Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crash

[mheslep]

Notably US air travel is on safety streak, now five years with no fatalities. Apparently the majority of accidents now occurs while during taxi on the ground of all things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/b...st-year-for-airlines-globally-since-1945.html

 

[russ_watters]

Here's a largely useless article:

MH370: France Waiting to ID Part [front page headline]

France unsure plane part came from MH370, source says [article title]

Experts in France have not been able to determine with certainty whether a piece of airplane wing found July 29 on an Indian Ocean island belongs to MH370, the Malaysian airliner carrying 239 people that disappeared March 2014, a French source close to the investigation told CNN on Saturday...

Judicial investigators know the part comes from a Boeing 777, but they say they still need to identify a number inside the wing part, called a flaperon, the source said.

What? Is the headline true? If so, why isn't it discussed in the article? It's the only thing about the story that is new! And if so, what, exactly are they waiting for? Or is today just Saturday and the interns are running the website?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/29/europe/mh370-part/index.html

 

[russ_watters]

They've updated the story, adding...the story...

"We still need to identify a number that is inside the flaperon. It is a Spanish subcontracting company that owns that part. This company would be able to identify this number, but the staff is on vacation. We'll have to wait for next week to get their guidance.

 

[Astronuc]

It is a Spanish subcontracting company that owns that part!? How is that possible?

 

[russ_watters]

It is a Spanish subcontracting company that owns that part!? How is that possible?

I don't follow. Surely, you know that Boeing doesn't make all the parts themselves, they subcontract many to companies all over the world -- just like car companies? Or was there another issue? Like why Boeing doesn't have a complete database?

 

[jim hardy]

The piece that held Boeing's nameplate was torn off.
I assume to Boeing the flaperon is an assembly with one identifying number that's now gone.
The folks who made it should have the batch number of every rivet in . There should be heat numbers or markings on the sheet metal that identify the day and shift it was made, and hopefully the signatures of quality inspectors.

www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/print.main?id=6464768

Manana ?

 

[Dotini]

Problems to puzzle over:
- The identification plate with the serial number is missing.
- Barnacles cover the entire surface, possibly indicating the part was neither floating nor on the bottom, but suspended in water.
http://gizmodo.com/the-case-of-the-mh370-wing-segment-keeps-getting-weirde-1727429146http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/08/strange-saga-of-the-mh370-plane-part.html?wpsrc=nymag
And that was not the only problem. According to the New York Times, Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board found that the object did not match Malaysia Airlines’ maintenance records.

 

[Dotini]

Now confirmed by the French prosecutor, the flaperon is from the Malaysian flight MH370.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/france-says-wing-part-found-on-reunion-island-definitely-from-mh370/ar-AAdUDPR

 

[nsaspook]

Now confirmed by the French prosecutor, the flaperon is from the Malaysian flight MH370.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/france-says-wing-part-found-on-reunion-island-definitely-from-mh370/ar-AAdUDPR

Finally! Now we have the correct starting corner for the puzzle.

 

[edward]

The piece that held Boeing's nameplate was torn off.
I assume to Boeing the flaperon is an assembly with one identifying number that's now gone.
The folks who made it should have the batch number of every rivet in . There should be heat numbers or markings on the sheet metal that identify the day and shift it was made, and hopefully the signatures of quality inspectors.

That brings back a memory jim hardy. Many years ago, in 1966 to be exact, I worked for three months in a small factory that made the convertible tops for Corvettes. They made just the framework, not the canvas. Every bow and every hinge had a number stamped on it. How times have changed.

 

[StevieTNZ]

Plane wreckage with the Malaysian Airlines colours painted on the side linking it to MH370 has reportedly been found in the Philippines.

The Star Online reports that police in Malaysia have asked their counterparts in the Philippines to investigate the claims.

...

It is also alleged they managed to get near the wreckage and found skeletal remains in the pilot's chair with the seat belt fastened.

