MH 777 missing - MH370 media statement

[Gremlin]

I don't understand why the "arcs" from the earlier pings hasn't been made available. Surely putting all of them together will give some potential understanding of the route taken and could narrow down a search?

 

[prozac]

There are unconfirmed reports that 5 Indian Ocean airfields were on the simulator-
Cops find five Indian Ocean practice runways in MH370 pilot

However 2 were Male and diego Garcia.really don't think it could have landed at those undetected.The others are 1000 metres in length.not really suitable for a 777.

A couple of good articles on the satellite pings-
TMF Associates MSS blog » Understanding “satellite pings”…
TMF Associates MSS blog » Locating “satellite pings”…

Could 370 have landed at one of the others, refueled and continued on?

 

[markis10]

I don't understand why the "arcs" from the earlier pings hasn't been made available. Surely putting all of them together will give some potential understanding of the route taken and could narrow down a search?

It would not provide much information, as the aircraft is tracking on a great circle route it would be hard to make sense of the rings.

 

[dajop]

It is inaccurate to state as fact that all comms were "switched off".
The only thing we know was that they "went off".

The official position has already jumped the shark by being persuaded without evidence that the flight was hijacked.

Cooler heads (with no vested interests) should prevail and the wreckage search should start again - the closer to home the better.
Forget all the mystery radar blips etc.
....

Looks like an unbelievably heroic effort by the pilot(s) to me - nearly got that baby back home.

I think many people actually prefer the idea that the plane has disappeared because of deliberate actions, rather than simply "falling out of the sky" due to a technical fault, such as one of the hypothesis put forward about electrical fire on/around flight deck. Both types of events are exceedingly rare, but I am sure many feel safer flying perhaps NZ, BA, VA etc knowing that it was a deranged pilot or hijacking than a 777 than a plane that (to oversimplify) fell out the sky. Of course, if it was a technical issue and if the wreckage is recovered, and it can be determined what caused it, then we will hopefully learn something, and changes can be made to prevent recurrence ... with the hijacked by pilot theory that can be much more difficult (I imagine) to prevent recurrence.

 

[JessicaTam]

I don't understand why the "arcs" from the earlier pings hasn't been made available. Surely putting all of them together will give some potential understanding of the route taken and could narrow down a search?

An earlier ping would just provide another ring further away from the satellite location, so no course as such.

 

[amaroo]

Making statements and then changing them looks to be a a common trait! No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

MALAYSIA’S Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has admitted he has a family connection to the MH370 pilot, who may have hijacked the plane in a political protest.

Mr Ibrahim said Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah is related to his son’s in-laws, according to The Straits Times.“I am not denying that he (Zaharie) is related to one of my in-laws and that I have met him on several occasions,” he said.“In fact, he is a close friend of (PKR supreme council member and Subang MP) R. Sivarasa, as we said before,” Mr Anwar told reporters at the Parliament lobby in Kuala Lumpur today.

Mr Anwar had earlier denied close links to Mr Zaharie.“I don’t recollect the name (Zaharie), but when the photographs were shown, I remembered I had seen him at party meetings,” he was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post.He also said they had no personal contact, but Mr Zaharie was a follower of his Twitter account.

 

[mrfreeze]

I might of missed it and a quick search did not find it mentioned but Keith Ledgerwood is another "theory" to throw in to the ring.

 

[medhead]

It would not provide much information, as the aircraft is tracking on a great circle route it would be hard to make sense of the rings.

Not really. The first ping after the last known position should give a narrow range of options. And so on.

Do we know it's tracking on a great circle? Those lines are about position from the satellite not track.

 

[AVC]

Well,
so far there are a few possibilities:

Aircraft had some sort of catastrophic failure but somehow got flown far off course then crashed.

or,

Aircraft was "stolen" by either deranged pilot or pilots, flown to Kerplankistan, to perhaps be used as a WMD.

How? My theory is plane is fitted with the WMDs 'they never found', takes off, shadows another airliner which is then taken down by some other extremists, the stolen aircraft spams the transponder code of the shadowed plane, fakes comms failures or whatnot, then MH370 reappears at a heavily populated area near you. Although I seriously hope not. With any luck the USA have retasked their spy satellites to look down at large airfields.

Might sound far fetched, but so would have 9/11 before it happened.

Option C is the pilot was trying to do the above but crashed it anyway.

Option D? There was no DG on board as freight. It was carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Or maybe a working flux capacitor.

Back to the concept of the ACARS/transponder that you can't switch off. Obviously, the powered circuits need breakers in case of fire. What about a self contained EPIRB that activates on the loss of power to the ACARS or transponder?

 

[markis10]

Not really. The first ping after the last known position should give a narrow range of options. And so on.

Do we know it's tracking on a great circle? Those lines are about position from the satellite not track.

