On January 31, Seabed Constructor vanished from the ship-tracking websites that various observers had been monitoring. This set up a minor international tizzy, with a number of outlets publishing headlines such as “MH370 mystery deepens as search vessel vanishes off radar for three days sending conspiracy theorists into a frenzy.”
The ship had been acting strangely in the hours leading up to its disappearance, sailing around in a big circle and then steaming in a beeline towards southwestern part of the search area, where it had started its work weeks before. It was in the midst of this beeline run that its AIS tracking system was apparently turned off. (This disappearance had nothing to do with radar, but whatever.)
Seabed Constructor reappeared a few days later, this time heading for a scheduled resupply stop in Perth. Ocean Infinity offered no explanation for what had happened. Some of the more imaginative independent MH370 researchers speculated that the ship had surreptiously been plundering shipwrecks found during the first seabed search.
On February 8, the notoriously unreliable Australian aviation journalist Geoffrey Thomas wrote a story in Perth Now claiming that the explanation was that the searchers had found found some interesting “geological formations” and “had returned to revisit those points of interest discovered on its first sweep and turned off its satellite tracking system so as not to give the relatives false hopes.”
Coming from Thomas, this almost certainly had to be untrue. Sure enough, more evidence has now emerged, and it appears that some kind of equipment fault was to blame.
The eighth search update released this morning by the Malaysian government reveals that “Earlier during the underwater search operation, an ROV was damaged and a decision was made to ‘wet store’ the ROV to minimize disruption to search operations.” Probably whoever wrote this meant AUV, autonomous underwater vehicle, rather than ROV, remotely operated vehicle, since ROVs are used to hone in on a target once it’s been identified. So far the search has found no targets.
Most likely, what happened is that at the end of January one of the AUVs went rogue, Seabed Constructor sailed around trying to find it, realized that it was probably at the southwestern corner of the search area, sailed down to go look for it–and while doing so realized that its bizarre behavior was being watched and so shut off the AIS to avoid further embarrassment.
Yesterday Richard Cole tweeted that Seabed Constructor had apparently deployed seven AUVS at the southern end of the southern leg of the secondary search zone, then dashed down to where the AUV lay on the seabed and deployed its ROV to retrieve it. “Probably the most complex search configuration we have seen so far,” he observed.
Earlier this morning Seabed Constructor finished its ROV work and hurried northward to gather up the AUVs, which were nearing the end of their endurance.
I’m guessing that the AUVs have a feature whereby if they lose communications with the mother ship they go to a predesignated point and rest on the seabed to conserve energy until they can be recovered.
I love the euphemism “wet store,” by the way. This is a major advancement in nautical terminology. If it had been around in 1912 then the White Star Line could have just said that the Titanic had been put in wet storage.
In other news, the latest report says that Seabed Constructor has now scanned 24,000 sq km. That doesn’t mean it’s 1,000 sq km from finishing the designated search area, though, because it still has to do the “southern leg” segments of the secondary and tertiary zones. These are not large however and should not take more than a few days.
The whole idea of Freescale & possibility sensitive cargo travelling on Mh370 under Diplomatic Baggage rules (thus avoiding the normal checks & not being noted on official manifests at least not public released 1s) was dismissed in the early days by many as too fanciful.
The downing of Mh17 which must have been beyond the greatest odds any bookmaker could have given & the advance of knowledge of Russia’s activities around the world & it’s constant denial of responsibility even in the face of hard evidence means the whole idea of Freescale being a major part of the reason for Mh370 disappearing is now a feasible talking point.
20 employees is not a small amount in terms of aircraft pax & in the absense of other stronger arguments for motive personally I would certainly be looking more closely at the Freescale, Russia, US & China link.
@Michael John, There are many aspects of this case — Freescale being one, and others being mangosteens, lithium batteries, flaperon trailing-edge damage etc etc — where people have scratched their heads and said, “That seems weird, maybe that’s the key clue right there.” It’s possible to build a narrative, or at least the shadowy shape of one, around that sole supposition. It’s like a circus elephant perched atop a tiny block. A great example of this is the fact that a well-known aviation writer wrote a whole book about the fact that she found a document implying that Malaysia Airlines hadn’t carried out a mandated fix to window seals.
Needless to say, to build a robust theory, one needs to survey the entirety of the evidence amassed so far, and these ideas (I hesitate to call them theories) never get very far. Not that stops people from trying to start again and again and again and again…
So let’s test the hypotheses that Russia is behind Mh370 disappearing.
