Myanmar DCA now reports search has been expanded into their airspace area.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/searc...-airspace.html

There are probably client confidentiality agreements in place that prevent RR or Boeing from making statements regarding systems telemetry and so on. It wouldn't be their place to do so publicly anyway, any information would be passed to the Malaysians or whoever was leading the investigation and then broadcast from there if deemed fit to. That's the way it works with many other vendor / supplier agreements of this magnitude.

This RT exchange certainly sounds non-standard. Was the aircraft transmission spoken by someone in the flight deck other than the pilots? Would an ATC transcript of the handover yield more clues?

Apologies if this suggestion has already been posted.

News update conference today: last auto maintenance message timed at 1.07 - (presumably UTC?) - all systems normal. No other ACARS / Maint messages.

I guess this coincided with exiting VHF range. As previously stated here, ACARS SATCOM not active / fitted so no possibility of MAINT messages to report at time of problem.

No. Please read back through the thread.

Tracked Till 2:40 AM
 

philipat

Perhaps, yes. The times are all LOCAL not UTC. So remember that Vietnam time is one hour BEHIND Malaysia time (Even though further East).


I do not want to sound harsh but:


1. Why will Subang radar tracking station, located in Malaysia near KL, use Vietnam time when reporting the time at which radar contact was lost?


2. if Vietnam is one hour behind, then it would mean that it is 1:40 AM in Vietnam when it is 2:40 AM in Malaysia. Or if the radar tracking was only done for 40 minutes, then using Vietnam time it would mean that radar contact was lost around 12:20 AM Vietnam time or 1:20 AM Malaysia time.


Simply stick to Subang statement that radar contact was finally lost at 2:40 AM Malaysia time, which means that the aircraft was tracked (at multiple locations according to reports) till around 2:40 AM Malaysia time and no effort was made to intercept, a major security blunder in most professional airforces but apparently not in Malaysia.

EDMJ, you could also ask, did someone nick it, FOR a 9/11 style attack as well. Getting back to the SATCOM, when the problem arose with the A380, the QF duty engineer was right onto it, before the news from the flight deck came thru. This should also apply to the T7 and MH engineering, if a donk or donks were not performing.

I don't think you can take much from the last transmission, as they said it was the last words, for all we know they may have acknowledged a frequency transfer and used correct terminology. ATC then have added at the end something they forgot to mention, like logon to CPDLC with VVTS. I think we are all guilty at 2 am of making a less stringent call to ATC with correct terminology. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, having said that it would be nice to know the full transcript.

Virgin Blue...mah 370
 

Hi .
Any follow up on your pprune 343 at 3.46 of 8 March 2014
re cabin break up message from Thai source ???

There was also a reported incomplete reply on 121.5 , "garbled , muffled , with static"
with a company aircraft flying some half hour ahead on poughly the same route which had been asked to try to make contact

Im wondering about pressurisation /dorsal skin fatigue, Coupled with decal removal damage refurbishing older aircraft ... Boeing has had a number of cases...... Hawai..etc
Wilyflier

underfire page 132 #2630

It has been stated more than once MAS chose not to share date with boeing but only with RR

I've been away
 

I've been away for a few hours, and it looks like I've missed several hundred posts.

It appears that the Chinese satellite pictures were nothing and ACARS did not really track the plane 4 more hours. Please correct me if wrong.

So far, the only facts known are that the plane took off, and contact was lost.

Disregarding all the million or so reasons why contact was lost, let's look at some of the underlying, maybe unverified, but possible facts.

Oil rig worker reports seeing fireball near area of lost contact
(not to discredit him, but there were thousands of other eyes on land, sea, and air who saw nothing at the same time)

Malaysian radar MAY have detected a turn back of the plane
Malaysian radar MAY have tracked the plane westbound over the Straits of Malacca
Boat captain on north end of Malaysia reports low flying plane
Local men on north end of Malaysia report loud noise (I think similar to airplane, but I can't remember)
Most sophisticated search assets have been deployed since day 1 in the Straits of Malacca

Any additional possible facts that should be added?

The facts are contact was lost at 121

All the rest is speculation.


The most logical conclusion is the flight went down at around 121

'
There are only two facts; it lost contact at 1.30 am and is now on the bottom of the ocean.'

Neither of them you mentioned are facts.


They are facts aren't they?
Contact was lost at 1.30 ( give or take a few mins)
And the aircraft cannot conceivably be anywhere else surely?

PAX under investigation
 

From SMH:

"Police investigating the backgrounds of all 239 people aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight are paying “special attention” to a 35 year-old Chinese Uighur man who undertook flight simulation training, according to a report in a leading Malay language newspaper in Kuala Lumpur"

Not a fact unless you can predict the future with certainty. Couldn't SAR assets continue scouting for bleeps and pingers at night ?

Still confusion about this so let's put it to bed, I was flying and on the same frequency at the time, Ho Chi Minh ATC started going mad trying to contact the MH370 on 121.5 at around 00.30 local Vietnam time. That is 01.30 Malaysia time, 1730 Z.

Military Radar Q
 

At the point the transponder ceased to respond the plane was approaching the coast of Vietnam and would be on Vietnamese military primary radar, no? IF the plane did turn west and transited the Malay peninsula (and the possibility it did so was considered sufficient to deploy SAR assets to the Malacca Strait) it would have been picked up by Thai military primary radar and Indonesian also -so why have none of these countries said anything? Awhile back someone did post that at FL295 it would not be picked up by military radar but it was picked up (maybe) by Malaysian military radar. Being a Commair it would have been of none the interest to the Vietnam operator as it approached the coast, however a turn off of filed flight path would -if it happened. Perhaps it did not turn west?
Another Q: If SAR assets were committed to the Malacca Strait why were not recon flights made over the largely uninhabited jungles of Sumatra to the west. A couple of days back Onetrack posted a plausible scenario that had the plane crashing into that area.
Unrelated but to the RR engine data bit -my understanding is protocol in this situation is to turn over anything they know to the investigating entity and it is the investigating entity's call as to release or not release (or authorize RR to release)

Moderators
 

At this point, I think it appropriate to send a vote of thanks to the moderators of this forum. It is so fast moving and contains so much repetition and rubbish, including some of my own, that it must be a major challenge for them. Thanks Guys.

Radar Contact Till 2:40 AM
 

Surely:
I was under the impression ATC informed mas at 240 that last contact was 121

Two different things.
[A] Last contact with crew at 1:21 AM, Malaysia Time.

"Malaysia Airlines has said that ground controllers had their last radio communication with the pilots about 1:30 a.m" - Boston Globe
Confusion over plane?s route frustrates families and search - World - The Boston Globe


[B] Last Radar contact of an unknown aircraft flying in Malaysian airspace allowed to proceed unchallenged around 2:40 AM, Malaysia Time. This is the only reason search shifted to the west of the peninsula.

So after lots of messing around with westerly radar tracks it looks like we are back where were started Day 1.

Which to me makes the most probable outcome being a catastrophic event at FL350 leading to a crash on the flightpath with the debris mostly sinking and now some floating to the north and east, soon to be washed up on some beaches.

What that event was will be discovered when the boxes are found.