A NEW Trace! The FULL MH370 Story...So Far.

Mentour Pilot
16 Mar 202456:06

Summary

TLDRThe transcript details the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, exploring the events leading up to its vanishing and the subsequent search efforts. It delves into the possible scenarios based on the aircraft's systems, such as the SATCOM and ACARS, and discusses the potential use of weak signal propagation data to trace the plane's final path. The narrative also highlights the importance of continuing the search for the missing Boeing 777 to provide closure for the families of the 239 people on board.

Takeaways

  • đŸ›Ģ MH370's disappearance remains one of the biggest aviation mysteries, with the Boeing 777 vanishing with 239 people on board.
  • 🕒 It has been 10 years since the Malaysia Airlines flight went missing, and this story aims to encourage authorities to restart the search.
  • 👨‍✈ī¸ The flight was a training flight for the first officer, who was transitioning from the Airbus A330 to the Boeing 777.
  • 🌏 The aircraft's route took a sharp turn from its planned path, indicating deliberate interference with the flight's trajectory.
  • đŸšĢ The transponder was manually switched off, suggesting a conscious effort to avoid detection.
  • 🔋 A power failure to the SATCOM system suggests a deliberate act of disconnecting all power sources, indicating someone with knowledge of the aircraft's systems was in control.
  • 🛰ī¸ Inmarsat data provided a series of 'handshakes' that placed the aircraft along specific arcs, indicating it continued to fly for hours after last contact.
  • 🤔 The final moments of MH370 are still speculative, but evidence suggests a series of turns and possible figure-eight pattern before the end.
  • 🌊 Debris found along Eastern African coastlines confirms the aircraft crashed into the ocean, but the exact location remains unknown.
  • 🔍 New potential evidence using radio data and expert analysis suggests different search areas that could lead to the discovery of the wreckage.
  • 🙏 The renewed search efforts are crucial for providing closure to the families of the passengers and crew of MH370.

Q & A

  • What was the significance of the WSPR data in the search for MH370?

    -The WSPR data provided a potential new trajectory for MH370, which included a series of turns towards existing waypoints but not on the same airways, suggesting the aircraft was still being deliberately piloted to avoid detection. The WSPR data also indicated a possible final position for the aircraft and corresponded closely with the Inmarsat handshake arcs.

  • What are the two types of radar mentioned in the script and how do they differ?

    -The two types of radar mentioned are primary radar and secondary radar. Primary radar, also known as raw radar, sends out a radio pulse and measures any waves that bounce back, providing information about the target's direction. Secondary radar relies on a transponder on the aircraft to provide more detailed information like position, altitude, speed, and flight plan data.

  • What was the role of the ACARS system in the story of MH370?

    -The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was a digital data link system that transmitted regular information about the aircraft's status and position. It was crucial in providing the 'handshakes' with the satellite, which later helped in retracing the aircraft's path even after it disappeared from conventional radar.

  • What happened to the transponder signals on MH370 shortly after the aircraft flew past IGARI?

    -The Mode S functionality of the transponder, which provides additional information, was switched off, and after 37 seconds, the secondary radar return also disappeared as the aircraft stopped following its planned route and made a sharp turn.

  • What is the significance of the 'first handshake' from MH370's SATCOM system after it had been non-responsive?

    -The 'first handshake' indicated that the aircraft's SATCOM system had come back to life after a power interruption. The large frequency error in the burst frequency offset (BFO) value suggested that the system's quartz crystals had not yet reached the correct temperature, implying that the aircraft had likely been powered down until just before this point.

  • What was the possible reason for the captain's second call to the Lumpur Area controller reporting that the aircraft was level at flight level 350?

    -The second call might have been made to ensure that Air Traffic Control (ATC) had not tried to contact the aircraft while the crew was away from the frequency, possibly due to being occupied with some issue on the aircraft.

  • What was the significance of the mobile phone signal detected from the first officer's phone by a Celcom mobile mast on Penang island?

    -The detection of the mobile phone signal suggested that the first officer might have been trying to communicate from the aircraft. However, no call signals came through, and the signal was detected only briefly, indicating a possible attempt to reach out during the crisis.

  • What was the possible reason for the aircraft to fly in a figure-eight pattern towards the end of the flight?

