Press also just told that the gaps in the 40 degree circle are from speed calculations.

I assumed that they were because of overlap with the other INMARSATs.

So it does seem possible that the plane ended up in the South China Sea, or Java at 8:11am as long as it went around in zig zags for 6 hours before hand.

Did I hear correct the MAS offical say the following?

Final ACAS transmitted at 1:07
Pilot's final words to ATC saying "aright, goodnight...." at 1:19
ACAS sends reports at 30 min interval so it would've been before 1:37
As such ACAS got tuned off within 30mins of 1:07 ie. 1:07 - 1:37 so could be after

As such no confirmation that ACAS was switched off before Pilot's final words.

Press conference STILL a shambles. Better than the initial ones, but still shambolic. Also with journo questions: better but still poor.

E.g. why no .ppt presentation setting out facts?; flashing up a couple of A4-sized images for a second or two; no mics for journo questions => they are hard to hear; journo: "do you hold out any hope that aircraft is still intact"; ...

Just revealed under journo questioning that:
- ACARS may in fact have been switched off AFTER last VHF comms
- these location arcs are based on minimum and maximum 777 speed from last recorded position; this seems odd as there is clearly the possibility that the aircraft can turn; so I would infer that the two arcs should therefore be one continuous one?

KL press conference today
 

No new change really from press conference.

the 2 iranian suspects had already been checked out and china had pax list. M'sia has asked China to look at them again.

Australia apparently going to take charge of most of Southern corridor.

France joining investigation team because of their expertise re AF442.

Northern corridor countries report a blank on their radar - however we have no idea how alert they were on the Saturday night red eye shift and therefore if that blank is true!

No doubt MH370's tale is unprecedented and therefore all bets are still on.

Above all, 239 souls are at stake including the perpetrator(s).

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-1...utdown/5325816
Updated 23 minutes ago
Video: Australia to lead southern Indian Ocean search for missing MH370 (Photo: ADF) (7pm TV News NSW)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/532...x2-340x227.jpg Photo: An Australian pilot in an AP-3C Orion patrol plane scans the surface of the sea west of Peninsula Malaysia for the missing plane. (ADF: Cameron Jamieson)
External Link: Boeing engineer explains three scenarios for missing flight MH370

Map: Malaysia

According to Flightradar24 for that time, the only a/c anywhere near Kelantan was a Chinese Eastern Airbus (MU5093) which was at 37,000ft. So unless another plane with no transponder was in the air, there was nothing else for observers to see.

Perhaps you should read the FANS Operations Manual. If a waypoint is inserted and activated in the active route a Waypoint Change Event Report is triggered in ACARS.

I think the 'Minimum Speed' is it's Minimum 'Clean' Speed Vref30+80 on the B757 & 767. 'Maximum Speed' would be Mmo (Max. Mach Operating no.). Quite a mileage difference over 7 hours between M0.78 (e.g) & M0.86 (e.g)

Can any B777 Pilots on here suggested a Range/ Endrance improvement figure for flying at Cost Index 0 in ECON?

It could have triggered the 07 transmission.

I can fly for 8 hours at 0.86 and go nowhere.

Agree that the latest press conference was disingenuous at best. It seems that they are suggesting that the ACARS was turned off prior to the last VHF call from the aircraft.....made by the FO. This would suggest they are trying to say either
a. the Captain and FO are both implicit in all this, or
b. the Captain had already been 'silenced'
The fact that the FO was alive and speaking on the radio AFTER the initial 'disturbing actions' seem to have taken place suggests he was involved...

p.s either they are suggesting the FO is the man in the spotlight, or they really are completely incompetent and are just throwing speculation to the wind in the pressers. Considering the information that has obviously NOT been released in previous pressers one can really only assume it's the former.

New north/south corridor maps issued at today's press conference:

http://s23.postimg.org/zajuz69dn/MH370_North.jpg

http://s23.postimg.org/poqaivi7v/MH370_South.jpg

If it's in the southern corridor, it may never be found.

If you work on an average of 500 FLYING hours a year, then you would have expected the Captain to have 36 years' employment - which reconciles approximately with the length of his career to date.

That is 18,000 hours total flying experience, including his training and time employed as a first officer (co-pilot) before gaining a command (captain).

Naturally the hours he has worked in total, as with any job, will equate to far more than that. I think some of the low-cost carriers have a minimum working week of 55 hours, of which only 20-25 hours (at the most) will be flying time. The rest of the time is for briefings, preparing the aircraft and the time between flights

On the topic of fuel , its very commen to carry enough fuel into china to get home again . Due to cost of fuel in china its cheaper to take return fuel from KL to Beijing that will get you home plus reserves . This may explain why they had empty seats but standby pax only got on due to no shoes . So 9 hours endurance would be normal for 4 hour flight for example . Cat B fuel .

Allright, good night
 

Malay Mail posted an update quoting MAS CEO saying that initial investigation indicate that those final words were spoken by the F.O. He also said that while last ACARS was sent at 1:07, it is not clear when it was switched off. This info seems to cast a doubt on what was published by many news sites that the ACARS was disabled before the last radio communication.

Just read this
 

I know its been flagged earier... but sounds coherent and plausable.... any views? Especially keeping in mind the point raised #5142?

Keith Ledgerwood ? Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68 (another 777)?

From the new information given at today's PC is seems that the last "All right" transmission may or may not have happened after ACARS was switched off/failed:

Last ACARS: 1:07am
Next expected ACARS: 1:37am - this did not happen so switched off/failed somewhere in between

"All right" message: 1:19am so this could be either before OR after ACARS was switched off/failed. When probed by a journo the Minister did not want to go into it which is strange to say the least - is there some other info not being shared with us on this as to my knowledge they were saying that it was switched off before the "All right" message.

I understand that a/c carry a manually deployable ELT unit. If this is correct if activated inside the cabin would the signal be detectable ?

I don't even understand why the sequence of what order the shut down of equipment and radio transmissions even matters. Can some one please explain what I'm missing?