How, in this high-tech age of uber-surveillance, in which hundreds of satellites sweep the Earth and modern aircraft have multiple communications systems with triple redundancies, can a plane vanish?
According to the Index of Objects Launched into Outer Space maintained by United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), there are currently 4 256 satellites currently orbiting the planet ( 2016). According the UCS data for 2016 the main purposes for the operational satellites are:
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- Communications with 713 satellites
- Earth observation/science with 374 satellites
- Technology Demonstration/Development with 160 satellites
- Navigation & Global Position with 105 satellites; and
- Space Science with 67 satellites
MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight with 227 passengers and 12 crew disappeared less than an hour into its journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
Multi billion dollar motive ?
Motive – something (such as a need or desire) that causes a person to act
On March 8, 2014, Freescale announced that 20 of its employees were passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
SUN 9 MAR 2014
Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/09/20_freescale_employees_missing_on_mh370/
Chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor has issued a statement reporting that, tragically, 20 of its employees were aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which appears to have crashed into the South China Sea. At the time of writing, the jetliner, which was en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur carrying 239 passengers and crew, is presumed to have suffered a catastrophic failure. No survivors have been found nor has any wreckage been spotted. No mayday call was received by air traffic controllers.
Freescale’s statement* says 12 of its missing employees are Malaysian nationals, with the other eight from China.
*News Release [ https://archive.fo/TLfVo ]
Freescale Semiconductor Employees Confirmed Passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
“DISASTER RELIEF In addition to our employee volunteer efforts, Freescale employees donated funds to the families of our employees on board Flight MH370. A Remembrance Garden was created in recognition of the Freescale employees reported missing on 8 March 2014.” Source: 2014 Freescale Corporate Social Responsibility
In March 2015, a merger agreement was announced through which Freescale Semiconductor would be acquired by NXP Semiconductors and that the companies would be merged to form a US$40 (equivalent to $43.14 in 2019) billion company. The acquisition closed on December 7, 2015. On December 7, 2015, NXP Semiconductors completed its merger with Freescale for about $11.8 billion in cash and stock. Freescale shareholders received $6.25 billion in cash and 0.3521 of an NXP share for each Freescale common share.
Including the assumption of Freescale’s debt, the purchase price is about $16.7 billion. Purchaser and later owner was Jacob Rothschild.
MH370 multi billion dollar patent passengers
Corporate or government terrorists remotely hijacked Malaysian Airlines MH370 for military technology intellectual property of the 20 Freescale passengers, is what listeners have heard a seasoned pilot and prominent aviation whistleblower recently say.
He had warned this crisis would happen since Boeing quietly installed auto uninterruptible autopilots in every one of its jets, but government officials have repeatedly gagged him.
Different kind of terrorism: Billions and billions of dollars of intellectual property onboard
“Keep in mind there were billions and billions of dollars worth of intellectual technology property of an open patent on that plane in the form of Freescale and others on the plane, so it could be corporations or nations willing to hijack for that plane for that intelligence,” he said.
McConnell says that until that patent is granted, and the ownership of that patent is 20% for five parties, four to individuals and one to Freescale. Four days after the missing flight MH370, a highly valuable patent was approved by the Patent Office. Four of the five patent holders are Chinese nationals working for Austin-based Freescale Semiconductor, owned by Blackstone, for which Rothschild is a board member.
On April 27, 2013, Bloomberg published an article confirming Freescale is a Blackstone venture: “Blackstone-Owned Freescale Rises as Forecast Tops Estimates: Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. (FSL), the chipmaker mostly owned by a private-equity group including Blackstone Group LP (BX) and TPG Capital, rose after predicting second-quarter sales that may exceed some analysts’ estimates.”
The patent holders are: 1) Peidong Wang, Suzhou, China, (20%), 2) Zhijun Chen, Suzhou, China, (20%) 3) Zhihong Cheng, Suzhou, China, (20%) 4) Li Ying, Suzhou, China, (20%) 5) Freescale Semiconductor (20%). According to the March 8, 2014, passenger manifest (original) of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 these were not on that plane. If they were, their names were not listed. What officials initially said, however, was as many as seven people on board were using passports other than their own. Officials also reported at one point that there were four other passengers aside from the two Iranians whose identities were unclear. Then, officials made no more public statements about this.
“Until that patent is granted, their patent income would go to their survivors – but the ownership would go back to Freescale in Austin TX,” McConnell said, adding, “I’m not suggesting that Freescale is behind this.”
This is a different kind of terrorism, by organizations or nations who want cutting-edge military technology.
PS Besides possible patent takeover, another motive could be concern about Freescale sensitive technology being “leaked” to China
Uninterruptible Autopilot
Numerous aviation industry personnel who joined a fight to expose TSA and high-level aviation corruption have experienced retaliatory actions. Airline insiders fired for testifying before the 911 Commission or for reporting other security issues continue to be suppressed, persecuted in worst ways as targeted individuals, leaving flying passengers at risk.
