Lost!?

Hi Everyone,

Who knew that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 with 239 passengers and crew could mimic the ABC TV show Lost. Almost each and every day, for the past week, the search perimeter for the missing 777 jet has increased to the point where now it includes a lot more land areas north of the Indian Ocean. When I first learned of the missing plane, I questioned why the search perimeter did not originally include the full distance  the plane could fly with the amount of fuel it departed with, since there was no report or any evidence of the plane crashing.

As the investigation progressed, it is apparent that the person who was flying the plane, manually turned off the plane's transponder, which sends signals and data to whatever ground flight controllers can receive it. The person flying the plane knew exactly when to turn off the transponder, before Vietnam ground controllers would receive the plane's signals. But turning off the transponder didn't stop the plane from automatically emitting an hourly ping to the closest satellite that could receive the signal. That is how investigators were able to determine that shorty after the transponder stopped sending its signal, the plane made an almost 180 degree turn and flew back over Malaysia. Why didn't Malaysia flight controllers pick up the plane on its radar while it was flying over? After flying over Malaysia, the plane then made a few more turns before eventually heading north over the Indian Ocean. The last ping received was almost 7 hours after the transponder was turned off. But, today's blog isn't about the screw ups with the initial and continuing search efforts for the plane.

Today's blog is about just one thing, flight 370's and at least all other Boeing plane's transponders. I would like to know what idiot(s) came up with the idea and what imbecile(s) approved the idea, that plane transponders could and should be allowed to be able to be shut off by someone in the cockpit? What good does it serve by shutting it off? Of course the answer is, it does nothing good, only bad. Turning off the transponder made the plane virtually invisible, except for the hourly pings. Whoever shut it off, knew that no one could then track its whereabouts. Common sense was certainly not on any ones radar when they allowed that option available to cockpits. I mean really, what the hell were they thinking? Obviously, in hindsight, it is a terrible idea and now a plane is missing and this is 2014, not 1914. The only solution to stopping this from ever happening again, is to disconnect that option ASAP!

I certainly don't know any more info than anyone else on what exactly happened with Flight 370. But since there have been no reports of a plane crashing, or any debris found so far, here are my guesstimates as to what may have happened. 1) Maybe one of the pilots, or someone else on board, commandeered the plane to fly it to some remote landing strip to steal the plane or its cargo or take hostages. Or, 2) maybe the plane crashed on some remote, uncharted island and now the Lost TV show becomes reality. Of course I am only guessing, but no one would be guessing if that transponder had not been allowed to be turned off.

Til next week.

Peter