I had fairly well concluded that the most likely cause was a fire disrupting the electrical and control systems, when CNN now say the sharp left turn was pre-programmed 12 minutes before sign off from Malaysian Air Traffic control, which was followed fairly quickly by that left turn.
CNN claim to have this from an US official, from data sent back before the reporting systems went off. It is hard to know what to make of it: obviously there are large economic interests that much prefer blame to lie with the pilots rather than the aircraft. But if it is true then the move was not a response to an emergency. (CNN went on to say the pilot could have programmed in the course change as a contingency in case of an emergency. That made no sense to me at all – does it to anyone else?)
I still find it extremely unlikely that the plane landed or crashed on land I cannot believe it could evade military detection as it flew over a highly militarized region. Somewhere there is debris on the ocean. There have been previous pilot suicides that took the plane with them; but the long detour first seems very strange and I do not believe is precedented. However if the CNN information on pre-programming is correct, and given it was the co-pilot who signed off to air traffic control, it is hard to look beyond the pilots as those responsible for whatever did happen. In fact, on consideration, the most improbable thing is that information CNN are reporting from the US official.
EU thinking about German pilots’ medical problems & how to get the right balance between privacy/security, as ever.
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/transport/commission-battles-berlin-aftermath-germanwings-crash-318697
The Eurowings plane, lost an engine cover but completed flight 4U592 from Cologne.
https://www.rt.com/news/319231-german-flight-engine-cover/
Germanwings and Eurowings are expected to merge next year
A US Marine Corps pilot has died in an F-18 jet crash, close to an RAF base ENGLAND
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-34593948
“The incident is currently under investigation.”
That mystery man from Lyon who rode a motorcycle to Chevaline, intent on paragliding — that’s what came to mind when you mentioned it in JW’s thread, Pink.
A SWISS F-18 crashed near the village of Glamondans in eastern FRANCE earlier in October.
https://www.rt.com/uk/319261-f18-crash-raf-lakenheath/
Now an AMERICAN F-18 has crashed returning from active duty in the Middle East to ENGLAND.
Anybody heard if the PHILIPPINE Authorities have made any effort to talk to the teenagers who found the downed aircraft on Sugbay Island?
There seems to have been some other happenings in Cambridge I just had a look a Cambridge news and there are reports of a man being shot by police .
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Man-dies-shot-police-St-Neots/story-28033674-detail/story.html
Maybe he shot the F-18 down Pink?
Don’t know what it’s about the police were called to that address is all I have seen .
It’s a shame for the F-18 pilot on his way home any idea what happened to cause him to crash ?
What sort of weapons would this F-18 carry and what happens in the event of a crash are weapons kept disarmed I have no idea about fighter planes and how they work just wondering how much risk the things it carries pose ?
http://militaryaviationreview.com/usmc-fa-18c-crashes-near-lakenheath
Inmarsat welcomes President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China to London headquarters
http://www.inmarsat.com/press-release/inmarsat-welcomes-president-xi-jinping-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china-to-london-headquarters/
Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
engine packs up over the Atlantic ocean.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3285910/Ethiopian-Airlines-Dreamliner-declares-emergency-Atlantic-one-engines-shuts-down.html
Ethiopian Airlines are keeping stum.
the Dreamliner can be fitted with either
Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 or General Electric GEnx engines
it will be interesting to know which engines this aircraft is fitted with?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-34610280
F-18 Hornet pilot ejected but did not survive
WOW stranger and stranger
The Dreamliner Flight 500 had originally set out from Addis Ababa,
and was heading to WASHINGTON DULLES
via Dublin.
makes you wonder
who was on board from ADDIS ABBABA to WASHINGTON?
There is a story here a BA aircraft has taken the ETHIOPIAN passengers to DULLES
from DUBLIN.
So there must be real trouble with the Dreamliner
engine failure is not just an incident, over the Atlantic Ocean.
I wonder wots up?
No idea if this is the same ETHIOPIAN Dreamliner, they do not seem to want you to konow the aircraft number.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33985615
It is getting even more strange
Second plane makes an emergency landing after passenger becomes ill
http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1023/736917-ethiopian-airlines-dublin-airport/
A second plane has made an emergency landing after a passenger fell ill aboard a US-bound flight.
