Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 missing

[American Patriot]

Dunno if anyone is following this airplane thing, but it's sounding like the plane suffered a "catastrophic failure".

Two men are suspects, two stolen passports involved, they are working to determine seating arrangements right now (the thought is if they were over the wing, then terrorism is involved).

290+ passengers and crew missing. A 777 is gone, vanished completely.

Search is ranging from Malaysia to China, however the plane vanished about 1 hour after take off.

No parts, pieces, bodies or anything have been found yet.

[American Patriot]

I figure the Chinese shot this thing down and aren't admitting it.


'We have to find the aircraft': Days later, no sign of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

By Saeed Ahmed, CNN
updated 9:39 AM EDT, Mon March 10, 2014


Authorities 'puzzled' by missing flight


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Search area expanded
• NEW: Men who traveled on stolen passports don't appear to be Asian, official says
• Interpol tweeted Sunday it was examining additional "suspect #passports"
• The focus has shifted to the Andaman Sea

(CNN) -- With lead after lead failing to pan out, search and rescue officials said Monday they will expand the search area for the Malaysia Airlines aircraft that vanished three days ago.
The newly expanded search area encompasses a larger portion of the Gulf of Thailand between Malaysia and Vietnam, said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department.
Nearly three dozen aircraft and 40 ships from 10 countries have so far failed to find any sign of the aircraft.
An oil slick that searchers had thought might be from the plane turned out to be fuel oil typically used in cargo ships, according to Rahman.
ONLY ON CNN: Thai PM comments
Questions swirl after airliner vanishes
Other leads -- reports that a plane door and its tail had been spotted -- turned out to be untrue, he said at an earlier briefing.
"Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we have not found anything that appear to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft," Rahman said at the earlier briefing.
Authorities are sending ships to investigate a report of debris found south of Hong Kong, but it will likely be Tuesday before authorities know if there is anything to those reports, Rahman said.
No emergency signal has been detected by any search vessel or aircraft. And family members of passengers are being told to prepare for the worst.
So the mysteries surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 -- and the true identities of some of its passengers -- remain unsolved.
"For the aircraft to go missing just like that ... as far as we are concerned, we are equally puzzled as well," Rahman said.
"We have to find the aircraft."
So far, nothing
Click to expand



Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday (1 p.m. Friday ET). The Boeing 777-200ER, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, went missing while flying to Beijing.
Since then, teams of searchers from Vietnam, China, Singapore, Indonesia, the United States, Thailand, Australia, the Philippines and New Zealand have been working alongside Malaysians to scour the Gulf of Thailand, part of the South China Sea that lies between several Southeast Asian countries.
The focus has now shifted to the Andaman Sea, near Thailand's border, after radar data indicated the plane may have turned around to head back to Kuala Lumpur.
But the pilot apparently gave no signal to authorities that he was turning around.
From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., planes flew over the vast waters. Ships searched through the night.
The stolen passports
Are flight recorders 'antiquated?'
Plane loses contact with airline
It is perplexing enough that a jetliner seemed to have vanished without a trace. Adding to the mystery is the news that at least two people on board were traveling on passports stolen from an Austrian and an Italian.
The two passengers who used the passports in question appear to have bought their tickets together.
Rahman said Monday that authorities have reviewed security footage from the airport and said the men who traveled on the stolen passports "are not Asian-looking men."
Interpol tweeted Sunday it was examining additional "suspect #passports."
"Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in INTERPOL's databases," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble in a statement.
The passports were reportedly stolen in Thailand, and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told CNN's "Amanpour" on Monday that police are investigating.
"Initially we don't know about their nationality yet," she said. "But we gave orders for the police to investigate the passport users. Because this is very important to Thailand, to give full cooperation to Interpol in the investigation about the passport users. We are now following this.
Terrorism concern
The passport mystery raised concerns about the possibility of terrorism, but officials cautioned that it was still too early to arrive at any conclusions.
One possible explanation for the use of the stolen passports is illegal immigration.
There are previous cases of illegal immigrants using fake passports to try to enter Western countries. And Southeast Asia is known to be a booming market for stolen passports.
Five passengers ended up not boarding the aircraft. Their bags were removed and were not on board the jet when it disappeared, Rahman said at Monday's briefing.
Could the plane have been hijacked? "We are looking at every angle, every aspect," Rahman said.
"We are looking at every inch of the sea."
Agonizing wait
For the relatives of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members, the wait has been agonizing.
Among the passengers, 154 people were from China or Taiwan. The plane was also carrying 38 Malaysians, five Indians and three Americans citizens. Five of the passengers were younger than 5 years old.
In Beijing, family members gathered in a conference room at a hotel complex.
More than 100 people signed a hand-written petition that demanded "truth" from the airline. They also urged the Chinese government to help them deal with Malaysian authorities.
Malaysia Airlines, which was helping family members apply for expedited passports, said it will fly out five relatives of each passenger to Kuala Lumpur.
A fuller picture of what happened may not become available until searchers find the plane and its flight data recorder.
And so far, that hasn't happened.
READ: Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: What we know and don't know
READ: Agonized families await answers over missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
READ: How does a jet disappear?

[vector7]

ST Foreign Desk‏@STForeignDesk4m
JUST IN: Two suspects holding stolen passports are not Asian-looking men #MalaysiaAirlines #MH370


euronews‏@euronews5m
Taiwan warned of possible terrorist attack in Beijing days before Malaysia flight disappeared http://eurone.ws/1dHOJwa
Gregor Peter‏@L0gg0l14m

TWO MEN TRAVELLING ABOARD FLIGHT #MH370 WITH STOLEN PASSPORTS BOUGHT THEIR TICKETS THROUGH IRANIAN MIDDLEMAN, FT SAYS (via @tmitchpk

[Malsua]

Doesn't the 777 have a constant transponder? Isn't it relaying it's flight information 100% of the time? Didn't it just stop?

I'm baffled as to how they can't figure this out.

[American Patriot]

I'm not sure about most of that Mal... the news was saying that there should have been a transponder signal, don't have one. If it crashed there should be an emergency signal which ought to be broadcasting for as much as 30 days.

So far... nothing.

