Why can't they triangulate where the engines reported from? Anyone know?

It depends on how many data collection points got the data. If it's only 1, they can't triangulate anything.

True, but I figured after 4 hours at 480 knots, it would probably be out of range of the original data collection point. What I haven't heard is what type of communication the engines use.
I wonder if the reporting engine story will go away as BS like most all leads in this story have.

777's uplink everything via GPS from what I am told.

So if it's a sat link, they probably only have one. Right?

Should have two of them. All systems have a redundant system.

Then triangulating the signal origination is theoretically possible.

If it was online long enough it could be possible.


This has more twists than a bag of pretzels....

If that's the case, why is this plane "missing"?

depressurization happens rapidly, a healthy person has only seconds to get a mask on, the depressurization creates hypoxia and sucks the 02 out of the atmoshpere almost instantly.

they are saying the report about the engine transmission is false.

I'm starting to suspect that a roc nabbed it in mid-air and took it back to its nest.

If not that, my money is still on a Payne Stewart scenario.

I heard an interesting wacky theory a couple nights back that maybe it was hijacked, but for ransom rather than as a terrorist act. Along the lines of what somali pirates have been doing for years.

That would be interesting. But it sure seems like it would be a lot harder to pull off than just getting a ship. I'm not sure why you'd go to the trouble.

I'd heard somewhere on the news or in this thread that terrorists sometimes try stuff in the third world before attempting it in America or Europe, so conceivably they could have tested an approach on this plane and then either finished it off via suicide or took it somewhere.

Or I wonder if perhaps they were figuring out how to cut off oxygen or depressurize the plane without the crew knowing. (I'm stuck on this Payne Stewart theory.)

I don't think it's terrorism. That's just the default answer for everything right now. My personal pet theory is that somebody shot it down.