Not a 777 unfortunately, it is a 737 derivative - I have overlayed pictures of both and the wing sweep is wrong for a 777. Trying to post image...

ONETRACK, I think you are mistaken.

regarding FO's casual attitude about cockpit security. are you aware the captain would have to "OK" visitors in the cockpit and not the first officer?

are you aware that some countries allow for cockpit visits, the USA doesn't, but it did 50 years ago, so it is not unheard of (thanks to United Convair 240 crew that let this former 8 year old boy stand in the cockpit, looking at an orange radar screen with hood)

IT IS QUITE HEALTHY in my view for a pilot, age 27, to want to have cute girls in the cockpit. FOR THE RECORD malaysian airlines didn't punish him 3 years ago and only expressed some outrage recently (a PR ploy if you ask me).

IF you want to have cute girls in the cockpit, you probably don't want to hijack your own plane.

Yes - but Malaysian Airlines didn't even know about the "cockpit transgressions" until the blondes squealed to the media, to get some dollars. So how could they punish the FO if they knew nothing of the transgression?
Yes, the Malaysian PR is in full swing right about now. Wouldn't YOU be trying to soothe a LOT of nervous future SLF in their position?

The Malaysian political PR is in full swing too - they are using every attempt possible, to blacken a Captains name who just happens to be a strong supporter of an Opposition Party leader, that the ruling party wants to see eliminated for good.

Psychology
 

A man whose wife has just announced that their marriage is over, that she is leaving and taking his 3 beloved children with her. This man, a normally decent individual, is boiling with rage, frustration, humiliation and loss. His life as he sees it is over - pointless. His anger immense.

The next day, his first alone, he is on the flight. People are behaving normally. It enrages him more. He is not thinking rationally, the rage is all-consuming. He decides.

His plan is simple enough. At the appropriate point, go invisible, fly back over Malaysia and then take the plane to 45,000 feet. He doesn't want to die by smashing the plane into the water. Lack of oxygen is an easier death.

And he doesn't want it to look like suicide. He programs a flight path into the autopilot, and hopes that the plane will return from 45,000ft and follow that path until it flames out in the middle of the ocean, never to be found.

He will be missed - oh yes - his family will cry for him. They never should have left.

one track


you don't know what malaysian did or did not know 3 years ago. and remember the captain let those girls in, the copilot didn't order the captain to let them in.

sorry charlie, it doesn't work like that. and even a horny young man of 24 (then) wouldn't throw away his new job flying a 777 to hit on some girls. it had to be "accepted" by some people in the know then

We only have inference, not "know conclusively that"
 

Sorry, Sysock, we cannot "know conclusively" what you suggest from the entry programming a turn. All we can conclude is that the turn was programmed. That part, is "fact." the "why" part is all inference. And other inferences might be drawn; for example, that it was programmed in error.

To show you what happens (inference, of course!) when you program a coding sequence in error, look at KAL 007. Yes, we cannot conclusively establish that as error, either! Although, deliberately tempting nervous and touchy Russians at the height of Cold-War tensions by flying over an off-limits Kamchatka Peninsula bristling with heavy weaponry strikes me as foolhardiness way past what any serious pilot would do. Just saying'.

And once again, I emphasize the difference between "Fact" and "inference." Specifically, we have precisely ZERO FACTS that any act here was deliberate by the flight crew. Or any passenger. Or aliens brought in by teleporting. Or much of anything else. What we KNOW as FACT is that it took off, climbed out normally, topped, levelled, went to the proper waypoint, communicated with no stress in voice - and vanished.

Everything else past that is inference. Inference is what we think "might have happened" and we are converting that, in frustration, into "what did happen." Sorry, guys, but I am not going past the facts. :(

@McRotor96 - Show me where he expressed his rage. The maid has reported nothing by way of domestic disputes. The children are all adults. This was a "drifting apart" of a mature married couple - possibly because he spent more time playing on the SIM setup in the back room, rather than playing with her. So she decided to move out. It was an amicable split.
The Captains closest friend has expressed his opinion that the Captain was a fine, honourable individual, and he would fly anywhere with him. He said nothing about him being a hothead - which he would need to be to fit your scenario.

dont slag off the crew
 

One of the post before was saying that untill the full facts are known and the investigation is made public then we really should not lay any blame on to the crew for this incident.
Malay police are investigating every one on the aircraft and involved in the dispatch of the flight. This is a normal line of investigation so untill its all out in the open and facts are proven please lets lay off the crew. They are as much victims as are the family of the crew just as the pax and pax familys.

