Your humor is outstanding in a forum of international exposure fellas! :nope: Just a grim reinforce of my original post in today's WSJ:
As police investigate the two pilots of a Malaysian passenger jet that disappeared more than a week ago, a possibility they must consider — however remote and improbable — is that one of them committed suicide — and mass murder in the process.
While such incidents have happened before, the topic remains almost taboo, with investigators and officials reluctant to conclude that a pilot purposely crashed a plane in order to commit suicide even when the evidence appears compelling.
A dozen years ago, U.S. investigators filed a final report into the 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, killing all 217 aboard. They concluded that when co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty found himself alone on the flight deck, he switched off the auto-pilot, pointed the plane downward, and calmly repeated the phrase "I rely on God" over and over, 11 times in total.
Yet while the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the co-pilot's actions caused the crash, they didn't use the word "suicide" in the main findings of their 160-page report, instead saying the reason for his actions "was not determined." Egyptian officials, meanwhile, rejected the notion of suicide altogether, insisting instead there was some mechanical reason for the crash.
There was also disagreement over the cause of the crash of SilkAir Flight 185, which plunged into a river in 1997 during a flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Singapore, killing all 104 passengers and crew. A U.S. investigation found that the Boeing 737 had been deliberately crashed, but an Indonesian investigation was inconclusive.
Mozambique officials have been investigating a crash that killed 33 people in November. They say preliminary investigations indicate that the pilot of the Mozambican Airline plane bound for Angola intentionally brought it down, and they're continuing to look into his possible motives.
A 2014 study by the Federal Aviation Administration indicates that in the U.S. at least, flying remains a remarkably safe mode of transport and pilot suicide is a rare occurrence.
The study found that during the 10 years ending in 2012, just eight of 2,758 fatal aviation accidents in the U.S. were caused by pilot suicide, a rate of 0.3 percent. The report found that all eight suicides were men, with four of them testing positive for alcohol and two for antidepressants.
The cases ranged from a pilot celebrating his 21st birthday who realized a woman didn't want a relationship with him, to a 69-year-old pilot with a history of drinking and threatening suicide by plane. Seven of the cases involved the death of only the pilot; in the eighth case, a passenger also died.
"Aircraft-assisted suicides are tragic, intentional events that are hard to predict and difficult to prevent," the FAA's report found, adding that such suicides "are most likely under-reported and under-recognized."
In at least one case, a major international airline allowed a pilot who had expressed suicidal thoughts to continue flying. He flew nearly three more years, without incident, before he resigned in 1982 with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and depression.

That really encourages me to fly bby.:up::yep:

Pilot suicide by airplane eh?

Takes a special sort to plunge a plane load of people down with you... why not rent a cessna, or better yet just put a pistol to your head in the privacy of your own home? there are a lot of ways to off yourself without taking a couple of hundred innocent folks with you.

Sickening the thought of it. As a Professional in Aviation... Passenger safety is number 1, and i think that so few pilots would consider suicide by plane (one that is carrying passengers that is) that it is is such a low statistical anomaly that it wouldn't even rate.

I have heard of suicide by plane, I narrowly missed witnessing a guy plunge a small airplane straight down into the dirt as it was said to be "shedding parts" all the way down due to the forces at work against the plane far exceeding its design limits. The guy killed himself on purpose. (it was revealed that just an hour or so before his lover left him or some such motive)

I cannot stand before anyone and say it doesnt happen... but it happens with about the same frequency as Doctors intentionally murdering their patients.

On the whole, pilots are an intensely positive, can-do, achieve and overcome sort of people, realistic thoughts of suicide just normally is not entering into their thinking. Though there have been exceptions to every rule known to man.

I have to ask this though... if it was pilot suicide, why fly the damned thing a bazillion miles off course into some far off remote stretch of sea?

Most men contemplate suicide due to the actions of a woman... im not saying this would be the motive, but in the event that it is, most men who commit suicide do so to cause lasting trauma to a lover "See what i did because of you" sort of mentality... the thing in that case would have been to simply disconnect the autopilot at the proper moment, broadcast "This is for you Julia you rotten beeyatch!" and take her on down into the final descent.

turn the transponder off? no, why do that?

Disable the ACARS? if it was suicide, why? why do that?

this was done in a manner so as to conceal the act... commonly in suicide you want to make a show of it so someone or some group will know why you did it.

We have none of those indicators, so i think pilot suicide is not likely.

An expert on the news stated that the erratic flight path shortly after the aircraft was lost from radar could be a sign of struggle in the cockpit.

I want to throw out an assumption here that perhaps has not been considered.

Those two pilots were attacked, and during the struggle one of them attempted to turn back, the pilots died defending the flight deck and protecting their passengers, and whoever ultimately took over the plane had just enough knowledge to keep it aloft. they became lost and disoriented while trying to find their way to somewhere, such as a target, they exhausted the fuel and crashed into the sea way off course.

Of course, that brings up the question of where were the passengers during this struggle. No one got off a phone call during this long meander to nowhere? It seems that whoever tried to take over the plane would have found themselves vastly outnumbered.

It is quite a perplexing problem... with so many perks and amenities aboard the 777 aircraft like in flight sat phones and Wi-Fi... it seems like at least one passenger would have been able to place a call or send out an e mail or posted something to the internet - Something

This scenario has not been on CNN, yet!

