Malaysia Airlines loses contact with Flight - 239 pax/crew

[XHRTSP]

The problem with that hypothesis and pretty much all other catastrophic failure ideas is that it doesn't really allow for the plane to be engines running seven hours later. An electrical failure or fire so bad they couldn't call for help would have brought the airplane down in a hurry. Only a rapid decompression would fit that bill, but that goes against the radar track, altitude changes, and lack of transponder returns.

 

[jis]

As I suggested it sort of gets a bit beyond an Occam's Razor test, but probably not as much beyond as many other hypothesis. But I do agree with you in general.

 

[CHamilton]

Missing Malaysia plane: 10 theories examined

BBC News Magazine

As the search for Malaysia Airlines missing Boeing 777 moves into its 11th day, a multitude of theories about the plane's fate are circulating on forums and social media. Here, former pilots and aviation experts look at some of those theories.

 

[PRR 60]

An article from CNN by an A330 pilot stating that a deliberate act is not the only possible explanation:

Those trying to draw conclusions from the information trickling from the investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 should go carefully. It is plausible that, as Malaysia's Prime Minister asserted, the plane's flying for hours after losing contact with air traffic control was "consistent with deliberate action," but it's not the only logical explanation of the airplane's bewildering trajectory.

CNN

 

[Ryan]

I'm not sure how much of that I buy.

Anything is possible, but the set of conditions that would shut down all communications (save for the "ping"), but leave the airplane physically to fly for hours, and incapacitate the crew seem pretty remote to me.

 

[XHRTSP]

He's just looking out for his own. Despite any evidence people are already getting on TV and blaming the pilots essentially for the mass murder of their passengers. You know they had to be involved because one dared to have political views, and the other smooth talked to some ladies a year ago, and they're both probably Muslim. Imagine you're a family member and as far as you know your husband, son, father is dead on the bottom of the sea floor, behind held hostage on some al quada desert landing strip, or who knows. And then some ass wipes on FOX News start suggesting they suffocated their passengers to death so they could make some unknown political point, because well we don't have any other explanations.

 

[jis]

I'm not sure how much of that I buy.

Anything is possible, but the set of conditions that would shut down all communications (save for the "ping"), but leave the airplane physically to fly for hours, and incapacitate the crew seem pretty remote to me.

OTOH, it is not any more remote than some of the other nonsense that people are bandying about either.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

There is no evidence. Being a life long devout Pastafarian I can tell you what happened. His Holiness the Flying Speghetti Monster reached out with His Noodly Appendage and sent then to the Great Trattoria in the sky Saving and Absolving them of all their Sins with his Noodly mercy and kindness.

And you have about the same level proof to prove me wrong as to prove Fox wrong.

 

[XHRTSP]

There is no evidence. Being a life long devout Pastafarian I can tell you what happened. His Holiness the Flying Speghetti Monster reached out with His Noodly Appendage and sent then to the Great Trattoria in the sky Saving and Absolving them of all their Sins with his Noodly mercy and kindness.

At the rate CNN is going I'm sure you're theory will make it on the air by 8.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Sadly, he might be right.

 

[SarahZ]

Still don't know what the heck happened to that frigging plane huh? Nothing like this has happened in years! That 777 seems to have vanished into this air. Amelia Earhart II, with a plane that's about 20 times bigger.

I thought you might find this interesting. It was published in our local paper today.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/03/with_malaysia_airlines_flight.html

Edit: I'm not trying to compare the two situations. It just sounds like a few posters, including Swadian, love a good mystery.

 

[Texan Eagle]

Pakistan, India, Taliban say know nothing about missing plane.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan, who are seeking to oust foreign troops and set up an Islamic state, said the missing plane had nothing to do with them.

"It happened outside Afghanistan and you can see that even countries with very advanced equipment and facilities cannot figure out where it went," he said. "So we also do not have any information as it is an external issue."

You know **** has gone out of hand when the freaking TALIBAN have to be involved in search and rescue! :blink:

 

[Guest]

So at what point do we call off the search?

 

[jis]

For AF447 they did not call off the search until they found the CVR/FDR several years later. So this will go on for quite a while.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

So at what point do we call off the search?

No one agency or group can dictate how long everyone else will continue to search so this question hinges on the context and the country.

Countries that are not directly linked to the disaster may only participate for a few days before ceasing active participation unless and until new evidence is found. Thanks to what many see as unexplained confusion or even intentional obfuscation on the part of the Malaysian authorities some countries have already ceased active searching at various stages of the operation. Vietnam was one of the first countries to postpone active searching due to confusing and contradictory information provided by the Malaysian authorities.

