Debunking The Mystery And Tech Myths Of Ringing Phones Onboard The Missing MH370
While many news sites label it as an 'eerie' occurrence, there's a simple yet crucial learning we need to know about the way phone signals work - one step closer to cleaning out exaggerated theories of the missing MH370 aircraft.
By Sadho Ram — 12 Mar 2014, 05:01 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
The mystery of flight MH370 appeared to deepen as reports emerged that passengers' cell phones continued to ring long after the flight went missing Saturday
After the torment of not knowing what has happened to their loved ones, relatives of MH370 passengers had resorted to calling their phones, and were greeted with ringtones.
cnn.com
A relative (woman in white) of a passenger onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cries as she talks on her mobile phone at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing
Image via ibtimes.co.ukThe aircraft disappeared unexpectedly from tracking early Saturday. No distress call from the pilots was received, and search efforts to date have not yielded any conclusive results, only adding to the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the Beijing-bound flight.
mediaite.com
A family member of one of the missing passengers appeared on Chinese television to show that her brother's phone was still ringing
"This morning, around 11:40 a.m., I called my older brother's number twice, and I got the ringing tone," Bian Liangwei said. She then dialed the number and watched as the phone rang multiple times before disconnecting.
mashable.com
In Beijing, anxious relatives continue to wait for word about the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Image via ktoo.orgOther family members tried it, too. According to a reporter with China.org.cn, a group of 19 families signed a joint statement delivered to Malaysia Airlines asking for an explanation. Why could they get through to their family members’ phones but not hear anything? Why did the calls hang up? Most importantly, does this mean the passengers are still alive?
ktoo.org
Speculation quickly mounted on social media that these "phantom calls" amounted to evidence that the flight had not crashed, as has been widely assumed
"Frustrated! ... There are reports from family members that phone calls to their missing loved ones have 'rung through,' indicating the phones aren't on the bottom of the ocean," one Facebook user surmised.
cnn.comUnfortunately, the ringing phones don't mean much of anything at all
CNN spoke to technology expert Jeff Kagan to find out more on the possibility of phones ringing on board MH370. However, the analysis given does not support the claims that phones are ringing on board the aircraft.
therakyatpost.com
When a cell phone rings, he told "The Situation Room," it first connects with the network and attempts to locate the end-user's phone. If it doesn't find the phone after a few minutes, after a few rings, then typically, it disconnects and that's what's happening," he said.
cnn.com"So, they're hearing ringing and they're assuming it's connecting to their loved ones, but it's not. It's the network sending a signal to the phone letting them know it's looking for them."
mashable.com
“When a customer calls another number,” Jeff said, “the carrier has to decide what to do next.” Basically, it starts searching for the phone that’s being called.
While the phone company’s doing that, it sends a ring — or two, or three, or more — to the person who initiated the call. The phone company does that, Kagan said, “so that the customer doesn’t hang up” while the search for that other phone is underway.
mashable.com
This happens to him quite frequently, Kagan told us. “My wife will call me and say she heard it ring two or three times. But I picked it up on the first ring [that he heard].” She was hearing the “rings” that the cellphone carrier sent while it was searching for his phone.
ktoo.org
How long it takes to either find the other phone or determine that it can’t be reached depends on many factors
They include whether the person making the call is trying to reach someone whose phone is part of a different network and whether the person being called is in a different country. Such variables can add to the time it takes to either complete the call or disconnect.
ktoo.org
When a carrier can’t find the phone that’s being called, any one of several things may happen:
— The call might be dropped.
— The call might go to the person’s voicemail.
— The call might go to a recorded message saying it couldn’t be completed.
“There’s not a standard way” that such uncompleted calls are handled, Kagan said.
mediaite.com
Jeff says he understands why grieving families might get some comfort from or be confused by the “rings” they’ve heard. But he wishes their expectations weren’t apparently raised needlessly.
Relatives of a passenger onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cry inside a hotel they are staying, in Putrajaya on March 10
Image via s-nbcnews.com“I hate that they have hope” because of this bit of technology, he said.
cnn.com