Why are the cellphones of missing Malaysian Airlines passengers still ringing?

The 'unprecedented mystery' behind the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 deepened on Monday when relatives claimed they were able to call the cellphones of their missing loved ones.

According to the Washington Post, family of some of the 239 people on board the vanished Boeing 777 said that they were getting ring tones and could see them as online through a Chinese social networking service called QQ.

One man said that the QQ account of his brother-in-law showed him as active, but frustratingly for those waiting desperately for any news, messages sent have gone unanswered and the calls have not been picked up.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

Why are the cellphones of missing Malaysian Airlines passengers still ringing?

Maybe they are in waterproof cases? My son has one on his i-pod that kept it safe over night in a puddle.

What comes to my mind (yep, dark and musty in there) is keep a lookout for future terrorist and/or border violation event involving an unknown or disguised 777....

reply to post by Drezden


All I know is, this whole situation is very, very bizarre. The lack of distress calls, the lack of debris...

No matter how much logic one uses, there really is quite a lot of room for 'conspiracy theories'.

Unless you are with the cellphones and actually hear them ringing, I imagine they aren't actually ringing, just like your ringtone is different than what someone calling you hears, its just phones not being answered.

Also I wonder assuming the plane crashed in the ocean and the wreckage has sunken to the bottom as is speculated. I would think that being under a significant amount of water would impair cell phone signal reception. Cellphones can't get a signal more than a couple feet under water, if that. So maybe some of the phones are on land, or floating with wreckage.

Maybe it isn't in the sea. Maybe its black box was taken out and it was rerouted. I would think the phones would be dead by now though. Very weird mystery and let's hope that is all it is - they will be found safe and sound. They need to track these phones and do it soon.

reply to post by Drezden


If this would be the case, why would'nt NSA do some good and position these devices... If they are shown as "online" - then these devices can be located.

That said, I'd vote this all being a glitch in the related online and other services, rather than devices actually being there, up and running.

reply to post by Drezden


Maybe a few of them left their phones at home.

Doesn't seem too weird.

Don't some cell phones have GPS activated by default?

You'd think someone could locate the phones via the carriers or something.

reply to post by Drezden


after 911 ,,the airlines installed periscopic cell phone antennas on all planes ,incase passengers wanted to make cellphone calls from the bottom of the sea.

deckdel
reply to post by Drezden

 

If this would be the case, why would'nt NSA do some good and position these devices... If they are shown as "online" - then these devices can be located.

That said, I'd vote this all being a glitch in the related online and other services, rather than devices actually being there, up and running.

The phone numbers have been turned over to the Chinese government, so I'm sure they will attempt to locate the phones.

Possibly a glitch with the online services, however for multiple phones to have a ringtone when calling.. that's not as easily dismissed. When a phone is off, or broken it goes straight to voicemail, it wouldn't ring for the full length and then go to voicemail.

applesthateatpeople
reply to post by Drezden

 

Maybe a few of them left their phones at home.

Doesn't seem too weird.

Ya not sure enough time has passed for this to no be the most logical explanation.

reply to post by Sremmos80


This is posted in the breaking news forum, not a conspiracy forum. I am not personally implying something sinister in regards to this, just thought it was an interesting development.

reply to post by Drezden


Then, the other option is, somebody has hacked these numbers, and copied the SIM ID, and basically are calling free.

The big question should be: Why don't they just locate the phones and tell us that either:
- Those passengers dropped there phone somewhere and they are still logged in to the cell tower at the airport/home...
- That it is clearly a software bug at the provider or whatever as they can see that the last cell tower with contact to the phone was xy

If this isn_t the case and the phones are really on and with those passengers it would be very easy to locate the plane accurate up to a few 100 meters or at least up to a mile. Cell phones have a relative short distance so they can only be away 5-10km from the cell tower logged in (in most cases it's more like 2-4km). And even if it is just 1 cell tower they can determine witch antenna at this tower has the strongest signal and determine the angle of radiation up to a few degree.

If those phone are really on it's quite easy to locate the plane. If this is not the case why not just tell us why those phones are still 'ringing'?

Reasons for a cell phone caller to hear ringing but no answer:
- person is ignoring the incoming call;
- phone moves out of range of a tower, but not into the range of another;
- battery dislodged from the phone while the phone is powered on;
- phone is destroyed while connected to a tower.

If a phone is intentionally powered off, the network knows the phone is unavailable and typically drop to voice mail immediately instead of attempting to ring the phone.
Try it; observe how the network handles each situation:
- power on and call your cell;
- remove the battery without powering off then call your cell;
- turn phone on then back off, then try to call it.

I think the plane was hijacked and was landed somewhere...
Someone should make a map of how far it went and how much gas they had and where could have it flown to with the gas it had...

Well, my first thought was that with 239 passengers...there was likely close to 200 cell phones or electronic devices on that plane. (at least)

The FACT that not only did the plane not radio out, but NO ONE managed to send a text or phone call. If the plane had been hijacked, there likely would have been numerous texts or phone calls while it was in progress. Only thing could be a catastrophic event (where no one had time to even send a text) or else there was no service where they were...but that isn't likely. Even mechanical failure or an engine falling off...there unfortunately would have been plenty of time to send a message. Only an explosion would explain it.

SO...either they are a debris field somewhere or are on an island, wondering if they are really alive or not.

I keep trying to think of a scenario where all radio and electronic communication could be inhibited, and those people still be alive. Is there a way that it all could have been jammed? I feel like they are still alive, as unlikely as it is.

westcoast
I feel like they are still alive, as unlikely as it is.

I want them to have been hijacked.. Is that weird?

westcoast
but NO ONE managed to send a text or phone call. If the plane had been hijacked, there likely would have been numerous texts or phone calls while it was in progress.

So exactly where was the mobile tower for the phones to connect to/?