topic Re: HIJACKED!!!! in Community Chat

HIJACKED!!!!

JaneMarple — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:03:20 GMT

Breaking new from the Malaysian government, "no motive has been established yet and its not yet clear where the plane was taken".

Is there hope after all for the passengers? I certainly do hope so.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

sunshine45 — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:08:24 GMT

i hope and pray they are alive and safe!

Multiple news sources: Malaysia jet hijacked http://on.wbaltv.com/1lEfvHj

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

JaneMarple — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:23:39 GMT

IMO the Malaysian government knew all along and perhaps was trying to negotiate but this situation proved to be much bigger then what they could handle.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

garmer — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:46:39 GMT

The prime minister of Malaysia just spoke live and said despite media reports of a hijacking, the cause of the plane going off course was not yet known.

So, it's still back and forth like it's been all week. I've never seen anything like this.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

JaneMarple — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:56:46 GMT

I just got an email alert from CNN that confirms a hijacking has occurred. I agree that this is really crazy.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

mgm2 — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:03:23 GMT

Hmm, I wonder if this was known soon after the airplane was reported missing but kept hush-hush to protect the passengers?

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

JaneMarple — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:06:57 GMT

On 3/15/2014 mgm2 said:
Hmm, I wonder if this was known soon after the airplane was reported missing but kept hush-hush to protect the passengers?

Probably so.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

inallsincerity — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:08:54 GMT

There is nothing about this that is NOT odd. I just don't even know what to think.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

JaneMarple — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:12:24 GMT

On 3/15/2014 inallsincerity said:
There is nothing about this that is NOT odd. I just don't even know what to think.

It's almost like a spy movie but with real people. I'm praying for a happy outcome.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

inallsincerity — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:15:28 GMT

On 3/15/2014 JaneMarple said:
On 3/15/2014 inallsincerity said:
There is nothing about this that is NOT odd. I just don't even know what to think.

It's almost like a spy movie but with real people. I'm praying for a happy outcome.

I too am wishing for even a shred of a happy outcome, but it is looking rather bleak.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

garmer — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:18:57 GMT

The PM denied it after it was announced on CNN...like right after. They broke in with breaking news that it was a hijacking then just a couple of minutes later they broke in again (again, breaking news) with the PM speaking live, saying that they hadn't come to that conclusion. It's the afternoon in Malaysia.

That's the first time I saw their prime minister speaking.

The folks at CNN must be scratching their heads after that. It was a little after two AM when he was giving his speech about the plane. He even mentioned the media reporting it as a hijacking, then he denied that they had come to that conclusion. The plane went off course, don't have a reason why, yet. (according to him)

I don't know if it's the media, or the Malaysians messing this all up so bad.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

JaneMarple — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:22:19 GMT

This is so BIZARRE! Somebody's lying, scared or both.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

garmer — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:59:46 GMT

I am so grateful that I live in the United States. Some of these other countries are just plain scary.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

Lindsays Grandma — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 09:17:21 GMT

I watched CNN this evening, about 6:00 p.m. and from everything I heard it sure sounds like a hijacking to me. I can only hope and pray that if it is true that the passengers are alive and well. Had the plane gone in the ocean wouldn't debris be floating around in the water? Someone knows but isn't telling, in my opinion.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

Yuban3 — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 12:22:58 GMT

This is from the Wall Street Journal. They do NOT say that the plane was "hijacked". They are saying that the plane was SABOTAGED. Huge difference between the two. For all we know, the PILOTS could have SABOTAGED the plane. "Deliberate action" is a far cry from "hijacking".

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysia's prime minister said he believes that "deliberate action" caused the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

In the first definitive comments from the nation's government on how the jet came to vanish March 8, Najib Razak said at a news conference Saturday that data relayed by the plane to a satellite has confirmed it turned from its original course. He added that the last satellite communication from the plane was at 8:11 a.m. Malaysia time, well past the scheduled arrival time in Beijing. It had taken off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12:41 a.m.

The Boeing 777-200 plane was carrying enough fuel to fly for eight hours, Malaysia Airlines had said earlier.

Based on this new data, the aviation authorities of Malaysia and their counterparts in other countries have determined that the plane's last satellite communication came from one of two corridors, Mr. Najib said: a northern one stretching approximately from the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border to northern Thailand or a southern one stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Mr. Najib said that while hijacking has been raised as a possibility, "we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate from its original flight path."

The prime minister's comments appear to corroborate the analysis of U.S. investigators, which determined that one or more people on the plane deliberately changed its course and tried to mask its location.

Authorities have "refocused" attention onto the crew and passengers, said Mr. Najib. While he said there is a "high degree of certainty" that the plane's two communications systems were disabled, it remains unclear who might have taken that step and whether he or she was acting with others on the flight.

