Quote:
Then PF locks the cockpit door and does whatever he wants...

Okay, but why enter the wp in the first place before shutting down ACARS which will report a wp change?

0811 on 40
0711 near 40
the rest are omitted. The track could have been near tangent.

Also, the maps in here with the multiple course changes, didn't the PM's briefing show an offset to the right from the lines connecting the intersections. SLOP or just a convention for the graphic?

Intel 101

From the point of last contact, RMAF Air base Kuantan would have been on the reciprocal track back towards KL. If you look at Google Maps this will be evident. This was without doubt the nearest divert airfield with Fire Services.

Kuantan is a Fast Jet Base which has Mig 29, F/A-18D and other FJ assets.

Langkawai would have been at least three times the distance and around 60-70 degrees of the reciprocal track to Kuantan.

A "land as soon as possible - nearest divert" wouldn't equate to Langkawi or Penang airfield for that matter.

Good post, however imho unlikely.

Cheers

So the aircraft was allegedly seen at 06:15 (local) in the morning over a Maledivian island. That's quite early for many people (still sleeping or just gettting up) and only a couple of minutes after local sunrise (= not the best light to spot airliner paintschemes in)....

A pilot would know that we have oxygen masks in the cockpit...and the first course of action would be to put them on.

Agree. Moreover, if the Maldives sighting took place at 06:15, and there were pings at 11 minutes past each hour, one of them should match. But strangely, it seems we only have the timing (=angle) data for the last two pings.

Anyway, it's nearly impossible to sort out what info is verifiable. Garbage in, garbage out.

and a pilot would also know that turning on extra oxygen in the event of a fire may just lead to a bigger fire!

I agree with Romeo ET

Does Acars send data routinely for Boeing's and Rolls Royce's use, even if the airline in not paying for a maintenance programme?

EPPO,

Even then… the Maldives are across the red track from starting point. It would have to have doubled back.

The timings of a satellite communications operator shouldn't be garbage, but there may be snafus being incorporated into the information appearing.

Not really considering it feeds a mask attached to his face. It's still the first order of business if there's smoke or the smell of smoke in the cockpit.

Once again. If the waypoint change was reported via ACARS at 1:07

WHY DID IT TAKE 10 DAYS to realize this information.

It's a text message :mad: TEN :mad: DAYS.

Either they are oblivious to everything, or this report is untrue like most reports have been.

Goodie, so your first action if the cockpit filled with smoke would be to???

Fire on board?
 

Would correspond with what the oil rig worker saw.

Question for B777 pilots. Sorry if this has already been discussed but there are too many pages to read:
I don't know this particular airspace.
If this aircraft suffered a total or substantial electrical failure, this being at night, would any of the actions documented or released so far be reasonable?
This is a substantially electrical aircraft and the "10 to the power of whatever" event that is a total electrical failure at night can occur.
Turn back is is understandable, but they didn't quite make it round to anywhere near to 180 degrees...
I wonder how well light up the Southern Thailand peninsula is?
Was it a moonlight night?
What was the cloud situation that night?
Is it easy to read the wet compass on a B777?
How long can the batteries sustain the Standby Instruments if the electrical failure removes any charging to the batteries or power to the emergency bus? 30 minutes? I.E. having a RAT did not help...
Is there a scenario where a forced landing on the sea might not create sufficient G-force to automatically trigger the ELT, yet still power the "ping" to the satellite the press are going on and on and on and on about?
If the forced landing was at the limit of the fuel endurance range to the South or SW, would anyone detect the 30 day DFDR transmission, from the deap sea? and if the ELT was not triggered, is there any other kit that floats that could be used by crew manually from either floating in the sea in lifejackets or in liferafts/slides?

Pings, SAR and probability
 

Per the recent discussion on what additional satellite ping data (about which we have not been given info) could provide...

It is unlikely that the additional pings would tell us exactly where the aircraft was. But... it would change the probabilities regarding possible flight paths and thus possible end points. In other words, it almost certainly would allow additional refinement of probabilities along the final ping path.

Expert SAR techniques (such as by the US Civil Air Patrol) use probability to allocate assets to search areas. Higher probability sectors get more assets, sooner. As a sector is searched, the probability of not seeing the target if it is really there is used to assign a new probability to that sector, ultimately altering overall probabilities and subsequent assignments. Certainly some agencies are using these techniques in this search. *Any* information may be used to adjust probabilities.

Finally, I have yet to see a definitive source for the accuracy of the ping arcs. If timing is used, one mile of slant range (from satellite to aircraft) corresponds to about 10 microseconds of round trip latency. Uncertainties in this are introduced by any variation in the latency within the aircraft's satellite system, the precision of measurement at the satellite, and the resolution of the logged time. If signal strength is used, uncertainties are likely higher.

That the estimated last ping is located exactly on the 40 degree antenna tilt angle (a circle of constant range from the bird) suggests that the accuracy is not high. Otherwise, we'd more likely see something like 38.52 degrees, or whatever.

Hopefully, someone will find a definitive answer to this question, to satisfy the curiosity of some of us, if nothing else.

Quote:
Then PF locks the cockpit door and does whatever he wants...

Okay, so why enter the course change in the first place before disabling ACARS if ACARS will report the wp change?
Only possible reason if this were the meticulously planned event by said PF (or persons unknown), and underline if, would be to leave a false trail. Thus the world has been searching in the wrong place for 10 days?

@ overthewing ....greenhouses?

Remember some early imagery of "debris" that turned out to be dozens of illuminated greenhouses? "Fruit in season" doesn't happen much any more, especially when customers are prepared to have it air-freighted.

LASJayhawk said

There are reports that US officials are still attempting, yet being denied, access to the Flight Simulator.

It is possible the people Malaysia had interpreting the message either missed or concealed the fact (neither would be the first time in this investigation, sadly) until other officials were eventually given access to the hard data

It is also possible they all knew all along but were holding back the information until other information was leaked/released (similar to a few key pieces of confirmed "turning around" evidence that seemingly hit after it was leaked the plane was in the air much longer than first revealed)

I agree it is questionable, but it is possibly only that because we are not part of the investigation - we only know what the investigators tell us, when they decide to tell us stuff

The Boeing AHM system did not generate the pings as it was not activated. The hourly pings were generated by Inmarsat (initial ping from satellite and subsequent pings from the plane) for satcom service channel access (in case data was transmitted).

Here's a superbly informative post from yesterday with details. Many missed it apparently due to moderator approval time lag.

Why so? You can construct a GC between any two points on the globe, including any pair of points on that arc.

We only know that the aircraft was equidistant from the satellite at two specific points in time.