MH370 missing

[PaulF]

I want what Ben T's on.

Or maybe I don't.

I'm sure if you just follow the recommended dosage you'll be fine

[TheLurker]

A plane couldn't possibly go missing in today's world...
Somebody's bound to notice.

Yes.  The whole bloody world noticed and in fairly short order.  The fact that we haven't so far found it after we _all_ noticed that it had "vanished" is (probably) due a mixture of Mk I cock-up, patchy surveillance and the fact that the Ocean is big; so big ....{insert Doug. Adams bit about size of universe here}.

[Wascally Weasel]

Ben I'm surprised you haven't considered the option that someone secretly built a really really really really big aircraft carrier and that the pilot was persuaded to land on that.

That's just stupid. My money is on a submarineltunnelling machine hybrid, which surfaced in Antarctica and then used steam hoses to prepare a runway (like in the documentary FireFox).

[mrcharly-YHT]

I think it was swallowed by a giant flying cloudwhale

[Lordy]

Please let BenT have his say, he's  a 'goddamn marvel of modern science' just like Randal P McMurphy.

Keep it flowing Ben

[clarion]

I think the pilot secretly fitted rockets to it, achieved escape velocity, and is well on his way to his secret lair on Mars.

[PeteB99]

Possible pings detected.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26902127

Let's hope it's real and not just some sonar operator hearing what he wants to hear.


"They say the signal has a frequency of 37.5kHz per second - the same as those emitted by the flight recorders."

kHz per second 

[Bledlow]

Ben, if "somebody" had an unknown base on Antartica then I would imagine that it would already be staffed on a permanent basis. That "somebody" would have needed to ship in a lot of heavy machinery to smooth out the ice in order to make a runway (and make sure that it's thick enough to take the weight) and would then need to stay there to maintain that runway - I would guess that at a minimum it would need to be cleared and prepared again within 24 hours of being used - if the weather is pretty much perfect.

I might point out that Antarctica has the lowest rainfall of pretty much anywhere in the world, it's technically a desert.
And who's to say this runway isn't made out of tarmac?
"Don't be silly Ben, they couldn't have built a tarmac runway on antarctica - somebody would have noticed!"

And how did they get the materials there on a ship?  They couldn't possibly have done - somebody would have noticed!

And how could they have they been constantly ferrying people out and back there to staff it - surely somebody would have noticed?!


A plane couldn't possibly go missing in today's world...
Somebody's bound to notice.

Somebody did notice. Rather quickly.

Where do you buy your tinfoil hats?

Made of tarmac?  Look at a map. Look at satellite pictures. Do you really think you could hide a 3 kilometer long strip of tarmac in the relatively small areas of Antarctica that are on the right side of the continent & aren't under permanent ice?

You've assumed that bad weather = rain.  You really are an idiot, aren't you? Why don't you try thinking? Really, it's not too hard.

I would like assurances that you don't drive any kind of public service vehicle, as I want to be sure I never get in anything driven by you.

BTW, I'd rather be conditioned to think the way I do by the media* than be a raving loony, as you are. Your thinking could do with some conditioning.


*Which, of course, I have not been. You're flaunting your lunacy.

[pcolbeck]

Made of tarmac?  Look at a map. Look at satellite pictures. Do you really think you could hide a 3 kilometer long strip of tarmac in the relatively small areas of Antarctica that are on the right side of the continent & aren't under permanent ice?

Perhaps if they painted the tarmac white. Or trained a big flock of penguins to stand on it when it wasn’t being used.

[Euan Uzami]

Somebody did notice. Rather quickly.

Not till it was too late. They didn't notice it had gone off course as soon as it did - only when it failed to land when it was supposed to.

If I was a very powerful person and ran a base in antarctica, and I needed to get some staff there rather quickly because of some emergency, I'd think commandeering a commercial airliner would probably be the way to go. I'd nobble ATC to make sure the only thing that got out was that it had "gone missing". A week or two later I'd then probably also go back and leave a few big bits of metal in the sea to make them think it had gone down there.

Made of tarmac?  Look at a map. Look at satellite pictures.

Look at a map? "Look at a map!" he says! Me look at a map? what good is a minion, a member of the mere public, such as me looking at a map going to do? You really have just believed the official line hook line and sinker every step of the way and aren't really thinking objectively for yourself at all. If you want to go on believing the world is some kind of utopia that really is exactly as it is presented to be by official channels then carry on but you'll be deluding yourself.
Even if whoever owns the base wasn't powerful enough to keep satellites away from it in the first place, they've almost certainly got enough clout to keep the pictures off the internet.
If the likes of Microsoft and Google let it be public knowledge that they agree to keep each other's data centres off satellite imagery, then the world elite are certainly not going to go to the trouble of building a base then let it be discovered by commercial mapping satellite.

BTW, I'd rather be conditioned to think the way I do by the media* than be a raving loony, as you are.

Those involved would rather you did as well. Just as well for them that most of the public do, really.

