Hobbyists build cockpit replicas using old instruments connected to a computer using the ARINC 429 bus...you can handle the data with a simple ARINC port adapter. Or you can whip up a simple adapter on your own using a micro-controller.
Posted on 03/13/2014 1:56:01 PM PDT by CedarDave
I fly several times a year, for work.
I can’t imagine the fear of the crew and folks who were not in on it (if terrorism is what this was). Flying in the dead of night, has a certain serenity to it. I couldn’t imagine some whack-job disturbing that for his/her/its own nefarious purpose.
I can get a peek of my own fear if I really concentrate, and it’s not a pleasant thought. I hope I never run into the baddies in the sky, whether the baddie be crew or supposed passenger.
I’d feel better if I could carry in-flight. My SIG won’t fix a blown engine, but a gun will fix a head case, in a real hurry, either by presentation or application of it. On the flip side, as small as plane seats are nowadays, imagining coexisting in my coach seat with my SIG has a certain physical unpleasantness about it as well... I can see & feel the marks in my fat now!
Because of 911 I’d be astounded if the firmware and or hardware of most of the embedded systems on heavy jets has not been modified to deliver multiple tracking signals when any funny business is detected.
Only a fool would have overlooked doing this. Pilots and maintenance people would not be in the know about this.
Systems that a layman would never suspect are likely rigged to emit rf signals. Given the incredible gain of our satellite based listening gear the rf would only need to be a fraction of a milliwatt.
If I was asked to suggest a warning beacon idea I would place several that would emit rf whenever the plane is at altitude and also has the transponder shut down.
Hobbyists build cockpit replicas using old instruments connected to a computer using the ARINC 429 bus...you can handle the data with a simple ARINC port adapter. Or you can whip up a simple adapter on your own using a micro-controller.
I know I read somewhere recently about another 777 that acted odd; and the pilot described it as if it was not responding to his controls, was instead trying to do it's own (someone else's?) thing...it was a strange incident and the thought that it might have been hacked crossed my mind when I read it. One of those moments when I shrugged and told myself I was getting way too paranoid.
You’re conflating the pilot and co-pilot. Pilot was a long timer with his own simulator at home. It was the younger co-pilot (then paired with a different pilot) who had the two cuties in his cockpit.
Indonesia, Sri lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan?
Some place in Indonesia I could buy. Not the other three. Pakistan is too far without overflying India. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh don’t see it, Sri Lanka have their own terrorists that don’t play well. Bangladesh, a 777 probably put that country below sea level.
Thanks for the info. Mr. Hussein should monitor FR to get the latest news. :)
I’m beginning to think this plane might never be found.
That would be detectable by eye. A nuke at night, lotsa people gonna report that, as well as the noise.
How many times in my 13 years airline tenure we had massive electrical incident in flight? Nada, zero. We had one engine feathered, one flame out but no major electrical failure. I think they should mandate to lock down the transponders can’t be turned off.
It wouldn’t have to be a Hiroshima-sized blast. I was thinking something big enough to smitherize the plane might not be visible to folks who are asleep over 200 miles away.
Even if it does, it was all predicted 2500 years ago............
Okay, here’s a Hollywood inspired plot:
The terrorists hijack the plane, via whatever means, electronic or physical.
They turn off all transponders and comm equipment, that they can access.
They fly the aircraft, either manually or remotely, to a secret island in the Indian Ocean, where they have built a landing strip especially for this aircraft to land and then take off again after refuelling.
At some point all passengers and crew are outright murdered, for obvious reasons.
The plane then takes off again for a terrorist host country, IRAN, comes to mind.
The aircraft is flown to another secret landing strip out in the desert, stripped of all unnecessary weight, seats, storage, baggage, bulkheads, etc.
It is then loaded with nuclear and/or conventional explosives to the maximum weight limit.
It is then flown, either by a martyr pilot or an auto pilot programmed with the destination, Tel Aviv, Israel, let’s say and sent on it’s death mission.............
Interesting, not sure then.. seems like both loved their jobs.
Disagree. Just because a system hasn’t failed, doesn’t mean it won’t.
Swissair Flight 111
Air Canada 797
TWA800 (if you don’t believe the conspiracy theories)
None of these are in the 13 year window you specified, but they do reinforce the idea that electrical faults can happen.
Airbus’s last jumbo project nearly failed due to complexity of the wiring. They had to undertake a major project to redesign the circuits in the system. When you have circuitry that complex, anything can be overlooked.
It would be much better to mandate a passively powered system... something like RFID chips embedded into the skin of the plane, can be powered from the incoming radar pulse, and when they squawk, they return their RFID to high gain antennas. Leave it to ground based stations to resolve the RFID to a flight. That is about the only way you could prevent a fire. And even then... one wonders.... if there is power in a system, there is a potential for that power to be inappropriately dissipated.
You could have various levels of redundancy, a system that steps in when the primary has to be turned down. But those need switches too.
Even worse, in a bad situation, you may every single watt available to the system for some other purpose, but if you can’t kill the transponder systems, those watts will not be available.
By not allowing an off switch, there is just too much potential for disaster.
I think a lock down on those systems will be a disaster in the making. At least the plane accidents or hijacking, etc. now are caused by nefarious people, not the systems designed to protect the passengers and crew. Having the safety & tracking systems in a plane be a possible culprit in a crash is wrong.
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