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Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

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Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#41

Post by robmcm »

houseofshards wrote: post #19

An aviation noob here. I have a question: If the flight starts another journey from wherever it is, will it be possible to track it via radar ?

Apparently the rolls royce engines have a remote debugging ability that was not enabled on this flight, however it was still pinging home which is how they first noticed the course change. They had disabled all the other trackers, so if they were watching the news the chances are they have disabled these too.

[EDIT] ACARS - http://theaviationist.com/2014/03/16/satcom-acars-explained/

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#42

Post by caf »

yaeger wrote: post #12
akumen wrote: post #4

Good theory. Yours is as good as anyone's at this point in time. Incredible, how we think that our tech is so advanced yet a commercial jet can go completely missing. MH370 makes for an incredible setup to 'Lost'.

I think this whole thing could have been prevented if only the tracking systems could not have been turned off manually. Why is that even possible? An oversight? If you think about just how many liberties we passengers had to give up after 9/11 worldwide, why was this still there? We can't take any liquids on board anymore but if the pilot wants, he can make the plane disappear at will? Yeah, the liquid thing was rea…

In the case of the radar transponder there is the very prosaic reason that ATC doesn't want their screen filled with all the aircraft sitting at gates.

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#43

Post by pavlov »

downandout wrote: post #13

There is a realistic possibility that those piloting the plane used this and/or other stealth techniques and landed intact. There are lots of groups around the world that would love to have a working $250M aircraft. Maybe there is a massive airplane chop shop that this went to, or someone wants to load it up with explosives and fly it to some country they disagree with. Unfortunately, whether it landed or not, the od…

Can you expand on what groups might be able to orchestrate such a complicated hijacking?

A rogue state like North Korea would have the capability, but they don't really have the motive since they can acquire passenger airplanes by other means. (North Korea's national airline has 27 planes -- if they wanted to make a nuclear kamikaze plane, they'd just use one of those.)

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#44

Post by _nedR »

redbad wrote: post #2

This is almost exactly how a plot device in Neal Stephenson's REAMDE plays out. In almost exactly the same part of the world. Bizarre.

Googled "Neal Stephenson README" expecting a thriller involving a government agency plot to inject malicious code into a open-source crypto-library, and the final commmit to the github project made by a hacker found murdered in front of the computer in his basement.

Was disappointed.

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#45

Post by jballanc »

The folks over at airliners.net have pointed out that the 777's collision avoidance system only works if both planes' transponders are turned on. That doesn't mean this scenario is impossible, but it does raise the level of sophistication required.

Sadly, I feel like whatever happened, the amount of sophistication involved increasingly points toward the involvement of one or more state actors. If that's the case, I'm starting to doubt that we'll ever find out what happened to this plane...

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#46

Post by ekianjo »

jballanc wrote: post #45

The folks over at airliners.net have pointed out that the 777's collision avoidance system only works if both planes' transponders are turned on. That doesn't mean this scenario is impossible, but it does raise the level of sophistication required. Sadly, I feel like whatever happened, the amount of sophistication involved increasingly points toward the involvement of one or more state actors. If that's the case, I'm…

> Sadly, I feel like whatever happened, the amount of sophistication involved increasingly points toward the involvement of one or more state actors. If that's the case, I'm starting to doubt that we'll ever find out what happened to this plane...

Indeed. And not just the "what", but the "why" as well.

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#47

Post by rolux »

houseofshards wrote: post #30
nashequilibrium wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't make any sense to kill 240 people, including babies and kids. Especially if this is a terrorist act, they could not religiously justify that, especially since these are mainly Chinese people rather than American.

my guess is that if it was hijacked by terrorists, the act is yet to come. They are after the plane, not the people.

This theory keeps coming up, but it doesn't make much sense.

If your goal is to acquire a working Boeing 777, on a secret airfield somewhere in Western China or Eastern Kazakhstan (see this map for orientation: http://www.airliners.net/uf/109874/phpnIOEWi.jpeg), then you don't have to be particularly smart or rational to realize that hijacking a commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 240 people on board, and then attempting to stealthily cross both India and Pakistan, as proposed in the OP, is not your best option.

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#48

Post by Nanzikambe »

pavlov wrote: post #43
downandout wrote: post #13

There is a realistic possibility that those piloting the plane used this and/or other stealth techniques and landed intact. There are lots of groups around the world that would love to have a working $250M aircraft. Maybe there is a massive airplane chop shop that this went to, or someone wants to load it up with explosives and fly it to some country they disagree with. Unfortunately, whether it landed or not, the od…

Can you expand on what groups might be able to orchestrate such a complicated hijacking? A rogue state like North Korea would have the capability, but they don't really have the motive since they can acquire passenger airplanes by other means. (North Korea's national airline has 27 planes -- if they wanted to make a nuclear kamikaze plane, they'd just use one of those.)

Not to imply I think it's possible, but deniability is an obvious reason not to use your own aircraft.

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#49

Post by gambiting »

yaeger wrote: post #12
akumen wrote: post #4

Good theory. Yours is as good as anyone's at this point in time. Incredible, how we think that our tech is so advanced yet a commercial jet can go completely missing. MH370 makes for an incredible setup to 'Lost'.

I think this whole thing could have been prevented if only the tracking systems could not have been turned off manually. Why is that even possible? An oversight? If you think about just how many liberties we passengers had to give up after 9/11 worldwide, why was this still there? We can't take any liquids on board anymore but if the pilot wants, he can make the plane disappear at will? Yeah, the liquid thing was rea…

>>but if the pilot wants, he can make the plane disappear at will?

The pilot is the captain of the airship and can take any decision deemed necessary for the safety of the aircraft and its passengers and that decision is final(this is actually defined in the airspace law, would need to look for a quote). That means that the pilot has to have the ability to turn off any and all electrical parts of the aircraft if that would ensure its safety(in case of a fire). That power cannot and should not be taken away from the pilot - you don't want a plane crash due to a fire which couldn't have been put out because the burning thing was always-on due to some regulations.

Re: Did Malaysian Airlines 370 disappear using SIA68/SQ68 (another 777)?

#50

Post by InclinedPlane »

KaiserPro wrote: post #8

Nice idea, however I'd hope that modern radar is able to detect two aircraft of that size flying close together. Unless the perpetrators know the various limitations of each radar installation?

Civilian flight control and radar is designed and optimized for a fully cooperative system, extremely so. It's not designed for filtering through data to track down inconsistencies and identify potential bad actors, it's not a military air defense system.
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