Investigations are under way to establish the cause of the loss of a Boeing 777 in the Far East. Given that the 777 is a sophisticated modern aircraft, operated by an airline with a good record, there is already suspicion that foul play might be involved, especially as it appears that two of the passengers were travelling on stolen passports.
However, forged and stolen passports are an everyday occurrence at major airports, and I would hazard a guess that if you went through all of the passengers travelling on a single day, most aircraft would be carrying at least a couple of dodgy documents.
These are early days, and the truth will come out in due time, as it did with the Air France disaster a few years back.
Musings and Snippets from a recently retired JP. I served for 31 years, mostly in west London. I was Chairman of my Bench for some years, and a member of the National Bench Chairmen's Forum All cases are based on real ones, but anonymised and composited. All opinions are those of one or more individuals. JPs swear to enforce the law of the land, whether or not they approve of it. Nothing on here constitutes legal advice.
Given that both China and Malaysia are Interpol members, and that Interpol has confirmed that details of both stolen passports were posted on their registers as soon as they were reported stolen, it is disappointing to note that Interpol has today stated that neither passport was checked against its database.
ReplyDeleteHow practical is it for this sort of Interpol checking to occur though? I've had a few flights lately (leaving the UK) and the inspections of my passport at various UK airports have always been visual only (if at all). Presumably not everybody has the means to check - are we relying on airlines using the pre-flight booking information to look up passport numbers?
ReplyDeleteJust as Bystander mentioned it, you may find this analysis of the Air France flight quite fascinating as an illustration of how a modern, fully functioning plane can still crash. It's basically a step by step explanation of the final moments from the flight recorder. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/what-really-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877
For some interesting & complex thoughts on this, can I recommend:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/03/a-hypothesis.html