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

Very light and maybe at ISA -10

Not in this case though...

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, this whole story is mind-boggling for a number of reasons.

Let’s keep the basics in mind: we are speaking of a modern, state-of-the-art airliner, and big one at that, with a proven safety record, the best there is, flying under a serious flag, and that 250 persons have been missing for about 10 days now.

It seems now rather certain that at the beginning the Malaysian officials were not disclosing a certain number of facts that were known from them only, but established for the public later, this at the risk of sending the searches in the wrong direction. Amazing.

Then we discover that all communications devices have been intentionaly switched off, this for the plane to fly another course, flown by somebody who knows what he was doing…this, if the "pings" sent to the satellites are to be believed, to fly a number of hours more after changing directions (?)
BUT THIS FOR NOTHING! because the high-jacking (if it was indeed one: it most probably is, but it is not yet 100% sure) was not claimed by anybody, and the airplane has disappeared without a trace.

We are speaking of a big airplane here, something that you cannot hide in your backyard under a beach towel; something that someone would have spotted should it have landed somewhere, and that could not be landed in the alley behind your house? It would have been spotted by radars, etc…
And it could not take-off again without appropriate mechanical and logistical support, and without at least 50 to 70 tons of kerosene, because its tanks are most probably empty.

So I found indeed very hard to believe that someone plans to use it against something as a retaliatory weapon: it is simply too big, too complicated for this, and furthermore would be detected.

But then: no news whatsoever from any passenger, this for ten days? it must probably be at the bottom of an ocean…

Then WHY? Why the high-jacking if it is for this ending?

Well, the whole story is taxing my logic!

 

Obviously this was not pilot suicide, or he would have just dove it straight into the ocean. If it is true that this was in fact hijacked, then of the two possibilities remaining - the hijackers did not make it to their final destination, or the plane is sitting on a tarmac somewhere - the tarmac options becomes a little more likely to me every day (although still less likely than ending up at the bottom of some sea somewhere).

 

The only logical answer is that the pilot did not make it to his final destination.

 

Hijacking? You know how hard it is to take care of 230 people?

Just shoot them and keep the plane? You know how much easier it is to steal a 777 from a random maintenance airfield as opposed to dealing with security and hijacking one with 230 people on board!

None of these theories makes any sense folks. The plane is at the bottom of the ocean. They just haven't found it yet.

 

A commentator made the theory today on the noon news that IF it was pilot suicide and went so far out in the ocean (6 hrs!) then perhaps the pilot/suicide WANTED it to never be found - perhaps because of life insurance issues, perhaps because of religious/cultural shame over committing suicide.

I say this is wild speculation: If it were life insurance (perhaps unlikely on the part of Muslim Malaysians), that could be fairly easy to verify. Also, I know of no possible motive of religious/cultural shame on the part of Muslims.

I tend to think it was a crew-hijacking with the motive being just plain simple crazy...or, possibly trying to land and hide the plane but going vastly wrong at some point in the process.

But time will ( actually, may or may not) tell.

 

I don't actually think it would be that easy to steal a 777 from a maintenance facility and get away with it... but maybe that's just me.

 

There is another possibility, although it's pretty far into Tom Clancy territory.

If there was someone, or something, on the airplane that you wanted, as opposed to the airplane itself, consider this:

Fly south into the Indian ocean where there is no radar, prearrange a meeting location with a ship, dump whatever fuel is left, and ditch. Climb out onto the wing, get on the ship... open the baggage doors and let the airplane sink.

However, I don't think this is all that likely. The airplane was headed northwest when last spotted, and it would have been possible to tag along with another flight until getting into an area with minimal air defense radar, and then landing.

 

Yeah, I was trying to figure out how it gets easier to steal a 777 than getting paid to sit in the cockpit.

 

as mentioned above the plane most likley went down and its just a matter of time before they find it.

hope the black box etc helps.....i think the ping'r only lasts for 30 days?

 

I was thinking something similar..that there was cargo snuck onto the plane that wasn't on the manifest, and they tried to get away with it. I don't know about ditching in the ocean, because how the hell can you do that without cartwheeling when there's six foot waves, but maybe they ran out of fuel trying to get to their final destination or tried to get too fancy trying to hide from radar, and ended up in the ocean. Or maybe they made it, and we don't know it yet. Under this scenario, they could have just killed all of the passengers if all they wanted was the cargo. This is definitely Tom Clancy territory, but Tom Clancy stories are all that's left for a plane that's been hijacked for no apparent reason.

