A very lucid and revealing analysis oo MH370 Malaysian Airlines vanishing 777, from a retired and experienced pilot: The Mystery of the disappearance of Malaysian Flight MH 370 continues after more than a week of search and rescue operation by 24 countries. I am perplexed like you and others who are following up the news about the MH 370 disappearance . I am a retired airline pilot with 23000 hours on my sleeve. I have flown the DC-3 and the turbo prop HS 748 and the YS -11 in my early years in Philippine Airlines. During the latter part of my career I have flown the DC-8,DC-10,Airbus 300,and the B747-200 and finally the B747-400,my last equipment. I am not an expert in Air Crash Accident investigations.I just want to give my two cents worth about the disappearance of the plane from the pilots point of view. Lets start off on the premise that an aircraft can not just vanish in the air without any trace. When the news came on TV that the Malaysian ATC reported that MH 370 bound for Beijing disappeared on the ATC Radar Screen after 2hrs and 39 minutes of flight, my first impression was that the B-777 suffered an in-flight emergency causing the transponder to fail. What is a Transponder? It is a device that emits a signal in the ATC radar screen. It transmits the airline flight number ,altitude,and speed. The transponders switches varies from one model to another.The off selection is set at Standby. All airline aircraft are mandated by FAA to be equipped with a transponder to assist the Air Traffic Controllers to monitor the aircrafts movement in the air. The aircraft will be assigned a code before take-off. When the aircraft is airborne, the transponder will start emitting signals on the radar screen with its Flight number, altitude and speed. The loss of the transponder signal can be attributed to many factors,one of them is loss of all generators due to engine failure. If the aircrafts B-777 two engines stopped ,all the generators which is being normally powered by the engines will stop. The electrical system powering the transponder and all the navigational systems will cease to operate. All engine failure can happen on flight. In the B747-200 and B747 -400 , all four engines can fail and stop operating on flight and all the generators will stop operating.The transponder signal will be lost eventually. Even with four engines failing, the aircraft will not just fall off from the sky.We can execute the emergency procedures by gliding the aircraft at a safe speed of 250 kts and start the engine recovery procedures .The engines can be recovered at lower altitude and the generators will again power the transponder and other related equipment on board. The other factor that will can cause the transponder to stop sending signals is the grim scenario of an in-flight explosion or simply the aircraft has crashed violently. If the aircraft exploded in flight due to a bomb explosion,there will be small debris falling from the sky and landing on the sea in this case.If it crashes uncontrollably into the sea at a dangerous angle it will explode into pieces.Large parts of the aircraft like the wings and other debris will float and scatter over the sea. All airline aircraft are equipped with an ELT. The ELT( Emergency Locator transmitter) will float and when soak with water will transmit an SOSsignal continuously for so many hours. The massive search and rescue mission conducted by numerous countries did not find any debris in the area where the aircrafts transponder signal was lost in the radar. No ELT transmission was picked up by the search and rescue aircraft. The Chinese radar sent a radar photo of large debris 140 miles west of the aircraft s path.It resulted negative.This created more questions and confusion. It took three days for the Malaysian Military to announce that they had tracked the MH 370 blips on their radar after it lost its ATC transponder signal.They said that the aircraft made a left turn in the direction towards the Indian Ocean. Just before the aircraft signal disappeared in the ATC radar they said the aircrafts movements were erratic,It seemed to be turning left and right. There must have been a fight in the cockpit.Maybe the hijackers had entered the cockpit.After that the transponder signal disappeared in the ATC radar, the blip with no flight number was picked up by the military radar.Why did the Malaysian military keep this information a secret for three days.Were they in contact with the aircraft? After their pronouncement there was no follow up information. It is only now after ten days they have admitted they have tracked the aircrafts movements in the Indian Ocean. Was there a hijacking going on, which the military did not want the public to know? Was there a secret communication between the Malaysian Authorities and the hijackers? If there was a hijacking ,the hijackers would announce their demands in media.They would make threats like blowing up the aircraft . Why was there no announcements? I think the Malaysian Authorities is withholding a lot of information from the public. I think they have been negotiating with the hijackers and the negotiation has failed. Maybe the aircraft has finally crashed into the sea or has been blown out by the hijackers.That is only my suspicion.I hope I am wrong. The Chinese media had accused the Malaysian authorities of contradictory and piecemeal information ,that was why search and rescue had been very difficult. To save face the Malaysian authorities announced that everybody on board the aircraft was a suspect including the pilots. They confiscated the home flight simulator of the pilots.I found this very ridiculous ! Most airline pilots have this home flight simulator to practice their emergency procedure and takeoff and landing skills. For lack of other suspects, they are now focusing on the pilots involvement in the hijacking.They are even giving a bad interpretation on the co-pilots uttering on radio alright,good night . If you are an airline pilot this is normal .On a normal flight ,ATC conversation and pilots reply will sound like this.When the maximum radar coverage has been reached,the ATC will transmit to the pilot ... radar coverage is terminated ,switch to....( the next controller )..Vietnam Control(in this case) 126.7. The pilot will in turn say good night ,thank you, switching to Vietnam Control, 126.7. In this case the co-pilot said alright good night which is normal in pilot/ATC communications. The co-pilot normally does the communication in flight. This is no big deal! I feel that the Malaysian Authorities is not telling the whole truth. They are looking for a scapegoat and now they have found one in the person of the Captain.This is unfair ! No pilot will hijack his own plane.His primary duty is to safeguard his passengers. That is the pilots code. Until the Malaysian Authorities tell the whole truth....the mystery will continue,perhaps the aircraft will never be found.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 05:29:30 +0000
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