Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

To me, it sounds more and more like the Payne Stewart situation. Flies in random directions. Erratic changes in altitude. It sounds like the plane was unpiloted and depressurized. How it got that way I can only guess at, but I'm thinking that there may have been some catastrophic damage to the cockpit that kills the crew, de-pressurizes the plane and disables various systems.

If it had been hijacked, why would they waste fuel flying out into the Indian Ocean or Zigzagging? They certainly weren't avoiding radar, since they have a track for them for quite a way.

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

quote:

ORIGINAL: warspite1

quote:

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

To me, it sounds more and more like the Payne Stewart situation. Flies in random directions. Erratic changes in altitude. It sounds like the plane was unpiloted and depressurized. How it got that way I can only guess at, but I'm thinking that there may have been some catastrophic damage to the cockpit that kills the crew, de-pressurizes the plane and disables various systems.

If it had been hijacked, why would they waste fuel flying out into the Indian Ocean or Zigzagging? They certainly weren't avoiding radar, since they have a track for them for quite a way.

warspite1

What are you saying?!? Payne Stewart hijacked the plane? I bet Elvis was his co-hijacker....

quote:

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

quote:

ORIGINAL: warspite1

quote:

ORIGINAL: Curtis Lemay

To me, it sounds more and more like the Payne Stewart situation. Flies in random directions. Erratic changes in altitude. It sounds like the plane was unpiloted and depressurized. How it got that way I can only guess at, but I'm thinking that there may have been some catastrophic damage to the cockpit that kills the crew, de-pressurizes the plane and disables various systems.

If it had been hijacked, why would they waste fuel flying out into the Indian Ocean or Zigzagging? They certainly weren't avoiding radar, since they have a track for them for quite a way.

warspite1

What are you saying?!? Payne Stewart hijacked the plane? I bet Elvis was his co-hijacker....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

quote:

ORIGINAL: RisingSun

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

quote:

ORIGINAL: RisingSun

Even if the plane exploded or break apart high in the air, they should find some debris on the water, some of it is floatation. Now its possible that it has been hi-jacked, look like the pilot or group planned this all along. So no contact? Seem that they manage to collect all cellphones at the right time before disappeared under the radar, in that case, they would have to fly very low altitude to avoid radar. There no telling where they went.

And if they're out of cell range?

As for flying at low altitude:

A 777's cruise altitude for best range performance varies from 30,000 at max weight, to about 43,000 at low weight...Fuel burn at cruise altitude is far less than at low altitude, and again, taking a moderately heavy weight airplane at normal cruise, a 777 burns about 8,000#/hr per engine, but that number drops to about 5,000#/hr per engine at low weights and optimum altitude.

In terms of nautical miles per pound of fuel, being at 5,000 feet gets you less than half the range of being at cruise. (this is a bit of an oversimplification, it depends on the airplane's weight, the temperature, and the airspeed flown, but it's close enough for our purposes here)...so, a 777 loaded with fuel for 4,000 miles likely can't go farther than 2,000 miles if flown at low altitude. Less if it was being flown at a high airspeed (which burns more fuel per mile).

There are so many variables, that I can only speak in generalities...but jet airplanes guzzle fuel when flown at low altitude. In fact, at idle, on the ground, they're often burning about half the fuel per minute that they burn when going 540 MPH in cruise...

That's from a 757/67 rated pilot on another forum

I agreed with you there too, like you said there are so many variables and possibilities.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Southern_land

Found it!!

http://vietnam.craigslist.org/for/4372477162.html

quote:

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

"The satellite imagery company ************, which owns an advanced constellation of commercial satellites, is encouraging citizens to comb through satellite images in response to the disappearance of the plane.

******* today activated its crowdsourcing platform in an effort to locate the Boeing 777 jetliner that mysteriously disappeared on Saturday while in flight from Malaysia to Beijing. If you would like to volunteer your time to support the rescue mission, please visit ******* Tomnod platform to begin combing through satellite imagery for clues that may help locate the missing aircraft"

http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/malaysiaairsar2014

Stratford, Connecticut, U.S.A.

"The Angel of Okinawa"

Home of the Chance-Vought Corsair, F4U
The best fighter-bomber of World War II

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mobius

I did have a theory from the theme of Die Hard 1 movie. Instead of Japanese insert Chinese. Instead of Germans insert Uyghurs.
The problem is it's been over 10 days and no ransom message. It's hard for one or two people to keep 200+ captives alive so my theory is a little shakey now.