2014 Malaysian Planes Lost: Pacific and Ukraine

[Lord Balto]

By comparing these models with the trajectory of other aircraft on similar routes, they were able to establish an "extraordinary matching" between Inmarsat's predicted path to the south and the readings from other planes on that route.--The Telegraph

That would be the regularly scheduled Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to the South Pole? I didn't know penguins could afford air travel. Who writes this stuff?

[Ben D]

http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-missing-flight-crashed-indian-ocean-143151129--finance.html

Malaysia: Missing flight crashed in Indian Ocean

Associated Press By TODD PITMAN and EILEEN NG 1 hour ago

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — It was the unwelcome, anguishing news that families of the missing had dreaded, and when they heard it from Malaysia's prime minister Monday night there were shrieks and intense heartbreak: The missing Malaysian Airlines flight whose fate was a mystery that consumed the world had crashed into a remote corner of the Indian Ocean.

The news, based on fresh evidence gleaned from an unprecedented analysis of satellite data, meant it was all but impossible that any of the 239 passengers and crew on board the jetliner could have survived.

Officials have said the plane automatically sent a brief signal — a "ping" — every hour to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat, a British company, even after other communication systems on the jetliner shut down.

The pings did not include any location information, but an initial analysis showed that the location of the last ping was probably along one of two vast arcs running north and south.

Najib said Inmarsat did further calculations "using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort," and had concluded that the plane's last position was "in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth."

He gave no indication of exactly where in the Indian Ocean the plane was last heard from, but searchers have sighted possible debris in an area about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) southwest of Perth, and Najib said more details would be released Tuesday.

[RocketMan]

The pings did not include any location information, but an initial analysis showed that the location of the last ping was probably along one of two vast arcs running north and south.

Najib said Inmarsat did further calculations "using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort," and had concluded that the plane's last position was "in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth."

This sounds incredibly evasive, insubstantial and vague. "The location of the last ping was PROBABLY along ONE OF TWO VAST ARCS running north and south". WTF.

[Lord Balto]

By comparing these models with the trajectory of other aircraft on similar routes, they were able to establish an "extraordinary matching" between Inmarsat's predicted path to the south and the readings from other planes on that route.--The Telegraph

That would be the regularly scheduled Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to the South Pole? I didn't know penguins could afford air travel. Who writes this stuff?

Beijing: Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng told Malaysia's ambassador in Beijing on Monday that China was demanding Malaysia hand over all relevant satellite data analysis on the missing Malaysian airliner, the Foreign Ministry said.

Mr Xie met the ambassador after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, citing new satellite data, said Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared over two weeks ago en route to Beijing, crashed thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean.
--Sydney Morning Herald

Looks like somebody doesn't believe in the magic pinger theory.

[Ben D]

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/03/24/navy-sends-locator-to-find-jetliners-black-box.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+militarydotcom%2Fdailynews+%28Military.com+News%29

US Navy Sends Locator to Find Jetliner's Black Box

Mar 24, 2014 | by Kris Osborn

The U.S. Navy is sending to Australia an underwater drone and a device to locate black boxes to help search the wreckage of Malaysian Flight 370 should the debris field be located, Pentagon officials said Monday.

The Pentagon flew a Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle and a towed pinger locator, which can identify sounds from a plane's black box, from New York to Perth, Australia, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said. Both will arrive Tuesday after the equipment was requested by Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, head of U.S. Pacific Command.

The Bluefin-21 is an unmanned underwater vehicle with a side-scanning sonar and what's called a multi-beam echo sounder, said Kirby. Bluefin-21 can go to depths of 14,700 feet and travel at speeds up to 4.5 knots.
"It would be useful if there is a debris field if there were underwater objects which we believed needed to be researched," he added.
The pinger locator, which was also requested by U.S. Pacific Command, is towed behind a vessel at slow speeds, generally 1-5 knots, depending on the depth. Called the TPL-25, it carries a passive listening device for detecting pingers that automatically transmit an acoustic pulse, a Navy statement said.

The TPL-25 consists of a towed fish unit that is 30 inches long and 70-pounds. This unit attaches to a cable that can search at depths up to 20,000 feet.

"The TPL is a highly sensitive listening device that is designed to home in on the black box itself," Kirby added.
The system also includes a tow cable, wing, hydraulic power unit, generator and topside control console.
"If found, the acoustic signal of the pinger is transmitted up the cable and is presented audibly, and can be output to either an oscilloscope or a signal processing computer," according to the Navy.