Physically disconnecting communications systems would require extremely detailed knowledge of the aircraft's internal structure and systems, aviation officials say, likely putting the focus of the probe on the pilots and any passengers and crew members with aviation experience.

Mr. Najib didn't take questions from the reporters who packed the airport-hotel function room where he spoke.

Search teams have been withdrawn from the South China Sea, the area from which the plane's transponder, which relays identification signals to ground radar, sent its last signal.

"Clearly, the search for MH370 has entered a new phase," he said.

As of Saturday, 43 ships and 58 aircraft from 14 countries are involved in the search, the prime minister said.

The latest revelations indicate that the search areas will be significantly expanded.

"The Malaysian authorities have worked hand-in-hand with our international partners—including neighboring countries, the aviation authorities and a multinational search force—many of whom have been here on the ground since Sunday," he said.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country will adjust its search efforts based on the prime minister's statement, but that it was seeking more detailed information from Malaysia.

Beijing, which has deployed eight sea vessels, two aircraft and five helicopters to search in the South China Sea, has repeatedly pressed Malaysia to redouble its efforts, as Chinese officials have themselves come under criticism for inaction from the passengers' family members.

"Time is life," the ministry's statement said.

Families of Flight 370 passengers said they hope the prime minister's speech means there is hope their loved ones are alive.

A friend of Norli Akmar Hamid of Kuala Lumpur, who was headed to Beijing on her honeymoon, said, "At least we know that she was alive up to 8:11 am on March 8."

The friend, who asked not to be identified, added, "Previously I thought the plane crashed when it was lost from the radar. There is still hope."

A father of a Malaysian aircraft engineer on Flight 370 said after the prime minister's remarks that he has hope, too.

"The chances of finding the aircraft was brighter. The situation is clearer," Selamat Omar, the father of 29-year-old Mohamad Khairul Amri, said.

Based on new satellite information, investigators suspect the plane's Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or Acars, was disabled just before the aircraft reached the East coast of peninsular Malaysia. Shortly afterward, near the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control, the transponder was switched off.

The plane then flew west back over peninsular Malaysia before turning northwest, Mr. Najib said, citing Royal Malaysian Air Force radar data, now confirmed by experts from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration of the U.S., and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the U.K.

To refine the search, investigators are now calculating how far the aircraft could have flown after this last point of contact.

"As the two new corridors involve many countries, the relevant foreign embassies have been invited to a briefing on the new information today by the Malaysian Foreign Ministry and the technical experts," the prime minister said.

Malaysia Airlines has been informing the families of the passengers and crew of the new developments.

It's unlikely the aircraft went very far on the Thailand-Central Asia corridor, as flying over land without being detected by radar would be difficult, said Mikael Robertsson, the co-founder of Flightradar24, a website that allows amateurs to track planes.

"In theory, it's possible it may have landed somewhere, but someone would have spotted it," Mr. Robertsson told The Wall Street Journal.

He added that a crash on land rather than into the sea was unlikely because the aircraft's emergency beacon would have automatically flashed its location via satellite or radio. The beacon's signals are less easy to find if an aircraft crashes into the sea.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

Jessa9 — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 12:39:36 GMT

Their poor families...what they must be going through.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

------ — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 12:48:23 GMT

IF the plane was hijacked wouldn't passengers try to make calls or texts on their cellphones?

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

Yuban3 — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 12:50:57 GMT

On 3/15/2014 ------ said:
IF the plane was hijacked wouldn't passengers try to make calls or texts on their cellphones?

Theory 1: The phones were collected at the start of the flight, or before "they" took over the plane.

Theory 2: The plane flew to such a high altitude, (45,000 feet, I believe) that the air was so thin, that the passengers all died from lack of oxygen.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

------ — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 13:00:31 GMT

On 3/15/2014 Yuban3 said:
On 3/15/2014 ------ said:
IF the plane was hijacked wouldn't passengers try to make calls or texts on their cellphones?

Theory 1: The phones were collected at the start of the flight, or before "they" took over the plane.

Theory 2: The plane flew to such a high altitude, (45,000 feet, I believe) that the air was so thin, that the passengers all died from lack of oxygen.

I doubt Theory 1 would have worked. If passengers had been asked to turn over cell phones it would have caused an uproar and someone would have gotten a message out. Sadly Theory 2 sounds more like it.

Re: HIJACKED!!!!

MaggieToo — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 13:11:03 GMT

With a plane that large, it would take a good sized airport to land. Has anyone checked all the landing areas that would be able to accommodate the plane and where it could go with the amount of fuel it had? Too weird.