"US Officials" concerned MH370 plane could "be used for nefarious purposes against us"

[Renew Deal]

MH370 hijack theory includes intent to use plane for ‘nefarious purposes’, say US officials

With evidence showing a missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Boeing 777-200ER could still be intact, US officials have not ruled out that flight MH370 was flown to a secret site so that it could be used at a later date.

There has been no trace or debris field on land or sea that is linked to the plane carrying 239 people, which vanished while on a red-eye flight to Beijing last Saturday.

"I am keenly interested in resolving this mystery so we can discard the possibility, however remote, that the airplane can be used for nefarious purposes against us in the future," ABC News quoted a US official as saying.

The official added that "all our intelligence assets" are being used to try to figure this out.

Investigators searching for the missing MAS passenger jet said that they could not rule out hijacking and are looking at whether one of the plane's pilots or crew could have been involved.
<snip>

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/mh370-hijack-theory-includes-intent-to-use-plane-for-nefarious-purposes-say

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. US officials confirm international opinion of Americans as world's most insular people

I find it kind of doubtful that a missing plane in Malaysia has anything at all to do with a sinister plot against the USA.

[jberryhill]

2. Win

As was mentioned in another thread, anyone with enough juice to steal a passenger jet could probably buy one.

[Chan790]

3. Presumably, but not certainly.

Yeah, it requires a lot of logistics and planning...but not everything is necessarily for sale at any price...and certainly not in an off-the-radar manner. Even a billion dollars won't buy you a 777 or 787 without being subject to US aviation scrutiny...even if none of the buyer, seller or the plane is even remotely connected to the United States. If anything, the desire to buy one at any price would increase scrutiny. If you really want one and wish to conceal its use and location from the US FAA, you really only have one choice: theft.

You can't simply buy a plane without someone asking you what you want it for and then paying attention to where it is or what you're doing with it...not since a bunch of Saudi extremists proved that passenger jets make effective missiles.

[jberryhill]

8. Front companies

I can think of several lower cost and risk alternatives.

Buy an air charter company, air freight company or a small airline which leases its aircraft.

It's like getting around a felony conviction to buy a gun - you set up a trust with a friendly trustee, the trust owns a corporation, the corporation buys the gun.

[JI7]

4. did they say it would be the USA specifically ?

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. "nefarious purposes against US in the future"

I don't think that a US government official speaking in an official capacity is going to be using "us" to refer to anything other than the USA.

[functioning_cog]

5. If Iranian or other terrorists wanted to pack a plane

With explosives and nuclear fissile material for purpose of detonating in US city this isn't the most outrageous of plots.

[morningfog]

6. Except it wouldn't have a chance at working.