What happened to (where is) the missing Malaysian Airline?

[easysurfer]

Malaysian government has concluded that the plane crashed into Indian Ocean without survivals. I guess they are going with pure circumstantial evidences.

I thought it odd, like there was pretty much..nothing, nothing and then suddenly a deduced smoking gun? Guess it's human tendency to fill in the blanks even though we don't know for sure.

 

[CaliforniaMan]

In this story it seemed very difficult to get any useful information from even relatively good sources such as the BBC or CNN. They seem to sprinkle in together all kinds of levels of information, from all kinds of sources. Hard to separate out what was being reported from official sources from what was being surmised elsewhere. And I don't think there was even a token effort to do that. Better to keep viewers tuned in than really reporting what was known. All this has made me even more wary of the 24 hour news networks. Seems they did a pretty lousy job of reporting on this story, separating sources or fact from opinion, etc. A lot of us here are engineers, doctors, etc, I can't imagine doing our work as poorly as these networks were doing theirs without getting fired. Was I expecting too much?

 

[Rustic23]

Yes.

Problem: The 24 hour news stations are for profit organizations. They have to fill their air time with something. CNN went wire to wire with the story. And, guess what, their viewer ship soared. So the others followed. Not a day went by that I did not hear some expert or talking head make a stupid statement. But, people still listened. So who is really at fault?

At least today's announcement seemed to be based on some sort of science. The satellite tracking company, Inmarsat, applied some sort of algorithms to their data, never before used, and told the Malaysian government the bird was in the Indian Ocean. They, in turn, announced it to the world. Are they right. I don't know, but I have no reason to think they think otherwise.

 

[Dash man]

Was I expecting too much?

In a word... Yes.
I was involved in several similar events during my military career and during my second career as a government contractor. In this type of event the news sources are always reaching for information and are led into many directions. Rarely are the facts correct as cited by the media. It takes time for organizations involved to gather their facts and often choose to not divulge what is known. At times there may be some deception put into play. But the news agencies are looking for anything to fill their broadcast time and manufacture news to accomplish it. Eventually facts find their way into the news, but not all the facts,

 

[samclem]

Every time I've been truly "in the know" about an important event, the press has gotten significant aspects very wrong.

The Malaysian government announcement is interesting, but I will feel a lot more confident that the dots have truly been connected when I hear it from experts who have seen the data, understand the process by which it was analyzed and what assumptions were required, and reached their own conclusions. A political figure gets his information from others, and both they and he have lots of interests that don't match mine.

What best suits the interests of the Malaysian government right now? They want the region-wide hunt for the plane and possible survivors to stop (it costs them resources and highlights their less-than-stellar performance in the opening days of the crisis). They want the search for the wreckage to begin, preferably far from Malaysia and requiring resources they don't have (again--saves resources). Are the interests of the Malaysian government advanced by finding this aircraft? Hmmm. Either a bad person (crew or passenger) got on that plane in Malaysia, or something went very wrong with a plane that was maintained under the auspices of the Malaysian civil air authorities. An enduring mystery" is more compatible with the interests of the present government than either of those explanations.

I am NOT saying that the plane isn't in the Indian Ocean. I think it probably is, and I don't think the Malaysian government is engaging in some sort of plot to misdirect the world. I'm just saying that the info we're getting is from a Malaysian government that benefits by the spotlight being directed to a nonsurvivable crash in the Indian Ocean (regardless of the actual location of the plane).

 

[pb4uski]

Malaysian government has concluded that the plane crashed into Indian Ocean without survivals. I guess they are going with pure circumstantial evidences.

I suspect that they are going with the only evidence that they have.

 

[karluk]

The following article indicates that the experts were able to measure a Doppler shift in the signals between the plane and satellite, thereby allowing them to get a reasonably accurate fix on the direction the plane was flying, as well as the position at the time of each contact. Apparently the direction of the flight was incompatible with the northern arc.

If this report is true, then it's old technology applied in a very novel setting.

How 'groundbreaking' number crunching found path of Flight 370 - CNN.com

 

[pb4uski]

I heard that a mitigating factor that caused them to discount the northern arc was a view that the plane would have shown up on somebody's radar, but didn't.

 

[Brat]

The circumstances of this incident are really challenging, I don't think any other SE Asian airline could have done any better. What really bothers me is that there was hazardous cargo on board. Seems to me that our decision to fly Delta to and from SE Asia was wise.

 

[braumeister]

Every time I've been truly "in the know" about an important event, the press has gotten significant aspects very wrong.

