Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

[BigB08822]

In this day and age...SOMEONE would have made a call. It's hard enough to get some people to pull their heads out of their as$es these days long enough to remind them that the rules about no cellphones apply to THEM too, so I can't imagine that ONE PERSON wouldn't have made a call, sent a text, tweet, facebook post, something.

This is my thinking. The odds that someone would not have sent out a text or made a call seem slim. Even if the pilots kept the passengers calm by claiming they were simply heading back because of weather or what not, someone would likely have been suspicious. And when they exit the plane, how do they get 200+ people to all hand over their phones at the same time without one of them realizing something isn't right and using it quickly. I just can't see this happening.

 

[Ziggy]

Well, when gravity stops working, don't say I didn't warn you.

(Glad you recognize fear is not rational- because clearly "not trusting physics" is irrational.)

How can gravity stop working?

Not trusting physics isn't rational, no. I can understand dwelling on the possibility of human error but I am struggling to comprehend this.

 

[Wyliefan]

C. S. Lewis has a good quote about this, in a passage about faith and reason -- I was just reading it the other day. Here it is:

". . . My reason is perfectly convinced by good evidence that anaesthetics do not smother me and that properly trained surgeons do not start operating until I am unconscious. But that does not alter the fact that when they have me down on the table and clap their horrible mask over my face, a mere childish panic begins inside me. I start thinking I am going to choke, and I am afraid they will start cutting me up before I am properly under. In other words, I lose my faith in anaesthetics. It is not reason that is taking away my faith: on the contrary, my faith is based on reason. It is my imagination and emotions. The battle is between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on the other."

 

[Skittl1321]

How can gravity stop working?

Not trusting physics isn't rational, no. I can understand dwelling on the possibility of human error but I am struggling to comprehend this.

Has it occurred to you that it is a joking way to describe my fear of flying?

Gravity is a theory. Maybe one day it will be disproved and we will all be dislodged from Earth, no longer confined to such a theory.

 

[IceAlisa]

C. S. Lewis has a good quote about this, in a passage about faith and reason -- I was just reading it the other day. Here it is:

". . . My reason is perfectly convinced by good evidence that anaesthetics do not smother me and that properly trained surgeons do not start operating until I am unconscious. But that does not alter the fact that when they have me down on the table and clap their horrible mask over my face, a mere childish panic begins inside me. I start thinking I am going to choke, and I am afraid they will start cutting me up before I am properly under. In other words, I lose my faith in anaesthetics. It is not reason that is taking away my faith: on the contrary, my faith is based on reason. It is my imagination and emotions. The battle is between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on the other."

All he needed was something to help him relax IV in the pre-op.

 

[jlai]

Has it occurred to you that it is a joking way to describe my fear of flying?

Gravity is a theory. Maybe one day it will be disproved and we will all be dislodged from Earth, no longer confined to such a theory.

I sometimes fear height and I totally get the "not trusting physics" bit. Like when I go on a rollercoaster or an airplane, I know
physics supports it but I still worry about "how come I'm not falling to earth".

 

[dardar1126]

Twitter:

Christopher Hayes ‏@chrislhayes 46m
This is the most compelling hypothesis for flight MH #370. Or at least, to me, the clearest way to think about it: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/19/how-flight-370-could-have-become-a-zombie.html …

 

[DAngel]

Has it occurred to you that it is a joking way to describe my fear of flying?

Gravity is a theory. Maybe one day it will be disproved and we will all be dislodged from Earth, no longer confined to such a theory.

That's the first time I've heard anyone say that in regards to gravity...

 

[Twizzler]

CNN now reporting that there is credible information that objects from the plane have been found in the Indian Ocean (Australian news agencies). Hope this isn't a false alarm...

 

[Kruss]

I'm seeing that story, too, and our local news reported it as well. Possible objects seen on satellite, something like that.

 

[Twizzler]

I'm seeing that story, too, and our local news reported it as well. Possible objects seen on satellite, something like that.

