Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanishes without trace

[Pickman's model]

Why would he fly model planes?

As maomao said, maybe he really fucking liked flying

not fucking liking it now i'll be bound.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

not fucking liking it now i'll be bound.

Well could be totally irrelevant now if he's no longer alive

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

flying? or pretending to fly?

tbf if this thing was a proper simulator it would be flying; pilots can keep up their hours on a simulator, so I was told when I had a go in one. But the fucker I went in cost £14million*, so if he made it himself I can't see it being quite the same thing.



*and if I found £14million behind the sofa I will spend every fucking penny on a simulator, it was THE BOLLOCKS.

 

[Supine]

Buying a pc, three monitors, a seat and a joystick control gets you a flight simulator. You could get it all from amazon.

To me It indicates they love flying rather than terrorist training.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Buying a pc, three monitors, a seat and a joystick control gets you a flight simulator. You could get it all from amazon.

Probably wouldn't be enough to enable a pilot to earn enough hours to keep his licence to fly commercial jets though.

I hope!

 

[Supine]

I hope so too!

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Probably wouldn't be enough to enable a pilot to earn enough hours to keep his licence to fly commercial jets though.

I hope!

Well considering how many years and hours he'd put into real flying (ie. commercial jets), doubt he needed to earn any

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Well considering how many years and hours he'd put into real flying (ie. commercial jets), doubt he needed to earn any

Dunno, you seem to be attributing this current faux-pas to malice, poor fucker could just have made an honest mistake.

And you're castigating him for it.

Skumbag.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Dunno, you seem to be attributing this current faux-pas to malice, poor fucker could just have made an honest mistake.

And you're castigating him for it.

Skumbag.

huh?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

huh?

I've heard rumours that you may think this pilot chappie may have deliberately flown in the wrong direction.

Anyone can make a mistake.

 

[smmudge]

Yeah they might have just read the map wrong and got lost.

And been too embarrassed to ask for directions.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I've heard rumours that you may think this pilot chappie may have deliberately flown in the wrong direction.

Anyone can make a mistake.

I don't think it's anything to do with the pilot. I may be totally wrong though

 

[weltweit]

Well why not, almost everybody else is. If they weren't, people would accuse them of not taking it seriously enough. Seems they can't really win

Immaterial what everyone else is saying, everyone else is using second or third hand data, the Malasian authorities have access to the real data. I am not saying they shouldn't be saying it is a possibility but I think it premature to suggest it is "most likely"!

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Immaterial what everyone else is saying, everyone else is using second or third hand data, the Malasian authorities have access to the real data. I am not saying they shouldn't be saying it is a possibility but I think it premature to suggest it is "most likely"!

Oh I agree, but they're also under a huge amount of pressure, not just from the families of the missing, but the eyes of the world are on the. They should stand their ground however much it might be tempting to give out info that later turns out to be incorrect

 

[Supine]

I've heard rumours that you may think this pilot chappie may have deliberately flown in the wrong direction.

Anyone can make a mistake.

pilots don't make that mistake. They have gps, radar, the sun, a flight control system. They had a destination. We just don't know where it was.

 

[weltweit]

An article focussing on some terrorism aspects:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...egations-resurface-in-case-of-lost-plane.html

 

[2hats]

Australian Dept. of Defence confirm no trace of the aircraft was recorded, which suggests that if it did go south it headed W/SW deep into the Indian Ocean.

 

[Barking_Mad]

This is perhaps worth re-iterating. From The Independent.

...the prime minister revealed that one communications system - known as ACARS, and used for data transmission – had been disabled significantly earlier in the flight. It was switched off while the plane was still flying over Malaysian territory north of Kuala Lumpur. Radio contact with at least one of the pilots took place after the data transmission system was turned off.

The aircraft’s transponder, which provides identification data and also handles the aircraft’s “hi-jack alarm”, is believed to have been switched off while the aircraft was over the South China Sea.

[...]

Two key questions remain. If the pilots were acting under duress, why did they not activate an emergency distress signal on the flight deck when events began? And were the crew not challenged about the disabled ACARS system?

Turning off the ACRAS is apparently not a straightforward operation. From here

Turning off the radios and ACARS would be more difficult. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel spoke with commercial pilots, including two who have flown Boeing 777s similar to the jet that vanished with 239 people aboard. He says the pilots tell him that those systems are "pretty hard-wired into a modern aircraft.

"They said you'd have to go through big checklists, you'd have to possibly pull circuit breakers if you wanted to deactivate [all the communications equipment]."

"So, to do this, you'd have to have some degree of premeditation and a lot of knowledge of the aircraft," he says.

The reason the ACRAS kept 'pinging' satellites is because to turn it off completely you'd have to go inside the belly of the plane, find the hardware and close it down from there.

All this means that if it's taken as read that it was deliberately turned off and didn't malfunction (which isn't impossible):

a) One of the pilot's turned the ACARS off inside the cockpit with the other pilot's knowledge.

b) One pilot turned it off without the other knowing.

c) One pilot turned it off and the other went along, under duress.

d) The hijacking took place early in the flight and the pilots were make to turn it off/it was turned off by the hijackers.

The pilots then spoke to the Vietnamese traffic control and said "All right, good night" knowing that the ACARS system had been turned off. Following this the transponder was turned off. Im trying to find out if the ACARS system did malfunction whether the pilots would be aware of it and if they'd be obliged to let people on the ground know it isnt working - as this would rule out any idea that it just stopped working without their knowledge.

