Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 missing!

Pilot died in cockpit. Nerds argued for 7hours about who us the best at flight simulator. Forgot that one of them should take control. Plane ran out if fuel
 
Malaysian leader: Plane's disappearance deliberate

;)

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Malaysian-leader-Planes-disappearance-deliberate-20140315-2






Kuala Lumpur - The Malaysian jetliner missing for more than a week was deliberately diverted and continued flying for more than six hours after severing contact with the ground, meaning it could have gone as far northwest as Kazakhstan or into the Indian Ocean's southern reaches, Malaysia's leader said on Saturday.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's statement confirmed days of mounting speculation that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to Beijing was not accidental. It also refocused the investigation into the flight's 12-person crew and 227 passengers, and underlined the complicated task for searchers who already have been scouring vast areas of ocean.

"Clearly the search for MH370 has entered a new phase," Najib said at a televised news conference.

Najib stressed that investigators were looking into all possibilities as to why the Boeing 777 deviated so drastically from its original flight path, saying authorities could not confirm whether it was a hijacking. Earlier on Saturday, a Malaysian official said the plane had been hijacked, though he added that no motive had been established and no demands had been made known.

"In view of this latest development, the Malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation into the crew and passengers on board," Najib told reporters, reading from a written statement but not taking any questions.

Police on Saturday went to the Kuala Lumpur homes of both the pilot and co-pilot of the missing plane, according to a guard and several local reporters. Authorities have said they will investigate the pilots as part of their probe, but have released no information about how they are progressing.

Experts have previously said that whoever disabled the plane's communication systems and then flew the jet must have had a high degree of technical knowledge and flying experience. One possibility they have raised was that one of the pilots wanted to commit suicide.

The plane departed for an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing at 00:40 on 8 March. Its communications with civilian air controllers were severed at about 01:20, and the jet went missing - heralding one of the most puzzling mysteries in modern aviation history.

Communicatiions disabled

China, where the bulk of the passengers were from, expressed irritation over what it described as Malaysia's foot-dragging in releasing information about the search.

Investigators now have a high degree of certainty that one of the plane's communications systems - the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) - was partially disabled before the aircraft reached the east coast of Malaysia, Najib said. Shortly afterward, someone on board switched off the aircraft's transponder, which communicates with civilian air traffic controllers.

Najib confirmed that Malaysian air force defence radar picked up traces of the plane turning back westward, crossing over Peninsular Malaysia into the northern stretches of the Strait of Malacca. Authorities previously had said this radar data could not be verified.

"These movements are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane," Najib said.

Although the aircraft was flying virtually blind to air traffic controllers at this point, onboard equipment continued to send "pings" to satellites.

US aviation safety experts say the shutdown of communications systems makes it clear the missing Malaysia Airlines jet was taken over by someone who knew how the plane worked.

To turn off the transponder, someone in the cockpit would have to turn a knob with multiple selections to the "off" position while pressing down at the same time, said John Goglia, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board. That's something a pilot would know, but it could also be learned by someone who researched the plane on the internet, he said.

The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) has two aspects, Goglia said. The information part of the system was shut down, but not the transmission part. In most planes, the information section can be shut down by hitting cockpit switches in sequence in order to get to a computer screen where an option must be selected using a keypad, said Goglia, an expert on aircraft maintenance.

That's also something a pilot would know how to do, but that could also be discovered through research, he said.

But to turn off the other transmission portion of the ACARS, it would be necessary to go to an electronics bay beneath the cockpit. That's something a pilot wouldn't normally know how to do, Goglia said. The Malaysia plane's ACARS transmitter continued to send out blips that were recorded by satellite once an hour for four to five hours after the transponder was turned off. The blips don't contain any messages or data, but the satellite can tell in a very broad way what region the blips are coming from.

Last confirmed signal

Malaysia's prime minister said the last confirmed signal between the plane and a satellite came at 08:11 - 7 hours and 31 minutes after takeoff. This was more than five hours later than the previous time given by Malaysian authorities as the possible last contact.

Airline officials have said the plane had enough fuel to fly for up to about eight hours.

"The investigations team is making further calculations which will indicate how far the aircraft may have flown after this last point of contact," Najib said.

He said authorities had determined that the plane's last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible arcs, or "corridors" - a northern one from northern Thailand through to the border of the Central Asian countries Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

The northern route might theoretically have taken the plane through China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan - which hosts US military bases - and Central Asia, and it is unclear how it might have gone undetected. The region is also home to extremist Islamist groups, unstable governments and remote, sparsely populated areas.

Flying south would have put the plane over the Indian Ocean, with an average depth of 3 890m and thousands of kilometres from the nearest land mass.

