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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean

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hom3land

Member
Flown 12 hours to china and countless times to europe. ..I still can't grasp the amount of power the engines must be producing to get these metal tubes to fly..
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Flown 12 hours to china and countless times to europe. ..I still can't grasp the amount of power the engines must be producing to get these metal tubes to fly..

The model runs either a Pratt&Whitney pw 4000 or a Rolls-Royce trent 800 according to Wikipedia. Their power varies but it looks like 80,000 lbf (360 kN) or thereabouts per engine. That's a lot of thrust.
 

N.Domixis

Banned
I was scared for second when i read Malaysia airplane cuz my brother is going there for college...
Same here my dad was on an air plane comming back to us from malasia. My god, I never experience a feeling like it before. My heart felt like it had stopped.
 

Pandemic

Member
Interesting,
BiLh0L1CMAALcp-.jpg:large

https://twitter.com/AdrianNCF/status/442164000197853184/photo/1
 

Sinfamy

Member
I'm surprised it takes even this long to locate a crash-landed plane in this day and age.
You'd think with all this satellite tracking they'd have sent a jet to fly over the path and see if it can be located.
 

Pandemic

Member
4th statement by Malaysia Airlines,
We regret to announce that Subang Traffic Control lost contact with flight MH370 at 2:40 am today.

We are currently working with international authorities on the search and rescue mission and as at 1400 hours, 08 March 2014, we have no information on the location of the airline.

MH370 is a Boeing 777-200 aircraft on a code share with China Southern Airlines.. It departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am today for Beijing. The aircraft was scheduled to land at Beijing International Airport at 6.30am local Beijing time. The flight had a total number of 227 passengers and 12 crew members. The passengers were from 14 different countries, most of whom are from China.

Our team is currently calling family members of passengers to keep them updated on the situation and our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and the authorities. We are sending a MH team to support the families of passengers at Beijing. The airline will continue to publish regular updates on the situation.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all passengers, our crew and their family members.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I'm surprised it takes even this long to locate a crash-landed plane in this day and age.
You'd think with all this satellite tracking they'd have sent a jet to fly over the path and see if it can be located.

Yeah... planes aren't tracked by satellite. Flights are just filtered through certain routes at certain speeds and report at a certain number of degrees longitude. They have waypoints (little triangles you see on chart below) set with GPS and use GPS to navigate, but they are not being tracked by anything on the ground. These tracks change every 12 hours depending on weather conditions, which is why you see some waypoints off to the north a bit. This chart was for some day in 2006.

800px-NAT.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Tracks
 

ItIsOkBro

Member
Don't worry, you are safer in a plane than in a car, statistically.

Sometimes I wonder about those statistics. I wonder if it takes into consideration the sheer amount of cars there are compared to flights. Sounds stupid but I've seem some terrible statistical conclusions. Or if it compares driving amongst drivers and flying amongst flyers. How about considering hours spent flying vs. driving? Surely the fact that in a year I'd spend 700h driving and only 12h flying simply makes driving more dangerous. Also, I noticed a lot of the statistics use fatalities per miles traveled. A single 2700 mile flight with 200 passangers from Toronto to Vancouver adds 540000 miles of safe flight in favor of planes. Either way, if a single passenger really has a 1 in 11 million chance of being killed in a plane then someone feel free to calculate the odds that 227 can die today.
 
Shame that right at the moment, there is no Vietnamese Navy ship near the crash location so they will have to come from Phu Quoc which is nearly 300 kms away.

Also they are still waiting for the permission for search and rescue from Malaysia before they can actually do anything. : (

This news just ruined my evening. So horrible.
 
As a member of MalGAF, I'm devastated. What a horrible way to get Malaysia into international news :(

Checked the passenger list to see if I knew anyone but it looks like I don't. My prayers to those who may have families and friends affected though.
 

Mononoke

Banned
Sometimes I wonder about those statistics. I wonder if it takes into consideration the sheer amount of cars there are compared to flights. Sounds stupid but I've seem some terrible statistical conclusions. Or if it compares driving amongst drivers and flying amongst flyers. How about considering hours spent flying vs. driving? Surely the fact that in a year I'd spend 700h driving and only 12h flying simply makes driving more dangerous. Also, I noticed a lot of the statistics use fatalities per miles traveled. A single 2700 mile flight with 200 passangers from Toronto to Vancouver adds 540000 miles of safe flight in favor of planes. Either way, if a single passenger really has a 1 in 11 million chance of being killed in a plane then someone feel free to calculate the odds that 227 can die today.

How often do you hear about planes crashing vs cars? How often do 777s crash? I really do not understand the panic here. I get the fear of crashing in a plane. I get that more people die at one time in a plane crash.

