Further MH370 BBC and other articles - 28 July
 

For interest MH370: Mauritius and South Africa debris 'almost certainly' from missing plane - BBC News

More pieces found by the same guy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-in-madagascar

Did the investigators ever execute a test flight with the ACARS pinging away to test that INMARSAT trajectory? Would certainly have helped to characterize some of the uncertainties in the theory that was used to dictate the search area.

Very good point. Would have been a good idea, no?

Comparison data

To check its theory, Inmarsat compared its predictions with six other B777 aircraft flying on the same day in various directions, which resulted in a good match.

The analysis fitted well with the southern corridor, according to the report, and depending on the ground speed of the aircraft, it was then possible to estimate positions at 00:11 UTC – when the last complete handshake took place.

Malaysian government publishes MH370 details from UK AAIB - Inmarsat

Further article 15/07/16
 

MH370 relatives' anger at 'ignored' debris - BBC News

What are PPRUNE-ers' thoughts on why the Malaysians are (allegedly) showing so little interest in examining Blaine G's latest finds?

A bit of a logic fail in that article, typical of the standard of modern journalism:

The basis for that astounding conclusion (not supported by any of the investigating parties) is not that there is any new evidence about the flightpath, but simply the fact that the search so far hasn't found the wreckage.

Kind of. I think what they're implying is that, if they don't find the plane in the priority search zone, that raises the possibility that it glided some distance rather than spiralling down when the fuel ran out, spiralling having been their working assumption so far in setting the priority search zone I believe.

Here's a new BBC article, although IMO the announcement looks slightly driven by a desire to tell the relatives what they want to hear - MH370: Search for missing plane to be suspended not shut down - BBC News

Interview with the sister of the captain
 

Yes. The final satellite logon and the recovered debris seem consistent with a spiral dive. But that doesn't mean that was necessarily the case... they may be consistent, but they don't prove it.

Where has the long thread about the search for MH370 gone? Has it been pulled?

Today's THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper has a page one article by a Boeing 777 captain , Bryan Bailey, who has been contributing articles for over two years.
He maintains that it was suicide/murder job and that the FBI has know for over two years that Captain Shah had practised a flight on his home sim deep into the southern Indian Ocean. Bailey holds that the many in high places who sat on that information are complicit in the misuse of many millions of dollars . . the greater part out of the pockets of the Australian taxpayer. He calls for a Senate inquiry into the matter.

Don't fully understand the point. The aircraft still needs to be found and the search would have carried on regardless of an admission of suicide/mass murder.

Not sure if a 'misuse of many millions of dollars' would hold up based on that alone.

Fantome wrote

The long thread was closed. See following link.

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...tact-lost.html

MH370 Pilot Flew Suicide Route on Home Simulator -- NYMag

"New York has obtained a confidential document from the Malaysian police investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that shows that the plane’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. "

On a related note:

Nobody seems to think that the aircraft was on auto-pilot from 01:21 to 02:22 (the time during which the transponders were off but radar has given a track) when it flew down to Penang and then turned north-west. So why the assumption that it was, a few hours later?

I presumed they were referring to the recent News and Rumours thread that vanished at some point in the last day or two.

BBC 27 July: Missing jet 'could be further north'
 

28 July - 'chief investigator believes plane plunged into sea at 400km/hr'
 

It's not immediately obvious how a RoD can be derived from satellite pings. As far as I can see, nobody except Geoff Thomas puts that interpretation on the new ATSB chief's comments.

As I understand it, the doppler shifts on the final logon messages are consistent with a high rate of descent. However, given the satellite terminal probably just rebooted after the engines failed, it's also possible that it was just a fluke while the transmitter was powering up.

Either way, it's one of the reasons for believing the aircraft probably spiralled in close to the final transmission.