Revealed: the final 54 minutes of communication from MH370

[brooklynite]

Source: The Telegraph

The Telegraph has obtained the full communication record of MH370, including the crucial moments in the lead-up to the disappearance of the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers. It reveals the messages relayed between the cockpit and air traffic controllers during the period when the plane is believed by investigators to have already been sabotaged.

As the search continues for possible wreckage of the aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean, the transcript marks a further piece of evidence in the baffling mystery of flight MH370. It shows that – according to numerous experts – the two-way banter between Fariq Abdul Hamid, the co-pilot, and air traffic controllers was “perfectly routine”.

...snip...

From his sign-in at 12.36 when the plane was still on the ground, Hamid, a 27-year-old flying enthusiast, gave routine accounts of the plane’s location, ascent and altitude. Though he took a slightly casual approach and at times departed from formal wording, nothing in his banter gives any sign that the plane was about to fly off course and disappear.

“The communication up until the plane went to the changeover [to Vietnam] sounds totally normal,” Mr Buzdygan said. “That kind of banter – I’ve done it hundreds of times. It is perfectly normal."

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10714907/Revealed-the-final-54-minutes-of-communication-from-MH370.html

[valerief]

1. Can someone explain why we're having wall-to-wall coverage of this story?

Is it just a media diversion or does it have an effect on our lives?

I realize it's a tragic story, but what I'm questioning is the wall-to-wall coverage of it. Surely, there are other news stories not getting air time, because this plane story is muscling them out.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. I would say because the event is so anomalous

and the signal to noise ratio so high, it's fascinating to many people.
I am certainly curious about its final disposition, mostly because of the passengers aboard.

[CincyDem]

3. It's to keep our minds off Ben-Gaaaaahzi. Haven't you heard. LOL

[valerief]

5. Probably to keep Obamacare and its deadline out of the news. nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

40. You are aware that the Telegraph is a British paper, no?

They won't be covering Obamacare anyway. Except maybe with two-paragraph story about "enrolment deadline for US healthcare law approaches".

[valerief]

44. I was referring to the US media, of course, not the Telegraph. nt

[anneboleyn]

30. Fox and O'Reilly are arguing that it is Obama's secret plot to distract from Benghazi, IRS, ACA

and on and on and on...

I love the fact that CNN beat O'Reilly in the ratings last week. He refused to cover the plane and instead incessantly kept on about the "evils" of Obamacare, the usual Fox garbage.

[wordpix]

64. the repuglikooks actually tried to morph this into a BenGhazi story

that only took off for one day at Faux

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. A plane off radar trumps a bridge on radar.

[maxsolomon]

9. Because it's a genuine mystery

And therefore fascinating to curious apes. It's not supposed to be possible for a 777 to vanish, but someone/something deliberately/accidentally made that jet disappear.

Aren't you curious what happened?

[valerief]

11. No, not to the exclusion of other things I'm curious about. Again, why wall-to-wall?

It's like the OJ trial when the Contract on America Congress was stealing America.

[brooklynite]

19. THAT is a separate question...

And the ANSWER to why it's wall to wall is simple:

1) disappearance of an airplane with 200 passenger is a big story

2) CONTINUED disappearance of an airplane with 200 passengers continues to be a big story.

3) peculiarities of route taken and oddities with equipment and navigation add to the mystery of the story.

4) News channels have 24 hours to fill.

If it bothers you, I have a suggestion; change the channel.

[valerief]

20. Uh, that's what I've been asking--why wall-to-wall.

Still don't know why.

And change the channel to what? More wall-to-wall?

[maxsolomon]

23. welp, i don't watch cable news.

so I don't know - except that it's a mystery.

and it's easier to sit around and bullshit than to do actual reporting.

[brooklynite]

24. I'm sure there's a very nice policy discussion on C-Span....

[Spitfire of ATJ]

34. Are you accusing the media of not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time?

If so,...that's not news.

[treestar]

43. It's a really big mystery

Other things are more usual.

I can see why people are fascinated by it. It is natural for humans to think about a mystery like this.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

21. I could not agree more. n/t

[jtuck004]

29. You are kidding, right? This is FIGHTING PIRATES! What else matters if the pirates win?

BANGARAY!

[Agschmid]

36. It's funny I don't watch tv news... Maybe that's the problem?

But I don't feel there is enough coverage of this. I guess if I did watch CNN/MSNBC I might feel differently?

[tofuandbeer]

41. +1

[Beacool]

67. Because its disappearance is a mystery.

It's also because the families of 239 people don't know what happened to their loved ones. A plane of that size doesn't normally just disappear into thin air. People are fascinated by the story.

[The Stranger]

6. I'm beginning to get extremely angry at the systematic, massive, and racist defamation of these two

pilots.

