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Engine Data Reveals That Flight 370 Flew On For Hours After It "Disappeared"
Advocatus Diaboli writes "Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. 777's engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program. As part of its maintenance agreements, Malaysia Airlines transmits its engine data live to Rolls-Royce for analysis. The system compiles data from inside the 777's two Trent 800 engines and transmits snapshots of performance, as well as the altitude and speed of the jet. Those snippets are compiled and transmitted in 30-minute increments, said one person familiar with the system."
Update: 03/14 11:41 GMT by S : The WSJ has since updated its report to say the data was from the plane's satellite-communication system. However, Malaysian authorities have denied both scenarios, saying neither Boeing nor Rolls-Royce received data past 1:07am (the flight initially disappeared off radar at 1:30am).
... by malaysian officials: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/13/malaysian-officials-deny-flight-mh370-missing-plane-flew-hours
~500 mph * 5 hours = 2500 mile radius = 19.6 million square miles.
That's about 10% of the surface of the planet. They're going to need some sort of heading information; you can permanently hide a 777 in that much ocean/mountain/jungle/etc.
Anyone know if the radar hits were meaningful yet?
New Scientist is carrying the story as well. Not clear if they're parroting the WSJ or if they have an independent source.
You could fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Orlando (MCO) That's a pretty big search radius, if this story is true.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious. --Albert Einstein
Malaysia denies that it is a racist country.
Malaysia denies that its "democracy" is a sham.
Malaysia denies that its government is corrupt.
Malaysia denies that its official race-based policies has forced a lot of talented people leaving the country.
Malaysia denies everything.
So, is it a surprise that Malaysia denies this, as well ?
The Malaysian officers deny the burst mode transmission from the engine's monitoring module based on this statement: "The RR (Rolls Royce) representative in KL (Kuala Lumpur) has no idea of the transmission"
On the other hand, the report of the burst mode transmission kept on going for an additional four (4) hours AFTER the plane supposed to be "lost", is based on the communication between the RR HQ (for Jet Engine) and the Western security agencies.
Which one do you believe ?
It was the SATCOM system of the plane itself, which has the capability of transmitting health and positional data of the entire plane's system for analysis by third-party service and maintenance providers. Airliners have the option to purchase service plans for that but Malaysia Airlines chose to only purchase a separate plane related to data the engine's themselves can transmit (from Rolls Royce, the engine's manufacturer).
Even though Malaysian Airlines didn't have an online service monitoring plan for this specific plane, the plane still performs periodic searches/connections to satellite data communication providers - akin to an unregistered cell phone searching and connecting to a cell tower but without licensed service. This periodic connection occurs approx once every hour on the plane, and by counting the number of attempts (4), authorities believe the plane was either flying or in-tact for at least 4 hours from the last secondary radar ping.
A satellite transmitter on the plane was active for about five hours, indicating the plane was operational after its transponder shut down less than an hour after takeoff, said three U.S. government officials. The 777 can cruise at 500 miles (805 kilometers) an hour or more, meaning it may have flown for as far as 2,500 miles beyond its last point of contact if it was intact and had enough fuel. Link (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-13/missing-malaysian-jet-said-to-have-flown-with-beacon-off.html)
The United States was founded on a conspiracy. Literally.
That the people are being conditioned to automatically consider anything labeled a "conspiracy" automatically laughable says a lot about the degeneration of the U.S.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Ah, the Important Person has spoken. The rest of us are the wackos this time!
Was this actually Oceanic flight 815?
Say they are doing their best to reassure the domestic population that they are in competent control of the disaster, but they're in over their heads...
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Authorities quickly debunked this story this AM.
Denied, not debunked. Big difference.
Nope.
It's a "conspiracy theory." when you have no actual data to back up a statement. Usually note be the ever expanding circle the conspiracy must encompass when you raise questions about the person uttering the conspiracy theory.
I'm sorry* reality doesn't coincide with your pet narrative. Doubly sorry* you seem to be aware of critical thinking, yet have no idea how to use it or what it actually is.
*I'm no really sorry.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Maybe if that wasn't actually the case, the "critical thinkers" would get a bit more respect.
It's when a theory is implausible and the "critical thinkers" spend years obsessed with beating a dead horse they get labeled conspiracy nut tinfoil hat wearing wackos, like the 911 truthers, the we-didn't-go-to-the-moon people, or the nutbags who are still asking for Obama's birth certificate. Critical thinking is fine and welcome in this country. Obsessing about implausible made up scenarios driven by agendas or outrage isn't.
