Two weeks ago, I wrote a couple of posts about the strange reboot of MH370’s satcom system that occurred shortly after the plane disappeared from primary radar, and asked if anyone could come up with a reasonable explanation. I drew attention in particular to the left AC bus, which the satcom equipment is connected to. This bus can be electrically isolated using controls located in the cockpit, and this appears to be the only way to recycle the satcom without leaving the flight deck. I suggested that there might be some other piece of equipment that the perpetrator wanted to turn off and on again by using the left AC bus, thereby causing the satcom to be recycled as an unintended side effect.
The readers rose to the occasion. Gysbreght pointed out that paragraph 1.11.2 of Factual Information states that “The SSCVR [Solid State Cockpit Voice Recorder] operates any time power is available on the Left AC transfer bus. This bus is not powered from batteries or the Ram Air Turbine (RAT).”
This is an incredibly interesting observation. Reader Oz fleshed out Gysbreght’s insight, writing to me via email:
We could isolate the Left Main AC by selecting the generator control switch to OFF and the Bus Tie switches to OFF; SATCOM is now dead. What else happens……….the Backup generator kicks in automatically to supply the Left Transfer bus. Here’s what’s so spine chilling; if you now simply reach up and select the Backup Generator switch to OFF………..you now lose Left transfer as well. The CVR is gone! I couldn’t believe how easy the CVR was to isolate!
To recap;
Left Gen Control to OFF
Bus Ties to OFF (Isolate)
Left Backup Gen to OFF.
I now firmly believe your mystery reboot was Left AC power being switched back ON……….. after something that had occurred that the perp or perps didn’t want any possible evidence of on the CVR……whatever was being hidden was done by around 1822; AC back to normal.
Gysbreght notes that the Factual Information also identifies the location of the CVR as Electronic Equipment Rack, E7, in the aft cabin above the ceiling, and suggests: “Later [the perp] could have opened Electronic Equipment Rack E7, physically pulled the SSCVR power supply plug from its socket, and then gone back to the MEC to restore power to the Left AC bus.”
Oz has his own theory: “If you are thinking why the hell you would turn Left AC/Left transfer back on? Flight deck temperature control comes from these…”
There’s a precedent for a suicidal airline pilot depowering the black boxes before flying a plane into the ocean: the pilot of Silkair Flight 185 appears to have done just that before pointing the nose down and crashing in December, 1997. It’s easy to imagine Zaharie reading the accident reports and realizing he should also figure out a way to disable the CVR before implementing his suicide plan. When the moment came, near IGARI, one can imagine the veteran 777 pilot suddenly flipping various switches while the baffled newbie, Fariq, looked on.
It’s certainly an intriguing scenario, but it is not without its flaws. As Gysbreght notes, “I would expect the Captain to know that the CVR only retains the last two hours and overwrites older recordings.” So if Zaharie planned to commit suicide by flying the plane for hours into the remotest reaches of the southern ocean, he wouldn’t have needed to turn the CVR off: the portion between 17:07 and 18:25 would have been erased anyway. This is not in insurmountable problem, however. Maybe he orginally intended to crash right away, a la Silkair, but then lost his nerve.
I’m not quite ready to declare, as Gysbreght has, “Case closed,” but I have to admit that the CVR idea is fascinating. Great work, Gysbreght and Oz!
Spencer,
On Zaharie’s Twitter page it says,
“Fr Pen. Pilot Boeing 777”
What does that stand for do you know? What is the Pen. Penang, Pensionned? And the Fr Former, Future, none of the above? I can only access a page without any tweets on it. Perhaps removed?
Found an interesting Facebook translation, if true, that says he is talking about construction on a house and says you have to take risks like contractors stealing your money or harming your family to get a desired worthwhile result of the house? Strange if these translations are even reliable?
Confused about the boarding issue as well, definitely a long smoke by Farid.
Oh dear, such convoluted arguments looking to blame someone.
And no motive, or at least none yet discovered in spite of the endless debate over trivia, and home made videos.
So if there has been no motive identified, then perhaps there is none.
Perhaps the whole thing is a terrible accident, the cause of which has not yet been identified, and the crew should really be regarded as heroes as they tried to rescue the stricken plane as they flew into the Malacca Strait.
