OT: Flight MH370

[Schone23666]

Originally Posted by Targan

So I swam out to where they found the wreckage but there's a 13-foot swell so it was slow going. I might go for a dive when the weather calms down a bit... but most of the wreckage will be about 3 miles deep so I'm going to need a REALLY long snorkle.

Oh, c'mon Targan, ONLY a 13-foot swell? I'd thought you might've at least run into a Great White shark or two (or three, or four...)

[Raellus]

I just returned safely from a pair of transatlantic flights and have been following this story since it first broke. I don't really like flying in the first place but this incident- especially the enduring mystery of the whole thing- really made this last trip especially nerve-wracking.

Anyway, my first theory once it came out that the place flew on for another 6 hours or so, and crossed the Malaysian peninsula heading west, is that it was terrorism/air-piracy. Looking at a map, the plane could have easily made it to Sri Lanka (Tamil Tigers, perhaps?). From there, who knows.

Now, based on its current suspected crash location, it looks like either a failure of the plane's electronic systems (resulting in the pilots becoming lost) or flight crew suicide. The former seems more likely to me. For the pilot to have done himself in in such a fashion, one imagines that the rest of the flight crew would have figured out that something was up and stepped in to stop him. Also, that long of a flight would give a suicidal pilot a much greater chance to have second thoughts.

But, if it was a matter of getting lost, why head south to find a landing spot rather than north? I doubt that pilots are routinely trained in navigation using the stars or the sun but I don't think it would be that hard to orient the plane correctly, using either method, and head north to where you know the bulk of the Asian continent must lie. Flying south searching for... Australia? That just seems a lot riskier.

Now, I favor a hybrid explanation. I think it may have been a hijacking where a small terrorist team took out the flight crew (apparently the pilots were quite lax with cockpit security) with some nefarious, 9-11-ish intent but subsequently got lost after shutting off the various IFF and navigation systems and ran out of fuel over a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean. I really hope that they locate the black boxes and recover the data recorded. Only then we'll we learn what really happened.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I really hope that they locate the black boxes and recover the data recorded. Only then we'll we learn what really happened.

Unfortunately the voice recorders only store a 2 hours loop. So it is possible that there will be no useful information on it if there was any hypoxia event early on. The data recorder should have everything though. They will only ping for another 10 or so days though.

I was thinking that US subs might be able to pick up the pinging given how amazing their sonar is supposed to be, so that might have been a factor in the redirection of the search.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by kato13

Unfortunately the voice recorders only store a 2 hours loop. So it is possible that there will be no useful information on it if there was any hypoxia event early on. The data recorder should have everything though. They will only ping for another 10 or so days though.

I was thinking that US subs might be able to pick up the pinging given how amazing their sonar is supposed to be, so that might have been a factor in the redirection of the search.

I thought that the black box pings were radio, not audio?

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Targan

I thought that the black box pings were radio, not audio?

They might have both but the audio ones are the ones in play now.

That’s because acoustic beacons, or locator "pings" from the black box will probably fall silent within two weeks, Gibson told CBC News.

"At some point, the pinger will simply run out of power, and that’s usually in about 30 days," he said. "Once you figure out when the aircraft went into the water, you go 30 days from that point, and that’s its shelf life."

Phoenix International’s “Batwing-like” towed pinger locator (TPL) weighs about 31 kilograms and can detect a black box’s signal ping from about a mile (1.6 kilometres) away, Gibson said.

source http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/malaysi...olds-1.2584968

I know the sub thing is a long shot, but given all the secrecy regarding capability of military systems we have seen regarding this flight, it seemed appropriate.

[Targan]

You're exactly right. I'm sure I already knew they were acoustic pingers and I forgot somewhere along the way. Underwater locator beacon