Hp Report This Comment Date: March 18, 2014 12:16PM
MH370 A different point of view. Pulau Langkawi 13,000 runway.
A lot of speculation about MH370. Terrorism, hijack, meteors. I cannot believe
the analysis on CNN - almost disturbing. I tend to look for a more simple
explanation of this event.
Loaded 777 departs midnight from Kuala to Beijing. Hot night. Heavy aircraft.
About an hour out across the gulf towards Vietnam the plane goes dark meaning
the transponder goes off and secondary radar tracking goes off.
Two days later we hear of reports that Malaysian military radar (which is a
primary radar meaning the plane is being tracked by reflection rather than by
transponder interrogation response) has tracked the plane on a southwesterly
course back across the Malay Peninsula into the straits of Malacca.
When I heard this I immediately brought up Google Earth and I searched for
airports in proximity to the track towards southwest.
The left turn is the key here. This was a very experienced senior Captain with
18,000 hours. Maybe some of the younger pilots interviewed on CNN didn't pick up
on this left turn. We old pilots were always drilled to always know the closest
airport of safe harbor while in cruise. Airports behind us, airports abeam us
and airports ahead of us. Always in our head. Always. Because if something
happens you don't want to be thinking what are you going to do - you already
know what you are going to do. Instinctively when I saw that left turn with a
direct heading I knew he was heading for an airport. Actually he was taking a
direct route to Palau Langkawi a 13,000 foot strip with an approach over water
at night with no obstacles. He did not turn back to Kuala Lampur because he knew
he had 8,000 foot ridges to cross. He knew the terrain was friendlier towards
Langkawi and also a shorter distance.
Take a look on Google Earth at this airport. This pilot did all the right
things. He was confronted by some major event onboard that made him make that
immediate turn back to the closest safe airport.
For me the loss of transponders and communications makes perfect sense if a
fire. There was most likely a fire or electrical fire. In the case of fire the
first response if to pull all the main busses and restore circuits one by one
until you have isolated the bad one.
If they pulled the busses the plane indeed would go silent. It was probably a
serious event and they simply were occupied with controlling the plane and
trying to fight the fire. Aviate, Navigate and lastly communicate. There are two
types of fires. Electrical might not be as fast and furious and there might or
might not be incapacitating smoke. However there is the possibility given the
timeline that perhaps there was an overheat on one of the front landing gear
tires and it blew on takeoff and started slowly burning. Yes this happens with
underinflated tires. Remember heavy plane, hot night, sea level, long run
takeoff. There was a well known accident in Nigeria of a DC8 that had a landing
gear fire on takeoff. A tire fire once going would produce horrific
incapacitating smoke. Yes, pilots have access to oxygen masks but this is a no
no with fire. Most have access to a smoke hood with a filter but this will only
last for a few minutes depending on the smoke level. (I used to carry one of my
own in a flight bag and I still carry one in my briefcase today when I fly).
What I think happened is that they were overcome by smoke and the plane just
continued on the heading probably on George (autopilot) until either fuel
exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed. I said four
days ago you will find it along that route - looking elsewhere was pointless.
This pilot, as I say, was a hero struggling with an impossible situation trying
to get that plane to Langkawi. No doubt in my mind. That's the reason for the
turn and direct route. A hijack would not have made that deliberate left turn
with a direct heading for Langkawi. It would probably have weaved around a bit
until the hijackers decided on where they were taking it.
Surprisingly none of the reporters , officials, other pilots interviewed have
looked at this from the pilot's viewpoint. If something went wrong where would
he go? Thanks to Google earth I spotted Langkawi in about 30 seconds, zoomed in
and saw how long the runway was and I just instinctively knew this pilot knew
this airport. He had probably flown there many times. I guess we will eventually
find out when you help me spread this theory on the net and some reporters
finally take a look on Google earth and put 2 and 2 together. Also a look at the
age and number of cycles on those nose tires might give us a good clue too.
Fire in an aircraft demands one thing - you get the machine on the ground as
soon as possible. There are two well remembered experiences in my memory. The
AirCanada DC9 which landed I believe in Columbus Ohio in the eighties. That
pilot delayed descent and bypassed several airports. He didn't instinctively
know the closest airports. He got it on the ground eventually but lost 30 odd
souls. In the 1998 crash of Swissair DC-10 off Nova Scotia was another example
of heroic pilots. They were 15 minutes out of Halifax but the fire simply
overcame them and they had to ditch in the ocean. Just ran out of time. That
fire incidentally started when the aircraft was about an hour out of Kennedy.
Guess what the transponders and communications were shut off as they pulled the
busses.
Get on Google Earth and type in Pulau Langkawi and then look at it in relation
to the radar track heading. 2+2=4 That for me is the simple explanation why it
turned and headed in that direction.
Smart pilot. Just didn't have the time.
Bob Casey Report This Comment Date: March 27, 2014 04:10PM
There's no other way to describe it.....
This is a total fucking mystery.
No matter what scenarios are thought up by professionals and
non-professionals;
in the final analysis, none of them completely match up, only in part and then
the rest is anyone's guess.
With over 200 people on board with their own communication devices (iphones,
mobiles etc)
you would think that at least one person could of got a call or text out there
before the plane went down.
Even if it was a hijacking, someone could of got a call out, just like they did
in 911
It sounds like something so dramatic happened, like virtually, the whole roof
was ripped off the plane
and almost everyone was sucked out in an instant but even this does not match
up
because they have found nothing in the Gulf of Thailand or the South China
Sea.
If it was a split second electrical fire in the cockpit, someone, at least on
person
down the back of the plane could of got a call out. So it if was a fire,
everyone got burnt together, at once.
Everyone must of been incapacitated immediately but with the plane still being
able to fly
for another 7 hours, it just makes it so much harder to understand what actually
happened.
They're not going to solve this one overnight.....
BlahX3 Report This Comment Date: March 27, 2014 05:27PM
Sudden loss of cabin pressure combined with a failure to deploy oxygen masks
could explain everything.
Bob Casey Report This Comment Date: March 28, 2014 04:39AM
Fair comment Blah.
I guess it's only a matter of time - a long time, till we find out for sure.