Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Any theories?

[mudfinger]

I doubt it has anything to do with being American or not.

And while a great number of people would fight like hell (I know I would), we cannot make that assumption about everybody especially without knowing the exact situation up there.

Let's say the plane was hijacked and those who did it somehow managed to get guns on board (which is not exactly out of the realm of possibility in non-western countries). At the time at which they decide to hijack the plane they stand up, take out their guns, and immediately shoot the five people closest to them. How much of a fight are the others likely to put up then?

Or say they had grenades, pulled the pins, and told everyone to do what they said or the grenades would be dropped thus blowing holes in the plane, depressurizing it, and causing it to crash? Are those people likely to fight back then?

Now I am not saying either of those scenarios happened, I am just pointing out that, without knowing exactly what happened or what those on the plane were facing at the time, we cannot make assumptions about how they would have, or should have, reacted.

I know where you're coming from, and Howard is making a good argument to that effect, but the scenario you describe above wouldn't change my response, and I don't think it would change the response of many Americans; include Canadians in that group as well, if you like.

When the intent of the hijackers is to use the plane you're on as an incendiary device, it doesn't much matter whether they're wielding grenades or boxcutters to gain control of it. The lesson of 9/11 is exactly that, in my view; you can choose to die in the air, or die on impact.

That's part of the reason we have Sky Marshalls on planes now, to provide a violent response to hijacking attempts. That's the correct response, in my view. All this as a result of 9/11.

If this was a test run to see how Al Qaeda might pull off another attack like 9/11, I would describe it as a success.

Let me put it another way. If you were a hijacker in a post-9/11 environment, wouldn't fully subduing the passengers be of primary concern, given the results of Flight 93?

 

[jeff_farkas]

y'know Farkas I expected you to jump on my reply immediately, like you're obviously paid to keep an eye and comment on almost everything and anything I ever post on this forum.

You did not address one question I brought up here, just posted your usual emoticon , you forgot your usual tin foil hat response…
Well I just want to tell you that You're Doing A Good Job!,
I feel much safer to know you're patrolling cyberspace.

Buy some Beef jerky with your checks from NSA, do you get front row seats at Wrestlemania too?

WOW

You are a true lune,

 

[peach64]

Dude, I made a joke thread about my being here almost nonstop and many jumped to conclusions, no matter how I tried to steer it away form their assumptions.

But you, my man, you are a true gem.

Hey bro,

you can't have it both ways, give a thumbs up and a back handed insult.

 

[HenryHill]

Hey bro,

you can't have it both ways, give a thumbs up and a back handed insult.

No, you deserve the tribute, really, you do.

 

[jeff_farkas]

How is your addiction or 12 step program coming along Henry

so much for wishing you well in your recovery

Class Act

peach64,
Step1.. I admitted that I'm powerless to my addiction to wild conspiracies
— that our lives had become unmanageable.

 

[Roberteaux]

Heck, just because this incident happened doesn't mean I stopped reading the news about anything other than the incredible vanishing airliner.

I doubt that I'm in the minority when it comes to this.

--R

 

[peach64]

No, you deserve the tribute, really, you do.

Pay Tribute to the one you serve

 

[HenryHill]

Pay Tribute to the one you serve

Please tell me who I serve.

I guess I don't know.

 

[peach64]

peach64,
Step1.. I admitted that I'm powerless to my addiction to wild conspiracies
— that our lives had become unmanageable.

25,500 posts? How could you possibly a) have a job
b) play a guitar
c) have an IQ over 120"?

listen good ole boy, why doncha get some moonshine and drink it while you're downloading instructions on what to say or do next.

yep and go squirrel hunting with Uncle Jed

 

[jeff_farkas]

25,500 posts? How could you possibly a) have a job
b) play a guitar
c) have an IQ over 120"?

listen good ole boy, why doncha get some moonshine and drink it while you're downloading instructions on what to say or do next.

yep and go squirrel hunting with Uncle Jed

1, I was born and raised in NJ.
2. I did get a degree from the University of Texas.
3. I don't drink.

And lastly, it's spelled skwirrell.

 

[mudfinger]

A ten foot intelligence quotient would be pretty impressive, I think.

