Strange Plane Disappearance...

[RayThom]

This conclusion was made as far back as January. It sounded good then but I was hoping that the pilot's ethnicity wouldn't play into it. Oh well, chalk another mass murder up to a suicidal, (self)radicalized, Islamic, extremist.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... board.html

[Bicycle Bill]

Seems to me that all we have is still just supposition.  So the guy flew a simulated flight into a remote area of the Indian Ocean?  Hell, when I had the Microsoft flight simulator I flew under the Golden Gate Bridge and then into the Transamerica Tower just to see what the graphics would show (I was rather disappointed, as I recall).  So does that make me a potential 'rogue' pilot who's going to commit suicide with an Airbus 380 or a Boeing Dreamliner and take everybody on board with me?

At this point, we know as much about what happened to Flight MH370 as we do about what positively happened to the Mary Celeste, D.B. Cooper, Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater, or even Amelia Earhart.  While the circumstantial evidence along with the lack of any definitive physical evidence strongly supports the theory put forth — and I'll agree, it's far more logical and believable than the tin-foil brigade and their talk of space aliens, time warps, death rays from lost civilizations, government cover-ups, or wormholes to the fourth dimension — it is still just a theory.

-"BB"-

[Jarlaxle]

DB Cooper died trying to skydive from a 727, Earhart crashed on or near Gardner Island.

[RayThom]

... (MH370 disappearance) — it is still just a theory.

And evolution is still just a theory. I believe this story 100% and I'm sticking with it until "one day" they find the FDR and/or the CVR that proves me right or wrong.

[Bicycle Bill]

DB Cooper died trying to skydive from a 727, Earhart crashed on or near Gardner Island.

In those cases, you are correct that this is probably what happened, but we do not know this for a fact or beyond a shadow of a doubt.  They never found Cooper's body, the parachutes, or the bulk of the ransom money; and while there have been things found on Gardner Island that might be connected with Earhart, they never found any wreckage or any remains, clothing, or other personal effects that could be positively identified as being from Earhart or her aircraft.

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

but we do not know this for a fact or beyond a shadow of a doubt.  

What do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt?

[BoSoxGal]

The article states that the cost of the search for MH370 has already exceeding $130 million, mentions that wreckage from the craft has been recovered, and then says,

The fact that Zaharie apparently practiced flying until he ran out of fuel over the remote southern Indian Ocean suggests the current search is on the right track — and that another year of hunting might be a worthwhile investment.

I'm sorry, but at what point is it just a ridiculous waste of public resources? The people on board are DEAD. They're never coming back. They're not LOST on an undiscovered island in the Indian Ocean. Whether they are victims of a suicidal pilot or malfunction of the aircraft, is it REALLY worth this amount of money to keep searching for the black box?

Yes, I do understand that valuable information is gained by flight data recorders and piecing together plane wreckage and figuring out what caused a crash. But since there is decent evidence that it was a suicidal pilot, and a ridiculously difficult undertaking to find a needle in a haystack, hadn't they better let it go and use the next $130 million toward, maybe, the greater public good instead?

I feel sorry for the families of the victims, but answers won't bring them back, or help them cope with the loss. That's something they need to focus on doing because the answers are never really helpful with the grieving, anyway.

[BoSoxGal]

So last night I watched a very good limited series documentary on Netflix about the disappearance of MH370.

The official conclusion of the investigation was that the cause could not be known, and apparently that included the theory of pilot mass murder/suicide. However given that the flight clearly diverted from its planned route and diverted back to Malaysia and then south to the Indian Ocean, it seems like one of the pilots on board had to be in some way involved - could there have been a decompression event on board and they attempted to return to Malaysia but became incapacitated and the flight continued on auto until it reached fuel exhaustion?

One aspect of the series was regarding the many pieces of debris recovered from Reunion Island, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, and Mauritius. Most pieces have been relatively small.

At the end of the program some of the next of kin and members of search efforts reiterated that they will keep looking until the aircraft is found, that she must be found, she cannot have just disappeared.

So here’s my question for the engineers of the board: a jetliner crashes uncontrolled into the ocean from cruising altitude - this is like crashing into cement or a mountainside. Smallish fragments of this jetliner wash ashore over the years to beaches of various countries in the area where the flight is thought to have come to its fatal end.

Why would anyone think after a dozen years that any major piece of this aircraft will ever be found? Isn’t it basic physics that the aircraft would have been smashed into hundreds or thousands of small pieces which would either wash ashore or sink to the 4000 meter depth of the ocean and be essentially undetectable given their size, and that all of the organic material on board (passengers) would have long since been consumed by the ocean and the creatures in it?

Am I missing something?

[datsunaholic]

Some large parts of the aircraft would still be identifiable. Engines, wing spars. landing gear. After Alaska Airlines flight 261 impacted the Pacific Ocean at high speed, they were able to recover a significant amount of the debris including the part that failed causing the crash, the black boxes, and some remains.

However, they also knew exactly where it crashed, which meant the search area was small.

The only way they would ever find MH370 is to basically trip over an engine with side-scan sonar at close range. And there were only 2 engines.