WTF? So this plane that's 'disappeared'...

[Olgaline]

A mobile phone still needs an active antenna, if as they say all tracking and communication systems were deliberately turned off..well, that would likely explain it.?
unless, for some reason someone on board has a satellite phone on them

I still doubt it though, most likely scenario imo is still some sudden catastrophic failure

 

[Raven]

I find it a bit strange if it flew on for hours extra how come none of the passengers made contact via mobile phones etc.

Maybe they didn't know. When was the last time you were on a plane over the sea and knew where you were?

 

[leggy]

most likely scenario imo is still some sudden catastrophic failure

I would have agreed until Malaysia released the information that the comms had been deliberately turned off and that the plane was tracked, via satellite, for several hours after. No one is saying Hijacking yet but that's clearly now the most likely explanation.

 

[Exioce]

Amazing revelations the last couple of days.
I can't see third party hijackers being able to force the pilot to turn off all communications devices etc without him somehow raising the alarm.
Misadventure by one of the pilots it looks like to me.

 

[caLLous]

The authorities searching the pilot's house suggests that they think he might've been a bit naughty.

 

[Shagrat]

But why go to all the trouble of turning off the comms equipment and changing direction and disappearing?

If they were going to crash the plane they would have crashed it, they haven't mentioned that anyone rich/famous was on board so it cant be a kidnap/ransom scenario and there has been no contact made or anything video/audio released by would-be hijackers so I cant see any motive behind what has possibly happened being done deliberately.

 

[Access Denied]

-Tinfoil hat-

China paid off the pilot to take the plane to a remote island where they will use the passengers as slave labour.

/Tinfoil hat

 

[Billargh]

I find it a bit strange if it flew on for hours extra how come none of the passengers made contact via mobile phones etc.

Having watched Non Stop with Liam Neeson recently, I have full authority to confirm they turned off the network on the plane!

 

[Tom]

I think this is all a very elaborate plan to advertise the next series of 24. The plane will turn up to Heathrow, Jack Bauer will climb from the undercarriage, and the passengers will turn out to be extras.

 

[Job]

Globalstar can track it's satellite phones with around 30km accuracy, it's a service they provide
Iridium phones can send their GPS position back to the satellite for pin point accuracy, it doesnt come standard.
The Inmarsats can track direction but very poor positioning.

 

[Gwadien]

They were also saying that loads of phones were ringing, shirley (elaborate joke) one of them have got a smart phone with GPS turned on, even by accident? I mean 300 of them, they're on a plane, so they have money...

 

[old.user4556]

From Reddit:

Pilot here: (I flew large aircraft internationally)

I am speculating just like everyone else.

If the plane stayed at altitude, under a rapid decompression type scenario, then somebody else would have picked it up on radar and the plane would have continued on it's original flight plan as the crew was unconscious, assuming the autopilot remained on.

If the plane had a total electrical failure (down to basic, emergency instruments), and attempted to head back to it's origin airport, there would have been some sign of it on radar. Also, a plane doesn't just fall out of the sky in this scenario. All pilots are trained on flying an aircraft in a blacked-out cockpit. Even if the plane became lost, they should have had the ability to communicate with SOME station reporting an emergency. The transponder is usually hot-wired directly to the battery, which can be turned into emergency mode.

If the plane had any other emergency, then the crew would have had either Malaysia radio frequency or Vietnam radio frequency tuned in. They would have broadcast their emergency on those frequencies, or even 123.45 (fingers) or 243.0 or 121.5 (guard).

If the plane had just exploded into a million pieces, then the ACARS would not have been sending pings to the satellites (automated communication from the engines to the maintenance at the destination airport). However, we know it was sending pings up to 5 hours after disappearing from radar.

News reports that many of the systems were shut down at different times, purposely. It would take people trained on the systems to do this, which your basic hijacker wouldn't be able to do, or know to do. ACARS (on my aircraft) took moving through multiple menus and pulling a few circuit breakers to do so. Hell, most pilots don't really know how to totally disable those systems.

