Malaysian Airlines MH370 contact lost

[Anna's Dad]

From BBC News

The French have just passed on to the Malaysians a new image that shows 'something' in or around the current search area. Apparently such satellites have '2 metre pixel size', hence able to give dimensions for the object in question.

[Space Jet]

@Innaflap

The possible debris spotted by the French satellite was announced during the latest Malaysian press release by the transport minister, this info was passed onto the Aussies this morning. No press conference today just the following release.

SUNDAY, 23 MARCH 2014
1. Search and rescue operational update

a. The search and rescue operation remains an international effort, co-ordinated by Malaysia. A number of countries are leading in their respective search areas and all countries involved are displaying unprecedented levels of co-operation.

b. This morning, Malaysia received new satellite images from the French authorities showing potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor. Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue co-ordination centre.

c. Two Chinese Ilyushin IL-76s have arrived in Perth, and will depart for the search and rescue operation tomorrow at 05:00 and 06:00

d. Two Japanese P3 Orions today left Subang airport for Perth.

e. The Australian rescue co-ordination centre will deploy eight aircraft (four military and four civilian) to the southern corridor today, to conduct visual searching.

f. The Australian Defence Vessel ‘Ocean Shield’, which has a sub-sea remotely operated vehicle, is currently en route to the southern corridor.

g. As of 2:30pm Malaysia time, Australian officials have informed us that they have not made any new sightings regarding MH370.

h. One Indian Navy P8 Poseidon and one Indian Air Force C130 left Subang airport today to join the search and rescue operation in the northern part of the southern corridor, which is being led by Indonesia.

i. A number of other sorties from Subang airport to the southern corridor were cancelled today due to bad weather caused by tropical cyclone Gillian.

j. Australia, China and France have now released satellite images that show potential objects, which may be related to MH370, in the vicinity of the southern corridor. All this information has been forwarded to Australia, as the lead country in the area of concern.

2. Family briefing
a. The Malaysian high level team started a briefing in Beijing this morning for relatives of those on board MH370. The meeting lasted more than 6 hours. This is the third such meeting that has been held. The team presented information to the relatives and answered questions. The Government wishes to reiterate its commitment and continued engagement with the relatives of those on board MH370.

3. Update on ACARS transmission
a. The last ACARS transmission, sent at 1.07am, showed nothing unusual. The 1.07am transmission showed a normal routing all the way to Beijing.

-ENDS-

[brika]

New satellite objects

Satellite imagery showing "potential objects" in the search area of the Southern Corrider.

BBC news reports today that the M'sian authorities have received the images from the French

[desmotronic]

I've tried to read every post on this thread.

Can i ask, given that the civilian crew spotted a field of debris i am suprised the report of what they saw ins't more descriptive than 'a pallet', surely they had a closer look?

As for the character assasination of the crew by anonymous cowards, im apalled.

Obviously the powers that be are witholding information.

[25F]

The rate of suicide-by-loaded-aircraft amongst pilots is vanishingly low as well; statistically it's zero plus noise.

You're looking at the wrong statistic. The question is how many airliners have been lost in the cruise with no immediately apparent cause, and of those how many were due to deliberate pilot action?

[atakacs]

I'm really skeptical about all those "satellite sightings" - I'm afraid the ocean is full of junk. Does anyone believe that a positive identification could be obtained on that basis only ? Short of physically retrieving the debris and matching it to the missing airliner (if possible by some serial number or other undisputable identification mean) I would be very prudent about deploying that many resources...

[Passagiata]

atakacs:

I'm really skeptical about all those "satellite sightings" - I'm afraid the ocean is full of junk. Does anyone believe that a positive identification could be obtained on that basis only ? Short of physically retrieving the debris and matching it to the missing airliner (if possible by some serial number or other undisputable identification mean) I would be very prudent about deploying that many resources...

My guess is that, depending of course on ocean currents, it could well be that the sort of debris and junk that is found that far south is normally fishing debris rather than shipping debris. The searchers have good ocean current experts working with them, so there's every possibility that they have advice that a "wooden pallet" used for aircargo fruit exports, say, would be unusual in a fishing & not shipping debris area ...

[Blake777]

Pallet and debris

The other items mentioned as having been seen near the pallet were "strapping belts" of various sizes.

[max nightstop]

So today's press release says that there was nothing unusual about the last ACARS transmission and the route hadn't been changed. This was the root of all assumptions about a deliberate act, now it is debunked 2 weeks on. Bit of a game changer IMHO.

[ekw]

As for the character assasination of the crew by anonymous cowards, im apalled.

There is a difference between a character assassination and a line of enquiry. In the first case you are accusing, in the second you are merely outlining a possibility which must be considered.

[hamster3null]

Originally Posted by BWV 988

Though we only have information about the last MH370 ping at 0:11 UTC, a massive search operation in the middle of a remote ocean would only be carried out if the (unknown) hourly pings made that area feasible.

