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

OK, forget about rigging the plane up with anything more than the latest standard equipment on the 777 as described in the Federal Register ruling AND somehow the autopilot was engaged. Is remote control improbable or impossible? I don't care for the motive either at this stage, just technical capability.

 

This looks more like something that Ian Fleming or Tom Clancy would have written!

 

Crimea referendum was today.

Or like Wladislaw Surkow.

 

BTW, the mods here frown upon doing this.....

 

Did not know that. What if i just retype the same thing?

 

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Mark, are you still flying for American? Flew is past tense so just curious, and if not who you are flying for now?

 

Impossible is a strong word, because I do not know the complete inner workings of the software, highly highly (think win the lottery odds) I am comfortable with.

 

I retired early 18 months ago....fly myself in my own bird now.

 

Congrats. I still am loyal to AA even flying out of the way when possible to stay on AA. I fear the USAir integration...

 

Question for more knowledgable people than me;
Is it even technically possible for a fully laden 777 (fuel + pax+ luggage + cargo) to reach 45K feet?
It's 2K feet higher than published limit?
That early in the flight, they'd still have a lot of fuel on board?
Also if it is indeed possible, why don't jet-liners use those altitudes? It seems (to me) that would open more airspace? Not needed? Isn't these planes more fuel efficient the higher you can get?

 

Yes, the absolute ceiling of a jetliner is usually a bit higher than its service ceiling.... With a caveat. If temperatures at that altitude are higher the standard it is impossible to achieve such altitudes AND it would be very dangerous to do so at any time because the low and high speed buffet speeds would be so close together that a incipient stall could occur with the least amount of turbulence .

 

Where did they get the 45,000' information, from the IFF or from a radar? If from a radar, that altitude is not that accurate and could be thousands of feet off. Plus, depending on atmospheric conditions, FL450 could be well above or below 45,000', because FLanything assumes 29.92 is set on the altimeter.

All the speculation by people who do not understand aircraft too well is really muddying up the water. I am ready to throw things at the TV over half the dumb things I hear on TV that might have happened.

 

It was from radar.

Guys I know who are currently flying the 777-200 say that it would be difficult, maybe impossible, to get above FL410 at the weight they were at. I would take that altitude reading with several grains of salt.

 

Hi Mark
Thank for the reply.
I was under the understanding, that max altitude also is depending on weight of aircraft at given time?

Out here in national newspaper, an "expert" expressed that "he found it odd, that no sms was sent from the passengers on MH370, because AF447 passengers managed to get some through".
Wether the journalist took some "artistic" freedom in writing the article or wether the "expert" should consider his immediate future job.....

 

I turned it off days ago for that reason.

 

Yes of course weight is the most important factor, and this aircraft with 8 hrs of fuel and a full load on departure could probably achieve 390 and no more at ISA.

 

Does the 777 even have a service ceiling high enough to make it to 45,000'?

 

Same thing I heard...it would be right on the knife edge of a stall that high.

 

Actually, from what I understand, in the 777-200 specifically, it's more a question of simply having enough power.

I suppose they could have dumped fuel, or something like that, but it seems far more likely to me that the altitude reading was wrong, given the source.

 

A few posts (edit:found it, post271)(or pages) back there was a post that was described as 'out there' and dismissed. It talked about cargo and I wonder if it has been talked about anywhere, if there WAS any valuable cargo onboard that may have been an incentive to steal the entire plane in order to get the contents?
My gut feeling, follows the asphyxiation theory that all were deceased except for the individual (s) carrying out this act and the plane will be a future long range missile of some sort. I hope not, but I guess that's figuring for the worst scenario. Time will tell....

 

Landing an aircraft 200 feet in length, 200 feet in wingspan, weighing 250 tons, somewhere without it being seen, or noticed on any radar?
Plus refueling it with about 70 tons of kerosene that you cannot buy at your local drugstore, then taking-off again?
I really cannot imagine this to be possible.
And if there was anything special in the cargo, somebody would talk...

There was even an "official" declaration this afternoon of a Taliban of some sort in Pakistan saying that "We wish we could have high-jacked it, but unfortunately we did not!"
This whole story is really-mind boggling...

Rgds

 

Actually, thankyou for poking holes, I hope that can't be accomplished. What are your thoughts of a speculated real world out come, crashed?

 

I don't know how this is going to end or even the motive behind this. What baffles me the most is how this was technically possible. Just does not add up with the information broadcasted.

 

I agree. 'Information broadcasted' goes nowhere. There must be facts by now that we will never know.