Freescale has made no secret of it’s work for the US Defence department in advancing their capabilities across multiple aspects in Radar & Electronic warfare to name a few. This is public knowledge.
Disinformation is the key word here.
So Freescale puts 20 employees on a red eye flight out of Malaysia heading to China. Malaysia is known for it’s corruption & as became clear after Mh370 disappeared it’s overall state security appears to be lacking too. I think this is a fair assessment considering they allowed a passenger jet to just disappear. The communications was shocking to put it lightly. Nobody raised the alarm until it was too late to respond.
So IF Russia wanted to send a clear threat to Freescale that it’s work for the US would not be tolerated then I think offing 20 employees should be effective enough.
What’s remarkable is that would easily be overlooked by many as a feasible possibility because after pointing fingers at Malaysia for incompetence & accusing China & the US of playing some kind of political tit for tat games. After accusing the pilot or pilots of mental breakdown or any other range of potential motives judgement becomes clouded.
All Russia needs to do is make Mh370 disappear. Which brings in Jeff’s spoofing idea. Make the aircraft appear somewhere it’s not. Which is the SIO. Again whilst Mh370 remains missing speculation will continue. The key is the black boxes. Finding those will potentially unravel the mystery.
I think Mh370 was ditched off Northern Sumatra. With little debris being produced as a result. The ISAT data spoofed to make it look like Mh370 ran out of fuel after a ghost flight into the SIO. I would argue this theory is supported by the fact after 4 years we are still looking for the aircraft. I believe in the concept of hiding things in plain sight is best.
Is Spoofing possible?. Is it feasible? Is my theory fanciful?
Well when you consider Russia’s activities in recent years then no. I don’t believe what I’m suggesting is all that impossible. Look at Mh370 coming down off Northern Sumatra logically. The whole ISAT DATA being spoofed. It seems logical to me. The longer Mh370 was in the area the more chance of it being seen or tracked.
Key words: Veiled Threat.
Russia brings down Mh370 as a veiled threat.
When the message wasn’t received they took advantage of the war in Eastern Ukraine to enforce their point. Malaysia lost 2 aircraft in a short space of time. Which is unprecedented in the history of aviation so the likelihood of it being a coincidence is slim to none. Russia brings down Mh17. Anyone with a bit of savvy will link the 2. Whilst everyone knows Russia brought down Mh17 nothing can be proven. Thus a veiled threat.
What Russia’s long game is nobody but Russia knows. IMO unleashing a chemical weapon on foreign shores is an act of war. Although that has been stymied by the fact that whilst everyone knows that the Nerve agent belongs to Russia nobody can prove it. A veiled threat.
The constant airspace violations conducted against various countries across the globe. A veiled threat.
Russia’s annexing of Crimea & it’s involvement in Eastern Ukraine. They have all but denied direct involvement in both. Despite evidence to the contrary. Another veiled threat.
In fact you find anything Russia has been suspected of in history & you can practically guarantee that despite strong suggestion of involvement no conclusive evidence is ever found.
What I don’t understand is what Russia is hoping to achieve by all this.
@Michael John, The part I don’t understand is the endpoint off Northern Sumatra. What evidence points in that direction?
@Jeff
That part is pure speculation. I have satellite imagery, drift analysis, my version of debris interpretation & bio fouling, witness testimony, my view of common sense & logic, perfect ditching conditions.
But you asked for evidence…. Nope. I don’t have that. Then again I have no evidence that Russia is behind Mh370s disappearance either. But if it was down to me I would get OI to scan a wide sweep of the NIO just to rule it out.
Debris planting aside. Drift Analysis suggests that the debris came from the NIO or SIO. The SIO has been all but nullified. That leaves the NIO. That drift current originates off the coast of Northern Sumatra.
@(Not) PS 9, and all.
I think many of us here are comfortable with the idea of significant forces at work sub rasa to shape or reshape the international landscape.
But in doing so it’s important to be particularly critical in analyzing what fits that mold and what does not. To embrace something that ultimately does not undermines more important claims in those would would be skeptical.
