BALTIMORE, Maryland March 11, 2014 (9:10 pm) - As with any major news story in which the inevitable end takes its time in arriving - and in this case it is still not nearly finished - the Malaysian Air Disaster has had some wild and pernicious rumors circulating just below the surface. This one was especially ripe for just that kind of wild speculation. A huge new jumbo jet filled with innocent people takes off from an airport in a part of the world not familiar to those living in the western world, and before one hour is up, it has disappeared off of the map of air trafic controllers. In this case, the Malaysian Air Lines Boeing 777, one of the most dependable passenger air craft in the world, left Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 am Saturday morning. There were 239 people on board, including folk from some 14 different nations. The plane was due in Beijing, China at 6:30 am. A seasoned captain, 53 years old and with over 18,000 hours of flying time to his credit, was in the pilot's chair. The co-pilot, upon reflection, was still a bit green behind the ears in the estimation of veteran pilots. He was 27 and had amassed a little over 2,700 flying hours. Because this flight was in the "long distance" category, many aviation experts said they wished he had about three times as many hours before getting into the co-pilot's chair. The jumbo jet climbed uneventfully to 35,000 feet and at 1:20 am it checked in, as planned, with air traffic controllers at Subang, Malaysia. It was supposed to be the last radio exchange with Subang, and controllers there were about to hand off responsibility to air controllers in Hanoi, Vietnam, also known as Ho Chi Minh City. It never took place. Almost immediately after the 1:20 am transmission to Subang, the plane disappeared off of civilian radar. It was never heard from again. It took air controllers at Subang well over an hour to contact Malaysian Airlines with the news, a delay that has not been explained. Several hours after this, search and rescue crews were notified and the first search planes took off.
It is at this point that the mystery of the missing flight grows exponentially. Even tonight, over three days after the last transmission, the exact location of the plane has not been relayed to investigators. By Monday morning ships and planes from nine different nations were involved in the search. There have been several false alarms. There were reports of twin oil slicks off the coast of Vietnam, and another report of a floating airplane door. Both reports did not bear fruit. The oil slick was not made with aviation fuel. The floating object was not an airplane door. Amidst all of the false alarms and rumors, Malaysian officials let one tidbit slip from their tongues. Someone near the head of the investigation let slip that there was some evidence that the flight had turned around. It was never explained, at the time, what the source was of that tidbit. It did no come from the civilian radar. Then, today, several aviation blogs, quoting Malaysian Government Personnel who were inside the investigation but were supposedly not cleared to talk to the media, were talking anyway. They told an almost unbelievable story. The Jet, which put out no mayday, and gave out no data from the myriad of sensors on board that are connected by radio to ground computers, did in fact continue to fly after it disappeared from civilian radar. A different radar that is operated by the Malaysian Air Force continued to track the plane for an additional one hour and twenty minutes, according to the Aviation Herald. During that time the Jet flew some 285 nautical miles due west from the point where it was when it last contacted Subang and disappeared from civilian radar. It also descended. At the time the plane last contacted Subang it was cruising at 35,000 feet. When the military radar lost contact with the plane over the Straits of Malacca, near the very small island of Pulau Perak, it had come down to 29,500 feet. Throughout that 285 nautical miles, there were still no radio or data transmissions.
But even though the Malaysian Military lost track of the plane at this point, it had not disappeared from everyone, not yet anyway. The Aviation Herald says that an aviation source in China says radar detected the plane making a "steep and sudden" descent. The Chinese Government has said that the Jet never entered Chinese airspace. The final witnesses to the Jet's flight were witnesses on the ground near the Malaysian City of Khota Bharu. This city is near the Malaysian border with Thailand. In Khota Bharu local police report that they were contacted by several people who saw a plane flying at only 3,000 feet. It was a big plane, with flashing red lights.
Apparently, all of this information has been known by Malaysian Authorites for more than a day, yet they have not made it public in its entirety. Instead, the search planes and search ships have continued looking in areas where these officials knew they weren't going to find anything. There's more. There apparently have been numerous reports from friends and family of the people who were on the plane who said that even after the flight went missing they continued to get ringing on cell phone calls sent to the people on the plane. No one answered, but then again the phones did ring. They apparently would not have rung if the plane was in the water or if the plane had disintegrated. The reports were discounted by officials who said it was some kind of annomaly. Another aviation web site, "Crikey - Plane Talking with Ben Sandilands" has information about the ringing phones and an article that says there is evidence some Malaysian Government Officials have visited the crash site. See that report at this web address: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2014/03/11/mh370-did-authorities-visit-crash-site-today/
The Sandilands piece raises a good point. Why did it take Malaysian Government officials to share information with the eight countries whose personnel and equipment were participating in the search? The United States even deployed a battleship with elite tracking equipment to help in the search. Scores of experts are participating. Sandilands wonders whether the Malaysians were stalling with their information why they figured out a way to protect the state-owned airline. That airline was already in trouble because it let two people board the plane with stolen passports. As was pointed out by several sources, the information about the passports was readily available to Malaysian Airlines through Interpol. Malaysian Airlines flies into the United States, at least they have up to now.
Sports. Maryland Bats Come Alive in 10-1 rout of Delaware Five Maryland pitchers scattered six hits and the Terrapin Hitters recorded four multi-run innings in a 10-1 win over Delaware at College Park, Maryland today. The win improved Maryland's overall record to 10-4.
Centerfielder Charlie White drove in two runs and scored two runs for the Terps, while Kyle Convissar and Blake Schmit had three hits apiece. Maryland opens the home portion of it last ACC schedule this weekend when North Carolina comes to College Park for a three game set. The first game is Friday night at 6:30 pm, followed by day games on Saturday and Sunday.
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