 

[Gin&Pentatonic]

They better find this jet before it has to compete for ratings with DWTS.

That ice skating couple is so cute!

 

[chasenblues]

False flag OPS to confuse the masses.

 

[jeff_farkas]

Malaysia Flight 370: 10 of the most compelling questions - CNN.com

Part of the article...

CNN) -- Every day brings new details and new questions surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard that went missing on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Here are 10 questions surrounding what we know and what we don't know:
1. What do we know about the pilots?
The pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, has 18,365 flying hours. He joined the airline in 1981. For a veteran 777 pilot with Shah's background, 18,000-plus total career hours in the air is normal.

Who were the men who flew Flight 370?

Police search pilot's home
Shah built a flight simulator in his home. It's somewhat common among the worldwide community of aviation enthusiasts to use online flight simulator programs to replicate various situations. Simulators allow users to virtually experience scenarios in various aircraft.
Programs can simulate flight routes, landings and takeoffs from actual airports, but pilots say they cannot replace the experience gained from real flying.
Shah is married and has three children, the youngest of whom is in her 20s and lives with her parents. He and his wife have one grandchild.
First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid, 27, joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007. He has 2,763 flying hours and was transitioning from flight simulator training to the Boeing 777-200ER.
The amount of flight time Hamid has could be a bit low for a 777 pilot flying for an American airline, experts said. But the system of pilot advancement is often faster among airlines in smaller nations. Some airlines in these countries offer cadet programs that find talented and promising young pilot candidates and offer them intensive, specialized training, experts say.
Hamid lives with his parents and some of his four siblings, according to a neighbor. A source close to the investigation told CNN that Malaysian police searched Shah's and Hamid's homes Saturday.
Read more about the pilots

2. What do we know about communications to and from the plane?

More countries join Flight 370 search

Timeline: Takeoff to satellite contacts
Key clues about the plane have come from developments surrounding data and voice communications. The plane is equipped with a standard voice communication radio and two other kinds of communication technology: transponders and the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, known by the acronym ACARS.
The last known voice communication from the 777's cockpit was these words: "All right, good night."
We don't know whose voice spoke the words, but they were uttered as the plane neared Vietnamese air traffic control airspace at about the same time the transponder was shut off, according to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Because of the vital information a transponder provides, it would be highly unlikely for a pilot to shut it off. Transponders are considered reliable, but they occasionally fail, which is why there is a backup transponder.
One way to hide a plane's flight information from air traffic controllers would be to turn off the transponder. Experts give conflicting opinions about what the transponder shutoff could mean: One theory points to someone -- perhaps a hijacker -- wanting to hide the plane before changing course; another theory is the transponder could have stopped transmitting because of a catastrophic power failure.
A series of "handshakes" -- or electronic connections -- from the plane's ACARS was transmitted to satellites for four to five hours after the transponder stopped sending signals, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
ACARS includes air traffic service communications. The automated system generally sends routine messages to the airline, such as when the aircraft lifts off or lands and how much fuel it may have, he said. It can also be used to communicate text messages, for instance when the aircraft encounters turbulence. ACARS typically beams down engine parameters, temperatures, the amount of fuel burned and any maintenance discrepancies.
According to Malaysia Airlines, all of its aircraft are equipped with ACARS. "Nevertheless, there were no distress calls, and no information was relayed," the airline said.
The aircraft's ACARS was sending pings more than five hours after the transponder last emitted a signal, an aviation industry source told CNN on Friday.
These pings don't provide information about speed or altitude, but they do indicate the plane was intact for that long, since an aircraft has to be powered and have structural integrity for the ACARS to operate, the source said.
The pings were detected by satellites and were used, with radar and other data, to calculate where the plane might have traveled. A U.S. official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said a satellite recorded electronic "handshakes" with the 777 that were later analyzed.
The information gleaned from this analysis -- which the U.S. official described as "unprecedented" -- supports the conclusion that the aircraft turned toward the west, away from the Gulf of Thailand and toward the Indian Ocean. Referring to the five- to six-hour range in which the plane may have flown after its transponder cut off, the same official said, "We believe we have the time of the loss of the airplane within an hour."
But on Saturday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib said that "based on new satellite communication, we can say with a high degree of certainty that ... ACARS was disabled just before the aircraft reached the east coast of peninsular Malaysia."
Snapshots of the passengers

