Malaysian Airliner

[Sunstroke]

The initial reports were the plane had about two hours of fuel left when it disappeared and now they are saying it may have flown for four hours???

Maybe they flew really slow? They cut the engines and coasted during the downhill parts?

Maybe the aliens had them in a tractor beam?

[Brian Fein]

Maybe the aliens had them in a tractor beam?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Maybe they flew really slow? They cut the engines and coasted during the downhill parts?

Maybe the aliens had them in a tractor beam?

OR MAYBE in a rush to report the story...various media outlets have reported incomplete information, speculated on stuff or simply made up stuff b/c they had nothing else to report resulting in conflicting stories....nah...that never happens...lets go with the tractor beam theory...much more plausible.   

[fyo]

The signal from the transponder stopped. For the following 9 minutes, the plane was still visible on radar (after which it disappeared).

It's not clear when the engine data (ASCARS) stream stopped. It did not continue for 4 hours or whatever, as some media outlets reported. It appears that a few "pings" or fragments were received from the ASCARS system hours later, but no data. The latter is significant, because the ASCARS data includes altitude, velocity and position.

Now, the transponder can be turned off manually from the cockpit, so that opens up the speculation about hijacking. On the other hand, it apparently takes about 6 minutes for a plane to "crash" from the altitude the Malaysian Airlines flight had, so 9 minutes doesn't appear totally unreasonable if they suffered some sort of massive failure (electronic, bomb, meteor, whatever).

The latest official report from Malaysia is that they consider it a hijacking.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-more-sinister-theories-still-no-answers-in-search-for-missing-plane/
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/14/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-pilot-profiles/
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03/15/malaysia-airlines-search-heads-toward-indian-ocean/

[Pappy13]

It's not clear when the engine data (ASCARS) stream stopped. It did not continue for 4 hours or whatever, as some media outlets reported. It appears that a few "pings" or fragments were received from the ASCARS system hours later, but no data. The latter is significant, because the ASCARS data includes altitude, velocity and position.

Hey, something I actually know something about. It's ACARS and my understanding of the system is that it doesn't constantly transmit data anyway. We get ACARS data before and after takeoff, when the aircraft reaches it's highest altitude and just before and after landing. Now I don't know if all ACARS works that way, but that's how it works at Southwest. So when they say they got a few "pings" it probably means that the system was active but not sending data. Also my understanding is that ACARS would not really be of that much help to them. It's mostly used by SWA to estimate fuel consumption, determine maintenance schedules and stuff like that. Now I believe that ACARS can do a lot more then that, but I somehow kinda suspect that Malyasia doesn't use all the fancy stuff that ACARS can do especially since Southwest doesn't. Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Now for some pure conspiracy conjecture on my part, seeing as how we get data before and after landing and they said they got some "pings", could it be that the aircraft landed? 

[fyo]

(No idea why I inserted an S in ACARS... the article and news show I had it from wrote it correctly... maybe it's a NASCAR thing)

Malaysian Airlines has a service contract with engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and the leaked ACARS stuff came from them, not Malaysian Airlines.

Anyway, the latest "news" is that the ACARS system was sabotaged while still over Malaysia (well before the transponder was turned off).

There's also confirmation of the "news" that Malaysian military detected what they believe (but are not certain) was flight MH370 well to the west of Malaysia (contact was lost to the east of Malaysia, 300+ miles away) more than 4 hours later.

Those two pieces of "news" have been repeated by Malaysian officials and a criminal investigation has been launched (including raids of the pilots' homes).