I thought that too however apparently... "The engines of a missing Malaysian airliner continued to operate for about four hours after it disappeared from radar over the Gulf of Thailand, US authorities said on Thursday"

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-...#ixzz2vtkaOuLZ

Either the Malaysian Government knows a lot more than what they have publicly stated, or they don't have the faintest idea of what has happened to the plane.

Generally, via standard VHF link. If it is unable to connect that way, then it uses satphone.

I know its too early yet but in the future, don't you think it would make more sense that the transponder is securely located so it is not allowed to be turned off by anyone on board? Obviously this won't help if there is some kind of malfunction however at least in MH370 case, would have ruled out the possibility of foul play.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet!

SMH article from this morning states that those claims reported in the wall street journal were "unverified".

http://www.smh.com.au/world/malaysia...313-hvifu.html

Then this article states that "Sources familiar with the investigation reiterated that neither Boeing nor Rolls-Royce had received any engine maintenance data from the jet after the point at which its pilots last made contact. Only one engine maintenance update was received during the normal phase of flight, they said, speaking on condition on anonymity"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-...#ixzz2vtkaOuLZ

So much "story" telling!!!

No Rich.

If it caught on fire I'd rather be able to cut power to it than worry about something so remote as this happening.

A transponder is only as good as the ground equipment it talks or doesn't talk to.

Todd.

Interesting new article from one of the USA's most credible reporting agencies...

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mal...5524/?ref=auto

once again the latter would be correct..and that's partly due to 50 years of 1 government rule.

Reauters are supposed to be a reliable source, but in this case I don´t know. Read this:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A2D0DG20140314

New radar evidence shows flight MH370 following waypoints towards the Andaman Islands.

Andaman Islands? If they landed there, do they have an air-strip long enough för a triple 7? And why this group of islands?

I think so Ollie. Vir Savarkar Airport is the only airport there however it's controlled by the Indian navy & only daytime flights are allowed.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vir_Savarkar_Airport

This link seems to present an up to date reference of the circumstances http://avherald.com/h?article=4710c69b&opt=0

From NEWS.COM.AU ...

Malaysian PM to give news conference 1:30pm Malaysia time (in 23 minutes)

Should be just about to begin

Live stream http://english.astroawani.com/videos/live

And here http://www.livestation.com/en/reuters#

No questions are allowed in the conference

1724 On now

From Malaysian Prime Minister :

Confirms that MH370 turned back across Malay Peninsula, then headed northwest.

After that it may have tracked into the Indian Ocean (southern corridor), or up towards Thailand and Kazakhstan (northern corridor). The FAA, NTSB, AAIB and other Authorities analysed the satellite and primary radar data separately, and concur on this result. All countries in the northern and southern corridors have been invited to a briefing.

Now investigating all passengers and crew.

Search efforts in the South China Sea now suppended while the reassess the use of resources.

Malaysian PM has confirmed that aircaft has been hijacked, with a high degree of probability

ACARS and transponder deliberately switched off

Aircraft could be as far away as Kazakstan.

So where is the plane?
I found this has been so bizarre. How dare you know the plane flew to Indian Ocean last week yet no disclosure made and everyone searched over the Thailand Gulf?
How much money and human effort do you want to waste in search and rescue mission for MH370?
I'm totally disappointed and my confidence in Malaysian air safety & security needs serious reconsideration.
I hope Malaysia and neighbouring countries will reveal the truth of this incident, so we can get the plane and passengers back.

How long have the Malaysian authorities know it was hijacked before the PM confirmed it today? And if it is a question of days, why didn´t the authorities say anything?

Last known position of MH370 based on satellite data according to Malaysian authorities. Let's
hope it was on the northern red line and they have landed safely somewhere. Based on the northern
arc, it's a bit out there, but could this turn out to be linked to the current crisis over Ukraine and
the Crimea, some sort of hostage leverage to force Russia's hand, or a 911 style attack on Moscow ?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Biw3B8KCcAA89Ex.jpg

And based on the Southern Arc, about the only place it could have landed would be Diego Garcia - but the Americans would have said so - wouldn't they?