Thinking it through, maybe it has given them some info. Problem is one could track towards the sat and then away to destination X or just track away from the satellite and still be heading to X depending on navigation/winds etc. I think for that reason it's not being given too much attention, as we simply don't know how things were being flown.

 

[medhead]

Thinking it through, maybe it has given them some info. Problem is one could track towards the sat and then away to destination X or just track away from the satellite and still be heading to X depending on navigation/winds etc. I think for that reason it's not being given too much attention, as we simply don't know how things were being flown.

It's an interesting thought process about how it could work or not work. Agreed it is marginal as an option. But would still be interesting to see.

 

[HarryB]

There are unconfirmed reports that 5 Indian Ocean airfields were on the simulator-
Cops find five Indian Ocean practice runways in MH370 pilot

However 2 were Male and diego Garcia.really don't think it could have landed at those undetected.The others are 1000 metres in length.not really suitable for a 777.

I am tired of the theories related to the flight simulator setup the captain had. Flight sim software has thousands of airports on it, so finding five in the vicinity of the area of interest means absolutely jack even if they were extra detailed payware ones that he had to buy as an add on. Initial reports suggested extreme suspicion was raised because the sim setup had three monitors ... I mean come on, it's just sensationalist rubbish.

Let's discount the pilot owning a detailed sim software setup as a reason he may be the culprit. There may be more on the computer than the sim software that could point fingers in his direction but the software itself proves nothing other than enthusiasm for aviation.

 

[drron]

Making statements and then changing them looks to be a a common trait! No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

MALAYSIA’S Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has admitted he has a family connection to the MH370 pilot, who may have hijacked the plane in a political protest.

Mr Ibrahim said Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah is related to his son’s in-laws, according to The Straits Times.“I am not denying that he (Zaharie) is related to one of my in-laws and that I have met him on several occasions,” he said.“In fact, he is a close friend of (PKR supreme council member and Subang MP) R. Sivarasa, as we said before,” Mr Anwar told reporters at the Parliament lobby in Kuala Lumpur today.

Mr Anwar had earlier denied close links to Mr Zaharie.“I don’t recollect the name (Zaharie), but when the photographs were shown, I remembered I had seen him at party meetings,” he was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post.He also said they had no personal contact, but Mr Zaharie was a follower of his Twitter account.

On the other hand the co pilot is the son of a leading UMNO official that is the government so I don't really see the 2 of them cooperating from a political point of view.
Also I really don't know all of my daughter-in-laws family so I don't see too much should be read into Mr.Anwars statements.

On the other hand over at PPRuNe there are some that really are researching this.One has discovered a Chinese "cargo"ship to the south of the new search area that is certainly not steaming in a straight line,has no evidence of any recent port calls and appears also to be still in China as well.
HANG SHENG 1 - Cargo ship - Details and current position MMSI 413501228
HANG SHENG 1 - Cargo ship - Details and current position MMSI 413501230

Click on the Track on map button to see the 2 different locations.
Do the Chinese know more?

 

[amaroo]

On the other hand the co pilot is the son of a leading UMNO official that is the government so I don't really see the 2 of them cooperating from a political point of view.
Also I really don't know all of my daughter-in-laws family so I don't see too much should be read into Mr.Anwars statements.

Maybe he just picked up some bad habits during the 5 years he was the deputy PM.

 

[markis10]

HANG SHENG 1 - Cargo ship - Details and current position MMSI 413501228
HANG SHENG 1 - Cargo ship - Details and current position MMSI 413501230

Click on the Track on map button to see the 2 different locations.
Do the Chinese know more?

They are building a 4th Antartic base, I bet it's related to that, mind you the data is fuzzy, never seen a cargo ship do 49 knots!

 

[basso]

I am tired of the theories related to the flight simulator setup the captain had.

Indeed. MH even have scheduled services to Male....(ok, 737 services, but still)

 

[Swan]

I am flying with Malaysian being in transit at the KL lounge. The airline is stating they have instigated the highest level of security for their flights. I have just flown from Colombo and found on taking my wife's backpack from the overhead locker on landing she had a 500ml bottle of water in the side pocket. We passed through three scans in Colombo and the fluid passed through undetected. No one is interested here, they merely tell me you are not allowed to take fluid on the plane.
So much high level security.

 

[mannej]

I am flying with Malaysian being in transit at the KL lounge. The airline is stating they have instigated the highest level of security for their flights. I have just flown from Colombo and found on taking my wife's backpack from the overhead locker on landing she had a 500ml bottle of water in the side pocket. We passed through three scans in Colombo and the fluid passed through undetected. No one is interested here, they merely tell me you are not allowed to take fluid on the plane.
So much high level security.

Was the water purchased airside in CLB?

 

[Swan]

Was the water purchased airside in CLB?

The water was taken from our hotel fridge just before check out.

 

[ermen]

CMB has gateside security...