MH370 Final Report

NoHeat

NoHeat

Final Approach
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The Aussies wrapped it up with a long report. Bottom line: no definitive answers.

But details about Captain Shah’s simulator sure sound to me like he planned it, simulated it, then did it.

Reuters article
http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKCN1C8092

Excerpt:
Six weeks before the aircraft's disappearance, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah used his home simulator to fly a route that was initially similar to part of the route flown by MH370 up the Strait of Malacca, with a left-hand turn and track into the southern Indian Ocean, the ATSB said in its report.

Links to the ATSB report:
http://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/chester/releases/2017/october/dc295_2017.aspx
 
I’m not sure exactly where the news outlets got the info on the route in Shah’s simulator. They say it is in the Aussie govt. final report, but I couldn’t find it.
 
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NoHeat said:
I’m not sure exactly where the news outlets got the info on the route in Shah’s simulator. They say it is in the Aussie govt. final report, but I couldn’t find it.
Click to expand...

Did you download all 440 pages or just the 16 page summary?

I'm downloading now.:yawn:

Edit: Done. It starts on page 98 of the report, or page 107 in my Foxit Reader.
 
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Sounds like that Germanwings pilot who practiced it in the sim before doing it.

Sad. :(
 
jsstevens said:
Or did he just get called away and left the sim running?
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Certainly we can't prove one way or another, so in a court of law (at least in this country) one couldn't prove intent.

But logically, it seems harder to believe that he just called away from his home sim than to believe he was practicing.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Certainly we can't prove one way or another, so in a court of law (at least in this country) one couldn't prove intent.

But logically, it seems harder to believe that he just called away from his home sim than to believe he was practicing.
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I kind of find it hard to believe he flew the sim for however many hours until it ran out of fuel. As you say, we can never know.
 
jsstevens said:
I kind of find it hard to believe he flew the sim for however many hours until it ran out of fuel. As you say, we can never know.
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I think if he was going to practice suicide in that manner that he'd have to fly it until it ran out of fuel in the sim. The point would be desensitizing himself to the full flight - not just turning off the avionics and going out over the Indian Ocean, but flying that way for that many hours until there was no potential for return, and ultimately crashing into the ocean.

But we'll never know, so it's nothing more than a thought experiment. Regardless, I have to believe it was terrifying for the passengers who, at some point, must have realized what was happening.
 
Seems like an unnecessarily elaborate way to commit a mass murder/suicide if that's indeed what happened. Did he have a huge life insurance policy or something?
 
cowman said:
Seems like an unnecessarily elaborate way to commit a mass murder/suicide if that's indeed what happened. Did he have a huge life insurance policy or something?
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You're thinking about things like a logical person who wouldn't commit a mass murder/suicide. Someone who would perform an act like this is not logical. Don't apply your thought process to someone like that - it won't work.
 
jsstevens said:
I kind of find it hard to believe he flew the sim for however many hours until it ran out of fuel. As you say, we can never know.
Click to expand...

You think he was forced to sit there and “fly” his sim while on a probable autopilot-flown route? He could have taken a nap, walked the dog, changed the oil on his new $100,000 pickup, etc. No reason to endure sitting in front of his computer the whole time.
 
Lachlan said:
You think he was forced to sit there and “fly” his sim while on a probable autopilot-flown route? He could have taken a nap, walked the dog, changed the oil on his new $100,000 pickup, etc. No reason to endure sitting in front of his computer the whole time.
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Yeah but I don't see the point. (Again thinking like a rational person.) The flight track in the one graphic looks straight edge true. I still think it's more likely he got called away and just left it running until it ran out of fuel and crashed (in the sim).
 
jsstevens said:
Yeah but I don't see the point. (Again thinking like a rational person.) The flight track in the one graphic looks straight edge true. I still think it's more likely he got called away and just left it running until it ran out of fuel and crashed (in the sim).
Click to expand...
I think there were only a few datapoints to plot so the lines connecting the points appear straight. They really should be dashed lines to indicate they don't represent real data. Of course I may have misunderstood the report.
 
Clark1961 said:
I think there were only a few datapoints to plot so the lines connecting the points appear straight. They really should be dashed lines to indicate they don't represent real data. Of course I may have misunderstood the report.
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You're right. I'd forgotten that part. "If you require a straight line fit, only obtain two data points." :)
 
Unfortunately this mystery will not be solved until the wreckage is found and in a condition where it's able to determine any malfunctions whether mechanical or electrical as in the avionics, and that may be never. Finding the wreckage in the Indian Ocean is a daunting task to say the least, and given the timeline I understand why the search was called off. All available technology was used in the search but it will be more likely that it will produce no more positive results than the search for Amelia Earhart. Just one more of life's unsolved mysteries. The media speculated and fed a bunch of BS in the process. The searchers tried their best but failed to come up with a definitive answer.
 
So here's a hypothetical, say you're on a commercial flight and you're headed to Point B. After a couple of hours you notice you're way off course, say over the ocean headed further out to nowhereland. You checked, double-checked, triple-checked and you're most certainly not headed anywhere near where you're supposed to be going. Just sit there and assume the cap'n knows what he's doing?
 
Gerhardt said:
...After a couple of hours you notice you're way off course...you're most certainly not headed anywhere near where you're supposed to be going. Just sit there and assume the cap'n knows what he's doing?
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That usually means the battery in my iPad is dead, the Foreflight screens are black and I left the paper charts at home. My wife is usually kind enough not to embarrass the pilot by pointing any of that out.
 
Gerhardt said:
So here's a hypothetical, say you're on a commercial flight and you're headed to Point B. After a couple of hours you notice you're way off course, say over the ocean headed further out to nowhereland. You checked, double-checked, triple-checked and you're most certainly not headed anywhere near where you're supposed to be going. Just sit there and assume the cap'n knows what he's doing?
Click to expand...

The problem is convincing the crew and other pax that you have a valid reason to the cockpit. And if the guy is really suicidal, maybe he just chucks it into the ocean while you try to break in.
 
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