More than one airline employee lost his job for trying to keep airline passengers safer. One of these, however, has fought aviation officials’ since 911 and even more so, since Boeing installed on all of its jets auto uninterruptible autopilots without provisions to train pilots how to use them, making this technology a terrorist weapon. This man is former Delta/Northwest pilot Field McConnell.
All Boeings have been modified with an uninterruptible autopilot, according to McConnell. Pilots, however, are not trained to use them, making aircraft a weapon for terrorists to access and deploy, he says.
“The significance is that pilots are not aware of this, feature, and therefore they cannot comply with aviation regulations, namely FAR 121533,” he says.
McConell has warned government officials and the public that a crisis such as the Malaysian hijacking would occur, due to lack of pilot training regarding uninterruptible autopilots. In his attempt to save lives, he has been repeatedly gagged by United States officials.
In a Voice of Russia interview, McConnell detailed how the MH370 plane was equipped to be flown remotely. When pilots are unaware this new feature has been installed, they are incapable of properly managing it in case of an emergency that would meet federal aviation regulations, he says.
Boeing’s uninterruptible autopilot modification makes it impossible for hijackers to hijack, supposedly – if pilots understand what to do. Pilots in general were not even aware of this new installation until McConnell blew the whistle on it. Within 4 days of his doing this, Boeing admitted having this modification. On March 3, 2007, Boeing said within two years, all Boeings would have this type of autopilot.
Had the auto-uninterruptible autopilot been available on 911, it couldn’t have happened, he said, adding pilots must be trained to use them.
As it is, however, “someone on the ground could fly the plane and override the pilot’s decisions.” .
“If a physical pilot hijacker tried to get into the cockpit, the pilot could trigger the autopilot. Then, officials on the ground could remotely gain control and direct it to a safe landing. This has been known since 2007,” McConnell said. “Once operating, it cannot be turned off by anyone in the plane.”
It should be a safety feature, he says, but in the case of Malaysia Airlines, it might be proven that one entity tried to take control of it, or both pilots may have flown it west. The plane could have been taken to any one of 108 places in the world, according to McConnell.
“The problem is none of the American pilots in the U.S. have been educated regarding the existence of this Boeing uninterruptible autopilot, which by Boeing’s own words, have been deployed since 2007 and deployed on every Boeing airliner since 2009,” he said. “So is it possible a terrorist group could hack into this system like on the Malaysian plane and fly the plane remotely.”
McConnell followed that, saying what this reporter has highlighted repeatedly, such as in the article You Won’t Believe What Spies On Malaysia Plane Were Doing, published March 12 on Before It’s News.
“Keep in mind there were 20 software engineers, Chinese nationals working for Freescale in Austin Texas, and some of the patented material they were working on were stealth cloaking of airliners and chips that can be installed in these exotic weapon systems. (Emphasis added)
Who Took Control Of Malaysia Airlines Boeing?
“And at the end of the day, every airliner that has an auto-interruptible autopilot, making planes a very complex remotely controlled flying vehicles, but it should only be remotely controlled if there’s a threat against the aircraft or the people on board.
“I presume that it’s possible that someone on board the aircraft, if they are a software engineer for instance could trigger the remote control of it, but I think it’s more likely that someone at a ground station, or even an Air Force AWACS aircraft or the Navy aircraft could gain authority from the operating company, in this case Malaysia.”
McConnell explained the protocol for that to happen: “If Malaysia realized they lost control of the aircraft, if their SOC, System Operations Center, cannot electronically recapture the control of their own aircraft, they could contact a variety of nations that might be able to remotely control it — if Malaysia contacted them and said there was a problem.”
He followed that saying, “One nation that I’m confident could do that is the United States of American and if there was an AWACS in that area, they could have taken control of it.”
There are 108 airports around the world that could remotely guide an airplane to a safe stop – a category 3 landing.
Why not just fly it right back to Kuala Lumpur or Beijing?
“I think the most likely scenario is a rogue player whether a front end crew doing it manually or malicious external mode doing it remotely – took the plane off its flight plan and headed to another destination. McConnell said. “Once the rogue controllers got control of it, some benign positive safety conscious remote control was established and the aircraft was landed at one of these many airports that can land a plane.”
Whether the plane could be controlled after a rogue terrorist organization takes control and flies it to another destination, and whether the system allows the airline to override the rogue controller cannot be answered “with any degree of certainty” but these questions need to be asked of Malaysia Airlines and the Federal Aviation Association, according to McConnell.
The Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot is a system designed to take control of a commercial aircraft away from the pilot or flight crew in the event of a hijacking. If implemented, the system would allow the craft to automatically guide itself to a landing at a designated airstrip. The “uninterruptible” autopilot would be activated either by pilots, by onboard sensors, or remotely via radio or satellite links by government agencies, if terrorists attempt to gain control of a flight deck.
Both Boeing and Honeywell have contributed significantly to the introduction of digital autopilot technology into the civil aviation sector. A patent for the system was awarded to Boeing in 2006. Honeywell has also been developing a system with Airbus, and a prototype has been tested on small aircraft.
In 2013, a 16-seater Jetstream airliner became the first passenger plane to fly unmanned across UK civilian airspace. However, Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority says there is no remote control system currently available that could cope with navigating the country’s crowded skies. According to a spokesman, “There are companies working on it, but the technology doesn’t exist in a practical or usable form yet”.