[American Patriot]

Just in

http://www.wltx.com/story/news/natio...g-jet/6234979/

Posted 3 minutes ago to Google News

Searchers find debris that could be from missing jet

Calum MacLeod, Thomas Maresca and John Bacon, USA TODAY 5:20 p.m. EDT March 9, 2014

(Photo: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Story Highlights

• Military ships and aircraft from a half dozen nations continued to pour into area
• The airline has been telling relatives "to expect the worst"

SHARECONNECT 4 TWEETCOMMENTEMAILMORE

A low-flying plane on Sunday spotted an object in waters off Vietnam that could be a piece of the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared early Saturday, authorities said.
Vietnamese officials said they believe the object is one of the plane's doors, according to local media reports.
Vietnam civil administration chief Pham Viet Dung said search teams from several countries were sending boats to the area about 56 miles south of Tho Chu island, in an area where an oil slick was spotted Saturday. Authorities said earlier that they had spotted an object in the area that turned out not to be from the plane.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished early Saturday with 239 people aboard, two hours into a scheduled six-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur. A Malaysian official said Sunday the plane may have tried to return before disappearing.
Air force chief Rodzali Daud said military radar indicated the flight "may have made a turn back," but he did not say how far it got. "We are trying to make sense of this," Daud said.
Military ships and aircraft from a half-dozen nations continued searching for the Boeing 777 on Sunday. The U.S. Navy has provided the USS Pinckney, a guided-missile destroyer that carries two MH-60R helicopters, and a P-3C Orion with long-range search, radar and communications capabilities.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by this tragic event," the Navy said in a statement.
Reuters, citing what it called a senior source involved in the investigation, said the probe is focusing on the possibility that the plane disintegrated in the air.
"The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet," said the source, who is involved in the investigations in Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines has been telling relatives "to expect the worst," spokesman Ignatius Ong said.
An international team was investigating the crash. American experts include accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and technical experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, the NTSB said in a statement.
Authorities were investigating the possibility of terrorism after discovering that two passengers apparently had been flying with stolen passports. Interpol, the France-based international policing agency, confirmed Sunday that the Italian and Austrian passports had been entered into its database after they were reported stolen in 2012 and 2013.
No country had checked the passports with Interpol since the thefts, both of which took place in Thailand, the agency said, adding that it was reviewing the passports of everyone listed on the flight manifest.
"Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol's databases," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.
The Italian Foreign Ministry said Luigi Maraldi, an Italian national, reported his passport stolen last August. Austrian officials said Christian Kozel's passport was stolen in 2012. Both names were ticketed to continue from Beijing to destinations in Europe and thus did not need visas for China.
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said authorities are looking at four possible cases of suspect identities and had contacted the FBI and other intelligence agencies. "We do not want to target only the four," Hussein said. "We are investigating the whole passenger manifest. We are looking at all possibilities."
When the plane is found, the airline will set up a command center either in Malaysia's Kota Bharu or in Vietnam, depending on its location. A response control center will be activated as close as possible to the incident area, Ong said.
The airline plans to send two family members for each missing passenger to the command center. The airline is working with Chinese authorities to get passports for relatives who lack them, and with the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing to get entry visas for Malaysia.
The first flight will be Monday for relatives who want to travel to Kuala Lumpur, and arrangements will continue for those who decide to wait in Beijing, Ong said.
The 11-year-old jet was last inspected 10 days ago and found in "proper condition," airline officials said. The lack of a distress signal from the pilots "suggests something very sudden and very violent happened," said William Waldock, who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.
Weather was not believed to be a factor. Light rain and snow was falling over South and Central China, but it was well below the aircraft's last known altitude of 35,000 feet.
However the flight disappeared, the mother of Philip Wood, one of three Americans on board, was resigned that he was gone.
"You want to know how it feels to lose a son at the age of 50? It's devastating,'' Sandra Wood said. She saw her son, an IBM executive who worked in Malaysia, a week ago.
Freescale Semiconductor, an Austin-based tech company, said 20 employees from China and Malaysia were aboard. "Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this tragic event," said CEO Gregg Lowe.
Subang Air Traffic Control lost contact with the flight at 2:40 a.m. local time (1:40 p.m. Friday ET). It was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. local time. The last radar signal was received as the aircraft approached Vietnam airspace near the Ca Mau province.
The twin-engine jet was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members. They're from 14 countries, including 153 from China, 38 from Malaysia, seven from Indonesia, six from Australia, five from India, three from France, two each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada and sole travelers from Russia, Italy, Taiwan, Austria and the Netherlands. Besides Wood, the other Americans on the manifest are young children — Nicole Meng, 4, and Yan Zhang, 2.
Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Juahari Yahya said the company is working with emergency responders. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected passengers and crew and their family members," Yahya said.
The flight had seasoned pilots, according to the airline. Capt. Zaharie Ahman Shah, 53, of Malaysia has 18,365 flight hours and has been with the airline since 1981. First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid, 27, also of Malaysia, has 2,763 flight hours.
Boeing 777s have a strong safety record. Since their 1995 debut, they've been in only two major accidents.
The worst was last July, when an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200 with 291 passengers and 16 crew crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport. Three passengers were killed, one by a fire rescue truck. There were serious injuries to 48 passengers. Pilot error is being investigated.
The search for the Malaysia Air flight comes amid one of the safer stretches of commercial aviation. In the USA, 2012 was the industry's safest year since the dawn of the jet age. The last major airline disaster was in 2009, when an Air France Airbus 330 crashed during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew.
Malaysia Air's last air fatalities were in 1995, when a flight crashed near Tawau, Malaysia, killing 34.
MacLeod reported from Beijing, Maresca from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard in London, Melanie Eversley in New York, Donna Leinwand Leger in Washington, Allison Gray, Doyle Rice and Gary Strauss in McLean, Va., Michael Winter in Oakland; the Associated Press.

[American Patriot]

Interpol: Missing Malaysian Jet Unlikely Terrorist Event




A Malaysian police official displays a photograph of 19-year-old Iranian Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, one of the two men who boarded missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight using stolen European passports to the media at a press conference near Kuala Lump







TEXT SIZE
William Ide
March 11, 2014

BEIJING — The head of Interpol says the disappearance of a Malaysian passenger jet does not appear to be related to terrorism.

Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble says new information about two Iranian men who used stolen passports to board the plane makes terrorism a less likely explanation for the jet's disappearance.

The international police agency released photos showing the two boarding the plane at the same time. They are identified as 19-year-old Pouri Nourmohammadi and 29-year-old Delavar Seyedmohammaderza.

Malaysian Police Inspector General Khalid Tan Sri says the 19-year-old was likely trying to migrate to Germany.

"We have been checking his background. We have also checked him with other police organizations on his profile, and we believe that he is not likely to be a member of any terrorist group," the inspector told reporters. "And we believe that he is trying to migrate to Germany."

Khalid said Nourmohammadi's mother knew he was traveling on a stolen passport.

The other man's identity is still under investigation. But the development reduces the likelihood they were working together as part of a terror plot.

Meanwhile, an extensive review of all of those on board continues.

Click to enlarge


Khalid says authorities are looking into four possible scenarios in connection with the plane's disappearance: hijacking, sabotage, personal disputes and the psychological condition of those on board.

"There may be somebody on the flight who has bought huge sums of insurance. Who wants the family to gain from it. Or somebody who owes so much money and you know," he said, adding that they are looking at all possibilities.

As relatives and friends of passengers wait for word on the fate of the flight in the Malaysian capital and in Beijing, many were holding on to hope. The wife of Malaysia's prime minister visited with families in the Malaysian capital.

Preparing for worst

In Beijing, families were anxious for any sign of progress, says one woman surnamed Wang, a daughter of one of the missing passengers.

Wang says that for family members who lost contact with their relatives the most pressing issue is to find out where they are and what happened. She says that if the search and rescue is not yielding any results, they hope that authorities increase their efforts into the investigation of the possibility the plane was hijacked.

As many hoped for the best they were also prepared for the worst.

Selamat, the father of Flight MH370 passenger Mohd Khairul Amri, said his family hope to see whether his son is alive and in good condition, or whatever the outcome, they will accept.

Authorities from China have handed over photos of all 153 Chinese nationals on board the flight. China is stepping up its efforts to help aid in the search for the missing plane as search efforts pushed into its fourth day.

Search efforts

Beijing has redeployed satellites to help in the search for the Boeing 777 jet that vanished from radar screens early Saturday morning.

Nine countries have joined the search effort, which once again was expanded on land and sea Tuesday.

Search efforts are focusing on waters off the east and west of the Malaysian peninsula. U.S. naval vessels have joined the search in the Gulf of Thailand and a P-3C Orion anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft is aiding the search over waters off the west of Malaysia in the northern Straits of Malacca and the Andaman Sea.

[American Patriot]

Updated: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 10:55:01 GMT | By The Malaysian Insider : Malaysia
Missing plane unlikely to be terrorist incident, says Interpol chief

The head of international police agency Interpol today said he did not believe the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane on Saturday was a terrorist incident. "The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble. He also said two Iranian passport...







The head of international police agency Interpol today said he did not believe the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane on Saturday was a terrorist incident.

"The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble.


He also said two Iranian passport holders had swapped their passports in Kuala Lumpur and used stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board the now missing Malaysian airliner.


Two Iranian passport holders aged 18 and 29, who started their trip in Doha, had swapped their passports in Kuala Lumpur and used stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board the airliner, he told reporters at Interpol's headquarters in Lyon.


"We know that once these individuals arrived in Kuala Lumpur on the 28th of February they boarded flight 370 using different identities, a stolen Austrian and a stolen Italian passport," he said.


Neither of the Iranian passports were reported stolen or lost.


Interpol is working with member countries to follow all leads including "terrorism, organised crime, illegal movement of people, whether in the form of human trafficking or smuggling," Noble said.


Making public the names of the two individuals listed on the Iranian passports – Pouri Nourmohammadi and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza – might compel family and friends to offer tips that could allow authorities to exclude terrorism theories, Noble said.


"By doing this, eventually, with more and more evidence, we'll able to exclude they were involved in conduct that might have involved the plane to disappear and focus on eliminating the human trafficking ring that allowed them to travel." – Reuters, March 11, 2014.

[American Patriot]

The two guys were iranians. Stolen passports. "no ties to terrorism"

>??????????????????


Bullshit. My Bullshit Meter is pegged.

[American Patriot]

Ok... I just got information that the plane was tracked over the Strait of Malacca.


Holy shit that's a LONG, LONG way from where it was headed, west of Malaysia.

Some things come to mind.

1) The crew took that plane somewhere for some nefarious purpose.
2) Something happened to the electronics and they were off course and crashed in the jungles over there (and believe, there are jungles, been there, seen that place)
3) The crew or some portion of the crew went "pirate" and kidnapped the entire plane to turn them over to slavers or to hold them for ransom.
4) The plane was actually shot down over the South China Sea by the Chinese who were antsy to begin with and aren't admitting it.

The course the plane would have taken it would have placed it right out over the South China Sea, and over Hanoi, Cambodia (or close to them) and Vietnam.

The Malacca Strait is WEST of Kuala Lumpur and over a completely different ocean....

[American Patriot]

Published: Tuesday March 11, 2014 MYT 9:13:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday March 11, 2014 MYT 9:34:51 PM
Missing MH307: Vietnam expands search to mountainous and forest areas

This picture taken aboard a Vietnamese Air Force Russian-made MI-171 helicopter shows a crew member checking a map during a search flight some 200km over the southern Vietnamese waters off Vietnam's island Phu Quoc on March 11, 2014. - AFP

HO CHI MINH CITY: Massive search for the missing Malaysian plane will be expanded to scour mountainous and forest areas, said Lieut Gen Vo Van Tuan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army.



"We have informed units and localities on land, including Military Zones 5, 7 and 9, and localities in the western, southeastern and central regions, to deploy forces to find the plane," Tuan said on Tuesday.


Units managing border areas were requested to increase coordination with Lao and Cambodian forces, he said.


Earlier, two hotlines were set up at the command office in Phu Quoc Island, southern Kien Giang province to provide information relating to the search.


Transport Deputy Minister Pham Quy Tieu said at a press conference in Phu Quoc on Tuesday that Vietnamese forces would continue the operation on a wider area.


