Hogger60

Nitpicker, I will pick the Nit with you here. There are some nights flying along at 0300 along M771 when HCM is darned near impossible to get hold of on either 120.7 or 133.05, and CPDLC can be down. Maybe better during the daylight hours.

nitpicker330

Hogged--- I've been flying in and around VVTS airspace for 25 years now and can honestly say the number of times I had trouble getting through would be able to be counted on one hand.

In the last 5 years I've connected to CPDLC on every flight ok and spoken to VVTS CTL without problem day or night.

I don't know what you are on about?

Now of you'd like to talk about Yangon......there IS a problem there..

Andu

I haven't trolled through all the other posts, so apologies if this point has been covered before.

Having flown that route many times myself, (and in a 777, not that that has anything to do with it), I'd be very surprised to find there were not quite a large number of eye (or at least ear) witnesses to the aircraft hitting the sea. The number of fishing boats in those waters beggars belief. Overflying that area at night, there are so many fishing boats, each with a light, you could be forgiven for thinking you were overflying a huge city.

If I'm correct, it will probably be a day or two before any such eye/ear witnesses return to port.

Hogger60

Nitpicked, last week no CPDLC, and couldn't talk to them on 133.05. They couldn't hear us, though we could spottily hear them. Not the only flight having the problem that night. Week before again no CPDLC, though the radios were fine. I find that during the last year there are nights when there are radio problems, all I am saying.

nitpicker330

Ok fair enough.

Andu---Good point about the fishing boats, there are thousands of the coast of Vietnam. Maybe one did see something??

MainDude

This is the ADSB information from FlightRadar24

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By2...it?usp=sharing

Hempy

In all fairness, losing comms is one thing, but losing comms AND losing the track off the satellite is another

camel

news conference:

the search is concentrating on the last area of radar contact, over the sea,at 1.30 am, 120 nm east of kota bharu(malaysia).that area would be south/west of vietnam.in the gulf of thailand.

SalNichols94807

If you check out the tropospheric propagation forecast page, unstable VHF/UHF comms around Viet Nam shouldn't be a surprise.

KrispyKreme

Just thought of something, does the b777 on this leg carry fuel in the centre tank? Could we be possibly looking at a TWA explosion again? Just no time to make any calls etc...

nitpicker330

The 777's MH use do have centre tanks fitted. Most if not all the 7 hours fuel would have been in the wing tanks.

KrispyKreme

Nitpicker330, so more than likely a little fuel left in the centre, hence could have the correct air/fuel mixture, SOP at my work is to remove all fuel from the centre and some of the aircraft I work on now employ nitrogen generation systems.

Anyhow just speculations

eztempo

You mean that captains trained to fly by computer may not catch obvious trouble (thinking San Francisco)?

glendalegoon

krispy kreme. regarding fuel tank. while Idon't fly the 777, I do recall that the TWA explosion was around 13,000' and the ullage was a factor due to temps, being at35000 it would be nice and cool.


HOWEVER any explosion could damage the cable between the cockpit and the transmitter and or antenna. Thus any attempt at communication might not work.

for those mentioning fuel exhaustion or starvation, it should be noted at 777 at FL350 should easily be able to glide in excess of 100 miles (zero wind).

On tV someone reminded me of the BAE146 operated by the then PSA in which an angry employee got aboard with a gun and shot the pilots and the plane crashed into the ground in california sort of near paso robles. no radio call there.

parabellum

Even if ATC had not picked up an emergency call there are enough North and South bound aircraft as well as West bound aircraft at that time of night and surely one of these would have picked up the call. Do MAS allow bulk carriage of Lithium batteries on their a/c?

p.j.m

#PrayForMH370: Relatives told to come to KLIA with valid passports

Australopithecus

Lithium batteries: I just bought some very high powered ones. They came interstate by post in a cheap box without any warnings or special handling labels. I suspect that they are in our aeroplanes a lot more than we think.

I imagine a cargo fire would at least give a few minutes of alarm, especially in a modern aircraft with cargo fire detection.

spongenotbob

This site (New Straits Times) seems to have the most real-time coverage, nearly minute-by-minute updates:

New Straits Times

Latest:

- Massive search ongoing in the South China Sea
- Contact lost at 2.40 am Malay time, 2 hours into the flight

freshgasflow

Hello and at outset , I need to say I am not an aviation professional. I would be grateful, if someone can succinctly explain to those of us non professionals, how the ELT would work, with reference to the B 777.

i.e.

Where is it located?
What triggers it ?
In the case of ocean crash, as the AC or its debris sinks, does the ELT detach and float ? If so, how does it detach ? E.g. is it a solenoid like mechanism etc.
What is the ELT signal ? Is it low frequency or high frequency ?
What position information does it give ? Or is there no position signal, and one needs to use triangulation to find it?

Any other info would be great. Thank you in advance.

777boyo

We entered HCM FIR last night westbound at FL340, passing Moxon (the boundary with WSJC) at about 1720Z, transitted HCM and Phnom Penh and exited, passing overhead PNH at about 1810Z.

We experienced no problem with VHF Comms with HCM Centre, and VVTS CPDLC/ADS also worked fine. We encountered no adverse wx - in fact it was a beautiful clear NE monsoon night, though there was some limited scattered lightning visible way off to the SW.

121.5 was congested, with both HCM Centre and another MH flight trying to contact MH370. HCM Centre were also making repeated attempts to contact the aircraft on the normal Centre frequency.