Malaysian 777 enroute to Beijing missing!

[dalad]

Took it up high to put everybody to sleep ....

Yep. Let's say this flight periodically ships 2 tons of gold to China (pulled that outta my hat). A plot is hatched, that includes the two pilots. Run the cabin alt up and disable the auto drop of the rubber jungle at 14k while on O2 masks in the cockpit. Then initiate a divert to a pre planned location where your plotting cohorts are waiting. I haven't pulled out my manuals to see if it was feasible.

 

[scoreboardII]

I'm not sure you can defeat the rubber jungle... Unless you go full retard and turn off all electrics, and even then... Hot battery bus?

 

[CesnaCaptn]

Yep. Let's say this flight periodically ships 2 tons of gold to China (pulled that outta my hat). A plot is hatched, that includes the two pilots. Run the cabin alt up and disable the auto drop of the rubber jungle at 14k while on O2 masks in the cockpit. Then initiate a divert to a pre planned location where your plotting cohorts are waiting. I haven't pulled out my manuals to see if it was feasible.

I don't see why you would need to disable the O2. Those masks only provide oxygen for 12 minutes. Pax would be so busy taking their last breaths they wouldn't think the pilots were sinister.

 

[Old School 737]

Even with the rubber jungle .. The O2 only lasts so long .. And if they told the people to stay calm that an emergency is being handled ..... By the time the o2 runs out it's 2 late to fight the bad guys ...

 

[CesnaCaptn]

New York Times reporting military radar showed that the 777 climbed to 45,000' from initial cruise of 35,000' and then uneven descents and at times rapid to 23,000' as it made it's turn west and then climbed again and leveled off(didn't say what final altitude).

Sounds to me like a fight for the controls.

Or no one at the controls. Could just be the airplane in either control wheel steering or autopilot off and the airplane doing phugoids.

 

[dalad]

Remember the 737 that crashed a few years ago in the Med? Everybody was incapacitated and it crashed when it ran out of fuel.

 

[Old School 737]

But why was the transponder turned off .. And where's the wreck

 

[airplane wizard]

Fire in the avionics bay knocks out transponder etc, pilots incapacitated by smoke??

 

[JCJ]

I am absolutely not a conspiracy theorist, and up until about the last 24 hours I was certain that when this was said and done there would be a tragic explanation of some type of aircraft failure, probably starting with either an explosive decompression or other oxygen system failure that incapacitated the crew before they figured it out & took action (remember Payne Stewart's jet?)

But there are too many pieces of information coming together from relatively authoritative sources (Reuters, ABC news, US Military) that I think it's really looking like an intentional act.

1. The two young Iranian men were probably traveling on stolen passports because they were seeking asylum trying to get out of Iran. They've been cleared of any involvement.

2. The oil slick and other debris have all been investigated & found to be related to other stuff (i.e. the oil slick was maritime oil, not aviation oil).

3. Two of three data sources from the aircraft failed - the transponder and another data link in the cockpit. These two can be manually disabled (turned off) in the cockpit. They stopped working at different times (about 20 minutes apart) suggesting they were intentionally turned off. The third system, the engine data system (which can't be controlled from the cockpit) continued to send engine data, apparently for hours. If this were a catastrophic failure like an in-flight explosion, all three data streams would have failed simultaneously.

4. Reuters now reports that there is reliable information that after the transponder went inop, the aircraft (now a primary target) turned to the southwest & flew direct to an established navigation waypoint & then followed a routine jet navigation route intercepting two other waypoints before loss of contact. This was likely an intentional action by someone on board who knew how to operate at least some B777 systems. Had there been sudden incapacitation of the crew, the aircraft would still have continued on the route programmed in the FMS (north to Bejing) - or if the autopilot disconnected, it likely would have flown some random route guided by prevailing winds (jetstream) until it ran out of fuel and crashed (think Payne Stewart). Instead, the aircraft apparently intentionally flew southwest via recognized navigation routes - indicating an intentional act.

5. Sequential failure of two of the three data transmitting sources (transponder & cockpit data) - 20 minutes apart - is inconsistent with a rapid hypoxia crew incapacitation.

I think they're getting alot closer to an answer - I am guessing the aircraft is now at the bottom of the Indian ocean, but who knows? But as much as I want to think that the most likely scenario is some kind of system(s) failure for which all of the pieces haven't been put together yet, this really is looking more and more like an intentional act - either from the crew or from hijackers who overpowered and killed or disabled he crew & took over the plane, and had the rudimentary knowledge to turn off the data and the transponder and fly it for a while. Apparently flight deck access restrictions aren't nearly as strict overseas as they are in the U.S. (evidenced by the pictures floating around of the FO entertaining young women in the cockpit on another recent flight.

As Erlanger points out, the altitude deviations could well be because of a fight over the controls.

(warning - speculation ahead)

If it was hijackers, maybe they had rudimentary instruction about 777 systems from online sources or MS flight simulator, had a (poorly thought out) plan to take it over & fly it somewhere but after they got control of the plane, got the transponder turned off & turned west discovered they discovered they were in over their heads, made a bunch of mistakes & and ran out of fuel over the Indian ocean & crashed.

but using a cheap flight sim with a good database would be good practice for learning switchology (turning off transponder, data, etc) - and doing basic 2D navigation - but probably lousy for actual control of a big airplane, fuel management, and all the other stuff that goes on in flying an airliner

I'm sure there are other plausible scenarios. This will be really ugly when it's sorted out.

 

[2000Easyguy]

Quote from JCJ;

If it was hijackers, maybe they had rudimentary instruction about 777 systems from online sources or MS flight simulator, had a (poorly thought out) plan to take it over & fly it somewhere but after they got control of the plane, got the transponder turned off & turned west discovered they discovered they were in over their heads, made a bunch of mistakes & and ran out of fuel over the Indian ocean & crashed.

but using a cheap flight sim with a good database would be good practice for learning switchology (turning off transponder, data, etc) - and doing basic 2D navigation - but probably lousy for actual control of a big airplane, fuel management, and all the other stuff that goes on in flying an airliner

Most plausible scenario I have heard/read yet. great post btw!