Mark L Berry

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High Alert Until MH370 is Found

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13,760 Feet--My Personal Hole in the SkyMy friends and readers have been asking me what happened to MH370 since I am an airline pilot with more than 25 years of seniority; and I also write for Airways magazine and wrote a memoir 13,760 Feet—My Personal Hole in the Sky that addresses life through a major airline tragedy (TWA Flight 800 and the loss of my fiancée Susanne). Like most of the world, I have been following this situation, and I have refrained from adding to all the speculation—waiting and watching for facts to reveal the mystery—until now. The more details that become available, the better the possible picture comes into focus—and it scares me. So I share this guess with you all because we (the world) cannot get caught with our pants down again.

I wouldn’t have thought that a widebody aircraft could fly up to seven hours undetected by radar or satellites, but now it appears that it has—at least as much as any government is admitting. There wasn’t a system malfunction on the Boeing 777 that prevented communication, or we’d know that by now. I don’t think there was a mid-air explosion or ditching or crash, or we’d know that by now too. Even the Malaysian government has finally admitted that this was a case of foul play—a hijacking.

Here is where my worst fear comes into play. What do the hijackers want? Traditionally they’d want asylum, ransom, and/or their comrades freed from prison. 9/11 caught the world with our pants down and a new breed of sacrificial hijackers killed 3000+ people with four aircraft in a single morning. That was when hijacking transformed into terrorism. But MH370 wasn’t flown into a building or a city center, and it certainly could have been. They could have flown it along the original flight plan and then crashed it into Beijing. They could have turned around—everyone would have assumed it had an emergency and was returning—and then crashed it into Kuala Lumpur. The hijackers had free rein of the sky, and even subtle traces of them—revealed by ACARS data bursts—took days to figure out, so they could have crashed that 777 anywhere within about a seven hour range based on that day’s fuel load. But they didn’t. So WHERE they went is now slightly less important than WHY.

Hijackers, that we should absolutely assume are terrorists, now have control of a heavy, long-range, transport vehicle. It hasn’t been found in pieces in the ocean or sprawled out across a rural field, so we need to assume that it is safely hidden on the ground somewhere. Even if the terrorists only loaded it up with classical explosives, the 777’s cabin and cargo bays capacity could destroy an entire city. And that’s just with traditional ordnance. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, but it would be naive to assume that none exist anywhere in the world. I am worried that the first terrorist-controlled weapon of mass destruction (maybe biological, maybe chemical, maybe nuclear) is now being married with the Boeing 777 in some remote airfield. While that aircraft is missing, we need to put our nation at high alert, or red alert, or DefCon-3, or however our government activates the highest military readiness, and alert the rest of the world to do their equivalent. And we need to ask ourselves what is our tolerance to shoot down MH370 upon discovery of it back in flight?

My heart aches for the families of those onboard. Worse than losing their loved ones is the painful hope they are living with now. There are prayers for miracles, as well as shock while trying to hold off the inevitable grief. These people need maximum support from their fellow family and friends right now. I really hope I am wrong, but it seems to me that a terrorist group willing to launch a weapon of mass destruction upon a nation (and WHICH nation should be a discussion of its own in order to best defend it) isn’t going to save the passengers that were originally onboard the terrorists’ new delivery vehicle. Here is what I think happened during the hijacked flight:

At least one 777-qualified pilot was onboard and aligned with the hijacking terrorists. Speculation points to the airline’s co-pilot, but it could also have been one of the passengers who then compromised the cockpit. An hour or two into the flight the cockpit door could have been opened for meals or a bathroom break. I do not know what steps Malaysian airlines employees take to prevent a cockpit breach.

Once in control of the cockpit, the hijacking pilot, and probably at least one accomplice, could have donned oxygen masks and then ‘dumped’ the cabin. All the remaining passengers and crew would pass out from lack of cabin pressure. Then the accomplice—wearing a portable oxygen mask—could have strolled through the cabin clubbing the unconscious passengers one by one. Remember that terrorists are evil, and they have the stomach for things that we can barely imagine. If there was only the pilot acting alone, he could have put the plane on autopilot while he did this and then returned to the cockpit. If the aircraft remained high enough long enough, the passengers would asphyxiate without the need for bloody violence. As a pilot, I am appalled by these thoughts, but they are a very real possibility. Either way, after twenty or thirty minutes, only the hijacker(s) would have remained alive in this scenario.

