Malaysia Flight 370 - Troubling Questions

On 3/13/14 8:11 AM, Kevin Christner wrote:
Hi all,

The news on flight 370 got more interesting today. It appears the plane flew for several hours after dropping off radar. This begs a few questions.

Why, in this day in the security age, is it possible to turn of the transponders in flight?

The historical answer to that is pretty simple. ATC actually wants the
pilot to be able to turn off a transponder if say it is transmitting
garbage, the wrong squawk code etc. Similar transponders allow the pilot
to disable ALT mode on the transponder if it is spewing wrong altitude
data. In say the worst case a transponder stuck transmitting various
7xxx codes is not going to be real popular with ATC. FAR/AIM discuses
the phraseology ATC will use to instruct a pilot to turn off ALT mode
("STOP ALTITUDE SQUAWK") or turn off the transponder ("SQAWK STANDBY").

Why don't all airplanes have GPS tracking systems giving real time
data to ATC (perhaps we could loan them a SPOT)?

I think parts of that question has been addressed in lots of places
including the general media. This B777 had lots of tracking technology
on board, including Mode S transponders, 1090ES Out, ACARS via both VHF
Data and SITA/Inmarsat. I am not sure that it needs any more technology
added to it. And anything you do add will be able to be disabled by
somebody with the appropriate access (even if that meant doing things
like visiting the avionics bay).

My concern are less about any technology aboard the B777. That aircraft
is was flying close to Malaysia when contact was lost. How can you
possibly have a modern military air defense systems not be able to track
a primary radar target the size of a B777 so close to your coastline,
and that then apparently turns back and flies over your mainland.

Malaysia sit between Indonesia and the South China Sea area. If it was
me I'd be making sure my integrated air defense system actually worked
(they have supposedly spent money on building that). They owns enough
interesting modern air defense radar bits and pieces, multiple SELEX
RAT31 systems for example. They should have had a pair of armed
F/A-18D's out of RMAF Butterworth heading towards that B777 soon after
things went very weird (especially if they thought they had a
VHF/HF/Transponder silent B777 turning back towards the country). They
have a squadron of upgraded F/A-18Ds with APG-79 radar sitting at
Butterworth, should be able to pick up an airliner near the last
reported location not long after take off from there. And the B777 seems
to have practically turned back and overflew Butterworth...

The Malaysian military and their air defense system pretty looks beyond
pathetic based on all this, especially in a post 9/11 world.

Darryl