The Butler did it

By admin-s Last updated Apr 1, 2014

What all the theories about the disappearance of this plane leave out are the important aircraft systems that would react (or try to) in any mishap involving the plane.

Bernard Anthony

The phrase “the butler did it” is commonly attributed to Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) a very popular writer who authored over 50 books, many of which became best-sellers. she is Known as “the American Agatha Christie,”The Phrase ” The butler did it” is synonymous with a trusted long serving servant who stoops to do the most dastardly of crimes, Murder, and is discovered after a smart detective unravels the “mysterious death” . If we are readers of Agatha Christie , we will know of Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective who is adept at uncovering layers of hidden evidence leading to the truth of the conspirator.Coming to conspiracy theories, the latest being churned out by the media other than from Malaysia is that Malaysia is “hiding the truth”about what really happened to MH 370.Li Peng the brother of one of the Chinese passengers on board MH370 said he did not blame Malaysia or Malaysia Airlines for its disappearance. He said in an interview, “But they are obviously withholding information and that is cowardice I blame them for their lack of communication, for their incompetence. It is because of them there are so many conspiracy theories.”Abbott, the Australian Prime Minister, said today, “Nevertheless, the best brains in the world are applying themselves to this task, all of the technological mastery that we have is being applied and brought to bear here. If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it. But I don’t want to underestimate just how difficult it is.”Conspiracy theories don’t hold water because they ignore certain things that have to happen in conjunction with those events in order for them to be correct. What all the theories about the disappearance of this plane leave out are the important aircraft systems that would react (or try to) in any mishap involving the plane. Here are a few.

1) The Cabin Emergency Depressurization Oxygen System. The “Rubber Mask Jungle” drops if the cabin pressure drops below a certain level – typically at 14,000 feet. The pilots can deploy the system manually or leave it set on automatic. But the pilots cannot turn it off.

Conspiracy theories about shutting this off to kill the passengers fail to take the system design into account. That theory is also based on the claim that the plane climbed from 35k to 45k feet. Two problems with that claim. First, it exceeds the plane’s service ceiling by 3k and occurred in a few seconds on the recorded radar track that Flightradar.com has. An SR-71 can’t climb 10k feet in 5 seconds. This ascent occurred at the edge of the detection range of Kuala Lumpur’s ATC system. It is a radar anomaly. It didn’t happen.

2) The Emergency Landing Transponders. Depending on the model, the 777 has either 4 or 6 of these transponders located throughout the fuselage. They automatically turn on when they detect rapid deceleration of the aircraft due to a crash landing. The pilots can manually turn this system on to broadcast its signal prior to a crash or ditching at sea or leave it on automatic, but they cannot turn it off.

Conspiracy theories about a bomb going off and obliterating the plane so that all the ELBs are destroyed doesn’t account for the amount of explosives needed and their placement to hit them all at the same time. Must have been the same crew that packed 10,000 tons of explosives and ran a couple of thousand miles of detonation cord up and down the Twin Towers without anyone noticing anything.

Additionally, we have thermal imaging Satellites looking at the South China Sea and they would have detected that explosion. The route was heavily traveled by planes and ships. The explosion and the flaming debris raining down for as much as three minutes would have been visible. A lit cigarette on a ship is visible for 5 miles at night. How far do you think you could see 150 tons of flaming fuel and debris raining down from the sky?

ACARS (Aircraft Communications, Addressing and Reporting System): This functions as a kind of Telex system that allows the airline or airports to send voice or text messages to the plane and vice versa. It relies on Sat, VHF and HF broadcast frequencies to operate.

What’s important is that this system continues to ping a handshake to the plane and the plane responds to it even if the unit is turned off in the cockpit. Because this system sends its signals on VHF and HF frequencies that are located in land based towers, it could be used as a tracking system for the aircraft if people on the ground sent continuous message traffic to the plane.

They could see which VHF and HF towers got an acknowledgement response of those messages back from the plane and the relative signal strength to each and make some educated guesses about the location. They probably turned off the system for this reason.

Other information that was skimmed over. Did a US Navy Submarine hear the plane impact the water off the Andaman Islands? On March 13th, Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent for ABC News filed a story about the communications systems being shut down separately with this statement: “U.S. officials said earlier that they have an “indication” the missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner may have crashed in the Indian Ocean and is moving the USS Kidd to the area to begin searching.” I believe this is one of the most credible pieces of information about the disappearance of this airliner to come from any source.

