Missing Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 triggers Southeast Asia search

[F4UCorsair]

Oxpilot, you say in your post # 3740, that the co-pilot could have regained entry to the cockpit easily. That's not so if the Captain had employed the backup 'bolt' locking mechanism. Every aircraft I've flown since the new high security doors were fitted post 9/11 has had a bolt backup in case the electronic lock is U/S.

[Thai at Heart]

Right. Back to the story.

So.

As events unfold, we move from the cynicism of many that it is nowhere near the Indian Ocean to:

'Well it may be down there but the ocean floor is tricky.'

It seems pretty clear to me that they will find chunks of metal down there, and the only chunks of metal are likely to be from MH370.

Once they find aircraft parts there is a very high probability they will find the black box.

When the black box is analysed there will be detailed information about who said what to who, what interference took place, and may provide clues to who did what, and why they did it.

I look forward to hearing the outcome.

Cheers.

Could you imagine trying to find the plane using a drone inside say Florida? I'm not sure how big the search area is but I read 40,000 sq km. So unless they get better trignomotry with more pings, it is.still looking for a needle.

[cloudhopper]

http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/04/report-suggests-malaysian-military-knew-mh730-had-turned-around-but-didnt-react/360520/

[WorriedNoodle]

Please humor me on this as I am lost in all the news posts, but I would be wondering why so little news/discussions on following:.

1. Why haven't I seen any news on the relationship between the captain and his family that deserted him the day before? Did I miss something?

2. No more stories expanding on the captain and his connection with Anwar sentencing for sodomy in Malaysia day before he flew the jet?

Possibly because the first is just rumour?

Possibly because the second has been explored and considered irrelevant?

I don't know either, but I haven't seen any news items that have placed any store on either.

Whilst I respect your opinion from someone who is said to be a pilot, I do not understand why :

1. If it was a rumor is wasn't immediately closed out in the news as a rumor?

2. If it is irrelevant why the irrelevancy hasn't been completely closed out in the news?

Reasoning being that if the aircraft has ended up in one of the remotest deepest waters on earth entirely off of flight plan, surely the mental health of the captain would be crossing a lot of peoples minds??

[ZigZagMan]

The Captain was highly regarded so speculating about him should wait until they find the black box.

For all we know, he could have died a hero.

[khaosai]

So what's the answer for lack of debris do you reckon?

This is all kind of academic, as I doubt very much the pilot flew all those extra hours and miles out into the middle of a particularly rough area of ocean just to end up conducting a precision ditching drill. Much more likely I think that the aircraft, if it did indeed come down there, came down without power, on its own without pilot control, in a high rate of descent, and with no regard or planning for wind direction or sea state.

Thanks for the details. Since there are so many oddities about the plane's disappearance, I'll add another possible scenario: pilot was still alive near end of odyssey, and timed ditching for right before fuel ran out - in order to power an abrupt nose-up turn upwards, just above sea level. Granted, he would have known about rough seas, and the dynamics of a fuselage of a large plane breaking upon impact on water. Yet, it fits with the supposed scenario of him wanting his crime to be as un-findable as possible - along with the odd route the plane purportedly took - to a remote region.

Huh? So, suicide? Or not? If yes, then why an absurd attempt at an impossible ditching. If not, and he had some expectation of personal survival, why not turn back toward land at some point, rather than choose the roughest, most remote seas accessible to him instead? And if he wanted "unfindable", and wasn't expecting to survive, then why not a steep or vertical dive, a la Silk Air, which would grind up the aircraft about as finely,and leave as little to be found, as possible?

OK - I'm saying that if he DID attempt a controlled ditching, whatever the convoluted reasoning behind it, he wouldn't have succeeded. Period. He might as well have attempted to hide the evidence of his crime by trying to fly it into outer space.

The whole intended ditching concept in those search areas is just too far-fetched. But you seem pretty locked in to this idea of a ditched aircraft waiting to be found. Well, maybe some giant methane bubble burst to the surface like a monster airbag precisely at the right location and just before the 777 crashed down, or maybe an alien tractor-beam caught MH370 and set it down gently on the water. Whatever.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, they make those black boxes to survive the most catastrophic mishaps, so I think it's reaonable to hope they won't have been destroyed. Whether they can be found & retrieved off the bottom, however deep & uneven it actually is there, is another question I couldn't even guess at. 'Sure hope so though.

