Malaysia Airlines Flight Goes Missing En Route to China

[Atomic Cow]

That I do know.

I was answering OC that I do not know how the currents are in that region.

[flowers]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Dickson

Port Dickson, or PD to locals, is a beach and holiday destination situated about 32 km from Seremban and 90 km from Kuala Lumpur. It is located in the state of Negeri Sembilan in Peninsular Malaysia. It takes just over an hour by car to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Port Dickson along the North-South Expressway.

that is on the other coast from where the Chinese satellite found debree  right?  yes I know debree is spelled wrong

[Oceander]

The diameter of a 777, according to the Boeing tech. specs is about 6.19 meters (20ft, 4in).  That would give it a circumference of about 19.45 meters (63ft, 9in).

Both of the smaller pieces would fit within that limit; in fact, considering that one is about 18m on one side and the other about 19m on one side, it's possible - if this is the plane's wreckage - that those sides represent the circumference flattened out.  If so, that would mean that the smallest one contains 13m of linear length (along the major axis) and the other 14m, which would represent about 27 meters out of the plane's overall length of 64 meters.

The largest piece doesn't quite fit, but it's still close enough that, factoring in the satellite's margin of error and the likelihood that part of a wing or some other debris was stuck to a piece of the hull, it could also be a chunk of unravelled fuselage.  That would add another 22 to 24 meters of length, bringing the total to about 49m to 51m.  That leaves about 13m to 15m to account for.  Assuming that in a breakup the tail section would most likely sink, taking with it several meters of fuselage length, it is entirely possible that the remaining fuselage length went with the tail.  Below is a photo of a Singapore 777 with various lengths annotated:

The leading edge of the tail starts at approximately 12m or so before the end of the fuselage, so that would account for almost all of the remaining fuselage length.

[flowers]

That I do know.

I was answering OC that I do not know how the currents are in that region.

[Oceander]

that is on the other coast from where the Chinese satellite found debree  right?  yes I know debree is spelled wrong

more or less, yes.  The location of the possible debris is to the north-east of the landmass on which Kuala Lumpur sits.

[flowers]

more or less, yes.  The location of the possible debris is to the north-east of the landmass on which Kuala Lumpur sits.

 

thank you

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-missing-mh370-font-fishermen-find-life-raft-near-pd-1.509222#ixzz2vnEureUw

12 March 2014| last updated at 03:29PM
MISSING MH370: Fishermen find life raft near PD
By SUKHBIR CHEEMA | news@nst.com.my

0 comments   

PORT DICKSON: A group of fishermen found a life raft bearing the word “Boarding” 10 nautical miles from Port Dickson town at 12pm yesterday.

One of the fishermen, Azman Mohamad, 40, said they found the badly damaged raft floating and immediately notified the Kuala Linggi Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in Malacca for assistance to lift the raft as it was very heavy.

"We managed to tie it to our boat as we feared it would sink due to the damages," he said.

When the MMEA boat arrived, the fishermen then handed over the raft into their custody.

However, a Kuala Linggi MMEA spokesman said the raft sunk into the sea while they were trying to bring the raft onboard.




12 March 2014| last updated at 03:29PM
MISSING MH370: Fishermen find life raft near PD
By SUKHBIR CHEEMA | news@nst.com.my



PORT DICKSON: A group of fishermen found a life raft bearing the word “Boarding” 10 nautical miles from Port Dickson town at 12pm yesterday.

One of the fishermen, Azman Mohamad, 40, said they found the badly damaged raft floating and immediately notified the Kuala Linggi Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in Malacca for assistance to lift the raft as it was very heavy.

"We managed to tie it to our boat as we feared it would sink due to the damages," he said.

When the MMEA boat arrived, the fishermen then handed over the raft into their custody.

However, a Kuala Linggi MMEA spokesman said the raft sunk into the sea while they were trying to bring the raft onboard.

The life raft found by a group of fishermen 10 nautical miles from Port Dickson yesterday. Pix by Dzulkeffli Mustapha

[Atomic Cow]

This is what they likely pulled from the water.



Pretty sure that is not a life raft from a 777.  The emergency slides double as life rafts, and stored ones are yellow so they're easy to spot.  That looks more like one from a ship as the one in the above picture.

Ones on airplane look like this.

[Oceander]

That is almost certainly not from the missing airplane as Port Dickson is just to the south of Kuala Lumpur and so the raft would have been found in the wrong body of water.



View Larger Map

[flowers]

That is almost certainly not from the missing airplane as Port Dickson is just to the south of Kuala Lumpur and so the raft would have been found in the wrong body of water.