Yes. Two objects discovered via satellite. Australians are sending a fleet to investigate. Keep saying "credible." And "the objects have been identified."

 

[ks777]

CNN is reporting it now.

 

[susan6]

If the Australian Prime Minister is making the announcement....he's not going to stick his neck out for something that's trivial. Hopefully the objects will shed some light on this situation.

Although....what's out there? Why would the plane head in that direction?

 

[ks777]

If the Australian Prime Minister is making the announcement....he's not going to stick his neck out for something that's trivial. Hopefully the objects will shed some light on this situation.

Although....what's out there? Why would the plane head in that direction?

That's a good question.. maybe the pilot meant to head north to Kazakhstan but accidentally put the wrong code and ended up in south?

 

[Twizzler]

So sad that we are using words such as "hopefully" and "optimistic" when discussing the possible location of debris from the plane...my heart is breaking for the families.

 

[misskarne]

If the Australian Prime Minister is making the announcement....he's not going to stick his neck out for something that's trivial. Hopefully the objects will shed some light on this situation.

Although....what's out there? Why would the plane head in that direction?

Is that more or less on the last heading the plane was known to be on? That would support the theory that the pilots had passed out and the plane crashed. Seven hours was the amount of fuel it had on board.

I have the television on now. They're mumbling and bumbling at the moment but they have a small box in the corner showing the setting up for AMSA's briefing.

There's a map. That, to my naked eye, looks to be more or less the last direction we knew the plane was flying in.

 

[misskarne]

- They do not yet know that these objects are related to the plane.

- There is an RAAF aircraft that should be on scene about now
- Three more aircraft (two RAAF and one RNZAF) are en route
- A merchant ship has been redirected
- An RAN ship HMAS Success is en route to the area prepared to recover anything that may be from the plane
- The satellite has picked up two objects, the larger being approximately 24m in length (fuselage?)
- The weather around the area is poor, with little visibility, so the planes may not be able to see much
- Commercial satellites are being redirected to take photographs of the area
- An RAAF C130 is en route to drop marker buoys that will record drift and other things that might affect the potential sighting/recovery of these objects
- The imagery provided by satellites was spotted by the Australian Geospace Authority (I think? They only said it once and then reverted to the acronym AGO)
- They are firmly repeating that it is CREDIBLE information, credible enough to divert considerable resources to the area, but NOT CONFIRMED
- The journalists are trying to draw the two people out on whether it is the aircraft, but they are refusing to answer
- Now the journalists are asking about other countries' satellites, but the Air Commodore is holding firm, he is refusing to speculate and says more imagery will be available when it is available
- A P3 Orion will take four hours to fly to the area and will be able to search for two hours when it arrives before having to return
- This journalist is an asshole and trying to basically say that these people are being cold hearted because the families want to know
- I really like these two guys, the journalists are trying every trick in the book to get them to speculate, and they are refusing to
- "This is A lead, it is possibly the best lead we have, but we have to get there, find them, see them, assess them, before we will be able to go any further."
- Australian Defence has had offers of military assets from other countries. Defence is working to facilitate any extra assistance, bearing in mind it is a long way off the mainland (and any help is probably going to have to be based off the mainland).
- All of our search resources are now being poured into this area
- lol dumb question from Kiwi journalist about "how often would we see a large piece of debris in the ocean?" Shipping containers, duh.
- It is the size and the number of objects in the same area that has sparked their interest.
- He really is refusing to speculate. It's great, but I'll bet some of the fool reporters aren't seeing it that way.
- The AMSA guy is reinforcing that this area is FOUR HOURS off the main coast of Australia as a P3 Orion flies
- lol give it up journos, he is not going to speculate or say that it's from an aircraft
- They are going to release the images to the media at the earliest opportunity
- Information will be released in media statements as usual
- "It is in the nature of search and rescue operations that I cannot say when we will have more news"
- "We will continue until we are certain we can no longer find them"

 

[Vash01]

The Australian PM was cautious in his announcement. I am not getting my hopes up too high yet. Let them get the objects first, then figure out what they are. If they happen to be pieces of flight 370, at least the relatives will have closure, to some extent. It will be painful but it's still better than eternal uncertainty. They may never know the reasons behind it though, but if they do recover the black box, perhaps some questions will be answered. I am already getting ahead of myself though.