Authorities have called on the public not to speculate on the claimed sighting until officials are able to carry out an investigation.

www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11527687

 

[Astronuc]

A large piece of aircraft washed up in Thailand.
http://news.yahoo.com/large-metal-chuck-investigated-washing-onto-thai-beach-101516863.html

 

[StevieTNZ]

A large piece of aircraft washed up in Thailand.
http://news.yahoo.com/large-metal-chuck-investigated-washing-onto-thai-beach-101516863.html

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/76205739/thai-wreckage-unlikely-to-be-mh370

A piece of suspected plane wreckage found off the east coast of southern Thailand is unlikely to belong to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which vanished nearly two years ago, officials say.

 

[StevieTNZ]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/76205739/thai-wreckage-unlikely-to-be-mh370-but-might-be-a-rocket

A Japanese rocket maker said Monday that a large piece of metal that washed up on a beach in Thailand is likely part of a rocket launched by Japan, not a missing Malaysian plane.

 

[Astronuc]

And now - 'Plane debris' washes up on Malaysian east coast
http://news.yahoo.com/plane-debris-washes-malaysian-east-coast-135757033--finance.html

Local media reported that the object, which was white and measured two meters long, was spotted floating in the waters near the town of Besut in the eastern state of Terengganu.
. . .
A Malaysian Transport Ministry spokesperson said officials from the Department of Civil Aviation were looking into the latest finding.

 

[StevieTNZ]

"A Supreme Court has officially declared a Kiwi onboard missing plane MH370 dead.
...
Danica Weeks applied to The Supreme Court of Western Australia for leave to swear to the death of her husband so she could apply for letters of administration, The West Australian reported.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/76399724/court-rules-missing-mh370-passenger-paul-weeks-dead

 

[lisab]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/76399724/court-rules-missing-mh370-passenger-paul-weeks-dead

Sad, but at this point it's a foregone conclusion that her husband has died.

I can't imagine the suffering of family members who, for all this time, have been taunted in their own minds by thoughts of "what if...?" Our human minds are all too susceptible to magical thinking. Mixing that predisposition with intense love for a person who unexpectedly goes missing in mysterious circumstances...that would be torture.

But eventually, I think they'd have to accept that their loved one is dead. It's so sad.

 

[Astronuc]

Maybe this time - Australian transport chief says debris find consistent with MH370 modeling
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/australian-transport-chief-says-debris-find-consistent-with-mh370-modeling/ar-BBqgIKB?li=BBnbcA1

SYDNEY, March 3 (Reuters) - Australia's transportation chief said on Thursday the location of debris found on a beach in the southeast African nation of Mozambique was consistent with drift modeling related to the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

 

[Astronuc]

More debris 'almost certainly' from MH370: Australia
https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-debris-almost-certainly-mh370-australia-032357432.html

Two pieces of debris found in South Africa and Mauritius "almost certainly" came from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australia said Thursday after an expert examination.

It follows a wing part recovered last year from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, which neighbours Mauritius, being confirmed as coming from the jet.

Since then two more items found about 220 kilometres (140 miles) apart from each other in Mozambique in December 2015 and February 2016 have been examined.

The ATSB in March said these were also "almost certainly" from the Boeing 777 aircraft operating as MH370 that disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board.

One of the new parts, found at Mossel Bay in South Africa, was an aircraft engine cowling, identified from a partial Rolls-Royce stencil.

Given this, it concluded that "part no.3 was a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 engine cowling segment, almost certainly from the aircraft registered 9M-MRO", which operated as MH370.

"Part no.4 was a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 panel segment from the main cabin, associated with the Door R1 closet, almost certainly from the aircraft registered 9M-MRO."

I hope these days, it's easier to track aircraft flying internationally over oceans.

More news on the debris.
MH370’s Cabin Was Torn Apart on Impact, New Debris Shows
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...as-torn-apart-on-impact-new-debris-shows.html

 

[Astronuc]

Maybe more debris - MH370: BBC reader finds possible debris in Mozambique
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36394864

Luca Kuhn von Burgsdorff contacted the BBC on Thursday to say he found the fragment on the Macaneta peninsula.

 

[Astronuc]

Search for missing flight MH370 gives up possible personal items
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/20/africa/mh370-debris-madagascar/index.html

There is also a piece of airplane debris that washed up on Kangaroo Island near Adelaide, S. Australia.

