Missing 777

farmgirl19 · Mar 15, 2014

Kalitta 66, a Lear jet, had slow depressurization at FL 270, and, while the pilots knew something was amiss, they did not realize it was hypoxia. They declared emergency, and vectors, until another ATC happen to overhear, and recognized the sound of the voices as being hypoxia and got them down from that Flight level. By the time they were at 11,000', all was well again.

This is the same sort of thing that happened to Payne Stewart's Lear Jet. A search of Kalitta 66 and hypoxia will give ATC transmissions, and the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Assn.) has more info on the Kalitta flight as well, if anyone is interested.

I am certainly not inclined to believe it was a pressurization problem. I wonder if the public will ever really be told the truth of what happened.

Soundguy · Mar 15, 2014

maybee here soon if the rumor mill is correct.

Express · Mar 15, 2014

I'm in the Aviation field myself and work on modern Jet Aircraft. This baffles me but I don't believe this was a due to failure of the aircraft. If your transponder fails and you don't realize it Air Traffic will be calling you very quickly at least here in the US. I believe it was turned off deliberately but if he was out of radar coverage his Satcom should be be broad casting his position if the aircraft was equipped with this system. New requirements have been placed on aircraft to have systems installed that broadcast there position.
The Satcom system that the aircraft had can sometimes track the airplane as well . The aircraft maintains a connection to the satellite and keeps registering using a code identifying the aircraft. I just don't believe this was due to failure of the aircraft .

Express · Mar 15, 2014

Actually some aircraft have Auto descent for this reason. The aircraft will descend automatically. Not sure about 777 though but for long range aircraft I wouldn't be surprised

Express · Mar 15, 2014

AND, apparently it was flying under radar too?? 4 hrs on a plane that runs up to 600+mph, that's allot of area.

After the aircraft

Express · Mar 15, 2014

Sorry for above
Radar coverage is not available further over the ocean. You rely on satcom and you call your position on HFCS radio if VHF is not available. You burn a lot of fuel when you fly low and will not get that far. That why you want to stay as high as possible to save fuel

powerpace · Mar 15, 2014

When it's said and done, in my opinion the plane will be found within 100 miles of the last radio transmission. At the bottom of the ocean.

JohninCT · Mar 16, 2014

I thought I heard on the news that the black box emits a sonar locator ping when in water. If the plane went down in the ocean near its last known location I would think that there are submarines that know exactly where it is. I agree with the poster who said that info is known that the public is not being told. The media is being used to spin a story.... but why?

Western · Mar 16, 2014

JohninCT said:
I thought I heard on the news that the black box emits a sonar locator ping when in water. If the plane went down in the ocean near its last known location I would think that there are submarines that know exactly where it is. I agree with the poster who said that info is known that the public is not being told. The media is being used to spin a story.... but why?

Could be the Malaysian government trying to save face? News said they don't have near as stringent security standards at the airports like we have.

EddieWalker · Mar 16, 2014

If it was the pilot and co pilot who did this, it wouldn't matter what they security procedures where. Of course, that would be highly embarrassing to the Malaysian government too. I read that they have found some things in the homes of the pilot and copilot that might indicate they had been planning this for awhile. The flight simulator the pilot had might have been used to practice or learn how to turn off all means of tracking the flight, which indicates they didn't want anybody to know where they where taking the plane.

Everything indicates to me that they had a destination they wanted to take the plane and it was a well planned out operation with that goal. They also didn't want anybody to know where they where going, and it's very likely that the place they wanted to go to was expecting them and also in on the plan of keeping it secret. Why? What do you do with a stolen 777? Reselling it isn't going to happen, every plane in the sky is identified, and any plane that isn't will stand out and draw attention to it. Nobody would ever be able to use it commercially, which means nobody is ever going to buy it.

Eddie