'Contact lost' with Malaysia Airlines plane

Destination · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:39

Pigeon_Killer said:
Can the black box be disabled mid flight?

With a massive bomb, or an alien effector, possibly a massive emp or magnatron.
Else nope, and there should be two black boxes afaik.

Sliver · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:39

Pigeon_Killer said:
Can the black box be disabled mid flight?

Yes. There's a fuse board in the cockpit. If one of the pilots pulls the fuse for the FDR then it stops recording data.

Destination · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:42

Dimple said:
And nobody has mentioned how long it took to find The Titanic yet.

Hours to find it, didnt it finish sinking n hour or two before the first rescue ship turned up and took people aboard....
Hours.

Pigeon_Killer · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:44

Not thinking about the black box recording as much as the beacon. Unless it completely disintegrated I'm struggling to understand why they haven't been able to locate, if not recover, it.

Destination · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:45

Sliver said:
Yes. There's a fuse board in the cockpit. If one of the pilots pulls the fuse for the FDR then it stops recording data.

Really?
Both of them?
Why on earth would this be a feature?

mithrandir · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:48

This missing flight is intriguing.

Reminds me of Lost (TV show) and Langoliers.

Joking aside, I'm sure once they find some element of the plane of find the Mr Ali who bought those tickets, it may provide some answers.

Tuppy_Glossop · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:48

The locator beacons are necessarily self-powered (ie. independent of the aircraft), though.

Sliver · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:54

Hikari Kisugi said:
Really?
Both of them?
Why on earth would this be a feature?

Cockpit reset under fault conditions.

If you've ever watched Aircraft Investigation, as I have, there's an episode covering this. The pilot was suicidal and before nose diving the plane into a river killing everyone on board, he sent the co-pilot out of the cabin, pulled various fuses, including the FDR, and then crashed the plane.

I also spent many years working on Tornado's in the R.A.F., so I'm familiar with , in a broad sense, how aircraft systems work.

Glaucus · 10 Mar 2014 at 17:55

Pigeon_Killer said:
Not thinking about the black box recording as much as the beacon. Unless it completely disintegrated I'm struggling to understand why they haven't been able to locate, if not recover, it.

As the BBC news says.

As well as possible sightings of wreckage, the search teams will be trying to find the aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) which is a location beacon.

However aviation experts say ELTs do not always work in the event of a major crash into water.

The plane also has a "black box" consisting of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

If immersed in water it should activate a "pinger" that can draw investigators to the location, although the signal cannot be detected over long distances.

Its also not rare, took 9 days to find the wreckage of Adam Air flight 574.

stephenjt · 10 Mar 2014 at 18:08

alien abduction

Pigeon_Killer · 10 Mar 2014 at 18:10

Glaucus said:
As the BBC news says.

Its also not rear, took 9 days to find the wreckage of Adam Air flight 574

Cheers. Was the pinger I was thinking of rather than the ELT. Makes sense if they have to be relatively close to receive a signal

Edit: 30 day battery life, that's not good.

Westyfield2 · 10 Mar 2014 at 18:13

Pigeon_Killer said:
Can the black box be disabled mid flight?

Yep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SilkAir_Flight_185#CVR_and_FDR_deactivation

Nutella33 · 10 Mar 2014 at 18:21

You would think on newer jets they would have hidden that function into a maintenance only mode (WOW engaged, OMP/CMP switch flicked on etc)

Russinating · 10 Mar 2014 at 22:03

Very surprised they only have a 30 day battery life as well. Does anyone know why? Given the overall impact of having even two batteries must be minimal in a machine that size?

You'd have though they'd have improved that after the Air France 447 crash. Granted you couldn't stretch to 2 years but you must be able to get 6 months in a still-feasible size.

Nutella33 · 10 Mar 2014 at 22:15

They are usually just two D batteries in my experience. recording all that they do for a month isnt too bad.

The big 40kg main aircraft batteries dont last long either.

I think its more like, how have you not found the plane in 30 days? if the battery life becomes an issue (and I dont think it regularly is). The french flight took a week and that was in the middle of the atlantic.

Russinating · 10 Mar 2014 at 22:17

Nutella33 said:
The french flight took a week and that was in the middle of the atlantic.

initial investigation was hampered because the aircraft's black boxes were not recovered from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447

Or am I getting confused? :confused:

Nutella33 · 10 Mar 2014 at 22:19

Nope I misread, it was a week till they found the aircraft not the boxes

That would also suggest the ELT and sonar pingers have a longer life than 30 days....

Glaucus · 10 Mar 2014 at 22:19

Russinating said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447

Or am I getting confused?

The wreckage was found within a week, but took two years to find and recover the black boxes.

Energize · 10 Mar 2014 at 22:19

Sliver said:
Cockpit reset under fault conditions.

If you've ever watched Aircraft Investigation, as I have, there's an episode covering this. The pilot was suicidal and before nose diving the plane into a river killing everyone on board, he sent the co-pilot out of the cabin, pulled various fuses, including the FDR, and then crashed the plane.

Well that's highly questionable, he was rich with the amount of money he had remaining and there had been previous reports of black boxes switching off by themselves.

Nutella33 said:
They are usually just two D batteries in my experience. recording all that they do for a month isnt too bad.

That's pretty poor indeed. A single lithium battery would last for over a year in comparison.

Aircraft should have a completely independent transponder in a black box like format, self powered, this way they wouldn't simply vanish from atc.

Tuppy_Glossop · 10 Mar 2014 at 22:34

There must be some evidence that isn't in the public domain. Otherwise, why would they search in the Straits of Malacca ?