Malaysian Airlines MH370 contact lost

[Ian W]

Originally Posted by kappa

Missing jet WAS carrying highly flammable lithium batteries: CEO of Malaysian Airlines finally admits to dangerous cargo four days after DENYING it
MH370 WAS carrying highly flammable lithium batteries admits CEO of Malaysian Airlines | Mail Online

How does this affect the thinking on the ‘cause’ of this aircraft being missing?

Lithium ion batteries are not highly flammable. However, they can 'run away' and once started they produce their own fuel as the electrical energy discharges through an internal short. OK - so what happens if some cargo catches fire in the hold? Fire warning from the hold sensors to the cockpit and transmitted on ACARS. Crew immediately declare an emergency on their current frequency and squawk emergency.

Can anyone who knows the layout of the 772 give a way that the fire from batteries as cargo in the hold would selectively disable the ACARS, SSR, ADS and VHF/HF but not disable the power to the low gain SATCOM all the way back near the tail? Then that severe fire would extinguish itself and allow the FMS HDG to operate faultlessly and the aircraft to fly for the next 7 hours. This does not seem logical the fire is so severe that it immediately disables a whole raft of duplicated systems but not severe enough to disable all systems or to cause the aircraft to crash.