[SeekAndFind]

STEPS TO GO ABOUT DOING IT ( according to the article):

* Kill or incapacitate your fellow pilot ( Don;t forget to dead bolt the cockpit).

* Wait until you’re over a region with poor radar coverage, then turn off your transponder, ADS-B, and ACARS

* Turn and dive for the deck. Radar coverage gets worse the lower you go, so if you want to stay off primary radar, you’ll fly as low as possible.

* Find someplace to land

* Sell it. There’s an active market for used 777s.

[Gaffer]

So....what’s the next step? Pack it full of explosives and tail a real flight up close and follow it in until the last minute and divert to the target?

[grobdriver]

with the intention of using it later for another purpose

And do what with 200+ people?

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Problem in article says one person could steal a 777. I would say it would take two. One to fly and one to take away phones.

That is the key to this-the phones and the pings on towers!

[mbarker12474]

I hear that:

— radar coverage is week in that area of the world

— a prepared hijacker/pilot would know where the gaps were

My hunch is that:

— U.S. defense satellite monitors know where the flight went down or did whatever it did. The president also knows. DoD or national technical means agencies simply aren’t going to give up the fact of our means and methods for something as inconsequential as an airliner gone astray.

— The notion to go look in the Indian Ocean is the result of quiet hinting from U.S. satellite spooks.

My speculation.

[BuffaloJack]

No matter who stole it or why.
Any 777 entering a country’s airspace will receive severe scrutiny for at least the next 6 months or so.

[Dallas59]

Does the plane have tech that certain countries want that can’t be obtained any other way except to hijack it, crash it or just make it disappear?

[jdsteel]

I think Iran or N. Korea would think that at 777 is a great way to deliver a nuke. Could be used as an EMP or to destroy a city sometime in the future when this event will have been mostly forgotten.

[Sax]

You’re the Co-Pilot.

*) Lock the Pilot out of the cabin while he’s using the head.

*) Switch off ADS-B/Transponder/ACARS

*) Depressurize the cabin (maybe in concert with a steep ascent or dive)

*) After some time, repressurize and continue on...

So, what about the part of ACARS that sends engine data to Rolls Royce. Can that be turned off? If so, good for the co-pilot in this scenario. If not, it will send report to RR upon landing, or report nothing if the aircraft crashes.

(Also, the INMARSAT pings may continue regardless?)

Does this scenario work?

[PGR88]

investigators were actively pursuing the possibility that the plane had been diverted "with the intention of using it later for another purpose.”

What, like a kitschy diner or novelty hotel?

[I am Richard Brandon]

Langoliers?

[cynwoody]

- Sell it. There’s an active market for used 777s. “They’re worth big money,” says David Rose, who owns the plane-trading website Barnstormers.com. A 1994 model is currently for sale for $37.5 million; another from 2001 has a price tag of $54 million.

Guano.

How are you going to hide the fact that you are flying a hot 777? You need to file flight plans and take off and land from major airports. And your plane needs regular maintenance and parts from specialized sources. You would need to be a country, and a fairly large one at that.

The only scenarios that make sense are:

1. You hope to collect ransom for the plane and passengers.
2. You are going to fly it, but not for long — just long enough to strike a blow against the infidels.

[Focault's Pendulum]

Great Book. I'm surprised no one has brought up this book.

The Lion's Game is a 2000 novel by American author Nelson DeMille

The book opens with Corey, his new FBI boss Kate Mayfield, CIA agent Ted Nash and FBI agent George Foster (both introduced in the previous Corey novel, Plum Island), awaiting the arrival of a defecting Libyan terrorist, Asad Khalil, at John F. Kennedy Airport.

However, even before the Boeing 747 from Paris has landed, it becomes apparent that something is unusual about the flight.[1] It turns out that a terrorist from Libya (his name Asad meaning the lion) poisoned all passengers with a toxic fume and the plane landed on auto-pilot.

In the brouhaha after the landing the terrorist escapes and starts his personal feud in the US.

[anymouse]

Wonder if anyone has looked here ? Maybe the Sultan decided that he needed a new toy for his collection. If you needed to make a plane disappear, it helps to have a rich absolute monarchy where no one would question a plane showing up in the middle of the night with minimal navigation lighting and radio silence.