These aircraft constantly stream data to ATC, the airline, Boeing. Very little is done by conventional radio contact anymore. I was talking to a friend, a 777 captain with Emirates, and the industry is at this point, mystified. Malaysian Airlines has simply lost a 777 without trace.

Maximum depth of the entire gulf is 260, average is 150. Amazingly shallow.

But has a sensitive sonar array come within 2 miles of the beacon? Big ocean, little ships.

ELTs also emit a radio signal, we frequently have them set off by accident at work. No idea of the range when under water, it's far greater than 2 nm under normal circumstances.

Well here's an interesting twist. "International Business Times reports that 19 families have signed a joint statement saying that passengers' cell phones connected after the flight had been reported missing. In each case, the phone would ring, but the call would be hung up. "

Bizarre: missing Malaysia Airlines passengers' phones ring, but no one answers | News24

Not particularly relevant but that is the case for the majority of US airspace as well. Painting with primary radar is a seldom used backup now and is only effective for a discrete distance around the radar. Transponder systems are the primary radar system worldwide.

So....The little green men wanted a new Boeing?

But the plane was on Vietnamese military radar when it vanished.

from the Wiki "According to Admiral Ngo Van Phat of the Vietnamese Navy, military radar lost the aircraft "some 153 nautical miles (300 km)" south of Thổ Chu in the Gulf of Thailand."

Hypoxia

Alien abduction.

Hypoxia, what a ****ty way to go.

Anyone ever heard of JAL 1628? It'll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

And listen to what the CIA says about it:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/P51LmirTJI8?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Air_Lines_flight_1628_incident




I think it crashed, and they'll eventually find it.

On NPR this morning they discussed one of the so called fake passport passengers and it turned out he was 19 years old, Iranian and was looking for assylum in Germany. They scratched him off the suspect list for possible terrorism. It appears less likely that it was a terrorist act, unless it was the crew.

The search area is now back to land.

Close Envounters of the Third Kind was on the TV last night. How ironic!

According to what I could find on Wiki, at 40,000 ft you have 15-20 seconds of consciousness before blacking out, enough for an experienced crew to don their masks. I'm not sure what altitude they were at when contact was lost, if lower they have more time. It would have to be catastrophic rapid decompression that either incapacitated the crew or was distracting enough that they disregarded their training. Plausible but again - what would cause catastrophic rapid decompression on an otherwise normal flight? Modern airplanes are pretty damn good, very rarely do they suffer from major airframe failure that isn't instigated by some form of human activity.

Would they have O2 apparatus on their necks already, just wondering?

When I was in the Boeing 777 simulator a few weeks ago at the Delta flight training center, I thought I saw the masks attached to the side and slightly to the rear of the seat. I am sure they practice decompression and donning the mask on a routine basis.

According to the manufacturers of the black boxes who were interviewed yesterday, the "ping per second" will last 30-days on its battery power and operate to a depth of 20,000 feet under water. I do not know if their flight path at loss of signal was over the water with the bottom at that depth or deeper, but its interesting to note the maximum depth for the "ping", which would be picked up with passive sonar.

Delta's Boeing 777 (LR - long range) flight simulator. About 14-million bucks worth.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394548187.jpg

Yep, masks to the side of the seats but they're inflatable and pulling them out and putting them on is really easy. You're trained to do that first no matter what happens.

lot's of crazy stuff coming up.

okay. so if some of the phones are still active should they be able to identify the nearest cel tower and simply find the plane within two miles of it?

What he said ^^^

I did not realise they had said it was on military radar, that usually means a primary painted target and not a lot of room for error.

They are equipped with quick-don masks that are very fast to put on, if you identify hypoxia is looming. Lots of crashes related to hypoxia happen from a slow decompression or a failure to pressurize in the first place, and the onset is so slow that it can be missed by the crew. Payne Stuart's incident is an example of that, but they lost communication shortly after reaching altitude and did not go down for a considerable length of time, so not so similar to this event.

Just heard on the news that a large amount of debris was found. Anyone hear that also?

You NOTICE the catastrophic decompression, it's the slow gradual decompression that gets you.
Captain is snoozing during the cruise..., co-pilot hesitant to wake him up.....feels drowsy...(? some fault in masks-they don't drop, it's happened before)....."I'll just rest my eyes for a second"......



Splash

Modern transport jets have Cabin Altitude warnings that alert when the pressure altitude in the cabin/cockpit exceeds 10,000 feet - multiple visual alerts directly in front of the pilot and very loud aural alerts that are almost deafening. Think of a school bell ringing. The Payne Stewart incident happened in an old Learjet, that apparently was not equipped with the same type of cabin altitude warning system.

Lets hope so, but if it was please let not it be someone with some C4 up is a$$ because DHS will be really busy implementing the free pre-boarding colonoscopy screening...

no....source?

Going back to the stolen / bogus passports. With all the technology, x-databases, spying, you'd think the fakes would be an easy catch. The reports are scary numbers.

Even in the US, makes you wonder how many dufus TSA workers and management leave the rest of us at risk. It all comes down to human error. Lack of doing their job, checking each and everyone. Would take just a few seconds for them to enter a name, number, all while getting your crotch felt. How basic of a task neglected by the airline, law enforcement, border control workers.... amazing. Who are these idiots running these airports?

edit: Terrorist must know of the same reports and the good probability of boarding. Piece of cake and a disguise.

I ran a thread a few weeks ago about spending several hours in the B-777 simulator at Delta (complements of my daughter who works for them). If they have time, they will allow family and friends to have at it at the controls. This was indeed a bucket list item check off for me. I am trying to get the MD-88 next!

In case your curious here are several photos of the B-777LR cockpit.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394558471.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394558502.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394558520.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394558535.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394558549.jpg

Military radar track

Malaysian military: Missing 777 changed course, flew long distance | National & World News | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

Cellphones ringing? Scroll down to the boxed info

Why are phones of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 passengers still ringing? | Mail Online

Local ABC station here..

Bayesian theory also helped find a missing H Bomb IIRC.

This points to some cabin takeover (by others or one of the crew) or total comms and possibly nav failure (which seems unlikely).

Truth is stranger than fiction...

The damaged wing

edit - assume this is the plane. Linked from PPRuNe

[Ô*´´]¶«º½ Âíº½Åö²ÁÖ®ÊÜÉ˵ÄÂíº½

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394562604.jpg

The removed wing tip


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1394562735.jpg

CNN has been broadcasting the "off course" as breaking news for hours now.

Even if the winglet had fallen off in flight, it would have a minor impact on airplane performance.

Winglets just affect span wise flow for better fuel economy due to reduced vortex generation and resultant induced drag. Wouldn't cause a significant loss of stability or control as has been said.

Terrible tragedy. Seems the search is simply not in the right location: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/world/asia/malaysia-jet.html?hp

No calls or texts from any passengers to loved ones
No distress calls from pilots (When all hell breaks loose, comms is last in priority)
No debris

Had to have happened fast. Debris field will probably be found far from where the search currently is.

"No one has a clue".

Thats the latest on this incident. If it landed in some remote location the world would have heard something by now. The cell phones "ringing" is one hell of a strange anomaly. If its on the bottom of the ocean based on course correction they will have to re-organize the search pattern. The "pinger" is wasting away power and now time.

"you imagination is entering space and time, welcome to the twilight zone"

Could it be rapid decompression leading to the pilots being incapacitated and plane continues flying? It happened before:

Helios Airways Flight 522 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia