Originally Posted by
Shadoko
As said by Houston, the 00:11 ping (known, IMHO, as the 6th) is a line (not an interval). It could be only what is captioned 'Satellite Handshake Calculation #6'. So, has the 'Satellite Handshake Calculation #7' to be tied to the 00:19 'partial ping'?
From the map, the 'Designated Subsea Search Area' look like 80km width (~600/7.5). Is there any clue in the published data that the 00:19 'partial ping" was a flameout from fuel exhaustion or from ditching? Or from another event?
There seems to be a problem here. Australian call it flameout from fuel exhaustion. But, after flameout at cruise altitude, the aircraft would continue to glide for some time and would go down at least 50 km away. If Ocean Shield's detected sounds are really ULBs, their location directly underneath arc #7 (which seems to correspond to lowest possible speed after leaving arc #6) would point towards controlled ditching instead.
Also, this location is much closer to Malaysia and Indonesia than anything that's been considered so far. Ocean Shield is currently at 20.8S 104.1E. Looks like supposed signals were in the same neighborhood. That's 1700 NM from last reported contact with Malaysian radar, or 280 knots for 6 hours. Even with a detour around Sumatra it still only works out to not much more than 330 knots.
In this picture, arc #6 is ~2600 NM from satellite footprint, arc #7 is 2650 NM from satellite footprint. Narrowness of arc #6 and of the search box seem to indicate that Inmarsat's experts are very confident in the distance to arc #6.