Wednesday 19 March 2014

Sense of Events: Malaysia 777 still missing - Novel M'sia - Blog Novel Malaysia

Posted by Blog Admin at 13:35 No comments:

Sense of Events: Malaysia 777 still missing - Novel M'sia - Blog Novel Malaysia

Sense of Events: Malaysia 777 still missing - Novel M'sia

Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:35 PM PDT

Malaysia Crash Search Taps Technology as Debris Eludes

Consider that the waters in the region where the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared are only about 50 meters deep. Consider that no floating debris has been found when a broken-up airliner the size of a Triple-Seven would have tons of material much lighter than water. Consider that the oil slicks discovered by searching Vietnamese air force pilots turned out to be unrelated to the missing plane. Consider that the plane's black boxes are designed to withstand 3,700 Gs and automatically send radio signals in an mishap, and no such signals have been detected.

Consider that passports used by two ticket holders were reported stolen about two years ago and whomever used those tickets are unknown to authorities. And that altogether, five ticket holders did not board the airplane (which may not be unusual, actually).

Consider that absolutely no trace of the plane has been found despite a coordinated multi-nation sea and air search. There is no clue what happened to it - no reliable transponder track, no communication from the crew before it went missing, no active radar track.

No nuthin.

I am reminded of a novel I read a few months ago by either Tom Clancy or Frederick Forsyth, can't recall which. It opened with the hijacking and disappearance of an airliner in Africa, run by a large charter company. The craft was repainted and reconfigured to pass for a scheduled-airline plane with the goal of using it as a kamikaze weapon against an American target. Of course the good guys won, but it makes me think: what could account for the instantaneous disappearance of a Boeing 777 that leaves no trace at all?

I do not know what happened to the plane, of course. But I won't be surprised when (if) it is discovered to be intact on a remote airfield in southeast Asia or an island in the SWPA. Consider that preliminary information is that the plane turned back toward its origin a short time before disappearing. Why?

Civil aircraft are not really tracked by radar by flight centers. Airliners have radio transponders aboard that send signals to flight centers. The signals identify the aircraft with basic flight information. If there is an actual radar track of the missing plane it would have been done by military air defense radars. Presumably, various air defense commands are searching their radar records, but absent any indication of a threat, there is no reason radar records would have been retained.

When did the transponder track disappear and at what altitude and course heading? No question that investigators are trying to learn that now.

Breaking:

And I'll bet the satellites are not looking at only the ocean, either.

Curiouser and curiouser.

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Wednesday 19 March 2014