The system is engineered to detect a commercial aircraft pinger mounted onto the flight recorder as part of a black box.
"Basically, this super-sensitive hydrophone gets towed behind a commercial vessel very slowly and listens for black box pi

Seems China is wisely seeking actual evidence.....

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/24/355917/china-demands-data-on-malaysian-jet/

China wants satellite data on Malaysian jet

China has demanded that Malaysia hand over data that show the missing Malaysian passenger jet has crashed in the Southern Indian Ocean, killing all people on-board.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late on Monday that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng had asked Malaysia's Ambassador to China Iskandar Bin Sarudin to provide the "detailed evidence" that led to the conclusion the missing jet has crashed and all of its passengers have died.

In a press conference in Kuala Lumpur earlier on Monday, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak cited new satellite information indicating the ill-fated plane had flown "to a remote location, far from any possible landing sites."

[Ben D]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/abe73078-b35d-11e3-b09d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2wvXmKkv9

Inmarsat’s use of data helps solve MH370 flight path riddle

By Mark Odell in London and Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong Kong. Last updated: March 24, 2014 6:29 pm

UK-based company Inmarsat solved the mystery of the final course taken by flight MH370 – the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that disappeared without trace two weeks ago – by a revolutionary use of satellite data.

The analysis by the UK-based company, a London-based operator of communications satellites, and UK air accident investigators, proved conclusively that the last signal from the aircraft came from a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean.

That data established the aircraft had veered west from its original flight path, passed over the Malaysia peninsula and then flown along one of two arcs – a northern corridor that stretches to Kazakhstan and a southern corridor that runs into the Indian Ocean past Australia.

But over the weekend, Inmarsat’s engineers fine-tuned the data drawing on a new type of analysis which had never been used for this purpose before, to establish the flight went south rather than north.

The team used the “Doppler effect” of the satellite as it moved in its orbit to establish a set of measurements for the predicted northerly and southerly paths, a company spokesman said. The Doppler effect describes the change in the frequency of sound, radio or light waves as they travel between two objects, when one or both of them are moving.

The team then overlaid these measurement with data from other aircraft that had flown both “arcs” and the results corresponded with the southerly route. Inmarsat had the results peer-reviewed before passing them on to the Malaysian authorities.

[Lord Balto]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/abe73078-b35d-11e3-b09d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2wvXmKkv9

Inmarsat’s use of data helps solve MH370 flight path riddle

By Mark Odell in London and Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong Kong. Last updated: March 24, 2014 6:29 pm

UK-based company Inmarsat solved the mystery of the final course taken by flight MH370 – the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that disappeared without trace two weeks ago – by a revolutionary use of satellite data.

The analysis by the UK-based company, a London-based operator of communications satellites, and UK air accident investigators, proved conclusively that the last signal from the aircraft came from a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean.

That data established the aircraft had veered west from its original flight path, passed over the Malaysia peninsula and then flown along one of two arcs – a northern corridor that stretches to Kazakhstan and a southern corridor that runs into the Indian Ocean past Australia.

But over the weekend, Inmarsat’s engineers fine-tuned the data drawing on a new type of analysis which had never been used for this purpose before, to establish the flight went south rather than north.

The team used the “Doppler effect” of the satellite as it moved in its orbit to establish a set of measurements for the predicted northerly and southerly paths, a company spokesman said. The Doppler effect describes the change in the frequency of sound, radio or light waves as they travel between two objects, when one or both of them are moving.

The team then overlaid these measurement with data from other aircraft that had flown both “arcs” and the results corresponded with the southerly route. Inmarsat had the results peer-reviewed before passing them on to the Malaysian authorities.

These computations are all based on a boat load of assumptions, including that the plane was travelling in a straight line. Considering that before the plane disappeared from Malaysian military radar, it made three turns before supposedly making a final turn to the south, one has to wonder whether the "experts" are simply assuming their conclusion and then going on to "prove" their assumption, which in any event doesn't even correspond with the actual southern arc, which, last time I looked, didn't describe the plane's path but simply it's possible final positions. Also, last time I looked, the Doppler Effect related to objects traveling in straight lines: stars traveling away from the earth creating the so-called red shift, and railroad trains traveling along railroad tracks in the usual high school explanation of the effect.

