me now is, why was Diego Garcia on the pilot's simulator in the first place?

I've been hoping that a reporter would ask this at one of the daily press conferences, but they never do.

(20-03-2014 17:00 )CIA Snooper Wrote:  The only cargo that could have been considered remotely hazardous was a consignment of lithium batteries.

At today's press conference it was conceded that lithium batteries could become unstable at altitude and could result in a fire breaking out.

(21-03-2014 11:44 )CIA Snooper Wrote:  The countries who have passengers on the plane were asked to carry out background checks on the people concerned and all complied, except Russia and Ukraine which leaves 3 people unchecked.

Yes I heard this in Wednesday's press conference, where it was stated "We have received passenger background checks from all countries apart from Ukraine and Russia, both of which had nationals on board." I can't believe that no reporter asked in reply why Ukraine and Russia haven't done or reported the requested checks?

(21-03-2014 12:58 )dark skies Wrote:  

(19-03-2014 22:45 )babelover48 Wrote:  But what is bugging me now is, why was Diego Garcia on the pilot's simulator in the first place?

I've been hoping that a reporter would ask this at one of the daily press conferences, but they never do.

Simple answer. Microsoft Flight Simulator has something like 24,000 runways in it. Diego Garcia is one of them.

(21-03-2014 13:21 )dark skies Wrote:  "We have received passenger background checks from all countries apart from Ukraine and Russia, both of which had nationals on board."

Weird to say the least. Either they can't be bothered with the matter, maybe with the current Ukraine-Russia turmoil keeping their attention, or is it a sign they know something and don't wish to share the information.

The search is over for Friday and like yesterday nothing was found, despite very low level flying over the search area. The search will resume again on Saturday when several ships will also have reached the area.

(21-03-2014 14:12 )Robert E Lee Wrote:  Either they can't be bothered with the matter, maybe with the current Ukraine-Russia turmoil keeping their attention, or is it a sign they know something and don't wish to share the information.

Is the Ukraine government even functional just now - and if it is maybe they have more pressing things on their mind?

Russia maybe deliberately not cooperating because of the international persecution and grief it's getting over Crimea.