https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/
Five years ago, the flight vanished into the Indian Ocean. Officials on land know more about why than they dare to say.
There are a lot of technical details in the article that raise some very interesting questions.
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What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane?
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(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday June 17 2019, @10:27PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpjonqbOMms [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Informative) by aristarchus on Monday June 17 2019, @11:12PM (1 child)
Now available on SoylentNews!
(Score: 2, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday June 18 2019, @05:37PM
At first I was confused because I though everyone knew that Russia shot it down (killing an American citizen in the process). [economist.com]
But then I realized we're talking about a different missing Malaysia Airline flight. (MH17 vs MH370)
And that made me realize that I should never fly Malaysia Airlines!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @11:23PM (2 children)
Summary: Satellite data shows Moslem pilot took the plane down.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday June 18 2019, @05:39PM (1 child)
Remember that Jordan Peterson guy we were talking about yesterday.
He claims that Islamaphobia doesn't exist.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Tuesday June 18 2019, @10:04PM
Does he have an alternative explanation, or is it just denial?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Monday June 17 2019, @11:36PM (2 children)
> What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane?
Gravity won.
Gravity always wins.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday June 18 2019, @12:44AM
I fought the law, and the law won!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 19 2019, @03:11PM
No, gravity not always wins. Of course winning against gravity is quite literally rocket science.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @12:00AM
They parked the plane somewhere in Kazakhstan and converted the passengers into hot dogs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @01:02AM (1 child)
Diego Garcia, one of the most important strategic points of the planet, is missing from the maps shown in the article. Why?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:58AM
Where in the world is
Carmen SandiegoDiego Garcia?(Score: 3, Interesting) by inertnet on Tuesday June 18 2019, @01:24AM (1 child)
I remember spending hours looking at satellite images, supplied by an organization called Tomnod, trying to spot debris from the plane. Only to learn later that they supplied images of completely wrong sections of the ocean, based on an unreliable so called eye witness account.
I'd do that again if images from that day were available and I myself would be able to choose the locations to examine. I'll never waste my time again on images chosen by others though.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @05:05PM
Well maybe if you were working for the right people in the DoD you would be able to take a look at the images taken by USA 245 and USA 224 when they were over the areas of interest at around that time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-245 [wikipedia.org] see [0]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-224 [wikipedia.org]
It is rather unbelievable that the US military wouldn't know more about the plane given those satellites and also that there were a few military exercises in that area close to that time, and they'd probably be concerned about China...
How likely is it for the relevant assets to travel all the way elsewhere after Cobra Gold 2014 ( 1/10/2014 to 2/22/2014 ) and then come all the way back for Cope Tiger 2014 ( 9-21 March 2014[1]) and be 100% not be around or active in between for MH 370?
[0] https://www.heavens-above.com/gtrack.aspx?satid=39232&mjd=56723.6952702068&lat=5.5285&lng=101.9971&loc=Unspecified&alt=276&tz=MALST [heavens-above.com]
https://www.heavens-above.com/gtrack.aspx?satid=39232&mjd=56723.7052702068&lat=5.5285&lng=101.9971&loc=Unspecified&alt=276&tz=MALST [heavens-above.com]
Fiddle with the mjd numbers to get to the times you want. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:U.S.,_Singapore_and_Royal_Thai_Air_Force_pilots_discuss_mission_plans_before_starting_flying_exercises_for_Cope_Tiger_14_in_Korat,_Thailand,_March_9,_2014_140309-F-BC061-012.jpg [wikimedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWFepAwrZEc [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 18 2019, @01:28AM (15 children)
They're painting him as suicidal, but the scenario they lay out in the article: depressurizing the cabin to kill all the passengers and crew, sounds like a perfect scenario to go back in the cabin, steal something(s) of interest, and then pull a D.B. Cooper.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @01:33AM (2 children)
Perhaps, but given that he was surrounded by thousands of miles of open ocean (and the fact that the data strongly supports the idea that he aided the crash rather than the plane just running out of fuel), unless Aquaman, Captain Nemo, or both were in cahoots with him and picked him out of the ocean, it seems unlikely.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 18 2019, @02:35AM (1 child)
That's a tough one, but MacGyver could surely have rigged something up to make that happen, especially with all the time available.