    -The figure-eight pattern, if accurate, suggests a deliberate act by the person in control of the aircraft, possibly to look out for ships in the area as a reassurance that the aircraft's final resting place would not be easily discovered.

  • What were the two alternate theories for new search areas provided in the video?

    -The two alternate theories for new search areas were based on the expertise of two veteran 777 captains and a new application of existing radio data from the WSPR network. Both theories propose areas outside of the previously searched zones.

  • What were the improvements made in tracking commercial aircraft over oceans following the disappearance of MH370?

    -Improvements included better tracking procedures for aircraft over oceans, extended life for emergency locator transmitters, and enhanced Air Traffic Control (ATC) procedures for tracking aircraft.

  • Why is finding the wreckage of MH370 considered important?

    -Finding the wreckage is crucial for conclusively determining the fate of the aircraft, understanding the cause of its disappearance, and providing closure to the families of the passengers and crew. It also aids in improving aviation safety and tracking technologies to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Outlines

00:00

🚨 Mystery of MH370: The Untraceable Flight

The script begins with an exploration of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 people on board. The video aims to persuade authorities to restart the search for the missing aircraft and provide closure to the families. It introduces new potential evidence based on enhanced technology that may reveal the plane's final location.

05:01

👨‍✈ī¸ The Crew of Flight MH370

The narrative delves into the background of the pilots, their training, and personal lives. It describes the captain's extensive experience and the first officer's transition from Airbus A330 to the Boeing 777. The script also discusses the crew's pre-flight preparations and the aircraft's technical specifications, including its communication systems.

10:01

đŸ›Ģ The Final Moments on the Ground

This section details the final pre-flight activities, including the cargo load, ACARS messages, and the aircraft's taxi and takeoff. It highlights the normalcy of the flight's initial phase, the communication with air traffic control, and the passengers' profiles.

15:02

🌐 Radar and Communication Systems

The script explains the types of radar systems used in aviation, including primary and secondary radar, and the role of transponders. It discusses the aircraft's communication with air traffic control and the significance of the ACARS system in tracking the flight.

20:03

🛩ī¸ The Unraveling Flight Path

The account of the flight's trajectory after takeoff, including the captain's routine communications and the abrupt changes in the flight path detected by primary radar. It suggests a possible deliberate intervention with the flight's trajectory and the disabling of the transponder.

25:04

🔌 Power Loss and System Manipulation

The script hypothesizes about the deliberate disconnection of power sources, leading to a loss of communication with the aircraft. It explores the implications of the SATCOM system going silent and the potential strategies used to avoid detection by military and civilian radar.

30:05

đŸ›Ŧ The Search for MH370 Continues

The video discusses the efforts to track the aircraft using Inmarsat data and the challenges of interpreting the data due to multiple potential flight paths. It highlights the importance of continuing the search for MH370 and introduces new theories and potential search areas based on various analyses.

35:07

🌟 New Evidence and Final Theories

The script presents new evidence and theories, including the use of WSPR data and the potential final route of MH370. It discusses the possibility of the aircraft being piloted deliberately until the end and the implications of the findings on the search for the wreckage.

40:08

💔 Closure for the Families

The video concludes with a call to action for renewed search efforts in new areas to find the wreckage of MH370 and provide closure for the families of the missing passengers. It emphasizes the importance of uncovering the truth behind the flight's disappearance.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Boeing 777

The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is one of the world's largest and most technologically advanced commercial aircraft. In the context of the video, the Boeing 777 is central to the narrative as it discusses the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 aircraft.

💡MH370

MH370 refers to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a passenger flight that disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The disappearance of MH370 remains one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history, with the aircraft and its passengers never located despite extensive search efforts.

💡ACARS

Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) is a digital data link system used in aviation to transmit messages between aircraft and ground stations via VHF or satellite communication. It is used for various purposes, including sending updated weather information, flight plans, and maintenance data. In the case of MH370, ACARS played a crucial role as it provided some of the last known data about the aircraft's position and status before it disappeared.

💡SATCOM

SATCOM, short for Satellite Communication, refers to the systems and services that facilitate communication through satellite links. In aviation, SATCOM is used for various purposes, including the transmission of ACARS messages. For MH370, the SATCOM system was the last known communication link with the aircraft before it disappeared, and it has been a focal point in attempts to determine the flight's final location.

