Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is missing

[Atco EBBR]

I suppose that they thought of that as well and that that's why it took so long to come forward with this information...

[teddybAIR]

I'm just saying it is a possibility, not a fact because of the wording that is used in the article on De Standaard. They literally say:

De Maleisische luchtmacht sluit inmiddels niet uit dat het vliegtuig tijdens de vlucht volledig van richting veranderde, vooraleer van de radar te verdwijnen.

It says they don't exclude the possibility that the primary return seen over the Malakka Straight was from MH370. It doesn't say they are confident that it is MH370's primary radar return.

[Atco EBBR]

That's how I interpret it as well... I just hope they will find something soon. First and foremost for the sake of the relatives, but also for the sake of aviation. If you don't know anything , you can't start looking for solutions...

[teddybAIR]

The New York Times cited Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, spokesman for the Prime Minister's office, as saying that he had checked with senior military officials, who told him there was no evidence that the plane had flown back over the Malay Peninsula to the Straits of Malacca, only that it may have attempted to turn back.

Source: CNN

Meanwhile, Vietnam is scaling back it's search efforts signaling it awaits more accurate intel from Malaysian authorities.

[Flanker2]

I feel that Malaysia is failling in this SAR operation.
It took them a lot of time to process primary radar information and even then they are not sure.
Supposedly they are a developed coutry, but they are behaving like a poor third world country.

Whether this is intentional or the reality remains to be seen but this is the impression I'm getting.

They better let the Americans do their thing, they are much better at it.

[teddybAIR]

Hi Flanker,

I'm afraid that your concerns are legitimate. Even more, I'm concerned that some of the things we hear and see today are simply done for political reasons and to prevent loosing military face. It is becoming extremely evident to the entire world that radar capability of Malaysia is simply a joke. I wouldn't be surprised if the wreckage in the end will turn up at a perfectly logical location.

Let's not forget that it is perfectly possible that the aircraft ditched fairly intact and that the vast majority sunk to the bottom leaving little visible debris from the air.

[sn26567]

Let's not forget that it is perfectly possible that the aircraft ditched fairly intact and that the vast majority sunk to the bottom leaving little visible debris from the air.

It shouldn't be that difficult to find a wreckage in the Gulf of Thailand whose maximum depth is 80m (as compared to 3900m in the Atlantic Ocean where AF447 disappeared in 2009).

[teddybAIR]

Not if you don't have a good estimate of the crash site. Doppler has a very limited in range and I have no idea of the quality of the assets on site today.

[sn26567]

Malaysia has sought India's help to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, as the search expanded to cover an area stretching from China to the Andaman Sea.

It has not yet been decided what area India would search in. India has a large military command in its Andaman and Nicobar islands and its navy patrols in the straits of Malacca.

[Passenger]

Even The Aviation Herald doesn't understand the ongoing search operation:

"...Editorial note on Mar 12th 2014: On Mar 10th Malaysia expanded the search area into the Strait of Malacca assigning substantial forces to that large search area (much larger than the search area in the Gulf of Thailand with a radius of 100nm around the last known secondary radar position east of Malaysia). It remains unclear why this has been done given the Mar 12th denials of reports of Mar 11th that the aircraft may have been tracked by primary radar into the Strait of Malacca explaining that widened search. It also remains unclear why on Mar 12th the search is now moving northwest into the Andaman Sea west of Malaysia, especially when there are/were no indications of the aircraft turning back as Malaysia officials told families in Beijing on Mar 12th..."

[letscruise]

FAA issued an airworthiness directive for 777 November 2013 :

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for
certain The Boeing Company Model 777 airplanes. This proposed AD was
prompted by a report of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath the
satellite communication (SATCOM) antenna adapter. This proposed AD
would require repetitive inspections of the visible fuselage skin and
doubler if installed, for cracking, corrosion, and any indication of
contact of a certain fastener to a bonding jumper, and repair if
necessary. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct cracking and
corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression
and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.

http://mh370lost.tumblr.com/post/792146 ... d-to-mh370

[teddybAIR]

The least one can say is that it's all giving an impression of either incompetence or cover up activities. By lack of choice, I'm hoping for the first, cause that would mean that they will accept international help. However, I just looked at the video on cnn and particularly at the press conference of a high ranked military guy (don't remember his exact title)...he comes across as ablatently ill informed for a man of his rank.

