Posted on 03/11/2014 11:13:53 AM PDT by tcrlaf
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was hundreds of miles off course, traveling in the opposite direction from its original destination and had stopped sending identifying transponder codes before it disappeared, a senior Malaysian Air Force official told CNN Tuesday.
If correct, these are ominous signs that could call into question whether someone in the cockpit might have deliberately steered the plane away from its intended destination, a former U.S. aviation investigator said.
"This kind of deviation in course is simply inexplicable," said Paul Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board.
(snip) The Malaysian Air Force lost track of the plane over Pulau Perak, a tiny island in the Straits of Malacca -- many hundreds of miles from the usual flight path for aircraft traveling between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, the official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
TO DITCH THE AIRCRAFT IN THE DEEPEST WATERS THEY COULD FIND.
I am sure you are correct on this, I did not look up all the antennae on the trip seven. Apparently there are a lot, and they are not mounted on a mast, like a boat.
However, there is a problem with the antenna mounting. I just googled 'Boeing 777 antennas problems' and guess what I found! So please forgive me for not using the exact terminology. Now tell what would happen if the structural part holding the antenna failed and fell off? Would it make a hole big enough to overcome the engines compression limit? I am sure there are alarms and such, but just suppose this did happen, the crew put on their oxygen masks, and the bottles were empty. In other words, and accident chain happened. Ta-Da! Now the pilots are incapacitated. So what is wrong with my idea? It is simple, Tell me what would keep this from happening?
It is easy to remark the words are wrong. I made this simple for a reason. Let's not get hung up on terminology.
Antennas don’t fall off. At the location on the fuselage skin where the antenna is mounted there is typically an additional layer of aluminum called a doubler. Its purpose is to strengthen the area around the attach point and around the hole. At some of these attach locations the skin thickness is increased. The size of the hole thru the skin where each antenna attaches is small, maybe 2” diameter, the only thing passing thru it is the coax cable. Again, bleed air from both engines would more than make up for the pressurization loss of a small hole. 777’s have 2 crew oxygen bottles, larger than scuba tanks, pressurized to 1800psi, lots of breathing time. Your theory might seem simple to you, but it is unrealistic actually and highly impracticle. The antenna mounting technology incorporated on the 777 is no different than that used on a 727. Decades of reliability. They just don’t fall off. Come up with a different scenario and we can discuss that too. Regards, 23 yrs A&P mechanic DC-9 thru 747.
Antennas don’t fall off...They just don’t fall off. Come up with a different scenario and we can discuss that too. Regards, 23 yrs A&P mechanic DC-9 thru 747.
Apparently there are antennae masts on airplanes.. So calling it a communication mast is not so far off, hmmm. Anyway, maybe they don't fall off, but panels and windows and wheels fall off; I was in Honolulu years back when a 737 landed without a roof, even. But I am not arguing a technical issue but a people issue. Suppose a panel on which an antennae was mounted detached itself from the plane. Technically the antennae did not fall off, but now there is a hole in the structure. Suppose this happened, which it has in the past, and the maintenance personnel had forgotten to turn on the oxygen tanks... This has happened before also. Now you have and accident chain as I mentioned. Without one of these items happening there would not be a missing airliner. People make mistakes is all I am saying, and that is the simplest explanation. Look for the ML370 in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Er, no, it was not flying “toward” Banda Aceh/Indonesia’s most radical province (and a fairly mild form of radicalism it is too if you’ve ever met any western guy who’s enjoyed his stint working on the oil fields there).
The plane reportedly turned west, where it reportedly was going could be anywhere from Subang in Malaysia to Connemara in Ireland, or much more likely rapidly descending into the sea or jungle. No one knows.
Just for the record however the spectacularly incompetent Malaysian (note Malaysian, not Indonesian) authorities are now claiming that they didn’t actually track the plane turning west, so there’s another theory gone for a Burton.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26527390
But hey Indonesia is full of big hairy, scary Muslims so it must be their fault somehow, right?
This merely increases my suspicion that something happened.
Indonesia is the most populated Muslim country on the planet.
I have no idea if they are ‘hairy’.
I do remember the bombing in Bali.
But hey, I’m sure they had a reason for that, right?
Your chapter 3 Aircraft Antenna Installation reference is NOT a Boing document, so it doesn’t apply to the 777. Oxygen tanks are turned off and on only for servicing and there is a cockpit indication of oxygen pressure that the pilots verify before departure according to their checklist. These crew oxygen tanks are not accessible from the cockpit.
ping to #329
A lot of ‘ifs’! If the plane disintegrated/exploded/?? then the wifi would have quit working at that moment. How is someone going to get a message off as they are falling out of the sky in -50 degree temps and no air to breathe?
Common sense people!
bkming your post.
After hearing the latest on this subject this morning(Weds),the Malaysians aren't' even sure that the new location west of the island is correct.- Tom
How does the black box pinger work? Who receives the ping?
Talked to a friend yesterday. He’s a pilot for a major US carrier and flew out to Sydney from LA last night. His aircraft is a 777 and he says that any engine anomaly is transmitted to company instantly.
I wonder if when you land the plane and shut of the engines if that info is sent to the company.
In this case that would be a big help knowing when the engines stopped running. - Tom
Vietnam Freezes Search for Flight MH370 ... http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/vietnam-freezes-search-for-mh370-amid-confusion-over-last-movements
**This was terrorism, and the terrorists might have the plane, and possibly more than 200 hostages.***
Agree. We have become lazy - by thinking that ‘terrorism’ means suicidal bombers, big explosions, multiple deaths of innocents and an element of surprise.
While we follow our ‘routine screening’ practices; enemies are becoming innovative - maybe even changing tactics and strategies.
Taking and hiding this plane for ransom etc., would have involved a lot more sophisticated planning, insiders and will result in a larger shock value during the final act.
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