Hi hawker9000,

You mentioned that if the pilot had attempted a controlled ditching he would not have succeeded. You may well be right, but truth be told you and I don't really know.

It may well be possible with the correct techniques applied along with copious amounts of luck. It may well be impossible regardless of technique or an abundance of luck.

I do however enjoy the various theories people on here come up with. Nothing wrong with some healthy debate and opinion regardless of whether an expert or not.

[coma]

"The co-pilot of missing Malaysian airliner MH370 attempted to make a mid-flight call from his mobile phone just before the plane vanished from radar screens, a report said Saturday citing unnamed investigators."

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2014/04/12/17/26/mh370-co-pilot-made-mid-flight-phone-call

The plot continues to thicken.

[coma]

" Authorities from several countries were searching fruitlessly for the missing MH370 flight in the South China Sea for days, even though the Malaysian military reportedly knew the plane was not there".

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2014/04/12/15/11/malaysian-military-withheld-data-on-mh370

[hawker9000]

Hi hawker9000,

You mentioned that if the pilot had attempted a controlled ditching he would not have succeeded. You may well be right, but truth be told you and I don't really know.

It may well be possible with the correct techniques applied along with copious amounts of luck. It may well be impossible regardless of technique or an abundance of luck.

I do however enjoy the various theories people on here come up with. Nothing wrong with some healthy debate and opinion regardless of whether an expert or not.

Oh, you're right, I don't "know", I wasn't there, I didn't see it, and I've never ditched an airplane myself. But I know a little... And I've tried to share what I know as clearly and objectively as I can, without just saying "no, it couldn't have" without explanation, and not really seen any thing to the contrary posted except either "well it just could" (unsupported) or examples of smaller transports doing it in calm water (which I've also specifically addressed). And I just don't think it actually IS possible under all the circumstances of this case. Else I wouldn't have said it, and I've detailed, repeatedly and at length, my reasons for saying so. I wasn't just spit-balling something. Go ahead and give us your facts (but please, please, please, let's not just keep repeating the same unsupported theories & claims I've already repeatedly addressed).

This bizarre insistence on continued debate of this particular issue puzzles me - does anyone really think there's some scenario that has the pilot flying all that time and all that way just to finally try and save the aircraft in a controlled ditch? (I've asked this before, but none of those insisting on this whole ditching thing seem to want to respond...) Why would he do that? I could understand emergency circumstances maybe forcing him to attempt it (regardless of his chances) much earlier in the flight but not way out there in the middle of a famously rough ocean after (one can only suppose) deliberately exhausting his fuel and losing himself to anyone who might want to find him. What's the reason for all this palaver? We're just beating to death the esoteric difference between could have and would have. What's the point? But at this point, if it's all that important to you to think that he could have successfully ditched out there, that's fine. Be my guest and have the last word and then, really now, let's move on to stuff that's more relevant.

[3NUMBAS]

Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of AirlineReview.com, told a radio station in Perth that a ping detector towed by the specially equipped Australian vessel Ocean Shield has let specialists aboard British warship HMS Echo triangulate the data and get a far more accurate “fix” on where four pings were coming from on the seabed.

“Echo has done a radio scan,” said Thomas, “an echo scan if you like, along the bottom and they’ve had a return which is positive, which may indicate the wreckage of the plane.

One thing is for sure: Since the Ocean Shield reached the area roughly 1,000 miles northwest of Perth, the search took a much more productive turn. After weeks of false reports of floating wreckage spotted by satellites, suddenly all talk of chasing floating wreckage ended, and attention moved to the Ocean Shield and its ping detector, which moves through the ocean a mile beneath the ship.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/ship-saved-mh370-search-193100989--politics.html#LoHIwP

[Tywais]

Flight MH370: search resumes amid fears black box battery has died

Despite success in narrowing search area, officials say there have been no confirmed pings from the recorder for 24 hours

The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner resumed on Saturday, five weeks after the plane disappeared from radar screens, amid fears that batteries powering signals from the black box recorder on board may have died.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said signals picked up during the search in the remote southern Indian Ocean, believed to be "pings" from the black box recorders, were "rapidly fading".

