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Friday, March 14. 2014

A Maggie's Scientific Poll re Flight 370

What a mystery it all is, with the info and theories changing hourly, and everybody jumping on the latest to keep the website hits coming.


We'll do the same. Whoever turns out to have guessed it right (ie what happened, and where the airplane is, with coordinates) wins a Maggie's Farm t-shirt (if we have any left).


Responses in comments, please.

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 12:37 | Comments (45) | Trackbacks (0)

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the Tamil rebel terrorist group from Sri Lanka. They invented modern terrorism and many of its practices.
#1 jv on 2014-03-14 12:48 (Reply)
I think that plane is somewhere in the jungle sitting on the ground with leaves over it. They took the cellphones of the passengers to keep them from sending out messages. The pilots are in on it.
#2 ttlyeightmom on 2014-03-14 12:50 (Reply)
Pilot error - crash into insert location sea
#3 TL on 2014-03-14 12:52 (Reply)
Can't we just wait for the movie?

OK, so the aircraft was in flight for over four hours after it was lost on air traffic radar. Several systems to keep track of the plane were deliberately turned off. The aircraft changed course and headed on a course to the Anderman Islands. This is what is apparently known at this time.

1. Turning off the transponder and other systems is clearly beyond the ability of any random hijacker.
2. If they were going to crash the plane into the sea or land why fly on for so long?
3. Military radar tracked the aircraft for hours, but did not (?) scramble fast-movers to intercept (or did they?).
4. The plane is unlikely the target or the prize. Of what use would it be?

Most likely not a terrorist operation. Military or some other national technical operation to gain access to a single person or to hold a large number of (Chinese) civilians captive. Why?

Best guess, the Dalai Lama ordered a western trained unit of Buddhist monks to kidnap a large number of Chinese citizens and hold them until the Chinese government agrees to exchange them for his Buddy Holly LP record collection.

Time will tell.
#4 John the River (Link) on 2014-03-14 12:57 (Reply)
Ace of Spades blog has lots of speculation and links. Most intriguing speculation has jihadis capturing and landing the plane so it could be used to deliver a nuclear weapon to the USA.

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/347879.php
#5 feeblemind on 2014-03-14 13:03 (Reply)
It crashed on the beach of an uncharted island.
These numbers have something to do with it: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42.
#6 Eastwood Ravine on 2014-03-14 13:03 (Reply)
I blame aliens. Not the illegal kind, though, the regular kind. Which, come to think of it, are the illegal kind, too.
#7 fiftyville on 2014-03-14 13:09 (Reply)
They came all this way...for Chinese takeout?
#7.1 coatings on 2014-03-14 14:30 (Reply)
or to take out Chinese...
#7.1.1 J.T. Wenting on 2014-03-14 16:02 (Reply)
DB Cooper ran out of money.
#8 William O. B'Livion on 2014-03-14 13:11 (Reply)
Pilot suicide.
#9 JM01 on 2014-03-14 13:14 (Reply)
Easy!

Remember the EP-3 plane diverted to Chinese territory during W's first term? The plane was entirely dismantled, its components stripped, and its design carefully studied.

The state-of-the-art, Boeing 777 is now in the hands of one of our trading "partners" being stripped, studied and copied. China lacks a world-class airline manufacturer because it lacks the technology to build competitive air frames, passenger accommodations and lightweight skins. Now, that has all changed.

This could be a game-changer folks! It used to be Boeing vs Airbus, a fight between an American company and a European government agency. Now it'll be a three-way battle: an American company vs two antagonistic governments' agencies.

The downstream politics of this could be interesting:

will Lloyd's of London pay on MH's insurance claim of loss, or will China reimburse the airline for its "loss?"

Will Boeing, which recently relocated its headquarters to Chicago, play its Illinois card and threaten to move to, say, Houston, the other urban suitor to the company, if the US government won't seriously investigate this mystery (recall that IL's credit rating just took a hit, so Obama's base there ought to be watching)?

And, will the Democrats finally muster enough patriotism to protect an American manufacturer against foreign espionage, if only to save Illinois' bottom-line, itself dependent on tax revenues from companies like Boeing?

All these questions impact American political debates about the fate of American manufacturing in 'blue' states, and about DC's ultimate fealty, as in, does DC 'care' about American companies' ability to compete on the world stage, or is the district just another money-grubbing cog in the Left's global influence-mill?

We may be about to find out the answers to these questions. Stayin' tuned!
-S
#10 steveaz on 2014-03-14 13:18 (Reply)
One small problem.

China operates 17 Boeing 777's already. And does hanger maintenance. Why go through all this song and dance?
#10.1 John the River (Link) on 2014-03-14 14:21 (Reply)
old habits?
But yes, if the ChiComs wanted her to copy they could have done it far cheaper and easier.

Like just using their existing industrial espionage network to get a full set of blueprints...

