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Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

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Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#101

Post by mikestew »

julianz wrote: post #98
mikestew wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking about this on a motorcycle trip to Alaska. For $250 one can buy a consumer device that updates my location via satellite every few minutes to display on a web page. $35/month, and they have cheaper plans. Were I to have been eaten by a bear, or splattered by a semi on the Dalton Highway, my wife would have at least known where to recover the body. Any yahoo with $250 and a shipping address can have one…

Which satellite would it talk back to? There's no coverage over that part of the Southern ocean. It's ridiculously remote and nobody is out there.

It would talk to the Iridium satellites, which are claimed to cover 100% of the planet: http://www.inreachdelorme.com/product-info/network-coverage.....

Are you saying 100% coverage is not the case?

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#102

Post by pm24601 »

mariuolo wrote: post #48

"Forever" is a long time. It could be found in a few years or in a few decades. Although reading the flight recorders by then could be problematic. It's not the first time anyway, a British plane disappeared on the Andes in 1947 (after sending a cryptic Morse message BTW) and was found 50 years later, so I wouldn't despair.

Andes are dry and cold and will preserve things. People hike the Andes. People can see things from above in the Andes.

The ocean is deep. Sediment drifting down from above layers the debris. Ocean currents disperse the light aluminum fragments that remain from the ocean impact.

An undersea landslide covers the fuselage or it slides down into an underwater canyon, separating and breaking apart.

I vote "forever".

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#103

Post by acqq »

The simple answer to the "mystery" is a scenario about a "lone wolf" with the determination and the capability to direct the plane to the middle of the ocean and die with the plane.

We saw a confirmed example of such a guy almost exactly one year later (8 March 2014, 24 March 2015):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525

The rest are just the details.

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#104

Post by Aelinsaar »

rwhitman wrote: post #55

The MH370 tracking problem is unfortunate but what I'm most fascinated by in all of this is the continuing reminder of how powerless we are as a civilization when it comes to the oceans. A plane crashes in an area with no landmass and we lose it. We've overfished many species to near-extinction because we completely failed to understand exactly how many fish there actually are. The sea acts as a natural eraser for hu…

On the other hand, when you actually spend a night awake, with that electric terror running through you at these thoughts you can at least understand why most people do NOT accept what you're saying. I wish that I were one of those people sometimes.

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#105

Post by Aelinsaar »

netinstructions wrote: post #75
SeoxyS wrote: post #69

I find it hard to understand how we can be justified spending so much money and effort trying to find the wreck. What is there to gain? The only benefits I see are: - Giving family members (maybe a few thousand people) closure. - Understanding what happened, and potentially making a few improvements to plane safety as a result. Given the very slim chance of them even finding the plane and learning anything useful out…

> Understanding what happened, and potentially making a few improvements to plane safety as a result. Well Wikipedia says a Boeing 777-200ER costs $261.5 million[1]. That's about double the cost for the search. If it's possible to prevent even one future mishap as a result of learning anything the cost is justified. Besides closure is important for the families and friends of the passengers. Especially with crazy art…

When you add the lost money from lawsuits, lost value, etc... I'm sure it's much, MUCH more.

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#106

Post by throwaway60453 »

neurotech1 wrote: post #71
cmurf wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's complicated. One of the complications is requiring anything. Most trade agreements now in place defer major standards compliance in aviation to ICAO, and ICAO ends up being lowest common denominator when it comes to rules. Simply, less rich countries don't want to pay for every possible feature. Another complication is there's almost no such thing as a "backport" in aviation. The equipment a particular plane mod…

Actually, your mistaken. Cockpit avionics upgrades are relatively common, even in small aircraft like Cessna 172s. Considering a new Cessna 172 is around $250k, and a refurbished aircraft, with new glass cockpit is around $50k (and sometimes significantly less). Aircraft have whats known as a Supplementary Type Certificate, which permits changes to a certified aircraft. Even a major upgrade from radial engine to turb…

The above comment is very cavalier with the facts on pricing and availability of airplane upgrades.

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#107

Post by WalterBright »

7952 wrote: post #100
rwhitman wrote: post #55

The MH370 tracking problem is unfortunate but what I'm most fascinated by in all of this is the continuing reminder of how powerless we are as a civilization when it comes to the oceans. A plane crashes in an area with no landmass and we lose it. We've overfished many species to near-extinction because we completely failed to understand exactly how many fish there actually are. The sea acts as a natural eraser for hu…

> the continuing reminder of how powerless we are as a civilization when it comes to the oceans. That is symptomatic of our child like relationship with the environment. We are deeply dependant but have little understanding or agency. It is obvious that high fish stocks will allow more catches than near extinction levels. Catching 1% of 1 billion is better than 40% of 1 million. Yet we continue to treat fish as a sho…

That's a classic tragedy of the commons. For comparison, nobody is predicting running out of chickens, hogs, or cattle.

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#109

Post by rconti »

julianz wrote: post #98
mikestew wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking about this on a motorcycle trip to Alaska. For $250 one can buy a consumer device that updates my location via satellite every few minutes to display on a web page. $35/month, and they have cheaper plans. Were I to have been eaten by a bear, or splattered by a semi on the Dalton Highway, my wife would have at least known where to recover the body. Any yahoo with $250 and a shipping address can have one…

Which satellite would it talk back to? There's no coverage over that part of the Southern ocean. It's ridiculously remote and nobody is out there.

It is remote; the satellites get quite lonely I'm sure.

Re: Missing Malaysia Jet MH370 Weeks Away from Keeping Secrets Forever

#110

Post by orionblastar »

exabrial wrote: post #108

Did they ever look into that crazy conspiracy theory where it went north instead of South and landed in Russia?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysia-air...

They looked into the North Corridor to see if the plane flew there. I don't think they found anything.

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