Malaysia airlines B777 missing

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Oberon

This reminds me more than a bit of TWA800, if I'm honest...

You think the 777's might have some flaw with the fuel tank like that 747 had? Then again why the lack of debris from the flight? Even if the thing crashed into the ocean whole you'd expect some stuff to have floated to the surface by now. Something just isn't adding up and I don't like it.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey

You think the 777's might have some flaw with the fuel tank like that 747 had? Then again why the lack of debris from the flight? Even if the thing crashed into the ocean whole you'd expect some stuff to have floated to the surface by now. Something just isn't adding up and I don't like it.

If they do then it'll be a first for them, the 777s have had a damn good record of service. It's not so much the cause that is bringing back memories, but the whole rapidity of the incident.

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Oberon

If they do then it'll be a first for them, the 777s have had a damn good record of service. It's not so much the cause that is bringing back memories, but the whole rapidity of the incident.

Wasn't that crash that killed 3 last year the first time a 777 had a fatal accident? As for the whole rapidity of it this is starting to remind me of that Air France flight that crashed a few years ago. No distress signal or anything from the pilots and the plane was transmitting right until it hit the ocean.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey

Wasn't that crash that killed 3 last year the first time a 777 had a fatal accident? As for the whole rapidity of it this is starting to remind me of that Air France flight that crashed a few years ago. No distress signal or anything from the pilots and the plane was transmitting right until it hit the ocean.

That was more pilot error than mechnical error, they were doing a manual landing and came in too low and slow. I mean, I'm not saying the 777 is 'unsinkable', what goes up has to come down after all, but it's been flying since '94-'95 and has only had three hull losses in that time, with only two deaths (from that Asiana flight) caused.
The Air France flight has some similarities, however the plane was transmitting until it crashed, this flight just stopped transmitting, one minute normal operations, the next gone. In that respects it's more like TWA800 and Pam Am 103, both of which were caused by completely different things, however both of which occurred so quickly that the pilots weren't able to take any action, nor was the on board equipment able to transmit any data. Whatever happened to this aircraft, it's rather likely that the hull disintegrated at 35,000 ft which means that the debris will be spread out over quite a wide area. Of course, until the data recorder is recovered, this is pure speculation, which is at this time about all we can do.

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by Oberon

it's rather likely that the hull disintegrated at 35,000 ft which means that the debris will be spread out over quite a wide area.

Which is why them only having found an oil slick is so strange. You'd think they'd have found something other then that by now.