Malaysia Airlines MH370 - Missing Plane

[GommeInc]

probably for new stories and everyone thinks Malaysian authorities are hiding info, so useful to get outside views on the event.

I don't mind stories like that where they're guessing what happened or from experts, but when they have people claiming they know what happened it's counterproductive and annoying.

Agreed, and they seem to be chucked into real expert views which invalidates their expert opinions. They should just focus on experts, not authorities from other countries completely unlinked to the event. Having a 10 minutes interview where the crux of their answer is "I don't know - it's unprecedented" wastes time that could be spent on good journalism.

[xxMATTGxx]

Aren't the systems that were turned off in different locations though?

I'm sure there was an image showing where each part is, and there's like one in the wing, one at the back?

So if it was smoke surely it would maybe take out one but not multiple?

Nice theory (well as nice a theory as you can get) instead of jumping on the hijacking/pilot though.

Which systems in question? Transponder and ACARS are in the cockpit.

[wixard]

surprised nobody has posted about the maldives sighting yet

http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/54062

take it with a pinch of salt, 10 days later and they're only saying it now?


on a more reputable note perhaps (although who knows at this stage) is thailand saying they spotted a plane, but never alerted malaysia because they didn't specifically ask...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...washingtonpost

[scottish]

Which systems in question? Transponder and ACARS are in the cockpit.

Wasn't it you who posted something showing a diagram of the plane, and to turn one thing off it was a two man job because he'd have to leave the cockpit and go to the back of the plane

Also, is the transponder on the black box, or is that only used in case of emergency (like when submerged in water)? as surely a fire wouldn't take that out as it's meant to be like everything-proof including bomb proof..

[xxMATTGxx]

Wasn't it you who posted something showing a diagram of the plane, and to turn one thing off it was a two man job because he'd have to leave the cockpit and go to the back of the plane

Also, is the transponder on the black box, or is that only used in case of emergency (like when submerged in water)? as surely a fire wouldn't take that out as it's meant to be like everything-proof including bomb proof..

The two man job option if it did take place would to be disable satellite communication which isn't located in the cockpit. The transponder and ACARS is the cockpit and is in the pilots reach. The transponder is on the cockpit pedestal and isn't attached to the black box (black box are normally in the tail section of the plane)

Black box isn't a piece of equipment the pilots use when flying the aircraft. It's basically a digital voice/data recorder and records what the plane is doing, what's happening and what is said. And yeah the black box is protected and can withstand impacts of equivalent to 3,400 times the force of gravity and temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

[scottish]

Yeah I know pilots don't use it, but there's GPS tracking on it isn't there, is that only activated in the event of it being submerged in water/crash detected? or is the GPS always on?

Ah, so the fire must have spread over the whole plane to get the sat communication disabled then?

So if it was a fire it would have had to knock out communications before the pilots noticed, then spread across the full plane to take out all of the stuff to knock it off radar?

[xxMATTGxx]

Yeah I know pilots don't use it, but there's GPS tracking on it isn't there, is that only activated in the event of it being submerged in water/crash detected? or is the GPS always on?

Ah, so the fire must have spread over the whole plane to get the sat communication disabled then?

So if it was a fire it would have had to knock out communications before the pilots noticed, then spread across the full plane to take out all of the stuff to knock it off radar?

It sends out ultrasound pulses at an interval once every second for 30 days which they haven't been able to trace.

A fire could technically do that but with the pings from the SAT a fire seems more unlikely to have taken place if it was able to fly for X amount of hours afterwards. Although if a fire did take place there is a number of fire detection systems on board a commercial airliner.

I've also taken a screenshot of where the transponder actually is in the Boeing 777 from Flight Simulator (based of the real plane) it's pretty much in the middle of the two pilots for anyone who is interested:

Show Hide

[Calum0812]

Although if a fire did take place there is a number of fire detection systems on board a commercial airliner.

