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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean

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FTF

Member
I'm getting some major Close Encounters of the Third Kind vibes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXiCKn1HCR4

but in all seriousness, my prayers go out to all the families involved.

I'm sure eventually (if it's not out there already) some random blog site will post some crazy theory that the plane hit a UFO or something.

Anyway, terrible (especially for the families) that they have to wait another 10 hours or so every night to keep searching, etc. I know the chances of anyone surviving at this point are slim to none, but if by some miracle someone is alive, those 10 hours are huge.
 
Wow I can't believe they still have not found any trace of the plane. I keep thinking how insanely amazing and extraordinary it would be if the plane just somehow managed to show back up on the radar heading for its destination like nothing ever happened but we sadly don't live in the type of world where a miracle like that could happen. Thoughts go out to all the families effected by this. Not knowing what happened has to be a terrible feeling that I can't even comprehend.
 

Daria

Member
Wow I can't believe they still have not found any trace of the plane. I keep thinking how insanely amazing and extraordinary it would be if the plane just somehow managed to show back up on the radar heading for its destination like nothing ever happened but we sadly don't live in the type of world where a miracle like that could happen. Thoughts go out to all the families effected by this. Not knowing what happened has to be a terrible feeling that I can't even comprehend.

I'm hoping that they somehow made it out of water and onto some piece of land somewhere and are just stranded. This would at least give them some extra time to be able to find food and shelter until a rescue plane finds them.

I'm not betting on that scenario though
 
So dumb question but I thought that the black box of an aircraft would have it's own GPS and battery backup? Is it possible the black box was destroyed as well?

The idea of simply losing a plane is crazy to me
 

Log4Girlz

Member
So dumb question but I thought that the black box of an aircraft would have it's own GPS and battery backup? Is it possible the black box was destroyed as well?

The idea of simply losing a plane is crazy to me

The black box uses acoustics when submerged in water, as no other signal is going to be able to travel far through the water.
 
Tragic to see the victim's family online, trying to make sense of the missing plane.

Daughter of a mother that works as an air stewardess on the flight,
https://twitter.com/JasmineJohari
BiQZ1m2CUAAy14h.jpg


Devastating shit..

I dunno, maybe I'm an asshole (definitely skeptical), but who sends all those texts while in distress, then makes a screenshot of them and posts them on twitter?
 
The black box uses acoustics when submerged in water, as no other signal is going to be able to travel far through the water.

There have been instances of the black box being destroyed, so it's possible.

Read this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Search_and_recovery

Fascinating and, at least at this stage, very similar.

Thanks all. That is fascinating to read. I never realized the lost AirFrance flight was due to human error
 

Ether_Snake

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Read this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Search_and_recovery

Fascinating and, at least at this stage, very similar.

What wikipedia doesn't have for that flight is the actual transcript of the voice recorder, which was leaked eventually. You can read it here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/tec...ally-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877-2

Voice recordings are so important yet often not revealed.

Basically, one of the two copilots had held the stick back the whole time to get the plane to go up even though they had been stalling all along ("STALL" alarm was being blared out constantly but they never make a reference to it). But it's only at the very last minute that the copilot tells them he has been holding the stick back all along. By then it's too late.
 
What wikipedia doesn't have for that flight is the actual transcript of the voice recorder, which was leaked eventually. You can read it here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/tec...ally-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877-2

Voice recordings are so important yet often not revealed.

Basically, one of the two copilots had held the stick back the whole time to get the plane to go up even though they had been stalling all along ("STALL" alarm was being blared out constantly but they never make a reference to it). But it's only at the very last minute that the copilot tells them he has been holding the stick back all along. By then it's too late.

Just read the whole thing. How a simple human error lead to a death of 200 people.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Just read the whole thing. How a simple human error lead to a death of 200 people.

Simple but persistent. Like the article says, had nothing to do with any real malfunction, everything performed exactly as expected and designed. There are procedures to handling icing of those air indicator tubes. :(
 

Linkhero1

Member
Simple but persistent. Like the article says, had nothing to do with any real malfunction, everything performed exactly as expected and designed. There are procedures to handling icing of those air indicator tubes. :(

My personal opinion is that the biggest mistake was the Captain leaving to take a rest as they were heading towards the storm. Imagine the difference it would have made had he stayed just a little bit longer with the Co-Pilot.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
My personal opinion is that the biggest mistake was the Captain leaving to take a rest as they were heading towards the storm. Imagine the difference it would have made had he stayed just a little bit longer with the Co-Pilot.

