Originally Posted by
Mazster
The Washington Post reports in one of its stories re the timeline that at 1:07 local the last ACARS message was received and that according to U.S. officials it denoted that a change of course was programmed into the FMS. This was later refuted by the Malaysian government…whom are we to believe. Sometime shortly after that 1:07 xmision the data stream to ACARS was terminated…there was no 1:37 data stream. At 1:19 ATC receives the “Alright, Goodnight” voice xmision.
Question…IF the ACARS data packet does include the FMS flight plan program, could a change have been entered and detected without it having been executed? This would mean that it could have been entered anytime after the 12:40 takeoff. We are being told that the course did not change until after the xponder shut down after the 1:19 contact.
I’m sorry if I am not expressing myself as clearly as possible, but I am curious to understand the sequence of events early on in the flight. Thanks.
In most cases when we are in Class 2 navigation, and are logged in ADS-B and at each waypoint, the FMS pumps out a position report, which is the same as the voice PTAPTP routine. I don't know that ACARS pumps out any more flight plan information than that to a ground station.
I would forget theorizing and worrying about possible alternate flight plans entered into the FMS prior to lost comms. It would be just as easy to put a waypoint into the FIX page, then manually slewing the heading bug to manually entered fix and turning via heading bug selection.
What is claimed about flight plan entry prior to lost comms is irrelevant; we'll probably never know with certainty what was entered into the FMS. Right now they just need to find the first floating seat cushion or piece of wing.