Malaysia Airlines crash :: Thread

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Pulaski

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Pulaski Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad

..... when a plane with a good track record, being flown in good weather by an experienced aircrew from an airline with a decent safety record suddenly disappears, surely having a couple of unknown passengers of board with one way tickets has to pique at least some interest from the investigators...

Well it's certainly piqued plenty of interest, but I suspect it will turn out to be a red herring.

The latest news is that the two stolen passport were travelling together, had sequentially issued tickets at the same price paid for with Thai Bahts, and travelling onward together to Amsterdam, so a little more than a plain "one-way ticket". From Amsterdam, if I remember correctly, one was headed to Frankfurt, the other to Copenhagen.

It is also now being speculated that the plane had turned back and was much further south than thought. Is it just me who thought that very modern aircraft were tracked more closely? The headlines said it "disappeared from the radar", but in truth nobody appears to even have been tracking it on the radar.

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Siouxie

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Siouxie Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:07

Try more than 39 MILLION travel documents reported lost or stolen!

http://www.interpol.int/INTERPOL-expertise/Databases

Stolen and Lost Travel Documents holds information on more than 39 million travel documents reported lost or stolen by 166 countries. This database enables INTERPOL National Central Bureaus and other authorized law enforcement entities (such as immigration and border control officers) to ascertain the validity of a suspect travel document in seconds.

Scary.

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Pulaski

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Pulaski Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siouxie

Try more than 39 MILLION travel documents reported lost or stolen! ......

So my guess of 1% lost of 10% of the world's population having passports, and an average 5 year remaining validity, giving 35 million in circulation would actually be a pretty good approximation.

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Yorkieabroad

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Yorkieabroad Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pulaski

Well it's certainly piqued plenty of interest, but I suspect it will turn out to be a red herring.

The latest news is that the two stolen passport were travelling together, had sequentially issued tickets at the same price paid for with Thai Bahts, and travelling onward together to Amsterdam, so a little more than a plain "one-way ticket". From Amsterdam, if I remember correctly, one was headed to Frankfurt, the other to Copenhagen.

It is also now being speculated that the plane had turned back and was much further south than thought. Is it just me who thought that very modern aircraft were tracked more closely? The headlines said it "disappeared from the radar", but in truth nobody appears to even have been tracking it on the radar.

Hadn't heard the bit about Copenhagen/Frankfurt, but the sequential numbers and Amsterdam part was reported very early, along with the speculation that the onward flight was to avoid the necessity of a Chinese visa.

Given the technology that is used to continuously remotely monitor space shuttle, ISS operations etc, how far away are we from doing the same on a much larger scale for airlines? Provide some redundancy to the Black Box, and make this sort of investigation/search a little easier and quicker out of the blocks. I had some involvement in a ship monitoring system for tankers back in the 90s, but on a much smaller volume, and very limited parameters. All experimental at that stage..not sure if it ever took off.

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Yorkieabroad

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Yorkieabroad Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siouxie

Try more than 39 MILLION travel documents reported lost or stolen!

http://www.interpol.int/INTERPOL-expertise/Databases

Stolen and Lost Travel Documents holds information on more than 39 million travel documents reported lost or stolen by 166 countries. This database enables INTERPOL National Central Bureaus and other authorized law enforcement entities (such as immigration and border control officers) to ascertain the validity of a suspect travel document in seconds.

Scary.

That's what the Interpol spokesman I heard on the radio was saying...it's dead easy to check, especially as more and more border controls are using swipe technology, so why aren't people using the info they have.

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Yorkieabroad

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Yorkieabroad Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:08

Hmm, that link to the right "lack of international passenger screening a gaping hole in global security " talks about 40% of passengers not run through the stolen records database, implying 60% are, and that that 60% produced 60000 hits last year, or 164 a day. Now it may well be that the 40% not run represent a higher risk group, but even so, it's still going to be a long way short of the "every flight is going to have a few" position.

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Yorkieabroad

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Yorkieabroad Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:08

Hmm, that link to the right "lack of international passenger screening a gaping hole in global security " talks about 40% of passengers not run through the stolen records database, implying 60% are, and that that 60% produced 60000 hits last year, or 164 a day. Now it may well be that the 40% not run represent a higher risk group, but even so, it's still going to be a long way short of the "every flight is going to have a few" position.

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Pulaski

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Pulaski Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yorkieabroad

Hmm, that link to the right "lack of international passenger screening a gaping hole in global security " talks about 40% of passengers not run through the stolen records database, implying 60% are, and that that 60% produced 60000 hits last year, or 164 a day. Now it may well be that the 40% not run represent a higher risk group, but even so, it's still going to be a long way short of the "every flight is going to have a few" position.

You are right, the numbers do seem improbable, however I suspect that stolen passports are concentrated in the countries that aren't checking. Even so it boggles the mind to think that that many stolen passports might be being used that often.

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rebs.

COMMUNITY MEMBER

rebs. Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:09

Quite early on I read that 5 passengers didn't turn up to board and their luggage was removed from the plane.

Looks like that info seems to be becoming a little prominent - how often do you suppose it happens that people check in, check their luggage but then don't get on the flight?

I have been on flights were they have called for the last few passengers, but I don't think I have ever seen bags unloaded....

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Pulaski

COMMUNITY MEMBER

Pulaski Posted on 10 Mar 2014, 17:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebs.

Quite early on I read that 5 passengers didn't turn up to board and their luggage was removed from the plane.

Looks like that info seems to be becoming a little prominent - how often do you suppose it happens that people check in, check their luggage but then don't get on the flight?

I have been on flights were they have called for the last few passengers, but I don't think I have ever seen bags unloaded....

I've heard of it before, a flight my mother was on was delayed while bags were removed. I have no idea how common it is, but I doubt it is especially unusual.

Malaysia Airlines crash

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