There is not one shred of evidence of foul play, yet the racist Western media continues trying to find ways to paint these two pilots as terrorists -- even to the point of the absolutely, insanely absurd.

They are so unrepentant in their sickness, that they begin theorizing that the pilots must have flown below 5,000 feet for hours in order to avoid radar. There is no end to it.

They were likely dying trying to save the plane from a horrific fire. Yet they have their names completely defamed, their families stigmatized, their homes and personal effects searched, their computers subjected to insane scrutiny.

Until they can come up with a single fucking shred of evidence of wrongdoing, I am going to call bullshit.

[brooklynite]

7. Nothing the media's doing is racist...

...unless you can point to references made linking their behavior to their ethnicity.

The pilots keep coming up BECAUSE nothing else does. The plane didn't blow up en route to Beijing; there's no evidence from radio communications that other people on board were doing anything; and navigational changes that turned the place in an unexpected direction were made BEFORE the last sign-off from the co-pilot. The role of the flight crew if perfextly within bounds as a discussion topic.

[The Stranger]

12. That's the stupidest fucking thing I have ever read on here.

You're expecting "references" -- whatever that means -- that racists are being racists?

You're saying their ethnicity has nothing to do with the endless Neocon "terrorist" speculation?

[brooklynite]

16. Yes, I'm saying that...provide a media cite to prove me wrong.

[Agschmid]

37. +1

[The Stranger]

50. -1

Thanks for your contribution.

[Agschmid]

59. No problem.

[The Stranger]

49. You are asking for a media "cite" where they say they are being racist.

That's fucking asinine. No one is going to come out and say, "We think they're terrorists because they are pilots and they are Muslims."

Go get a fucking clue and stop wasting my time.

[brooklynite]

56. "systematic, massive, and racist defamation" by the "racist western media"

...and you fail to provide any example of this "massive" defamation. Am I to assume this is simply a "we all know" assertion?

Talk about a wast of time.....

[TorchTheWitch]

58. the plane did not turn before the co-pilot's last communication

It was the ACARS that stopped functioning for whatever reason just before that last communication. There were supposedly nine minutes between the ACARS going off and the transponder going off with the ACARS apparently going out just before the co-pilot's last communication and the transponder going out nice minutes later after the co-pilot made his last communication. It was BOTH of those communicators having gone out for whatever reason that was why it was not immediately known that the plane apparently made a U-turn and headed back toward Malaysia - if one of them was still functioning at the time the plane apparently made that turn they would have known that immediately rather than spending days searching between Malaysia and Vietnam along its flight path.

Having come right out of the gate with speculations of hijacking, sabotage, pilot suicide, terrorism, etc. and basically ignoring any more likely event that something went wrong with the plane was ludicrous. And I'd bet cash money that it did because of the quick discovery of two passengers on the plane with fake passports. Yet here we are weeks later while so much in the media keep pressing that line of thought despite every bit of evidence to the contrary and continually saying it's fact when to date despite epic scrutiny not one single person on that plane has anything even slightly nefarious about them.

The Air France 447 flight took TWO YEARS to find in the Atlantic ocean yet no one ever saw an outrageous media speculation frenzy as this missing plane has had from the first hours. Couple that with the outlandish behavior of Malaysian authorities, and this thing has been a clusterfuck like no other plane accident I can ever remember.

[Agschmid]

60. .

The Air France 447 flight took TWO YEARS to find in the Atlantic ocean yet no one ever saw an outrageous media speculation frenzy as this missing plane has had from the first hours. Couple that with the outlandish behavior of Malaysian authorities, and this thing has been a clusterfuck like no other plane accident I can ever remember.

And the reason for that is ACARS data which basically explained why the plane went down... In this case there is nothing that explains anything.

[brooklynite]

61. Not correct...

...it only took about five days to discover the wreckage, more or less where it was expected to be; it took two years to RECOVER the plane because of the depth of the water.

[TorchTheWitch]

68. no, they only found some floating debris

and about 50 bodies. It took two years to find the crash site and the majority of the wreckage on the ocean floor where a little over 100 of the bodies were still inside the wreckage of the plane with most of them still seatbelted into their seats. Something like 70 or 80 people were never found. They didn't discover the main wreckage or the black boxes until two years after the crash and because of the ocean depth with the help of the same team and equipment that found the Titanic.

The amount of debris they found floating on the water was enough to determine that it was indeed the Air France 447 flight, but that's it. They still didn't know why the plane went down until finding the black boxes two years later.

Interesting documentary about the crash in my post #62 here. Though it doesn't say so in this documentary, I recently read or watched elsewhere that apparently they would have found the main wreckage and the black boxes with them in the deep of the ocean had the black boxes been pinging as they should have, but for some reason they didn't. They had passed over the main wreckage a number of times in the first few days having no idea it was there since the black boxes never gave off their homing beacon. Apparently, it was for that reason that they were unable to find the main wreckage in those first few days.

