Missing Air Malaysia Plane

[rogerch]

My understanding is that it had enough fuel to fly another 4 hours, not that it necessarily did.

[Mark Blanchard]

New reports say the data received from Rolls Royce showed the engines ran for another 4 hours.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Mark B

[ramjet]

Channel 7 news ran a special here on the flight. We watched it as you would like to think that it will say something worthwhile.

 

Mostly, they regurgitated what is already known or what has turned up on forums across the world. 9/11 got a mention. Lockerbie got a mention. The Hudson River landing got a mention and the plane that was hijacked that tried to fly to Australia which crashed into the sea when it ran out of fuel got a mention. As did the wing damage on this particular jet.

 

Unfortunately, I thought the special was just a bit tabloidy as has been happening with Channel 7 for quite a few years now.

 

Oh and on some Hollywood website, or something like that, 57.3% of the poll respondents answered 'yes' to 'Was flight 370 abducted by aliens?'

[auRouge]

New reports say the data received from Rolls Royce showed the engines ran for another 4 hours.

Speculation is a funny thing. Bear in mind that Airline employees and their suppliers are contractually bound not to discuss anything with the press after an event.

B777 might statistically be the safest aircraft in the world but tell that to the owners of Asiana and BA.

If RR statement is true then It proves the aircraft must have been ACARS equipped (with it serviceable) and Malaysian Airlines a subscriber to it! However Reuters reported two days ago that ACARS stop transmitting after the transponder was switched off... Conflicting reports already. Like I said, anyone with "real" information is bound not to say anything. A team will have been assembled at the airline (like a Cobra unit in government) and they control what they want the world to know in conjunction with the authorities.

If ACARS was working they will have a lot of data there that could rule out technical issues. ACARS focused the Air France A330 crash in the Atlantic. Pilot error in that case.

Remember this B737 loosing radio contact and then crashing for no reason...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SilkAir_Flight_185

SKY News loves sensationalising tragic events. I can't help but wonder if this is respectful or not. This isn't Bruce Willis in "Die Hard 10 Airliner Down" for Pete's sake!

Absolutely gutting for families involved.

Let's hope the Press and public forums tread carefully.

[redshift]

I think the last ACARS report was a good quarter of an hour before the ADS-B was lost. ADS-B is reporting around twice a seconds whereas the ACARS is only reporting when it has an event (pre-programmed or otherwise) to transmit. The range of either is quite limited so I just have doubts about this claim that RR have information about the engines running hours later.

Only time will tell.

[basalte]

Catastrophic loss of cabin pressure is the "latest" theory..there have been examples of planes flying for some time after all on board are unconscious / dead which might-I say might-explain the engines "running on" and any strange deviations from the route.

[Bibs]

They all have oxygen, some of it independently generated. Had the pilots O2 not worked, surely some system or autopilot would take over to their destination, planes can even autoland on moving aircraft carriers today.

 

Had the pilots O2 exploded under the cockpit at altitude, there would be a lot of debris.

[molemot]

Loss of cabin pressure is a standard emergency procedure...oxygen masks are deployed in the cabin and the flight crew have their own, rather more sophisticated masks. Then the aeroplane descends rapidly to a level where you don't need oxygen...typically below 10,000 feet, 8000 feet is the normal pressurised cabin altitude iirc. No chance of autoland or auto approach of any sort unless the flight deck crew are around to initiate it....can't be done remotely afaik. If the aircraft was on autopilot, then it should have maintained altitude and heading.

[auRouge]

Sudden loss of pressure definitely a plausible reason but the sort of thing you practice regularly in the simulator and tbh should be a relatively easy manoeuvre for an experienced crew of a wide body aircraft. One of the memory items for a crew, usually the pilot not flying is to transmit 7700 on the transponder and put out a distress call out. Ships, other airliners would have all heard the distress message...

If the crew screwed that up we'd all be shocked. However to balance that statement approximately 70% of accidents are apparently human/pilot error... Gulp!

Even Capt Sully and his F/O forgot to push the "Ditching Button" on their A320 in the Hudson... They were lucky his flying skills and the conditions were so good... Malaysian, it would appear were not so lucky :-(

For info:-

Oxygen masks normally deploy automatically when the cabin reaches 14,000ft and breathing becomes an issue.. and that's if the Flight Deck haven't already deployed them.

[Bibs]

Perhaps he thought he was on a Boeing and forgot it was there! 

 

Just saying, but it's almost a week since this massive plane and 239 people disappearing into thin air. We can see the edge of the universe, read papers from space, time travel but can't find this?

 

Makes

no

sense.

[Vulcan Grey]

Rapid or gradual decompression has happened, and oxygen didn't deploy in all cases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontrolled_decompression#Notable_decompression_accidents_and_incidents

 

737 gradual decompression, all died in 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522

[Bibs]

You would think lessons were learned....

[Vulcan Grey]

One would think...  But then there is that old saying "history repeats itself"

[Vulcan Grey]

Have you read the report of what happened on AF Flight 447?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447

http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flight.af.447/rapport.final.en.php

 

The sheer amount of pilot errors, training problems, and design judgement errors that contributed to the crash of that flight are scary!

[Bibs]

Someone's military radar shows this as the last track...

 

[Kimbers]

Weird!

[ramjet]

Malaysia PM makes a statement.

 

We're back to it was the pilots.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/world/asia/pilot-and-first-officer-newly-scrutinized-in-planes-disappearance.html?_r=0

[Bibs]

Surely a pilot having a flight simulator isn't that much of a surprise?

[ramjet]

I though agencies had sorted themselves out to work together when this sort of thing happened.

 

Maybe still not sorted out between countries.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight.html?action=click&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

[Bibs]

It's funny that the papers/whoever think he had the flight sim to work out if he could turn off the ACARS etc. The guy flies the plane every day, knows it inside out and upside down and can read the words on the circuit breaker panel or whatever they have on them nowadays. I'm not sure a computer game will be giving him more insight than the real thing.

[Sparky]

Those whose theories were ridiculed just a few days ago are now being taken very seriously.  It was obvious that this was a deliberate act, and I believe the authorities were aware of this pretty much from the start.

[ramjet]

The pilot now being described as a political fanatic on the news

[Bibs]

He was involved in Simulator Training for the airline, they probably even funded that equipment!

 

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/535538-malaysian-airlines-mh370-contact-lost.html

 

230 odd pages on pprune. Some laughable bs but some excellent insight. I've read the last 20 pages and they seem convinced it was a robbery at the moment! As time goes it it's more and more likely it's at the bottom of a very deep ocean. 

[Bibs]

According to today's press the pilot was an obsessive supporter of the opposition leader in Malaysia and he attended the trial where he was jailed hours before this flight. Bit of a political statement to hijack your own plane and it's passengers and crew but might explain why the Malaysian govt are so unforthcoming with info if it's a political hostage taking... 

[ramjet]

We didn't get that explanation here, just the political fanatic comment.