Malaysia Airlines MH370

... and if I had to put money on it, I'd say they did.

none of this makes sense. If this was a suicide mission driven by politics, it would have been faster and easier to just take off and crash the plane into Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital, which is just a 15 min drive away from KLIA. it also doesn't explain why the pilot(s) chose to keep on flying for 7 hours instead of just downing the plane once they reached open ocean.

if it went up north, passing by the airspaces of at least four different countries, why didn't one of those countries notice or investigate an unidentified aircraft flying by? now you're talking about a multinational conspiracy... -someone- must have seen or heard something. it feels like every theory being explored has a counter-explanation rendering it moot.

So what ARE the possibilities if it didn't explode in mid air and crashed at the same spot?

- was hijacked or taken over by crew/captain/someone & crashed somewhere in water, everyone dead (possible survivors probably dead by now)
- was hijacked or taken over by crew/captain/someone & crashed somewhere over land, everyone dead instantly
- was hijacked or taken over by crew/captain/someone & crashed somewhere over land, some still alive
- accidentally shot down & covered up, never to be revealed until accidentally discovered, everyone dead
- purposefully shot down & covered up, never to be revealed until accidentally discovered, everyone dead
- was hijacked and landed somewhere safely, everyone now captured (plane to be sold/used for scrap parts/used for a future attack?)
- was hijacked and landed somewhere safely, everyone now executed (plane to be sold/used for scrap parts/used for a future attack?)

The last four seem to require some preplanning and help from an external party/country/organisation, the first three maybe less so.

Anything else?

Has hypoxia been ruled out? The crew getting confused through lack of oxygen and making strange decisions has been suggested. The fact that none of this makes sense any way you seem to look at it might point to a lack of rational actors.

Hypoxia doesn't explain ACARS and both transponders being turned off at different times, or the aircraft flying low enough to escape radar detection. the plane would have also crashed long before the last satellite contact time of 8.11am.

ok, those also exclude it being shot down imo

a plane flown by someone who is desperate/crazy is much more likely to crash just by accident

They didn't have to do it all manually, the auto pilot just needs to be given new waypoints (which a mere mortal without a pilot's training wouldn't know how to do) - source: a representative from our national airport said this in an interview a couple of days ago.

Yeah, given what we think we know, it seems unlikely whatever happened was the result of some impulsive/irrational hijacker. There's a degree of deliberateness to this, what with turning off the GPS system and whatnot.

And now there's this:

A signaling system was disabled on the missing Malaysia Airlines jet before a pilot spoke to Malaysian air traffic control without hinting at any trouble, a senior Malaysian official said Sunday

Patrick Smith on transponders:

Second, some clarity, please, on the topic of transponders. The media is throwing this term around without a full understanding of how the equipment works. For position reporting and traffic sequencing purposes, transponders only work in areas of typical ATC radar coverage. Most of the world, including the oceans, does not have ATC radar coverage. Transponders are relevant to this story only if and when the missing plane was very close to land. Once over the ocean, it didn’t matter anyway. Over oceans and non-radar areas, OTHER means are used for position reports and tracking/communicating (satcomm, datalink, etc.), not transponders.

Readers also have been asking why the capability exists to switch off a transponder. In fact very few of a plane’s components are hot-wired to be, as you might say, “always on.” In the interest of safety — namely, fire and electrical system protection — it’s important to have the ability to isolate a piece of equipment, either by a standard switch or, if need be, through a circuit breaker. Also transponders will occasionally malfunction and transmit erroneous or incomplete data, at which point a crew will recycle the device — switching it off, then on — or swap to another unit. Typically at least two transponders are onboard, and you can’t run both simultaneously. Bear in mind too that switching the unit “off” might refer to only one of the various subfunctions, or “modes” — for example, mode C, mode S — responsible for different data.

As long as it isn't found, every single news report/statement/interview regarding what might have happened should end in "unless..." I think. Unless...

A signaling system was disabled on the missing Malaysia Airlines jet before a pilot spoke to Malaysian air traffic control without hinting at any trouble, a senior Malaysian official said Sunday

yep our transport minister confirmed this in the press conference - ACARS was switched off before ATC received the last words from the cockpit ("Alright, goodnight").

a military source told us they believe the plane flew towards the Bay of Bengal, going as low as 5,000 ft. Over water that's fine, but it gets a lot more hazardous once it crosses into land, at night. plus, at that altitude, they'd lose about two hours of fuel (says my ex-pilot dad), which means they must have landed somewhere to refuel if the 8.11am satellite ping is correct.

Unless....

http://www.pisau.net/russia-puzzled-over-malaysia-airlines-mh370-capture-by-us-navy-prayformh370/

Wtf? Is this like fan fiction or something?

russian media been in overdrive anti-american propaganda of late. huge huge lol at description of nsf diego garcia as 'vast'.