[TorchTheWitch]

62. No one knew anything about why the plane crashed

until after the black boxes were finally found after a two year search. Like the Malaysia flight, it went into a radar dead zone flying over the ocean with everything seeming to be fine until inexplicably it never arrived into the radar range of where it was supposed to be headed. After 5 days they found some pieces of wreckage and about 50 bodies something like 600 miles off the coast of Brazil. So, until the black boxes were found all they knew was that the plane had crashed into the Atlantic somewhere but with no idea as to why.

Again, in the Air France flight really no more was known than this Malaysian flight about exactly where or why it crashed until the main wreckage of the plane was finally found on the ocean floor two years later and they were able to recover the black boxes. And again, for those two years there was nothing even close to the wild speculation of what happened to flight 447 as opposed to this Malaysian flight where immediately hijack, sabotage, terrorism and even pilot suicide with no more knowledge than what was known about flight 447 has not only been speculated by the media but erroneously confirmed. Even the Malaysian PM came out and claimed that it was definitely sabotage with no way whatsoever to confirm any such thing without those black boxes.

Crash of Air France 447 documentary...

[closeupready]

8. Well, look what the MSM did to Richard Jewell. There's precedent

for 'trial by media'. And it's disgraceful.

[The Stranger]

13. That's a good example as well, actually.

[SharonAnn]

17. And don't forget 'All Chandra, All the Time) and Rep. Gary Condra's presumed guilt.

[closeupready]

18. Oh, yeah. That's another one.

[Codeine]

25. Condit. nt

[Blue_Tires]

10. The pilots keep coming up

because the aircraft was supposedly handled with a level of expertise FAR beyond the average terrorist with a few flying classes under his belt...Nevermind the fact that so far all the research and background checks of all the passengers have been clean...

And the fact that there *have* been some well-known horrific INTENTIONAL pilot suicides in recent years...

And the reputation of the pilots hasn't been helped by the foot dragging/contradictory statements of the Malay government -- These actions in the eyes of many observers could be see as obstruction and ass-covering...

The "fire" theory still doesn't work on any level, since there is no fire so sudden and catastrophic enough to destroy the radio and transponder before any kind of 'mayday' can be sent...

[The Stranger]

14. Well, now you're doing it.

You've assumed that there is an "average terrorist" involved without having a single fucking shred of evidence that it could be so. Then you start background checking the passengers when there is not a single fucking shred of evidence that any of them are your "average terrorist."

Then we're on the bullshit whipsaw of the Malaysian government, where, if they tell us all they know, they're being incompetent because we haven't found it yet and we should know everything by now; and if they hold back to confirm what they can before releasing it, they are part of a terrorist conspiracy to cover it up.

The "average terrorist" is wholly and completely a fabrication that you have come up with, and you have done it right here in this post. You have unwittingly illustrated my point, albeit, it seems, unwittingly.

Thanks, nevertheless.

[Blue_Tires]

28. In case you haven't noticed

NOBODY HAS A SINGLE FUCKING SHRED OF EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING; other than a plane vanished and no one yet seems to know why...I hate to break it to you, but there's as much "evidence" of a terrorist hijacking as there is for your heroic-pilots-valiantly-trying-to-save-their-wounded-aircraft story and a thousand other scenarios being touted online 24/7...

Anything anybody says is speculative fabrication, since we're all trying to individually come up with some situation which might fit the few facts known to this point...

[The Stranger]

47. That's absolute and complete bullshit.

There is substantiated evidence that the plane changed course, and it was tracked with a bearing towards an abandoned 13,000 foot runway. There is evidence the aircraft descended to a bearing for that runway at 12,000 feet altitude.

There is this and other evidence that the pilots were attempting to land the plane under extenuating circumstances. There isn't a god damned fucking shred of evidence of any terrorism or foul play whatsoever.

The speculation is coming from these racist pieces of worthless shit in the media who want to make them into terrorists because they have Islamic last names.

Let's fucking be real here.

[Blue_Tires]

51. ok...All I can say now is read these threads and catch yourself up

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/6036247/

Because you're too far behind the curve to properly discuss this

[The Stranger]

54. I'm sitting here looking at all of the evidence and still trying to find something -- anything --

that indicates terrorism.

Even in this very original posting, we have all of the recordings of the pilots -- nothing. We have had their homes searched -- nothing. Shit as innocuous as "Okay, good night" was spun by the media as somehow cryptic and aberrational.

These pilots, according to what evidence we have, likely died trying to save that plane. And they are having their fucking homes searched.

Unforgivable.

[cbdo2007]

15. Well, the pilots were flying the plane....and didn't radio any problems....so they should be

scrutinized and questioned because they are the most relevant suspects for why the plane vanished.