Flitzer Flyer,
That has been my perspective for a year and almost a half now both here and on the Duncan Steel site, some terrible on board emergency and accident and some non-nefarious diversion. But I am taking another look in a different light for awhile, fair enough and hard to do. I am not blaming anyone at this juncture, just gathering all the facts. Zaharie needs to be looked at as he is still on the official table as a suspect. Everyone needs to be looked at but he is the most technically savvy person that we know of on that flight.
Still no matter how we shake it without more evidence from the official investigative team if one exists, that is so needed to put the rest of the missing puzzle pieces together once can still apply the hijacking, pilot (either one) sabotage/suicide, or mechanical systems failure to the data. And Jeff is the only one here with the title of aviation analyst after his name so I give a lot of credence to what he has to say. And now that we have a possible “glide” to terminus with a possible conscious pilot to the end all needs to be scrutinized.
@Cheryl, glad that you agree (mostly) with me re: Window Seal video. Kudos to those who spotted that the newspapers might’ve been arranged deliberately. But it’s tempting to massively overinterpret Zaharie’s intentions in hindsight. Personally I find it quite plausible that he needed a bunch of old newspapers, looked at the headlines and had the idea to use YouTube as a platform and display the newspapers in a way that the headlines were visible and readable. I do that often when I throw out old newspapers or if I use them for protection: looking at the old headlines from a couple of months ago. Sometimes I even start to read the old articles. So I can imagine quite well how Zaharie developed this idea. It most likely doesn’t tell us anything about mh370. But it does tell us something about Zaharie’s personality. He was meticulous, inventive, creative and so passionate or even fanatic about politics that he used every available platform for making his thoughts known. In this case he couldn’t even get reprimanded because it was so subtle. To be honest I can’t help liking and admiring the guy’s positive qualities. Unfortunately he has exactly the qualities we’re looking for in potential perps. But not those of a suicidal pilot but the qualities you need to steal a plane without anyone guessing that it was stolen and that it might not have crashed after all into the SIO. I certainly don’t see in him a suicidal massmurderer.
What does this leave us with? It could have gone down as Dennis says and he wanted to bring the plane to Christmas Island for his own reasons without killing anyone. And something went wrong. It’s hard though, to come up with a plausible explanation of what possibly could’ve gone wrong with such a relatively simple plan of an experienced pilot. Did somebody on the plane interfere? But even then it’s strange that no emergency signal was made and no bodies, wreckage or debris was ever found. Another possibility is that Zaharie was used as a pawn who did the actual turnaround – maybe with the plan to take the plane to Christmas Island – and somewhere along the way his accomplices (remember: someone made the very good argument, that he couldn’t have done everything on his own) took over because they had a very different agenda. I would not reject this possibility out of hand because Zaharie’s political persuasion was well known. He was spreading them on all available platforms after all. The third possibility is that because of his well known political agenda and experience as a pilot some Malaysian factions (probably his employer MAS) wanted him gone and assigned him to the flight as a convenient scapegoat. There’s good reason to believe that at least some MAS employees aided the abduction by delaying SAR for more than two hours, thus giving the perps a good headstart. And they abysmally underreacted by making just two measly and dubious phone calls.
The fourth possibility is of course that for some reason he had turned into a suicidal maniac after all and abused his intelligence and creativity for killing everyone onboard, including himself, and left us with the most mysterious aviation riddle of all time. I can’t reject this out of hand because everybody can potentially take a final wrong turn in his life. But since there are other possibilities in this case, I think the three scenarios I described above are more likely. We have problems, though, to accept any scenario as the most likely one, because seen by themselves EVERY scenario seems to be highly unlikely, yet one of them must’ve happened.
But I believe, no matter what really happened, that Zaharie’s character and political agenda are part of the solution: he was either perp, pawn or scapegoat.
@Flitzer
Zaharie definitely had the motive and knowledge to pull something like this.
I would also like to have access to his browsing history, ethiopian copilot hijacking/divert to another country happened only two weeks before MH370 and if he visited the page on wikipedia(it’s usually the first link google will give you) the next link after that text would take him to another ethiopian hijacking that happened in 1996 and had Christmas Island as a goal. The idea would certainly start to circulate in his head.