[Lordy]

You know what Ben, I think you've cracked it.  Now that's sorted.  Can you answer what happened to Diana? However, go careful as I don't want to piss my pants again.

[clifftaylor]

If I was a very powerful person and ran a base in antarctica, and I needed to get some staff there rather quickly because of some emergency, I'd think commandeering a commercial airliner would probably be the way to go.

1/  You're not.

2/  You don't

3/  If either 1 or 2 was true, you'd have your own aircraft, would you not??

[Euan Uzami]

If I was a very powerful person and ran a base in antarctica, and I needed to get some staff there rather quickly because of some emergency, I'd think commandeering a commercial airliner would probably be the way to go.

1/  You're not.

2/  You don't

3/  If either 1 or 2 was true, you'd have your own aircraft, would you not??

Probably a few - albeit smaller ones, yes, and generally that's probably why this sort of thing doesn't happen very regularly. But on that occasion it might not have been able to land where it needed to be to pick people up (in malaysia) or they might not have had time.
But the asset might have been the plane itself rather than the people on it -  how do you think they acquire any plane in the first place, or replace it when it gets old,  they can't just walk into a boeing showroom, pick one, and pay the  nice man at the counter.

[clifftaylor]

Probably a few - albeit smaller ones, yes, and generally that's probably why this sort of thing doesn't happen very regularly. But on that occasion it might not have been able to land where it needed to be to pick people up (in malaysia) or they might not have had time.
But the asset might have been the plane itself rather than the people on it -  how do you think  they acquire any plane in the first place, or replace it when it gets old,  they can't just walk into a boeing showroom, pick one, and pay the  nice man at the counter.

What sort of thing?? If you were a very powerful person, why would you only have small planes?? Who are "they" in this context?? It is possible to hire aircraft of course.....

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Made of tarmac?  Look at a map. Look at satellite pictures. Do you really think you could hide a 3 kilometer long strip of tarmac in the relatively small areas of Antarctica that are on the right side of the continent & aren't under permanent ice?

Perhaps if they painted the tarmac white. Or trained a big flock of penguins to stand on it when it wasn’t being used.

It is quite snowy in Antarctica!  Snow is white.  I guess when the tarmac was first laid it would have melted the snow but obviously they'd have got McAlpine's fusiliers to do it overnight.  (Is it night time in Antarctica this time of year?)

[clifftaylor]

It is quite snowy in Antarctica!  Snow is white.  I guess when the tarmac was first laid it would have melted the snow but obviously they'd have got McAlpine's fusiliers to do it overnight.  (Is it night time in Antarctica this time of year?)

This is 2014 - I can't believe that you can't get white tarmac (preferably a "cold pour" version so that your runway doesn't become a trench).

[eck]

Ben T: Up the wrong tree. Barking.

According to "stuff" on Facebook, it was taken over by Sinister Forces (TM) and flown to Diego Garcia of which, according to said stuff. no-one has ever heard, and all the passengers held hostage. Except one who stuffed his cellphone up his ass, then used it to send a (not surprisingly) "blank" photo, thus proving  everything. 

Except Paul Simon:

Out in the Indian Ocean somewhere
There’s a former army post
Abandoned now just like the war
And there’s no doubt about it
It was the myth of fingerprints
That’s what that old army post was for

Trufax.

[Vince]

Have you considered that the plane may have landed on a floating pykrete runway, but it drifted to the north, outside the current search zone to a warmer area, where the wood pulp melted and the plane sank?

[David Martin]

Dagenham. No, not the location, but it is three stops beyond Barking

[mattc]

Have you considered that the plane may have landed on a floating pykrete runway, but it drifted to the north, outside the current search zone to a warmer area, where the wood pulp melted and the plane sank?

Of course.

Who hasn't? 

[pcolbeck]

Probably a few - albeit smaller ones, yes, and generally that's probably why this sort of thing doesn't happen very regularly. But on that occasion it might not have been able to land where it needed to be to pick people up (in malaysia) or they might not have had time.
But the asset might have been the plane itself rather than the people on it -  how do you think they acquire any plane in the first place, or replace it when it gets old,  they can't just walk into a boeing showroom, pick one, and pay the  nice man at the counter.

Ben you have overlooked one thing. No matter how big a super villain you are you can't operate a large commercial jet in secret. Since 9/11 any heavy without a flight plan or not identifying itself entering a counties airspace would soon find itself on the wrong end of an AMRAAM or the Russian or Chinese equivalent. Makes having a secret private airliner a bit pointless.

[reddo]

I got a mate at the AAIB, might direct him to this thread

[Bledlow]

....
But the asset might have been the plane itself rather than the people on it -  how do you think they acquire any plane in the first place, or replace it when it gets old,  they can't just walk into a boeing showroom, pick one, and pay the  nice man at the counter.

Naah. If you're in a hurry you look at the ads in Flight for secondhand airliners. Or pick up the phone & ring a broker. 

Do carry on with your bizarre fantasy world. You're providing a lot of amusement.

[Phil W]

Black box ping has been detected

[clifftaylor]

Where? Antarctica International??