<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Port+Dickson+Negeri+Sembilan+Malaysia&aq=0&oq=port+dickson+town&sll=40.829539,-73.685724&sspn=0.088454,0.181789&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Port+Dickson,+Negeri+Sembilan,+Malaysia&ll=2.536424,101.806814&spn=7.459189,11.634521&z=7&output=embed"></iframe>

<small><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=Port+Dickson+Negeri+Sembilan+Malaysia&aq=0&oq=port+dickson+town&sll=40.829539,-73.685724&sspn=0.088454,0.181789&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Port+Dickson,+Negeri+Sembilan,+Malaysia&ll=2.536424,101.806814&spn=7.459189,11.634521&z=7" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map[/url]</small>

I didn't think so

[flowers]

MISSING MH370: US satellites found no blast

http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-missing-mh370-font-us-satellites-found-no-blast-1.510492

WASHINGTON: US spy satellites detected no sign of a mid-air explosion when a Malaysian airliner lost contact with air traffic controllers, American officials said Wednesday.

The US government in the past has used its satellite network to identify heat signatures linked to exploding aircraft but in this case, nothing was found, according to US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The absence of evidence of any mid-air explosion has added to the mystery surrounding the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared at about 1730 GMT Friday after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.

NBC News first reported the lack of satellite results.

With no specific area identified by satellites, US naval ships that joined the search effort in the South China Sea were not sent to a particular location to look for debris, officials said.

“If they had picked up something (by satellite), our ships would have been sent to that spot,” one official told AFP.

The hunt for the missing Boeing 777 now covers a vast area of nearly 27,000 nautical miles (over 90,000 square kilometres).

I just post you decide 

[Gazoo]

MISSING MH370: US satellites found no blast

http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-missing-mh370-font-us-satellites-found-no-blast-1.510492

I just post you decide 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuMM72G5k48

[Chieftain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

 

[Rapunzel]

FAA issued an airwothiness directive on the 777-200


http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/faa-warned-cracking-corrosion-problem-boeing-777s-n50591

FAA Warned of 'Cracking and Corrosion' Problem on Boeing 777s
By Alastair Jamieson

A cracking and corrosion problem on Boeing 777s that could lead to the mid-air break-up of the aircraft prompted a warning from air safety regulators weeks before the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, federal records show.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered checks on hundreds of U.S.-registered 777s after reports of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath a satellite antenna.

In an airworthiness directive, it said the extra checks were needed “to detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.”

The directive, first drawn up in September, was approved in February and was due to take effect on April 9.

It warned that one operator of the jet “reported a 16-inch crack” in the skin of the fuselage on an airplane that was 14 years old with approximately 14,000 total flight cycles.”

The missing Malaysia Airlines jet, registration 9M-MRO, was 12 years old and had completed 7,525 cycles, the airline said.

It was not immediately clear if the airline had already begun to implement the extra checks as part of its maintenance routine. The airline said the missing aircraft was serviced on February 23, with further maintenance scheduled for June 19.

An earlier draft of the directive said that the operator that first reported the 16-inch crack “inspected 42 other airplanes that are between 6 and 16 years old and found some local corrosion, but no other cracking.”

Airworthiness directives are commonplace, similar to car recalls. In the majority of cases, airlines are told to look for faults during maintenance. Orders that require the grounding of an entire fleet of aircraft are rare.

The FAA directive on cracks applies to all Boeing 777-200, -200LR, -300, -300ER, and -777F series airplanes. The missing jet is a 777-2H6/ER.

[Gazoo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0dFzy0yD7c

[Oceander]

MISSING MH370: US satellites found no blast

http://www.nst.com.my/latest/font-color-red-missing-mh370-font-us-satellites-found-no-blast-1.510492

I just post you decide 

the trouble is, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.  Also, the article talks about using satellites to pick up on heat signatures - which necessarily requires that the aircraft be exploding, not just breaking up.  In this case, if this plane suffered a catastrophic failure due to the concerns raised by the airworthiness directive Rap just posted, there most likely wouldn't have been any sort of explosion at all when the aircraft broke apart.

[Oceander]

FAA issued an airwothiness directive on the 777-200


http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/faa-warned-cracking-corrosion-problem-boeing-777s-n50591

FAA Warned of 'Cracking and Corrosion' Problem on Boeing 777s
By Alastair Jamieson

A cracking and corrosion problem on Boeing 777s that could lead to the mid-air break-up of the aircraft prompted a warning from air safety regulators weeks before the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, federal records show.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered checks on hundreds of U.S.-registered 777s after reports of cracking in the fuselage skin underneath a satellite antenna.

