Missing Malaysian Plane--2 aboard with stolen passports

Parent Cafe
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<p>Yes. And why would it even be a quirky hobby? I teach art and I make art at home. That’s not quirky. I don’t think it at all suspect for a pilot to be interested in building and operating a flight simulator at home. He likes to fly. I don’t think that it is suspect for him to delete files, either. I delete files all the time. </p>

<p>I am also with Romani on this. This is a perfect example of a problem that has plagued the media for a very long time and is getting worse by the minute. News is not vetted before it brought to the public. In a world where we are kept up to date by Twitter and Facebook, this is the best we can expect.</p>

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<p>I agree krillies but the “experts” keep talking about some catastrophic event.</p>

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<p>As for the flight simulator- I’m not familiar with them at all. Is deleting flight info perhaps just a routine thing for memory and what not? </p>

<p>Also, I’m not sure if anyone posted it, but did you guys see the profiles of those on board? One had a selfie taken before take-off. It really sent chills down my spine. </p>

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<p>I wouldn’t blame the media on this one. They’re bringing in experts because the official information is lacking. “We don’t know what happened,” is really not acceptable when you lose a plane. It’s been 10 days and families are holed up in a hotel waiting for information. It’s just crazy. </p>

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<p>Yes- it is insane. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the missing passengers. </p>

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<p>I disagree, Flossy. I mean, yes, there has been a lot of conflicting and incomplete and unverified information but there was a time, not too long ago that news media waited until stories could be confirmed and corroborated before reporting things. This story is very typical of many recent ones in the sense that in the time it takes for one version to reach the public, a new version or correction is in the works.</p>

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<p>Okay, I’ll clarify because I don’t really think we disagree that much… If you’re watching cable news speculation that’s a lot of filler and nonsense. News gathering has changed with technology in that we get it in real time although that started in the 1990’s so it’s not really new. The gulf war was a turning point in TV news. We now watch news gathering as much as news reporting and yes, it can be messy. To have an airliner disappear nearly 12 days ago and have no facts coming from any official sources is a little unprecedented, We don’t even know for sure that this is a crash. Some reasonable seeming experts are suggesting it may be in Pakistan. It’s actually unbelievable. </p>

<p>There was a time when we would read about this next month when hopefully something is known. But, that was a long, long time ago and I’m not even sure it was better that way because a lot of things got missed. Now, we get faulty early reports and crazy guessing by semi-informed talking heads.</p>

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<p>News of all kinds is competing with the likes of Twitter and such, it is an instant information society, so any little bit that comes out if sprayed out there…take a look at the Boston bombing, when all kinds of junk was being put out there as “news”, some news sources were taking what people put on Twitter as reporting. This thing is just so bizarre, so juicy, that any bit of news is going to be out there. I suspect there is probably more information knows than they are saying, simply because some of it may come from sources that are top secret, so they aren’t releasing it yet, so it is going to be slow and painful. The Malay authorities aren’t exactly going to be forthcoming, some of what has come out indicates they knew way early the plane didn’t go down south of the country, yet they told people to search there, and I think they are trying right now to save face, I would be willing to bet knowing governments that they are probably spending time with information, figuring out how to spin it to make themselves look better…</p>

<p>There also is the pilot whose theory has gone viral, that the plane had an electrical fire and the pilots were attempting to save the aircraft in doing what happened, the turn was to head for a large airfield on an island, the electrical was they cut the electrical systems to fight a fire, the altitude was to try and starve the fire of oxygen (which is the only part that I think lends credence to it)…it also has a lot of holes, saying the pilots would react to fix the situation and not send a mayday is kind of suspect, and if the fire was so rapid they couldn’t, the plane would have gone down a lot sooner. The pilot theorizes that the smoke got to the crew, but they have oxygen on board so why would the pilots not use that? He says because of fear of fire, but if you are choking on smoke, you have to do something…I kind of think the pilot is trying to find a way to try and take the focus off the pilots, who given the circumstances seem to be implied to be the ones who did this; if it was terrorism, they would have had chance to send a mayday of some sort, if it was a fire, same thing. I can understand it, pilots hate the fact that when planes crash the first thing that is blamed is pilot error, I can understand that,but I suspect in this case that theory doesn’t hold up. </p>

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<p>I see your point, Flossy.</p>

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<p>Actual news. The Australian Prime Minister is officially saying they think they found pieces of the plane.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html”>Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Australia says possible objects in ocean - CNN;

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<p>Re: <a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html”>Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Australia says possible objects in ocean - CNN;

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<p>Not really definitive that they found pieces of the plane – they just say two possible objects that could possibly be pieces of the plane and have sent a scout plane to investigate. Previously, an oil slick and other objects had been sighted, but subsequent investigation found them to be not related to the plane.</p>

