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Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

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Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#281

Post by ianburrell »

mrandish wrote: post #182
hammock wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That scenario seems wildly improbable. First, the existence of the large U.S. airbase at Diego Garcia isn't remotely secret. As for an accidental shoot-down of an airliner before any visual identification or confirmation, I suppose it could happen but it goes against every policy and procedure the U.S. is known to follow. If an unidentified aircraft approached an airbase, they would scramble an intercept for visual i…

Also, there is nothing on Diego Garcia that could shoot down an airliner. There is Air Force base but it is all transports today with bombers in the past. There are no fighters based there and same was true in 2014. I couldn’t find any evidence of SAMs. The Air Force doesn’t believe in air defenses for bases outside of active war zones.

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#282

Post by phire »

swyx wrote: post #274

apparently Ocean Infinity, the private salvage search company mentioned in the article that spent millions on a "no find no fee" search for MH370 is committing to doing it again this or next year: https://www.reddit.com/r/MH370/comments/t85bdv/ocean_infinit... how exactly do these guys fund themselves? this must be a horrendously expensive enterprise and fairly infrequent at that.

They have other customers.

Even if they don't find it, this is great advertising for them, and gives them a reason to test their technology. And if they do find it, even better advertising.

I wouldn't be surprised if their negotiated finders fee from Malaysia is still below cost.

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#283

Post by DonaldFisk »

agnos wrote: post #223
moffkalast wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the found wreckage pieces apparently point to a controlled ditching, so it's not entirely impossible for the guy to be alive somehow.

Unlikely that he's still alive, but the evidence of a controlled landing makes the whole thing more puzzling from a psychological perspective. Why slowly and consciously drag it out until the very bitter end when you've already completed your suicide mission?

MH370 was out of control when it hit the water, according to the ATSB: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/mh370-latest-debris-a...

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#284

Post by phire »

TylerE wrote: post #21
bengl3rt wrote: post #18

"Before Fariq can attempt to get back into the cockpit, Zaharie reaches up and flips the pressurization switch, cutting off bleed air to the cabin. The airplane rapidly begins to depressurize." I really want to believe that a single switch doesn't control whether people in the back of the plane can breather or not...

It won't unless there is some sort of major hull leak. If it was off long enough it would start to be a problem. Its basically the same same as turning off recirc on your car's climate controls. (Also, the pressurization controls are almost always on the overhead panels, which contains things that are used almost always for startup/shutdown steps so it's not like the pilot is going to reach over to adjust a radio or…

> and actually hitting the emergency pressure dump control

Wait, is there an emergency pressure dump control?

I kind of just assumed turning off bleed air would be the only option, and I would have assumed that turning off bleed air would complete depressurisation within a few min.

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#285

Post by monkeywork »

wiredone wrote: post #264
duxup wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very strange. At the same time I imagine a lot of actions in flight simulators are odd choices you might not make in real life. I know I did a lot of poor flying….

As a trained pilot, flight planning is a huge part of your job. Navigation is also a big part of the job. if you assumed you had to turn off parts of your nav equipment to avoid detection, then visual reference (ie flying the path to visually memorise/familirise yourself with wayppoints) would be something you'd certainly do - and a flightsim would be perfect for this.

was the terrain modeling good enough at that time to really train you for that? Current MSFS sure but the version he was running?

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#286

Post by tjohns »

lxgr wrote: post #232
TylerE wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The newer systems that have come online over the past decade or so (partially in response to 370) actually use the iridium satelites

These systems are using ADS-B and are only designed for operational/informational purposes so far, as far as I know. They are not used for air traffic control or other safety-critical purposes.

If it's using Iridum or (more likely) Inmarsat, it would technically be ADS-C. (There is also a parallel system that allows satellites to detect existing ADS-B signals, developed by Aireon - but this is relatively new and not used globally.)

These absolutely can be used for air-traffic control. ADS-B has better temporal resolution than radar, and ADS-C is at least as good as manual position reports over the radio (used for procedural control over oceanic/non-radar airspace).

However, it's worth noting that these aren't really "transponders" (in aviation, that usually refers to beacon used for Mode-A/C secondary radar). Also, these are all active systems, dependent on the aircraft's electrical bus and easily disabled. In the case of MH370 the transponder _was_ powered down for some reason.

The only system that the pilot can't turn off is primary radar, but again, coverage for this system is limited once you leave populated areas.

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#287

Post by alexitosrv »

cyber_mock wrote: post #262

So 12 minutes of oxygen, i just learn that

Yeah, like it's not that long. They should add that disclaimer to the safety messages at the beginning of the flight. "In case of an emergency, you will have 12 minutes of oxygen, which while we know is not that much, is better than to die instantly."

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#288

Post by tjohns »

rootusrootus wrote: post #236
tjohns wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think even this number is high. 80-90% sounds about right for the mainland US and Europe, but definitely isn't true elsewhere. Canada probably has ~50% radar coverage, and oceans have essentially 0% once you're beyond line of sight from from the coast. (And this is if you're a jet flying at high altitude. If you're down where smaller aircraft fly, I can point to areas on the US west coast that don't have radar or r…

> Heck, there's parts of the mainland US that don't even have NEXRAD weather radar coverage. Is that a good comparison, though? It seems like NOAA funding for the NEXRAD sites is perpetually inadequate. The one in Portland occasionally has outages that last a while. I would have guessed that civilian air control radar is better funded than NEXRAD, and military radar probably so well funded that every square inch of C…

Domestic civilian and military radar is the same thing. It's (mostly) all managed by the FAA, and the military just gets a copy of the civilian radar feed as part of the Joint Surveillance System. [1]

The limiting factor is geography. Radar coverage in the US is excellent, but the mountains out west make universal coverage hard, and there's some areas that just aren't cost effective to cover.

At 40,000 MSL, yes, everything in the US is covered. Below 10,000 MSL though, there are definite gaps - especially in the mountainous west. It's just physics, the mountains block the signal, and filling in all the gaps is cost prohibitive. Instead, they just tell aircraft to fly higher if they want radar service.

As for outages... ATC radar goes out all the time. You just never hear about it because they either switch to an adjacent, (slower) en-route radar site as part of CENRAP [2], or fall back to procedural control (voice position reports on the radio). Redundancy is baked into the system at many levels, both technical and human.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Surveillance_System

[2]: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/9464/what-is-ce...

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#289

Post by rishav_sharan »

listenallyall wrote: post #278
yellowapple wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> I created an OpenAI account solely so I could ask was it worth it? no. Feel free to ask OpenAi whatever happens to amuse you. Please don't waste the rest of our time or attention or bandwidth on it. Nobody cares.

I at least got a chuckle out of it. So it's good enough for me

Re: Seven years on, what do we know about the disappearance of flight MH370? (2021)

#290

Post by mertd »

ak_111 wrote: post #113
canjobear wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reference, Zaharie's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@catalinapby1

Imagine one day all of a sudden a low-quality few seconds long video is uploaded to the channel showing only someone filming their feet as they stroll on on a beach.

That would be on the same level as Satoshi's wallet address turning up in a transaction.
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