I had fairly well concluded that the most likely cause was a fire disrupting the electrical and control systems, when CNN now say the sharp left turn was pre-programmed 12 minutes before sign off from Malaysian Air Traffic control, which was followed fairly quickly by that left turn.
CNN claim to have this from an US official, from data sent back before the reporting systems went off. It is hard to know what to make of it: obviously there are large economic interests that much prefer blame to lie with the pilots rather than the aircraft. But if it is true then the move was not a response to an emergency. (CNN went on to say the pilot could have programmed in the course change as a contingency in case of an emergency. That made no sense to me at all – does it to anyone else?)
I still find it extremely unlikely that the plane landed or crashed on land I cannot believe it could evade military detection as it flew over a highly militarized region. Somewhere there is debris on the ocean. There have been previous pilot suicides that took the plane with them; but the long detour first seems very strange and I do not believe is precedented. However if the CNN information on pre-programming is correct, and given it was the co-pilot who signed off to air traffic control, it is hard to look beyond the pilots as those responsible for whatever did happen. In fact, on consideration, the most improbable thing is that information CNN are reporting from the US official.
Visited a couple of pilot forums, and they can’t seem to make any bones from the data. Of course I don’t camp there so I don’t see what’s deleted.
The bottom has fallen out of this story, Ben. So many distractions, nothing done.
Words like “estimate” ring some bells — alarm bells. As any scientist knows, an “estimate” is another word for “guess”, or “educated guess”. Any guess can be wrong, but apparently not in the case of MH370. It defies logic.
http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2014/05/mh370-investigators-disclose-search-focus-details/
The chance of a “guess” being wrong increases when using equipment not meant for this purpose.
Navy official: Pings not thought to be from Flight 370’s black boxes
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/28/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-pinging/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/missing-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh370-officials-confirm-indian-ocean-search-area-is-not-final-resting-place-of-lost-plane-9450209.html
Missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370: Officials confirm Indian Ocean search area is not final resting place of lost plane.
But will they consider looking in the Bay of Bengal again, or other alternatives? There is no indication that they are interested.
One to watch
http://www.dailymirror.lk/top-story/47748-mystery-wheel-netted-.html
A rim of a wheel has been discovered by several fishermen those sailed from Moragalle in Aluthgama this morning, the Police said.
Police said the rim got entangled in fishing net and was suspected to be from an aircraft. The rim had been handed over to the Aluthgama Police for further investigations.
Oh, but Pink, the search must be conducted here, and nowhere else:
“We are still very confident that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern [Indian] Ocean and along the seventh ping line,” he added, refering to an arc identified by analysis of satellite communications data from UK company Inmarsat. The search area would now be extended to a 60,000sq km zone along the arc. The ocean floor would be mapped to help the search.”
From: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/29/mh370-is-not-in-the-indian-ocean-search-zone-authorities-say
Please do not allow evidence of any kind to interfere in the investigation.
Are some sort of underwater resources found along the arc of the seventh ping line? Why else would they continue with this charade, following pings of questionable authenticity? “Raiders of the Lost Arc”?
Many resources are found near the seamounts of the Southern Indian Ocean:
http://www.asclme.org/reports2013/Cruise%20reports/55%20Seamounts%20Final%20Cruise%20ReportMay%202010%20cruise410.pdf
Better charting of the seamounts would be helpful to nations planning to exploit — or rather, manage, those resources.
It’s not just about marine life. The seamounts might yield rare earth minerals of considerable value, along with other valuable minerals. But of course, it’s all about insisting on finding MH370 in a place that must be where seamounts are found. The charting would just happen to be a fortuitous discovery. Some general information on seamounts, noting China’s interest in rare earth minerals:
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/research/projects/pac_eez_minerals.html
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10641190902852485#.U4dZESgUqSo
http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20140401/BUSINESS/140409980
http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2014/05/hope-fades-after-mh370-leads-fail/
““Knowing the seafloor terrain is crucial to enabling the subsequent underwater search,” said the Australian team.”
Among other things.
Talk about distractions: is the JACC search for MH370 on the seventh arc in the Southern Indian Ocean a cover story for establishing mineral rights by Australia and its allies? As we know, China has a monopoly on rare earth minerals, and other nations desperately need those minerals for defence purposes, etc.
Now that could explain the lack of interest in searching in the Bay of Bengal and a select few other locations with more credibility than the Southern Indian Ocean: “It’s not about the plane, we’re really looking for rare earth minerals before China can slap down a drilling platform near the seamounts in the Southern Indian Ocean and claim territorial rights…”?
That would be one big huge distraction, and a very disappointing one for the families of MH370 passengers and crew, who must surely realize by now that no one is really looking for their loved ones.
From a comment on pprune: “No-one has yet explained how the radar traces etc can be positively attached to MH370, except on the basis of ‘well, who else can it have been?'”
The ‘seventh arch”!!
This is the Holy Grail. No matter what primary, secundary, or thirdary radars might show, that airborne vessel was directed to the neverfound sacred shrine, due south.
