Israel Matzav

Malaysia Airlines jet may have turned back

This one gets more suspicious by the minute.

A Malaysia Airlines 777-200 that disappeared off Vietnamese controllers radar screens on Friday night may have tried to turn back to Kuala Lampur over the South China Sea.

A missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner may have turned back from its scheduled route before vanishing from radar screens, military officers said on Sunday, deepening the mystery surrounding the fate of the plane and the 239 people aboard.

More than 36 hours after the last contact with Flight MH370, officials said they were widening the search to cover vast swathes of sea around Malaysia and off Vietnam, and were investigating at least two passengers who may have been using false identity documents.

Despite dozens of military and civilians vessels and aircraft criss-crossing waters to the east and west of Malaysia, no wreckage has been found, although oil slicks have been reported in the sea south of Vietnam.

"What we have done is actually look into the recording on the radar that we have and we realized there is a possibility the aircraft did make a turnback," Rodzali Daud, the Royal Malaysian Air Force chief, told reporters at a news conference.

There were no reports of bad weather and no sign of why the Boeing 777-200ER disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing early on Saturday.

The plane may also have had four people - not two - traveling with false identities.

European officials said it appeared two people on board were using stolen passports and Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said authorities were also checking the identities of two other passengers.

"All the four names are with me," said Hishamuddin, who is also defense minister. "I have indicated to our intelligence agencies and I have also spoken to international intelligence agencies for assistance."

Malaysia Airlines recently joined OneWorld, the consortium where I have my frequent flier miles. But I'm about as likely to use them as I am to use Qatar Airlines, which also recently joined.... And of course, no one is mentioning that Malaysia is a mostly-Muslim country whose former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, was an open and virulent anti-Semite. Just sayin'....

Labels: hijacking, Malaysia, Muslims, terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:02 PM