Sunday, August 9, 2015

UPDATE: THE ALLEGED MALAYSIA AIR FLIGHT 370 DEBRIS, AND EMERGING PROBLEMS

Exactly a week ago I blogged about the story of the airplane debris being found on the French island of Reunion, east of Madagascar, and about the fact that if this debris did eventually prove to be that from the unfortunate flight, then my "poof" theory of the flight's disappearance just went "poof". But much more importantly, this would mean that the actual mechanism of its demise would have to be given by authorities. Even more importantly than these two considerations, the families involved might have some measure of closure for suffering the loss of their loved ones.
Many people mistake what I meant when I advanced the "poof" theory, i.e., that the flight simply disappeared via some extraordinary means, and that either the powers that be suspected this, and were keeping it quiet, or they had no idea at all what happened to it(a problem given all the ways airplanes can be monitored and tracked). I advanced the theory for the sake of argument, and because, at the time, and in the absence of debris and with so many ofuscated details coming out of so many nations, it seemed a hypothesis that at least had to remain on the table. With the appearance of alleged debris, the probabilities of the improbable "poof" theory decline even more, though I would aver they're not entirely gone.
Now, however, there is yet more information coming out about that debris, and about the reaction to it. First we heard from the usual "experts" who have stated that the debris is indeed from Flight 370(this article shared by Mr. V.T.):
Differing messages on 777 part frustrate Flight 370 families
You'll note, that Malaysia, as of this article, was saying the debris was from flight 370, and France, Australia, and the USA, were not yet certain:
"From our first observation, the color tone and all maintenance records that we have, we know," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said. "Our records show that it's the same as MH370."
He added that there are "many other technical details that I do not have to reveal" that confirm the part is from Flight 370.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced early Thursday that the piece of debris, known as a flaperon, came from the doomed aircraft, but authorities in France, the U.S. and Australia have stopped short of full confirmation.
I find this curious, since it seems to repeat the pattern we saw in evidence in the first two weeks after the flight's still mysterious disappearance, in that depending on which national source one turned to, the story was slightly different, a  fact which led to my own high octane speculations with the "extraordinary disappearance theory."
The families, of course, are frustrated by the reemergence of the story, and the continued pattern of mixed messages:
Many Flight 370 families said they were fed up with the mixed messages.
"Why the hell do you have one confirm and one not?" said Sara Weeks, the sister of New Zealander Paul Weeks, who was on board. "Why not wait and get everybody on the same page so the families don't need to go through this turmoil?"
And of course, the sudden appearance of alleged debris has once again raised the real issue: what happened to flight 370, and why:
It is not known why Flight 370 — less than an hour into its journey — turned back from its original flight path and headed in an opposite direction before turning again and flying south over the Indian Ocean for hours.
The story, of course, has run in other venues in much the same fashion(this version supplied by Mr. S.D.):
Indian Ocean wreckage is from missing airliner MH370, confirms Malaysian PM
Most importantly, several regular readers of this website have sent the following article's reportage of the Malaysian government's conclusion from Australia:
MH370 search: Plane debris is from missing plane
In the Australian article, one notes again the pattern of mixed signals, and now a new element:
Analysts are saying a close look at the wing part could indicate what kind of stress the plane was under as it made impact. But it won’t fully solve the mystery of why the plane disappeared, nor will it help pinpoint where the plane crashed.
Australian aviation expert Neil Hansford said the flaperon snapping off gave pointers on how the jet entered the water.
“What it does show is that the aircraft has gone into the water in a controlled-type crash and as the engines have hit the water, they’ve sheared off and this part is straight behind one of the engines,” he told AFP.
“There should be at least one other flaperon from the other wing (floating around).”
Gerry Soejatman, a Jakarta-based aviation consultant, said proof the flaperon came from MH370 was a “huge step”.
“People want all the answers, but look, let’s be real. We must be glad that we found something at all. Now we know roughly where it might have crashed,” he said.
“This answers a lot of questions actually. It eliminates other theories, conspiracy theories. If the black box is found later on, it is likely we could get more answers.” (Emphasis added)
You'll note the reference that the discovery of debris, according to this expert, eliminates "conspiracy theories," but I would respectfully demur from this view and suggest that it does no such thing. The bottom line here is that with the remote control technology available, and with hacking techniques being as sophisticated as they now are, those theories are still on the table, whether one wishes them to be or not. Debris can be manufactured and planted, or, real debris can be recovered, and then salted. As one commenter observed to me, the "modeling of drift" in the Indian Ocean by computers seems to be a kind of prophecy after the fact; one can model anything to make it fit a story.
So the real question is, what is going on here. Well, many people have speculated that the debris may have been salted to bring closure to the story. But I have my suspicions there as well, because if anything, the story - and the theories - are now given an even greater impetus. And my critique of the various "ordinary" conspiracy theories remains now what it was last year when i proposed we may be looking at something extraordinary that everyone wants to spin and shuffle out of sight as quickly as possible, namely, that if there was some plot by the Rothschilds (the semi-conductor secrets theory), or the Russians, or the USA-Israeli Diego Garcia theory, or the theory that aired briefly on FOX that it was secretly flown to Iran for use in a terrorist plot, or even the MH 370-MH 17 flight substitution shoot-down theory, were in play, the other geopolitical actors would surely have commented or pointed fingers of accusation at the suspected alleged perpetrators. It was the absence of such stories that caught my attention, and, with the discovery of alleged debris and the lack of a clear agreed-upon consensus about the event even now, that raises my suspicions. But regardless of which theory, or even lack thereof, that one might subscribe to, the appearance of the debris and whatever story is finally agreed upon, is not going to shut down speculation.
It is going to magnify it.
Which brings me to my high octane speculation of the day: what if the debris was salted, not in order to bring closure to the story, but quite the reverse, was done to bring the story and its inconsistencies and mysteries back into view? On this view, someone, somewhere, does not want us to forget flight 370 and its unfortunate victims. On this view, someone doesn't want closure, for in a certain sense, after a year, there was, for most of the world if not for the families of the victims, closure, as the world moved on, and people went about their business and living their lives. By finding alleged debris, the story is not closed; it is reopened. And now, like it or not, there will have to be a concensus on what happened, and whether the debris is, or is not, from flight 370. If it is, the narrative will still have to be finalized. If not, again, the narrative will still have to be finalized. And given the repeated pattern of obfuscation between the involved nations, the pattern is getting more interesting, for now France is involved in creating that narrative.
Interessant, non? (Apologies to our French readers, as I do not have an accent for French characters).

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