The press conference this afternoon only indicated that Malaysia Airlines will have nothing to do with this anymore, so does the government. They don't have anything to keep hiding and things progressed much quicker than they expected, especially the Ping to the satellite. It's the time for the main actors on the stage.

This is a joint operation of US and China, there were Jammer involved. The operation is about possible small nuclear device on board, of course have been offloaded before the flight took off. The nuclear thing is targeting Beijing, part of the plan of the coup to destablise the current government.

The aircraft did landed on Diego Garcia, unclear if it is still there or not.

The Chinese passengers has already back in China in somewhere, highly likely on Hainan Island.

Whacky theory. But, as things stand, anything is possible.

Hi Scott C

Could you please edit your post, and perhaps send it again in a more readable form.

Cheers

Bob C

Is this engine data ping thing right?
 

I was not aware of the engine data satellite comms/pinging independent of ACARS and transponder - can anyone on here who knows what they're talking about explain how this works, assuming the basic proposition is accurate?

if the red line is accurate that would put the a/c very close to ZWWW at some stage..could it seriously fly over India & China without detection?

Philip, From what I understand, the engine performance monitoring is transmitted via ACARS, using radio or satellite communications. The data can also be stored and transmitted when coms are available - I have seen several examples where complete tracks from LAX to SYD have been downloaded via ACARS when the aircraft is 250nm out of Sydney. ACARS engine status reporting is done independent of the Tech Crew, and ACARS is not related to the Transponder at all. The CDU can be used by the pilots to send/receive other information via ACARS, like weather, gate numbers requests etc. Other systems can interface to ACARS to send messages.

I am not sure if the complete ACARS system can be shutdown by the pilots (maybe someone else can answer that one).

Some ACARS examples from this morning ...

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: .VH-OQC Operational Coms
Message label: 87 Block id: 1 Msg. no: U58A
Flight id: QF0012
Message content:-
TO OPERATIONS
DELAY. LAST DOOR CLOSED ON SCHEDULE HOWEVER JUST AFTER DOOR CLOSURE
ECAM FOR SURV-WX RADAR AND TAWS. SPOKE WITH ENGINEER AND COMPLETED
A RESET. PUSHED BACK AT 0602
-------------------------------------[16/03/2014 06:30]

ACARS mode: S Aircraft reg: .CC-CQF System Status
Message label: H1 Block id: 0 Msg. no: C18A
Flight id: LA0801
Message content:-
#CFB.1/WRN/WN1403152001 732102506MAINTENANCE STATUS ECU3 CHAN A
-------------------------------------[16/03/2014 07:00]

ACARS mode: S Aircraft reg: .CC-CQF
Message label: H1 Block id: 1 Msg. no: C19A
Flight id: LA0801
Message content:-
#CFB.1/WRN/WN1403152001 732103006MAINTENANCE STATUS ECU3 CHAN B
-------------------------------------[16/03/2014 07:00]

ACARS mode: S Aircraft reg: .VH-OJU Inbound With PAX Details
Message label: 86 Block id: 4 Msg. no: M05A
Flight id: QF0108
Message content:-
ARI
ETAB 2125YSSY
WHLCHR 02 / MED
ASST MINORS PAX
SICK N
SI NO TO AQIS.
h M O $O
-------------------------------------[16/03/2014 07:45]

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: .VH-OJU AMDAR Weather Report - Lat,Long,Alt,Turbulence etc
Message label: H1 Block id: 5 Msg. no: D26A
Flight id: QF0108
Message content:-
#2TBKLAXYSSY
AMDAR 1521
D3330S15305E2101F340M507272041008
D3337S15251E2103F301M401281029009
D3343S15239E2104F266M308298025010
D3349S15229E2106F236M235303035009
D3354S15219E2108F208M168299034007
-------------------------------------[16/03/2014 08:08]

