Human intervention ....
Quote:
The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 could have only involved human input, according to two aviation experts.
A senior Boeing 777 captain and a former crash investigator agreed that given the information outlined in the preliminary report issued late last week, "human input was essential" for the MH370 to end its flight in the Indian Ocean.
Comments from qualified airline pilots (preferably Boeing 777) would be welcome, please.
Val'd....
For the jet to leave it's programmed waypoint to waypoint flight plan to China;stored in the flight management system; under normal conditions would have required a human to intervene.
1. A pilot could take the controls manually, click the autopilot off and hand fly the jet whatever direction or altitude.
2. A pilot could modify the upcoming legs in the active flight plan to have the autoflight system steer the jet to new waypoints.
3. A pilot could build a second flight plan in the second flight management computer, activate and execute the second flight plan and either hand fly or direct intercept a waypoint on the new flight plan.
4. A pilot could leave the autopilot on, but steer to whatever heading via heading select mode.
On "my" 777's, the company dispatch center can send via data link; new flight plans, to the inactive flight management computer system. To my knowledge, only a human actually on the flight deck of the aircraft could activate and execute such secondary flight plan.
Whatever capability an outside agency (human) might have to activate a secondary flight plan is unknown......