PIC
 

The low res sat pic looks like a submerged container.
The first P3 has just landed at Pearce WA, nothing on TV yet.
Experts on TV are mindful of what the pics are
They are saying IF the debris is from the plane it will take years to find the plane using unmanned drones..
watch and learn..

fox niner, I asked a similar question some days ago and was told that the AP would disengage when unable to maintain FL and a/c would enter a spiral dive.

What IAS is the top of the yellow arc and Vs clean?

6571 wrote
Could it be part of fuselage ? Maybe half a fuselage with 2 or 3 rips ? What's the diameter of fuselage ?

Dimensions of the Boeing 777-200ER

• Wing span: 60.9 metres
• Overall length: 63.7 metres
• Tail height: 18.5 metres
• Fuselage diameter: 6.19 metres

Quote:
"Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified." To me, "identified" means they know what they are looking at.

Agreed, but "identified" is nowadays frequently used to mean just "seen" or "noted". Always use a longer word; even if it's inaccurate it sounds more impressive.

Letter is a reality check
 

Anti-skid on,

Your link to the Malaysian pilot's daughter's letter about her father (another Malaysian captain) brings a sense of reality to the world of civil aviation and its domestic tolls.

Thousands of families of airline pilots (& cabin crew!) worldwide would wholeheartedly agree with this daughter's sentiments. It is a career requiring dedication and commitment with good rewards (usually), but often with a heavy price for the families, although fortunately, only very rarely a price as heavy as this one on the 8th March.

Lorimer

It took two years to find the wreckage of af 447 even though it was relatively close to the initial surface wreckage find and the last known position. Some Aussie "expert" just opined that this debris, if from mh370, "may have drifted hundreds of miles from where the wreckage is due to the drift factors."

If it gets confirmed that those are parts of the 772 it's a good start. Also, if it is indeed a 24 m part of the fuselage still intact it means that it wasn't a violent impact with the water.
I wouldn't say it was an attempt of a planned ditching but that big chunch of fuselage wouldn't be in one piece after a full speed, uncontrollable impact with the water surface. However, Im just speculating, hopefully we will know more soon.

I believe Aussie are to be congratulated for their efforts. I saw on the news that they deployed some jet fighters to try and get a confirmation asap.

@Toruk Macto


Making the story fit the facts is exactly what you're supposed to do! As opposed to:

1. Making up the facts to fit the story, or
2. Not caring one jot whether the story and the facts bear any resemblance to each other at all.

Unfortunately, both those approaches have been demonstrated ad nauseum on almost every page of this thread... ;)

Ocean current map here:
earth :: an animated map of global wind and weather

Beware the passive voice, a favorite of bureaucrats and lawyers.

Rephrase this into "Following specialist analysis of the satellite imagery, we have identified two objects possibly related to the search" and it takes on an apparently different meaning, while, in reality, they are saying the same thing.

Fingers crossed that this is something that will pan out. There was some data on ocean currents posted upthread that should narrow the search area for the orange boxes.

Yes drift will be a big issue. However the satellite images are from the 16th, which helps a bit. Also gives them 4 days of real drift (ie not simulation) to extrapolate from. So a big job, but not hopeless. Probably learned a lot from AF447 experience.

Can anyone confirm the separation of the 2 pieces? The closer together, the more hopeful I would be. Common to find 1 piece of stuff floating around. But in close proximity would be more suspicious of 1 recent source.

Pingers might be good for another 15-20 days. If they don't find by them it will become grim.

FIRs
 

Melbourne FIR follows the E075 Meridian from the S06 Parallel untill the South Pole.
On the other side of the E075 and south of the 45S Parallel is Johannesburg FIR and Mauritius FIR on the north of it.
I hope that this debris will be positively identified as part of the MAS370 especially for the families. Astroawani Malaysian TV is covering live this finding. The next press conference should be interesting to watch. Normally at 0930Z.

Live TV | Astro Awani

From the released pair of pictures alone, the objects just look like whitecaps.

The reports from the Australian PM are that the objects looked "awash", which means there must be multiple sightings lurking unreleased showing a persistent object covered differently by water.

The released pictures were taken four days ago, so I'm sure the objects have been verified to be still there on several more images since, which is good news: and if the objects had been afloat for several days before being seen on 16th, and seen again since, then they're probably still on the surface now for when a ship arrives at the scene. 24m is far too big for a container, and probably an inverted yacht.

From the weather and measured drift in the images since 16th, the location of any sunk wreckage shouldn't be too uncertain. However, the water's substantially deeper here than where AF447 was found though, giving a submarine a harder time to find data recorder signals. For AF447 it did still take a long time to locate the wreckage on the seabed, despite finding surface debris more quickly in shallower water. I guess that experience will help this time.

For those thinking about the N/S FMC input error. Think also that the track solution based on handshake range is valid both north and south. With no other data the solutions in both directions are equally valid and at yesterdays press brief it was said that both routes are being investigated.


N/S FMC error is not very likely for a number of reasons.

Don't stop there. Please tell us why.

Daily press conference in 15 minutes
Live TV | Astro Awani

Someone asked if containers float; yes they absolutely do and are a major boating risk.

Oh come on, Training Wheels! Do you really think someone smart enough to actually create a user waypoint in the FMS would then sit there for hours as the aircraft headed in the wrong direction by 135-odd degrees because they messed up N and S?

Ya joking, aren't ya?? The unidentified objects are 2500km off the coast!!
 

actually we do have air to air refueling available down under :) - regularly used

drift buoy "nearby"
 

Posted here previously

http://i57.tinypic.com/2my2cds.jpg

from

Buoy 14908


It seems the area is north of the circumpolar current. AF447 came down in the Equatorial Counter Current. There, the surface current pattern are much more random and thus with AF447 it was harder to back track them. I'm optimistic drift analysis in this part of the ocean will be more accurate.