💡Transponder

A transponder is a device in aviation that responds to radio signals from ground radar stations, typically providing identification and other flight-related information. The transponder on an aircraft is crucial for air traffic control to monitor and manage aircraft in flight. In the case of MH370, the transponder was switched off at a critical point in the flight, indicating a deliberate act that led to the aircraft's disappearance from radar.

💡Primary Radar

Primary radar, also known as raw radar, is a type of radar system that sends out radio pulses and detects the reflections from these pulses to determine the location of objects, such as aircraft. Unlike secondary radar, which relies on signals from an aircraft's transponder, primary radar can detect objects even if they are not actively transmitting signals. In the case of MH370, primary radar was used to track the aircraft after its transponder was disabled.

💡Flight Level

Flight levels are specific altitudes assigned to aircraft during flight, typically in increments of 1,000 feet starting from 18,000 feet. They are used to standardize altitudes for aircraft, especially in controlled airspace, to prevent collisions and ensure efficient air traffic management. In the context of MH370, the flight level is mentioned in relation to the aircraft's climb and cruising altitude before it disappeared.

💡Radar Echo

A radar echo is the reflected signal received by radar equipment from an object, such as an aircraft or weather system, after the radar emits a radio wave. In aviation, radar echoes are used to track and monitor aircraft in real-time. The term is used in the context of MH370 to describe the faint signals captured by radar after the aircraft's transponder was switched off.

💡Inmarsat

Inmarsat is an international satellite telecommunications company that provides global mobile satellite communication services. In the context of MH370, Inmarsat's satellite communication services were used by the aircraft's ACARS system. The company's data and satellite signals became crucial in the search for MH370, as they provided some of the last known contacts with the aircraft and were used to determine potential flight paths.

💡WSPR

WSPR, or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Protocol, is a protocol used for low-power radio transmissions that helps in understanding how radio signals propagate over large distances. It was originally designed for amateur radio enthusiasts but has been explored for potential use in tracking aircraft like MH370 by analyzing anomalies in multiple simultaneous transmissions.

Highlights

The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is explored, focusing on the possibility of a deliberate act by someone with expert knowledge of the aircraft and its systems.

The story of MH370 is told with the goal of persuading authorities to restart the search for the missing Boeing 777 and provide closure to the families of the 239 people on board.

New potential evidence is presented based on enhanced and refined technology that may provide new clues to the aircraft's final location.

The flight was a training flight for the first officer transitioning from Airbus A330 to the Boeing 777.

The captain had a stable financial situation, no known illnesses, and was a solid, reliable member of his community with an 18,400-hour flight experience.

The aircraft's ACARS system sent out its last complete routine message via SATCOM before a period of silence from the aircraft.

The transponder's Mode S functionality was switched off, indicating deliberate interference with the flight's trajectory.

The aircraft made a sharp, almost 180-degree left turn, suggesting manual control and disconnection of the autopilot.

The SATCOM system's power failure suggests that all power sources were manually turned off, indicating a deliberate act by someone in control of the aircraft.

The aircraft continued to fly for several hours, with Inmarsat data providing seven handshakes that could be used to track its path.

The Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Protocol (WSPR) is introduced as a potential new method for tracking aircraft, using low power radio transmissions.

WSPR data corresponds with Inmarsat data, suggesting the aircraft made a series of turns towards waypoints, indicating continued manual piloting.

The WSPR data indicates the aircraft may have flown in a figure-eight pattern before its final logon, possibly to avoid detection.

The final Inmarsat logon suggests the aircraft might have been in a steep descent or was maximizing the use of remaining fuel.

Debris from MH370 has been found along the coastlines of Eastern Africa, indicating the aircraft crashed in or near the searched area.

The video calls for a renewed search effort in two new areas outside of the previously searched zones, based on veteran 777 captains' theories and WSPR data analysis.

The search for MH370 is important not only for the families of the missing but also for improvements in aviation safety and tracking.

Transcripts

00:00

(somber music)

00:04

(typewriter clicking)

00:07

(typewriter chimes)

00:10

(typewriter clicking)

00:12

(typewriter chimes)

00:15

(somber music continues)

00:36

- How can a Boeing 777, one of the biggest

00:38

and most modern aircraft in the world,

00:40

just vanish without a trace?