The Boeing 777-300 aircraft made an emergency landing at Shannon Airport earlier this afternoon.
British Airways flight BA-193 was en route from London to Dallas, Texas when the crew declared a medical emergency and requested permission to divert and land at Shannon.
The passenger has since been transported to University Hospital Limerick for treatment and the flight continued on its journey shortly before 4pm.
It was the second time today that a passenger flight diverted to an Irish airport.
An Ethiopian Airlines flight en route to Washington DC landed safely at Dublin Airport having declared an emergency.
Flight ET500, a Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner, was flying from Addis Ababa via Dublin to Washington Dulles International Airport.
It returned to Dublin Airport having shut down one of its engines and landed safely at around 8.35am.
The plane had initially landed this morning on a routine fuel stop at 4.45am. It took off at 6.10am but had to return after it reported technical difficulties.
The Dreamliner had been cruising at 40,000 feet and was about 600km north west of Donegal when the pilot declared an emergency at around 7.30am.
The plane was then forced to dump thousands of litres of fuel so it could land within safe weight limits.
The crew had been in contact with controllers at the Irish Aviation Authority’s North Atlantic Communications Service centre at Ballygirreen, Co Clare, and advised them that they had to shut down one of the jet’s two engines.
Several units of Dublin Fire Brigade along with Health Service Executive ambulances and an incident officer were mobilised to the airport.
Engineers are now investigating the problem.
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-800, registration ET-ARF (up until today, this aircraft has been seen in zero other incidents while Ethiopian is listed in totally 8 incidents, accidents or reports so far) performing flight ET-500 from Dublin (Ireland) to Washington Dulles,DC (USA), was enroute at FL400 over the Atlantic Ocean about 400nm westnorthwest of Dublin when the crew reported they needed to shut the left hand engine (GEnx) down and declared PAN. The aircraft turned around, drifted down to FL250 and returned to Dublin for a safe landing on runway 28 about 140 minutes after departure and taxied to the apron.
The airline confirmed a defect with the left hand engine prompted the return to Dublin. The cause of the technical defect is under examination by engineers in cooperation with GE.
A replacement Boeing 787-800 registration ET-AOQ was dispatched to Dublin as flight ET-9201, has just arrived and is estimated to continue the flight with a delay of about 11 hours.
The mentioned aircraft type Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner is currently being featured in over 74 reports on AeroInside.
http://www.aeroinside.com/item/6506/ethiopian-b788-over-atlantic-on-oct-23rd-2015-engine-shut-down-in-flight
SO NOT R/R
another FRENCH one perhaps?
So calling PAN, does not just mean I am experiencing some technical difficulties?
Boeing declined to comment.
Engine maker General Electric and the airline both said they had deployed experts to investigate what caused the incident on Boeing’s state-of-the-art lightweight jet.
http://news.yahoo.com/engine-alert-forces-ethiopian-787-dreamliner-back-dublin-212435186–sector.html
So if an engine packs up over the Atlantic and the Dreamliner returns to Dublin.
Which regulatory body takes charge.
Not the aircraft makers, surely?
I see the gang at JW is getting a little testy. No kidding.
I would have thought that if a very modern commercial two engined aircraft
flew across am ocean and one of its two engines packed up
that a major flap would ensue, yet barely a mention, it is almost as if Boeing
can silence the international press?
This was unbelievably serious.
A heart beat away from disaster.
Appearing military bases on coral reefs in the South Chins Sea
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/10/24/uk-southchinasea-usa-patrols-china-idUKKCN0SI05320151024
U.S. plans to send warships or military aircraft within 12 nautical miles of China’s artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea, possibly within days, could open a tense new front in Sino-U.S. rivalry.
A range of security experts said Washington’s so-called freedom of navigation patrols would have to be regular to be effective, given Chinese ambitions to project power deep into maritime Southeast Asia and beyond.
But China would likely resist attempts to make such U.S. actions routine, some said, raising the political and military stakes. China’s navy could for example try to block or attempt to surround U.S. vessels, they said, risking an escalation.
Given months of debate already in Washington over the first such patrol close to the Chinese outposts since 2012, several regional security experts and former naval officers said the U.S. government might be reluctant to do them often.
U.S. allies such as Japan and Australia are unlikely to follow with their own direct challenges to China, despite their concerns over freedom of navigation along vital trade routes, they added.