In an airworthiness directive, it said the extra checks were needed “to detect and correct cracking and corrosion in the fuselage skin, which could lead to rapid decompression and loss of structural integrity of the airplane.”

The directive, first drawn up in September, was approved in February and was due to take effect on April 9.

It warned that one operator of the jet “reported a 16-inch crack” in the skin of the fuselage on an airplane that was 14 years old with approximately 14,000 total flight cycles.”

The missing Malaysia Airlines jet, registration 9M-MRO, was 12 years old and had completed 7,525 cycles, the airline said.

It was not immediately clear if the airline had already begun to implement the extra checks as part of its maintenance routine. The airline said the missing aircraft was serviced on February 23, with further maintenance scheduled for June 19.

An earlier draft of the directive said that the operator that first reported the 16-inch crack “inspected 42 other airplanes that are between 6 and 16 years old and found some local corrosion, but no other cracking.”

Airworthiness directives are commonplace, similar to car recalls. In the majority of cases, airlines are told to look for faults during maintenance. Orders that require the grounding of an entire fleet of aircraft are rare.

The FAA directive on cracks applies to all Boeing 777-200, -200LR, -300, -300ER, and -777F series airplanes. The missing jet is a 777-2H6/ER.

That might be the explanation.  First, here's a graphic of where the various antennae are located on a 777:

The antenna in question is one of the SATCOM antennas just behind the midpoint of the aircraft.  If the fuselage suffered a catastrophic failure there, it is quite likely that it would have simply fallen apart.  Also, there is a decent analysis on the page I found that image on, here:  http://www.lowyat.net/2014/03/was-there-a-problem-with-the-mh370-boeing-777-200-aircraft/

Essentially, that article posits that the failure wasn't a one-time event, but rather that as the antenna mount started to fail, the cabin lost air pressure, resulting in hypoxia of the pilots, which in turn would have resulted in them making serious mistakes - it's hard to think straight when your brain is deprived of oxygen.

Also, the article makes a good case for why all communications ceased: once the antenna failed the pilots would have lost that communications link and, especially if suffering from hypoxia, may have assumed that all communications were dead and simply not attempted to call out at all.

[Gazoo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

 

I bonded, james bonded so you rick roll me?

[Chieftain]

 

I bonded, james bonded so you rick roll me?

 

[Rapunzel]

Ocenander this article says the failure would render the plane blind to outside world, too......

http://www.theage.com.au/world/us-warnings-on-boeing-safety-applied-to-missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-20140313-hvi0y.html

snip.....

The FAA first uncovered the flaw in June last year, publishing its concerns in September and updating the information in November. But its final directive wasn’t finalised until February 18, and was made public on March 6. MH370 went missing at about 1.30am on March 8.

Any structural failure related to the flaw could not only have led to a decompression that left the 239 passengers and crew on the missing flight unconscious, it would also have disabled satellite communications, including the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which transmits data of the plane’s location automatically.

It would also have rendered the plane invisible to all but ''primary radar'', which has a range of only 100 nautical miles. If any rupture of the fuselage was not catastrophic and led to the plane disintegrating, the plane could have continued on autopilot for up to seven hours, taking it well away from its last confirmed position – and possibly beyond the search area – before running out of fuel.

Such an incident took place with a Helios Airways flight in 2005, where 121 passengers and crew died.

And, in 1999, a Learjet carrying golfer Payne Stewart crashed into a field in the US state of South Dakota after flying uncontrolled for several hours after those on board apparently became unconscious due to a lack of oxygen brought on by a loss of cabin pressure.

According to a post on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network, the end of satellite communications may not have disabled the mobile phone network on the plane, which runs off a different communications system.
 

[Rapunzel]

[Rapunzel]

Cathernine Herrige reporting the size of the wreckage is "consistent" with the size "experts" have said you would see if the plane broke up in the air - one is 70 feet long, which is consistent with a wing.

[Rapunzel]

A 777 pilot on Hannity right now, saying the location relative to the flight path looks about right to be "drift" and the wings will float for a long time because of the tanks.

[Oceander]

fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, I think we probably have our basic answer now.

[Rapunzel]

David Gallo who was part of the Air France search, said a couple of interesting things:

1) how did they miss something this large with the initial aerial search

2) if this is it it makes sense because it is so near the last known position  - for instance Air France was found near the last known position

3) he said the size is awfully large, Air France's largest wreckage was the size of a desk.