First, it went to the Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent from ABC News, not some stringer or foreign journalist. It’s probably a cultivated source of hers. Second, the source is carefully masked as a generic “US Official” which generally means a military source who doesn’t want to be identified for leaking information. Third is the word “indication” without elaboration except to tie it directly to the plane crashing into the sea. I’ve seen information obtained from submarines disclosed in this kind of obscure way before in the media. I think a USN Sub on patrol off Malaysia, perhaps transiting to the Persian Gulf, may have heard the airplane hit the water.

Here is what may have transpired. A sub’s passive sonar station is constantly manned night and day. It consists of a series of arrays of hydrophones that run along the hull on both sides and a computer that can analyze the sounds the sub hears and help classify them for the combat information center on the sub.This computer can also determine a line of bearing on the contact and estimate the range (and even the depth if submerged) by comparing the sound signatures between hydrophones as they run along the hull. Its accuracy in predicting range decreases depending upon the distance of the sound source and other factors like temperature, depth, salinity and the thermocline layers that these factors combine to create.

A 330 ton airliner hitting the water at 500-600 kts. would sound like a gigantic explosion underwater. And I mean gigantic, roughly 4,500 lbs of TNT going off and exerting a force of 20,000 psi on the water at the impact area. This would result in a giant over-pressure condition in the water that would emanate out as a shock wave (in contrast, the big depth charge explosions in WWII movies were only 300lb charges). It would have a huge sound signature that would travel tens, if not hundreds, of miles, depending upon conditions.

If the sonar operator heard such a sound, they would give it a contact number and log it. At intervals during the day and night, the submarine un-spools an ultra-high frequency antenna buoy and transmits a micro-burst of radio energy to a Sat, which gives the subs position, course, heading, crew emails and various situation reports that would include contacts of interest or unusual occurrences that they think they should phone in. A large underwater explosion would probably qualify as an unusual occurrence.Raddatz’s report does not say what time that indication was obtained, which further suggests a submarine provided the information. Tell the time and place you heard the noise and you’ve got a good idea of that sub’s position. We can assume from the time the ACARS pings were being logged that this would have been early daylight of March 8th. That “indication” was considered so credible that the Navy diverted the USS Kidd to the area at high speed to investigate an area that was probably more narrowed down for it by the Pentagon.

Unfortunately the connection between that underwater explosion and the missing airliner was not made by the Pentagon until the 11th or 12th, by which time the debris field would have dispersed considerably if any floating debris even existed.

There were also reports from China of a seismic event along the flight path of MH 370, but that occurred at 0255 hrs, when we know the plane was still flying because the ACARS sat was still getting a handshake signal from the plane. The Chinese have since withdrawn this event as being not related to the incident.

We now know that the Malaysian authorities have revised the time line over and over because new evidence keeps contradicting their claims Malaysian releases small pieces of incorrect data, get everyone arguing over what it means, and then release another piece of data that contradicts it.

As an example: The initial claim was that the ACARS and flight data transponders were turned off after the co-pilot said “Alright goodnight” to air traffic controllers handing them off to Ho Chi Minh City ATC. This supported the supposition that hijackers took over the plane. Now we know these systems were turned off just before that transmission was made.

Malaysian authorities claimed the plane took a hard right turn and climbed steeply, and then took up a new heading to the West. We now know that the Flight Management System altered that course (at the command of the flight crew) within 20 minutes of takeoff. The plane made a slow turn heading to the West that took it up to Southern Thailand in a large arc.

The Malaysian authorities have all the flight data information and probably more coming from other sources, the plane was transmitting Health Management System Information on that plane back to Boeing, even if the Malaysians weren’t subscribing to that service. Rolls Royce also has pretty complete data on what those engines were doing, including power settings, altitude, rpms and fuel state til shutdown. To date, no one has asked Boeing about what information they might have, or whether Rolls Royce will release their data outside of Malaysian government control.

The Acting Transport Minister Hissamuddin threw a monkey wrench into the conclusive statement made by Najib that the plane crashed and is lost somewhere in the Indian Ocean, by saying last Friday ” We are hoping against hope that there will be survivors”. Leaving aside all stories that “elves have taken the plane and are now hiding it”, we should be practical and earth bound in bringing this to a quick conclusion , Its been more than three weeks and there is not a single shred of evidence that the plane has crashed into the Southern Indian Ocean, it seems futile to continue searching for something that may never be found,The disappearance of 239 people will always leave a deep hole in the hearts of all caring humans in this world, and if we must take a lesson from this that its only that life is so uncertain, we are here today andtomorrow we are no more, As a friend once said ” Life is short make it sweet”.Of course the question needs to be asked “Did the butler do it?”