revampz
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Yeah, but those two in conjunction only make for the first turn/change of course (in the fatal flaw theory where the fuselage breaks apart and there is depressurization). In that scenario, the plane had trouble, the pilots realized it, and headed back to land asap to land the plane.
The way I see it that theory has some problems (using the map for reference):
1) At the first sign of trouble (at some point prior to course change at 1:07) why didn't they land at the first available airport? That's the rule of thumb for pilots. There are two on the east coast just north of where they traversed the coast on their way out.
2) Why no mayday and request for permission to land at that course change at 1:07 if there is still radio contact and the copilot is alert enough to say "all right, good night" at 1:19?
3) Instead they fly completely across the country for almost an hour after the initial event (pre 1:07); there is also a turn in course 2/3 of the way across land--would they have also reprogrammed their autopilot to do that in the 20 minutes or so of oxygen that they had with their emergency crew masks? "Autopilot is autopilot" says Mitchell Casado on Anderson Cooper..."it's going to stay where it is until you change it." So if they put it on autopilot under hypoxic stress before 1:07, then passed out, one would expect a straight line flight from the point of directional change (1:07) until the plane ran out of fuel.
4) Leaving Malaysia's west coast, *flying at 24,500 feet altitude,* they head back out to sea, making multiple diagonal turns between waypoints that the earlier experts said showed the pilot was an experienced aviator. JMO, but that doesn't seem the moves of someone low on oxygen or someone looking for a place to land. Or in fact a dead pilot, which he would certainly be if a fuselage breakup caused a hypoxic event before 1:07. No way could a pilot could still be expertly flying a depressurized plane at 24,500 feet, navigating waypoints. His emergency oxygen would have been gone an hour or so earlier.
Thanks for this post.....It says perfectly what I have in my mind but could not explain in writing....