"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
03/18/2014 at 13:11 • Filed to: planelopnik
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"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
03/18/2014 at 13:11 • Filed to: planelopnik | 5
| 9 |
Here's another interesting bit of conjecture on the fate of MH370. Chris Goodfellow, a pilot of over 20 years and a Canadian Class-1 instrument-rated pilot for multi-engine planes, suggests that the most likely culprit for the disappearance of the 777 was a catastrophic electrical fire.
He believes that the turn to the southwest, which occurred after the last radio transmission, was the pilot's attempt to return to the best airport for a safe landing of the stricken airliner.
The left turn is the key here. Zaharie Ahmad Shaw was a very experienced senior captain with 18,000 hours of flight time. We old pilots were drilled to know what is the closest airport of safe harbor while in cruise. Airports behind us, airports abeam us, and airports ahead of us. They're always in our head. Always. If something happens, you don't want to be thinking about what are you going to do–you already know what you are going to do. When I saw that left turn with a direct heading, I instinctively knew he was heading for an airport. He was taking a direct route to Palau Langkawi, a 13,000-foot airstrip with an approach over water and no obstacles. The captain did not turn back to Kuala Lampur because he knew he had 8,000-foot ridges to cross. He knew the terrain was friendlier toward Langkawi, which also was closer.
As for the loss of the transponder, this would be expected in such an emergency situation.
For me, the loss of transponders and communications makes perfect sense in a fire. And there most likely was an electrical fire. In the case of a fire, the first response is to pull the main busses and restore circuits one by one until you have isolated the bad one. If they pulled the busses, the plane would go silent. It probably was a serious event and the flight crew was occupied with controlling the plane and trying to fight the fire. Aviate, navigate, and lastly, communicate is the mantra in such situations.
If the fire could not be controlled, either by pulling the busses or changing altitude, and the crew and passengers were overcome by smoke, it is possible that the plane would continue on autopilot until it ultimately crashed in the Indian Ocean.
Goodfellow goes on to discuss other aspects of this hypothesis, and addresses some of the hijacking scenarios that many are focusing on. You can read the rest of Goodfellow's article here: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
McMike
> ttyymmnn
03/18/2014 at 13:14 |
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I swear to god, with all these pings, headings, crash reports, debris, and oil slicks, there must have been at least six MH370s in the sky that night.
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ttyymmnn
> McMike
03/18/2014 at 13:15 |
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I think that just demonstrates the enormity of what we don't know.
Jagvar
> ttyymmnn
03/18/2014 at 13:19 |
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Interesting theory, but I still say it was crab people.
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McMike
> ttyymmnn
03/18/2014 at 13:22 |
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Makes sense. One was highjacked and saved for later use. One was stolen, and is currently being sold for parts. One broke apart in the air. One is currently on set for the next season of Lost on SyFy, one caught on fire, and the last was converted to a cargo plane, shipping rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong.
It's not the lack of information that blows my mind, it's all the bits a pieces that trickle in that don't back up any of the previous tidbits.
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ttyymmnn
> McMike
03/18/2014 at 13:24 |
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That, and I think we have a Malaysian government that is terrified about losing face, or perhaps terrified of the Chinese. The investigation, or at least what we've been told about it, has been a complete clusterfuck from day one.
Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs
> Jagvar
03/18/2014 at 13:28 |
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I'm with you
Bad Idea Hat
> ttyymmnn
03/18/2014 at 13:33 |
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The uncontrolled, unfortunately efficient fire theory is the one I subscribe to. The avionics bay is typically a bad place for something like to happen.
I would like to see a diagram to see how a fire would possibly spread, what the backup systems look like and where they are located, and how close communications systems are to each other.
FJ80WaitinForaLSV8
> ttyymmnn
03/18/2014 at 13:47 |
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I don't really buy it. First off they have oxygen masks. If the fire was so bad in the cockpit as to disable their masks or force them to evacuate, I would have to imagine it would have affected the auto pilot and the plane would have crashed way before it got to the Indian ocean.
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ttyymmnn
> FJ80WaitinForaLSV8
03/18/2014 at 13:53 |
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FTA: "Once going, a tire fire would produce horrific, incapacitating smoke. Yes, pilots have access to oxygen masks, but this is a no-no with fire."
I guess if there's fire in the cockpit the last thing you want to do is fill the cockpit with more oxygen. The author doesn't elaborate, though.