 

[Astronuc]

Missing MH370 investigators may have searched wrong area for 2 years in hunt for doomed flight
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/missing-ma...they-scoured-wrong-area-since-2-years-1571745

There has to be a better way in this day and age. Commercial aircraft (perhaps limited to international flights) need a real-time tracking system so that they just don't disappear.

 

[mheslep]

Any tracking system installed aboard the aircraft can probably be defeated by malevolent crew or hijacker. The existing radar transponders have been turned off in several such cases, e.g. three of 911 aircraft.

 

[DiracPool]

It's looking more and more as if this were a carefully planned suicide mission. Nobody wants to believe that someone could be this selfish, but I think all clues are pointing to it. To have every tracking system fail so perfectly and the evidence disposed of so perfectly really smacks of human ingenuity:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/asia/mh370-pilot-simulation/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/07/mh370-pilot-flew-suicide-route-on-home-simulator.html

 

[1oldman2]

Finally something new, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36938480

 

[rootone]

Finally something new, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36938480

Interesting, but I think the headline was a bit misleading.
It sort of implies a deliberate intent to crash the plane into the sea, yet the evidence is only pointing at the likelyhood that the decent was a controlled one.
If this was a suicide, why would the pilot be bothered about how well controlled the decent was?
It seems more plausible to me that *something* had knocked out critical systems, but the pilot later regained some amount of control of the flight surfaces.
Knowing that he was at this stage far from any land, he may have been attempting to ditch the aircraft in a manner such there was a least a chance of some survivors.

 

[1oldman2]

It sort of implies a deliberate intent to crash the plane into the sea, yet the evidence is only pointing at the likelyhood that the decent was a controlled one.

I noticed that also, I was hoping to hear more but since the article nothing more has been said, (that I have seen anyway).
I think 370 is going to be a very long running mystery with no solid answers at the end.

 

[Borg]

If this was a suicide, why would the pilot be bothered about how well controlled the decent was?

Probably to minimize debris so that the plane wouldn't be found. If a pilot soft landed it like the plane that landed on the Hudson, he could have opened a window in the cockpit and cracked open a back door. There would have been almost no floating debris in that case.

 

[1oldman2]

Probably to minimize debris so that the plane wouldn't be found. If a pilot soft landed it like the plane that landed on the Hudson, he could have opened a window in the cockpit and cracked open a back door. There would have been almost no floating debris in that case.

I don't have the reference handy at the moment but in reading theories early in this incident I read a "power dive" straight in approach would leave the hardest to detect debris field, not sure of the reasoning on that.

 

[Borg]

I don't have the reference handy at the moment but in reading theories early in this incident I read a "power dive" straight in approach would leave the hardest to detect debris field, not sure of the reasoning on that.

I do remember hearing that one also. I still think that the soft landing scenario would leave nothing and would be in the category of impossible to detect.

 

[rootone]

The open ocean has big waves in it, unlike the Hudson river.
I think that this would reduce considerably the possibility of a large plane controlled landing in it and remaining mostly intact.

 

[jim hardy]

If this was a suicide, why would the pilot be bothered about how well controlled the decent was?

pilots tend to love flying , and airplanes.
Out of respect and perhaps even affection for the ship he'd "set 'er down gently" ..

 

[1oldman2]

pilots tend to love flying , and airplanes.
Out of respect and perhaps even affection for the ship he'd "set 'er down gently" ..

Interesting thought, a pissed off psycho just might "prang" the bugger though.

 

[1oldman2]

The open ocean has big waves in it

Yup, that's got to be a huge complication to ditching. It seems if someone had been in control at touch down they would have had plenty of time to get out an SOS type alert, but nothing, so one could reasonably assume it was suicide/murder.

 

[nsaspook]

The open ocean has big waves in it, unlike the Hudson river.
I think that this would reduce considerably the possibility of a large plane controlled landing in it and remaining mostly intact.

It can have huge waves or be as smooth as glass (Becalmed/sea state 0) in the Indian Ocean. I don't know the sea condition in the area during the 370 crash.
https://weather.com/news/news/indian-ocean-currents-mh370-debris-plane

https://www.livingoceansfoundation.org/fantastic-flying-fishes/
You can see how smooth the sea can be in these Flying Fish pictures. We would watch them skim the surface for really long distances in the IO during the right conditions.