How Can A Boeing 777 Plane Just Disappear?

Posted by : foongpc | Monday, March 10, 2014 | Published in

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We have all heard about planes crashing. But a plane disappearing? That is an extremely rare occurrence!

No one knows what happened to flight MH370 which was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on the early morning of March 8th. The Malaysian Airlines (MAS) plane suddenly disappeared from the radar screen and lost all contacts with Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 1.30am, which was about 45 minutes into its flight.

Somewhere over the South China Sea, off the coast of Vietnam, the Boeing 777 jetliner carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members just vanished. There was no distress call, no indication of any danger or malfunction of any kind. Nothing. Search parties from Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and a number of other countries had been trying to locate it for the past 48 hours without success.

 photo FlightMH370_zps9f5fd023.png
Image courtesy of The Star Online

This incident must be one of the most puzzling mysteries of the year! Why puzzling?

1. The Boeing 777 is one of the safest planes in the world today. Except for a botched landing that killed 3 people in San Francisco in 2013, there have never been any crash fatalities. And MAS has one of the best safety records of all airlines in Asia.

2. The most dangerous part of a flight is during the take off and landing. But this incident happened during the safest phase of the flight that is, while it was cruising!

3. The plane did not run into any violent storm. The weather was perfectly fine!

4. There was no distress calls from the pilot. Given that the plane was cruising at that time, the pilot would have plenty of time to report any mechanical malfunction or problems. Even in the unlikely scenario where both of the plane's engines shut down, the plane could still glide for about 20 minutes, giving the pilot lots of time to radio for help.

5. The plane's inbuilt tracker (known as flight transponder) should automatically update its location to Air Traffic Control but in this case, it did not! The transponder data mysteriously showed no change in altitude or course.

6. A sudden bomb explosion due to terrorist activity would explain why there was no distress call and no update on the transponder device. An explosion at such an altitude would cause the plane debris to spread out over a wide area but so far, no debris has been found.

7. Even if it's due to terrorism, why up to now, no one is claiming responsibility?

8. The plane could possibly being hijacked, but then again, why would anyone want to hijack a plane and dive it into the sea? Wouldn't the hijackers land it at the airport so that they could voice their demands?

9. There were reports that the plane did an unusual turn back moments before it disappeared from the radar screen but why would the pilot not made a distress call in such a case?

So many questions and no definite answer. For now, there are only theories and speculation. You can read up on more of the theories on what happened to MH370 flight HERE.

Meantime, I pray that the search parties from all the different countries will be able to locate the missing plane soon. If no survivors are found, this will rank as the deadliest airline disaster since November 12, 2001.

Comments (30)

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So many possibilities but no answer. Indeed very mysterious. I hope they come back safe and sound.

Something unexpected happened and I think we search at the wrong areas or looking at the wrong clues. *heh too much TV* This is like X-files!!! or Lost. Maybe we are the dead ones?!? Anything is possible. Seriously I think it's either they're down under the sea or the plane has been hijacked.
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There are too many unsolved mysteries... guess we'll have to wait for more news. Hope the passengers are safe....
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just like what happened to Air France in 2009..simply vanished and 5 days later the shattered wreckage was discovered... and there's another one (i don't remember the name of the airline) oso vanished w/o a trace and remain lost to this day! but of cos we're all praying for a miracle lah...
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
So mysterious ! Unless there are some cover ups, really don't know what to make out of it. Pray for MH370.
1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
Thanks for the summary. I have read so many news, so blur already. Pray for MH370. Hope miracle would happen.
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
This is certainly unusual. I really feel for the families and friends of the people on that fateful flight.
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
My FB wall is flooded with speculations and (false) news almost everyday which sometimes give me hope.. Dunno whether to belif or not.. Or watching the news is more reliable? We are still hoping and praying for miracles.. The whole world is waiting for MH370, and frankly, we want to know what exactly happened more.
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
Hard to believe that plane can just disappear in this advanced day and age.
1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
I am still praying for miracles to happen. The plane's disappearance is really shocking and mind boggling.
1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
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Twilight Man · 593 weeks ago

I have flown the first time on this 777 when it was newly launched. That was onboard Singapore Airlines from Changi to Beijing too!! This plane is huge and lovely in all airlines.
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
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Twilight Man · 593 weeks ago

Even if they made real U turns, it did not show the full lengths. So they are just guessing again. Even the US Intelligence used their spy satellites to check and saw no explosions at all on that spot. This is really unbelievable.
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
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Twilight Man · 593 weeks ago

If you have watched Discovery channels in the past! they got report some planes had gone missing in Bermuda Triangles and never discovered. I find this a bit hard to swallow too.
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
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Twilight Man · 593 weeks ago

I have serious phobia for flying though I am not afraid of heights at all. I would really pray in front of altars for months and weeks before my flight. While on flight I would be calm and still prayed... Namo Namo Namo !!!!
LOL

I will be flying for vacation this month. Pray for me!
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
It is such a mystery. I sounds like fiction or a novel, but unfortunately this is a real life tragedy and mystery .
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1 reply · active 593 weeks ago
Tragedy clouded in mystery. :-( So sad that this happened to all those people. I do hope that the mystery will be gone and the people are actually alright.

May God help them all.
A very long time since my last vissit to this blog. I do hope you're fine Foong. :-)
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PC, I came back to your blog site after spending a lot of time how this flight could just disappear, and then thought, did either of your fengshui experts predict something during 2014. And I am amazed to say, per your blog, Lillian Too did say something BIG will happen to Malaysia during this year. Although you go on to say that she expected this to happen after Sept 2014, it is good enough for me that she thought something BIG and unusual, natural or man-made will happen this year.

I wonder if she has any "visions" on this truly unfortunate event, as while it is amazing that a large, highly efficient plane piloted by a highly competent captain can just go "off the skies", I pray that all passengers and crew are safe, and somehow, a miracle is there to save this terrible situation.

As a Malaysian, we always held our heads with pride that we could manage many things very well, and our airlines' safety record and quality of service was one of them. I hope that somehow, we can convince the world that this is the "true" us, and we have not lost anything of our excellent, quality values.
And now it's veered off to political inclinations..
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