In the case of Aerolinee 870 we have a report from one of the foremost air accident investigators in the world, we have forensic proof that does not indicate a missile hit. We have radar information that shows no engagement. We have actual videotape of an airshow accident indicating pilot error 8 years later involving pilots not considered culprits–not even of the same nationality as those considered culprits–by some in the always sensational Italian press and the Italian judiciary. And speaking of judiciary, we have a long, long history of the Italian judiciary acting in an unprofessional and rogue manner, including colluding with politicians. This behavior is well outlined in both popular magazines, such as the Economist and Atlantic and in journals such as the European Journal of Political Research. And of course we have many examples of innocents being imprisoned by the Italian judicial systems.
Foreign Policy has an excellent explanation of why one should always be skeptical of Italian Justice, which only 16 percent of Italians themselves trust, here:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/12/10/can-anyone-get-a-fair-trial-in-italy/
The short of it: coerced confessions, dubious forensics, evidence taken as proof, an inflammatory press.
@Michael John, Don’t think I’m ragging on you, I’m honestly curious about your reasoning. When you say “drift analysis suggests that the debris came from the NIO,” where are you getting that from? If the plane really did crash off the coast of Sumatra, you would expect to see a ton of stuff washing ashore in Indonesia.
Satellite imagery–you mean Tomnod stuff of debris floating in the water? If so, why do you think that debris comes from MH370?
Biofouling–again, what are you referring to here?
As for witness testimony, it is air crash investigation 101 that eyewitness testimony has virtually no probative value. And personally, I cannot imagine a less credible witness than Saucy Sailoress, if that’s who you’re referring to.
Perfect ditching conditions–since there is no evidence that the plane ditched, I don’t know what relevence this has.
Finally, you can’t just throw out the BFO and the BTO without some explanation of how it could have been corrupted.
Ventus45 posted this elsewhere:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/radio/local_sydney/audio/201803/ppm-2018-03-13-mh-recovery.mp3
Quite significant I think. If I understand correctly, it says that MY final report is already being reviewed by the various parties. It will be issued immediately upon OI completion, if and only if, the OI search is unsuccessful by June.
As far as cause of accident, the report apparently takes the approach of listing various possible causes, apparently including pilot hijacking and cargo mismanagement.
We do not know what other possible causes are listed. But I am thinking MY may not have too much freedom to shift blame to others. I am certainly thinking the global intelligence community has some idea what happened, and would speak out if MY tried to incorrectly infer someone else was responsible. My thought anyways.
@Jeff
You said:
“Finally, you can’t just throw out the BFO and the BTO without some explanation of how it could have been corrupted”
That’s the point. Until the Black Boxes are found we won’t have the answer to that. Although Fugro, OI, CSIRO, ISAT, SWG & the IG to name a few have been doing sterling work over the last 4 years & spent over 100 million trying albeit unsuccessfully to prove that the data WASN’T corrupted. We have a few months left. But like someone once said. Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. Almost…
@Jeff
You said:
“When you say “drift analysis suggests that the debris came from the NIO,” where are you getting that from?”
I have gotten that from various sources. The 3 I would use are Geomar, Csiro & NOAA.
“If the plane really did crash off the coast of Sumatra, you would expect to see a ton of stuff washing ashore in Indonesia”
That is the amazing thing about the current stream in the Indian Ocean. The principles seen to revolve around Gyres. The site of my interest lies on 1 of these gyres. The Gyre crosses a more powerful current washing East to West. I have shown this here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eU8tveIyJjYVE7WkwaUqTmkLRyuIN4UH/view?usp=drivesdk
“Satellite imagery–you mean Tomnod stuff of debris floating in the water? If so, why do you think that debris comes from MH370?”
It’s simple. They are plane like delta shapes that match Mh370 precisely in both shape & size. I balance that against the likelihood of having 3 plane like delta shapes within close vicinity of each other that are all complimentary of each other in terms of color, size & shape. I have consulted various satellite imagery specialists & I have had positive feedback from all & a in depth analysis from McKenzie Intelligence. They are unable to give anything conclusive however they do think the shapes are interesting enough to warrant a closer inspection by surface vessels.
“Biofouling–again, what are you referring to here?”
Again it was a basic point of those barnacles originates in warm water not cold. Unlike the SIO the NIO has a more suitable environment for Lepus Antiferra (probably spelt that wrong lol). Although these were only present on the Flaperon & the age means they could easily have attached closer to Reunion. So not something I would rely on as a strong point. Although I feel it is worth including in the overall summary.
