Missing Airliner

[Road Rat]

I had my TV on in the middle of the night and I "think" I heard a report about the pilot was in court just before the flight. ??

Some issues, etc. Now sure if I heard it or dreamed it!!!

 

[moe smith]

From PBS' website.

The last signal from the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was received 12 minutes before the co-pilot's final words.

The plane's transponder -- which relays the plane's location -- was switched off just two minutes after he spoke, and a few minutes later the aircraft turned back on its flight path.

Yahya said it was not clear precisely when the ACARS system, which sends a signal every 30 minutes, was disabled. Officials had previously maintained it was manually turned off before the final cockpit message.

This just came out in the last 24 hours or so. More egg on Malaysian govt. faces.

The link I provided (and others available) has a slightly different version, with the transponder being lost one minute prior to the conversation with ATC. There is and will continue to be conflicting information about the timeline. It doesn't change what should have transpired for a response when the airplane supposedly started acting like it was part of a Blue Angels show without transmitting appropriate info. Alarms bells should have going off. Instead, the statement from the Military was that they didn't perceive it to be a threat. Right.

 

[S&WForty]

The words "common sense" were used by Moe a few posts back. Having worked with Asian and Malaysian manufacturing for many years, Common Sense is a rare thing there. It goes well beyond the language barrier some want to quickly blame absurdities on.

Having flown in and out of KL on that airline and having people I care about in Malaysia that often fly their region, this story hits too close to home.