Plane Searchers Expand Visual Hunt as Black Boxes Remain Silent

[alp227]

Source: Business Week

Authorities have expanded a visual search for the missing Malaysian Air (MAS) jet as a failure to detect further signals from the plane’s black-box recorders deepened concern the devices’ battery power has expired.

Since four signals were heard between April 5 and 8, no further signs have been confirmed from the pinger locator pulled by vessel Ocean Shield. Australian authorities today deployed more planes to scour 57,506 square kilometers of water, while a seabed-scanning robot submarine remained unused.

The black boxes are key to hopes of learning why the Malaysian Airline System Bhd. plane disappeared March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, reversing course and flying into some of the world’s most-remote ocean waters. The pingers’ batteries are now five days beyond their 30-day projected life at full power.

“You’ve got to be honest --it is a massive task and it is going to take some time,” said Hamish McLean, a lecturer in crises management at Griffith University’s School of Humanities in Brisbane. What searchers and authorities “need to do is look at the big picture, set realistic expectations, treat every bit of information nugget very carefully.”

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-04-13/plane-searchers-expand-visual-hunt-as-black-boxes-remain-silent

[SoapBox]

1. It is weird...

Not one single piece of debris.

[rickford66]

2. Not wierd at all.

See the thread where I presented my theory. The plane was carefully ditched, similar to the "Miracle on the Hudson". It can be done. The plane probably is in one or two pieces at the bottom and little or no debris will surface for some time. There will be no useful data on the voice or flight recorders if and when they are recovered. The person or persons responsible made sure their motives remain mysterious. They sacrificed themselves for their family or families to receive huge compensations. And there will be huge compensations. They may have had terminal illnesses, who knows. The only people that agree with me are the few I've worked with on flight simulators. We shared the facts as known and see no other probable motive among the possible ones. The only real mystery may be who among the passengers and crew actually carried this out. If that person or persons is never identified, then the plan was successful.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024721654

[former9thward]

3. There will not be "huge compensations."

It was not an American airline and the incident did not happen in the U.S. Other countries do not have liability awards like we do. Much of the aircraft and the things in it would float. If it did ditch like the Hudson plane passengers would have been able to open exit doors and the life rafts would be floating.

[rickford66]

4. maybe

But the passengers were most likely already dead from depressurization early on. If the plane stayed in one piece there may be no floating debris. It would slowly sink. From what we already know about the actions of the person or persons involved, it's highly unlikely that they would leave any evidence of who they are or why they acted. Everything I've predicted involves actions that are not impossible but in fact very easy. I'm no pilot but I could accomplish this. No mysterious terror plots, no magic electrical fires, no aliens or time warps. A suicide to just end a life wouldn't need all the actions involved. Just push the stick forward like the Egypt Air crash. All that's needed is access to the cockpit, some knowledge of the aircraft systems and a working compass and altimeter. I predict there will be huge compensations, maybe not by US standards, but by Asian standards.

[Blue_Tires]

5. They'll find it eventually, but I'm betting the investigators REALLY wish they had

those 6-7 lost days back when they were searching the Gulf of Thailand (with the Malaysian gov't allegedly knowing full well there was nothing to be found there)...

No matter what happens, there will almost certainly be a serious overhaul of the international rules of search and rescue -- coordination, communication, information sharing, handling the press, etc...