Page 71 - Flight Path News Today

Animation of the flight path. the radar suggests that the 24-year-old aircraft was cruising at 38,000 feet at this level when it began descending very rapidly into this area where its known to crash. we should note weather isnt believed to be a contributing factor. weather conditions locally were very good when that plane went down. so this is the information that we do know on this breaking story. of course, all of this is coming in as were finding out more and reports that the black box has be...

Then rain and snow is moving into the e region. >> take me back to the wider shot of the map. i want to show where it was coming from and heading. going from barcelona on the coast of spain. >> let me back up here. >> it was going to dusseldorf, which is on the other coast. its a very arc kind of flight. >> its very common. our planes do that too. they will do it on the next map. sometimes they will divert their routes based on the wind to save fuel. if they see the winds are howling from the so...

Indicated, its a fairly short list of things that can go wrong to an aircraft at cruise altitude. this was likely a developing problem and its difficult sometimes for pilots to accurately assess how much trouble theyre in. and as the problem progresses boy, it gets more serious. i think when they started to descend it was clear that they knew they had a very serious issue on their hands. >> mary did you hear that the plane turned sharply east at any point or do you know what the flight path was?...

Let me get to the next slide -- okay now, the navigate aspect of this doesnt seem to have changed. the flight path was going from from -- lets come back off here. >> i think its being a little temperamental. >> the interesting bit about this thomas at 48 miles before the impact point, the aircraft doesnt seem to have changed direction. we go to the mantra aviate navigate, communicate. the navigate bit, this point here the aircraft should have been looking forge a suitable diversion to land at an...

In meteorologist chad myers. chad will tell us about the flight path of this plane, what the terrain is like. take it away chad. >> carol, it appears that it is a strange flight path gone to the east and turning to the left. when you draw the straight line people expect planes to fly in straight lines. thats the flight path today, that was the flight path yesterday. thats how this flight gets to dusseldorf. whats curious to me this morning is that the plane appeared to start descending. i wont s...

Airplane to the ground stating its position and its general status. and if that plane deviated from its flight path in any significant way, that interval could be cut down to just one minute. so there would be bursts of information going back every minute. now i say could, because this is the plan. it is not yet in operation. the 15 minutes is in operation in some airlines notably malaysia airlines itself. they have taken the lead in this. they have gotten ahead of the curve, if you like. and ot...

Monitors location flight path fuel and engine levels and that data is streamed from the aircraft in real time. if anything abnormal happens, an event button is triggered and the ground crew will know exactly where the plane is and what the problem is. >> now we know about the event within 30 to 60 seconds. historically it would have taken maybe an hour to find out that there was an event and no air traffic control in the high north. its procedural. youre not always able to talk to somebody on th...

>> reporter: its an eerie feeling sitting in a cockpit virtually similar to the mh 370 missing flight. veteran pilot rob johnson activates the boeing 777 autopilot 20 seconds after takeoff. the autopilot follows waypoints along the flight path. it is land the plane if necessary. less than a hour into its flight mh 370 veered off the planned route. our simulator makes the same turn. nobody knows why one or both pilots decided to change course. or why the plane disappeared from civilian radar. the...

Ago. veteran pilot rob johnson activates the boeing 777 autopilot 20 seconds after takeoff. >> its automated. >> reporter: the autopilot follows way points along the flight path and can land the plane if necessary. less than an hour into its flight, mh-370 veered off the planned route to beijing. makes the same sharp turn as the missing plane. >> could be the autopilot made it turn on its own? >> nope. >> reporter: nobody knows why one or both decided to change course or why the plane disappeare...

For help. >> i think fundamentally you have to assume nobody expects one of these planes to fall out of the sky. nobody expects a 777 to vanish. >> malaysia tells air traffic control a completely different story. they say mh-370 hasnt vanished at all. according to their own special flight tracking system. >> malaysia airlines says, oh, the aircrafts fine. we know exactly where it is. >> yet theyve had no communication. >> theyve had none. theyve had none. so their system was showing that the air...