Inside knowledge needed to disable plane system, says Wall Street Journal
Detailed knowledge of the Boeing 777's inner workings would have been required to manually disable the multiple communications systems of MH370, the Wall Street Journal reports. – Reuters pic, March 15, 2014.
For the multiple communication systems of MH370 to be manually disabled, if that were the case, it would have required detailed knowledge of the long range Boeing 777's inner workings, the Wall Street Journal reported today.The first loss of the jet's transponder, which communicates the jet's position, speed and call sign to air traffic control radar, would require disabling a circuit breaker above and behind an overhead panel, the paper reported.
Access to the circuit breakers is reserved for maintenance personnel, and rarely done by pilots.
In order to disable both transponders on a 777, pulling one specific circuit breaker would do the job, said WSJ after reviewing documents and speaking to aviation industry officials who have worked with this model.
Experts also said that in order to be familiar with the systems in the 777, extensive training for pilots and mechanics would be needed, although a lot of technical data on the plane type is also accessible online via discussion groups and websites.
The report said that the shutdown of the reporting system on the plane after it was last seen on radar could be done in a series of keystrokes on either of the cockpit's two flight management computers, where the computers are used to set the performance of the engines upon takeoff, to plan the route and other functions to guide the plane. – March 15, 2014.
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