'Contact lost' with Malaysia Airlines plane

Lysander · 24 Mar 2014 at 18:22

Seems that the Malaysian government were under way too much pressure to deliver answers, so rather than carry on the search and wait till they had something physical, they went with reliance on data, which is kind of odd since data can be revised in many cases. Still, this way they can keep the families quiet, dim the media spotlight and concentrate on finding the thing physically...

However, the possibilities of finding the black box are slim to none given the depth of the ocean and the water pressure, whilst any bodies would have most likely been eaten. How the plane got there is another matter, whether it was suicide, fault, hijacking or whether the plane was trying to escape from something we'll probably never know.

It's closure, but the flimsiest kind.

Atlas23 · 24 Mar 2014 at 18:26

Zbornak said:
Hence what struggle?

I think he was referring to the increase and decrease in altitude

thenewoc · 24 Mar 2014 at 18:38

Rather shocked to say the least that they sent out a text message to the relatives. I hope they have received some sensitive debriefings / counseling to help as much as possible to prepare them for the worst.

koolpc · 24 Mar 2014 at 18:49

Proof will come when they find something that belongs to that flight. Silly telling relatives what they have told them without solid proof.

Tuppy_Glossop · 24 Mar 2014 at 18:51

Lysander said:
However, the possibilities of finding the black box are slim to none given the depth of the ocean and the water pressure

The water (4000m) is not as deep as in the Atlantic for the Air France crash (6000m). Plus it's pretty flat by comparison.

Django x2 · 24 Mar 2014 at 18:52

Water pressure in that part of the ocean would be a non issue. If AF FDR can survive two years under the Atlantic, then this will be feasible here too...

Trifid · 24 Mar 2014 at 18:59

Tuppy_Glossop said:
The water (4000m) is not as deep as in the Atlantic for the Air France crash (6000m). Plus it's pretty flat by comparison.

The flat surface sounds great for finding items on the surface. I assume HMS Echo will come into its own here as it was designed for mapping out the surface of oceans?

Rofflay · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:05

You what is interesting is that if you plot the distance from where it took off and the destination ( Beijing ) on the maps on the BBC site and turn it in the opposite direction you end up almost exactly where the debris was spotted.

It is almost as if the onboard computer mixed up north and south which is impossible unless all the pilots fell asleep. It seems to have gone in the opposite direction and the distance seems to be around the same. Maybe a bit west of where the debris map is but the current flows which way east or west? Try it just copy paste the arrow on the BBC site.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/imag...malaysian_airliner_wide_search_624_240313.gif

Tuppy_Glossop · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:14

Trifid said:
The flat surface sounds great for finding items on the surface. I assume HMS Echo will come into its own here as it was designed for mapping out the surface of oceans?

Yep, although it is slow work. It'll be quicker if the US acoustics tackle hears the sonic pinger. For that they need a good estimate of the impact site location.

Tuppy_Glossop · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:16

Rofflay said:
It is almost as if the onboard computer mixed up north and south

I was thinking exactly this, except my rationalisation was GPS spoofing.

VoG · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:17

Blazin23 said:
I think he was referring to the increase and decrease in altitude

He's obviously never heard of JAL flight 123 which lost it's tail fin due to an explosive decompression of the rear bulkhead, as the pilots fought to regain control of the aircraft it climbed, dived, climbed, dived etc before finally smacking itself into a mountain 32mins later.

Japanese Airlines flight 123

Vulcan · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:22

VoG said:
He's obviously never heard of JAL flight 123 which lost it's tail fin due to an explosive decompression of the rear bulkhead, as the pilots fought to regain control of the aircraft it climbed, dived, climbed, dived etc before finally smacking itself into a mountain 32mins later.

Japanese Airlines flight 123

Okay? What's that go to do with anything?

Rofflay · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:26

Tuppy_Glossop said:
I was thinking exactly this, except my rationalisation was GPS spoofing.

He was experienced though 18000 hours flight time and a flight sim nut surely looking out a window for land marks would have alerted him after all you would be flying over land to beijing.

If you spoof the gps to make the computer think north is south or something then you fly over pure ocean after leaving SW Asia and Malaysia/Thailand area. Why would he not manually check with air control? Or send a message that they had concerns. Makes no sense it seems like everyone on board including the pilots never noticed a single thing and woke up expecting to be approaching beijing in half an hour. incredible really....

VoG · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:36

Longbow said:
Okay? What's that go to do with anything?

He was using the fact the plane climbed & dived as proof that there was a fight in the cockpit due to a suicidal pilot, i merely pointed out that a plane climbing & diving can also be down to mechanical failure.

Vulcan · 24 Mar 2014 at 19:43

VoG said:
He was using the fact the plane climbed & dived as proof that there was a fight in the cockpit due to a suicidal pilot, i merely pointed out that a plane climbing & diving can also be down to mechanical failure.

With the transponder and other things turned off, it's unlikely to be mechanical failure.

ElectroBlaster · 25 Mar 2014 at 01:34

Until those black boxes are recovered not much else will be known I guess!

Bring on Ifremer, they will locate the boxes soon enough.

Blackjack Davy · 25 Mar 2014 at 03:55

teenwolf said:
pilot suicide, killed co-pilot hence the struggle, flew out over the ocean with no way of getting back on the fuel.

But why bother flying on for the next 6 or 7 hours or however long it was until the fuel ran out and it crashed into the sea? Why not just crash it straight into the sea there and then? Because it looks like it flew on unti the limit of its range, thats what doesn't make sense to me.

My money is on decompression at this point, for whatever reason.

BuffetSlayer · 25 Mar 2014 at 06:26

Blackjack Davy said:
But why bother flying on for the next 6 or 7 hours or however long it was until the fuel ran out and it crashed into the sea? Why not just crash it straight into the sea there and then? Because it looks like it flew on unti the limit of its range, thats what doesn't make sense to me.

My money is on decompression at this point, for whatever reason.

Perhaps he was hoping the plane would never be found? Let's face it, who would be looking out there if the destination of the plane was Beijing?

Plus the guy has an accurate simulator of the aircraft at home. It does look suspicious.

I guess time will tell. I hope for all concerned it was a genuine accident like you say it was. But I struggle to see how a plane with that much technology on board could not have made it known to air traffic control that it was in trouble. That said the Helios flight suffered the same fate and I do remember reading of a fault on these planes where the fuselage can crack and cause gradual decompression.

RoboCod · 25 Mar 2014 at 07:09

Suicide is selfish, but it's hard to understand someone being in that place in their mind. However, suicide and taking so many people along with you, that's just horrendous

Jokester · 25 Mar 2014 at 07:10

If it wasn't for the comms being switched off I would have said a decompression event as well, but it does look like the intention was that it was never to be found and he overlooked or was unaware about the satellite pinging. If it wasn't for that they would still be looking up round Malaysia.

They've said they've got more information but aren't willing to go public with it, so we'll see.

'Contact lost' with Malaysia Airlines plane

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