[Peetwo]

Bananas in Pyjamas - Rd III: B is for??

B1 calls bollocks to B2

Courtesy the Oz today:

MH370 mystery: ATSB defies logic with hypoxia theory

• Byron Bailey
  
• The Australian
  
• January 22, 2016 12:00AM
  

Experts contend that the search zone was way too far north and east of the likely ditching area.

Last week in The Australian, Dan O’Malley, Air Transport Safety Bureau spokesman, said the agency was standing by its MH370 theory that an unresponsive crew by hypoxia (lack of oxygen) led to the disaster — this despite overwhelming opinion from experts within the aviation community against this theory.

The ATSB would have us believe that shortly after commencement of cruise a decompression occurred. They then want us to believe the experienced, well-trained pilots of a first-class airline sat there for over 30 seconds without donning their oxygen masks — which only takes a few seconds — as they have been trained to do many times in the simulator.

This meant they became incapacitated, leading shortly to unconsciousness and death.
The aircraft, however, turned left and flew nicely across northern Malaysia. About an hour later, after passing the northern tip of Sumatra, it turned left again.

After a decompression, the interior of the aircraft would quickly cool to less than -50C — the temperature of the outside atmosphere. Everyone on board MH370 would be on the way to becoming blocks of ice, the same as passengers on a Helios flight that failed to pressurise on a route from Cyprus to Athens at 34,000 feet. So why did the aircraft turn left?

Since 1903 we have had the joy of powered flight. In the 1930s autopilots were introduced, relieving the pilots of the tedium of flying straight and level for long periods in cruise. They controlled the aircraft in two axes: pitch (to maintain altitude) and roll (to maintain a heading commanded by the pilot).

The autopilots of modern aircraft have evolved where the aircraft can now fly a track from the GPS without the pilot having to adjust the heading to maintain the required route.

When MH370 turned left at the north tip Sumatra it must have been commanded to do so by the pilot because an autopilot is just a dumb system that relies on commands from the pilot.

It does not have artificial intelligence and ATSB and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority know that MH370 would have flown itself to destination Beijing unless someone changed the instructions (in the flight management system) to autopilot when the pilots were suddenly incapacitated — according to their theory.

I mentioned to a famous Australian aviator last week that the ATSB could not be so stupid as to be unaware of this fact. He replied “yes they are”, a typical incompetent government department.

I have colleagues from several major airlines and between us we have hundreds of years and well in excess of 100,000 hours flying A380, B777 and B747 aircraft.

We are disturbed at the theory promoted by the ATSB, which does not have a single shred of evidence to support it.

We are of the opinion that when the Malaysian government requested the ATSB conduct the investigation of MH370, they decided that the result must not be based on a rogue pilot theory. Otherwise, why would the rogue pilot theory not be considered especially when the head of Emirates, the world’s largest B777 operator, said on German TV that the MH370 flew under control for seven hours and that pilots should not be allowed to turn off communication equipment in flight.

I have in previous articles pointed out the aerodynamic absurdity of some of the theories and projections put out by the ATSB based on Bayesian mathematical modelling, which is used for stockmarket analysis.

The ATSB in March 2014 should have asked Virgin Airlines, which has experienced B777 pilots, to project the likely flight path based on known facts, such as fuel on board and upper winds.

What all this means is we, the real experts, contend that the search zone was way too far north and east of the likely ditching area, which means 22 months and more than $100 million wasted. It’s almost as if they did not want MH370 found before the two-year statute of limitations for insurance claims expires in March 2016.

Byron Bailey, a veteran commercial pilot with more than 45 years’ experience and 26,000 flying hours, is a former RAAF fighter pilot and trainer. He was a senior captain with Emirates for 15 years, during which time he flew the same model B777 as MH370.

  
What say you B2 - care to comment 




MTF..P2

Ps Thought the stretched MH370 SIO 7th Arc pic (above) was quite appropriate under the circumstances...