By
Sam Webb
and Richard Shears
|
Web sleuths from across the world have joined in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by turning to the map search website Tomnod.
The online community has added to the confusion surrounding the 12 day mystery of the missing jetliner as people post possible sightings and new theories.
Even celebrities have taken to poring over satellite images uploaded to the website and offering up their suggestions as to where the plane might be.
Investigators meanwhile probing the
disappearance of the plane believe it most likely flew into the
southern Indian Ocean, a source close to the investigation said today.
Courtney Love appears to be the most famous user of Tomnod after she posted a photograph of satellite imagery from the site on her Facebook page on Monday, and suggested: ‘I’m no expert but up close this does look like a plane and an oil slick.’
Elsewhere, users of social networking site Reddit have posted an image which they claim appears to show debris from the plane in the Strait of Malacca.
Users of social networking site Reddit have posted an image which they claim appears to show debris from the plane on the surface of the Strait of Malacca, along with an overlay which shows the scale of the Boeing 777 (left)
The area highlighted the same place where
crew on a Greek-flagged oil tanker on Sunday responded to radio reports
of suitcases found floating on the surface.
Users of Reddit have also suggested the scale of the potential debris matches that of the missing aircraft.
Another image to have gained attention
appears to show a plane flying over a jungle, discovered by a
university student in Taiwan, according to Taiwan’s China Times.
DigitalGlobe has uploaded high-resolution satellite and aerial images to its Tomnod site that let people explore the seas for clues about the crash, as well signs of a wreckage or oil slick.
The authenticity of the photo by the Taiwanese student, also posted to Reddit on Sunday, has not yet been verified and online commentators have raised questions over the veracity of the image, with some pointing out it appears to be a different model to the missing Boeing 777. The plane also appears to have been painted white.
The image surfaced at the same time as news emerged that Malaysian villagers claim to have seen the missing jet flying over the north east of the country at around the time the aircraft is thought to have made a ‘U-turn’.
Courtney Love posted a snapshot of an area of the ocean she believed could contain the remains of the missing flight MH370 on her Facebook page on Monday
DigitalGlobe has uploaded high-resolution satellite and aerial images to its Tomnod site that let people explore the seas for clues about the crash, as well signs of a wreckage or oil slick
At
least nine people – tuna fishermen, farmers and villagers – in Kelantan in Malaysia have made reports
to police about seeing lights in the sky and some said they heard the
loud noise of an engine.
Similarly, residents of a tiny island in
the Dhaalu Atoll in the Maldives say they saw a plane with Malaysia
Airlines markings in the early hours of Saturday March 8.
HAS THERE BEEN A MILITARY COVER-UP OVER MISSING JET?
Asian military officials may be staging a mass cover-up over missing flight MH370, because they do not want to expose gaping holes within their countries’ air defences, a leading aviation expert has suggested.
The Malaysian Airlines jet went missing 1.30am on Sunday, March 9. But it was not until the following Tuesday that the Malaysian Air Force reported they had spotted the aircraft on radar over the Strait of Malacca at 2.15am.
Now Thailand’s military say they detected a plane at 1.28am, eight minutes after MH370′s communications went down, heading towards the Strait but did not share the information because they were not asked for it.
Intensive background checks on everyone aboard had turned up no-one else with a political or criminal motive to crash or hijack the plane.
Writing on his blog, Aviation expert David Learmount said: ‘Maybe these states’ air defences, like Malaysia’s, are not what they are cracked up to be. And maybe they wouldn’t want the rest of the world to know that.’
Mr Learmount, a former pilot and now operations and safety editor at the respected Flight Global publication, points out that MH370 might have flown over several Asian countries including Thailand, Burma, China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
He said they may be withholding vital radar data about Flight MH370 for fear it would expose gaping holes in their multi-billion pound air defences.
One said: ‘I’ve never seen a jet
flying so low over our island before. We’ve seen seaplanes but I’m sure
this was not one of those.’
Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein however told a daily news conference today that the reports had been investigated by police in the Maldives and were determined to be untrue.
Investigators earlier told the New Straits
Times that they were now convinced the aircraft flew low over the village,
which is in the north east – exactly the same area where the villagers
and fishermen in Malaysia who saw bright lights in the sky and heard noises on the night the jet
vanished are living.
Investigators told a Malaysian newspaper that the Boeing 777 had dropped to a lower altitude – under 5,000ft – to avoid ground radar, using the surrounding terrain as a sonar barrier.
This type of flying is considered to be dangerous and risky, because it places tremendous pressure on the frame of the aircraft – and flying low at night without radar assistance could lead to the plane crashing into trees or mountains.
The first report of a ‘bright light descending at high speed’ came from Mr Alif Fathi Abdul Hadi, 29 who said he saw the light heading towards the South China Sea at 1.45am on the night the aircraft disappeared.
