'Contact lost' with Malaysia Airlines plane

Westyfield2 said:
IIRC there's a theory in problem solving (like Occam's razor etc) that says "Give the evidence to a massive number of the general public, and see what logical solution they come up with. It will probably be more accurate than what a couple of experts say"

Can't remember what that theory is called or whether my lecturer made it up though!
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The Wisdom of Crowds?
 
Beren said:
Just as an aside - not that the spherical geometry lesson isn't interesting - does the satellite in question actually log any location data at all? I read somewhere that they know something about signal strength of the Ping but if this data transmission is not designed to be tagged for location would we have ever had anything to query?
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Werewolf said:
From what I understand the satellites communications for this sort of ping is basically a "is unit 123 there?" and logging a "yes" reply.
The response doesn't include any GPS or other location data and as there is only the one satellite listening in it can only go by the signal strength, for anything more to be learned it would require at least two or three receivers to pick up the signal and all of them to be synced very precisely.

As it is from what I understand they're going purely by the signal strength as received, the known location of the receiver, and the designed strength of the transmitter.
If the transmitter is outputting at higher or lower than their assumption (it shouldn't really because will be a very highly tested design) their calculations will be off, likewise the moisture content of the air can affect it I think.

So basically they've got a ball park figure based on what they know, and the design.
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Indeed, it really is as simple as the satellite seeing its message it received. The following from a few posts ago gives is succinctly:

Boeing received attempted message to their AHM (thru Satellite)

It's exactly that, the satellite sees that its message has been received, no more. And they can see from this which arc it was received during.
 
This just came up on Sky News

WASHINGTON — The first turn to the west that diverted the missing Malaysia Airlines plane from its planned flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing was carried out through a computer system that was most likely programmed by someone in the plane’s cockpit who was knowledgeable about airplane systems, according to senior American officials.

Instead of manually operating the plane’s controls, whoever altered Flight 370’s path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer on a knee-high pedestal between the captain and the first officer, according to officials. The Flight Management System, as the computer is known, directs the plane from point to point specified in the flight plan submitted before a flight. It is not clear whether the plane’s path was reprogrammed before or after it took off.

The fact that the turn away from Beijing was programmed into the computer has reinforced the belief of investigators — first voiced by Malaysian officials — that the plane was deliberately diverted and that foul play was involved. It has also increased their focus on the plane’s captain and first officer.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight.html?_r=0
 
Lysander said:
It's still interesting yes, what's really getting old now is all the 'expert' armchair pilots and their theories, and saying they know what happened.
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I don't think you need to be a pilot before speculating on this case. I think it's open for anyone to speculate on it.
 
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