Or, you know, just about anybody with a boat. It is a rough patch of ocean there, but it's not entirely unreasonable to think that a private yacht could have coordinated with him to lead him to the GPS coordinates of the meeting point.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by coolgopher on Tuesday June 18 2019, @04:04AM
Would you be able to get any doors open at cruising altitude though? And would you have gear that would allow you to parachute from that altitude / deal with an unpressurised cabin that might be necessary to even open a door? And did the PIC have the necessary experience?
If the answer is yes, this to me would seem a plausible theory. If there was something being transported on the flight of sensitive political nature, I could see a depressed pilot being bought easier than him turning mass murderer for no gain other than suicide. The plan would have come from someone outside, shortly before the flight itself - on such short notice that he could not do a sim of the full thing, but would've wanted to at least confirmed the key points of the plan in his sim. (Does anyone know when his sim took place?) Of course he would not actually have been paid in the currency he expected, and I would be genuinely surprised if he is actually still alive.
Or for that matter, this may have been a case of blackmail. The lives of MH370 for e.g. the PIC's family. Again, politically motivated due so something (or someone) on that flight.
Just speculation of course.
(Score: 2) by SpockLogic on Tuesday June 18 2019, @04:00AM (3 children)
Its too easy to blame the MH370 air crew. I think it is just as valid to suspect the consignment of lithium-ion batteries in its cargo hold.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @06:03AM
I'd also blame airlines for having hella expensive assets fly all over creation without continuous GPS position tracking, while most truck fleets are being tracked.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @12:25PM
> Its too easy to blame the MH370 air crew. I think it is just as valid to suspect the consignment of lithium-ion batteries in its cargo hold.
You may think that, but you would be wrong.
While a Li-ion battery fire could bring down an airliner, it cannot:
All of which there is data to support MH370 doing.
A fire of such sudden and epic proportions that neither the captain nor first officer could make a simple radio call, while simultaneously disabling the transponder and other communication equipment, would have to be an explosion causing the aircraft to immediately break up. That would place the wreckage along the original flight path.
There is radar evidence to show the aircraft deviated - in a controlled fashion - from its original flight path. Wreckage has been found in locations consistent with the deviated flight path. It flew for hours while radio silent. That completely contradicts the idea of a sudden fire / explosion.
The specialized knowledge required to selectively disable only the flight systems related to communication & tracking is not something the average person would have... this strongly, but not conclusively, points the finger at a member of the flight crew.
So while we cannot definitely blame a member of the flight crew, we can rule out a simple fire/explosion from something like Li-ion batteries.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nuke on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:05PM
Those lithium-ion batteries had to be very smart to conduct a U turn of the plane exactly at a blind spot (at least a poorly over-seen one) in the air traffic control systems, take it back over the pilot's home (Penang) and bank it there to give him a last look, then turn it south into an open ocean area with a final controlled turn.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Tuesday June 18 2019, @12:31PM (3 children)
Yeah who doesn't fly with a priceless Picasso painting or the Hope Diamond in their carry on luggage.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Tuesday June 18 2019, @01:08PM
They say it's safer than driving.
----- 10 turns around
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 18 2019, @01:41PM (1 child)
Something worth killing hundreds of people over is likely an item of power, not a possession: political or military information would be top of the list.
Or, perhaps someone on the plane had come into information about the alien invasion and had to be silenced...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:50PM
... killing hundreds of Chinese citizens to terrify the remaining Chinese citizens ... Wasn't it the anniversary of Tiananmen Square recently?
(Score: 1) by LAV8.ORg on Tuesday June 18 2019, @05:59PM (1 child)
Whether it was suicide or an improbable heist+mass murder by the PIC, the implications are effectively the same, as far as preventing future reoccurrence. In the broad view, admitting a pilot may become adversarial is opening Pandora's box, but with regard to the article's presented theory of MH370 specifically there's a reasonably sized set of problems to address. In particular, locking out a pilot, or crew in the case of forceful incapacitation, shouldn't be possible; that would apparently require a secondary power supply for the door that is uninterruptible from within the cockpit. Seems there should be a "rogue pilot" kit in the cabin with an oxygen supply, stun gun, and restraints, maybe a battery for the cockpit door. Allowing manual depressurization to be sustained at an altitude where the cabin masks are useless is rather questionable.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:45PM
Not at all, the psychological profiles are entirely different.