00:45

It can't.

00:50

Everything lost leaves a trace.

00:57

- And a Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people on board--

01:01

- MH370. - Flight 370.

01:03

- Flight MH370... (indistinct)

01:06

- Stay back!

01:07

- There are mysteries in the world

01:09

and then there is the story of MH370.

01:13

This is a story so full of questions and theories

01:16

that it's almost impossible to tell it

01:18

without resorting to pure speculation.

01:21

This is the reason I have refrained

01:22

from covering it up until now.

01:24

But since at the time of this video's release

01:26

it's gone 10 years since 239 people

01:30

disappeared without a trace,

01:32

I've decided to make an exception.

01:34

This story is created with one goal and one goal only,

01:38

and that is to persuade the authorities

01:40

to restart the search for the missing Boeing 777.

01:44

And with that, hopefully also provide some closure

01:46

to the families, some of which I've been

01:48

in contact with before making this video.

01:51

I will, today, share with you new potential evidence

01:53

based partially on a technology

01:55

that has been enhanced and refined over the last few years,

01:58

to the point where it now possibly can provide new clues

02:01

o where this aircraft finally ended up.

02:05

This is the story of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370,

02:08

as far as we know it.

02:12

- [MH370 Captain] Good night, Malaysia 370.

02:22

On the 7th of March, 2014, a crew from Malaysian Airlines

02:26

checked in for a night duty which was to take them

02:29

from Kuala Lumpur International Airport

02:30

in Malaysia up to Beijing International in China.

02:34

Except for the late start time,

02:36

it was supposed to be a quite nice duty

02:38

with a calculated flight time

02:39

of only five hours and 34 minutes,

02:41

meaning that they would eventually

02:43

be finished in Beijing around mid-morning the following day.

02:46

The captain of the flight arrived first and signed in

02:49

at the Malaysian Airlines crew room at local time 22:50.

02:53

He was then followed by his colleague,

02:55

the first officer, around 25 minutes later.

02:59

This was planned as a training flight for the first officer,

03:02

since he was completing a transition type course

03:04

over from the Airbus A330 to the Boeing 777,

03:07

which they would be flying on this flight.

03:10

The training had gone really well up until this point,

03:13

and if everything went fine on this flight,

03:15

he would be recommended for final line check

03:17

by the captain for the following duty.

03:20

Having said that, this was the first time

03:22

that these two pilots were planned to fly together,

03:24

which might explain why the captain

03:26

had turned up a little bit earlier.

03:28

You see, it's pretty common for us instructors to do so

03:31

if we need to review someone's training file,

03:33

for example, before the flight

03:35

to check out if there's any areas

03:37

that might require special attention.

03:39

In any case, once the first officer

03:41

had also signed in, the two pilots proceeded

03:43

by going through the pre-flight briefing,

03:45

which from what they could see looked pretty straightforward.

03:49

The weather in Kuala Lumpur was generally nice and dominated

03:52

by a sub-tropical high pressure centered over Thailand,

03:55

and the weather at their destination, Beijing,

03:57

also looked quite good from what they could see.

04:00

The only potential issue was

04:01

that about two-thirds down the route,

04:03

they would be passing through a pretty strong jet stream

04:06

with high winds, which could cause a bit of turbulence,

04:09

but apart from that, it was looking pretty straightforward.

04:13

With that in mind, and no NOTAMs affecting

04:15

the flight either, the pilots then turned

04:17

their attention to the flight plan.

04:19

There were two alternates listed for Beijing,

04:21

and taking into consideration both of these,

04:24

the pilots decided on a final fuel of 49,100 kilos,

04:28

which was in line with the expected amount for this flight,

04:31

neither substantially more nor less than required.

04:34

This fuel would give the aircraft an approximate endurance

04:37

of seven hours and 31 minutes, around two hours longer

04:41

than the anticipated flight time,

04:43

and that will, of course, become very important in this story.

04:47

So who were the pilots

04:49

that were going to be in charge of this flight then?

04:52

Well, the captain was a 53-year-old

04:53

with a 33-year great track record in Malaysia Airlines.

