So... how about that missing plane?

[dreamshark]

At first I figured it was just another plane crash. Odd that they didn't manage to get off a distress call before hitting the water, but maybe an engine blew up and killed the cockpit crew or something.

But no. Not only has no debris turned up, we started hearing about random radar pickups of what seemed likely to be the same plane, but not where it was supposed to be. There were some red herrings about passengers with stolen passports.Then we learned that there is an emergency "transponder" that is supposed to be transmitting all the time (ok, that makes sense) but there is a way for the flight crew to TURN IT OFF (which makes no sense at all). And that transponder went off shortly after radio contact ceased.

Well, maybe the plane just blew up at that point? But no! Now we're getting reports of radar sightings back on the west side of the Malay peninsula! (Maybe it was some other plane? UFO?). But no! It turns out that Boeing designed all its planes with a secret "Find My Jumbo Jet" app. And this little app continued to ping the Boeing satellite (Boeing has satellites??) for four hours after the transponder went off! And guess what - about the time communication ceased, the plane more or less reversed course and headed back over the Malay Peninsula again! But there's still no sign of it.

WTF?

What's your theory?  I have mine, but I want to know what you think.

Comments

[mplsfish.livejournal.com]

I have no theory. Or rather, I have too many to make any sense of this.
But Neil Stephenson wrote a remarkably similar scenario in Reamde. Not a passenger plane in that case, but it got from China to Seattle without being seen.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I dunno. In lieu of a ransom demand/terrorist organization taking credit, I'm going to go with the plane plunging into the ocean intact. No debris on the sea, some of the electronics survived to give signals but from masked location.

And I'm secretly hoping for alien abduction or the Philadelphia Effect. 'Bout time.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking of John Varley's book,
MILLENNIUM.

Oh, as an FYI, Sharon, I'll probably stop by the MNSTF meeting for a while tomorrow.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I thought of "Millennium" too. But Richard reminded me that in that book the planes didn't disappear, just the people on them.

I hope you come to the meeting!

[guppiecat]

I think it went back in time.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

My theory is that the plane was hijacked by its own flight crew, who took it to a mysterious uninhabited island and abandoned all the passengers there to form their own society. Eventually, the plane will be found sitting on an empty runway somewhere with the keys in the ignition and a bunch of fast-food wrappers and beer cans in the back seat (because it's really hard to fence a jumbo jet). But hours of grainy videos of what happened on the island will be sold to CBS as a reality show, making the hijackers into millionaires.

[laurel]

It is bizarre. I'd only vaguely been tracking the story, but then late last night I fell down the conspiracy well a ways. And into some good and useful discussion of it on various forums for professional pilots who are naturally curious and trying to figure out what could've actually happened that fits the given data.

Of course there've been many (obvious) jokes that they're lost on a magical island where there are polar bears and smoke monsters. I like your idea better.

If we knew more by now, I might've been willing to believe that some of the inconsistent stories from airlines and countries and whatnot were actually a stall for time while a hostage situation was being worked on. But surely by now if that were the case things would be resolved one way or another?

Most likely there was some sort of mechanical failure, possibly involving depressurization or an electrical fire which could account for some of the things reported. Of course accuracy of reporting all along has been a bit suspect.

I feel for the families and friends of people on the plane. Bad enough that their loved ones are probably all dead, but not actually knowing where they are and what happened has got to be rough (and also give them the tiniest bit of hope, wanting to believe they're somehow alive).

I especially enjoyed The Onion's take on the story: "Malaysian Airlines Expands Investigation to Include General Scope of Space, Time"

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I admit, I was thinking of Lost there, but decided to veer in the direction of Survivor instead. I was serious about the self-hijacking, however. I can't see anything else that fits the facts. I see by today's headline that The Authorities are also officially on board with the hijacking theory.

But as to the WHY and WHERE - nobody has yet proposed a better theory than mine.

ETA: Thanks for the Onion link. It's right on point, as usual.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Here is the best explanation yet.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/03/mh370-electrical-fire/

[rubel.livejournal.com]

The whole thing simply gave me LOST flashbacks. Which--considering LOST is full of flashbacks--is pretty meta.