Honestly, I don't think the autopilot would make any effort to maintain altitude. Most likely, it would disconnect as soon as the master alarm tripped from the fuel starved engine losing thrust. On the off chance that the 777 has an autopilot that does not disengage, the 777 is programmed with "flight envelope protection" in it's flight computer, and the autopilot would simply hold a descending altitude of "best glide" until it hit ground or water.

No doubt, this is correct.^^

This whole segment of the thread was due to an oversimplification of the above, by the simulator pilot, for the benefit of the lay public. Add to that a further, out of context, oversimplification by the CNN crawl and a misreading of the crawl by some viewers, and you get this ridiculous "777 has difficulty maintaining altitude without fuel."

To me, this whole sidebar dealing with the supposed CNN report is illustrative of the importance of semantics. The word, "struggle" was used by the simulator pilot, on purpose. It has a meaning that is subtly different than "difficulty" and in the context of his statement, it is significant--so significant, in fact, that substituting the synonym, "difficulty," completely changed the meaning of the statement. This is one reason why it's often a good idea to read the primary source of statements or articles whenever possible, especially when the statement or article seems too good to be true or, in this case, too stupid to be true.

More from our Tony "Blabbott"... From CNN

"The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane will be entering a new phase, said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Monday.
"I regret to say that thus far none of our efforts in the air, on the surface or under sea, have found any wreckage."

The new phase will focus on searching the ocean floor over a much larger area, Abbott said. It is "highly unlikely" that any debris will be found on the ocean surface.
By this time, most of the debris will have become waterlogged and will have submerged, he said.

The new phase will use commercial contractors with a high degree of specialization with deep ocean search. It will cost about $60 million, he said."

Looking at this they've all but given up. Very tragic for the family's of the passengers and crew. RIP

We may never know what happened to this plane.

I think we are back to alien abduction by tractor beam.

If they are tacking on 60 additional million to what ever has already been spent, its time to give it a rest. They are not coming back, no matter what we do at this point.

Why is it when someone comes up missing at the local swimming hole they look in the woods first ?
This one was too EZ folks.

U.S. pilot believes he's found wreckage of flight MH370 after searching satellite images | Mail Online

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...43_634x414.jpg
Is it the wreckage? Michael Hoebel is pictured showing an image of what he believes is the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. He found the image on a website that shares satellite images

Ofcourse it is. A man with PC and a pen has found MH370 thousands of miles from where the god knows how many people analysing the available data and silly searchers using the best available technology are even looking.

Angle of the wing is wrong. It's got to be a different airliner.

Next they'll have a SETI app for that...

Looks like some clouds to me.... But they might as well check it out! Best lead they've got so far. ;)

Just passing this along - don't shoot the messenger.....

PS - I agree Sid!

Delusional reply above. It's obviously McQueen in a Turtleneck.

This MAY piss you off... :mad:

Awful... But I'm not surprised. I've lived in Malaysia and at this level it's all about "Saving Face".
Meanwhile the family's of the victims have no information. Their loved ones could be at the bottom of the ocean or crashed in a jungle somewhere.
They keep searching in the ocean but after what's happened they could be anywhere.

It's absolutely shamefully to be trying to shift blame at this stage.

MH370: former Malaysian PM blames Boeing for disappearance of Malaysia Airlines plane | News.com.au

LOL!

The quotes from their "still influential" former PM seem to be a good gauge of the leadership ability and overall competence of the Malaysian government.........or total lack thereof. What a joke of a country. Hey Malaysia, how about explaining how an airplane could disappear from your ATC screens without you noticing?

Ha! Next they'll say they found in a piece of burnt toast!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398789814.jpg


or http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1398789828.jpg

Is this the same area?
Company's claim that it may have found airplane wreckage disputed - CNN.com

Seriously, is it any less credible than all of the other past info and leads concerning this incident??