'Contact lost' with Malaysia Airlines plane

[FinglisHobbit]

No, a missile would make masses of debris. More so than a crash as it would cause it to break up a lot.

apparently there are very string undercurrents in that region and planes have been lost before with wreckage found by fishermen but gone by the time investigators arrived.

I thought missiles taking out aircraft exploded alongside. Blowing all kinds of crap down the intakes. That would just cause the aircraft to breakup as it fell out of the sky. It wouldn't be blown to smithereens by the missile itself.

That's how I always thought they worked.

Admittedly based on something a person told me once lol.

 

[touch]

real cloud computing ?

Haha, indeed.
Expensive, yes, but maybe not as expensive when compared to the costs of locating and recovering a physical black box from the bottom of the ocean?

 

[Reaper 392]

I don't get it, is there not a supercomputer for this stuff?

The problem isn't computing power, the problem is creating an algorithm that will identify abnormal objects, especially very small objects in low quality pictures. At least thats the impression I have got from my computer vision lectures

(I assume you are talking about the trawling through the satellite images for wreckage in your post)

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

Haha, indeed.
Expensive, yes, but maybe not as expensive when compared to the costs of locating and recovering a physical black box from the bottom of the ocean?

Depends entirely on the insurance premiums

Comms up/down satellite link, always on, on every plane flying, at any time. It's not just expensive to implement, it's expensive to run.

If we take the US healthcare analogy the insurers will end up owning satellites dedicated to tracking planes.

 

[TFleming]

Why is the transponder even allowed to be turned off? Is there ever any reason why it should be switched off?

Also had this thought. A few friends and I were debating and I was almost certain the transponder wouldn't be able to be turned off. What possible benefit do you get from turning it off that outweighs the benefit of it being on constantly?

I might be way out here, but why didn't they start the search outwards and work their way inward, and have another team working inwards to outwards? Obviously there are a limit to the resources they have, but given they had no idea where it went down, you'd have thought this fairly logical? There could be a glaring reason that I'm neglecting as to why this wouldn't work. Thoughts?

 

[itchy]

GTA 5 on pc?

Flight MH370?

Nobody knows!

 

[lord filbuster]

Why is the transponder even allowed to be turned off? Is there ever any reason why it should be switched off?

I think all electronic equipment on a plane has to have an isolating switch in case of a short circuit, so you can turn it off completely rather than risk a fire.

 

[Too Tall]

I thought missiles taking out aircraft exploded alongside. Blowing all kinds of crap down the intakes. That would just cause the aircraft to breakup as it fell out of the sky. It wouldn't be blown to smithereens by the missile itself.

That's how I always thought they worked.

Admittedly based on something a person told me once lol.

Google Continuous-rod Warhead.

 

[touch]

I might be way out here, but why didn't they start the search outwards and work their way inward, and have another team working inwards to outwards? Obviously there are a limit to the resources they have, but given they had no idea where it went down, you'd have thought this fairly logical? There could be a glaring reason that I'm neglecting as to why this wouldn't work. Thoughts?

Where is the outward limit that the search begins? As we dont really know for sure where the last known location was, it would need to start at the maximum theoretical range of the plane. That could be an area 7000miles in diameter.

 

[TFleming]

Where is the outward limit that the search begins? As we dont really know for sure where the last known location was, it would need to start at the maximum theoretical range of the plane. That could be an area 7000miles in diameter.

Yes, there is this, but could we not apply probability as to where it has most likely gone. In the circumstance of a malfunction of some sort, follow the most logical route, surely pilots are trained in what to do with their course should a huge technical fault occur? If the plane was hijacked, we can assume that it was most likely on course to reach some kind of land mark, why crash it into the sea?

Obviously this is going on speculation, but there is nothing else to go on. I just feel that starting from the point it went missing mean you're always playing catch up. But then again, I'm no expert at all!

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

Where is the outward limit that the search begins? As we dont really know for sure where the last known location was, it would need to start at the maximum theoretical range of the plane. That could be an area 7000miles in diameter.

I think he meant when it happened, ie. the last transponder reply. If you assume some fairly instantaneous destruction you could start at fifty miles out. If it was disabled and gliding, 100 miles out. All other options (insert preferred conjecture here) as far as the fuel takes you.

 

[Energize]

Transponder data is transmitted directly to the interrogating radar station though. If its out of radar contact then the transponder isnt broadcasting anything.

Taking the data that is being stored in the memory of the black box and streaming that via a satellite would make it much quicker to work out what has gone wrong.

Sure but that's a separate issue to finding the wreckage.

 

[Werewolf]

I think all electronic equipment on a plane has to have an isolating switch in case of a short circuit, so you can turn it off completely rather than risk a fire.

Also, I'm guessing they want to be able to turn the transponder off when the aircraft is parked up on the runway to prevent fire risk, or undue drain on the electrical system (and potentially giving ATC a nightmare when they try to work out what aircraft might be getting ready to move on the airfield).

But as you say I think pretty much every electrical system on an aircraft can be isolated in order to either prevent an electrical fire from spreading/continuing*, or because from time to time you need to either be able to reset them completely (if it's not working properly a reset or being able to turn it off to prevent it stopping every other transponder in the area from being unable to work properly), or disable a system to allow you to work on it.

Any of those three reasons would require that it be able to be done relatively easily, without damaging the systems, and that the pilot/co-pilot and any engineering staff know how to do it.


*I think that lesson was learned the hard way with problems on "essential" electrical systems causing fires that couldn't be stopped in the air by turning off a specific circuit (but rather an entire number of systems).

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

One for Lysander only

Spoiler

Zoom in to the airport near the centre and check for a 777 parked up... in a non-passenger service airport. Zoom out to see where it is. Only question is how current is the pic ?

Zoiks, where's my TFH ?

 

[Doohickey]

^ How do you know thats a B777?

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

boeing 777 plan view

 

[Doohickey]

boeing 777 plan view

Well that was helpful. How do you know it's not a 767? A330? A320? Or more likely, a military refuelling/cargo plane?

 

[Tuppy_Glossop]

I don't.

Did you see the bit about Lysander ?

 

[Reaper 392]

One for Lysander only

Spoiler

Zoom in to the airport near the centre and check for a 777 parked up... in a non-passenger service airport. Zoom out to see where it is. Only question is how current is the pic ?

Zoiks, where's my TFH ?

Just to stop the CT nuts going wild with this one, the pictures are from 2013. You can faintly see the 2013 google watermarks over the image

 

[TFleming]

Just saw this on Tomnod.

Spoiler