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Another Mystery Airline Disappearance; Search Continues for Missing Airbus A320 Carrying 162

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Asia MournersBy Bart Jansen and John Bacon. Southeast Asia was mourning its third airline catastrophe of the year Sunday after an AirAsia jet with 162 people aboard vanished in violent weather and was believed to be at the bottom of an Indonesian sea.

The fate of Flight 8501 remained a mystery almost a full day after it vanished. . .

The Airbus A320 was bound for Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, when it lost contact with air-traffic control Sunday at about 7:24a.m. Singapore time, the airline said.

“We have no idea at the moment what went wrong,” said Tony Fernandes, CEO of the regional, low-cost carrier. “Let’s not speculate at the moment”. . .

The tragedy marks the third commercial air disaster involving airlines in the region this year. Mystery still shrouds Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared without a trace en route to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people aboard. On July 17, another Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine while on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board. (Read more about this mystery airline disappearance HERE)
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Anek Ferry BurningHundreds of passengers endure freezing 24 hours on burning ferry in Adriatic

By Barbie Nadeau. Hundreds of desperate passengers are enduring freezing conditions on a stricken ferry that has been burning in the Adriatic Sea for 24 hours.

Helicopters with night vision equipment have been working through the night to pull them off, one by one.

On Monday morning, the Italian Navy announced that 265 people had beenAnek Ferry Rescue rescued from the Norman Atlantic, which was traveling between the Greek port of Igoumenitsa and the Italian port of Ancona when fire broke out deep in the parking bay.

Authorities said 213 remained on board, including the captain, who was helping to coordinate the rescues.

After waiting hours in rough conditions, one Greek man told Italian state broadcaster RAI TV that passengers were “dying of cold and suffocating from the smoke,” and that their feet were “burning” from the heat of the flames. (Read more from this story HERE)

Malaysian Airlines Missing Plane Gave Off Unexplained Final ‘Ping’

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Photo Credit: Andrew Winning/ReutersThe crashed Malaysia Airlines flight gave one last unexplained signal eight minutes after its final “ping”, possibly the result of the plane entering its “catastrophic phase” as it plunged into the Indian Ocean, investigators have said.

As families of its 239 passengers demanded “proof” of the plane’s demise, Malaysian authorities presented analysis by Inmarsat, the British telecommunications company, of satellite data to explain its conclusion that the plane crashed into remote waters 18 days ago and left no survivors.

No confirmed wreckage from the plane has been found during a multinational air and sea search in waters about 1,500 miles south-west of Perth, Western Australia. The search was temporarily called off on Tuesday due to adverse weather.

In unprecedented scenes, up to 100 angry relations of flight MH370’s Chinese passengers descended on the Malaysian embassy in Beijing, hurling water bottles and chanting for two hours until a diplomat emerged to accept a letter of protest at the lack of information.

Read more from this story HERE.

Flight 370: Storm of Emotions Over Lives ‘Lost’ as Storm at Sea Delays Search (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP / Andy WongFor families whose loved ones were aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the past day has been full of news they were dreading.

First, a grim-faced Malaysian Prime Minister confirmed their worst fears, announcing Flight 370 went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

Then, even as investigators seemed closer than ever to finding the plane, stormy weather forced Australian authorities to call off a day of searching for the Boeing 777.

“It’s almost felt like a miniature roller coaster within the day,” said James Wood, whose brother Philip was one of three American passengers on the plane.

Families are stuck in a “holding pattern,” he told CNN’s “AC360.”

Read more from this story HERE.

CNN: Flight 370 Swallowed by ‘Black Hole’?

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Photo Credit: CNN ScreengrabBy Josh Feldman.

CNN’s Don Lemon has been entertaining all sorts of theories about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, including the chance something “supernatural” happened, but on Wednesday night, he actually asked panelists about the possibility a black hole was involved.

Lemon brought this up along with other “conspiracy theories” people have been floating on Twitter, including people noting the eerie parallels to Lost and The Twilight Zone, and wondered, “is it preposterous” to consider a black hole as a possibility?

Read more from this story HERE.

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Top U.S. General: Look For Missing Jet In Pakistan

By WND.

Retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney — the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with 17 oak-leaf clusters, Distinguished Service Medal and other honors — is suggesting searchers looking for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 take a look at possible landing spots in Taliban-controlled Pakistan.

In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, McInerney, now a contributor to the network, said his recommendation was based on information from sources he was unwilling to disclose on television as well as the analysis of an intelligence service called LIGNET.

McInerney said the free world needs to be worried until the location of the jet, which disappeared March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, is determined.

“My concern is if this airplane could be used as a bearer of a weapon of mass destruction or even conventional munitions that could attack a carrier, Israel, our allies,” he said. “We have to be very alert until we know exactly where this airplane is.”

Investigators believe the airplane changed course shortly after takeoff and headed West for as long as seven hours. They are looking into the politics of the pilot, who had a Boeing 777 simulator set up in his own home from which data recently had been deleted.

Read more from this story HERE.

Where in the World is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370? Conspiracy Theorists Take to the Internet (+video)

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Photo Credit: BJÖRN WYLEZICH
Details concerning the sudden, Saturday disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 continue to trickle in. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, said the missing Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers presents an “unprecedented mystery.”

Here’s what we do know: The flight disappeared on Friday night/Saturday morning en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane was at cruising altitude (35,000 feet) and weather was more or less clear. Air traffic controllers in Vietnam say contact with the crew disappeared about 120 nautical miles east of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, and radar signals suggest the plane may have turned around before losing contact.

And yet, nearly three whole days later, there are still no signs of the jet or its passengers. And an oil slick spotted in the South China sea originally thought to be a clue turned out to be a false lead:

Two Italian passengers said to be aboard the flight turned out to be safe on the ground, when they told authorities that their passports had, in fact, been stolen earlier. Someone aboard the flight was said to be using them, one of whom resembled a famous soccer player:

Read more this story HERE.