Twenty passengers on missing flight 370 worked for Freescale Semiconductors

[TerraHertz]

At least there's *finally* a semi-decent explanation of how Inmarsat came up with those two arcs originally, and then narrowed down a final location. That's what has been bothering me most, of all the many strangenesses in this story.

Some recent articles. The last one is the tech explanation.
20140325
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588109/How-got-After-Malaysia-Airlines-jet-said-crashed-Indian-Ocean-look-ended-far-course.html
Does the revelation that missing Malaysian jet crashed into the ocean prove its crew WERE overcome by smoke? News supports theory the plane ran out of fuel after flying 'unmanned' for hours
 (Includes video and Inmarsat spokesman offering a few shreds of info on how the flight path located. 'Doppler'. )
video:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588109/How-got-After-Malaysia-Airlines-jet-said-crashed-Indian-Ocean-look-ended-far-course.html#v-3386538487001

Interesting screens in the 'control center walkthrough'.


20140325
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10719304/How-British-satellite-company-Inmarsat-tracked-down-MH370.html
How British satellite company Inmarsat tracked down MH370
 The British company that provided vital information on MH370’s whereabouts explains its calculations
video: http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=7dfd98005dba40baacc82277f292e522&ec=FyYzNkbDofp0-Lb9KtV9yjM3Nf_K2FMx
 Chris McLaughlin - Inmarsat senior vice president


20140324  (linked via JimStone)
http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/binnenland/twee-f-16s-onderscheppen-vrachttoestel
Two F-16s intercepted freighter  (google translated from Dutch)
From the Brabant Volkel airbase, two F-16s took off to intercept. A freighter
 It turned out this was a cargo plane, a Boeing 777F LAN Cargo, which was en route to the airport.  The unit flew from Miami in Dutch airspace and they could not connect to the device.
 A spokesman for the Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security unit had previously requested permission for the flight.  That is because of the nuclear security summit in The Hague is mandatory.
 The jets have the cargo plane accompanied this had left. Dutch airspace  The unit flew independently to the airport in Frankfurt, Germany.


20140326
http://presstv.com/detail/2014/03/25/355988/china-demands-data-on-missing-jet/
China casts doubt on fate of Flight MH370
A Senior Chinese official has demanded Malaysia to turn over satellite data it used to conclude that a missing airliner has crashed in the Indian Ocean.
Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng told Malaysia’s ambassador to Beijing that China wanted to know exactly what led the Kuala Lumpur government to announce that the plane has plunged in the ocean.
“We demand the Malaysian side to make clear the specific basis on which they come to this judgement,” Xie said during an urgent meeting with Malaysian Ambassador Iskandar Sarudin in Beijing.

20140326
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2014/03/25/mh370-last-incomplete-ping-from-jet-not-understood/
MH370: Last incomplete ping from jet ‘not understood’. Includes link to explanation from Inmarsat (on Facebook? WTF?):

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=740971779281171&id=178566888854999&stream_ref=10
This new revelation at this evening’s media briefing in Kuala Lumpur by Malaysia’s  acting transport minister and minister of defence Hishammuddin Hussein is described in a detailed explanation added to the Ministry of Transport Facebook page.

---------------------
The doppler story seems reasonable. But looking at their chart of the doppler shift from each of the contacts with MH370, do you see something odd?
I have questions.
* Why are there 'predicted' points for the start of the flight (when it was flying as intended) and why don't they match with the measured data points?
* How many contacts were there in total? That number seemed to keep changing, but wasn't it 7 or 8 finally? In this chart there are 12 points (each a contact).
* We're told the system interrogated the plane at hourly intervals after contact was lost. And mostly during the final hours of flight the contacts were hourly. But why is the final interval between contacts an hour and a half?
* The vertical scale... Huh? All frequency offsets were positive? But in the initial part of the flight, the plane was getting closer to the satellite (positive doppler shift) but the later section of the flight was going away from the satellite. Definitely. So the shift should be negative. But not according to the chart. I can't see how to reconcile that. Unless... Is this a case of some low level flunky being ordered to fabricate a technical looking chart, and thinking "f*ck you, pointy headed boss." and deliberately including impossible errors, to let all thinking people know it's a lie?
Edit to add: The satellite is geosynchronous, but doesn't have a perfect orbit. Online data says current apogee 35808.97Km, perigee 35762.22Km. Could the satellite have been in downwards drift the whole time of MH370's flight, hence the always positive doppler shift? But still, you'd think the doppler chart would show bias above and below the reference of the plane's doppler shift while parked on the runway.

