Twenty passengers on missing flight 370 worked for Freescale Semiconductors

[Wytnucls]

It was rightly based on tangible satcom data, not dubious circumstantial evidence.

[dannyf]

Why the hell did they make us spend years searching the wrong section of the ocean, when they had the flight simulation. 

Because they are the kind of people who also follow their GPS to their own demise as well.

[Wytnucls]

You don't seem to know much about the actual search, but feel knowledgeable enough to insult people connected with it (British and Australian). Are you trolling by any chance?

[donotdespisethesnake]

Why the hell did they make us spend years searching the wrong section of the ocean, when they had the flight simulation. 

I always suspected it was further north than the area we (mostly Australia) searched. The distribution of the debis found so far implies to took the northern edge of the Indian Ocean, rather that the Eastern side off Western Australia.

There is no reason to think that he flew the exact same route, but the fact it's a southerly route to nowhere is pretty suspicious. Unfortunately the satellite data leaves an infinite number of possible flight paths, plus the plane could glide ~100 miles from the last ping arc, also assuming that the last ping coincides with an engine flameout due to fuel exhaustion.

The search team made the best guess based on a reasonable flight track, but without knowing why the plane was flying the track (either human in control or pre-programmed autopilot), it was just a guess.

It very much seems like a deliberate act by one of the pilots, and he wanted the plane to be never found. Unfortunately there is no psychological screening that can reliably identify the tiny number of pilots who are likely to attempt murder-suicide.

[BradC]

So the search is ended

No, that's not what was said at all.

What was said was "We said we'd search this 120,000 square KM of ocean floor, and we've done 110,000 to date. We're behind schedule due to weather and other events and we'll complete the remaining 10,000KM." Unless credible evidence turns up they'll stop searching there because at the moment it's a wild goose chase. They never said the search was ended right now.

There was speculation about the pilot from the first time they examined his simulator in the weeks after the disappearance, so this is really nothing new. All it does is add a bit more weight to the theory they are vaguely searching in the right area. That, along with the predicted tidal data correlating the little debris found and the approximate information from the limited satellite comms just means that their best guess is really their best guess.

At the moment Australia is burning a crapload of money with some minor input from other parties searching for the remains.

[Kjelt]

Correction then for the peanutpickers: the search has ended FOR now.

[BradC]

Correction then for the peanutpickers: the search has ended FOR now.

The search *will* end sometime between October & December.

[boffin]

Probably the best place to get factual updates is here.  AVHerald has details on pretty much aviation incident.


http://avherald.com/h?article=4710c69b/0526&opt=0

[m98]

The oxygen, I really do not know if a pilot could do this, perhaps some pilot could elaborate on this?

Not an airliner pilot, but still, close enough.
The cabin altitude can be manually adjusted. That was, for example, the main cause of the Helios 522 accident.
Therefore you can let the passengers suffocate on purpose, although the oxygen masks will be deployed automatically. But as the oxygen generators for the passenger masks only last for about 10 minutes, most passengers will be knocked out permanently after about half an hour. Also, see the following FAA handbook, the cabin pressure control part starts at page 27: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aircraft/amt_airframe_handbook/media/ama_Ch16.pdf

[dannyf]

There is an article in popular mechanics about what went wrong with the failed search.

Having read that article, I would put their failure to recognize model risk on top of my list. They never thought about the what if early on: what if the models they used to pin point the flight path were wrong?

By the time they realized that and adjusted the search strategy, it was a little too late.

You see a lot of that, even among scientists, or when tons of money were at stake.

[Kjelt]

Isn't that science? Trying to put reality in a model and then emperically try to see if the model matches reality?
You have to start somewhere. They had no opportunity to search the whole ocean. The biggest problem is the transmitter of the black box, it has not much reach and hence the suggestions for floating devices that could be tracked by plane within hours.

[donotdespisethesnake]

As I mentioned before, there is an infinite number of tracks that match the satellite data. In order to come up with an end point, one has to assume something like a fixed speed and course. Even then there is a lot of fuzziness. To search the whole of the last arc would take too much time or money.

Airbus and others are looking at better tracking systems and jettisonable flight recorders. That might not help in the case where the pilot or hijacker knows about them and can deliberately disable them.

In fact, the vast majority of plane crashes are found within a few weeks, there are only a handful of cases out of thousands where the plane has never been found. Finding the crash site quicker would not save lives, nor help the crash investigation much.

I think the best system will be a satellite link to transmit flight recorded data in the case of emergency. This will add cost to a lot of flights (many don't have satellite link), and would probably not help for cases like MH370.

[Kalvin]

A simple GPS-based coordinate blinker using a satellite would be a good start.

[dannyf]

"Isn't that science? "

Absolutely. They could have done a better job preparing themselves for the possibility that the crash site may not be what the models said it would be.

[dannyf]

 "think the best system will be a satellite link to transmit flight recorded data in the case of emergency"

Such services are commercially available today. The airline in this case decided that it didn't want to purchase it.

[Jeroen3]

A simple GPS-based coordinate blinker using a satellite would be a good start.

You'd think they still fly vfr after all these years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_%E2%80%93_broadcast

[Kalvin]

A simple GPS-based coordinate blinker using a satellite would be a good start.

You'd think they still fly vfr after all these years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_%E2%80%93_broadcast

Well, something is wrong in that scheme as the plane's path couldn't be tracked.

[Kalvin]

A simple GPS-based coordinate blinker using a satellite would be a good start.

You'd think they still fly vfr after all these years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_%E2%80%93_broadcast

This doesn't work if they are outside the radar or there are no other planes nearby. Using a satellite link to send the GPS location should fix this problem (if one or more comm satellites are within the horizon).

