I’m inclined to believe the “extra waypoints” in the Malacca Strait were the result of spotty radar combined with the plane weaving in response to air currents. The fly-by-wire capabilities of the 777 mean that even with the autopilot off it will still remain aerodynamically stable – it just won’t hold a steady course. So the pilots turn around and head back to Malaysia. They lose consciousness and the plane continues cruising along its last heading. It gets out over the strait and weaves to the north because of turbulence. The Malaysians analyzing the radar data notice that the turn happens to be close to a normal navigation waypoint and jump to the conclusion that that it’s deliberate without taking the additional step to verify if the turn matches what would actually happen if the autopilot were executing it.
That’s a very reasonable theory. To confirm or deny it, we would need fairly accurate tracking info which many never be available. If the track wandered or veered randomly or matched prevailing winds, it would fit your theory; if, instead, sharp turns were made near the waypoints, it would suggest deliberate autopilot settings or manual flying.
With that said, can’t you see this event leading to the development of some kind of satellite-based, attack-resistent device to be embedded in planes, whose sole purpose is to broadcast location data?
If you will read all 782 posts in this thread (any why not?), you will find that discussed several times. The technology exists, but it’s a cost vs. feature vs. benefit question.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying, but a general location of an active phone needs to be known at all times by the network. If you call my cell phone, the network already knows I’m in Dallas, and the Dallas switch complex knows which controller I’m attached to, etc, you don’t need to initiate a call or anything to get that.
What I’m not sure about is how that data is held when the phone is not attached to the network. My suspicion is that the home registry may have some sort of last known data (but in the case of people roaming on another country’s network, that might just be “The other country,”), and I wouldn’t be surprised if regional/local registries are completely transient.
You’re right, and the reason is that all phones that are turned on communicate with the nearest tower every few minutes, even if there is no active conversation, which is one reason why batteries run down, and one reason cellphone companies don’t like overflights – too many pings to too many towers because the plane is passing them rapidly and the system can’t keep up.
I’m not sure either, but my WAG is that the data is held, somewhere in the world, but not perpetually, and not for long. Our hope is that this valuable data has been preserved and can be used for analysis before the chance is gone.
I can envision a program that takes the known phone numbers of all the passengers and tries to match each with the list of tower pings anywhere in the broadest possible coverage area where the plane might have flown during the time of the flight and a few days after. Any matches at all would be an extremely important finding and could crack this case wide open. If the plane flew low enough over or near land, such a match might be possible* for all of the phones that were on the plane and not switched off, even if the passengers and crew were all dead.*
I did read them all! Actually the reason I registered was a search about whether pilots could intentionally kill passengers by depressurizing the cabin at high altitudes led me here. I enjoyed the thread so much I wanted in.
I understand (or think I do anyways) that the technology is there and that there are lots of tradeoffs invovlved. I was merely expressing the thought that this incident might be big enough to change how we (really, airlines, manufacturers, and governing bodies) decide to balance those tradeoffs.
No, Thailand and Malaysia are friendly neighbors and even cooperate to a large extent on the insurgency in southern Thailand. Here is Thailand’s explanation for the delayed report, but as I mentioned earlier, BBC has reported the regional militaries are being criticized for being unprofessional. Particularly Malaysia and Thailand.
Tonight BBC showed film of some of the Chinese relatives of passengers who were in Kuala Lumpur. The relatives went to the hotel where reporters were staying. They’d only ever been allowed to talk to reporters before when minders were present. This time they were on their own. But the authorities quickly got wind of it, went in and literally dragged the relatives out. The relatives were screaming bloody murder while being dragged, and the draggers would not answer reporters’ questions about why they were doing this. Later that joke of a transport minister promised an investigation to see why that had happened.
Thanks for the info. That’s the sort of perspective that’s hard to come by in media sources. Sounds like Malaysia isn’t exactly high on free speech.
i saw a media memo from the chinese government banning discussion of the case or independent investigation.
there seems to be a lot of suppression from the countries involved. US included.
I may be reading too much into it but I would expect a little more information along this line. and I don’t think the family “turned over” the simulator. It was part of an investigation.
I’d like to know the reason behind the move before I file it into the irrelevant category. The timing of it is worth investigating when other items such as an obscure airport in a flight simulator and a political rally are added.
Any chance you can find a link about this Chinese memo? Exactly who was being denied permission to talk?
Seems extremely unlikely that Malaysian government thugs were enforcing a Chinese decree, and in front of the international press at that. No, Malaysia itself didn’t want these folks talking about their shitty treatment.
what are you speculating makes it relevant? moving would seem to indication some kind of “getting away” or “running away” but they were still cooperative and accessed.
and anyway we don’t know what is misinformation at this point. i just pulled up this conflicting account:
emphasis mine. it seems there are two reports about whether they moved before or after the plane went missing.
my question is this: where was the simulator taken from, house a or house b? when reports claim investigators were at Shah’s house, was it house A or house B? if it’s house A it would appear they moved out AFTER the investigation and limelight started.
which makes a lot of sense.
yup.
Thanks!
By what authority are they allowed to drag foreign citizens away from a conversation?
No First Amendment there, remember? Nor in almost anywhere else.
But the right of It’s Their Fucking Country and People Will Do As They’re Told Or Else.
The transport minister has promised an investigation to see why that happened, so I’m, er, sure the guilty parties will be punished. Yessirree.
Right after they figure out what happened with this pesky plane thing.