As the flight originated near the equator, a mirror track to the north would also correlate with the returns, then leading to a last ping area in northern China close to the Gobi desert. Bearings more to the west, however, would appear less likely, given ping data is coherent.

Though the flight originated "near" the equator, last known contact was not on the equator, and you have to account for that when making a mirror track. They are working off the tracks that end up roughly at 40S and 83E to 87E, which would be 2700 NM from the satellite epicenter at heading 155 to 160. Last known position is at heading 78. That would put the symmetrical site at 2700 NM due north (heading 356 to 1) - near Aral Sea in Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan/Turkmenistan.

In addition, current search is based on the premise that the debris drifted substantially to the southeast in two weeks since the crash. They are searching way outside the arcs by now.

One of the reasons why Australians are looking in the exact spot where they are looking is simple. It does not make sense to look further southwest, because the aircraft barely had time or fuel to get to where they are looking as is. On the other hand, it does not make sense to look further northeast, because Australians have a powerful over-the-horizon radar system (Jindalee) with coverage that extends almost to 30S 90E, and, if MH370 had gone down further northeast, it probably would have been picked up. This leaves a pretty narrow area where they could be looking.

[aviator1970]

@jolihokistix

Aussies?Maybe maybe not... the Indians on the other hand would've said NO without any contemplation to any Chinese offer of assistance with ships and aircraft...because in their experience once the Chinese enter a place its rather hard to get rid of them....



@zark7

Based on the 'facts' available through the media

Factswrtmedia might be an oxymoron.... as far as MH370 is concerned....

[Hogger60]

Shortly after last radio contact with ATC the crew have taken limited, action. I believe the aircraft has been taken into manual control by the Captain and turned approx 90 degrees away from current fight route with the intent of an emergency descent. One of the pilots have recognised the need to sqwark 7700 but due to hypoxia inadvertently turned off the transponder. The effects of hypoxia have resulted in the crew not donning O2 and the aircraft altitude varying as a result of an attempted emergency descent until they became completely unconscious.

Why manual control? Decompression protocol on 777 leaves autopilot on during descent.

To tune the transponder to 7700 you never touch the on/off switch.

By the way, the altitude warning horn is very loud and reminds you to put on your oxygen mask. It is the 1st step in the checklist and the pilots would not have not tried to turn away, descend or squawk 7700 without doing this. I know this happened in the Helios accident, but we learn from other's mistakes, and they didn't have an EICAS to tell them what was happening.

Your supposition totally depends on both pilots ignoring a blaring warning horn, EICAS messages, master caution warnings, and doing more than one thing against their training, in other words being a totally incompetent crew, which I do not think they were. My two cents.

[GlueBall]

zark7 . . .

Based on the 'facts' available through the media, a decompression event is the most plausible scenario. Whether or not this was a slow (10000' cabin alt warnings??) or rapid decompression is unclear.

Are YOU a pilot? At FL350 you wouldn't be instantly blue in the face and pass out... Do you KNOW how long it takes to don a quick-donning oxygen mask? It takes me two (2) seconds to pull the mask out of the slot with one swoop of my left hand and plant it on my face.

[Speed of Sound]

max nightstop

now it is debunked 2 weeks on.

To be fair, it was debunked two weeks ago when it was discovered that ACARS doesn't send changes of waypoints in the FMC without them being executed.

[PPRuNe Towers]

And how many took any notice of that SOS? That's why I made that post stand out for the OP

BTW, we have a special offer on electronic death for the pinger squad until more genuine data comes out.

Rob

[zark7]

If the crew are suffering from hypoxia, ie poor co-ordination, erratic behaviour, memory loss, then this is possible. They may have had the intent to do the right thing (auto response from their training) but been unable to carry it out correctly. Most of us on here have seen enough hypoxia training videos to see how poorly people perform if they don't immediately go on oxygen. All I am supposing is that they have not donned oxygen masks quickly enough. Useful consciousness at 35000' is only around 5 seconds from memory.

[IcePack]

Glue ball would love to see you do that with glasses & a head set on.
2 secs not.
Hypoxia is different for each individual (smokers etc) so maybe slow decomp is a possibility prior to cabin alt warning horn.
Anyway with facts changing by the day speculation is futile but of course interesting. But it does distress the relatives.

[Pontius Navigator]

Originally Posted by MrDK

2. A lone crew member will likely not talk.

I wish. I once flew with a single-seat jock who, not used to a GIB, sang and talked to himself the whole time.

If this aircraft went to one pilot on the flight deck he may well have talked to himself.

[Alycidon]

Donning mask

Glueball is quite correct, you can don the mask very quickly, there is no requirement to remove the headset as the quick don O2 mask is designed to go over the top of the headset and if fitted with integrated smoke goggles, is designed to fit over spectacles.

Removing the headset is not a requirement and IMO is often taught incorrectly by some SFI/TRIs.

The clue here is "quick don".