The Altered Flight Plan - Flight 370

SeriouslySearching

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2007
Messages
35,527
Reaction score
244
New evidence in Flight 370 search explains plane's path
By Mariano Castillo, Catherine E. Shoichet and Evan Perez, CNN
updated 10:30 PM EDT, Tue March 18, 2014

(CNN) -- New information from the Thai government bolsters the belief that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took a sharp westward turn after communication was lost.

And it looks like that turn was no accident.

A law enforcement official told CNN Tuesday that the aircraft's first turn to the west was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit

~Snip~

Analysts on CNN's "AC360" offered different interpretations of what that could mean -- with some experts cautioning the change in direction could have been part of an alternate flight plan programmed in advance in case of emergency, and others warning it could show something more nefarious was afoot.

"We don't know when specifically it was entered," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
 
I know I am not allowed to sleuth on pilot and co-pilot and report my findings here. It's like I said before, "someone" knew where the deepest oceans were where it would be inaccessible or found.
 
What's lacking in either report is the source of the information, which makes me wonder if this report, like many others before it, will be eventually trumped by future confirmable sources.

Also lacking is any detail which supports the characterization that is was a "sharp" turn.

It could be interpreted to mean a turn that deviated from a normal Two Minute rate of turn, which could suggest an emergency situation. It could also be interpreted as only a significant heading change, which could suggest something less urgent.

Has anyone seen information regarding the headings prior to and after the turn or the rate of turn?

On a similar note, CNN television reports characterized an altitude change as a "drop" in altitude, which suggests a descent quicker than the norm. Unfortunately, they didn't offer any detail about the rate of descent.
 
Why do you doubt that the pilot could be involved? I don't watch CNN, so cannot chime in on that...
 
Why do you doubt that the pilot could be involved? I don't watch CNN, so cannot chime in on that...

If heading and altitude changes were made, I have little doubt that they were pilot induced.

What I'm stuck on is the pilot's motivation. Hurried suggests emergency. Unhurried routine turn and descent suggests non-emergency.
 
If heading and altitude changes were made, I have little doubt that they were pilot induced.

What I'm stuck on is the pilot's motivation. Hurried suggests emergency. Unhurried routine turn and descent suggests non-emergency.

Pilot's motivation.
 
New evidence in Flight 370 search explains plane's path
By Mariano Castillo, Catherine E. Shoichet and Evan Perez, CNN
updated 10:30 PM EDT, Tue March 18, 2014

(CNN) -- New information from the Thai government bolsters the belief that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took a sharp westward turn after communication was lost.

And it looks like that turn was no accident.

A law enforcement official told CNN Tuesday that the aircraft's first turn to the west was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit

~Snip~

Analysts on CNN's "AC360" offered different interpretations of what that could mean -- with some experts cautioning the change in direction could have been part of an alternate flight plan programmed in advance in case of emergency, and others warning it could show something more nefarious was afoot.

"We don't know when specifically it was entered," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.



New evidence in Flight 370 search explains plane's path A law enforcement official told CNN Tuesday that the aircraft's first turn to the west was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit.

The official, who has been briefed on the investigation, said the programmed change in direction was entered at least 12 minutes before the plane's co-pilot signed off to air traffic controllers, telling them, "All right, good night."

Analysts on CNN's "AC360" offered different interpretations of what that could mean -- with some experts cautioning the change in direction could have been part of an alternate flight plan programmed in advance in case of emergency, and others warning it could show something more nefarious was afoot.

Source: Flight 370's altitude dropped after sharp turn By Sara Sidner, Catherine E. Shoichet and Evan Perez, CNN updated 10:25 PM EDT, Sun March 23, 2014

As a growing number of airplanes scoured the southern Indian Ocean in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, authorities released new details that paint a different picture of what may have happened in the plane's cockpit.

Military radar tracking shows that the aircraft changed altitude after making a sharp turn over the South China Sea as it headed toward the Strait of Malacca, a source close to the investigation into the missing flight told CNN. The plane flew as low as 12,000 feet at some point before it disappeared from radar, according to the source.

The sharp turn seemed to be intentional, the source said, because executing it would have taken the Boeing 777 two minutes -- a time period during which the pilot or co-pilot could have sent an emergency signal if there had been a fire or other emergency onboard.

Earlier Sunday, Malaysian authorities said the last transmission from the missing aircraft's reporting system showed it heading to Beijing -- a revelation that appears to undercut the theory that someone reprogrammed the plane's flight path before the co-pilot signed off with air-traffic controllers for the last time.
 
As a former CH-47 Flight Engineer from back in the 70's, I am wondering if it might be a case of "Wrong Way Corrigan".

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan"]Douglas Corrigan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]


I do remember one time my Co Pilot pointing out to my much more experience and senior Pilot that he was 180 degrees off on his heading. Only happened once and I bit my tongue to keep from laughing...mostly because you never know when you are going to make a navigational error.... I wonder if the programmed turn was entered incorrectly.

Just a thought...
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
137
Guests online
2,371
Total visitors
2,508

Forum statistics

Threads
590,019
Messages
17,929,085
Members
228,038
Latest member
shmoozie
Back
Top