To what extent is radar data recorded, though? I could imagine some of these countries using rickety old gear in some of their radar stations. Also, someone posted a radar coverage map on PPRUNE a while back showing significant gaps in coverage of the Malay peninsula. I’m not sure that radar monitoring is as all-seeing as we might imagine.
The Chinese government is saying now that their satellites have picked up something that might be debris in the southern Indian Ocean.
I wonder if the Chinese altered their satellite pictures to show less detail than they are capable of.
If someone says "the engines fell off " absent any EVIDENCE of such a thing occuring yes, I’m going to mention the odds are low. If, on the other hand, engine debris is found along the flight path then I’d be more inclined to say “rare overall, but perhaps likely in this case”.
While I agree that in circumstances like these investigating the flight crew is appropriate I don’t see where there is strong evidence of malice on the part of the flight crew. All we know is that communications were cut off but the plane continued to fly for some time afterward. Why that occurred we don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t the flight crew maybe it was hijackers. Maybe the pilots were incapacitated at some point and the plane just kept flying. We just don’t know and I feel it is too early to declare the reason as being X.
I found a rather ironic ad for Malaysian Airlines.
I believe it originally came from their web site. But I’m really not sure. I visited their site but I could not find it.
It’s not a joke. But IMO, it’s just very bizarre they would leave this ad up on their web site in view of the disappearance of that airliner.
http://www.rantcentralforums.com/Thread-The-Search-for-the-Boeing-777?pid=100311#pid100311
Their web site has a great number of pages and perhaps someone there just forgot that they used this copy. Very very strange copy in view of the disappearance. For example:
Our new Boeing 777. Lose yourself on a journey of epic proportions.
Wherever you go, no one will ever know.
I dunno…it seems pretty suspect to me. “Wherever you go, no one will ever know” doesn’t really make much sense as a slogan/tagline. Is there any corroboration that this is real? My gut says “fake.”
ETA: Especially as it doesn’t seem to be a Boeing 777 in the ad. (I think that’s an Airbus A380).
Ah, well, that was easy. Of course, it’s fake. And that is an Airbus A380. Out of curiosity, what made you think it was real in the first place? I could see if there was a discussion about it and a link to the “original” web page it was supposedly taken from, but it’s just a link to a photo without any comment.
You may well be right.
I will post a note in that thread and ask the person who posted the ad if he would please give me a link. I suppose I should have done that in the first place. If you have saved the link to that board, then you can take a look in a day or two and see if he answered.
I sure do hope that I have not been duped again. It happens to me quite a bit on the Internet.
OK. I have posted a request of the originator to please tell us whether that ad is real or if he just created it as a joke.
I kind of doubt he would have done that however, because it sure seems like it would be a fair bit of work to create that. If it is not for real, I would expect that he found it on some existing joke or sarcasm site such as The Onion or something like that.
I will come back here and post whatever he says. Or you can just use the link I posted above and check for yourselves in a few days or so.
It’s pretty clear that ad is fake. Several sites are labeling it as such. It’s not shown up on Snopes yet, but it will.
Well, no, I’m 100% sure it’s fake. Read my follow-up link, which has a link to the original A380 ad (which is what the plane pictured, is. A 777 does not have two levels.)
I have not read anything in this thread, so what I say has probably been covered again and again.
I believe somebody gained control of the plane, and I suspect the Captain. Everything I’ve seen and heard has assumed that after that initial turn, the plane went on a straight-line course or a wide curve. But you don’t need an experienced pilot for that.
I believe the plane’s destination was somewhere in Asia, possibly one of the “Stans.” Most people have ruled this out, because it would have been spotted by someone, especially another airport. Also, there are huge mountains in the way, forcing the plane to fly higher.
All of this assumes that the plane has flown in a straight line or wide arc. But suppose a veteran pilot found a route that avoided detection and mountains by weaving a complex route between and around them. Yes, that would shorten the trip before running out of fuel, but perhaps his ultimate target could still be reached, if he did everything right. To achieve this, he’d have to work out that route in every detail . . . which he could only do without detection on his simulator at home. After he worked out the detailed route and memorized it, he was free to delete the files from his simulator . . . in enough advance to enable him to store new, innocent, files on top of the incriminating ones. I’m wondering whether whoever is examining the hard drive has noticed a gap in time, prior to February, in which there were no files; a period in which he was working out his route, then deleted all the files from that period.
Someone should repeat what the Captain did: find a way to a destination without being detected and without having to fly over high mountains. They already know which runways can accommodate that kind of plane, all they have to do is sit down at a simulator and find the optimum route to each of those runways, exactly how the Captain did it. Then narrow down the candidates to those that can be reached without running out of fuel.
It’s very probable that the plane, after reaching its destination, was refueled and flew elsewhere . . . so the plane is lost. But the big question is: what became of the crew and passengers?
I’ve been reading this thread with interest, so hopefully this hasn’t been posted yet.
This site uses crowdsourcing to review satellite images of large portions of the ocean that were updated shortly after the plane disappeared. You can identify items/images for further review, after which other members look at the image to verify that something is there. All of the identified ‘things’ that I’ve looked at so far are classed as Other, and are miscellaneous floating garbage and not anything related to wreakage, but it’s still an interesting concept. It would be cool if someone found something.
(Scroll down on the home page to see the identified objects so far. You have to zoom in to actually see the item.)
I assume Boeing must be working to determine what could have gone wrong with its plane in case it does turn out to have been a systems failure. But I’ve not heard anything about that aspect.
I’m wondering if people are aware that there is a Search this Thread feature at the top of this page, which you can use to search for words such as, let’s say, “Tomnod”.
Holy crap! I’m not being facetious here, but I’ve been here since 2000 and I’ve actually never noticed the “Search This Thread” feature until just now (and it took me a little bit to find it. It’s not under “Search” at the very top, but by the “Thread Tools” and “Display Modes” menu I’ve also somehow never noticed before.) I used to go from page to page and Command-F in my browser to find search terms in threads to see if they’ve already been mentioned. :smack:
I have never noticed that function before either, sorry. 
Watching the CNN coverage and they keep coming back to MH370 “shadowed” another plane to avoid radar detection.
How close would the planes have to be to successfully avoid detection? 1 mile? 5 miles?
What is the +/- in altitude? If the lead plane is 35K ft high, could the trailing plane be at 34K? or 37K?
Wouldn’t there by a lot turbulence in the trailing plane?
Darn! It looks like the above ad is indeed a fake.
I apologize for being so gullible as to think it might be real.
I still have not heard back from the person who posted it. But more and more, it seems like it pretty much has to be a fake.
Sorry.
Turbulence from wing vortices sink behind the plane. Makes for a good reason to stay on the glide slope when landing. but on level flight it’s not a problem. Note the formation flying at air shows.
As for flying air routes, planes are separated by altitude and distance from each other. I haven’t heard the shadow theory but all these theories lack an end goal. Hide from what to get to where and for what reason?
The person who posted that supposed ad from Malaysian Airlines has confirmed that it was just a hoax and it was sent to him by email and was never on the real alrline’s web site.
I’m very sorry for any confusion. I need to wise up when it comes to Internet hoaxes. I keep getting fooled all the time.