I Think I Saw MH370

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by europaflyer

If it were me I would have found having my name and picture plastered all over the media across the world very stressful, and Saucy probably just needs some Saucy time right now.

The English language newspapers in Malaysia only mentioned Katherine and Mark. But the biggest circulation newspaper in Malaysia is in Chinese, in traditional or full-form (in contrast to simplified) Chinese logograms. That newspaper is Sinchew jitpoh or Xingzhou ribao in Hanyu pinyin. And it is the biggest circulation Chinese newspaper outside China, with a daily print of around 600,000 copies. Started by the Aw brothers, the guys who made a fortune or three from Tiger Balm.

I mention that and give the URL of its story following up on Saucy's story for two reasons (1) so Saucy has another clip to show her grandchildren and (2) to show europaflyer that Saucy is not the only name plastered all over the media across the world.

If you're using Chrome as your browser, Google Translate will likely do magic for you . Otherwise note that the story (of 4 June 2014) was datelined Sydney. 凱瑟琳 is Katherine and 馬克 is Marc.

2014å¹´06月04æ—¥ - 曾看到“橘色亮光â€�飛機‧英女å*�å*±æ¡ ˆç¨±æˆ–是MH370 - æ�œç´¢é¦¬èˆªå®¢æ©Ÿ - 大馬(Mobile) - 星洲网 æ–°è�ž

[Flight]

'With quite lowly flying plane the first reflection would be probably something like: "Holy s#!t, how fast is THIS THING going????"'

LOL. It was suggested it could have been an interceptor on reheat so thought it was worth posting a pic to compare.

I don't think it would have hung about though.

[rydberg]

Originally Posted by AdamNewsnight

Light reflection on the hull from beyond the horizon might be considered the most likely explanation then, if you cannot remember how close to dawn/dusk you were. If a plane were really on fire to that extent it would crash quite close to you, and that doesn't seem to be the case here.

The smoke would therefore be an ordinary con trail.

Not saying this is what you saw, but it seems more likely I guess. But wtf do I know? Thanks for answering my questions. Hope you get some rest.

If so, it would put the sighting more towards the end of the night shift... On the day in question, the astronomical twilight started at 05:39 (UTC+7), and the civil twilight started at 06:27 [1].

Maybe it is easer to find flights crossing the area at that time?

And regarding other objects not being lit up, there could have been a bank angle involved as well.

[1] Sunrise and Sunset for Indonesia – Aceh – Banda Aceh – March 2014

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by Flight

'With quite lowly flying plane the first reflection would be probably something like: "Holy s#!t, how fast is THIS THING going????"'

LOL. It was suggested it could have been an interceptor on reheat so thought it was worth posting a pic to compare.

I don't think it would have hung about though.

The photo isn't of afterburners or "reheat," though. That's a dump and burn. The aircraft is dumping fuel and has lit it using the afterburners. It's a cool airshow trick. They may or may not do it in real life. The only reason they would do it, though, would be on approach to landing if they are overweight for landing. No-where for it to land out there.

Also not sure about an aircraft being on afterburners out there. Afterburners suck a lot of fuel and are only used for short sprints. Might be doing that for a training exercise for sure, but what military was doing exercises that far from home? Why bother going all the way out there to do it?

[Flight]

Shows how much I know about planes

Thank you for setting me straight.

I still think it's a beautiful picture...isn't it?

[AdamNewsnight]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Well, I if I recall, Saucy mentioned seeing the lower aircraft below some of the clouds.. Why were the clouds not illuminated? This feature would have been something quite easily recalled for anybody who's been awake before 8am.

I suppose it might depend on the differing heights. I mean it's all a bit unlikely sounding, I grant you, but so are the chances of seeing MH370 so we've chosing between unlikely things.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by AdamNewsnight

I suppose it might depend on the differing heights. I mean it's all a bit unlikely sounding, I grant you, but so are the chances of seeing MH370 so we've chosing between unlikely things.

True. Occam's Razor is the most useful tool to use when solving any mystery.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

The photo isn't of afterburners or "reheat," though. That's a dump and burn. The aircraft is dumping fuel and has lit it using the afterburners. It's a cool airshow trick. They may or may not do it in real life. The only reason they would do it, though, would be on approach to landing if they are overweight for landing. No-where for it to land out there.

Also not sure about an aircraft being on afterburners out there. Afterburners suck a lot of fuel and are only used for short sprints. Might be doing that for a training exercise for sure, but what military was doing exercises that far from home? Why bother going all the way out there to do it?

Well if it was not that long into its flight and was going down for some reason (electrical fire) is it not possible they were dumping the fuel to avoid the chance of burning fuel on the waters after a crash landing at sea..?

Pure speculation..

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Well if it was not that long into its flight and was going down for some reason (electrical fire) is it not possible they were dumping the fuel to avoid the chance of burning fuel on the waters after a crash landing at sea..?

Pure speculation..

If the crew was conscious, it is possible that they would choose to dump fuel. I don't think it is in the checklist for a dumping, but I don't know. If they were dumping fuel (which takes a long time to spray out in a fine mist) and were also on fire, there is certainly a chance that the fuel spray would catch fire and look rather spectacular.