The search will be expanded to the east of the initially suspected area, 277km from Tho Chu Island in Kien Giang province, and the south and west of Con Dao Island, 185km off the coast of the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.


The Phu Quoc International Airport would also be used as a base for rescue efforts.


The naval ship HQ888 had examined waters off southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province without finding any fragments spotted by a Hong Kong commercial aircraft on Monday, according to the National Committee for Search and Rescue.


At 11am on Tuesday, the VNRedsat-1 satellite passed over Tho Chu Island and captured images there for about an hour.


Four aircraft took off to search for the Malaysian plane.


Vietnam's air force will continue to conduct a number of flights to suspected sites during the day, said Colonel Tran Van Lam, deputy head of Air Division 370.


China has deployed 10 satellites aimed to provide reliable positioning signals for the search operation.


It also sent two naval vessels, Jinggangshan and Mianyang, to the target sea area and plans to deploy two more.


According to the US Navy, it has dispatched one more Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, USS Kidd, to the waters around the Malaysian jetliner's last known location, in addition to the USS Pinckney to mount search efforts.


On Monday, Boeing said that it would work as a technical consultant for the US National Transportation Safety Board's ongoing search mission in South-East Asia. - Vietnam News/ANN

[American Patriot]

False Leads Plague Search for Plane

Hunt Is Widened for Lost Malaysian Flight as Frustrations Mount; Debris Proves Unrelated to Jet

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By Gaurav Raghuvanshi,
Jason Ng and
Jon Ostrower
connect

March 10, 2014 11:09 p.m. ET
View Slideshow


A massive air and sea search entered its third day failed to find any trace of the plane or 239 people on board. Military personnel looked out of a helicopter during a search and rescue mission off Vietnam's Tho Chu island on Monday. Reuters




Three days of fruitless air and sea search for a vanished Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU 0.00% flight left investigators with no concrete evidence of what happened to the plane or the people aboard.
The search area was widened as frustrations mounted across the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam, where the search was concentrated, and in hotels where the families of the missing passengers congregated in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
"We are bewildered" with the disappearance, said Hishamuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transport minister.


Air-safety experts were equally stunned by the absence of floating wreckage. "The lack of debris is more perplexing than anything else," said Bill Waldock, a safety expert and crash investigator who teaches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In almost any accident scenario, he notes, "the floating pieces should be there, and they're not."
Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, vanished early Saturday after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. The plane disappeared from radar over Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace less than an hour after takeoff. No distress signals were recorded.
Planes and ships had chased down floating debris south of Vietnam's southern Tho Chu Island, but on Monday it turned out that the items weren't part of the plane. Malaysian officials said a pair of objects sighted by a Vietnamese seaplane before darkness fell Sunday weren't a composite inner door and a tail section of the Boeing BA -0.32% 777-200 as had been suspected.



A search operation spotted suspected fragments of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, but they haven't been recovered. The search continues, Deborah Kan reports, but there's still no sign of the aircraft.




Vietnam searchers who had been using low-flying aircraft on Sunday released a photo of an object suspected to be an inner jet door, but vessels haven't been able to locate it. On Monday, Malaysia asked Vietnam to investigate an object looking like a life raft. A few hours later, Vietnamese ships secured the object and said it was a moss-covered cap of a cable reel and didn't belong to the plane.
Vietnam also inspected an area 35 miles southeast of the city of Vung Tau, after a passing pilot reported spotting a large piece of floating debris, but "we haven't found anything abnormal there'' said Lai Xuan Thanh, chief of the authority. Malaysia reported that samples taken from an oil slick found in Malaysian waters proved not to be aviation fuel, but fuel used in ships.






Until the location of some wreckage is established, it's unclear which country has jurisdiction over the investigation, which could muddy things further. "At this point, literally no one is in charge," said Jim Hall, a former chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
The failure of one sighting after another has forced investigators to widen their search to a radius of 100 nautical miles, up from 50 nautical miles from the last known position of the plane. Malaysian air-force officials said they would continue their search at night for the first time using aircraft with special capabilities. They didn't give details.
Authorities also are searching in the waters on the other side of the Malaysian peninsula, to the west, because officials said Malaysian military radar indicated the plane may have tried to turn around in that direction.
Investigators will be poring over civilian and military radar data to try to determine the path and fate of the plane, such as whether parts broke off at high altitude. Radar analysis could give investigators clues about where debris may have fallen. Analysis of radar data has played a major role in unraveling earlier air crashes; radars can record large pieces separating and show their trajectories.
But some safety analysts said the Malaysian 777's high speed and altitude before its troubles may make radar tracks less reliable than usual. Pieces could be spread over a number of so-called debris fields, potentially stretching hundreds of miles.



As the mystery behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 continues, what should the airline industry take away from this tragedy? Captain John Fox, Security Operating Systems CEO, discussed. Photo: Getty Images.




Flight 370 was roughly 100 nautical miles from the coast of Malaysia when it disappeared, a distance that could have made it difficult for radar to pick up the plane once its transponder suddenly stopped sending data about its altitude and speed.
"The farther the distance from the radar site, the less likely you'll be able to pick up that target," said Marty Lauth, a former Federal Aviation Administration controller.



WORLD Counseling Families of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 At the Metropark Lido Hotel in Beijing, relatives of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passengers have convened for answers. A non-profit organization Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi Foundation arrived at the hotel Sunday to counsel families through their tension and the grief.




Aviation-safety experts said the area between Malaysia and Vietnam is relatively shallow, so it should be easier to recover debris than in cases over deep ocean.
Martin Eran-Tasker, a security expert with the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said rescuers typically expect to find personal effects, shoes, seat cushions and other aircraft parts floating together, not isolated bits of random debris.
The Search for Flight 370

• Evidence in Water Sometimes Is Elusive
• Pilot Called a Passionate Aviator
• Passengers' Relatives Vent Frustration at Chinese Officials
• Pilot Zaharie Called a Passionate Aviator
• Distraught Families Await Word in Hotels
• Stolen Passports Raise Security Concerns
• Malaysia Airlines Shares Decline as Much as 20%
• Disappearance Fuels 'Live Black Box' Debate
• Five Things to Know About Missing Malaysian Jet
• U.S. Tech Firm had 20 Employees on Plane
• American on Flight 370 Was Excited for 'New Beginning'
• A Reunion With Family Turns Tragic
• Recent Air Crashes

The investigation on land found that five passengers who had checked in didn't board, said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director-general of Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation. Those passengers' checked bags were removed before the plane departed in accordance with rules laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the global aviation-safety regulator. Malaysia hasn't disclosed details about the five people. They checked in individually, a Malaysia government official said, adding that they aren't suspected of any crime.
Mr. Hishamuddin, the acting transport minister, said that a statement by a previously unknown group describing the disappearance as the result of a political act didn't appear to be credible. The statement referenced last week's attack by ethnic Uighur separatists in China but stopped short of an explicit claim of responsibility.

