Flying and aviation stuff

...the cell phones may at least give us unsent text messages if we ever find the plane, and assuming the passengers knew what was going on.

 

Actually, the number was reduced by 11 satellites in the finished constellation.

 

Think of all the NSA data mining going on right now searching all those data bases being queried on every crewmember's and passengers phone(s). That in turn is being used to build up a network of contacts and deep examination of every social media and internet activity of those as well.

 

But Dysprosium sounds more like an anally-administered medicine than a phone network, so that would have been a terrible name.

 

I think that I owe humble apologies to the Obama Administration.
Until I saw the Malaysian government investigate a missing aircraft?
I only thought I had witnessed an inept government-run program.

Maybe Warren Buffet ought to expand his 'billion dollar for a perfect bracket' scheme....

 

Yes, it really is quite astonishing.

And now China is searching its big empty Western provinces. Good grief.

 

There's a good summary of competing theories here: Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: flight theory tracker

And there's a very good running commentary on the Ask The Pilot site at The Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

 

Some of those theories sound much more plausible and realistic, esp the first few.

Hasn't something like that happened before and it does explain the mumbled messages received.

 

I truly wish it was that easy. The families waiting, each day must seem like hell.

DBCassidy

 

This pilots theory seems plausible.
A Startlingly Simple Theory About the Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet | Autopia | Wired.com

 

I saw that too and, it is consistent with my fuel tank explosion theory like TWA800. But you have to invoke when the co-pilot said everything was OK, he was telling a white lie that he knew the plane was having issues.

 

^ I'm not buying the fire/explosion theory.
Can I be wrong?
Heck yes!
Happens every day!

However (comma!) the rule for an aircraft fire or almost any other casualty is the gezact same as it is on submarines.
1. Spread the word.
2. Fight the casualty...while...immediately implementing step #3.
3. Get to the surface.

This isn't 1996 (the year that TWA 800 went into the Atlantic.)
When weird things happen on a wide-body it generates alarms, which are reported by numerous devices which are very hard to silence all at once without a big bang resulting in fire and a debris field.....also absent in this event.
Possible?I guess...but I'm left with some compelling questions....like, why no detected thermal event, or debris field?
Did the aircraft go up to 45,000 feet, and why?
Why the data wipe on the pilot's flight simulator?
Why the inconsistencies in the time line with co-pilot's reports, course and altitude changes, and the sequential silencing of emitters on board the bird?
What were the other 230-some-odd beans doing while all of this was going on (it was night, so we presume that many were drinking heavily or sleeping...but they ALL weren't!
Planes (like subs) have emergency air supplies....like several.
Same with comms systems.


There's a big honkin' hole in the casualty-on-board theory in that some body or some bodys would have to try hard to keep the word from getting out....or rule #1 would be zealously followed....if not consciously by the folks in the front office then by mechanical or electrical means.

This whole thing still smells BAD.

 

The fire theories would be:
electrical or
tires or
cargo hold (Li batts) or
fuel tank

But in all cases you have to invoke somehow the plane survived to fly by itself.

 

Black boxes have approx. 30 days power to broadcast (a mile or so) to be located. The race is on to find a needle in the haystack.

DBCassidy

 

I've heard that the black box ping is only detectable under 14,000 feet of depth. Unfortunately, the Indian Ocean is much deeper than that. The crazy pilot did know what he was doing. This plane will never be found.

Oh, BTW, did you know about this?

Dozens of Planes Have Vanished in Post-WWII Era | The Big Picture

 

The one astounding bit of information is that an incomplete satellite/aircraft communications handshake was detected 8 hours after the plane went missing.

Key moments emerge in tracking of missing Malaysia Airlines plane - CNN.com

The person reporting this is the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, so this is about as official a source as possible. That does not guarantee the information is true, but it cannot be discounted as speculation.

The limitation is a handshake is not a position report. (The use of the word tracking in the news report is the wrong word to use.)

 

So this is interesting....

MH370: two objects spotted in southern Indian Ocean, Australia says | World news | theguardian.com

We'll see whether it amounts to anything.