Join the Search for Flight MH370

skc · 18 March 2014

So the latest search area is along 2 sweeping "arc" corridors determined from the last ping with the SatCom.

Apparently these pings occur roughly on an hourly basis. So there are probably 5 or 6 more pings transmitted before that last ping. So each of the ping should product two similar arcs as the last one. These earlier arcs will cover a much smaller area, due to less time lapse from the last known location and potentially, areas being ruled out due to overlapping of satellite coverage.

Take this series of earlier, shorter arcs, and combined them with information from primary radar coverage, the investigators should be able to rule out even more places where the plane can't be.

If I can think of this sitting at ahome, then surely the investigators are doing it to find out more. I hope there'd be an update within the next 24 hours on a dramatically narrowed down search zones.

rumpole · 18 March 2014

Pure speculation , but maybe the lack of observable wreckage may be due to the fact that it made a soft landing on water, remaining intact, and just sank to the bottom in one piece

drsmith · 18 March 2014

rumpole said:
Pure speculation , but maybe the lack of observable wreckage may be due to the fact that it made a soft landing on water, remaining intact, and just sank to the bottom in one piece

The lack of observable wreckage is a product of not knowing precisely where it came down. Over the Indian Ocean, this is made worse by the vastness of the search area and the potential for drift with often changing weather conditions and the time period since the flight was lost.

If someone flew it out over the middle of an ocean as a suicide flight, they're not going to be too worried about how many pieces the plane was in after it hit the water.

rumpole · 18 March 2014

drsmith said:
The lack of observable wreckage is a product of not knowing precisely where it came down. Over the Indian Ocean, this is made worse by the vastness of the search area and the potential for drift with often changing weather conditions and the time period since the flight was lost.

If someone flew it out over the middle of an ocean as a suicide flight, they're not going to be too worried about how many pieces the plane was in after it hit the water.

It's still supposition that it was a "suicide flight". There have been so many false leads and red herrings that no one seems to know anything at all.

drsmith · 18 March 2014

If it went out over the Indian Ocean beyond the reach of land in terms of fuel, it wasn't going for a picnic.

rumpole · 18 March 2014

drsmith said:
If it went out over the Indian Ocean beyond the reach of land in terms of fuel, it wasn't going for a picnic.

Now they are going to search 3200 km south west of Perth. No terrorist targets or landing strips out there.
Unless they just got lost or went crackers there is not much reason to be there.

trainspotter · 18 March 2014

I think the plane that says "All right, good night" then communications / transponders shutdown then followed by erratic change in flight paths would suggest something untoward IMO. Climbing to 45,000 feet just after turning west, before dropping to about 23,000 feet seems a tad difficult to do without either the pilot or copilot saying "WTF are you doing man?" also would mean reprogramming the flight management system as well. I am sure some of the passengers/flight crew would be querying as to the sudden aerobatics of the plane?

Someone with detailed knowledge of flight paths and operational systems of the plane as well as radar placement concludes that the pilot or copilot is the culprit my dear Watson. Or it could be these guys ...

CanOz · 18 March 2014

I hope to (someones) god I'm wrong, but i have a sneaking suspicion that the next time we see this aircraft it may be just before it slams into some landmark target of some crazy religious following!

drsmith · 18 March 2014

CanOz said:
I hope to (someones) god I'm wrong, but i have a sneaking suspicion that the next time we see this aircraft it may be just before it slams into some landmark target of some crazy religious following!

One thing's for sure.

They'll be a reworking of the tracking large commercial airlines such as the ability of those in the cockpit to actively disable external tracking I would imagine.

trainspotter · 18 March 2014

Hours before Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur, the pilot is said to have attended a controversial trial in which Ibrahim - who has been harassed and jailed on successive charges of homosexuality and sodomy - was jailed for five years.
Police sources say Captain Shah was a political activist and fear that the court decision left him profoundly upset.

http://www.news.com.au/world/search...to-anwar-ibrahim/story-fndir2ev-1226857475087

Hmmmmmm ... political activist? Upset pilot? Flight simulator with 5 runways reachable by MH370? Getting warmer ... getting warmer peoples.

rumpole · 18 March 2014

trainspotter said:
http://www.news.com.au/world/search...to-anwar-ibrahim/story-fndir2ev-1226857475087

Hmmmmmm ... political activist? Upset pilot? Flight simulator with 5 runways reachable by MH370? Getting warmer ... getting warmer peoples.

So why did he just disappear instead of broadcasting his message to all and sundry over his radios ?

Doesn't seem kosher that he would not even issue an explanation of why he was crashing the plane if that was his intention.

trainspotter · 18 March 2014

rumpole said:
So why did he just disappear instead of broadcasting his message to all and sundry over his radios ?

