Malaysian Airliner missing?

On the other hand in the middle of the Cold War you can land a 172 in Red Square.:D Could be embarrassing depending on where they find it.


They may already know where it went and need more time to figure out how to a) explain how they know without giving away capabilities / cover story, b) how to handle how embarrassing it is.

It's been too many days for how fast those types of things usually go down, but there's a good chance someone knows exactly where it went, and can't give away their ability to see that...
 
I wonder if air defense radar is as lax in the rest of Asia as it is in Malaysia.

NY Times story excerpt:
SEPANG, Malaysia — The radar blip that was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn over the Gulf of Thailand and then began moving inexorably past at least three military radar arrays as it traversed northern Malaysia ...

Yet inside a Malaysian Air Force control room on the country’s west coast, where American-made F-18s and F-5 fighters stood at a high level of readiness for emergencies exactly like the one unfolding in the early morning of March 8, a four-person air defense radar crew did nothing about the unauthorized flight. “The watch team never noticed the blip,” ...

The existence of the radar contact was discovered only when military officials began reviewing tapes later in the morning on March 8, after the passenger jet failed to arrive in Beijing. ... Tapes from both the Butterworth and Kota Bharu bases showed the radar contact arriving from the area of the last known position of Flight 370...
 
You know what I just realized? There are millions of unprotected schoolchildren going to schools that don't have "Hijacked Aircraft-Free Zones". OMGBBQLOL we must fix this "security" outrage immediately!
 
If it is some sort of conspiracy then the one I'd be buying is some agency trying to scare us all into increasing its funding and increasing it's surveillance authority.
 
Oh, heck, might as well....

"Think how much heroin that baby could carry out of Iran"... :D:D

Hey, it's as believable as the Daily Mail!
 
Anybody have a spare Malaysian Air seat cushion they could 'find' at the beach.:lol: Any beach in the world would do.
 
Why would you use a stolen 777 to deliver a WMD when a PC-12 would do just as well and be a lot easier to procure and keep under the wraps, not to mention fuel.

Because you get a twofer of terror - this hijacking, and then the main event.
 
Israel has a 24/7 CAP, F-15 are always airborne there. Israel as always is very well prepared for this eventuality.

We pretty much fly Cap over the Capital Zone which probably covers near the entire area of Israel. It's simple to fly a hi cap mission on a small area.
 
Did the ACARS stop before or after the pilot said "good night"?
 
Yes, while civilian radars are 2D and rely on mode C for altitude, there are 3D military air search radars that can determine altitude. Some are phased array, some are two separate antennas. Not sure how they actually work.


For 3D radar, it depends on whether their is a specific height finding radar that's separate from the 2D radar, or if it's a more modern phased array system where algorithms in the processing determine the altitude cut.

On either type, the altitude is a fairly educated guess due to beamwidth and listening time issues that determine how big the resolution cell is when it bounces off the target. Some RADAR systems can be +/- 5,000 ft given the day and atmospheric conditions such as anomalous propagation. Other systems can be pretty close.

Until we know what specific RADAR or RADARs were used to derive the altitude, we won't know how accurate any of the height cuts are once Mode C was turned off.


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They found the missing airliner. The mars rover found it on the moom late this afternoon. :lol:
 
We pretty much fly Cap over the Capital Zone which probably covers near the entire area of Israel. It's simple to fly a hi cap mission on a small area.

We don't make approaching IFR aircraft check in on a discrete frequency by 110 nm either. Israel's got us beat as far as preparedness goes but then again they're surrounded and they know it.
 
If they were asleep how could they say "good night"?
It's a real PITA that this board doesn't preserve the context of quotes, but if you read back it might (or might not) be clear that I was referring to the possibility that the crew was overcome by smoke without radioing for help because they were asleep at the time they were overcome with smoke. That would have been after the fire started, but before the crew was aware of it. Obviously, that would have required them to fall asleep after their last known radio call.

Although, I'm beginning to suspect that you're putting me on.
 
It's a real PITA that this board doesn't preserve the context of quotes, but if you read back it might (or might not) be clear that I was referring to the possibility that the crew was overcome by smoke without radioing for help because they were asleep at the time they were overcome with smoke. That would have been after the fire started, but before the crew was aware of it. Obviously, that would have required them to fall asleep after their last known radio call.

Although, I'm beginning to suspect that you're putting me on.
No, not putting you on. If the crew fell asleep after saying "good night" then "good night" is in no was suspicious because they didn't know anything was going to happen to them. Ironic maybe, but not suspicious.
 
No, not putting you on. If the crew fell asleep after saying "good night" then "good night" is in no was suspicious because they didn't know anything was going to happen to them. Ironic maybe, but not suspicious.
You're the one who suggested it might be suspicious.
 
If I'm intent on doing bad why wouldn't I wait until just AFTER I spoke to the last sector ? If it was purposely done at that point you run the risk of the ground station saying "Hey, wait a minute, recycle your transponder, we just lost your signal".

Yup
and I wouldn't say "alright goodnight", I'd use precise terminology to avoid setting off red flags.

Everyone knows that "alright goodnight" is a code that bad guys use!:rolleyes:

They have flight simulators in their homes and post youtube videos (on other topics), with the simulator in the background OMG:yikes:.
 
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I saw one thing and one thing only a little while back that had a picture of a piece of the V Stab being salvaged offshore Vietnam. :dunno:
 
So, who said it was suspicious?
I figured it was you when you posted this. You seemed to make a point of saying their last transmission was "good night".

What if the flight crew was asleep? It wouldn't be the first time it happened. And their last transmission was "good night".... The folks in the back might not have known anything was wrong until it was way too late.

It'd be sexier if you said the fire could have been started by aliens.
 
I didn't think he was suggesting that it was suspicious
but yesterday the idiots on CNN were calling it "A GAME CHANGER":rolleyes2:
If that's not what he meant then I apologize for reading it wrong. But you're correct about the idiots on CNN.
 
On either type, the altitude is a fairly educated guess due to beamwidth and listening time issues that determine how big the resolution cell is when it bounces off the target. Some RADAR systems can be +/- 5,000 ft given the day and atmospheric conditions such as anomalous propagation. Other systems can be pretty close.
I will say this. The 'educated guess' of a SPY-1D (phased array) is accurate enough to put a missile on a target without requiring a separate illuminator.

Until we know what specific RADAR or RADARs were used to derive the altitude, we won't know how accurate any of the height cuts are once Mode C was turned off.
Agreed.
 
I figured it was you when you posted this. You seemed to make a point of saying their last transmission was "good night".
I get it now. That's just my dry wit. Let's try again:

What if the flight crew was asleep? It wouldn't be the first time it happened. And their last transmission was "good night".... :goofy: The folks in the back might not have known anything was wrong until it was way too late. :eek:

HTH. :lol:
 
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