“As for witness testimony, it is air crash investigation 101 that eyewitness testimony has virtually no probative value. And personally, I cannot imagine a less credible witness than Saucy Sailoress, if that’s who you’re referring to”
Yes & no. Singular witness statements are indeed unreliable. I made a point about this on Veritas recently. What I’m intrigued by is collectively the witness statements are clustered around a single broad area. Sumatra. I’m referring to not only Kate Tee but the woman on the plane & a few fishermen. Again I would stress I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on the statements themselves.
“Perfect ditching conditions–since there is no evidence that the plane ditched, I don’t know what relevence this has”
I believe based on my overall theory that Mh370 ditched. My point was that my understanding is that the sea surface conditions were more or less ideal for that. If you accept that Mh370 could have ditched then the sea state of the location in question is of course very relevant.
I have tried to keep to the KISS principle here. I don’t think anyone has any idea 100% where Mh370 is (Unless Russia does) so it is difficult to build a 100% solid argument. We are speculating. What I am trying to do is put together what I believe to be a good argument for a back up plan for if the 7th ARC & ISAT Data concept fails to bear fruit. Looking at current patterns & drifter buoys in the Indian Ocean it would seem that the debris came from either the NIO or SIO or even somewhere in the middle. That is scientific fact.
Unless Mh370 was flown to Russia & debris planted. Whilst I have my own theory I am not averse to keeping an open mind & examining others. As a final point. I can’t emphasise enough that the ISAT Data concept should take precedent & all options with that fully exhausted.
@Michael John, upthread you wrote
“What Russia’s long game is nobody but Russia knows. IMO unleashing a chemical weapon on foreign shores is an act of war. Although that has been stymied by the fact that whilst everyone knows that the Nerve agent belongs to Russia nobody can prove it. A veiled threat.”
I think Russia’s game is quite clear, if you keep in mind that the Kremlin and organized crime operate hand in glove. That is Vladimir Putin and his nostalgia for the Soviet empire and Semion Mogilevich, “the boss of bosses” of the Russian Mafia, someone the FBI calls “the most dangerous mobster in the world” and, some say, Putin’s puppet master, working together to achieve the aim of restoring lost glory.
This explains many seemingly disconnected events from land grabs in former Soviet states, such as Georgia and parts of the Ukraine, threats toward the Baltic states, attempts at strengthening relationships with both old and new client states such as Syria, Turkey, Venezuela, and North Korea, influencing American and Western European elections, possibly buying and/or blackmailing politicians, money laundering and economic manipulation, and a great deal of hacking, including, by the way, airlines:
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-03-15/russian-hackers-attacking-u-s-power-grid-aviation-fbi-warns?__twitter_impression=true
How does MH370 figure into this? I’m not entirely sure but I have read that the Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (potentially more private money for the two individuals above and others than a sovereign investment vehicle) was an investor in the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which had made a nearly $2 billion investment in 1mdb, the Malaysian wealth fund. And we know much of that money disappeared.
In fact, it wasn’t until Donald Trump’s election in the United States, which as has become clear was influenced by the Russians, and a subsequent meeting between Trump surrogate Eric Prince with both Russian and UAE operatives in the Seychelles, that the Malaysians agreed to make good on the missing money.
How that all fits together, if it does, I don’t know and yet I can’t help but think it does. And in that case MH370 and MH17 might not be the game or even the distraction we’ve discussed it being, but rather only a show of force or a threat—unfortunate collateral damage, much like the assasination of former Russian spies seems to be a message to others who would talk.
BTW, today on American TV certain former military and intelligence community personnel made no bones about the idea that we are now engaged in not just a new Cold War but an asymmetrical hot one.
@ScottO
Obviously we are going off topic massively but I agree wholeheartedly with what you say. What amazes me is the general blaise attitude we all have towards the threat that Russia is. I for 1 would readily admit to letting the incident in Salisbury go completely over my head. But when you think about it the narrative from the UK Government is that the incident is isolated & no threat to the wider public. Yet they have brought in the army. Locked down quite a few businesses in the area & seized quite a few cars. The latest advice was those in the vicinity of the incident was told to wash their personal possessions. Is this just the government being overly cautious & just demonstrating a hard line response or have we genuine reason to be worried?
Coming back in topic. IF & I believe it is a strong possibility that Russia is behind Mh370 as well as Mh17 could they do it again? It’s a rather uncomfortable thought.
What amazes me & mystifies me at the same time is the amount of people that seem to believe that is is a foregone conclusion that Mh370 HAS to be on or near the 7th ARC.
