Posted on 03/17/2006 8:02:14 PM PST by VeniVidiVici
Not really so very far off course. If you look at the great circle routes from Glasgow MT to St. Paul, and then St. Paul to Charleston, it's not that much different than the direct great circle route from Glasgow to Charleston. I don't know if the autopilot in such an aircraft can be programmed to fly a great circle route or if it must be approximated by a series of constant heading segments. If the latter, it's somewhat believable that the aircraft overflew the last way point and just stayed on the heading, and ended up near Charleston somewhere.
Sounds reasonable El, that same route would have taken very near or over Chicago as has been reported.
Bump.
(sorry about the caps, they have it that way on the website and I don't want to retype the story)
http://www.wsaz.com/
BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT ABOUT A MYSTERIOUS PLANE THAT IS BELIEVED TO BE IN THE CHARLESTON AREA: WE'VE CONFIRMED HOMELAND SECURITY CONTACTED KANAWHA COUNTY'S 911 CENTER TONIGHT ABOUT AN INCIDENT INVOLVING A SMALL PLANE. KANAWHA COUNTY COMMISSIONER KENT CARPER SAYS THE PLANE WAS BEING ESCORTED AND WAS LAST KNOWN TO BE IN EITHER KANAWHA, PUTNAM OR BOONE COUNTIES. RIGHT NOW- SEVERAL EMERGENCY AGENCIES ARE SEARCHING FOR THE PLANE. NOW: THE NBC AFFILIATE IN MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA IS REPORTING THE PLANE TOOK OFF IN MONTANA, HEADED TO ST. PAUL MINNESOTA - BUT FLEW WAY OFF COURSE. KARE REPORTS F-16 FIGHTER JETS CHECKED ON THE PLANE OVER WISCONSIN, BUT COULDN'T MAKE CONTACT WITH THE PILOT. THE FAA SAYS ONLY THE PILOT IS ON BOARD. WE'LL CONTINUE TO MONITOR THIS SITUATION AND BRING YOU THE LATEST ON WSAZ AT SUNRISE -- OR EARLIER IF DEVELOPMENTS WARRANT IT.
Yeh, quite likely. But I posted that on the basis of the aircraft not generally flying at altitudes where oxygen is required. But it definitely is at 27,000 feet. Pretty much anything above FL 100 in fact (10,000 feet).
The flight tracker path Shows him a little north of where he should have been , if he was on the great circle route for the origin and destintation given, but not that much north. Sort of looks like he turned south and that's when whatever happened to him happened, because his path didn't deviate much at all from the direct path from St. Paul to Charleston.
Glendive MT was where the plane left from. Further South and East of Glasgow.
Hi Shermy! Been a long time! Everything is scarey in Chicago now
BumPing!
Almost through the thread...will we ever know the truth?
No!
thanks for the ping Jane!
Thanks JP for the ping.
We have a link to this threat on TM already thanks to a prior ping by Sissy Jane.
Flutters great work!
Have you found out anything new sweetie in the past two hours?
I see Looking4Truth's update.
I haven't seen anything new.
Sign me up for this problem also -g-
I've been searching with no luck but did get a reminder of another incident just on Feb. 22:
Auto pilot?
A few on the thread have already suggested the possibility of autopilot. From my limited aviation knowledge I'm pretty sure that it's probable after he made a turn on approach to St. Paul (and then presumably became incapacitated) the plane could just continue on whatever heading he was on until running out of fuel.
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