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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean

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I don't know why if they knew it turned back, as indicated on the search areas image, why they were still searching around the initial disappearance spot. Are they not 100% on that?


It's pretty clear that Malaysia Airlines and the Government are not absolutely confident with the information provided by the military and its radar systems.
 

Daria

Member
Another possibility.
KtDYQf4.jpg
 

lexi

Banned
I hope as a result of this incident, some major overhauls are made to improve communication and navigation in commercial aircraft. NextGen needs to be widely rolled out ASAP.
 

HoosTrax

Member
Wouldn't the enormous turnaround rule out pilot suicide too? If a pilot wanted to kill himself and take the plane with him (sidebar: how often does this ever happen?) there was plenty of ocean for it on the way there.
In real life? Who knows. I can't think of any instances (at least of airliners).

In fiction -- see: Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor. And yes, he wrote that book way before 9-11. Clancy was a bit prophetic about Russian ultra-nationalism as well I suppose.

Seems like an awfully convoluted way of going out, if all you're interested in is committing suicide, vs loftier objectives. Just walk into a spinning engine and it'll be over instantly. Why bother going to all that trouble (unless someone had a major grievance I guess, but we probably would have heard about something like that by now).
 

kmax

Member
The more that comes out, the more bizarre things get. As some people already mentioned, they need to overhaul their tracking systems, as this shouldn't be happening right now.
 

Fjolle

Member
I don't think anyone is suggesting the phones were ringing at 35000ft. The phones were ringing well after it disappeared from tracking, so presumably the phones were on the ground at that point. We also don't know where the plane is, so it might have crashed somewhere that gets signal? We just don't know anything. Anyway many people are saying that you get false rings sometimes when the operator is searching networks.
If they were on the ground the carriers would be able to trace them easily. As noone has found the plane yet we can assume that they do not have signal and are not ringing.
 

KHarvey16

Member
Well, what do you speculate at this point? Nothing makes sense to me outside the catastrophic power-outage angle, especially if they've ruled out the two Iranians being connected to terrorism.

I'd say the most probable is that this was deliberate. Maybe not the crash, but turning off the communication equipment and the change of heading are more likely to have been done on purpose than because of some failure. Of course that's nothing more than speculation based on what we know at this moment, which is close to nothing.

In real life? Who knows. I can't think of any instances (at least of airliners).

In fiction -- see: Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor. And yes, he wrote that book way before 9-11. Clancy was a bit prophetic about Russian ultra-nationalism as well I suppose.

Seems like an awfully convoluted way of going out, if all you're interested in is committing suicide, vs loftier objectives. Just walk into a spinning engine and it'll be over instantly. Why bother going to all that trouble (unless someone had a major grievance I guess, but we probably would have heard about something like that by now).

The Egyptair flight happened in 1999 I think. Co-pilot drove it right into the ocean as the pilot went to the bathroom. Killed all on board.
 

Daria

Member
Apparently somewhere in the Breaking News app there were allegations that the copilot had a reputation to let people into the cockpit. Can anyone confirm the story or find a link?
 

KHarvey16

Member
Wait, this flyover the peninsula is confirmed now? Where did this start, how is it confirmed and how did they not figure this out until now?

There was a report citing an anonymous source in the military (they claim it was tracked on military radar) Sunday night I think. They've been searching in that area now so it isn't that they didn't figure it out, just that they hadn't officially released that detail.
 

Fjolle

Member
Wait, this flyover the peninsula is confirmed now? Where did this start, how is it confirmed and how did they not figure this out until now?
It seems like som Malaysian newspaper made a story quoting some rmaf dude. Reuters then confirmed it with other sources i guess, and later the guy cited to start with (along with the rest of the af) denied saying it.
When they started searching to the West the leder of the sar mission said that they had information they could not share. I'm sure that includes what their military did and didn't trace.
 

GungHo

Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
Going back to the cold war are we!?!

I think you mean developing countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country
I was being a jackass and I shouldn't have been (it's been Jackass Day at work). This is where I was going. "Third World" is an archaic and loaded term and is meaningless when it comes to measuring development.

That being said, while Indonesia is a developing country, if the airplane flew over northern Sumatra, it's not an impossible stretch that the plane would not have been seen by radar or by humans. Sumatra is a big place, and while the province of North Sumatra is heavily populated, Aceh, while having incredible oil reserves, is also incredibly dysfunctional.
 
I figured that they weren't confident with the information.. back to square one? at this point the chinese should take over all search efforts. The Malaysian government is totally incompetent

http://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2014/mar/11/malaysia-airlines-mh370-search-refocused-on-malacca-straits-live-updates

There’s considerable confusion around the theory that flight MH370 veered back towards Malaysia after it stopped communicating with ground controllers. The Malaysian air force chief, General Rodzali Daud, has been quoted as saying that the flight made a sharp left turn, and headed back across Malaysia and out over the Malacca strait.

