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 ...
Sarah heard it on ABC, then it disappeared:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3132052/posts?page=360#360
I can’t find it; looks like it was sanitized/scrubbed. I’ve only tried Google.
If they bought their tickets together, which I do not know, then it surely smells like a terror plan to hijack/crash the aircraft.
There’s some 3 day cooked-down Sudafed bender nutjobbery going on in here alright.
Military radar assumedly paints civilian aircraft each revolution of the transmit antenna, and unless Malaysia has phased array technology, it can be minutes between sweeps.
I also assume Malaysia has the ability to recall radar data for review, on demand.
Media reports had the US searching west of Malaysia, Sunday or Monday, and the US didn’t comment, or deny those reports, at any point since.
That indicates to me that Malaysian radar replays were persuasive enough for the US command to allocate resources to searching the Malacca Strait.
Its possible Malaysia got it wrong, between ssweeps, picked up a different aircraft, and the US allocated search assets just in case.
It’s also possible Malaysia got it right, which has some support in that the US mentioned “thorough” sat coverage not showing any explosion, and/or splash, no debris found yet, etc.
If that aircraft turned west, lost altitude, and went silent all at once, foul play is almost certain. From there, lack of official comment makes perfect sense. Officials would be looking to mount a potential rescue of the passengers, or would be aware a potential 9/11 style weapon was on the loose.
This is why I stopped speculating earlier today, until the media caught up with this thinking.
If the goal was to capture a large commercial aircraft, the planning would include an attempt to break civilian and military contact from the plane, pilot controlled, autonomous, and passenger initiated. Some sort of maneuver, altitude, heading, speed changes, or more likely all three.
If operational concerns required overflying Malaysia, yet another attempt to break contact would be likely, after clearing Malaysian airspace, which is what we are being told has happened.
From there, there are at least three possibilities. An ocean crash outside the area of second lost contact, evasion of additional surveillance and a landing, or evasion followed by a crash on land.
Until the aircraft or debris is located, additional information will be close hold, pending a potential rescue or, recapturing the plane, or its deliberate destruction. If any officianls know where it is, they would remain silent, until it was secured, and quite possibly even.....
However...there was a clear attempt to deny the public information regarding radar tracking after the initial loss of contact, but that info eventually emerged. Secrets are hard to keep for long.
A dangerous adversary would prolong options, possibly including live passengers, unless they thought the risks outweighed the bargaining leverage.
A solid plan would have to assume eventual discovery, and either hide the aircraft well, or use it for its intended purpose as quickly as possible.
It hasn’t been used yet. The longer it remains missing, the more likely I consider a crash, or an error on the part of Malaysian radar interpretation.
Thank you. And now it’s time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode. (BOOM)!
CC
The islamists must have collected all cell phones from passengers.
“I thought that if the transponder was turned off, it triggered an automatic hijack alert.”
No, that is not true. There are three emergency codes that can be placed on a transponder. 7700 for emergency. 7600 for lost communications. 7500 for hijacking.
Turning the transponder off eliminates the response from the aircraft to the ground based radar and now the radar just paints a return from the aircraft’s skin.
Damn funny. And damn we are old.
Has this been posted yet?
Snip
Accordingly, pursuant to the authority delegated to me by the Administrator, the following special conditions are issued as part of the type certification basis for Boeing Model 777-200, -300, -300ER series airplanes modified by The Boeing Company.Show citation box
1. The applicant must ensure that the design provides isolation from, or airplane electronic system security protection against, access by unauthorized sources internal to the airplane. The design must prevent inadvertent and malicious changes to, and all adverse impacts upon, airplane equipment, systems, networks, or other assets required for safe flight and operations.
2. The applicant must establish appropriate procedures to enable the operator to ensure that continued airworthiness of the aircraft is maintained, including all post STC modifications that may have an impact on the approved electronic system security safeguards.
More at link
Nor over the ocean.
TO DITCH THE AIRCRAFT IN THE DEEPEST WATERS THEY COULD FIND. The depth off Malaysia/Vietnam wasn't deep enough and deeper waters would make recovery more difficult.
Why?
Oy vey! Indonesia again? So we’ve a flight from Malaysia to China that was last seen south of Vietnam, with two Iranian guys on board with passports stolen in Thailand.
But hey Indonesia is full of Muslims so it must be somehow linked to Indonesia right?
I do appreciate FreeRepublic hates Indonesia because Obama lived there as a kid but can we give them a break this time? There’s enough blame to go around on this missing plane but I’m betting it’s not got anything to do with Indonesia.
Well, except for the fact that the Malaysian military now says the flight basically did a 180 towards Indonesia (and Banda Aceh), nothing at all.
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