Thread: Contact lost with Malaysia Plane.

First lets look at the MEC location - below and immediately behind the flight deck seems a perfect spot to have catastrophic consequences.



A search seems to show incidents which exhibited characteristics that well fit some of the scenarios discussed here at PPRuNe. Scenarios that address the seemingly unlikely event of loss of comms, loss of telemetry (ACARS), loss of transponder etc.

Quote:
On 26 February 2007, a Boeing 777-222 operated by United Airlines, after pushback from the stand at London Heathrow Airport, experienced internal failure of an electrical component which subsequently led to under-floor fire. The aircraft returned to a stand where was attended by the Airfield Fire Service and the passengers were evacuated.

After engines start, about the time the engine driven Integrated Drive Generators (IDGs) would normally come on-line, the flight deck instrument displays flickered, the crew heard an abnormal noise and an EICAS message, amongst other related messages, indicated that the Right Main AC Bus had failed.

Some 40 seconds after the engines had stabilised at ground idle, the smoke detector in the Main Equipment Centre (MEC), located beneath the flight deck and forward vestibule, detected smoke. About two and a half minutes after the electrical failure, the crew became aware of a faint smell of electrical burning on the flight deck, following which the right engine was shut down. The crew were alerted by the ground handling crew that smoke was seen to be coming from the MEC vent and, a couple of minutes later, ATC also advised that smoke had been seen coming from the aircraft.

The investigation found:

Quote:
The accident occurred during engine start after pushback from the stand. After the right generator came online an electrical failure occurred in the right main bus. The failure resulted in severe internal arcing and short circuits inside the two main power cont actors of the right main bus. The heat generated during the failure resulted in the contactor casings becoming compromised, causing molten metal droplets to fall down onto the insulation blankets below. The insulation blankets ignited and a fire spread underneath a floor panel to the opposite electrical panel (P205) (see MEC compartment drawing above), causing heat and fire damage to structure, cooling ducts and wiring.

The Report identifies the following causal factors:

*An internal failure of the Right Generator Circuit Breaker or Right Bus Tie Breaker contactor on the P200 power panel inside the Main Equipment Centre resulted in severe internal arcing and short-circuits which melted the contactor casings. The root cause of contactor failure could not be determined.

*The open base of the P200 power panel allowed molten metal droplets from the failed contactors to drop down onto the insulation blankets and ignite them.

*The aircraft’s electrical protection system was not designed to detect and rapidly remove power from a contactor suffering from severe internal arcing and short-circuits.

*The contactors had internal design features that probably contributed to the uncontained failures.
It does not in my opinion take an engineer or accident investigator to see that had this incident occurred at cruise that the results could very well have matched what has been speculated here.

A failure (or even a breach) in the MEC causes fire. As the crew is unable to shut down and deplane, the incident escalates with smoke filling cabin/cockpit, followed quickly by electrical failure as we saw happen in this incident ...

As the fire continues uncontained, with the aircraft deaf and dumb - electrical; and as a result comms, transponder, ACARS etc all down, the fire breaches the aircraft hull - as it was well on its way to doing in this incident - followed by a rapid depressurization.

It seems entirely possible and plausible that in such instance, as the damage would be advanced before the crew even were aware - and with the likely rapid loss of electric bus and all related, that no Mayday would get out between discovery and loss of power.

I think it also at least plausible that the pilots MAY have been able to initiate an emergency procedure, but may have rapidly lost consciousness.

More experienced pilots please comment, but I believe the response to a rapid decompression at cruise is to push the nose over hard into a banked descent. I can imagine pilots initiating the emergency descent maneuver at same time they dial in a heading and lower altitude, then being overcome - by depressurization and as the descent continues, then by smoke.

The aircraft, even in distress, could likely fly a fairly long ways. With in the fairly long delay before anyone realized or were worried about the aircraft being missing, it could have traveled well out of the area.

If the MEC is accessible from the cabin it seems terrorism is at least possible - and seems something to look at. But regardless, this incident seems to show everything necessary to casue the scenario we have been discussing, is present in a previous incident with the aircraft.


References:

Short Version:
Air Accidents Investigation: S2/2007 Boeing 777-222, N786UA


Air Investigation Bulletin - Overview:
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...7%20N786UA.pdf

Air Investigation - Complete:
http://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/647.pdf
220mph is online now

from pprune forum discussion

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

hus, I think smart money is that it was on the scheduled flight path and some major catastrophe caused it to plummet to the ocean

yes - undetected damage in the inner wing caused it to fall off

Originally Posted by Fluke

You are quite welcome to give reasons as to why the possible scenario given was improbable .

because it is ludicrous - what did they shoot it down with ? one very quiet man with a fcuking long distance radar guided stealth ray

A friend just sent me this, I guess it has as much credence as most of the other stuff being put forth.

