Malaysia Airlines Passengers' Phones Ringing? Maybe Not
BY DEVIN COLDEWEY
SAMSUL SAID / REUTERS
Relatives of a passenger onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cry inside a hotel they are staying, in Putrajaya on March 10.
Reports are emerging that some cellphones of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are ringing — but no one picks up. However eerie this seems, it may have more to do with how mobile phones and networks operate than any deeper mystery.
According to a China.org.cn report, 19 families signed a statement saying that dialing their loved ones' phones leads to a ring, rather than going straight to voicemail, as one would expect of a phone in airplane mode or otherwise unable to be reached.
But it's not that simple. When you hit the call button on some phones, a ringing tone begins immediately.
"However, that does not mean the phone you are calling is ringing yet," wrote wireless analyst Jeff Kagan in an email to NBC News. "The network is searching for the phone. First based on where it last was, then it expands. Then if the network can't find the phone, the call terminates."
The search for the party on the receiving end may be nearly instantaneous, or take a few seconds — during which time the phone (depending on model, network and other variables) may or may not make a ringing noise to indicate to the caller that it is attempting to make the cell connection. So while it may ring four times for you, the person you're calling may only hear it ring once -- or not at all.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/malaysia-airlines-passengers-phones-ringing-maybe-not-n49371 (http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/malaysia-airlines-passengers-phones-ringing-maybe-not-n49371)
It's plausible that the plane could have gone down over land, I suppose. I hope they can GPS these phones.
I just went and read a few stories on this and while it sounds like the families are grieving and grasping for straws. If you study the threads subject the explanations are as odd as the claim itself.
If you accidentally go swimming with your cell in your pocket and you try to call your phone what do you hear?
Here's another conspiracy going round. They are claiming this picture is photo shopped because the legs are identical in the picture.
(http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/600x372.jpg)
I've read that when you hear a cell phone ring ... you're really hearing a system ring telling you they're trying to connect with other phone.
Same with landlines.
It's looking more likely that the aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure from a defect the FAA has just issued an airworthiness directive for (kinda like a recall), involving corrosion and cracks near an antenna mount on the top of the aircraft; interestingly, an article posted to the main thread says that if this was what failed it would have made the aircraft "invisible" to all radar other than so-called "primary radar" which only has a very short range. That would explain why the aircraft disappeared from radar so quickly.
I was waiting for someone here to automatically assume this was the cause.
An Airworthiness Directive will always spell out the worst case scenario if whatever it is designed to fix, happens. The 777 structure is extremely well built (it has survived two crash landings almost completely intact) and to lose a piece that small would have a very low probability of destroying the aircraft. Could it happen? Yes, however the odd are extremely low. Aircraft have suffered far, far worse and survived such as United 811, American 96, and Aloha 243.
If the FAA believed there was a serious danger, they would have issued an emergency AD for immediate inspection of a 777s. They did not as so far the only problems found had been minor.
This is the kind of assumption that drives me bat guano crazy when it comes to plane crashes.
I'm going to take a wild, uneducated, non conspiratorial guess that the answer will eventually be something few expect. Lightening, meteor, or Daleks.
I'm going to take a wild, uneducated, non conspiratorial guess that the answer will eventually be something few expect. Lightening, meteor, or Daleks.
what is Daleks?
I see the Silence have gotten to you.
Thread hijack. Don't blink.
(http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/134/e/2/weeping_angel_by_acbusse-d4zqkzn.gif)