US, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines Search for Missing Malaysia Plane

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia and lost contact with air traffic controllers 2 hours later en route to Beijing, China. The Boeing 777-200 is currently missing and it is feared that it may be down in the South China Sea.

The US Navy destroyer USS Pickney w/ 2 MH-60R helicopters joined search units from China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines in searching the South China Sea for the missing aircraft which is carrying 239 people.

Update 3/09/14:  Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is still missing. The Vietnam Emergency Rescue Center announced it has found signal of the missing plane at 9.50am (local time, which is approximately 12 hours ahead of EST) 120 miles South West of Ca Mau cape, the Southern-most point of Vietnam. The signal is believed to be the ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter). The aircraft is a Boeing 777-200 which may be using a Honeywell Rescu®406 model of ELT. Benefitting the search and rescue mission is the likelihood that if the plane did go down in the water, that particular part of the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam tends to be more shallow than the northwestern section of the sea. The Sundra Shelf area near the Gulf of Thailand and the Malay Peninsula runs from 130 feet deep near its periphery to a maximum of 330 feet at its center. This is in contrast to the maximum depth of the China Sea Basin, 16,457 feet (over 3 miles).

Interestingly, last year Boeing recommended that operators of Boeing’s 717, 737 Next Generation, 747-400, 767 and 777s should check aircraft equipped with fixed emergency locator transmitters made by Honeywell International Inc. The request arose from a series of issues with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in which jets experienced electrical problems stemming from meltdowns in their lithium-ion batteries.

The L.A. Times reports that according to a passenger list released by the airlines, 3 Americans including a baby were aboard the plane. The 12 person crew is reportedly all from Malaysia.

Suspiciously, at least 2 men boarded the plane in Kuala Lumpur using stolen passports. An Italian man and an Austrian man were listed on the passenger roll, although both are fine and claim that their passports were stolen in Thailand last year. Unfortunately, that situation raises the specter of a terrorist attack having occurred. For years the South China Sea has been a theater of territorial disputes between China and other countries bordering or navigating the large body of water including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, India and the Philippines. In 2013, journalist Jeff Himmelman wrote a terrific piece for the New York Times magazine, A Game of Shark and Minnow regarding conflict in the South China Sea.

The National Transportation Safety Board initially released a tweet that they are monitoring the situation. According to www.AirlineFlyer.net, the NTSB is expected to investigate as the unfolding situation involves at least 3 Americans and an American-built aircraft.

Update: Saturday evening, March 8, the NTSB announced that a team of investigators had departed the U.S. for Asia to assist with the investigation.