US Investigators Think Missing Plane Might Have Been Stolen To Use Later For Another Purpose

BI ^ | 3-13-2014 | Michael Kelley

[blam]

US Investigators Think Missing Plane Might Have Been Stolen To Use Later For Another Purpose

Michael Kelley
March. 13, 2014, 11:06 AM

U.S. investigators suspect that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 stayed in the air for about four hours after it reached its last confirmed location, according to Andy Pasztor of The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal originally reported that they obtained data from the aircraft's engines, but then issued a correction saying that U.S. investigators based their position on "an analysis of signals sent through the plane’s satellite-communication link designed to automatically transmit the status of some onboard systems."

Satellites picked up 'electronic pings' from the flight after it lost contact, Reuters reports.

Malaysian authorities immediately rebutted the initial report, but have not provided any new information about the fate of the flight. Today, the country's minister of defense and acting minister of transport said the plane simply "vanished."

CNN Chief International correspondent Jim Sciutto reports that the "pings" of engine data, radar data, and fuel range have led the U.S. to alter their search to the Indian Ocean.

The primary scenarios of what happened remain a possible hijacking, action by rogue crew, or some sort of catastrophic mechanical failure.

One person tracking the probe told The Journal that U.S. counterterrorism officials are actively pursuing the notion that the plane was diverted "with the intention of using it later for another purpose."

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[rabidralph]

Where is that Aliens guy from History Channel?

[painter]

A 777 on a dirt or unimproved strip? Two ruined engines for sure.

From reading your posts I'm figuring you are Ex Air force and know ALOT about large jet aircraft. Mountains more than me.

It looks like to me there was a mutiny of the flight crew or a hijacking of the plane. It's apparent that the aircraft flew another 4 hours after the transponders quit sending signals. With your experience where would you take it?

[painter]

Isn't that the truth!

Right now Obama is perceived as the BIGGEST FOOL around the world. I would be willing to bet that Idiot knows more than he is letting on and is hoping the clowns he has surrounded himself with comes up with a plan to make himself look like a hero to the world.

With Obama's track record it probably will BLOW UP in his face!

[Cyber Liberty]

Shaking my head. So, it was cost that saved us from making critical data about the condition of our vehicles available to enemy hackers. I’ll remember this next time somebody complains about military gear costing so much.

[jagusafr]

Good guess, but it’s W.E.B. Griffin’s character in the Presidential Agent series. Got his start by stealing back a 707 that had been stolen by some nefarious group.

[Axenolith]

I’d hope they made an ~1200 mile circle with the center at last official known position, and then again at last “ping” position (smaller diameter) and then have some type of software run a visual search for clear areas on land masses between 7500 and 10000 feet in length with little or no vertical relief...

[USAF80]

I'll wait for them to find the aircraft first before I make any assumptions. Boeing is already in hot water over the 787 battery fires. Sometimes in an in-flight emergency you have no time to make radio calls. One of my old commanders who was a pilot told me in an emergency you aviate (fly), navigate, then communicate.

You keep the bird in the air first, then figure out where you are, the last thing you do is let others know your plight.

I had a crippled bird that had an engine explosion on rotation. The flight crew got off a Mayday once and we never talked to them again until the jet was on the runway.

In any aviation accident you have these factors:
-Pilots screwed up
-Maintenance screwed up
-Aircraft screwed up
-Outside forces (hijacking, bomb, lightning, birds, hail, ice, wind shear, volcanic ash, etc)

It is entirely possible they may have had a catastrophic failure that killed all comms. The westward turn would be consistent with them trying to get to land (no one wants a water landing)if the flight deck was dark (no displays) they may not have known where they were and maybe was hoping for visual references.

Aircraft have redundant systems but sometimes the boxes are right next to each other in the electrical bays so a fire or explosion would tend to kill the redundancy feature.

[painter]

Thanks for the reply. Very interesting.