Conspiracy theorists have claimed that the technology has been secretly fitted to some commercial airliners. Some, including historian Norman Davies, have blamed it for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, whose cause is unknown as of 2018. According to Bob Mann, an airline industry consultant, evidence of the Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot system being installed in a commercial airline has not been publicised and is not proven to exist. Safety concerns, including the possibility that such a system could be hacked, have prevented its roll-out. [ source: wikipedia ]
The future of flying is pilotless planes
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. was an American multinational corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas, with design, research and development, manufacturing and sales operations in more than 75 locations in 19 countries. The company employed 17,000 people worldwide.
The company formed in 2004 as a spin-off from Motorola’s semiconductor division.
In 2011, the company launched the industry’s first multimode wireless base station processor family that scales from small to large cells – integrating DSP and communications processor technologies to realize a true “base station-on-chip”. In addition, a recent ABI Research market study report states that Freescale owns 60% share of the radio frequency (RF) semiconductor device market.
Also in 2011, Freescale announced the company’s first magnetometer for location tracking in smart mobile devices.
With the partnership of McLaren Electronic Systems, they helped the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series vehicles convert from carburetors to fuel injection starting in 2012.
On February 26, 2013, Freescale Semiconductor announced the creation of the world’s physically smallest ARM-powered chip. The Kinetis KL02 measures 1.9 by 2 millimeters and is a full microcontroller unit (MCU), means that the chip supports a processor, RAM, ROM, clock and I/O control unit. The chip competes with the Atmel M0+ offerings, which are the low-power leaders in the industry. One application that Freescale says the chips could be used for is swallowable computers. Freescale already works with a variety of health and wellness customers. Both the Fitbit and OmniPod insulin pump use Freescale chips. The new chip was on display at ‘Embedded World’ in Nuremberg, Germany, from February 26–28, 2013.
On March 8, 2014, Freescale announced that 20 of its employees were passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. That plane, carrying the Freescale employees, was lost, with only small parts of it found over a year later.
In March 2015, a merger agreement was announced through which Freescale Semiconductor would be acquired by NXP Semiconductors and that the companies would be merged to form a US$40 (equivalent to $43.14 in 2019) billion company.
The acquisition closed on December 7, 2015. On December 7, 2015, NXP Semiconductors completed its merger with Freescale for about $11.8 billion in cash and stock.
Freescale shareholders received $6.25 billion in cash and 0.3521 of an NXP share for each Freescale common share.
Including the assumption of Freescale’s debt, the purchase price is about $16.7 billion.
Purchaser and later owner was Jacob Rothschild.
Up to now devices with leading letter codes L, E, M, W containing ARM Cortex-M0+ cores and letter code K or KW containing ARM Cortex-M4 cores are known (see also the related section in the List of Freescale products).
Freescale Embedded Solutions Based on ARM Technology Guide
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/brochure/EMBEDDED-ARM.pdf
Freescale is the leader in embedded control, offering the market’s broadest and best-enabled portfolio of solutions based on ARM® technology. Our end-to-end portfolio of high-performance, power-efficient MCUs and digital networking processors help realize the potential of the Internet of Things, reflecting our unique ability to deliver scalable, systems focused processing and connectivity.
Subject related: 2014 Freescale Corporate Social Responsibility
Freescale Competitors
Freescale competed with a host of other silicon vendors, including Marvell Semiconductor, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Intel, AMD, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, NEC Corporation, Nvidia, Microchip Technology, Renesas, VIA Technologies, and Samsung Electronics.
PS Surprising Statement from NXP website
Statement on Slavery and Human Trafficking
At any given time in 2017, the International Labour Organization reports that almost 24.9 million people are victims of forced labor.
NXP is aware that slavery and trafficking is an issue within the semiconductor industry.
NXP is committed to respecting rights and upholding the values and high standards of ethics as expressed in our NXP Code of Conduct and NXP Supplier Code of Conduct. NXP has a zero-tolerance policy for slavery and trafficking. It is NXP’s policy that we and our suppliers shall not traffic in persons or use any form of slave, forced, bonded, indentured, or prison labor. This includes the transportation, harboring, recruitment, transfer, or receipt of persons by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, or payments to any person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation. NXP allows all employees the freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, the abolition of child labor and the elimination of discrimination.
NXP’s policies and due diligence measures are structured around the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Labor Organization (ILO) Standards, Social Accountability International (SAI), OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct, version 6.0. NXP also includes elements, modifications and clarifications from audits conducted internally and externally.
NXP expects our suppliers to respect rights, including maintaining policies and procedures to prevent the use of forced labor. NXP forbids suppliers and recruiters from charging fees to employees during recruitment processes, or withholding government issued documents. Our suppliers are obliged to comply with NXP’s Supplier Code of Conduct and all applicable laws, rules and regulations.
NXP continues to update its policies, procedures and training as needed to seek appropriate safeguards in its operations and supply chain.
Questions regarding our annual Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking report can be directed to csr@nxp.com