Comments

1
RE: How does an airplane just vanish?

So you're saying it's Lost?
2
That commercial made me very aware of my bottom. Great, now I'm depressed and self-conscious. Thanks a lot, Frizzelle.
3
How does an airplane just vanish? Well, there's no radar over the ocean...
4
I'm thinking the damn plane sank. They're made of metal, you know. This is the same thinking that fuels the "mystery" of the Bermuda Triangle. Why, oh why, don't we see pieces of airplanes floating on the open sea? Pretty much comes down to either metal sinks, or Elvis.
6
Over this weekend, like not a few others I have been absolutely baffled by the dissappearance of a large jetliner such as this one. It seems astonishing that a plane of that size could just vanish into thin air without as yet a trace. So far as I know, no distress signal was sent. And adding to the mystery, at least 2 passengers carried stolen/false passports with tickets purchased from the same travel agency in Thailand. It's astonishing that those passports weren't confirmed prior to boarding.

To be sure, planes and ships have been lost at sea. It's a large planet and more than 67% (?) is covered in water. However, it wasn't surprising given (lack thereof) the technology of the times (50+ years ago or more?). I would have thought that by now, 2014 all transoceanic planes and ships would carry indestructable location "beacons" (in addition to a "black box" on planes) like I do when I climb a mountain should I or any other climber encounter an avalanche or some unfortunate event on a large peak. This tragedy far more than anything confounds me.

Air travel still remains very safe (I go to Vietnam in a few weeks) and carriers/airports do a fine job of security clearance. Sometimes they are too vigilant. But at least I feel secure. The thing that does astonish me are these two fellows with false passports. That is an extreme security lapse. The specter of foul play is to be considered.

My condolences to the families of the passengers on that flight and I wish good luck to all the nations participating in the recover efforts of that plane. It must be found.
7
@6 airplanes do have beacons ... they activate upon impact and/or contact with water.

As for why no wreckage has been found ... it all depends on what happened ... and how (if it did) the aircraft impacted the water.
8
Horribly depressing news day? Someone said an article on Autism was fascinating.
10
Hate to be a buzzkill, but surprised not to see at least passing mention of the 6.9 quake off the coast by Eureka last night, at the far end of that subduction zone y'all got out there.
11
@6: It's a security lapse, but apparently there are hundreds of folks flying around the world with falsified or stolen passports on a daily basis -- so say security experts.
12

Maybe he landed it on the water and it sank in one piece.

13
I'm curious whether it would be possible for a jetliner to turn off all radio signals, "go dark" as it were, and fly to another location and land safely undetected? I'm not putting that forth as a theory, I'm just wondering if it's even possible within modern air traffic systems.
14
@13 I suppose a pilot could turn off all transponders, but there'd still be an unidentified aircraft on radar, which would probably be intercepted if it headed for land.
15
@6: There are transponders, but you have to be within a certain distance (about 15 miles, I think I read) to get the signal. Given the large area where it's possible the plane went down that's not an insignificant distance.
16

#15

Yes, in ocean crashes, locating the voice cockpit recorder and data recorder signals is sometimes non-trivial even during the 30 period when it is working.

They have had to use trawlers to crisscross an area and then use remote submersibles to scour the ocean for the tail section.

I read though that this sea is only 250 ft deep at maximum.

17
Hunger strike? Then in about six weeks - problem solved!
18
@12 I can tell you that an airliner – especially a heavily-laden one – is extremely unlikely land on water without breaking up.

It's easy to get the wrong idea about the way airplanes are constructed because of our experience with cars. A car is designed to operate on roads, but in a pinch, most can drive off into a field to park at a music festival or something. An airliner like the 777 simply doesn't have that sort of 'forgiveness' built into its structure that would allow it to take the bumps and crunches of a landing anywhere except a runway, because that sort of heavier construction has a cost in weight that would quickly make flying anything as large as a 777 extremely un-economical.

It might survive the crash in a single section, but there would almost certainly be pieces of flight control surfaces, belly skin, landing compartment, etc. somewhere out there.

My impression is that they haven't found it yet, or that they know what happened to it, and whatever happened has unpleasant-enough political consequences that they're giving the involved/affected actors a week or two to prep before dropping the news.
19
Maybe it was the anti-goldilocks event. If it landed too hard, smashed into the water, there should be pieces of junk floating all over the place. If it landed too soft, really smoothly, ala Chesley B. Sullenberger III, then the people would get out and be right now floating around in rafts. But if landed just right, maybe it cracked open but not too wide and sunk very quickly, taking all the junk including e.g. the emergency radio beacon under with it. The radio signal won't come up through the water. There should still be a sonar beacon for the black box, if I recall correctly, but to hear that, you need a microphone in the water, and you have to be close, like less than a mile.

Can a commercial air pilot turn off the transponder in flight? I don't know. I can't think why it would be wired up so a pilot could turn it off, the way a military pilot can. If it did that then in principle it could fly low over the waves and be very hard to see. Seems a little unlikely, sure.
20
I blame Chris Angel - he's very irresponsible.

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