Chinese embassy said the images were released by mistake and did not contain any debris.
YEAH....wait, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
Chinese embassy said the images were released by mistake and did not contain any debris.
As I understand it, these satellite photos were "accidentally" released on the website of China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.Seems that the media is responsible for a lot of this misinformation. Running stories as if they are confirmed to be true. Then Malaysia has to get on TV and debunk media reports.
China "accidentally" releasing the images is odd. Guess you could blame the media in China for that too.
Beginning to think we may never find out what happened to this plane.
Guess they could claim that they jumped the gun. A lot of experts don't believe the size of the wreckage aligned with anything related to the missing plane.As I understand it, these satellite photos were "accidentally" released on the website of China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
Honestly, at this point that seems as likely to lead to the discovery of the plane as anything the Malaysian government seems to be doing.I wonder if any of the passengers have the "Find my iPhone" app and one of their family members knows the password.
Beginning to think we may never find out what happened to this plane.
Air France debri was found in less than a week if I remember correctly. I'm not saying we will find the black box but we currently have no idea where this plane is/was when it crashed. We are not even sure what direction it was going.It takes time to figure out where planes that disappeared over the ocean went. Air France 447 took a couple of years, SAA 295 disappeared in 1987 and they didn't get their hands on the black box until 1989. This kind of delay is not that unusual, it can be really fucking hard to find a plane that's vanished over water.
While Brazilian Navy authorities were able to locate and remove from the sea the first major wreckage within five days of the accident
I wonder if any of the passengers have the "Find my iPhone" app and one of their family members knows the password.
Honestly, at this point that seems as likely to lead to the discovery of the plane as anything the Malaysian government seems to be doing.
How is engine data sent to Rolls Royce in flight? If there was a total electrical failure could that data still be sent off to them?
Man I'm so confused by all this. These investigators have been awful fuckups and should be fired.
QUESTION ANSWERS
Engine Data- was reported that engine data was reported after disappearance, but according to MAS last engine data was received 1:07AM
Absolutely not. Not with that battery life.
An asylum seeker? Sounds awfully familiar. And this was extremely recently. Some have speculated that last month's Ethiopian Flight 702 was just a dry run for MH370. I've read on another site that one of the seekers of asylum on this plane had an electrical engineering as well as flight simulation background (unverified). I don't think this is likely what happened for several reasons, but it's a possibility.The hijacker of Flight 702 was Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn, 31, who was the co-pilot of flight 702. Tegegn, an Ethiopian national, had worked for Ethiopian Airlines for five years. He requested political asylum, claiming he felt threatened in his country.
You got to be kidding me.
- Rolls royce and boeing claim the reports are inaccurate about the engine data
[*]Chinese embassy said the sat images were released by mistake and did not contain any debris related to the plane.
If it's scenario 2, the question then becomes 'why?' Perhaps it was a blackmail scenario or the pilots were caught up with some bad people. However, what would anyone do with a 777? You can't really sell it on the black market and if you try flying it into any competent country, it'd get shot down before it got close to anything important. If you're going to steal a plane, a small one or a helicopter would seem far more practical, not a flying elephant (so to speak).
Possible that there was something on the plane worth a large sum of money? Rather than selling the plane itself, if you wanted to transport something worth a significant amount of money to someone you'd probably transport it on an inconspicuous passenger plane. If someone got wind of this item being on the plane, and wanted it, they could have paid off the pilot/co-pilot.
So is this now the biggest air mystery since the Valentich disappearance? Thinking about that still gives me the willies. Same with that plane in the 1940s that disappereaed with a final transmission that just kept saying "stendec".
Seems that the media is responsible for a lot of this misinformation. Running stories as if they are confirmed to be true. Then Malaysia has to get on TV and debunk media reports.
China "accidentally" releasing the images is odd. Guess you could blame the media in China for that too.
Beginning to think we may never find out what happened to this plane.
Two hypotheses have been bumped up on my "most likely scenarios" list:
1) Less likely, but Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 was hijacked just a few weeks ago. Why?