"While we do have a high degree of confidence that the transmissions that we've been picking up are from flight MH370's black box recorder, no one would underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Abbott told a news conference in Beijing.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, triggering a multinational search that is now focused on the Indian Ocean.

Search officials say they are confident they know the approximate position of the black box recorder, although they have determined that the latest "ping', picked up by searchers on Thursday, was not from the missing aircraft.

Batteries in the black box recorder are already past their normal 30-day life, making the search to find it on the murky sea bed all the more urgent. Once they are confident they have located it, searchers then plan to deploy a small unmanned "robot" known as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.

More here - theguardian

[Tywais]

Malaisia's New Straits Times is reporting MH370's co-pilot made a "desparate call" from his mobile phone while the plane was in the air.

Investigators traced the call, made as the plane flew low near Penang, to co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid's mobile phone.

It's not believed the call connected - it ended abruptly after making contact with a network substation.

The newspaper's sources would not divulge full details of the investigation, so who Fariq was trying to call remains a mystery.

But it has also revealed Fariq's last communication through the WhatsApp mobile phone app was about 11.30pm on March 7, just before he boarded the plane.

Source - Dailyrecord

[LennyW]

Malaisia's New Straits Times is reporting MH370's co-pilot made a "desparate call" from his mobile phone while the plane was in the air.

Investigators traced the call, made as the plane flew low near Penang, to co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid's mobile phone.

It's not believed the call connected - it ended abruptly after making contact with a network substation.

The newspaper's sources would not divulge full details of the investigation, so who Fariq was trying to call remains a mystery.

But it has also revealed Fariq's last communication through the WhatsApp mobile phone app was about 11.30pm on March 7, just before he boarded the plane.

Source - Dailyrecord

If it did not connect and nobody knows what he intended to say, why do they think it was a desperate call, ???

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[khaosai]

Hi hawker9000,

You mentioned that if the pilot had attempted a controlled ditching he would not have succeeded. You may well be right, but truth be told you and I don't really know.

It may well be possible with the correct techniques applied along with copious amounts of luck. It may well be impossible regardless of technique or an abundance of luck.

I do however enjoy the various theories people on here come up with. Nothing wrong with some healthy debate and opinion regardless of whether an expert or not.

Oh, you're right, I don't "know", I wasn't there, I didn't see it, and I've never ditched an airplane myself. But I know a little... And I've tried to share what I know as clearly and objectively as I can, without just saying "no, it couldn't have" without explanation, and not really seen any thing to the contrary posted except either "well it just could" (unsupported) or examples of smaller transports doing it in calm water (which I've also specifically addressed). And I just don't think it actually IS possible under all the circumstances of this case. Else I wouldn't have said it, and I've detailed, repeatedly and at length, my reasons for saying so. I wasn't just spit-balling something. Go ahead and give us your facts (but please, please, please, let's not just keep repeating the same unsupported theories & claims I've already repeatedly addressed).

This bizarre insistence on continued debate of this particular issue puzzles me - does anyone really think there's some scenario that has the pilot flying all that time and all that way just to finally try and save the aircraft in a controlled ditch? (I've asked this before, but none of those insisting on this whole ditching thing seem to want to respond...) Why would he do that? I could understand emergency circumstances maybe forcing him to attempt it (regardless of his chances) much earlier in the flight but not way out there in the middle of a famously rough ocean after (one can only suppose) deliberately exhausting his fuel and losing himself to anyone who might want to find him. What's the reason for all this palaver? We're just beating to death the esoteric difference between could have and would have. What's the point? But at this point, if it's all that important to you to think that he could have successfully ditched out there, that's fine. Be my guest and have the last word and then, really now, let's move on to stuff that's more relevant.

