Malaysia Airlines MH370 missing.

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.atsb.gov.au/mh370.aspx

Joint Agency Coordination Centre
MH370 Operational Search Update - 23 December 2014

The Australian Government remains committed to the MH370 search.

While search operations will continue uninterrupted over the Christmas period, there will be no MH370 Operational Search Update on Wednesday, 31 December 2014.

Assuming no significant delays with vessels, equipment or from the weather, the current underwater search area may be largely completed around May 2015.

[Stratofreighter]

Considerations for ditching MH370

18 January, 2015

Since Capt Simon Hardy revealed in Flightglobal/Flight International his calculations about where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is likely to have come to rest,
the Australian Transport Safety Bureau – leading the MH370 search team – has spoken at length to him.

One of the features of the Flightglobal release of Hardy’s work is that,
despite worldwide interest in his calculations,
nobody – yet –
has suggested his calculations are anything but logical and mathematically sound.

Hardy has now shared with the ATSB all the logic and mathematics he employed,
including the details of some potential variables that depend on what the cause of the mysterious disappearance was.

Here are some of them:

If MH370’s final flight path was indeed a deliberate act by someone who took control of the aircraft,
one of the options for any individual looking for uninterrupted control would be to don an oxygen mask,
depressurise the aircraft and switch off the two air conditioning packs.

This would ensure that anyone not connected to a long-duration oxygen supply would soon be unconscious.

If the packs were both off from a point early in the flight for all (or part) of the rest of the journey,
the aircraft’s range would be increased by a finite amount because no energy from the engines would have been used for cabin pressure.

Since this is not a standard configuration the figures are not available, but Boeing and Rolls-Royce could calculate them.

Regarding the programmed search area,
it is based on the aircraft having run out of fuel at about the same time as the seventh satcom “handshake” with the aircraft’s system.

But Hardy observes that the 7th arc is defined by “an electrical event, not a crashing event”.

He points out that the system was working at 00:11Z (crossing 6th arc) and then was rebooting at 00:19Z (crossing 7th) but never finished rebooting.

“It was ON, then OFF, then ON again, and then OFF again.”

He comments:
“I would expect a crashing event to be ON then OFF.”

The logic, therefore, is that although the “splashdown” site would be close to the seventh arc,
it would probably be beyond it.

The ATSB agrees that the 7th arc was not precisely the site of the splashdown,

but the variables that Hardy proposes could mean the aircraft is further from the 7th arc than the ATSB suggested when it posted its latest thinking on its website on 23 December.

There are also some considerations which would depend entirely on the mindset of the person flying the aircraft at the end of its journey,
and that is an unknown.

But anyone who has the task of finding the aircraft would need to consider these options that might have influenced its precise location.

At some point during the final descent,
when the ocean surface would have been in sight, Hardy believes,
the person flying the aircraft would conduct some manoeuvres to prepare the aircraft for successful ditching.

After all, he suggests, no floating wreckage from the aircraft has been found,
and one way of ensuring nothing floated to provide clues to its resting place would be to ditch the 777 virtually undamaged so that it would sink to the bottom of the ocean in one piece.

Considerations for a successful ditching depend on the direction of the surface wind, the waves and the swell.

If there is a swell, it is the dominant consideration, and the ditching technique is to land along the swell, not across it.

So the final manoeuvring pattern, assuming the pilot’s mindset followed this logic, would be influenced by these considerations,
and whatever is known about the surface wind and sea state in the area at the time should be taken into account.

Hardy ventures this conclusion:

”The indication is that the aircraft started descent just before the 6th arc (from 43,000ft) and continued through 30,000ft before reaching the 7th arc.

If it was at 28,000ft at the 7th arc it still has about 100nm more to fly.

For ease of reference, that point is near S40 E87 .” To this consideration, add the final possible manoeuvring to ditch.

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/ ... RS20150301

Australia says hunt for missing MH370 jet may be called off soon


The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 cannot go on forever, Australia's deputy prime minister said, and discussions are already under way between Australia, China and Malaysia as to whether to call off the hunt within weeks.

