2 deep.

Obviously GPS is a one way technology, but the computer systems should be able to radio in an exact location every minute.

For fucks sake my cell phone does it.

[Edited on March 10, 2014 at 2:38 PM. Reason : .]

3/10/2014 2:38:14 PM

why can't we send telemetry through a data connection, we should do that instead of relying on black boxes

3/10/2014 2:42:44 PM

That's why this particular incident is so perplexing. The aircraft just vanished off radar; all of its communications and data transmissions were normal until it just suddenly stopped sending data. Normally, if an aircraft was having problem, even if the engines caught on fire or the wings snapped off, usually, the pilots would have time to send a distress signal.

In this case, it just went silent. This usually only happens if something sudden occurred, like the plane exploding in midair or the cabin is suddenly decompressed leading to sudden asphyxiation and/or violent ejection of the entire crew. Yet even this isn't completely satisfying of an answer, because you would still see an aircraft rapidly losing altitude or chunks of aircraft on the radar falling from the sky.

[Edited on March 10, 2014 at 3:02 PM. Reason : .]

3/10/2014 3:01:57 PM

For those curious, the tracking log of MH370. I'm sure both Malaysia and Vietnam also have more sophisticated air radar systems with more detailed logs as well.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/MAS370/history/20140307/1635Z/WMKK/ZBAA/tracklog

3/10/2014 3:10:52 PM

[Edited on March 10, 2014 at 3:23 PM. Reason : ALIENS]

3/10/2014 3:14:24 PM

http://www.news24.com/Travel/Flights/Bizarre-Flight-MH370-passengers-phones-ring-but-no-one-answers-20140310

Beijing - The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has thickened somewhat as family members of passengers have reported mobile phones ringing, but nobody answering....

3/10/2014 6:16:46 PM

Sounds like some conspiracy cooked up by media outlets.

3/10/2014 6:24:27 PM

maybe that's what they want us to think

3/10/2014 6:25:39 PM

Quote :

"Obviously GPS is a one way technology, but the computer systems should be able to radio in an exact location every minute."

Almost all aircraft have a transponder that broadcasts location in real-time (in addition to the primary return painted by radar). Of course, that's assuming it wasn't so far over water that it was without radar coverage.

As far as telemetry/datalinks go, I think that 777 might have some capabilities here. Not totally sure.


Just thinking out loud, it's possible that if it exploded and the Doppler of the debris therefore went rapidly to near zero, that the radar might have some sort of rejection processing to eliminAte clutter from some weather, flocks of birds, ground clutter, etc. I don't think most ATC radars have this; they generally wouldn't need it, and it has some trade-odds that would be disadvantageous for that usage. I'm kind of grasping; I would think that even in a violent explosion, there would be a primary return track of the debris as it fell.

[Edited on March 10, 2014 at 8:24 PM. Reason : ]

3/10/2014 8:17:30 PM

i recently had a dream that i was on a plane that crashed. i survived and had to crawl out of the wreckage and fight lizard people. it was bullshit.

3/10/2014 9:33:29 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

(CNN) -- Amid the multitude of questions about the fate of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, one small part of the story became clearer Tuesday when authorities said they have identified the passengers who used a stolen passport to board the plane.

And it's unlikely, they said, that they were part of a terrorist group.

The two men were young Iranians, Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said.

Malaysian police said they believe one of them was trying to migrate to Germany.

The use of the stolen passports by two passengers on the plane, which vanished from the skies early Saturday, raised fears that its disappearance could be linked to terrorism.

But Interpol and Malaysian police both said played down the likelihood of a terrorist connection.

3/11/2014 7:31:57 AM

neither of those dudes looks like mario balotelli

3/11/2014 9:23:24 AM

Why Always Me?

Seriously I am fascinated by this.

3/11/2014 11:04:22 AM

still no trace.

in other news, there are some seriously fucking stupid people in this world... serious comment on a news website:

Quote :

"According to latest theories of space and the world in which we are living. It might be possible that the plane is not crashed, but it disappeared and have gone to some other part of the universe, Because space is like a most flexible fabric, Which can curvature under certain phenomenon. This has happened to a person in history he was a solider standing on his duty he felt a sleep or lazy while standing on his duty, and while yawning he lean back to the wall. Just after he open his eyes he found him self in palace of royal family of a country so far from his country. He was caught, because his dress was different. He was surprised by this phenomenon, did not knew how he reached there. He did not knew the other language. However he was released and sent back to his country. How ever what happened to plane, Allah Alam. And if Allah had decided to death them no one can save them and of Allah had decided to save them no one can kill them. And death can not harm them at all. Ian Lila ha wa ina ilai ha rajaoon."

