Posted on 03/19/2014 7:28:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s slowly becoming clear that Malaysia 370 was a tragic accident, and not one of the numerous terrorist or crime scenarios doing the rounds.
As a retired international airline captain, I have felt for some time that the known flight profile showed an aircraft that was not hijacked, but out of control. However, the sharp left turn off course that it performed remained an issue. Why would the pilot do that?
Bear in mind a couple of things. Firstly, this was a crew operating out of their home base, which they knew intimately. Pilots call it "local knowledge" – a big advantage if you have a problem.
Secondly, it is rare for one single event to cause a crash. It is more likely that a series of mishaps and problems, some of them self-imposed, led to an accident.
The jet proceeded on course for Beijing and even made a slight right turn, as required by the route. It then turned sharply left and proceeded to waypoint VAMPI, which, as we now know, was input by the pilot flying – probably the captain.
So why turn across the Malay Peninsula, away from their destination? Where were they going? Much has been made of the fact that an airway from VAMPI leads north to terrorist country, but no one has checked what is south of position VAMPI.
VAMPI is an entry point to Kuala Lumpur. An airway from VAMPI goes directly back to their departure airport.
Why not fly back direct to KL if they had a problem? VAMPI is a good choice. It avoids high mountains running through the center of Malaysia, gives a safe approach over the low-lying coast, and also allows a quick diversion into Penang if necessary. This is where that local knowledge comes in.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
This was no ‘accident’, Rob...........................
Generally I agree. But I’m feeling more uneasy about it than a few days ago. Accident is still most likely in my mind, even if the chance has gone down.
How the tables have turned. Now the people saying “it was just an accident” are now the ones wearing tin-foil caps!
Clear? Every day comes a new revaluation that makes it murkier.
At this point an accident would be a best case scenario.
Sorry, but ‘accident’? What, when the plane did a U-Turn then the co-pilot never mentioned anything when he last clocked in? And the fact that the route was programmed prior?
It's still awfully cloudy where I live.
Said another way - In the absence of solid information, and worse, in the presence of deliberate misinformation being dumped on us by world governments, the attempt to invent a non nutty explanation is just as nutty as the nuttiest explanations.
I have no idea what happened to this flight.
I thought for a while it was next to an island near Malaysia, but it almost certainly would have been identified as being there by now, if it were.
That leaves a bunch of other theories, some of which are pretty out there. And some seem somewhat credible.
We do not yet know what happened.
The President of Russia publically calls out the United States Government as playing a key role in the Ukrainian coup yesterday, and CNN STILL hasn’t mentioned it. AT ALL...
If George Bush were still in the White House (or any Republican, you can bet your sweet a** they would be running 24/7 coverage of this, with dozens of pundits all screaming “BUSH’S FAULT!!!”
They are too busy running 24/7 with MH370 stories and conspiracy theories with no facts.
Oh look! Squirrel.....
The recent press conference dismissed the idea that any waypoints other than the scheduled flight were entered.
There is no evidence of any other waypoints being entered prior to the cutoff of the transponder and ACARS.
The last ACARS transmission reported the standard flight plan, Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
If any waypoints were entered after that, there is no way to know short of finding the plane.
Most everyone has an opinion, but fact is that no one knows what happened. To declare that your opinion, Rob, is more than that, makes you look foolish. Even if you turn out to be correct, you’re still just guessing like the rest of us.
How does he explain NO RADIO CONTACT for five hours? Any onboard emergency results in the tower being immediately notified.
Somebody knows, and they aren’t telling.
I think the pilot had terrorist connections. He hijacked the plane for some terrorist use, but the plans went awry. It probably crashed in the ocean. I hope I’m wrong and the pilot was able to land somewhere off the radar.
RE: How does he explain NO RADIO CONTACT for five hours? Any onboard emergency results in the tower being immediately notified.
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Here is how Chris Goodfellow, a 20 year Canadian Class-1 instrumented-rated pilot for multi-engine planes, explains it:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/03/mh370-electrical-fire/
“the loss of transponders and communications makes perfect sense in a fire. And there most likely was an electrical fire. In the case of a fire, the first response is to pull the main busses and restore circuits one by one until you have isolated the bad one. If they pulled the busses, the plane would go silent. It probably was a serious event and the flight crew was occupied with controlling the plane and trying to fight the fire. Aviate, navigate, and lastly, communicate is the mantra in such situations.”
There are two types of fires. An electrical fire might not be as fast and furious, and there may or may not be incapacitating smoke. However there is the possibility, given the timeline, that there was an overheat on one of the front landing gear tires, it blew on takeoff and started slowly burning. Yes, this happens with underinflated tires. Remember: Heavy plane, hot night, sea level, long-run takeoff. There was a well known accident in Nigeria of a DC8 that had a landing gear fire on takeoff. Once going, a tire fire would produce horrific, incapacitating smoke. Yes, pilots have access to oxygen masks, but this is a no-no with fire. Most have access to a smoke hood with a filter, but this will last only a few minutes depending on the smoke level. (I used to carry one in my flight bag, and I still carry one in my briefcase when I fly.)
What I think happened is the flight crew was overcome by smoke and the plane continued on the heading, probably on George (autopilot), until it ran out of fuel or the fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed. You will find it along that route–looking elsewhere is pointless.
It was no accident — it was deliberate and after reaching the Malaccan Straits more course changes were required and carried out.
And the problem with that is... the risk of what would happen IF it did not crash WAY outweighs other options.
IF it crashed, no risk. Tragic loss of life for those on board.
IF not... the risk is great that many others may die.
so let’s keep looking, shall we?
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