No trace has been found of the Boeing 777 aircraft, which disappeared a year ago this week carrying 239 passengers and crew, in what has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

The search of a rugged 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq mile) patch of sea floor some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) west of the Australian city of Perth, which experts believe is the plane's most likely resting place, will likely be finished by May.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told Reuters that a decision would have to be taken well before then as to whether to continue into the vast 1.1 million sq km area around the primary search zone if nothing has been found.

Discussions had already begun about what to do in that event, including the possibility that the search might be called off, said Truss, who is also transport minister.

...and
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/ ... RS20150301
still has somewhat more

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/ ... 3J20150308

KUALA LUMPUR Sun Mar 8, 2015 9:07am EDT

A 584-page interim report into the disappearance of the Boeing 777-200ER (BA.N) provided details on how radars had tracked the plane going off course to issues concerning the battery of the flight data recorder's underwater locator beacon.

The investigation team led by Malaysia with experts from various countries including the United States, Britain, China, France and Australia confirmed in its interim report that MH370 was spotted making a turn-back by Malaysian primary radars operated by both the military and civil aviation authorities.

Thai radars also spotted MH370, but Bangkok’s air traffic controllers “did not pay much attention” to the flight as it did not fall under Thailand's jurisdiction.

The Indonesian air traffic control radar in Medan, in the northern tip of Sumatra island, did not pick up MH370 "for unknown reasons".

The aircraft's transponder, which was switched off just before the aircraft made the turn-back, was "operating satisfactorily" until it was lost on the ATC screen, according to the report.

The investigation team found that battery powering MH370’s flight data recorder’s underwater locator beacon,
which will send a signal if a crash occurs in the water,
had expired in December 2012 and was not replaced.

This was because the engineering department’s computer system was not properly updated.

[Stratofreighter]

http://time.com/3738544/mh370-towelette-australia/

Not a single piece of wreckage from MH 370 has been recovered

Australian officials say it is very unlikely that a towelette that washed up on the country’s west coast last summer had been on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Reports surfaced on Tuesday that the towelette carrying a Malaysia Airlines logo had first been discovered on a beach more than 100 miles north of Perth last July.

“It is unlikely, however, that such a common item with no unique identifier could be conclusively linked with MH 370,” said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/package-found ... 28389.html

Search for MH370: moist towelette discovery unlikely to help find missing flight

March 10, 2015 - 1:49PM

A Malaysia Airlines moist towelette found on a Western Australian beach is unlikely to be any help in locating the missing flight MH370, which disappeared on March 8 last year.

Nine News reported the discovery of the towelettes by WA couple Kingsley and Vicki Miller at Cervantes, about 200 kilometres north of Perth.

The item was found on the beach in July, four months after the plane disappeared, and was sent to Canberra for testing.

However, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau,
the primary federal government agency involved in the search for the wreckage of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight,
it was unlikely the item would provide any succour for the search effort.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/search-f ... 3zy0i.html

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32331650

The search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be doubled if nothing is found in the current search zone, officials say.

The announcement came from Australian, Malaysian and Chinese ministers meeting to discuss progress.

If nothing is found, the search will be extended by another 60,000 sq km to "cover the entire highest probability area identified by expert analysis", a joint statement from the ministers said.

The additional search area could take up to a year to complete given adverse weather conditions in the upcoming winter months, the statement said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/a ... a-extended

The ministers seemed to imply that the additional search area could represent the last best opportunity to find the plane. “Upon completion of the additional 60,000 sq km, all high-probability search areas would have been covered,” they said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-16/m ... 70/6398678

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... found.html

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/m ... er-critics

Thursday 28 May 2015 03.11 BST

MH370 search is like 'mowing a wheat field with a household mower' – critics

The Dutch firm leading the year-long, multi-million dollar search is using the wrong equipment and the wrong people, say critics in the marine industry

Experts involved in past deep-water searches say the search to find MH370 could easily miss the plane because the Dutch firm at the forefront of the mission, Fugro, is using inappropriate technology for some terrain and inexperienced personnel for the specialised task of hunting man-made objects.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/m ... er-critics is worth a click and some of your time.

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/06/0 ... eads-found

8:24am June 4, 2015

The Australian-led hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will end with the current search zone not being expanded unless new leads are found.

It was suggested the search might continue through to next year when officials announced they would widen their search in April, more than one year since the plane carrying 239 people disappeared.