04:57

He was married with three children,

04:59

and on his spare time, he was involved

05:01

in a local opposition party, helped deliver groceries

05:04

to elderly, and tinker with some home electronics.

05:08

He had also started a YouTube channel,

05:09

which by the way is still there,

05:11

where he showed how to mend certain home appliances,

05:14

and also, crucially, where he showed off his home simulator,

05:17

which he had built to be able to practice his trade at home.

05:21

This simulator would later be investigated thoroughly.

05:24

It had been erased weeks before the flight,

05:26

but the investigator still found

05:27

some manually-entered waypoints of interest

05:30

in a backup memory, but without it proving

05:33

to be anything conclusive.

05:35

In any case, the captain had stable finances,

05:38

no known illnesses, and was regarded as a solid,

05:41

reliable member of his community.

05:43

In terms of his aviation career,

05:45

it had started when he was accepted

05:46

into a sponsored program for Malaysian Airlines

05:49

already back in 1981.

05:51

He completed his licenses,

05:53

and then started flying for them back in 1983.

05:56

He then worked his way up the ranks, starting

05:59

on the Fokker F27, and then the 737-200,

06:02

Airbus A300, and finally,

06:04

he got his first command on the Fokker 50.

06:07

This was then followed by command on the 737 -400,

06:10

and the Airbus A330,

06:11

until actually on my birthday,line:1 the 22nd of September 1998,

06:15

he received his command on the Boeing 777,

06:18

which he then continued to operate

06:19

until the day of this flight.

06:22

His good track record and seniority eventually gave him

06:25

the opportunity to also become a type-rating instructor,

06:28

as well as an examiner on this type,

06:30

and it was in this capacity that he was going

06:32

to operate Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 on this evening.

06:36

He had a total experience of just over 18,400 hours,

06:40

and 8,659 of those had been flown on the Boeing 777.

06:45

The first officer was 27 years old and single.

06:48

He had also been accepted into the airline as a cadet pilot,

06:51

started in 2008, and he had been flying initially

06:54

on the Boeing 737-400.

06:57

He had then changed over to the Airbus A330 fleet in 2012,

07:00

and then on to the Boeing 777 in November 2013,

07:04

just a few months before this flight,

07:06

and this was obviously why he was still in training.

07:09

He had a total experience of just over 2,800 hours,

07:12

and very little, only 39 hours on the type.

07:16

There is not much more mentioned about the first officer

07:18

in the final report, except that he was known

07:20

as a nice person with stable economy

07:22

and no recent major changes in his life.

07:26

Now, given the vast difference in experience,

07:28

seniority, and the fact that this was a training flight,

07:31

it can be easily assumed that the power gradient

07:34

in the cockpit would have been quite steep,

07:36

but nothing indicated any personal issues

07:38

between these two colleagues.

07:41

Both of them had also received more than the required rest

07:44

before the flight, and their licenses

07:46

and medicals were all up to date.

07:49

When the pilots had completed

07:50

their pre-flight preparation and training briefing,

07:53

they walked over to their 10 cabin crew members

07:55

that they were scheduled to operate together with.

07:58

This was a vastly experienced crew,

08:00

with the most junior attendant having flown for 13 years,

08:03

and the most senior, over 35 years.

08:05

So the briefing would have been pretty quick and efficient.

08:09

After they were finished, they all walked together

08:12

out to the aircraft that was being prepared

08:14

for them by the ground crew outside.

08:16

It was a majestic Boeing 777-200ER,

08:21

equipped with two Rolls Royce Trent 892B turbofan engines,

08:25

and it was in perfect working condition

08:27

according to the tech log.

08:29

The only point of interest was that

08:30

the flight crew oxygen cylinder had been topped up

08:33

just prior to the flight, but this was a routine maintenance thing.

08:37

Now, there are numerous systems aboard

08:38

this aircraft that will become important for this story,

08:40

and in order to explain it, I will have to become

08:43

quite technical in some places,

08:45

but also that's kind of what we do here on the channel.

08:49

Anyway, the two pilots had decided

08:51

that the first officer was going

08:52

to be pilot flying for this flight,

08:53

meaning that he immediately started completing

08:55

the pre-flight preparation

08:56

as soon as he arrived to the cockpit.

08:59

This included inputting flight information,

09:02

like the flight number and the airline info

09:04

into the FMC CDU, which he did at time 23:56:08.

