61–70 of 92 posts
I remember watching the American news media go crazy over this airplane for around 1 month every night. The CNN anchor Don Lemon asked one of the 6 guests on his panel whether it was possible that the plane had been sucked into a black hole.
Dear god, you were not joking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpVd7k1Uw6A
There is a really well put together video[1] by a YouTuber, who goes by the name of Lemmino, covering this topic (among others). I highly suggest it if this story interests you! And if you like his style, his Cicada 3301 video is also a fascinating watch. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2KEHvK-q8
I remember watching the American news media go crazy over this airplane for around 1 month every night. The CNN anchor Don Lemon asked one of the 6 guests on his panel whether it was possible that the plane had been sucked into a black hole.
I always thought Don Lemon was an idiot. Thanks for giving me the final proof I needed. FWIW, I'm neither American nor a Republican. I just really think the guy is an idiot.
I don't watch CNN and don't know Lemon. But here's a possible alternative explanation (hardly a defense):
Wikipedia says he graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. He probably didn't pay much attention to science in high school, and almost certainly wasn't required to take any science classes in college.
So, he might not even understand science as simple as F=ma. In his defense I'd bet that if you surveyed the adult population, the majority couldn't tell you what F=ma means.
The above is a long way of saying that most journalists aren't literate in science. And, we know that black holes are "sexy". Many books have been written about them. Many movies made that feature them as key plot points.
So, why not ask about black holes as a possibility? It's as plausible an explanation as whatever it was that happened to that airplane in the Lost TV series of about 10 years ago.
Having said all that, yeah, the guy is probably an idiot. As are quite a few TV journalists.
> Forensic examinations of Zaharie’s simulator by the FBI revealed that he experimented with a flight profile roughly matching that of MH370—a flight north around Indonesia followed by a long run to the south, ending in fuel exhaustion over the Indian Ocean. Malaysian investigators dismissed this flight profile as merely one of several hundred that the simulator had recorded. That is true, as far as it goes, which is…
When I was hearing that first reported it was much fuzzier and they only recovered small portions of the data for the flight which makes me much less certain of the 'he simulated the exact flight' theory. Edit: Found a source for my memory, it's from Lemino's pretty great video: [0] "the data recovered consists of 7 coordinates ... however it's not clear if the coordinates originate from the same flight session." [0]…
Amazing prose here. The description of the death of the passengers, and the final moments of within the cockpit before the plane ran out of fuel, were chilling in their capacity to imply a peaceful bliss in the wake of hundreds of needless lost lives.
Im sitting in airport lounge about to hop on a transatlantic. Dreaming of drifting to sleep up in the air and never waking up is a bit scary but also peaceful (I am not suicidal, thanks). travel is definitely an easy escape and repetitious in my life. I like routine and always book the same seat, same flight to get to Europe, etc. There's comfort there for me and I really identify the way the author describes the peacefulness of a nighttime long haul flight.
> Forensic examinations of Zaharie’s simulator by the FBI revealed that he experimented with a flight profile roughly matching that of MH370—a flight north around Indonesia followed by a long run to the south, ending in fuel exhaustion over the Indian Ocean. Malaysian investigators dismissed this flight profile as merely one of several hundred that the simulator had recorded. That is true, as far as it goes, which is…
"Subtracting the fuel" is a bit weird. I think even with the fuel filed until the planned destination it would have not made it nowhere on that flight path. Also we have the last ping + some rough estimate of additional flight time (but minutes of uncertainty are already enough to have hundreds of kms of search radius)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always thought Don Lemon was an idiot. Thanks for giving me the final proof I needed. FWIW, I'm neither American nor a Republican. I just really think the guy is an idiot.
I just really think the guy is an idiot. I don't watch CNN and don't know Lemon. But here's a possible alternative explanation (hardly a defense): Wikipedia says he graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. He probably didn't pay much attention to science in high school, and almost certainly wasn't required to take any science classes in college. So, he might not even understand science as simple as F=ma. In h…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always thought Don Lemon was an idiot. Thanks for giving me the final proof I needed. FWIW, I'm neither American nor a Republican. I just really think the guy is an idiot.
I just really think the guy is an idiot. I don't watch CNN and don't know Lemon. But here's a possible alternative explanation (hardly a defense): Wikipedia says he graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. He probably didn't pay much attention to science in high school, and almost certainly wasn't required to take any science classes in college. So, he might not even understand science as simple as F=ma. In h…
> Forensic examinations of Zaharie’s simulator by the FBI revealed that he experimented with a flight profile roughly matching that of MH370—a flight north around Indonesia followed by a long run to the south, ending in fuel exhaustion over the Indian Ocean. Malaysian investigators dismissed this flight profile as merely one of several hundred that the simulator had recorded. That is true, as far as it goes, which is…
This seems as close to a smoking gun as we're ever likely to get. One interesting counterargument is brought up in a rebuttal at https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-atlantics-william-langewie... . The rebuttal piece mostly just flames Langewiesche, and it doesn't offer any support for any competing theories. But it does pose one question I haven't seen addressed. Why, if Zaharie wanted to commit suicide by flying into…
I would say it raises serious questions about the accuracy of the simulator Langewiesche relies on and his complete omission of the fact that the Malaysian government absolutely wanted to blame Zahierie, a fanatical supporter of the opposition party, but the evidence was pretty thin.
Which begs the bigger question of why not just fly the plane straight down into the ocean? The problem with the crazy suicide pilot theory has always been that it's become basically unfalsifiable. Plane went left? Suicide pilot wanted to go left. Plane turned right? Suicide pilot wanted to turn right. Plane turned left again? Suicide pilot must have had his reasons.
> Forensic examinations of Zaharie’s simulator by the FBI revealed that he experimented with a flight profile roughly matching that of MH370—a flight north around Indonesia followed by a long run to the south, ending in fuel exhaustion over the Indian Ocean. Malaysian investigators dismissed this flight profile as merely one of several hundred that the simulator had recorded. That is true, as far as it goes, which is…
This seems as close to a smoking gun as we're ever likely to get. One interesting counterargument is brought up in a rebuttal at https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-atlantics-william-langewie... . The rebuttal piece mostly just flames Langewiesche, and it doesn't offer any support for any competing theories. But it does pose one question I haven't seen addressed. Why, if Zaharie wanted to commit suicide by flying into…
We might know what happened in that case... but what, exactly, do you think they could have done to change the outcome?
Say that he was "caught", jets were dispatched, and MH370 was intercepted. There's absolutely nothing that they could have done to change how the flight ends.