@Cheryl, I forgot: you asked me what I make of Zaharie’s picture in front of his simulator, where the plane on the water runway is to be seen. Where was this picture published and how old is it? Maybe he had already developed a fantasy of escaping with a plane to a tropical island. Who knows? What we do know is that he practiced landings on short runways in the Indian Ocean. Maybe that’s to be seen as a still in his screen.
@Littlefoot
The picture appeared in the WSJ. Link below.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303287804579445073074255160
It is a screen grab from a youtube video on how to tune an air conditioner to save electricity. The youtube video was uploaded on January 10, 2013.
On the topic of his simulator, and airstrips in the Indian Ocean–This is a very interesting article. How true it is, who knows, but should certainly make one think.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2014/03/18/malaysian-press-flight-370-pilot-s-simulator-had-five-indian-ocean-runways-on-it/
Whenever I think about who was most likely to have carried this out, an inescapable paradox presents itself. Although the captain clearly was capable of this, and quite possible the only capable person on the plane, suicide just does not make any sense whatsoever. As a psychiatrist in training, I know from first hand experience as well as extensive knowledge of the medical literature that suicide is rarely, if ever, preceded by intense focus and skill carried out over such a lengthy period of time (8 hours). It’s completely and utterly inconsistent with the cognitive processes that underlie suicide, and inconsistent with known and studied human behavior.
Thus, I am left with the notion that whoever carried this out, most likely it having been the captain, had a plan in mind that consisted of something other than suicide. Something must have gone wrong along the way.
The only way a suicide was his primary plan would be an obsession and fixation on being responsible for a mystery–successfully making a plane disappear. However, this too seems quite unlikely, because people who meticulously plan these types of scenarios predicate their behavior on the fact that they will be alive to watch the mystery unfold, and thus gain a sense of power and mystique. It would be inconsistent with known human behavior to carry out such a plan with a priori knowledge that he will not be alive to experience or witness the aftermath of the havoc he has caused.
Yupp Jay, I have described it several times here although not at your professional level. People usually feel very positive when they accomplish something and don’t even think about suicide.
I wonder if ATSB would move the search from the current area even if they got undeniable proof from malaysian government that Z planned landing on Cocos or Christmas island (in a form of letter or similar).
Or they would still rely on autopilot theory.
@Jay
Andreas Lubitz adjusted the autopilot to 100ft on his outbound flight from duesseldorf to barcelona. As he flew back to duesseldorf he made the same adjustment on the autopilot again.
That means he fought over many many hours with his life and decided in the end to commit suicide as he flew back to duesseldorf.
An intended suicide over many many hours on an airplane is really possible here as the tragic GermanWings mass murder demonstrated.
What hours? He started descending as soon as they reached altitude, also he was psychically ill, not the case with Z.
We have NO idea as to whether Z was suffering physically or mentally.
Well, irony aside, he was in a para-GLIDING accident in 2007 and suffered a spinal injury. As a result of this injury (apparently), he suffered from osteo- arthritis for which he was, according to the FI, taking analgesics for.
Since the FI specifically mentions that he was taking analgesics, one must assume that these were prescription medications.
It would be interesting to know WHAT medications he was being prescribed?
IF, and I am NOT suggesting this is the case as NSAIDS and Cox inhibitors are more likely candidates, he was on long-term opiate therapy, this would need to be looked at more closely.
IMHO, Z’s only consideration was inflicting as much damage to the regime as he could dream up. This included disabusing all consideration of his own person and his family.
And the 238 pax on board.
but how is killing of 238 people going to damage the regime? That would do more damage to the opposition, who is going to vote for suicidal maniacs?
@StefanG
One does not necessarily have to be mentally ill to kill hisself.I don´t believe i.e. all 19 hijackers on 9/11 were mentally ill,they were fanatic ideologists.
Are you absolutely sure that he did not became a fanatical ideologist after the general elections in May 2013 ? I´m not.
The fact is, we have no clue what was going on in his mind after the general elections. He stopped all communications about politics on FB.
Was he totally disenchanted after the general eclections ? Did he made the decision to let the rebel out as he had told us on FB ? This is all thinkable and it can not be excluded he became fanatic.
@StevanG
What did Malaysia do stop this? How was the permitted to happen? 238 people are dead, and heads must roll.
How can Malaysia allow for an a/c to fly over the country only to disappear from the face of the earth? Human beings have simply vanished. What don’t we know about Zaharie, MAS, UMNO, H etc…Surely there is much more to this story. Was Zaharie fit to fly? Was he being persecuted? Punished?