Men offer prayers during a candlelight vigil in Kuala Lumpur on Monday for the passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Associated Press




Malaysia deported 11 Uighurs to China in 2011 who Mr. Hishamuddin, then home minister, said were involved in human trafficking. In December 2012, six Uighurs seeking asylum in Malaysia were repatriated to China. The transfers were criticized by international human-rights groups.
Mr. Hishamuddin said Malaysian investigators weren't ruling out any possibility, but Uighur attacks in China have been relatively unsophisticated in relation to what would be needed to take down an airliner.



How did at least two passengers board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 using passports previously reported stolen? Michael Greenberger, director for the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, looks into how effective biometric passports could reduce the possibility of such theft.




The families of the MH370 passengers in Kuala Lumpur huddled in conference rooms at a hotel. Selamat Omar, a 60-year-old Malaysian whose son was on the missing aircraft, prepared himself for bad news. "I am sad, but as a Muslim I accept what has happened," he said as he waited for news of his 29-year-old son, Mohamad Khirul Amri, a passenger employed by a private jet company as an engineer. He was traveling to Beijing to work on an aircraft in need of repair.
—Wilawan Watcharasakwet,
Jake Maxwell Watts, Vu Trong Khanh and Andy Pasztor contributed to this article.

[American Patriot]

Ok, news out says Malaysian military radar indicates the plane made a very wide turn and headed out across the Malacca strait just like I reported early this morning.

[American Patriot]

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Malaysia Airlines MH370 disappears from air traffic map

32 minutes ago


The moment the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from air traffic maps has been captured on a flight tracking website.


Flightradar24.com shows and records satellite and transponder information to chart the flight paths of commercial airliners.


BBC Transport correspondent Richard Westcott explains that despite the tracking information. the exact location of where the plane came down is still not known.


Video courtesy Flightradar24.com
Read more

Malaysia Airlines MH370: Plane 'changed course'

[American Patriot]

The Last Day of Malaysia Airline Passengers With Stolen Passports

March 11, 2014
By RACHEL KATZ and COLLEEN CURRY Colleen Curry More from Colleen »

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Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza are the two Iranians who used stolen passports on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, according to officials.
Courtesy Mohammad Mallaeibasir

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A man claiming to be the friend of two Iranians who used fake passports to board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight told ABC News that the men stayed at his home the night before the flight vanished.
Mohammad Mallaeibasir, 18, told ABC News that he is a student living in Malaysia who went to high school with one of the men who is believed to have used a fake passport to board the missing flight. He said the other man was a friend of the friend's, and the pair stayed at Mallaeibasir's the night before the flight took off.
Mallaeibasir identified the men as Pouria Nour Mohammadi, 19, and Reza Devalar, 29, are both from Iran. He said he went to high school with Pouria, but had not seen him for a couple of years.
They stayed with Mallaeibeasir and his roommate Friday night, and then Mallaeibasir drove them to the airport, where they used stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Saturday morning, he said.
The plane lost contact with air control and radar approximately an hour into its flight and disappeared without a trace. A massive search operation is under way for any sign of the plane in the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Mallaeibasir said he did not know the men were using fake passports until the news stories broke and Pouria's mother called him and told him about it. Mallaeibasir says he then called Malaysia Airlines and told them all of the information he knew.
Today Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar identified one of the two men with stolen passports as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 19, and said he was likely trying to enter Germany to seek asylum. His mother contacted authorities after he didn't arrive in Frankfurt.
Interpol later identified the other man as Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza, 29.
Law enforcement sources told ABC news today that the men's tickets were purchased by an Iranian man known as "Mr. Ali."
Mallaeibasir said that when Pouria and Reza were staying at his house, he heard them briefly talking to an "Ali" on the phone.
"The last night when they were in my home they were talking on the phone for a long time. They were talking in Persian, in their room, and I heard them say 'OK Ali' like that in Persian. I didn't understand because it was like, five seconds. I went into the room to take water from my fridge and I came out and they said, 'Be quiet, we're talking.'"
Besides the hushed phone conversations, Mallaeibasir said that the pair just hung out with him and his housemate and watched movies. Then Mallaeibasir drove them to the airport.
"They stayed here only the last night before the flight. They were supposed to stay in Malaysia for three days but I think they stayed for one week," Mallaebasir said. "They were with me because I had a car and I told them I will take you to the airport. They came to my house."
Mallaeibasir and Pouria went to high school together in Tehran two years ago, before Mallaebasir moved to Malaysia to study business information technology. He said he did not know Reza until the two arrived at his home for a quick night's stay.
Mallaeibasir said he did not ask Pouria or Reza why they were in Malaysia. Pouria said he was heading to Germany or Copenhagen after Malaysia in order to visit his mother because they were having family problems, Mallaeibasir said.
The two men traveled lightly, Mallaebasier said. Pouria had a mountain climbing-type backpack and a laptop, while Reza carried a suitcase and a laptop, he said.
After he dropped them at the airport, Mallaebasier called the men on their cell phones. Pouria answered but hung up quickly, and Mallaebasier ended up talking to Reza for about three minutes, he said.

[American Patriot]

Radar Data May Be From Missing Malaysian Flight

By THOMAS FULLERMARCH 12, 2014

Photo

The head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, Azharuddin Abdul Rahmanthe, right, Malaysia’s acting Transport Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, second right, and other officials during a news conference on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur. Credit Damir Sagolj/Reuters

SEPANG, Malaysia — The authorities in Malaysia acknowledged Wednesday that they detected radar signals showing what could be the country’s missing airliner veering sharply off course and hundreds of miles away from its last known position but failed to disclose the data for four days even as they struggled to interpret it.
Officials said they had given the radar data to American investigators who would assist in helping determine whether the radar blips were likely to have come from the Boeing 777.