Scenario: Let's say the crew wanted to steal the plane and get away with it. First thing they might have noted is how often the transponder was being "pinged" by the ground station. On some systems, this can be indicated by a flashing light. Also, if they are of military background, they may have intel on where the radar boundaries actually fall. Once they figured out the timing of the radar/transponder pings, they waited until the FIR boundary (airway boundary between Malaysia and Vietnam airspace). They then checked off with Malaysia radar and instead of contacting Vietnam, they began their rapid descent to 5000 feet in between radar pings. The FIR boundary between Malaysia and Vietnam is over the ocean, probably in an area with very poor radar contact anyway. Once at 5000 feet, the airplane turned and began its trip to the alternate destination. The airplane more than likely followed a route through poor radar or no radar areas, such as along waterways or through desolate terrain. Pilot not flying, or another crew member, continued to disable the automated reported devices. Once the airplane was clear of airspace and out into an open ocean, it probably climbed to 10000 feet (for best endurance) as the sun came up to avoid visual contact by any ships at sea, if it was still airborne. Since the Boeing 777 can land on 3500 feet of runway, there are tons of possibilities of where it could be put down. Finally, the pilots can draw up a pseudo-GPS approach (FMS approach) of their own to land on basically any airstrip they desire. Executing it on a poor runway surface would be another dilemma.

Again, this is all wild speculation.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/20fmd0/serious_malaysia_airlines_flight_370_megathread/

 

[Hawkwind]

There is only one certainty right now, they don't know what the fuck happened!

Press have even tried to blame our Satellite Antenna installation but the aircraft in question had not even been modified yet. Press, in the absence of facts they just make shit up!

 

[Lakih]

Have anyone considered that the pilots might just have been drunk and got lost? I've heard drunk pilots isn't all that unusual…
---Tinfoilhat---
I know for a fact that the plane and everyone onboard was kidnapped by aliens and will all of a sudden appear as a radar blip requesting to land in Santiago, Chile. No one onboard will know exactly what happened but they will remember strong white lights and shrieking noises. Then strange things will start to happen.
---Tinfoilhat---

 

[TdC]

[tinfoil hat on] maybe it got shot down by one of those parties? [tinfoil hat off]

tbh. yesterday over coffees I had a discussion on the posibility of it being stolen by some oddball country.

 

[Raven]

A pirate plane! That would be a new and interesting spin on things.

 

[Mabs]

new age marie celeste

 

[old.Tohtori]

Is this one of those things that's really another planecrash among others, but some-thef*ck-how people have turned it into a massive thing`?

 

[Hawkwind]

One of the surrounding countries knows was track it was on. The area has many contested islands etc. and shit loads of radar tracking everything. I'm damn sure the Chinese know exactly where it was flying. The million man army keeps many people employed to track everything in and out of China and the surrounding seas/land. Mystery is why they have not come forward with any information at all.

 

[Chilly]

Surely the yanks know exactly where it is? They must have satellite eyes on it, the amount the NRO spend on spy sats is unbelievable.

 

[Exioce]

It transmitted its last ping from one of these two corridors, on.wsj.com/OuJ2Io
I can't see it being in the northern one, what with Chinese and Indian radar, it's obviously lying at the bottom of the Indian Ocean somewhere along the southern track.

The last verbal "All right, good night" transmission came from the co-pilot _after_ the ACARS has been switched off. Looks like co-pilot suicide to me, I already stated I can't believe it was done under duress.

 

[Hawkwind]

It is very simple to log off the SATCOM and switch ACARS off via the Flight Management System MCDU. Switching off the Transponder requires serveral Circuit Breakers to be pulled. I believe there is an audible alarm in the cockpit if this happens and an Alert on the Pilot and Co Pilot Displays (EFIS). Can't see this as pilot suicide unless one was unconscious or dead. It is all guess work until they get the black box.

