Has anyone seen a Boeing 777?

[Semicolon]

United States Navy “captured and then diverted” a Malaysia Airlines civilian aircraft from its intended flight-path to their vast and highly-secretive Indian Ocean base located on the Diego Garcia atoll.

Link

 

This is a true story.  Many years ago whilst share housing as a student our itemised phone bill came back with a 5 minute call to Diego Garcia at 3 am.  This was about a fortnight after 9/11. All these years later my reaction is still a huge wtf.

Are you sure it wasn't a person named Diego Garcia?

[renaeden]

If not, that is one freaky occurrence.

[DirtDawg]

With all the advanced methods available to us these days, HOW do we lose an airplane (or a fucking giant jetliner) without trying to?

 

[Parts]

With all the advanced methods available to us these days, HOW do we lose an airplane (or a fucking giant jetliner) without trying to?

 

There is the possibility that the US, China, Russia or some other country does know where it is but don't want to say because they don't want to show the world the capabilities of their military sensors

[odeon]

It's actually not that difficult, apparently, which has been explained a couple of times in the media. If you turn off the transponders and stay within designated flight corridors, there's a good chance that while you'll most likely be spotted by ground control, you won't necessarily be identified. There's a lot of traffic and the Indian Ocean is a pretty big place. Some of those flight corridors lead to air spaces over land that aren't easily monitored.

There are satellites, of course, and I'm betting that there is a record of the plane somewhere, but the key is that it is not easily identifiable unless you know exactly what to look for and where.

The trick, apparently, is to stay within the flight corridors. Straying outside them would alert all kinds of warning systems.

I came across this visualisation the other day (the video is about halfway down the page). While it shows the air traffic over Europe, it's still rather telling.

['andersom']

Cool video.
Now I can see where the plane-routes come from, that merge over my head into one. There is not a moment that there is not a few planes in sight, on a bright day, and they do all follow the same tracks indeed. 

[odeon]

I think it's simply awesome.

['andersom']

Would love to see a closer up visualisation for the area I live. And that for different weather conditions too. Tracks "close" to airports are quite weather depending.

[odeon]

There's not a lot of variation over Heathrow, I think, unless the conditions are really bad. The sky is crowded and if you are in a holding pattern, it is what it is. I remember circling the airport for twenty minutes in rough conditions, last year. I could spot several other planes during those twenty minutes, not far off.

Incidentally, I went through Heathrow earlier this year, just around the time the storm hit Britain. I missed the worst of it, luckily, but landing was something of an adventure. The ride was bumpy and the approach almost sideways until the very last moment.

['andersom']

Schiphol has a tangentional system of strips used. And weather has an influence on that. I can notice it here.
And when I still had a friend in Amsterdam, the difference was very noticeable. Difference between being able to sleep in after a late night, or being woken by very low flying planes around 7 am.

[odeon]

I was stuck at Schiphol because of dense fog, some years ago. I guess you're right.

['andersom']

I was stuck at Schiphol because of dense fog, some years ago. I guess you're right.

So, stuck, and nothing to see outside the window, that sucks.

[odeon]

I was stuck at Schiphol because of dense fog, some years ago. I guess you're right.

So, stuck, and nothing to see outside the window, that sucks.

It's a nice airport, though.

[bodie]

Ok, it is looking like the plane has been found.  Or rather 'fragments' of it.  Sad news. 

While the hijacking theories were circulating it gave a tiny sliver of hope for the families that their loved ones might be alive.  They have had thirteen days in limbo and I can't imagine how awful that must be. 

I noticed one positive out of all this (apart from knowing this will lead to a new episode of 'Aircraft investigation' which makes damn good telly)  Malaysia,  USA,  Australia,  China,  Indonesia,  Japan,  New Zealand,  Korea,  France,  India,  Pakistan  have all been working together to search for this plane.  I don't ever recall an event in my lifetime which warranted such a vast number of nations to come together like this.  Quite impressive.

[Icequeen]

Hopefully they HAVE found something...I can't even imagine what these poor families have been going through with all these crazy ass reports they've released.

I have my doubts though...spent 2 nights surfing through over 4,000 images on Tomnod...flagged a lot of stuff that looked similar to the satellite photo they're showing on CNN as I'm sure others did...there's a lot of crap floating around in the ocean.