How can the MOT and two-hat MOD not know where the MAS plane flew off to?
Again, people are dead/missing and Malaysia knows nothing?
Just some considerations. But we see this man very differently, and the event as well.
I’ll end by simply saying that heads (other than Zaharie’s) MUST roll in such a dereliction of duty, all the more so when people have disappeared.
IMHO, from Z’s perspective, his plan would cause the regime to crumble…and it still well may.
General Sutarman knows what “actually” happened, the Malaysian police know it, the Malaysian authorities involved in the investigation know it, they just aren’t in a hurry to publish it while the search for the airplane continues, because the knowledge they have doesn’t add anything to knowing where the plane is.
@Gysbreght
Gen Sutarman really said :
“We work together with Malaysia because one of the (MH370) pilot’s maid is Indonesian. The maid was silent during questioning. So, to uncover what the pilot was actually like in daily life, the Indonesian Police assisted in bringing the maid’s parents (to Malaysia).”
“The one who actually knows about the pilot’s condition is the Malaysian Police, and the ones who know about the (maid’s parent’s) departure are me and the Malaysian Police Chief.”
This is the truth. Sutarman don´t know what happened to MH370.
… and general Sutarman understands perfectly why the Malaysian are reluctant to publish the name of the culprit, but he is wise enough not to get involved in messy Malaysian politics.
@LouiVilla
if he was fanatic ideologist against the government he would take the gun and kill several of government workers, he wouldn’t go to kill 150 random chinese people
@spencer
but Z wouldn’t have to kill himself or anyone to achieve the same like this, landing at Cocos or Christmas Island would do
If he was really fan of democracy (according to that shirt he wore) he would like to go to Australia as it is the nearest really democratic country.
Although he could just take any flight and come there, he wanted to put up some show and ashame malaysian government.
@StevanG
Sorry, but having human beings and an airplane disappear ups the ante exponentially.
That you believe he would seek asylum, and I say this respectfully, shows that you’ve not much insight into the mind of the man.
He would have NEVER sought asylum.
He was all about DESTROYING the power structure in situ, nothing else.
All – Re the simulator photo with the runway jutting into the sea – add Sydney to the list.
Simulator – still no official word???? Why??
Z – Any trained pilot has the skills to turn the plane around and fly away on another series of courses. This wasn’t the Red Baron by any means.
@matty – any similar runways in northern Australia ?
@StevanG
“If he was really fan of democracy (according to that shirt he wore) he would like to go to Australia as it is the nearest really democratic country.”
This is another big big problem i have….
He wore a T-shirt with the inscription “democracy is dead”. How can it be that someone wearing a T-shirt bearing the words “democracy is dead” when it were free elections in Malaysia ? In my opinion this was sheer hypocrisy.
The people in Malaysia had decided that the UMNO should continue to govern but this guy didn´t accept this decision and wore an T-Shirt with the inscription “democracy is dead” and rhymed wild conspiracy theories along why his beloved PKR-Leader A.Ibrahim not won the elections.
In my opinion, he was not a real democrat but instead a rebel who was unable to accept the will of the people in Malaysia.
Myron – pretty sure no, there is just no need. In the case of Sydney I think the planes just got bigger over time and runways were extended into Botany bay which is nicely sheltered.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.9510704,151.1913697,13z
@matty – Sydney good concept but missing open ocean and sand I think.
Myron – just had a better look at the simulator image and it doesn’t look totally real to me?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2592215/Nothing-sinister-say-FBI-investigators-examining-home-built-flight-simulator-MH370-captain.html
@Matty
Except for the fact that the FBI has NEVER officially commented on what was uncovered.
The articles sources are ‘officials in Kuala Lumpor’ and Hishammuddin.
LOL.
Spencer – I was remarking on the photo nothing more. The story probably goes in the bin with the others. Some are in the habit of pulling them out of the bin……
@Lou
“The people in Malaysia had decided that the UMNO should continue to govern but this guy didn´t accept this decision and wore an T-Shirt with the inscription “democracy is dead” and rhymed wild conspiracy theories along why his beloved PKR-Leader A.Ibrahim not won the elections.”
lol the elections were rigged and there is no real democracy in Malaysia, it’s one party ruling the country last half a century -.-
@spencer
again, how is suicide destroying anything but the plane and the poor people?
