Malaysian Jet

I know it's "fun" to speculate but they will find the plane and then there will be a real investigation and in a couple of years, we'll know as much as we're going to know about every detail. If it was terrorism, it's the worst terrorist group ever since they didn't bother taking credit for it. Here I go speculating now, I think the Payne Stewart scenario is likely. Something like a catastrophic hull failure in the cockpit area that may have left the plane flying but uncontrollable until it glided into the ocean at such an angle as to not scatter a lot of debris. The explosive decompression would knock most everyone still left on the plane unconscious and then quickly dead.

I take it back, this isn't fun at all.

Quote: s2dbaker

I take it back, this isn't fun at all.

Not with every government official giving us different versions but no copies of radar tapes to back up what they claim.
In some countries all officials are corrupt. Perhaps Malaya too is suffering from this.

My prediction is that it was a massive plane malfunction. Suddenly the plane lost communication and navigation but the pilots still had some control of flying the plane. They tried to turn around or land at whatever was the nearest large airport but without navigation went the wrong way. Eventually the plane crashed. Where, I don't know. If forced, I'd bet on land.

Mind you, all these are just my best guesses, from the same guy who keeps betting against a safety in the Super Bowl.

Quote: Wizard

My prediction is that it was a massive plane malfunction.

Boy, if that turns out to be true, can you imagine the economic consequences. There are a thousand 777's flying, and we discover a possibility of a malfunction that completely destroys a plane in perfect weather so severely that no one can send a message.

Quote: Wizard

My prediction is that it was a massive plane malfunction.l.

It has no less than 5 backup systems. It was no plane malfunction.

I could of sworn I once saw a video where all these plane crash cockpit recordings were reenacted by actors as if a camera was there capturing it, but I can't find a video of it, so maybe not. I remember it being really creepy.

If the plane were hijacked could a plane like that be forced to fly low enough to remain difficult to track, not so much that it could get somewhere cleanly, but to be so off on an unexpected course that when it did crash it's way out of the current search area?

As BBB has explained. ATC radar usually shows a "secondary" return from the plane's Transponder that transmits a unique code. When the device is turned off for any reason the ATC radar would only show the "primary" return which is the echo from the plane's fuselage. The ATC operator might not see such a feint echo even if his display was set to a mode which would display it.

Military radar works as primary radar and just shows unidentified echoes in areas of military interest. The operator would not know what or who that particular track was. At low altitude jet engines use higher amounts of fuel but the plane could have traveled without being noticed particularly since radar coverage is spotty.

We don't know what happened and nothing coming out of Malaysia is reliable. Nothing.

Quote: rxwine

If the plane were hijacked could a plane like that be forced to fly low enough to remain difficult to track, not so much that it could get somewhere cleanly, but to be so off on an unexpected course that when it did crash it's way out of the current search area?

There's no radar coverage over the ocean.

Furthermore, civilian radars don't detect aircraft. They receive signals from an aircraft's transponder in response to the radar sweep. An electrical failure, either total or localized to some part, could have shut down power to the transponder, thus making the plane "disappear" off the radar.

Military radars do detect aircraft (and can read transponder signals as well). But if any caught something, no one is telling so far.

First plane taken over by a sophisticated computer virus, similar to Stuxnet.