They may say they ‘ran out of fuel’, but what kind of fuel?
Also, ask any pilot familiar with the area, FL 350 is NOT a regular cruising altitude.
Did they reach their ‘target’? We may never know unless Congress significantly raises “special” services entitlements.
“The Ninety East Indian Ocean Ridge is the largest elevation of volcanic origin of the Indian Ocean seafloor and extends for more than 4 700km along of the 90°E meridian from the Bay of Bengal almost to the western extremity of the Australian – Antarctic Elevation. The ridge is narrow, approximately only 120 miles wide and consisting of a large amount of elevations as seamounts above its base. The least depths over seamounts discovered by YugNIRO expeditions in the southern part of the ridge were about 400, 540 and 620 m. Foraminiferous ooze predominates along the crests of the ridge (Kanaev et al. 1975).”
From: http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4884e/y4884e04.htm
Follow the foraminiferous ooze!
Oh, wait, they have been following the f-ooze:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wharton_Basin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_East_Ridge
From the former: “Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 presumably crashed in the area of Wharton Basin on 8 March 2014, because signals from its black box have been located in the area in April 2014.”
Maybe the JACC team should be asking those Ukrainian/Russian fisheries people about the seamounts. Maybe they should be asking if the Ukrainian fisheries people were using technology developed at a university in Sevastopol, like the technology GeoResonance has obtained. If it weren’t for the troubles in the Ukraine at the moment, they might be able to pick up the phone and call one of the people listed here, or their successors:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4884e/y4884e09.htm#TopOfPage
The technology used in the 1970s has probably improved greatly in the interim.
Going back to the beginning:
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/17/Missing-flight-MH370-bodies-Bay-of-Bengal-Bangladesh/
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/550221/20140430/mh370-bay-bengal-wreckage-found.htm#.U4eL3SgUqSo
Things like watches and rings would make identification easier, especially considering the amount of time elapsed in the waters of the Bay of Bengal. Presumably, all of the bodies carried Bangladesh passports, which made any other means of identification irrelevant. How many Bangladeshis carry passports, driver’s licences and photo ID?
Many ferries are said to crash in the area.
I cannot find any coverage of any ferry accidents in March 2014 in Bangladesh. Ferry ferry accidents on the Meghna River do make the news in Bangladesh and sometimes around the world, when the death toll is high. Any help in finding news coverage of a ferry accident with at least 20 people dead or missing in the days leading up to March 16, 2014 would be appreciated. It shouldn’t be that hard to find, should it?
Meanwhile, references to the ooze are much easier to find:
http://www.cockpitchatter.com/2014/04/
Map showing the 90°E meridian line in the Bay of Bengal, as followup to fao.org link above:
http://foraminifera.eu/mapbengal.html
Ironically, the devices being used in the search of the Southern Indian Ocean could be used in the Bay of Bengal.
http://www.cockpitchatter.com/category/featured-stories/page/2/
“The deep sea area now being searched, the Zenith Plateau, has never been mapped in detail because it is not in any country’s economic zone.
“However the sea floor is likely covered in “foraminiferal ooze”, a sludge formed by microscopic marine organisms, which would show up any large metallic object clearly, James Cook University marine geologist Robin Beaman told Reuters.
“A sidescan is very good at detecting the difference in the acoustic return of a hard object versus a soft, muddy sea floor,” he said. “This is quite a good environment for looking for wreck debris, albeit deep.””
Seafloor methane is another resource associated with foraminifera. This is an area of research done at the University of Sevastopol.
http://www.micropress.org/micropen2/articles/1/7/29108_articles_article_file_1705.pdf
As for the Wharton Basin, this researcher from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory provides insight into the sediments on the seafloor in the area:
http://www.deepseadrilling.org/22/volume/dsdp22_appendixI.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foraminifera
Diatoms, BTW, are useful in forensics, as they can provide clues in autopsies as to where a person died, if they ingested water before death in a location other than where they were found, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_East_Ridge
The ninetyeast ridge seamount chain extends under the Bengal Fan in the Bay of Bengal.
Information on rare earth elements, China, Malaysia and Australia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element
See “Malaysian refining plans” and “Environmental considerations”. Perhaps it’s worth reading this link again:
http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2014/05/mh370-search-turns-to-nuclear-technology/
Could “mangosteens” trigger the nuclear detection technology? There’s the thorium that one of our forum members has talked about.
The pings…..are from Ocean Shield ! REALLY !!!!
That vessels pings at that frequency !!! That’s odd.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/aelb-lynas-committed-to-returning-radioactive-waste-to-australia
“DENGKIL, June 28 — Lynas is committed to return all potentially harmful waste from its rare earths plant here to Australia despite its government’s firm refusal to take it in, Malaysia’s radiation regulator said today.”