I could not agree more.

That was the hardest thing about retiring from my gummint job; I was no longer in the know, and it was often very frustrating. Took years to get over that feeling.

 

[Koogie]

The circumstances of this incident are really challenging, I don't think any other SE Asian airline could have done any better. What really bothers me is that there was hazardous cargo on board. Seems to me that our decision to fly Delta to and from SE Asia was wise.

I hate to break it to you but I work in air cargo and a lot of flights have hazmat on board as cargo. It's a big world of stuff flying around 24/7 and a lot of it can be classified hazmat (including these days the worst thing of all, laptop batteries.. )

FWIW, I've shipped hazmat overseas onboard Delta before. Great airline for it...

 

[robnplunder]

The circumstances of this incident are really challenging, I don't think any other SE Asian airline could have done any better. What really bothers me is that there was hazardous cargo on board. Seems to me that our decision to fly Delta to and from SE Asia was wise.

There were lithium batteries. But without proof, it's just another theory. IMO, the odd of their catching fire and plane to still fly for ~7 more hours is very, very small.

 

[LOL!]

Every time I've been truly "in the know" about an important event, the press has gotten significant aspects very wrong.

Paraphrasing some cynical law I once read on a law-a-day calendar:

The closer you are to a news event, the more the media reports seem to be wrong while the further you are from a news event, the more the media reports appear to be right.

 

[ls99]

Latest reports indicate satellite find of around 120 pieces of..... Also there is a record of a last partial ping from ACARS which is only around 8 minutes past the routine 1 hour "I am here". No understanding as yet how that happened.

 

[easysurfer]

The more the story goes on, seems like the more the authorities really don't know what happened. I read and article where the authorities are now saying, well, there's still a chance the plane landed somewhere despite telling everyone that it perished.

Kuala Lumpur: After three weeks of fruitless searching for any evidence of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Malaysian government said on Saturday it had not fully given up hope of finding survivors.

Although aviation experts have said there is no chance of survival, acting transport minister and defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein told the distraught relatives in the Malaysian capital that there was still a remote chance

Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: relatives told there is still a 'remote chance' of survivors

 

[imoldernu]

The cynic in me wonders if the billions spent on this might have been put to better use. A balance of emotion and humanity.

 

[Rustic23]

Would you wonder if your daughter or son were on board? How about if three weeks from now a ship stumbles on a life boat full of dead people? Yes it is a lot of money and it would have been spent by our governments somewhere. Cleaning up after any disaster is expensive and in the end some of the money, looking from the outside, could have always been spent in a better way.

 

[springnr]

As for the US military assets and service folks, those cost are ongoing.
Training or actual search and rescue mission....

 

[Bestwifeever]

The more the story goes on, seems like the more the authorities really don't know what happened. I read and article where the authorities are now saying, well, there's still a chance the plane landed somewhere despite telling everyone that it perished.



Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: relatives told there is still a 'remote chance' of survivors

The cynic on my shoulder says they want to forestall lawsuits.

 

[robnplunder]

Search area is keep changing. Can't believe how often things have gone back to square one. At this rate, this mystery won't be solved for many years.

 

[easysurfer]

The cynic in me now says either the investigators have no clue or are hiding something and know exactly what happened and is just having the resources look and look until they tire out and leave.

 

[Ronstar]

One thing is for certain - Someone needs to develop a better airplane tracking system. Its almost unbelievable that the searchers can't find this plane with all the technology available today

 

[braumeister]

The cynic in me now says either the investigators have no clue or are hiding something and know exactly what happened and is just having the resources look and look until they tire out and leave.

Why is everyone ignoring the elephant in the room?
Isn't it obvious by now that the plane was kidnapped with a tractor beam by aliens and brought up to the mothership?


Seriously, I am very sad about this and believe it will be years before we find it, and even then we may not ever know what happened.

 

[easysurfer]

Why is everyone ignoring the elephant in the room?
Isn't it obvious by now that the plane was kidnapped with a tractor beam by aliens and brought up to the mothership?


Seriously, I am very sad about this and believe it will be years before we find it, and even then we may not ever know what happened.

You forgot the mention the cloaking device.

 

[Rustic23]

This could end up the classic case of over reaction. 'We need to develop a better way to track planes' Do we? We can't find this AC because someone took action to make sure we can not find it. So not only do we have to create some system to track the AC, but the crew can't turn it off. And, we are going to develop this because we have had one incident. And, we don't even know why this one exist.