Likely Theories about Missing Malaysian Plane
 

Hi Everyone-

I'm looking for a few professional pilots to give their opinions about some of the more popular theories about the missing Boeing 777 for the APC blog. I've listed some theories below. Feel free to tell me in your professional opinion what you find likely or unlikely in a technical sense and why, OR give the theories a probability score of 1-10 (1 being the least likely). Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your expertise!

1.Due to an electrical malfunction, the plane was flown toward Langkawi Island, but crashed into the sea before arrival.

2.The plane was pre-programmed to steer off-course via air traffic controllers.

3.The plane was stolen by terrorists, is hidden, but is still intact and will take off again to be used for a terrorist attack.

4. The plane was shot down somewhere along the Northern Arc, somehow avoiding all but one radar system.

5. The plane landed on India’s Andaman Islands without being spotted.

6.The plane was taken over by China’s Uighur Muslim separatists, landing in an expansive desert near the Chinese/Kyrgyz border.

7. The plane hid in the radar shadow of Singapore Airlines flight 68, going undetected. As flight 68 continued on to its destination in Spain, blogger Keith Ledgerwood suspects that the two planes diverged and flight 370 landed in Xinjiang, Kyrgyzstan, or Turkmenistan.

Is none of the above an option?

A. If it flew toward Langkawi and crashed, why do they have "pings for hours afterwards?

B. ATC cannot take remote control of airliners

C. Do you think US, Israeli, Russian, Chinese, Indian spy satellites haven't scoured the Earth looking for it. And don't offer camo, multi-spectrum analysis has been pretty well matured.

D. Shot down means ELT went off unless disabling is possible. Certainly wreckage would be visible. I will admit UA 93 style smoking hole would be hard to find.

E. There aren't any unknown airports in the Andamans and India has strong military presence there.

F. Possible it's in the Taklamakn desert, but to what end would the Chinese keep it secret--150 Chinese are onboard.

G. Ledgerwood simply is wrong, the possibility of joining up is very remote and could not be assured on departure from KL. Departure times would have been coordinated to put the two near enough to rendezvous. A mere 10 minutes off would have ended it. Radars can detect planes quit close, 500' by one report. Shah apparently hasn't had extensive formation training or experience--it's more difficult than you think and definitely not something for amateurs.

Any other ideas?

GF

I worked in Turkmenistan for 2 years. Even hijackers/terrorists wouldnt want to go there:D

None of those theories sound plausible, given what little we do know, but you will find some plausible theories here based on professional knowledge:

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/sa...7-missing.html

Thanks for telling us you are a media person right off the bat, try not to fill your head with the MSM trash.

None of the above as galaxy flyer stated. All of those have gaping holes and major errors in technical aspects in them.

Galaxy flyer did a very good job as usual, the assumptions involved in some of these theories are amazing.

They show a stark lack of knowledge about what is possible or plausible, not just with aircraft but with human nature.
The lack of understanding of human nature is the most surprising feature of most of these theories.

The Australians are briefing that they may have found debris from satellite imagery. They're sending P-3 out to check it out, should be overhead within the next few hours.

GF

I give a journalist writing on this topic with a non-aviation background a probability score of 10 for being one of hundreds of reporters to make fools of themselves. To maintain any credibility that this site has left, I implore you to not publish any of those ideas on APC.

Instead, may I suggest that you help update the job search resources that are 6 years out of date? Pilot Career Advice | AirlinePilotCentral.com

Maybe remove the pay comparisons that over 8 years out of date
Pay Comparisons | AirlinePilotCentral.com

How about update the CBA section that has contracts that are 9 years out of date Downloads | AirlinePilotCentral.com

Any of these things would help restore APC's credibility, jumping on the bandwagon of wild assed guesses will do no such thing. I realize that this is the Amelia Earhart story of your generation, but publishing conspiracy theories on a site that's supposedly for working pilots will further alienate your target audience.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/in...ml#post1601563

The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our stars
 

You'd think at least a few journalists are lit majors, so maybe they took at least one Shakespeare course. Plenty of material to understand human nature in any of Will's plays...probably more than in most any psych course. Maybe they just don't teach The Bard anymore.

Seven chances and none are plausible. Throw us a bone. How about the plane dove down to wave top level and was taken out by a Sharknado?