Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is missing

[tsv]

No Helicopters based on the Search Ships?

HMAS success has a Heliport on board but is not carrying a Helicopter nor is any other Vessel in the area from what I can tell? Is there any reason for this?

I would have thought a Chopper based on a ship would be ideal for following up on sightings by the fixed wing Aircraft. They could get to a site and confirm the sighting before it drifts away - which the Ships have not been able to do so far. May even be able to retrieve some debris before returning to the Base Ship.

[teddybAIR]

well, the first challenge would be to get those choppers on board the ships which are by know somewhat 2000km away from nearest land. It would be easy in a world without constraints on resources, but unfortunately assets are limited. As are the operational limits of those assets by the way.

[andorra-airport]

Meanwhile at Euston Station in London......

[sn26567]

British Airways apologised for this advertising campaign, launched before the accident...

[sn26567]

Update from The Aviation Herald on 28/03/2014:

On Mar 28th 2014 AMSA reported the search has resumed in full, 10 aircraft and 6 ships are joining the search in the search area, that has been revised after assessment of primary radar data over the South China Sea and Strait of Malacca showed the aircraft was travelling faster requiring higher fuel burn and thus reducing range of the aircraft. The ATSB have cross checked the assessment and determined that this new assessment is a credible lead as to where the debris may be located. As result the search area has been relocated about 1100km/590nm north, now 1850km/1000nm westnorthwest of Perth, an area of 319,000 square kilometers/93,000 square nautical miles is being search on Mar 28th. Satellites have been redirected to monitor the search area.

Meanwhile, BBC reports that "multiple objects" have been spotted during the new MH370 search, according to Australian officials. The sightings must be confirmed by ship, which will not happen before tomorrow.

[sn26567]

Search for MH370 concludes for the day, 2 ships retrieve objects but no link to plane yet.

[Bracebrace]

Yes, they can be switched off by the pilots. So they don't overwrite after an incident

Since we are talking about a 777 here: many 777's don't have a CVR breaker on the flightdeck and the pilots have no means at all to disconnect the CVR. On these 777's there is only one in the E&E compartment so it becomes a maintenance task (pulling the breaker should only be done on the ground anyway, even if it is on the flightdeck).

[Flanker2]

http://avherald.com/img/malaysia_b772_9 ... 308_12.jpg

Looking at the above assessment, I can't help but think what the guys at Inmarsat and AAIB are smoking.
What is that bull*¨%/?

I can't believe that they stopped searching the North route based on an imaginary "prediction", when their prediction doesn't even take into account known radar plots from the Malaysian radar or is rather far off.

[FlightMate]

I agree that they shouldn't have cancelled the searches on the north route.

If we consider 3 scenari:

1 - Pilot suicide: the airplane might be anywhere, so searching the south route makes sense in a way
2 - Hijack: the north route makes more sense (plane on its way to some terrorist-friendly country)
3 - Catastrophy: the planes turns back towards a nearby airport (as could be guessed from primary radar), then follows its route for 5h. Thus the north route makes more sense than the south one.

[YACHTIE]

Agree, all options are open till we get some hard facts....

[teddybAIR]

According to CNN an official says that the underwater search for the FDR and CVR in the indian ocean have started with the deployment of the first 2 underwater equiped ships in the area. However, they also state that the area where these 2 ships are deployed is based on nothing more than an educated guess.
Moreover, 4 additional planes have joined the search for MH370.

[regi]

In the view of the location of searching, I wonder why they don't set up a base at the Cocos islands .

On the other hand, I really wonder why it takes so long before anything has been found back - officially.
A crash on land comes back as an option.

[teddybAIR]

On the other hand, I really wonder why it takes so long before anything has been found back - officially.
A crash on land comes back as an option.

Probably because it is simply hard to find. Why is that so hard to believe when estimated the crash site of a plane that dissapeared one month ago is 1.500km away? Are we that accustomed to getting answers immediately? It simply requires the majority of the wreckage to sink in a very remote location for debris to be virtually impossible to find. Unfortunately, even the search aircraft cannot perform miracles. I wouldn't even be surprised if they actually physically flew over some debris already, but simply didn't see it. Ever tried to spot a life jacket or remnants of a seat from an aircraft flying somewhat 250 kts at 1.500ft over an ocean?

[Stij]

Is it possible that

- there was a decompression
- the pilots tried to divert
- they all sufficated
- they continued flying over the ocean and ran out of fuel
- they landed on the ocean "hundson style" and just sunk

In that case, no debris will ever be found...

Cheers,

Stij

[hvs89]

A pulse has been detected by a Chinese ship involved in the searches. It could be emitted by the black boxes of 9M-MRO, but nothing sure yet.

Map with the location of the pulse: https://twitter.com/MH370News/status/45 ... 72/photo/1

[quixoticguide]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/05/world ... index.html

[fcw]

Is it possible that
- there was a decompression
- the pilots tried to divert
- they all sufficated
- they continued flying over the ocean and ran out of fuel
- they landed on the ocean "hundson style" and just sunk
In that case, no debris will ever be found..j

Very very unlikely.
The aircraft would not fly the route it flew.
The communication equipment wouldn t have failed
An aircraft without fuel nor pilots will not land but crash.

[teddybAIR]

Is it possible that

- there was a decompression
- the pilots tried to divert
- they all sufficated
- they continued flying over the ocean and ran out of fuel
- they landed on the ocean "hundson style" and just sunk

In that case, no debris will ever be found...

Cheers,

Stij

Pffff, possible but not reasonably more probable than any of à zillion possible scenario's so the question is: Yes, it's possible...so what?!

[flightlover]

Why don't they use some submarines and treat it as a trainings mission. They are best equipped to recognize a strange ping under water and are less influenced by the weather. True, they are less effective to find floating debris but there are more than enough crafts looking for that already.

[andorra-airport]

Why don't they use some submarines

They already do : HMS Tireless. Some ships have a submersable. And Remus 6000 (AF447, remember) is on standby. Malaysia is not sending subs, claiming that they are only fitted for combat, not SAR....