3/12/2014 10:58:05 AM

These things China has released sat photos of can't be parts of the plane. No part of the plane that big would stay afloat. Also if the Malaysian military had this the plane turning and coming back across Malaysia, how would the debris be close to Vietnam, on the other side of Malaysia? The Malaysian government has been doing a terrible job handling this so far, the press conferences are laughable, it already feels like a cover up of a plane crashed by some pilot incompetence or suicide shit, or worse they shot that fucker down and don't want anyone to know. If these sat photos from China are more misleading information to further the cover job, whats the motivation?
Only one group has tried to claim responsibility so far, and they are the same assholes who killed all those chinese people in the knife attack a couple weeks ago and got away with it.

3/13/2014 12:16:00 AM

^China is not in on any cover up because most of the passengers were Chinese citizens. They have been lighting up Malaysia about their terrible handling of this, so I would think the satellite photo may just be them trying to help locate the plane.

3/13/2014 6:25:22 AM

http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/malaysiaairsar2014
Kudos to the first person to find it!

3/13/2014 9:40:29 AM

pretty sad it's been about 12hours and I haven't seen any new news on this online. Nobody has the slightest clue where this plane is, and it's only getting bleaker

3/13/2014 12:12:36 PM

3/13/2014 12:16:37 PM

Quote :

"China is not in on any cover up because most of the passengers were Chinese citizens. "

not sure that is a valid statement

3/13/2014 2:14:20 PM

looks like the US has gone all, "Screw you guys, we'll do this shit ourselves". Apparently, they think it went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean and we've sent a ship to go out looking for it.

3/13/2014 4:15:07 PM

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

3/13/2014 4:16:09 PM

Betting on U.S. finding it first. GO USA!

[Edited on March 13, 2014 at 4:31 PM. Reason : Get the NSA all over this shit. ]

3/13/2014 4:30:08 PM

that map search site no longer works for me

3/13/2014 5:48:28 PM

Quote :

"Missing plane: Could it have landed?"

Quote :

"A new theory is taking shape about what might have happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Maybe it landed on an island"

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

3/14/2014 9:35:03 AM

saw on the news this morning US thinks the plan is at the bottom of the indian ocean, and chinese seismographs recorded an 'event' that may have been a large plane hitting the bed. I didnt know the seismographs were that sensitive....Prob another day or two before they can check it out

3/14/2014 10:05:00 AM

You had one job. Fucking Desmond.

3/14/2014 10:24:32 AM

Quote :

"chinese seismographs recorded an 'event'"

maybe, but:

Quote :

"The event was recorded in a nonseismic region about 116 kilometers (72 miles) northeast of the plane's last confirmed location"

again, China is saying "hey you guys, come back and look over here!" just like they did two days ago with the bullshit sat photos.

If it was China centric terrorism, which it could have been given 2/3 of the passengers were Chinese, they would have motive to prevent the plane from being found- the same group that is doing the knife attacks over there has a history of attempting to commit acts of terror onboard airliners. Communist governments do not like national or worldwide attention to their internal problems.



Something else I think is very interesting, but completely unrelated, if you plot out the course the Malaysian Air Force said the plane was last seen travelling on (radar) then...

http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm?route=-7.319500499999999,72.42285560000005%7C8.017891922875743,103.61920159310102

go ahead and zoom in on the last point there.

3/14/2014 10:48:29 AM

would be pretty epic if the plane landed at that tiny Diego Garcia island

3/14/2014 10:56:34 AM

^ or Middle Earth.

3/14/2014 10:57:45 AM

^^ You know that island is basically a military base for us and the Brits, right?

3/14/2014 11:06:39 AM

I think they flew into a time warp over the Indian Ocean.

3/14/2014 11:09:10 AM

I think it crashed into the god damned ocean.

3/14/2014 12:12:11 PM

Quote :

"I think know it crashed into the god damned ocean."

Ain't really something I need to think about.

3/14/2014 12:33:09 PM

Quote :

"^^ You know that island is basically a military base for us and the Brits, right?"

That requires googling, but thanks for doing it for me

3/14/2014 12:35:58 PM

i'm sticking with my LOST theory from page 1.

3/14/2014 12:41:17 PM

they're now saying there's a good chance it was sabotage or a hijacking

[Edited on March 14, 2014 at 12:45 PM. Reason : ]

3/14/2014 12:45:34 PM

It was Michael

Quote :

"But you've gotta make your own kind of music sing your own special song, make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along."

3/14/2014 12:59:03 PM

^I take it you're a fan of Lost?

3/14/2014 1:07:26 PM

I still can't explain why there isn't radar data of this thing on tape. Sounds like there were some primary returns, and maybe it just someone who knew what they were doing to interpret them?