[cbdo2007]

55. You seem to be the one obsessed with race....so are you sure you aren't projecting your own thoughts

on me? lol

abre los ojos

[The Stranger]

57. Then get educated. Look up things like "institutional racism" and learn some sociology.

Here's where we are:

On the contrary, a picture is emerging of the pilots not only struggling to save the 777 but going through precisely the steps they should in an emergency….

First, change to a heading that would take them to the nearest available runway in Vietnam and Malaysia able to handle the airplane;

Second, precipitate fall in altitude from the cruise height of 36,000 feet that would be consistent with the pilots responding to the effects of either a loss of cabin pressure or the consequences of smoke or toxic fumes in the cabin—in those circumstances it would be essential to get down to below 10,000 feet. In the case of cabin pressure, it would be done to stabilize the cabin atmosphere and in the case of smoke, it would be urgent to get on the ground as fast as possible.

[brooklynite]

63. If it makes you feel any better, I lived in Southeast Asia when MAS was formed...

I've regularly flown Asian airlines with no concern for my safety, or issues with the flight crews' ethnicities or religions. And I still think there ware open questions about the MH 370 flight that warrant evaluation of the flight crew.

But feel free to resume your stereotypes.

[Agschmid]

65. They can't.

At least not here, they are locked out.

[cbdo2007]

66. If you knew all of this two weeks ago, why didn't you tell anybody?!?!

Oh that's right....there were zero answers two weeks ago when the plane disappeared and only in the past few days are we figuring some small details out of what may have happened.

[WinkyDink]

31. No indication whatsoever of a fire. It's as much a theory as any other, except one which ignores

confirmed deliberate actions.

[The Stranger]

48. Wrong.

The confirmed bearing of the plane and change in altitude are direct evidence of a plane attempting to return and land. That the communications and navigation are on two separate circuits also would explain why there were no communications made.

[treestar]

42. after 911, what set of passengers

are going to let any of their number get into the cockpit unmolested? The pilots are the only ones now who can do anything. There was that Ethiopian co-pilot recently who hijacked the plane while the pilot left to go to the restroom - looked him out and diverted the plane to another country where he wanted to request asylum.

And in this case, the transponder was turned off and the plan was programmed to turn. That is at least a hint that it was the pilot or co-pilot. So of all the speculation, this at least has a little bit of something to it.

[Kelvin Mace]

22. The Telegraph is NOT a reliable source

Just so you know....

[WinkyDink]

32. Pray, tell us what is.

[Kelvin Mace]

33. Well, you got me there...

[Zorra]

53. The Daily Telegraph has been politically conservative in modern times.

[14] The personal links between the paper's editors and the leadership of the Conservative Party, along with the paper's generally right wing stance and influence over Conservative activists, have resulted in the paper commonly being referred to, especially in Private Eye, as the Torygraph.[14] Even when Conservative support was shown to have slumped in the opinion polls and Labour became ascendant in them (particularly when leader Tony Blair rebranded the party as "New Labour" on becoming leader after the death of John Smith in 1994), the newspaper remained loyal to the Conservatives. This loyalty continued after Labour ousted the Conservatives from power by a landslide election result in 1997, and in the face of Labour election wins in 2001 and the third successive Labour election win in 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph#Political_stance

Personally, I always look for other sources of information, because I don't trust the Torygraph.

[jtuck004]

26. Not the final 54. a 54 minute chunk. The final was from engines.

with no speech.

And the two hours on the black box, if and when they ever get it (20,000 feet is so deep they may never find either of them, and I am told here that 20,000 ft is also their max design depth) will be nothing but engines running, till they run out of gas, and dive into the ocean.

"believed by investigators to have already been sabotaged." < - not by any competent investigator that doesn't have secret knowledge (but I bet that's imaginary too).

The inner Peter Pan will always need to create Captain Hook(s). Gotta keep an eye on that kid, lest he encourages you to poor judgement. Fun, but sometimes dangerous...

[jtuck004]

27. A link to press handouts - the first one is a map of the last area searched.

http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/incidents/mh370-search.asp

Very small in relation to a big, big ocean. And those pieces the satellite saw Sunday could be a hundred miles or more from where they photographed it by now, outside the search zone.

If you have never been out in the middle of the ocean, it's an awesome experience. And if you can get someone to let down a boat with beer on board while you go swimming in the middle of the Atlantic, it's even better.

ex-Navy.

[mdbl]

35. It's amazing that my work vehicle on gps reports my position to the square foot

But we can't track a huge plane

[Agschmid]

38. There is a potential that your work vehicle would have difficulty being tracked by GPS...

In the Indian Ocean.

I don't really find the two that comparable?

[mdbl]

45. Are you saying there are no satellites that can see the Indian Ocean?

[Agschmid]

46. No.

Clearly there are.

[freshwest]

39. Clearly, your company considers you a terrier-ist! Arf! Arf! You are trouble, obviously!

And I'm just kidding with you.