 

[8115]

The sequence with which it was turned off indicated it was done deliberately.

The pings were hourly contact with a satellite and came from a maintenance system I think.

This is from radio 4 news yesterday.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

The hunt for the plane has led to tensions between Malaysia and China, which had 153 of its citizens on board. The Chinese government's Xinhua news agency accused Malaysia of dragging its feet in releasing information. "Given today's technology, the delay smacks of either dereliction of duty or reluctance to share information in a full and timely manner," Xinhua said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/15/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370

 

[weltweit]

I wonder how many runways suitable for a Boeing 777 there are in the fuel range?

Boeing 777-300, at MTOW (Maximum Takeoff Weight), needs a runway that is 11,200 ft long; at MLW (Maximum Landing Weight), needs a runway that is 8,100 ft long

http://planes.findthebest.com/q/291...-does-the-Boeing-777-300-Jet-need-to-take-off

Here Are the 634 Runways Where the Malaysian Airlines Plane Could Have Landed

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...aysian_airlines_flight_could_have_landed.html
They estimate a 5,000ft runway is needed to land a 777-200 ... was it a 777-200 or a 777-300?

But they go on to say:

But of course the number of places the plane could have landed is much larger as it assumes the plane used a formal runway in the first place. Slate’s Jeff Wise spoke to a pilot who flies 777-200s who said the plane could be landed on a highway. “A runway wouldn’t even necessarily have to be paved,” wrote Wise, “hard-packed dirt would likely be good enough.”

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Yeah they might have just read the map wrong and got lost.

And been too embarrassed to ask for directions.

Were all the pilots men? That would make sense.

 

[maomao]

My current wildly speculative theory is that the hijackers had limited flight skills but new how to disable the transponders. They relied on violence to get the pilot to fly the plane to the right area to attack but the pilot managed to fool them and aim the plane at the middle of the Indian Ocean so that casualties could be limited to those aboard the plane.

I have had several wildly speculative theories so far though.

 

[weltweit]

My current wildly speculative theory is that the hijackers had limited flight skills but new how to disable the transponders. They relied on violence to get the pilot to fly the plane to the right area to attack but the pilot managed to fool them and aim the plane at the middle of the Indian Ocean so that casualties could be limited to those aboard the plane.

I have had several wildly speculative theories so far though.

Sounds just as reasonable as some theories that are floating around.
It does seem unlikely the pilot, esp the more experienced one would be a badun ..

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/15/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370

and it was the Chinese (although I can't remember who was personally responsible) who raised hopes by posting up satellite images of something that could be MH370 debris in the South China Sea, so I hope they rapped someone's knuckles over that

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

My current wildly speculative theory is that the hijackers had limited flight skills but new how to disable the transponders. They relied on violence to get the pilot to fly the plane to the right area to attack but the pilot managed to fool them and aim the plane at the middle of the Indian Ocean so that casualties could be limited to those aboard the plane.

I have had several wildly speculative theories so far though.

I've just watched something on a news channel (I think it was Sky), where they showed how to disable the transponder. The pilot just turned a knob, it was as simple as that. Was a bit surprised how easy it was to do.

Sounds just as reasonable as some theories that are floating around.
It does seem unlikely the pilot, esp the more experienced one would be a badun ..

I definitely don't think the pilot's suspicious, well I hope not anyway. Imagine he'd be set in his ways by now, unlike someone younger

 

[maomao]

and it was the Chinese (although I can't remember who was personally responsible) who raised hopes by posting up satellite images of something that could be MH370 debris in the South China Sea, so I hope they rapped someone's knuckles over that

The Chinese government thrives on poor international relations, all the better to stir up nationalism at home and make other countries uncomfortable. They'll get as much mileage as they can from this.

 

[Citizen66]

People with cars still like driving games.

Good point. But don't ever call a simulator a 'game' to an enthusiast.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Daily Mail (sorry)

Doomed airliner pilot was political fanatic: Hours before taking control of flight MH370 he attended trial of jailed opposition leader

• Police investigate data from home flight simulator of captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53
• Investigators speak of his 'obsessive' support for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim
• Police officers fear Ibrahim being jailed could have left Shah profoundly upset
• Flight MH370 disappeared more than a week ago with 239 people on board
• Despite a huge multinational search effort, no signs of the plane or a crash have been found
• Malaysian Prime Minister said yesterday that the plane was deliberately steered off course

 

[Citizen66]

tbf if this thing was a proper simulator it would be flying; pilots can keep up their hours on a simulator, so I was told when I had a go in one. But the fucker I went in cost £14million*, so if he made it himself I can't see it being quite the same thing.

That sounds a bit pricey.

It's the hardware (obvs) that costs the wedge. The pro ones are situated on top of state of the art motion platforms. You could probably build a convincing boeing cockpit sans motion hardware for thirty grand. Fourteen million sounds a bit steep but if it's a warts and all exact replica including movement to match then I guess it could stretch to that. Well at that level it isn't off the shelf stuff and you're paying engineers and boffins to bring it together I guess. Still sounds a lot! I thought they were more 250k but no idea where I got that figure from. Whatever you got a go on must be way ahead of the curve.