Malaysia Airlines Loses Contact With 777 en Route to Beijing

[exswissair]

Not sure if they've adjusted their position since as they have officially been asked to help by Australia

I still don't understand what a cargo ship is doing out there, literally running around in circles

Fishing?

[guamainiac]

"race track" search pattern. ?

[tsv]

Do the voice and data recorders have enough capacity for the entire flight, or do they just store the last hour or two? Just wondering whether the reason for the convoluted flight lasting several hours was to overwrite anything from the first part of the flight to cause yet more confusion and uncertainty as to who was responsible and why?

The Voice recorder apparently only lasts for 2 hours so in theory a Hijacker or Rogue Pilot could fly silently for 2 hours so nothing can be learned. The flight data recorder records everything the Aircraft has done for 25 hours so should reveal a lot if it can be found. I don't think it would be possible to tamper with it after the flight had departed but could be wrong..

[fishinmission5369]

Weather is supposed to be improving in the search area..according to the report I just saw.

[Peter Kesternich]

Filed through the last 10+ pages and still did not find too much news ...

You should read more closely

(...)well, and please correct me if I am wrong - couldn't a 777, assumed that it is fully fuel loaded, flying for some 12/14 hours??? What about the range now?!

Except that it wasn't refuelled to the max - as has already been discussed further up.

(...)And what is the story behind? Why did someone deliberately changed the course of the aircraft?
- Suicide? IMHO getting more and more unlikely!

Why unlikely?

(...)
- Steal freight? AFAIK the cargo manifest hasn't been published yet, right? Small and valuable, plus well to be sold? Diamonds? (or has there been a specific piece of art transported in the aircraft?) Robbery on command! Get the freight somewhere, and then the pilot/person flying the aircraft will be taken care of after he fulfilled his job (i.e. after a soft water landing: have a speed boat ready, and leave). After a soft landing of the plane this may even involve sinking it later!

There is no soft way of landing the aircraft on water. And even if it is still in one piece after coming to a stop on the waves of the Indian Ocean, the cargo would still be in the cargo holds which are now below the surface and most of which have doors opening outwards and therefore are impossible to open against the water pressure.

(...)
- Transport some special freight? For example nuclear material?

Beyond the general observations concerning robbery (see above), there is still the question of why nuclear material would be travelling from Malaysia to China, not the least because so far there are no nuclear power plants in all of Southeast Asia.

(...)
- Steal the aircraft for (dirty) reuse in an act of terror. This is the option I would fear the most! "just" stealing some diamonds - so what! (don't get me wrong: I pity the deeds and their families! But those masterminds behind the story do not care of another 250 souls ...
(...)

Also discussed above: if terrorists need an aircraft, there are A LOT of opportunities to get one without stirring up the media frenzy we are experiencing at the moment.

[eTang]

Danke for the extra infos, Peter.

Concerning fuel: do we really have an official statement how much fuel the aircraft carried?! I am still sceptical here!

Nuclear cargo: I am just searching for motivs one might have to commit a crime like this (would be).


Another question:
would it be possible to (parachute) jump out of a low flying 777? Also: would it be possible that the aircraft would continue onits preprogrammed route? To which altitude the a/c could climb and fly with an open door?

I know it's a crazy idea scenario, but any better?! Kill everybody in the cabin, repressurize, grab diamonds (or what ever), jump out to safety (speedboat waiting), let aircraft climb again as preprogrammed ... and at the end it will crash due to lack of fuel ... And if the pings didn't exist the rest of the world would never find the aircraft. Perfect crime.

(you might want to exchange diamonds for insurance payout)

[Gabriel]

Another question:
would it be possible to (parachute) jump out of a low flying 777? Also: would it be possible that the aircraft would continue onits preprogrammed route? To which altitude the a/c could climb and fly with an open door?

I know it's a crazy idea scenario, but any better?! Kill everybody in the cabin, repressurize, grab diamonds (or what ever), jump out to safety (speedboat waiting), let aircraft climb again as preprogrammed ... and at the end it will crash due to lack of fuel ... And if the pings didn't exist the rest of the world would never find the aircraft. Perfect crime.

I see no technical problem with that.
Yes, doors can be opened in flight if the plane is unpressurized and this will not prevent the AP from keeping flying the plane.