“Today we are still not sure that it is the same aircraft,” Hishammuddin Hussein, the country’s defense minister, told reporters. “That is why we are searching in two areas.”

Malaysian officials had previously said they had evidence that the plane had possibly attempted to “turn back,” but they had not detailed the extent of military radar records until Wednesday. A Malaysian newspaper article on Tuesday had reported the existence of military radar data, but the air force had described that as “misreporting.”

By SERGIO PEÇANHA, TIM WALLACE, DEREK WATKINS and KAREN YOURISH
Sources: Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (search areas); flightradar24.com (flight path); Malaysia Airlines; GEBCO (water depth)

On Wednesday, the head of the air force, Gen. Rodzali Daud, said the radar blips, of which there were several, had disappeared from screens at 2:15 a.m., about 90 minutes after Flight 370 took off.


The last radar return was 200 miles northwest of the Malaysian island of Penang, General Rodzali said, putting it into the eastern approaches of the Indian Ocean.
He said the data suggested the aircraft was flying at “flight level 295,” which in aeronautical jargon translates as 29,500 feet.


The search continued on the eastern side of the Malaysian Peninsula on Wednesday, underlining the uncertainty over the disappearance. Two United States destroyers, the Kidd and the Pinckney, continued their patrols with ships from China, Malaysia and Vietnam, among other countries. With so many ships and aircraft on patrol in that confined area, United States helicopters were going over areas they had already searched.


“The Gulf of Thailand is pretty much saturated at this point,” said Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet. “We’re now going over the same areas.”


As criticism has mounted of the Malaysian authorities’ inability to find any trace of the jet, the officials have repeatedly insisted that they were doing their best to solve the mystery of the flight, with scarce data and almost no precedent. Yet the government and the airline have also released imprecise, incomplete and sometimes inaccurate information, with civilian officials sometimes contradicting military leaders.


On Tuesday, three days after the plane disappeared while on an overnight flight to Beijing, General Rodzali, was quoted in a Malaysian newspaper as saying the military received signals on Saturday that after the aircraft stopped communicating with ground controllers, it turned from heading northeast to heading west, lowered its altitude and flew hundreds of miles across Peninsular Malaysia and out over the Strait of Malacca before the tracking went blank.


The air force chief did not say what kind of signals the military had tracked. But his remarks raised questions about whether the military had noticed the plane as it flew across the country, and about when it informed civilian authorities.


According to the general’s account, the aircraft was near Pulau Perak, an island more than 100 miles off the western shore of the Malaysian peninsula, when the last sign of it was recorded at 2:40 a.m. Saturday.

Photo

A Vietnamese military officer on a search flight off the Tho Chu Islands on Tuesday. Credit Kham/Reuters

As anger and confusion mounted, General Rodzali issued a statement late Tuesday denying some details of the newspaper account, but he also said that the Air Force was analyzing possibilities of the missing jet’s flight path and that “it would not be appropriate” to reach conclusions.

The assertion that the plane might have flown into the Strait of Malacca stunned aviation experts as well as people in China, who had been told again and again that the authorities lost contact with the plane more than an hour earlier, when it was on course over the Gulf of Thailand, east of the peninsula. But the new account seemed to fit with the decision on Monday, previously unexplained, to expand the search area to include waters west of the peninsula.


Most of the aircraft’s 227 passengers were Chinese, and the new account prompted an outpouring of anger on Chinese social media sites. “Malaysia, how could you hide something this big until now?” said one posting on Sina.com Weibo, a service similar to Twitter.


On Wednesday, The Global Times, a widely read Chinese tabloid, said that “information issued publicly from Malaysia had been extraordinarily chaotic.”


David Learmount, operations and safety editor at Flightglobal, a news and data service for the aviation sector, said the Malaysian government seemed evasive and confused, and he questioned why, if the remarks attributed to General Daud were true, the government took so long to reveal evidence about a westward flight path.


“The relatives of the people who’ve gone missing are being deprived of information about what’s happened to the airplane — that for me is the issue,” he said. “If somebody knows something and isn’t telling, that’s not nice under the circumstances.”


Adding to the confusion, Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, spokesman for the prime minister’s office, said in a telephone interview that he had checked with senior military officials, who told him there was no evidence that the plane had recrossed the Malaysian peninsula, only that it may have attempted to turn back.


“As far as they know, except for the air turn-back, there is no new development,” Mr. Tengku Sariffuddin, adding that the reported remarks by the air force chief were “not true.”


Malaysia Airlines, meanwhile, offered a third account. In a statement, the airline said authorities were “looking at a possibility” that the plane had turned around to head for Subang, an airport outside Kuala Lumpur that handles mainly domestic flights.

Photo

Police released photographs of the two men who boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 using stolen passports. The man pictured at left was a 19-year-old Iranian believed to trying to migrate to Germany. Credit Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

So far only the basic facts of the first 40 minutes of Flight 370 are well established. The plane, a Boeing 777, left Kuala Lumpur’s main international airport about 12:40 a.m. local time with 239 people aboard, bound for Beijing. By 1:21 it was about midway between the Malaysian peninsula and the southern coast of Vietnam, cruising at 35,000 feet in good weather under a moonless sky, when the transponder on the plane stopped transmitting data to Flightradar24, a global tracking system for commercial aircraft.

Malaysia Airlines has said that ground controllers had their last radio communication with the pilots about 1:30 a.m., but it has not given a precise time.


Without specifying why, the Malaysian authorities vastly expanded the search area to the west on Monday, implying that they believed there was a strong chance the plane had traveled there. No similar expansion was made to the east or the south.


If the flight traveled west over Peninsular Malaysia, as the air force chief was quoted saying, it would have flown very close to one of Flightradar’s beacons in the city of Kota Bharu. But Mikael Robertsson, the co-founder of Flightradar24, said the jet never sent a signal to that receiver, which means that if the plane did fly that way, its transponder had either been knocked out of service by damage or had been shut down.


