Posted on 03/16/2014 3:43:42 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
A former security chief for El Al believes that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 points directly to Iran.
Isaac Yeffet, who served as head of global security for Israel’s national carrier in the 1980s and now works as an aviation security consultant in New Jersey, said investigators were correct in honing in on the two fake-passport carrying Iranian passengers on the doomed flight, and they have wasted valuable time by exploring other leads.
“What happened to this aircraft, nobody knows. My guess is based upon the stolen passports, and I believe Iran was involved,” he said. “They hijacked the aircraft and they landed it in a place that nobody can see or find it.”
In the immediate aftermath of the aircraft’s disappearance, which occurred last week during a standard night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, Malaysian officials and the media were fixated on the story of two Iranians who had made it onto the plane with stolen passports. As the days wore on and the investigation uncovered new and confusing details, with officials admitting that the plane could have traveled for as long as seven hours without radio contact, and that its potential location could be anywhere from northern Kyrgyzstan to the southern Indian ocean, attention has shifted to the pilots and to far-flung conspiracy theories. This is a misstep, said Yeffet, and one that would not have happened in Israel.
“This would never have happened on an Israeli plane,” says Yeffet. “An El Al aircraft was hijacked for the first and last time in 1968. Since then, there has not been a single flight where security did not check every single name.”
However, it would have taken more than just a pair of Iranians with forged documents, Yeffet said, to pull off such an astonishing crime. “I can’t believe for a second that if these people planned to hijack the aircraft, it was just them,” he said. But based upon the tried-and-true Israeli intelligence strategy of profiling, the pilots, he said, are unlikely suspects.
“We are talking about a captain who is 53 years old, who has worked for Malaysia Airlines for 30 years, and suddenly he became a terrorist? He wanted to commit suicide? If he committed suicide, where is the debris?”
Adding that the captain in question, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, was known to be happily married and comfortably well-off, Yeffet said the profile simply does not fit. “From the United States to China to Japan, everybody is searching for this aircraft or piece of it. And there is no sign. So in my opinion, the aircraft was hijacked. And it was an excellent plan from the terrorists, to land in a place where they can hide the plane and no one can find it.”
Lt. Col. (Res) Eran Ramot, an IDF fighter pilot and the head of aviation research at Israel’s Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, however, drew other conclusions.
“It would be very complicated [for someone other than the pilot to have flown the plane],” Ramot said, based on the stunning revelations that the flight not only made a total U-turn from its planned route but also dipped in between radar points for hours and had all of its tracking systems manually turned off. “It takes somebody that knows how to operate an airplane like this.”
Like Yeffet, Ramot believes the plane was being intentionally flown to a secret location, and he went as far as to say he is holding out hope that the 239 passengers and crew who were on board are still alive.
“We don’t know any better yet,” he said. “One of my theories is that the airplane landed in Bangladesh. It could reach there, it’s very close to Afghanistan. It could have landed on airstrip there, and everybody on board is still alive. It could be done.”
Asked what would have happened if the plane – which went undetected for hours as it blipped across Malaysian radars – had entered Israeli airspace, Ramot said, “It would not go unnoticed, that’s for sure. Action would have been carried out, the least of which would have been an interception to escort it.”
That doesn’t mean that the Malaysian military wasn’t paying attention, he added. It’s simply that in Israel, the margin for taking chances is significantly reduced.
“It’s a matter of atmosphere,” he said. “Here, every blip on the screen is suspicious because that’s the way we live. That’s our daily program. I can’t imagine they pay as much attention, but if a blip runs wide or runs strange, I would expect them to notice.”
Pini Schiff, one of Israel’s top aviation security experts, said that if there is any comfort that Israelis can take from the story of MH 370, which is proving to be one of the most confounding aviation disasters of all time, it is that it could never happen to a plane flying out of Ben-Gurion International Airport.
“It simply wouldn’t happen at Ben Gurion,” he said. “The level of security at Ben Gurion and on all El Al planes is so high, there is nothing more they could do… Nations are not spending billions of dollars the way the Israeli government is protecting Israeli aviation, because the threat against Israeli aviation is so high. What we are doing in Ben Gurion is an operation that is not being done in any other airport in the world. Not in the United States, not in Britain, not in Germany, not anywhere.”