If this is what happened to MH370, passengers and security personnel will likely make my work life even more difficult. Or perhaps passengers will begin choosing their airline based on the screening standards of its pilots. I don’t know for sure, but changes will inevitably develop out of this event. Politicians can’t help legislating retroactively.

The fact that the transponder was turned off, and eventually the ACARS stopped sending data blasts, indicates that at least one hijacker was trained in the 777’s systems. He or they were not 9/11-esque terrorists who learned to fly without learning how to land, because they planned to fly the ill-gotten aircraft into a building instead of onto a runway. Let’s assume there were at least two acting together. More than likely these terrorists pre-planned a route that would avoid radar detection, as they understood it. An airline pilot would know where he needed to make position reports on previous flights because radar coverage was not available. Similarly, non-airline-employee terrorists could obtain this information through research if they planned this hijacking well in advance, as they tend to do.

Blogging in FormationSo where does this leave us? In a heap of danger, that’s where. Until we actually KNOW what happened to MH370, we need to BE PREPARED for what can happen next. It seems that there is a lot of speculation and hindsight in the media, and not enough looking ahead. When that 777 re-appears on radar or a satellite display, there won’t be much time to think about what to do. Either the world’s military acts immediately, or terrorists have an opportunity to ratchet up their level of destruction to previously unimagined levels. This is not a time for wishful thinking; this is a time for preparation for immediate action. There as a Boeing 777 at large, and very possibly it is in flyable condition and in the hands of terrorists. Do we as a peace-loving people have the foresight and will to actively shoot down an airliner when it re-appears? It won’t take to the sky again with innocent intentions. That is my worst fear, and I wrote this hypothesis with the hope of preventing it from becoming reality. Maybe I’m wrong, but if I am right, can we afford to wait and see? At the bare minimum, we should be on high alert until that aircraft is found—either intact, or in pieces as a result of a tragedy other than this hijacking scenario.

 

Here is my discussion of this blog on Boston Herald Radio 3/17/2014:
22 minutes long.

https://soundcloud.com/tomshattuck/mark-berry

Comments

  2. Was MH370 hijacked, or the result of an in-flight emergency? Over 40 days into the mystery we still don’t know. What I find interesting are my blog comment posters who refuse to believe that a hijacking was even a possibility. I often wonder why people can’t wrap their head around the indelible fact that some people aren’t good, and all people don’t have everybody else’s best interests in their hearts. Yes, the world would be a more beautiful place if everybody held love as his or her primary motivating force. But unfortunately, wish thinking doesn’t work. If you don’t want to believe that terrorism, conspiracies, or harmful people exist, I’m happy that your life has so far not been touched by ill will, but please don’t criticize those of us who choose to live with our eyes wide open.

    I knew people who died on 9/11/2001, after four commercial aircraft were hijacked that day. There were no survivors on any of those jets, and over 3000 total fatalities; how soon some people forget. I once met a gal who survived the Columbine school shooting. I grew up in Connecticut—a state still recovering from the Newtown school shooting. I have family members who live in the Boston area, and fortunately they were not at the marathon bombing one year ago today. I watch, I listen, I read, and I have learned that our world isn’t the eternally safe place that the wish-thinkers cling to. Their view—maybe your view—of the world is prettier than mine, and I’m sad that recent events have begun creeping into your Utopia.

    Do we know that MH370 was a hijacking? Absolutely not. But to disbelieve that it was even a possibility before the aircraft is found, and the facts are revealed, is to live in a world of lollipops and gummy bears. Usually, the middle of the herd is safe from predators, and only those on the edge see the sinister eyes peering from the shadows, and the fangs dripping with hunger and saliva. From the middle of the herd, the horizon is usually filled with the seemingly endless fuzzy fur of other sheep. But even a casual glance at today’s USA Today violent headlines reveals that deliberate evil deeds can and do occur in our world:

    Utah Mom tells police she killed 6 newborns

    Blast in Nigerian capital leaves 71 dead

    Hate suspects often seniors (in reference to racial-slur infested hate mail sent to Hank Aaron on the anniversary of his Babe Ruth record-breaking homerun triumph)

    And there is also reference to the fatal shooting at LAX airport five months ago in relation to a sports figure who can’t stay out of trouble (and recently made a bomb threat).

