Malaysia Air Flight 370

[dennishoddy]

The technology needs to be upgraded like the fish locator in my bass boat.

 

[Mike_60]

I think the passengers are dead but the plane is stashed away. Seven hours flying time is a long way to travel and I think the most likely route would have been north. Going up to 45k and then down to 27k and then rising back up to and leveling out at 31k tells me the passengers were killed via depressurization and freezing. Dropping as fast as it did to 27k puts the plane at about the highest humans can go without oxygen, that would give the hijackers time to re-pressurize the plane and make sure everyone is dead. Then rising back up to 31k makes it look like a normal flight again and increases flying distance. It could easily be setting in Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, or in the deserts of western China < my choice. It is anyone's guess as to for what reason, but it would more than likely be for some future terrorist act against a country over there, maybe China. They've pissed off more than a few people, or possibly, Chechens getting something setup for Russia.

 

[JacobDaddy]

Wrong default gateway?

I don't think anyone else got your joke.

 

[mugsy]

If it is used as a weapon at a later date, you can be sure Iran will be blamed. Look how many have already alluded to Iran being involved in this thread alone; we have been successfully steered by our state-run media as to who the world's boogey man should be. And that 777 won't have to try for the U.S.; being Iran is the nation Israel wants to eliminate, the likely bet is it is a Mossad op that would use the aircraft against a target in Israel. The ensuing outrage from all of the Israel firsters in the U.S., combined with the typical pressure by AIPAC would have us up to our eyeballs in yet another conflict (that has nothing to do with national defense of the U.S., as usual), and likely while our "greatest ally" that was the "victim" of the attack, watches from the sidelines. It's an easy script to write, being Israel hasn't yet managed to con us into attacking Iran for them, despite all of the propaganda over the last 20 years or so. And besides - even after all this time, they're still "just weeks away from having The Bomb".

You may have a future career as a fiction writer - you wove that from whole cloth and sprinkled just a touch of fact so that I can't say its totally untrue. I am truly impressed by your paranoia level about Iran-Israel-US political machinations. Even your statement that the 777 can't be used as a weapon in the future is untrue. It certainly can be - which doesn't mean it will be since it might be at the bottom of the ocean - and while it would be helpful to have the resources of a nation it could probably be done by a well resourced drug cartel or terrorist group as well. It is certainly possible to turn an aircraft if all you want to do is send it on a one-way mission. Note that I didn't say it was easy or any such nonsense just that it is indeed in the realm of the possible and so it must be considered.

 

[WTJ]

I think lots of folks keep getting ELT and EPIRB mixed up with CVR and DFDRs that have ULBs attached.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_locator_beacon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockpit_voice_recorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_data_recorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_radiobeacon

ELT/EPIRB/PLBs send out a distress signal when activated. CVRs and DFDRs must be downloaded with a computer. The ULB attached to the CVR/DFDR sends out a ultrasonic LF pulse in order to be detected under water. If the distress beacons sink it won't be heard and many commercial aircraft are not equipped with ELTs.

The older ELTs transmitted on GUARD (121.5/243.0). The satellites monitoring the older equipment were shut down in 2009 and COSPAS/SARSAT now monitors the 406 beacons. http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=165&catid=29&lang=en

i'm not terribly surprised they cannot locate this aircraft. If it were commandeered, there are hundreds of places it could land within its range. This is also a low threat activity region, so I suspect there are not a great deal of ELINT/SIGINT assets tasked in this area by the US.

 

[FakeHuman]

Hijacked to be used as a weapon at a later date?

That really makes no sense. The time to use it as a weapon is right after the hijacking...they aren't going to be able to hide it forever let alone fly it, fuel it, land it, and operate it at a later date. Snaring one for a "future attack" means they have to deal with 100's of passengers, a multinational search effort, and tipping their hand.

I think anyone with the resources (like Iran) to hide, discretely service, equip and operate a 777 would've just leased one and avoided all the attention, or hijacked one and launched the attack immediately.

I agree, in most circumstances it would make more sense to immediately carry out the attack with the hijacked plane, but say they wanted to hold onto it until things cool off a bit, then load some nasty cargo (bio, chem, or nuclear) and fly it toward someplace in Europe or the east coast. It's not out of the realm of possibility, and at this point I think it's something that needs to be considered. As far as passengers go, I don't think terrorists have any issues with killing all of them.

 

[0311]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...-role-under-scrutiny/articleshow/32130084.cms

This is a good link, because in it a 777 pilot speaks about depressurizing the passengers being the motive for taking it to 45,000'.

(Quote from this link)
In addition, military radar data provided by a person familiar with the investigation suggest someone may have piloted the aircraft to as high as 45,000 feet, above the 43,100-foot ceiling for the Boeing 777.

A current Boeing 777-200 pilot for an Asian-based airline said the move could have been intended to depressurize the cabin and render the passengers and crew unconscious, preventing them from alerting people on the ground with their cellphones.

"Incapacitate them so as to ..

 

[yukonjack]

I agree, in most circumstances it would make more sense to immediately carry out the attack with the hijacked plane, but say they wanted to hold onto it until things cool off a bit, then load some nasty cargo (bio, chem, or nuclear) and fly it toward someplace in Europe or the east coast. It's not out of the realm of possibility, and at this point I think it's something that needs to be considered. As far as passengers go, I don't think terrorists have any issues with killing all of them.

They are gonna fly this thing right into the heart of Bejing. This one isn't destined for the US or Europe. Sometime within the next 6 months. They've been planning for this has been going on for years.

 

[0311]

They are gonna fly this thing right into the heart of Bejing. This one isn't destined for the US or Europe. Sometime within the next 6 months. The planning for this has been going on for years.

Yeh. This special delivery is for the heavies in Beijing. But I wonder, what exactly happens if you get depressurized at 45,000 feet? I know you lose consciousness and die, but how long does it take?

Edit: I got a partial answer from Wikipedia; the rapid descent from 45,000' to about 1/2 that altitude so rapidly in an unpressurized environment would cause the gasses in the passengers' stomachs and intestines to rapidly expand. I suspect with explosive results. They were making sure that the passengers didn't have the chance of retaking the cockpit, it appears.

 

[FullAuto]

The satellites were getting engine pings, yet can't pick up the black box pings if it did crash into the water?

I'm missing something here.

I saw on the news where they said the subs or navy boats would have to be within 5-10 miles to detect the pings.