Backup systems, extinguishing systems, alert systems, prevention systems. You name it, most modern airliners have it. The 777? One of the most up-to-date aircraft flying

[scottish]

Few updates it seems

Show Hide Possible image of the flight

"Tomnod, an online satellite image website, has been invited millions of people around the world to scour their images in search of flight MH370.

This image was found by a university student in Taiwan.

It appears to show a plane underneath cloud over a jungle."

Show Hide Thailand military radar data did pick up the place

"Thailand said earlier today a re-examination of its military radar data showed it HAD picked up the plane re-tracing its route across Peninsular Malaysia.

The Thai military had previously said it had not detected any sign of the plane.

What happened next is less certain."

Show Hide Some chat from the International Society of Transport Air Trading conference

The disappearance has, unsurprisingly, been the number one topic of conversation at the International Society of Transport Air Trading conference in San Diego this week.

The annual gathering has drawn around 1,600 people connected with the industry.

What do they think happened to flight MH370?

"The people that I deal with are looking at this with great concern - it appears considerable efforts may have gone into cloaking the aircraft," said Robert Agnew, chief executive of aviation consultant Morten Beyer & Agnew, referring to reports that the plane's primary means of communicating with air traffic control were intentionally disabled.

"We are speculating on what was actually done in the cockpit. If this is a planned terrorist activity, could others know the process and copy it?," he asked.

Philip Baggaley, an analyst at Standard & Poor's, said: "The disappearance of MH370 has been a topic of private conversation here.

Baggaley said the consensus is that someone in the crew or among the passengers with close knowledge of how to disable communications systems took the plane over.

"They mostly guess that it crashed in the Indian Ocean, rather than landed safely at a new destination, because the plane probably would have been picked up by military or other radars if it flew over land," he said.

There are some holdouts. One aviation consultant, who asked not to be named, was adamant that Asian militaries know more about the missing plane than they have acknowledged.

"I find it hard to believe the military intelligence in the region doesn't know where that plane is," the consultant said. Those countries all spy on each other."

Show Hide Malaysia handing over control to make their own decisions rather than follow their instructions on how to search

Malaysia has allowed some countries to take control of the search efforts after confusion over instructions.

There are now around 25 countries involved in the vast operation to search the two northern and southern "corridors".

But some officials said their aircraft and ships have been left sitting doing nothing while they await guidance from Kuala Lumpur.

Instructions on how to proceed are “not very clear” a senior South Korean military official in Seoul told the Wall Street Journal.

Malaysia has now ceded some control and will allow countries to make their own decisions.

Show Hide Interesting document of all (88) missing aircraft since 1948 and never been found

The Aviation Safety Network says at least 88 aircraft have gone missing since 1948 - and NEVER been found.

They've compiled this Google spreadsheet of various passenger, cargo and military planes that have vanished all over the world.

Among these, is the story of airliner with 107 US military personnel on board that disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1962.

This has touched our hearts - a tweet on Sunday night by Maira, daughter of #MH370 chief steward Andrew Nari pic.twitter.com/Y4CF4CpkZd

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 18, 2014

Show Hide Maldives claim to see low flying jet

BREAKING NEWS

People living in the Maldives claim to have seen a "low flying jet" going over one of the islands on the morning of the disappearance of flight MH370.

Local website Haveeru says several residents report the sighting at around 6.15am on March 8.

They said that it was a white aircraft, with red stripes across it – which would roughly match a Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

"I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly," said an eyewitness.

"It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too."

Show Hide Indonesia refusing to let planes in their territory to search

The BBC is reporting that the search for flight MH370 is being hampered by 'red tape' in Indonesia.

The authorities are refusing to let planes over their territory, it is claimed/

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Kuala Lumpur said scheduled search flights on Tuesday were abandoned because of the international bureaucracy.

Show Hide More info about the homemade flight sim

Berita Harian, a Malaysian newspaper, is reporting that Captain Zaharie Shah's homemade flight simulator had software for five practice runways around the Indian Ocean.

