MH 370 missing plane
Vandiesel
Posts: 506
So, MH 370 is still missing without a trace!
However, checking my ISS spotter app I see that it's path is going directly over the current search zone.
With all it's sophisticated viewing equipment on board that monitors Earth from 200 miles above surely it would see any debris in the area?
I thought big brother could tell the difference between a 5p & 10p coin from space!
What says you?
However, checking my ISS spotter app I see that it's path is going directly over the current search zone.
With all it's sophisticated viewing equipment on board that monitors Earth from 200 miles above surely it would see any debris in the area?
I thought big brother could tell the difference between a 5p & 10p coin from space!
What says you?
Giant TCR Composite 3
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Comments
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There's a pretty good chance that there may be no sizeable debris to find - and are you going to find something like a cushion floating in millions and millions of square miles of ocean. Satellites are expensive so i doubt there is too much coverage on the open ocean. Its like trying to find a needle in a mile wide haystack - best chance has surely got to be from the location transmitter in the black box - but that only transmits till the battery runs out so maybe a month.
Must be so awful for the families right now - weeks of not knowing
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the new iss cameras have the resolution, but even if it's orbit takes it over the correct area during daytime and with no cloud cover, it will still image only a narrow strip of ocean, the chances of it spotting anything related to the plane (if it's even there) are small
big brother's surveillance satellites with extreme resolution can be positioned over interesting targets, but it would mean expending manoeuvring fuel and reducing operational life, which they probably wouldn't want to do
even if it were done, imaging and examining an area the size of an airbase to see what interesting secrets things are there is 'easy', doing the same for an area the size of australia is a quite different matter
the images that were released are from a commercial satellite imagery service, the resolution is restricted by the operator's government, but still good enough to see larger chunks of debris, with lower resolution there's less data to examine for possible targets, but it probably took a lot of processing plus some luck to turn up what they found
aside from ships, there's loads of crap floating around, with that, a huge search area and bad conditions, it's not surprising that the search has not yet resulted in any confirmed sightingsmy bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
Some interesting points chaps thanksGiant TCR Composite 30
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The US could stick a couple of U2's up in the sky. Way more adaptable and cheaper than satellites and a space station.0
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Looks like French satellite has picked up more crap floating
Htf does a plane disappearGiant TCR Composite 30 -
in some areas, it's easy for a plane to disappear...
turn off comms
leave monitored airspace - radar doesn't cover oceans
fly plane for a while over ocean
stop flying
...done
the southern ocean is a very lonely placemy bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
Not really mate I had no idea that something like this could ever happen as many of us I'm sure!Giant TCR Composite 30
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aside from the horror the families are going through, the thing I find absolutely amazing, is that in this day an age of GPS tracking etc and post 9/11 is that the air crew can switch it all off.....why? is there any reason a civi plane could ever need to "disappear" ?0
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mamba80 wrote:aside from the horror the families are going through, the thing I find absolutely amazing, is that in this day an age of GPS tracking etc and post 9/11 is that the air crew can switch it all off.....why? is there any reason a civi plane could ever need to "disappear" ?
Electrical equipment needs to be isolated in the event of fire - for the same reason that we have a fuse box in the house. If it ever got to the stage where airlines fitted their planes with 'always on' devices without the ability to isolate them from the cockpit, I would imagine most sensible pilots would refuse to fly them.0 -
That doesn't really answer how a plane can just vanish into thin air, especially given the terror threats we are all supposed to be under and airport security measures.
I agree that isolating electrical systems may be a safety requirement but a gps system is hardly "electrical equipment" in the sense of a fire hazard, and even if it was, im sure that safety systems could be developed, Inmarsat, the uk company with the latest evidence of the planes flight path say that planes need to fitted with permanent tracking systems.0 -
mamba80 wrote:That doesn't really answer how a plane can just vanish into thin air, especially given the terror threats we are all supposed to be under and airport security measures.
I agree that isolating electrical systems may be a safety requirement but a gps system is hardly "electrical equipment" in the sense of a fire hazard, and even if it was, im sure that safety systems could be developed, Inmarsat, the uk company with the latest evidence of the planes flight path say that planes need to fitted with permanent tracking systems.
Planes can already be tracked permanently via devices like ACARS and IFF/transponders. The trick is not turning them off whilst airborne. Unfortunately, that brings us back to my earlier point.
In any case, in the majority of circumstances, ground radar provides the majority of passive tracking cover in or near populated land mass. As before, the trick is not turning that off either.
If everything is left switched on to do what it is supposed to, there shouldn't be any issues with missing planes in the air. But if someone is determined to make a plane disappear, then whoever was on board that 777 chose route and destination very carefully and did a pretty good job.0 -
yes but those technologies are old and apparently the very latest planes have far better systems, again it comes down to cost.
But what the hell went on in that plane? and if it was a pilot suicide (which seems the most likely cause) then it must have been absolutely horrific for those passengers and crew unable to alter events, would they have known when it ran out of fuel and started to glide and for how long? and with only about 12 days left to find the black boxes, I guess we will never now what really happened.0 -
Lookyhere wrote:yes but those technologies are old and apparently the very latest planes have far better systems, again it comes down to cost.
Not sure what you mean. ACARS is a digital datalink - it had one of those. It also had a transponder. What other systems are you referring to and what is their function?Lookyhere wrote:But what the hell went on in that plane? and if it was a pilot suicide (which seems the most likely cause) then it must have been absolutely horrific for those passengers and crew unable to alter events, would they have known when it ran out of fuel and started to glide and for how long? and with only about 12 days left to find the black boxes, I guess we will never now what really happened.
Depends if whoever was in control left the cabin air supply on - if not, then the passengers were probably all unconscious/dead through hypoxia before the plane ditched.
As far as I'm aware though, the only absolute 100% fact at the moment is that the plane is still missing.0