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
Something I don't understand is how the plane disappeared from radar yet kept flying. Switching off a transponder does not make a plane disappear from radar, it just means there is a blip on the radar without the data a transponder provides. The fact that no one is bringing this up leads me to believe I'm missing something big here, because as far as I know the only way that plane could have disappeared completely from radar was if it disintegrated.
> i hear they were trying to start fires on board earlier by putting in bad batteries
Wrong plane.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Evidently the aircraft had enough power to run the pinging transmitter for over 4 hours after the transponder went dead (or was turned off). This implies that the aircraft also had enough power and structural integrity for at least some of its communication systems to work. But the experienced pilots did not make even one distress call or issue a single distress code. Why not? What prevented them from doing it?
Come on guys, it's been DAYS already! How come aliens still not in the picture???
Ah yes, the spelling ad hom and no actual refutation.
Brilliant!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
As someone else has already mentioned, this has been denied by Malaysian officials. Just like China has now said that those satellite images which were supposed to show plane debris did in fact not show debris, but indeed, said satellite images were "released by mistake". Just like that admiral of the Vietnamese Navy saying they had lost radar contact with the plain just over the Gulf of Thailand, but apparently it was just incorrect information (another mistake).
It seems clear that no-one knows where the fuck that plane is, but due to the pressure to find something, ANYTHING to satisfy the media as well as political pressure (not to mention relatives of those missing), anything that could be seen as a clue is pushed out as something important before it's even checked or verified.
At least it can be assumed that those on the flight must be well and truly dead by now, if only because the alternative would be more horrifying...
Account abandoned. I can't fucking spell for shit and Slashdot doesn't even allow time-limited edits of posts. Plus you'
These SATCOM devices often have an array of antennas and may well be able to give information on where the last pings came from that reduce the search radius from the possible 2500 miles to something 'reasonable' like ~500 miles (assuming it didn't keep flying for more than an hour after its last ping). The idea being that the satellite knows roughly what area of land is covered by each antenna in its array.
The satcom device does not have to have been on the aircraft.
Bruce Perens.
hahaha beat me to it
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
No, it was a different flight, but it probably crash landed on the same island.
Yes that is interesting. Although we are just going on hearsay to an extent. Is there PROOF that passengers' phones were ringing (i.e. those phones were definitely on the plane, and definitely rang)? Or is it just a case of some relatives believing what they want to believe (which I don't blame them for, in the traumatic situation they are in).
Furthermore there are other potential explanations for that, including phones auto-forwarded to other numbers or diverted to a malfunctioning voicemail or answering machine system when not in range of a tower. This is especially possible for internationally routed calls (which sometimes do some pretty weird things).
If it is true, it certainly does suggest that the plane remained flying (and at a low altitude) for some time after 'disappearing', or at least that the plane crashed somewhere within range of a cell tower and some phones survived the crash.
Providing they store that information. Also for customers who didn't subscribe to the service.
Ignoring all the speculation for a bit, let me present a few completely irrefutable facts that point to a different theory of what happened to the plane.
Fact 1: There are many active volcanoes in this region of the world.
Fact 2: There were virgins on the airplane.
Fact 3: The Great Old Ones have not arisen to destroy us all.
We should thank them for ensuring the continued existence of the human race.
The phones weren't "ringing." the ring tone the relatives heard was supplied by Central Office Equipment to give the illusion that the phones were "ringing." That's what happens when someone picks up the phone and you say, "But it hadn't started ringing yet." Yes, it had. It's just that your simulation-ring hadn't reached you yet--two different tones. Think about it. There is only a single cable pair that hooks up a typical phone. How could you possibly "hear it ring"?
The cell network mimics the POTS network. It's just part of the "aural interface" phones have used for over a hundred years.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
"Two U.S. officials tell ABC News the U.S. believes that the shutdown of two communication systems happened separately on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. One source said this indicates the plane did not come out of the sky because of a catastrophic failure.
The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The transponder -- which transmits location and altitude -- shut down at 1:21 a.m."
-- ABC News, Thursday March 13, 2014
Curiouser and curiouser.
My money is on something like what heppend to flght ZU 522 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
Such people are a distinct minority. There are people who believe in anything you can imagine. The fact that they are not ignored by the mainstream media but are in fact paraded in front of society for the purposes of mockery and as an example to all is telling.
