Posted on 03/17/2014 6:59:33 PM PDT by kristinn
The first turn to the west that diverted the missing Malaysia Airlines plane from its planned flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was carried out through a computer system that was most likely programmed by someone in the plane’s cockpit who was knowledgeable about airplane systems, according to senior American officials.
Instead of manually operating the plane’s controls, whoever altered Flight 370’s path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer on a knee-high pedestal between the captain and the first officer, according to officials. The Flight Management System, as the computer is known, directs the plane from point to point specified in the flight plan submitted before each flight. It is not clear whether the plane’s path was reprogrammed before or after it took off.
The fact that the turn away from Beijing was programmed into the computer has reinforced the belief of investigators — first voiced by Malaysian officials — that the plane was deliberately diverted and that foul play was involved. It has also increased their focus on the plane’s captain and first officer.
SNIP
According to investigators, it appears that a waypoint was added to the planned route. Pilots do that in the ordinary course of flying if air traffic controllers tell them to take a different route, to avoid weather or traffic. But in this case, the waypoint was far off the path to Beijing.
Whoever changed the plane’s course would have had to be familiar with Boeing aircraft, though not necessarily the 777 — the type of plane that disappeared. American officials and aviation experts said it was far-fetched to believe that a passenger could have reprogrammed the Flight Management System.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
kristinn, I read somewhere there was a flight engineer on-board that night. Don’t have a link.
My prediction:
Captain stabbed the co-pilot, went nuts and crashed the plane into the Indian ocean.
Very good ... we’re getting more details all the time that show this was an exquisitely and impeccably planned event.
So it was the Captain, with a computer, in the cockpit is my “Clue” answer. But where’s the plane?
Oh great, now the TSA will ban laptops on planes.
Is there any way that someone could have entered the course direction into the computer from a remote location?
The computer that changed course was already built into the plane.
most likely = hell, if we know!
If it can connect to a network it can be hacked.
I heard about the flight engineer for the first time today on top-of-the-hour radio news.
So why have they been witholding this piece of info?
The article says there are two ways - the pilot and the airline. However if it was the airline, that would be quite a big conspiracy - saying that the airline wanted to divert its own plane. And ... if that sort of thing happened, with the pilot not being “in on it” - then he would take control and override the control.
In this case, you can be assured it came from the cockpit and that it was someone who knew very well how to handle the equipment.
To insure everyone’s safety - next TSA is going to ban passengers from planes, as well as pilots and flight crews.
I saw it reported before today.
More details than what was on Kelly tonight on FOX
(Reuters) - Malaysian police are investigating a flight engineer who was among the
passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane as they focus on the pilots and anyone
else on board who had technical flying knowledge, a senior police official said.
The aviation engineer is Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, 29, a Malaysian who has said on
social media he had worked for a private jet charter company.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/17/malaysia-airlines-engineer-idUSL2N0ME04O20140317
The change in course wasn’t from a laptop computer ... :-) ...
That’s a good idea! Then the TSA can shut itself down and turn out the lights at the airports.
So this FO was on the pax manifest?
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