Yeah, I saw the movie. Great movie and also a really good book. True story too. Back in those days you could really put the "serious guy with a clipboard" plan to good effect. Of course, you wore a pilot uniform instead of carrying a clipboard.

Back in those days, everything was more lax. Even as recently as the late 90s I remember having flight attendants just come into the cockpit at any time (sometimes they would want to come up to get away from demanding passengers for a few minutes. They'd vent to us and then head back for more).

When I flew the J-32, many of our planes didn't even have a cockpit door. They had a curtain which we usually left open. The passenger sitting in seat 1B had a great look at the cockpit and, if they were really interested, I'd plug in a 3rd headset and give it them to wear so they could listen in on everything.

Thank god I thought I was the only one who can't watch that horrendous thing on fox, now an expert chimed in it feels better, pls don't ever tune in to that fox especially on this missing flight

Do you still give rides to other airline's pilots in the jump seat? And if so do the other airline's pilots (or did they ever) take the wheel when one of the pilots needs to hit the bathroom?

I'm glad to hear that Catch Me was well received by airline pilots. It's my favorite movie, and I love the way it captured the glamour of the airline industry in the sixties. I never experienced it but it seems like those were the good ole days

All the time.

Never. (It might have happened in the old day. idk)

Yeah, that was definitely the time to be an airline pilot.

To that guy who said "stop tarding... they all died"

Oh, someone has the moral ground and is talking in absolutes. Not to mention an offensive word to those who are living and suffering...

How do you know they are all dead?

what is the purpose of the cockpit being able to turn off the transponder with the push of a button?

That sounds awesome. I remember the first time I flew by myself the pilots let me come into the cockpit before leaving the gate. As a 9 year old that was really awesome, and probably still would be now. I'd love to have flown back when it was just a curtain to be able to get a glimpse of the view in flight.

I too remember going in the cockpit as a kid back in the day. Really too bad the world is full of bad people.

So they can turn it off when they are on the ground and don't need to be on the ATC radar screen.

The question isn't "could one plane follow another (after first having found it)" but "could the 777 pilot follow closely enough for the two planes to appear as one on a radar screen".

A cursor bit if reading says that the farther away the two planes are from the radar tower the farther apart the planes can be and still appear as one object on the radar display. I don't know what the required following distance would need to be to give a good chance of not appearing as 2 planes long enough to be noticed but experts in the article I quoted said it would be unlikely to happen. (Although they my be assigning most of the unlikely to finding the correct mule to fly behind)

It would be diverting to hear expert opinion on exactly how close a jumbo jet would have to follow another to appear as a single radar object. I for one, find this Bermuda Triangle pr0n rather engaging. It is like the DB Cooper story or the show Lost before they try to explain things at the end.

I'm not 100% about this but, I think safety is the main reason. Electrical fire is a huge threat to a plane. In case of an emergency the pilot needs to be able to shut down different systems depending where the electrical emergency is.

There is also an ELT (emergency locator transmitter) that is battery powered. It can be turned on by a switch or hard impact (and maybe water??). This is the biggest piece of evidence that I know of pointing to the plane not crashing. If I am correct. If the plane had crashed the ELT would have automatically turned on and so far the ELT has not turned on.

I remember when I was a little kid the attendant took me into the cockpit to talk to the pilot and see all the instruments. That was like, 1990 maybe? Pretty crazy to think where were at now with airplane security vs then

That's pretty neat. +1 to too many bad people in this world these days.

someone earlier in this thread said the range of that thing is only 2 miles, so youd have to be really close in order to "hear" it. So it very well is turned on and we just dont know about it

They can't, no, but I assume radar revealed the plane turning exactly as it reached a waypoint and turning to the exact heading for another waypoint. It's not impossible for this to be done manually but it's just way more likely to have been done via the flight computer.

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Regarding whether Malaysia can be trusted, multiple countries have complained about how secretive they are being. Vietnam at one point called off its search because Malaysia was not giving out enough information. China has complained in increasingly strident terms that they are not being given enough information. US officials have complained about the same thing. Offers of help to Malaysia from the FBI and Interpol were repeatedly refused. So it's not like there's no basis for assuming Malaysia might be withholding information.

I do not know much about commercial planes. I do work around, helicopters in remote areas of the British Columbia mountains. The ELT in these helicopters, send there signal to a satellite.

I do not know this as fact. But I would guess the ELT from a commercial airline should be able to reach a satellite from anywhere on Earth.

I have a picture of myself as a 9 year old sitting in the pilots chair from April of 2001. Was really quite awesome.

We flew again in December of 2001. I really wanted to do it again but there was absolutely no way after 9/11.

bro it generates more heat/seismographic activity then a volcanic eruption!

I wonder how many more times this is going to be asked by someone who hasn't read the thread?

Remember some hullabaloo recently about the possibility of hackers being able to take over an airplane remotely.

http://time.com/28244/malaysia-airli...h370-computer/

I know this is not relevant as to what happened to the aircraft, but I don't recall anything being mentioned as to Vietnam Air Traffic Control botching the handoff.

Imagine Air Canada123 heading from Toronto to New York. Canadian enroute ATC gives US enroute controllers the flight details (call sign, type, alt, destination, current position, etc )just prior to US airspace. If no contact is made by Air Canada 123 to US controllers within a reasonable time, do you think they are not calling AC123 and/or calling Canadian ATC to find out what is up?

For one they would be worried that they might have an aircraft not showing up on radar, but in US airspace. Huge collision and other risks at play.

So, when Malaysian Air never calls Vietnam ATC, then what in the heck did Vietnam ATC do? I don't recall any story, nor have heard any tapes of Vietnam ATC calling Malaysia ATC and saying "hey, we still don't have comm or radar contact with Malaysia Air 370?"

This should be standard....

Isn't the most likely scenario that the plane just crashed into the ocean? Why all these incredible scenarios??

Slow news week.

Would this plane sink if it landed in the sea or are they saying there would be parts of the that rise to the sea surface?

I assumed it would sink but the search has gone on and continues to spread so I must be wrong , crazy stuff none the less hopefully it's found soon

Because there is an outside chance aliens have finally made contact with us.