On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 9:48:44 AM UTC-4, Robert Green wrote:
wrote in message news:1bcef9a6-c8ae-45b3-a3b9-



stuff snipped



But I agree with your overall assessment that the damage to the

wing from the prior accident should be high on the list. Previously

I was thinking of it from the standpoint that it was just a few feet

of the wing that was ripped off and then repaired. If just that had

come off, I would think the plane would likely fly for a long time,

probably even able to make a landing. It didn't involve a control

surface. But I hadn't thought about

the possibility that you're suggesting, that the accident could have

damaged where the wing spar attaches to the fuselage.



Here's a new data point:



http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/mis...ng-777s-n50591



A cracking and corrosion problem on Boeing 777s that could lead to the

mid-air break-up of the aircraft prompted a warning from air safety

regulators weeks before the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,

federal records show.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered checks on hundreds of

U.S.-registered 777s after reports of cracking in the fuselage skin

underneath a satellite antenna.



In an airworthiness directive, it said the extra checks were needed "to

detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could

lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the

airplane."



The directive, first drawn up in September, was approved in February and was

due to take effect on April 9.



Sounds a little too much like Airbus/AirFrance being warned that the pitot

tubes could freeze over and then taking their sweet time about replacing the

units throughout the fleet.



Unfortunately as the planes age, all sorts of material failure modes raise

their ugly heads.



Yes, I had seen that same report. Some more good questions that should be
asked and answered, ie was this plane checked for that possible defect?

I've also seen where Boeing says that the plane was not part of their
data logging that they offer airlines. Apparently the onboard ACRS?
sends maintenance, performance data back, similar to Airbus that went
down near Brazil. But Malaysian airlines chose not to participate in
Boeings data collection, but Boeing says MA did use the system themselves.
From what I've read, MA hasn't directly answered the question of when
the last data from that was received, etc.

This is the most confused, screwed up investigation that I've ever
seen. They've switched major parts of the story so many times now
that the Malaysian officials need to hold a major press conference,
release more information and clear things up. Of huge significance
is on what exactly are they basing the ever changing story of the continued
radar tracking of the plane after it dropped off ATC. They should
just release the radar returns, at least to enough international
experts, so that there is some more credibility to where the plane
might have gone. At first thought, you'd think that the military
probably doesn't want to disclose what they can or can't see on radar.
But at this point I think it's obvious that you could fly a 777 over
their airspace and they don't know WTF is going on, so it would seem
releasing more descriptive information as to what exactly they have on
radar would be better than looking like total idiots. Last I heard
on this was that they were back to saying that all they had was some
kind of radar data right after the last known ATC radar, that showed
it "might have" changed direction. Yet the day before, two high ranking
AF officials said that they tracked the plane all the way to the
Straits of Malacca. Curiously, that would be about the two hour flight
time that the airline, Malaysian officials all were giving out for
two days.

I say the odds are still that it went down off Kota Bharu where
contact was lost 40 mins into the flight from some sudden catastrophic
event. I'm still suspicous of those two Iranians too, while it seems
investigators are downplaying it as they were just two more illegal
immigrants. We know a good bit about one, but I haven't seen anything
about the other. And the guy who dropped them off at the airport
says they only had only a backpack and two laptops? If you were going
to Europe for good, wouldn't you have some real luggage? This guy
knew the one guy from school, the other he didn't know at all. They
stayed at his house overnight, yet he says he didn't ask them why
they were in Malaysia? They got these fake passports from this
mysterious guy "Ali" who I believe is Iranian? Wonder where they
got the laptops from?