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: .VH-OGR Engine Report
Message label: H1 Block id: Msg. no: D004
Flight id: QF0091
Message content:-
#2UBBLD-TKO
VH-OGR QFA0091
2207 15MAR14 SYD- NOU- CL 7 VER026
LEFT ENG RIGHT ENG
======== =========
CL NO CL NO HPSOV POS
NC NO NC NO PRV POS
98 1
-------------------------------------[16/03/2014 09:11]
ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: .VH-OGR
Message label: H1 Block id: Msg. no: D005
Flight id: QF0091
Message content:-
#2UB00 PRV EXIT PRESS
NC NO NC NO FAV POS
H H TEMP RANGE FLG
181 196 FATS TEMP
NC NO NC NO PRSOV POS
0 0 ISO VALV
-------------------------------------[16/03/2014 09:11]

From NEWS.COM.AU

I wonder what Uncle Sam knows, or what they saw and maybe what they can currently see and what they can hear?

Forget the engine data, it's been confirmed no ACARS transmissions have been made before handover. What they have done is looked at the handshake ping that occurs once every hour from the Immarsat to clients. Presumably the return ping also provides the satellite with elevation data, that is where the aircraft is seeing the sat on the horizon, if you look at the image there are clear angle rings, starting from 90 at the sat, which of course is what the antenna angle would be at underneath the sat.

Whoever took the aircraft was not across the fact a satcom pings, despite all the devices connected to it being shutdown. Had the aircraft been newer it would probably have the irridium package which are low orbit sats, and would have been able to narrow down the location to a much smaller area. The foot print on each Immarsat takes up 1/3 of each part of the world at the equator, but is non existent / unusable once you get past + or - 70 degrees of latitude heading for the poles.

Two questions regarding the recent announcements on possible track of the aircraft

1 - If it had flown on the southern track into Indian Ocean would it not have potentially shown up on the Australian JORN network?
2 - I have not flown on Malaysian Airlines for a few years but would any passenger onboard who had the flight path on the IFE see the plane change course and then contine on a course that was not towards the destination?

2 - Yes, unless the system was shut down.

Hi James L

My thoughts exactly as I posed the question about JORN (Jindalee Over The Horizon Radar Network) on Oz-spotters a few days ago.

JORN has a published range of 1000 - 3000 kms (and possibly more) depending on atmospheric conditions so if the missing aircraft did head southwest it COULD have been within range of JORN, provided of course it was operational as I understand that it does not operate 24/7 !!

The station at Laverton in W A would have been the closest and most likely to detect it. So therefore I presume that even if the transponders were turned off, JORN may have tracked an unidentified aircraft over the Indian Ocean as did the other military radars in South East Asia.

And I also thought about the IFE and iPad if u were a passenger watching the course but I presume the screens would have gone blank if systems had been turned off but I don't know enough to make a really informed comment.

However, I have carried an old fashioned compass in my camera bag for years (a relic of Orienteering and CMF days) and sometimes use it on aircraft when I'm returning from MEL to PER, usually due west on a heading of 270 degrees. The slightest change in course swings the compass so if the aircraft I was travelling did dramatically change course, then I would know about it.

But what can you do when travelling in an aluminium tube at 10,000 metres ? Just panic I suppose.

I presume at that time of the night, most of the pax would have been asleep so they wouldn't have noticed any change in heading anyway.

MH has confirmed that the last radio transmission was from the f/o.

Another Interesting Theory ...

MH370 shadows SQ68 through the volatile airspace of India and Pakistan, and then breaks off to its final destination.

This and something else I have read linked from the same site is very scary stuff.

We can only hope evidence of wreckage is found soon instead of the alternative to what these sites are now suggesting.

and now MH has confirmed that the ACARS was not disconnected before the final transmission...50 years of 1 party rule = absolute circus.

A plausible theory, amongst the many, many others.
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/03...ectrical-fire/