Anwar Ibrahim was involved in the protests against Lynas:
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/thousands-protest-malaysia-rare-earths-plant-071335796.html
From March 2014:
https://my.news.yahoo.com/chemical-spill-accident-involving-lorry-lynas-plant-bernama-154548832.html
Another reckless lorry driver, like the one involved in the accident that killed Karpal Singh.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-17/malaysia-opposition-politician-karpal-singh-dies-in-car-crash.html
A further protest against radioactive waste from the Lynas plant took place in January 2014:
http://www.news.net/article/812321/malaysians-protest-rare-earth-plant-on-australia-day/?
So where does it go?
http://nuclear-news.net/2012/03/22/confusing-messages-about-where-lynas-will-put-its-rare-earths-radioactive-wastes/
http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/2013/01/poor-radioactive-waste-handling-at-malaysian-rare-earth-refinery.html
http://www.foe.org.au/articles/2013-11-26/shareholders-urged-divest-lynas
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/no-respite-in-sight-as-lynas-bleeds-soo-jin-hou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynas
http://www.rutila.com.au/about-us/directors.aspx
Eric Noyrez is now at the helm of Lynas.
For anyone following the al-Hilli thread, remember how gypsum played a role?
http://theconversation.com/should-malaysia-bear-the-burden-of-australian-radioactive-waste-9566
@Q
Just type in gypsum
http://alhilli.linkpc.net/
Thanks, Pink. The search engine is amazing. Well done over there!
I find it incredible that gypsum keeps popping up.
“The wastes from production will include radioactive thorium and uranium and their radioactive decay products such as radium and radon. The wastes will not be shipped back to Australia for safe disposal since Australian authorities have explicitly refused to accept them….
“Lynas’ “Radioactive Waste Management Plan”¹ is as follows. Wastes generated are to be processed into synthetic gypsum for the manufacture of plaster board; gypsum for the manufacture of cement; magnesium-rich gypsum fertilizer for plantations, crops and for soil remediation; and carbon-enriched magnesium gypsum fertilizer to rejuvenate acidic soils.
“Lynas alleges that any material remaining can either be “disposed safely in a secure municipal landfill” if classified as non-scheduled wastes or “disposed at a licensed facility” if classified as scheduled wastes by the Malaysian Department of the Environment.
“Wastes are also to be commercialised as road building material, failing which it will be “permanently isolated” (whatever this means).”
From: http://theconversation.com/should-malaysia-bear-the-burden-of-australian-radioactive-waste-9566
This is a “what the ….” moment. Should nuclear waste be turned into wallboard and cement, homes and offices risk contaminating the people who live and work there. When the (mangosteen?) fields are spread with nuclear fertilizer, people and animals will ingest nuclear-contaminated food.
Roads are driven on, and roads break down. All that nuclear waste will go into the air over time. Road surfacing material is also melted down and recycled into new road material, allowing for further contamination and risk to workers.
This nuclear link to gypsum in both of these threads should not be ignored, IMO.
What was being transported on MH370 in cargo containers, and what is Australia’s role in this story? These are important questions, I believe, since Australia has been leading the search in the wrong place for two months. What don’t they want to be found?
We know that “lithium ion batteries” were supposedly on board MH370.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/11/rare-earth-elements-iphone-malaysia
“Your Smartphone’s Dirty, Radioactive Secret” is the headline of this story about the contamination at Bukit Merah, Malaysia by Mitsubishi Chemical’s Asian Rare Earth mine.
What was in those cargo containers on MH370? Impossible mangosteen is not the correct answer.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/business/energy-environment/09rareside.html?_r=0
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/boom_in_mining_rare_earths_poses_mounting_toxic_risks/2614/
And for those following the al-Hilli threads, what was really being mined in Iraq, and was gypsum just a byproduct?
FWIW, for anyone who remembers the mysterious death of Australian scientist Lachlan Cranswick in Canada, Cranswick worked at CSIRO in Australia early in his career. He wrote several scientific papers on gadolinium later on. At the time of his death he had completed some research for an entity overseas. Some believe he mailed or tried to mail the results on the day he died, and some believe that research was being sent to Japan. We’ll never know.
http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/47764-parts-found-may-not-belong-to-aircraft-air-force.html
The Air Force today said that the debris found in the seas off Aluthgama that was first believed to be a part of an aircraft pulley and it may actually have come from another type of vehicle or machine.
“This part may or may not have come from an aircraft. It is a piece of hardware but it’s not part of a landing gear of an aircraft. The letters ‘AN’ was engraved on the pulley. This part may have come from an army or Navy vehicle,” Air Force Spokesman Wing Commander Gihan Senerviratne said….
Just found ‘out’ gypsum is also widely used in toothpaste. Read more:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090926035025AAf82yB
This could be a ‘cavity’, a clue. If you ‘look’ at the pictures of the captain & flying officer, they have exactly the same dentition, just like those pasengers with stolen passports had the same legs.
Toothpaste is a huge ‘marketplace’. Just Google it + gypsum. Many nations beside China would do ANYTHING to get a ‘hold’ on it.
Don’t forget “Doctor Strangelove…” and what that prophetic movie taught us about fluoride and bodily fluids!
Salt, does toothpaste come in “mangosteen” flavor in China?