Doesn't seem kosher that he would not even issue an explanation of why he was crashing the plane if that was his intention.

You didn't read my post or read the link now did you? Flight simulator with 5 runways reachable by MH370?

Also not really sure what goes through the mind of a deranged political activist pilot. Not in my pay scale to contemplate.

drsmith · 18 March 2014

trainspotter said:
http://www.news.com.au/world/search...to-anwar-ibrahim/story-fndir2ev-1226857475087

Hmmmmmm ... political activist? Upset pilot? Flight simulator with 5 runways reachable by MH370? Getting warmer ... getting warmer peoples.

The information in that article clears up one thing at least,

Authorities in Kuala Lumpur revealed that the last words ”” “all right good night”, said to Malaysian air traffic control at 1.19am on March 8, were those of 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid.

Until now it was not known who last spoke on the airwaves. Those words came after one of the plane’s communications system was shut down.

Twelve minutes before the co-pilot’s last words were spoken the ACARS, or aircraft reporting system, made its last automatic transmission at 1.07am. Authorities say they are not sure exactly when it was turned off as it only transmitted every 30 minutes.

Authorities also revealed that after the missing Boeing 777-200’s last communication with a satellite, at 8.11am, that it had only about 30 minutes worth of fuel left.

More on the flight simulator,

http://english.astroawani.com/news/...nd-in-captain-zaharies-flight-simulator-32034

So_Cynical · 18 March 2014

I find it hard to buy into the suicide theories based on the simple fact that if your going to suicide and kill all aboard, why wait, why avoid radar and turn off the ACARS etc etc....wouldn't you just do it? assuming that one of the pilots has already killed the other to gain control of the aircraft.

So ruling out suicide leaves us with murder/hijack and theft of the aircraft for later use, as totally bizarre as that sounds...following the Singapore Airlines flight seems plausible if your stealing the plane and makes the rest of it (everything before the Straights of Malacca) make sense.

And that leads us to why steal a large passenger jet...hostages and or a big dirty nuke seems to be the obvious.

CanOz · 18 March 2014

So_Cynical said:
I find it hard to buy into the suicide theories based on the simple fact that if your going to suicide and kill all aboard, why wait, why avoid radar and turn off the ACARS etc etc....wouldn't you just do it? assuming that one of the pilots has already killed the other to gain control of the aircraft.

So ruling out suicide leaves us with murder/hijack and theft of the aircraft for later use, as totally bizarre as that sounds...following the Singapore Airlines flight seems plausible if your stealing the plane and makes the rest of it (everything before the Straights of Malacca) make sense.

And that leads us to why steal a large passenger jet...hostages or a big dirty nuke.

Yup, agree on that....

Garpal Gumnut · 18 March 2014

There is a simple explanation for what happened but I'm buggered if I know what it is.

gg

drsmith · 18 March 2014

Garpal Gumnut said:
There is a simple explanation for what happened but I'm buggered if I know what it is.

gg

You're not alone there.

Bintang · 19 March 2014

trainspotter said:
You didn't read my post or read the link now did you? Flight simulator with 5 runways reachable by MH370?

Mmmm ….I think a reality check is needed on that. The article you quoted says:

“Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports in Malaysian media also say investigators probing the homemade flight simulator of Capt Zaharie Shah have found five runways from Indian Ocean airports programmed into it.
The Berita Harian Malay language paper quotes unnamed sources close to the investigation as saying that the airport runways were Male International Airport in the Maldives, Diego Garcia and three runways in India and Sri Lanka. The source is quoted as saying that all the runways programmed into the simulator are 1000 metres long.”

Notice the word “unconfirmed”
Even if confirmed, either the source or the reporter have made a factual error about all runways being 1000 meters. Who knows where the supposed airports in India might be but a simple check using Google Earth gave me the following runway lengths:

Diego Garcia – 3590 meters (Does the USA know more than it is telling?)
Male Maldives – 3000 meters (look at the surrounding infrastructure - surely it couldn’t land there without someone having seen it)
Sri Lanka – 2170 meters (assuming it’s Jaffna airport – is there perhaps a Tamil Tiger connection? but unless a big hangar has been built recently where would the plane be now – see photo.

Conclusion: "the 5 airports programmed into the simulator" statement is just another red-herring from an unknown, unconfirmed, unreliable source.

Sri Lanka

Diego Garcia

Maldives

trainspotter · 19 March 2014

Ohhhhhh Bintang ... well spotted !!

Bintang · 19 March 2014

trainspotter said:
Ohhhhhh Bintang ... well spotted !!

Makes one seriously wonder about the quality of journalism these days. Took me about 10 minute to get those pictures. You would think a reporter could do some basic checks before publishing. But then again maybe "un-named and unconfirmed" is code for - 'the reporter just made the whole thing up'.

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