<p>It’s hard to understand people whose minds are thinking so differently from many of us and are OK with taking lives for no particular reason and with no explanation to anyone. We may not be able to ever UNDERSTAND why this was done.</p>
<p>I never attributed blame to those with false passports. i’d be looking more into those who did not board. i feel so awful for the families of passengers and crew, who have no idea what has happened, but must fear the worst outcome.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t think 5 people missing a flight is all that unusual. Sadly, blowing one’s self to bits in an act of terrorism is not really unusual either, anymore. Planes disappearing out of the sky with no distress call having a mechanical malfunction of some sort would be highly unusual.</p>
<p>And as we saw with the crash of the 777 last year, it is an exceptionally well built plane.</p>
<p>Flossy, but they checked their bags. The only explanation that would not be suspect would be if they were on connecting flights that were late. But with that many they usually hold the plane for a bit.</p>
<p>But their baggage was removed wasn’t it? So, what does that mean? All the attention seems to be on the 2 who boarded with phony passports and one way tickets purchased the day before which makes sense to me. But, who knows? I hope we find out.</p>
<p>I guess I was thinking there was some grand plot that involved a good number of people, and then 5 of them bailed at the last minute. Or perhaps the 2 that boarded with the fake passports were set up.</p>
<p>Or they are just “ordinary” travelers unrelated to the incident. The two were initially booked in separate planes according to an article I read. And the dry-run theory, would you blow up a plane in a trial run attracting attention to your scheme?</p>
<p>It would seem easy enough to me to track down those five people, no?</p>
<p>^^^^
Yes, I think it would be. So why haven’t we heard anything about them?</p>
<p>Passports get stolen all of the time In NYC there is a brisk market for stolen passports and other id. So on any given flight or other closed situation where ID is needed, there is a high probability that some are using fake id. No one finds out. That this is a closed room situation where these things are investigated, makes this info known. So what? I shudder to think about what others have done with my kids’ lost or stolen IDs. and is one of those things that actually make me want to consider prayer. </p>
<p>It appears the 5 passengers not boarding the plane isn’t true and the Malaysian authorities don’t believe that one of the false passport passengers has any connection to terrorist organizations. They haven’t identified the second person yet. </p>
<p><a href=“Stolen Passports on Plane Not Seen as Terror Link - The New York Times”>Stolen Passports on Plane Not Seen as Terror Link - The New York Times;
<p>Hmmm. So one doesn’t really know what to believe at this point. Cannot imagine being the families of those lost on this flight. Guess we just have to wait and see what the authorities come up with.</p>
<p>Passports have bar coding. If you report your passport as stolen wouldn’t it get put in some computer system as stolen and unusable?</p>
<p>Interpol has a data base of stolen passports. But one has to check it…which apparently is not routinely done everywhere. </p>
<p>Relatives say passengers cellphones are ringing. Can anyone explain that? The mystery is growing.</p>
<p>I know that the plane doesn’t have any sort of beacon locating device. But cellphones have built in GPS, don’t they? Unless all the cell phones are blown to smithereens. </p>
<p>TatinG…my cell phone does NOT operate underwater.</p>
<p>Plus, cell phones are supposed to be in airplane mode on planes. Not sure the GPS function would be operating.</p>
<p>ETA, when my old cell phone died…it not only rang, but folks could leave messages. I couldn’t access anything at all…and it certainly wasn’t ringing on MY end!</p>
<p>True. But could searchers get closer by using the last transmissions from the various cellphones GPS? Or does the GPS turn off when you have to turn off your cell phone in flight? </p>
<p>Are there any islands in the South China Sea or the Gulf of Thailand? Planes are notoriously hard to find on islands because of the dense vegetation. It is just so hard to imagine that in this age of advanced technology that a plane this size can just disappear. </p>