@Matty
I agree, pic doesn’t look totally real. Probably a real image of a plane (MAS?) and artistic impression Photoshopped together. Presumably simulators use real images if available…
SYD-LOL.
Another idea for the bin: flew west, refuelled at remote location, perhaps dropped gift of mangosteens, flew west. I think I’ll take a break until some concrete evidence turns up. Bye for now.
StevanG-
Look, you just don’t get it, and that’s fine.
It’s not to difficult to figure out that when an a/c flies over your country and then disappears WITH HUMAN BEINGS, the pressure brought to bear would be enormous.
This is in no way an acceptable outcome. Accountability would be demanded by the international community and the citizens of Malaysia…and those responsible for the malfeasance (re the pathetically incompetent govt., which is a theme that already ran deeply in Malaysia) would be abdicated of responsibility accordingly.
I believe Zaharie thought an incident such as EXACTLY what was produced would ensure the disintegration of the 60 years of BN…and he was willing to sacrifice his own life and the lives of 238 others to realize this goal.
If you accept that his goal was to DESTROY the regime (as I do), then CI and the like are impotent in every manner thinkable compared to what i believe he has done.
And I’m quite sure he saw it in these stark terms.
@StefanG
“the elections were rigged and there is no real democracy in Malaysia”
Do you have real hard evidence to support your claim or just the same theories also “Z” had supported ?
http://thevotingnews.com/indelible-ink-whistleblower-demoted-to-lesser-post-court-told-the-malay-mail/
http://www.sarawakreport.org/2013/05/down-at-the-airport/
Lou, there is a great deal of info about the problems with democracy in Malaysia. Here are just two articles that might interest you. Zaharie was a passionate supporter of free and fair elections. He must have been very upset that his employers, MAS, were involved in shuttling illegal voters around the country to bolster Najib’s numbers. I’ve always wondered who leaked these MAS emails. Whoever did, must have got into a heap of trouble with HH, MAS, and Najib. I’m sure they would have been under surveillance after that.
And poor Major Z from Butterworth, his military career is over now, for trying to expose illegal voting.
@spencer
he would like to see consequences of what he has done, why would he kill himself after accomplishing a feat?
I’m trying to understand your reasoning but I’m having hard time and you are barely helping 🙂
@Lou
Anwar Ibrahim was in jail because of alleged homosexuality, also there are many other moot things the government has done.
Malaysian ruling party has also never been overthrown on elections since 1957(since their independence).
I don’t believe in such democracy sorry.
@Spencer
So now my CI theory is impotent? First we have the Wise categorization as nonsense, and now the impotent characterization. This is a tough crowd. I am motivated to publish a revised SIO flight path, and get in line with the “cognoscenti”, but I probably won’t.
One thing I have learned well over the years is to never step outside my comfort zone relative to statements, predictions, and the like. It has served me well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/deteriorating-democracy-i_b_4813259.html
“In the latest World Press Freedom index, Malaysia has hit an historic low, ranking 147 out of 180 countries, reflecting the government’s increased repression of media freedoms by suspending publications that dare to criticize the Prime Minister, denying licenses to media outlets, censoring publications and restricting access to information.”
Article from 19/02/14, enough said.
@Dennis
Relax. I was pointing out that IMO IF Z cared ONLY about destroying the entrenched power structure, then I believe he was willing to sacrifice his life and the lives of others to realize this goal.
I find CI, from Z’s point of view. a much more benign and ineffectual way to achieve his desired result.
You disagree. That’s fair. No need for the hostility.
At the end of the day, 238 are freaking dead, so IMO it really makes no difference.
@StevanG
What would have liked Z to do after murdering 238 people? Build a raft, float to the nearest land mass and blend in with the population, being a voyeur of grotesque proportion?
LOL. You don’t stick around after committing such an atrocity.
@StevanG
And I yours (reasoning).
Cheers
@Spencer
No hostility at all on my part. Sorry if you took my post that way. I am really very laid back. Sometimes when I call it like I see it people get offended. Can’t be helped.
@Dennis
I’m not ridiculing CI. In the early days, I believed something similar.
As I dove DEEPLY into Z’s media postings, my perspective evolved (changed, rather).
