trailboss99

Ah, no. Being military radar I doubt that the Aussie DOD publish a timetable telling potential interlopers where it's looking at any given moment. In fact I know they don't.

It's a white space mate. In other words not accurately mapped. A bit further south yes because the Diamantina Trench is there so there is something of interest but up around this latest find mapping is sketchy at best. As you said, no real reason and survey resources are thinly stretched.


EDIT: Oke, it's plainish I suppose but deep. Someone found a better map apparently, here it is from the other thread. Mind you we assuming it's correct. Are not the Chinese and Aussie sighting positions reversed? Isn't the CN one the north position?

Cathay Boy

I know the focus is on finding the plane, but I'm very surprise nobody has follow up on the lies Malaysian Government had first insisted they have no idea what happened, and wasted everyone's precious time in search operations in South China Seas for a good 4-5 days, and then turn around and admits they knew all alone the plane went westward after 1 hour of flight time, and then play dumb after that.

luckypierre

Thanks.
I grew up with a close family connection to SSN Scorpion. It would be interesting to know if USN has additional towed locators that they could rapidly deploy. Finding the beacons before they go silent would make the subsequent tasks so much less difficult.

cmdinnyc

I don't think anyone was "lying" so much as searching for, gathering and analyzing new data each day to piece together what happened. As data was analyzed - including the military radar data that was recorded - it became clearer what had happened.

polarbreeze

I think that is a very unfair characterization of what happened. The Malaysian authorities had to deal with an unprecedented situation here, and in the early days they did have several reports (unfounded as it turns out) that there had been a crash in the South China Sea - and the primary radar reports from the Malacca Strait were not immediately verifiable as being from MH370. As for the westward route, the Malaysian authorities did announce that to the world very early on. The most recent announcement only added that they believe that the motive was to avoid radar.

And when they said they had no idea what happened - well, far from being what you call a "lie" - that of all things was 100% true - at the time, of course.

Wickerman

Right now is not the time for castigating Malaysia. Everyone involved must bite their lip and follow protocol, the host nation and head of investigation must be Malaysia, and the coalition of nations assisting this recovery must also assist Malaysia in every way they can.
Once the recovery is complete, that's another story...


***
I have not heard any discussion of sending aircraft down-current of this location.
Down-current would be north? (I think). Presumably any surface wreckage would drift with the current which if I'm not mistaken should be north of these new 'ping' sites.

cassiewoofer

I did have a look at the surface currents, and don't know what the wind has been up to but the actual drift over 30 days is quite small..... I think I estimated two years to reach northern Madagascar, so maybe 100 miles a month (ish)
I got the current data from this chart:

http://marinebio.org/i/currents/Ocean_currents_1943.jpg

Sorry I was missreading the map..... drift looks like 1nm/h so 25 miles per day or 700 miles a month, so if there is a debris field it might be half way to Madagascar!

I also don't think that Malaysia should be criticised, this was unprecedented and I doubt any other country would have arrived at the answer much quicker. They may have handled the media and those closely affected better but only because of experience.... the sort of experience Malaysia has not had forced upon it previously.
I might be time though to have quick access to satellite imaging/video to follow lost or missing aircraft, though I have no Idea how this would work and how much it would cost... or even if those with the technology would even consider it!

bimmerdriver

What are you getting at? After the aircraft crashed, it broke apart and sank. When debris sinks, it doesn't move around. The only movement would be on the surface or on the way down to the bottom due to currents.

Eryeal

Breaking News / Search Conference:

They have been unable to re-locate the ping at this time.

iquitos

I think it perfectly reasonable that it took a while for authorities to get their heads around the idea that this plane would have gone down so far afield of last contact.

Guy Betsy

Yes, the battery must be running out.

Normally I guess, the battery would last for 30 days. But there was a news report from Malaysia Airlines that the battery on that particular aircraft was due to be replaced in April as it was 'old'.

Oh dear...

JohnMacWW

It could have landed intact and sank. Admittedly that scenario only holds if one person subdued everyone else and then purposely flew it there to sink it.

If it crashed, it sounds like almost all experts believe some debris would have floated. So we should eventually find something floating somewhere.

Eryeal

Yes but also think of it this way - if this is indeed what has happened, then the ship just happened to pick up the ping on the very last day of battery life. How miraculous would that be.

JDiver

No; this idea the aircraft was miraculously landed intact is a highly unlikely scenario. In one month, released floating debris has been widely scattered by winds and currents. The remainder is metal and sank, remaining relatively concentrated in one area (the wreckage will drift and establish a debris field).

The best bet was the "pinger" - and battery life is estimated at an average of thirty days. They're trying to pick up more "pings", but the battery may be exhausted. If so, at least the search area has been reduced considerably. But now they will have to use other tools (Bluefin 21 or even deeper operating UAVs to be brought on site), to try to locate wreckage and ultimately the FDR/CVR. With the wild topography of that ocean floor and the depths, it will be very tricky and potentially take a very long time (AF447 took 23 months for FDR/CVR recovery and they had a pretty good idea where it was).

Wickerman

In an interview with CNN the president? of Dukane Seacom clarified this, that those pingers are manufactured to last 35 days, they are just guaranteed to last 30 days.

***

I just came across this very interesting post at PPRuNe.

http://www.pprune.org/8425140-post9602.html