The fact is, these imbeciles are used as material to condition people to automatically reject ANY possibility of ANY conspiracies, by their idiocy, when in fact most of history is the history of conspiracies.
The on board engine monitoring module is only *ON* when the engine is turned on.
When the engine is off, the transmission module goes to sleeping mode, relies on it's tiny battery backup on keeping the date/time current.
Saying that the module keeps on transmitting AFTER the plane has broken up is not only inaccurate, it's downright irresponsible !
One bit of info that *might* be of interest... cell phone towers beacon to announce their presence to phones, but individual phones actually *poll* towers every few seconds. The reply from the tower lets them know when there's an incoming call, deliver SMS & voicemail notifications, etc. In theory, at least, if the mobile phone of any passenger came within range of a cell tower it was allowed to poll, there's probably a log of it somewhere.
That said, if the jet was at cruising altitude, the likelihood of a phone on board *doing* that is almost nil, because tower antennas are generally aimed downwards... partly, to minimize interference from airborne mobile phones that could otherwise splatter noise over a 40-100 mile radius (the line of sight when your transmitter is 5+ miles up in the air).
The aircraft is currently parked on a remote jungle runway in Sumatra taking Grand Theft Auto to a whole new level..
On original POTS circuits the ring tone was actually the 25Hz signal sent to the phone with the phone's bell coils supplying some of the ringback harmonics along with a ring generator. With a good ear you could estimate how many phone sets were ringing. The audio path was already set-up while the phone rang. If the called party was too near an AM broadcast transmitter you might even hers some of the program between rings. The off-hook condition on the called party just disconnected the ring generator at the CO and started any billing equipment.
Of course this all ended with the last of the Stroger and crossbar offices.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Yesterday the discussion seemed to center on how bloody expensive it would be to track the planes and how special equipment and etc. would be required. Now everyone seems to understand that messages can come from the planes ... indeed, it would have been trivial (although it would have involved a fee) to record the rest of the plane sensor data.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, and making some magical device to transmit just before an accident ... the folks who maintain the current system record the last 5 positions ... but not release them except when they are paid OR there is an accident. The amount of data storage would be small, and the infrastructure apparently already exists.
Obviously, old enough airframes might not *yet* have the equipment, but rolling them in as engines and/or other major renovations occur should be feasible.
Korean Air Lines Flight 902
The ringing phones thing doesn't make sense. If the phones really are connected to a cell phone network, then the search area is really small - a few square miles surrounding the cell tower that they're connected to.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
"some illegal military operation" Why does it have to be illegal? It could be a simple as we don't want to disclose our full worldwide surveillance capabilities. We've also been told that the transponders were turned off or quit working. But I haven't read anyone claim the same of the radios. Possibly the circuit breakers on the VHF/HF transceivers weren't pulled and the plane did to continue sending ACARS engine performance data on VHF/HF and for whatever reason MAS didn't receive or is denying receiving it, and US signal intelligence did pick it up.
Picking up signals transmitted over the open ocean by military vessels in international waters isn't illegal.
This is what we know so far, a good summary ...
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RR Malaysia denied it, making it debunked
If RR world HQ denied it, may be I'll believe it to be debunked.
RR Malaysia ? How much weight does RR Malaysia has ??
Would IBM's Armonk HQ tell IBM Moscow everything ?
Would Boeing Chicago world HQ tell Boeing Beijing everything ?
Are you a troll or are you just stupid ?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Really small. I'll bet the number of floating cell towers in the middle of the South China sea is an integer that approaches zero.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Rolls-Royce, the engine's manufacturers, who said the report was "inaccurate" and that the last engine data was received at 01:07 (17:07 GMT), around 23 minutes before the plane lost contact.
There's no system that would transmit anything from the engines as part of "routine maintenance and monitoring program". The whole story is a hoax, most likely fabricated by someone at WSJ. I won't be surprised to find out it was a prank by some junior WSJ employee. The whole idea that engines would somehow know "altitude and speed of the jet" is ridiculous at best. Altitude, speed and other parameters are important for controlling the engine, but they are always collected by independent sensors installed in airplane itself. And engine control decisions are made by electronics hosted separately in the airframe, not in the engine itself. Engines have no self-sufficient decision-making control circuitry, let alone any active data transmission capabilities.
"What happened to Helios 522" would not turn off transponders.
Completely and categorically.