09:10

Now, you might wonder how we can know that so exactly,

09:13

and this has to do with a system

09:14

that will play an incredibly important role here,

09:17

the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System,

09:21

more commonly referred to as ACARS.

09:23

This is a digital data link system,

09:26

which connects data providers on the ground

09:27

directly to the aircraft via either VHF

09:30

or satellite communications.

09:32

It enables people on the ground

09:33

to send things like updated weather,

09:35

flight plans and even make calls

09:37

or send messages directly to the aircraft when it's airborne.

09:41

And the part of this system which is going

09:42

to be most important here

09:44

is the satellite communications or SATCOM system.

09:48

The ACARS system booted up and established a link

09:50

through the SATCOM at time 23:54.

09:52

And about one minute and 20 seconds later, it captured

09:55

the first officer's inputs as I just mentioned before.

09:59

This showed that the system worked fine

10:01

in the beginning of this flight, and it's worth noting here

10:03

that the system uses two different satellite antennas,

10:07

depending on if the aircraft's

10:08

navigation system is working or not.

10:11

Remember that.

10:12

Anyway, as the first officer was working away

10:14

in the cockpit, he soon received an ACARS message

10:17

containing something known as a NOTOC.

10:20

Frequent viewers of this channel will know that this stands

10:22

for notification to captain, and is normally sent out

10:26

if the aircraft will be carrying dangerous goods.

10:29

In this case, there were actually no dangerous goods on board,

10:32

just some special load being loaded,

10:34

consisting of several tons of mangosteens

10:37

which apparently had a tendency to leak juice and water

10:40

and therefore, had to be checked closely.

10:42

The NOTOC message confirmed that the cargo had been checked

10:45

and that it wasn't leaking, but what it didn't say

10:48

was that there were also nearly two and a half tons

10:50

of lithium ion batteries loaded on board.

10:53

But these batteries were individually packaged

10:56

and stored in such a way that they

10:57

were not considered dangerous goods,

10:59

and they have therefore been ruled out

11:01

as a possible cause for what's about to happen.

11:04

Eventually, the captain returned from his walk-around,

11:06

and together with his colleague, they completed the rest

11:08

of the preflight preparations and briefings.

11:11

At time 23:25, the first officer called up Kuala Lumpur delivery

11:15

to request their departure clearance.

11:22

The delivery controller told them that they were clear

11:24

to follow the PIBOS-1A departure

11:27

from Runway 32R and initially climbed

11:29

to 6,000 feet with transponder code 2157.

11:40

This was read back by the first officer

11:42

and less than two minutes later,

11:44

Malaysia 370 also requested push and start,

11:47

which was almost immediately approved.

12:12

After the pushback, the aircraft received its taxi clearance

12:15

and then started taxiing out

12:16

towards runway 32 Right through the dark Malaysian night.

12:20

And for anyone watching the aircraft,

12:21

everything looked completely normal,

12:24

but this was going to be the last time

12:26

anyone saw this aircraft with their own eyes.

12:29

So what about the passengers then?

12:32

Well, there were 227 passengers on board,

12:35

coming from 14 different nations.

12:37

153 were from China, making those the largest group,

12:40

followed by 50 from Malaysia and seven from Indonesia.

12:44

Two of those passengers were later found to have been flying

12:47

on stolen passports and they were identified

12:49

as Iranians, who were most likely looking

12:52

for refugee status and were not considered a threat.

12:56

None of the other passengers raised any type of suspicion,

12:59

and this means that in total, there were 239 passengers

13:02

and crew on board when the giant Boeing 777 lined up

13:05

on runway 32R and started spooling up its engines.

13:10

And I'll tell you all about what happened next,

13:12

right after this...

13:13

Talking about leaving traces,

13:15

did you know that there's a whole industry out there,

13:17

known as data brokers who live off selling

13:19

your digital traces off to the highest bidder?

13:22

What they do is they snoop up things like your address book,

13:25

contact details, financial data and even family information

13:28

and then sell it on to scammers, financial institutions

13:31

and even spam mails.

13:33

Now this is totally legal unless you tell

13:36

each and every one of them to stop

13:38

and that's where today's sponsor, Incogni, comes in.

