Don't know if cellphones work at the altitude they where at.

Good point.

But if it crashed, or if it landed, maybe at least one of the phones was located.

I'm sure the authorities looking for the plane have tried it.

They won't release all the methods tried. But still if it crashed in the middle of the sea, still probably wouldn't have towers near them.

I'm sure the Nsa has looked through there records of the night and tried their tricks.

But still if it crashed in the middle of the sea, still probably wouldn't have towers near them.

But if that is the case, the phones wouldn't ring. They'd go straight to voicemail. See, that's why it's so significant if the story turns out to be true.

My phone used to ring on other people's end but not my end. It can happen. Specially the while roaming. The few rings you hear is your phone trying to find theirs.

Your phone was malfunctioning it seems. A phone working properly goes straight to voicemail if it's essentially off. Normally, anyway.

Wasn't just my phone. Anyone who came to my house got no phone calls unless your in a certain area.

Hmm. Interesting. Then it was a coverage issue. But in normal circumstances is what I am talking about.

I don't think the planes situation is normal.

I'd like to know how long the phone rings before it goes to voice mail.

But at the same time if someone hijacked the plane or something... I feel that who ever planned this would have thought about cell phones.

No, it sure isn't normal, but the phones would go to VM if destroyed (ie by fire) or submerged in deep water. The fact that they are ringing is giving some folks hope that if the phones aren't damaged maybe there are survivors.

The NSA? Nah. They're too busy going through the browser histories of members of Congress and Occupy protestors.

They'd never stoop to saving lives.

But Freescale probably makes things for them...

I just checked. On 9/11, Flight 93 passengers were successfully making calls and sending texts at 40,900 feet.

But this Malaysian flight was at 36,000 feet when they lost it.

I think the search team is looking at all information and still not able to find it.

This guy I work with is a huge bible thumper, like the conspiratorial, end of days kind. He's all into numerology and the banned bible books and shit. Anyway, he was going on and on about this earlier today showing me all these numbers he calculated from the date, year and the 777's flight number, etc and how they added up "in his mind"...he believes a lot of missing people these days have vanished because they're part of an ongoing early rapture... Basically he says the people on the plane were God's chosen and taken up to Heaven early and that they'll never find the plane or if they do find the plane, there won't be any bodies found. I tried hard not to laugh because other than this crazy shit that comes out of his mouth he's a great co-worker to have but I can't help but to wonder what he'll say next when they do eventually find the plane and the bodies. Guess I'll have to stay tuned!

Just tell him that they were mostly Chinese and a few muslims, and if he thinks god would choose them for rapture ?

Lol. I love that story. I can't imagine how otherwise smart people can believe that crap.

Isnt this something that the NSA keeps boasting about? Dont they have this capability? Afterall, they say the primary use of cell phone surveillence is for foreign use. Wouldnt they have SOMETHING in at least ONE phone?

Thats my question.

Cells do t get signal that high up

Nope. I just checked. On 9/11, Flight 93 passengers were successfully making calls and sending texts at 40,900 feet. But this Malaysian flight was at 36,000 feet when they lost it.

Unless someone onboard had a satellite phone that uploaded its GPS location to a remove location every couple minutes, I don't think so.

If they flew past a populated area, like they are now saying it did, wouldn't their be data that shows the location of the phones?

iPhones transmit their locations every 30 seconds.

Who does it transmit it to?

icloud service "pings" the phone location (not sure about the frequency though) to Apple's servers. Any user with access to the account can then "locate" the device through Apple's icloud service. Google offers the same service.

It is a battery hog though, since it needs to provide a geo-location every time-interval. If the telephone has no access to GPS location (eg indoors), but to data packets, it will give an estimate location based on closest wi-fi/antenna/data center.

Is there a sub reddit where the subscribers are apple or tech wizards enough to answer my question?

Probably r/apple or r/applehelp.

The cell carriers would presumably have data showing the last known location of the cell phones.

Nope.

Sure they could. But it would depend on the phone itself, the carrier, and the signal strength.

All of that overlooks the fact that that information simply isn't collected.

And you know this how? The information is available, and frequently requested by law enforcement as well as corrupt organizations (NSA). Yet you say it isn't actually recorded?

Yes, I say it isn't actually recorded, because it isn't. You're confusing a real-time trace with some kind of magical perpetual archive of data that simply doesn't exist.

You want me to believe that cell carriers collect all that "metadata" but they don't archive it?

Obviously, anybody the NSA is interested in gets archived.

No, they don't collect that data. That's the whole point. Please provide some proof to support your belief that locational data is routinely collected and stored by all mobile carriers worldwide.

It's definitely collected, as in collect-able. The question is whether it's stored. You asserted that it's not, so don't shift the burden of proof to me... that's a disinformation tactic.

One more time: Please provide some proof to support your assertion that locational data is collected. If you have none, that's fine; as long as we're clear.

Good point.

But if it crashed, or if it landed, maybe at least one of the phones was located.

It's definitely collected, as in collect-able. The question is whether it's stored. You asserted that it's not, so don't shift the burden of proof to me... that's a disinformation tactic.

I just checked. On 9/11, Flight 93 passengers were successfully making calls and sending texts at 40,900 feet.

But this Malaysian flight was at 36,000 feet when they lost it.