Malaysia Airlines Loses Contact With 777 en Route to Beijing

[andyb99]

if you draw the line from the last contact to Beijing...then draw that same line to the north west...the plane could very easily have flown to iran...afghanistan or yemen ....i dont know how or if it could have done this undetected...but from what we know about radar once the transponder was off its just a blip in hundreds and hundreds of other blips......in the absence of a crash...or at least debris....and knowing the safety of the plane and its systems....this HAD to be deliberate......RIGHT???
we know an iranian bought the tickets for the stolen passports guys.....do we really think they were asylum seekers and this was just a coincidence??

by the way' i've sent a text from 35000 feet on air lingus....though i dont know the technicalities of doing this...they told me i could now call or make texts....so i did.

[Bryan]

if you draw the line from the last contact to Beijing...then draw that same line to the north west...the plane could very easily have flown to iran...afghanistan or yemen ....i dont know how or if it could have done this undetected...but from what we know about radar once the transponder was off its just a blip in hundreds and hundreds of other blips......in the absence of a crash...or at least debris....and knowing the safety of the plane and its systems....this HAD to be deliberate......RIGHT???
we know an iranian bought the tickets for the stolen passports guys.....do we really think they were asylum seekers and this was just a coincidence??

by the way' i've sent a text from 35000 feet on air lingus....though i dont know the technicalities of doing this...they told me i could now call or make texts....so i did.

How many American Naval ships are out in the waters inside that circle? Someone had to have pick this unidentified object up and at least talked to someone about it. Diego Garcia is within radar range of the suspected "U-Turn" path that would have it out over Sumatra and into the Indian Ocean. I would think they would have seen her, a long way out from the base. So many questions ...

[sjwk]

During the press conference in the afternoon of Mar 14th 2014 Malaysia's Transport Minister provided more details about the primary radar observation stating, the target was first picked up at waypoint IGARI at FL350 (editorial note: waypoint IGARI nearly conincides with the last secondary radar position of MH-370) at 01:21L moving towards waypoint VAMPI, then waypoint GIVAL and finally turning northwest towards waypoint IGREX. The target was lost at FL295 after GIVAL at 02:15L.

So now they're saying that they did track something for about an hour from approximately the same location MH370 was last seen, up towards the Andaman Islands. But it still might be another plane.


(map nabbed from another blog)

I thought though, their detecting a radar signal was at 200nm, which would be the limit of their radar. Yet the Andaman Islands are ~600nm from the most northerly Malaysian radar?

edit: I suppose though GIVAL is within 200nm of the west coast of Thailand, so perhaps it was within range of Thai radar until it went out of range heading from GIVAL to IGREX.

Daily Mail speculates it could reach anywhere in Northern India, the borders of Pakistan if it continued in that direction.

If you were hijacking or otherwise taking a plane though, would you really still follow established routes between waypoints or is that making you easier to find?

Does make it sound more like it was taken rather than crashed after all - if you were just going to crash into the sea somewhere and hope not to be found, you wouldn't follow routes and would just head off into the unknown?

Or this radar signal is again, unrelated to MH370...?

[sjwk]

And another contradictory piece of the puzzle:

14 March 2014: Inmarsat has issued the following statement regarding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Routine, automated signals were registered on the Inmarsat network from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 during its flight from Kuala Lumpur.

This information was provided to our partner SITA, which in turn has shared it with Malaysia Airlines.

For further information, please contact Malaysia Airlines.

source: http://www.inmarsat.com/news/inmarsa...-flight-mh370/

Edit: as avherald has noted, it doesn't specify whether these signals were before or after the flight was 'lost'

[obmot]

Question for the professional (commercial) pilots on here -

Is there a reason or reasons that key transponder systems and FDR/CVR would need to be manually powered down? How often do you do this during standard commercial flights?

Stated another way, I have long wondered why certain systems are allowed to be manually powered down by the flight crew with the mere flip of a switch/bus, and why certain systems dont also have a battery backup.