[teddybAIR]

there you go:

At a news conference Wednesday, Malaysian authorities said that radar records reviewed in the wake of the plane's diappearance revealed an unidentified aircraft traveling across the Malay Peninsula some 200 miles into the Straits of Malacca.

It wasn't clear if the radar signal represented Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, officials said.

Source: cnn

[Acid-drop]

This looks more like 1974 than 2014...

[teddybAIR]

It is becoming more and more apparent that they still don't have the nearest clue as to where MH370 went down and that they are trying to give the impression that they have covered all angles by means of desinformation and blindly using an astonishing amount of resources to mask the lack of competence. You could have 1000 boats looking in the wrong location and finding nothing.

We're approaching day 6 and you would expect the search area to narrow as the search continues, investigation of radar data progress and resources are focussed on areas with the highest probability of success. Instead, the past two days, the search area has become wider and wider and their parntering countries who happen to be looking on some of the highest probability areas are scaling down their efforts blaming poor intelligence and cooperation from Malaysian authorities.

[letscruise]

I know it’s all premature but :
Of all theories and ridiculous speculations, the possibility of slow decompression that left all occupants unconscious should be considered. (Reference to what happened to Helios Flight 522)
Especially after an AD for 777 was issued :


AD :
SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for
certain The Boeing Company Model 777 airplanes. This proposed AD was
prompted by a report of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath the
satellite communication (SATCOM) antenna adapter. This proposed AD
would require repetitive inspections of the visible fuselage skin and
doubler if installed, for cracking, corrosion, and any indication of
contact of a certain fastener to a bonding jumper, and repair if
necessary. We are proposing this AD to detect and correct cracking and
corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression
and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.

Likely fuselage failure near SATCOM antenna adapter, disabling some or all of GPS, ACARS, ADS-B, and ADS-C antennas and systems.

Thus, only primary radars would detect the plane. Primary radar range is usually less than 100nm, and is generally ineffective at high altitudes.
If the decompression was slow enough, it’s possible the pilots did not realize to put on oxygen masks until it was too late. (See Helios 522)

Also explains why another Pilot thirty minutes ahead heard “mumbling” from MH370 pilots.
(VHF comms would be unaffected by SATCOM equipment failure.)

With incapacitated pilots, the 777 could continue to fly on Autopilot - programmed to maintain cruise altitude and follow the programmed route. Using the Inertial Reference System (gyroscope based), the plane could navigate without needing GPS.

This could be the reason why searching on last known SSR position is unsuccesfull and may be they should search NW.

[Lysexpat]

In a slow decompression pilots have a lot of time to react and put their oxygen masks on.
The Helios pilots ignored the cabin altitude warning horn for minutes, because they believed it was a false warning. The captain became unconscious whilst looking for the circuit breaker to cut the horn... whilst a simple look at the cabin altitude indicator would have confirmed it was not a false warning.

[flightlover]

In the meantime:

http://www.knack.be/nieuws/wereld/ik-za ... 33401.html

'I saw the T7 from MH crash whilst burning. The timing was right anyway.'

An oil-rig worker states he believes he saw the T7 crashing at 50 to 70 km away from the Songa-Mercur near Vung Tao. Vung Tao is to the south-east of Vietnam, 400km of the peninsula of Ca Mao.

The statement was made via e-mail send to Bob Woodruff an ABC-News reporter. He expected it to be a hoax. Vietnamese authorities reportedly received it also.

[crew1990]

I know it’s all premature but :
Of all theories and ridiculous speculations, the possibility of slow decompression that left all occupants unconscious should be considered. (Reference to what happened to Helios Flight

I don't see a scenario like Helios happend anymore after what happened, the crew are now really well trained in case of slow decompression because of what happened on that flight.

In the Helios flight, the ccm didn't try to reach the pilot when the masked dropped in the cabin, the ccm grab their own mask and waited for further instruction like was the procedure before this accident, now the procedure change and if the mask drop down in the cabin and that the ccm don't have directly an info from the pilot or doesn t feel a rapid decent they have to try to contact the flight deck, and if nobody answer the ccm can open the flight deck door using a special access code and put on the o2 mask on emergency mode.

The Helios scenario will never happend anymore.

[teddybAIR]

I see 2 possibilities:

1) malaysian authorities really don't know The whereabouts of M9-MRO
2) Theo foundation out it indeed crossend their airspace undetected and don't want to loose face by admitting it, thereby delaying the succesfull outcome of the search