Malaysia Airlines 'loses contact with plane' (and search effort updates)

[Hum]

Probably another 2 weeks until they can pull up boxes or wreckage.

[LaP]

Probably another 2 weeks until they can pull up boxes or wreckage.

 

More than that probably. Could be as much as more than a month. Do they even have the proper equipment there? It could take as much as 1 week to get the proper equipment on the site. Then finding the boxes wont be easy as the signal will probably die before they start the search.

[DocM]

For those wjo are curious this is the Ocean Shield. The bow platform (left) is a helipad.

This is a Bluefin 21 mini-sub

And this is an infographic on the hardware

[rr_dRock]

I don't think the Ocean Shield is too happy about the way the search is going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OT:      Shouldn't the box be dead by now? If not, does anyone have an idea as to why they would be so infrequent?

[DocM]

The black boxes are CERTIFIED for 30 days. They can put out a signal for weeks longer, though as the battery drains their output volume decreases. The frequency and ping rate remain the same.

With a lower volume, and water stratification due to temperature and salinity differences, that sound can get "lost" (meaning redirected due to refraction) and be hard to pick up.

Example using active sonar, but it happens in both directions.

And this is how detailed side-scan sonar can be once they have a location.

[Krome]

lol looks like it's mumbling about something

I don't think the Ocean Shield is too happy about the way the search is going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

OT:      Shouldn't the box be dead by now? If not, does anyone have an idea as to why they would be so infrequent?

 

[Gerowen]

To be honest, I don't think they will ever find it.  Oh somebody might accidentally come across it in 50 years or so, but I can't see the intentional search going on for much longer.  How many planes and boats have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle and never been accounted for?  They're spending boatloads of money and the battery on the black box has most likely died by now, which means there won't be any signal to listen for so they'll just have to go by sight/sonar.

[xendrome]

To be honest, I don't think they will ever find it.  Oh somebody might accidentally come across it in 50 years or so, but I can't see the intentional search going on for much longer.  How many planes and boats have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle and never been accounted for?  They're spending boatloads of money and the battery on the black box has most likely died by now, which means there won't be any signal to listen for so they'll just have to go by sight/sonar.

 

They will most definitely find it... likely within the next 30 days.

[DocM]

Topography of the search area. Hopefully it's on one of those ridges.

[Hum]

To be honest, I don't think they will ever find it.  Oh somebody might accidentally come across it in 50 years or so, but I can't see the intentional search going on for much longer.  How many planes and boats have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle and never been accounted for?  They're spending boatloads of money and the battery on the black box has most likely died by now, which means there won't be any signal to listen for so they'll just have to go by sight/sonar.

I think many countries are writing this Search off as a training exercise, which they would have done anyway, on a smaller scale.

 

It is hard to imagine dredging up a Boeing 777 from miles beneath the ocean.

 

If MH 370 did crash where they say, it is a wonder that parts of it did not wash up on the coast of Australia.

[philcruicks]

Malaysia plane MH370: Possible new signal in search

A plane searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has detected a possible new underwater signal, Australian officials say.

An Australian P-3 Orion aircraft picked up the signal in the same area where an Australian vessel detected audio pings earlier this week, officials said.

The signal would require further analysis, but could have been from a "man-made source", officials said.

source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26972045

 

This would mark the 1st time a SAR plane has picked up any sort of signal. so looks promising that they are in the right area.

[Hum]

? Flight 370's pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, was the last person on the jet to speak to air-traffic controllers, telling them "Good night, Malaysian three-seven-zero," Malaysian sources told CNN. The sources said there was nothing unusual about his voice, which betrayed no indication that he was under stress. One of the sources, an official involved in the investigation, told CNN that police played the recording to five other Malaysia Airlines pilots who knew the pilot and co-pilot. "There were no third-party voices," the source said.

 

? Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared from military radar for about 120 nautical miles after it crossed back over the Malaysian Peninsula, sources say. Based on available data, this means the plane must have dipped in altitude to between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, a senior Malaysian government official and a source involved in the investigation tell CNN.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/10/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[Dinggus]

The cause is whatever caused the flight to be in the Indian Ocean in the first place.  And he's right. If you'd lost a loved one, you would NOT be going "oh well, they're dead."  Not unless you're some kind of sociopath.

 

I would cry the day I lost a loved one, and the funeral, and that's probably it. Death is part of life. That doesn't make me a sociopath, obviously I handle death better than others.

 

 

For starters, the MH370 is suppose to head to Beijing, not Indian Ocean.

 

Well, someone deleted my post, which means my response could have been true.

[mudslag]

 

Well, someone deleted my post, which means my response could have been true.

 

 

 

Not sure what you posted but what ever theory you had, the deletion of your post in no way reflects its being true. That would imply that who ever deleted it would have knowledge about what happened that others here dont have. I think it's pretty safe to say that no one on neowin has any special knowledge of what happened to 370. 

