Malaysia airlines B777 missing

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by TarJak

Taxi for PC Wetty Pants!

A further lifetimes servitude in the penal colony

Originally Posted by privateer

LIMO! Dude. LIMO!

Shoulda wet on his seat come to think of it...I may have met you a few minutes earlier then

[TarJak]

Multiple objects sighted from raaf and rnzaf aircraft. Chinese ship to be in the area today so we should know a little more by tomorrow. http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-0...bjects/5353642

[TarJak]

Multiple objects picked up by ships in the sarch area but nothing confirmed as coming from the aircraft: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...ch-shifts.html

[Oberon]

One really has to feel for the relatives of people on this flight, I mean there is no closure, until they are able to positively ID wreckage from the flight and/or find the FDR, and the Malaysian authorities have struggled with this from the beginning, it's little wonder there's a lot of anger directed at them and the Chinese authorities, although when one looks at it in retrospect, there hasn't really been much in the way of data that the authorities can report on, although the whole informing the families by text message thing was a disgrace.

I wonder if we'll ever know...

[STEED]

The media has milked this one dry and still dose not get the point.

I shall state what I witness, a friend of mind shouted at the TV news stop telling us the same old thing we don't give a BLEEP. Tell us when you found it and not this....At this point lots of swearing and throwing the TV remote across the room.

Not for the first or last time the news media milking machine is let loose.

[GoldenRivet]

This method of searching seems incredibly inefficient.

They send out aircraft to search, when the aircraft spots possible debris, they then transmit the position of said debris to those individuals coordinating the search efforts who in turn route ships to the site to visually inspect the debris - ships which could be hours or days away.

so my late night wheels started turning, and i got to thinking the boys at subsim will call BS on this if its not possible so i'll share it with them...

I got to thinking about a type of pod, perhaps one made of some sort of dense and durable plastic resin which could be dropped from the aircraft. About 5 meters in length and about 2.5 meters in width and about 2.5 meters in height.

The pod would be self righting like one of those escape boats on ocean liners or perhaps the thing could be designed in some sort of symmetrical fashion so that it is meant to float on its belly hull or it's top hull either way it lands in the water it will appear "upright"

Contained inside this pod would be a balloon, CO2 tank, 1,500 feet of spooled cable, a battery, an ELT transmitter, and a remotely operated quad rotor UAV. a small set of water tight doors are built onto the top hull and bottom hull so that no matter how it landed, doors would be on top of it.

Within, the Quad rotor is mounted on some sort of counter weighted gimbals so that no matter how the pod landed the quad rotor would be right side up

The aircraft, either carrying the pod inside or attached by hard points under the wing or fuselage would fly very low overhead near the area of sighted debris and would then drop the pod into the water.

As the pod falls it would be stabilized by a small drogue chute possibly. (think C-130 low altitude drop out the back door)

The pod skims across the water until it comes to rest at which point small water tight doors on the top open up via small electric motors.

By this time the search aircraft is circling overhead. The UAV pilot aboard the search plane, launches the quad rotor UAV from the pod and remotely pilots it to the debris field while watching on a monitor aboard the search plane. From here, the pilot of the quad rotor can record clips of video he views through the camera, or capture still images of the debris up close and personal from close camera range (20 feet?).

these images can be viewed by specialists aboard the search plane in real time, or in flight wifi can be used to send them to those people coordinating the search where they can be reviewed by specialists in "near real time" there on the ground.

With fairly immediate effect it can be determined if the debris is related to an aircraft accident or if it is just rubbish floating in the sea.

If it is confirmed to be crash wreckage, the pilot of the quad rotor can activate the ELT aboard the pod remotely which will transmit its position until it is switched off or the battery has died, additionally a simple blinker light could be activated aboard the pod. this would transmit the wreckage position with more accuracy for search vessels on the surface.

at this point the Quad rotor pilot can simply crash the quad rotor or attempt to land it back aboard the POD where it would be enclosed back inside for recovery later.

If the debris sighting is discovered to be just garbage - the operational process changes... with enough skill - and this is the hard part - the quad rotor could be landed back in the hold of the pod... the doors closed onto it.. the CO2 tank fills the balloon which escapes into the air towing with it the 1500 feet of cable and , the aircraft grabs the wire and the pod is recovered into the hold of the aircraft.

Once back aboard, the Pod is inspected by the UAV pilot to check for any damage and to reset or replace any equipment aboard the pod if needed.

This has a few benefits: 1. the POD could be reused in the event that more debris is spotted later in the search by the same aircraft 2. it allows the pod to be brought back and reused multiple times for other search operations in the future (completely reusable) 3. it does not leave behind materials which could possibly be mistaken for debris by subsequent searches of the area. 4. Almost total elimination of the many hours or days spent repositioning ships to the area only to find debris unrelated to the search. (more efficient deployment of search resources)

Limitations to the use of such a device would primarily be the condition of the sea; obviously this would be impractical for uses in anything above a sea state of 3 or 4 due to the difficulty inherent in landing the quad rotor back aboard the pod in such conditions. Given this, the quad rotor would have to be cost effective enough so as to be considered expendable (ie, the pod could be recovered by the aircraft without the quad rotor and replacements could be stored aboard the aircraft)

aircraft with rear ramp doors such as the C-130 would be perfectly suited for such a search asset.

thoughts?

[TarJak]

Complex but possible physically.

[TarJak]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-3...ipment/5357476

Fishing gear found, still no aircraft parts.

