Post
by X5Sport » Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:48 am
If you go and have a look at pprune (it's an aircrew/aviation forum) there are literally hundreds of pages of theories of all sorts.
I think the key questions will be for the air defence radar systems in Malaysia that saw the aircraft but no one reacted to - even though by then the plane was 'missing' and someone should have been looking. Other radars such as on the Andaman Islands were not even switched on. It's different in Europe, the US and most of what was the Soviet Union and China where we had a 'Cold War' and then 9-11 really woke everyone up so the skies are constantly being watched and recorded. But some countries are so big that there is only limited cover. Similarly there is no cover once you are over the deep ocean.
Pilots have the ability to turn things off in case there is a fire, or the kit throws a fit and needs recycling (just like BMW and the famous battery reset). If you know your way around a cockpit then it is very easy to do.
Whoever ended up behind the controls knew exactly what they were doing and when to do things so as to disappear.
And if (like me) you have an interest in flight simulation then there are some add-ons that exactly replicate the processes and procedures down to switch by switch operation to get a jet from 'cold & dark' up to airborne with all of the flight plan steps correctly loaded. There is even a vast global community where you can fly a virtual jet as part if a virtual airline with full weather, traffic management and ATC that runs EXACTLY like the real world.
So the question is now, who was actually flying the plane? One of the flight crew, or someone else who managed to get into the flight deck and knew what they were doing?
I think we will see another paradigm shift in how aviation security is handled as well. Thailand recorded more than 60,000 stolen passports in the last 18 months or so but it, like others in Asia, is not even connected to the Interpol passport database in real time. Some airports have no connection at all. That simply should not now happen but there is a big security gap in that part of the world. Their answer will probably be that the threat doesn't affect us so why should we pay?
That an of course law enforcement is patchy and corrupt. In Thailand that has allowed an expert underworld of forgers who can produce any type of ID you want including passports, visas, licences, security passes etc - many of which will stand very close scrutiny - to get you through checkpoints and even into a cockpit.
Whatever happened is very worrying for the families and concerning for those both who fly for a living and as a passenger. It seems everyone has to watch everyone else. I really feel sorry for everyone involved.
You can assist in the search using satellite photos taken on the day at 20 metre resolution using Tomnod if you want to.
Richard
Last edited by
X5Sport on Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Never anthropomorphise computers. They hate that.
)
)