 

One point to this is, if if if, whom ever could have hijacked this plane, would they be stupid enough to say, "Yes we are responsible."(try and find it before we can use it). They mind as well surrender at that point, because now every 'world power' involved would know exactly who to seek out.
Not to take this thread off course, (so sorry for the pun) and I don't want start arguments regarding 9/11, but we detected those planes and watched in disbelief. Its easy to look back now, but it happens so fast.

 

No, it's not just you. You can count on being pursued the minute you start the taxi. Be sure to pick one that is finished with its maintenance too

 

Look out for those "GROUNDED!" tags!

 

I hangar at OPF. There are literally dozens of 737 and larger in and out of there every day. No security. No PAX.

 

Not doubting you but activity must be monitored at some level, right ???
There must be schedules that allow pilots to take a plane without raising questions.(?)

 

I fly in and out of towered and non towered fields every day. Nobody asks questions.

I think some here are suggesting the pilot of the 777 was "in on it". Once again, why hijack this plane with 230 people on board when you could hijack one with nobody on board?

The story doesn't add up. If you aren't a pilot who flies a lot you aren't going to know what you don't know. There are 5000 airports in the U.S.that most people don't know exist. There are planes parked at random airports all over the world. Planes are stolen every day outside the U.S. It's so common I have several friends who have had their planes stolen.

If this 777 was hijacked, where you gonna hide it? You need a big damn airport to land a 777 and it also needs to be an airport with support like MX and an enormous fuel truck if you're going to take off again. You aren't just going to land at some deserted airstrip in Vietnam.

 

Unless a government was in on it…..say Pakistan? Then hiding and servicing the aircraft becomes no problem. Trouble with this theory is how did it get to Pakistan without anyone seeing it. Maybe ATC in that part of the world is just that ****ty?

 

Thanks, I appreciate your insight.

 

You guys watch too many movies.

What would they do with the passengers?

Why would 239 passengers just sit there and let this go down?

What would they do with the plane?

 

Dealing with the passengers is easy-- at least while you're in flight. Depress the cabin, leave it in the mid-30s for 30 minutes or so, no more problems with the passengers.

 

Right, they would have been gone before it started. That could also explain no phone activity.
A runway that would need to be so large to accommodate this plane would have facilities available right. Why would there be such an enormous runway without hangers and provisions for fuel?
How it went unseen to me equals others are involved and looking the other way while keeping quite.

PS. It's not the movies it's the media.lol

 

Sadly the greatest odds are that whatever happened the passengers are probably not still breathing. On top of that greatest odds are this is a pilot suicide. As to the pilots, a father and grandfather is an unlikely candidate, plus the copilot was also the last voice heard.

As to suicide, why not just dive the plane. How about shame at suicide, better to dissapear in a mystery.

Seems greatest odds are passengers were killed with decompressing, then plane was flown out into the indian ocean. The perpetrator maybe didnt realsie that there were satelite pings and thought we maybe would all think it just dissapaeard witht he last transmission never to be found.

 

HA Yes. This is true.

Keep in mind the same stories were swirling in the media with the Air France crash and it ended up being a totally unsensational story. I believe the same will be true here.

 

The plane is probably at the bottom of the ocean. But if it's not, I think it's safe to say the passengers are dead anyways. If the pilot did in fact hijack the plane, then there's a good chance the passengers would have no idea until they were on the ground. If the pilot was in collusion with a state gov't, it's possible that by the time the passengers realized something was wrong, it was too late.

Here's what we "know" (know in quotes because nothing is 100% certain):
1) The transponder and ACARS were manually turned off.
2) The plane deliberately changed course right after that
3) The plane continued to fly for 8 more hours.
4) No one has claimed responsibility
5) There is no sign of the plane

What we can reasonably infer from this:
1) Either the pilot, or someone who knew how to fly a 777, hijacked the plane.
2) Due to the fact that comms were shut off and the plane changed course, pilot suicide is unlikely
3) In light of #2, the hijacker most likely attempted to fly the plane to some unknown destination
4) One of the pilots went crazy and there's no explanation except he went for a joyride and then crashed the plane.

So now the why..why would the hijacker want to hijack a plane without anyone knowing about it?
1) Because there was valuable cargo
2) Because they want to use the plane for something
3) Because someone wanted some passenger(s) on the plane

#2 seems unlikely because if it were true, the pilot must have had much better opportunities to divert that weren't nearly out of the range of the plane.

Pretty much every possible scenario given what we know is pretty crazy sounding, for both motive and end result.