The search zone was due to expanded from the current 60,000 to 120,000 square kilometres but the Joint Agency Coordination Centre tasked with finding the plane said this would no longer happen.

"In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area," the JACC announced yesterday.

No wreckage has been found in the search that so far has cost Australia $100 million and Malaysia $60 million.

Official source:
http://www.jacc.gov.au/families/operati ... 50603.aspx

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/1 ... fetys-sake

Published
Jul 13, 2015, 5:00 am SGT

The search for a Malaysia Airlines plane which was presumed to have crashed more than 16 months ago has already cost about €100 million (S$150 million), or more than €200,000 a day.

The search expenses are being borne mainly by Australia, Malaysia and China, whose citizens accounted for more than six in 10 passengers on board the ill-fated flight.

They do not include indirect costs such as assistance rendered to families of the passengers,
said Mr Raymond Benjamin, secretary-general of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO),
a United Nations arm which oversees global commercial aviation.

In an exclusive interview with The Straits Times on Friday,
Mr Benjamin said the aircraft, which allegedly flew for hours without any contact with the ground before it ended its journey,
had to be found if the mystery of its disappearance was ever to be resolved.

"We don't know what exactly happened in the cockpit so we don't know if it was a security issue or a safety issue.
We have never had a situation where an aircraft flew for seven hours before crashing."

Mr Benjamin, who was in Singapore for an aviation cyber-security conference organised by the Transport Ministry,
said it was important to know the cause of an accident to prevent a repeat.
"Without the aircraft wreckage, we don't know."

As the plane is thought to be in Australia's search and rescue zone, it agreed soon after the incident to lead the hunt for the plane.

But the country, which lost six nationals in the tragedy, is starting to buckle under the financial strain.

The cost to date is already more than three times the amount that was spent, over two years, in the hunt for Air France's Flight AF447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

Australia, which has forked out more than any other country,
has now asked for support from other Indian Ocean coastal nations
and gone to the ICAO for clarity on the country that should take ultimate responsibility for such deep-sea search operations.

National University of Singapore professor of aviation law Alan Tan said there are no international agreements on the country or party that should bear the costs of an aircraft search.

The Chicago Convention, which regulates global aviation, says that when a plane crashes into international waters,
the country of registry - in this case, Malaysia - takes the lead and can request the nearest state to assist.

Prof Tan said: "Australia's financial commitment is voluntary and would have been offered as a matter of diplomatic relations.

"Australia is a wealthy country and that is partly why the search has gone on for so long.
But even then, there is clearly a limit to how long the Australians can continue to conduct and finance the search."

In the case of the Air France crash, the aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, contributed to the costs of the search.

"But that itself was highly unusual,
and in a case like MH370, where it is still a mystery whether the plane's mechanics had anything to do with its loss,
it would be difficult to force the manufacturers to pay search costs," Prof Tan said.

"The reality, then, is that the question of who foots the bill will probably be left to individual states and how they negotiate this diplomatically," he said.

Even as the ICAO has said it would review global conventions following Australia's concerns, Mr Benjamin does not foresee that the hunt will be called off.

"I do not believe the search will be stopped.
It will continue for some time," he said, adding it was the responsibility of Malaysia, China and Australia to see to it that the plane is found.

Mr Benjamin said: "For the moment, there is a strong will on the part of all of these parties to continue and, in particular, China and Malaysia."

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.airlive.net/2015/07/breaking ... on-la.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... light.html

Probably just a hoax...

[ehusmann]

Why do you think it is just a hoax? Not saying it isn't, but it certainly could be part of the missing triple.

Erwin

[SPL]

One of the most serious peace of wreckage since the start of the search .


Groeten Martijn

[ehusmann]

As far as I know the only piece found so far. And yes, it does seem to be from MH370. Several news outlets are now saying it is confirmed to be a B777 flaperon (also quoting people from Boeing). Since MH370 is the only B777 ever lost at sea, it is unlikely from another plane.

So no hoax!

Erwin

[gold]

New reports from the Réunion islands says that a suitcase has washed ashore as well..

https://twitter.com/sumishanaidu/status ... 20/photo/1

[Stratofreighter]

Another picture of what could be a Boeing 777 flaperon:
http://www.airlive.net/2015/07/breaking ... on-la.html