This picture is worth keeping. Like everyone else I hope the come back but I am also realistic that this is wishing on that less than 1% probability. If they find the wreckage of the B777, the 1% will go to 0% and we have closure. The sooner the better as this is killing people alive.
Even if the remains of the plane is never found it must be after we have deployed all our resources and is very sure it is not there. At that time each of us will have only our own faith and belief to go by. Somehow I don't think we would be so unlucky.
The Iranian "Stolen Passport" Passenger Plot Thickens
ReplyDeleteTyler Durden on 03/10/2014 20:32 -0400
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While progress on the search-and-recovery efforts of the missing Malaysian Airlines jet continues to disappoint, the stolen-passport plot thickens considerably. While earlier we discovered that it was a mysterious "Mr. Ali" that purchased the tickets for the two passengers traveling on stolen passports (with cash), The Telegraph reports that BBC Persia confirms they were Iranian nationals. According to another Iranian friend (who had hosted them while in Kuala Lumpur) the two were "looking for a place to settle" in Europe (intending to complete their journey in Frankfurt and Denmark).
Correlation is, of course, not causation; and conspiracy theories are running rampant. As CNN notes,
"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.
...
"We have speculation run amok, because we have no facts," said Michael Goldfarb, a former chief of staff for the Federal Aviation Administration.
But it is clear by the level of investigation that authorities are 'interested' in these two gentlemen, we now know to be of Iranian nationality...
The two men said by Interpol to have been travelling on stolen passports on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared on Saturday have been identified as Iranian nationals.
A BBC Persia report quotes an Iranian friend of one of the men, who said he hosted the pair in Kuala Lumpur after they arrived from Tehran in the days preceding their flight to Beijing.
The friend, who knew one of the men from his school days in Iran, said the men had bought the fake passports because they wanted to migrate to Europe.
...
One of the Iranian nationals intended final destination was Frankfurt, where his mother lives, while the other wanted to travel to Denmark.
The same source that spoke to BBC Persia also emailed CNN with a photograph of him posing with his two friends in the days before they embarked on their fateful trip.
BBC Persia’s UN correspondent Bahman Kalbasi told The Telegraph that the two Iranians were “looking for a place to settle”.
Of course, Iran remains a troubled and stifled economy thanks in large part to US-led sanctions and (as The Telegraph notes)
US-led sanctions on Iran have plagued the economy and encouraged many young Iranians, who face high unemployment, to seek ways to travel to Europe, North America or Australia – legally or illegally.
So, to summarize: 3 days ago a Malaysian Airlines jet disappears suddenly leaving no wreckage... the passenger manifest included 2 Ukrainians... and 2 Iranians who were traveling on stolen passports bought for them in cash by a mysterious Iranian known as "Mr.Ali"... who hoped to emigrate to Europe (by way of Kuala Lumpur and Beijing)...
source : http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-10/iranian-stolen-passport-passenger-plot-thickens
Mysterious Iranian "Mr. Ali" Purchased Tickets For "Stolen Passport" Passengers; Paid Cash
ReplyDeleteTyler Durden on 03/10/2014 19:02 -0400
While the mystery builds over the still officially unexplained disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370, or just who the two passengers with "stolen" passports may have been although we expect a revelation on this issue shortly, the FT has added yet another twist to what is sure to be a conspiracy thriller for weeks to come: the paper reports that the Thai travel agent who booked the tickets for the men in question said that she had been asked to arrange the travel by an Iranian contact. Adding to the confusion is the revelation that originally the mysterious Iranian, known only as Mr. Ali, tried to reserve seats for the two men on separate flights not to China, but to Europe, one on a Qatar Airways flight, and the other on Etihad. And the punchline: a "friend" of Mr. Ali's paid for the tickets in cash.
The story as explained by the Financial Times:
Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the agency Grand Horizon Travel in Pattaya, Thailand, said the Iranian, a long-term business contact who she knew only as “Mr Ali”, first asked her to book cheap tickets to Europe for the two men on March 1. Ms Benjaporn initially reserved one of the men on a Qatar Airways flight and the other on Etihad.
But the tickets expired when Ms Benjaporn did not hear back from Mr Ali. When he contacted her again on Thursday, she rebooked the men on the Malaysia Airlines flight through Beijing because it was the cheapest available. Ms Benjaporn booked the tickets through China Southern Airlines via a code share arrangement.
A friend of Mr Ali paid Ms Benjaporn cash for the tickets, she said, adding that it was quite common for people to book tickets in Pattaya through middle men such as Mr Ali, who then take a commission.
