Malaysia Airlines flight MH370-Updates and Discussion

knucklehead6

This from CNN

Tickets linked to stolen passports for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were purchased by an Iranian man, authorities say.

At least two people on board the plane were traveling on passports stolen from an Austrian and an Italian.

According to Thai police officials, an Iranian man by the name of Kazem Ali purchased the tickets for two friends who he said wanted to return home to Europe. While Ali made the initial booking by telephone, either Ali or someone acting on his behalf paid for the tickets in cash, according to police.

kona

jockeyboard wrote: »

Is it significant the radar signal was lost going from one airspace to another country's airspace? Or is that just coincidence?

The signal was lost because the aircraft disintegrated into bits I reckon.

sully2010

This is the supposed photo of debris found. Looks very like the previous oil slick photos to me. Although those white things in the water are definitely not waves.

Tigerandahalf

It is intriguing that so little is still known.

If ACARS stopped sending data on the plane why has the search area being extended so significantly way beyond where the plane debris could be found?

fits

sopretty wrote: »

I'm not talking myself down as a woman. I'm speaking as someone (albeit a woman! ) who is curious about a subject, but who has no knowledge on the topic, so is quite content to read informed opinions and occasionally butt in with the odd question. My problem is that I know so little, that I can't actually figure out whether I'm asking blatantly obvious questions or not!
I'm getting educated though. Some of the technical stuff goes totally over my head, completely UN-comprehended. Some of it I can grasp.

You are though. "I know nothing so please don't mind if I ask a silly question." Its a very female way of interacting and I know cos I have to stop myself doing it. Very few people are very knowledgeable about any subject so don't talk yourself down and don't be afraid to ask a stupid question because asking none is way way worse

donegal__road

sully2010 wrote: »

This is the supposed photo of debris found. Looks very like the previous oil slick photos to me. Although those white things in the water are definitely not waves.

this would have to be it, you would think..

fits

sully2010 wrote: »

This is the supposed photo of debris found. Looks very like the previous oil slick photos to me. Although those white things in the water are definitely not waves.

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they don't look much like aircraft debris either though... well lets see.

This must be absolute hell for the families.

sully2010

Weathercheck wrote: »

Is it possible no debris from the plane will ever be found?

How long will authorities fund the search?

Anything is possible but I'd say it will definitely be found. The sea is nowhere near as deep as the atlantic, pin pointing the exact position it went down is the problem with MH370 at the moment

Hard to say how long they will fund the search but Malaysia Airlines is an airline with a respected reputation to keep so Id say they will be keen to find it and find out what went wrong.

brandon_flowers

sully2010 wrote: »

Anything is possible but I'd say it will definitely be found. The sea is nowhere near as deep as the atlantic, pin pointing the exact position it went down is the problem with MH370 at the moment

Hard to say how long they will fund the search but Malaysia Airlines is an airline with a respected reputation to keep so Id say they will be keen to find it and find out what went wrong.

Boeing and slightly less RR will make sure it is found, they have more to lose than Malaysia Airlines.

Tigerandahalf

Latest from the Mirror..........

"The Malaysian passenger jet that disappeared on Saturday did not make automatic contact with a flight data-monitoring system after vanishing from radar screens, two people familiar with the matter said.

The Boeing 777-200ER is equipped with a maintenance computer capable of talking to the ground automatically through short messages known as ACARS.

These help technicians prepare any necessary repairs and shorten turnaround times at the destination.

Automated ACARS error messages from an Airbus A330 that vanished in the Atlantic in 2009 focused attention initially on inconsistent speed readings as a possible cause of that crash.

Although black-box evidence later showed that pilot error was mainly to blame for the loss of the Air France jet, the burst of error messages was a sign that basic electrical systems continued to work during the aircraft's four-minute descent.

In the case of the Malaysia Airlines jet, however, investigators have no such evidence to help them discover what happened to the passenger plane, the people said.

"There were no signals from ACARS from the time the aircraft disappeared," a source involved in the investigations said.


.............."

owenc

homerjay2005 wrote: »

the black box normally can survive huge explosions but seen as it apparently cannot be found at the moment, would this suggest the plane may have been blown to pieces thus why its not findable? as time goes on, these parts are drifting apart.

I don't think a plane that size would blow up that nothing would be left.

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Any update on the plane itself lads ?

any sightings of parts from the plane etc ?

I know the search area is now bigger.

owenc

sully2010 wrote: »

This is the supposed photo of debris found. Looks very like the previous oil slick photos to me. Although those white things in the water are definitely not waves.

Hmmm... Thats the closest looking thing we have seen to debris yet.

Calina

@Tigerandahalf: This is not actually news. The absence of such messages has already been flagged over the past day or two. No ACARS messages signalling any abnormalities.

Spanish Eyes

I cannot understand how NOTHING was seen by anyone...either on land or at sea, or on radar/satellite, or whatever. Surely a catastrophic event like this would have SOME witness, somewhere?

I find that quite strange. We are not talking about Mid Atlantic here.

robbieVan

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I cannot understand how NOTHING was seen by anyone...either on land or at sea, or on radar/satellite, or whatever. Surely a catastrophic event like this would have SOME witness, somewhere?

I find that quite strange. We are not talking about Mid Atlantic here.

Their search area is the size of Austria, a jet liner is tiny compared to that area

Spanish Eyes

robbieVan wrote: »

Their search area is the size of Austria, a jet liner is tiny compared to that area

Yes, I know. But my point was about the moment of the disaster itself. Surely someone would have seen this huge aircraft plummeting to the sea, or land?.

