Malaysia Airlines loses contact with B777-200 / MH370 enroute from KUL to PEK

Yes.

It is also accessible from the main cabin via a hatch door in the floor at the front section of the aircraft.

 

I highly doubt this was a "pilot suicide"-- there was way too much planning which went into this for that, although that may have been a by-product.

 

Japan Today is now reporting hijack, citing "anonumous" sources.
Japan Today

 

Freelance Semiconductors confirmed 20 of its employee's where on-board...which conspiracy theory says somehow also involved ZEH (2 Iranian's that used the stolen passports).

 

News on the french radios (yes, some of us still listen to radios...) this morning at 10:00 local time (4:00 for Ferrarichat) said that it is confirmed by Malaysian authorities as a Highjack at 99%.

It has been confirmed by some authorities (from which country?) that a military radar spotted a plot six hours after the 777 last transmission, and that it is now certain that this plot was indeed the Malaysian Airlines airliner flying in a completly opposite direction as to its intended course.
Malaysian police is searching the pilot's homes, and Malaysian Airlines has asked for a complete search by all the countries concerned of the passengers histories.

French commentors this morning were speculating about a possible "central Asia" direction, such as Tadjikistan, etc...I have no idea if these ideas are from themselves, or from a declaration from the Malaysian authorities.

Rgds

 

Further snippets of information at 12:00 local time (6:00 F-Chat time).

Malaysia's prime Minister said that "we are now in position to confirm that, when the plane systems, that is transponders and radios, ceased to transmit at 1:10, they were intentionaly and manually de-activated".

The position taken six hours later was probably not by a radar but by a satellite (?); no-one knows the direction the plane was actually flying at this time, so there is a 180° risk of error; searches have already been redirected.

It has also been said that it is suspected that the pilot actually flying the plane after the shut-down of radios and transponder used established commercial routes, so as not to draw to much unwanted attention.

Rgds

 

Could a 777 reach 45k ft with the load it was carrying?

 

Aside from blowing a hole in the airplane, how do you decompress a 777?

-F

 

Pressurized aircraft have an outflow valve that is usually opened/closed automatically by a controller to maintain a certain cabin altitude as selected by the pressurization control.

Dumping pressurization, which you might do on purpose because of an inflight fire, would involve a pilot using the procedure in the cockpit to command the outflow valve to stay open venting the cabin air.

Pressurization is fed to the cabin by the bleed air from the main engines in something like a 777.

 

The ELT is what sends out a signal if jarred too hard when it hits land. They do not work well under water. The FDR and CVR have a water pinger on them that can run for 30 days or so under water. The boxes will not go off in flight, but the ELT can be manually set off by a switch in the cockpit. Since the transponder and ACARS were turned off, its safe to assume the ELT was disabled also. So the plane could have landed or crashed with no normal signal to trace.

 

Hijacking usually has demands. Was this a heist? In other words what was listed in the cargo manifest?

Unless the semiconductor passengers were what was being heisted...

 

I just seems to me that too much care and planning went into the execution of this for the plane to end up at the bottom of the ocean. If the crime went off as planned, the plane is sitting in a hangar somewhere (to avoid satellite detection, and being repainted) and the passengers are all dead.

 

I wonder where the hell are all the NSAs, CIAs, KGBs, MIs, BNDs, Mossads etc. that monitor everyone and everything. They should know what is going on. If not, all their spying is obviously useless.

Matthias

 

I don't think the passengers are dead if it didnt crash. What would be the point? Passengers would be an insurance policy against a retaliatory strike.

 

If it actually is in a hanger somewhere then what's the point of stealth aircraft when you can just waltz around in a 777 penetrating airspace after airspace without a single intercept.

Sorry F-22, looks like you're out of the job.

 

If they were still alive we'd know about it by now, this is all a huge cock up and I will continue to not speculate until something concrete is found.

