He had a home cockpit like thousands of other airline pilots around the globe. He also would have had access to FMC trainers and the company's simulators for free, or any other CAA simulator available to hire.

 

Sure, the investigators must follow every lead.. Now do you think anyone pre planning to hijack an airliner and make it disappear would leave the  sim sitting at home hooked up with all the computers/software/flightplan's still in place?

 

Too much of the media crap floating around, and way too many people falling for it.  

 

Maybe, just maybe he had a home sim because he was passionate about aviation, doesn't make a good news headline.

Too much of the media crap floating around, and way too many people falling for it.  

 

Maybe, just maybe he had a home sim because he was passionate about aviation, doesn't make a good news headline.

 

You hit the nail on the head... A pilot who is passionate about aviation having a home sim isn't news. But with the right spin, it's perfect for ratings in our 24 hour news cycle, and "who's going to break it first".

I hope that this isn't taken the wrong way, but I can see a possible positive from the media coverage of the pilot's flight simming enthusiasm. Since he was already a pilot, I don't think there will be much enthusiasm for the idea that flight simming was "responsible," even by a sensationalist media. But the exposure, in particular any discussion regarding the sophistication of consumer off-the-shelf flight simming software and add-ons might create interest from people who are interested in aviation but were heretofore ignorant of what is available, how realistic it is, and how relatively affordable the software is might prove a small benefit to the hobby.

 

I'm not being morbid, but we all know flight simming was in no way responsible - if the hobby is going to get media exposure anyway, I don't think it's bad to hope it benefits from it.

I have to say this.  There have been mentions in the news articles that everyone liked the guy.  When you see his youtube video you see a guy who was likeable, reasonable and seemed like he really cared about people.  Now, when I try to square that with the idea that that same guy murdered hundreds of people...it is difficult to match up.  Moms, dads, grandparents, kids, young people with futures...possibly starved of oxygen, killed in a crash, or made to stay in a ditched, sinking airplane...it is difficult for me to match up.  Seven hours high up in the sky...where did he fly to?  No note.  No statement.  Just the creation of a gigantic mystery.  The only thing he did was show how an aircraft can be, potentially, stolen or lost.  An Amelia Erhart, perhaps, but an intentional one?

I'm sorry if this has been covered somewhere already but I can't find any record of air to ground and ground to air transmissions leading up to the final "Alright, good night". It doesn't seem like responsible reporting to release only the very last transmission out of context and then encourage all sorts of speculation based on that.

Why is everyone obsessed with the Captain?  what about the F/O? or the engineer jumpseating? Hell, even a F/A has to sit in the cockpit in some airlines if one of the flight crew needs to take a leak..  What about the dude sitting in 4A? he had a beard...

 

Just baseless speculation with no facts..

 

@Dugald, "Irresponsible reporting" welcome to 2014, the age of sensationalist headlines & social media saturation  

I don't think it's necessarily just the pilot; the first officer is a candidate as well. There could have been a struggle for control which explains the supposed climb to 45,000 followed by descent to 23,000. Speculation, yes, but not baseless. There are certain facts we know for certain, other facts that while not certain, seem reliable, and other facts that are completely unverified. But attempting to speculate based upon facts, taking account the varying degrees of reliability of the information isn't "baseless" - it's actually the opposite.

 

Attempting to reconstruct any historical event that lacks eyewitnesses is by its very nature speculative, and facts are often uncertain and in dispute, but that does not render the speculation baseless. Now, if we started talking about alien abduction or lizard people, I might agree it was baseless...

 

For people such as myself who grew up enthralled with stories such as Flight 19 or the Mary Celeste, this story rekindles that child-like fascination.

Removed... Double post.

 

 

Or worse, the "crew" shuts off the cabin O2 system(s) entirely prior to depressurizing the jet.

 

Unless things have changed since ValuJet 592's days, cabin oxygen is generated by a chemical reaction in an above seat oxygen generator (one per seat)

What I've read, apart from the SAR mission, is that they are hoping to get better data on the final ping...a better estimate of where it actually occurred.  That'll tell us more.   Also, I suspect that they know whether that last transmission was a member of the crew (perhaps, which one) or someone else. 

With regards to the speculation about the aircraft being hijacked for the future purpose of using it as a flying bomb...

 

...I cannot imagine any scenario where a large, unidentified aircraft flying anywhere in the world would not be intercepted by armed fighter aircraft from any nation who's airspace they violated. :ph34r:

Though it did, allegedly, fly back over Malaysia for a considerable amount of time without being intercepted? That part of the world doesn't have the most sophisticated radar systems.

Wow, this place is turning into PPRune R&N...

To be fair are any of the theories any less believable than a coordinated plot to weaponise several airliners and forever alter the Manhattan skyline?

 

It's only right that all angles are covered no matter how far fetched they may seem. Sometimes the truth can be far more unbelievable than fiction.

With regards to the speculation about the aircraft being hijacked for the future purpose of using it as a flying bomb...

 

...I cannot imagine any scenario where a large, unidentified aircraft flying anywhere in the world would not be intercepted by armed fighter aircraft from any nation who's airspace they violated. :ph34r:

 

Except Malaysia...  which apparently was tracking a primary radar target but did not intercept

Unless things have changed since ValuJet 592's days, cabin oxygen is generated by a chemical reaction in an above seat oxygen generator (one per seat)

They can be kept from deploying.