Am I correct in saying ACARS turned off 10 (?) or so minutes before transponder? If so, why? What would ACARS transmit that you didn't want known while still appearing ops normal to ATC?
This has been carefully planned by someone. This detail may be significant.
Would ACARS transmit decompression?
If you were going to decompress the cabin, the ideal time to do it would be near or soon after TOC. You would want rapid incapacitation, so not from departure (plus you presumably need time to somehow exclude 2nd pilot). But you would also want some time when alarm would not be raised and so pax wouldn't try to interfere. At or near TOC when pax used to cabin climbing seems logical.
Then after this was accomplished, turn of transponder and disappear.
This scenario would also avoid any calls from alarmed pax when crossing land.
Last edited by slats11; 16th Mar 2014 at 00:22.
Reason: Typo