Sadly I don't think it would have made a difference. He would have still been likely to sit in the middle seat in the back and would not have noticed that the other co-pilot kept on pulling back the stick while the mayhem unfolded.
 

Linkhero1

Member
Sadly I don't think it would have made a difference. He would have still been likely to sit in the middle seat in the back and would not have noticed that the other co-pilot kept on pulling back the stick while the mayhem unfolded.

Well, when he came back from resting and asked the co-pilots what happened and what was going on, they didn't really explain what actions they took and why. There was definitely miscommunication between the captain and the co-pilots. I think if he actually knew what was going on and had control over the plane that he would have been able to analyze the situation much better. It seemed right before the crash that he was able to somewhat piece together what was happening, but it was too late.
 

Mondy

Banned
absolutely disgusting.. what information is he basing this on?

Rupert Murdoch
777crash confirms jihadists turning to make trouble for China. Chance for US to make common cause, befriend China while Russia bullies.

https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/statuses/442680012630945792

Rupert Murdoch joining Twitter was the best thing that ever happened, because now the world can see how much of a fuckwit he is up close and personal.

The wonders of social media + unrelenting arrogance.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
Quite a mystery, this.

No mayday => crew did not perceive danger or was unable to communicate. Makes hijacking unlikely.

No automated failure alerts => rules out most mechanical failures such as the ones in the AF447 case where a string of alerts was received before the crash.

No debris found despite extensive combing => it's unlikely that the plane rapidly disintegrated at high altitude, otherwise we would see all kinds junk across tens of square miles (seats, carpets, luggage, fuselage pieces etc.).

No sign of plane below flight altitude => intentionally crashing the plane would leave a record of it flying on lower altitudes

No flash detected on US flash detection satellites => means explosion is unlikely

I mean, what other possibilities are there any more?
 

Trouble

Banned
No debris found despite extensive combing => it's unlikely that the plane rapidly disintegrated at high altitude, otherwise we would see all kinds junk across tens of square miles (seats, carpets, luggage, fuselage pieces etc.).

There is the possibility the plane went off course before/after it had issues and they haven't been combing the right area. There are a lot of square miles out there.

Some reports seem to indicate the flight may have attempted to turn back before it went down.
 

Daria

Member
No debris found despite extensive combing => it's unlikely that the plane rapidly disintegrated at high altitude, otherwise we would see all kinds junk across tens of square miles (seats, carpets, luggage, fuselage pieces etc.).

No sign of plane below flight altitude => intentionally crashing the plane would leave a record of it flying on lower altitudes

1. They're still looking for all of that. They don't even know where it landed or started to pull apart so they could be way off course. And at 35,000 feet the possibility of all those pieces being thrown completely off course is high. Not to mention the currents which could have already swept them away hundreds of miles.

2. How would they be able to find the records if the communication and mechanics suddenly failed? That last they have is that it was turning left at 35,000ft and another report of it going from 024 degrees to 333 degrees. Sounds like a change in altitude to me.
 

Mondy

Banned
Wouldn't there be a detection of a missle launch or do have to wait for the North Korean government to say something?

I'm not sure where you think North Korea comes into this. They have no beef with either Malaysia or China. Korean Air 007 was shot down by the Soviets for entering their airspace in the early '80s. Universal condemnation and a drastic discreditation of the USSR followed and arguably contributed somewhat to the leadup to the dissolution.
 

Bo-Locks

Member
Some debris of AF447 was found a few days after the crash, but it took 2 years to find the wreckage, including the cockpit voice recorder at the bottom of the ocean. And this was after a French nuclear sub, aircraft and vessels from several countries, including listening devices courtesy of the US Navy, failed to find it.

I'm sure it will be found eventually, but if there were no warnings / messages sent from the aircraft before impact, then we aren't going to find out anything new until the flight recorder is recovered, which could take a while.
 

linsivvi

Member
Wouldn't there be a detection of a missle launch or do have to wait for the North Korean government to say something?

