Massive search for Malaysia plane yields no evidence; experts speculate on pilot suicide

[jsr]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/debris-may-be-from-mssing-malaysia-airlines-flight/2014/03/10/2669f16a-a822-11e3-b61e-8051b8b52d06_story.html

Massive search for Malaysia plane yields no evidence; experts speculate on pilot suicide
By Chico Harlan and William Wan, Updated: Monday, March 10, 10:08 PM

... In a vacuum of evidence about what went wrong aboard the flight, speculation turned to the possibility of pilot suicide, an extraordinarily rare occurrence.

“You have to ask the question,” said a U.S. aviation official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The Malaysia Airlines flight reportedly was being tracked by radar when its transponder went dark. There were no radio transmissions to indicate that anything was amiss aboard the plane. The transponder signals and radio communication are controlled by the pilot.

There have been two cases in recent years in which a pilot or crew member is believed to have intentionally caused a plane to crash: the disaster involving SilkAir Flight 185, which spiraled into the ground in Indonesia in 1997, killing 97 passengers and seven crew members; and the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, which plunged into the Atlantic south of Nantucket in 1999, killing 217 people.

[longship]

1. Unnecessary and unproductive speculation.

[liberalhistorian]

2. There seems to be a lot of that

where this unfortunate plane is concerned. I think the main reason for that is the bizarreness of it-a jumbo jet with a couple hundred passengers just seems to suddenly vanish into thin air, with no trace for going on five days now. That is very, very rare and that's going to cause this kind of endless, weird speculation until it's found, if it's ever found, and the truth is able to be known from the black boxes and/or other evidence.

Look at all of the crazy nutball speculation that has alway swirled around Amelia Earhart; speculation that will be likely be endless because it looks like we will never really know what happened. She likely ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean or on a tiny islet, but where and how and why was no trace ever found?

I heard an aviation expert on MSNBC the other day who was saying that the reason there may have been no pilot communications about any problems, or any other indication of trouble prior to contact being lost, was a sudden violent (is there any other kind?) explosion or sudden and complete loss of electrical power, which can and has happened. That sounds a bit more likely than the very, very rare occurrence of pilot suicide. Again, though, if that were the case, where's the debris? There would at least be some debris, even in a shattering, total explosion (remember the exlosion in Long Island of the TWA flight to Paris from NYC just after it had taken off? There were tons of debris from it).

[longship]

5. The debris? They haven't found it yet.

That can take time. Sea searches are not easy and there is some apparent uncertainty in where the plane was when they lost contact with it.

Plus, nobody has any idea of what happened to the plane, which makes things extra difficult. It's a lot different it it plunged into the sea than if it broke up at altitude.

People here apparently think this stuff is easy. I don't think it is.

Stay tuned. That's what I am doing.

[liberalhistorian]

15. Um.......I think you misread my post.

I didn't say anything about any debris being found from the Malaysian Plane. I was referring in the end to the TWA flight from NYC to Paris that exploded just after takeoff and all the debris from that. I'm well aware that nothing has been found yet from this plane and that no one knows what has happened. The whole point of my post was that there will be a lot of unnecessary and unproductive speculation precisely because of that, that there's no trace of it and we don't know.

[longship]

16. Sorry about that. I got it...

Let me explain myself...

What do we know here? Not much. And some of it is not well sourced, mainly because what's happening out there is not being reported quickly, mainly because the people over there are hard pressed to find out what happened and these search and recovery jobs are damned difficult. It could take months. They don't always have time to speak to journalists. But the journalists want answers, so they sometimes inflate a report, or maybe even outright make shit up.

That's why people are filling the gaps in our knowledge with all sorts of speculations, some being put out by journalists. That's okay as long as one acknowledges that what really happened here is not likely to be the speculative. The problem is that people start becoming invested in the speculative to the point that the truth, when it finally comes out, becomes some sort of grand conspiracy and cover up. We've seen that happen far too often, and it's utter bollocks.

I prefer to be skeptical and wait until something solid comes out. That's my attitude toward these things.

Thanks for your correction.

[liberalhistorian]

18. "The problem is that people start becoming

invested in the speculative to the point that the truth, when it finally comes out, becomes some sort of grand conspiracy and cover-up".

