MAS tragedy

[5129frederick]

Most of us have already heard the tragic news of the MAS aircraft coming down en route to Beijing.  If there are those who wish to "put up a thought" regardless of whether they be Christian, Muslim or whatever, pray not for those whose lives have been taken asunder - all the prayers in the world won't do them a ha'peth of good, but pray for the bereaved - those whose lives will NEVER be the same again.  The only consolation - if there is one, is it must have been very, very quick, at at 1.20 a.m. local time many of them would have been asleep at the time.

[ed_blackadder_1]

It appears they don't really know what happened or even where it went down as yet, it is always very sad when people loose people they love and maybe worse when there is no body or explanation.

[saasher2012]

Hi Ed, I'm at work don't know anything about it! Can you fill me in so to speak?

[captainbovine]

I've just heard it on the news too...seems a plane has gone missing over the China sea...a boeing 777. 14 different nationalities on board but mainly Chinese.

It's terrible, and like you say Mr Poster...lets' hope most of them were asleep and it would have been quick. Oh it's so sad to think of all those people's relatives waiting to hear the sad news....so sad.....

[saasher2012]

Thanks CB, that's awful news! As you say so very sad , especially for those going through the torture of not knowing the outcome of this awful accident .

[ilove2patch]

Tragic.

[cat-knitter]

I hadn't heard about this  😞

[ilove2patch]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/malaysia-airlines-plane-loses-contact-003243309.html#Sg1Z4Mt

[cee-dee]

It happened many hours ago but they can't find any trace of the plane...... yet.

It was last seen on radar just off an island south of Vietnam.

It was at cruising altitude and if there was a problem with the plane, the pilots would have had ample time to alert air traffic control which suggests either 1/ a sudden, total catastrophic failure, 2/ a bomb or 3/ it was shot down by a missile.

Other than that, it was a deliberate act on the part of the pilot flying. (it has happened before!)

[rose2008-2008]

Only just seen this and did not know about it. Tragic thing when this happens and lots of lives are lost. Ohhh very Sad. God bless their souls.

[*pixachu*]

Very sad, a tragic thing to happen. I dislike the mystery of it... I hope that the plane is found and the cause discovered, so that the families get answers xx

[cee-dee]

They've not found any wreckage yet but have found two oil slicks South of Vietnam.

[aernethril]

cee-dee - is it possible the crew were 'at rest' at that point with the plane on autopilot and no-one had time to react?

Or a similar situation to that of Air France.

It's also chilling to hear that at least two passengers were on board with stolen passports and fake IDs.

It is so terrible a loss for the bereaved to deal with, just as any loss at sea, or ways where the bodies are never found so there cannot be the ritual of burial or final saying goodbye.

[saasher2012]

Its awful that we look for human error because the alternatives are so awful we dont want to contemplate them,?

[cee-dee]

If there was some sort of "Systems failure", at 35,000 feet there'd be plenty of time for a radio call. There's always one pilot at the controls even if the other is "resting".

The plane would have been on autopilot but any deviation from "normal" would cause a cockpit warning.

The Air France Airbus which crashed in to the Atlantic was cause by ice crystals in the pitot tubes causing the speed to appear different to the real speed. To cut a long story short, the pilots incorrect actions caused the plane to stall and it literally fell out of the sky.

It's too soon to speculate further than I did earlier at #9 other than to add "pilot error"?

What's strange is that there were no radio calls. The plane was much nearer land that the Air France Airbus which was way out over the Atlantic.

[fishpieface]

Tragic.  They don't seem to know what happened yet, unless something's come to light overnight.

I hope they find out, so the people who've lost loved ones can have closure.

It must be one of the most awful things, standing at the ariport waiting for friend or family, the

excitement and then being told something like that.  Poor people.  Awful for the person having

to do the telling too.

[ginap.123]

This mornings news states that 5 passengers had booked in & not turned up for the flight & 2 of them were known to be travelling on stolen passports.
They both booked independantly at the same time & also had booked seperately for the same onward flight to Europe. Deduce from that what you will.

[fishpieface]

Yes I read that Ginap, but I also thought that if they didn't turn up for that flight, they couldn't

have brought it down, could they?  Still no significant news as to what happened is there?

[cee-dee]

The baggage for those 5 passengers (that didn't turn up) was removed from the plane.

At the moment, relatives are "demanding answers" and complaining about "no information". That's not helpful because at the moment there's no answers and no information other than they can't find the plane.

The priority is to locate it and until then, there's nothing anyone can say in the way of "answers" or "information".

I suppose the only thing they can work on is estimating the furthest distance the plane could have reached by the time it disappeared off the radar and work backwards towards Kuala Lumpur. It was seen to disappear from radar between Malaysia and Vietnam so why people are looking in the Malacca Straight I dunno?

[aernethril]

There is a suggestion that although the plane went off the tracking on some sites, other radar checks suggest it was turning around back to Kuala Lumpur.

The two flying on stolen passports are said to be non-Asian according to CCTV.

I think they've also now said the oil slicks sighted do not come from aviation fuel, so they've got to now widen the search because something has to have risen to the surface by now - it's a case of where.

The longer they fail to find anything, the harder it is going to be to find where the bulk of the plane is.

There was a brief mention on Saturday evening our time I think, but I can't find it now, that the US have said there was no sight on whatever system they mentioned, of a mid-air explosion.  I didn't think to save it but I vaguely thought that must be some kind of satellite imaging always going on around the world.

I think, CeeDee, it's a natural reaction from those in shock - it's not really that they are complaining about not being informed, they are just overwhelmed with the distress of not knowing anything at all.

It must be just too awful to know you've lost your loved ones, but no nothing else, and can do nothing else to even help.  No way to go and search for themselves.

Some of them have been placed in hotels in the expectation that some wreckage would be found and the relatives could then be taken to see for themselves which has been promised to them

But the expectation of finding the plane within a relatively short time has been frustrated.

Also, many of the passengers are from a religious faith that would normally expect to be able to bury their deceased within a very short space of time of their death, so this is just adding to their anguish.