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Possible bad news for a B777 [Malaysian MH370]







Theatre of Trees

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
7,838
TQ2905
What if, the ACARS system was shut down by the fire before the Pilot radioed "Good night" to Malay ATC, then on realisation of the fire he shut down everything electrical he could, including transponder, while making the turn.

I have no idea, but this at least sounds rational, and that's the way my brain likes things.

Reading that pilots rumour website they note that the authorities are saying it was disabled, the inference being that it went through a sequence to do so. Similar in theory between a PC being closed down and losing power due to a power cut - when you switch back on after the latter it asks you about not shutting down properly.
 


keaton

Big heart, hot blood and balls. Big balls
Nov 18, 2004
9,972
Why is the pilot telling online people to share it rather than contacting a media source. There are hundreds of papers and websites looking for a new angle on this, surely if he was an experienced pilot and it was that straightforward they'd believe him?
 




Badger

NOT the Honey Badger
NSC Patron
May 8, 2007
13,103
Toronto
We need to get Jonathon Creek on the case, he's usually quite good at solving these mysteries.
 






Greavsey

Well-known member
Jul 4, 2007
1,166






Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ

Hove / Παρος
Apr 7, 2006
6,769
Hove / Παρος


TomandJerry

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2013
12,323
"Two MILLION square miles to be searched, 26 countries involved - and still not a trace of Flight MH370: hunt for the missing plane stretches from Kazakhstan to Southern Ocean"
 




SeagullinExile

Well-known member
Sep 10, 2010
6,190
London
cruise , colin farrell , jude law , don cheadle ....maybe even room for mr.winston , or chris hemsworth......:rave:

Ben Kingsley as the pilot?
 


beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,015
im liking the Hillan1 theory, with fire and detour. this explains why after signing off the transponder goes silent *after* the sharp turn. if you're evading detection, turn off the transponder then turn.

but i also like Bozza's Bond theory. i wasnt aware of the second turn - is this "confirmed" or speculation because the flight passes the other path?
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,341
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
im liking the Hillan1 theory, with fire and detour. this explains why after signing off the transponder goes silent *after* the sharp turn. if you're evading detection, turn off the transponder then turn.

but i also like Bozza's Bond theory. i wasnt aware of the second turn - is this "confirmed" or speculation because the flight passes the other path?

How about the extraordinary rendition via Diego Garcia involving the collusion of just about everyone for no apparent reason? No? Just hybrid? He must be some kind of incredible genius. I'm surprised he's not running the world*

*smoking a spliff and w*****g off in to a sock.
 






thedonkeycentrehalf

Moved back to wear the gloves (again)
Jul 7, 2003
9,340
chris goodfellow
Shared publicly - Mar 14, 2014

MH370 A different point of view. Pulau Langkawi 13,000 runway.

A lot of speculation about MH370. Terrorism, hijack, meteors. I cannot believe the analysis on CNN - almost disturbing. I tend to look for a more simple explanation of this event.

Loaded 777 departs midnight from Kuala to Beijing. Hot night. Heavy aircraft. About an hour out across the gulf towards Vietnam the plane goes dark meaning the transponder goes off and secondary radar tracking goes off.

Two days later we hear of reports that Malaysian military radar (which is a primary radar meaning the plane is being tracked by reflection rather than by transponder interrogation response) has tracked the plane on a southwesterly course back across the Malay Peninsula into the straits of Malacca.

When I heard this I immediately brought up Google Earth and I searched for airports in proximity to the track towards southwest.

The left turn is the key here. This was a very experienced senior Captain with 18,000 hours. Maybe some of the younger pilots interviewed on CNN didn't pick up on this left turn. We old pilots were always drilled to always know the closest airport of safe harbor while in cruise. Airports behind us, airports abeam us and airports ahead of us. Always in our head. Always. Because if something happens you don't want to be thinking what are you going to do - you already know what you are going to do. Instinctively when I saw that left turn with a direct heading I knew he was heading for an airport. Actually he was taking a direct route to Palau Langkawi a 13,000 foot strip with an approach over water at night with no obstacles. He did not turn back to Kuala Lampur because he knew he had 8,000 foot ridges to cross. He knew the terrain was friendlier towards Langkawi and also a shorter distance.

Take a look on Google Earth at this airport. This pilot did all the right things. He was confronted by some major event onboard that made him make that immediate turn back to the closest safe airport.
For me the loss of transponders and communications makes perfect sense if a fire. There was most likely a fire or electrical fire. In the case of fire the first response if to pull all the main busses and restore circuits one by one until you have isolated the bad one.


