Copying my own post over from old thread so I can add additional info.
Some of the initial reporting on the sharp climb then descent may not have been exactly correct. Read this carefully:
"The New York Times, quoting American officials and others close to the investigation, said radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military appeared to show the airliner climbing to 45,000ft, higher than a Boeing 777's approved limit, soon after its disappearance from civilian radar, then making a sharp turn to the west. The radar tracking then shows the plane descending unevenly to 23,000ft, below normal cruising levels, before climbing again and flying north-west towards the Indian Ocean."
IF this information is correct, there was no 40,000ft. drop. The plane climbed to 45,000ft. - higher than approved limit, but plane obviously capable of this. The plane then apparently made the turn to the west at this altitude. Then it descended - unevenly - meaning what? It did not plummet down. It came down in steps?
From 45,000 down to 23,000 ft. is a drop of 22,000 ft. - not 40,000."
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Here is the original article in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/world/asia/malaysia-military-radar.html?ref=world&_r=0
Interesting additional information. First, there are two sources of information reported within the article.
First is the radar information from the Malaysian military. This shows the climb to 45,000ft., the turn, then:
"The radar track, which the Malaysian government has not released but says it has provided to the United States and China, showed that the plane then descended unevenly to 23,000 feet, below normal cruising levels, as it approached the densely populated island of Penang.
There, officials believe, the plane turned from a southwest-bound course, climbed to a higher altitude and flew northwest over the Strait of Malacca toward the Indian Ocean."
So what this is saying is that someone brought this plane down to a below-normal flying level
as it approached Penang. The plane also executed a turn here. Penang is where the military radar station that failed to pick up this plane is located!
NOW comes the portion with the 40,000ft. drop. Different source of information, this came from the satellite:
"Investigators have also examined data transmitted from the plane’s Rolls-Royce engines that showed it descended 40,000 feet in the span of a minute, according to a senior American official briefed on the investigation. But investigators do not believe the readings are accurate because the aircraft would most likely have taken longer to fall such a distance.
“A lot of stock cannot be put in the altitude data” sent from the engines, one official said. “A lot of this doesn’t make sense.”
Why would the pilot of a "highjacked" plane descend from 45,000ft. down to 23,000ft. at the very time he was coming near to a known radar installation? Did he WANT the radar to pick him up?
I did read somewhere that a cell phone can do this? :scared: Unbelievable.
