Malaysian Flight 370

[JeffEvans 0]

Although most anything could be the cause of the disappearance and most things have been or will be thoroughly checked, the pilots enthusiasm for FS has me curious.  First of all... I DO NOT THINK THE PILOT WAS INVOLVED, however could another FS enthusiast who was associated with the captain, either in person or online be responsible?

 

There was a Japan Airlines flight (a 747 I believe) that was hijacked by an FS enthusiast several years ago.  He thought his FS  experience would allow him to sucessfully navigate and control "the real thing".  He was wrong.  Far fetched but should be checked out.

 

Also I wouldn't rule out catastrophic decompression and power failure.  Could the pilot have started to maneuver the aircraft back to Malaysia (FIRST... fly the airplane) and passed out with the FMC already programmed for the turn?  I know there are several backups for the generator but... stuff happens.

[xplanery 250]

 

 

There was a Japan Airlines flight (a 747 I believe) that was hijacked by an FS enthusiast several years ago.  He thought his FS  experience would allow him to sucessfully navigate and control "the real thing".  He was wrong.  Far fetched but should be checked out.

 

I've never heard about such an incident, wiki doesn't seem to tell anything about it (though it seems like surprisingly many Japan Airlines 747's were involved in hijackings several decades ago). 

[n4gix 4,947]

What has impressed me is the amount of cooperation between some rather disparate countries in the SAR operation.

[tunnelcat 1]

Maintenance?  Things bust.  The longer they would wait the longer the risk of not being able to use it.

 

True. I'm just trying to think outside the box here. Maybe they won't wait very long to do their nasty terrorist deed then. However, I can't think of any other reason somebody would actually want to fly off into the unknown with an airliner that big, other than to steal it for an unkown terrorist reason or ransom, or intentionally crash it as a terrorist act. There have been no ransom requests if they did land it somewhere, nor has any wreckage been found yet. And why would some terrorists crash an airliner into a deserted tract of open ocean where no one would find the evidence to their actions? These monsters always seem to want to show the world their evil deeds. Time will tell, unfortunately, for those on board.

[MarkW 1,491]

I was following on airliners.net while Avsim was down.  They have a wildly speculative thread going there that is up to 6000+ posts already.  I really hope they eventually find the aircraft and recover the flight recorders so we will know definitively what happened.  The voice recorder will probably be useless though as it only records something like 30 minutes and if they flew for 4 hours plus it would have written over the key recordings.  Its certainly cruel for the families how this has unfolded given that they really don't know if their family members are dead or alive.  I would have presumed this was a recover mission but now who knows, the plane could have landed or ditched close to an island and there may be survivors.

[january 19]

Seems like someone was flying.  The question, assuming terrorism is what where they after?

 

 

 

I would look in western China - home of the Uighur sect who recently murdered 29 innocent persons in a Kunming subway station. 

They seek independence from China because of their Muslim religion. 

230+ hostages is a fair bargaining chip.

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Consider that flight 370 had enough fuel to reach Beijing  OR  Xinjiang  province in the west. The trip north in this scenario would be largely over Myanmar (Burma) where radar coverage is likely spotty at anytime let alone at night.

There are a number of airfields with long runways in that part of the world.

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Any rescuers need lots of time to plan & execute such a mission- if it's possible.

In the meantime, one pretends he might be prepared to meet the kidnappers' demands- but "needs approval from higher ups". Otherwise known as "stall for time".

january

[JeffEvans 0]

I knew I remembered a hijacking by an FS enthusiast... see below...

Man Hijacks 747, Stabs Pilot

 

Passengers of a hijacked Japanese airliner wade through a pack of reporters after leaving the plane at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport. (Leader) 

By Joji Sakurai
Associated Press Write
Friday, July 23, 1999; 9:41 a.m. EDT

 

TOKYO (AP) -- A knife-wielding hijacker forced his way into the cockpit of a Japanese jumbo jet today, stabbed the pilot to death and then briefly flew the plane carrying more than 500 people before he was overpowered, according to officials and news reports.

