News Contact lost with 777-200ER of Malaysia Airlines

[garyw]

Location of two distinct signals possibly from the black boxes

 

[SolarLiner]

I heard about a third emission source on the media yesterday ... 37.5 kHz signal coming little bit south of the XAI HUN spotted first source. Was it real? A plane have two separate black boxes, but how can they be separated from that far away, being 150m above sea level ?

 

[Urwumpe]

I heard about a third emission source on the media yesterday ... 37.5 kHz signal coming little bit south of the XAI HUN spotted first source. Was it real? A plane have two separate black boxes, but how can they be separated from that far away, being 150m above sea level ?

Must not be that way, since sound can be transported a pretty far distance if the conditions are right. The Chinese ship is, like the australian ship, equipped with a towed pinger locator system, especially designed for finding 37.5 kHz beacons. As such, it should also be able to verify that the beacon uses the correct pulse code.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towed_pinger_locator"]Towed pinger locator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

But what do you mean by 150 meters above sea level?

---------- Post added at 06:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 PM ----------

Also Gary: The Hai Xun is currently much further north than in your drawing, while searching the pinger at 1 knots...

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/9654373/vessel:HAI_XUN_01

 

[Artlav]

To quote a certain marine tech expert from Australia:

There is a 37.5KHz carrier and a 1Hz repetition rate. To get these two combined with anything other than the purpose designed transponder is just too silly to even contemplate.
If this was any other regular air crash investigation, they'd be reporting unequivocally that they have found it (or heard it at least). But this is MH370, the most botched investigation/search/official screw up of all time, so they are just playing silly games and once again trying to cover their already spanked arses.

So, let us hope the batteries last till they pin-point them and drop the subs down.

And that the recorders contain any useful data, instead of hours of silence as the ghost plane glided south into oblivion...

 

[garyw]

And that the recorders contain any useful data, instead of hours of silence as the ghost plane glided south into oblivion...

The flight data recorder should have the most useful information, it should be able to show the actual route flown and hopefully the state of the onboard systems as well as put an end to the questions around the climb to 45,000ft.

Even if the CVR doesn't have any talking on the tape it should have the ambient noise of the cabin and that can be very useful as well. For example, if it did crash due to fuel exhaustion there should be the fuel low callouts on the tape.

The absolute worst scenario is that the boxes are retrieved, the data downloaded and they find out that the circuit breakers were pulled around the time that the aircraft vanished and that the tapes just contain normal aircrew chat and flight data. If this is the case then I think everyone will feel a little cheated...

 

[MattBaker]

Even if the CVR doesn't have any talking on the tape it should have the ambient noise of the cabin

Six hours of silence, total silence, nothing to hear at all. Then one minute before the plane crashes according to the flight data there's some sound for the first time since the disappearance:
"You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it."

Nothing else but mysteriously you found the flight data but still no wreckage. And more airplanes go missing everyday, vanishing until we figure out "Airbus tried to save us..."

Still a better story than what Episode VII will have.

 

[Pablo49]

Six hours of silence, total silence, nothing to hear at all. Then one minute before the plane crashes according to the flight data there's some sound for the first time since the disappearance:
"You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it."

Nothing else but mysteriously you found the flight data but still no wreckage. And more airplanes go missing everyday, vanishing until we figure out "Airbus tried to save us..."

Still a better story than what Episode VII will have.

If one of us were to lower ourselves to make the same terrible joke, they'd say "Twilight still has a better story than this post."

But really I regret ever reading it.

 

[Kyle]

I actually think Episode VII will be amazing given the guy who wrote ESB, partially-ROTJ and Raiders of the Lost Ark is writing it..

But that's really off topic.

I'm really starting to think no trace of this plane will ever be found or any reason why this plane just vanished.

 

[garyw]

Looks like the search area is being narrowed down:

Interesting bit of news, the black box pinger signers were at 33.3Khz and not 37.5Khz. Apparently, this is normal when the batteries start to degrade.

 

[Cairan]

Of course, the ultimate insult would be if power/data was cut-off to the CVR or FDR because of a limited fire producing loads of toxic fumes, cutting off some data cables or power to the recorders...

 

[Urwumpe]

Of course, the ultimate insult would be if power/data was cut-off to the CVR or FDR because of a limited fire producing loads of toxic fumes, cutting off some data cables or power to the recorders...