An asylum seeker? Sounds awfully familiar. And this was extremely recently. Some have speculated that last month's Ethiopian Flight 702 was just a dry run for MH370. I've read on another site that one of the seekers of asylum on this plane had an electrical engineering as well as flight simulation background (unverified). I don't think this is likely what happened for several reasons, but it's a possibility.
2) More likely- inside job by pilot or co-pilot, most likely co-pilot. Having something catastrophic happen on a plane, especially one as safe as a 777 would be a rare occurrence. Having it happen right during a handoff? Even less likely to happen. Furthermore, either the ACARS system or the crew would have notified ATC if something was amiss. My proposed scenario- Captain says "alright, good night" to ATC preparing for Vietnamese handoff. Co-pilot sneaks up behind him (maybe he came back from the restroom?) and bashed the captain in the head rendering him unconscious. This could explain the mumbling that was heard by another pilot after establishing contact with MH370 (Edit: this part may not be true). It's probable that only a pilot or someone with a lot of experience could disable all communications/transponders/tracking devices. However, would the co-pilot who himself was transitioning to the 777 be familiar enough with the aircraft to do all of these things? Personality-wise, we already know he has a record of not going by the book. The captain, on the other hand, had a lot of experience and even conducted pilot simulation tests. He was an aviation enthusiast as seen by his flight simulation setup at home. He's less likely to go against the grain, so to speak.
If it's scenario 2, the question then becomes 'why?' Perhaps it was a blackmail scenario or the pilots were caught up with some bad people. However, what would anyone do with a 777? You can't really sell it on the black market and if you try flying it into any competent country, it'd get shot down before it got close to anything important. If you're going to steal a plane, a small one or a helicopter would seem far more practical, not a flying elephant (so to speak).
Murder-suicide seems like another possibility, but every day where we don't find washed up debris hurts the chances of this being likely. What would even be the point of a murder-suicide in this fashion anyway? If you didn't want to hurt other people, you would just kill yourself away from an aircraft. If you wanted to maximize death, you'd crash into a city. It's less likely for them to crash into the water and even less likely for them to fly a long distance and then crash into the water if murder-suicide was what happened.
I used to like the depressurization theory, but I think it was because I was biased towards wanting everyone to be good people doing their best to get everyone to their destination safely. Depressurization would require the crew to be rendered unconscious before they noticed (and alert ATC) AND take out transponders/ACARS. Possible, but having this happen right when Malaysia ATC was handing off to Vietnam seems like a stretch.
I am so glad you are not an investigator. What evidence is there to suggest any of this? The copilot hitting the pilot over the head with a blunt object and taking over? Really??
I am so glad you are not an investigator. What evidence is there to suggest any of this? The copilot hitting the pilot over the head with a blunt object and taking over? Really??
That's a possible scenario. I'm not saying that's what happened. It's obvious that any method used to incapacitate either or both pilots (unless both were in on it) is equivalent.
Facts:
1) Airplane transponder stopped working or was turned off.
2) Crew was unable or unwilling to communicate with ATC.
*Points 1 and 2 happened after they checked out with Malaysian ATC and before they were supposed to check in with Vietnamese ATC. I'm not a pilot, but I imagine this isn't a time-consuming process and is done just by changing frequencies which should take seconds.
3) Airplane wreckage has not yet been found with dozens of satellites (China + USA + Private firms), ships, planes, etc. scouring likely crash sites. That the airplane itself hasn't been found isn't strange but that no debris at all has been found is quite remarkable.
4) ACARS did not send out any signal even though it's designed to do so during times of disaster (as stated during the press conference). This could mean it was working fine (no catastrophic event) or disabled (manually or otherwise).
EDIT: 5) As of now, as far as we know, the plane has not shown up on any other country's primary radar.
There are three likely things that happened:
1) Catastrophic event/explosion.