 

[*Jen*]

The new theory is mechanical failure. Apparently the auto pilot was set to that general location...so the cabin could have de-pressurised, they could have all died, and the plane flew on autopilot until it ran out of fuel.

The reality is that we may never know. The black box only records the last two hours of the flight...

 

[MsZem]

The new theory is mechanical failure. Apparently the auto pilot was set to that general location...so the cabin could have de-pressurised, they could have all died, and the plane flew on autopilot until it ran out of fuel.

The reality is that we may never know. The black box only records the last two hours of the flight...

So basically another Helios, as was suggested upthread - only because it crashed into the ocean the cause might not be known?

With the Helios flight, they didn't switch the depressurization from manual to auto following maintenance, or something like that.

 

[misskarne]

With the Helios flight, they didn't switch the depressurization from manual to auto following maintenance, or something like that.

Yes, that was the problem. It is possible that something like that happened here.

 

[MsZem]

Yes, that was the problem. It is possible that something like that happened here.

And like I wrote yesterday, hypoxia might explain some of the erratic and seemingly strange behavior of whoever was flying the plane.

 

[Lacey]

Makes total sense to me that the debris in the ocean, some of which is about 100' long, would be in that ocean to the west of Australia, if it's true the plane made a left turn and flew directly until it ran out of fuel. Now I am making it simple to say they just have to find that black box to figure out who was flying it.

 

[GarrAargHrumph]

They've called off the search, due to nightfall. They'll continue looking for this debris again upon sunrise. They are saying it could take several days before they are able to tell what these objects are, and visibility in the area is not good, due to rough seas and etc.

 

[Jenny]

- They do not yet know that these objects are related to the plane.

- There is an RAAF aircraft that should be on scene about now
- r two hours when it arrives before having to return
<snip>
- "We will continue until we are certain we can no longer find them"

Thanks for this

Makes total sense to me that the debris in the ocean, some of which is about 100' long, would be in that ocean to the west of Australia, if it's true the plane made a left turn and flew directly until it ran out of fuel. Now I am making it simple to say they just have to find that black box to figure out who was flying it.

Where they are looking now and the original flight path is more than a left turn - it's nearly a 180 degree turn. Although, if they were aiming to return to KL because something was wrong and they did all lose consciousness, this is where they might have ended up after 7 hours.

If this is the location, it would make some sense as most of the time they'd be over open ocean at night, and by the time it (perhaps) crashed, they're in a very, very remote area that is well off standard shipping lanes and flight paths.

 

[jenlyon60]

Don't forget there are ocean currents and where any debris might be now may be a much different location than where it was days ago.

 

[skatesindreams]

For the sake of the families, I hope that this effort provides some concrete information.

 

[BelleBway]

The reality is that we may never know. The black box only records the last two hours of the flight...

There are 2 boxes- the cockpit voice recorded only records for 2 hours. But even that should be enough to know whether anyone was alive at that point. The data recorder records flight data and afaik that would be for the entire flight.

 

[Rex]

God, this is so depressing and frustrating. I hope the passengers and crew didn't suffer.

 

[ks777]

Thanks for this



Where they are looking now and the original flight path is more than a left turn - it's nearly a 180 degree turn. Although, if they were aiming to return to KL because something was wrong and they did all lose consciousness, this is where they might have ended up after 7 hours.

If this is the location, it would make some sense as most of the time they'd be over open ocean at night, and by the time it (perhaps) crashed, they're in a very, very remote area that is well off standard shipping lanes and flight paths.

this theory makes sense to me the most.