Posted on 03/17/2014 1:37:17 PM PDT by blam
What Pilots Think About The Crazy New Theory That The Missing Malaysia Jet Used Another Jet To Hide
Alex Davies
March 17, 2014
Not surprisingly, the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 with 239 people on board more than a week ago has led some people to come up with very interesting theories about what might have happened.
On his Tumblr, self-identified hobby pilot and aviation enthusiast Keith Ledgerwood put forward the most elaborate and interesting suggestion we've heard yet.
He argues the 777 could have flown over India and Pakistan, avoiding military radar detection by turning off its communications systems and following a Singapore Airlines 777 so closely the two aircraft "would have shown up as one single blip on the radar."
In the post, Ledgerwood established that the Singapore Airlines flight was in the area.
The collision avoidance systems installed on all modern airliners operate using the transponder, which someone on the Malaysia flight could have turned off. So the Singapore crew wouldn't have detected a plane on their tail, Ledgerwood speculates.
"Once MH370 had cleared the volatile airspaces and was safe from being detected by military radar sites in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan," Ledgerwood writes, "it would have been free to break off from the shadow of SIA68 and could have then flown a path to it’s final landing site."
We asked Michael G. Fortune, a retired pilot who now works as an aviation consultant and expert witness, if that would be possible. After a lengthy pause, he gave us a skeptical "maybe." It would depend on what kind of radar equipment the Singapore 777 had on board, he said, and would require some serious aviation skill to find and stay behind the plane.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Thanks Maggie, I saw this put forth early, civilian radar would allow this but if any military was tracking it would not work, then again they would have to have it turned on LOL
Someone has been watching too many episodes of “The X Files”.
Investigators should at least interview the flight crews on any other flights in the same traffic corridor that might possibly have gotten a visual sighting of SIA68.
Obviously, if they had seen two planes flying together presumably they would have reported it at the time, but if anyone happened to get a visual on SIA68 flying alone it could eliminate this theory, at least as to that location.
Form is not easy - but a constant speed and altitude on the Lead would make it easier.
The mode C transponder is the only active part of the system, AFAIK, otherwise it functions passively.
I dunno. Gotta go down the basement and practice that scenario on my cobbled together 777 simulator.
It would be interesting to see what kind of flights the pilot was doing on his home simulator.
It would have been possible for them to find out if the flight was delayed before they went green for the operation. Simple phone call to someone at the airport.
What would need to happen to make it full crazy is to get a foreign student ID and then have the year book and the publisher of a senseless biography write that the person was born in a foreign country and never mention it or seek to correct it.
How could a 777 follow another Plane so closely without Wake Turbulence being a Factor.?
If you read the “theory” then flight mh370 could have used the transponder in the other plane to establish a vector to that plane and come up behind it. Apparently, according to the theory, these planes have some means of telemetry to avoid collision, the theory is they used this to precisely hone in. MH370’s transponder being off the other plane would never know it had a tailing plane.
Some recreational boats have arrays that can establish the direction of a radio transmission, you only need they antennas in a triangular pattern and exacting time measure for each signal received.
I read that it first went up to 45,000 ft for a while
Is there enough oxygen for the passengers at that altitude?
Yes it takes practice. The biggest problem with the theory is that at night, it would be very hard to track down the singapore jet; especially with the transponder turned off. With the transponder on they could track the singapore jet with TCAS up to about 30 miles. With the transponder turned off, it would not be so easy.
Above and slighty behind.
Follow it from slightly above and slightly to its right.
I can assure you that no transatlantic flight crew looks behind them.
Lights out in the cabin and nav lights off, no passenger on the tracked aircraft would see it.
As for how close he could hold it to the tracked aircraft, he had a large non radar area to practice before he got to an air defense zone, that is if what I have read is correct.
Maybe it went down like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUiYztXpbDQ
Using the transponder to track down the plane to tail behind => It’s the same principle by which a cell phone tower can approximate the location of you cell phone. Capture the signal from three points (an antenna array) and it’s just physics and trigonometry to calculate you location.
“How could a 777 follow another Plane so closely without Wake Turbulence being a Factor.?”
Excellent question, Mr. Linville. The vortices coming off the wingtips travel out and down. You would be out of the vortices if you were directly behind or slightly above the preceding aircraft.
“Wake Turbulence” opened for Boston back in the day
Listening on departure and center frequencies would get him close, and if he studied this for weeks ahead, he could listen to the center and aircraft transmissions and develop a plan.
Actually, this had occurred to me as well, independently. ATC primary radar and a lot of surveillance radar have about 1 microseconds = 150 meters ~ 500 feet (two way ranging time) resolution. Two aircraft separated by less than 500 feet in range, will look like one aircraft to the radar. The primary radar is the only way to detect an aircraft without a transponder. Flying 500 feed directly below and slightly behind the other aircraft, he’d probably be undetectable.
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