MH 777 missing - MH370 media statement

[moa999]

Latest SMH image showing the latest search zone.

 

[markis10]

Image credit Scott Henderson ‏@_AntiAlias_

 

[drron]

https://twitter.com/ABC

"JUST IN: @WrightUps from above Indian Ocean says US P-8 crew "getting radar hits of significant size;" trying to get visuals on hits."

How credible are they?

This sounds significant.Unfortunately I hope it is confirmed as then at least speculation can cease.
Unfortunately because survival in the Great southern ocean for 12 days is extremely unlikely.

 

[moa999]

https://twitter.com/ABC

"JUST IN: @WrightUps from above Indian Ocean says US P-8 crew "getting radar hits of significant size;" trying to get visuals on hits."

How credible are they?

Unsure about that given @WrightUps tweet a few hours ago

David Wright ‏@WrightUps 6h The electronics on board the P-8 - Top Secret. We have to surrender phones, iPads, laptops & cameras before boarding pic.twitter.com/9yqqyn823m

 

[RooFlyer]

Its well within our SAR responsibility area, recovery of surface debris will occur but that does not mean they will go further re anything on the floor of the ocean.

If it is parts of the MH plane, whatever remains there on the sea floor are will not necessarily be close, but lets assume they are still in the Australian SAR area. I guess initial under-water searching will be in due course via a deep submersible from whoever is funded to do it, preceded maybe by some oceanographic modeling, towed array trawling and geophysics (but the latter unlikely I think).

I understand if there is an investigation, its usually led by the nation where the "crash" occurs (if they have technical capability), probably with assistance of the nation of the airline involved and probably with the expert assistance of the US (or France if its an Airbus). AF447 indicates that when in 'mid ocean' the airline nation leads the investigation.

So I assume that Malaysia itself would probably lead the investigation either before or after the identification of a likely "actual" (ie reasonably certain) crash site mid-ocean? I bet the Chinese would be offering 'help' in that case.

 

[SeatBackForward]

So I assume that Malaysia itself would probably lead the investigation either before or after the identification of a likely "actual" (ie reasonably certain) crash site mid-ocean?.

So we can expect another relative of the PM to don some diving gear? great..

 

[drron]

Also this fellow-
https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon

ExBBC now ABC America.

 

[QF WP]

If it did go to ALL the waypoints noted in my earlier post (Igari, Vampi, Gival AND Igrex), then it must have turned south and flown almost directly south (nearest landfall is Cocos/Keeling Islands) and somewhere near waypoint Polum until it ran out of fuel.

http://skyvector.com/?ll=-19.999848723522224,98.54663086319127&chart=304&zoom=3&plan=F.WS.IGARI:F.WM.VAMPI:F.WM.GIVAL:F.VO.IGREX:G.-11.959081659062912,96.73828125379089:F.YM.POLUM

 

[QF WP]

MH370: I Speak Out | The cough In Between SeaDemon's Ears

Will be interesting to see this person update their blog. Made a lot of sense.

 

[DrA]

If it is parts of the MH plane, whatever remains there on the sea floor are will not necessarily be close, but lets assume they are still in the Australian SAR area. I guess initial under-water searching will be in due course via a deep submersible from whoever is funded to do it, preceded maybe by some oceanographic modeling, towed array trawling and geophysics (but the latter unlikely I think).

I understand if there is an investigation, its usually led by the nation where the "crash" occurs (if they have technical capability), probably with assistance of the nation of the airline involved and probably with the expert assistance of the US (or France if its an Airbus). AF447 indicates that when in 'mid ocean' the airline nation leads the investigation.

So I assume that Malaysia itself would probably lead the investigation either before or after the identification of a likely "actual" (ie reasonably certain) crash site mid-ocean? I bet the Chinese would be offering 'help' in that case.

In terms of the geophysics, you can generate gravity maps from satellite data, so it's possible. Just unlikely to give you the resolution that you'd need to find a plane. My satellite gravity data is on ~2km spacing. It's fantastic, but it's not going to find a plane. To get the geophysics of a high enough resolution to find a plane, you'd have to have a very small search area (probably not much more than 100km x 100km), otherwise it becomes impractical, both physically and financially, because you'd have to send planes or boats out to collect it.

 

[Meggsy]

If turns out to be true, is Australia now responsible for the recovery?
And would the black boxes be useless, as they only record 2 hrs and then rewrite. So would not have the recording when the plane actually turned first time?
Does anyone know?

coughpit Voice Recorders rewrite after 2 hours (though some are now much longer) whilst Flight Data Recorders usually have a 24 hour recording duration before overwriting.