Businessman Mr Alif lives in Kampung Kadok, in the far north west of the Malaysian mainland, close to the southern border of Thailand – and the light he witnessed would have been several miles to the north of the flight path the jet was on before it vanished.
Lending credibility to the account by
Mr Alif is the claim by fisherman Azid Ibrahim, 55, who saw a bright
light streaking overhead at 1.30am on Saturday, about 100 miles south of
where Mr Alif had seen the light.
Mr
Alif told said the bright light was the type that aircraft use when
taking off and landing at night – like a car uses its headlights.
The satellite image from Tomnod, the online map site used by millions in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, shows a passenger plane over a jungle
Mystery: The image was found by an university student in Taiwan
‘I was walking towards the rear of my house when I saw the light, and wondered where it was heading to,’ he said. ‘The airspace here is like a highway for aircraft and they usually travel in routine patterns.
‘However, the light I saw was moving towards a completely different direction. It was going towards the sea, near Bachok (which lies to the south of Mr Alif’s home).’
His description tends to indicate that
if the light he saw was on the doomed aircraft, it had turned north
instead of continuing on its regular north-easterly flight path.
Mr
Alif said the aircraft he usually sees fly across the sky for as far as
his eyes could see but the light he saw in the early hours of Saturday
vanished from view behind a line of coconut trees.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has expanded their search area for the missing flight into the Indian Ocean
Hope: A message of support is displayed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport
While he thought nothing of it at the time, when he learned about the missing aircraft MH370 the following day he lodged a report with police.
Mr Alif’s account tended to coincide with that of fisherman Mr Azid who told the New Straits Times: ‘Usually, lights from an airplane look like distant stars at night but the one that I saw was big, as the aircraft was flying below the clouds.
‘I followed the light for about five minutes before it disappeared.’
A Royal Australia Air Force pilot in an AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft scans the surface of the sea during a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 to the west of Peninsula Malaysia
Investigators probing the
disappearance of the plane believe it most likely flew into the
southern Indian Ocean, a source close to the investigation said today.
An
unprecedented search for the Boeing 777-200ER is under way involving 26
nations in two vast search ‘corridors’, one arcing north overland from
Laos towards the Caspian Sea, the other curving south across the Indian
Ocean from west of Indonesia to west of Australia.
‘The
working assumption is that it went south, and furthermore that it went
to the southern end of that corridor,’ said the source, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
The
view is based on the lack of any evidence from countries along the
northern corridor that the plane crossed their airspace, and the failure
to find any trace of wreckage in searches in the upper part of the
southern corridor.
Comments (917)
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john,
richmond, United Kingdom,
moments ago
Expect a lot more of this fakery until the truth is known. Am i seriously suposed to believe the plane landed in jungle without breaking up and catching fire?
Tony,
London, United Kingdom,
8 minutes ago
I am a prophet of the most high God. I saw a vision of the disaster of plane mh370 on February 25 2014. The disaster happened in March 2014. To all the families and loved ones, they have all departed. My condolences to you all of you. Prophet Tony 07427 468534
me,
uk,
11 minutes ago
That’s not a 777
David44,
Toronto,
11 minutes ago
The plane flew south into the vast Indian ocean? Nearly impossible to find. How convenient. You wonder what it may be that people do not want discovered. Would it be proof that 777′s are not safe. There have been major concerns about an area of the fuselage.
Joe,
Perth,
11 minutes ago
No that’s not the plane (not a 777 as wrong shape plus wrong time) and no, it’s not a fake (it is just a plane flying at height over a jungle – which planes do all the time) – but what this does tell me is how hard it is for the navy / airforce people tasked to search in the sea, to see anything or if they do see anything, to judge if its has anything to do with a plane.
John Smith,
America, United States,
16 minutes ago
We know it’s somewhere on the earth
carolyn,
Walsall,
18 minutes ago
There are lots of idiots in the world and some of them post rubbish on the internet. Lets hope this plane and its passengers are found so that the families can know what happened.
InScotlandSomewhere,
Aberdeen, United Kingdom,
28 minutes ago
Hardly Sleuths if they cannot get a story correct, it is just hearsay and gossip crossing over the net , until you have hard fact – which by the way are being gathered by hard working detectives, Local , international police units, FBI , Military personnel These are the real heroes in this tragedy not some silly so called self proclaimed ‘ sleuth’ Don’t report on lies….
Awake,
Peterborough,
28 minutes ago
No engines on the wings . These are one of the largest engines on any plane so should show up . Don’t look right .
dafy duck,
manchester, United Kingdom,
32 minutes ago
Sky news suggests a fire in cockpit,Ok so then you have two experienced pilots, not putting oxy masks on, or sending a mayday, and none of the passengers sent an sms??? Hmmmm !!!
JoJo GB ex-pat,
Paris, France,
6 minutes ago
carolyn,
Walsall,
moments ago
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The search online for missing Malaysia Airlines FLIGHT MH370
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