Malaysia Airlines 777 Missing

[Steken]

@Tangent

What the fuck?

Ignore him.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

@Ambivalid

I think he’s been huffing deodorant.

Exactly.

[Athabasca]

@carnivorousplant

Thank you, Athabasca.

You’re welcome.

[ElvisL1ves]

@notfrommensa

But I can’t imagine why CNN is not reporting it…at all.

Wha?

Items discovered were floating suitcases and debris that appears to be from the ill fated 777.

In the strait, near KL at that. Hope this is for real.

[Musicat]

@ElvisL1ves

Wha? In the strait, near KL at that. Hope this is for real.

CBS News doesn’t mention the Greek Freighter or the possible debris field sighting, 12 hours later. Also, no mention of eyewitness reports of a low-flying plane over the land.

[notfrommensa]

ABC didn’t mention the Greek Tanker tonight on World News Tonight.

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Musicat

The very latest says the transponder was turned off before the last “goodnight” voice message was sent. If true, the plot thickens.

Is it possible the pilot in communication did not know someone (or something) was shutting off the transponders? Is there an exact timeline of the signals and communication?

@ElvisL1ves

The fact that the ACARS and transponder shutoffs were 14 minutes apart.

Okay.

[Frank]

@ElvisL1ves

Wha?In the strait, near KL at that. Hope this is for real.

That’s an iReport, and not CNN reporting.

Wouldn’t that site be far too close to Malaysia for a plane that was flying for another five or six hours?

[JKellyMap]

@Frank

That’s an iReport, and not CNN reporting.

Wouldn’t that site be far too close to Malaysia for a plane that was flying for another five or six hours?

Could have gone out over the ocean to create a false trail, then turned back to KL with the intention of, say, doing a 9/11 to the Petronas Towers (the pilot has made his social media persona to be against the Malaysian party in power), but didn’t quite make it for some reason (maybe a United 93 passenger revolt, maybe some other issue).

Maybe.

[Richard_Pearse]

@Athabasca

I asked that above. Richard Pearse replied that it was technically complex to disable the transponder under oxygen deprivation conditions.

It’s not technically complex, it just requires fine motor skill. The transponder has a small knob that must be turned to the standby position. Fine motor skills are one of the first things that go when you get hypoxia. People suffering hypoxia can have difficulty getting their oxy mask on because of this. So I think that turning off the transponder is an unlikely response to hypoxia. More unlikely is turning off the ACARS, apparently that is done by going into sub menus of the flight management computer.

Here is what hypoxia looks like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpLi67NdD4w

@dgrdfd

Click around and you can see the “debris field” for yourself in Tomnod: http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/malaysiaairsar2014/map/128148

It looks like a boat at the bottom left of the debris field. Keep in mind with reports of debris in the ocean that there is debris all over the place in the ocean.

[Marley23]

@JKellyMap

Could have gone out over the ocean to create a false trail, then turned back to KL with the intention of, say, doing a 9/11 to the Petronas Towers (the pilot has made his social media persona to be against the Malaysian party in power), but didn’t quite make it for some reason (maybe a United 93 passenger revolt, maybe some other issue).

If so, that was a lot of work for nothing because Malaysia does not seem to have had any ability to intercept the plane. But it does seem plausible to me that control of the plane changed more than once.

[usedtobe]

@Charlie_Wayne

I found the incident with the EgyptAir crash.

It was EgyptAir Flight 990 - 31 October 1999.

I found this incident to be one of the most terrifying of all airline crashes. The co-pilot gets demoted but the airline tells him of this before his last flight and it is suspected that he then used his last flight to suicide.

If he wanted to suicide, that is one thing. But why take 217 innocent people with him?
EgyptAir Flight 990 - Wikipedia

Here is an excerpt:

NTSB investigation and conclusion

The NTSB’s investigation fairly quickly centered on the actions of the Relief First Officer, Gameel Al-Batouti, and this drew relatively minor criticism from Egyptians.[17] The NTSB determined that the only way for the observed split elevator condition to occur was if the left seat pilot (the Captain’s position) was commanding nose up while the right seat pilot (the First Officer’s position) commanded nose down. As the Egyptian investigation forwarded various mechanical failure scenarios, they were each tested by the NTSB and found not to match the factual evidence. The NTSB concluded that no mechanical failure scenario either they or the Egyptians could come up with matched the evidence on the ground, and that even if mechanical failure had been experienced, the 767’s design made the situation recoverable.[1]

The NTSB’s final report was issued on 21 March 2002, after a two-year investigation, and concluded as follows:[1]

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the EgyptAir flight 990 accident is the airplane's departure from normal cruise flight and subsequent impact with the Atlantic Ocean as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs. The reason for the relief first officer's actions was not determined.