You don't really think they are capable of firing a missile that can hit a plane all the way in Vietnam airspace, right?
 

Trouble

Banned
You don't really think they are capable of firing a missile that can hit a plane all the way in Vietnam airspace, right?

Given it's location, I find it fairly implausible that this was a military shoot down. Who would have done that? It's flight path was over Vietnam, so I don't see them doing it, unless someone made a huge fuckup and they are trying to keep it quiet.
 
This must be gut wrenching for the families. Knowing that chances of any good news now are close to 0, but there is still that faint hope somewhere.

The quicker they find something, the better for everyone.

Has there been a case before where a plane was basically lost for this long of a time?
 

kyoya

Member
You don't really think they are capable of firing a missile that can hit a plane all the way in Vietnam airspace, right?

You're right, but I'm basing this on what was announced a few days ago about a missile nearly missing a China Southern Airlines flight on Tuesday March 4th - an obvious short-range missle.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/world/asia/north-korea-missiles/

Once I read further into it that flight entered an area east off the coast of North Korea. That's where the missile ended up, but short-range North Korean rockets have landed in the Sea of Japan.

In the midst of North Korea launching these short-range missiles, could a nearby country or aircraft carrier screwed up and launched a missile during a practice launch? I remember Iran Air Flight 655 in which a U.S. aircaft carrier accidentally shot down a civilian Iranian aircraft. My basic question is to what extent the radars of Asian countries can pick up missile launches from anywhere?
 

linsivvi

Member
Given it's location, I find it fairly implausible that this was a military shoot down. Who would have done that? It's flight path was over Vietnam, so I don't see them doing it, unless someone made a huge fuckup and they are trying to keep it quiet.

Yep. Also pretty sure missile firing would've been detected by satellites that monitor military facilities.

In the midst of North Korea launching these short-range missiles, could a nearby country or aircraft carrier screwed up and launched a missile during a practice launch? I remember Iran Air Flight 655 in which a U.S. aircaft carrier accidentally shot down a civilian Iranian aircraft. My basic question is to what extent the radars of Asian countries can pick up missile launches from anywhere?

Well, an anonymous source, but according to NYT:

Using a system that looks for flashes around the world, the Pentagon reviewed preliminary surveillance data from the area where the plane disappeared and saw no evidence of an explosion, said an American government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject matter is classified.
 

Durask

Member
My guess - something similar to AF447.

Before that catastrophe, few would have thought it possible that a modern jetliner with only a minor temporary malfunction can just fall from the sky.

Over reliance on "smartplanes" plus pilots trained only to push buttons and not to think.
 
Now that I watched the AF447, a failure seems much more plausible. The situation is so similar - no contact, nothing, simply vanished. But there's something very different - the weather conditions this time were very good.

This is still a mistery. Such a weird happening.
 

aeroslash

Member
My guess - something similar to AF447.

Before that catastrophe, few would have thought it possible that a modern jetliner with only a minor temporary malfunction can just fall from the sky.

Over reliance on "smartplanes" plus pilots trained only to push buttons and not to think.

Cause you're a pilot no?
 

Ether_Snake

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Well, when he came back from resting and asked the co-pilots what happened and what was going on, they didn't really explain what actions they took and why. There was definitely miscommunication between the captain and the co-pilots. I think if he actually knew what was going on and had control over the plane that he would have been able to analyze the situation much better. It seemed right before the crash that he was able to somewhat piece together what was happening, but it was too late.

Yes, and also a part of the recordings was not released in the official report which is that the Captain said he was going to sleep because he had only one hour of sleep before. That underlined part was not released to "respect his privacy", which is bullshit, it was to protect Air France.

This is the real root cause of the crash.

Now that I watched the AF447, a failure seems much more plausible. The situation is so similar - no contact, nothing, simply vanished. But there's something very different - the weather conditions this time were very good.

This is still a mistery. Such a weird happening.

It wasn't really a failure, it was really a human error.

On the topic, I think it's just a question of time before debris are found. One to five days is probably as much it can take in such a region.
 
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