Can anyone think of a way the offsets could always be positive?
The original 'two arcs' chart as published by the Malaysian government is here: http://everist.org/MH370/mh370_arcs_rubbish.htm  (Needs an update, just linking for the chart.)

Supposedly the 'final position' is located at the intersection of the arc defined by the signal round trip delay (a circle centered on the satellite's ground lat,long) and a path consistent with the doppler shift.
But I'd *really* like to see both those factors for each of the successive contacts. Just to see for myself. Not that the whole dataset couldn't be entirely fake. Can certainly see the Chinese government's point in demanding the raw data.

Does anyone know a way to save a copy of videos from newspaper sites like this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588109/How-got-After-Malaysia-Airlines-jet-said-crashed-Indian-Ocean-look-ended-far-course.html#v-3386538487001

Really want to keep a local copy of that video, and some others. YTD can't grab them.

[EEVblog]

122 objects spotted:

It certainly impacted intact.

[EEVblog]

Everyone being dead from smoke/fumes is much better than being awake for hours panicking on a plane that no one can fly.

This article is interesting:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/search-for-mh370-how-cockpits-security-door-may-have-left-conscious-passengers-helpless-in-midair-20140326-zqn41.html

However, other commercial airline pilots have since revealed there is a secret emergency procedure that would allow airline staff to get into the cockpit in the event that the pilots were, for example, rendered unconscious by a mechanical fault.
Fairfax Media has chosen not to detail the procedure.
But it can be by overriden by the flight deck, meaning the pilots do have the ability to block passengers and crew from contacting the outside world. 

[Wytnucls]

Yes, there is a procedure. The crew of the Ethiopian 787 that was commandeered to Geneva by the asylum-seeking copilot, were denied cockpit entry, as he kept overriding the safety system, even threatening to crash the airplane if they tried to force the door open.

 http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/17/world/europe/ethiopian-airlines-hijacking/

[CaptnYellowShirt]

So what track was MH370 following? It seems odd to me that the pilot would have set a magnetic heading to find an emergency airport.
 

[Wytnucls]

If it was a depressurization or any other serious emergency, it is customary to set a rough magnetic heading off the airway for an emergency descent or a diversion to the nearest airfield. Proper navigation is refined later, once the emergency is under control.

[CaptnYellowShirt]

So the time period between first indication and overwhelming problem was pretty quick... like ones of minutes.

[Bored@Work]

I think it is quite likely other Nation's aircraft often contravene Malaysia's air space,the Military know about it,& no longer "hit the panic button",but just keep an eye on them.
Perhaps they were expecting just such a "fly through",& wrote off MH370 as one of those.

Or they do it like in Switzerland. The Swiss air defense only works during office hours 0800 to 1700. Outside of the office hours they need to ask for help from neighboring countries.

When they had the incident with the Ethiopian hijacker they needed to ask the Italian and French air forces to have an eye on the aircraft, because at 6 am the Swiss pilots where still in bed.

[Wytnucls]

So the time period between first indication and overwhelming problem was pretty quick... like ones of minutes.

If you subscribe to the uncontrollable emergency scenario, instead of the hijack, it seems that way.

[CaptnYellowShirt]

So the time period between first indication and overwhelming problem was pretty quick... like ones of minutes.

If you subscribe to the uncontrollable emergency scenario, instead of the hijack, it seems that way.

A knock on the cockpit door and the door being busted down doesn't fit into my explanation?

[EEVblog]

Looks to be lots of stuff to pickup, a least 300 at current count:

[tom66]

Interestingly, there's also a circuit breaker in the avionics bay of the 777-200 which lets you disable the cockpit door lock -- and you can access it from the galley.

[Wytnucls]

Which one? 

http://hawkeyemedia.com/panos/777_Avionics.asp

[SeanB]

Which one? 

http://hawkeyemedia.com/panos/777_Avionics.asp

Left Left Right Right Press.........

[CaptnYellowShirt]

Which one? 

http://hawkeyemedia.com/panos/777_Avionics.asp

eenie meenie miney mo....



"Ryan, some things in here don't react well to bullets."

[pickle9000]

You could just download the instruction manual.