And they did so before this post was even approved.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
The VHF ACARS data was probably intercepted by the NSA and was the basis for the info provided to the WSJ. Note the original article said "intelligence sources."
The satellite ping BS was essentially a "uh, we didn't want anyone to know we were intercepting ACARS data." They walked that back pretty fast.
I thought Sat links were expensive, but it's only $7/MiB transferred over BGAN/inmarsat. However, they would need the hardware installed and someone would be eating that connection charge - and it if it wasn't Boeing, Malaysian Airlines, or Rolls Royce, then the connection didn't exist. I'm pretty sure you don't get SATCOM hardware for free when you buy your 777, but I have no idea about the specific deal that Malaysia Airlines has.
In the US: Reclaim the holy land!
In Asia: Fuck it!
Yeah I see the pattern.
It's OK Bender, there's no such thing as 2.
Just a random though: has anyone checked how long, and over what distance, the plane could fly from its cruise altitude once its engines stop ? If, in such a situation, the pilots tried something similar to what has been done with flight 1549 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549), it might be an interesting approach to try to approximate a circular search zone (rather than an area).
In the US: know where every plane is every second
Let's see, how about the conspiracy of silence regarding the crash of TWA flight 800 back in 1996?
About a year ago, CNN had six former hands-on investigators who all worked on the original crash investigation.
All six investigators finally came forward as a group in their retirement to recount how the actual evidence found contradicted the officially announced cause of the crash (officially the 747 fuel tank vapors exploded bringing down the airliner), and how they were essentially compelled to falsify their conclusions by higher administrations.
I have not seen these six former investigators story picked up (arguably extremely reliable sources), by CNN or any other media outlet since the obligatory CNN lip service broadcast (likely done merely to cover CNN's own ass if the shit hit the fan, so CNN can claim to have actually covered the story).
It's highly likely the government (and its media lackey), are covering up the real cause of the crash of TWA 800 (probably because the truth would be highly damaging to the American government itself).
Actually the cellphone signals can reach the cruising altitude of an airliner.
My cellphone operator sends me text messages "Welcome to such and such country..!" whenever I roam into another country. A few months ago, I flew from Paris to Tokyo and had forgotten to turn off the phone in my carry-on luggage. At the arrival, I had received one such text message for every single country we had crossed...
Just because the transponder was manually turned off, that doesn't prove a terrorist forced the pilot to do it. Maybe it was an inside job.
Why would it make sense for a plane to disappear? A Boeing 777 costs at least $200 million. The parts alone are worth many millions of dollars. Even though many of the parts have serial numbers, there are struggling airlines and outsourced maintenance depots that might be receptive to creatively sourced parts. Even if the plane was shredded for scrap, it's a lot of money for one day of work.
US Dispatches USS Kid to Indian Ocean. Yes the Russians scared Turkey with jets near them, but US has unconfirmed info that the jet went way into Indian Ocean. I think the US was monitoring Facebook traffic from the pilots. Facebook released info under subpoena because pilots bought hard drive space from Google. Conspiracy??????
The sad part is that is true even here, just look at how quickly the "truther" slur is trotted out whenever anybody asks why anything better than the frankly piss poor at best investigation wasn't done for the 9/11 attacks, like the government has never lied to us.....except for that "pesky" Gulf Of Tonkin thing that left 50,000 Americans and probably a couple million Asians dead....oops.
If there is one thing Wikileaks and Snowden should have taught us its that the MSM of pretty much every country is nothing but the puppet of the state and is about as truthful as Soviet Pravda.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
As a coward, I will weigh in here. The US just mentioned they are sending a destroyer to the Indian Ocean. One reason is because that Russia flew some jets near Turkey (nothing new) and the other because they have have referential information that the missing jet flew off course into the Indian Ocean.
When contact with the jet was lost it's been claimed it did a 90 turn to the left and towards the Indian Ocean, or is that what they want you to think... :}
it's been claimed it did a 90 turn to the left and towards the Indian Ocean,
The degree sign didn't make it, so a 90 degree turn to the left.
Malaysia is a country which is filled with lies.
Really what do you expect from an Islamic state? Name one that isn't!
Cases like this show that it's important to make all clock tick the same,
and also to check and ensure they did. Is this check (for NTP, whatever)
in the standard maintenance cycle?
- Hubert
More importantly, when something is very important it is impossible for general people to know of its truths through the traditional investigation and media mechanism.
