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In reply to the discussion: Maldives residents saw 'low-flying jumbo jet' on March 8: report [View all]marions ghost
(19,841 posts)some touching down on a fly by?
What about this LBN?
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/19/Missing-MH370-Onboard-computer-programmed-to-turn/
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NEW YORK: The on-board flight computer on missing MAS flight MH370 was programmed to turn 12 minutes before co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid said All right, good night.
NBC News, quoting sources, is reporting that the planes abrupt u-turn was programmed into the on-board computer well before the co-pilot signed off with air traffic controllers.
A former National Transportation Safety Board crash investigator and NBC News analyst Greg Feith told the channel: Some pilots program an alternate flight plan in the event of an emergency.
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Sounds like the pilots have some leeway with an "alternate flight plan" and this could have been the case here, but wouldn't they know what this destination was, since the ground knows it turned before the last pilot verbal contact. I understood that this flight pattern and any alternate would be known by ground control.