    I hope that someday the sheeple will finally believe that predators do, in fact, lurk just outside of, and sometimes within, our herd. It will take all of us to make a better world, and we can begin by collectively seeing it the way it really is. Maybe MH370 wasn’t hijacked, but we can learn to prevent future air piracy by studying the missing jet scenario as a potential hijacking while the facts are slowly discovered.

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  3. So I’m curious. Do we still “need to assume” (I loved that absurd declaration) that the plane is safely on the ground somewhere? If so, when do we believe it reasonable to assume that is not the case? This blog was my favorite piece of conspiracy-fiction to come out of the lost flight, and I’d love to know what else we “need to assume” at this point.

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  4. My newest blog post “Free Companion for the Grieving” addresses grief, and it includes a free audiobook offer for my first novel “Pushing Leaves Towards the Sun.” I wrote and recorded that novel before I wrote my memoir “13,760 Feet–My Personal Hole in the Sky.”

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      • After the facts come out, everyone is an expert. Why don’t guys like Fraser step forward 16 days earlier to let us know what happened?

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        • I know, Fraser could have CSI’d this 2 weeks ago but was too busy trolling the comment section of a blog.

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          • From 19/3/14

            The most likely outcome is that this plane has crashed somewhere. Anything else at this stage is wild speculation. For the plane to be hijacked in a Taliban-controlled area it would have had to have flown undetected through the airspace of several countries, navigated its way to a runway good enough to land on without being damaged (as any repairs would be impractical to the would-be terrorist in Waziristan), remain undetected on the runway, find a way of refuelling, dispose of 200 plus hostages, find a couple of trained pilots willing to kill themselves, pass into the airspace of an industrialised nation undetected and fly the plane into a structure of national importance, when they could just have turned the plane round and flown it into the Petronas towers and avoided all of the above.

            I’m not saying that this is impossible, I just think that it’s less likely than the alternatives.

      • At 66 years old, I thought all the naive idiots had been removed from the human gene pool! Oops. After reading Fraser’s comment, God, I didn’t realize how wrong I was! He needs to change his profile pic to an ostrich with his stupid little pea brain head in the sand! 28 days and not ONE piece of debris?! IDIOT! MWF

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  6. You are being highly speculative, and as a so called aviation professional you a also being highly irresponsible. “25 years seniority”??! This is somehow a qualification? We should expect more restraint from a person of your so called “experience”.

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    • There are so many irregularaties surrounding flight MH370 that a movie could be made today with “You choose the ending!” Why was ATC and Malaysian Airlines Operations so lax? What happened to flight following and hand off protocol? There are more people and agencies to level accusations at for their failure to act responsibly in the very beginning. The loss of Transponder Data from the plane should have set sirens off for the offocials and where was Malayian Airlines Flight Operations?

      So Joe don’t be so hard on anyone. I think a hijacking scenario by someone on board is possible, but do not cut the crew any slack. It could easily be an intentional act of one of the two pilots with the highest possibility in my humble opinion an act by the Co-Pilot.

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  8. Mark, above you write “When that 777 re-appears on radar or a satellite display,…”, leading me to believe that if 9M-MRO takes to the sky again it will do so as 9M-MRO. I assume that transponders, ACARS units, engine monitors and other systems can be reprogrammed to take on new identities. If that be the case, how would anybody know if an aircraft is actually 9M-MRO if it were to take to the skies again?

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    • Can someone please address the general grainyness and lack of definition in the images released? Satellites can tell if a person’s hair is parted on the left or right, why would such terrible quality images be floating around?