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<p>Since the purpose of terrorism is to scare people, youd think that some group would be taking credit, if there is credit to take. What good is an act of terrorism if there is just mystery and no answers?</p>

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<p>" I can understand it, pilots hate the fact that when planes crash the first thing that is blamed is pilot error, I can understand that,but I suspect in this case that theory doesn’t hold up."</p>

<p>That is very true, at least, I can’t stand that people always instantly attribute pilot error, or in this case, pilot hijacking to the cause. The airlines and the manufacturers always want to do that, because it takes them off the hook. While sometimes it is pilot error, it really drives me crazy and I always want to stand by the pilot until it is proven otherwise. There is absolutely nothing weird about a pilot being obsessed with flying. I know many pilots who always have the flying magazine, go to conferences, fly flight simulator, own and maintain their own airplanes. The captain was an ultra flying geek, so what? But I realize that I really want him to not be at fault, and that may influence my opinion. I wish we could hear from some pilots that had recently flown with him. It would not be unlikely if a tech geek like him had programmed in the secondary flight plan his emergency diversion field (wherever that was).</p>

<p>Going up to 45K to “starve” the fire is just silly, pilots would descend and look for a field to land at immediately. Every pilot would put on their masks. You do shut of some of the electrical systems to fight fires, so that is realistic in that theory. But anyone claiming they know exactly what happened is ridiculous.</p>

<p>It will be interesting (though sad) if they end up finding the plane not far from the initial course, and the entire issue about when the plane turned off course is irrelevant (because we are talking about reports from the Malaysians, so who really knows). And that they really weren’t reading correct satellite information from the plane several hours later…I know, they’ll claim the pilots flew 3 hours in one direction, and then came back and flew 3 hours in the opposite direction.</p>

<p>It is the constant news cycle that feeds this. Any bit of information (correct or not) instantly speculated on. Everyone is an expert. I think I’ll just turn off the tv for a month, then see what happens. Remember the American Airlines flight that crashed after takeoff at JFK, and killed all those people on the ground after 9/11? Everyone was convinced it was terrorism. In the end, it was a rudder failure, which they blamed on the copilot slamming it side to side. Another bunch of bs, very few pilots believe that he would do that, as people are very careful with the rudder. They just didn’t want to admit to rudder failure (and can’t prove it either way). Just so much easier to blame it on the pilot.</p>

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<p>I’m not a pilot, busdriver11, and I don’t find it at all strange that a pilot would have a high-powered simulator at home. My husband and S1 used to play with a flight simulator game. And I don’t understand the suspicion about deleting files. Flight simulators are computers, and any stored flight files must be huge. Wouldn’t it be necessary to clear some from the disk periodically? If it is too full, performance will be affected. Of course everything has to be checked, and they should try to recover the files just in case, but it does not seem likely to me that the pilot simulated the strange flight that plane took. If he did, that implies that he was trying to land somewhere - the unlikely terrorist scheme. If he just wanted to commit suicide and take the plane down, he wouldn’t have needed to simulate a complicated flight path. </p>

<p>The constant dribble of “facts” - some later retracted - is driving me crazy. And I feel awful about the anguish of the families. </p>

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<p>I don’t have a problem scrutinizing the pilot, I mean if a child goes missing the first and usual suspect is usually a family member. But the release of various news reports is so ridiculous I’ve stopped watching it. I was just kidding when I suggested they landed on Lost, but some of these ‘experts’ are practically making it seem like a plausible conclusion.</p>

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<p>Apparently there is now speculation on cable about the plane having been absorbed by a black hole. </p>

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<p>One of the first things they should do is scrutinize the pilots. What they ate, their state of fatigue, mental state, personal issues, background, training, everything. They always do that very quickly in the US, and maybe they have done this long ago for these pilots, but just haven’t released details. I’m hoping they have.</p>

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<p>Of course they should look at the pilots, at this point it appears possible that one of them was responsible for whatever happened, but I have a problem with details like the simulator and the deleted simulator files being publicized as suspicious. </p>

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<p>I also think it is odd that the pilot’s wife or other family members have not been more vocal in defending his reputation. This is more telling than anything else. I would think they would be irate if all this speculations was totally baseless.</p>

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<p>“Hard to imagine you could covertly construct a 13,000 ft runway without being picked up by satellite. Ever seen those satellite photos of suspected nuclear fuel sites in Iran? You can pracitcally count the buttons on the shirts of the guys walking around.”</p>

<p>I agree with you that a secret runway seems very unrealistic… that said, satellites only take pictures of what they are aimed at.</p>