Malaysia airlines B777 missing

[Admiral Halsey]

Originally Posted by BossMark

The search for Flight 370 was declared "The most difficult in human history."

Amelia Earhart could not be reached for comment...

Is it bad that this made me laugh?

[guntherprien]

Originally Posted by TarJak

If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck....

And you know better,do you ?

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by guntherprien

And you know better,do you ?

No. But I'm also not claiming I know that intelligence services know where the aircraft is by spouting a bunch of poorly thought out speculation with very large factual errors.

The search is moving to its next phase: http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-0...e-sent/5388550

[Jimbuna]

Probably the nearest the search has come to the aircraft and the batteries run dry

[BossMark]

I've just heard the 'Breaking News' that the search team looking for missing flight MH370 are going to deploy a submersible underwater search vehicle.

Now let me get this straight, only now, 5 weeks after a heavy metal object plunged into the sea, they are going to look underwater for it!

[GoldenRivet]

You are correct. I assume it is some sort of sea floor scanning sonar. Do you have any idea how incredibly long it takes to cover even a small area with one of those?

The past few weeks have been strictly a "narrowing down" operation. Looking for debris and listening for pings.

Now that they've heard pings and localized it to an area roughly similar in size to a major city they can use the scanning sonar sub. Meter by meter they will scan the sea floor for a man made object.

Even knowing exactly where to look it could take another month or two if long ladder pattern dredging with that sub.

Then if they find something. An ROV will be sent to check it out. Maybe even retrieve black boxes.

I think this jet is largely in one piece down there

[Jimbuna]

^ Agreed....if they do find it there is a good possibility it will be largely intact or in a few pieces (fuselage wise).

[swamprat69er]

Originally Posted by privateer

Not really.
She told me that last night through the Wee Gee board!

She also told me they are useing one to locate the wreck.


Yes. I'm a sick SOB!

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

You are correct. I assume it is some sort of sea floor scanning sonar. Do you have any idea how incredibly long it takes to cover even a small area with one of those?

The past few weeks have been strictly a "narrowing down" operation. Looking for debris and listening for pings.

Now that they've heard pings and localized it to an area roughly similar in size to a major city they can use the scanning sonar sub. Meter by meter they will scan the sea floor for a man made object.

Even knowing exactly where to look it could take another month or two if long ladder pattern dredging with that sub.

Then if they find something. An ROV will be sent to check it out. Maybe even retrieve black boxes.

I think this jet is largely in one piece down there

Specs of the Bluefin 21 UAV being used for the underwater search. http://www.bluefinrobotics.com/products/bluefin-21/

Up till now they've been using a US Navy towed sonar array which was listening for the pinger locator beacon to narrow down the search. The towed array can only be moved at a max speed of 2kts. They are now using the UAV with sidescan sonar fitted to it to locate large underwater objects. Once they have a contact confirmed, they bring it back to the surface, fit cameras (can't carry both for some reason), for a visual search of the area.

[TarJak]

Good info graphic shows the scale of the problem depth wise http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/pag...e-problem/931/

[Jimbuna]

The first mission was cut short because the Bluefin operational depth had been reached.

A robotic submarine deployed to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean has had its first mission cut short.

The Bluefin-21 was sent to search the sea floor for wreckage after signals believed to be consistent with "black box" flight recorders were detected.

But the drone exceeded its operating limit of 4,500m (15,000ft) and was brought back to the surface.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27030741

[STEED]

This is a dead horse.

[Jimbuna]

Not necessarily.

12,500 feet – the depth of the wreck of the Titanic. The Titanic sank after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage to New York in April 1912.It took 73 years to locate the wreck.

[mako88sb]

Originally Posted by TarJak

Good info graphic shows the scale of the problem depth wise http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/pag...e-problem/931/

Thanks for that. Really helps to show what they are up against. That is pretty close to the same depth that Liberty Bell 7 was located and recovered from back in 1999. Amazingly, it was the first potential target that they happened to use their ROV on after spending some time sweeping and listing hopeful targets. Considering the size of a Mercury capsule, I'm pretty confidant for the first time in quite awhile that they will be able to locate MH370 and hopefully figure out what the heck happened.

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by mako88sb

Thanks for that. Really helps to show what they are up against. That is pretty close to the same depth that Liberty Bell 7 was located and recovered from back in 1999. Amazingly, it was the first potential target that they happened to use their ROV on after spending some time sweeping and listing hopeful targets. Considering the size of a Mercury capsule, I'm pretty confidant for the first time in quite awhile that they will be able to locate MH370 and hopefully figure out what the heck happened.

You can also then multiply the depth challenge by the 600 odd square miles of ocean they still searching in. Mind you that's now down from the original 28 million sq miles they started with.