SEE NEW UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST

Everyone knows* that if a cellphone is turned off, or drowned, or destroyed, it will not ring when you call it. Why then are relatives of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 reporting ringing tones when they call?

This, from ibtimes:

The mystery surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has deepened with the Chinese media reporting that several of the passengers’ mobile phones were connecting when called by relatives, but the calls were not picked up.

The sister of one of the Chinese passengers on board the vanished flight rang his phone live on TV, the Mirror reports.

“This morning, around 11:40 [am], I called my older brother’s number twice, and I got the ringing tone,” said Bian Liangwei. At 2pm, she called again on air and heard it ringing once more.

“If I could get through, the police could locate the position, and there’s a chance he could still be alive” she said. The number has now been passed on to Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese police.

What’s more, the same is true for the phones of crew members:

The Straits Times reported that many of the family members told MAS commercial director Hugh Dunleavy that the commuters’ mobile phones were ringing but they were not picked up.

Dunleavy replied that MAS was calling the mobile phones of the crew members as well, which were ringing, and that he had given the numbers to Chinese investigators.

Relatives of the passengers are urging the authorities to search for the location of phones that rang using the Global Positioning System.

Another VERY interesting fact is that apparently some calls have seemingly been cancelled at the handset’s end. isten to this:

According to China.org.cn, 19 families have signed a joint statement saying that their family members’ cell phones connected, but the calls hung up. The relatives have asked Malaysia Airlines to reveal any information they might be hiding, seeking an explanation for the eerie phone connections. The relatives have complained that the Malaysina Airlines is not responding as actively as it should.

Click below to watch the video of a relative making a call on live TV.

UPDATE: This was published on CNN half at 14h19 today:

Conspiracy theories surround Flight 370 Aerial view of search is ‘reality check’

“Frustrated! … There are reports from family members that phone calls to their missing loved ones have ‘rung through,’ indicating the phones aren’t on the bottom of the ocean,” one Facebook user surmised.

However, technology industry analyst and “E-Commerce Times” columnist, Jeff Kagan told CNN that no conclusions can be reached concerning the ringing phones.

When a cell phone rings, he told “The Situation Room,” it first connects with the network and attempts to locate the end-user’s phone.

“If it doesn’t find the phone after a few minutes, after a few rings, then typically, it disconnects and that’s what’s happening,” he said.

“So, they’re hearing ringing and they’re assuming it’s connecting to their loved ones, but it’s not. It’s the network sending a signal to the phone letting them know it’s looking for them.”

[more here]

We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.

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* or so we thoughts..