This is the most bizarre event. They are now saying they are certain that the plane flew - not just was intact, but flew - for 7+ hours afterwards, because the plane system that was pinging the satellites reported distance traveled since last ping, but not direction or location. They also say that ACARS was deliberately turned off at the time transponders were turned off, but since the “ping” (or “handshake”) did not have a turn-off breaker, it continued for those 7 1/2 hours.
Another article said that the “ping” satellite system could not tell where the plane was but could tell where it had to turn its antenna to get the strongest signal. Wouldn’t that tell you the, at least approximate, location?
I think the fact that the comm systems that could be manually turned off were, but the ones that couldn’t be turned off weren’t pretty much points at deliberate actions and not some kind of accident.
My knowledge of plane electronics is deficient, and I’m grasping at straws here, just trying to cover all possibilities, but how impossible would it be for some (most) electronics to go haywire but not all? Aren’t there independent power busses, intended to handle multiple failures?
Conversely, what if the main power was suddenly unreliable (like DC line voltage wavering or becoming AC)? If I reduce the power to my desktop CPU, there comes a time when operation becomes unreliable and nothing can be trusted, yet the power is still on, and some components work fine.
With so much sophisticated electronics nowdays relying on multiplexing, digitization of sensor data, and CPU interpretation of the data, how about a serious scrambling of a large amount into nearly incomprehensible displays (think EMF pulse)? Then the pilots might not know which direction they were going or if they were descending or ascending.
In the Air France accident, a single sensor (or three of a kind) led to pilot disorientation and bad things followed. Think what might happen if a dozen sensors failed or transmitted scrambled signals all at once. At night, at 30,000 ft, over the ocean (no ground lights to see), with no visual references at all?
I haven’t heard any speculation on why the pilot/hijacker made a couple of turns after the last communication with the ground. Is that typical deliberate evasive action, or does it sound more like indecision?
Also, the last ping at 8:11 a.m. local time would have been in daylight. If it was over land and then subsequently crashed or landed, you’d think it would have been seen.
What I heard, and I don’t give it any more credence than what you heard, was that Malaysia Airlines didn’t subscribe to the ACARS service and so it wouldn’t need to be turned off. The plane would still ping the satellite every hour, but without getting a response in return, no data would be sent.
Najib said Saturday that the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS, was disabled just as MH370 reached the eastern coast of Malaysia. The transponder was then switched off, Najib said, as the aircraft neared the border between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace.
According to the Malaysian government, a satellite that tracked the aircraft was located more than 22,000 miles above sea level. Even after the ACARS system was disconnected, the satellite still received some basic signal from the plane — what one U.S. official described as a “handshake.” Though no data was being transmitted, the satellite continued to reach out to the plane on an hourly basis and received confirmation that the plane was still flying.
“There’s no circuit breaker that would allow you to shut off the handshake,” the official said.
I think a likely explanation is that the plane was intentionally diverted, either by passenger hijackers or by one or both of the crew, with the intention of immediately flying it into some building in an act of terrorism (stealing and landing it for later use would seem to have logistical problems). Then it either crashed for some reason, or was shot down to prevent a terrorist act. If a government shot it down, they might not want to admit it.
Speaking of Uri Geller, can anyone find the news article about the Indian psychic who predicted he’d have the solution by Saturday (today?) Since I don’t remember his name, I haven’t been able to find it. I think it was from the India Times site, but I don’t see it there now, either.
Not the shaman who chanted at the airport; someone else?
Intriguing idea, but that’s piling conspiracy upon conspiracy, and it’s turtles all the way down.
That’s certainly explained in more depth that what I heard, which was from one of the innumerable “experts” I’ve seen on news channels. Also, that article says the satellite initiates the process–it pings the plane, and I guess the plane pings back the “handshake” response but sends no data.
yeah. I’ve been asking similar questions the whole time…the reports just come back negative. Well what WAS on fire in the middle of the ocean then, if it wasn’t the plane? There have been others too, like why the hell is there an OFF button for the transponder and the other tracking systems!?
I think it was the default setup installed by Boeing (lucky break for us), but Malaysia Airlines declined to purchase the package that would have “filled in” the data exchanged. The Air France flight transmitted much more data, and more frequently (yeah, I know it’s not Boeing, but I’ll bet the concept is similar).
The only conspiracy I mentioned was the conspiracy to commit a hijacking, which seems like a more than plausible hypothesis at this point.
Regarding what happened after that, I was speculating as to the fate of the plane. The most plausible explanation of that is that it crashed due to inexperienced hijackers or a mechanical problem. But it’s also not totally out of the question that somebody’s air force shot it down to prevent a terrorist act. Given the nature of some of the governments in that part of the world, secrecy about such an act wouldn’t be unexpected.
I don’t see anything in what I said leading to “turtles all the way down.”
Hijacking the plane is one conspiracy (although it’s possible it was a lone act with no accomplices). A government or military coverup would be conspiracy #2. If you postulate both, that’s multiplying rare possibilities, and that’s what the “turtles all the way down” refers to.
But it IS turtles all the way down. It seems equally improbable that the plane would be hijacked and then suffer a breakdown leading to a crash whether it had been hijacked or not. And almost as improbable that a bunch of passengers would shout “Let’s roll” in half a dozen languages, storm the cockpit, and cause a crash to prevent … what, exactly?
Now I’m wondering just how long the plane was that high. Wouldn’t the oxygen masks have deployed if the plane were depressurized? Or is that crew-defeatable, too? And I understand that flight attendants have access to portable oxygen bottles, but they would also eventually run out. Wonder how the pilots planned to handle their own oxygen supply?
At this point, we need the best detailed timeline of altitude, distance and time we can get to answer the questions this theory is proposing.
And do you realize that the plane had enough fuel to make it to 1/3 of Australia, 2/3 of China, part of Saudi Arabia, and all of India (according to one map I saw)? That surely increases the search area a bunch.
To expand on those questions - I keep wondering the following. Namely - could the flight crew (pilot and/or co-pilot) purposely de-pressurize the aircraft in an attempt to incapacitate / kill all the passengers and unwilling crew members? Is there a way to de-pressurize the aircraft on purpose? If they did this, would the oxygen masks release? How long would they work? As long as the crews? If there is a way to depressurize on purpose, and they did this, how long could the oxygen supplies to the flight crew last? Long enough to kill all the passengers, and then allow the remaining crew to resume “normal” flight operations? In essence, could someone kill all the passengers through depressurization, and then restore pressurization and continue flying on to some intended destination?
So assuming it was hijacked what would be the hijacker’s end game?
They have a valuable airplane they can’t sell, or chop for parts. They also have 200 odd hostages or a pile of bodies.
What are their plans?