Posted on 03/13/2014 5:02:50 PM PDT by mandaladon
Two U.S. officials tell ABC News the U.S. believes that the shutdown of two communication systems happened separately on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
One source said this indicates the plane did not come out of the sky because of a catastrophic failure.
The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The transponder -- which transmits location and altitude -- shut down at 1:21 a.m.
This indicates it may well have been a deliberate act, ABC News aviation consultant John Nance said.
U.S. investigators told ABC News that the two modes of communication were "systematically shut down." That means the U.S. team "is convinced that there was manual intervention," a source said, which means it was likely not an accident or catastrophic malfunction that took the plane out of the sky.
U.S. officials said earlier that they have an "indication" the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner may have crashed in the Indian Ocean and is moving the USS Kidd to the area to begin searching.
It's not clear what the indication was, but senior administration officials told ABC News the missing Malaysian flight continued to "ping" a satellite on an hourly basis after it lost contact with radar. The Boeing 777 jetliners are equipped with what is called the Airplane Health Management system in which they ping a satellite every hour. The number of pings would indicate how long the plane stayed aloft.
It's not clear, however, whether the satellite pings also indicate the plane's location.
The new information has greatly expanded the potential search area into the Indian Ocean.
(Excerpt) Read more at gma.yahoo.com ...
If we can accept that the plane was commandeered, we must also consider that it was terrorism and the passengers were fodder from the moment the plane was taken over. That being said, I would speculate the plan probably called for neutralizing the passengers and at 35k ft all that would take is for a depressurization of the cabin to occur which would kill most people in minutes. This would leave the aircraft free of any threats and allow the perps to execute their plans unincumbered.
If you extrapolate the flight path after the change of direction (if the reports about that are correct) it continues on to Diego Garcia. Obviously, a US base would be an attractive target to muzzie terrorists.
However, I think India is more likely as a target, as a crash in the middle of Mumbai or a similar city would be more along the lines of the effect the terrorists would want.
I think it is very unlikely their plan was to fly it to a hidden airfield somewhere and use the plane later. Too much risk of detection before they could use the plane for a later mission.
Most likely the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean.
I should add that Hyderabad or Bangalore might be attractive targets for terrorists and easier to reach than Mumbai.
It’s proof of nothing except the use of unnamed experts and sources to put a sensational meaning onto alleged statements by more unnamed officials by ABC.
And people wonder why there is so much confusion and conspiracy theories everywhere. Look no further that journalistic abuse by desperate media.
Carefully parse the story and there is no there there.
In about 3 hours some other official is going to refute this story... I bet.
Re-check your coordinates. The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. The distance from Kuala Lumpur to the farthest of the Philippines islands is less than half the distance to Beijing.
The fuel on-board was reported to be enough for Beijing (5.5 hrs), plus another 2 hrs. At 500 mph, that’s a radius of some 3,750 miles - roughly the distance from Dallas to Honolulu. That’s a LOT of globe to cover if it truly was “diverted” by unknowns on-board.
If you did know the plane was taken by terrorists, you would be putting out disinformation to make them believe you were confused and looking in all the wrong places. Also if the passengers were hostages and you knew their general location, you would want time to gather more information in order to put together a rescue mission.
Imagine the emotional wreck the families of these missing passengers must be.
I’m not watching TV news so I’m not exposed to as much aviation info. Are you seeing a possible malfunction reason for these two signals to be turned off at separate times? Or that this info might not be accurate?
You have made valid points.
I hope for the 230+ plus souls on this plane that this could even be a possible outcome.
There has been diversion aplenty in this saga, no doubt about that.
I agree...our SIGINT folks are top notch. You cannot make a 777 disappear...it is impossible nowadays. Still...what are the odds that they will be able to recover the black boxes and figure this out. If it was me, I would make the Malaysians or the chinks pay for the recovery which will involve deep dives. What are the odds that they’ll volutarily do that after all the cluelessness?
They could get away with a 3500 foot runway since the plane wold be low on fuel and not need a long runway to LAND.
Taking off, loaded with fuel is another matter and they would probably need a 5,500 foot runway. - tom
Bump
Here’s a great map that would show all the (known) airfields the plane could have been flown to if it was a deliberate act of commandeering, and flying to avoid detection.
Sooner or later some poor government or small group of government was going to have to make the call to shoot down an airliner. Nobody wants to be the first. It’s bad news for every government and the world economy. Did you really think this wouldn’t happen sooner or later...really?
So...10 countries searching for a plane nobody wants to find. Why? It was high jacked and then shot down probably with the consensus of multiple governments.
Now.. The longer the misdirection going on the longer the evidence soaks and key components are covertly recovered. Make no mistake, this serves the greater good and this is how communist governments think...including our own.
The fuel determines the radius of where they could have gone.
I was thinking it the jet made it to land, it would go to Myanmar(Burma) as that would be remote enough for a terrorist group to hang out and maybe hide a jet in the jungle.
We are now seven days out, and the hope that the plane landed anywhere on terra firma is a very slim one.
How short of a runway for a fueled 777 to takeoff with no passengers or luggage?
I don’t have WJ access reporting was cruising at altitude for 5 hours
Missing Flight Left Data Trail
Jetliner ‘Pinged’ Satellites With Location, Altitude for Hours After Disappearance
By JON OSTROWER, ANDY PASZTOR and JULIAN E. BARNES CONNECT
Updated March 13, 2014 8:43 p.m. ET
Communication satellites received intermittent data “pings” from a missing Malaysia Airlines jet, giving the plane’s location, speed and altitude for at least five hours after it disappeared from civilian radar screens, people briefed on the investigation said Thursday.
The final satellite ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a “normal” cruising altitude. The people declined to say where specifically the transmission originated, adding that it was unclear why the...
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