Hi,

It's surely all relevant until the FDR sheds light on the actual facts of what went on during the flight. I can't imagine the authorities have discounted the issue of an attempted successful ditching and potential motives of why. Crew or passenger motivation will continue to be looked at closely, in addition to the multiple failure scenario. As a current experienced B777 training captain I certainly have an interest in what's happened. That also includes did the aircraft successfully ditch.

Like all topics, it's a choice we all have on whether to participate in things you are interested in or not.

Repetition is inevitable with people joining the topic part way through. It's really not that big a deal.

[coma]

Who are flying all these aircraft around the world when it seems as if all the pilots are here contributing to this thread ?

[Tywais]

Who are flying all these aircraft around the world when it seems as if all the pilots are here contributing to this thread ?

One requirement to be a pilot - multitasking.

[coma]

Who are flying all these aircraft around the world when it seems as if all the pilots are here contributing to this thread ?

One requirement to be a pilot - multitasking.

I hope you aren't doing any moderating/posting from the cockpit Tywais.

[F4UCorsair]

Please humor me on this as I am lost in all the news posts, but I would be wondering why so little news/discussions on following:.

1. Why haven't I seen any news on the relationship between the captain and his family that deserted him the day before? Did I miss something?

2. No more stories expanding on the captain and his connection with Anwar sentencing for sodomy in Malaysia day before he flew the jet?

Possibly because the first is just rumour?

Possibly because the second has been explored and considered irrelevant?

I don't know either, but I haven't seen any news items that have placed any store on either.

Whilst I respect your opinion from someone who is said to be a pilot, I do not understand why :

1. If it was a rumor is wasn't immediately closed out in the news as a rumor?

2. If it is irrelevant why the irrelevancy hasn't been completely closed out in the news?

Reasoning being that if the aircraft has ended up in one of the remotest deepest waters on earth entirely off of flight plan, surely the mental health of the captain would be crossing a lot of peoples minds??

I did say that I don't know, and my post was no more than speculation.

[Tywais]

Who are flying all these aircraft around the world when it seems as if all the pilots are here contributing to this thread ?

One requirement to be a pilot - multitasking.

I hope you aren't doing any moderating/posting from the cockpit Tywais.

˙ʇno ƃuıɥʇ sıɥʇ uǝʇɥƃıɐɹʇs oʇ ǝʌɐɥ 'puoɔǝs ɐ ʇıɐʍ

[EyesWideOpen]

Who are flying all these aircraft around the world when it seems as if all the pilots are here contributing to this thread ?

One requirement to be a pilot - multitasking.

I hope you aren't doing any moderating/posting from the cockpit Tywais.

˙ʇno ƃuıɥʇ sıɥʇ uǝʇɥƃıɐɹʇs oʇ ǝʌɐɥ 'puoɔǝs ɐ ʇıɐʍ

Doing a barrel roll or a loop ?? :-)

[P45Mustang]

Who are flying all these aircraft around the world when it seems as if all the pilots are here contributing to this thread ?

One requirement to be a pilot - multitasking.

Does that include doing an impersonation of Sherlock Holmes?

[P45Mustang]

The Captain was highly regarded so speculating about him should wait until they find the black box.

For all we know, he could have died a hero.

That's a very fair point which until you pointed it out I had not considered.

How are those Aussie boys doing looking for the tube of Fosters btw?

[P45Mustang]

Who are flying all these aircraft around the world when it seems as if all the pilots are here contributing to this thread ?

One requirement to be a pilot - multitasking.

I hope you aren't doing any moderating/posting from the cockpit Tywais.

˙ʇno ƃuıɥʇ sıɥʇ uǝʇɥƃıɐɹʇs oʇ ǝʌɐɥ 'puoɔǝs ɐ ʇıɐʍ

Can I claim compensation from George for damage to my MacBook Air, trying to read this message please?

[P45Mustang]

Malaisia's New Straits Times is reporting MH370's co-pilot made a "desparate call" from his mobile phone while the plane was in the air.

Investigators traced the call, made as the plane flew low near Penang, to co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid's mobile phone.

It's not believed the call connected - it ended abruptly after making contact with a network substation.

The newspaper's sources would not divulge full details of the investigation, so who Fariq was trying to call remains a mystery.

