HIGHLY unlikely to have been in one piece. Apart from that most of the bits that float will not float as in sit on the surface, they will float at or near the surface, but submerged!!

The lifejackets do not inflate automatically!!!

ABC news Australia reports the 120 objects are within a 400 sq kilometre area.

Given the cloud cover there are/were probably more items in the area.
So the density distribution could be 1 piece per 2 square kilometres.
The air search should find something given density in this field? Or would the area have expanded greatly whilst drifting since the images were taken?

Radar satellites
 

I have spent a fair amount of time going through Tomnod images, and there is a lot of clouds out there.

There are a large number of radar satellites out there, mostly operated by government bodies (DOD, NASA, Canada, etc.) but also a few private companies. These have resolutions good enough to spot some of this flotsam. They can be operated day and night, and can see through the clouds. Anyone hear any rumors of these being used over the search areas?

tomnod frame 241716
 

I tagged the frame for the group of suspect bits lower right.

People who don't go to sea are learning just how much junk there is in the oceans now. You are never out of sight of garbage, even in the Southern Ocean.

Odds of aviation halon bottles floating ashore ?
 

Actually I'm asking about the frequency of (emptied ?) commercial aviation (including Boeing) fire suppression bottles floating ashore, in this particular case in the northern Maldives. Coincidence ? I'm not so sure, despite all the emphasis on the southern arc theory and the fact that after the sighting of numerous objects, none of these have so far been related to MH370. In particular also after having re-read the initial official reports that MH 370 disappeared from military radar heading in a westerly direction towards India.

Albatros

Do you really think that two very old aircraft are a more valid comparison than Sully in the river?

The 777 is a tank as has been proved by various recent accidents.

The airframe does not have to be immaculate to sink with little trace, merely hold onto its larger parts (wings/tail) and the pressure hull must be sufficiently intact to retain all the poor buggers inside plus cushions. That is not outwith the bounds of possibility.

p.s. Can the people who keep saying that water is as hard as concrete at speed please stop being silly. It gets no harder at any speed. It is still water. If you fire a pistol into water the bullets penetrate a couple of feet. Try that with concrete.:rolleyes:

I assume that soundman101 meant a TV crew inside the aircraft looking over the pilot's shoulder through the windscreen and guestimating the altitude.

debris field- not a given
 

yes while it may not be in one piece,assuming there will be a massive debris field is just that- an assumption.One must keep an open mind.The possibility of the fuselage remaining largely intact and sinking cannot be ruled out until some of the sighted debris has been identified as mh370.And as tourist says, the 777 is a tank.For any 777 drivers out there-would the fly by wire system and associated protections keep the plane in the flight envelope after fuel starvation and flameout (with a/p engaged and both pilots incapacitated)?Could this have led to an impact with a low vertical speed component and an airspeed just above stall speed?

Mine? or Fire Bottle?
 

HaveeruOnline - Unknown object 'likely' aircraft fire suppression bottle, claim experts

"Unknown object 'likely' aircraft fire suppression bottle, claim experts"

Not sure you need to "guesstimate" the altitude, in one video of a RAAF aircraft cockpit they showed the altimeter at 500,
in another the pilot in the interview said they were down at 300.

Using tomnod links
 

Problems with links.

I find that by using the posted link and then clicking on the middle frame of the grid the requested image gets loaded.

In anything other than a near perfect ditching ANY aircraft will suffer SEVERE damage, if not break up into separate pieces!!

Aircraft are not actually THAT strong!! Only those parts that are highly loaded will remain largely intact, due to their inherent strength. They are certainly not designed to land on water in ANY circumstances, unless they are seaplanes of course.

The image shown of one in situ showed two metal securing bands crossing at rt angles, this only shows evidence of one band..

Also shown was a sphere in a re-breather which was secured by one band.

However you could not see if the re-breather had has many "connections/nozzles" as the item washed up or compare the scales.

Hong Kong Paper Reports Kidnap/Crash Theory
 

The Chinese-language news item linked below refers to reports by the Hong Kong based Oriental Daily. The gist of that report is that after disabling other communications, Captain Zaharie Shah negotiated with the Malaysian government for the release of opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim over several hours. The negotiations failed, and the plane ultimately crashed when its fuel ran out.

COMMENT: It is important to be aware of and to consider this theory. However, one also needs to be EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS - the theory conveniently tars Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim with connection to a spectacular act of terrorism. More importantly, this theory disposes of ongoing concerns that MH370 might have been brought down by jihadist terrorists.

The current U.S. administration along with Malaysia and China are all very keen NOT to have the incident linked with international jihadist terrorism.

This "kidnap/confer/crash" theory would explain the Malaysian government's apparent attempts to mislead SAR efforts and to hide its own radar information during the first few days following the disappearance of MH370.


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CowgirlInAlaska:

One candidate could be a driftnet.

It's hard to get aerial pics of them, but see eg Marine Debris UAS Survey - Photos under "Net Fragment"

Many years ago I witnessed a Buccaneer do a vertical dive into the Johore Strait following loss of control and the crew ejecting. All I saw was a huge fountain of water from each wing. It was later recovered basically intact having slowed very rapidly and settled on the bottom in shallow water. If a 777 did the same it would likely do serious damage to the front end and the wings/engines would break off but the cabin may remain more or less intact and the whole lot would sink to the bottom, any air having been expelled through the damaged areas.

I tagged something here in this map 242381 which looks to me like being a aircraft tail floating semisubmerged

Another angle....

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bjq2RnaCQAATE4W.jpg:large

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bjq4G4tCYAACySF.jpg:large

Looks like it's been in the water a lot longer than just since March 8.