Britain-based aviation security consultant Chris Yates thought it was highly unlikely the plane would have taken the northern route across land in Asia.

Mostly Chinese passengers

"In theory, any country that sees a strange blip is going to get fighter planes up to have a look," he said. "And if those fighter planes can't make head or tail of what it is, they will shoot it down."

Najib said search efforts in the South China Sea, where the plane first lost contact, had ended.

Indian officials said navy ships supported by long-range surveillance planes and helicopters scoured Andaman Sea islands for a third day on Saturday without any success in finding evidence of the missing jet.

Two-thirds of the plane's passengers were Chinese, and China's government has been under pressure to give relatives firm news of the aircraft's fate.

In a stinging commentary on Saturday, the Chinese government's Xinhua News Agency said the Malaysian information was "painfully belated", resulting in wasted efforts and straining the nerves of relatives.

"Given today's technology, the delay smacks of either dereliction of duty or reluctance to share information in a full and timely manner," Xinhua said. "That would be intolerable."

Najib said he understood the need for families to receive information, but that his government wanted to release only fully corroborated reports. He said his country has been sharing information with international investigators, even when it meant placing "national security concerns" second to the search. US, British and Malaysian air safety investigators have been on the ground in Malaysia to assist with the investigation.

In the Chinese capital, relatives of passengers who have anxiously awaited news at a hotel near Beijing's airport said they felt deceived at not being told earlier about the plane's last signal. "We are going through a roller coaster, and we feel helpless and powerless," said a woman, who declined to give her name.

At least one of the relatives saw a glimmer of hope in word that the plane's disappearance was a deliberate act, rather than a crash. "It's very good," said a woman, who gave only her surname, Wen.

Fourteen countries join the search

Malaysian police have already said they are looking at the psychological state, family life and connections of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27. Both have been described as respectable, community-minded men.

Zaharie joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and had more than 18 000 hours of flying experience. His Facebook page showed an aviation enthusiast who flew remote-controlled aircraft, posting pictures of his collection, which included a lightweight twin-engine helicopter and an amphibious aircraft.

Fariq was contemplating marriage after having just graduated to the cockpit of a Boeing 777. He has drawn scrutiny after the revelation that in 2011, he and another pilot invited two women aboard their aircraft to sit in the cockpit for a flight from Phuket, Thailand, to Kuala Lumpur.

Fourteen countries are involved in the search for the plane, using 43 ships and 58 aircraft.

A US P-8A Poseidon, the most advanced long-range anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft in the world, was to arrive over the weekend and sweep parts of the Indian Ocean, the US Defence Department said in a statement.
 
This is so far the best theory and explanation for all the evidence I have seen.

Flight MH370 What Happened

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Location of MH370
News sources are reporting that U.S. Intelligence officials are leaning toward the theory that "those in the cockpit" were responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the commercial jetliner, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Not knowing exactly what happened to Flight 370, speculation centers around theories of hijacking or foul play by the pilots. These theories that are presented as the most probably cause of what happened to Flight 370 involve breaches in security and fear that resonate an ever present culture of fear over the past 13 years. While we do not yet know all of the facts behind the disappearance of Flight 370, we should not resort to terrorism as the cause, and we should use sound judgement and scientific reasoning when proposing theories. Some officials, who do not fully understand the cause behind events speculate on theories revolving around fear.

I would like to present my theory of what happened to Flight MH370, using more sound judgement and scientific reasoning. I received my degree in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University, where I specialized in Flight Mechanics and Structural Failure and Fatigue. I began my career working at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston where I worked in the Flight Design and Dynamics Department for the Mission Operations Directorate. There, I specialized in crew flight procedures, radar, and navigation systems. After NASA, I worked for Boeing on the V-22 flight control system, then later for Motorola specializing in radio frequency communications and how RF signals propagated.

What most likely happened to Flight MH370, was that fatigue cracking occurred on the Boeing 777-200 series aircraft. On July 23, 2012, The FAA published an Airworthiness Directive (AD) (FAA-2012-0149-0004) for Boeing Company Model 777-200, which was prompted by reports of fatigue cracks in the lap joints, and an Airworthiness Directive to detect and correct such fatigue cracking, which could grow large and cause sudden decompression and the inability to sustain limit flight and pressure loads. This AD was updated on April 15, 2013 to include scribe lines where external decals have been applied or removed across lap joints and large cargo door hinges. In addition, on April 2, 2009 the FAA issued an airworthiness directive (AD 2009-02-05) regarding the airplane information management system (AMS) to prevent an unannunciated loss of cabin pressure, which if an undetected loss of pressure event were to cause an unsafe pressure in the cabin, the flight crew could become incapacitated.

