Missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 - Thread 5

[KenAdams]

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Thread 4

Not sure on all the ping questions but they will have a unique identifier or signature which is how they detect one ping from another.

Guardian reports they are still giving more weight to the possibility that this was deliberate rather than an accident:

'On Friday it emerged that, according to the MH370 cargo manifest, the plane was carrying lithium-ion batteries. These are categorised as "dangerous cargo" as they can be unstable at altitude and can catch fire if not transported correctly.

An accidental fire caused by cargo is just one of several theories behind the plane's disappearance after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing just after midnight on 8 March.

Investigators suspect that the plane was deliberately diverted thousands of miles from its scheduled path. They have given more credence to the possibility that the aircraft was hijacked or sabotaged, but have not ruled out technical problems.'

Tbh it still really sounds like everyone has NFI what happened. And there is a sense of desperation in trying to find any piece of something that might be wreckage to help with answers.
It's just not what we expect when we get on an international flight over what we believe to be monitored ground.

I don't know how the families can cope after 2 weeks of no solid info.

Lou, the satellite queries the plane. If the plane's engines are running & the plane is moving, its satcom antenna responds. Yes, it is plane specific.

So really, no one really knows much more then we did two weeks ago?

God knows how the families and love ones are going through!

Lou I believe they also have the details of the previous 6 pings, I think it was confirmed at the press conference.

Think of your phone, with it's unique number. They can trace that can't they? It is the same with the planes satellite pings.

I don't know why the pings were at 11 minutes past. Half an hour into the flight isn't relevant I don't think. but the plane will ping if it is grounded with its engines running. It will not ping without power though.

Due to the last ping being the last known "contact" and the plotting of the arcs, the presumption is that the plane is somewhere near the end of those arcs ( within 59 minutes flying time anyway)

We are lead to believe that the search being concentrated South is because of the sighting of possible debris in that area. Whether they have "other information" to corroborate that is unknown, although they also said in the P/C that the search continues in the north too.

HTH.

Quintezilla -
looked at your link, 86 seems a lot but possibly isn't given how many international flights there are? I wonder what the % is?

Seems almost all of them are going to / from the US except a cluster around Indonesia (tinfoil hat readjusted)

I think that most people have given up trying to work it out. Too many "facts" have been disputed.

The mystery could go on for years.

I have been wondering, if I was a relative, at what point I would have to think that they were dead. Partly for the sake of my own sanity.

Thank you livingzuit, Garlic and Downton.

Most of those 86 will be really small planes - 86 planes with 1329 passengers in total which makes an average of just over 15 passengers per plane. MH370 is by far the biggest plane that has just vanished like this.

"Quintezilla -
looked at your link, 86 seems a lot but possibly isn't given how many international flights there are? I wonder what the % is?"

Here's another map (scroll down a bit)

www.fastcodesign.com/3027794/infographic-of-the-day/infographic-84-planes-thatve-vanished-off-the-face-of-the-earth

And my passport scanned at KLIA too, though not sure what they do with furriners' passports as I go through the Malaysian lane.

I'm furrin and we got finger-printed....

Excellent thread. Thanks to all of you and especially "Professor" Goldie - thank god they can't remotely take down a plane in case of hijack.....

Don't know if anybody has linked to this already in the Guardian, but it's asking questions of an anonymous pilot and an ex-cabin crew member. Interesting that most of the pilot's answers echo what Goldie told us days ago! I read about the circuit breaker and though, oh yeah, we know about that.

No comments as yet, but the article says the pilot will answer a 'selection of questions' afterwards.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2586013/Malaysian-woman-claims-seen-missing-MH370-water-near-Andaman-Islands-day-disappeared.html

Now this seems very interesting, sorry i know its the Daily Fail..

Apologies if its been posted already, couldn't see it anywhere unless i missed it

in case anyone dares watch channel five this is on tonight.

I saw an aviation lecturer on the lunchtime news being questioned. He thought there were protocols for dealing with decompression and fire which would have kept the plane safe. He seemed to say that whatever happened was deliberate, not accidental.
Just my threepennyworth!
Its a huge tragedy for all on the plane and their relatives and I hope they get answers sooner or later, preferably sooner.

DowntonTrout Fri 21-Mar-14 13:14:30
I don't know though, if technical failure could have disabled navigation or directional equipment (am really struggling for correct jargon as I have no technical knowledge) could the malfunction make the autopilot think it was flying north when, in fact, it was flying south?

^^

One of the earlier theories about what happened to the plane was that it was effected by a large earthquake that occurred at 2.55am local time close to where the plane was. Earthquakes have the potential to create a EM Pulse which can knock out electronics and affect compasses.

I believe this time was too late to match exactly; the flight had already changed course by this time (I think 2.55am was roughly the time the Malaysian military spotted it).

However this is an interesting idea, given how little we do know about earthquakes. Its only just been discovered that lightning can appear shortly before a large earthquake (it was apparently spotted by numerous people shortly before the huge Japanese earthquake and Tsunami).

Its potentially something that could cause a fire onboard, potentially knock out transponders, might mess with the autopilot and of course if it was a massive electrical failure then that could cause enough to knock out the passengers and crew somehow.

Again, with no new info, not much for me to add.

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

No, I'd be making assumptions.

"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."

Planes have been able to land themselves - called 'autoland' - since the 60s. Have a look at of an Airbus A320 doing just that. It's a bit tedious until you get to 10 minutes in. The pilot is operating the throttles for engine control but nothing else. Watch the arrows pointing at the screen highlighting the things that the plane has been doing automatically. If you've ever felt the aeroplane bumping over the runway lights in the middle of the runway, chances are it was the plane that landed itself, not the pilot.

For the cyber crime stuff, have a look at this article

"He thought there were protocols for dealing with decompression and fire which would have kept the plane safe."

There are, but you have to have time to react and you have to have a clear mind. Neither of these protocols have prevented accidents due to those reasons occurring in the past.

"Its potentially something that could cause a fire onboard, potentially knock out transponders, might mess with the autopilot and of course if it was a massive electrical failure then that could cause enough to knock out the passengers and crew somehow."

Could you explain this statement, please?

I think redtoothbrush is talking about a lightening strike Goldie

"Planes have been able to land themselves - called 'autoland' - since the 60s. Have a look at this video of an Airbus A320 doing just that. It's a bit tedious until you get to 10 minutes in. The pilot is operating the throttles for engine control but nothing else. "

Wow, thanks! So could the plane actually land itself even if both pilots were unconscious? That's amazing. (As ever, if you can't say, don't!)

But lightining doesn't bring down aeroplanes. An aeroplane is a Farraday Cage.

And not relevant to the hijack but I've always wondered - When the slides "detach and form rafts", are the escapees waiting in the water to get back on the rafts or do they wait at the bottom of the slide somehow?

Depends on the design but true slide rafts, you slide to the end of the raft and stay inside it.