As a nervous flyer at the best of times.....

[Skyfall]

Mate in this part of the world (South East Asia) stolen passports are passe. We have such a market for illegal immigration (not just into Oz) that it is an industry within itself.

The key word there is Illegal Immigration, which means malicious intent. (Illegal) Law Abiding Citizens with no intent on fowl play or illegal intent, don't steal passports!

[kwsaw63]

Now confirmed that the plane was diverted and flew either towards Central Asia or South India. Hopefully everyone onboard is still alive.

[LordAnubis]

Just some comments on this stuff. I deal with gold transportation in my job, albeit not in the quantities that an international exchange to settle debts between countries would occur in. My gold shipments on average are about 1000kg to 1500kg in size on a weekly basis generally. I rely on the very fact that you guys don't think it would possibly be a good idea to transport precious material in this manner. Subterfuge is the greatest of all safety. No matter how big your security force is, and how thick your safe is, it can always be beaten. However, if you believe laws and regulations are in place that don't allow a transport mechanism to work, and wouldn't possibly think gold would be transported by that means, then you have no idea where the gold is, you are looking in all the wrong places, and hence you have no chance of stealing it.

Our shipments (be it through australia, east africa, west africa or south east asia) utilise military security, private planes and helicopters, private security forces and armoured vehicles. How the gold actually gets transported though, sometimes even i question it.

[PaulP]

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (CBS News/CBSDC/AP) — A Malaysian government official says investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

The official, who is involved in the investigation, says no motive has been established, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory. “It is conclusive.”

[Coolio]

I work for an airline and I've been on 12hr shifts the last 5 days. I can safely say that this missing 777 has been the most discussed topic amongst my colleagues, by a long way! It doesn't help that we have a wall full of tv screens with most tuned to news channels.

I've come to the conclusion that the 24 hr news channels work on the theory that it's best to get news up first before the other channels, and the more sensational the better.

They must be loving this 'mystery'.

[Skyfall]

The news of it being hijacked was brought to light.

[ZinZan]

Skyfall, the officials needed to be certain before releasing such info. It can't be half baked thing, it wouldn't be fair to the family of the survivors, it's easy for us to comment from the sidelines. I'm no way defending them there are certain things they could've done better but under the circumstances without any wreckage even a single trace of the plane how are they to deduce that.

[PaulP]

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a fervent supporter of his country's opposition leader who was jailed for homosexuality - illegal in Malaysia - only hours before flight MH370 vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

And in a new twist, it emerged that the pilot's wife and three children moved out of the family's home the day before the plane's disappearance.

The revelations came after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday confirmed the Boeing 777 jet was deliberately diverted from its planned route between his country's capital Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

mirror.co.uk

[kwsaw63]

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a fervent supporter of his country's opposition leader who was jailed for homosexuality - illegal in Malaysia - only hours before flight MH370 vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

And in a new twist, it emerged that the pilot's wife and three children moved out of the family's home the day before the plane's disappearance.

The revelations came after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday confirmed the Boeing 777 jet was deliberately diverted from its planned route between his country's capital Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

mirror.co.uk

How is that relevant? 52% of the electorate (including myself) voted for the opposition at the last General Election.

[PapaDisco]

That was my response too. Apparently (I don't see how this would be true personally) Chinese military planes wouldn't be allowed to stock up the cargo due to sovereign issues at military/sovereign bases at the time but would instead provide escort when entering Chinese airspace or leaving Ukraine airspace.

Big value cargo such as with swissair 111 use civilian transport and like you said independent insurers like Lloyd of L. Apparently as the cargo in question would already an insurance on the nations debt to start with so the civilian insurance would be needed.

Lloyd paid out £300m over swissair, 98% of the plane was recovered but none of the gold or diamonds were.

Most of the chinese gold imports are delivered to hong kong's asia pacific company and then they further deliver to peking and shanghai. ANZ bank received a gold import licence by the chinese government early this year.

If the guy was right, there should be approx 33 ton of gold on the plane, wherever it is. About 2 billion dollars on current prices?

Again just what was discussed with someone who is in the circle.

Agree with the failure of the media on this one, it makes it a big talking point. It seems only a fool would blindly follow what is being belched out by CNN/BBC etc and disregard information from those who have more experience and knowledge on matters involved.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 777 Freighter (no pax) can only carry 10-11 tons of cargo . . .

[ZinZan]

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a fervent supporter of his country's opposition leader who was jailed for homosexuality - illegal in Malaysia - only hours before flight MH370 vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

And in a new twist, it emerged that the pilot's wife and three children moved out of the family's home the day before the plane's disappearance.

The revelations came after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday confirmed the Boeing 777 jet was deliberately diverted from its planned route between his country's capital Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

mirror.co.uk

That's not fair, thats just character assination by the Mirror. And really you gonna listen to the Mirror? Seriously? And politics is gonna make him hijack a plane with 238 passengers, whatever his political affiliation is. And im member of the ruling party, and I'm a member of the ruling party..... There we go at last Malaysians can agree on something politically.

[Duxnutz]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 777 Freighter (no pax) can only carry 10-11 tons of cargo . . .

10-11 T would be for a fully loaded pax plane (depending on fuel required). The freighter version can carry 10x that amount; 100 tonnes but like most freight they bulk out before being weight restricted!