Possible bad news for a B777 [Malaysian MH370]

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The_Viper

Well-known member
Oct 10, 2010
4,345
Charlotte, NC
Close encounter of the third kind perhaps, be quite a story if they never find it.

If they do however, then I feel for their families, must be terrible.
 


Robot Chicken

Seriously?
Jul 5, 2003
13,154
Chicken World
unofficial news.....emergency landing at Nanning airport
 




Robot Chicken

Seriously?
Jul 5, 2003
13,154
Chicken World
Update: Did they land at Nanning?
Nope. Its from a fake source and local news picks it up.
 




Captain Sensible

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
6,437
Not the real one
Most likely scenarios are a fire on board that got out of hand, a rapid decompression or fuel issue (especially from Beijing). Out if those both the fuel issue and fire would have alerted air traffic a pan would have been declared or if more serious a mayday. Yet it seems to have dropped off the map with no warning. I'd go for a rapid decompression which would either bring the plane down or cause everyone on board to pass out hence no calls for help.
It all depends how quickly the incident happened, determining whether the flight crew even had time to declare an emergency. God help them.
 




Bry Nylon

Test your smoke alarm
Helpful Moderator
Jul 21, 2003
20,573
Playing snooker
Most likely scenarios are a fire on board that got out of hand, a rapid decompression or fuel issue (especially from Beijing). Out if those both the fuel issue and fire would have alerted air traffic a pan would have been declared or if more serious a mayday. Yet it seems to have dropped off the map with no warning.

I would have thought a far more likely explanation is a terrorist bomb on board, linked to the organisation behind recent terrorist attacks at Kunming railway station and Tiananamn Square.
 






Captain Sensible

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
6,437
Not the real one
I doubt it was a bomb but terrorism is a possible explanation. Even so a bomb would cause rapid decompression, along with other issues depending on the size and location of it. As the plane seems to have ditched into the sea and not been blown to pieces in mid air, I take it the aircraft was largely in-tacked. Therefore some kind of rapid decompression causing loss of consciousness and maybe other serious issues like communication and hydraulic failure, could have been caused by a bomb or other kind of explosion. There's such a huge amount of factors, some will come out immediately and most within the year but some things we may never know. 777's are good aircraft with back after back up systems. However unlike airbus, Boeing does allow the pilot to fly manually. Airbus is like an expensive car, the auto override systems are never off. The computers can take over at any moment. I'm not saying pilot error but at least airbus does not allow much room for pilot error, where as a Boeing you are entirely at the mercy of the pilot, if they wish to fly manually. Interesting debate over the future of piloting commercial aeroplanes is being had, at the moment, I'm on the airbus school of thought.
 


7:18

Brighton & Hove Albion
Aug 6, 2006
8,488
Brighton, England
very, very bizzarre...hope they are found ok but not looking good...
 




dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Mar 27, 2013
55,533
Burgess Hill
Desperate for the families involved. Doesn't appear to be a lot of official news available yet other than it's missing. B777 safety record is astonishingly good (no fatalities in 20 years until San Fran incident last year where 3 died).
 


Superseagull

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
2,123
Desperate for the families involved. Doesn't appear to be a lot of official news available yet other than it's missing. B777 safety record is astonishingly good (no fatalities in 20 years until San Fran incident last year where 3 died).

And I think that crash was down to pilot error rather than the aircraft.
 


PILTDOWN MAN

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 15, 2004
19,595
Hurst Green
The school of thought that doesn't take into account the ability when, ultimately necessary allows the pilot to take the aircraft beyond its flying envelope and possibly save the people and the aircraft. The airbus doesn't allow this. Being fly by wire it does so by logic.
 




Captain Sensible

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
6,437
Not the real one
The debate on that is ever on going. Personally, yes you are right that a pilot could take an aircraft beyond its parameters as in the Hudson River incident, however more and more pilots are trained without a military background and ultimately just follow the guides in emergency cases and do not deviate from that which is written down. Pilot error has outweighed instances when the aircraft through its safety systems (Airbus), has not allowed a pilot to save that aircraft by flying manually. The last 777 accident in SFO was pilot error, it may not have happened on an airbus. Also I doubt computer systems are capable of driving a wing into a building as a BA 747 did in Johannesburg. The Qantas A380 incident in Singapore is a prime example where the pilots workload was massively reduced due to back up systems that kept the aircraft stable even though it suffered major hydraulic failure. So in my view as new aircraft are designed by and limits set by computers, that computers ultimately prevent pilot error. However it is a debate in which no one is correct.
 




Shropshire Seagull

Well-known member
Nov 5, 2004
8,787
Telford
To disappear from radar with no [time for a] distress call usually indicates catastrophic mid-air air frame failure.
Even with rapid decompression, pilots have access to oxygen. Plus, they would most probably have been on auto pilot so even with minor decompression, the aircraft would still continue to fly.

The Lockerbie PanAm 747 suffered catastrophic mid-air air frame failure which gave no time for the crew to mayday.
There was an Air France airbus that crashed into the Atlantic flying from South America back to Paris. The investigation was completed when they eventually found the flight recorders - junior pilot error [trying to fly through bad weather]. However, as the investigation identified, in the middle of the Atlantic, there are no radar areas.
 








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