missing plane

[Workingman]

Satellites in the area tasked with looking for atmospheric anomalies appear to rule that out; and who would have done it? It would take a pretty sophisticated weapon to take down an airliner at cruising altitude, and the "usual suspects" would surely have claimed responsibility by now.

A new theory is that it was pilot suicide, but that still does not answer the question of there being no wreckage.

[victor]

so Rolls Royce say it was flying for 4 hrs after vanishing but Malaysian authorities say not--someone is telling porkies

[KateLMead]

I am completely baffled. It must be terrible for the relatives. Let us hope that this sad mystery is resolved sooner than later.

[TheOstrich]

If it did fly west, I read somewhere it had sufficient fuel to reach Somalia. But even if that was the case, one would have expected something to have been discovered by now, via satellites or whatever. As Kate said, truly baffling.

[cruiser2]

I can access a web site which shows the position and flight path of most civilian aircraft which includes private ones. They are shown over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. So why was this aircraft lost from air traffic control screens?

[Workingman]

If it did fly west, I read somewhere it had sufficient fuel to reach Somalia.

That could be me. I read and reported on VV that it had the "potential" to reach Somalia. That scenario is now apparently being taken seriously.

What I did not report is another theory, which seemed a bit too fat fetched, and still does. The Chinese are said to have seen a plane on a heading of 330 (or 333) from the last known position of MH370. If that was the case, and it stayed on the same course, it would have flown over Thailand/Burma at a narrow point and up the Bay of Bengal and potentially on towards Bhutan or Nepal.

Cruiser, I am certain that the planes you see are ones which are transponding on civilian frequencies, if the transponder is turned off only the posted flight path is known, but the plane could be anywhere. It would be a fluke for a satellite to "see" a plane over a large expanse of open water unless it was being tracked for some reason.

[Diflower]

It waslost from air traffic control because it disappeared between leaving the Chinese and joining the Vietnamese controllers. They're not checked all the time, only at certain points, because there's no need, they're just flying in a straight line most of the time.

[Workingman]

Correct Di, the transponder is a robot radio, if it is switched on it responds to interrogation from various ATCs/beacons - 'squawkes', but it is not giving out info at regular intervals.

The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), the system used to forewarn ground crews of potential serviceability problems is what is now being reported, but it is not a location finder. It might give five hours of "pings" but it has no idea where from.

[Diflower]

I've flown in 2 and 4-seaters WM, it's the same basic system isn't it.
In Cyprus for instance, they're really strict, you can only follow designated flight paths, you can't 'wander about' as you can here. You're told to check in with air traffic when you pass particular landmarks (quite tricky to spot, some of them lol), and from your planned flight, they know when you should be there.
But if you didn't check in, first they'd think you were going slow, then they'd worry you had some problem, then they'd wait a while, before worrying. They'd have no idea where you actually were, they could only guess from how far you could have gone from where you were supposed to be

[Workingman]

Same basics Di, yes, and Cyprus would be tightly controlled with all the different factions there.

I see that the crazy scenario I mentioned earlier, the one about the plane flying north on a heading of 330 (333) towards the Himalayas, is now being seriously looked at.