Surely....

Exactly!

There are too many theories on here that just dont hold water.

Whatever people theorise happened i.e. O2 bottles exploding, decompression, skin failure, terrorists, onboard fire, bomb etc. etc. just does not fit with the lack of wreckage (small debris field/ straight down entry into water?), lack of comms, lack of transponder, aircraft did not continue flying on A/P etc.

It's staring us in the face and it is not pretty.

Doesn't explain the transponder ceasing all transmissions.

US Officials Believe Missing Plane Crashed in Indian Ocean

US Officials Believe Malaysia Airline Crashed into Indian Ocean - ABC News

Dia Farr - Very good info in your post--thanks for being one of those who keeping this thread worth reading. Rather good to see some wheat amonst the chaff. Awblain and Lonewolf also adding good ASW/SAR bits in as well.

Ploughman, I also fly the 777 and you made a point that I think most, if not all of us have missed--and that is problems with the MCP. How many times have we either done it ourselves or seen it happen when the altitude is spun incorrectly or the heading knob (or vice versa) is spun when it was meant to set a new altitude.

These errors are of course normally quickly caught and so no harm no foul...but add in hypoxia and and now we are talking about how this little bit of MCP confusion could lead to bigger problems.

My carrier still keeps the alt selector in auto unless flying a NPA but I can see why yours has changed the procedure.

One little knob, one little twist, one bit of confusion growing ever larger due to hypoxia and suddenly the MCP could be THE major player.

Glad to see the thread this morning with some good info being posted.

RE Mode S:
It has a code you can enter for that flight, but also a code in the background unique to the airframe. It is - in computer terms - a MAC address and is used like that for data communications in the background.

There are 24 bits in the ICAO mode S address. The USA is assigned a block of codes starting with Axxxxx, where A is the first Hexadecimal digit and xxxxx are 5 Hexadecimal digits unique to the aircraft.

Does the 777 let the pilots change the tail number as well as the flight ID?

ploughman,

a very plausible scenario, the MCP is indeed a very obvious gotcha

awblain,

don't worry, if they need to the CC can get in, if no-one is awake to "deny" them.

Some of the Qs and As are getting abit too detailed and specific and could/can be used by 'others' for sinister motives.

Island_Photo
 

I flew with some older FMS's for awhile, and a controller asked about our tail number, which was being transmitted as another ID.

We looked in the FMS, and sure enough, the previous tail number was still in the box.

We were able to change it from the cockpit, although we were on the ground when we did it. I don't know if that would make a difference.

The FMS did talk to the transponder.

Also, ATC doesn't see the tail number for an airliner. Just flight number and airline code

Indonesia Air Force
 

Guys and gals, did the Indonesian Air Force make any announcements on the MH370??

I find extremely disturbing that a radar primary plot crossed the whole Malaysia heading west to Indonesia and Malaysia didn't send a fighter to check. And find even weirder that the plot disappears very close to the airspace boundary between Malaysia and Indonesia (Pulau Perak).

Digital Globe could release images of the region close to oil rig and debris field seen by CX crew, and also the Malacca Strait...

Definitely the Malaysian military are hiding something, but not some info that would help out finding the aircraft right now, but their own incompetence on letting an unknown radar plot cross the country and do nothing about it.

MODE S and ADSB transmit as part of the extended squitter the airframes unique ICAO 24bit address.

It is hard coded and cannot be changed.

Indonesian assistance
 

Indonesian Air Force Boeing A7303 combed the Malaka Strait in search of the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 from Monday (March 10) to Tuesday, but in vain.

Cargo?
 

I still think the, "What was in the cargo", is a very valid question.

If any journalists are reading this, perhaps you could raise it at tomorrow's press conference

BBC coverage
 

The BBC has clearly lost the editorial plot.

They just had an interview on BBC World TV with some conspiracy theorist nutter spouting a mixture of inaccurate and discredited tosh, complaining about SAR incompetence and a lack of information. There must be pushing 100 multinational ships and aircraft out there searching, not to mention all the electronic scrutiny. Are they all incompetent? What sort of information does he want? Fabricated 'facts' just to keep him and the media happy?

The whole semi-frivolous tone of the interview, anchored by Lucy Hockings (promoting the 'someone's holding something back' line), was pretty distasteful in the circumstances.

If both pilots were unconscious due to hypoxia, does this mean that the flight deck oxygen masks were fed from a single, common source?

Wrong. The aircraft identity is coded into a Mode S transponder and cannot be changed. The Flight ID is separate and under the control of the crew, as is the squawk.

If you look at the registration record for any aircraft, you will see something like:
ICAO 24 bit aircraft address:Binary: 0100_00_000_000_01_0010110100
Hex: 4004B4
Octal: 20002264

Which will link back to the specific aircraft, whatever Flight ID or squawk is selected.

If you look at the full Mode S return on a screen, you will see the "4004B4" displayed.

Back to (bemused) watching brief.

WilyB . . .
 

Stormy Knight . . .
Just for a factual record: My cellphone, unintentionally left ON, inside my luggage stowed in the forward section of B747 main deck, had recorded 3 "welcome messages" from a Bangladesh telecom, while traversing the country at FL330. :ooh:

My apologies if this has already been discussed, this thread is huge and moving fast.

What about the report in the WSJ this morning about the engines reporting back that they ran for four hours? How is that possible?

I'm curious as to all the various radios on the plane, their locations, and what they are talking to. Do the engines have a completely independent radio that would be located somewhere other than the main electronics bay? Is it possible for the aircraft to go completely radio silent but still report back engine telemetry? Does that system talk to a satellite?

I've heard that harped on all morning on the radio and TV news here in the US and no one is asking those very obvious questions....how that would continue to work but literally no other data is coming off of the plane.

The SecDef of Malaysia denied the engine data transmission story today. The US still seems to support some ongoing flight theory.

ABC news:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ry?id=22894802

Last Point of contact onwards
 

The theory of MH370 continuing to fly a further 4 to 5 hours after last point of contact appears to be weakening -

Malaysian authorities have said reports that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have flown for an additional four hours beyond its last sighting are inaccurate, and that the final information received from its engines indicated everything was operating normally.

"We have contacted both the possible sources of data – Rolls-Royce and Boeing – and both have said they did not receive data beyond 1.07am," Malaysia Airlines chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahyain, told reporters on Thursday afternoon. "The last transmission at 1.07am stated that everything was operating normally."

Thursday 13 March 2014 12.30 GMT - The Guardian.com