The New York Times quotes Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, spokesman for the prime minister’s office, as contradicting that account. He said that senior military officials, with whom he had checked, said there was no no evidence that the plane had crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula, only that it may have attempted to do so.

“As far as they know, except for the air turn-back, there is no new development,” Mr Tengku Sariffuddin is quoted as saying. The Times says he described the earlier remarks by the air force chief as “not true.”
 

Ty4on

Member
Could it have been decompression?

Most cases of planes just going silent and flying around aimlessly is a result of a loss in cabin pressure.

Yes, the crew has masks but if they can't get to them within a few seconds they are in trouble.

There was this Greek flight that did just that some years ago.

Edit: I had a brain fart. It would of course not account for the loss of transponder signal. never mind.

The Greek flight was because the plane didn't pressurize and the pilots thought the alarm sounded like the takeoff alarm before they passed out. A rapid decompression is noticed by the pilots and several planes have also landed afterwards like this one.
United_Airlines_Flight_811.jpg


The last communication between the ATC and crew was just before the blackout though. I don't see it making any sense to take over 200 people hostage for three days without telling anyone either.
I hope as a result of this incident, some major overhauls are made to improve communication and navigation in commercial aircraft. NextGen needs to be widely rolled out ASAP.
We don't know what was wrong with the communication systems when we still don't know what happened to them. I don't think there has been many/any accidents where the transponder and radio went dead at 35000 feet in a plane that otherwise functioned.
 

toxicgonzo

Taxes?! Isn't this the line for Metallica?
The most plausible theory yet:
http://www.lowyat.net/2014/03/was-there-a-problem-with-the-mh370-boeing-777-200-aircraft/
We received a report of cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin underneath the SATCOM antenna adapter. During a maintenance planning data inspection, one operator reported a 16-inch crack under the 3-bay SATCOM antenna adapter plate in the crown skin of the fuselage on an airplane that was 14 years old with approximately 14,000 total flight cycles. Subsequent to this crack finding, the same operator inspected 42 other airplanes that are between 6 and 16 years old and found some local corrosion, but no other cracking. Cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, if not corrected, could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.
 

Vesmir

Banned
While we are swapping stories here. You should look into this crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

Was crazy. Just a plane flying on autopilot with everyone dead inside. This flew through my center and I know some of the people who worked the fighters in to intercept. They never fired on it, just crashed into the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522

Same thing happened here. Must have been horrifying to be the last person alive in a ghost airliner.
 

MThanded

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
I'm assuming the plane went down somewhere in the middle of the indian ocean. That is a huge body of water. Who knows if/when we will find it.
 
While we are swapping stories here. You should look into this crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

Was crazy. Just a plane flying on autopilot with everyone dead inside. This flew through my center and I know some of the people who worked the fighters in to intercept. They never fired on it, just crashed into the ground.

I remember when that happened. Can't believe it was 15 years ago, though. Jesus.
 

Ty4on

Member
While we are swapping stories here. You should look into this crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

Was crazy. Just a plane flying on autopilot with everyone dead inside. This flew through my center and I know some of the people who worked the fighters in to intercept. They never fired on it, just crashed into the ground.

That made me remember this crash (also linked at that page). Must have been really scary for the ATC.
At approximately 1033 the aircraft ascended through FL256 (25,600 feet (7,800 m)) and ATC requested the pilot to confirm the altitude of the aircraft. “Sierra Kilo Charlie–um–standby," the pilot said.[13] This was the final spoken transmission from the aircraft, and the altitude of the aircraft continued to increase. According to the accident report, transmissions from the aircraft thereafter were only open-microphone transmissions, sounds of what is believed to be standard background noise produced by the engines, a person breathing, "one unintelligible syllable", and "two chime-like tones, similar to those generated by electronic devices."[13] ATC attempted to regain contact with the aircraft as the transmissions occurred. "Sierra Kilo Charlie Sierra Kilo Charlie Melbourne Centre if receiving this transmission squawk ident" the controller in contact with the aircraft said at 1040.[15] At 1041, the controller asked again, "Sierra Kilo Charlie only receiving open mike from you. Would you contact me on one two five decimal two."[16]

Very little concrete evidence, but it is quite clear the cabin pressurizing wasn't working or wasn't turned on and the lack of an aural warning kept the crew from taking action until they passed out.
 

crozier

Member
My point exactly so unless crozier works for the government how would he know if there is or is not any geostationary spy satellites?
The way they keep the location of spy satellites unknown is by continually varying the orbital pattern via thrusters. There's little point in having a geostationary spy satellite.
 
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