Mr Ali could not immediately be reached for comment on a Tehran mobile number provided by Ms Benjaporn. She added that she had known Mr Ali for about three years, during which time he spent a lot of time in Pattaya and booked travel for himself or his contacts at least once a month on average. There is no evidence that Mr Ali knew the two men were travelling on stolen passports.
Still, before some read into this as an attempt to provoke Iran sentiment, the travel agent said she "did not believe Mr Ali was linked to terrorism, particularly as he had not specified booking the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight but had instead asked for the cheapest route to Europe." Ms Benjaporn said she was speaking about the case because she was concerned over the speculation about a terrorist attack and wanted the facts to be known.
And the final wrinkle in the story came over the weekend, when China Southern, a codeshare partner for the Malaysian Airlines flight, revealed on its Weibo page the following (google translated):
Today, Malaysia Airlines MH370 lost contact is shared by a horse fly with China Southern Airlines flight code. According to preliminary statistics, there are seven Southern Airlines passenger market square, where a Chinese nationals, two Ukrainian nationals, an Austrian, an Italian nationals, a Dutch nationals and one Malaysian. Specific circumstances still verification. After the incident, I immediately started emergency procedures and first time to contact MAS obtain real-time information. For seven passengers on the plane lost contact, we will try to help Malaysia Airlines to do follow-up work.
Two Ukrainians?
So one mysterious accident, which by now appears to almost certainly be a midair "disintegration" that has loose ends linking both Iran and Ukraine? A very unfortunate set of completely unrelated coincidences, or something far more sinister? We expect the full "story", massaged as it may ultimately be, to be revealed in the coming hours.
source : http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-10/mysterious-iranian-mr-ali-purchased-tickets-stolen-passport-passengers-paid-cash
FWIW, let me add here
ReplyDelete- who are the 2 ukrainians? sent by CIA operatives?
- didn't putin has the list from snowden and perhaps knows who are the agents?
- who is that jewish russian guy onboard - a 'professional diver n athelete"?
- why did MAS deny that 5 passengers who were removed subsequently?
Have fun..
what happened to Flight 370? CNN sees 4 scenarios:
ReplyDelete1. Scenario: Mechanical failure?
Fact: The absence of a debris field suggests the possibility that pilots were forced to ditch the plane and it landed on water without breaking up, finally sinking to the ocean floor.
Analysis: But if that were the case, then why no emergency signal? These planes are able to perform a "miracle on the Hudson" maneuver. They have the ability to glide more than 100 miles and belly land on the water with both engines out, says former 777 pilot Keith Wolzinger, now a civil aviation consultant with The Spectrum Group. During the time it would take for a plane to glide 100 miles, it seems likely that pilots would be able able to send an SOS.
Fact: The missing plane had suffered a clipped wing tip in the past, but Boeing repaired it, and the jet was safe to fly, said Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya on Sunday.
Analysis: "Anytime there's been previous damage to an airplane, even though it's been repaired, and repaired within standards ... it kind of sends a warning flag," says Wolzinger. Experts agree the Boeing 777 is one of the world's most reliable aircraft. During its development it was subject to some of the most rigorous testing in commercial aviation history. "I've been talking with colleagues," Wolzinger says. "We're all baffled by this." The 777 boasts some of the most powerful and well-tested engines in the world, he says. "The reliability of airliner engines in general is impeccable these days," he says. "This is a safe plane."
2. Scenario: Pilot error
Fact: So far, there are no known indications that pilot error contributed to the aircraft going missing.
Analysis: Some aviation experts have compared Flight 370 to the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009. All 228 passengers and crew died when the plane went down in a storm in the Atlantic en route from Brazil to Paris. After an expensive, nearly two-year search across the deep ocean floor, the twin-engine Airbus A330's wreckage was finally found and the voice and data recorders recovered. A French investigation blamed flight crew for failing to understand "they were in a stall situation and therefore never undertook any recovery maneuvers." But unlike Flight 447, weather was reported as good along Flight 370's scheduled route and didn't appear to present a threat.
Asiana Airlines Flight 217 -- a Boeing 777 -- fell short during a runway approach last July at San Francisco International Airport. Three people were killed and more than 180 others hurt. National Transportation Safety Board investigators have focused on pilot reliance on automated flight systems as a possible contributor to the crash, but a final report has not yet been released.
3. Scenario: Bomb? Or 'dry run'?
ReplyDeleteFact: Two stolen passports have been linked to people who held tickets for the flight.
Analysis: This points to the possibility that someone on a terrorism watch list may have boarded the plane and blown it up. However, the stolen passports don't necessarily mean the plane was an actual target. It's possible, says former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo, that terrorists may have been performing a "dry run" for a future attack. Or, Schiavo said, "it could be just criminal business as usual," because "there are lots of stolen passports" used by travelers around the world.