[BossMark]

A transcript of the final conversations between the control tower and Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been released.
MAS 370 (Kuala Lumpur to Beijing)
PILOT-ATC RADIOTELEPHONY TRANSCRIPT
Departure from KLIA: 8 March 2014
ATC DELIVERY
12:25:53 MAS 370 Delivery MAS 370 Good Morning
12:26:02 ATC MAS 370 Standby and Malaysia Six is cleared to Frankfurt via AGOSA Alpha Departure six thousand feet squawk two one zero six
12:26:19 ATC ... MAS 370 request level
12:26:21 MAS 370 MAS 370 we are ready requesting flight level three five zero to Beijing
12:26:39 ATC MAS 370 is cleared to Beijing via PIBOS A Departure Six Thousand Feet squawk two one five seven
12:26:45 MAS 370 Beijing PIBOS A Six Thousand Squawk two one five seven, MAS 370 Thank You
12:26:53 ATC MAS 370 Welcome over to ground
12:26:55 MAS 370 Good Day
LUMPUR GROUND
12:27:27 MAS 370 Ground MAS370 Good morning Charlie One Requesting push and start
12:27:34 ATC MAS370 Lumpur Ground Morning Push back and start approved Runway 32 Right Exit via Sierra 4.
12:27:40 MAS 370 Push back and start approved 32 Right Exit via Sierra 4 POB 239 Mike Romeo Oscar
12:27:45 ATC Copied
12:32:13 MAS 370 MAS377 request taxi.
12:32:26 ATC MAS37..... (garbled) ... standard route. Hold short Bravo
12:32:30 MAS 370 Ground, MAS370. You are unreadable. Say again.
12:32:38 ATC MAS370 taxi to holding point Alfa 11 Runway 32 Right via standard route. Hold short of Bravo.
12:32:42 MAS 370 Alfa 11 Standard route Hold short Bravo MAS370.
12:35:53 ATC MAS 370 Tower
12:36:19 ATC (garbled) ... Tower ... (garbled)
MAS 370 1188 MAS370 Thank you
LUMPUR TOWER
12:36:30 MAS 370 Tower MAS370 Morning
12:36:38 ATC MAS370 good morning. Lumpur Tower. Holding point..[garbled]..10 32 Right
12:36:50 MAS 370 Alfa 10 MAS370
12:38:43 ATC 370 line up 32 Right Alfa 10. MAS 370 Line up 32 Right Alfa 10 MAS370.
12:40:38 ATC 370 32 Right Cleared for take-off. Good night.
MAS 370 32 Right Cleared for take-off MAS370. Thank you Bye.
LUMPUR APPROACH
12:42:05 MAS 370 Departure Malaysian Three Seven Zero
12:42:10 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero selamat pagi identified. Climb flight level one eight zero cancel SID turn right direct to IGARI
12:42:48 MAS 370 Okay level one eight zero direct IGARI Malaysian one err Three Seven Zero
12:42:52 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Lumpur Radar One Three Two Six good night MAS 370 Night One Three Two Six Malaysian Three Seven Zero
LUMPUR RADAR (AREA)
12:46:51 MAS 370 Lumpur Control Malaysian Three Seven Zero
12:46:51 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero Lumpur radar Good Morning climb flight level two five zero
12:46:54 MAS370 Morning level two five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero
12:50:06 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero climb flight level three five zero
12:50:09 MAS370 Flight level three five zero Malaysian Three Seven Zero
01:01:14 MAS370 Malaysian Three Seven Zero maintaining level three five zero
01:01:19 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero
01:07:55 MAS370 Malaysian...Three Seven Zero maintaining level three five zero
01:08:00 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero
01:19:24 ATC Malaysian Three Seven Zero contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9 Good Night
01:19:29 MAS370 Good Night Malaysian Three Seven Zero

[Jimbuna]

HMS Tireless joins the search for the black box.

British submarine HMS Tireless has joined the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

The Ministry of Defence said the Trafalgar class submarine had arrived in the southern Indian Ocean and would help search for the plane's black box recorder.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26845118

[TarJak]

China reports a pulse: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-0...-pulse/5370186

[Jimbuna]

Well here's hoping

[TarJak]

Joint search command are holding a media conference right now announcing the reports from the Chinese news agencies are not yet verified but that the signal has been picked up a second time within 2km of the original signal.

Additionally white floating objects have been sighted about 90 km from where the signal was first picked up.

RAAF and RAN assets are being deployed to the new search area.

Apparently the RAN vessel Ocean Shield is investigating another acoustic event 300NM away from the Chinese vessel.

EDIT: ABC News report: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-0...igated/5370558

[scorpiondown]

My two cents worth.......If you ask me , i think the US and probably Australia know ,if not the exact, but the pretty likely location if it went down in the Indian ocean.(or ANYWHERE else) First, some radar or satellite somewhere has the flight path unless Major Kong was flying the plane(frying chickens in the barnyard)Today though,probably some satellite/airborne radar would still be able to track a plane skimming the waves...Second....
If the US found the Scorpion 46 yrs ago with its acoustic devices,,,look how much technology has progressed since then...I doubt anything that happens on or in the oceans goes un-noticed..And you think those areas of the world aren,t under heavy surveillance?? What is the biggest power in that area ? China!! Think the US isn,t listening to them everywhere??After reading about cold war surveillance with the Russians and how every move they made was monitored,,it probably is mind-boggling what they can do today..

As for reason why they aren,t coming forward with the info,,,why should they?? doesn,t change anything...Only would tip their hand about what our capabilities are to China or India for that matter I,d fly search planes like a blind man also to screen the real capabilities!
(sorry if someone else said this also,,,didn,t read through the entire thread)

[TarJak]

None of that makes any sense.