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The Unknown Poster

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Everything posted by The Unknown Poster

  1. Yup. Whether you're Team Trump or Team Mueller at this point, probably everyone can agree that bluffing Mueller isnt the best strategy.
  2. I bet all the alt right wing jobbers will pat him on the back for his silly grandstanding. For his sake, let's hope they are willing to donate to his legal defense fund!
  3. I'd imagine Hutch wants a legit chance to be an NHL back up (at least) and probably isnt in love with the Jets anyway. He wont ever start ahead of Helle & Mason. The only change to that being if the Jets traded Mason and re-signed Hutch but I dont think they will do that. Its interesting because with Helle needing a new contract and likely getting a big raise, they will have a lot of money dedicated to goalies. I wonder if they are content to keep Mason next season or trade him to save from money. They'd need a new back up then. Either way, they'll have to replace Hutch on the Moose, probably with a veteran back up. I'd think they'd hope Comrie can be #2 after next season but then who plays for the Moose? Berdin is 20 so might he join the Moose next season or too soon? They can always sign a cheap veteran back up if need be, if they decide to trade Mason.
  4. Hillbilly Jim announced for the Hall of Fame. I had forgotten all about him and would have guessed he was already in. He wasnt on any of the "rumored" lists...maybe they arent going to do Bam Bam this year.
  5. On paper, Mason is the better goalie. If I had to pick one, its Mason every day.
  6. Coming up on 4 years since the disappearance. March 8th. My interest has been reignited. I just read a book about the disappearance. So Ill make a long post with some thoughts... The first post of this thread outlined by two theories. I said most likely it was a mechanical failure and my "wild theory" was pilot suicide. We have some more information since then and Im leaning stronger to pilot suicide. I actually hate to say that because I dont want to assume the Captain murdered everyone without more evidence. And the mechanical failure accounts for *some* of the weirdness. But it just doesnt fit. So Ill update my two thories: Mechanical Failure: - The last verbal communication was 1:19am. The transponder was lost at 1:21. For it to be a mechanical failure it means an incredible coincidence of something happening that severely damaged the communications systems within that two minutes. Almost immediately, the aircraft began a slow turn back and adjusted altitude, possibly as high as 45,000 feet and then back down to normal. It dropped very low near Penang where one of the pilot's cell phones pinged a cell tower. - There are two possibilities for mechanical failure - depressurization and fire. If they suffered a sudden depressurization, the pilots would immediately turn back and drop altitude to allow passengers to breath and to prepare for a quick landing. While the plane turned back, it did not drop altitude. In fact it increased. If the sudden depressurization allowed the pilots to make an immediate turn back but then over-came then (perhaps their oxygen was not working), you have a ghost plane scenario. However, the aircraft made as many as 8 course corrections. The plane would have continued on auto-pilot to its programmed destination and then held until running out of fuel. Surely the pilots did not program an odd route that ended in the South Indian Ocean as part of an immediate plan to land quickly. In fact, programming the flight computer takes times. A more likely depressurization scenario would be a slow depressurization. This happened on a Helios flight a few years ago. Its somewhat terrifying actually. In that instance, the flight had been reported due to a hissing sound coming from a galley door. Ground crew did some testing which included pressurizing and depressurizing the cabin. How it works is, there is a knob in the cockpit that reads "manual" and "auto". Its to be on "auto" which results in the plane automatically maintaining cabin pressure. In this instance, after their testing ground crew left the knob on "manual". For some reason, the pilots did not catch this during their pre-flight checks. So the cabin never pressurized. As they ascended, everyone was slowly starved of Oxygen without realizing it. In the passenger cabin, oxygen masks automatically drop and a warning message in english is announced when the pressure drops below a certain amount. This happened. So the passengers donned their masks. It provides about 20 minutes of oxygen. In the cockpit, not realizing they were suffering hypoxia, the pilots did nothing and passed out. The passengers would have been unaware that the plane was not being controlled and would have slowly passed out after about 20 minutes. Of course, this did not impact communication equipment and the plane was never lost on radar. When the pilots would not respond, fighter jets were scrambled. They observed passengers unconscious, one pilot unconscious (the other they could not see) and one person, shockingly, walking about the cabin. This was one of the flight attendants and he was using a portable oxygen canister which has much more oxygen in it. He entered the cockpit and waved at the fighter jets before sitting at the controls. Amazingly, he was a student pilot, though not trained on a large passenger jet. Regardless, it was too late and the engines failed due to lack of fuel and crashed. If this happened on MH370 it *might* explain an odd route programmed into the computer if the pilots were suffering hypoxia. It might even explain them turning off the transponder. But it doesnt explain the multiple course changes and even the programming and turning off the transponder would be an odd thing to do based on how little time (mere minutes) of usable consciousness they'd have. And of course, the pilot sounded perfectly fine when he radio'ed at 1:19. Depressurization doesnt fit. Most people who subscribe to the mechanical failure