But plane crashes really don't happen that often.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Not likely. That plane was messed up right after take off, so was not very high or going very fast. This plane dropped from 10's of thousands of feet going at a high speed.

Planes can glide a very long way with no power. Obviously we don't know what happened, but in the case of most mechanical failures a plane is much hardier than people think they are. As mentioned before, over 90% of the people who are in plane crashes survive. Actual catastrophic "plane disintegrates on impact" crashes are exceeding rare. Just have to hope this incident isn't one of those one-in-a-million disasters until more information is available.

Sometimes I wonder about those statistics. I wonder if it takes into consideration the sheer amount of cars there are compared to flights. Sounds stupid but I've seem some terrible statistical conclusions. Or if it compares driving amongst drivers and flying amongst flyers. How about considering hours spent flying vs. driving? Surely the fact that in a year I'd spend 700h driving and only 12h flying simply makes driving more dangerous. Also, I noticed a lot of the statistics use fatalities per miles traveled. A single 2700 mile flight with 200 passangers from Toronto to Vancouver adds 540000 miles of safe flight in favor of planes. Either way, if a single passenger really has a 1 in 11 million chance of being killed in a plane then someone feel free to calculate the odds that 227 can die today.

Over 2 million people flew in a commercial airplane today in the United States alone. Extrapolate that to a worldwide number and consider how incredibly high the odds against being one of those 239 people are. Now consider that on the vast, vast majority of days, not a single person dies in an airplane crash. There's simply no way to spin the statistics to favor cars as a safer form of travel.
 

Trouble

Banned
How often do you hear about planes crashing vs cars? How often do 777s crash? I really do not understand the panic here. I get the fear of crashing in a plane. I get that more people die at one time in a plane crash.

But plane crashes really don't happen that often.

Including this one, 4 hull losses (2 of which included fatalities) during the 20+ years the model has been in service. The 777 actually has a pretty stellar safety record.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777#Incidents_and_accidents
 
Sometimes I wonder about those statistics. I wonder if it takes into consideration the sheer amount of cars there are compared to flights. Sounds stupid but I've seem some terrible statistical conclusions. Or if it compares driving amongst drivers and flying amongst flyers. How about considering hours spent flying vs. driving? Surely the fact that in a year I'd spend 700h driving and only 12h flying simply makes driving more dangerous. Also, I noticed a lot of the statistics use fatalities per miles traveled. A single 2700 mile flight with 200 passangers from Toronto to Vancouver adds 540000 miles of safe flight in favor of planes. Either way, if a single passenger really has a 1 in 11 million chance of being killed in a plane then someone feel free to calculate the odds that 227 can die today.

Let's put it this way. There is a reason that this is international news.

It's really sad that 227 people probably died, but compare that to the average daily death toll of 95 people every day in the US alone. How often do you hear about those deaths? You don't, because it's an unfortunate daily occurrence.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
I'd bring a high altitude parachute onto a plane if they'd let me.

Hate planes.

you're allowed. good news is you'll never get the door open due to pressure, you'd also panic and die trying to put on your parachute and when you jumped out you'd hit minus 50c

so good luck with all that.

People started trying to buy base rigs after twin towers as well. the base companies turned down the business because they didn't want to be associated with a bunch of dead people that have never jumped off a building before.

Flown 12 hours to china and countless times to europe. ..I still can't grasp the amount of power the engines must be producing to get these metal tubes to fly..

a loaded 747 burns around 10 tons of fuel an hour. it ways 100 tons less or more when landing at the other end. crazy stuff.
edit: Sadly these people are all going to be dead. I wonder why no radio calls etc. reminds me of that airbus that went in the water. turned out to be new pilot error. :(
 

KHarvey16

Member
I assumed they are in constant connection with a satellite for GPS purposes, therefore I assumed that flight path gets cached and saved.

GPS is one way.

The only reason we have these large airliners crash is because there are millions and millions of flights. Every accident involves multiple failures along a continuum and I'm sure that, whatever the status of this plane, that's true here as well.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I assumed they are in constant connection with a satellite for GPS purposes, therefore I assumed that flight path gets cached and saved.

Nope. It's highly regulated, so they always think they know where you are, but no radar means they don't know exactly where you are.
 

ronito

Member
Man, I feel so sad for these people. Just yesterday I was on a coast to coast flight and 40 minutes into it the pilot came on and said we were turning back due to a suspicious smell. Not knowing if the plane was ok or if something was broken, That was the one of the longest and scariest moments if my life. Can't imagine if something was really horribly wrong. Gotta do that flight again tomorrow. Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit being afraid of flying.
 

