Slow pinhole leaks can be as dangerous as a rapid decompression. The resulting insidious onset of hypoxia on the brain can be similar to alcohol intoxication. The effects vary by individual: impaired cognitive function, euphoria and overconfidence, lethargy or angry and un-cooperative. There are sensors and alarms to warn of loss in cabin pressure which should result in immediate action.

Helios Airways Flight 522 is a tragic example.

If I remember correctly he said ....'that's a tricky one'

Indonesian radar coverage
 

I have seen numerous postings about whether the Indonesian military or civilian radars saw anything of MH370. Indonesia's military radar coverage is spotty at best and non-existant in many parts of the Archipelago unless a naval vessel happens to be in the area.

A slow pinhole leak is only dangerous if the crew allows themselves to become distracted to the point they ignore the aircraft's automated warnings.

When the cabin altitude reaches 10,000 feet an alarm will notify the crew. At roughly 13,000 feet the passenger oxygen masks will drop.

@RetiredF4
Your post regarding the way military primary radar works makes perfect sense. I can imagine that the identity of commercial air traffic is appended to its related target/return. As you say, the military radar operative would know exactly what the target was that had now turned around and was flying back over his airspace.

I have some experience of using primary radar in a recreational marine environment and when you are monitoring radar 'in anger' such as thick fog it is quite easy to work out what is what after working the set for a while. The system we use for secondary radar is called AIS and all commercial traffic is tagged with name/course/speed etc. The Malaysian military radar operative would have known what all the targets on his set were - otherwise what is the point of monitoring it at all ?

I realise this is more or less a repeat of your post but I find it staggering that 5 days on, the Malaysian authorities are saying it needs further analysis.

Read the description !

None of those are features you need for IFE systems. Its quite obvious from the manufacturers description what it's for !

response to post #2358
 

BBC "expert" apparently researched this a bit earlier today and the oil company operating the rig claim to have no employee of that name on that rig

Possibly another red herring

Slow pinhole leak? Have you seen the size of the outflow valve?!

Not only that but ACARS would have issued a message with the Cabin Altitude warning. This would occur before anyone was affected. No such ACARS has been admitted to.

regarding the oil rig report
 

I wonder if something like this could be a factor ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)

The email from that Kiwi engineer reads pretty credibly so I took it seriously enough to plot his position on Google Earth and do some Googling on things that might affect perceptions of distance and how he reported that the burning stopped mid-air. I've wasted enough time on youtube to have noticed that nuclear explosions often seem to have strange light propagation effects. I googled the good old Min Min light and found the above effect. This situation while obviously uncertain, seems to at least not rule it out.

Just wondering if maybe the bearing is close but the distance isn't? The strong light of a bright fire bouncing off layers might account for the fact that the burning stopped mid air?

It made an impressive display, but I highly doubt you could pull it off in the real world.

While there is a "master" buss that most everything talks to, most boxes output multiple busses, some of which only go to 1 place. For example an ADIRU may have 1 talk to everyone bus, 1 that only talks to FMS 1, 1 that only talks to ADIRU 2, etc.

If the FMS sees different data from the master buss, and different data from it's protected bus, it will raise its BS flag. I have seen this real world in a Hawker, the MFD symbol generator was spitting out mismatched data, and both Universal FMS's refused to go into approach mode. (I found the fault, by pulling breakers one at a time till they went into approach mode)

Upshot is, in the real world, you could make the avionics throw a temper tantrum and give the pilots a headache, but you couldn't turn the bird into your own personal drone.

Post by Bloxin
 

Take a look at Bloxin's very first post here. # 2370 He may be on to something.

I know the O2 bottle stuff has been discussed, but follow this.

The O2 bottle lets go, and renders transponders and comms inop. Maybe started a decompression.

The captain starts an a/p descent an hits the nearest TRN waypoint, which was shown by Tarzanboy, to be on the north end of Malaysia.

The plane turns, descends some, and tracks to TRN, then westward. The crew passes out due to no O2.

Maybe pax, cabin crew as well? Don't know where their O2 is located, or could be damaged by the original problem.

Just another set of ideas.

@ mabuhay_2000:

Which you now know is not true...

The Telegraph correspondent in Malaysia put out a short video update earlier, pointing out that all the countries in that area are busy watching each other and carrying out naval exercises but not letting on to each other. So several countries may know more than they are letting on via local radar and shipping capabilities. Maybe this is why the Malaysian military backtracked over the radar tracking of MH370, did not want to nearby countries know their capability. Maybe also they tracked it further than they are letting on?

Pax o2 on the 777 is chemically generated, (unit at each row/section) therefore should still work even if the flight deck o2 doesn't... So theoretically the masks should still drop on auto at 14000'....

GarageYears
 

Actually, I have no idea whether it's true or not.

Thank you. You answered some of the questions I wanted to ask.

An 'event' in that underfloor equipment bay (posted earlier with a YouTube link, and with diagrams) suggests there is a lot of collocation of equipment.

Would someone with relevant expertise advise on the consequences of a major event (deliberate or accidental) in that compartment? What equipment might be disabled as a result? Consequent Cabin depressurisation? A simple list rather than a dissertation might suffice for now.

I'm specifically thinking of SSR, Comms, FD Crew oxygen. Could that allow normal Autopilot operation whilst the FD becomes incapacitated? Thus permitting the aircraft to proceed on its way (whichever that may be) until (whatever) finally destroys flight integrity? In other words, an airborne "Marie Celeste"

Regarding the transponder OFF reason...

One of the tasks by the PNF/FO ( company dependent) in various emergency QRH procedures, including emergency descend, is to put the Transponder to TA on a lot of types/ airlines. ( can anyone confirm this for b777?)

I have seen multiple times that the PNF in high stress situations selects the transponder from TA/RA to OFF instead of TA.

By the way, FL295 is a non normal FL, and could have been flown to avoid other traffic as described in various contingency procedures, albeit in non-radar environments.

I will always remember talking to a female project manager who worked at GCHQ.

She said that you could be tracked when your mobile phone was switched off.

We all laughed - but later I wondered if that was in fact true?

I don't know whether you can or you can't, but the point is who knows what is possible?

I've heard stories over the years from various sources about what was possible and what they have seen done. All of this is commonplace now - but seemed like science fiction 15 years ago.

not been trough all the 120 pages, so bear with me if discussed before.

I am wondering if it was carrying cargo and if yes what was in that cargo.
That might give a new way to look at it ,especially if it was carrying something highly valuable.