Still, we would know then of the fire. Which is more than we know now.

 

[garyw]

Of course, the ultimate insult would be if power/data was cut-off to the CVR or FDR because of a limited fire producing loads of toxic fumes, cutting off some data cables or power to the recorders...

The problem there is one of the plane continuing to fly for 7 hours. It is very unlikely that there was a fire which was dealt with but the crew all succumb to fumes and there being no notification of it.

 

[N_Molson]

A british submarine, HMS Tireless, is heading at full speed towards the area :

The British submarine HMS Tireless has arrived in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday night to help with the search for flight MH370. The vessel will help with efforts to find the plane's black box recorder in order to piece together its final moments, as a transcript of the last words spoken from the cockpit contradicts earlier reports on what the pilot said.

The submarine will search an area of around 98,000 sq miles off Perth, Australia. Royal Navy survey ship HMS Echo will also begin search efforts on Wednesday.

The Guardian

 

[Cairan]

The problem there is one of the plane continuing to fly for 7 hours. It is very unlikely that there was a fire which was dealt with but the crew all succumb to fumes and there being no notification of it.

If it was a suicide, why fly it for 7 hours and risk being tracked by radar or be intercepted...

If it was a hijacking, it was one of the worst planning since Ethiopian Airlines got ditched...

If it was mechanical or something, it needs to disable the entire crew while leaving autopilot in charge, at least partially...

So whatever the cause, everything is pretty much up in the air at this point ... or more to the point, at the bottom of the Indian ocean.

 

[ISProgram]

So whatever the cause, everything is pretty much up in the air at this point ... or more to the point, at the bottom of the Indian ocean.

At least we know it's there now, from the "black box" signals.

On the paranoid side, I find it interesting that they found the black boxes at the last possible moment. Come on. Some of you felt that way too, I bet.

The absolute worst scenario is that the boxes are retrieved, the data downloaded and they find out that the circuit breakers were pulled around the time that the aircraft vanished and that the tapes just contain normal aircrew chat and flight data. If this is the case then I think everyone will feel a little cheated...

Oh, no. Don't even suggest that. Just don't. I mean, that be...HORRIBLE .

On a more serious note, did you mean the circuit breakers were "pulled" or "tripped"? I interpret "pulled" as intentional and "tripped" as accidental.

Around 28 minutes into the recording the CVR indicated that the fire alarm sounded. Fourteen seconds after the fire alarm, the circuit breakers began to pop. Investigators believe that around 80 circuit breakers failed. The CVR cable failed 81 seconds after the alarm. The recording revealed the extent of the fire.

From text of the Helderberg crash.

If the breakers were pulled (intentionally), then it lends support to the plane possibly being intentionally led after it last contact with the tower. If they tripped, well...fire(?).

Well, I think that even if we don't get "useful" information from the black boxes, such as location, air speed, etc., we can still infer what might've happened. It's been done before, I think. I personally think a fire did it all. A obvious problem with this is if a fire did it all, it was a unusual fire. Unusual in that it knocked the crew out(?), but left the plane on autopilot so it could crash in the vicinity of Australia, which meant it was flying for a couple hours.

On a less serious note: What Immarsat was used? Also, how many times have you heard "this is the best lead yet" or something of that sort in this investigation. Because this is so movie script-style, I'm hoping for a Mayday episode eventually.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I'm really starting to think no trace of this plane will ever be found or any reason why this plane just vanished.

We'll find pingers on the bottom. For some strange reason, they will be painted light blue without markings and will have no damage whatsoever. No other wreckage will be found.

The following is the audio that will be found on the recorder:

 

[Melvin]

I'm glad some of you find all of this amusing.

What a pathetic display.

 

[Kyle]

I'm glad some of you find all of this amusing.

What a pathetic display.

I wouldn't say amusing, I certainly don't find anything amusing about this situation, just exasperation about how perplexing this mystery is. I feel absolutely horrible for the people on board and their families.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

A british submarine, HMS Tireless, is heading at full speed towards the area :

No doubt that there's also at least one USN SSN in the area... probably a late-model Los Angeles class.

 

[tl8]

No doubt that there's also at least one USN SSN in the area... probably a late-model Los Angeles class.

And probably a Collins class. (If they aren't all broken)

If they can get another hit on the transponder soon, they will deploy the ROV ASAP.