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-   -   Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 (MH370) goes missing (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/148866-malaysian-airlines-boeing-777-mh370-goes-missing-11.html)

It was KL to Beijing flight originally. I doubt it would have so much of fuel to fly till the Kazakh-Turkmenistan border. Also, can it fly over so many countries or so many thousands of miles undetected and still not have a mid-air collision with another plane. The authorities are confused and all over the place. They were talking about the flight being near Austrailia, Andaman's and now Kazakh. I seriously doubt this possibility, they weren't carrying so much of fuel to reach so far unless they landed somewhere, filled up and flew again!

Practically, that would have been the case indeed, but there are several reports from US investigators & Rolls Royce (engine makers which had then live download data) which highlight the fact that the missing jet flew for over 4-5 hours after losing contact with ATC.

However, mis-communications, acceptance followed by denials, and conflicting versions of releases in this case have become a norm. It has come to a point that I will not be surprised if the jet debris is found somewhere, or the hijackers put up a demand soon, or even if the plane is used at a later purpose by terrorists. I won't be surprised even to know later that the hijackers had put up their demands with Malaysia and to avoid pressure from China, International community and their own people, they hid the fact and chose to ignore it by diverting attention of people to different search locations:deadhorse

So today, its almost clear that MH 370's communication systems were manually shutdown and then changed the flight path.
As per the Malaysian PM, " two new huge search areas had been opened up with 'a northern corridor heading towards Europe from Turkmenistan to Thailand, with the other stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean"
And some aviation expert said, under the hands of a skilled person, its even possible to land 777 on a 900m stretch, may be an abandoned or small air port.
But 2 questions
1. Does the 777 have enough fuel to fly until Turkmenistan or those regions?
2. Doesn't India, Pakistan or near by countries didn't track the unknown flight in their air space?

Now as many people on the form said, i also believe, someone US, or China
really know what had happened but may not reveal. or did they find the place where it was taken and started the rescue operations?
God knows!

Even I have this doubt about whether the plane was carrying so much of fuel that it could fly till Turkmenistan. The link from Washington Post says that the flight had 7 hours of fuel from it's last known position. Using that data, they have mapped the area the plane could have flown using it's available fuel and the map is both scary & crazy.

Flying range of MH 370

What is still a mystery to me is how a plane of this size could fly undetected for so many hours and not end up in a mid-air collision?

Honestly the news and possibility of a hijack is good news in this case. Atleast there is some hope for the families of all on board. But if it was indeed true then why will the hijackers not already establish contact? Its not really going to get any easier with passing time.

If it is a ransom, then they must be alive to make a communication.

Or if it is some 'other' motive, hope our(and other countries around) defense preparedness is at an all-time high to tackle any situation, keeping a keen eye on the RADARs.

Either way, a frustrating/tormenting wait.

Even I feel that if the plane is hijacked and still intact, its a ray of hope for the survivors' families. But what surprises me again, being a noob in this field is,

1. As stated by others whether there was enough fuel to reach the areas mentioned.

2. Whether any country can really allow such an unauthorised air traffic and also let an aeroplane land on their soil illegally, and even if they did, they could hide the whole matter.

3. If there is any illegal airfield or runway that can let a 777 land without alerting any nearby radars or establishments.

Also I feel its impossible for the plane to fly across India without getting spotted by radar. Hence, it wouldnt have flown past our country. Since the debris is not found, I really hope for the best and wish that at least the passengers are safe.

Whoever was flying MS 370 was a skilled pilot since it correctly navigated around known waypoints.

A pilot landed a 737 on Grass levee, he had to do that since both engines had failed an no airport was in vicinity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TACA_Flight_110

Regarding India's ability to detect stray planes, a cargo aircraft entered Indian airspace, dropped huge cache of Arms in Purulia and flew away. It was not detected.

Similarly, Pakistan could not detect US helicopters.

Is there a possibility of chinese military bringing down the plane. Agreed majority of the passengers were chinese but the flight was a malaysian one. Among the passengers were a group of techies ( i guess ) 20 of them who worked for the same firm and the same project.
May be one of them has taken control of the plane ad flown it to an unknown destination. Again how long can that country hide the truth.
I all probability China and US know the fate of the plane. They are buying time.

What sort of techie can fly a plane, that too a passenger aircraft like the 777?
Three classmates of mine are commercial pilots (it was an emerging thing around the time we completed school in 2006) trained in Australia and South Africa, and only one has qualified to fly a mainstream passenger aircraft so far.

I think this will probably turn out to be a case of pilot suicide in the end. Pilots have done that before.
It seems a more plausible explanation than a hijack, unless some nation is providing support for the persons involved.

For the fuel question, just remembered the following video from a YouTube channel I subscribe to. For the impatient, jump to ~45 seconds into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7g_Q-Djw4k

As far as flying undetected, without the transponder, the aircraft would've been invisible on most traffic control radars. Only primary radars would've picked up the aircraft, while the military use them to detect unwarranted intrusions into airspace, they're mostly close to military installations, not all of the airspace is monitored all the time.

With respect to mid-air collisions, general aviation aircraft follow specific paths in the sky, if an aircraft chooses to fly an ad-hoc path, it's unlikely to run into anything else or be detected quickly.

I think there's little doubt regarding the ultimate fate of the aircraft & it's passengers, it's only a question of "How" & "Why" now. Sad that what should have been just another flight has turned into such a tragedy...

You would be surprised. You don't need to be pilot in order to fly a plane, especially taking over a plane in flight that is functioning completely normal.

The very PC based simulator this pilot, apparently, was using as a hobby, is pretty advanced and it does a pretty good job of simulating most relevant systems. You can get just about every piece of documentation of any commercial airliner on the web.

I've always been a SIM enthusiast. Many years ago together with a friend we rented one of CargoLux full motion simulates. The exact same one used to train pilots, in Luxumburg Both of us had been studying our PC based SIM for, literally hundreds of hours. And between the two of us we had managed to get hold of every manual. We got in the SIM, started up and flew away with no problem and no assistance required from the instructor. He'd never seen anything like it. This happened literally just days before 9/11! And days after that I got a call from some law enforcement agency. They were checking us out obviously.

Since then, I have flown many more hours on my PC based SIM, quite a number of hours on both Lufthansa, CargoLux and a few other full motion simulators from other carriers, and of course since I have also obtained my real Pilots License.

Having SIM experience doesn't make you a pilot by any stretch of the imagination. But you can build up a very detailed understanding on how the systems work and interact. Especially if a plane is flying at cruise altitude, on autopilot, typically following a programmed track in the flight computer, it becomes relatively simple to change for instance heading and or altitude. It is really only a matter of understanding and knowing which knobs to rotate and what buttons to push.

Jeroen

Agree with Jeroen. Have been a small time SIM enthusiast and though I have no confidence of flying a plane :D, I at least know what is what and how things go about. Autopilot really comes in handy at all times except take off and landing. But how relevant it is in this case is unknown since if the pilot was well and good, why would anyone else fly the plane. If it was indeed hijacked, then yes a terrorist with SIM experience can change the course and altitude using Autopilot. Landing is a different game and that may not have been possible.

Still wish that the plane was intact somewhere and the passengers are safe.

Hijack Theory gets stronger

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ost-plane.html

I am not technically well versed with flying but if MH 370 was flying at 25,000 feet with it's transponder's off & hence undetected by radar then another flight (& ATC on the ground) flying at the same altitude would not know of another aircraft at the same altitude right? In that case there could be a mid-air collision. It's happened many times with radar's working so just wondering how a flight with transponder's switched off could fly for 7 hours and not run into anything?!