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  12. Wow, I cant believe how brain dead people are, yes this pilots theory is very plausible, the pilots were not Bob Jones or John Smith and they weren’t southern Baptist’s, one of them could have been paid very well to deliver a 777 and they would not want 200 hostages, they would have carried their dead bodies off the plane right before they carried the bombs onto the plane. This could have been planned out over a couple years time. They also do not need pilots willing to end their lives to carry out a terrorist act , planes are flown by remote control all the time now. There is a possibility that the plane has crashed but an even better possibility that people that don’t live in a “Leave it to Beaver” world have taken this plane and plan to do the world harm with it. I think all precautions should be put in place to make sure it doesn’t hit the US. Our government is pretty good at keeping secrets and I’m sure the public wont know what they know until after what’s going to happen, actually happens.

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  14. Sadly, this is not the first plane to disappear without a trace. The media is acting like it is. The media are the truest terrorists in this world.

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  15. I’m thinking the exact same thing. Exactly the same. Down to the part where the military must take action. And like the pilot here, I’ve been reluctant to add to speculation on the matter on my most public social media account: So, I’m just pushing out the facts:

    RE https://twitter.com/PauloSergioMDC/status/444693082765008896

    RE https://twitter.com/PauloSergioMDC/status/444693906476003328

    RE https://twitter.com/PauloSergioMDC/status/445287343377747968

    RE https://twitter.com/PauloSergioMDC/status/445631950578262016

    Finding that aircraft should be the most important priority for the world’s governments — ahead of the situation in Crimea.

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  16. All that is said seems plausible, given that
    – no wreckage has been found so far, in spite of extensive search by several countries
    – no calls from ANY passenger about them being alive
    – no trace of the aircraft location / whereabouts
    The aircraft, if planned to be used for nefarious designs, may not be wearing MH anymore. It might be painted
    differently, in which case, how is the authorities going to identify THIS aircraft for shooting down ? It will become
    very tricky.
    Let us hope and pray that this Black Swan event does not turn out in this fashion !

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  17. All due respect, I feel certain that had the pilots been named John Smith and Bob Jones, this xenophobic rant would not exist, especially if John and Bob were Southern Baptists.

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    • If Southern Baptist church ladies were the ones who had attacked on 9-11 in the name of Jesus Christ, you can be sure there would be concern.

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  18. I would like to build upon your theory which certainly sounds plausible, with 1 exception. The passengers are valuable in that they are hostages. If this plane were to take to the skies with a weapon, and people on the ground were informed that the passengers were alive and on board, then would they be able to shoot it down? Maybe, but definitely not without consensus from the nations whose citizens are on board – which would give the terrorists even more flying time until a decision was made.
    Now just imagine that you knew the plane was aloft, you didn’t know if there was a weapon (or what kind of weapon) was on board, and if you knew that 200 people were alive onboard, then would you shoot it down?

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    • Yes, I agree! I do believe that is the only reason and a very good reason to keep the passengers alive. Do we have the will to shoot down an airplane with 290+ innocent people aboard. However, that many people would be difficult to control (to some extent) so they may just go ahead and kill them but leave their bodies on the plane. Of course, after they have been killed, the plan will have to go quickly. Would we (USA or any nation) be able to tell if the physical bodies on the plane were alive or dead?

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  20. The most likely outcome is that this plane has crashed somewhere. Anything else at this stage is wild speculation. For the plane to be hijacked in a Taliban-controlled area it would have had to have flown undetected through the airspace of several countries, navigated its way to a runway good enough to land on without being damaged (as any repairs would be impractical to the would-be terrorist in Waziristan), remain undetected on the runway, find a way of refuelling, dispose of 200 plus hostages, find a couple of trained pilots willing to kill themselves, pass into the airspace of an industrialised nation undetected and fly the plane into a structure of national importance, when they could just have turned the plane round and flown it into the Petronas towers and avoided all of the above.

    I’m not saying that this is impossible, I just think that it’s less likely than the alternatives.

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    • This story pretty much sums up my own thoughts on the most likely scenario based on a few peices of evidence. If they are true. 1. Assuming they did fly forcover 7 hours.2. One possible arc takes them straight towards terrorist land 3. Friends and relatives called the mobile phones of passengers and they rang…if the plane ditched in the ocean or burnt or exploded its almost impossible to believe any phone would be intact enough to ring. 4. It sppears the acars and transponder were turned off.

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  22. If I turned this post into a novel/movie/screenplay, how would it be classified?