Any better? By now I think that sipmplest theory is pilot sucide with the intention that the plane is never found so the sucide cannt be proven and the insurance company will pay. You don't need to involve a complot, valuable thing on the plane, a criminal organization knowing this information, the pilot being part of it, some one waiting in a speedboat... Suicide? You just need one pilot knowing what he is doing and with the desire to terminate his life and the willingess to kill everybody else in the process. Single person involved.

[BlueMax]

eTang, you want a motive besides diamond stealing? Well one motive that I hope isn't the case but is plausible in this case is pursuit of political agenda. Sacrificing innocent civilians for such a cause is part of the agenda - ie 9-11 in which I saw the 2nd plane hit and lost people I know.

News reports on the pilot state he is related to the opposition leader to the Malaysian Government, and was in court watching his friend get sentenced to 5 years in jail the same day of the flight. There are pictures of the pilot wearing a "No Democracy" t-shirt. So he wants to humiliate and bring the spotlight on the Malaysian Government. So the pilot makes his statement by taking this airplane and trying to make it disappear by flying to the deepest and remote region of the Indian Ocean hoping the plane would never be found. Not for insurance purposes but political agenda. And the spotlight has, in fact, now been on the Government since this incident began.

His plan has a flaw, as all do, in that he forgets to or can't turn off engine pinger so flight can be detected and somewhat traced. Now US Government satellites may have found the wreckage and his erased computer data may be recovered.

Hopefully I am wrong and this is case of hypoxia, they tried to turn back and eventually passed out and plane flew on, similar to Payne Stewart's flight.

[BoeingBobby]

Nuclear cargo: I am just searching for motivs one might have to commit a crime like this (would be).

Nuclear cargo is not allowed to be carried on passenger aircraft.


Another question:
would it be possible to (parachute) jump out of a low flying 777? Also: would it be possible that the aircraft would continue onits preprogrammed route? To which altitude the a/c could climb and fly with an open door?

NO! This is not Harrison Ford on Air Force One!

[BoeingBobby]

I see no technical problem with that.
Yes, doors can be opened in flight if the plane is unpressurized and this will not prevent the AP from keeping flying the plane.

The self plugging doors on ALL Boeing aircraft would be VERY hard to open in flight. Hell, they are hard enough to open on the ground!

[fishinmission5369]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

Note to anyone wanting to try this...bring your own 'chute because some sources say the chutes he demanded and received were sewn shut

[Brainsys]

By now I think that sipmplest theory is pilot sucide with the intention that the plane is never found so the sucide cannt be proven and the insurance company will pay.

There are a lot of suicides but rarely insurance claim related. Its about escape from things they cannot control albeit I would be checking gambling debts as a financial pressure. Though gambling is controlled in Malaysia but restrictions can always be got round. Relationship breakdown is another. I would discount many mental issues as they should have been picked up in medical tests or by flying crew on previous flights. No one wants to fly with a nutter at the sharp end.

I note there is a natural assumption in many posts that the captain may have taken the bird. The last contact was from the FO who seemed relaxed shortly before the aircraft went dark. Little time to be hijacked or dispose of the other crew. Hence I would say it is more likely the FO flew it out of position with the other crew member already incapacitated or locked out of the cockpit.

Given that the objective wasn't to end it quickly or spectacularly then a long quiet flight into oblivion uninterrupted by interceptors may be what the flyer wanted to be alone with the stars, his instruments and the hum of the Trents till the tanks ran dry. Where better somewhere in the Indian Ocean or heading for Antarctica? Which is why I had a start when I heard the first news this morning.

But we still don't know if they have really found anything. Most options are still open.

[BlueMax]

Saw interesting interview that brought up two points:
1. Satellite images we are seeing from US firm and by US Law the satellite images released to public cannot be the high resolution ones, so authorities have better images than what we are seeing thus their "high credibility" quotes on the pictures.

2. David Gallo of Woods Hole looked back on his maps used in trying to find Air France 447 and said they had previously passed directly over the wreckage without detecting it. Said ocean thermal layers greatly impact the pinger and image detection distance, so finding this plane, should this be the site, could be very difficult.

[Evan]

Some more questions:
If flying on autopilot and you reach the last waypoint, does the autopilot:

• disengage,
• fly in a pattern around the final waypoint, or
• keep going in a straight line?

• keeps going in a straight line (VNAV, HDG/TRK HOLD) until the fuel runs out. There should also be an EICAS message indicating that no active route is selected.

[Peter Kesternich]

By the way... for all those of you with the convoluted, intricate, well-spun theories, here's a little reading on the side:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ockham%27s_razor