That's what I find strange, TBH.

sopretty

robbieVan wrote: »

Their search area is the size of Austria, a jet liner is tiny compared to that area

I think what I'm finding hard to comprehend is why they need to look at such a massive area.

robbieVan

sopretty wrote: »

I think what I'm finding hard to comprehend is why they need to look at such a massive area.

Ocean Currents and also the fact that they dont actually know where the plane went down, they know where it lost communication but if it fell apart or 'blew up' at 35000 feet then there's a million pieces floating down to the sea which would take a few minutes, then you have to comprehend wind into it then too

I'm absolutely no expert but that is my reckoning of it

Colser

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I cannot understand how NOTHING was seen by anyone...either on land or at sea, or on radar/satellite, or whatever. Surely a catastrophic event like this would have SOME witness, somewhere?

I find that quite strange. We are not talking about Mid Atlantic here.

I agree but people that are very familiar with aviation say that its understandable due to the vast area that needs to be searched.My thoughts would be that if someone tried to make this happen it would prove very difficult with all the technology available at the moment..it just all seems very strange I think as there doesnt seem to be any leads at all at the moment...

Tigerandahalf

It is puzzling why they have extended their search areas even though the plane stopped sending the ACARS messages. What can one presume from that? It seems that they are not ruling out the plane flying a significant distance after ACARS stopped and radio communication failed. Is it possible the engines could have been working perfectly but a major electrical fault cut all communication?
The plane made a left turn according to the radar yet this wasn't communicated to ATC.
The authorities still haven't given clear info on how far the plane travelled after making this turn but one could assume that the plane sent ACARS info after making the turn (I have read that ACARS sends info every few seconds to every few minutes). Would this have shown up on ACARS that a turn had been made?

wil

sopretty wrote: »

I think what I'm finding hard to comprehend is why they need to look at such a massive area.

first - the usual - like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except in this case they don't seem to know which haystack they should be looking in.

Plane was up nearly 7 miles.
By the time anything lands even if standing still, could be many miles off the initial accident point in any direction, and still moving with currents, wind..

It takes a lot longer to get around on sea than land with waves hiding smaller debris. Aircraft will likely only spot larger pieces on surface, but they may have sunk.
IANAP:)

sopretty

wil wrote: »

first - the usual - like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except in this case they don't seem to know which haystack they should be looking in.

Plane was up nearly 7 miles.
By the time anything lands even if standing still, could be many miles off the initial accident point in any direction, and still moving with currents, wind..

It takes a lot longer to get around on sea than land with waves hiding smaller debris. Aircraft will likely only spot larger pieces on surface, but they may have sunk.
IANAP:)

I get that. I suppose I'm seeing it in terms of something thrown from a height. That it would go pretty much straight down. Clearly I'm not thinking in terms of the sheer distances in height involved and the various densities of fabrics involved. Metal falling faster, light items falling slower etc. I'm getting my head around the massive area involved now I think. I actually hadn't realised it was almost 7 miles up. I doubt there is any scientific means to even estimate how dispersed items might be, since they don't know whether the plane was completely disintegrated or entirely intact.

Thanks. Happy to say I'm coming to grips with the reasoning behind the vast searches now.

The One Who Knocks

sopretty wrote: »

I get that. I suppose I'm seeing it in terms of something thrown from a height. That it would go pretty much straight down. Clearly I'm not thinking in terms of the sheer distances in height involved and the various densities of fabrics involved. Metal falling faster, light items falling slower etc. I'm getting my head around the massive area involved now I think. I actually hadn't realised it was almost 7 miles up. I doubt there is any scientific means to even estimate how dispersed items might be, since they don't know whether the plane was completely disintegrated or entirely intact.

Thanks. Happy to say I'm coming to grips with the reasoning behind the vast searches now.

Not necessarily, depends on air resistance.

homerjay2005

Dontfadeaway wrote: »

No. It took them ages to find the Black Box from Air France.

cos it was buried miles below the sea....they still knew where it and the plane were.

sopretty

The One Who Knocks wrote: »

Not necessarily, depends on air resistance.

Lol - don't confuse me more haha! My brain is in danger of spontaneous combustion as it is! :pac:

SpaceTime

sopretty wrote: »

I get that. I suppose I'm seeing it in terms of something thrown from a height. That it would go pretty much straight down. Clearly I'm not thinking in terms of the sheer distances in height involved and the various densities of fabrics involved. Metal falling faster, light items falling slower etc. I'm getting my head around the massive area involved now I think. I actually hadn't realised it was almost 7 miles up. I doubt there is any scientific means to even estimate how dispersed items might be, since they don't know whether the plane was completely disintegrated or entirely intact.

Thanks. Happy to say I'm coming to grips with the reasoning behind the vast searches now.

Gravity doesn't work like that. Objects will all fall at the same rate regardless of mass.
Some flat objects might glide or flutter in the air or outherwise be resisted.

In water it gets more complicated because of Archimedes Law. But in general dense metal objects will sink. the fusilage and wings would probably float.

Most plastic objects will foat too.

Seats may sink as the cushions become waterlogged and the frames are metal..

Dontfadeaway

homerjay2005 wrote: »

cos it was buried miles below the sea....they still knew where it and the plane were.

Yeah because they found debris and bodies. So if they find debris for the MH370, it will at least give them an idea where to look for the black box.

highlydebased

On the Mirror.....

A previously unknown group - the Chinese Martyrs’ Brigade – has claimed that it was behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

An email was sent to various journalists in China, saying: “You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as payback.”

But officials in Malaysia have said they believe the group's claim could be a hoax.

The email did not explain what had happened to the plane.

Apparently 19 families are now saying that phones of their loved ones are ringing...

owenc

Well then they'd need to be ringing them then.