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Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

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Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#81

Post by ckozlowski »

baddox wrote: post #63
hartator wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that's the weird part. Every countries spend literary billions to develop radars, stealth fighters and ways to disrupts radars. Now, we understand in a closed area watched by several nations and operating by clear weather, they can't effectively localise one big civilian aircraft? For 4 hours? Because just the guy turn off transponder? I think either we have been seriously mislead of what our technologies cap…

I think your last sentence might be correct, because you might be vastly underestimating the size of the ocean.

Most of the detection platforms referred to in the "billions to develop" are meant to operate as needed, in time of crisis. They're simply not an "always on" affair, and operating costs for airborne detection platforms are expensive. There simply is no need to operate AWACS 24/7 except where a threat of conflict is involved.

Moving to ground radar, many counties simply don't have total coverage. When a transponder works fine the vast majority of the time, and peacetime is the prevailing norm, there isn't a cost justification for it. The prices involved in covering fast stretches of ocean and remote islands with radar coverage is a hard sell.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#83

Post by donbox »

itengelhardt wrote: post #5
melling wrote: post #4

"Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours, based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. 777's engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program." Well, if the engines were transmitting, can't someone figure out the direction of the plane?

I guess it depends on the data transferred. For an engine you probably have data like altitude, revolutions/second, fuel intake, pressure, etc. To get a status on the engines you probably don't NEED long/lat data. So it might not be in the transmitted bursts. Maybe there is a way of interpreting the data that tells you when/if the plane turned. e.g. "the chamber pressure in engine 2 is 5% higher than engine 1 ==> the…

I wonder if engine data like revolutions/second etc could determine if the plane landed/crashed.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#84

Post by retrogradeorbit »

nostrademons wrote: post #7

Interesting hypothesis that would square with this: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/03/a-hypoth...

The best part of this theory (which I think is good) is:

"Losing Helios 552 might be a freak accident, but if decompression and a locked door led to the loss of MA370 as well, then this would be a new threat that will now have killed 360 air travellers—many times more than have died as a result of hijackings since 9/11.

Is it appropriate to employ anti-hijacking measures to prevent violent hijackings a couple of times per decade, if they run the risk, as a side-effect, of crashing in-service airliners a couple of times per decade?"

That's funny! When has there ever been a proportionate response to the threat of terror? The response to 9/11 was so over the top and all out of proportion to such an mind-boggling degree that the idea that they would address this is a bit ridiculous. Even if hundreds of thousands die to prevent one plane being hijacked, it would all be justified as just what needs to be done to fight TWOT. National Security!!

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#85

Post by willvarfar »

alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #46
devindotcom wrote: post #26

Still tallies with my hijacking theory. A 777ER would have had enough fuel to get to just about anywhere east of Africa, and maybe even to the horn. Honestly I think it's the simplest explanation.

It'll be a walk in the park to track down the debris in that case. Amilia Earhart levels of mystery.

Yeah but we did find Amilia in the end, though.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#86

Post by yeukhon »

tn13 wrote: post #68

Why no one is paying attention to the fact that the plane was flying over South China see which China is trying to claim for itself. Could it be the case that China by mistake shot the plane down ?

Impossible. The consequence of hiding the truth is an international shame. And do you really think any country launching a missile can go unnoticed? You know that area is under dispute and nearby countries are claiming ownership, meaning they are actively monitoring all military actions. There are satellites watching that area too. No. No.

And why China? I think this is more of an anti-China/China conspiracy. You got Philippines and Vietnam right over there. In fact, Vietnamese navy was the first appeared on the newspaper claiming it had detected a crash before the Chinese.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#87

Post by primelens »

fosk wrote: post #23
nostrademons wrote: post #7

Interesting hypothesis that would square with this: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/03/a-hypoth...

This is an interesting article. One of the comments also gives another plausible solution. Pasting it here for convenience: "There are a number of troubles with that theory Charles, one of which is that the plane should have followed its intended course and stayed on radar by passive reflection, but it is certainly also one of my favourite theories right now. The lack of debris near where it disappeared from the rada…

But if true, it would be explained by the plane sitting somewhere at the edge of a jungle, for instance on the remains of an old WW2 strip, passengers dead, and cargo gone.

_Flight 714_[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_714

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#88

Post by wilg »

mootothemax wrote: post #59
ekianjo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was not the same place (737 is damn old in design, from the 70s, 777 was designed in the 90s), this was not an international flight (security standards for international flights are stricter), so I'm not sure he even tries to compare both of them. Why not reference a Cessna incident as well ?

Edit: deleted hostile, snarky content.

I think you're being unfairly hostile and snarky here. This isn't a good way to get your point across.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#89

Post by ars »

rdl wrote: post #76
melling wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry about that. Fixed. Wouldn't my question still hold? It's talking to a ground network.

Why ground? I'd do that as an L-band ORBCOMM type system, since it's going on planes operating over oceans. $0.01/character.

So why don't planes do that that? You need 24 bits for 3 meter GPS accuracy (times 2). Add some extra for altitude and airplane ID (or does a unique ID come built in?) So maybe 80 bits in total.

This would be nothing for an airplane - $0.40 per hour? Why don't they do this already?

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#90

Post by anigbrowl »

nostrademons wrote: post #7

Interesting hypothesis that would square with this: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/03/a-hypoth...

Boeing already said that the plane in question doesn't have the device fitted, so the question of fuselage cracking around it is moot.
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