Doesn’t explain the transponder signal stopping.
If oxygen deprivation caused a pilot to become disoriented and subsequently make errors, such as switching off the transponder, perhaps that’s why. Again, just a theory but if the plane headed out over open ocean, as the NY Times suggests one of the potential directions, the plane could have impacted the ocean in one piece like the Air France plane did.
It’s not impossible of course, but doing things that require fine motor skills like turning off a transponder is an unlikely response to hypoxia.
I’ve never heard Malaysia referred to as an Asian tiger. Haven’t even heard the term used since the '90s I don’t think, but there were only ever four – Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Thailand was forever being touted as the potential fifth tiger until the crash of 1997 scotched that talk completely. I’d say calling Malaysia “second world” is being charitable even though I like Malaysia a lot.
Pardon the slight hijack, but this is just too cute for words: Looks like Malaysia – and Thailand – are considered Tiger Cub Economies. Awww. That’s sweet. But I’m not sure I’ve even heard this term before.
This article from the Washington Post has an image showing the maximum range on MH370, which it says is 4000 miles. It shows most of Somalia in range. That might explain in part why some insiders are starting to suspect piracy.
That radius is noticeably longer than what has been on CNN all week. The circle that CNN has been drawing does not come close to Africa, the Middle East and barely into Australia.
The range depends a lot on what altitude they flew at. If they descended then the range goes way down. That range in the link looks reasonable though given the planned flight. The aircraft would’ve had enough fuel to get to it’s destination plus at least an hour.
LA Times: Investigators conclude missing jet was hijacked, Malaysian official says
No details.
Hmmm, looks like yet another “official not authorised to brief the media”. Cue the next “official” denial…one…two…three…
I think I’m going to rather wait for the DVD release of this little drama.
It’s official hijack. Where and why is now the question.
I’m watching a live press conference with the Malaysian prime minister right now. He says there’s “a high degree of certainty” the communications and transponders were manually disabled.
He says satellite data show the last contact was in one of two possible corridors: a northern corridor, stretching from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand; or a southen corridor stretching from Indonesia to the northern Indian Ocean.
He says it looks like a hijacking, but they’re still considering other possibilities. I’m pretty sure I heard him say right now that they’re ending their search in the South China Sea. But he would not come and and say it definitely was a hijacking.
Make that southern Indian Ocean.
Despite the prime minister’s reluctance to say for certain it was a hijacking, it’s hard to think what else it could be at this point.
He also said Malaysia is asking all countries the plane might have flown over to review their radar data.
BBC is reporting that the pilot’s home is being searched.
They also summarized what is now known including that the plane definitely crossed Malaysia to the Indian Ocean and kept flying for another seven hours after that.
Based on the new information that’s come to light, I suspect there are some very uncomfortable questions being asked behind closed doors in Malaysia right now.
The plane may have the range but it shouldn’t have been fueled for it. haven’t heard what the the actual fuel load was. The Captain could have ordered additional fuel.
So after 7 days, they finally determine this? What data do they have now that they didn’t have last weekend? And why didn’t they have that data last weekend?
Now KNOWN? How strange. How could they possibly know this unless they had contact (of some sort) with it. Seven additional hours AFTER it turned around and crossed back over Malaysia? A direct flight from KUL to PEK is 6 - 6 and a half hours. Seems to me that the flight out, and the turn around would put it out of it’s range for the fuel it would have on board to fly for another 7 hours.
I’m sorry to say that I think something put this plane in a dive, and it went in at high speed. It was perhaps a bit off course and off radar, and the debris field is small.
Actually the article specifically says “According to an airline official, at the time of its disappearance, the plane was carrying more than seven hours’ worth of fuel,” and implies that the diagram is based on that information.
I do remember that in a past kidnap incident the kidnappers were not really the sharpest knives, even when the captain told the kidnappers how far they could go the kidnappers willfully ignored the bad news and ended with the plane with no fuel and had to ditch in the ocean, it was only thanks to the captain that he knew how much gas they really had that he managed to land next to a populated island and a good number of the passengers were saved.
If it was a kidnapping I think a lot of the nonsensical maneuvers could be explained by kidnapers with no clue on what to do after finding that one important item in their plan failed to become reality.