[philcruicks]

Video of a P3 Orion deploying a Sonobouy. Didn't realise they were so complex.

 

[Hum]

Does not look good ...

 

The underwater pulses that were detected Saturday, and again Tuesday, came from the ocean floor 15,000 feet below the surface. That's 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers). On Thursday, said officials said another signal may have been detected from sonar buoys.

 

How deep is 2.8 miles? It's deeper than an inverted Statue of Liberty (305 feet), deeper than an inverted Eiffel Tower (1,063 feet), deeper even than an inverted Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world (2,717 feet).

 

The pressure at nearly 15,000 feet is crushing -- so much so that very few manned submarines can withstand it.

"There are only about half a dozen subs that can go to half the ocean depth with a number of countries having that capability."

 Finding the plane is daunting. Bringing it back from the deep will be even more difficult.

"At these depths ... there's no recovery like it," said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/10/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-ocean-depth/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[macrosslover]

I personally believe the plane landed pretty much intact, possibly a soft land, if done on purpose by the pilot.  Maybe that's why there's no debris, considering all the junk and trash they've found in the ocean so far.  If it's that deep I think the only thing they'll recover is just the black boxes and call it a day.  If it does come out that the plane crashed as a result of pilot suicide, then I think the Malaysian government will end up helping the airline with the lawsuit that's sure to come.

[Hum]

^ I wonder if this location was deliberately chosen.

 

Someone wanted to make the jet disappear and never be recovered.

 

I wonder if there was a 'soft landing', did the hijackers manage to escape to a waiting ship ... ?

 

At best, the black boxes will have evidence suggesting a hijacking, and little else.

[Nashy]

You have to remember that this planes is fairly old...777-200's have been produced since 1993...back then a large HDD was what..16GB and probably wasn't all that reliable (compared with modern day).

 

Now this plane is newer, 2002 I believe.

However the Black boxes don't use HDD's (might not withstand a crash), but rather they use flash memory...now what was flash in 2002....maybe a 128MB USB drive was about as big as you could get... now that's not really all that much.

 

Personally I agree with you, I'm surprised that the black boxes haven't been upgraded over the years...but going on the logic that they've not, then actually its not that much of a surprise that 2hours is the max.

 

They upgrade and switch out recorders all the time with new tech.

This highlights some massive flaws in the aviation industry, and one I think we will see change very soon.

[Nashy]

To be honest, I don't think they will ever find it.  Oh somebody might accidentally come across it in 50 years or so, but I can't see the intentional search going on for much longer.  How many planes and boats have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle and never been accounted for?  They're spending boatloads of money and the battery on the black box has most likely died by now, which means there won't be any signal to listen for so they'll just have to go by sight/sonar.

 

How many large passenger jets have gone missing in the Bermuda triangle?

It is international law that requires Australia to search for this plane as it is in their world search zone.  The Chinese want it because of the amount of Chinese people on board.  They're not going to call it off, Australia has stated that constantly, and the people here want it found also.

[FloatingFatMan]

How many large passenger jets have gone missing in the Bermuda triangle?

It is international law that requires Australia to search for this plane as it is in their world search zone.  The Chinese want it because of the amount of Chinese people on board.  They're not going to call it off, Australia has stated that constantly, and the people here want it found also.

 

What would be nice though, is a little gratitude from the families for the huge effort being spent in searching for the plane.

[Nashy]

What would be nice though, is a little gratitude from the families for the huge effort being spent in searching for the plane.

 

It's probably easy to judge when we're not in that situation.

Not to say I don't agree with exactly what you're saying.

[ThisSiteHasLostItsCharm]

^ I wonder if this location was deliberately chosen.

 

Someone wanted to make the jet disappear and never be recovered.

 

I wonder if there was a 'soft landing', did the hijackers manage to escape to a waiting ship ... ?

 

At best, the black boxes will have evidence suggesting a hijacking, and little else.

perhaps the plane was then sunk but not before the black box was removed and deactivated/destroyed and then [insert someone] escaped on a boat like you say.

[mudslag]

perhaps the plane was then sunk but not before the black box was removed and deactivated/destroyed and then [insert someone] escaped on a boat like you say.

 

 

The boxes are not something anyone can just go up to and grab. They are usually located in the tail of the plane somewhere in the cargo hold or ceiling or the tail itself. That's a hell of a lot of factors happening even before you get the the idea of the retrieving the black boxes being remotely possible. Might as well add Godzilla to the list of causes for this disappearance. 

[pallipdrsn0]

Might as well add Godzilla to the list of causes for this disappearance. 

 

Well, wouldn't you know .......

 

 

... and I thought it was Bigfoot that was responsible ;)