Missing plane: Don’t read too much into ringing phones—expert

By: 10 years ago

A relative of a passenger from the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane uses a mobile phone at the Lido Hotel in Beijing on March 11, 2014. The accounts of some passengers on Chinese messaging tool QQ show they had been online, reports say, although the operator says that failure to shut the software down properly can give that impression. The Star Online-Asia News Network

PETALING JAYA — A technology expert dismissed the Theory of the Phantom calls, explaining that ringing phones do not lead to any conclusions.

The missing MH370 has brought about multiple speculations, as no distress call from the pilots was received, and search efforts to date have not yielded any conclusive results.

Not knowing what happened to their loved ones, relatives of MH370 passengers had resorted to calling their phones, and were greeted with ring tones.

Videos of the ringing phones have gone viral on social media, in turn leading to speculations that the jetliner is still safe.

Technology industry analyst and “E-Commerce Times” columnist, Jeff Kagan told CNN that no conclusions could be reached concerning the ringing phones.

“When a cell phone rings, 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.

“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.”” he said.

Kagan said the technology meant he couldn’t speculate on what ringing phones in this situation could mean.

“Just because you’re getting ringing, just because the signs that we see on these cell phones, that’s no proof that there’s any – that’s just the way the networks work.” he said.