A crappy attempt at a humorous stab at a moderator. I can't do green text on my phone.SmileWavy

Off topic but I was a FC1 at CSEDS. Small world I guess. SmileWavy

If by chance officials knew a full cloaking device exist and probability of it being used in this case, they would NEVER disclose it. It would set a worldwide panic.

WSJ this am reported that the aircraft pinged sats for several hours after its last transponder contact with position, airspeed and altitude data...

CNN is wall to wall coverage of this. Even if it landed somewhere as a part of a nefarious plot, those people are dead. I seriously doubt they have been imprisoned or fed for 8 days.

At this point , I believe absolutely ZERO of what's coming out of the media on this. Until I see an actual picture of the plane (or hopefully not wreckage..) its all a load of crap.

About the only thing you can be relatively sure of is that there is a plane missing.

Well that and what Todd said earlier is probably the most factual thing said so far.

This news story is far more interesting than 90% of the movies I have seen.

And right now has about as much fiction.

According to the WSK article, the telemetry system's "pings" continued for five hours after radar ceased detecting the transponder.

The position data transmitted by the pings was not described in detail, but it is being reported by WSJ that the final ping was sent from overwater at a normal cruising altitude.

US aircraft and Indian forces have reportedly been sent to search parts of the Indian Ocean, well west (>1K miles) of Malaysia.

That area is roughly consistent with what (little) has been reported about radar returns recorded by Malaysian military.

At normal cruising altitude, assuming a northwest course, plane could have easily reached land, and gone as far as central India. So it is interesting that the last ping was over water, if that information is correct.

Supposing someone on board the plane deliberately turned off the transponder, changed course, and flew west or northwest for several hours, then - what?
- Crash into ocean, deliberately or out of fuel?
- Disable the pings and fly on, but to where?

Bizzare. There are faster ways to commit suicide, more spectacular means of terrorism, etc.

Sure seems quite a delay in reporting all this military radar data. Six, seven days? No doubt they have their reasons but this is getting silly. China searching complete opposite sea, whoops.... first we hear its low flying then up to 45,000 ft..
Obviously none to very little of each country involved in the search are willing to share. Ego above tragedy.

I think we (in the US) sometimes take for granted the organization, skill, professionalism, resources, and responsiveness (to press/public) of US govt agencies like the NTSB, FAA, and many others.

i think the US has been keeping its radar technology card real real close .... i can't believe we'd have a couple of warships in the area, without there radars on.

i think US and india have known for a while that its out west somewhere.

im still sticking to the classic electrical fire/problem shorts out comms and navigation, operators attempt to navigate without, get lost (night, no moon etc etc), electrical problems/fire gets worse, aircraft crashes.

its the simplest and therefor the most probable. i can imagine the lead pilot after intial assent, decided to take a nap, and the backup took over, something went wrong, backup botches the response, things get out of control before the lead pilot can get back running, they think they are doing the right thing, they arnt, plane crashes.

now confirmed that the plane executed a turn ---> deliberate act

transponder off ----> deliberate act to 5 sigma P()

It's about more than ego. Many of the countries involved have histories with each other. Not a lot of trust to go around. One of the last things you want to do is let an "enemy" know your capabilities (including the US). Do you think we share our sensor details with Russia?

Interesting fact just heard on CNN, the access hatch to the plane's electrical circuit breakers--the very items that were turned off to hide the plane--is located outside the cockpit door, on the main cabin side!

Another interesting point. The last recorded words from the cockpit were, " Good night." Right after that, things started to go bad. That could have been the moment one of the pilots opened the security door to go sleep, and intruders were able to enter the cockpit.

I'm no bus driver, but I think that would be wrong.
The entertainment system breakers, sure.
But breakers for essential systems have to be accessible to the flight deck crew.

Also having essential system breakers on the non-secure side of the door is, well, not secure.

The INMARSAT 'pings' were for a system MAS didn't buy. Boeing installed it while it was a 'white tail' on the assembly line. The system comes alive ONLY when all ground data contact is lost. MAS didn't pay the subscription fees either, so the 'pings' were recorded, but ignored by the INMARSAT system, and no reply was sent to the plane. The pings contained only ID data in the form of a serial number. The 'locating' of the signal was done by the particular sat was getting the pings, sig strength and doppler processing, good for 500-ish miles. It's now been established that that system was circuit breakered (in the E & E compartment) after it's 5th hourly ping. What that really means is that the airplane probably flew even longer than is now being reported.

The plane might even be in India, Pakiastan, or even worse.

The pax were dead/asleep when the plane reached FL450 not long after the last known xponder return. The aircraft may have even stalled up there, dropped a wing and came down in a hurry. The cabin was either popped open manually, or closing the throttles up there to do a quick descent popped the cabin outflow valves. Otherwise 289 cell phones would have been turned on when the lights of the Malaysian peninsula came into view certainly even after a maneuver like that. A lot of people over there have satphones.

This, very much like 9-11, was something new. We will be lucky if the airplane splashed in the ocean.

Aparently you don't remember the media predicting a presidental election winner before polls closed and then changing several times in the night.

I know exactly what happened.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...movie-1989.jpg