Come to think of it, that might be a reason not to dump fuel if you're on fire. You dump from the wings on a 777, I think. You could impinge the tail with a fireball. Not good.

[Yowieboy]

Here's another related article, not in Chinese (unless one counts Strine as a form of it), and fairly level-headed for a media report:

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight: Oil rig worker Mike McKay loses job after MH370 'fire in the sky' report

Katherine's sighting is mentioned towards the end of the article.

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Pure speculation..

You want speculation? I gots plenty of speculations i not sayin'

[Robin3]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Presume from an 80's TV program.. dodgy car salesman petty crim referred to his Missus as She Who Must Be Obeyed..
Arthur Daley.. I think it was.. can't remember the name of the show tho'..

Nope that ARHUr Daly one was 'MINder' and the phrase was was ''er indoors as in 'her indoors, the wife., SWMBO as in' she who must be obeyed' was from coined from Rumpole of the Bailey, excellent TV series, SWMBO atered by some lady captains to HWMBO to suit the gender circumstances of the quoter...

[Tx J]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

If the crew was conscious, it is possible that they would choose to dump fuel. I don't think it is in the checklist for a dumping, but I don't know. If they were dumping fuel (which takes a long time to spray out in a fine mist) and were also on fire, there is certainly a chance that the fuel spray would catch fire and look rather spectacular.

Come to think of it, that might be a reason not to dump fuel if you're on fire. You dump from the wings on a 777, I think. You could impinge the tail with a fireball. Not good.

IIRC, a fuel dump is done at a high volume using fairly robust pumps and large dump vents (away from the engines). Look up the TWA800 flight
on Wiki and it has something about this mechanism on the center wing tank that was the probable cause of the downing (there were some refs to this on this thread earlier).

The fuels' rapid expulsion and altitude will mist/atomize it quick enough on the long way down.

Fortunately nowadays there are some fairly strict rules and regulations about doing this. In the past it was a dirty environmentally degrading semi-common practice, when fuel was cheaper and route/load/WX planning not as good.

[SaucySailoress]

Hi there. A word of explanation, I am on a visa run and trying to relax and clear my head again. But I would like to say a few things.

1. Adam, if you are able to share a plausible explanation for why an aircraft would have been glowing orange (and it was the whole thing) in the dark, I would be grateful.

2. About memories, which have been discussed here. It seems that since I had been observing stars, clouds, sea states etc during the entire passage, it is plausible that when I was thinking it over and over, lacking sleep, only just becoming aware of some horrific theories which are out there, that other memories did start to impose themselves. But at the end of the day, at that point in time I spent a lot of time staring at that plane wondering why the hell it was glowing, so that is the only clear recollection I have of that night. I wasn't interested in the stars and clouds at that time. I am the first to accept that now I have thought about it that memory may be changing. And to be fair, in my imagination I can now also see passengers unconscious, pilots steering and all sorts of other things. If hypnosis is offered by the authorities as an option, I will certainly accept.

3. A few media sources asked me how I feel about the comments that were out there. As I'm sure you're aware, they fell into three basic categories: I'm a liar. I'm insane. I am a selfish bitch and could have saved those lives by calling it in.

A) "She's a liar". I'm not lying. I think I have stated over and over that I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and rationalised it with other reasons. At first I thought it must be a meteor as it was just an orange glow approaching. Then as it clearly became a plane, I justified it as a military craft doing some sort of exercise. Willy Loman, this is not a deplorable marketing exercise. And I am not being paid by some company to deepen a conspiracy.

B) "She's insane". Maybe. That's certainly what I thought at the time. Remember, the cruisers at the yacht club (who first told us about the plane the night we arrived) instantly dismissed what I thought I had seen. Why would anyone else believe me?

C) "She could have saved their lives"... Do you think I don't know this. If this is true, then it is a fact I will have to live with forever, and is a far more horrific crime against humanity than I could ever have considered I could ever be guilty of. And until this is cleared up, that guilt will always be in me and with me. And how does one even begin to make amends to the families on something like this? I don't know. But, and this is to the families, I am really, really sorry I didn't take action at that time or report the matter sooner.

[Flight]

Saucy it is evident to anyone with half a brain that you are incapable of fabricating anything. Your mind just doesn't work like that. It's bloody obvious.

I think you can safely ignore that accusation as it has no foundation.

Mad? I don't think so. People who are mad don't think they're mad, or consider it a possibility. Besides which having a slightly hazy memory and having not reported something for actually quite rational reasons, isn't an indication of insanity.

You couldn't have saved their lives as you didn't know the bloody plane was missing at the time and you didn't know it was a burning plane (if indeed it was) or that no one else was aware of its position. So please don't entertain that idea.

When people like you (and me) report stuff that 'might' be important, out of anxiety that we could be to blame if we don't and it was - we are often castigated for being overanxious, overscrupulous and daft. Which leads us to shy away from doing so again for fear of wasting people's time. We can't really win. It wasn't a judgment call you could have made easily given the information available to you.

And in fact it is possible that having alerted the authorities to this possible sighting now, you will have helped to solve the puzzle rather than hindered anything.

People getting angry are just looking for an outlet for their frustration...we all want to solve it. We all wish we were the one to do so.

I hope you are Ok.