This is why drip shields are fitted over electronic compartment areas to protect things that are vital to the operation of the aircraft.

My thoughts exactly, Bullwinkle.

Henrea, a long way back in this thread, I made the point (quite possibly deleted by the mods) that the terrorists' aim is to make the war they are waging against the West so expensive for the West to wage that it becomes unsustainable - much the same as Ronald Reagan did to win the Cold War against the Soviets.

If this does prove to be a terrorist attack, so long as the airframe remains not found, who ever did it doesn't need to announce they did it. They're winning, for they're causing their enemies - that's us - to be spending huge amounts of money trying (stress trying) to counter them.

And guess who'll end up paying for all those enormous costs in searching for this aircraft? You and me, the travelling public. And not just in money, but in added frustration and delay as we endure yet heavier and more intrusive security procedures.

I think the line being taken that it was pilot suicide is self-serving bullsh1t by the authorities. It's so obviously an easy 'out' for the airlines/governments - blame the pilot rather than face the fact that if this is a terrorist attack, it's as big a paradigm shift as Sept 11th 2001 was. It's also stupid - for passengers are going to be suspicious of their pilots, (if they're not already), to the point where we're going to have an incident where some crazy passenger intervenes and interferes, stopping pilots from doing what the passenger believes is dangerous or unusual.

I've had to 'walk the walk' to the crew rest area any number of times (in my airline, on the 777 - crazy as it will seem to many reading this - that involves walking all the way to the very rear of the economy cabin).

I can see some poor sod in the future having to get back to the cockpit in a hurry because of some technical problem and being tackled by some vigilante passenger in mid cabin "because he is obviously up to no good".

Captain Shah has been with the airline since 1981 and flown 18,365 hours. Allowing for 4 weeks leave a year, he has flown only 12 hours per week! No wonder he has a sim at home...

As a 772 driver I still find it unbelievable that we have the ability to turn off the transponder in flight. I was firmly of the opinion that this option would be removed post 9/11 after it became apparent how difficult it is for ATC to track aircraft without a working transponder.

I can think of no reason you would EVER want to turn off the transponder once in flight, and I think that we will find this option is rapidly removed from the flight deck..

So many agencies involved now,I get the feeling they have rough idea where the T7 is.

But if you trying to catch a car thief you won't broadcast to world you know where they are and coming for them.

Hence the Southern corridor.

At this stage forensic psychology, forensic examination and computer evidence recovery with careful evaluation of shadow data on hard drive will either help locate the aircraft of clear the pilots of any wrongdoing.

And the answer is Yes. The early satellite photos from Google of SE UK had shadowy images of 747s on final approach to Heathrow but of course the right satellites / cameras have to be pointing at the right place at the right moment in time.

they will never stop looking
 

Finding this aircraft is going to be a monumental task, possibly historically the hardest ever -
i reckon as per AF447 and the SAA 747 Helderberg crashes in the sea they will never stop looking though -

this incident will no doubt change how we travel once again

seems like any extra fuel uploaded at KUL is not now being mooted at Sundays Press conference -
the 2 pilots did not ask to fly together - someone mentioned the ACARS was switched off BEFORE the last slightly odd radio R/T -
if so wow that's a revelation

plus it seems many Western and other countries are VERY jittery this 777 is on the ground somewhere - they keep harping on about it -
The Malaysians and the Yanks know much more than they are giving off and they are pooping their pants?

have you already forgotten about the B787 ELT fire?

Hornbill88, it was a Reuters article.

I assumed that the last radar contact at Pulau Perak island (near VAMPI) included a heading to the next waypoint to the north. Whether there was a ping that suggests the plane was headed into the Andaman Sea has not been released publicly, but I suspect there is a ping indicating a N or NW track after VAMPI.

i must say i finally do not believe all the fancy rumours.

i think they had somekind of an initially undetected smoldering fire in the electronic bay which disabled one system after another - starting with acars. after system failures began they decided to turn back to malaysia , using the heading mode .

just in the turn the fire melted through the structure resulting in a rapid decompression. the crew oxygen bottles, stored in the electronic bay, failed and the pilots were out of order. the decompression by itself also put off this fire.

the autopilot continued to work and stucked in the turn on a heading towards indian ocean where the plane continued until fuel exhaustion and then crashed.

any news on altitude changes etc are just false rumour from the malysian side.

it maybe that "simple".

Just a thought.
I spent several years building my own aircraft, and although I am pretty competent with electronics, I am by no means an expert.
However I bought an off the shelf mode S transponder, set the hex code myself, installed it then test flew the aircraft. All done with no airframe or avionics experience, as is the case with a lot of home builders out there.
If you were able to smuggle a mode S transponder aboard that T7 I suspect it would be relatively easy for an electronically savvy guy to hook it up and set what ever hex code he desired thereby cloning another aircraft.
I am sure a licensed avionics engineer will shoot me down if I am way off the mark here.
But it may just explain why this guy appears to have been able to fly his aircraft wherever he wanted.

Even though its 8 days down the track, the priority has to be finding the aircraft and the PAX. If the perpetrators get away, that's a secondary issue, and they will have identified themselves by their absence.

The Malaysian PM is quoted as saying I understand that these references to corridors is based on a (presumably geo-stationary) satellite above the Indian ocean detecting signals from the a/c.

But if that's the case why refer to a 'corridor' implying a long, but limited width area?

If the satellite can't detect position/bearing or distance, which presumably it can't (otherwise there'd be no need to mention N/S corridors), then presumably the search area would be anywhere in the line of sight, limited only by the range of the a/c.

Or am I missing something?

@aerobat77

Is that scenario not contradicted by ACARS having been disabled prior to the last words spoken to ATC?

Aerobat77. Sensible words.:ok::ok::ok:

Political convictions
 

The Malaysian govt, knowing that the plane had turned west and crossed over to the Strait of Malacca, still let at least 4 countries waste valuable resources searching for an airliner they would never find. :=
Then, upon detecting said airliner on radar, instead of following it or asking for help right then, did nothing and now ask the whole world to help them find an airplane in an area that is basically a rectangle between Beijing, Teheran, Tananarive and Perth!:eek:
I know nothing about that country but if the Captain has proved to be an opponent of such state of affairs, that only speaks well of his character.

Btw, does anyone have software or knows his spherical geometry enough to calculate what percentage of the planet surface that area represents?

richardgb,

go to the graphic in this NY Times article,

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/wo...ht-370.html?hp

the width at any point in the corridor arc is pretty wide.

Relative signal strength (or possibly even something like latency) to multiple satellites.

Richardgb

We can work out distance from the satellite using the ping. Gives us a circle.

There are some other satellites around ruling out sections of the circle. Thus we end up with two arcs.

See

MH370