The simulator was taken away from the pilot's upmarket home last Saturday.

It has been reassembled at police headquarters so it can be examined by investigators.

According to Harian, software on the simulator included practice landings at runways in the Maldives, three in India and Sri Lanka and another belonging to a US military base in Diego Garcia.

"All have a runway length of 1,000 metres," a source told the Malay daily.

Show Hide UK Military ready to help

The UK military is ready to consider requests for help in Malaysia in its search for the missing jet.

Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Nick Haughton spoke to his counterpart in Malaysia, the Ministry of Defence said.

A spokesman said that Gen Houghton did not offer the use of any specific piece of equipment or military unit, but made clear Britain was ready to help if it was feasible to do so. No request has yet been received from Malaysia.

Show Hide University of Hull student visiting his girlfriend

A Hull student is among the passengers missing following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Yue Wenchao, 26, who is on a postgraduate course at the University of Hull Business School, was studying in the UK and was visiting his girlfriend.

He was originally from inner Mongolia and went to Hull in in September 2012, after graduating from the North China Electric Power University in the same year.

It is believed that he was on his way to Beijing to visit his girlfriend. On March 7 he wrote next to a picture of her: "See u in Beijing!"

Show Hide Politics

Mr Hussein criticises foreign press which he says is stirring up politics.

He re-iterated that the issue is "above politics" and the countries involved are focused on the search operation.

He said: "It is the foreign press which has brought that up. If I am not mistaken, it was The Daily Mail and CNN who said brought politics into this."

Show Hide Regarding FBI

Malaysia today rejected criticism from U.S. government officials that it has not been sharing as much information as it could with foreign governments about the disappearance of flight MH370.

Two U.S. security officials said yesterday that the Malaysia had still not invited the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to send a team to Kuala Lumpur to assist in the probe into the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.

"I have been working with them," Malaysia's Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said when asked if the country had requested FBI help.

"It's up for the FBI to tell us if they need more experts to help because it's not for us to know what they have."

While Malaysia's police special branch has been providing some information to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, U.S. sources said, the FBI is only collaborating with Malaysian authorities via an agent, known as a "legal attache", assigned to the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

The FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies, such as elements of the Department of Homeland Security, indicated some time ago they were eager to send teams to Kuala Lumpur, but will not do so unless formally invited.

Asked if any FBI staff had travelled from outside Malaysia, Hishammuddin said: "Once I have spoken to one FBI representative, I assume the whole FBI would be behind it."

The FBI has extensive experience in investigating plane crashes, including the crashes off the U.S. east coast of TWA 800 and Egyptair 990.

In the case of Egyptair 990, the FBI helped air safety investigators establish that the crash was caused by a suicidal co-pilot.

In the TWA 800 case, the FBI conducted a lengthy investigation that eventually helped the National Transportation Safety Board discredit theories that the plane was hit by a missile, but instead was brought down by a freak accident involving overheated fuel.

- - - Updated - - -

First image I'm not sure if that's supposed to be landed or flying over, but surely if it's landed it would be smashed to bits there and if not then surely satellite is real time? unless they're going back days and scanning the images then I suppose could be a good idea of where it's headed, hope more is released on this from Tomnod

Glad to hear they're letting countries do as they wish now as I've seen a few times ships sitting about waiting on Malaysia to instruct them to do something which is wasting hours that they could be using productively, fair enough managing the 25 countries will be hard but this is step in right direction.

Regarding maldives, took them 10 days to say something about it? seems fishy.

Don't know why Indonesia are being *****s.

Regarding flight sim, the US base seems a bit odd but then again might have just been something fun to try and obviously it's going to be looked down upon now since this has happened, but I'm sure they fly to other places so only time will tell if MA actively flies to the other destinations or what..

[wixard]

thanks scott informative post

i'm starting to lose my enthusiasm for this, but i'm glad i learnt so much from a tragic accident/incident along the way
i'll continue to check this thread/other threads relating to MH370 on other forums daily