Cura
 

Thanks for that, but it was actually the "Triggered Transmission of Flight Data" working group report that I noticed.

The report in fact makes references to the OPTIMI project, but I have not looked further into the links.

awblain....I wonder if any knee-jerking legislators might consider having arbitrary numbers of security persons with much less education, training and judgement than the crew themselves installed in the jump seats to watch the crew and each other?

Whom themselves may consider a take over. aka the FedEx Engineer.

Golf-Mike-Mike
Yes my second attempt too. Can't see how to quote.
Not electronics expert but I did fly the 777 for seven years. Maybe something as simple as dropping coffee over the centre consol caused system failure and worse. Will we ever know the truth?

Never a truer word said by a journo....."they don't really have a clue, do they ? " BBC NEWS

me myself and fly...
John Sparks ‏@c4sparks
I asked the Malay Min of Transport if #MH370 data comms system Was disabled before pilot said 'good night' to Malay ATC - he said yes ...

That would be the perfect time to do it as Malay ATC would think nothing of it as voice comms has been established after the failure.

There is nothing unusual in DATA transmission going off line, happens all the time, usually it comes back on its own or after a few resets.

The lobe patterns for some primary radars may limit their high altitude coverage.

The routing may have been designed to skirt the presumed edge of some search radars.

The reduction of height to 295 may also have been planned to get below long range cover of the ground radars.

All you would need to plan a dark route is knowledge of the capabilities of the different radar systems and knowledge of their location.

Routing along an FIR boundary could be used to engender 'ownership' confusion between Indonesia and Malaysia etc.

All pretty easy stuff for a technically savvy person.

D.S
I can't see how you would know that the ACARS or Transponder had failed.
Retired from the 777 for ten years now so memory not so good.

Al Quaeda shoe bomb plot?
 

This changes a lot of the scenarios people seem to be dwelling on:

Malaysia Airline MH370: 9/11-style terror allegations resurface in case of lost plane - Telegraph

Would be consistent with the fact that both pilots seem to be very unlikely terrorist candidates:

MH370: profile of missing Malaysian Airline plane's pilots starts to emerge - Telegraph

Two things spring to mind.

ACARS had been disabled BEFORE the final voice transmission. So it seems to me that identification of the voice making the final transmission will greatly assist in steering the investigation towards the person(s) responsible. The hijacking had already commenced.

Secondly reports have suggested the aircraft was climbed to FL450. I can only think of one reason to do this. That would be to increase the cabin altitude. The implications of that should not be lost on anyone.

I haven't flown the triple for a few years either, but I vaguely recall there's an Eicas alert for ACARS? Transponder too I believe?

If this has been posted feel free to delete, a terror group said the other week there was a plan to hijack an aircraft.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 expands after plane diverted by ?deliberate action?, amid hijack fears | News.com.au

Or does it mean fuelled to full rather than fuelled to sector requirement which would be more economical?

Iron Duck - yes, but what the business jet would not have is 155 Chinese hostages onboard. This is really worrying because if this 777 makes an intrusion into the airspace of a country and is recognised as a threat, the C-I-C of that country then has an even more difficult decision. That decision needs to be considered ahead of time with a decision tree in place, before any potential incident, because there sure as heck wouldn't be much time for consultations, committees, referendums, debates and the like.

To recap the main points from that press conference:

25 countries are now involved in the search effort, which is now focused on large tracts of land covering 11 countries, and deep stretches of sea.

It was confirmed police have searched the homes of the pilot and co-pilot - removing a flight simulator from the pilot's house - but the two men did not ask to fly together on flight MH370.

The plane did not take off with any additional fuel on board, other than what would be needed for a normal flight.

It is possible that the last satellite signal received from the plane was sent when the plane was on the ground.

Authorities do not believe there was any hazardous cargo on board.

The plane's ACARS transmission system was switched off before the plane's last communication with ground control.

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane live: Homes of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid searched as investigators say flight MH370 was 'deliberately diverted' - Mirror Online

Too many wise?
 

dicksairbus asks:
Think in terms of two pilots locked in their cockpit - with only a marginally visible horizon, no altimetry, no heading info, no cockpit lights, no navigability. They tried to turn back once things started to go sour - but once your systems are taken out, you need some sort of roll-out heading advisory. At that westerly turning juncture, having decided to turn back, it all became a world of hurt. No flight instruments make Jack a dull boy. That was probably as good as it would ever get for that hapless crew.

How could that happen? A nasty gremlin in the E&E (aka avionics) bay perhaps?

No ATC audio alarms if a transponder return goes off (disappears from the scope).
The equipment wouldn't know if was an aircraft transponder failure or a ground receiver/processor issue. Transponder returns are sometimes lost for short periods of time, more so in a single radar head environment than in a multi head situation.

Seriously, if preferring the opposition over the government makes you a "Political Fanatic", then 99% of Australian Pilots were virtually terrorists prior to the last Federal election!

Unbelievable! :mad:

satellite pics of a/c in flight?
 

It may have been answered before, but can satellite pictures usually show aircraft in (cruise) flight? Just wondering if they are recognisable as aircraft or even aircraft types.

Seems like many a satellite from various governmental and commercial operations routinely take pictures of Mother Earth, some of them quite frequently. Lots of data to get and go through, but it might provide a few more locations at different points in time during the later stages of the flight.

This is an enthralling string of posts and thanks to everyone - pilots and other experts such as security folk, satellite engineers, etc - for their insightful comments. (Well, nearly everyone - no thanks to the fruitcakes - but hey it is full moon today). Fascination is tempered only by the horror of what the passengers and crew must have been through, and what their families are going through now.

I find the apparent zig zags after the Pulau Perak radar sighting (at VAMPI, GIVAL and IGREX) particularly perplexing. At #4347 Porterhouse wrote "There are VERIFIED heading changes, at least 4." I think this might have come from a Reuters article but don't recall reading it. Can someone please remind me who verified this?

Very difficult to keep up with all the posts in this fast moving thread, however Andu has said something with which I can concur.
Maybe not quite as large a shift, but were there to be a second 'hijack' like this, the industry could descend into meltdown once again!

Kneejerk reactions by law makers to this incident are pretty much a given.:rolleyes:

@ Uncle Maxwell

They could reposition satellites and of course the use of long range drones to search areas for wreckage.