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Flight MH370: Oil Rig Worker Mike McKay claims to spot plane crashing near Vietnam

You can type coordinates directly into google earth like:
8 22 30.23, 108 42 22.26

Putting a space between the d/m/s, and a comma. (and a - sign if it's west)

But it's:

8.375064, 108.706183
 
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:) Sorry.

You can type coordinates directly into google earth like:
8 22 30.23, 108 42 22.26

Putting a space between the d/m/s, and a comma. (and a - sign if it's west)
That also works in Google maps (on the web) if you type it into the search box. So much simpler than converting coordinates into decimal degrees first, which is how I did it. Google helpfully does the conversion for you.
(repost from the split thread)
 
Why is there a photo of a print-out of an email?

It's from Woodruff's Twitter, possibly a photo from a press conference? Or just some official showed it to him.

He's a real ABC guy, claims ABC verified McKay is real:




This is from 7 hours ago though. Sounds like they already checked the area.
 
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That's pretty good observation details.
Here is the source . . .

http://m.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11218622


Hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft shifts to the Malacca Strait

A New Zealand oil rig worker has claimed to have seen the missing Malaysian Airlines plane burning in the sky.

Mike McKay told his employers, in an email made public overnight, that he had observed the plane burning at high altitude.

"I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines plane come down. The timing is right," he said.

"I tried to contact the Malaysian and Vietnam officials several days ago. But I do not know if the message has been received."

Mr McKay said he was on the oil rig Songa Mercur, off south east Vietnam.


Content from External Source
 
He might have simply witnessed a bright meteor/fireball, which can last for up to 10 seconds. A long-lasting fireball heading straight toward a witness might be mistaken, after-the-fact, for a plane on fire after learning of reports of a missing/crashed plane.
 
I would be surprised if someone couldn't recognise a burning modern jet airliner.

At night from far away?
In reality all they saw at some distance away was an unknown very bright object in the night sky. Perhaps the oil-rig worker is only assuming it was a plane due to one having gone missing. At this point there is only coincidence.
 
Yes but he is right to report it isn't he?
It's not a situation where 'well you don't know for sure so don't bother saying anything' is at all appropriate.
(not that that's what you were saying, but it's a valid sighting in the situation)
 
New photos:


http://m.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26554875


Satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been released on a Chinese government website.

The three images show what appear to be large, floating objects in the South China Sea. Previous sightings of possible debris have proved fruitless.
Content from External Source
 
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New photos:


http://m.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26554875


Satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been released on a Chinese government website.

The three images show what appear to be large, floating objects in the South China Sea. Previous sightings of possible debris have proved fruitless.
Content from External Source
Here:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/flight-mh370-china-reports-possible-debris-observed.3272/
 
Yes but he is right to report it isn't he?
It's not a situation where 'well you don't know for sure so don't bother saying anything' is at all appropriate.
(not that that's what you were saying, but it's a valid sighting in the situation)

Right, a sighting like that should be reported. However, to begin the email with "I believe I saw the Malaysian Airlines plane come down. The timing is right.", seems a bit dubious to me. What time was the sighting, did they provide the time in their other correspondences and if so, why not in this particular email? Why did they not just describe what they saw and leave the speculation out of it?
 
Well because that was his personal feeling, and it's exciting to him. It might be something else, but that doesn't stop him from thinking what he likes.
You have to allow for some human foibles.
 
I don't know how you can tell an aircraft is burning from that sort of distance. It is an interesting observation though it would be more useful if he gave a time for the sighting. We can generally see the strobes of another aircraft at 50-70km on a dark night. Viewing strobes from the surface through the haze/smoke that is prevalent in those area might be impossible.
 
Well because that was his personal feeling, and it's exciting to him. It might be something else, but that doesn't stop him from thinking what he likes.
You have to allow for some human foibles.

Sure, but was that his personal feeling before or after the fact? Like, did he, or even anybody else on the rig see something in the night sky that he felt compelled to report immediately, or did a lonely oil rig worker wait until he learned of a missing plane after seeing something more mundane such as a meteor fireball or an iridium flare? Is he a noob or a seasoned veteran? Just sayin'...:)
 
A meteor would be incandescent wouldn't it, distinct from what one would describe as fire?
White as opposed to yellow or orange.
We'd have to ask for further information off him to know if he was confident it was something on fire as opposed to meteor or space junk.

ETA
Hmm, not neccessarily.

Among fainter objects, it seems to be reported that slow meteors are red or orange, while fast meteors frequently have a blue color, but for fireballs the situation seems more complex than that, but perhaps only because of the curiosities of color vision as mentioned above.
Content from External Source
So an object entering the atmosphere could look like a plane on fire.
I thought they were all moving so fast that they would be visually much more intense, but I guess not.
 
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Some are latching on to the idea that the email is a hoax and no such person exists. They have issues with the passport number (it has a lot of 8's so apparently that's impossible), and the email recipient address (phuquoctwr)
And also I guess, just because.
There are images without the censoring of email addresses and his passport number, I wonder if that's allowed?
 
A meteor would be incandescent wouldn't it, distinct from what one would describe as fire?
White as opposed to yellow or orange.
We'd have to ask for further information off him to know if he was confident it was something on fire as opposed to meteor or space junk.

