Malaysia Airlines loses contact with B777-200 / MH370 enroute from KUL to PEK

The data dropped off just past the limits of radar coverage and then nothing after that. Means to me that the airplane went below radar coverage and was kept there. Chinese wreckage that was spotted is huge and for that much of the airframe to be floating makes no sense. There doesn't seem to be a logically thought out plan to find this thing and , pardon the expression, it looks like a Chinese Fire Drill. A lot of running around and grabbing this and grabbing that and making spontaneous, disconnected, and unsubstantiated statements.

 

Wow, you were right!

U.S. Investigators Suspect Missing Airplane Flew On for Hours - WSJ.com

 

Did anyone watch the Press conference today?

So far everything has been false, including the data from RR so really we don't know anything new since the day it went missing...

 

Haven't heard a thing. Any news reports I've caught reflected similar information here with the same photos from China.
Have the satellite photos been dismissed?

 

Yes, China said the sat images were released by mistake and aren't anything to do with the missing plane.

 

That's certainly what it looks like from the outside. To me it also looks like there isn't an honest and open information exchange going on between the various parties involved in the search.

I don't fault them one bit for not having found the plane yet. It's a huge search area and the circumstances are bizarre. But, it would serve everyone well if they'd bring some order to the process and outward communications.

 

Strange sense of humor those Chinese.
The whole search couldn't get more bizarre if they were trying.

 

I fear this will be on going, we'll be at the same stage for weeks.

 

I feel for the families affected. I was hoping those satellite photos were the start to their long awaited answers.

 

How long does an ELT operate?

Do they broadcast to satellites?

 

Another thought that doesn't make sense to me...the military say they have evidence and viewed an unidentified plane on their radar. Would their radar show the previous track, or history, from where this plane came from? Are they confident they tracked the missing Malaysian plane turning left or is this another guess because of the mysterious unidentified plane ( or blip ) that briefly showed up on radar?

'IF' the plane was at 35k ft, and lost power, how far could it coast while descending before dropping from loss of speed? 'IF' they continued in a straight line, could they have 'coasted' to land from 35k ft.? Not taking into account head wind/tail wind and the unknowns, just wondering at 500mph how far they could continue straight ahead without mechanical input?

 

With an L/D of roughly 18 and roughly figuring best glide speed, the airplane could glide power off about 100 miles from 35.000 ft. altitude.

 

My phone works everywhere I go as well, I make sure I have universal coverage and compatibility. My information comes from phone vendors and service providers. I pay the invoices to make adjustments for service areas not normally used. There are cell phone plans that are restricted, that vendors must be contacted. If you would check the spectrum of frequencies and protocols used world wide, you would see that there are several and not all phones have universal capability. Going digital has narrowed the gap but there is not a single universal protocol or frequency.

 

Yet they keep expanding the search range to farther and farther away all while denying the plane continued to fly after contact was lost.

They aren't telling the whole story.

 

Found this, haven't tried it yet. You can search areas via satellite images.
I hope it works, this is way to cool .

Tomnod search: How you can help find MH370 plane via satellite from your laptop - San Diego Top News | Examiner.com

Just went the website tomnod.com. A message is shown stating, Something is not quit right....technical difficulties... and they are poking their servers with pointy sticks to figure out what's wrong. lmao.
They must be over loaded.
I left my email and they say they will notify me when new digital images are ready.

 

Looks like the US has opened the search to the Indian Ocean...I think there is certainly much more to this story yet to come, too many variables just don't make sense..but I also understand why some details aren't initially released to the public.

 

This really sounds like Egypt Air 990 all over again.

 

Now they are saying that the report from WSJ about data from the planes engines indicating it was flying for four more hours is inaccurate

Egad.

 

No, the US government is standing by that, as is the WSJ (and CNN, for that matter). They did clarify that it wasn't actually the engines sending data, but rather the satcom on the airplane.

Apparently Malaysian didn't pay for the monitoring of that data, but the airplane still tries to send it.

A 777 guy on another messageboard I'm on pointed out that disabling the satcom requires going several levels deep into the menus, and a less knowledgeable pilot might assume that the airplane wouldn't send any data if they pulled the CBs for the transponders and the #2 comm.

 

Or they don't know what they are doing ...

This is a bit like watching Italians running a court case, just embarrassing.
Pete

 

I think the U.S. knows where the plane is, and is starting to drop subtle hints in that direction.

Some more updates:

Latest news shows that the Communications Systems were shut down separately, something that wouldn't happen in a crash.

Malaysia Airliner Communications Shut Down Separately: US Officials Say - ABC News

 

Well....... yeah.....I was not really guessing

And, also..... the RR engine data signals also send autonomously. And, even if the airline carrier does not subscribe to the plane's engine performance monitoring service --- the engine manufacturer gets the data directly anyway.

That is a somewhat misleading way to phrase it. The data logging devices on the engines collect and send the data ---- however, that data is then relayed (dumped), at regular time intervals, through the SATCOM antennae array. Then the engine manufacturer can retrieve that data at will, and at their own discretion.

True. The entirety of the SATCOM data link can be entirely disabled (transmission shut off) manually from the cockpit. But, it does require not only going deep into the sub-menus, but also entering a specific set of commands through a prompt instructing the software to do so. I'll safely bet almost no commercial pilot knows how to do that ---- unless they have previously taken extra time and initiative to study how to. There are many sophisticated operations any pilot can perform on the systems that are fairly deep into the systems' logic and functionality, but almost without exception ---- the pilot would need to be on the radio getting instructions from a technical support specialist on the ground in order to accomplish such tasks.

 

Yes agree and it would not at all surprise me that US officials find the plane first.

The Malaysian communications person for this search should remember that rule: "what comes out of your mouth gives other people the first indication that you are not as clever as they thought", ie. say nothing unless confirmed facts
Pete

 

Based on that article, and the fact that there is a quote from someone at the Pentagon, tells me that the US might know some things from "national assets", which would make some of that information classified (for example, if SBIRS had high enough resolution to track the IR signature of an aircraft they could not say that..maybe they got a SBIRS image of a 777 headed for the Indian ocean before it disappears). Or they were able to roughly geolocate the comms from the aircraft before they were shut off using some ELINT satellites. There are lots of possibilities.