A plane that large flying for hours without being picked by ground radar anywhere along the route?

Re: item 1- how does the slow decompression theory explain the transponder being turned off?

This whole fiasco is doing nothing to knock down the stereotype that Malaysians are always losing airliners.

On March 11 it was reported that:

The missing Malaysia Airlines jet sent at least two bursts of technical data back to the airline before it disappeared, New Scientist has learned. The data may help investigators understand what went wrong with the aircraft, no trace of which has yet been found.

To aid maintenance, most airlines use the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which automatically collates and files four technical reports during every flight so that engineers can spot problems. These reports are sent via VHF radio or satellite at take-off, during the climb, at some point while cruising, and on landing.

Malaysia Airlines has not revealed if it has learned anything from ACARS data, or if it has any. Its eleventh media statement since the plane disappeared said: "All Malaysia Airlines aircraft are equipped with… ACARS which transmits data automatically. Nevertheless, there were no distress calls and no information was relayed."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25…

Rolls-Royce Engines have this monitoring.

http://www.rolls-royce.com/about/technol…

I don't know about the tracking but there was a case of a famous golfer flying his own small plane (admittedly different in size and tracking) who fell unconscious because of some plane malfunction and the plane flew for hours before it crashed. It was pretty horrible because they tried to see what the issue was before it crashed, realized he was unconscious and, of course, there was nothing they could do to save him.

@6: That was Payne Stewart. He wasn't flying his own plane, there were two pilots. The plane depressurized and they all passed out and died. The plane flew on autopilot for several hours until it crashed from lack of fuel.

That was a Learjet. I wonder if the same thing could happen to a huge jet like a 777?

@7: Yes, it could.

Nobody wants to admit what really happened. This airplane was abducted by aliens and is on its way to their planet safely inside their spacecraft.

With regard to transgender people serving in the military, my opinion is that it should be allowed but that there should be an extra level of screening before they see active duty. Gender transition is a significant reworking of hormonal chemistry, quite often involves non-negligible surgery, and is after all the treatment for a psychological illness.

@2 The theory is that the antenna system was compromised. The transponder was not switched off, it was unable to transmit or receive.

Whether that theory is true or not is a good question. Others have posted links to articles debunking it.

AUTOPLAY: STOP IT.

Damn, the image of that jet (the one from @7's post) flying for several hours with a bunch of dead passengers on board is pretty haunting. And kinda eerily cool. Some goofball avant-garde film maker needs to consider a screenplay.

Fucking autoplay scared the shit out of me. For the love of God, put it after a jump!

ASSHOLES, please do not put autoplay stuff above a jump. It takes FOREVER to get pushed off the front page.

I may be missing something here, but isn't that a picture of a 747, not a 777 like the one that is missing?

To help search satellite images for the missing Malaysian airplane, sign up and start looking here: http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/?sou…

Tomnod is not the easiest software; just click the little map to get the next image.

The Daily Show bit might work as comedy, but it doesn't work as a serious argument. It is totally reasonable to believe that the traking of communications metadata is a justified intrusion into privacy, but that is quite different from riffling through someones files and actually destroying property. It isn't hypocisy to say one is ok and the other is not.