You're still ignoring the issue.

I don't give two hoots what someone's "provisioned capacity" is.

Even your beloved NASA TDRS doesn't have the SPARE capacity for live telemetry from all aircraft. So please, give it a rest !

Here, I'll even quote you a NASA 2014 report (IG-14-018) on the very subject, I have highlighted the key phrase :

Mcdunav: Should not the possibility of the plane crashing in the Belitung forests be considered?

Start with the known location of loss of comms. Take max possible a/c airspeed, and known fuel reserve to determine the furthest the aircraft could have flown from the LKP, and draw a circle of that radius centre on the LKP. In principle the a/c could have come down "anywhere" in that circle.

Now get as much information from primary radar as possible, and any other credible data source, and narrow down the area within that circle to give a starting area to concentrate the initial searches for the available search resource - if those initial searches fail then widen the search area. Resources are not infinite. Time is important but you have no control over how long the searches will take irrespective of the media clamour for "information". Make sure that you spend your time trying to get results and not wasted on chatting to the media....:)

Also, FL360 may not have been available to due crossing traffic ahead.

@mcloaked
 

the current search area already extends beyond pulau Belitung so I thought that the search should also be extended to land. I have just read somewhere that this has indeed happened. The search area has now been extended to land.

Fwiw i just happen to have been on jakarta the day of this accident.

We have had thunderstorms all week but this one which passed overhead us was by far the worst by a significant margin.

Thats is a totally anecedotal comment with no intended necessary relevance to this accident it was just noteworthy that this was a pretty severe thunderstood by local standards.

A few pages back, the Indonesian SAR briefing states the following time line:

5.36 Airbus A320 flight 8501 departs Juanda

6.12 contacts Jakarta, requests weather deviation to left of M635 Airway and
climb to FL380

6.16 still observed on radar

6.17 radar contact lost, only ADS-B signal remained.

6.18 all contact lost

Some posters wonder why no distress call was made. The priority of the pilot is to fly the aircraft and if time permits, to call a mayday. Clearly, time did not permit.

Even though it was daylight, the aircraft may have been IMC, the weather radar in the cockpit inadequate, so difficult to dodge what appears to be horrendous CB embedded enroute. How likely is it that if correct measures were taken by the Captain to fly safely through what is common weather in these latitudes, that the aircraft would have broken up?

Cozmo,

Interesting typo in the third bullet of your slide on thunderstorm penetration do's and don'ts.

"Do maintain constant altitude. Allow the altitude and airspeed to fluctuate."

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...ml#post8800720

Sorry, I think you mis-read the article. It contains no reference whatsoever to spare capacity, but to replacement satellites to maintain service as the fleet ages. I'm not saying live telemetry is good idea, just that there are already satellites up which could handle that using a tiny fraction of their existing capacity.

what diff ?
 

@training wheels
don't understand what makes diff if B777 or A320? :ugh:

In 777 - and most other BA planes, pilot has final authority over computers etc by simply pulling or pushing or turning control wheel- which backdrives other control wheel. And has minimum cable controls when shtf.

Sidearm controllers don t work that way

But at this time not worth speculating . . .

As a pax I am somewhat disconcerted that the position of impact hasn't been located after two days. Although improbable, in principle there could be survivors in life rafts waiting for rescue. On radar, transponders working, reasonably busy part of the world. Does give suspicion that reassurances about the adequacy of current location systems may not be sufficient. Surely we should expect better than this? OK the facts may eventually show peculiar circumstances but that a/c was being tracked.

More moronic journalism

» AirAsia CEO Dumped Shares Days Before Flight Disappeared Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

How hard would it be to have a hydrostatically released ELT? It sure would make finding the wreckage easier. These have been on boats for decades now and IIRC the AAF had something like that on some bombers in the Pacific Theater in WW II.

Forgive me for stating the bleeding obvious but weren't we here a year ago with disappearing aeroplanes? We're perfectly capable of tracking something as large as an airliner but don't learn the lessons. Or perhaps we haven't lost enough aircraft in busy airspace yet ( interesting how when a plane disappears it's over 'miles and miles of ocean' but when I'm flying there I'm fighting for my level!).

38000 feet to ground level is a long time, plenty of time to make a call regardless of the situation at hand

Not very likely. Also I watched weather animation on weather channel showing how the systems were moving, the actual weather around this aircraft wasn't as bad as some portray it here on outdated weather photos.

I would like to point out to some of the newer posters...


why can't we track planes? well, I was watching CNN the last two days and they couldn't keep telephone guests online...the phone was invented about 140 years ago or so and we still can't keep a phone line up to allow an interview. SHOULD we spend millions of dollars for better phone lines?

ITS all about money. Are you willing to pay X amount MORE for your ticket if the plane has a 1 percent great chance of being found in 3 days after a crash?

AS to survivors in life rafts waiting for rescue. During WW2, many survived for WEEKS in life rafts before rescue. IT SHOULD BE NOTED that many if not all life rafts may have flare guns, signaling mirrors and ELT transmitter. I certainly am NOT privy to the exact equipment on this airliner, perhaps others can help us on this .

I do not think there are survivors in life rafts as they would be trying to signal if they possibly could.

BUT we may get lucky and find someone. And I am praying that they do.

continueapproach737
 

You weren't there. You have no idea what was going on in that flight deck or the situation that they faced.

Given the Xpdr etc was lost about FL290, I suspect the radios were not much use.

As others have said, there is no point in making a distress call, unless the person on the other end can act on the info and help your predicament. Contrary to the movies, reaching for the RT switch should be well down the priority list. Apart from anything else, it takes out 1 crew member answering the interminable questions :{

Sidearm controllers
 

Sampublius,

As you say [Airbus] sidearm controllers don't work that way but there are 'active sticks' out there that act like a physically linked pair of sidesticks. The new Gulfstream G500 and G600 will have them. Being new to the civil market there will be a cautious approach to them but I believe there will be increasing pressure for all sidesticks to be active.

Aviate, Navigate, Communicate....