At every stage of the fact copying process between persons, there is a huge incentive to distort facts. Distortion could be in any direction.
Given this, it is a waste of the time by the "critical" thinkers to worry too much about learning the truth. There can be no hope of the truth in really important matters. That is why such people are nutjobs - like people believing in fairies.
Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
"individual phones actually *poll* towers every few seconds"
I highly doubt that. A 2G gsm phone left next to an audio cable will only generate the familiar "bidibip" noise once an hour or so. I assume it does that in response to an "are you still there" request from the tower.
The radio transmitter in a cellphone is about one watt. For battery lifetime, you really don't want the transmitter to activate every few seconds.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
http://www.reuters.com/article...
"You see, in America, critical thinking is prized right up to the point where an important person(tm) speaks. All subsequent critical thinking is conspiracy nut batshit tinfoil hat wearing wacko pluck-your-banjo-with-your-single-tooth teabagger loony."
What is called "Critical Thinking" is responsible for a steep decline of academic proficiency. Right next to my work place is a room full of people who work on critical thinking theories every day, yet they have a hard time formulating sound arguments, lack any math or formal reasoning skills whatsoever, and pull the content of their qualitative 'research' essays out of their asses.
I'm not saying critical thinking is undesirable in general, but what runs under this label nowadays clearly is. For real critical thinking you need to first learn how to think, learn the state of the art and acquire hard skills, and then you might be able to criticize. Not vice versa.
That's also the problem of the conspiracy nuts. They confuse making up a coherent story with science. And even worse, they usually get the 'coherence' part wrong, too.
Not completely correct, but on the right lines...
GSM and 3G phones listen to the cell tower's Pilot carrier, which contains a whole bunch of data (which network, neighbouring cells etc). thenetwork will broadcast a request for a particular phone to contact it when there is incoming traffic (eg call or SMS) for that phone.
To reduce the volume of traffic, it only broadcasts this request over a small(ish) no of cells, called a Location Area (LA). And how does it know which LA to poll - because part of the broadcast data on the pilot channel is the LA identifier - so when a phone switches from listening on one cell to listening on another (which it doesn't inform the network about unless it is mid call) it checks the LA number, and then updates the network with it's new LA when the LA identification changes.
So if anyone on the plane left their mobile switched on (and with a couple of hundred people on the plane this is a racing certainty), then by checking the operater records for all the phones, LA updates will be there (and yes, operators are required to keep this meta-data for the intelligence services).
In consequence, I would be extremely surprised if the NSA / GCHQ / KGB and Chinese Military Intelligence did not already have a good indication off where the plane was (or was not).
Presumably, that live video feed would be sent over... radio signals.
Because AK's on a karma burning streak.
Just another day in Paradise
I tried using mod points and they were all deleted of the comments that I moderated on this story, what is going on? (And before anyone asks, I do not tried to comment.)
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Hey. I tried to answer your comment as "AC" and the comment was immediately deleted. What the hell is happening?
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
There's a conspiracy to generate conspiracies around every action so that in the end, no one knows what to believe.
Seriously, this is starting to seem like the TV series Lost. Were any actors on board?
I empathize with the families for I have little hope of finding the passengers and crew alive.
BlameBillCosby.com
Really there had to have been a few cell phones on that plane the NSA should be putting its tracking efforts to good use.
Would the flight crew, or even a passenger on the plane, know that the engine has a radio in it? Is it within the realm of possibilities that they took the batteries out of the plane and connected them to the engine's radio to use as a beacon? If the plane crash landed on solid ground, could the emergency radio beacon been destroyed, perhaps due to blast damage? Were any individuals on the plane that had a background in electronics that could MacGyver something up?
I'll go further than that. I'll say it is an integer between -1 and +1.
Naturally, this has already been confirmed by one satellite (that 370 flew for 4 to 5 more hours and then landed, but it would take two more satellites receiving the aircraft's transmissions, at the same time, to triangulate where it landed at). Obviously, by this time even the dumbest of the dumb (that would be the typical American) should realize this was a sky heist or air heist not a hijacking, most likely involving the AC (aircraft commander) and perhaps both pilots. There was something mighty valuable aboard that bird, and since the cargo manifest included special handling instructions for a container of highly sensitive digital electronics, the rumor that a radically new chip was aboard might be true. If such a chip prototype were being transported on a passenger flight, instead of a private jet, it begs the question whether the Freescale Semiconductor engineers were taking it to China for manufacturing purposes, or to hand off to the Chinese government. We do know that Freescale Semiconductor is owned by the Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group (with investments by AIG) and whenever you have the Carlyle Group, murky things happen, and times one thousand when the Blackstone Group is involved, because, really, the Carlyle Group is simply a subset of the Blackstone Group, as anyone familiar with the two private equity/leveraged buyout firms will attest.
