OK thanks for the extra info Mondariz… when i initially read Clarence Dargie’s report i just thought it an intriguing story.

Yes, they are always intriguing, that’s why they persist – nobody wants a boring UFO story and if you only get half the story, it easily becomes intriguing.

However, they are always a mishmash of different events and quite often easily dismissed.

Naturally people are free to believe in alien crafts, but they don’t do themselves any favours, by circulating these easily discredited stories.

Wow, I have reached a new low – a confused possibly vintage bus or boat part collector..maybe..

I need to get out more 😮

We now believe its a very important button from “insert your favourite aircraft” and congratulations 😀

I now wish i had one too….

Rudolf Hess arrived in a Bf-110 on 10 may 1941. Hess landed in a parachute and was arrested by a farmer with a pitchfork (master race?). The Messerschmitt crashed in a field.

I seem to recall, that the AC is still around somehow, but it might be my imagination.

And when a ‘live link’ system fails? Carrier pigeons?

I’m not saying there is no room for improvement. I’m saying you can’t predict and provide your way out of everything. In the case of MH370, comms seems to have been down and a ‘live link’ likely wouldn’t have helped the investigation much. So now you need two systems. The new live one, and the old one for when the live system fails.

Not my area of expertise, but wasn’t the “two hours” in reference to the CVR, not the FDR?

Moggy

You are right Moggy. The CVR run on a 2 hour loop, the FDR retains data for around 20 hours (minimum the full flight).

I don’t know the exact sequence of events (nobody does) and you are right, depressurization is not recommended for passenger flights. However, that does not mean a distressed pilot wouldn’t try (imagine being in a burning unresponsive aircraft). If I remember correctly the outflow valve will also tend toward open, meaning that malfunctions, possibly by short circuit/fire, could leave the valve open. This gives three possible depressurization scenarios:

1. The pilot drops cabin pressure to quell fire

2. Fire melts hole in fuselage.

3. System short circuit/fire opens the valve

A fourth scenario is an explosion causing 2 or 3 from the above.

Note that mobile phones don’t work at 35.000ft – and definitely not above the sea (no mobile system at all).

I don’t know the wiring layout of a Boeing 777, so it’s hard to estimate how big a fire would be needed to knock out the systems that went offline. Any electrical fire will cause short circuits and you might not need a bonfire if it’s in the wrong place. Add pilot mistakes and no series of events is impossible. I have read enough strange accident reports not to rule out anything in advance.

If the ACARS message is confirmed to contain new route information the line of events will change and thus any theory on the likely cause of the accident.

Edit: the ACARS message at 01:07 was a standard 30 minute interval message, it was not triggered. The next scheduled ACARS contact was due at 01:37 and was never sent, so the system went offline sometime between.

Edit II: I thought I would add this:

Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister:

I am aware of speculation that additional waypoints were added to the aircraft’s flight routing. I can confirm that the aircraft flew on normal routing up until the waypoint IGARI. There is no additional waypoint on MH370’s documented flight plan, which depicts normal routing all the way to Beijing.

So no new flight plan.

MH370 PRESS BRIEFING – 9 MARCH 2014 5:30PM

Honestly, you can’t in the same argument use the Hawaiian 737 incident and say an aircraft can’t fly with ruptured fuselage. Pretty clearly it can.

Southwest Airlines flight 812 (2011): Southwest Airlines Flight 812, from Phoenix-Sky Harbor International Airport, AZ (PHX) to Sacramento International Airport, CA (SMF), diverted to Yuma International Airport, AZ (YUM) after experiencing a rapid depressurization at approximately 34,000 feet.
Upon landing, a 5-foot x 1-foot hole in the crown area was observed on the left side of the airplane, aft of the over-wing exit at the stringer 4L lap joint.

They didn’t even notice during flight, and it certainly didn’t tear the plane apart. If the pilot doesn’t even notice, then the auto pilot wouldn’t either.

I understand if you don’t believe fire/depressurization scenario for HM370, but calling it ludicrous shows an absolute lack of understanding.

Just a note on the fire scenario. I hope people realize such a fire only would last as long as pressure remained in the cabin. In the fire melted through the fuselage (as the Egypt Air 777) the cabin pressure would be lost and that would starve the fire of oxygen. So it’s quite possible to have a catastrophic fire in 35.000ft without completely destroying the AC.