Mar 13, 2013 (LBO) - The mystery over a missing Malaysia Airline flight has deepened with reports that it may have been airborne for hours, recalling earlier 'ghost flight' events with no communications.
The Wall Street Journal reported that US authorities believe it may have been airborne about four hours after the last confirmed contact based on data transmitted intermittently to its engine manufacturer, Rolls Royce.The newspaper later amended the story to say that the plane had kept trying to contact or 'ping' a communications satellite.
Malaysian Airlines MH380, which went missing with 239 passengers and crew was equipped with Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) which periodically streams technical information to the ground.
The WSJ report said US authorities believe the plane could have been hijacked.
But there have also been cases earlier where aircraft flew on for hours with no ground control after crew lost consciousness due to loss of cabin pressure.
In 1999, a Learjet 34 carrying American professional golfer Payne Stewart, which left Florida, flew 2,400 kilometres with an unconscious crew for nearly four hours before running out of fuel and crashing over South Dakota.
When cabin pressure is lost due to a leak, crew members who do not immediately don their oxygen masks lose their ability to think clearly and become unconscious.
In 2004, A Beechcraft 200 Super King Air left Perth on a 600 kilometre journey and eventually flew 2,840 kilometres before crashing in Queensland.Ground control had communicated with the pilot for several minutes as his speech got slurred and eventually lost consciousness.
The flight MH370 was operated using a Boeing 777 aircraft which was 11 years old.
The US Federal Aviation Administration had issued a directive on September 2013 that Boeing 777 aircraft could develop on the fuselage skin, "which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane," agency reports said.
A final directive was issued March 5, three days before the Malaysia Airlines jet disappeared. The FAA directive is to take effect April 9.
Aviation industry analysts had previously drawn parallels between MH370 and Air France AF447, a Airbus A330 which disappeared on route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, after it became known that the missing Malaysian plane had changed direction shortly before going off radar.
ACARS data sent by the French plane had indicated that its instruments were giving confusing signals and it had also changed direction.
A full investigation after the recovery of the blackbox revealed that the blocked Pitot tubes involved in measuring airspeed, inconsistent readings and repeated warning signals and confused the crew, leading to the aircraft stalling and eventually crashing within a few minutes, before a Mayday could be sent.
For MH370, a hi-jacking theory has gained credence because signals from automatic transponders in the aircraft which sends its location to ground control were not received leading to the belief that they were de-activated.
Other reports speculated that anti-Chinese terrorists, had probably targeted the plane which was code sharing with a China Southern.
Meanwhile China said its satellites had found a suspected crash site near the where the MH370 originally lost contact.
Malaysian authorities had earlier said they were investigating an unidentified flying object detected on radar to the West of the country.
Updated with amendments to WSJ story
