FOUR MORE HOURS New reports raise more speculation FOUR MORE HOURS: New reports raise more speculation 13 MAR 2014: There is still no sign of the Beijing bound Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared Saturday. However, two new reports have raised more questions than answers. One claims US investigators believe that Malaysian Airlines flight 370 remained airborne for four hours after vanishing from its last recorded position. The other says the FAA warned six months ago that certain models of Boeing 777 jets (though not the model of the missing 777-200ER) were vulnerable to a mid-air break up because of cracks in the fuselage. In an ‘airworthiness directive’ issued last September, airlines were given until April 9 this year to ‘detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin’ beneath the airliners communications antennae. Failure to fix the flaw could put the aircraft at risk of ‘a rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane,’ said the FAA. The directive applied to the B777-200, -200LR, -300, -300ER and -777F series airplanes, but not the B777-200ER which is the model of the missing jet and apparently has a different antenna. However, according to a second report the FAA said it had also determined that this unsafe condition is likely to exist or develop in other products of the same type design. Meanwhile, a report in the Wall Street Journal says investigators suspect that Flight 370 (that number has now been permanently retired by Malaysia Airlines) stayed in the air for about four hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location. Aviation investigators and national security officials apparently believe the plane flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing 777s engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring programme. If accurate, that scenario means the plane could have covered hundreds of miles more, perhaps as far as the Indian Ocean, the Pakistan border, or even the Arabian Sea, depending on the jets cruising speed. While it does not appear clear whether investigators have evidence indicating possible terrorism or sabotage, there is considerable speculation as to where the plane was headed, and why it seemingly continued flying so long without working transponders. The Wall Street Journal reports, US counter-terrorism teams are now pursuing the astonishing possibility that the plane and its 239 passengers was diverted to an undisclosed location with the intention of using it later for another purpose. This comes as planes sent to check the spot where Chinese satellite images showed possible debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner found nothing. Neither Malaysia Airlines nor Boeing executive would not comment on the new information. Adding to more speculation, a Chinese government website posted images from Chinese satellites showing what it said were three large objects floating in an eight-square-mile area off the southern tip of Vietnam. Those reports have since been refuted by authorities. A total of 56 surface ships are taking part in the search, along with 30 fixed-wing aircraft. The search has so far focused on the area between Malaysia and Vietnam. JustTravelDeals.ca
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 15:11:06 +0000
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