But it has also revealed Fariq's last communication through the WhatsApp mobile phone app was about 11.30pm on March 7, just before he boarded the plane.

Source - Dailyrecord

I wonder what he said and to whom?

Goodnight possibly?

[Cobragold]

http://i55.servimg.com/u/f55/14/14/01/64/nst_pa11.jpg

Co pilot was trying to make a phone call while aircraft was above Penang.

[F4UCorsair]

I'm going to be controversial and put forward my theory.

I think there was possibly an emergency of some sort, electrical fire perhaps, that took out some of the radios, and caused a turn back.

I've flown with Asian pilots, several different nationalities, and I can say definitively that their lateral thinking leaves a lot to be desired, and missing/forgetting to advise ATC would be entirely understandable to me. I don't doubt their dedication, and their ability to memorize manuals is second to none, but actually applying the knowledge is a different matter altogether.

The profession of pilot is sometimes called the 'military mentality' because pilots are rule bound people (that's what keeps it safe) as are military personnel, but when all goes pear shaped, they also need the ability to think a little laterally. I've intentionally avoided using that terrible cliche 'think outside the square'. They have checklists to cover most emergencies, but no rule book can ever cover ALL possible emergencies, and there have been a couple of occasions when crews have had to really use a great degree of common sense to extricate themselves from potentially disastrous circumstances, e.g., the BA 747 that had four flameouts after ingesting volcanic dust over Java, and a BAE 146 that had four engines fail over the Pilbara in Western Australia almost twenty years ago.

With that background information, I can easily see that a radio call wasn't made, if indeed it could have been made, and it's almost inconceivable that at least one radio wasn't operating.

After the turn back it starts to get a bit messy. I think it's possible that if the initial emergency was an electrical fire, that things started to get out of control with the flight crew possibly affected by smoke/fumes, not donning masks, hence the erratic flight path, climbing to 45,000'. That wouldn't, in itself, cause the masks to drop, but a disoriented crew could be reacting irrationally, and manually drop the masks, at which point all pax would start breathing oxygen, about 12 minutes life in an oxygen generator. Of course the cabin crew could have gained access whilst all this was going on, unless the electronic door lock was U/S, and it was manually bolted.

It's not inconceivable that it was manually depressurized accidentally. I don't think there would be too many Boeing pilots who have intended turning off the engine anti-ice and flicked a hydraulic pump off instead, purely because of the proximity of the switches.

I've worked for a company where an Asian Captain, as part of a post major check flight, depressurized an aircraft at 35000', and didn't don an oxygen mask, so the co-pilot and local CAA observer also didn't, in deference to the Captain (that's the culture), and the Captain was fortunately the only one who didn't pass out, although didn't function too well either. The drill required an emergency descent to be made, and they weren't functional until about 20000' feet, but were out of it for over two minutes.

After that, with the flight crew disabled, the aircraft flew on with the autopilot on 'heading' mode, until it suffered fuel exhaustion in one engine, the autopilot ran out of authority to control the aircraft, and it speared into the ocean. That doesn't explain the lack of wreckage, and there would inevitably be wreckage, regardless of the degree of breakup. That is, of course, unless the search is still a long way from where it hit the water, and that's now unlikely with some evidence of signals from the FDR/CVR.

The only circumstances I can see for no significant wreckage is if the aircraft was 'flown onto the water', resulting in a far lesser degree of breakup than if it hit the water out of control. There would still be some items that would float though.

I don't think the suicide scenario likely only because of the two known suicides by pilots, Egyptair and Silkair, it was spontaneous, and it's difficult to imagine that anybody could knowingly kill 238 pax, and then fly the aircraft several more hours to crash into a remote part of the Indian Ocean, but not impossible. Both the Silkair and Egyptair pilots had axes to grind with their managements, but nothing has yet emerged about the MH370 crew to that effect. Possibly due to his 'friendship' with the jailed Malaysian opposition leader, he may have been about to be charged with similar offences??

Before any armchair accident investigators dissect my post, I am only speculating. I'll say it again, I'm only speculating.