One could perhaps argue that if flight crew knew, for example, that the CVR was an 8hr recording and could not be powered down, and that the transponder could also not be shut down, they might be less inclined towards nefariousness (although I am not suggesting that this is the case with MH370).

I also find it befuddling that the CVRs of commercial jets holds (far) less record time than a well-used iPhone. Heck, a $20 voice recorder will get you 80 hours of battery life and 200 hours of audio length.

EDIT: also just to make clear, I am -not- suggesting or implying that pilots are inclined towards nefariousness in any way shape or form with my post above---certainly there are known cases where longer CVR recordings would have been crucial where pilots were not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever (e.g., Swissair111).

[sjwk]

If the aircraft you were flying on had WiFi, yes you can send a text or an email. You would still NOT be able to place a cell call. Skype, Viber or any of the free VOIP apps are a different story. I will try to explain this in terms that will make you understand how the towers work.

That is true for connecting to towers on the ground, but many non-US carriers do have femtocell transmitters on-board the planes, which presumably route out via satellite. Seems like Aer Lingus is included in that, although their website implies phones can only be used on the ground and before taxiing, and says all wifi must be switched off on all devices...

See: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...obile/3784733/

No idea whether this plane did. But some European and Asian carriers certainly do.

[BoeingBobby]

That is true for connecting to towers on the ground, but many non-US carriers do have femtocell transmitters on-board the planes, which presumably route out via satellite. Seems like Aer Lingus is included in that, although their website implies phones can only be used on the ground and before taxiing, and says all wifi must be switched off on all devices...

See: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...obile/3784733/

No idea whether this plane did. But some European and Asian carriers certainly do.

I stand corrected, I was not aware of that. But I also don't spend too much time as a passenger.

[sjwk]

I stand corrected, I was not aware of that. But I also don't spend too much time as a passenger.

Sadly, neither do I... but I'd come across that a while back while looking at feasibility of fitting out buildings here with femtocells to boost phone coverage (the perils of working somewhere with 3 foot thick walls, and students who start to foam at the mouth if not able to get facebook updates for more than 5 minutes!)

[MairzyDotes]

http://www.wsbt.com/news/nationworld/URGENT-Malaysia-Airlines-Lithium-Batteries/24979054

I saw this on CNN...some discussion of lithium batteries in the cargo hold?

[Brainsys]

We know the US has substantial intelligence assets in the Indian Ocean. If they were lucky enough to detect the craft they have the 'enigma' problem that in revealing the information reveals their capability. Keeping that secret would be of higher value than recovering the craft and contents.

The best they could do is to drop false information through third parties which might lead people towards an accidental discovery.

Which could explain a lot really. But its just speculation.

[AVION1]

I have been thinking also about an engine flame out, on both engines, just like that Pinnacle CRJ-200 in Missouri or the West Caribbean Airways MD-82 in South America. Not a nice experience, specially over the ocean.

[flight191]

We know the US has substantial intelligence assets in the Indian Ocean. If they were lucky enough to detect the craft they have the 'enigma' problem that in revealing the information reveals their capability. Keeping that secret would be of higher value than recovering the craft and contents.

The best they could do is to drop false information through third parties which might lead people towards an accidental discovery.

Which could explain a lot really. But its just speculation.

Excellent speculation BTW. I think this is the most likely scenario too.

[sjwk]

I have been thinking also about an engine flame out, on both engines, just like that Pinnacle CRJ-200 in Missouri or the West Caribbean Airways MD-82 in South America. Not a nice experience, specially over the ocean.

Except that wouldn't prevent them sending a radio signal giving position, and attempting to ditch.

[flight191]

Except that wouldn't prevent them sending a radio signal giving position, and attempting to ditch.

What does the RAT power on the 777?

[BoeingBobby]

What does the RAT power on the 777?

Some electric and some hydraulic.