 

[Scouse]

It is all guess work until they get the black box.

Maybe it's time for a BB redesign? I don't understand why we now don't deisgn them to send out a massive scream for at least a minute or so that could get picked up by something - pinpointing location within a certain small radius.

 

[Chilly]

The newest planes send telemetry home via satcomms, that would have solved this easily. This 777 was 12 years old and didn't have the right bit of kit to do so.

 

[Exioce]

It's amazing that we're still using 70's style technology in black boxes, instead of real time uploaded telemetry. I thought the airlines would have gotten their act together after Air France 447, but obviously they haven't.
This one only records the last two hours of voice data, so I don't think we'll ever fully know what happened. Even that's in the unlikely scenario of the box being found. Deep ocean currents and a 30 day battery on the transmitter suggest we'll never find this one.

 

[Raven]

Pisspot AirlinesRus are unlikely to have the latest kit.

 

[Hawkwind]

The newest planes send telemetry home via satcomms, that would have solved this easily. This 777 was 12 years old and didn't have the right bit of kit to do so.

Maybe it's time for a BB redesign? I don't understand why we now don't deisgn them to send out a massive scream for at least a minute or so that could get picked up by something - pinpointing location within a certain small radius.

Every plane built since the 80's does it over ACARS, sideband of standard SATCOM (Aero H, H+, H64). Unfortunately it does not work everywhere, Polar regions etc. Some aircraft even had side Antennas and so lose connection when banking (early B777's) etc.

There is a call to use the newer connectivity systems like Inmarsat SBB, Panasonic GCS/Row 44 (Ku Spectrum) or ViaSat/Inmarsat (Ka) solutions to send black box data. But we are probably years away from that being implemented. Weight of the Antenna/structure is an issue for some airlines given the costs of fuel. This will improve once active matrix Antenna's (no moving parts) start to be viable. There are working demo's now but we are 5-10 years from seeing one on an aircraft.

 

[Hawkwind]

It's amazing that we're still using 70's style technology in black boxes, instead of real time uploaded telemetry. I thought the airlines would have gotten their act together after Air France 447, but obviously they haven't.
This one only records the last two hours of voice data, so I don't think we'll ever fully know what happened. Even that's in the unlikely scenario of the box being found. Deep ocean currents and a 30 day battery on the transmitter suggest we'll never find this one.

Takes years to change designs and the regulators to enforce them. Takes between 2-5 years to design test and certify a new class 1 Avionics part. The FAA and EASA would have to create new rules and then issue an Airworthiness Directive (AD). This would give the manufactures and airlines the guidelines and time frame to complete such a modification. The last time this was done globally was the Pan Am jet which was blown up in mid air due to a spark in the fuel tank. A mod/inspections were then completed to every non compliant aircraft within 2 years. That involved the fast tracking design and cert of some suppression modules to fit inside the fuel tanks.

Basically it is not simple. The industry is all about safety but given the complexity of testing and certification to enforce the rules it takes time.

 

[DaGaffer]

It's amazing that we're still using 70's style technology in black boxes, instead of real time uploaded telemetry. I thought the airlines would have gotten their act together after Air France 447, but obviously they haven't.
This one only records the last two hours of voice data, so I don't think we'll ever fully know what happened. Even that's in the unlikely scenario of the box being found. Deep ocean currents and a 30 day battery on the transmitter suggest we'll never find this one.

Aircraft development overall is surprisingly slow. Think about military aircraft; the F-16 and F-15 first flew 40 years ago. I worked on the early designs for the Eurofighter and I've not worked in the aircraft industry since 1988...

 

[Hawkwind]

Aircraft development overall is surprisingly slow. Think about military aircraft; the F-16 and F-15 first flew 40 years ago. I worked on the early designs for the Eurofighter and I've not worked in the aircraft industry since 1988...

Small world, I worked on the Head Up Display and Multifunction display for EFA. Spent some time up at Warton (BAe MAD) testing it out.