I have also wondered about the reports of the plane flying at an altitude of 45,000 feet and then plunging to 23,000 feet with many experts saying that this can not happen without the wings falling off.

If this did happen and their radar reports that say it did or was it the ACARS system pings that reported it?

On my FSX autopilot all you have to do is turn one knob to get the plane to go to another course, you don't have to be an expert. Then the plane flew straight back towards Malaysia air space like it was trying to return?

If it wasn't the pilot or co-pilot causing the problem then a mayday signal could've been sent out, leaves mechanical failure out.

They also said that the military didn't figure out that the plane doubled back to Malaysia air space for days, in other words they didn't see it happen in real time only on radar recorded reports later.

Very strange indeed ... also wonder why no one could get off a cell phone call unless they were all dead of course from depressurization of the passenger cabin.

One things for sure we are not getting all of the right information at the right time. This whole investigation has been screwy with the pilots just now being considered suspects.

The time points for turning off ACARS keeps changing to before the co-pilot said his farewell "Good night" to after he reported in.

Plus the ping every hour throws me way off to where the plane really wound up ... six hours of flying in the air from the last reported positioning winding up in the ocean or after $300 million dollar aircraft is now on the ground?

The fact that the pilot was friends with the political opposition leader that was jailed the same day has me concerned also, plus the co-pilot was 29 and one of the passengers was a civil aeronautical engineer that was 29.

Do you think we will ever know? They say the flight data recorder rewrites it self every two hours if it wasn't turned off at the switch board that is and that is outside the pilots cabin and under a floor board visible to passengers in the main cabin (if they were still alive that is).

Notice no one is saying the "M" word yet ... but they are saying prayers seven times a day. :yep:

I would be more cautious in talking about a topic (suicide) that I do not think you know a whole lot about.

Trying to mask a suicide attempt is not all that uncommon. A common reason is so that the person's family does not think it was suicide, that it was just an accident. There also may be religious reasoning behind what they do, such as not shaming their family further. It is also not at all uncommon for the person attempting suicide not to consider the potential harm to others, they are often totally stuck within themselves. Also of course there is the possibility of the person wanting to take revenge on everyone else for perceived harm to the individual by other groups or society.

Also your other statement about men and suicide is equally erroneous (though relationships can be a factor in a suicide, it is more often just a last straw). It is considerably harder to detect suicidal ideation than you think. Most people tend to be completely oblivious to the warning signs, and even for us professionals, assessing a person's risk for suicide is a challenge. The ones that are most likely to succeed are also the ones that do not give out any warning signs, as they do not want to be rescued or stopped. I cannot count the number of parents I have met that had absolutely no idea their son or daughter was at risk, or even depressed.

Those are excellent points, and i defer to your expertise if you are in the field.

But the pilot driving the plane 1,500 miles into the open sea and then killing himself and all his passengers is just completely alien in concept

I still say if the mission was suicide, why all the theatrics? just pull the trigger so to speak.

Fox news is now confirming what GR thought: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/03...investigation/

But I sure didn't know Muslims were homosexuals did you?

Seems the pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a close friend of Anwar Ibrahim Malaysian opposition leader, who just happened to be arrested on the same day flight 370 departed. His friend was arrested for being a homosexual, plus the pilots family had already left him, he was a single male. :hmmm:.

Probably nothing to it, uh? Good ole Fox News :woot:

Open your eyes and look at what is going on in our society these days.

Gunmen go into schools and kill and kill and kill when their ultimate purpose is death by cop or they eat their own gun after their killing spree.

This proposal about a pilot is so different?

I find the crazy theories, postulations, links to gossip, etc. far more hurtful then off color(?) jokes.
Then again. I have a very hard outlook on life.
If there's an S.O.B. out there that will do something so outstandingly crazy that we are baffled?
I'm sure he'll surface at some point in time. :nope:

as a professional pilot, who has worked in the airline business, corporate aviation and private aviation i have to say the proposal about a pilot IS different in the sense that it is extraordinarily rare.

Its not different in the sense that they are human beings.

Sometimes a nut gets through - most times they dont.

Im not excluding the possibility that one of the pilots just up and decided screw it me, you and everyone aboard is dieing today. But knowing pilots in general in the way that i do... such a feeling would be all but completely unheard of.

Perhaps this guy was a closet homosexual with the captain, and not wanting to be found out or arrested or shamed he decided to crash it.

but that still doesnt explain the circumstances behind driving it 2 or 3 thousand miles before ditching it in the sea.

explaining the rationale behind the actions of a nut job is difficult... but it still doesnt make sense to fly it 4 or 5 hours in the wrong direction (7 hours depending on who you ask) before putting it in the water.

Unless it takes them that long to actually go through with it.
Had a good friend put 3 rounds in his ceiling before he wasted himself.

What if the plane didn't know it had a pilot? Would that explain the plane flying for hours and hours, probably in a straight line of sight path, straight over the ocean till it is never heard of again?

They say the black box signal can only be picked up by a submarine or an airplane directly overhead of it.

@GR sorry if my comment came of as harsh or aimed at you.

Right now, I fear the reality may be that no one ever finds out what happened to this plane & it's people.

For the families who had loved ones aboard I hope that isn't true. I'd want to know.