Thread: Flight 370

Originally Posted by Splashone

The real issue is why wasn't the plane tracked after the transponder was off?

The transponder is only an aid for ATC. It is interrogated by the radar and then replies with the assigned code and flight level (altitude in feet/100) for the aircraft. The radar still receives the "skin paint" when the transponder is off. ATC can still manually assign track data to that "raw" return and the computers are pretty good at keeping the data correlated. They don't like to do it because of the added work load, but the airplane did not "magically disappear" when the transponder was shut down. Granted they have to ask what the aircraft altitude is but (civilian radar rarely includes a height finder radar). The aircraft could have then descended below the radar horizon but then they would have burned WAY more fuel at lower altitudes. The military routinely deals with non-squawking aircraft...believe me a penetrating enemy aircraft is NOT going to be squawking or talking!

This is exactly what isn't making sense to me...

I realize that the Indian Ocean is a big place but there are a ton of ships from every country that patrol and sail there I would think an "Unidentified" aircraft might raise some alarms from somebody..
Especially if it was flying across the Bay of Bengal toward India like they keep suggesting


Weirdness Multiplied

In the paper today is a possible flight path that says the plane may have flown deep into Asia,I wonder if there is a possibilty it could have landed or went down over land?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

This is exactly what isn't making sense to me...

I realize that the Indian Ocean is a big place but there are a ton of ships from every country that patrol and sail there I would think an "Unidentified" aircraft might raise some alarms from somebody..
Especially if it was flying across the Bay of Bengal toward India like they keep suggesting


Weirdness Multiplied

If you are referring to commercial vessels the radar they carry is for navigation, surface radar, I believe. I don't think that they have air search radars generally. I could be wrong though. Warships obviously do carry various air search radars but that would depend on if they were operating them or not at the time 370 disappeared and were close enough to pick them up. Radar coverage in that area still could be plenty spotty.

Bob

Most air search radars have a mx range of around 250 miles if they are cranked out that far and most navies don't operate their radar unless they need to for security reasons. Also even if they did pick it up it would just be a blip on the screen with no identification and they don't record these things.

Is it possible that can't find it as its not there?

There is a potentially globally changing situation brewing in Ukraine, yet more news hours is dedicated to this (everyone loves a good mystery right?) So a government wants to divert attention, pretty good way to do it right?

Experts say the plane climbed right up to about its height limit then dropped, is it possible to refuel one of these at that altitude mid flight? Frankly I have no idea but if so, it would explain a lot. Fly it to somewhere it will never be found, a nice little secret compound somewhere for instance, passengers live out their lives no one ever finds them. And a lot of people benefit from the diverted attention.

I love crazy theories lol

Crazy theories abound. I still holding out for either a Langolier's situation or North Korea. Highly improbable but you never know.

Not to diminish the tragedy of the probable loss of life associated with the disappearance of flight 370, why is it more important/newsworthy than than the unfolding situation in the Ukraine? What does or does not happen there effects far more people and has the potential to be far more tragic should things turn even more violent. You really wonder about things being a distraction to ease minds. Just follow the bouncing ball sorta thing.

Bob

Originally Posted by monkeypuzzlebeefeater

Is it possible that can't find it as its not there?

There is a potentially globally changing situation brewing in Ukraine, yet more news hours is dedicated to this (everyone loves a good mystery right?) So a government wants to divert attention, pretty good way to do it right?

Experts say the plane climbed right up to about its height limit then dropped, is it possible to refuel one of these at that altitude mid flight? Frankly I have no idea but if so, it would explain a lot. Fly it to somewhere it will never be found, a nice little secret compound somewhere for instance, passengers live out their lives no one ever finds them. And a lot of people benefit from the diverted attention.

I love crazy theories lol

Altitude doesn't matter, the plane was not made to be aerial refueled. They have no way of knowing what altitude it was flying after the transponder was turned off.

Originally Posted by BobH

Not to diminish the tragedy of the probable loss of life associated with the disappearance of flight 370, why is it more important/newsworthy than than the unfolding situation in the Ukraine? What does or does not happen there effects far more people and has the potential to be far more tragic should things turn even more violent. You really wonder about things being a distraction to ease minds. Just follow the bouncing ball sorta thing.

Bob

Let's take bets. I say that by next Thursday, if they haven't found anything, if Russia and America haven't gone to war, or there isn't some kind of terrorism going on someplace, we'll never hear of it again.

Originally Posted by monkeypuzzlebeefeater

Is it possible that can't find it as its not there?

There is a potentially globally changing situation brewing in Ukraine, yet more news hours is dedicated to this (everyone loves a good mystery right?) So a government wants to divert attention, pretty good way to do it right?

Experts say the plane climbed right up to about its height limit then dropped, is it possible to refuel one of these at that altitude mid flight? Frankly I have no idea but if so, it would explain a lot. Fly it to somewhere it will never be found, a nice little secret compound somewhere for instance, passengers live out their lives no one ever finds them. And a lot of people benefit from the diverted attention.

I love crazy theories lol

Obviously. The passengers wouldn't keep silent though. Unless they were killed outright. But in that case, blowing up the plane would have been much easier and achieve the same thing.

But if you go for crazy, why not say that the flight didn't exist in the first place? Just some computer hacking and suddenly there is a flight missing. It must be missing because the computer says it was there to begin with

On a more serious note: It's been reported that the flight systems could have been altered / taken over remotely. A security researcher who is also a pilot has spent 3 years working on it, and apparently it is possible to do just such a think, and alter GPS data, modify autopilot configuration or plain take over the plane. More food for conspiracy theories