Flying and aviation stuff

Good point, I forgot about it.

 

^ I hope you're right, Bob.

I'm still having trouble with the EgyptAir scenario, and a triple seven's MTOW is a LOT bigger than a 767.
It has longer legs too.

As tragic as this incident is for the the other 238 beans on the aircraft, I'm hoping that this is "only" a suicide-mass murder where the perpetrator wanted to leave the investigators scratching their heads.
Interestingly enough...whoever did this is going to go largely anonymous until the [sic] black box is found and analyzed, which is one more indicator that points away from the "I want to be notorious" theory.

We'll know in the end.

 

It's a hijack and they know exactly where it is but aren't saying yet. My money would be Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran or maybe even Somalia.

Even before the engine transponders were logged for 7 hours was reported my money was on a hijack. The way the mobile phones were reported as ringing out continuously gave that impression. They wouldn't get a signal out at sea, even 45,000 feet in the air, but they would when an empty plane is sat on a runway in Dodgyville. If thats the case, then they know exactly where it is. I fear the passengers will have been dispersed by now into groups of 2 or 3 at numerous 'safe' houses around the Country the plane has landed.

Equally, it could be one of Fat Boys schemes (North Korea). He's crazy enough to do something like this, though why the pilot would assist is another matter. Maybe China has the plane! Were there not 20 scientists onboard and China seems to be protesting too much about lack of news. They also threw in Red Herring with the supposed wreckage.

Whatever happens, it's a weird one.

 

....seems to me either the transponder and/or ACARS could have software signal to send out signal saying the system was turned off manually by the pilots vs. electrical problem. I suppose fuse could be pulled.

 

It could all get very nasty.

The passengers all squirreled away in 2's and 3's, the plane hidden in a hanger being loaded with explosives (or something dirtier!) ready to set off on a one way ticket over land somewhere populated.

 

It could also be that the plane was ditched in the I.O. so that it would sink intact (no debris field) so that whoever was driving would leave the world with one big ???????.
Loading a wide-body with fuel and munitions still leaves a delivery challenge in that even if you're just flying from one Stan to another Stan....you still have to obfuscate the plane to look/sound/be like on of the other 1,160 some-odd triple sevens out there.
It's doable, but I'd bet my CPO coin that there are folks that are keeping tabs on them.

This isn't 1949.
It's hard enough to hide a wide-body sitting on the tarmac.

I was initially VERY sckptical of the suicide-by-airplane theory, but I might be warming up to it because of the fact that the world community isn't going to stop looking for that hull.
E-ver.
They're going to spend a bazillion bucks, and if you really really wanted to go see Allah, God, Buddha, or the Great Pumpkin, and you weren't averse to bringing 238 other folks along for the ride?
Hiding your grave in 12,000 feet of water in the I.O. without a debris field would be a pretty cool way to do it.

My only 2 remaining problems are kerosine...and Murphy.
Seeing (or hearing!) a wide-body airliner skimming the wave-tops at night is something that you'd probably mention to your buddies, and I wouldn't bet my life (or in this case death) on remaining unobserved for 4-6 hours.
Then?
There are Radar assets such as AEGIS, RORSAT, and others.
Large, unlighted, non-emitting, airborne contacts usually pique people's curiosity.
Even soft-landing an aircraft on the ocean will leave a kerosine slick---presumably detectable even after a week.

This just smells bad for the suicide scenario.

Time will tell.

I'm guessing that in addition to making changes to ACARS, Boeing and Rolls Royce are modifying their "aircraft On-star" system to download engine and hull operating parameters regardless of the operator's subscription status. (oops!)
It's a staggering case of shortsightedness that Boeing didn't avail themselves of these data if for nothing else than to provide proof that they were blameless in a hull-loss accident.

Of course....
That cuts both ways.

My guess is that we will see great changes in way that aircraft are tracked,
The Iridium system along with GPS and terrestrial communications all make this a no-brainer.