[Lord Balto]

Seems China is wisely seeking actual evidence

Considering how China has reacted so far to Malaysian behavior in this matter, I would suspect that my explanation is closer to reality.

[Ben D]

Also, last time I looked, the Doppler Effect related to objects traveling in straight lines: stars traveling away from the earth creating the so-called red shift, and railroad trains traveling along railroad tracks in the usual high school explanation of the effect.

It is possible to determine direction quite easily by comparing doppler effect of the MH370 signal with known doppler measurements of signals of north and south travelling aircraft...the satellite serving as the reference point.

[Lord Balto]

The pings did not include any location information, but an initial analysis showed that the location of the last ping was probably along one of two vast arcs running north and south.

Najib said Inmarsat did further calculations "using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort," and had concluded that the plane's last position was "in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth."

This sounds incredibly evasive, insubstantial and vague. "The location of the last ping was PROBABLY along ONE OF TWO VAST ARCS running north and south". WTF.

The media, as well as those who should know better, including the supposed professional pilots at http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/535538-malaysian-airlines-mh370-contact-lost.html, continue to talk about the northern and southern "routes," whereas it has been known for days that these "arcs" refer to a series of possible positions where the final ping was received. And this "evidence" assumes that the plane was traveling in a straight line. They actually the exclude the area within the circle of maximun fuel usage. This after it has been determined that the plane changed direction three times before it was lost to Malaysian military radar. WTF indeed.

My own personal suspicion is that the authorities simply don't want to deal with the possibility that the plane shadowed another airliner on its way across India and Pakistan and managed to make it to Turkmenistan or somewhere similar. That admission would require that all of their fancy radar systems are, at least under certain circumstances, completely useless.

[Lord Balto]

Also, last time I looked, the Doppler Effect related to objects traveling in straight lines: stars traveling away from the earth creating the so-called red shift, and railroad trains traveling along railroad tracks in the usual high school explanation of the effect.

It is possible to determine direction quite easily by comparing doppler effect of the MH370 signal with known doppler measurements of signals of north and south travelling aircraft...the satellite serving as the reference point.

And again, I am waiting for someone to present the schedule for the regular Malaysian Airways passenger service between Kuala Lumpur and the South Pole. Because unless someone wants to correct me on this, Malaysian Airways doesn't normally fly this far out into the Indian Ocean before landing at Perth. So where do they get the data to compare with? Am I missing something here? Do they have scheduled service to the French Antarctic Territory? I don't see a landing strip on Google Maps.

You may also want to consider the fact that the last military radar lock on this plane had it traveling to the northwest, getting closer to the satellite, which is supposedly how they determined it was on the southern arc.

As someone on PPRUNE said,

This latest announcement makes zero sense to me physically. The talk about Doppler effect looks like techno-gibberish that makes me wonder what exactly they are hiding and why.

We have a radially symmetric configuration. One satellite in geosynchronous orbit, approximately round Earth, and an aircraft somewhere above the Earth. We can measure the distance from the satellite to the aircraft via time-of-flight, and we can measure the radial speed of the aircraft via Doppler effect, but nothing here breaks either the rotational symmetry or mirror symmetry.

And for the umteenth time, this all assumes the plane was traveling in a straight line away from Malaysia, all based on the suicide/murder theory, which last time I looked hadn't been demonstrated. If it turned around and then turned around again, it could now be in Malaysia or Indonesia or even Vietnam, where the title of this thread still has it. All these pings tell us is how far away from the satellite the plane was and, if we even take this Doppler business seriously, what direction it was traveling when it made contact.

If one really wanted to get conspiratorial, it could be sitting in a hangar at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and still have sent the final ping.

[Lord Balto]

Then again...

As I noted above, Turmenistan Airways has a direct flight to Beijing.

Remember the guy who was starting his "dream job" in Mongolia? The one who gave his wedding ring to his wife in case something happened?

What better way to "disappear" folks engaged in a top secret Chinese project they didn't want anyone to know about, and still get them to exactly where they needed them?

[DrEvil]

Lord Balto wrote:

And again, I am waiting for someone to present the schedule for the regular Malaysian Airways passenger service between Kuala Lumpur and the South Pole. Because unless someone wants to correct me on this, Malaysian Airways doesn't normally fly this far out into the Indian Ocean before landing at Perth. So where do they get the data to compare with? Am I missing something here? Do they have scheduled service to the French Antarctic Territory? I don't see a landing strip on Google Maps.

