BS
I am a pilot (expired paper though) and a former flightsimmer. Just because there are 'deleted files' on the simulator (I've not heard the term 'wiped clean') doesn't mean anything. News outlets are jumping to conclusions on this.
Very valid point, nothing illegal about having a simulator, and who knows, the deleted files could be aircraft he doesn't want to fly, or any number of innocuous items.
That being said, Malaysian authorities are not being very forthcoming..obviously.
I think they were never prepared for such an event.
News media aren't helping matters by speculating. It muddies the waters. What we know for sure:
Last ACARS message was sent about 14 minutes before the transponder was turned off...this is a message from the cockpit (usually coded via text) that the airline receives. Typically maintenance info (fuel burn rate, alt, etc)
These seem to be the only absolutes at this time. Everything else is speculation, guesstimation.
Malaysian military radar picked the aircraft up about 45 minutes after the transponder was deactivated (primary return only).
This is the one that has me curious, although we have not heard any of the ATC (civilian or military) recordings of conversations, did either of them challenge an unidentified aircraft?
About 5.5 hours later, a satellite received a ping from the aircraft, but only one ping. Without two other satellites receiving this, there is no way to accurately pinpoint where it was.
Yes all they got was the system polling all of the aircraft the cover, and all the got was the serial/ ID number for that aircraft, which if it works like systems I'm familiar with, you can't disable that ID, as it is separate from the system sending the data. It's also similar to the way a pike pass works.
And I'll take my time to say this much...CNN has found as annoying, or even more, annoying of a correspondent than Piers Morgan. Richard Quest takes the cake there.
And CNN anchors really need to do some of their own research before spouting off some of the silliness I've heard over the last 10 days.
Richard Quest now reminds me of what would be an obnoxious character in a Monty Python skit, and the news anchors have no idea about the questions they ask.