Malaysia Airlines MH370

[CS1]

Nobody was watching the flight tracker?

If he can unplug the cockpit data instruments, then he can surely disconnect the in-flight entertainment panels/screens.

Easy to say, "We seem to be having technical difficulties with our in-flight entertainment wiring. Compensation: free 80,000 MAir points for all your ff accounts." 

[MarkS]

It was supposed to be a 6 hour flight.
Have you never had a pilot announce that the flight path was extended an hour due to an ATC routing?
And as discussed earlier, the in flight entertainment system could have been 'not working'

Say you're on a flight and things seem fishy.
There's no lights down below like there would be over land.
The flight is taking longer than usual.
The in flight entertainment is down.
You can't get any cell service like you occasionally get while over land etc etc.

Would you storm the cockpit???   You would get arrested!

We're trained to be obedient quiet passengers.

[Jkhein]

Why not?
And even if not, who says it's possible to break into an armored door that easily?

not easily, but 239 people in state of panic and fear of death.

[MarkS]

not easily, but 239 people in state of panic and fear of death.

Who is telling them to panic?

[Saver2000]

not easily, but 239 people in state of panic and fear of death.

Not necessarily did the passengers realize anything was going on up until 5 min before it happened.

[dudi]

Is it me or does anyone else think that there is gonna be some kind of system established for the passengers to call an emergency?

[Saver2000]

Is it me does anyone else think that there is whatever be some kind of system established for the passengers to call an emergency?

What would that help?

I think there's gonna be a system established that won't allow the pilot to access the  radar controls (or whatever it's called)

[dudi]

What would that help?

I think there's gonna be a system established that won't allow the pilot to access the  radar controls (or whatever it's called)

its gonna help that there won't be a situation that a pilot can take control of a plane.
Maybe a ability to call 911

[Dan]

They say he needs to be able to turn off the transponder in case of a short.

Though they can easily require all airlines to subscribe the the sat service so that it reports where the plane is and doesn't just ping it.

[Saver2000]

its gonna help that there won't be a situation that a pilot can take control of a plane.
Maybe a ability to call 911

If they call 911 while flying over the ocean -  it'll prevent the pilot from taking control?

[Dan]

its gonna help that there won't be a situation that a pilot can take control of a plane.
Maybe a ability to call 911

What will 911 do?
These situations are 1 in 10 million anyway.

[Jkhein]

Not necessarily did the passengers realize anything was going on up until 5 min before it happened.

so the reports of flying 45k feet high and low below radar are not true?

[MarkS]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/21/what-happened-to-flight-mh370-missing-plane

According to this the flight crew checks in with the pilots every 20 minutes in which case they may have gotten tipped off although again - the pilot could have led them on. 

[Freddie]

What would that help?

I think there's gonna be a system established that won't allow the pilot to access the  radar controls (or whatever it's called)

Why is nobody raising a fuss about that Ethiopian pilot who diverted the Rome flight to Switzerland?

This has happened twice in one month. Can we trust pilots or not? They need to hang that Ethiopian by his heels in the middle of JFK and let all the pax swing at him like a piñata.

[ariIs]

My 2c:

There was a failed hijacking (possibly to divert the plane to another location), and the pilots are both killed or disabled in the scuffle.
The plane might have gone to 45K during the fight.
The planes returns to normal altitude on autopilot, but none of the passengers know how to fly the plane.
They can't figure out the radio - or it's broken during the hijacking. It's night, so they can't see where they are, and just keep going until it's daytime and they can see some place to try to land. When day breaks, they're way out over the ocean, and out of fuel.

Or aliens, both are about as probable..

[AJK]

My 2c:

There was a failed hijacking (possibly to divert the plane to another location), and the pilots are both killed or disabled in the scuffle.
The plane might have gone to 45K during the fight.
The planes returns to normal altitude on autopilot, but none of the passengers know how to fly the plane.
They can't figure out the radio - or it's broken during the hijacking. It's night, so they can't see where they are, and just keep going until it's daytime and they can see some place to try to land. When day breaks, they're way out over the ocean, and out of fuel.

Or aliens, both are about as probable..

They may not know how to fly a plane, but I assure you someone knows how to press "transmit" on the radio, night or not.

[MarkS]

They may not know how to fly a plane, but I assure you someone knows how to press "transmit" on the radio, night or not.

+1. Especialy if they knew how to shut off the transponder and the exact best time to hijack.

Over the course of 7 hours you'd think they'd have figured something out.

[ariIs]

They may not know how to fly a plane, but I assure you someone knows how to press "transmit" on the radio, night or not.

True, but the radio might have been damaged in the fight (in fact a hijacker would likely try to break the radio so that the pilot cannot report to ATC).
Also, where's the transmit here :
http://www.meriweather.com/flightdeck/777/ped/radio.html

It doesn't even say 'radio' anywhere on it.

[PlatinumGuy]

Though they can easily require all airlines to subscribe the the sat service so that it reports where the plane is and doesn't just ping it.

If that's going to happen, we should buy sat companies stocks

[Chapshnell]

To me its very similar to the sandy hook shooting. Some crazy person decided to do something crazy. Doesn't happen often & loners are very hard to defend. This is assuming 1 pilot killed or badly injured the other.