Oh and so what if he had an F16 flight sim in his home. In some of the airlines that I have worked in the past 30 years there were many flight crews that lived and breathed flying to the extent of flight vid games and so forth. And I would say that they were all total pros too, not weirdos. To obtain and maintain the CPL cost more than an arm and a leg in the first place so anyone up front must really love his job.

Back off untill the full facts are known and proven, please.

a/c on Tomnod's site: I did not think it was in water, but on Google Earth, a/c in flight are blurred from their speed (and often with a red-green-blue "offset" because the three colors channels are registred one after the other). No colors here, because pics are one channel ones, but I am surprised there is no blur from speed. Perhaps the a/c was going to land in Port Blair? I don't find it on radar24.
Or it is kind of test to see if viewers are careful or to make some stats :) ?

Mmmmmm............ Not necessarily true. He could even feel relieved!!!

I'm fairly confident he's not the first Airline pilot to go through a divorce!

Red Rings
 

ana and Galaxy Flyer, if the distance rings can be regarded as position lines at known times, then using the max ground speed (and min GS of zero) out of the first ping ring corresponding to one of the early radar fixes, you can create a running fix on a later ring.
Actually you will produce two running fixes; one in each direction outward or along the initial ring. This will produce a probable area enclosing a 'tree-branch' set of possible tracks as you move towards later rings in this way.
This will enable someone with earlier 'ping' data to resolve the distance limit on the two final arcs (actually one arc with the adjoining satellite's coverage area already eliminated).

The Malaysians may be waiting for the USG / FAA to do this for them so that they can blame them if it goes wrong.

I don't buy it. This wasn't planned over night. If the Captain is the guilty party, and the stories of him and the wife splitting are true, then I'd say it's the other way around. Either she sensed there was something going on with him and got out of there, or he intentionally ran her off, knowing the media would descend on her.

tomnod
 

@Shadoku

Looks like a 777 to me ... but taken next day? 09MAR 04:12 - anyone know what TZ the timestamps are on tomnod?

Actually they had been separated for some time but shared the house along with some children. It's not like this was a bombshell.

There is also nothing to say that the wife and adult children hadn't simply gone to visit relatives.

They have at least one grandchild so presumably not all the children were staying at home anyway.

To see how real they can be, take a look at some of the PMDG Boeing 777 tutorials on Youtube, for example.

Divorce
 

In fact it seems almost obligatory in some fleets!!

Don't know if it applies in this case but, having gone through a divorce with children, many of us can certainly relate. And, as a pilot, anyone that goes to a shrink for help needs to have his head examined because then you lose your medical and you are really angry. :rolleyes:

It is an avenue that certainly should be investigated in the human factors aspect of the investigation.

I would imagine that the visiting FBI agents will tread very gingerly on the scrutiny of a community activist with Muslim origins as portrayed in media accounts due to political considerations at home and in Malaysia.

@Onetrack
In the interview that friend said he knew Capt for 2 years and had not seen the sim in the basement - but implied he was aware of it. For someone at 57 a friendship of 2 years sounds rather brief - a relatively new acquaintance.

How do you know he's a Muslim? He looks pretty Indian to me - a sizeable minority in Malaysia.

He could easily be Hindu, Muslim, Christian, or unaffiliated.

2 cents
 

Been trying to stay away from the internet and pprune on Sunday, but my mind keep wandering back to the missing plane. Guess people in the industry (me ground ops, dx and PPL) just can't keep the mind away from something so strange and so mysterious happened in the industry.

Anyways, I want to say that it just doesn't make sense the captain did it - it doesn't fit his personalty. From his past, we can see that he's a very proactive chap and isn't afraid to show the world what he's fond of and proud of. It does not fit his personalty that he would choose such an obscure scenario to just disappear. He would want to make a statement...letting the world hear what he has to say. And if he's a fanatic supporter of the previous PM, it is well within his reach to use the aircraft in a way that would cause more serious and more potential crippling damage to the current PM.

Until solid, hard evidence is found against the pilots, I would give them benefit of the doubt.