Oh, OK, irrationality. Problem is that that can explain almost anything.
So far, the transponder being turned off implies either an attempt to evade detection, or a case where all the circuit breakers have been pulled because of a fire and the minimum required to keep the plane flying then replaced.
]]>All that being said, I personally believe that without further data, it's still a 50/50 call between pilot suicide and failed hijacking -- there are arguments to be made for and against both.
]]>I can't imagine the US going any month without killing >239 innocents! They're not exactly noted for worrying about civilian casualties. If someone they wanted dead was on that plane, what's 238 innocents? Rather better-than-usual target to collateral ratio, for them.
]]>Anyway, I don't think a rate of > 239/month is realistic. Apparently they used to kill 1000 civilians/year in Afghanistan, mostly by air strikes. Since the US don't do regular air strikes anywhere else nowadays, my estimate would be one order of magnitude lower than yours.
]]>At that point, the story would be that MH370 had a major malfunction. The pilot turned left to try to get to the nearest runway he could land on. The plane then, somewhat out of control, went up to 45,000 feet and killed everyone, then wandered off on its new course on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea.
Unfortunately, if the black box only records six hours of material, the seven hour death flight will be very silent.
]]>The cockpit sound recorder might be more limited (AIUI in event of an incident the pilots are supposed to pop the breaker on it after landing so that it can be downloaded -- it records on a loop) but even so ...
(Wikipedia suggests they typically record 17-25 hours of data in a continuous loop.)
]]>That's either a rather flippant comment, or you're operating well into tinfoil hat territory.
A more realistic example is that of the US patrol base that was nearly overrun in Afghanistan a couple of years ago, while the watchkeepers at the nearby HQ were unwilling to release artillery support due to concerns about civilian casualties in the nearby village.
Yes, there have been tragedies, but assuming that western nations operate on a "deliberately kill 200 innocents to get a bad guy" basis is well into paranoia. After all, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are still breathing having flown civil aviation...
]]>Wikipedia defines the service ceiling as a maximum altitude where a given rate of climb can be achieved, such as 100-500 feet per minute for a jet aircraft (I suspect that higher number is for a military jet).
So you get some idea of how long it would take to climb the last stretch to that flight level.
Or it's just a mistake.
]]>It wasn't all THAT accurate. But it did let them know when it as headed toward the sat, tangent to the range arc, and away from the sat. That gives a fairly narrow path assuming they were not zig zagging. And by narrow I mean multiple miles wide path.
]]>When isn't? ;-)
But I'm not surprised that some of the stuff is sealed: we already know that military doesn't like to give radar data away, and airport security recordings would need to be protected for privacy reasons (and/or security reasons - you don't want everyone to know exactly what is recorded by airport security when and where and how). Similar might be true for flight traffic transcripts, although I think the MH370 relevant parts should be released.
]]>...he had personally authorised the installation of “one of the most sophisticated radar” systems in the world, based near the South China Sea and covering Malaysia’s mainland and east and west coastlines, when he was the country’s finance minister in 1994. and He knew the pilot, personally & has called for ... an international commitee to take over the Malaysian-led operation, because the "integrity of the whole nation is at stake"
Should stir the pot, just a little?
]]>