    The only answer is fiction. There is recounts of things which already occurred, and a whole lot of speculation.

    Here’s the problem all the way around. The people supplying the information, doing the investigation, etc., at best are less truthful, extremely secretive, and far more malicious and evil.

    The same people telling you there’s a problem, forming special committees, consuming/allocating unfathomable amounts of currency (in all forms) in efforts to provide an answer and supposedly preventive measures to minimize the risk of this treacherous act of terrorism from threatening our very existence, are most likely the ones responsible in the first place.

    Occam’s Razor. All things equal, the simplest answer is most likely the correct one. And might as well throw an old cliche in…The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Well he does and has actually been very busy making sure people don’t feel safe without their “legislation” and if they have to blow some stuff up to prove that, well so be it. Mobs and gangs have been using this very tactic a long time but I’m a more brute fashion.

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  23. A very plausible explanation with the rest of the world still in complete denial! Rest assured this has the fingerprints of Iran all over it! And with the help of N. Korea and the “believers” found in the Pakistani military! Israel! Stand on guard!

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  25. The fact that you say 911 “caught us with our pants down” discredits anything you say afterward.
    911 was planned by our government in order to implement the Patriot act. The begining of a long line of “false flags” brought to you in living color by the media that reports ONLY what they want us to fear!
    THIS IS another false flag event intended to make you “fear” the unknown. You sir are merely a perpetuator of such fear!
    Do you really think a terrorist group can’t get their hands on a big plane without our knowledge and plan out what you have described… Think about it people, this guy is full of nothing but support of fear mongering!

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  26. You can speculate and create fear and concern in people all day. Until there are clear facts the rest if this is supposition and creative minds only.

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  27. What you wrote sounds very possible… I really do not know why this is not discussed in the media….

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  28. With previous ‘facts’ now being rescinded or modified and the ‘fact’ that previous airline crashes have taken up to 3 weeks to be found, I don’t think anyone regardless of their experience should be speculating unless they themselves are looking at the actual raw data that’s been collected. I totally agree with S.M. Borden that we are providing a virtual blueprint for terrorists by disseminating specific techniques, possible targets, strategies and destinations.

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    • it’s really very silly to think that terrorist organizations don’t sit around 24/7 thinking of plots involving harming people and ways to hijack airplanes. if you think this is the first time a terrorist group plotted to steal a plane and kill everyone on board you may have forgotten about the many many times this has already been done. i’m fairly certain (completely certain) terrorists have lists longer than your arm of possible targets, plans, and are actively pursuing them. it’s what they do for a living.

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      • I understand what you’re saying and you’re right. I am just worried that we’re helping the less sophisticated terrorist (think Boston Marathon). And believe me I haven’t forgotten what they’ve already done via airplanes. I live in NJ and lost friends on 9/11.

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        • Just to clarify I don’t think those images were preparing us for 9/11 or anything like the writer of that article I just find them to be an interesting and haunting coincidence.

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  29. Indonesia and Australia have a joint training area in NT somewhere…has an airfield so may be another possibility as it is Indonesian land within Australia…makes me very worried as well what they have planned for this plane and major caution is warranted

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  30. For just a commoner who has worked in the Airline Industry for many years, sadly your proposition seems a Fair and Reasonable assessment, and strangely one that I had thought about myself. I hope our Military world wide are aware that this might occur and be on Red Alert constantly. Let’s hope we are both wrong. thankyou for your great insight.

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  32. Has anybody made the connection yet with the upcoming nuclear summit (25th march The Hague, the Netherlands) all mayor global leaders will attend this. My feeling is that if this article is what happened, then they might use this plane to make a statement.

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  33. it’s really frustrating to me that they are on day 12 now and keep spewing junk about a left turn. in the grand scheme of things the left turn means nothing and was likely a bluff. everything done seemed to have been executed with purpose to throw everyone off. MLB I wish you were on some of the CNN discussion panels. I have a very very bad feeling about what’s going to happen within the next few weeks. does anyone else find it baffling that our current terror level is only yellow right now? does this mean the government may suspect this will be used for terror elsewhere overseas? these questions plague me today.