3. Where could the plane be? What could have happened to it?
The evidence is growing that the plane flew for hours after losing contact with air traffic control.
Malaysia's aviation authorities, with agreement from U.S. and British government experts, concluded the plane's last communication with the satellite was in one of two possible corridors. One stretches from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand; the other from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
The latest data and calculations provided by Malaysian officials show an arc of places the aircraft could have traveled. Because the northern reaches of the arc include some tightly guarded airspace over India, Pakistan and U.S. installations in Afghanistan, U.S. authorities believe it more likely the aircraft crashed south of India into waters outside the reach of radar, one U.S. official said.
Had it flown farther north, it would likely have been detected by radar, the official said.
A classified analysis of electronic and satellite data suggests Flight 370 likely crashed either in the Bay of Bengal or elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, CNN learned Friday.
The analysis, conducted by the United States and Malaysian governments, used radar data and satellite pings to calculate that the plane diverted to the west, across the Malay Peninsula, and then either flew in a northwest direction toward the Bay of Bengal or southwest into another part of the Indian Ocean. Malaysian military radar registered dramatic changes for Flight 370 in altitude and it cut an erratic path across Malaysia in what are some of the last known readings of its location, according to a senior U.S. official.
The same official, who is familiar with analysis of the data and declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information, cautioned that this assessment is not definitive. The readings may not be wholly reliable because of the distance of the plane from the radars that detected it, the official said.
Tracking key moments
4. Couldn't a pilot just 'fly under the radar'?
Theoretically, yes. As a tool intended to keep track of what's going on in the sky, radar doesn't acquire data all the way to the ground.
Military pilots are trained to take advantage of this when they need to go undetected. But their aircraft are also equipped with terrain-evading radar and other features intended to help fighter and helicopter pilots hug the ground, said aviation consultant Keith Wolzinger of the Spectrum Group. Understandably, Boeing doesn't offer those features on its commercial airliners.
"Airline pilots are not trained for radar avoidance," said Wolzinger, himself a former 777 pilot. "We like to be on radar."
Also, unlike military craft, civilian airliners don't have gear to detect when they've been spotted on radar. So any efforts to fly undetected would be rudimentary.
5. Could the plane have landed somewhere?
One theory U.S. officials are considering, according to a Wall Street Journal report, is that someone might have taken the plane to be used for some other purpose later. So it's theoretically possible that the plane could have landed at a remote, hidden airstrip.
There are some large holes in that theory. The 777 is a big plane. It requires, at minimum, nearly a mile to land. And, says CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest, there's the matter of getting it someplace without setting off alarm bells.
"You can't just fly a 777 and not have a radar trace," he said. One senior U.S. official, citing information Malaysia has shared with the United States, told CNN that "there is probably a significant likelihood" that the aircraft is on the floor of the Indian Ocean.
Hijacking theories

 

[HenryHill]

FN guest, a former NY congressman, says the senior pilot went to the capital to view a criminal trial the day before, for an opposition muslim leader who was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail.

The pilot was in court that day, then went the next day to the airport to fly this flight.

AND his wife and family supposedly moved out the same day.

 

[HenryHill]

Okay, back to you Peaches, who do I serve, again?

 

[jeff_farkas]

Okay, back to you Peaches, who do I serve, again?

 

[peach64]

1, I was born and raised in NJ.
2. I did get a degree from the University of Texas.
3. I don't drink.

And lastly, it's spelled skwirrell.

over 25, 500 posts…lol

you gotta be ****in kidding me

what did you do with your degree, get a job posting threads on this forum?

too bad you still don't live here in NJ.. 25,500 posts…that takes the cake

 

[winexprt]

...AND his wife and family supposedly moved out the same day.

I see this repeated here a few times. I have yet to read about this anywhere but here.

Does anyone have a link to the source of this?

 

[Electroman67]

over 25, 500 posts…lol

you gotta be ****in kidding me

what did you do with your degree, get a job posting threads on this forum?

too bad you still don't live here in NJ.. 25,500 posts…that takes the cake

Hold that thought, lemme make some popcorn