2) Depressurization
3) Hijacking (whether via passengers or pilots)
If you would like to reconcile all those facts and come up with a more likely scenario, feel free. The Boeing 777 is one of the safest aircraft out there. A catastrophic event that would disable one of those is already hard enough to believe, but one at exactly the time where the pilots were supposed to check in with the Vietnamese ATC? AND there's no wreckage that's been found yet?
You ask where is the evidence for my claims. News flash- there is no evidence for anything right now. All we can do is speculate and based on what we know. Thus, I think the most likely scenario is that the crew took over the flight for some reason or another. I will admit that I'm just speculating, but I like how you take a random example that itself wasn't even the point and try to discredit my entire post based on that. It doesn't matter if the copilot hit the captain over the head or the captain poured chloroform on a rag and put it in the co-pilot's face.
Simplest solution for the future: Install cameras in cockpit. Aircrafts these days are and can be equipped with WiFi. It'll cost them a fraction of what they spend on these investigations.
WiFi in the cabin requires GSM or satellite data connections. If those are functioning the airline is receiving location data. In this case, assuming communications were not working a camera wouldn't have made any difference.
The false rumor regarding engine data transmission is strange. Unlike the radar return thing that could have been confusion regarding unidentified or misidentified returns this almost has to be wholly fabricated.
This whole thing is fucked...
Engine data saying the plane flew for 4 hours was denied - WHAT?
Chinese satellite images weren't supposed to be released and don't show wreckage - HUH?
Police haven't searched the home of the pilot - ......
What all seemed legit, especially the Chinese satellite images, have now been refuted. I'm so confused.
I can't see why WSJ would lie. I assume that they have researched and verified their stories.
As was said, all that seems to be the media jumping the gun.
Two hypotheses have been bumped up on my "most likely scenarios" list:
1) Less likely, but Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 was hijacked just a few weeks ago. Why?
An asylum seeker? Sounds awfully familiar. And this was extremely recently. Some have speculated that last month's Ethiopian Flight 702 was just a dry run for MH370. I've read on another site that one of the seekers of asylum on this plane had an electrical engineering as well as flight simulation background (unverified). I don't think this is likely what happened for several reasons, but it's a possibility.
2) More likely- inside job by pilot or co-pilot, most likely co-pilot. Having something catastrophic happen on a plane, especially one as safe as a 777 would be a rare occurrence. Having it happen right during a handoff? Even less likely to happen. Furthermore, either the ACARS system or the crew would have notified ATC if something was amiss. My proposed scenario- Captain says "alright, good night" to ATC preparing for Vietnamese handoff. Co-pilot sneaks up behind him (maybe he came back from the restroom?) and bashed the captain in the head rendering him unconscious. This could explain the mumbling that was heard by another pilot after establishing contact with MH370 (Edit: this part may not be true). It's probable that only a pilot or someone with a lot of experience could disable all communications/transponders/tracking devices. However, would the co-pilot who himself was transitioning to the 777 be familiar enough with the aircraft to do all of these things? Personality-wise, we already know he has a record of not going by the book. The captain, on the other hand, had a lot of experience and even conducted pilot simulation tests. He was an aviation enthusiast as seen by his flight simulation setup at home. He's less likely to go against the grain, so to speak.
If it's scenario 2, the question then becomes 'why?' Perhaps it was a blackmail scenario or the pilots were caught up with some bad people. However, what would anyone do with a 777? You can't really sell it on the black market and if you try flying it into any competent country, it'd get shot down before it got close to anything important. If you're going to steal a plane, a small one or a helicopter would seem far more practical, not a flying elephant (so to speak).
Murder-suicide seems like another possibility, but every day where we don't find washed up debris hurts the chances of this being likely. What would even be the point of a murder-suicide in this fashion anyway? If you didn't want to hurt other people, you would just kill yourself away from an aircraft. If you wanted to maximize death, you'd crash into a city. It's less likely for them to crash into the water and even less likely for them to fly a long distance and then crash into the water if murder-suicide was what happened.