China probably won't stop searching until someone has something useful to tell the families of the passengers. The US probably won't stop searching until they believe Boeing is no longer threatened by suspicion of a catastrophic defect. Malaysia probably won't stop searching until both interested superpowers are pacified. Other countries will participate as long as they feel they have something to gain from doing so. Smaller countries will eventually run out of money to continue searching while larger countries will eventually run out of pressing reasons to continue.

 

[gswager]

Theory #11- "Bermuda" Triangle had been re-emerged.

 

[PRR 60]

Australia satellite imagery has located two suspicious floating objects in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Perth. Aircraft have been dispatched to investigate.

Sydney Morning Herald

 

[SarahZ]

Australia satellite imagery has located two suspicious floating objects in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Perth. Aircraft have been dispatched to investigate.

Sydney Morning Herald

I hope this is something. I hate to hope for wreckage, since that likely means no survivors, but I also know that will bring some peace to the families who have been waiting and hoping for so long. My heart goes out to them.

 

[Jean]

These objects are reported to be over 2,200 kms south-west of the south-west corner of Australia, if that makes sense. This is a very remote area. Aircraft are said to be there now (but still searching), plus a merchant ship is nearby. Our news media is reporting poor visibility. One object is reported to be 24 metres long and the other smaller.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjJuiRcCYAE8tMs.jpg:large

http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/incidents/images/DIGO_00718_01_14.jpg

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Apparently there is no further information even after planes and boats arrived in the area and the search has been called off until morning. This whole experience has just been one tease after another. It's rather surreal flying on a plane while the continuing mystery of a lost aircraft is displayed on seatback screens via satellite television. The longer the delay continues the more my doubt grows that we'll ever reach a satisfying conclusion as to what happened and why.

 

[SarahZ]

Apparently there is no further information even after planes and boats arrived in the area and the search has been called off until morning. This whole experience has just been one tease after another. It's rather surreal flying on a plane while the continuing mystery of a lost aircraft is displayed on seatback screens via satellite television. The longer the delay continues the more my doubt grows that we'll ever reach a satisfying conclusion as to what happened and why.

My optimism deflated a bit when the Australian PM stated that this is an area known as a "garbage dump", in that the sea currents tend to bring quite a bit of junk to this area. He stressed that the two pieces could be random waste, part of an old ship, etc.

Sigh.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Doesn't look promising for finding any remains! (And after all this time that's the probable outcome of this tragedy) as has been said and based on personal experience, finding anything in this really remote area if the world would be comparable to finding a grain of sand in the Sahara!

You are now leaving a place known as "The Twilight Zone!". RIP

 

[MrFSS]

 

[jis]

Now it is coming out that Inmersat had predicted within two days of the crash that it is most likely somewhere in the South Indian Ocean. See:

http://gma.yahoo.com/satellite-company-says-predicted-missing-planes-location-10-224715287--abc-news-topstories.html

The best projected path calculations diagram I have seen so far is this one:

I can't find a good online article to provide an URL for, but it is becoming clear that the last location being in Southern Indian Ocean as opposed to somewhere in China/Kazakstan is supported by the satellite ping sequence. It is not merely based on the assumption that any plane flying through Indian, Pakistani and Chinese airspace would have been detected. I read the analysis in an article and it is pretty convincing, and is apparently the reason that Inmarsat has been convinced since day 2 after the crash that the plane is in south Indian Ocean. That advice was apparently ignored by the Malaysian authorities back then.

Apparently it is the US NTSB and the Australians that started working based on that information on their own independent of the Malaysians, and when the Malaysians would not budge someone started strategic leaks about the satellite pings. And as we know, what followed, followed. Pretty strange if you think about it.

Of course all this does not mean that anything will be found soon. That is an entirely different kettle of fish given the high winds a strong ocean currents in that area of the Indian Ocean. Normal folks apparently try to avoid that area like the plague, if they can help it.

Here is a nice chart of the ocean currents, with the search area roughly marked in pink:

:

The currents are important since if they do find floating debris associated unequivocally with the aircraft in question then they will need the current information to compute back to the location of crash from the location of debris, so as to know where to look at the bottom of the sea 2 to 3 miles down for the rest of it.

The computations of where it could have come down to be more precise would have to take both fuel and wind direction and speed at the altitude flown. The wind direction at various altitudes are roughly known at that time, but altitude flown is not so at best the computations would be a rough estimate properly fit with the intercepts with the distance from satellite rings, based on ping times, constrained by the ground speed range of the plane. It is a fascinating curve fitting problem, if you think about it.

Also BTW it is not just current, but surface winds that would have an impact on where the floating debris lands up. So just using ocean current info for the computation is not enough, and might lead one widely astray.

Of course until they find something, anything, all the analysis of ocean currents and surface winds in the area is somewhat moot..