All planes use the same geegaws for navigation. It wouldn't have to be Malaysian Airlines planes used for comparison. And at some point in history, someone probably flew a plane south from Malaysia.

It doesn't even have to be a perfect match, it just has to line up better with the southern route than the northern.

Oh, and there are landing strips in Antarctica btw (Not that you could land a passenger airliner there).

[82_28]

I don't get the reluctance to call the circumstances in which we now know to be the point. It is a mystery and it has been covered like none other for the ratio of loss of life to the perfectly capable aircraft -- yet it still rules the news cycle. This ratio is what I am concerned with. Not with as of now it has anything to do with me, but it is in the mystery. The mystery becomes a thing. What would we do if 100 planes all disappeared on the same day? Would it increase the efforts to find them one hundred-fold? No. It would be an act of war or something.

Yes, it probably crashed into the vast ocean. However, there has been plenty of time to repaint that motherfucker, refit it with counterfeit radio equipment if in fact it was that easy to tamper with the transponders or shadow some other flight while underway.

Types and origins of unapproved parts

The term "counterfeit parts" refers to parts made of materials inferior to the materials used in genuine parts.[3] "Life-limited parts" and "time-expired parts" refer to parts used beyond their lifespan. Some life-limited parts were taken from scrap yards and illegally installed on aircraft.[2] The term "bogus parts" can loosely refer to various categories of unapproved parts.[3]

Boeing has stated that mechanical parts, electronic parts and materials have been counterfeited. Physical parts include bolts, fluid bolts, nuts, and rivets. Electronic parts include capacitors and integrated circuits. Materials include composite chemicals and titanium.[4]

Some unapproved parts are production overruns from genuine part manufacturers. Some of these parts may be airworthy, and some may be copies removed from the product line that were not considered airworthy and not intended to be installed on aircraft.[5]

A part which was legally salvaged would be unapproved if the supporting information does not state the correct, true origins and/or composition of the part.[5]

As of 1996, unapproved parts may originate from counterfeiters, part theft organizations, "strip and dip" operations, and from production overrun piles. The "strip and dip" groups hide defects with metal plating.[5]
History

The crash of Partnair Flight 394 in 1989 resulted from the installation of forged aircraft parts.[5]

In 1990 President of the United States George H.W. Bush appointed Mary Schiavo as the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Schiavo began campaigns to curb the sale of unapproved parts. The investigations under Schiavo, by 1996, lead to over 150 criminal convictions and over $47 million USD in restitutions and fines. The resulting prison sentences from the convictions ranged up to five years per person.[5]

In August 1993 a group of criminals stole a cockpit computer from a Carnival Airlines aircraft at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. During the day the criminals contacted potential buyers at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The buyers were actually Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents of the "Operation Skycrook," which performed sting operations to thieves of commercial aircraft parts.[6]

In 1995, after American Airlines Flight 965 crashed into a mountain in Colombia, scavengers took cockpit avionics, engine thrust reversers, and other parts of the aircraft, and took the parts from the mountain by helicopter. The stolen parts appeared for sale in the Greater Miami area. In a response, the airline published a 14 page list stating all of the parts missing from the crashed aircraft. The list included the serial numbers of all of the parts.[5]

An FAA study concluded that from May 1973 to April 1996 unapproved parts contributed to 174 aircraft accidents and minor incidents, causing 39 injuries and 17 fatalities. None of the involved accidents and incidents in the study involved major commercial airlines. Some critics, including William Cohen, a member of the U.S. Senate from Maine, argued that the FAA may have understated the role of unapproved parts of some accidents because the agency did not want to take the responsibility of regulating the aircraft parts industry. James Frisbee, who retired in 1992 as the quality control head of Northwest Airlines, argued that unapproved parts may have been a factor in more accidents than the numbers stated on U.S. federal accident and incident records.[5]

The U.S. government passed the Aircraft Safety Act of 2000 to allow the government to target the sale and use of unapproved parts.[7]

Around 2003 the U.S. state of Florida was an international center of unapproved aircraft part vending.[8]

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

Boeing, I would assume, still held warranty on this aircraft and all of its parts. But maybe not. I don't know.

This is kind of a can of worms I just opened, but gives you a taste of how complex this is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777

I never notice jack shit when I get on a plane other than I don't want to get on it and when can I smoke next.

[winston smith]

"using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort,"

Do they mean guessing?