ETA
Hmm, not neccessarily.

Among fainter objects, it seems to be reported that slow meteors are red or orange, while fast meteors frequently have a blue color, but for fireballs the situation seems more complex than that, but perhaps only because of the curiosities of color vision as mentioned above.
Content from External Source
So an object entering the atmosphere could look like a plane on fire.
I thought they were all moving so fast that they would be visually much more intense, but I guess not.

Yeah, a meteor fireball like the one I saw on a night of stargazing many years ago could easily be mistaken for an airplane on fire. It was the most spectacular fireball that I've ever seen, low and slow, very bight and orange-ish with sparkles in a trail of smoke/vapor and lasted at least 10 seconds.

Anyways, sure the sighting should be investigated along with any plausible lead, but an airplane on fire is not the only viable explanation for what he saw.
 
Searched how? With what kinds of aircraft? What marine vessels? Why did they stop searching?
Is there some reason why McKay is not regarded as credible? What has he said since the initial report?

He seems quite credible to me. However it sounds like it was already followed up on.
 
At night from far away?
In reality all they saw at some distance away was an unknown very bright object in the night sky. Perhaps the oil-rig worker is only assuming it was a plane due to one having gone missing. At this point there is only coincidence.

Actually you're the one assuming...

You're assuming McKay was wrong. You're assuming MH370 was tracked through the Straits of Malacca from IGARI by Malaysian military radar, however the Malaysians privately disclosed photos of the radar track in the Straits to Chinese relatives which they claimed was MH370 and it did not show an aircraft flying from IGARI to VAMPI, nor from VAMPI to GIVAL, nor from GIVAL to IGREX. This whole thing about the flight through the Straits is a massive con-job.

The oil rig sighting is far more credible and backed up by a disturbance picked up on the sea-bed not of seismic origins 85 minutes into the flight (ie 18:07 UTC)
 
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Yeah, a meteor fireball like the one I saw on a night of stargazing many years ago could easily be mistaken for an airplane on fire. It was the most spectacular fireball that I've ever seen, low and slow, very bight and orange-ish with sparkles in a trail of smoke/vapor and lasted at least 10 seconds.

Anyways, sure the sighting should be investigated along with any plausible lead, but an airplane on fire is not the only viable explanation for what he saw.

I have seen large meteor fireballs several times in my life and the distinctive thing about these always was their high relative speeds. They left me in no doubt they were traveling far faster than any aircraft.

This oil rig worker was making a careful precise observation and noted the aircraft appeared almost stationary not deviating left or right. It is precisely the thing would notice of an aircraft very distant.

By contrast a meteor will leave no doubt as to it's huge velocity.

Radar tracking ADS-B transponder returns from MH370 did not cease until 17:27 UTC when the aircraft simply flew beyond the radar horizon from Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian authorities falsely claimed the transponder was turned off at 17:21 UTC but that was not the case. Transponders only respond when the aircraft is painted by a radar interrogation. MH370 simply kept flying east until radar no longer painted it as a target.

We know it was flying east at 17:27 UTC because at 17:26 UTC it completed a turn from 025 degrees to 040 degrees flying northeast - in the direction of the oil rig sighting.
 
Simon, do you have the reference for your claim about MH370 still being tracked by the Vietnamese an hour or so after it lost contact"
 
What about the other report of someone seeing the plane flying 500 m in the malacca straight

There was no sighting. There were Malaysian fishermen in the Gulf of Thailand at some unknown location out at sea who reported hearing a horrendous sound at night high in the sky.

With every telling of that story the Malaysian Government controlled news media have embellished the story.
 
Radar tracking ADS-B transponder returns from MH370 did not cease until 17:27 UTC when the aircraft simply flew beyond the radar horizon from Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian authorities falsely claimed the transponder was turned off at 17:21 UTC but that was not the case. Transponders only respond when the aircraft is painted by a radar interrogation. MH370 simply kept flying east until radar no longer painted it as a target.

We know it was flying east at 17:27 UTC because at 17:26 UTC it completed a turn from 025 degrees to 040 degrees flying northeast - in the direction of the oil rig sighting.

ADSB is a broadcast signal from the aircraft that gets updated every half second. The radar transponder is what replies to an SSR interrogation, not the ADSB. Both get turned off however when the transponder is selected off.

If this aircraft went down in the South China Sea, why has there been no floating wreckage found?
 
Simon, do you have the reference for your claim about MH370 still being tracked by the Vietnamese an hour or so after it lost contact"

I read it in an English language online edition of a Vietnamese newspaper. I have tried without luck to retrace that link. I did cut and past Vietnamese comments made at the time which are confused and contradictory. There was a claim by a Vietnamese Admiral of "region #5" who said they watched it go down.

I am currently not on the computer where I cut and pasted some of the comments I read so can't retrieve them for this posting, however I shall try to locate the comments.

After failing to find the link again I have to acknowledge a possibility the Vietnamese were merely citing what the Malaysians were briefing them. It seems more plausible in hindsight that Vietnamese searchers were being briefed by Malaysian officials and the story has been misreported.
 
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