Very sad. Hope for the best but I fear the worst. The reported complete loss of radar pings sounds ominous and concern for in-flight breakup. Of course reports are notoriously unreliable early.

Lloyd - NoK = Next of Kin. Apologies if you were joking.

How does that even happen?

All flights out of WMKK seem to drop off soon after departure. Looks like a ground radar limitation.

A thread was started about this in the Majors section and it was moved to the Safety section but without the "Moved: __________" nomenclature.

Anyway, this is very sad news

bomb maybe?

Has it been confirmed where the airplane went down ? The 777 has a near spotless record so it will be interesting to follow this.

Last ADS-B hit was apparently after coasting out north of vietnam into the Vietnam Sea.

Unfortunately sudden loss of contact trends toward catastrophic loss. The satellite showed very nice weather down that way.

Question for those in the "technical know":

If a plane, like a 777, gets in a distress situation (being it one general fault or another) will the ACARS not send a series of information to the company?
AF447 did that.

So losing communication and no ACARS data, could mean what?

I am sure there may be more than one possible explanation, but not countless.

Can this equipment be turned off manually?

Read the Air France 447 report for one way it could happen. Read the United 93 (or any of the 9/11 flights) report for another way. Pan Am 103, etc.

These planes were 'lost' by ATC, but eventually found.

Whatever happened, we'll find out eventually. 777's don't vanish for long.