Edit: Ok, there is a possibility for the satellite based link - if it works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_%E2%80%93_broadcast#ADS-B_Out_Satellite_reception

[Gromitt]

To my understanding the engines transmitted telemetry data long after the plane disappeared from radar. The didn't however transmit any GPS data.

/stefan

[Assafl]

No indeed they (FBI, Malaysian government and airliner) already knew this information for a long time but they kept it secret.

Then someone needs to be held account for that.
Information should never have been withheld.

We the public only hear about it now because some american newspaper got their hands on classified FBI documents through a non disclosed contact.

Whoever made that call should lose their job, or worse.

The reason is probably that it is as the link below states it, circumstantial evidence at most, it is not hard proof that this is the root cause.

It doesn't matter, you shouldn't hide information like this in an investigation.
And quite frankly, with all the crackpot theories that got thrown around about because of the lack of information, I'd say this was the most credible evidence they had.

Now with hundreds of grieving families do you want to tell them this without 100% being sure this is what happened 

Everyone deserves to see any evidence uncovered.

Perhaps what also was in the consideration of the airliner was the risk of getting millions in claims, just as German Wings is now experiencing.

The airliner should get zero say in what evidence gets released.

Another more commercial reason could be that this will vent of the suspicion that there was something wrong with this new plane, I mean it was pretty new and any crash is bad commercial news for such a product. If you know how much one such airplane costs and that airliners base their buying on how reliable the planes are, this could well have been also a reason to release the document.

Anyone who withholds information for such commercial gain should be prosecuted.

What if this turns out to be wrong? What if indeed it is the plane? What about the family of the pilot or co-pilot blamed for this (and will have to go into hiding)? Or the airline?

The public has a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction. And it is becoming harder every day. Whatever surmises the researchers  have are theirs. Get the NTSB (or whomever the heck is responsible for these things in the area) to figure out what happened and leave the fuel for the conspiracy theories in the dark where it belongs.

[Jeroen3]

During the course of an investigation the facts are not published for the simple reason that any new progress in the investigation might involve people. And people can change their statement if they are being biased by such information.

[Kalvin]

For every official explanation there will be at least three conspiracy theories coming up.

[Assafl]

That is the trouble though Assafl , quite a lot of times fiction and fact are deliberately used to smokescreen a reality , sometimes its just stupidity that masks itself as fiction or fact but in general terms and in a lot of cases it has been deliberate and when people come across the bullshit more than once a conspiracy starts to develop .

Take that airline Germanwings in where the pilot deliberately drove the plane into the ground in southern France  , on TV out here very 1st there was the "official" spokespersons saying the passengers would not have known that it was slowly descending and going to crash , i thought what a weird thing to say at that time , then report after report they kept stressing that , so to me it got even weirder .

Then after all settled down and actual facts started to arrive it turned out EVERYONE would have known as they were trying to break into the cabin , in a small plane , with windows , so as you know now how it turned out the very first comments were deliberately targeted to insurance company's for the dollars sake and those poor people were not even cold yet ! Total bullshit .

Right from the start those spokespersons were on about that and that's how smokescreens and conspiracy are , some are very real and i personally think that there is something up with this saga in this thread .

It would not surprise me if it was not over near southern India one bit .

imo of course .

edited>spelting

Everything you say is 100%. Yet they do not know - hence - whatever they will say *now* can turn out to be wrong *later*. So they'd rather wait until they can have a clear - and as fact laden as possible - story. Facts are hard to turn to conspiracies (not that it is impossible - just harder).

As for insurance companies - The public's right to know is indeed being curtailed by insurance companies and government offices ALL-THE-TIME.

It is safe to walk in Oakland at night. We got rid of crime. This car is safe. Of course this medicine cures and is 100% risk free.

It is a double edged sword.

People are afraid of flying once a year and yet stuff 3000 Calories a day. How do you figure our human perception of risk and personal responsibility there? (and I am not talking marathon runners).

People are scared their kids will get hit by a car so they don't let them ride bikes. Yet a large size Ice Cream is great. (So now there are groups trying to promote riding sans-helmet as riding bikes makes the general kids population healthier - even at the risk of an odd injury from not wearing a helmet - crazy! - and they use actuary to prove they are right - and they indeed are).

People don't vaccinate their children. They don't. They think Louis Pasteur was a hoax by the government to control them or get money.

Perception is everything and those of actuary sciences discipline understand that and help compensate for public perception of risk by releasing only the requisite level of knowledge - and not a iota more.

And yes, as an intelligent being, I hate being included in with the other monkeys. But then again I am terrified of what these monkeys will do if they get to know ANYTHING. (See how easy it is for a group of intelligence officers from the baath party to manipulate some medieval thinking and make people do atrocious deeds. See how easy it is turning out to be to turn Turkey from a democracy to a dictatorship - just by getting people out of their house to fight *as if* for democracy - ironic really. As curious as I am - the disastrous results of humanities ability to cope with free access to all knowledge is simply not worth it.)   

[boffin]

To my understanding the engines transmitted telemetry data long after the plane disappeared from radar. The didn't however transmit any GPS data.

/stefan

They didn't transmit secondary radar/ADS-B transponder information because the pilot pulled the breaker.

[johansen]

People are scared their kids will get hit by a car so they don't let them ride bikes. Yet a large size Ice Cream is great. (So now there are groups trying to promote riding sans-helmet as riding bikes makes the general kids population healthier - even at the risk of an odd injury from not wearing a helmet - crazy! - and they use actuary to prove they are right - and they indeed are).

Risk of head injury per million hours traveled

    Cyclist  -  0.41
    Pedestrian  -  0.80
    Motor vehicle occupant  -  0.46
    Motorcyclist  -  7.66

http://www.howiechong.com/journal/2014/2/bike-helmets