Whitey Grandad

We stopped playing at half time.

Adam!

J-Rod!

Nayim's was better.

Yes indeed. I too have been misquoted in the press at a very local level, in fact they used a phrase that I hadn't uttered, so I now treat all press reports with a degree of scepticism. Reporters are always told to look for 'the story' and if they don't find one they are likely to invent one.

Ok, thanks.

Thanks for taking the time to post your comments, West Stand, any info is interesting. One more question that you professionals may be able to answer. I heard someone say that if there were a fire then the pilots would use special masks and that these had their own microphones. Is it possible that the crew could have 'forgotten' to plug these in if they were overcome by circumstances?

Oh yes please, pretty please with bells on. A few years in the Conference and I might actually start to think that they have served their time.

Sorry to hear that Gemmel. A pet is part of the family and even though you know that they don't live forever it's still a sad loss. We lost our Norfolk Terrier when I was in my late teens. We don't know what happened to him, he just got out of the garden and never came back. We think he was run over by a car but never had any proof. He was my best friend.

So , plane continues to fly for seven hours or so with no ACARS, IFF or more importantly, comms? Did anybody else see the programme on Channel 4 last night? Nothing much new except a comment that the turn to port and routing over the Malay peninsular took the aircraft along the borders between all the ATC areas of responsibility and at an altitude of 29,500 feet which they said was also on the boundary of control boxes so I'd appreciate one of our resident pilots commenting on this aspect. There are several aspects of this whole business that raise alarm bells with me. The pilot had a flight simulator at home, he had been practising landings on several runways to the west and north of where they started, he had deleted a lot of files just before leaving for this flight. The IFF is turned off and possibly the ACARS at the same time (it certainly doesn't report any more) just before the co-pilot signs off from Malaysian ATC with "ok, good night" which seems somewhat informal to some. They twice reported that they had reached 39,500 (I think) ft. Wouldn't they normally only do this once? My theory, for what it's worth, is that the pilot/crew wanted to make a political statement by taking the aircraft with its passengers somewhere to the north and keeping them hostage. Then something went wrong, maybe a fire, maybe decompression, and the aircraft continues in autopilot until the fuel runs out, or it's shot down.

I think you're right. I get the impression that it was only after checking the recordings that they found anything, and that was only after a couple of days because they hadn't found anything in the sea.

If he didn't see the handball then how could he see who to send off?

The altitude readings were from the radar which is acknowledged to be less accurate at longer ranges. It all depends on the quality of the kit but whereas you can get range reasonably accurately you're relying on an accurate measure of the dish elevation, then there's curvature of the earth and the rest. From what I saw they could see that the altitude fluctuated but perhaps not as extremely as was indicated.

My daughter reckons they're discussing whose turn it is to make the tea.

Why does anybody have to bring up race whenever a black person is involved?

Of course, he has to. It was his final decision.

Gentlemen, this is undignified. Let's spare a thought for the relatives and loved ones of those who are missing.

And the sun was in the ref's eyes. No excuse for the assistant though.

He presumably relied upon advice from his assistants. Not a red card anyway, the ball was going well wide of goal, just a yellow. Michael Owen knows nothing about the laws.

Now, now young Pap. There is a whole range of experience on this forum and each has his own knowledge to contribute, all of it worth respecting.

Yes indeed, the first A in ACARS originally stood for ARINC. We made some speed indicators for Concorde that took information off the ARINC data bus and showed the passengers the Mach number. The data information can be carried over alternative media depending on location.

Blu-Ray, surely? (VHF of course, 131.55 MHz and others)

ACARS information would normally be sent on VHS over land because it's cheaper. It's possible to build your own monitoring equipment if you're an enthusiastic amateur: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/decoders/acars.pdf The FMS info was apparently sent via ACARS just before it and the transponder were switched off/stopped working. It was this info that alerted the Malaysian authorities to the fact that the change of course had been programmed in.

Always good for a laugh. Who's going to own up to this one.

Let the poor lad wear it. It will help him overcome the disappointment of seeing his team let in four or five goals. Or six... Or seven...