Missing Plane. How the feck could this happen?

[Akimbo]

This news story makes me uneasy on many levels. The most obvious being that no bugger seems to know the direction the plane was flying. No one raised any alarm when the transponder was switched off. No alert when a plane deviates from it's prescribed course. Air Traffic Control can lose a plane like this. Passport control failed to spot stolen passports.

My feelings are with those families of passengers and crew presumed lost or at best hijacked and traumatised. Whatever the story they're still grieving and in pain.

What makes me most uneasy are the theories that the pilot and or co-pilot may be to blame and this is becoming a smoke-screen for huge security lapses. The home countries of all on board have been tasked with researching their lives but haven't reported back yet (as far as we know).

If I get on a plane I assume it's movements are closely monitored. When a plane ventures into a country's airspace don't their military spot it straight away? Am I being naive?

 

[iloveshopping]

If I remember correctly planes flying over the north circle flew in groups of 4 because there were communications problems over the article and planes had gone missing.
Nowadays there are less problems as we have satellite communications. However national air traffic control systems are often considered to be of a secret level because of the threat of airborne invasions so there is no shared information. Malaysia also has a very repressive political system so information from them is not easily available either. Joined up comms are less common that people imagine. Police forces in the UK withhold information from each other, child health data is not shared between local authorities. People don't want their health records shared because they worry about big brother and their records being accessed. So not surprising that planes can vanish leaving little trail.

 

[Lilo Lil]

I have never known so many different countries joining in the search! Who or What was on board that plane?

 

[May]

yes it must be totally heart wrenching for those poor poor families....my heart goes out to them i cannot even begin to imagine....i would only have to heer the word Hijacking and i think i would collapse if my loved ones were on there.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

We are now a week further on and still those poor people are in limbo, dreading the worst and probably hoping in vain for good news.

As already said something or somebody has taken their eye if the ball and it does not seem all Kosher.

I hope the families can have some peace of mind soon even if only to grieve in their own way.

 

[Weathergirl]

Not been posting much this week (no reason other than life!) but I have been avidly reading the papers, watching the news and waking up in the early hours checking for any news on this story. I for one am sick of the constant media -driven speculation. I wish they would look at a chronology of known facts and see what they have. Sadly due to the terribly mismanaged effort by Malaysia too much time has passed and arrogance may have dismissed credible lines of enquiry. My prayers and thoughts are with the passengers on the plane and their families and friends.

 

[PJ.]

Anyone with the Flight Radar 24 app could have Ben alerted to the plane going. I didn't get the app until after it went off radar but you can set it up to alert you if such a plane vanishes. Highly recommend the app, it. Shows you the planes over head or anywhere in the world live, you see them moving accross. The map, you can press on it and it shows you it's speed and height etc.

I know I shouldn't be anytime I see a plane vanish I always think of the show Lost.

PJ.

 

[iloveshopping]

Radar systems do not cover the whole world. So planes may travel in and out of different systems depending where they are so at times a plane may not be tracked at all even if their onboard aviation systems are on. Not looked at the app yet.