Missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 - Thread 5

[KenAdams]

Thread 1

Thread 2

Thread 3

Thread 4

[msrisotto]

I'm not optimistic that the debris is the plane, I think they would have found it by now unfortunately.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

I'm not optimistic that the debris is the plane, I think they would have found it by now unfortunately.

• why? They have to do a visual search of a big area.

[GoldieMumbles]

"Medi, I am talking about Trucks's theory that a major government had already put a kill switch in all planes to counter terrorism."

This is emphatically not the case.

Some technology was trialled - I think by NASA? - where the flight crew hit a button in the event of a hijack and the aircraft would use GPS to divert to the nearest airfield capable of accepting the flight. The idea was that once the button was pushed, there was nothing anyone could do to stop it from landing at that airfield, meaning 9/11 couldn't be re-run.

It never went beyond a trial and there's no other system (that we at our company know about - and we would know)

[GoldieMumbles]

"Also I wondered about the ACARS and the other system shutting down. If there was some sort of failure wouldn't an alarm go off? I think this was mentioned way back when but I too can't get my head around the fact that there was clear communication after the systems had shut down and nothing was mentioned. "

What I was speculating was that the failure was in the area where the system, its wiring or its antenna was located so that no transmission would be possible. But they seem to know that it was properly turned off, don't they?

"Also same for a hull breach - would there not be a warning? So you try to get the plane down in some shape or form as fast as possible?"

There would be a pressurisation warning on the EICAS, yes.

There are many reasons why the aircraft could have executed more than one turn - two waypoints programmed into the FMS to bring the aircraft closer to its intended destination without conflicting with the departing traffic from KL? Hypoxic crew? Deliberate action? EVen if they do get the CVR back, as it only records the last 2 hours, they may never know.

[SagaNorensLeatherTrousers]

Those who say pilot suicide...is there form for that type of thing? Why take your own life at the helm of an aircraft full of innocent people? Apologies if this has been discussed before.

[GoldieMumbles]

I'm only popping in before I teake DS2 to the childminder again so I've got to shoot off now. I'll look in again after work tonight.

[msrisotto]

Because they had the coordinates and went there. They found a frigate and. 2 pods of dolphins.

[OhBabyLilyMunster]

I asked my brother about this area of the sea (hes a master mariner) and he said there is very strong tides there and also that you cant imagine the amount of crap generally floating about in the sea. Boats get dumped and left to wash up. He thought the actual chances of this being bits of plane after this long were slim, or slightly too convenient.

[msrisotto]

Not frigate, freighter.

[TheHoneyBadger]

doctine yes, in some parts of the world but not in this instance seeing as there's the whole huge empty ocean going that way.

[TheHoneyBadger]

the expert interviewed on bbc this morning gave a larger range for the beacon signal from the flight recorders and also said that you could use underwater microphones on little automated submarines to hear further though obviously only once you have a very clear idea of location.

[foxinsocks]

Lots of pilot suicides sadly. I travel to Africa a fair amount and there have been a few. On phone so can't link but google air Mozambique pilot suicide as there was one recently

[TheHoneyBadger]

i missed that mrsrisotto - is that confirmed that that is what they found?

[allisgood1]

Marking place. I still think the government know exactly where the plans is based on the fact that RR will have that info. I just hope this new search isn't another diversion.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

Msrisotto:

Because they had the coordinates and went there. They found a frigate and. 2 pods of dolphins.

• but they went there days later!
  

Goldie, thanks for your post about the kill switch, really interesting to know about the trial of "airport finding" systems.

[JonathanGirl]

The longer they go without finding the plane, the less likely they are to find it at all. Really hoping it is today.

I've always wanted it to be hypoxia. The one fact that makes that less likely for me, is that the moment they lost contact and turned round was exactly at the point of changeover to new airspace and air traffic control. But that could just be a horrible coincidence. Perhaps with a very slow depressurization, you actually would expect the effects to start getting severe about 40 mins into the flight, I don't know.

Everything else (that we know) could be explained by the odd behaviour of pilots who are confused because of lack of oxygen. Maybe they saw alarms flashing, so turned everything off to try to stop them, but didn't thinkof informing the ground, because they were confused etc etc.

Pretty much any random act can be explained by the hypothesis that the pilots were confused, and didn't know what they were doing.

[firstchoice]

that is interesting about the kill switch

• to divert the airplane to the nearest airport which could accept it.

seems a very good idea to me.

Goldie - do you know why it was never taken past trial stage?

I hope they 'find somthing' / find out today for the sake of the relatives.

I agree with everything JonathanGirl says above.

[livingzuid]

Thanks goldie for the reminder :) I knew it had been discussed but couldn't remember what had happened. All I had in my head was a police siren sound or flashy button that let them know something was up in a My First Tomy type style The systems are so sophisticated now I suppose that's why all of this is so hard to understand. Naive of me as accidents of course can and do happen.

And as you were saying as well, if the two systems went down simultaneously as the Malaysian govt seemed to say later on, that still leaves the door open for a tragic accident rather than anything sinister.

[livingzuid]

Oh and this from the BBC

07:53: The area being scoured in the southern Indian Ocean is so remote that it takes aircraft four hours to fly there and four hours back, leaving them only about two hours to search, AP points out

[livingzuid]

I confess I feel a bit sorry for the Malaysian government again. I think they are really out of their depth and don't maybe have the resources that other countries would have?

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

I don't think a plane can be landed on autopilot so maybe it was felt that diverting might be more dangerous if the plane then plowed into other planes at the airfield and exploded or something.

[Purpleknickers]

livinguid I'm with you on the Malaysians, the officials doing the news briefings basically saying nothing all look totally lost and helpless.

I hope today brings some news for all the waiting relatives in the small windows of time they are able to search, or hopefully that Vietnamese cargo ship will spot something today

[livingzuid]

purple the press conference is really awful. I feel so sorry for them, they just don't know what to say to the families. I don't think this is really their fault in terms of information. They are just stuck between huge political forces that can't rise above themselves to come together to get some answers for the relatives.

[Purpleknickers]

Yes, they have to do the briefings to appease the worlds press but its impossible for them stuck between a rock and a hard place