[stitch]

I'm glad to hear that Dave is paying attention to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370.  There's lots of speculation and apparent misinformation floating around out there.  Some of it might be cleared up by those who understand engineering.  Are there any potential guests that might understand some of the systems on board commercial airliners?
I am still curious:
-What causes fire from lithium ion batteries?
-Is the cargo area of an airliner pressurized?
-If there's little O2 in the cargo area at cruise altitude can lithium ion batteries in the cargo area burn?
-If the batteries will burn at cruise altitude, would it help to take the plane to a higher altitude where there is even less O2?
-What is "proper packaging" for lithium ion batteries that I heard the Malaysians talk about in front of the press?
-Can the pilot really throw a switch and depressurize the cabin where the passengers are?
-Is throwing circuit breakers a practical method of extinguishing or tracking down the source of a fire?
-How fast might the battery life drop off in the black boxes?

 

[kizzap]

You could just download the instruction manual.

wouldn't you be pissed off if the download corrupted at 99% downloaded.

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

I started to think of another plausible theory - plane was diverted to remote area by pilots in order to steal some very important cargo aboard. It is compatible with clues about someone turning off tracking device.

[tom66]

Cargo theft idea doesn't really make sense - who steals an entire aircraft including 270 passengers for cargo? Why not steal it when it is being loaded/unloaded? Cargo security on passenger airlines isn't super strict; I'm sure it'd be a thousand times easier... not to mention it doesn't require you to murder over 200 people.

[pickle9000]

My thinking on the theories is this. If they lead you to the location of the crash then fine they are useful, even if they are incorrect. In this case many theories fit but it was the Imarsat guys that came up with the first real clue so, two thumbs up for whomever at Imarsat came up with the doppler idea and those that executed it. Science wins.

[EEVblog]

I started to think of another plausible theory - plane was diverted to remote area by pilots in order to steal some very important cargo aboard. It is compatible with clues about someone turning off tracking device.

Not plausible. It would require the government of the country you land in to be in on it, and those to dispose of the plane and people on board. Not going to happen.
And of course doesn't fit in the almost-fact it's been found in the middle of the Indian ocean, headed nowhere.

[EEVblog]

Which one? 
http://hawkeyemedia.com/panos/777_Avionics.asp

Probably the one labeled cockpit door 

[pickle9000]

I think it would be possible to lose all communications systems except for a transmitter and some electronics connected directly to it. It could also be that the flight controls where operational and the pilots where fighting against massive amounts of smoke in the cockpit. Hard to land if you can't see your instruments or outside the aircraft. Is there a way to use the autopilot to give them more time to clear the cockpit? Did they try that and fail. It will be an interesting story.

If it was a fire the interior will show smoke damage.

[vk6zgo]

I'm glad to hear that Dave is paying attention to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370.  There's lots of speculation and apparent misinformation floating around out there.  Some of it might be cleared up by those who understand engineering.  Are there any potential guests that might understand some of the systems on board commercial airliners?
I am still curious:
-What causes fire from lithium ion batteries?
-Is the cargo area of an airliner pressurized?
-If there's little O2 in the cargo area at cruise altitude can lithium ion batteries in the cargo area burn?
-If the batteries will burn at cruise altitude, would it help to take the plane to a higher altitude where there is even less O2?
-What is "proper packaging" for lithium ion batteries that I heard the Malaysians talk about in front of the press?
-Can the pilot really throw a switch and depressurize the cabin where the passengers are?
-Is throwing circuit breakers a practical method of extinguishing or tracking down the source of a fire?
-How fast might the battery life drop off in the black boxes?

I know little about lithium batteries,but I can answer some of the other stuff.

-Is the cargo area of an airliner pressurized?

Yes,as aircraft have suffered loss of pressurisation due to  losing a cargo door.

Also,animals are often carried in the cargo area.

Another important point is that air pressure sensitive bombs could be set to operate at high altitude in an unpressurised cargo area,but it is not so easy to make one which will trigger in the small difference between sea level & 2000ft,or whatever aircraft pressurise to the equivalent of.

If there's little O2 in the cargo area at cruise altitude can lithium ion batteries in the cargo area burn?
Covered in the above answer.

Can the pilot really throw a switch and depressurize the cabin where the passengers are??

I doubt it--remember the volume of an aircraft cabin is quite large,so the pressure cannot instantly disappear.
What can happen is for the cabin & cockpit to not pressurise in the first place,but large aircraft have audible pressurisation alarms,which should have warned the pilots.

-Is throwing circuit breakers a practical method of extinguishing or tracking down the source of a fire?

This is pretty much standard procedure with an electrical fire anywhere---in many cases ,if there is no current to feed whatever is getting hot,it drops below the temperature at which it can cause other material to burn.