And of course do whatever they might have done while the aircraft was over Chinese territory.

I think we can pretty much rule out terrorism, as nobody has yet claimed to have "done it", whatever "it" is.
#10.1.1 J.T. Wenting on 2014-03-15 02:22 (Reply)
The plane has landed on Gilligan's Island!

The Professor, with the help of Gilligan, the Skipper, Ginger, and Maryann, are trying to figure out a way to make enough jet fuel from fermented coconut milk so they can fly the plane back to civilization.

The Howells, of course, haven't helped with the professor's scheme since they are too busy raiding the plane's first class lounge for the tiny bottles of booze.
#11 Charles on 2014-03-14 13:28 (Reply)
No clue.

All I can guess is that it was not mechanical failure. That just doesn't happen.
#12 Bird Dog on 2014-03-14 13:44 (Reply)
BTW...that's a somewhat bigger plane than a 777 in the accompanying picture. And it has too many engines...
#13 Soviet of Washington on 2014-03-14 13:58 (Reply)
The picture is a 747......
#13.1 Dorf on 2014-03-14 14:10 (Reply)
I know. The 777 is missing, ya know?
#13.1.1 Bird Dog on 2014-03-14 14:12 (Reply)
Makes as much sense as the TV Series "Lost."
#14 Jim on 2014-03-14 14:30 (Reply)
Terrorist blew out window at 30,000 ft. - 40 deg- instant decompression- gathered cell phones after all passengers died- landed Pemba, Mozambique. 12°58'S: 40°30'E
small airport on the coast.
#15 Kelvin on 2014-03-14 14:32 (Reply)
Obviously, the most logical explanation at this point is that it is all part of a typical crazy Hollywood plot for the sequel to "Lost"- the popular movie series, which I think was set in such a tropical setting, remember? Of course it will be updated with the usual obligatory muslim bandits involved, this time around. Hmmmmm....
#16 Harry on 2014-03-14 14:37 (Reply)
Follow the money, that is the trick. A global consortium managing things in the Ukraine, the Mideast, and the Sino-Korean border are orchestrating power shifts in various regions. Hackers that can penetrate secure computer systems all over the world have set up a false front scenario. We only "suspect" the plane kept flying, we only thought we heard those cell phones.

The Malay Air Force shot the plane down, part of an ongoing effort to silence bankers and tech persons. One identified from the passenger list was an engineer with Texas Instruments.
#17 chasmatic (Link) on 2014-03-14 15:55 (Reply)
It was deliberately flown into the black hole that is Obamacare Logic.
#18 Sam L. on 2014-03-14 16:29 (Reply)
It may have been a mission to see how easy it would be to travel unseen through some heavily defended airspace to make a point? Like that German kid who landed in red square some years back, only bigger and better? Maybe to wake Putin up from his dream of empire building? It will land in Kiev or Warsaw. Unless it got shot down. Then it won't. I'm almost certain of that.
#19 KommiKillr on 2014-03-14 16:38 (Reply)
Wendy Davis is tired of not being taken seriously. The younger pilot, her lover, will return the plane and hostages, minus the dead captain of course, after she is elected. You read it here first!
#20 raincityjazz on 2014-03-14 17:20 (Reply)
Terror test run for new operation in US. Plane is gone as are passengers. It was an attempt to test tracking. Now they know the US has devices which monitor post human shut down and can devise ways to thwart that. The terror arms race just got bumped up a notch.
Malaysia was known as an easy entry point to run tests of this nature.
#21 Bulldog on 2014-03-14 17:26 (Reply)
Sheesh.
#21.1 Bird Dog on 2014-03-14 17:29 (Reply)
Hey - the best ideas come from the craziest places. LOL. That's why the CIA hires Hollywood scriptwriters to come up with terror scenarios.
#21.1.1 Bulldog on 2014-03-14 19:36 (Reply)
Here's a reasonable theory: http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/students-theory-mas-mh370-goes-viral-20140312
#22 DMW on 2014-03-14 17:57 (Reply)
Oddly enough, though without that much detail, my wife theorized the same thing. Her comment was "it's a Payne Stewart type situation"

The details, of course, make all the difference since it's clear it couldn't have been sudden decompression like Payne Stewart.
#22.1 Bulldog on 2014-03-14 19:33 (Reply)
I don't know about the sudden decompression, but what the heck was with the climb to 45,000 feet, the rapid descent, then the leveling off followed by many hours of silent flight? Could everyone aboard (or at least in the cockpit) have been dead/unconscious while the autopilot flew the plane 6-7 hours out into the western ocean, until it crashed upon running out of fuel?
#22.1.1 Texan99 on 2014-03-15 19:00 (Reply)
The plane crashed where contact was first lost. Total disintegration. A pelican ate the transponder and now all the worlds navies and half the airforces are chasing a sickly bird across the Indian Ocean.

