Do we 'know' that the a/c zig-zagged along the FIR boundary (apart from the previous claim that those waypoints had been entered into the FMS?)

And to those who dismiss the various hypoxia theories simply because the cabin altitude warning could not be ignored, there may have been a whole heap of other alerts and warnings going off at the same time. :(

All Smiths (737 Classic and I assume later 737's) and Honeywell (757/767/777/744) FMC's have RTE 2.

Anyone know: How does EICAS prioritise cargo fire vs cabin alt warnings?

100%, thank you for the table, I was working from very old memory :)

Refuting 'seconds', as I was, I was meaning iro 5-15 rather than minutes, half to one :)

How often does a Malaysian 777 fly with only two pilots? Was the two crew flight an uncommon occurrence?

Two crew on a flight like the 370 is normal.

Lithium Batteries
 

Last nite Sky News UK (approx 2300z) carried piece where Malaysian official stated cargo included lithium batteries that were correctly loaded as Haz Goods. Expert said it was legal but should be made illegal onboard a/c due to dangers posed. Report only noted once & only on that network. Not being carried by any network today (on my TV anyway).Was it :mad:? Tried doing search on here but nothing came up. Apologies if I have missed it.

maxnightstop, crew would prioritise these warnings, the warnings themselves appear on screen, latest warning on top, in red. Cautions and advisories would be below, in amber, each indented one character to the right.

Yes, but what percentage of MAS 777 flights only have two crew?

It could be a rare occurrence if most 777 flights are longer and shorter flights are done with other aircraft types.

IMO, we don't really "know" much of anything after 1:21, apart from the satellite pings. Especially after this latest press release, I would treat the previous reports of zig-zagging along those waypoints with extreme skepticism.

It doesn't, it prioritises what comes first!

It also means that ACARS did not report any system errors or emergencies like fire warnings or cabin pressure warnings. Remember the cabin pressure warning from AF447. So presumably this also means that there were no fires or depressurization, unless one can invent an explosion that will take out some but not all communications and power systems and leave the aircraft in a flyable state.

If MH370 wreckage found in Southern Indian ocean.....
 

Then it was very probably a deliberate act....

The "ghost plane after malfunction" theory does not work if any wreckage of MH370 is found in the SIO search area.

If a 777 reaches has a route discountinuity in the FMC, it reverts to HDG mode. All the MCP setting are referenced on magnetic unless in the polar regions (80 degrees N or S) or the HDG REF button is pushed. That would be a deliberate act of someone who knows the systems and implications.

In the case of the "Ghost plane" scenario the aircraft, after it turned WNW would have been either tracking to a programmed FMC waypoint or it would have been in a lateral AP mode referenced on magnetic north, HDG or TRK, it does not really matter. If tracking to the FMC waypoint, once it reached it, it would have reverted to HDG.

For the aircraft to track direct to the area of the last known ping and the current search area, there are only two ways to do it. One is a programmed FMC waypoint and the other is someone flying the aircraft via the HDG or TRK button and taking into account the 30-35 degree change in magnetic variation encountered along the route.

Here is the Isogonal chart for the Indian Ocean. The purple lines are magnetic variation.

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1395575018

Obviously if a pilot can take magnetic variation into account for 6-7 hours, he can also program an FMC to take him straight to the point. Deliberate action.

If a "ghost plane" had left the northern Malacca Strait and headed south in either HDG or TRK (remember TRK is still magnetic) going towards to the now search area, it would have had around 188 degrees (!) set in the HDG window. The following diagram indicate what would have happened in that case.

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1395575076


It is necessarily not definitive and works on a distance travelled every hour of 485 Knots GS and it takes the midpoint magnetic variation value in each leg.

The Pink line is the direct track.

The Yellow line is the approximate path a heading of 188 would have achieved if not changed from the northern Malacca Strait. The distance between the search datum/red line and the end of the yellow line is about 420NM.

The Red line is the approximate last ping satellite arc.

The Green line is an approximate track that a heading of about 197 would have taken to arrive at the search zone.

It is only valid if:

1. the previous pings match this approximate track and,

2. the fuel on board could have kept the aircraft flying for that length of time, and,

3. 197 was the last track set in the HDG window before the crew was incapacitated. This is approx 90 degrees away from the last known track.

It is also about 200nm longer than the direct track.

I haven't seen any evidence that the green line matches the track of the previous pings, nor know of any safety related reason why the crew would have selected a southerly heading after clearing the Malacca Strait.

Here is a closer view.

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/...ps25ba9fca.jpg

The Malaysian Govt has stated that direct interference is the primary suspect here. I believe that is based on evidence from the previous pings that would show a direct line being taken to the search area datum, which implies FMC input.

If nothing else, this shows that a "ghost plane" would have taken a curved path to the crash site due to reversionary AP modes and changes in magnetic variation.

Any direct line over such a distance however, must be deliberate programming of the FMC.

http://www.airbus.com/fileadmin/medi..._OPS-SEQ09.pdf

notes that:

I think a certain amount of activity would be occuring.

ACARS would not wait till the 'next scheduled transmission' for an emergency status message like fire or depressurization.

This is costing the Chinese massively in Satellite resources.

Photo reconnaissance satellites typically follow a polar orbit. This goes over both poles, whilst the earth rotates underneath, so they spend equal amounts of time in the northern and southern hemispheres.
The timing of the orbits puts them over their targets early in the morning or late in the afternoon, in sun synchronous orbits, to get 3D perspective.
To change orbit to look at a different target uses up manoeuvre fuel. They obviously only have a finite amount of this so using it is incredibly expensive in terms of the life of the satellite. They also use fuel to counter the effects of orbital decay.

During the Falklands war the USA changed the orbit of a KH-11 (which cost well over a billion dollars, more than a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier) to provide the UK with intelligence. Casber Weinberger earned his knighthood.

When the Chinese moved as many as "10" satellites to the Gulf of Thailand/South China Sea it must have cost them an utter fortune in using up the life of these assets.
When they changed the orbits again to cover the southern Indian Ocean it cost them yet another utter fortune.
They will now have a very big shortfall in their reconnaissance capabilities for a few years as they have to manufacture new resources.

These satellites have many sensors, not just the visible spectrum. Use your imagination a bit and they will have tried it. KH-12s weigh about 20,000 kg, which is a huge amount of kit. And they are not the biggest.

They produce immense amounts of data, far more than could possibly be analysed by humans. So the initial analysis is done by computers, unless they are examining a known target.

All this means that they can look at a lot of the sea and can examine it in surprising detail. If you just think of what they have already found it is needle in a haystack stuff.

Ghost Plane
 

@ Capt Kremin

Is there any info on how disruptive wind be over that flight? Could a significantly different HDG end up there?


Oops - edit region to flight.

Rightbase, I dont have the winds on the day but a southerly track in that area would generally be all crosswind, there for I have used TAS as GS. It is a guesstimate. Generally in the tropics you have easterlies becoming westerlies the further you go south. they wouldn't even out because the westerlies are generally stronger.. It makes the direct track = deliberate action case that much stronger.

"Sky asked whether there were lithium batteries on board during one of the press conferences. In my opinion, the answer given was non-conclusive, far from being a confirmation - despite the reports. There might well have been, but I'd rather see the cargo manifest to be certain. "


Thx GobonaStick,

Strange officials will not give clear yes or no answer!