My question to those people “Why”?
Whilst we all acknowledge the formula & the thinking & in a perfect world that is indeed where Mh370 would be found. But nothing about Mh370 is within the realms of normal thinking. Even taking into the fray the possibilities of hijack or pilot suicide the overall picture just doesn’t seem to make sense.
I know people are uncomfortable considering Mh370 could be in Russia or off the coast of Northern Sumatra or indeed anywhere but the 7th ARC & I would acknowledge that is a default emotion. The 7th ARC is a lifeline. If Mh370 isn’t there then there is a very real chance it will not be found. Generally I get a feeling people don’t want to accept this possibility.
I suppose it is human nature. We will spend a long time & an unlimited amount money burying our heads in the proverbial sand. Who wants to acknowledge that the disappearance of Mh370 could have been the work of a rogue government with an axe to grind. Those people who dare to entertain the idea are labelled tin hat thinkers. The crazy people. But the reality is that there is rogue governments out there who are capable of doing the unthinkable & people need to start acknowledging that fact.
@Michael John:
I would think that the possibility of a russian link between MH370 and MH17 and the validity of the ISAT data are really separate issues.
@Jeff re ROV or AUV
Do you think OI PR got it wrong too for the ROV issue?
https://oceaninfinity.com/mh370-seaerch-weekly-report-7
A clarification from them would be appreciated.
@Gysbreght
Unless Russia was the reason for the ISAT Data being invalidated. Right now we have no idea if the data WAS invalidated. There is still a chance of Mh370 being found along the 7th ARC.
@Michael John, That chance is slim and fading fast, likely eliminated by the end of this month. That in itself is reason to suspect the Inmarsat data. The fact that the SDU was turned back on is further reason to question the integrity of the data.
@HB, It may be that an ROV was lost, though I don’t know why they would have deployed an ROV at that stage, or why they would have lost it. It would have had to have happened right when they first got to the search area, so its loss wouldn’t explain why Seabed Constructor sailed around in a circle before it switched off AIS. So it’s a legitimate puzzle at this point. That being said, I don’t see any reason that it’s necessarily germane to the search.
“During the three-day data blackout conspiracy theories spread online, including one that Seabed Constructor had taken a detour to recover sunken treasure from the nearby wreck of the SV Inca, a Peruvian ship that sunk in 1911 while en route to Sydney.
Kevin Rupp, a precision machinist who has been publicly tracking Seabed Constructor, said that was highly unlikely.
“I have nothing polite to say about those who are spreading rumours that Seabed Constructor was really on a treasure hunt,” he said.
He said all speculation was simply guesswork, and the tracker may have been turned off to prevent unnecessary distress to the victim’s families. “If the ship detected possible contacts [with MH370] its most likely action would be to move to the spot of the detections and lower an ROV – a tethered remote-controlled small vehicle,” he said”
From the Guardian.
Is it possible that OI was probing a potential hot spot more to do with the Inca & managed to lose it’s ROV in the process?
Whether they lost an AUV or ROV is it relevant?
Even if the Inca is on their minds (nothing to say it is) then they may just be looking to mark a spot for further investigation at a later date once the search for Mh370 is completed. Makes sense if they did detect a hotspot to send a ROV down to validate rather then waste time & money in the future.
Interesting youtube video about MH370, starting at 32:19 :
https://youtu.be/_khVtVuMKBo?t=32m19s
@Marc
Seems a little far fetched. China has a direct border with Afghanistan albeit narrow so if they want to move drone hardware there are probably easier ways than via KL and MH370. Anyway the Chinese are smart enough to build their own hardware and the Americans clever enough to make it extremely difficult to reverse engineer captured equipment.
Anyway I doubt the Chinese would take the risk with this sort of cargo and 169 of their own civilians on board.
More fog.
@mh
Sorry mh, I know you asked me something many weeks ago, but I hardly get time to post on here, even less to maintain a conversation, so I wasn’t ignoring you and hope it didn’t come across that way.
@all
Have you guys heard about the latest viral story that’s currently doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook atm? I was really conflicted about mentioning it here, after all it seems to be in the realms of fantasy but simply from the attention its getting on the internet it deserves a passing mention at very least.