“This cannot be a one-off,” said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
“The U.S. navy will have to conduct these kinds of patrols on a regular basis to reinforce their message.”
The Obama administration has said it would test China’s territorial claims to the area after months of pressure from Congress and the U.S. military. It has not given a timeframe.
“I think we have been very clear – that we intend to do this,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters last Monday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry officials said this month that Beijing would “never allow any country to violate China’s territorial waters and airspace in the Spratly islands in the name of protecting navigation and overflight”.
Under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, 12-nautical mile limits cannot be set around man-made islands built on previously submerged reefs.
Four of the seven reefs China has reclaimed over the last two years were completely submerged at high tide before construction began, legal scholars say.
China claims most of the South China Sea. Other claimants are Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
“NO-GO ZONE”
Bonnie Glaser, a security expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said U.S. missions would likely be regular, with the navy wanting to ensure it did not become effectively shut out of the area.
“I know the U.S. does not want that outcome. Nobody wants to give the Chinese a new no-go zone and an effective territorial sea they are not entitled to,” she said.
Glaser said she believed China would be careful about interfering with a U.S. patrol, despite past frictions.
Myles Caggins, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, declined to comment when asked whether a U.S. show of force might be more symbolism than substance unless there was a sustained naval effort, or whether the administration was factoring in further Chinese assertiveness.
He said U.S. thinking was illustrated by President Barack Obama’s statement at a news conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington last month that “the United States will continue to sail, fly and operate anywhere that international law allows”.
Despite Xi’s comment at the news conference that the man-made islands would not be militarised, some mainland Chinese analysts believe the reclamations will form the heart of a new military screen protecting Chinese submarines on southern Hainan Island, as well as boasting extensive civilian facilities.
These submarines will soon carry nuclear weapons and represent the core of China’s nuclear deterrence, giving it a second strike capability.
“DANGEROUS ESCALATION”
While China’s outposts are seen as vulnerable in a conflict, up until that point they will allow Beijing to extend both civilian activities, such as fishing and oil exploration, as well as military patrols. One airstrip is finished and two others are being built.
Zhang Baohui, a Chinese security expert at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, said he feared a “dangerous escalation”, with China likely to react to any attempt to make the patrols routine.
Rather than freedom of navigation, Zhang said he believed Beijing saw the issue as one of great power rivalry.
“It is all about power, and that is what makes this so dangerous,” he said.
China had never formally declared a 12-mile territorial zone around the reclamations, so any U.S. show of force was premature, he added.
Sam Bateman, an adviser to Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and a former Australian naval officer, also noted the lack of any formal declaration, adding Washington risked underestimating China’s angst over being contained in the South China Sea.
“There is a real risk of a confrontation between China and the U.S. that the U.S. might have to withdraw from,” he said, urging more diplomacy instead.
“I’m not sure what their end-game is.”
(Reporting by Greg Torode in HONG KONG; Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Editing by Dean Yates)
South China Sea Coral Reefs new disputed bases
I just wonder could these
coral reef bases be implicated in anyway with the disappearance of MH370?
http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/south-china-sea-satellite-imagery-makes-clear-chinas-runway-work-at-subi-reef/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subi_Reef
Any more “news” on the teenagers who found an aircraft on Sugbay island in the Philippines, have those teenagers and their friends /relatives been found and silenced?
A technical issue is causing delays to flights through all of Scotland’s main airports.
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Prestwick airports have been affected by the incident at the Scottish Air Traffic Control centre at Prestwick.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34635291
CHINA has slammed the U.S.A. for ignoring repeated warnings and allowing one of its destroyers to sail close to artificial islands created by Beijing in the South China Sea. It said the USS Lassen’s actions “damage peace and stability in the region.”
“These actions of the U.S.A. warship are a threat to the sovereignty and security of CHINA, and safety of people living on the islands; they damage peace and stability in the region. In this regard, the Chinese side expresses extreme dissatisfaction and strongly protests,” the statement posted on China’s Foreign Ministry website says, according to Interfax.
A U.S.A. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AP on Monday that a US Navy ship had sailed near the artificial islands, in the South China Sea.
https://www.rt.com/news/319813-china-us-destroyer-islands/