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  34. This scenario seems the most plausible, but the element of surprise is being lost, which leads to to think that their effort may have failed. The sole or group of hijackers could have accidentally crashed before arriving at their destination or could have damaged the landing gear on a poor surface, delaying their plan to refuel and load up with a bio weapon or explosives or radioactive material (or all three!). Possible targets under this scenario? Kremlin? Sydney Opera House? U.S. Aircraft carrier?

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  35. As a 35 year flight attendant, with a strong union safety rep background, NTSB accident investigation training, and as a hijacking survivor, I whole heartedly agree that an abundance of caution is required. BUT, I am equally concerned that a virtual blueprint for terrorists, increasingly refined and specific is being disseminated to an incredibly huge and often volatile readership under the guise of truth telling. We need not include specific techniques, possible targets, strategies and destinations any more than codes, or industry safety protocols to establish credibility. That IS frightening.

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  36. I wonder if anyone has had a look at Berbera in Somalia. This we were told was a space shuttle forced landing strip when we were flying around there in the old days and is about 4,3 km long and nobody really hangs around there. In the old days there was quite a lot of aid flying going on but what goes on there now i don’t know. It might be possible to cover a 777 on the ground and keep it’s presence secret. It would have taken less than 7 hours to reach there which makes this destination possibly too close to the departure point but you never know……..

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    • Its true that Somalia is a terror area,but its also true that there is a lot of surveillance both arial and land by the AMISOM,I highly doubt that a vessel that huge can land without anyone noticing,but hey,anything seems possible so the world should search and search

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    • He dents his credibility when he says “You will find it along that route–looking elsewhere is pointless.”

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  38. either deliberate or accidental. either crashed or landed. crash doesn’t seem likely ~ some debris would have turned up (most definitely if crashed on land and most likely some flotsam in case of crash on water. crashed deliberately would also likely have resulted in some group claiming they did it..so i think this plane landed..so perhaps this is a deliberate act of hijacking….questions..how come no mobile phone usage by any pax? maybe mobiles seized (impractical) or pax dead – likely dead. How killed~ deliberate asphyxiation seems most likely. more questions..why this deed? money?(was there gold, bearer bonds, lots of cash being stolen? reports say no hazardous material was on board – OK fair enough, but was there something of immense value? Question – was there someone worth kidnapping on board? someone with military secrets, or embarrassing revelations that needed to be stopped, or knowledge of some sort that is convertible into money or power or whatever (he/she/they being kidnapped would have got an oxygen mask for sure if this is a kidnap some kill rest scenario.? question – for use as leverage to raise demands – clearly not, since no demands raised so many days later. question – to use as a flying bomb? maybe..jury is out on this one. Another question…where is the plane if it hasn’t crashed? the turn could be a decoy – maybe turn left and left again once out over the ocean and get on to a regular flight path (pretending to be a routine flight, or even trailing a bonafide aircraft, sharing its radar blip) to ….where? a country/region/airport that was part of the plot? or a previously disused and purposefully restored airfield dating back to the Korean War, Vietnam, or even WW II?? this aircraft could be in N. Korea (had enough fuel and left, left, left charts a flight path to N Korea over water all the way – presumably less radar coverage?). equally to Timor Leste, or an island in the Philippines archipelago… wherever it is, its definitely hidden from satellite imagery and random observation…

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  39. Chill out dude.
    You don’t think the world’s radar stoolies wouldn’t love to be the first guy to spot the bogey? It took the world less than an hour to learn what was happening on Sept 11 (re: UA93)

    Granted, there were some major f–k ups that night. Once MH370 didn’t check in with VVTS ATC, one of the first things ATC would do would call the airline and ask them to send an ACARS message (“call Ho Chi Minh on xxxx freq”). Did that happen?? If not why not? (would’ve been the first clue that ACARS was “turned off”) Plus, once ATC and the airline realized they’ve got a missing airplane (should only take 5-10 minutes after they didn’t check in with VVTS) you’d think everybody would start paying attention to their radar, but noooo, a primary target flies right over Malaysia and nobody notices in real time. Unbelievable.

    But nobody’s going to sneak that thing past an ADIZ now, cause EVERYBODY’S looking for it.

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