13:41

Incogni basically works as a guardian

13:43

of your digital footprint

13:45

and they will work diligently to contact

13:46

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14:27

Thank you, Incogni. Now let's continue.

14:29

At 40 minutes and 37 seconds past midnight

14:32

on the 8th of March, Kuala Lumpur tower

14:34

cleared Malaysian Airlines flight 370 for takeoff.

14:46

The first officer was at the controls

14:48

at this point and had therefore,

14:49

handed over the radio to the captain and after the engines

14:51

were stabilized, he pushed

14:52

the TO/GA buttons and the aircraft

14:54

started accelerating down the runway.

14:57

At 42 minutes past midnight,

14:58

the SATCOM system recorded that the aircraft was airborne

15:01

and it then continued to transmit

15:03

the aircraft's identification codes

15:04

together with all of the other normal data

15:07

and this just showed that everything

15:09

was completely normal at that stage.

15:12

The procedures in Kuala Lumpur was for the pilots

15:14

to automatically switch over to the departure frequency

15:17

after takeoff so that's exactly what the captain now also did.

15:21

Once he called up and identified himself

15:23

the departure controller told them

15:24

to cancel the standard instrument departure

15:27

and instead proceed direct towards a waypoint called IGARI

15:30

and continue the climb to flight level 180.

15:33

It's pretty common that controllers

15:35

give clearances like this especially at night

15:38

when there's typically less traffic

15:39

and therefore easier to give these kind of directs.

15:43

The captain just read back the clearance

15:45

and then selected IGARI as the active waypoint in the FMC.

15:49

The first officer would have then verified it,

15:51

told him to execute the routing

15:52

and then selected flight level 180 in the mode control panel

15:55

for the captain to verify just like they

15:58

would have done thousands of times before.

16:01

At this stage of the flight,

16:02

everything was still completely normal

16:04

and when you listen to the ATC tapes,

16:06

the voice level of the captain

16:08

is completely relaxed and routine.

16:10

The aircraft continued its climb

16:12

towards IGARI and they were eventually changed over

16:14

to the next frequency, Lumpur Radar on 132.6.

16:19

This was going to be the controller looking after them

16:21

until they reached IGARI

16:22

and the FIR boundary towards Vietnam.

16:33

The captain read back this handover more or less exactly

16:36

as he should by confirming the new frequency

16:38

and giving his call sign, again sounding completely normal.

16:42

When he called up the new area controller,

16:44

he was told that they could continue

16:46

their climb to flight level 250 which he also read back

16:49

and only three minutes later, they received further clearance

16:52

to climb to the requested cruise level, flight level 350.

16:57

As flight 370 progressed up towards the northeast,

17:00

they were still fully visible on radar

17:02

for all involved ATC units.

17:04

And here, it's probably a good time

17:06

to start explaining a bit about radars in general.

17:10

There are two different types of radar

17:11

to keep in mind for this episode:

17:13

primary radar, which is also referred to as raw radar

17:17

and secondary radar.

17:19

Under normal circumstances,

17:20

commercial air traffic always uses both of them

17:23

but the secondary radar is what gives

17:25

the majority of the information.

17:28

It is dependent on a small radio transmitter

17:30

known as a transponder on board the aircraft

17:32

and this transponder will be identified

17:34

by a four-letter numerical code

17:37

with numbers from zero to seven.

17:39

Remember that was the code

17:40

that the first officer received earlier

17:41

as part of the departure clearance.

17:44

Now there are two transponders on board the aircraft

17:46

and the active one will,

17:47

when it's activated by the pilots,

17:49

send air traffic control loads of information like position,

17:52

altitude, speed and even MCP selections in some cases.

17:56

The transponders also communicate

17:58

with other traffic and therefore enables TCAS maneuvering.

18:01

And it's these transponders that makes apps

18:03

like FlightRadar24 work since anyone can pick up

18:06

the ADS-B signals that they transmit.

18:10

But the key thing to remember here

18:11

is that the transponders are on board the aircraft

18:14

and without them functioning, secondary radar will not work

18:18

and neither will those websites or TCAS.

18:22

And this brings us to the primary radar

18:24

which is an invention that has been with us

18:26

for a very long time by now.

18:29

In this essence, it works on a simple idea