There was a huge (and public) dispute betwen US and Egyptian investigators about the pilots words (in Arabic). The US translation was clearly “We’re coming, Allah!”.
Egyptian said “Allah, please help us”.

[Siam_Sam]

Related and of interest: Info on the Thai market in stolen passports.

Excerpt: “How bad is it? So bad that Malaysian immigration didn’t even bother checking the Interpol list of stolen passports when the two Iranians passed through. One theory: Discovering illegal immigrants and traffickers is too much trouble. If they are on their way out of the country, let them go and let the next country worry. No airport in the region is different.”

[Siam_Sam]

Interesting too: A Plane Disappears, Malaysia’s Flaws Emerge

[scr4]

@Siam_Sam

Excerpt: “How bad is it? So bad that Malaysian immigration didn’t even bother checking the Interpol list of stolen passports when the two Iranians passed through. One theory: Discovering illegal immigrants and traffickers is too much trouble. If they are on their way out of the country, let them go and let the next country worry. No airport in the region is different.”

But do other countries check outgoing passengers’ passports against the stolen passport database? I thought I’d heard that only governments have access to those databases, and airlines don’t. And I didn’t think immigrations officers inspected passports of outgoing passengers.

[Esox_Lucius]

@Richard_Pearse

Here is what hypoxia looks like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpLi67NdD4w

That was an eye-opener. Why wasn’t he gasping for breath if he wasn’t getting enough oxygen? Is that what would have happened to the passengers on MH370 if the cabin was depressurized at high altitude?

[harmonicamoon]

As I mentioned up thread my passport (Mexico) has a photo of the retina imbedded. Apparently they are like fingerprints, no two are alike. You don’t need Interpol. It is an easy solution.

[Siam_Sam]

@scr4

But do other countries check outgoing passengers’ passports against the stolen passport database? I thought I’d heard that only governments have access to those databases, and airlines don’t. And I didn’t think immigrations officers inspected passports of outgoing passengers.

Thai Immigration inspects your passport as you leave. I have no idea what they’re looking for, but they do swipe it through their computer and type away in an official-looking manner. I’ve always assumed they’re making sure your name does not come up as being wanted for some offense in-country, but I don’t really know. And I’ve flown out of Kuala Lumpur Airport myself and recall being scrutinized to some extent by Immigration. It’s not like in the US, where the airline just makes sure you have a passport before you can board. Immigration officers over here do have to approve your exit.

A little more on passport fraud over here. Rather interesting.

[Richard_Pearse]

@Esox_Lucius

That was an eye-opener. Why wasn’t he gasping for breath if he wasn’t getting enough oxygen? Is that what would have happened to the passengers on MH370 if the cabin was depressurized at high altitude?

Yep. The trigger for feeling like you are not getting enough oxygen is actually a lowering of your blood PH due to increased CO2 levels, it is not directly caused by a lack of oxygen. Typical signs of hypoxia include feelings of euphoria and well being. If you are hypoxic you are probably the last person to realise, if you do. That is why the first response to any cockpit indication of a pressurisation problem is to get the oxygen on. Once you’ve done that you’ve got plenty of time to trouble shoot.

[JKellyMap]

@JKellyMap

Charlie Wayne, now you’ll want to read about the other example – Silk Air (can’t recall flight number, easy to look up.) More relevant to the current situation (maybe), being about Indonesia, and about an embarrassed government refusing to admit the facts.

And then this Mozambican suicide flight from four months ago. That should cover it (I hope! Good Lord, what unbelievable selfishness. These three pieces of scum missed the memo that killing yourself means just that – killing yourSELF, not other people.)