Strike 3. Oil slick, floating debris and no communications from anyone.

March 18, 2014 - 11:23AM
Keith Bradsher 

Sepang, Malaysia: When hijackers took control (click here) of four planes on September 11, 2001, and sent them hurtling low across the countryside towards New York and Washington, frantic passengers and flight attendants turned on their mobile phones and began making calls to loved ones, airline managers and the authorities.

But when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn in the middle of the night over the Gulf of Thailand and then spent nearly half an hour swooping over two large Malaysian cities and various towns and villages, there was apparently silence. As far as investigators have been able to determine, there have been no phone calls, Twitter or Weibo postings, Instagram photos or any other communication from anyone aboard the aircraft since it was diverted.

There has been no evidence ''of any number they're trying to contact, but anyway they are still checking and there are millions of records for them to process'', Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, said at a news conference on Monday....

I've been waiting for this one.

 

March 18, 2014 - 10:05AM
Kylie McLaughlin

There has been an unprecedented increase in turbulence (click here) involving aircraft in Australia.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said turbulence has doubled over the three-month period between October to December 2013, compared to the previous three months, significantly above the 5-year historical average.
Turbulence is the leading cause of in-flight injuries, and an increase directly affects the safety of cabin passengers.

But the ATSB cannot speculate as to why this is happening, according to Dr Stuart Godley, head of the ATSB’s Aviation Research Team.

“During the last five years there has been an increase in reporting, particularly from cabin crew, about an increase in turbulence, but we don’t know why this is occurring,” he said.

“Because they are weather-related, these events are cyclical.

“We’re used to seeing more of them in summer, but this increase is unprecedented.”

Turbulence is caused by the irregular movement of air, and often cannot be seen....

Has anyone hear about this new cloud formation being considered for classification?

When I traveled to Iceland there were vortexes in the North Atlantic spinning on a daily basis. The way Iceland Air overcame that reality to their airspace was to fly with their engines wide open.  They also have a young fleet, but, I thought Quantas was, too. I haven't flow in a few years so I can't really speak to it as accurately as others can.