The transponder, and other electronics in the aircraft, must be equipped with on/off switches and or circuit-breakers. This is not just to satisfy certification requirements of the FAA, but in event of a short-circuit and/or fire from this device. It would be like replacing one of the circuit-breakers for your home with a fuse block and a penny jammed in the fuse block. If the item short-circuits and you don't remove power a fire is guaranteed.

There isn't going to be a technological fix that prevents a pilot from hijacking or crashing his own plane. Any proposed system will far more complicated, impossible to certify, and have so many failure modes it would take decades to test.

Is it possible for a skilled pilot to set a 777 down in calm waters like the hudson incident without breaking up the aircraft? If yes would the elt and the cvr activate if aircraft stayed in tact and sank?

Seems some one was intent on confusing searchers and has made every attempt successfully to do so. The undoing seems to be the immersat pings. If not for those the search would still be in the bay of bengal only maybe 5000 km away from real crash site.

This is a well thought out act of an individual with years if experience in aviation for a personal selfish reason with the sole intent to ensure it is kept a mystery and be declared unsolved. Hide the only parts that could tell the truth..... Wreckage and cvr. I do not subscribe to a theory of a 9/11 replay but a better thought out egyptair.

What if it's never found?
 

Given the new information and the resulting huge search area it strikes me that it has become much more likely that the plane and passengers are never going to be found, that we may never know why, of even what happened. What does the end game look like for this SAR effort? When will enough be enough? How long does it go on?

I ask such questions seriously. We are in unprecedented territory. Far from the search area being narrowed, which is typical, it has been dramatically expanded. From from knowing that the plane crashed...we do not even have any evidence of that. This is...to be blunt...extraordinary. It is one thing for Amelia's Earhart's little plane to go missing many decades ago and never be found. What are we going to do if this modern jetliner is never found? That's the worst case scenario now...not a hijacking...not a bomb...not a crash. The worst case scenario is that we never know.:\

Since this investigation (at least publicly) is going down the sabotage or hijack route, did the captain and first officer know each other prior to 370? Interesting to see if they were good friends, or even bid to fly together (or swap) to fly this flight. Since proper planning and evidence of the crew "in on it", this seems like an interesting avenue. Again, like many others, I would like to know how much fuel was uplifted, what was on the cargo manifest, and what was found in their homes. Either way, a circus nonetheless.

Malaysians Knew about Primary Radar on Day 1
 

D.S. pertinently reminded us that the Malaysian government must have instantly recognized the primary radar track as MH370 since the “last contact” time of 2.40 am initially disclosed by Malaysia only makes sense on this basis. This makes all the intervening kerfuffle all the more surprising, to say the least.

Despite this clear track record (pardon the pun), the Malaysian PM’s remarks are still crafted around the concept that “we [Malaysia] had no reason to suspect that the aircraft that we tracked flying across our peninsula was MH370”.

The 777 unlike the 737, does not have a lot of CB's in the cockpit. Neither the CVR nor the FDR CB's are accessible on the flight deck.

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread, but since there are perhaps 100's of posts per hour apologies in advance if this is a repeat:

Given the 8.11AM time-stamp is valid for the last 'ping', this would put the flight in the air some 7.5 hours or so... this would put it about 2 hours past expected landing time - if the passengers were still alive, I'm pretty sure that more than one or two would have become mighty suspicious at least 2 hours previously...

Unfortunately, that fact alone would suggest that (a) they were incapacitated (likely through some cockpit induced hypoxic event earlier in the flight) or (b) there were a significant number of 'accomplices throughout the cabin keeping everyone under control.

I just can't imagine in this post 9-11 world a cabin full of people sitting around good as gold no matter what they were told. If nothing else, surely the cabin crew would also get suspicious?

Thoughts?

Adding value to this thread
 

By virtue of the fact that almost 7 million people have viewed this thread, it is fair to say that this forum is recognized by a lot of people as a place where professional pilots give their input.

I expect amongst these people, are families of the victims in KL.

Can you imagine for a moment their angst reading the mass of wild theories?

Everybody wants more information. But what is known is already out there.

It is true that the absence of more facts is perplexing. But it seems to be feeding wild speculation.

Many contributors to this thread are convinced they know more than all the governments of the world who are working on this problem, which of course is just silly.

I come back to the thread once a day in the hope of finding some investigative gem from an industry expert, but in over 4,000 postings, knowledgeable posts are few and far between.

I think every possibility has been suggested. Then the follow on is criticism from someone with another theory. Not helpful.

Most of this comes from the fact that we don't have a lot to go on as to what happened, where the plane went, much less a motive or a strategy.

But in the absence of all these things just comes noise.

I imagine I am not alone as a reader who would appreciate far fewer postings in exchange for more informative input.

If you know something, post it. Otherwise in the absence of facts on the flight, speculation doesn't add any value.

There would be no posts at all then!