...but as more evidence comes to light, i don't think my earlier suggestion of an explosion is the most likely. My best bet is now on there being some sort of emergency or possibly compound emergency, likely involving a fire or smoke/fumes in the cockpit, and they started turning electrical equipment off in hopes of isolating it if the fire or smoke/fumes were electrical in origin. They would have likely turned back towards land in order to land as soon as possible. In the dark, under stress, and possibly under duress due to smoke, they then missed a checklist step or moved the wrong switch, resulting in loss of pressurization, improper oxygen mask flow, etc and then therefore hypoxia. Pilots were rendered unconscious (only takes 30-seconds, give or take, depending on their altitude), and then possibly dead, and the jet then continued on its last heading until fuel exhaustion. Even if everyone else on the plane was still conscious, they would have been locked out of the cockpit due to the locked antiterrorist bulkhead.

I also wonder if we, and/or maybe the Chinese, have some other good info gathered through overhead intel or other reconnaissance platforms (not just imagery, but SIGINT or MASINT signatures), but we/they can't exactly say everything we know, because it would reveal undisclosed or even black capability.

[Edited on March 14, 2014 at 5:41 PM. Reason : ]

3/14/2014 5:37:16 PM

Quote :

"I also wonder if we, and/or maybe the Chinese, have some other good info gathered through overhead intel or other reconnaissance platforms (not just imagery, but SIGINT or MASINT signatures), but we/they can't exactly say everything we know, because it would reveal undisclosed or even black capability."

This. Between China and the US, someone knows where that plane is.

.. I mean more so than "in the ocean"

3/14/2014 5:51:43 PM

I could see maybe China holding back for that reason, but not the US. It's not like we would have to reveal how we know and it wouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone that our military has great technology. Besides, it's already been a week at this point. We don't have to pretend we're looking around anymore, at this point we could just say we stumbled across it during our search.

3/14/2014 6:53:32 PM

So the Boeing/Rolls Royce engine database continued to collect readings from the engines 4 hours after it went off the radar

It'll probably hit the new WTC in a couple years

3/14/2014 6:59:58 PM

^^Hey guise, we already catalog every call you make, have breached Google internal networks, and spoof Facebook to deliver malware... Umad we know where every plane is and ever was?

3/14/2014 8:03:26 PM

Tonight's wacky updates...

It turns and climbs to over 40000 ft, crosses back over Malaysia, drops to 23000, changes heading again and either heads north or south and then disappears.

Oh and one of the engine pings to the satellite indicates the plane goes from 40000 to the deck in less than one minute. LOL

3/14/2014 8:17:14 PM

my theory is either it went through a dimensional rift to hell (refer to Event Horizon)

or

it crashed on north sentinel island and the passengers fell victim to human sacrifice. the indian government knows this, but has begin preparations to cover it up.

Quote :

"A fire spotted on an island inhabited by the Sentinelese tribe was unconnected to the missing flight, Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai, Chief of Staff of the joint command, told Reuters "I can confirm we've been watching the smoke on the island by air and by boats along the coast for some time," Pillai said. "But we believe it has nothing to do with the missing Malaysia Airlines plane," he added, saying that it was possible that the fire was lit by the tribe, who are known to burn thick grassland. He added that he believed the smoke on North Sentinel island started before the aircraft disappeared seven days ago."

3/14/2014 8:26:11 PM

Quote :

"I could see maybe China holding back for that reason, but not the US."

ahhhh hahahahahahahahahaha.


I'm not saying we would use undeclared or even black capabilities to determine the location. I'm saying that it wouldn't be quick, and it would probably be done by someone in more conventional channels being whispered to, "pssssst...look over there." Even that would be done in an anonymous way...it would be someone at CIA or USAF or something saying "Hey boss, we have a pretty good indication via ___." By the time the word got to the searchers, it would just be "Hey, DNI (or USAF...or even broader DoD) says "Look over there."

They may well not have anything, but I would be not even slightly surprised to hear they have a very good idea and just haven't said anything, giving all the searchers some time to find it on their own.

3/14/2014 8:34:30 PM

They are obviously on a island

3/14/2014 9:09:26 PM

I'm gonna stick with my first impression, that this was the pilot(s) doing. One of the first things reported here was that the plane "disappeared" one minute before traveling into the airspace controlled by Vietnam. The pilots would have known this and at the time perhaps only the pilots, definitely not some passenger turned hijacker. Turning the transponders off at that time instead of once they were already in contact with Vietnam ATC bought them time to turn, climb, and whatever the hell else they did, and it was not until they didn't land in China on time that Malaysian authorities learned they weren't where they were supposed to be.

3/14/2014 11:17:03 PM

not sure if this has been stated yet, but...

Asian airlines have a disproportionate number of crashes partly because of the huge importance of etiquette, and the "honor your superiors" mindset, in Asian culture

like, the elder pilot might be steering the plane towards disaster and ruin, but the younger pilot hesitates to contradict him, beyond, like

"Are you sure, senior pilot, that this is the landing area?"

"Yes, of course! Foolish child!"

and then they crash the plane into a forest

I read somewhere (in a Malcolm Gladwell book, I think) that this was the phenomenon that almost destroyed Air Korea and caused them to have like 5x as many crashes as other airlines, before they figured out wtf was going on

3/14/2014 11:25:43 PM