[Basil B]

Flight MH370: search resumes amid fears black box battery has died

Despite success in narrowing search area, officials say there have been no confirmed pings from the recorder for 24 hours

The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner resumed on Saturday, five weeks after the plane disappeared from radar screens, amid fears that batteries powering signals from the black box recorder on board may have died.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said signals picked up during the search in the remote southern Indian Ocean, believed to be "pings" from the black box recorders, were "rapidly fading".

"While we do have a high degree of confidence that the transmissions that we've been picking up are from flight MH370's black box recorder, no one would underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Abbott told a news conference in Beijing.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, triggering a multinational search that is now focused on the Indian Ocean.

Search officials say they are confident they know the approximate position of the black box recorder, although they have determined that the latest "ping', picked up by searchers on Thursday, was not from the missing aircraft.

Batteries in the black box recorder are already past their normal 30-day life, making the search to find it on the murky sea bed all the more urgent. Once they are confident they have located it, searchers then plan to deploy a small unmanned "robot" known as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.

More here - theguardian

That's a shame, I have been trying to get my head round the technical data sheets for the pinggers, it seems they are very crude electronics, (I could design something a lot more accurate using just a simple of the shelf microprocessor) but then keeping it simple adds to the reliability.

I was under the impression the signal would fade but continue for a few more weeks but manufacturers give no data for after 30 days, the other thing that I am thinking is could the "Hijacker" disable the black boxes? could he remove the pinggers and throw them out the cock pit window (flying at low speed and altitude) some time before crashing the plane? even throw the black boxes out of a cabin door?

Seems who ever hijacked this plane went to a lot of trouble to ensure no one would ever find out what happened.

[JesseFrank]

Flight MH370: search resumes amid fears black box battery has died

Despite success in narrowing search area, officials say there have been no confirmed pings from the recorder for 24 hours

The search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner resumed on Saturday, five weeks after the plane disappeared from radar screens, amid fears that batteries powering signals from the black box recorder on board may have died.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said signals picked up during the search in the remote southern Indian Ocean, believed to be "pings" from the black box recorders, were "rapidly fading".

"While we do have a high degree of confidence that the transmissions that we've been picking up are from flight MH370's black box recorder, no one would underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Abbott told a news conference in Beijing.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board, triggering a multinational search that is now focused on the Indian Ocean.

Search officials say they are confident they know the approximate position of the black box recorder, although they have determined that the latest "ping', picked up by searchers on Thursday, was not from the missing aircraft.

Batteries in the black box recorder are already past their normal 30-day life, making the search to find it on the murky sea bed all the more urgent. Once they are confident they have located it, searchers then plan to deploy a small unmanned "robot" known as an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.

More here - theguardian

That's a shame, I have been trying to get my head round the technical data sheets for the pinggers, it seems they are very crude electronics, (I could design something a lot more accurate using just a simple of the shelf microprocessor) but then keeping it simple adds to the reliability.

I was under the impression the signal would fade but continue for a few more weeks but manufacturers give no data for after 30 days, the other thing that I am thinking is could the "Hijacker" disable the black boxes? could he remove the pinggers and throw them out the cock pit window (flying at low speed and altitude) some time before crashing the plane? even throw the black boxes out of a cabin door?

Seems who ever hijacked this plane went to a lot of trouble to ensure no one would ever find out what happened.

Seems who ever hijacked this plane went to a lot of trouble to ensure no one would ever find out what happened.

Or, someone who knows what happened want to make sure no one will find the plane and find out what happened.

[Robby nz]

Nobody seems to have picked this up yet

Posted Today, 17:35

RT@STcom: JUST IN: 'Unconfirmed reports' from Aussie media say #MH370 black box has been found, PM Abbott to make a statement at 11.45am Perth time.

[catterwell]

http://i55.servimg.com/u/f55/14/14/01/64/nst_pa11.jpg

Co pilot was trying to make a phone call while aircraft was above Penang.

The same story says the plane went as low as 5,000 feet, but no source cited. I hadn't heard that before.

More wild speculation: Did the captain take the plane down so the co-pilot could try to make a phone call?