Probably, someone took the cockpit, directed them to flip the breakers on the transponder, and fly to India. Somewhere between Malaysia and India, something happened and they went down. Sad deal.
There are two on every passenger aircraft but only one is on or used at a time. It's just for redundancy. As far as being able to turn off. Although some major airports require aircraft to taxi with transponder on if they were unable to be turned off then every time the batteries were turned you would be adding a beacon to the controllers screen. With a bunch of aircraft on the ground at a busy airport you would have a very crowded screen.
I realize the ground problem, but it would seem computers are smart enough to know you're in the air or on the ground.
As for the cell phones, the network will probably try to ring the phones from the last tower they were in contact with. As you move your phone automatically registers to the nearest tower that has a compatible network. I'm not positive about 4G, but the earlier technologies only work about five miles from a tower. Over the ocean there would be no service except if the airliner provided a mini cell with an up link to a ground service provider.
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/M...ZTcwNjg1NTgxMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR9,0,214,317_.jpg
A lot of you guys aren't old enough to remember that this happened before.
A lot of you guys aren't old enough to remember that this happened before.
Some kind of in flight event caused loss of power to the cockpit.
Cabin fire possibly.
The crew attempted 180 degree turn without instruments and at night actually turned 140 degrees, or 220 degrees (depending on which way they turned) and ended up flying west over the Indian ocean until they ran out of fuel.
OR
Cabin fire possibly.
The crew attempted 180 degree turn without instruments and at night actually turned 140 degrees, or 220 degrees (depending on which way they turned) and ended up flying west over the Indian ocean until they ran out of fuel.
OR
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This is the way I understand it;
Transponders can be turned off/on in the cockpit.
ELTS have 3 settings on, off and test.
Once an ELT is activated by "G" forces or saltwater, the only way to deactivate is to remove the batteries.
Transponders can be turned off/on in the cockpit.
ELTS have 3 settings on, off and test.
Once an ELT is activated by "G" forces or saltwater, the only way to deactivate is to remove the batteries.
