Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane Jetliner 'Pinged' Satellites With Location, Altitude for Hours After

[Are_grits_groceries]

Satellite Data Reveal Route of Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane
Jetliner 'Pinged' Satellites With Location, Altitude for Hours After Disappearance

Malaysia Airlines missing jet transmitted its location repeatedly to satellites over the course of five hours after it disappeared from radar, people briefed on the matter said, as searchers zeroed in on new target areas hundreds of miles west of the plane's original course.

The satellites also received speed and altitude information about the plane from its intermittent "pings," the people said. The final ping was sent from over water, at what one of these people called a normal cruising altitude. They added that it was unclear why the pings stopped. One of the people, an industry official, said it was possible that the system sending them had been disabled by someone on board.

The people, who included a military official, the industry official and others, declined to say what specific path the transmissions revealed. But the U.S. planned to move surveillance planes into an area of the Indian Ocean 1,000 miles or more west of the Malay peninsula where the plane took off, said Cmdr. William Marks, the spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

He said the destroyer USS Kidd would move through the Strait of Malacca, on Malaysia's west coast, and stay at its northwest entrance. Malaysia, which is overseeing the search effort, directed Indian forces to a specific set of coordinates in the Andaman Sea, northwest of the Malay peninsula, an Indian official said Thursday. "There was no specified rationale behind looking in those areas, but a detailed list was provided late Wednesday evening," the Indian official said.

The automatic pings, or attempts to link up with satellites operated by Inmarsat PLC, occurred a number of times after Flight 370's last verified position, the people briefed on the situation said, indicating that at least through those five hours, the Boeing Co. BA -2.04% 777 carrying 239 people remained intact and hadn't been destroyed in a crash, act of sabotage or explosion.
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Hmmmmm.....
Wonder how long they knew this?

[truedelphi]

1. Yet people are being told to believe the

Unbelievable:

Let me put it this way. If an airliner can fly for 7 hours without anyone being aware of it

- then so can an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead. Do you

really think they don't monitor the air for such things? They have since the 1950s, both

here and the USSR.... in 7 hours an ICBM could reach any city from anywhere in the

world....

[FarCenter]

2. The radars detect missiles coming over the Arctic at altitudes of hundreds of miles

You could definitely fly a nuclear warhead in from Mexico in a small plane, since people bring in drugs that way.

[truedelphi]

4. Yes that is true. Suitcase bombs as well.

But what some sources of "news" are asking the public to believe is that a plane could be flying above 20,000 feet and not be detected. What about the GPS transponder? Or the black boxes that emit a signal even if there is impact with the ground, or the plane ends up deep underwater.

[FarCenter]

5. 20,000 feet is not very high relative to curvature of the earth

Radar mostly works via line of sight transmission to and from the target. So a plane at 20,000 feet (4 miles altitude) is only visible to radar when within a couple of hundred miles away.

GPS works by receiving satellite signals. It does not send to the satellite. The transponder that works with civilian radar was turned off.

The black boxes ping using a sound signal. It is not very powerful, since the batteries have to last a month. You need to be relatively close to the wreckage before you can detect the pings with hydrophones.

[uppityperson]

3. Malaysia Airline statement. They are only the airline, but still, it makes sense.

http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/dark-site.html

Further to the statement by the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak earlier today into the ongoing search for Flight MH370, Malaysia Airlines has shared all available information with the relevant authorities since the moment we learned that the aircraft had disappeared, in the early hours of Saturday 8th March. This includes the very first indications that MH370 may have remained airborne for several hours after contact was lost, which the Prime Minister referred to today.

This is truly an unprecedented situation, for Malaysia Airlines and for the entire aviation industry. There has never been a case in which information gleaned from satellite signals alone could potentially be used to identify the location of a missing commercial airliner. Given the nature of the situation and its extreme sensitivity, it was critical that the raw satellite signals were verified and analysed by the relevant authorities so that their significance could be properly understood. This naturally took some time, during which we were unable to publicly confirm their existence.

We were well aware of the ongoing media speculation during this period, and its effect on the families of those on board. Their anguish and distress increases with each passing day, with each fresh rumour, and with each false or misleading media report. Our absolute priority at all times has been to support the authorities leading the multinational search for MH370, so that we can finally provide the answers which the families and the wider community are waiting for.

We remain absolutely committed to sharing confirmed information with family members and the wider public in a fully open and transparent manner. However given the nature of the situation, the importance of validating new information before it is released into the public domain is paramount.

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families of the 227 passengers and our 12 Malaysia Airlines colleagues and friends on board flight MH370. They will remain at the centre of every action we take as a company, as they have been since MH370 first disappeared.