 

[cirqueboy]

/HUMOUR

Australia: Gidday, it's Tony
Malaysia: Want you want? Don't you know we are stressed and looking for a plane?
Australia: Yeah well, we found your plane
Malaysia: You serious?
Australia: Why else would I call you dude?
Malaysia: You serious?
Australia: Yes. Do you want you plane or not?
Malaysia: Can you give us 4 hours. We need to do some checking and make sure our people don't contradict each other. Then we have to work out the Chinese.
Australia: Your problem dude. We found your plane....

\HUMOUR

 

[jb747]

I was confused about this too, but apparently there is only enough oxygen to last for about 15 mins. The system is just designed to give the crew enough time to get the aircraft low enough so people can breathe normally.

The crew oxygen system most likely consists of two bottles at 1850 psi. It has enough oxygen for hours of use. If it's like the 747 and 767 systems, these bottles are installed right next to each other, just aft of the forward cargo door.

In the 777 the passenger oxygen is chemically generated, and would (depending on the size of the canister) last up to around 22 minutes. It would be ineffective if used at very high altitudes if the aircraft were not immediately descended. Above around 25,000 pilot oxygen systems start to deliver under pressure. At altitude it forces the air into your lungs, and it's a real effort to exhale. Passenger systems don't do this and would be close to useless at a sustained high altitude.

 

[trungiez]

Unsure about that given @WrightUps tweet a few hours ago

David Wright ‏@WrightUps 6h The electronics on board the P-8 - Top Secret. We have to surrender phones, iPads, laptops & cameras before boarding pic.twitter.com/9yqqyn823m

Apparently it was phoned through.. No idea if this is legit or not.

"ABC's David Wright phoned from aboard P-8 poseidon that radar is getting "hits of significant size" "all indications something down there""

 

[robd]

Apparently it was phoned through.. No idea if this is legit or not.

"ABC's David Wright phoned from aboard P-8 poseidon that radar is getting "hits of significant size" "all indications something down there""

That's really nothing new though.

 

[QF WP]

A quote from letitride3c on FT:

Insurer already started payment on the claim for MH370 on Wednesday, estimated to be about $100 million USD ...

"BERLIN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- German insurer giant Allianz has started payments on claims related to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a spokesman of the company confirmed ..." < Link to Xinhua News's full article > in English.

Ah, no, they'll have done some preliminary work on the file, but nowhere near paying it, until positive identification is made of the hull loss.

 

[dougieboy]

/HUMOUR

Australia: Gidday, it's Tony
Malaysia: Want you want? Don't you know we are stressed and looking for a plane?
Australia: Yeah well, we found your plane
Malaysia: You serious?
Australia: Why else would I call you dude?
Malaysia: You serious?
Australia: Yes. Do you want you plane or not?
Malaysia: Can you give us 4 hours. We need to do some checking and make sure our people don't contradict each other. Then we have to work out the Chinese.
Australia: Your problem dude. We found your plane....

... and we're trying to turn it back now

 

[Jack_OC]

The crew oxygen system most likely consists of two bottles at 1850 psi. It has enough oxygen for hours of use. If it's like the 747 and 767 systems, these bottles are installed right next to each other, just aft of the forward cargo door.

In the 777 the passenger oxygen is chemically generated, and would (depending on the size of the canister) last up to around 22 minutes. It would be ineffective if used at very high altitudes if the aircraft were not immediately descended. Above around 25,000 pilot oxygen systems start to deliver under pressure. At altitude it forces the air into your lungs, and it's a real effort to exhale. Passenger systems don't do this and would be close to useless at a sustained high altitude.

Thanks for the clear explanation JB747. This is possibly irrelevant given latest developments, but I couldn't quite follow when it was previously suggested that the high altitude could have been deliberately used to incapacitate pax without affecting the pilots. Now I understand how that could (hypothetically) have happened.

 

[Justinf]

even if the black box only records the final two hours, investigators can still find out a lot purely because of the noises the aircraft makes, so it wouldn't be useless.
(I watch too much Air Crash Investigation)

 

[asg29e]

In the 777 the passenger oxygen is chemically generated, and would (depending on the size of the canister) last up to around 22 minutes. It would be ineffective if used at very high altitudes if the aircraft were not immediately descended. Above around 25,000 pilot oxygen systems start to deliver under pressure. At altitude it forces the air into your lungs, and it's a real effort to exhale.

Mostly I agree ( and I speak here as a specialist anaesthetist and former RAAF aviation medical instructor) but the 25000 ft mark for initiation of pressure breathing sounds a little low. Certainly back in the day when we used to inflict hypoxic indignities on fighter pilots in decompression chambers, 100% oxygen was said to be good to 39000 ft, then pressure breathing from 39 - 42000 ft, and we never went higher than that because anything short of a space suit is useless above that altitude.

Of course there is the odd soul who has survived higher altitudes; the world altitude record for gliders stood for many years (set in the 60s) at about 46000 ft by some bloke using a pressure breathing sysyem. Lucky to survive IMO. Record eventually broken by guys in spacesuits.