Fact: So far, no debris field of plane wreckage has been linked to the 777, which would indicate a bomb blast.
Analysis: When Robert Francis, former vice chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, heard about the missing plane, his immediate thought was: "For some reason the aircraft blew up and there was no signal, there was nothing." The fact that the plane disappeared from radar without warning indicated to Francis "there was something unprecedented that hasn't happened before."
What about satellite technology? Is it possible that data from orbiting satellites might show a flash or infrared heat signature from an explosion? Very unlikely, says satellite expert Brian Weeden, who spent years tracking space junk in orbit for the U.S. Air Force. Dozens of government and private satellites orbit the earth, looking down from distances from 300 kilometers to 1,500 kilometers (185 to 930 miles). It's a long shot that one of them coincidentally floated over at the exact right time and location to capture a flash from an explosion.
However, there's an "off chance," Weeden says, that a super secret U.S. government satellite orbiting 22,000 miles in space might have grabbed evidence. These satellites are in geosynchronous orbit. As a group, they can observe virtually the entire globe. "We know that their mission is to detect ballistic missile launches via heat," says Weeden, now a technical adviser for Secure World Foundation. "We don't know if they're sensitive enough to track something like a bomb blast, even if that's what happened."
Then there's another unanswerable question: Would the government hesitate to release such an image for fear of revealing the satellite system's ultraclassified capability?
4. Scenario: Hijacking?
Fact: Before it disappeared, radar data indicated the plane may have turned around to head back to Kuala Lumpur. Is that a clue that a hijacker had ordered the plane to change course?
Analysis: So far, there have been no reports that the flight crew sent any signals that a hijacking had occurred.
source : http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-11/meet-2-iranians-center-stolen-passport-plot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1-NsRWv25k
ReplyDeleteaiyah, why not just take the good word from this prophet.
of if you are cynical, ask MAS to investigate him too.
afterall, according toa PAP MP, this could be a nigerian scam?
wonder if MAS embassy did receive the letter from this good prophet?
talking about managing people risk!
ReplyDeleteFreescale loss in Malaysia tragedy leads to travel policy questions
Mar 10 2014 Noel Randewich
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The loss of 20 key Freescale Semiconductor employees in the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner raises questions about whether the company should have allowed so many of them to board the same plane, but security experts said that at big corporations it's hard to avoid.
It was a blow to Austin, Texas-based Freescale. The vanished employees were engineers or specialists involved in projects to streamline and cut costs at key manufacturing facilities in China and Malaysia.
Many large companies have policies to prevent chief executives, cfos and other senior executives from flying together to minimize disruption in case of a fatal crash, but few firms extend strict policies much further down the ladder.
Large organizations from corporations to sports franchises almost never prevent key employees and team members from riding together in buses, limousines or cars, which are potentially more dangerous than flying, corporate safety and security experts say.
Even the Manchester United soccer team, which in 1958 lost 8 players after a plane they were on crashed during take-off in Munich, continues to fly together to games across Europe, as do professional sports teams around the world.
For global companies organizing sales conferences and moving workers frequently between sites, fettering employees' travel plans is impractical and often not worth the inconvenience and potential extra costs, except in unique cases where their loss would be catastrophic, the experts say.
"When a lot of people are killed all in one place at one time, we spend disproportionate emotional focus on that risk: disproportionate to the probability and to the tradeoffs involved in any risk management choice, like spreading these guys out and putting them on a bunch of different airplanes," said David Ropeik, who writes and consults about risk perception.
The risk of dying in a plane crash differs depending on variables looked at, like total distance flown versus the number of trips. But in general, commercial flying is safer than driving, Ropeik said.
Freescale has travel policies covering all of its employees and the number of workers on MAS fell within applicable guidelines, said Mitch Haws, the company's VP global communications and investor relations.
The Freescale employees on MH370 were mostly engineers and other experts working to make the company's chip facilities in Tianjin, China, and Kuala Lumpur more efficient. They were based in those two locations and traveled back and forth on a regular basis to work on different projects, according to the company.
While they accounted for less than 1% of Freescale's 16,800 employees, they were doing specialized work and were part of a broad push by CEO Gregg Lowe to make Freescale more cost-effective.
"Anybody who travels for a company is a relatively important individual," said RBC analyst Doug Freedman. "But Freescale has a deep bench. It has resources it will pull from other places to fill the void."
Letting a number of employees travel together is the norm rather than the exception for many companies.
you can read the rest at http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/10/us-malaysia-airlines-freescale-analysis-idUSBREA291UB20140310
Enough said.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/learmount/2014/03/malaysia-handling-mh370-incompetently/