T-shirt size XL please.
#23 Arizona Dave on 2014-03-14 18:18 (Reply)
Probably right. We're out of XL, sorry.
#23.1 Bird Dog on 2014-03-14 18:20 (Reply)
Somewhere near Gwandar. Lots of remote unfinished highways etc. Maybe Meer Gurab.

Actually I still suspect it crashed, but if not, coastal Pakistan may be a place to look.
#24 forest on 2014-03-14 18:25 (Reply)
Is a proof of concept trial run. Someone wants to see how many ways this plane can be tracked. Was taken up and decompressed to kill all passengers then flown to small airstrip on some out of the way place around the Indian ocean.
#25 checkers on 2014-03-14 20:52 (Reply)
It will turn out to be a case of Muslims "muzzing". It's what they do.

This was a "blow the plane up" mission from the beginning and the stolen passports were used so the suicidal mass murderers could board it with high tech explosives. Sit in the correct seat and you can blow the plane out of the sky with a relatively small explosive device.
#26 M@rk on 2014-03-14 21:04 (Reply)
Continuing news, Malaysian’s hijacked it, brilliantly sent everyone on a wild goose chase everywhere else, are going to use it for pilgrimages, once a year. It is hidden under lots of mosquito netting, painted dark sand camo, don't ask what happened to the souls on board, (opened windows at 46000 feet, which asphyxiated all desired aboard quickly, above service ceiling, partially stalled out, descended to 20000 feet, cruised a bit, went lower under radar, landed back in Malaysia, covered aircraft, continued to play distraction shell game), and that all explains a lot, including the apparent total incompetence of the Malaysians. They actually were calculating all this as the master plot, and are deceptively smart, since they fooled the world!

Best of all, they get "culture creds", and a free missing aircraft, since insurance company will pay for its loss from their fleet. Later, they collect royalties from Hollywood for the sequel, Lost, and no one's the wiser for it except for a few who were in on it, who know better than to talk, since they collect some money, too. (You know, follow the money!) Well, that's my story, and oh, its sitting on the eastern Malay beach, around Kapung, to this day where they landed it.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the sequel, to see who-dun-it.
#27 Harry on 2014-03-14 22:20 (Reply)
The 2 "immigrating" Iranians commandeered the plane, landing it on Car Nicobar in the Andaman Islands, refueled, and took it to Iran undetected after shutting off the transponder.
#28 Kat in Indiana on 2014-03-14 22:28 (Reply)
All,
We are engaged in the herd mentality. Whichever theory that triggers a spark in our individual consciousness is always valid. In music, we expect resolution in the next passage to help ground us. This exercise will continue will we receive visual evidence. That's who we are - the curious animal. Thanks.
#29 Clarion on 2014-03-14 22:55 (Reply)
Just a hunch: China decided it was really a war plane from some country that disagrees with their claim to own the entire South China Sea, so they shot it down. If this is true, the plane will soon be found at the bottom, somewhere between Viet Nam and the Philippines, by the US destroyer that was recently sent there.
#30 jdgalt on 2014-03-15 00:01 (Reply)
Hijacked by Christian terrorists.

Plane parked in hangar, Mena, Ark.
#31 Myron on 2014-03-15 02:57 (Reply)
Not Mena, Arkansas, rather Branson, Missouri.
#31.1 Sven Svenson on 2014-03-15 11:15 (Reply)
We have commandeered your aircraft to suit our purpose. Soon the entire world will be watching.

Semper idem.
#32 tennesseered on 2014-03-15 14:55 (Reply)
MAJOR POTENTIAL NEWS: This from a major American source, and I originally discarded this possibility because of terrain, and potential radar coverage. I had figured more likely Bangladesh, but this source is high end, and fresh. So........

I used the seashore gambit in my partial tongue in cheek entry for expediency, because of the Malaysian behavior as highly reflective of complicity in the tragedy. I do not wish to comment on the fate of the passengers, time will tell, sadly, likely. I can only think of two sad scenarios, unimaginable to normal sentient humans, but such individuals who do this type of thing are far from normal sentient beings as increasing populations are learning.....

I still have a lot of difficulty imagining a flight route, into Pakistan, running on fumes, avoiding radar. But there are a lot of airstrips hanging around near the coast, maybe inland too. But 4400 out of optimal fuel management range of 6000 s. miles, how? Especially the route screwing around maneuvers and low altitude flight, would have cut range to somewhere likely of 4500 to 4800 s. miles, if lucky. Stranger and stranger. Looks like everyone should be on guard, anywhere in the West.

"Boeing Source: Missing Plane Is in Pakistan
The Malaysian government reportedly is investigating the possibility that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 avoided radar detection and landed in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border inside Taliban-controlled territory, according to the UK Independent. A ....... analyst received information from a source at Boeing that the company believes the plane did land in Pakistan."
#33 Harry on 2014-03-17 19:54 (Reply)

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