Like his colleagues, Schiff said that his guess is as good as anyone’s as to the fate of MH 370, but he also believes there’s a good possibility that it has been brought down, intact, on a hidden runway in some far-flung corner of the world.
“It will be found. It may take a month or a year, but eventually, it will be found,” he said. “This aircraft didn’t vanish. It exists somewhere in the world, and it will be found, probably in one piece.”
This is what I think happened. Landed and probably destined to be delivered to Iran, who will repaint the American plane to look like an American air liner to carry a bomb or EMP right into our country.
I’m thinking it will carry an Iranian or Paki nuke. Israel estimates that Iran now has one or two nukes. It might be more now.
These two fake passport holders would’ve NEVER been allowed to fly El Al.
It is not done in America, because of, dare I say it? PC. The Israelis profile people. PC will not allow us to do that. Babies and 90 year old grand mothers get searched before muzzies do.
My husband figures the missing plane will find us first.
I think it was Iran as well. But, I think it is to be a delivery system for a nuke into Isreal. Too difficult to get refueled to get to USA.
A few years ago I flew from Israel directly to Egypt, which I will never attempt again. In the time I spent in the Israel airport before departure, and the time it took to clear Egyptian customs after coming from Israel, I could have flown to Rome, then on to Egypt on a separate ticket - which is what I have done since then. The travel agency didn’t like to book it like that, but when I told them they could come with next time, they relented. But I will say - I never felt safer.
Ping.
What if they find a way to “replace” a scheduled flight of another plane just like it?
Israel has the best security in the world..you literally get inspected from top to bottom before your even allowed on the plane..and for the slightest second they find you suspicious, they take you to a room and interrogate you. That is why my family only trusts El Al, they don’t trust any other airline
That's why it went up to 45,000 feet.
The cabin was depressurized when the captain said 'good night' and turned out the lights. All on board lost consciousness and when he brought it up to 45,000 feet, they all died within minutes.
That is why their cellphones continued to ring in their pockets and purses when relatives called. They were all dead. There would be no resistance nor counterattack.
They wanted that plane - that was the prize.
They have it as it did not go into the water, but flew for 7 hours. It is now in Pakistan being fitted for its final mission.
There has been too much rhetoric on this tragedy to even sort out anything. I feel PPL should now just wait for the real facts! The craft when found will give up the real facts!
Still complicated. They hate the Jews slightly more than us. They could use a ship with a nuke that looks like it is smuggling illegal immigrants and get right into any port in the USA.
Yes but. Easy to adapt to carry extra fuel. Probable plan a one way trip anyway. And USA is the islamonazis’ number one declared target With two of their top target cities on the west coast easy to reach from the pacific. And their Great Satan has another attractive target sitting out in the middle of the ocean along their primary attack flight path, just in case they decide to cut it short for any reason. (Anyone remember ww-2?). I’m not at all comfortable USA is free of danger. When A raving nut shouts he will kill you. And when he keeps doing it over and over again. It can pay to pay attention.
If anyone wanted to steal a plane then why not steal a FedEx or UPS cargo plane? They are probably a lot easier to steal than a commercial airliner and no passengers to deal with.
This whole thing is rather Illogical and the conspiracy theories way off the mark.
“..........delivered to Iran, who will repaint the American plane to look like an American air liner to carry a bomb or EMP right into our country.”
Obamatollah’s in a hurry to EMP us, before Arpaio blows his cover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=200kyOZw5nU
I'll go further.
I think it's Iran - AND the reason for the 'terrorist illusion' is to stop retaliation.
If Israel gets nuked - and no country is behind it that can be identified... Who do we go after? Million of innocent people die in Israel and we respond by having Obama going through a deck of cards picking who to assassinate?
Lots of strategy went into this - for all we know both pilots were killed after the plane was landed...
I doubt it due to practicality. This plane seizure raised everyone’s awareness and scrutiny. It has mobilized dozens of nations, thousands of troops and scores of ships, planes and satellites to look for it. If spotted now, it will be immediately intercepted by a swarm of jets and shot down if it refuses any order.
It would be much easier to quietly smuggle a weapon across one of our borders, thru a port in a shipping container or in a common cargo plane that nobody finds suspicious or cares about.
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