Originally Posted By TomSawyer It does seem strange in this day and age that an airplane can just disappear. One of my favorite websites for wasting time is <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.marinetraffic.com/">http://www.marinetraffic.com/</a>, which shows the location of just about every commercial ship on the planet. Here is the Disney Dream, for example: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-79.97153/centery:27.91827/zoom:8/oldmmsi:311042900/olddate:lastknown">http://www.marinetraffic.com/e...astknown</a># Why aren't commercial flights tracked the same way? Why do we still rely on finding a black box in wreckage rather than having the plane's telemetry and black box-related info updated via satellite a couple of times a minute?
Originally Posted By ecdc <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/03/malaysia_airways_flight_370_disappearance_is_unlike_anything_in_aviation.html">http://www.slate.com/articles/...ion.html</a> Here's a good summary of just how a plane can vanish. It goes over the different systems used. This story is increasingly bizarre. I feel awful for the people on board and their families, and yet, I can't help be riveted by the mysteriousness of it all. The latest today is that evidence suggests tracking systems were shut off manually and the plane may have been hijacked. This is turning into some next level James Bond-style stuff. <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-malaysia-airlines-radar-exclusive-idUSBREA2D0DG20140314">http://www.reuters.com/article...20140314</a>
Originally Posted By skinnerbox I'm in the camp for the hijacking theory, that there are plans to use the plane for some other purpose at a later date. Imagine the payload of chemicals that a 777 could hold, especially the kind that can be detonated.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 God, what an awful thought. It's enough to make me hope they find the wreckage.
Originally Posted By ecdc That's just it. That's an *extremely* disturbing scenario. They need to find this plane sooner rather than later.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 I've heard reports that the engines which are Rolls Royce and I want say GE "talk" to a computer and when the plane disappeared the engines were still "talking" They've also said the cell phone signals were never lost.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer With the ongoing transponder and communication signals and the change in course, and the lack of any group claiming credit for a kidnapping, makes this all seem rather nefarious. But then why not hijack an intercontinental cargo plane, instead? There would still be a search but nothing on the scale of this. It would be a lot easier to get on board a cargo plane and take it over without having to worry about 240 potential heroes in the back. The only reason to take a passenger plane for some sort of operation is if you need hostages or if you happen to be part of that plane's crew.
Originally Posted By hopemax I'm having a hard time jumping on any of the conspiracy theories. I still just think it was a cascading set of electrical/mechanical failures. Maybe not something instantaneously catastrophic which allowed the pilots some time to make decisions that resulted in the plane not being where they thought it should be. But IMO, the plane is in tiny bits, somewhere in a very big search area. Transponders being turned off is suspicious, but knowing something is "suspicious" also makes it a good breadcrumb. "Someone will notice this." Or it was simply part of the failures. The course change into a well traveled air corridor, does it mean someone wanted the plane somewhere else, or does it mean a pilot needed to enter something as a heading very quickly (knew he would be unconscious soon), and that's what came to mind. I don't know enough about pilots to know what they know and don't know from memory. Hijacking, while it would explain some of this. I just find it hard to believe that once the US, China, other countries go back through their intelligence data wouldn't find some hint of a plan, now that they know what they're looking for. Especially, a plan as grandiose as landing it somewhere and reusing it. The logistics for that kind of operation, and the number of people involved... hard to believe that everyone would keep their mouth shut. I would believe, however, that all the countries involved have been cagey, so not to have to reveal what they are and aren't capable of. Each side believing that their "complete" cooperation is unnecessary because something will turn up. And they can keep their surveillance secrets, secret. So the initial days of the investigation might have been hampered.
Originally Posted By EighthDwarf I find this story absolutely riveting. One aspect that was talked about early on (but not so much lately) is that there were electronic warfare specialists on board. I could see a terrorist organization wanting those folks to be a part of their team. But maybe that has been discredited since nobody is talking about it anymore?
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Personally I go with the "take the plane to use it later for terrorist activity" theory. Given all that is known now, it is the only theory that seems to make sense.
Originally Posted By EighthDwarf That theory seems to be among the most plausible at this point. But it seems like there would be an easier way to get your hands on an airplane if you really wanted one.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer There are much easier ways to get your hands on a plane. Passengers are a liability unless they are the reason that you want the plane to begin with. Or if some of the passengers are. I wonder if it was an attempted 9/11-style attack that was thwarted by the passengers.
Originally Posted By EighthDwarf Going back to what I said earlier about the electronic warfare connection, here is a press release by Freescale Semiconductor that came out just days before the plane went missing: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://investors.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=175261&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1905357&highlight=">http://investors.freescale.com...ghlight=</a> Note this: "Freescale now offers the level of support provided in other markets to U.S. defense systems customers, enabling them to optimize the performance of these RF devices for radar, military communications and electronic warfare applications." Coincidentally, there were 20 Freescale employees on that plane as confirmed by Freescale's press release: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://investors.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=175261&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1907347&highlight=">http://investors.freescale.com...ghlight=</a> Maybe it's just a coincidence, but the fact that there were two Iranians on board with stolen passports as well as the fact that Iran has been trying to beef up their electronic warfare capabilities AND one of the suspected paths of the airplane takes it near Iran leads me to suspect that it could be somewhere in that region.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>the fact that there were two Iranians on board with stolen passports<< My understanding was they had been cleared. Part of the problem here is that stolen passports are common in this region as people attempt to immigrate illegally or smuggle goods. I thought investigators knew who the Iranians were and had cleared them. But I certainly could be wrong, or this new information could have them revisiting them as suspects.
Originally Posted By EighthDwarf ^^Yep, you're right - it sounds like the Iranians are unlikely terrorists in this case. Focus now appears to be on the pilots. What a mess....
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder Spent some time today with a former Boeing crash investigator who still works for Boeing. He says in a 777, no matter what happened with transponders or anything else, a 777 has a device that will begin to ping once the plane impacts with the sea or ground. No such ping has been detected. He says the plane is on the ground. Investigator chatter is the pilots or a pilot de-pressurized the plane when they were at 45,000 feet, killing the passengers. Then if there was only one pilot involved, the other was dealt with. The plane then went to its destination, wherever that is.