Hmmmm. The Chinese Ambassador has just turned up to the latest press conference.

Subtle hint.

Originally Posted by aging one

A friend just sent me this, I guess it has as much credence as most of the other stuff being put forth.

Very interesting, indeed...

The press should be hammering them to release this. What are they hiding?

Malaysia Airlines has said all its aircrafts are ACARS-equipped, but it has so far declined to release whatever data it got from Flight 370.

Just waiting for the press conference where hopefully someone will bring this up and Malaysia will say they don't know anything about it (probably).

NZer spots burning object off Vietnam
Updated 32 minutes ago

Vietnamese authorities helping in the search for a missing Malaysia Airline's plane are searching for a burning object seen by a New Zealander off the coast of Vietnam.

Vietnam air traffic management deputy general director Doan Huu Gia said it had deployed aircraft to investigate a possible sighting of the plane.

"We received an email from a New Zealander who works on one of the oil rigs off Vung Tau," he said.

"He said he spotted a burning [object] at that location, some 300km southeast of Vung Tau."

NZer spots burning object off Vietnam | Radio New Zealand News

Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Fishermen Find Life Raft Floating in Waters off Malaysian Coast

Fishermen have reportedly found a life raft floating in waters off Port Dickson, a southwestern Malaysian port town.

The discovery raised hopes of a breakthrough in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, but authorities could not retrieve the raft.

The fisherman notified the maritime authorities after they found the floating object bearing the word "Boarding" around 10 nautical miles from Port Dickson, the New Strait Times reported.

"We managed to tie it to our boat as we feared it would sink due to the damages," 40-year old fisherman Azman Mohamad told the Malaysian daily. As the raft was very heavy the fishermen could not lift it, and waited for the arrival of authorities.

Port Dickson, south of Kuala Lumpur, is on the Strait of Malacca, on Malaysia's western coast.

Malaysia's air force chief has denied reports that quoted him as saying the military radar had tracked the jetliner over the Strait of Malacca.

The search personnel of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in Malacca rushed to the area, but the raft is said to have sunk in the sea by the time they arrived.

Attempts are now being made to salvage the craft, according to reports.

Similar findings have been reported on many previous occasions during the four-day-long search, but hopes were dampened each time as the objects were declared unrelated to the missing aircraft.

The Beijing-bound passenger aircraft, which originated in Kuala Lumpur, vanished on Saturday with 239 people on board and remains untraceable.


Go here to see photos of life rafts from a company claiming
to supply 777s - 'Board here' written on it.

http://www.cmaviationservices.com/ai...s/#prettyPhoto[fbedd6507ede86da92aabf3c55b88c76]/1/

Do aeroplanes carry life rafts ?

Originally Posted by Fluke

Do aeroplanes carry life rafts ?

Yes - the inflatable slides.

But not ones like this.

Originally Posted by Fluke

Do aeroplanes carry life rafts ?

No, the slides act as the rafts

Jesus looking at these bumbling idiots bullshitting their way through this press conference - no wonder the families are fuming.

Pathetic about covers it.

They don't have the details of the information sent to RR by the plane on what the 6th day ?????? I can't describe in words.

if they are qualified incompetent, maybe that would lead to a ban
re flying to the EU (or EEA)

Twitter users notice Iranians in photos released by Malaysian police have the same legs

Twitter users notice Iranians in photos released by Malaysian police have the same legs | 2Bangkok.com

I think it is pretty clear the Malaysians only have photos from the waist up. Why they bothered adding legs is beyond me.

The only way that Malaysia can come out of this with any credibility is if the plane is being held hostage and they are negotiating for its release in secret , but I do feel that is highly improbable .

I really want the guy who edited this photo to include the other guys legs to have his mouse editing fingers chopped off in accordance with Islamic law of being really really really stupid. In a square I might add with all of us invited to watch flying THAI to KL

They didn't they photocopied one on the other, and they told people that when they handed them out.

Why they didn't just fix it instead of making themselves seem even more incompetent and unprofessional....

Well if they were competent and professional they would have.

Originally Posted by Thormaturge

I think it is pretty clear the Malaysians only have photos from the waist up. Why they bothered adding legs is beyond me.

It's supposed to be CCTV stills walking round the airport.
Should have plenty of pics, legs and all. Jim

This is so frigging sad. I had friends that went down on the Swissair flight at Peggy's Cove all those years ago, still think about them.

On the passenger list with this one, there were two toddlers....