Yeah, and maybe since that one guy put explosives in his shoe, one time, we should all take our shoes off at TSA for the next 50 years.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:45PM (1 child)
How about "Chinese government wants to terrify people away from traveling outside the country, so finds a pilot on a useful route with debts/problems/mental-issues to suborn into a dramatic suicide"?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday June 18 2019, @08:15PM
Seems like a SAM launched by Chinese agents from an unsuspecting country targeting whichever flight would be more terrifying than a mystery ship disappearing, but, gotta admit, the mystery ship did get more attention than your typical SAM strike.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 18 2019, @02:03AM (5 children)
Committing suicide in such a way to kill hundreds of innocent people who put their trust in you to get them somewhere safely is a particularly dick move. If you had a terrorist motive, at least give the families of the victims some way to understand it by leaving something behind to say you did it for Allah or animal rights or something.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday June 18 2019, @03:19AM
"For the money"
Worse: "on a dare"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @08:35AM (1 child)
Pilots should have a privilege of a deluxe suicide which does not involve deaths of the unwilling. Something like ... a flight simulator death capsule with gradual depressurization, perhaps even mounted inside an actual airplane, for motion effects. And of course, a guaranteed secrecy. Or else, each airline pilot should have a single seat small airplane ... to enjoy whenever and however he or she likes it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 29 2019, @06:48AM
Why limit it to pilots?
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:10PM
He didn't have a terrorist motive. He just had a fucked-up personality and didn't give a shit about the passengers. He had no message to pass on; not everything is about giving signals to others.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:34PM
Agreed, but just look at the Germanwings flight a year later in which the copilot did exactly that in the Alps. One could say the same about most of the mass shootings - the only reason for doing it was "because they could".
OTOH read Larry Niven's "All the Myriad Ways"; if people really believe in the multiverse, and any decision one makes spawns other universes in which one did the exact opposite and a zillion choices in between, then people might start doing stupid things just on impulse, without even saying "hold my beer and watch this".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @05:03AM (5 children)
The plane's next destination was Beijing.
I read somewhere the suggestion that there was something being smuggled to China that the US didn't want to see delivered and so they took control of the plane and brought it down on Diego Garcia.
If I recall correctly one of the passengers seems to have managed to get off a few pictures via cellular services from his cellphone - but they were all black - and the GPS on the pictures placed the phone on Diego Garcia.
Seems to me that it would be straightforward to have a drone take off and merge itself into the flight path of the original craft while broadcasting the other plane's signal.
However, the evidence provided in the article seems to challenge this conclusion.
(Score: 3, Funny) by choose another one on Tuesday June 18 2019, @10:57AM (1 child)
Debunked - try e.g. snopes.
Image in question appears to originate in a posting to /pol/ on 4chan, which is really where you'd post to get a message out if you were held hostage vs. just making a politically incorrect joke...
PS: "GPS on the pictures" is actually EXIF data and is trivial to edit/fake, you can be wherever you want to be, been there done that but the t-shirt is... somewhere else
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Tuesday June 18 2019, @10:12PM
You can order custom t-shirts at a number of places online that will fill that gap in your story.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @02:49PM (1 child)
Interesting. Who is providing data service in Diego Garcia, T-Mobile?
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Tuesday June 18 2019, @10:16PM
Sure [www.sure.io], why not?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:13PM
The passengers? Can't trust them then. Funny, I thought they were mostly Chinese.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by jrbrtsn on Tuesday June 18 2019, @02:24PM (1 child)
This article casually presents the available evidence, and then reaches a logical conclusion based on factoring out that which is either improbable or impossible. Since nobody has been able to locate the bulk of the wreckage, there is currently no way to know for sure what happened.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday June 18 2019, @07:38PM
Yes, and evolution and gravity are still, strictly speaking, "only" theories. However, we have enough experience with them for an engineering approximation. This article presents a more believable conjecture than most other I've seen on the subject, once you allow for humans doing insane things.