“We see every aircraft that flies over there, even if it’s very, very low, so if it flew over there, the transponder was off,” he said.


A pilot can turn off the transponder, Mr. Robertsson said, and the fact that the last contact from the transponder and the last radio contact with the pilots came at roughly the same time suggests that that is what happened. “I guess to me it sounds like they were turned off deliberately,” he said.


Mr. Robertsson said that since the plane had been fully fueled for a trip to Beijing, it could have traveled a great distance beyond its last reported position. “The aircraft could have continued another five or six hours out into the ocean,” he said. “It could have gone to India.”


Malaysian officials said they have not ruled out any possible explanation for the airplane’s disappearance — not mechanical failure, pilot error, crew malfeasance, hijacking, terrorism or anything else. The absence of physical evidence from the aircraft or even knowledge of its location left plenty of scope for speculation, including questions about two men who boarded the plane using stolen passports and one-way tickets bought in Thailand. Interpol officials said on Tuesday that it appeared most likely that the two men were illegal migrants with no link to terrorism.


In Washington, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John O. Brennan, said on Tuesday that the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the Transportation Security Administration were all trying to learn more about the plane’s disappearance.


“Our Malaysian counterparts are doing everything they can to try to put together the pieces here, but clearly there’s still a mystery, which is very disturbing,” Mr. Brennan said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations. Asked about terrorism as a potential cause, he said: “I wouldn’t rule it out. Not at all.”


The Malaysian government’s inconsistencies in the handling of the crisis were further highlighted Tuesday when the country’s chief of police said there had been no baggage removed from the aircraft before takeoff, contradicting what officials had said for the past three days.


Khalid Abu Bakar, the inspector general of the Malaysian police, said previous reports by Malaysian officials that five passengers had failed to board the flight and that their baggage had been removed were false. “Everybody that booked the flight boarded the plane,” he said.


But Malaysia Airlines later issued a clarification, saying that there were four passengers who booked tickets on the flight but failed to check in at the airport or check any bags for the flight.

[American Patriot]

Original above has maps

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/wo...-370.html?_r=0

[American Patriot]

Missing jet may have strayed toward Andaman Sea: Malaysian air force

By Eveline Danubrata and Nguyen Phuong Linh
KUALA LUMPUR/PHU QUOC, Vietnam Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:21am EDT




























1 of 13. Deputy Commander of Vietnam 918 Air Brigade, Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Tri Thuc (R) looks for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, that disappeared from radar screens in the early hours of Saturday, off Con Dao island March 12, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Kham




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(Reuters) - M alaysia's military has traced what could have been the jetliner missing for almost five days to an area near India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, hundreds of miles from its last known position, the country's air force chief said on Wednesday.
After a series of at times conflicting statements, the latest revelation underlined that authorities remain uncertain even where to look for the plane, and no closer to explaining what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 or the 239 people on board.
The flight disappeared from civilian radar screens shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing. What happened next is one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation history.
Malaysian air force chief Rodzali Daud told a news conference that an aircraft was plotted on military radar at 2:15 a.m., 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast.
It was not confirmed that the unidentified plane was Flight MH370, but Malaysia was sharing the data with international civilian and military authorities, Rodzali said.
"We are corroborating this," he added. "We are still working with the experts, it's an unidentified plot."
AGONISING WAIT
According to the data from Rodzali, if it was the missing plane it would have flown for 45 minutes and lost only about 5,000 feet in altitude.
There was no word on which direction it was headed and still no clue what happened aboard, prolonging the agonizing wait for news for hundreds of relatives of those on board.
A position 200 miles northwest of Penang, in the northern part of the Strait of Malacca, would put the plane roughly south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket and east of the tip of Indonesia's Aceh province and India's Nicobar island chain.
Indonesia and Thailand have said their militaries detected no sign of any unusual aircraft in their airspace.
The position is hundreds of miles west of the point where the Boeing 777-200ER dropped off air traffic control screens. Malaysia has asked India for help in tracing the aircraft and New Delhi's coastguard planes have joined the search.
Authorities however are continuing to search around both locations - at the last known position of the plane over the Gulf of Thailand and around the radar plotting site where the Malacca Strait meets the Andaman Sea.
In total, the search is over 27,000 square nautical miles (93,000 sq km), an area the size of Hungary or Indiana.
Until now, there has been no confirmed sighting of the plane or any debris.
A dozen countries are helping Malaysia in the search, with 42 ships and 39 aircraft involved, Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.
"My heart reaches out to the families of the passengers and crew," he said. "And I give you my assurance we will not reduce the tempo and that we will not spare any effort to find the missing plane."
CONFUSING INFORMATION
Malaysia has been criticized for giving conflicting and confusing information on the last known location of aircraft.
Earlier on Wednesday, air force chief Daud had denied saying military radar had tracked MH370 flying over the Strait of Malacca.
Vietnam briefly scaled down search operations in waters off its southern coast, saying it was receiving scanty and confusing information from Malaysia over where the aircraft may have headed after it lost contact with air traffic control.
Hanoi later said the search - now in its fifth day - was back on in full force and was even extending on to land. China also said its air force would sweep areas in the sea, clarifying however that no searches over land were planned.
"As long as the plane is not found, we would continue doing our mission," Vo Van Tuan, spokesman for Vietnam Search and Rescue Committee, told reporters in Hanoi.
"We should always keep up hope, there can be miracles, human can survive for a long time in difficult conditions. We must not give up hope that the missing people are still alive."
NOTHING RULED OUT
In the absence of any concrete evidence to explain the plane's disappearance, authorities have not ruled out anything. Police have said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
The airline said it was taking seriously a report by a South African woman who said the co-pilot of the missing plane had invited her and a female companion to sit in the cockpit during a flight two years ago, in an apparent breach of security.
"Malaysia Airlines has become aware of the allegations being made against First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid which we take very seriously. We are shocked by these allegations. We have not been able to confirm the validity of the pictures and videos of the alleged incident," the airline said in a statement.
The woman, Jonti Roos, told Reuters that she and her friend were invited to fly in the cockpit by Fariq and the pilot between Phuket, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in December 2011.
"I thought that they were highly skilled and highly competent and since they were doing it that it was allowed," Roos said. "I want to make it clear, at no point did I feel we were in danger or that they were acting irresponsibly."
Hugh Dunleavy, the commercial director of Malaysia Airlines, told Reuters there was no reason to blame the crew.
"We have no reason to believe that there was anything, any actions, internally by the crew that caused the disappearance of this aircraft," he said.
The Boeing 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service. Its only previous fatal crash came on July 6 last year when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 struck a seawall on landing in San Francisco, killing three people.
U.S. planemaker Boeing has declined to comment beyond a brief statement saying it was monitoring the situation.