Look at the title of the website!!
Professional Pilots RUMOUR Network

It seems the 777 may have some breakers in the E and E.
For some reporting ones to RR.
Transponder easy one in the center console.
ACARS once shut down would be useless also,
I listened to this for days also.
I hope then Mods dont delete this.
Seems they are suspecting the crew now.
Look at the backgrounds closely.
Captain was a pillar in his community.
F/o well maybe he did invite females to the cockpit.
Now tell me how many of us did that when young and the results?
Want me to post here?
Think we all know.
Why would a respected captain do something like this?, never.
Why would a young F/O do the same when he is having the time of his live with the girls.
We have all been there, if you say not you are a liar.
reality check here.

Agreed Garage.

Other clues would have been
1. Pilots not wanting cabin crew up front. No coffee. No meals. Not even a chat.
2. Sky show on IFE. This could have been turned off.
3. Failure of the sun to rise in front of them.
4. SMS on their phones as they crossed land. Been a bit of a surprise for a telco to welcome them to Malaysia or Thailand when they should have been over water.

Expect pax were out of the picture fairly early on.

Interesting statement from John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, that the ACARs system was the source of the pings sent by SATCOM (not the SATCOM system itself as previously speculated).

MISSING MH370: 3 pieces of evidence point to jet's takeover - Latest - New Straits Times

A different kind of ping
 

There is a video of the pilots passing through security which was posted on 10 March in YouTube. I've no idea how it got out but it shows:

One of the pilots pinged the metal detector alarm.

The other didn't.

The cursory pat down of the pilot who "pinged" the detector did not establish what item set off the alarm.

I've tried to post a link before but probably, as I'm new to the site, I can't post attachments.

However if you search for "MH370 security" on YouTube you'll find it near the top

This may be of some comfort to those who knew the f/o

People have been wondering why, if suicide, it took so long to do it. Looking at the profile presented over the last week, I cannot see this man being happy to destroy his plane by diving from a great height - I feel you may be close to the truth there.

this one?

Cargo
 

I made a suggestion about the cargo twice, but it was deleted by the mods both times. Neither time was it profane or derogatory.

On a separate subject the Straits Times are reporting that:

According to WNYC, the missing plane could have landed in 634 runways in 26 different countries.

"Data from X-Plane provides coordinates for runways around the world. A Boeing 777 pilot is quoted in Slate as estimating a runway length requirement of 5,000 feet. A recent Wall Street Journal article quoted sources stating the flight could have continued for 2,200 nautical miles from its last known position," WNYC said.

and there are some dark rumblings from the security services about the uses to which a rogue 777 could be put.

Regarding security checking of crews in SE Asia, I can name at least 2 airports I visit regularly where crews are NOT challenged if they trigger the metal detector when they pass through security. Both are Islamic states.

Believe me KL is actually one of the better ones. Not as good as SIN or HKG but better than many.

I think you stopped paying attention....:ugh:

Based on what we have so far (assuming that satelite ping story is true) I belive investigators are working with a few scenarios. It is clear that someone flew this plane off its route. In what circumstances and who did it it is still a unknown to us but we can speculate:

1. Both the pilots did it
2. One of the pilots did it when the other one went to the toilet
3. One of the pax, or more than one, hijacked the plane. You got to consider that the individual flying had some good knowledge about how to fly a jet, disconnect communication systems, fly under the radar etc
4. Memeber(s) of the cabin crew took over the plane and did it.
5. Pilots together with the cc did it

I belive its more important to find the plane at this point rather than figure out what happened exactly.
It amazes me how the malayasian investigators waited a week before searching the houses of the pilots for any clues, signs of foul play. Its not about disrespecting them, its absolutly normal to take into consideration any possibility when you dont know what happened. Thats from an investigation point of view.
Sorry, but before you figure out what's happened, eveyone involved/at the scene is a suspect.

Communicator said

Initial remarks are "last contact 2:40" while last primary radar contact just happens to be... 2:40

Yeah, obviously someone connected the flight path instantly but someone else apparently didn't like them saying it and the "official" position was blurred/changed/danced around for a while before being changed back a full week later after it was "corroborated" by the satellite (the roughly dozen or so eye witness accounts from between 1:30-1:45 that night saying the plane went back over them heading West apparently wasn't good enough corroboration- they needed to wait for actual satellite data to know what they knew all along)

This is specifically what was reported in the news cycles on March 8th:
then we have March 9th:
March 10th
An AP reporter was also standing right there, hears it, and supposedly verifies the statement with multiple (unnamed) Malaysian Officials

March 11th
His March 9th press conference statement, of course, being that there was corroborated evidence it had turned back.

So yeah, it isn't like this very issue (as well as their issue coming to grips with this issue) hasn't been pretty clear since day 1 - but still, as you say, they work under the concept that “we [Malaysia] had no reason to suspect that the aircraft that we tracked flying across our peninsula was MH370” because... why exactly?

Does the Left hand not know what the Right is doing? Do they just desperately want to ignore anything they don't want to know? (many people here show that quality, so that is kind of understandable I guess...) Do they think they can will the plane into a body of water they want it to be in? Maybe get the Shaman to use his magic and make it be true?

...no matter, all those countries wasting all that time in a Gulf of Thailand that officials pretty much knew the entire time that the plane didn't crash into - and many here selectively believing very few things the Malaysian Officials tell us while ignoring absolutely everything else they and other Governments say

Reality is, the plane turned around and they knew it instantly