Page 10 - Acars System News Today

Coordinates for it to head west from its course that it was over the gulf of thailand. now, how that information was transmitted, that simply i dont know and thats one of the investigations that this brings up. they do know with certainty that the aircraft veered from its course on its way to beijing and did so on purpose because someone changed the heading in the computer system, jake. >> rene, whether or not that was conveyed through the acars system, thats significant. explain to us why? >> w...

It would have had to have been a snap, boom, and its over. >> mitchell, arent there different -- just to confuse things all the more. arent there different levels of acars that airlines can subscribe to and malaysia didnt subscribe to the more advanced one? am i correct in that? >> we talked about this, didnt we? >> thats right, we did. we talked about this. anderson, thats absolutely correct. some airlines -- actually most airlines in the world, malaysia airlines is the only one that i know of ...

Capable of doing that. we know the transponder was turned off and the acars system did not transmit. so in my mind its just clarifying -- the malaysian government is just clarifying that it could be that it was just sent here and it was sent here. they cant verify that it was truly turned off with a switch. it doesnt mean it wasnt off. >> you can jump in on this, jim tilmon or anybody, if these instruments, the transponder, the acars are so vital, why do they have an off switch? >> you want an o...

>> the acars -- last acars transmission was 1:07. okay. we dont know when the acars was switched off after that. it was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from there another transmission, but that transmission did not come true. that was the very last transmission was 1:07. >> reporter: okay. didnt come true. but heres the point. the pilot said "all right, good night" at 1:19. we know that the transponder went out at 1:21. we dont know that acars was still operational. we dont know that it had been...

Doing that. if the acars had been turned off, it wouldnt have been capable of doing that. we know the transponder was turned off and the acars system did not transmit. so in my mind its just clarifying -- the malaysian government is just clarifying that it could be that it was just sent here and it was sent here. they cant verify that it was truly turned off with a switch. it doesnt mean it wasnt off. >> you can jump in on this, jim tilmon or anybody, if these instruments, the transponder, the a...

I dont know every detail. i dont know every box. i would really have to study some more engineering and schematics to really know what everything does down there. >> as a pilot, would you be able to turn off the acars system? >> id have to climb down there and figure out which one of these boxes would do it. >> so its not something isnt routine training that you would learn. >> absolutely not. but as far as your question is concerned, ive always asserted that there was some type of mechanical is...

Want to go to and you punch in that waypoint code. theres like four letters or numbers on that code and the plane turns or you can turn your auto pilot. you can instruct the auto pilot to turn and it will go to that waypoint and then thats in the computer but you didnt punch in it. so we know it happened. we know they were going to the waypoint but the biggest mystery is still how, why, who? but we at least now have a better heading thanks to the thai government. most helpful. >> lets talk for a...

Theory. eventually you can come back to the same problem. if there had been a fire or if something had failed on the plane or anything like that, the acars would have noticed it and would have reported it. thats the problem with the mechanical theory. it would have had to have been instant. it would have had to have literally disabled -- a good question for the captain there, isnt that one of the issues, though, when we look at the mechanical problems that may have happened in the electronics ba...

Because there would have been more information, perhaps easier to finding and we would have found it by now. >> one of the important things is, if there had been a fire, if there had been something failing, acars would have reported this. we saw this in 447. the first thing of anything wrong was 24 messages. a lot went on acars told the ground. a flag came up on the pilots display, acars told the ground. anything that happens in that cockpit where they are at the moment, martin, acars will tell ...

The last transmission was at 1:07, the acars system wasnt supposed to report back for another 30 minutes, 1:37, well after the time that the pilot said "all right, good night." listen to what the ceo had to say yesterday at the press conference. >> the acars -- last acars transmission was 1:07. okay. we dont know when the acars was switched off after that. it was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from there another transmission, but that transmission did not come true. that was the very last trans...