That is an excellent and succinct summation of the reason for the appeal of conspiracy theories and why they never seem to go away. And you are correct. The problem is, I just don't think we'll be able to stop this kind of speculation. It always seems to happen with this type of thing. But I agree, I will wait until something solid, substantial and verifiable comes out before making any type of judgments as to what may have happened.

[longship]

19. It's worse. The Reuters report of Malayan AF tracking MH370 has been denied by the Malayan AF.

That will get the cover up conspiracies going.

I knew the report was dodgy. It was first reported by only Reuters, from a single source and no confirmation. Other media picked it up, just quoting Reuters, never a good sign for journalism, and again no confirmations.

It's falling apart now, apparently.

Hoo boy!

[WinkyDink]

27. "People here"?? Excepting you, of course.

[Lex]

7. All theories should be investigated. nt

[longship]

10. But they won't be able to determine pilot suicide until they get the black boxes.

So it is way premature to start talking about pilot suicide when other scenarios are more probable, like mechanical failure, hijacking, pilot error, etc.

One may as well claim it was air sharks.

It is a puzzling thing, but real life usually is. Making stuff up doesn't help solve it. But that's what people are doing.

I am content to sit back, follow the story as it evolves, and see what really happened.

[Lex]

13. No, you can investigate the pilot's recent mental health or financial

status. Were there any signs that pointed to instability or out-of-the ordinary stressors very recently? It's worth at least probing at this point.

How is that like "air sharks?" To be just content to sit back and wait for the black box to be found is highly irresponsible.

[longship]

14. Well, you have a point, but the reportage seems to rule that out.

The pilot was a very dedicated one. He even had his own flight simulator in his home. He loved flying. So the suicide pilot scenario does not seem to be a very plausible one.

Thanks for the response.

[Lex]

29. Here's some new information, FWIW

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581817/Doomed-airliner-pilot-political-fanatic-Hours-taking-control-flight-MH370-attended-trial-jailed-opposition-leader-sodomite.html

[WinkyDink]

26. And why would that be? ALL possibilities need to be considered. And the silent transponder lends

credence to this theory.

[BlueStreak]

3. Evidently some debris found

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/583739/possible-debris-from-malaysia-flight-found-off-vietnam

[Agschmid]

8. That article is outdated.

[ecstatic]

4. I don't think so. CNN discussed both pilots

One of them has been flying with the airline since 1981, and even had a simulator in his home because he really really loved flying. The other was a newer co-pilot who had been featured on CNN recently.

[defacto7]

6. The transponder signals and

radio communication are controlled by the pilot.
...says a U.S. aviation official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Well, the pilot and anyone else who can take his place and knows how the jet works... so forget that point till they get the box.

This speculation of suicide is ignorant and suspect. Why would a U.S. aviation official make such a stupid unauthorized remark?

There are a lot of unanswered questions and a couple of unusual circumstances. That's all there is till there's some hard evidence.

[brooklynite]

9. If this was the case, the plane would have remained intact until it crashed...

...in which case, analysts say the debris would be in large pieces more easily noticeable.

[HereSince1628]

12. If you are looking in the correct seas...

The ocean is an especially big place to search when you consider the remaining fuel on board would allow ~2000 miles of flying from the last transponder squawk.

Hopefully replay of the Malayasian military radar may provide more direction to the search.

[Baclava]

11. and then there's this..."Woman raises questions about cockpit behaviour"

[quinnox]

17. Gosh, this just keeps getting weirder. Very disturbing behavior by that pilot

If it was a hijacking, it certainly would have been easy for hijackers with this guy in the cockpit. Having passengers present while taking off and during the flight?

[jsr]

20. She sounds credible.

[Cali_Democrat]

22. WTF!

[Baclava]

23. I guess airplane pilots have groupies too

who knew?

[WinkyDink]

28. Uh, no. The pilots picked her and her friend out of line and INVITED THEM into the cockpit.

[mackerel]

21. hypoxia maybe but the suicide theory is inconsistent

with what I've read about the back t ground of the pilot

[Baclava]

24. It gets crazier - a witch doctor is now trying to find plane

who the fuck is in charge over there?

Chinese ridicule Malaysia’s recruitment of ‘witch doctor’ to track missing plane

Chinese netizens have mocked reports that the Malaysian government invited a witch doctor to help hunt for the missing state carrier's plane amid increasing criticism of the search and rescue operation



http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1447159/chinese-ridicule-malaysias-recruitment-witch-doctor-track-missing-plane

[jsr]

25. Perhaps they could use a dowser