The last known position of MH370 was at 1:21 AM at 35,000 feet, roughly 90 miles off the east coast of Malaysia. At around 1:30 a.m., the aircraft's transponder stopped responding. Under the theory that a sudden decompression occurred at that time due to fatigue cracks, the pilot and copilot would have had 15 - 30 seconds of consciousness to quickly address the problem. If they were aware of the decompression through an annunciation loss of cabin pressure, they would have put on their oxygen masks, turned off the autopilot, begin their descent to below 10,000 feet, and head for the nearest landing spot. If they did not place their oxygen masks on first before they began their descent, or if they attempted to troubleshoot the issue before putting on their oxygen masks, they would have lost consciousness before they reached 10,000 feet.

With the plane not on auto-pilot, in a descent with unconscious pilots, one may think the plane would crash, but this is where flight mechanics, aircraft stability and flight controls play a role in what happened to flight MH370. As the plane descended on its own, (without auto-pilot and unconscious pilots) it would continue to pick up speed to a point where the increasing speed creates more and more lift over the wings. When more and more lift is created, this force causes the plane to pitch up. The plane may have descended to 23,000 feet before it began the pitch up maneuver. At that point, the aircraft is pitched up and begins a climb. It will continue to climb until the atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner and less and less lift is produced over the wings. This would typically occur at 45,000 feet. This roller coaster ride would continue between those two altitudes until the aircraft no longer has fuel to power the engines.

This pitching up and climbing and then pitching down and descending, accompanied by speeding up and slowing does is one of the basic flight dynamics modes of aircraft, and is called the phugoid mode. I have to thank Dr. Pearson at Iowa State University for drilling this into me in his flight controls class and Dr. P.J. Herman who taught flight performance where we flew a plane and demonstrated the speed stability of an aircraft by placing it into a phugoid mode.

Few may remember Payne Stewart who died in October 1999 when his plane experienced rapid decompression and his plane continued to fly for almost four hours after a rapid decompression had occurred and the flight crew was incapacitated. Two North Dakota Air National Guard F-16 intercepted the plane and identified that the cockpit window was iced over and there was no movement of the control surfaces of the plane. During the plane's flight, the aircraft's altitude reached a maximum of 48,900 feet. The NTSB added a commentary on the cause of the accident that stated.

Following depressurization, the pilots did not receive supplemental oxygen in sufficient time and/or adequate concentrations to avoid hypoxia and incapacitation. A possible explanation for the failure of the pilots to receive emergency oxygen is that their ability to think and act decisively was impaired because of hypoxia before they could don their oxygen masks. Research has shown that a period of as little as 8 seconds without supplemental oxygen following rapid depressurization to about 30,000 feet may cause a drop in oxygen saturation that can significantly impair cognitive functioning and increase the amount of time to complete complex tasks.

While the transponder was shut down at 1:21 AM, this could have been caused by the rapid decompression and an electrical failure, or by the pilot, in a hypoxia state attempting to set the transponder code to 7500 to indicate an emergency, and accidentally turning it off in confusion.

With regards to the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), most commercial pilots would have no idea how to disable all of the communications systems. More than likely additional structural failures occurred during the 5 - 7 hour flight while the plane was experiencing high stresses as a result of the phugoid mode that the aircraft was experiencing.

The reason the aircraft has not been located using ACARS is because one can only determine the distance the aircraft is away from the satellite based on the communications angle, it does not have enough information to determine the bearing, and thus based on the range of the aircraft, it could have flown north through china, or south in the Indian Sea. Since no radar contact occurred if the plane was on a northerly route, the plane is more than likely took the southerly route, and continued flying until 8:11 am, when the last confirmed ACARS transmission occurred.

According to a map released by Malaysian officials, the aircraft's location was along a constant declination from the ACARS satellite of approximately 40 degrees:

And given the assumption the aircraft would have been spotted by radar along the northerly trajectory, the most probable location is in the south Indian Sea, away from any land or radar.
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That^^ is no more plausible than any other theory out there.

His ''explanation'' of the transponder being turned off also doesn't make much sense to me...
 
Some pertinent information has been left out of the hypothesis. After the transponder switched off it was tracked by military. Radar signals show the plane ascending to 13 700 metres, making a sharp turn west then then descending 7 000 metres before rising again and flying towards north-west. Travelling between navigational waypoints, it was undetected by other radar systems.
 
50 years from now the plane will suddenly appear and none of the passengers will have aged. Flight of the Navigator anyone? :D
 
25 Countries searching for the Malaysian plane in the Indian Ocean and surrounding areas. Meanwhile plane is hidden somewhere in Malaysia. :p
 
PILOTS FOCUS OF MALAYSIA MISSING PLANE: LAWMAKER

US intelligence is focusing on the pilot and co-pilot's role in the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines jet that vanished March 8 with 239 people on board, a key US lawmaker said Sunday.