 

And the mobile phones ringing and ringing? That isn't the one ring before defaulting to answerphone, but ringing out. It also indicates the plane isn't over the ocean. It would have to be over and near land. It was said that even crew phones rang out.

Also, assuming a small percentage left their phones on (even though they should be switched off on a plane), wouldn't the odd one communicate with a mast as it's passing over? And wouldn't a smart phone also give its location? Even if it didn't, would a foreign network register another countries phone and do a little handshake. Wouldn't that be logged somewhere? Even if it were to prove that the plane passed near Burma or India etc, you'd get an idea.

I doubt the suicide idea. Hasn't it been reported that the Captains family moved out the day before the plane went missing? Where are they? Down at their parents and subsequently found or on their way somewhere else?

And nobody has a good reason why China or North Korea aren't upto something either.

 

ETC what is the Iridium system used for? I thought it was orginally for cell phones. I recall looking for the streaks in the sky at night, don't know if they still shine like that.

 

Yep and some are very bright.

There's an app if you're really bothered Also tracks the ISS and other stuff.

 

Iridium satellite constellation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sat phone, as you suspected.
Iridium satellite constellation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
IIRC it's named for the element Iridium which has an atomic number (77) equal to the number of active satellites in the constellation.
The advantage we have with this system is redundancy and global coverage.
Just a thought.....

It's for dang sure that they're going to do SOMETHING. (after we find out where the plane is....)

 

The FDR and CVR batteries will likely be the first "mod", extending the ping to 90 days.

 

I have some doubts here.
1. The plane/black box may never be found. The black box ping works only up to 14,000 feet of depth.
2. The black box was most likely turned off. Apparantly averything is fused on airplanes and fuses are easly accesible.

 

This was debunked very early on: Malaysia Airlines Passengers' Phones Ringing? Maybe Not - NBC News

 

I bet the branding people were pleased there weren't 33 satellites in the network. "Arsenic" would have been a really hard sell.

 

While that might happen with American networks, it isn't what generally happens with Chinese networks. You'll get silence until the network finds the phone, and then it'll start ringing. And you'll get a different ringing sound depending on the country the phone is in. (Many Hong Kong men keeping mistresses in Mainland China have been caught out when their wives called them and got a Mainland ringing sound.)

 

Weird. Every mobile I've rung, including ones roaming from the UK in Europe (inc Russia) and even some that have been in Canada all go silent until they connect and then ring with a local ring tone (one long or two short ringing tones). If the phone is switched off the network searches and then rings once before going to voicemail. If the phone cut out without signing off (such as falling in the ocean) then the network searches for a while before ringing once and going to voicemail - even abroad.

That's why I don't buy the fud in your article. There's a big difference between ringing once and ringing and ringing and ringing. I do admit it may be different on a non GSM network as I have no experience of those. I also accept that if it is a desperate hostage situation, then official news will be limited.

 

All my Chinese government friends are completely mystified by the whole thing. And several of them would know - and would tell me - if there were anything suspicious going on.

As for North Korea, I think there are too many eyes - Chinese, South Korean, Japanese and American - on their borders for them to be able to sneak a plane in.

It'd be far easier to sneak a plane onto an Indian Ocean Island, or Somalia, or a part of Burma not adequately controlled by the government.

Or, of course, Australia was well within range. Now....

• There are so many big flat empty bits of Western Australia that it would be easy to land a plane without anyone noticing.
• Qantas is in serious financial trouble.
• Qantas has an aging fleet. It needs new planes.
• Qantas CEO Alan Joyce wants Qantas to start employing more non-Australian staff on lower wages.

Perhaps Alan Joyce offered Fariq Abdul Hamid and Zaharie Ahmad Shah jobs, but on condition that they bring their own nice new 777. You know, like some taxi-driver deals where you're affiliated to a taxi network but you have to bring your own car.

The plane is probably being re-sprayed right now.

I can see planes coming in on approach to Sydney airport. I am going to keep my eye out for any Qantas 777s that have "Qantas" poorly spray-painted or mis-spelled, with badly-drawn kangaroos on the tail.