Hacker News Reader

Comment by saalweachter | Hacker News Reader

I really wonder how much of this rampant speculation is just people desperately wanting 300 people not to have died, either at all or just for no reason at all. Secret terrorist masterminds secretly hijacking a plane is more comforting than "sometimes shit happens and people die and there's nothing anyone can do".

View on HN

Except for the fact that multiple communications systems were deliberately turned off, and the place continued to fly for hours after that fact. I don't think anyone would have been particularly suprised if the place crashed into the ocean off the coast of Malaysia. In fact, that is what most people assumed at first, and that is why all the search and rescue efforts were focused in that area for the first 3 or 4 days. If you have been paying attention to what has come out after then, or read this article, I think you will see that does not appear to be the case.

Great, except where are the dead people? And how did the plane keep flying for 7 hours after they were "dead"? Too many unanswered questions, me thinks.

Perhaps the plane didn't keep flying for 7 hours but it kept floating on the water for those 7 hours (at least that part/device).

My understanding is that it was the Rolls Royce jet engines that were reporting to satellites for several hours, and that they were reporting some basic maintenance data about themselves (such as whether they were on and functioning). So if the engine had sat in the ocean for five hours and still somehow reported home, it would not have reported that they were still on and functioning.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com