 

From what I understand from what is printed today by the french press, the ACARS was NOT turned off...
It SEEMS (put it with capitals to emphasise that it's not yet certain) that at least Rolls-Royce (the engine manufacturer) and perhaps Boeing (??) knew from the begining that the aircraft didn't disappear at 01:10 as initially speculated, but that, for reason best known to themselves, the Malaysian government preferred to keep the fact that the aircraft continued to fly for at least six hours to themselves.
Discrepancies in their declarations are checked right now.

Rgds

 

I don't think so - there's obviously some deliberate plot. What that plot is, we don't know. Once that's answered, everything will fall into place and be answered.

But if the flight crew themselves hijacked the plane, passengers would be none the wiser, so what threat are they really? Even if it wasn't the flight crew, and were hijackers, those hijackers got on the flight deck. And the plane flew for a few more hours. Again, passengers likely none the wiser. And finally, and I do believe it landed somewhere, the passengers are your insurance policy against an immediate and retaliatory strike from (insert government). So why kill them? Doesn't make sense to.

 

You can be sure they know much more than they're leading on. I think they don't want to reveal their technological capability.

If this plane was in a hanger being refitted for alternative use, I would have to think it would be used relatively soon.

 

Avion disparu : des systèmes de liaison pourraient lever le mystère


I know, this is in french; comes from "Le Monde", no tabloïd, a serious newspaper.

Basically, it says that the Malaysian authorities first said that ACARS stopped its transmissions at about 01:10 like all other systems, but that people at Rolls-Royce, and perhaps Boeing, knew it was false from the begining and leaked informations to push the Malaysian authorities to eventually admit what they knew from the beginning...

It says nothing about the evident question: where is that airplane now?

Rgds

 

I do think this was planned by the crew or others, but the end game was the same as Egypt Air flight 990...My guess is the 777 is on the bottom of the Indian Ocean. It makes no sense to rational humans.
Eqypt always denied the FAA/NTSB findings, but facts are facts(unless Clinton was directly involved)

 

The US government dropped hints that the NSA has done a thorough search of the passenger's backgrounds and have found no link to terrorism. And they have drooped hints as to where they think the airplane is, at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

Repurposing a 777 to be some kind of weapon is pretty much useless.

Suicide rarely makes sense. Nor does psychosis. Pilot suicide that takes down a plane and the passengers with them never makes sense. Why not just kill yourself and be done with it? But we have examples where pilots decided to kill themselves and take everyone else with them. It's terrible to think about but it does happen. And it never makes sense.

-F

 

I found this interesting

Sweeperguy comments on Comprehensive timeline: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 PART 7

I went back to FlightRadar24 to see if there were any flights near when the last contact with MH370 was at 0215 and heading NW.
What I found is there was a Singapore Airlines Flight (SQ68) which had departed SIN and was bound for BCN. I got the flight track data from FlightAware and plotted it on Google Earth.
Here's what I found:
MH370 & SQ68 Link Up
It looks like if MH370 turned after lost contact at 0130 and followed the track back over Malaysia and along the way points previously discussed, it would be in the position shown at 0215, which is 200NM NW of Penang.
This position is only about 30NM behind the 0215 position of SQ68 which is also a 777.
If MH370 followed SQ68 along its path NW over India (as I had speculated it did previously), after 5 hours, SQ68 is indeed over Pakistan.
Across Bay of Bengal
Across India to Pakistan
Five hours from last known 0215 position
So, by closely following SQ68 at a similar altitude and speed, it's likely that any Indian radar operator would not notice or question two closely placed primary radar returns as long as he had the expected squawk from SQ68.

 

But with 990 we had a location and ultimately an FDR and a CVR. We have none of the three in this case.

So just a recap all the theories:

1. Hypoxia leading to crash (ala Helios)
2. Suicide (ala Egypt/silk air)
3. Hijacking ultimately leading to crash
4. Hijacking that ended with aircraft landing in remote region
5. Air strike (ala Korean Air... Rush Limbaugh theory)
6. Alternate parallel universe transport (ok that's reaching)

Yet other than systems being shut down and aircraft flown on regular airline routes (at irregular altitudes) everything is speculation yet all plausible.

I'm sure it'll make a good movie someday

 

So is this company in crisis having lost 20 employes or moving forward as planned?