Aircraft might never be found
 

I think the chances of finding anything in the southern ocean with the weather and currents in that part of the world are unlikely given the time that has passed. In the coming weeks items from the crash or bodies may find themselves washed ashore. A PM of any such bodies will reveal either smoke damage to lungs or possible other causes which will give clues to their demise and therefore what happened

Re Autopilot.
 

G.F and SOPS. Autopilot will let speed reduce to top of amber band (min manouver) then maintain that speed until impact. However when the fuel runs out (dual engine failure) the Primary flight computers revert to direct mode and A/P disconnects.

Either that ATC transcript has lost something in translation or something definitely is wrong in the cockpit. On all exchanges between MH370 and ATC there are the readbacks by MH370 (which is as it should be) right until the last readback which is just a casual "All right, good night".

That last sentence simply doesn't match the previously professional responses. I know that ATC & pilot exchanges can be a bit casual at times but there's always (at least in the UK) a proper readback.

Any pilots still reading this thread wish to comment?

Yes I will.

I'll say again all those supposed calls are bogus, either that or heavily stuffed up in translation back and forth.

No Pilot or controller in Malaysia or indeed anywhere in the civilized world speaks that way.

Utter tosh.

Unnoticeable turnback?
 

Has anyone raised the point that he may have tried to turn back unnoticed?

The turnback may have not been noticed at night and the lights of the Malaysian peninsula could have been mistaken for the the lights of Vietnam, being bright enough to be visible from space. He was at about halfway point between the two.

That would have given him a lttle more time - until possible Malaysian Air Force intercept.

If I understand correctly The Telegraph obtained the so called transcript in Mandarin and somebody translated it to English, so it is no wonder, that after two unofficial translations, it is not useful.

However, it is now out there, and must place pressure on the Malaysian authorities to correct the record and release the original transcript. But after the events of the last two weeks we should not expect that they will do so.

parabellum,

Interesting you bring up FLCH. If they were in FLCH, a struggle involving the throttles would explain the altitude variations reported by military radar (the infamous F450 which was certainly not achieved). Pilots or hijackers try to grab the throttles, reset power and FLCH tries hold sped on pitch. Similarly, when the fuel gives out, plane descends at whatever speed was in cruise until impact, probably around 250 knots.

Hiding information
 

I been following this thread for long time and as a professional pilot in Asia I find it very strange that we haven't been able to see:

1 how much fuel was uploaded, it's right there on the load sheet.
2 DG, there is a NOTOC, I understand that there might be other undeclared freight.
3 real radio communication transcripts.

By not publish this details the Malaysians make it look like the hiding things.

here's part of them - sort of puts all the "goodnight" comments to bed!

http://i.imgur.com/eTHCSSW.jpg

He said REAL transcripts....

Transcript...
 

Look, the transcript is clearly identified as a Mandarin translation of an English transcript, that has then been translated BACK to English... what the heck do you expect, eh? :mad:

Obviously we should see the original now, given this hack-job is out there, but you can probably bet the times and the overall message intent is perfectly obvious from what we do have.:oh:

Transcriptect
 

Having worked in China, if the transcript was leaked in Mandarin then translated into English, if you gave the original doc to two different translators, you would get two different interpretations of the narrative.

Transcipt
 

Do MH crew generally talk to KLI in Malay or English?
This not a transcript but I think a precis of the actual which has been rewritten to simplify it for a person not familiar ACT with usage which has been translated several times. As the source is stated to be a Mandarin version I conclude the leak has come from China.

There no mention of wind or pressure?

Inmarsat
 

The simplest explanation is that inmarsat are tracing a terminal not installed on the lost aircraft.

Once ranging errors are allowed for, the likely location of the inmarsat terminal is the maintenance base at KL.

Take the pings out of the equation, and we have a very simple scenario; fire compromises comms system, fire results in loss of aircraft control. Aircraft crashes in Asia.


PS: i've been posting this hypothesis since the 16th, but my posts have never appeared.

KA-life - Posted yesterday, I think, 53.tonnes of fuel, sound about right?


Galaxyflyer - Yes, agreed and the only sensible mode to use given there doesn't seem to be a specific destination.

Fuel load
 

@ KaLife

Earlier Bloomberg article quote:

"The Boeing 777 was carrying 49.1 metric tons (54.1 tons) of fuel when it departed Kuala Lumpur, for a total takeoff weight of 223.5 tons, according to Subang Jaya-based Malaysian Air."

This thought occurred to me too but Immarsat swears that it is absolutely certain they have the right device ID for the terminal. If it turns out they are wrong there are going to be some very very embarrassed people in the UK. :\

They usually talk in English on ATC freqs.

You don't normally get an altimeter setting from ATC on the ground unless it changes from the ATIS but you do get a wind readout when cleared for takeoff.

Spoofing would probably be possible, but would take a substantial amount of technical knowledge. The pings along show it's not a stationary terminal, unless someone has dismantled it and managed to adjust the synchronization internally to just the right level with millisecond accuracy, or has written some pretty complex software to emulate a terminal. They'd also need to know just when the real 777's SATCOM terminal went off so they could turn theirs on.

If it's not the real terminal, this would probably be the most sophisticated hijacking ever seen (which, admittedly, it may still turn out to be).

I have seen nothing about the pings that suggests motion. I think the accuracy suggested is wildly fanciful.

I wasn't suggesting spoofing. I'm suggesting screw-up. Administratively, one party in the chain has lost track of where this terminal/sim/identifier is.

Aircraft lost. Terminal not aboard 9M-MRO (terminal on the ground at KL) keeps transmitting. Someone comes in to work the next day at KL and turns it off. The signal was heard by the IOR bird but not the POR bird and this is being interpreted as "terminal not located near the equator"; I interpret the IOR but not POR as "there is a building/hanger on the eastern side of the terminal's location in KL."