[American Patriot]

Malaysia Airlines Pilot's Last Recorded Words Give No Hint of Danger

HO CHI MINH CITY, March 12, 2014
By KAIJING XIAO and JOOHEE CHO Joohee Cho More from Joohee »
Seoul Bureau Chief


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Deputy Commander of Vietnam 918 Air Brigade Senior Lt. Nguyen Tri Thuc looks for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, March 12, 2014, that disappeared from radar screens off Con Dao island.
Huy Kham/Reuters




Next Video Mystery Plane Possible Explanations







The last recorded words spoken by the pilot of the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 gave no hint that anything was wrong with the jetliner that disappeared from radar just a short time later.


An air traffic controller told the pilot, “We have to hand you over to Ho Chi Minh City," a Malaysian civil air department representative said today referring to air traffic control in Vietnam. The pilot responded, “All right, good night.”


The Malaysian authorities revealed that exchange in a briefing for Chinese media, and the Chinese press relayed that information to ABC News.


Flight MH370 never made contact with air traffic control in Ho Chi Minh City and what happened to the plane and its 239 passengers has baffled searchers.


The conversation details emerged as officials announced they’re expanding the search to cover 27,000 nautical miles over two separate areas, 14,440 square nautical miles in the South China Sea along the plane's designated route as well as 12,425 square nautical miles in the Strait of Malacca, which is hundreds of miles to the west of the plane's flight path.


Authorities ran down another lead this week, but came up empty. A New Zealand man working on an oil rig emailed authorities after he said he spotted a burning object in the water east of Vietnam on Saturday morning, the day the plane disappeared. Vietnamese officials sent a plane to the area to investigate the man’s claims, but the search was fruitless, naval officer Le Minh Thanh told ABC News.


Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in a press conference today that the search now includes 42 ships and 39 aircraft.
"We will never give up hope," he said.


Malaysia is seeking to bring in more experts – officials from the plane's manufacturer Boeing, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and Rolls Royce, which built the plane's engines – to analyze civil and military data. The search now includes 12 countries, including India, Japan and Brunei
Hussein defended the rescue efforts against rising complaints of confusion, calling the search strategy "very consistent.”


“It’s only confusion if you want it to be seen as confusion,” he said.


Five days into the search, authorities have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage or terrorism. Until wreckage or debris is found and examined, it will be very hard to say what happened.


Vietnam scaled down its search to a “less intensive” format, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told ABC News.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[American Patriot]

The Last Day of Malaysia Airline Passengers With Stolen Passports

March 11, 2014
By RACHEL KATZ and COLLEEN CURRY Colleen Curry More from Colleen »

Reporter





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Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza are the two Iranians who used stolen passports on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, according to officials.
Courtesy Mohammad Mallaeibasir

Next Video Malaysian Plane Investigation: No Signs of Jet


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A man claiming to be the friend of two Iranians who used fake passports to board the missing Malaysia Airlines flight told ABC News that the men stayed at his home the night before the flight vanished.
Mohammad Mallaeibasir, 18, told ABC News that he is a student living in Malaysia who went to high school with one of the men who is believed to have used a fake passport to board the missing flight. He said the other man was a friend of the friend's, and the pair stayed at Mallaeibasir's the night before the flight took off.
Mallaeibasir identified the men as Pouria Nour Mohammadi, 19, and Reza Devalar, 29, are both from Iran. He said he went to high school with Pouria, but had not seen him for a couple of years.
They stayed with Mallaeibeasir and his roommate Friday night, and then Mallaeibasir drove them to the airport, where they used stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on Saturday morning, he said.
The plane lost contact with air control and radar approximately an hour into its flight and disappeared without a trace. A massive search operation is under way for any sign of the plane in the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Mallaeibasir said he did not know the men were using fake passports until the news stories broke and Pouria's mother called him and told him about it. Mallaeibasir says he then called Malaysia Airlines and told them all of the information he knew.
Today Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar identified one of the two men with stolen passports as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 19, and said he was likely trying to enter Germany to seek asylum. His mother contacted authorities after he didn't arrive in Frankfurt.
Interpol later identified the other man as Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza, 29.
Law enforcement sources told ABC news today that the men's tickets were purchased by an Iranian man known as "Mr. Ali."
Mallaeibasir said that when Pouria and Reza were staying at his house, he heard them briefly talking to an "Ali" on the phone.
"The last night when they were in my home they were talking on the phone for a long time. They were talking in Persian, in their room, and I heard them say 'OK Ali' like that in Persian. I didn't understand because it was like, five seconds. I went into the room to take water from my fridge and I came out and they said, 'Be quiet, we're talking.'"
Besides the hushed phone conversations, Mallaeibasir said that the pair just hung out with him and his housemate and watched movies. Then Mallaeibasir drove them to the airport.
"They stayed here only the last night before the flight. They were supposed to stay in Malaysia for three days but I think they stayed for one week," Mallaebasir said. "They were with me because I had a car and I told them I will take you to the airport. They came to my house."
Mallaeibasir and Pouria went to high school together in Tehran two years ago, before Mallaebasir moved to Malaysia to study business information technology. He said he did not know Reza until the two arrived at his home for a quick night's stay.
Mallaeibasir said he did not ask Pouria or Reza why they were in Malaysia. Pouria said he was heading to Germany or Copenhagen after Malaysia in order to visit his mother because they were having family problems, Mallaeibasir said.
The two men traveled lightly, Mallaebasier said. Pouria had a mountain climbing-type backpack and a laptop, while Reza carried a suitcase and a laptop, he said.
After he dropped them at the airport, Mallaebasier called the men on their cell phones. Pouria answered but hung up quickly, and Mallaebasier ended up talking to Reza for about three minutes, he said.