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 ...
While I too want a well trained and educated pilot, driving the plane, I also appreciate a well trained and educated doctor, if I ever need one for medical care.
But would I expect to find, or even consider it normal, for a doctor to have an operating room in their home? No!
Nor do I expect, or do I find it normal, for a pilot to have a decked out pilot simulation set up at home.
Because now the first priority is to fly the plane then make the call when you get everything back under control. Mayday calls have been moved down on the list so as to not distract the flight crew from the immediate problems.
Because a flight engineer with a laptop could disable everything, system by system. He’d be ‘remote’ flying the craft from inside the cockpit.
No
.....................Mine: Plane was headed for Diego Garcia. It was intercepted and shot down. This happened during several golf games that included some precise mulligans. The specifics are sealed forever. Next EO?................
And what nappy headed pussy would ever give those orders???????????????????
That may not be policy for Air France.
It certainly points to the pilots, but not because they are Muslim. Malaysia is one of the large Muslim nations in the world. Approximately 65% are Muslim adherents, or around 19.5 million people, as of 2013. Article 3 of the Constitution of Malaysia establishes Islam as the “religion of the Federation”. It would be surprising to find a pilot who was NOT Muslim, in this Muslim nation! [ ... although I’m sure you could find a few ... ]
I have a question about flight operations. Can someone who is knowledgeable answer this?
When a plane appears on air traffic control radar, there is a little identifying number next to the green blip. This number indicates the airline and flight number or type, doesn’t it? The air traffic controllers can tell from this number the type of plane they’re dealing with, can’t they?
Is it possible to in some way change this number, and thus change the identification of the plane to something innocuous?
If it’s possible to change this number, then the hijacked plane could have flown at very low altitude to hide from radar, and when it crossed over land and came in contact with some city’s air traffic control, it would show up as something normal in the ordinary air routes, transiting the region on its way to a fake destination. If the Malaysia plane shows up on the New Delhi radar as (let us say) Japan Air Lines flight 5527, then surely New Delhi air traffic control will just say, “JAL 5527 heavy, proceed on course 174 at 38000,” or whatever they say. So the Malaysian plane is in disguise and is crossing Indian airspace on its way to Jihadistan without having Indian F-18s go up to check it out. It looks legit.
Is any of this possible?
Is this possible?
Looks like whoever did this wanted to kill everybody else first. One can program quietly while others sleep. Put the plane in a neutral turn. Put on oxygen, set the plane into a climb, and voila.
I’ve already read from some Freeper pilots (airline pilots) who have not found this to be unusual in their own estimation. So, what I can say is (at the most) is that some apparently find this to be unusual while other airline pilots don’t find this to be unusual.
Well ... this goes a long way in confirming my perception that France is out of touch with reality ... :-) ...
...........................or would the pilot just take the plane off of auto pilot and start flying back to an airport, any airport in the immediate area.................
Yeah, I guess so, but only if he had a giant lollipop in his mouth, so that he couldn’t have turned on the dead Comm system to at least say:
Ah Num’s Num turn, num yum slurp rt yum slurp 270, up to yum num slurp 45k, and yum kill slurp all the bast-slurp by
not having their own yum/num-slurp oxy-num cough!
many thanks, I saw mention of computer diversion on the CNN report tonight; they got it from the NYT.
Question was tweeted to CNN (paraphrased):
“could #370 have ‘shadowed’ the (singapore airliner) in order to evade the radar?”
I didn’t catch the answer; no closed captions >:( )
The pilot’s name is Zaharie Ahmad Shah, but I think his nickname was Surely.
Absolutely. (Although probably not course 174 — there be nothing but hungry sharks thataway.)
The Times of India ran an interesting analysis this past day:
Hiding in full view?
The northeast-bound jet now took a northwestern route from Kota Bahru in eastern Malaysia to Penang Island. It was last detected on military radar around 200 miles northwest of Penang.
Even that act of going off course may not have caused alarm at first if it was handled gradually, pilots said.
"Nobody pays attention to these things unless they are aware of the direction that the aircraft was heading in," said one first officer who has flown with Malaysia Airlines.
The airline said it had reconstructed the event in a simulator to try to figure out how the jet vanished and kept flying for what may have been more than seven hours.
Pilots say whoever was then in control may have kept the radio on in silent mode to hear what was going on around him, but would have avoided restarting the transponder at all costs.
"That would immediately make the aircraft visible ... like a bright light. Your registration, height, altitude and speed would all become visible," said an airline captain.
After casting off its identity, the aircraft set investigators a puzzle that has yet to be solved. It veered either northwards or southwards, within an hour's flying time of arcs stretching from the Caspian to the southern Indian Ocean.
The best way to avoid the attention of military radars would have been to fly at a fixed altitude, on a recognised flight path and at cruising speed without changing course, pilots say.
Malaysian officials dismissed as speculation reports that the jet may have flown at low altitude to avoid detection.
But pilots said the best chance of feeling its way through the well-defended northern route would have been to hide in full view of military radar inside commercial lanes — raising awkward questions over security in several parts of the Asia-Pacific.
"The military radar controllers would have seen him moving on a fixed line, figured that it was a commercial aircraft at a high altitude, and not really a danger especially if he was on a recognised flight path," said one pilot.
"Some countries would ask you to identify yourself, but you are flying through the night and that is the time when the least attention is being paid to unidentified aircraft. As long as the aircraft is not flying towards a military target or point, they may not bother with you."
It would be easier to simply turn it off and get right behind another scheduled airliner who was already flying across India. There was a Singapore Airlines plane doing that very thing at the very time and place where this Malaysian Airlines plane crossed its path and could have very easily gotten right behind it.
In that scenario, there’s no need for any other knowledge than simply switching it off.
Yep
Israel is on top of it. I hope our security people are too.
If what he saw was the plane, then it is long gone, and everyone is on a wild goose chase.
er, in the library with Mr. Green and a candlestick?
o will claim it was because the on flight movie was Innocence of Muslims.
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