Wow, I always get amazed when I see media that outright lies to its citizens like that, though I shouldnt in this day and age I suppose.

*cough*rupert murdoch*cough*

i love the passive agressiveness of it - 'malaysia airlines mh370: what happened? i'm confused'

The source is this:

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com

not Russian media, afaict.

http://www.boston.com/2014/03/14/potentially-legitimate-theories-the-missing-malaysia-airlines-flight/d8siKbMiJKfKhc1TvZjtrK/singlepage.html

Except that a meteor wouldn't have turned off transponders separately.

ah, just regular old conspiracy theorists. i'd seen some things from russian tv earlier today that were right in line w/ that craziness.

http://www.bigbreakingnews.com/2014/03/luggage-found-floating-at-sea-possibly.html ?

... but what about the satellite pings six hours later, then? Unless...

Every news link relating to this story should end in possibly.html

Definitely gonna trust "bigbreakingnews.com"

can anyone translate this - http://www.gazzetta.gr/plus/article/596555/kanena-ihnos-apo-boeing

it's greek to me

Bigbreakingnews do include their sources though: greek news sites (boat that was on its way is greek).

But floating luggage near where contact was lost wouldn't explain everything after. Can planes fly on if their luggage compartment is open or gone?

Twitter for latest news? -> Elka Athina is the ship's name. (But they should be there by now)

Yeah man I mean at this point I wouldn't be surprised if the big break came from BigBreakingNews.com

xp

http://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9249116

you have just doomed me to so much unproductivity

http://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=8987577

If they find the plane there that's south of KL, and makes a 'pilots suffering from hypoxia, try to turn the plane around back to KL, pass out before successful + plane overshoots KL and crashes into strait' scenario at least somewhat plausible

http://t.co/G2yhCrRFBZ

A+ british tabloiding there.

"outrageously funny stories"

"A plane can't just disappear" :

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1681260/thumbs/o-MISSING-PLANES-INFOGRAPHIC-900.jpg

Did this get posted? I thought it was pretty interesting speculation from a pilot:

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z13cv1gohsmbv5jmy221vrfyiz3vdhbop04

More Patrick Smith:

If indeed this was a hijacking, did the plane land somewhere, as some are suggesting, possibly to be used later as an airborne weapon of some kind, perhaps loaded with a nuclear or biological weapon? I seriously doubt it. I suspect, instead, the plane crashed into the ocean, and will be found there eventually. Remote as some airports are, none are small or unwatched enough to accept a Boeing 777 without it being obvious. And I can’t imagine a terrorist cabal incompetent enough to attempt to steal a commercial jetliner full of people, drawing the entire world’s attention to their plans. There are hundreds if not thousands of business jets and cargo planes out there, traveling the world more or less anonymously, that would be equally suited to such a scheme.

Did this get posted? I thought it was pretty interesting speculation from a pilot:

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z13cv1gohsmbv5jmy221vrfyiz3vdhbop04

― polyphonic, Monday, March 17, 2014 11:56 AM (2 hours ago)

That blogger's views/experience seems dated as 777 comms are quad redundant to prevent total comms shutdown as he describes.

Also, the ACARS/transponders were shut off prior to the last comms with KL ATC, not after (contrary to his major reveal).

Comic relief or finally an answer:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/has_courtney_love_found_flight_370

came here to post that. it's just too good

xxp my understanding as of now is that the acars last transmitted before the "good night" message, and then stopped sometime within half an hour of that transmission (as it automatically broadcasts at 30 min intervals). whether that happened before or after the voice message is not known.
or did i miss something?

and i believe the transponder shut off was after the last voice message.

^^^I think that I've been confused by the shifting timeline provided by the Malaysian govt.

Newest breaking tidbit:

Senior U.S. officials said Monday that the first diversion that the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 made toward the west before it went missing on March 8 was initiated by someone from inside the cockpit through a computer program, the New York Times reported.

Citing senior American officials involved in the investigation of the missing plane, the Times reported that a person inside the cockpit typed several keystrokes into the plane's computer between the captain and the first officer. This computer directs the plane from one point to another according to the flight plan, which is submitted before take-off. But, it is still not clear if the plane’s flight plan was reprogrammed before it left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board.

I should have just linked to the real source (good article):

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight.html

Another good detailed article breaking the news that Zaharie's flight simulator had underwater practice runways near the Indian Ocean:

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/cops-find-five-indian-ocean-practice-runways-in-mh370-pilots-simulator-bh-r

If that's true & it was an intentional hijacking by Zaharie then that's pretty sloppy of him

I still dont get why a hijacking would be an option if no one at all has come fwd and owned this. Whats the point?

If it's just one guy who wants to move to North Korea/run away from his problems/sell the plane/etc it wouldn't be claimed by an organisation?