Anyways, though not sexy and certainly sobering, at least we are discussing truly relevant matters.
Cheers
@Jay,I like your comment from 7/23/ 3:03pm. Especially your last thought, that someone with the intent to create the greatest aviation mystery of all time would probably stay around in order to see if it worked. Especially the notion that someone would first kill everybody onboard and then fly on for hours in a flying coffin and then execute a perfect glide into oblivion is bizarre and not credible. If there had been a realistic chance that such an action would really remove and expose the current Malaysian government then the scenario would be slightly more credible. But if that really was Zaharie’s grand idea it was totally ineffective. And even here Jay is right: Zaharie would have liked to stay around to witness the downfall of the government.
@LouVilla, there are indeed a few known schemes of how the Malaysian elections were manipulated. One scheme involved MAS and the shuttling of voters from far out districts into the capital.
Btw, the elections in May 2013 are a credible background for the Window Seal video which was published before the election. A headline like “The end is near” and a picture of vampires below allow easily an adequate interpretation and the people in Malaysia might’ve easily understood at that time – especially in combination with the other headlines about nepotism and corruption. No need to construct a nebulous connection to mh370.
It sounds like it’s about time for a “Dear Sherlock” letter to that Malaysian police chief, he seems like he is the only one conducting any type of criminal investigation, probably on his own.
Last night or in the wee morning hours I watched this old movie from circa 1951 called “No Highway In The Sky.” Jimmy Steward plays a nerdy aeronautic engineer working for a big British gov’t. airline. He has been doing extensive testing and mathematical calculations on the “reindeer” because he thinks after a certain amount of flying hours the structure will experience metal fatigue and fracture. He happens to get on a reindeer flight and panics everyone, they want psychiatrists to check his sanity. Shortly thereafter in the testing lab, past the testing point of when this metal fatigue was supposed to happen, it does. Stewart looks at a thermometer and lo and behold it turns out he was a little off in his “temperature calculations.” I thought that ironic since we have been discussing the oscillator temperature of the AES/sdu. MH370, an example of truth being even stranger than fiction.
Cheryl – I saw that movie years ago!!
I did inquire a few times as did others what a freezing cabin would do to the satcom sitting up there behind the roof panel but the discussion had moved on. Presumably nothing?
But maybe a worthwhile experiment?
I have read some of these theories with more than a little amusement.
Is it seriously credible that the Captain (locked in the cockpit) would be able to control a plane full of live passengers and crew all the way to Christmas Island?
Equally, is it credible that he would contemplate landing on Christmas Island with a couple of hundred dead bodies on board, and confess to mass murder?
The passengers and crew are the kicker. They HAD to be dead (or killed) for any theory to be remotely credible.
The phone silence during the flight across the Malaysian Peninsula seems to me to be very telling.
Matty,
I had not seen that movie before and it was on and I was in late from work and it was intriguing and I watched. I don’t know, one for the scientists to ponder I guess about temperature.
I too Matty thought the simulator photo on the water did not look real. Like the water was placed there or photoshopped in???
Don’t know either what the FBI found, supposedly “no red flags.” The photo is a red flag by itself isn’t it! Maybe Captain Zaharie interchanged the photos at will like screensavers and chose that one for the aircon video? Whatever the case the photo sure is strange.
@Matty.
Re-reading my last post it didn’t come out as intended. Hope I didn’t offend. I actually think that plane might have gone west… certainly plenty of motives in that direction. Also, I later found there is an airport with code LOL in the US.
AM2 – no drama here. In my guts I’m a westy, and at the start I said(in my guts) no wreckage.
Robert Ashman – That cockpit door is a blast proof ballistic door. You would need a 9 inch grinder to get in. But, I also believe they were dead, and that takes me away from Z. That sort of premeditated cold blooded murder points to terrorism to me.
@Robert Ashman, of course Zaharie didn’t plan to land on Chrismas Island – or anywhere else – with a plane full of dead bodies. Nobody said that. If that was really his destination he didn’t plan to harm anybody.
The cellphone silence can easily explained with the plane being too high for a connection. If CI was his destination he must have planned to fly considerably lower once he was over the open ocean. But there would be no connection anyway. And there are also gadgets called cellphone blockers. Zaharie or other perps might have used them.
While I lost hope long ago that the passengers survived the phone silence is no indicator of the time they died.