It begins with a Twitter user by the name of ‘Ty’ @strayedaway – who claims that on March 13th he received a strange message on his voicemail that initially sounded like gibberish but on closer inspection used the Nato phonetic alphabet to type out:
“Danger SOS it is dire for you to evacuate be cautious they are not human 042933984230
SOS danger SOS.”
All very outlandish no doubt, though nothing particularly suggests the user – @strayedaway – would concoct such a story himself. He’s a young gay adult mostly posting personal content like most kids his age. The only slightly odd thing is the unusual choice of background on his account: a Russian flag alongside Evgenia Medvedeva – the skater, asleep on the ice.
https://twitter.com/strayedaway/status/973604056005570560
As can be seen, many retweets and replies have followed, mainly by younger Twitter users, I suppose attracted by the lure of a chasing an urban myth. But type the coordinates into Google and it does send you to a forest in Aceh?!
The next day, @strayedaway was sent messages in Indonesian apparently telling him to delete all his posts about the voicemail. These messages are sent from multiple user accounts, some of which still exist, but the main one – @hijj370 – was wiped a few hours ago.
The @hijj370 account also contained other apparently coded messages as well as an unusual recording of MH370. It can be heard here:
https://twitter.com/sadoboy4/status/974707766450315265
Is this the same as the recording as the one that’s already in the public domain, or does it differ slightly or maybe contain new information?
Of course it all might be a childish prank played by the original user and a group of his friends, but as I said above, a little confusing to me as why a young gay male posting mostly banal personal content since October 2014 should suddenly decide to concoct a prank around MH370, setting up multiple accounts, going to the lengths of learning various Morse codes, and uploading a recording from MH370. It makes me wonder if this is something more sinister – an attempt to mock, humiliate, or even boast – “4 years later and you still can’t get to us…”
That is supremely weird. Did you notice that the guy seems to have nearly 30000 (!) followers, and that that mh370 tweet was liked a quarter of a million times?? Is that normal for Twitter? (I never use Twitter so I can’t judge whether these are normal numbers or not but it seems really a lot to me).
The last few days have brought a few really really out-there events. The murders in the UK, now this. If you want to see it in a positive way, it seems like things are starting to get moving. Let’s hope that things don’t move in ways which we aren’t going to like.
@Havelock
Hi Havelock. As regards the numbers I think its more an indicator of how viral this story has become than anything else – that is, viral in a very short space of a few days amongst a certain (younger) section of social media user. Not being a Tweep either I’m not sure about the 30,000 number, but I’m assuming its normal for the length of time the guy’s been on there (4 years)? I’m sure someone on here can enlighten us!
Anyway, you’re spot on about the last few days, many strange events going on. Its hard to say what this is. Quite possibly an outright prank, at best scraps of some real info nestled amongst (mostly) garbage, and at worse, plain mockery and goading of those seeking answers!?
@Sajid, @Havelock
This is how we fall down the rabbit hole… I’d call this a prank built on a prank. Or at the very least a prank built on a message meant for someone else’s device.
The first guy gets a voicemail that is a crank call or unintended or otherwise made up (I say made up because one usually doesn’t send an entire message in the NATO or ICAO alphabet but rather parts that may be misunderstood; the exception might be communicating a single key message, as numbers stations have done since the first world war*).
He asks his twitter followers what the message means and it gets picked up on notoriously pranky boards like 4chan and reddit (exponentially spreading it) as well as distributed widely on twitter.
Someone converts the words to letters in a way that spells something out. Note the extra S–it’s not necessarily a repeat as the translator suggests and in that case the words converted to letters would only spell out nonsense. And it’s hard to believe a government communication would use an SOS, the word “danger” and order an evacuation without details. To who? For what reason?
Likewise the numbers, which suddenly find themselves as “coordinates.”
It would be interesting to know how many followers the OP had before this message and after. I’m guessing a lot more after, which might be the goal, frankly. Anyway, of all those new followers (incidentally many of which, on quick glance, seem like bots), one decides to link it to MH370, and down we go.
In any case, 250,000 retweets is a huge number, particularly for someone with 30,000 followers. For perspective: Barack Obama routinely has that number of retweets on a post, but he has more than 100 million followers. But the message has cleverly captured attention and that’s the viral nature of the web, particularly if it’s spread on multiple social platforms.
BTW, it occurs to me that this could have been a numbers station type message sent to some unwitting folks followed by some witting ones awaiting an encrypted communication. But as Michael John said earlier, that’s getting (way) off topic.