No one else was injured aboard the All Nippon Airways Boeing 747, flying from Tokyo to the northern city of Sapporo, Transportation Ministry officials said. The plane returned to the capital about an hour after taking off.

Two minutes after takeoff, the hijacker, Yuji Nishizawa, pulled out an 8-inch knife and pressed it to a flight attendant's back, forcing her to take him into the cockpit, officials said. The 28-year-old unemployed man, a fan of computer flight-simulation games, reportedly just wanted to fly a real plane.

[z06z33 763]

I don't think the pilots were involved in anyway!! It could be a lot of things someone could have stolen the plane for drug running? Who knows? If Someone planned on stealing the jet and holding the pax as hostages they might have botched the landing and that's why we haven't heard anything as there would be no reason for the terrorist scum to bring it up since they would have nothing to bargain with and if they admitted to it they would face grave reprisals. 

[RWFeldman 159]

I have one take on that situation. It's nowhere and its everywhere and nobody knows nothing! Makes for good 24-7 news talks.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

What's the point of flying it out to sea never to be found again? Or are you suggesting that any hijackers were trying to "crash land" it in the ocean at a pre-determined point, and then pirates loot the wreckage?

Sabotage or Piracy was the terms used by the US officials. One person taking a ship or aircraft is considered piracy

 

 

 

A US official said in Washington investigators were examining the possibility of "human intervention" in the plane's disappearance, adding it may have been "an act of piracy."

 

[xplanery 250]

Unless the plane flew to North Korea I really find it hard to believe it would have made successful landing anywhere. That's the only country with crazy enough government to possibly do something like this, though I can't see a motive & it would be a huge risk to them as it would anger their most important ally, China. 

 

I think most likely it's not in flyable condition at least. 

[ViperPilot 81]

I was following on airliners.net while Avsim was down.  They have a wildly speculative thread going there that is up to 6000+ posts already.  I really hope they eventually find the aircraft and recover the flight recorders so we will know definitively what happened.  The voice recorder will probably be useless though as it only records something like 30 minutes and if they flew for 4 hours plus it would have written over the key recordings.  Its certainly cruel for the families how this has unfolded given that they really don't know if their family members are dead or alive.  I would have presumed this was a recover mission but now who knows, the plane could have landed or ditched close to an island and there may be survivors.

 

6000+ posts, and they were totally offline for almost a day. PPRuNe has 3600+, and it's just as bad. The Media is not helping the situation, either.

 

 

The uncertainty must be agony for the families and loved ones of the missing; my thoughts are with them.

[duckbilled 310]

I know CNN is doing a ton of coverage on this - most of it really dumb. I am going to add some dumb ideas as well - I'm not a pilot and my only aviation experience comes from FS and flying in coach (with the occasional FC upgrade).

 

So CNN is stating that the ac climbed to FL450 after saying goodnight to ATC. Then, it made a turn to the west, descended to FL230, climbed, descended and continued on for a few hours. This, of course, is a combination of reports.

 

So, in FS, if I am climbing and shut off the app while I am still climbing, the aircraft will keep climbing until it stalls. Once it stalls, it will descend rapidly until airspeed and attitude align. Then, it will level out and climb if climb thrust is activated, it will begin to climb again and repeat the process until it crashes. Also, when it stalls, it would likely bank to the left/right.

 

Of course, I don't know what happened but it sounds like it went in to this process UNCONTROLLED, and not in a controlled situation.

 

just me 2 cents

[xplanery 250]

The data may not be totally reliable though, still that sounds interesting. 

[Dillon 2,197]

This will always be a mystery as the flight voice recorder does not record four plus hours back when the initial incident took place. I believe the last hour of the flight is the only voice data you'd get leaving out the mystery of how this all started. Next it's unheard of not to have any passengers calling home letting loved ones know there was a problem. With the altitude fluctuations reported it's impossible in the age of smart phones for none of the 239 passengers to not report a word of this in real time. Think of Flight 93... This sounds crazy but this hijacker was one lucky SOB to pull all this off without a word from your victims.