Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

online.wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 215 posts

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#151

Post by joshgel »

panacea wrote: post #127
venus wrote: post #124

The Malaysian transport minister has just denied this article's accuracy at a press conference in KL. Which is interesting. The WSJ isn't just some random blog. I wonder where they got their information.

They also put three journalists in the by-line. Is that typical?

On a story that is big news like this, but not big enough to dominate coverage: yes. There are so many moving parts that they likely have several reporters on it with the goal of being the first to break the story. But it's not a big enough story that they feel they need 3-4 separate stories on the front page. At last until there is some resolution.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#152

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

willvarfar wrote: post #85
alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well they haven't yet confirmed the wreckage to be from her aircraft. The clues are strong, but then again clues were strong in other directions in the past.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#156

Post by phil21 »

brador wrote: post #62

They claim some of the cell phones are still active. Can't they just "traceroute" the call to find the nearest cell tower and search around it?

Sure, if they are within range of a tower.

Many people don't understand that the phone will "ring" even though the other end might not be currently registered with a tower. Almost assuredly where the confusion lies.

Although, since it's a developing country it's barely plausible they haven't collected cell phone numbers from the family and run it up whatever law enforcement channels available to them.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#157

Post by phil21 »

keeperofdakeys wrote: post #133
KhalPanda wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with you, but this part got me: "And do you really think any country launching a missile can go unnoticed?" A few days ago... no, I didn't think so. But apparently a massive xxx ton airliner can go for hours unnoticed, so...

If anyone saw an airliner on their radar, they probably wouldn't even try to confirm what it was. If they saw an unidentified object, then they'd call someone.

It's not like the radar systems tracking these things on a day to day basis automatically classify something as a certain type or even size of aircraft.

Even if it were tracked by something, in that area of the world I bet there are quite a few "unscheduled" flights and it perhaps became something of routine. Or some remote radar operator is paid to look the other way on some flights, and mistook this for one of those.

Most likely is that it simply wasn't tracked by anyone who cared, and especially not by anyone who recorded the data.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#158

Post by ackydoodles »

chrismcb wrote: post #48

Here is what I don't get. A plane, a HUGE plane, supposedly just disappeared. Near China. So this whole "fly under the radar" is just BS? You just need to turn off your transponder, and you can fly wherever you want?

Yes. I am astonished that you do not already know that.

On 9-11, the combined maximal efforts of civilian and military aviation were unable to locate four airliners because their transponders were turned off. This occurred near the New York and DC metropolitan areas, some of the most carefully controlled air space in the world.

Without a transponder, an aircraft is just a raw radar return among, potentially, hundreds or thousands of other returns from civilian and military aircraft, weather, birds, balloons etc. Add to that glitches, ghosts and anomalies in busy air space and it is not surprising that a large aircraft without a transponder can hide in plain sight.

Re: Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours

#159

Post by jfoster »

rschmitty wrote: post #137
jfoster wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One might say the same about all of the electronic devices on planes. Cellphones and the like.

Hey man what are you doing! We can finally use our devices during take off and now you hint at keeping them off permanently! Eek! :P I'm sure the first battery meltdown/fire on a plane is going to cause a riot in the news but the odds...

That did cross my mind when I posted it.

I should point out that I don't know what is true. It just seems to be a contradiction that every passenger can take on board and use whatever they want in-flight, yet transponders specially engineered to be safe on a plane must be able to be disabled.

I suspect the answer is that the transponder doesn't need to be under the control of anyone on the plane.

Post reply on HN