Missing Plane Confirmed Crashed

[chrissa1]

Just heard this on Sky News. Those poor people.

[237SJ]

emmie (at 18:08) There will probably be some sort of emergency response department that is activated within the airline for the families of the passengers. That`s usually the norm (after they have initially made contact via mobile or home numbers)

[DTCwordfan]

so would you want to know by text or watching some CNN article if you had decided to have a break from 'proceedings,' albeit fifteen minutes or half a day?

[zebo]

One theory is that there was a sudden decompression which incapacitated all the crew and passengers very quickly. I do hope that's the case or something similar, I can't imagine a worse experience than being on a stricken aircraft totally conscious while it flies until the fuel runs out.

[237SJ]

Thing is, a sudden decompression can render you useless within a few minutes (or less, depending on altitude) but that doesn`t explain why the communications were turned off.

[rockyracoon]

237, perhaps you can answer this for me, how do they know it was switched off deliberately as opposed to an electrical fault?

[DTCwordfan]

I can put one up, embracing both theories.

Hijack situation ( value of plane, passenger or cargo), plane's transponders and comms are turned off, plane zig-zags and tails the SQ flight out to help avoid radar. There is an incident aboard (crew or passenger led), a gun or grenade goes off, punctures the skin and decompression. Subsequent path veer and on autopilot, the plane does a Payne Stewart when eventually it falls out of the air.

[237SJ]

I don`t really know Rocky but from what I have seen it is a phyically switched off knob (on the lower right of the central console). I would have thought that if there was an electical fault that could have disabled it, the fault would have been limited to the transponder and not anything else. All of these bits and pieces have circuit breakers so if there is a problem, the circuit breaker trips and the problem doesn`t go any further. I have been on aircraft where the circuit breaker has failed -( the last time was on a brand new aircraft) but if there was some sort of fire (and it would have to have been in the electronics bay, I would have thought) it would be quite major.

[chrissa1]

That makes a lot of since DTC and explains the loss of appearance on any radar. An electrical fault of that magnitude, doesn't seem likely on a plane so sophisticated and new.

[237SJ]

DTD - nobody is going to hijack an aircraft due to its value (or that of it`s cargo) and the fly it into the sea - or anywhere else for that matter.

[jomifl]

One of the planes hijacked by the 99/11 terrorists crashed into the ground. Had it not been for the phone calls hoome and the other terrorists we might still be wondering why it crashed.

[237SJ]

I think they will find out what happened to this aircraft. It might take a while but it will happen.

[DTCwordfan]

I agree 737SJ (get my name wrong!)

Hence, it started off as a hijack and then the passengers/cabin crew reacted....as per the 9-11 flight on the White House....there was some incident that resulted in a rapid depression of the cabin (and death) and the plane veers off on auto-pilot as happened with Payne Stewart's Lear Jet from Florida to Houston (and ended up in the Colorado desertm having been shadowed by the USAF to ensure that it didn't nosedive onto an urban area).

[237SJ]

Sorry I got your name wrong - from 238SJ :-)

[DTCwordfan]

okay, apology accepted, 747! Now what about that scenario, not that I am privy to any UK Air Accident Authority data..

[237SJ]

Hijack scenario (via a third party) I can`t see why they would have flown the aircraft to the limits of it`s capability - why didn`t they just point the nose down and go straight into the sea? That`s what you would do if you wanted to kill everyone. After all, the longer you fly, the more hours there are for someone (crew) to get back into the flight deck or for fighter jets to shoot you down (which is the plan in some counties when an unidentified aircraft is in their airspace). If one of the pilots had a brainstorm and decided to fly the aircraft into the big blue yonger - where was the other pilot and what were the cabin crew doing at this time? Did the pilot lock the other pilot out of the flight deck while he went to the loo or did he whack him across the head to incapacitate him? After all, if he was there, he wouldn`t have been complicit in the scheme. If the pilots were incapacitated (after a decompression for eg), there are ways to get into the flight deck which are standard decompression drills. That`s assuming the cabin crew were not incapacitated as well. If there was a major electrical failure, that wouldn`t explain why there was not time to do a Mayday. It`s obvious that the aircraft flew on until it ran out of fuel but why? Only time will tell.

[237SJ]

And on that note, I`m off to bed DTB :-)

[DTCwordfan]

Agree time will tell, however if they are going tits up into the sea, then surely they would have announced who their 'sponsors' were? Otherwise it is totally pointless..... unless there was some form of catastrophic 'accident' or 'retaliatory incident' aboard. I would accept that maybe there was but, in the interests of mailing the stewards, this info is sub judice at the moment.....

[rockyracoon]

Thanks 237, it's been bothering me for days :)

[EDDIE51]

The BBC said that the part of the Indian Ocean where it is assumed ( not proved) to have crashed is up to 4 MILES deep. Very little chance of getting the black box back if that is the case. Not only that but the black box's radio beacon has a maximum life of 2 weeks until it's battery runs out, this has been over that already.

[sandyRoe]

There was no claim of responsibility when a Sikh terrorist blew up a plane flying from Canada to London. But as that came in the aftermath of the Indian attack on the Golden Temple it wouldn't have needed Sherlock Holmes to put two and two together.
There is simmering discontent in some western Chinese provinces. At the start of this month 29 people were stabbed to death in a railway station. The authorities blamed separatists from a Muslim province.
It wouldn't surprise me if evidence comes to light showing the plane crash to have been caused by terrorists.