Missing MH370 thread cont...

[Pennies]

Old thread here

New thread here.

technical not techical

i do think people would be easier got at on the ground though. unless it was a case of stopping them getting to china at all costs but i don't have a clue why that would be so vital unless they were handing over technology? doesn't seem likely.

I've been wondering the same as jamtoast - why can the transponders be disabled from the cockpit? Surely they should be set to be always permanently on and not able to be overridden precisely so that a hijacker or other saboteur cannot switch them off? Goldie - do you know?

As with many others am transfixed/horrified by these terrible events, and also grateful to goldie for such knowledge- inspirational! My dad - who worked in intelligence for years and knows a bit about radar and stuff, but nit much about planes- just suggested that the plane may have dropped to 25000 feet in order to offload passengers. Would this awful idea be possible? I would have thought it would depressurise the cabin?

If it was gold then surely questions must be asked of which ever company it was (e.g FedEx, UPS etc) that was responsible for shipping the bullion. It would have to be an inside job. Surely the time between deciding to ship it and it being loaded on to a plane wouldn't be all that long? I don't think there would be enough time to organise anything.

Hoping against hope that an action like that would destabilise the plane too much

They haven't said why they are still considering two flight paths.

One guess if that they simply do not know where it went, but have ruled out routes other than the main air corridors (for it is - possibly - easier to spot a total outlier than one movement along a place where you expect there to be movements)

And I suppose the hope is that the countries added to the international investigation as the PM announced today will be reviewing all the data they have as fast as possible, and that analysts will be working round the clock to assess lpotentially relevant footage with aim of establishing which direction it went.

Malaysia is GMT+8 (so getting on for 02:30 there).

From what I've read, the transponder needs to have a manual turn off for a couple of reasons- to isolate it in case of an electrical fire and because sometimes they are glitchy and turning off and on again can resolve that.

I've been doing a lot of reading about this, it just so unfathomable. I think that it's certain that the powers that be know much more than they are revealing. Why? I don't know.

I tended to agree with the hypoxia/anoxia scenario, but now I don't know what to think. Did it land and there have been ongoing negotiations? Was it shot down?

I just hope the truth comes out soon, it must be agony for the families .

Latin I think the satellites are in arc shaped channels - the pings are from this 'corridor' but it is not known exactly where in the arc.

I guess there is a hell of a lot of data to be cross referencing. Specific times that flights left their destination and where they would have been at certain times, and the flights that were spotted on radar but were dismissed as routine flights. Somewhere in there there is an anomaly, its probably very difficult to spot it though.

I think (ready to be corrected) that location finding from a satellite is like doing it for a mobile phone from a mast. One hit just tells you that it's within that cell site. You need a hit from a second mast, and then see where their sites intersect to narrow down where it actually is.

When things like this happen I always feel so sad about the children involved. How terrifying for them.

Two of the children under 4 were Americans but only 3 Americans were on the plane. I hope that doesn't mean they weren't with their parents.

Thanks blackstilton - that makes sense although bit worrying that they might have to be switched off and on again! Absolutely agree with you - there must be lots that is known that we are not being told for whatever reasons.

I can't imagine 2 children under 4 would be travelling without a parent, I think it's safe to say the other American was their dad (?I think it was a man?). Obviously means 1 parent wasn't with them

MarianneEnjolras I can't get that image out of my head. Poor children - and their poor parents. I can't even begin to imagine...

chaos - No, I think the children were traveling alone. The children had the same surname but different from the American man

I just left their cinema having watched the film non-stop and gosh, it is terrifying! There could be a theory there too ...

My mum suggested to me that we send ds to her unaccompanied this summer as I will be working (she lives abroad) but I really didn't want to. It DEFINITELY isn't going to happen now!

Potential silly quiestion coming from the 'why would terrorists hijack a plane instead of buying one?' point of view; Can anyone buy a plane no questions asked if they have enough cash? Or do manufacturers run security checks on potential buyers to make sure they aren't a convicted criminal / not on an FBI most wanted list / actually run an airline? Is there a black market for planes?

Although I've just googled private jets and a gulfstream is $65 million. So I can probably answer my own question with "because terrorists don't have enough cash".....

Marking place for later

I totally forgot there was children on the plane, maybe my head just can't process something that awful, god bless them i pray to god they got off that plane alive :(

Thanks folks. It just seems strange to set out two specific paths, rather than just an arc or channel over the area in that case.

Marianne, I had that exact thought about those children. But I don't think you can have unaccompanied minors as young as 4, can you?

Or the children have their mother's name and she isn't an American? Or neither parent is an American but they were born there?

But can't the kids can have a different passport from their parents? For example, if they were born in the US.

I'm sure children have to be accompanied by an adult if they are that young