@Scott O. @Havelock
Scott O. – thanks for clarifying the Twitter numbers. ‘A prank built on a prank’ – very true.
Sorry I’m rushing this reply. That account @hijj370 now seems to be back up again?! The guy seems to have restored his older tweets as well. That QR code, I wonder what it is, I’ll need to d/l an app to check it, though I hope its not some dodgy virus. It may be an elaborate scam, but its a very weird one in its persistence, probably an MH370 fantasist whose got carried away
@Scott O. @Havelock
First QR code gives a gibberish code, second sends you to this page
https://m.imgur.com/a/QO7fl
but a message appears that doesn’t appear on the link: “Kids these days won’t know the struggle: Was driving with my dad the other day and he told me to get the map out of the glove box. Easy there Indiana Jones, I will just google it.”
The two images posted do not come up on Reverse Image search, but at this moment I’m leaning more towards silly 4chan prank (as Scott O. said) than anything sinister.
@all @Scott O. @Havelock
Images gone, account gone! Images were of a 777. I’m thinking maybe someone’s Imgur account was hacked in order to post the image? I’ll take a break from these messages now – don’t want to spam this place – you guys have most of the relevant links as well as the story. I found the Indiana Jones message weird though considering all that’s been said on this forum. But maybe that’s me reading too much into it!
I am reading the above few comments in complete disbelief.
How this prank has anything to do with Mh370 has got me stumped. Yes I followed the links provided and read the information on them, but I am still at a loss as to how anyone would link this bs to a missing airplane?
The most obvious explanation to me was Larping.
LaRPS
Legacies Role Play System
LaRPS is a roleplaying system in use for monitoring and advancing a players statistics throughtout their roleplaying session. Its prime use is in Second Life, OpenSim and other virtual worlds where avatars use storytelling as part of interactive scenes, which may include combat, in a virtual community environment.
One of the more well known MMORPGs to do this is COD.
Another thought was perhaps the tweeter just wanted some attention for reasons only known to him…
[off-topic comment deleted by JW] @Sajid, knock it off.
I don’t want to fan this nonsense any further. @Laura is surely right, this is either a role playing sort of game (in frankly bad taste, considering that there are NOKs with very legitimate grief) or an attempt at seeking attention/building social traffic (in equally bad taste). It might be intentional disinformation, which would tie in with the general impression of this affair. Nonetheless, letting this derail the conversation here is likely not fruitful. I have to admit though, I was flabbergasted. The imgur pic looks like a badly drawn infrared picture of a plane landing between two warm spots which lie on what looks like a ring. Maybe it’s a psychology major’s master’s thesis? A modern day Rorschach blot? Trying to see how long it takes until this forum starts discussing whether it’s Diego Garcia?! (Note how someone recently posted a youtube video of some guy blubbering on about how the plane went to DG.)
Let’s go back to serious discussion.
Meanwhile on Fake News.
T’Old Peter McMahon has hit the headlines. Seems he has managed to find the fuselage of Mh370 peppered with bullet holes….
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/689358/MH370-news-Malaysia-Airlines-search-found-Google-Maps-location
Looks like it definitely was an ROV that was lost…. Apart from that… Same old same old.
MH370
MH370 SEAERCH WEEKLY REPORT 7
13/03/2018
Operational search key developments weekly updates #7;
Key Developments
All available AUVs were launched for the search operation
The vessel has completed surveying Northern Leg Area of Site 1/Area 01, 02 & 03 and currently surveying Southern Leg of Site 1/Area 02
Seabed Constructor is expected to depart the search area for Freemantle later this week for a technical crew change, refueling and resupplies
Earlier during the underwater search operations, an ROV was damaged and a decision was made to ‘wet store’ the ROV to minimize disruption to search operations. Seabed Constructor will recover this ROV en route to Fremantle port.
Weather and sea condition were favorable for the search operations and Seabed Constructor made good progress over the past week.
The total area covered as of 11 March 2018 is 24,000 square kilometers
No significant contacts identified to date
http://pilotonline.com/news/military/article_474a9dc5-667f-559c-bb6c-8d88431a339e.html
“Coughlan said the metal tail looked new and contained no barnacles or corrosion”
“It is quite a substantial piece,” ” he told the Irish Examiner. “You would think it would have sunk, but the inside is layered with honeycomb material, and that could have made it buoyant.”
That is from an article about the vertical stabilizer from a US F14 that crashed off Florida that washed ashore in the Irish coast 4 years later.