I used to like the depressurization theory, but I think it was because I was biased towards wanting everyone to be good people doing their best to get everyone to their destination safely. Depressurization would require the crew to be rendered unconscious before they noticed (and alert ATC) AND take out transponders/ACARS. Possible, but having this happen right when Malaysia ATC was handing off to Vietnam seems like a stretch.
I think we can all agree that a hijacking (whether by passengers or by the crew) is normally not what happens during a plane crash. I'll never dispute that. However, this isn't a normal plane crash scenario. In a normal plane crash, we either have distress calls or reliable enough transponder data to figure out where the plane was having problems so we can come up with a reasonable search area. This has neither. A 777 doesn't just sink into the water whole. It'll break up and everything buoyant (including dead bodies) will float away. Considering no floating debris has been found yet, it's likely that the plane didn't crash in the water in the areas we've been looking.The majority of airline disasters are because of a system failure or pilot error. Not a pilot/co-pilot gone rouge. You said yourself that a hi-jacking or pilot/co-pilot gone rogue were the two most likely scenarios in your head. And I say this is not the most likely scenario. News-flash - you're correct there is no evidence right now, therefore, looking back at past disasters would give us more of an idea of what might have happened then suddenly throwing wild assumptions around about co-pilots going rouge, knocking out the pilot and taking over control.
Also the hypothesis with the least assumptions more often than not turns out to be the correct hypothesis. Your most likely scenarios are all based off wild assumptions which don't have a shred of evidence to back them up.
Hijacking a plane in a way that allows it to completely disappear without leaving any traces (no mayday, transponder off, no acars, no confirmed visual or primary radar sightings) requires a level of sophistication that no one on the plane the pilots aside is likely to possess. Multiple intelligence agencies have gone through the flight manifest and the passport issues aside have apparently not flagged anyone as suspicious, including the pilots. Sophistication is usually accompanied with a clear motive and plan, both of which also seems to be lacking here. It seems far more likely that they are either not searching in the right area or that they've been extremely unlucky with the debris spread or the search has not been systematic and competent.I think we can all agree that a hijacking (whether by passengers or by the crew) is normally not what happens during a plane crash. I'll never dispute that. However, this isn't a normal plane crash scenario. In a normal plane crash, we either have distress calls or reliable enough transponder data to figure out where the plane was having problems so we can come up with a reasonable search area. This has neither. A 777 doesn't just sink into the water whole. It'll break up and everything buoyant (including dead bodies) will float away. Considering no floating debris has been found yet, it's likely that the plane didn't crash in the water in the areas we've been looking.
Hijacking/rogue pilots isn't just the first thought that came into my head. However, I think it's most fitting of the evidence at hand. If your argument is that this is a typical plane crash, how come there was no mayday call? How come there's no transponder data after a certain point? How come they never checked in with Vietnamese ATC? If a plane was in bad enough condition to have communications and transponders shut off due to plane failure, it would have crashed soon after and there should be plenty of debris. I think saying this is just a typical plane crash requires far more stretching than anything else. The facts as they stand right now don't point in that direction unless the floating debris just has not been found yet (which I find hard to believe considering the amount of eyes in the area).
Post 9/11 - If the doors to the cockpit are locked... is there anybody in the cabin crew that can gain access to it? Does the purser know the code?
WiFi in the cabin requires GSM or satellite data connections. If those are functioning the airline is receiving location data. In this case, assuming communications were not working a camera wouldn't have made any difference.
The false rumor regarding engine data transmission is strange. Unlike the radar return thing that could have been confusion regarding unidentified or misidentified returns this almost has to be wholly fabricated.
Bombardier is installing cameras on the exterior of planes to monitor it. Why not have one for the interior?
- Rolls royce and boeing claim the reports are inaccurate about the engine data
[*]Chinese embassy said the sat images were released by mistake and did not contain any debris related to the plane.
It's crazy how rumours can gain traction so quickly.. And turn into something so big.. Power of the media I suppose.