Munin

Member
I nearly had a heart attack almost 4 weeks ago when on approach to Surat Thani in Thailand, a very small and not very busy airport, just shortly before landing the pilot suddenly went full thrust again, brought the plane back up and then stammered over the PA "We...um....will...err....we will...um...now attempt to....um..land again".

Yeah I know the statistics blah blah all doesn't matter when you're sitting in that god damn tube at x,xxx feet and something suddenly goes differently from all the flights you were on before.
 

Mondy

Banned
By every account, this is not looking good. Search and Rescue are in for a busy night, I feel. We will probably learn within the next few hours that the Vietnamese Navy have found flotsam.
 

aeroslash

Member
I nearly had a heart attack almost 4 weeks ago when on approach to Surat Thani in Thailand, a very small and not very busy airport, just shortly before landing the pilot suddenly went full thrust again, brought the plane back up and then stammered over the PA "We...um....will...err....we will...um...now attempt to....um..land again".

Yeah I know the statistics blah blah all doesn't matter when you're sitting in that god damn tube at x,xxx feet and something suddenly goes differently from all the flights you were on before.

That's called a go around and it isn't even considered an abnormal procedure..it might be scary, but it is just that.

Very sad to hear this ending, although expected. Hope they find the flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders soon so we can have the full picture.
Usually it's not "just" a pilot error, so we have to know what were the condicions of the plane and weather to judge it..
 

Mondy

Banned
Relatives of the passengers are being told to "bring valid passports" for "travel to the crash site."

Looks like reports of the Vietnamese finding the site are true :( R.I.P to all the passengers.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/mas-aircraft-goes-missing--says-airline-023820132.html

UPDATE [3:03pm]: At KLIA, the brother of a passenger says relatives are being told to bring a valid passport because they need to 'travel to the crash site'. Relatives have to be at KLIA before 6pm with valid passports for MAS to make 'travel arrangements'.
 
Trying to stay optimistic, but a plane crash? Into the ocean too? Not alot of people will survive that unfortunately.

At the very least I hope a majority of them are still alive.

Wonder what kind of malfunction caused the plane to crash. Kind of scary to think about when you like flying alot.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
How long do these investigations usually take before we know what actually happened.
 
Yeah, this is bad news. I'm not expecting any survivors. It's pretty awful.

How long do these investigations usually take before we know what actually happened.
Usually 2 years. The Air France 447 was hampered by the plane debris being at the bottom of the sea. There is a good chance this aircraft may have met a similar fate so 4 years for a final report may be right.
 

Mariolee

Member
families are traveling to the crash site and not the hospital which is all you need to know about the chances of someone surviving. I can't imagine the pain the families are going through.

Oh my goodness, 239 people all dead. I just...I can't even contain myself right now. The grief is impalpable.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
families are traveling to the crash site and not the hospital which is all you need to know about the chances of someone surviving. I can't imagine the pain the families are going through.

Damn shame.
Considering the Boeing 777s record it really is shocking that this thing went down.

The air france one took like 3 or 4 years until the final conclusions came out

Im really really curiously mainly because the Boeing 777 is said to be a pretty damn reliable plane, and this if confirmed to be a crash would be the worst crash in the planes history.

Doesnt seem like much hope is there for many survivors but i still pray for the best case scenario.
 

aeroslash

Member
Damn shame.
Considering the Boeing 777s record it really is shocking that this thing went down.



Im really really curiously mainly because the Boeing 777 is said to be a pretty damn reliable plane, and this if confirmed to be a crash would be the worst crash in the planes history.

Doesnt seem like much hope is there for many survivors but i still pray for the best case scenario.

All modern planes are "damn reliable" nowadays... But things happen... It just take one or two minor malfunctions in a place where you doesn't have to be and that's it.
 

Ty4on

Member
All modern planes are "damn reliable" nowadays... But things happen... It just take one or two minor malfunctions in a place where you doesn't have to be and that's it.

The 777 is exceptional by today's standards. It was introduced in 1995 and had zero fatalities until the crash at SFO and even then there were only two fatalities from the plane crash. Bigger planes tend to have better records (fewer planes and more trained crew), but that is still really good.

It doesn't take one minor malfunction in 95% of the cases because all planes have a ton of redundancies built in. Four engined aircrafts can fly on only one, there are like three hydraulic systems, the fuel tanks are not connected, both pilot's instruments are separate etc. etc. That's why it is usually pilot error or poor servicing.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
777s have crashed for two reasons. The BA crash was due to fuel supply freezing during a long intercontinental flight. The AF crash was due to freezing speed measurement tubes that caused the plane to slow down and stall.

Both are catastrophic, the AF failure case is recoverable if you detect it early while the BA failure case is pretty much irrecoverable. The BA plane was more or less saved because it happened to crash onto a runway.
 
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