What is the story with barnacles? Some debris has them. Some don’t. Could pieces of Mh370 still wash ashore somewhere in the world?
Where would drift analysts pin point the wreckage being now?
@Laura regarding the tasteless twitter posts:
It appears you might have been right about the LARP, people speculate that the weird twitter messages might have been connected to an Internet group called “Cicada 3301”. This seems to be some distinctly weird (for my taste), internet-subculture thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301
“Cicada 3301 is a nickname given to an organization that on six occasions has posted a set of puzzles and alternate reality games to possibly recruit codebreakers/linguists from the public.”
Another minor MH370 mystery (probably) solved. I want to repeat, I consider this in very bad taste. We should always keep in mind that at heart, this is a human tragedy, not some cheap riddle. The NOKs lost many loved ones; all discussion of these events should be in light of this and with deep sympathy towards the NOK and the many lives lost.
A few days ago I suggested that an inexpert pilot might have pushed the nose down to recover from a stall.
Another explanation for that action might be the DUAL ENG FAIL/STALL checklist calling for “Airspeed …. Above 270 kts” for best windmill start capability.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7w1n3jbsae026pv/DualEngFail%20Checklist.pdf?dl=0
Often, Twitter is a pathetic display of humanity, there is no virtue of shallow thought or ignorance. Individuals tying their self worth to notoriety from superficial bullsh** need to stay away from all MH370.
This tragedy belongs to the suffering and dedicated individuals, the trivial group should find their entertainment elsewhere.
@Gysbreght
Interesting observation…does your link work for you?
@Gysbreght
Will this be compatible with a rapid downward acceleration?
Note this is not compatible with mid air separation of debris. Would following a checklist likely to lead to exceedance of safe flying envelope?
Also a question remains as to why the pilot concious of saving the plane after a fuel exhaustion he is aware doing in the SIO. The motive does not seem to tally.
It think it is eiher incompetent pilot and SIO ot no SIO.
@TBill: Sorry, I intended to delete the link but forgot.
@HB: If the autopilot disconnected at the second engine flameout about 10 minutes after the first, the speed would be about 170 kt and the rate of descent 850 ft/min. To maintain the speed at 170 kt the rate of descent would have to be increased to about 2000 ft/min. The rate of descent would have to be increased to substantially above 2000 ft/min to increase the airspeed to ‘Above 270 kts’. That would not require 15,000 ft/min, but how would an inexperienced, surprised and possibly panicking pilot know how much is enough?
Anyway, 8 seconds is not a long time and leaves 20 minutes to correct that error.
@HB
Looking more and more like a competent pilot and no SIO.
We await the OI results keenly.
@HB: In addition, even experienced pilots have little if any experience in hand-flying a 777 with a degraded primary flight control system at cruise altitude.
@Gysbreght
As a non pilot, my intuitive reaction to a stall situation would be to maintain the pitch (the beginner mistake). Which could lead to inability to control the plane. Speed could go up out of control that way. Also a competent pilot will keep the plane within the safe envelope. That is the most plausible explanation i can think for mid air separation of control surface (assumed failure mode but needs forensic examination to confirm).
Regarding the panic / surprise reactin from a competent pilot, if the piloted route is to SIO he should be able to anticipate fuel exhaustion. Possible but …. something not right with the competent pilot scenarios or the SIO end point.
@HB:
“Also a competent pilot will keep the plane within the safe envelope.”
There are plenty accidents where competent pilots failed in that respect.
There is no evidence that the airplane disintegrated in flight.
I agree that several elements in combination point to an incompetent pilot at the controls at the end of the flight.
@SteveBarrat
I think whichever scenario has discrepancies to resolve.
@Gysberght
The strong clue is that the structural frame of the debris did not deform. i agree it is not conclusive without a more detailed study. I would call it a strong clue.
Since we, member of the public, dont have access to all the information, it is difficult to help further apart from postulating hypothetical scenarios to be considered by the official investigation.
@HB:
In that case the speed would not increase. The rate of descent would increase, and could ultimately reach or exceed 15,000 ft/minute, as it did in AF447, but not within 8 seconds.
@HB:
Which debris are you referring to? The failure of composite materials is not preceded by significant plastic deformation, and anyway such deformation would be present irrespective of the loads that caused the failure. So what is the clue?
@Gysberght
Please elaborate re 8s