scenario believe it was a fire. The plane was carrying a lot of lithium batteries which have caused fire before. The problem with the fire scenario is, fires dont put themselves out and aircraft generally crash within about 20 minutes of a fire being detected. A fire would essentially have had to occure in the equipment bay and take out the communication equipment. It would have to do so during that two minutes after last verbal communication. A fire might explain why the pilot would climb to 45,000 feet, to attempt to starve the fire of oxygen. It does not explain why or how the plane would continue to make course changes and end up in the Indian Ocean. Keep in mind, SATCOM was *not* turned off. So a fire would have had to attack specific communication elements that would render the plane invisible but miss SATCOM. And not impact any other elements of flying the aircraft. Plus, put itself out and leave the plane perfectly air-worthy Highly unlikely. That leaves only: Malicious Intent: - Hijacking. Highly unlikely A hijacker would have to gain access to the cockpit. And even if they could time it perfectly to happen in the dead zone between signing off Malaysian ATC and before signing into the next ACT), they'd have to access the cockpit and subdue the pilots without any mayday call. Pilots have ways of conveying messages without verbal communication (changing transponder to squawk a hijack code). All passengers were reportedly cleared of suspicion after the fact. - Pilot suicide. This is really the only possibility that fits everything we know. And here's how it happened. The captain suggests the co-pilot take a break. Not unusual. He signs off Malaysian ATC. He then turns off the transponder and begins a turn back. The co-pilot would be locked out of the cockpit. Its possible the Captain would allow the passengers to survive but it seems unlikely, The plan flew for another 7 hours or so and you'd essentially have 238 people including the co-pilot and several engineers trying to break into the cockpit. Its very very hard to do but with that kind of time and motivation, you never know. Plus, you'd have every person on board trying to make cell phone calls (only one cell phone pinged a cell tower) and you'd have to hope no one has a SAT phone. More likely, the Captain donned his oxygen and depressurized the cabin. His climbing to 45,000 feet would be to put the passengers out fast, likely 30 seconds. Oxygen masks would still drop but remember, it only allows 20 minutes of air. And even less at higher altitudes as the masks are not designed to force air into your body. This was a middle of the night flight and usually cabin lights are dimmed and temperature set warm to encourage sleep. So imagine waking up to a commotion, confused and suffering low oxygen...if yu even woke up at all. Especially with English not being the primary language for most passengers. With the passengers taken care of, the Captain skirts between countries. He doesnt know for sure he wont be spotted on military radar and in fact we know he was. But he's relying on no one knowing what the blip is and not taking it seriously. The low spin around Penang is interesting. Its the Captain's home town. Was he taking a look at his hometown? That when the cell phone pinged. It did this because the airplane was low enough to connect to a cell tower. There is no evidence a call was made (its possible it was attempted but unsuccessful). But this implies an attempt by the Captain to communicate. Even if his transponder was "broken" and verbal communication impossible, he still at the SATCOM which was operating fine. He never attempted to use it. He skirted nations, making appropriate course changes as needed until satisfied he was not detected. He then programmed a southerly route into the computer and let the Auto Pilot take over. The proposed route by investigators indicates the plane flew generally along established waypoints. Most likely on auto pilot. The question is, did the Pilot remove his mask and allow himself to slowly pass out from oxygen, did he stay conscious until the plane crashed or did he pilot it and attempt a controlled ditch? The recovered debris indicates flaps were not set for landing. This *likely* means a crash although it isnt certain. Engines never failure at the same time as they burn fuel at slightly different paces. So one flames out. Autopilot is able to adjust to accommodate this. When the engines begin to fail the back up power unit comes on. This makes sense as Satellite received a log-on message indicating a power reboot (probably when the engines flamed out). When both engines are out and there is no power, the RAT deploys (the "fan" that drops from underneath to provide basic power, famously used in the Gimli Glider situation). But the plane would be unable to sustain itself and would disconnect autopilot, eventually stall out and death spiral into the sea. If the Captain was at the controls, he could glide the plane for a significant distance and attempt a controlled ditching. He might do this if 1) he wants to die but cant bring himself for whatever reason to just crash 2) to try to disappear the plane by allowing the body of the craft to sink intact. Pilot suicide it is.
  7. Well there goes their Playoff aspirations.
  8. Im too lazy to check when Hutch was re-called but Ill assume its within the 30 day window to return him without waivers...?
  9. Maybe dragged out of the Oval Office by the secret service lol
  10. I have vague memories of seeing a made for TV movie when I was a kid about the four minute mile. I assume it was about this guy.
  11. Helle Beats Jets 1.0 goalie record for wins in a season set by Bob Essensa at 33. And ties franchise record set bun lehtonen at 34
  12. It will underwhelm
  13. Also sunny is in the slammer.
  14. Rey Misterio tore his left biceps at an Indy show last night. So...that throws a wrench into his plan to return to wwe
  15. Doesnt seem like a great outing for Mason
  16. Speculated to feature Rousey as the headliner.
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