Arcing Up
 

@Galaxy Flyer
There is no suggestion that the aircraft moved "around the arcs" - the arcs represent a set of positions where the aircraft may have been on the last hour's ping transmission.
I would be really interested to know the arcs where the aircraft may have been on each of the proceeding hours' ping transmissions.

To those asking about the ELKA ATHINA story, reported in various media as "the Elka Athina has reportedly picked up suitcases from the Malacca Straits" - the media have once again done a superb job of distortion.

The ELKA ATHINA was directed to keep an eye open, for possible wreckage that could include items such as suitcases, by the Indonesians. It was requested to do so as part of the SAR efforts in the Malacca Straits.

No report has come in from the ELKA ATHINA as to any wreckage sighting, so we can presume at this point, the crew of the ELKA ATHINA have seen nothing.

Back to the smoking holes 30' in diameter, the tinfoil hats, the crystal balls and the aliens .... :(

Ah, the arc only describes the possible location of the last ping; not the 6 pings we heard of?

BROKEN ARROW
 

It sounds like the world has a BROKEN ARROW on its hands - like in the movie with John Travolta, where plane is hijacked for its cargo :suspect:

Tomrod site :
Tomnod

Are the a/c flying visible on the pictures? On the pic from the link above, on the "submap" 637975 (it is the fifth rectangle from the right edge, and the twentyfourth from the bottom), there is an "intact" a/c, even visible as a very small white point on the thumbnail map). And I don't see its shadow, but there is a black "band" on the pic, just west of the a/c.

From the api vs chalenge link, it this one : "id":637524,"overlay_id":1272,"lat":11.603921,"lon":92.77524 7,"status":1,"msg":"Retrieved map ID = 637524"

Australian PM just announced that he received a request from Malaysian PM a short time ago for Australia to take command of the search of the "Southern vector".
Oz PM says the Australian Government will "do its duty" toward those in the "ill fated flight".
More Oz maritime resources were offered and accepted today.

After the PM's statement, the opposition leader offered condolences to the families, extraordinary and rather direct message to announce in public unless you know that all the families have given up hope....

@Shadoko :eek:

Thats near Port Blair... :eek:

Radar Tutorial
 

This site Radar Basics

Provides an excellent in-depth explanation of current radar technology, especially the capabilities and operational characteristics of primary radar and secondary radar.

Many of the questions asked on this thread are answered quite clearly and simply on the site.

The link is to secondary radar entry, but the site covers a lot more.

The little green << and >> symbols help you navigate the site.

My understanding is that the investigation team has the (distance/angle) data from all six(?) pings but has only publicly released the last one.

However, apparently CNN started reporting a few hours ago that the second last ping was from approximately the same angle as the last one. But they (I think mistakenly) thought that that meant the plane had stopped and apparently they have gone silent on this since then.

To repeat, all we know is that at 8:11am the plane was on (or crossing) one of the red arcs.

The public know nothing about where is was before that. The experts will know a bit more from the previous pings.

And not even the experts know where it was after 8:11am.

Except we can guess that something happened to the plane before about 9:11am.

Shadoko. That looks like a 777-200

Anyone know what the time stamp is referenced to?

That looks to me like a B-737 or the P-8A maritime patrol aircraft variant.

No, BROKEN ARROW is a US term for a specific incident -- an accident involving a nuke that is not likely to cause nuclear reprisals. Look it up, along with BENT SPEAR.

Shadoko, thats an Airbus 320/319.

@LASJayhawk

Time the photo was taken

Last SATCOM position determination
 

The arc's showing north and south 'routes' potential locations for the final SATCOM 'ping' are only very approximate guides. Added to this, in the most extreme scenario the final 'ping' could have been sent up to 59 mins before the aircraft had actually landed or its engines were shutdown or had flamed out. (I.E. final event could potentially occur only 1 minute before the next ping was due to be transmitted)
This being the case we need to add that extra 59mins potential range, so at 480kts add another 480nm!
Also if still at altitude and the engines flamed out on this 59th minute then at FL390 you could easily add an additional glide distance of a further 150nm. (still air) Therefore, in this extreme scenario there is (very roughly) a potential further 630nm of omni directional error. Effectively you can redraw these arcs, giving them a 630nm radius (or put another way 1260nm wide!) Perhaps someone could apply these distance and post the revised arc's.

Tomnod's data all relates to the 9th of March. Their initial batch was just in a different location to the second. So that plane in that segment was flying in that spot on the 9th of March.

ANA,
CNNs report may refer to the fact it was stationary wreckage the ping was coming from.Thats why it was the same angle.

Anyway let's wait see what eventuates. It's pure lunacy to start searching the Indian Ocean after not even properly covering the sea floor in South China, majority of the search has been by air. They need sea craft in the area.

Gosh I've had enough of this thread bye bye and good luck to all concerned.
My hearts condolences and sympathy to all the families affected.

@Kulwin Park - We have only a few clues of substance, and a lot of missing information. Trying to draw conclusions without all the information that is currently in the hands of top investigators is pretty fruitless.

We can rely on this much. It's not what we are being told, it is what we are deliberately NOT being told, or what is being obfuscated.

To recap:

1. The aircraft made repeated and obviously well-directed attempts at total concealment. In that respect it has been superbly successful.
Whether those well-directed attempts were by hijackers directing the Captain or FO, or by the Capt of FO acting of their own volition, isn't known.

2. Cockpit security is the major issue here. I don't recall too many successful attempts at cockpit entry since 9/11.
Either someone used a particularly clever ruse to gain cockpit entry, or it was purely the crews efforts that made the aircraft disappear.
One FO who has been shown to have a casual attitude to cockpit security is a major concern here.

3. Nothing has effectively been stated about the cargo. The only statement issued was "there is no hazardous cargo on board".
From that statement we note that the value of the cargo was omitted.

4. Terrorists are the only people who are happy to play with hundreds of innocent people lives, like a cat plays with a mouse.
It's stretching the bounds of credibility that two professional flight crew, previously showing no signs of depression, extremist anger on forums, or all the signs of extremism (and wearing a T-shirt saying "Democracy is Dead" doesn't make you an extremist) would suddenly hijack a very large aircraft without leaving some important clues.
I've looked and looked and not seen those important clues.

5. The most likely scenario is a particularly clever hijacking by a well-organised extremist Islamic group, to a remote site, such as a dry salt lake bed, where a B777 could land successfully.
The terrorists used the Captains skills to good advantage, under threat of death. He complied because he wasn't prepared to behave like Indiana Jones.
There's not one of the 634 airstrips mentioned, where the arrival of a B777 wouldn't raise immediate concern and communication - UNLESS the terrorists had already taken over the airstrip, and silenced communications from it.

The aim of the hijack would be to secure the valuables in the hold - because terrorism requires financing, and the terrorists finances have been drying up due to increased financial systems surveillance, and the blocking of funding transfers.
The hold could likely have contained a large shipment of easily-utilised banknotes, not just gold or diamonds.

The bonus would be a free aircraft in the deal, to use as a weapon sometime in the future. It has been immediately camouflaged upon landing to facilitate the theft and the disappearance.

Feel free to shoot me down. :)

@Shadoko
That does look like a 777 in flight!!!
From the time stamp it is over 24 hours after the last known contact, so probably another a/c.
If it was in the water you would see the wake/waves breaking on it.

RE:.....
..........
The bonus would be a free aircraft in the deal, to use as a weapon sometime in the future. It has been immediately camouflaged upon landing to facilitate the theft and the disappearance..."

Oy Vey. U make me yearn for the coffee spill theorists to come back on!