UPDATE: Missing plane ended in southern Indian Ocean: Malaysian PM
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 ended its flight in the southern Indian Ocean based on fresh data from a UK satellite company, Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak said tonight (March 24).
Mr Najib said British satellite company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Board (AAIB) had used a new system to calculate MH370’s flight path.
“I was briefed by representatives from the United Kingdom AAIB today and Inmarsat, who had performed further calculations on their existing data,” Mr Najib told reporters.
“They had used a new type of analysis which had previously never been used before in an investigation like this,” he said. The analysis concluded that MH370 flew along the Southern Corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, West of Perth.
“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing site,” said Mr Najib. “It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” he said.
http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/mh370-malaysia-pm-najib-razak-holds-press-conference
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I still get the news-feed from AMSA since the Chris Turney Ships of Fools trapped in ice event, and today it looks like they are going all out with an international effort, so I thought I would pass this on for interested readers. Here is the press release, and a map and satellite imagery follow.
24th March, 2014: 11am (AEDT)
Ten aircraft are involved in today’s search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Two Chinese military aircraft departed about 8.45am and 9.20am respectively. A RAAF P3 Orion departed for the search area just after 9am.
Two ultra-long range civil jets departed about 10.10am and 10.30am respectively. A second RAAF P3 Orion is scheduled to depart about 11am.
A third ultra-long range jet is scheduled to depart about midday.
A US Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft is scheduled to depart about 1pm. The two Japanese P3 Orion aircraft are scheduled to depart after 4pm.
Media Note: Updated search area charts are now available in AMSA’s media kit for this search. These can be accessed at the following link under Day 7 search area charts: http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/incidents/mh370-search.asp
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Source: http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/media-releases/2014/
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Here is the current search area. Click to enlarge.
Satellite imagery of debris. Click to enlarge.
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I heard an interesting scenario yesterday from a pilot:
A fire erupted due to dangerous cargo , the captain took the plane to 45000 feet to put out the fire at the same time changing course towards a nearest airport . The pilot said it was the best thing to do to put out a fire as there was not enough oxygen at 45000 to sustain a fire. The fumes from the fire were toxic and together with hypoxia pilots and passengers were asphyxiated and the plane continued on automatic pilot which had been reset during the up and down. manoeuvring..
Has anybody else heard such a scenario?
Until we get a confirmation of wreckage first, then the black box recovery… its all just guessing. I have trouble with the pilot did it theory. If you wanted to make a political statement or even wanted to commit mass murder.. what would be the reasoning behind not leaving any communication about your actions. This whole thing reeks and my BS meter has been off the edge since they first reported it. I have however seen flights full of rowdy LV tourists put to sleep by something the pilot did with the pressure in the cabin.. it wasn’t done with a sudden decompression and it seemed to work better on folks with alcohol in their system, the masks never dropped but the steward knew what was going on because we asked about it.
Still, we can guess all day and reality can be so much different then the myriad of things our imagination can create.
If the debris turns out to be cruse ship garbage then what?
The 777 has fire suppression in the cargo bay. Any toxic fumes from a fire there would vent overboard, not into the cabin. I don’t know if going to high altitude would bother a lithium-ion battery fire, but other fires would be suppressed by the system..
If they find the flight data and voice recorders, we’ll know what the plane did, but the cockpit voice recorder won’t have anything on it unless the pilot was talking to himself. It may be that intercom transmissions such as flight attendants calling the cockpit might be on it, but only the last two hours are recorded.
I have heard about fire being extinguished by increasing height, but that is a very risky business, but just recall WA is three hours behind in summer time to NSW. Normally 2 hours. Until they find the black boxes we will not know. Lithium batteries have caused fires on planes before, why they carry them and not by boat I don’t know?
One TV expert – who sounded reasonable plausible, posited (1) that there was a small electrical fire and the pilots turned off all non-essential electrical systems to try to eliminate the cause before dealing with the fire. The explains the switching off of the transponders – whether by design or accidentally in switching off as much as possible. (2) fire was extinguished, and communications switched on again, then Pilots reported “All right now” or words to that effect. However, transponder not switched on again. (3) pilots decided to make for Bangkok, and headed west. (4) Nav equipment was up the creek and a mistake was made, pilots decided to head south to KL, not realizing how far west they were. (5) Pilots overcome by smoke as fire smouldered, rendered unconscious, ditto passengers. Remember local time 0100 – 0200, so all passengers asleep, dozing, even if awake not having any idea they were heading for Antarctic instead of Beijing. (6) Plane continued on autopilot till fuel finished, then glided down, hit sea, wings and tail broke off, (7) as fuel tanks were empty, wings continued floating for many days. Fuselage sank quickly.
(8) debris about 24 m would be similar to length of each wing, but I doubt that they could have measured 13 m wide, as was reported for debris. Plausible that one liferaft floated to surface – if the crash had actuated the inflation – could easily by the 5 m object.
All passengers strapped in, ditto stewardesses when having nap. Nothing to float to surface, lifejackets not inflated, very few objects which would have a SG less than one. Hence no debris field.
Speculation that the 24 m object was a container fallen off a cargo ship – phooey – 24 m = 78 ft, no cargo containers are that length. Any object that large would have been well reported as having been lost and would be noticed by SAR authorities. The small = 5 m object, could conceivably be a 20 ft container = 6.1 m.
Regrets unless the ‘wing’ is sighted again, there can be little hope of finding anything.