"One thing we do know, this was not an accident. It was an intentional, deliberate act, to bring down this airplane. And the question is who is behind that," said Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

McCaul, speaking on Fox News Sunday, said that while there was no evidence at this point the disappearance was terrorism related, US authorities were concerned about a scenario in which the Boeing 777 may have landed somewhere to be used later as a weapon.

He said there were two routes it could have taken: one north toward Kazakhstan, which likely would have been picked up by radar.

"The other one is it landed in a country like Indonesia, where it could be used later on as a cruise missile, as the 9/11 hijackers did," he said.

McCaul ticked off warning signs that the plane was deliberately taken off course.

Among them: the plane's transponder was turned off before it made an abrupt change of course, two Iranians aboard had stolen passports, one-way tickets were bought with cash.

Malaysian authorities have launched a full scale criminal probe, expanded the search area, and searched the homes of both pilots, examining the captain's home flight simulator.

"I think from all the information I've been briefed on from, you know, high levels within homeland security, national counterterrorism center, intelligence community, that something was going on with the pilot," he said.

"I think this all leads towards the cockpit, with the pilot himself, and co-pilot," he said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 16 Mar 2014 16:46
 
FAMILIES FACE WORST NIGHTMARE OF MID-AIR ORDEAL ON MH370

New revelations about a missing Malaysia Airlines plane have left anguished relatives contemplating the prospect that those on board endured a terrifying, high-altitude hijack ordeal that may have lasted nearly eight hours.

But while the disclosures have led to increased speculation of a terror plot or pilot suicide, for some they offered a glimmer of hope -- that the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 passengers and crew may have landed safely and that, somehow, loved ones may be alive.

For relatives of Bob and Cathy Lawton, a missing Australian couple, the possibility of a terrifying drawn-out fate at thousands of feet reflected their deepest fears.

"That's one of the worst things I could have hoped for," Bob's brother David Lawton told News Limited newspapers.

"Even if they are alive, what did they have to put up with?"

Briefing the press on Saturday, Prime Minister Najib Razak declined to use the word hijack, but said new data suggested a "deliberate action" to divert the plane.

The Boeing 777's communications appear to have been switched off manually before the jet veered westward and flew for hours.

What happened during that time remains a mystery. But one report of the plane fluctuating from low to high altitude fuelled fears the passengers may have been well aware they were in terrible danger.

The New York Times said the jet had reached 45,000 feet -- above its approved altitude limit -- before it "descended unevenly to 23,000 feet".

It cited Malaysian military radar signals, but the data has not been confirmed by the authorities.

For relatives in China, which had 153 citizens on the flight, the investigators' breakthrough just brought more distress and frustration.

"We are experiencing an ordeal. We are still waiting for (more information)," said one tearful man emerging from a meeting between Malaysia Airlines and relatives in Beijing on Sunday morning.

"We are extremely anxious. A long time has passed and they don't disclose (more) information," he said.

Another branded the meeting "a joke".

"Until they say what really and truly happened, what good is it?" he said.

Yet for others the new evidence brought relief -- and a reason for hope.

"Our family is relieved that there's an official statement from the Malaysian government, delivered by the Malaysian prime minister, that there's a possibility that the aircraft might have been hijacked," said Indonesian Santi, 42, who goes by one name.

Her brother Sugianto Lo was on the flight with his wife Vinny Chynthya.

"There have been too many speculations about the missing plane so this official statement has helped to quash some of them.

"At least it gives us hope that our loved ones are still safe. We really hope that the various governments will help to look for the plane," she said.

While the theory that the plane landed somewhere and has remained hidden is seen as improbable by experts, most do not discount it as impossible.

The multi-nation search is now focused on two vast areas, stretching from Kazakhstan to the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysian Subramaniam Gurusamy, 60, whose 34-year-old son Puspanathan Gurusamy was on board, refused to believe the worst.

"I am praying every day for divine help. I will not lose hope. I want to hear my son cry out 'Father!" he said.

Selamat Umar, 60, also from Malaysia, placed his faith in his 29-year-old son Khairul Amrison's ability to survive whatever he confronted.

He said the new evidence was "a good sign which shows the plane can be detected and the passengers are safe -- if not all, then some".

"It may be a hijack, but why have there been no demands?" he said.

Although so many questions remain, he is clinging to the belief that his son may one day come home.

"We are definitely worried about his safety but confident that those on the plane will do what they can to survive," said Selamat.

"My son is a Muslim who fasts every Ramadan so I am sure he has strength."


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 16 Mar 2014 11:26
 
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