Missing Malaysia Air plane MH370 - Part 3

[KenAdams]

Thread 1

Thread 2

I've had an interesting thought about the Maldives theory, if it happens to be true.

Maybe the Maldives were used as a quick refuelling stop, a stepping stone.

Look at the map here:

ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/MH370-satellites.jpg

The data from the geostationary satellite above the Indian Ocean is what gives the location of the plane at 8.11 am to one of the points along the red circle. As the plane also has to be within fuel range (black circle), the approx final location of the plane can only be at a place along the segment of the red circle that lies within the black circle.

However, however... if the plane did make a refuelling stop in the Maldives, thereby giving it a much a larger fuel range again.... that opens up the possibility of the plane's final location being anywhere along the red circle line. Which would mean the scary prospect of an even greater search area for investigators.

oops sorry clicky link here:

ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/MH370-satellites.jpg

This lack of information is torturous!

How would the plane land at Male without arousing suspicion? It's a really busy airport.

Can I ask a question about timings (thinking about the Maldives thing again - aargh, I'm getting totally addicted to this).

The last known transmission to satellite was at roughly about 8am - presumably that is 8am Malaysian time?

The Maldives island saw a plane flying low at roughly about 6am? That would be local time - since they are west, would that make it later than 8am in Malaysia?

There is absolutely no way on Gods earth that the US would go around hijacking a passenger plane. I'll believe the alien abduction theory before that one!

Maldives are 3 hours behind Malaysia, making 6am in the Maldives 9am in Malaysia, i.e. 1 hour after the last transmission.

bloody hell. this really has become entertainment hasn't it?

About the plane landing at Malé, don't forget it was around 6:15 on the saturday morning. It wasn't expected in Beijing till ?6:30 in the morning. The world is now obsessed by a missing plane, but remember no one was aware of it then at all, so they weren't on the look out for it. Hiding in plain sight before the news broke.

I'm not saying I do think it landed at Malé, but before anyone knew a plane was missing, anything's possible.

@Jonathangirl, not had a chance to work out the relative timings sorry, just trying to keep up with this thread, Guardian & Twitter.

what could possibly be entertaining about the idea of 239 people being either dead or in peril wannaBe? I can think of a lot of other adjectives to describe why the this is so prevelant in people's minds and something that people just can't let go of...but entertaining is not one of them.

Another thing that's bugging me - is the circle from the satellite where it meets the ground or at the height a plane would be? I mean, the 'circle' from the satellite must be a cone shape in 3D. Is there any way of knowing where on the cone the ping came from? If it was high up the circle would be smaller than if it were on the ground... or am I over thinking this?!

Couldn't have refuelled and flown on somewhere else. Not because of any suspicion it might arouse, but because it would have continued to ping the satellite and thus the latest ping would be later.

The last ping indicates the last time the plane was powered.

The reported sighting was nowhere near Male btw - it was a small island in the southern part of the Maldives, I think, several hundred km from Male.

Planes do fly very low over the Maldives despite what the linked report says. And lots of airlines are red and blue. If you wanted to hide a plane or have a secret refuelling stop the Maldives is about the last destination you would think of.

It doesn't ring true that the US would plan to hijack a passenger plane like this. Especially not to do it & then play the whole "where's it gone, we know nothing" hoopla.

I can believe that they would want to know whether this sort of thing was technically possible - but why wouldn't they just send up a test plane with no passengers & a US crew who were well in-the-know?

While I do also find the close proximity to OBL's birth date a little spooky - surely, if that had anything to do with this, the plane would have been "reused" to achieve whatever ends on that date? It would have been his 57th birthday too, so not hugely significant I wouldn't have thought?

I am so puzzled by the whole thing though - almost anything could be true. Of course the truth is known, just not by the general public.

If the satellite pings every hour, then presumably the plane could have carried on for up to another 59 minutes after the last ping though.

wannaBe Tue 18-Mar-14 16:48:14
bloody hell. this really has become entertainment hasn't it?

Its not the word I would use actually. More that it has captured imaginations and is playing on people's fears and worries. As well as their sympathies. It feeds the nagging doubt that this could happen again and what might happen next more than ordinary news. The mystery of it is frightening and has happened to a bunch of seemingly ordinary people rather than celebrities or politicians.

Also the fact people can log on and 'search' maps themselves makes people feel like they can somehow help too. Thats actually a more positive human response than pure entertainment.

@Agnu, yes the relationship from the line of the circle up to the point of the satellite would form a cone shape. However, as the satellite is so high over the earth (hundreds/thousands of miles up)... I don't think the postition on the "slope" of the cone is significant or discernable. I think that's why the investigators said it's possible that the plane could have been on the ground with engines still running at the 8.11 am last ping, relative to the huge height of the satellite aeroplanes pretty much hug the ground even at cruising altitudes.

It could have refuelled & flown on somewhere else, just as long as it arrived at its final location between 8.11 and the time the next ping was due (9.11??)

Of course the truth is known - I'm not so sure. Obviously information's being held back - they've said so. But people have unrealistic expectations of current surveillance capacities. There are enormous holes in radar coverage, especially at night and especially over awkward terrain like mountains & jungles. Radar systems aren't always on, or always being closely monitored: there's just no need, given the statistical probability of something this aberrant. Even in full daylight & perfect weather, ocean gaps between radars stretch 200 miles. Visual observation isn't that great for tasks like plane-spotting (though I kind of hope Courtney Love did find it!)

Guardian comment on radar

Guardian summary

bloody hell. this really has become entertainment hasn't it?

People are speculating because that is all that they actually can do, and everyone wants to know what has happened here. No-one has got the popcorn out.

GarlicMarchHare Tue 18-Mar-14 17:04:22
Radar systems aren't always on, or always being closely monitored: there's just no need, given the statistical probability of something this aberrant. Even in full daylight & perfect weather, ocean gaps between radars stretch 200 miles.

Apparently the Indian Air Force have stated they only turn their radars on a 'need-to' basis.

Whether that is true of not remains to be seen. If it is, then it does lead you to believe that the skies are not monitored as much as we might think.

I feel a huge range of emotions with regard to this news story, heart wrenching sympathy to the families going through the maelstrom of psychological hell, wonderment at the logistics of the possible hijacking and the scale of the search and investigation, fears regarding the geopolitical situation and how it could potentially change the course of history for the worse, my own tiny personal connection to the story... memories of going up to meet the pilots in the cockpit of a Malaysian plane when I was a young child (20-odd years before 9/11). But nope, entertainment ain't one of them.

If there was no thread, no interest in the story, people would be complaining that we're all too self absorbed and uncaring! You can't win/some people are twats.

The Beeb has a summary of 10 of the scenarios here www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26609687