If they pulled the busses the plane indeed would go silent. It was probably a serious event and they simply were occupied with controlling the plane and trying to fight the fire. Aviate, Navigate and lastly communicate. There are two types of fires. Electrical might not be as fast and furious and there might or might not be incapacitating smoke. However there is the possibility given the timeline that perhaps there was an overheat on one of the front landing gear tires and it blew on takeoff and started slowly burning. Yes this happens with underinflated tires. Remember heavy plane, hot night, sea level, long run takeoff. There was a well known accident in Nigeria of a DC8 that had a landing gear fire on takeoff. A tire fire once going would produce horrific incapacitating smoke. Yes, pilots have access to oxygen masks but this is a no no with fire. Most have access to a smoke hood with a filter but this will only last for a few minutes depending on the smoke level. (I used to carry one of my own in a flight bag and I still carry one in my briefcase today when I fly).

What I think happened is that they were overcome by smoke and the plane just continued on the heading probably on George (autopilot) until either fuel exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed. I said four days ago you will find it along that route - looking elsewhere was pointless.

This pilot, as I say, was a hero struggling with an impossible situation trying to get that plane to Langkawi. No doubt in my mind. That's the reason for the turn and direct route. A hijack would not have made that deliberate left turn with a direct heading for Langkawi. It would probably have weaved around a bit until the hijackers decided on where they were taking it.

Surprisingly none of the reporters , officials, other pilots interviewed have looked at this from the pilot's viewpoint. If something went wrong where would he go? Thanks to Google earth I spotted Langkawi in about 30 seconds, zoomed in and saw how long the runway was and I just instinctively knew this pilot knew this airport. He had probably flown there many times. I guess we will eventually find out when you help me spread this theory on the net and some reporters finally take a look on Google earth and put 2 and 2 together. Also a look at the age and number of cycles on those nose tires might give us a good clue too.

Fire in an aircraft demands one thing - you get the machine on the ground as soon as possible. There are two well remembered experiences in my memory. The AirCanada DC9 which landed I believe in Columbus Ohio in the eighties. That pilot delayed descent and bypassed several airports. He didn't instinctively know the closest airports. He got it on the ground eventually but lost 30 odd souls. In the 1998 crash of Swissair DC-10 off Nova Scotia was another example of heroic pilots. They were 15 minutes out of Halifax but the fire simply overcame them and they had to ditch in the ocean. Just ran out of time. That fire incidentally started when the aircraft was about an hour out of Kennedy. Guess what the transponders and communications were shut off as they pulled the busses.


Get on Google Earth and type in Pulau Langkawi and then look at it in relation to the radar track heading. 2+2=4 That for me is the simple explanation why it turned and headed in that direction.

Smart pilot. Just didn't have the time.

Sensible though that sounds, as others have pointed out, you would usually ask for permission to land at an airport and, if there was some form of emergency, you would be requesting that the emergency services were ready when you landed. Also, why would they put the flight on autopilot as this would involve reconfiguring the flight computers? I thought that in an emergency it is the pilot and co-pilot who are flying the plane. Resetting all the data on the autopilot is not something that would be your first thought in an emergency.
 


beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,015
Sensible though that sounds, as others have pointed out, you would usually ask for permission to land at an airport and, if there was some form of emergency, you would be requesting that the emergency services were ready when you landed. Also, why would they put the flight on autopilot as this would involve reconfiguring the flight computers? I thought that in an emergency it is the pilot and co-pilot who are flying the plane. Resetting all the data on the autopilot is not something that would be your first thought in an emergency.

i read it in this scenario the radio communications are broken (by the fire or action to put out) and pilots are knocked out by the fire toxins soon after. the pilot has first reacted to the situation by changing course, then dealt with the fire. the plane then continues on new course with the autopilot keeping it steady until run out of fuel or the fire destroyed sufficient equipemnt that it crashes.
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,341
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
i read it in this scenario the radio communications are broken (by the fire or action to put out) and pilots are knocked out by the fire toxins soon after. the pilot has first reacted to the situation by changing course, then dealt with the fire. the plane then continues on new course with the autopilot keeping it steady until run out of fuel or the fire destroyed sufficient equipemnt that it crashes.

Me too
 




The Wizard

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2009
18,399
i read it in this scenario the radio communications are broken (by the fire or action to put out) and pilots are knocked out by the fire toxins soon after. the pilot has first reacted to the situation by changing course, then dealt with the fire. the plane then continues on new course with the autopilot keeping it steady until run out of fuel or the fire destroyed sufficient equipemnt that it crashes.

Another interesting theory. However, given they know how much fuel was on board that would make it fairly easy to ascertain the location ROUGHLY of the plane. I'm still of the opinion it's gone down in the ocean and not been found to be honest, although for no single trace to be found anywhere within 10 days is very strange I'll grant you..
 




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