Those so called stories cite unnamed sources....hard to believe when no names or sources attached.
From the local news sources try this
“”The Wall Street Journal newspaper quoted U.S. investigators on Thursday as saying they suspected the plane remained in the air for about four hours after its last confirmed contact, citing data from the plane’s engines that are automatically transmitted to the ground as part of a routine maintenance program.
Hishammuddin said the government had contacted Boeing and Rolls Royce, the engine manufacturer, and both said the last engine data was received at 1:07 a.m., around 23 minutes before the plane lost contact.”
You can dispute this if you want but neither Boeing nor Rolls Royce is saying anything different. ACARS is NOT a continuous feed. It tracks and sends during important times and gives data in bursts. The only time that alters is if there is mechanically malfunction that needs repair at landing.
Not exactly. The ACARS can be programmed to send information on a wide variety of parameters on que, such as at a particular radar altitude, change in configuration (slats, flaps, gear) or at a particular time interval to transmit engine data.
For example ACARS is how airlines monitor their crews for stable approaches (speed, configuration, vertical velocity, deck angle, g-loading, etc.), triggering a message with various parameters at 500, 1000, or 1500 feet on final (examples). But the ACARS doesn't transmit continuously since that would cost too much for all the extra messaging (especially overwater with SATCOM as primary).
This is what strikes me as strange: if indeed RR and Boeing got routine ACARS messages on engine performance hours later, then surely the airline also got numerous ACARS messages that were automatically sent. And if they did, then why are they so secretive about the content of them, or even their existence?