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

If the 777 is like the 400, heading hold is the default. Not heading select. So no turn in that scenario.

Off to Singapore now. Will fly over the area in a couple days.

Post some thoughts later. Gotta fly.

Hopefully its found.

 

Just came across this - MH370 - what happened

Hypoxia a possibility? Helios 522 comes to mind.

 

Understood --- thanks. However, I am fairly certain that on the 777 nav system, the default is "heading select".

FWIW --- As of a few hours ago, India has just recently joined the search the effort.

 

I liked that upon first read-through, but I defer to the experts to tell us if there's a problem with that hypothesis.

It paints a picture of slow decompression. As if a "golf ball sized hole" formed and neither passengers nor crew heard or saw anything alarming.

Is that plausible? That decompression could occur slowly and with zero audible signs or alarms?

 

It is interesting, but the author of that "theory" misinterprets the official document --- Directorate Identifier 2013-NM-128-AD]
RIN 2120-AA64 --- in a very important detail.....which does NOT support the conclusions drawn.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-09-26/html/2013-23456.htm

Excerpt from document ---

SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for
certain The Boeing Company Model 777 airplanes. This proposed AD was
prompted by a report of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath the
satellite communication (SATCOM) antenna adapter. This proposed AD
would require repetitive inspections of the visible fuselage skin and
doubler if installed, for cracking, corrosion, and any indication of
contact of a certain fastener to a bonding jumper, and repair if
necessary. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct cracking and
corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression
and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.

+++++++++++

Also, since this was a previously known issue........For this failure to have occurred on this particular aircraft, it would have had to have "passed" several inspections (which the Directive & Boeing mandate) without the flaw (if even present) being detected or properly corrected ---- so while it is possible that an inspection could be done incorrectly or a repair made improperly, it is very unlikely.

 

Still... Do the facts support a rapid decompression hypothesis where the antenna are destroyed?

 

Any severe (Amber or Red) messages to the crew from the aircraft would have been squawked by the ACARs, would it not?

My understanding from another post is all of the aircraft in this airline fleet have ACARS, but there has been no mention of data from the aircaft.

Strange situation.

 

IMHO, not really. Because with rapid decompression, the O2 masks would deploy right away and alerts would trigger on the flight deck ---- before the pilots would lose consciousness / get slowly hypoxic ---- they would have plenty of warning and time to put their masks on.

 

Yes.

But you don't honestly expect Boeing to make any public announcements about anything until either the wreckage is recovered and analyzed <or> alternatively hijack / terrorism is confirmed ---- do you ???

 

Highly implausible.

First of all, a golf ball sized hole won't depressurize a 777. Heck, the early 747s had a little door you could slide open in flight in the cockpit to stick a sextant out-- and opening it didn't even cause the pressurization to bump!

Secondly, 13,500 is not high enough for most people to pass out. The FAA allows you to fly up to 12,500 feet with no oxygen at all, and to 14,000 for 30 minutes with no O2!

Even an actual rapid decompression wouldn't have resulted in the airplane disappearing.

 

There seems to be some confusion here. ACARS sends some automated messages (out, off, in, on) and of course can be used by the crew.

Aircraft maintenance messages require the Boeing "Airplane Health Monitoring System" which is an option that this 777 did not have.

 

Interesting, thankyou Gary.

 

So, Boeing likely has no data on this aircraft, but this makes me think of something else....

Rolls Royce also has its own, independent monitoring / telemetry systems on all their Trent series engines (the engines used on this 777 configuration) --- I wonder if they have received any useful transmitted data from the engines on flight 370 ???

 

This website has been updated:

[UPDATE: It doesn’t apply to this specific aircraft, see below.]

 

Rapid decompression doesn't explain the U turn, assuming that the U turn, followed by another hour of flight actually happened.

Or maybe there was an emergency, the pilots started to turn and then were incapacitated while executing the turn.

Based on the sequence of events (admittedly kind of sketchy at this point) the transceiver lost power (possibly switched off) and the airplane's heading was changed. This all strikes me as deliberate rather than the result of a sequence of mechanical issues.

-F

 

For those here who do not have subscriptions, I thought I would repost what was just posted over in the Silver section for all of you ----


quote :

Late Mar 12th 2014 China's State Administration of Science (SASTIND) reported, they discovered three large objects sized 13x18, 14x19 and 24x22 meters at position N6.7 E105.63 (121nm eastsoutheast of the last known secondary radar position), all three objects within a radius of 20km (11nm) and published the satellite images, taken on Mar 9th 2014 at 11:00 Beijing time (03:00Z), see below. SASTIND stated they are committed to provide further search services to locate flight MH-370.

CNN is also reporting on this finding currently.....
Image Unavailable, Please Login
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Take a look at this photo. Is that rear fuselage and tail? Underwater? Depth is only 150' in this location.
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Those are huge pieces. What part of the aircraft would be 24x22 meters? Seems like the only object that big would be if the fuselage got split open and flattened into a flag sheet of metal.

 

Where did the photo originate?

Looks suspicious that the blue water color immediately surrounding the item is much darker than the rest of the ocean .

(Sorry, I just back tracked and saw a few prior posts once I logged on .)

 

Surely the right thing to do would be to dispatch a military jet out there straight away and have a bloody look. Or send a boat out there last night so by first light they could send divers down.

This search and rescue appears to be run by cartoon characters or something ...
Pete

 

Thanks.

 

You won't find anything below debris that's been drifting for days. And the satellite images could have been hours or even days old.

 

CNN article stated photo was taken on Mon, released today. No idea when the object was first seen on imagary, or whether the Chinese have already investigated.

 

My ol' gut tells me that this was a crewjacking.

 

Same here - either that or a bomb.