Typical 'tards today are indoctrinated to respond to everything with either "debunked" or "conspiracy theory" --- so very, very stupid. I was explaining the technical aspects to a young, typically American female airhead (early 20s in age) and her robotic response was: sounds like conspiracy theory --- they cannot help themselves, they really are just that stupid. Thanks for your clarification for the masses, though.
to most of us, so I suspect you are near the end to catch on, normally speaking. It was a sky heist --- something mighty valuable aboard that airliner. Captain, in his home flight simulator, was practising very short landings, and short mountain terrain landings. Starting to clue in, fella?
...perhaps you should start paying attention to the International News, not Doofus News USA, for a change? With 24 hours it was obvious what was going on, but as long as you listen to either Fox or Fox Lite (CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, etc.), you will continue to sound like a douchetard, no offense meant, just stating the obvious here.
ALL THE TECHNICAL DATA suggests sky heist, sky heist, sky heist, as well as the cargo manifest and passenger manifest. Who owns Freescale Semiconductor? Were they working on what was considered a radically new chip, as in computer chip. Were they transporting the prototype, for whatever reason since you'd think they'd use a private jet, aboard Flight 370? (Answers: Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group --- yes --- yes)
I'm just asking you as you seem to know how the overall picture works. To me, it makes no sense. I'm just curious as to me it thinks you'd want that guy on ALL the time.
s/Auto/Aero/ ?
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
Everything electrical in the aircraft has to be under the control of the pilots in order to respond to emergencies. For example, an electrical fire might require shutting down the two busses carrying he redundant transponders. Or a generator failure might mean powering down non-critical equipment, which could easily be the transponder if the pilot is already near an airport and in radar contact. There is simply no practical way to protect most equipment from malicious onboard actors.
that relatives called 4 hours after the plane was reported late makes this thing very suspicious. This plane is intact and will be used for something at a later date
When you call someone, the "ringing" you hear is not a signal being sent back by their phone, it's something generated at the Central Office or the cell phone equivalent.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Really? It seems to me that if ordinary people thought that way, there'd be fewer conspiracy theories going around. People would have laughed at the Pearl Harbor conspiracy theories, the 9/11 conspiracy theories, the anti-vaxxers, the whole Watergate incident, etc.
So, I have to ask: how do you benefit by trying to make people believe that the US general population laughs at conspiracy theories? And who's in it with you?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
That wasn't the case here. The ringing tone (and all the other tones, dial tone, engaged, number unobtainable, all circuits busy) was generated by a machine called a Ringer 2A, which was a big motor driven thing with relays that interrupted the audio output to give the various cadences of the various tones.
We still had Strowger exchanges into the 1990s. I remember the line noise they used to put into your calls when using a modem. Before the whole network went digital, different telephone exchanges had slightly different cadences and pitches to their tones. It gave the phone network character.
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Mobile GSM phones are well capable of talking to towers on the ground at 35k feet. That's only about 10 kilometres. There will likely also be several towers within roughly equal distance with good line of sight. Indeed, one part of the reason mobile phones have been banned in aircraft for so long is because they would interfere with the *ground*. The fear being that having thousands of stations moving fast overhead, in range of potentially dozens of towers at the same time and roaming across them, would be too taxing for GSM to handle, causing service issues.
I've had phone conversations with people in aircraft, at altitudes of around 20k to 25k feet (6.1 to 7.6 kilometres), with them ringing on their GSM phones and it worked fine.
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
Our interstate highway system is dual use. During war, it doubles as landing strips for the air force. One way to search for this plane would be to look for skid marks on a stretch of road in a country close to the water with poor military radar capabilities. Bangladesh comes to mind as a possibility. Evidence of a fuel dump might be the trout in the milk.
The US should consider what embassies in the area could be targeted by this jet without interception and also consider if a carrier group could repel a kamikazi attack using such a large plane. A diving attack might be difficult to stop.
How about the plane being hijacked via a computer virus from a personal computer or even a mobile phone on board?
And people say Slashdot is declining. This is just as foul as anything back to the old days!