Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 vanishes without trace

[2hats]

This is really positive news right? I mean, it's more likely to actually be what they're looking for? With the suspected debris it could've been anything, but a pulse signal can't be confused with something else can it?

Unless someone else is generating one in the area (unlikely!), and assuming the Chinese can operate their own equipment properly (one would have thought so) then there is little else it can be. The location is consistent with the final Inmarsat arc.

 

[2hats]

Seemingly usual (for this investigation, sadly) confusion - one source claims it was one ping heard, another claims the (series of) signal(s) was heard for around 90 seconds or so.

e2a: CCTV reporting 90 seconds duration of the pulse train.

2e2a: CCTV reported that the signal was heard for around 15 minutes on Friday and then a second time for 90 seconds on Saturday.

 

[maomao]

Unless someone else is generating one in the area (unlikely!), and assuming the Chinese can operate their own equipment properly (one would have thought so) then there is little else it can be. The location is consistent with the final Inmarsat arc.

Xinhua news agency will be keen to bring the world's attention to Chinese military muscle though so as it's all gone a bit quiet and as long as there's an alternative explanation they'll be happy to stick news stories out on minimal information. Doesn't mean it's necessarily not the plane, just saying.

 

[Pickman's model]

was there ever a flight mh370? if they can't find it perhaps it never existed.

 

[purves grundy]

.Nature is not something to be fucked with.

it 'fucked with nature' when it defied its authoritarian laws of gravity

 

[weltweit]

I think the pinging can't have been verified properly yet or the news media would be running more with it.

 

[2hats]

I think the pinging can't have been verified properly yet or the news media would be running more with it.

I guess that depends who you are taking your news from. The BBC are cautious but CNN (aka 'the MH370 channel') are flapping around and dissecting it to the Nth degree. Possibly there might be some clarification once we get into tomorrow, daytime, AWST. Needs corroborating independently anyway.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

it 'fucked with nature' when it defied its authoritarian laws of gravity

Aircraft fully comply with the laws of gravity, if they didn't they'd be pretty useless and 5t3IIa and I would be unemployed.

 

[purves grundy]

Aircraft fully comply with the laws of gravity, if they didn't they'd be pretty useless and 5t3IIa and I would be unemployed.

Yeah I guess you're right, in a way. I still think they violate the spirit of the law though.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I guess that depends who you are taking your news from. The BBC are cautious but CNN (aka 'the MH370 channel') are flapping around and dissecting it to the Nth degree. Possibly there might be some clarification once we get into tomorrow, daytime, AWST. Needs corroborating independently anyway.

Did you see one of their headlines that was doing the rounds?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

 

[Sirena]

At that unassisted point it will fully comply with the laws of gravity....

 

[2hats]

Did you see one of their headlines that was doing the rounds?

Yes. Saw that. The really amazing thing is how CNN manages to maintain any sort of audience given the drivel they spout.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

What's even more amazing is they've supposedly doubled their ratings

 

[2hats]

What's even more amazing is they've supposedly doubled their ratings

Maybe it's overtaken Fox as the channel of preference for the conspiraloon? Interesting to contrast the more sober and measured coverage of CCTV (well over the last few hours) with the hype and wild, generally uninformed, speculation of CNN.

 

[weltweit]

Radio says 2 other instances of pinging have been heard.

Wonder how long the search teams have before the batteries run out.

 

[tombowler]

Radio says 2 other instances of pinging have been heard.

Wonder how long the search teams have before the batteries run out.

I think they are wondering too, there is the tech specification of 30 days (they should last this long not that they will) and to meet this they have probably engineered more than this into the circuit design and battery rating, many news items claiming they could go 14 days longer, there are so many variables age of battery/ accumulator, state of charge and temperature can also have a big impact cold kills many types of batteries fast. There is no sure life time on how long they can ping based on what is known about the system/

 

[weltweit]

So, if they have three pings detected I wonder if it is possible to triangulate.

 

[Supine]

One of the pings is from a different location, so there is at least one that's false.

 

[DRINK?]

So, if they have three pings detected.

That's all good and well though what about the other 236 missing passengers

 

[laptop]

and temperature can also have a big impact cold kills many types of batteries fast

It's also been suggested that cold can slow down the ping rate and extend battery life.
Probably both are true.

Er, I think on pprune. Somewhere among 9430 posts...

 

[weltweit]

I just watched some CNN coverage.

Apart from that CNN is advertising central, their anchors seem to shout the news at you compared to BBC people.

eta: and I didn't learn anything different from other outlets.

 

[tombowler]

One of the pings is from a different location, so there is at least one that's false.

are there not two black boxes?

 

[ShakespearO]

Radio says 2 other instances of pinging have been heard.

Wonder how long the search teams have before the batteries run out.

They should put some new batteries in before the old ones run out.

 

[2hats]

are there not two black boxes?

Yes. A locator beacon on the CVR and one on the FDR. However they are likely on the seabed within a few hundred metres of each other (most likely a few tens of metres of each other, very highly unlikely hundreds of km apart).

 

[2hats]

So, if they have three pings detected I wonder if it is possible to triangulate.

Directionality is quite poor (AFAIK). One can determine if one is getting closer or further away from the signal. Essentially you trawl up and down and where the signal strength is strongest you are very approximately over the top of the target. At that point you conduct a sonar survey and/or sweep the sea floor with a ROV.

 

[2hats]

It's also been suggested that cold can slow down the ping rate and extend battery life.
Probably both are true.

The battery will run down over the next few tens of days, resulting in an increasingly weakening signal. They might have ~40 days. Or less. Or more. If the locators are not too deep (end up on a ridge) then they may have longer to find them. Reportedly (ie take with a moderate pinch of salt) the batteries were due to be replaced at the next maintenance check, scheduled for June, in which case the battery life might be closer to 30 instead for 40/50/60 days. Temperature will affect the battery life but the repetition rate less so (it will be engineered to provide a given rate to within some tolerance for the expected lifetime).

 

[weltweit]

Has anyone seen a map of where the pings were heard.

I gathered that two were close together but the third was a long way away.

 

[2hats]

HMAS Ocean Shield with the USN towed pinger array has now apparently two very good, sustained contacts in the search zone (consistent with the area constrained by the Inmarsat information). They seem to searching a narrow swathe along the arc so perhaps have concluded that the final handshake is consistent with the termination of either powered flight or impact with ocean.

e2a: the media reports are not clear but seemed to be implying that during the second AOS two signals were heard which would suggest the CVR and FDR in close proximity to each other and thus a very good chance that this is the (remains of the) missing aircraft.

2e2a: WSJ confirms 2 distinct signals (=> both data recorders) on the second pass.

 

[savoloysam]

Brilliant.

Conspiraloon's website, mainstream media it's all the fucking same to me. Twats with a fucking agenda.

I guess we will never know what happened to that plane. This current we think we have located the black box stuff i reckon is bullshit too. Surely they would be finding some wreckage floating around somewhere within 100 miles but I don't believe they will and I don't believe that plane was on a mystery journey to the south pole either.