Missing Malaysia plane MH370: What we know

BBC ^ | 8 September 2014 Last updated at 03:40 ET

[DJlaysitup]

Based on the most recent analysis of satellite data, the plane is believed to have ended its journey in seas far west of the Australian city of Perth.

The latest zone is some 1,000km south west of the area which was extensively searched with underwater surveying equipment in April.

Over the last few months, the Australian authorities have been conducting an underwater depth survey of the latest search area.

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[pajama pundit]

Yes, I have spent many hours crossing the Pacific Ocean (and the Atlantic) mostly at night. It is VERY big. Two points/observations.

1. We used to do search and rescue practice during the day. We would fly out to a point off the coast about 50 miles offshore. We would drop a marker buoy with dye marker attached, fly away from it for 10-20 miles then start a search pattern to try and find it again (altitude 500-1000 feet). If there were “white caps” (waves where the wind is blowing the tops off of the waves) then about half the time we could not find our own marker. Very sobering when you realize that if you are in a small liferaft without a signalling device (mirror, smoke, flares, etc.) then the odds of you being spotted by a search plane are very small.

2. After all these years we still don’t know what happened to Amelia Earheart (and there are many other similar stories)

[Freeport]

Not compared to the ocean... And if the supposition is valid, it soft landed (glided) into the ocean. There would be no debris field as the vehicle would have sunk intact...

No, not surprising at all.

[fatman6502002]

I saw a post several months ago from a pilot that said in this particular it is quite possible that no debris would be found, if the pilot put the plane on auto pilot and killed himself that eventually when the fuel ran out the autopilot would keep the plane flying as a glider just above stall speed, so he said it is possible that the plane, rather than making a high speed plunge into the ocean might have been glided to a relatively soft landing on the water and then it just sunk. In any case all possibilities have to be considered.

[Nailbiter]

Thanks- I vaguely remember this find.
I did not know about the mystery of the disarticulated bodies.

[Nailbiter]

I agree the lack of debris is strange.

I find it to be more troubling that with all the satellites flying overhead that there is nothing available.

Either the satellites were all pointed in the wrong direction, or govt is hiding information. I think it is likely the second scenario.

[mazda77]

Jets don’t glide. When the engines stop, they have the glide path like a brick.

If he set it to just above stall speed, the changing weather conditions and wind speeds and direction would have easily foiled that plan.

[SisterK]

MH370 not necessary for terrorists. Recall that at the end of August, they stole eleven commercial airplanes from Libya International Airport. Two of them are airbus.

[Charles Martel]

There was one recently in Alaska, if i remember correctly there was a b17 found in a glacier within last 10 yrs.

Yep, a P-38 was steamed out of the Greenland ice sheet years ago. Four more Lightnings and two B-17s are still down there. I think the pilot who landed the P-38 there was still alive to see it recovered.

[BwanaNdege]

We would drop a marker buoy with dye marker attached, fly away from it for 10-20 miles then start a search pattern to try and find it again (altitude 500-1000 feet).

P-3 or P2-V?

SH-3 or other helo SAR?

[T-Bone Texan]

I commend you for using the word "disarticulation".

I'm gonna use that one.

[Scoutmaster]

They found several of Fossett's ID and membership cards, a couple of bones, some cash, and his tennis shoe with animal bite marks on it, all about a half-mile from the crash site.

Within the search area they found six previously unknown aircraft crash sites. It's a big world.

[T-Bone Texan]

"Jets don’t glide. When the engines stop, they have the glide path like a brick..."

It is my understanding that modern commercial jets have a glide ratio of approximately 7 to 1.

That is, they can go 7 miles for every one mile they descend. Nowadays it might be even better.

Someone with more wisdom please correct me.

[fatman6502002]

Not true according to the pilot. He claims that as the airspeed approaches stall speed it will nose the plane down to keep the speed at or near the stall speed. He claimed that the auto pilot is programmed to do that automatically. That's what he said. Are there any commercial pilots on this board that can confirm or deny this and tell us what is true here?

[fatman6502002]

Read this http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html

It claims an 11:1 glide ratio for a 767 was achieved by the pilots. It is a story about a jet that ran out of fuel at altitude mid flight and the pilots had to figure out how to glide it to a divert airfield because they had never had training that considered both engines flaming out due to running out of fuel. Great story, had never heard about this one before.

[Robe]

Typically, an approach is flown at about 15% greater than stall speed. If the target approach speed of is publicized at 137 knots, then its stall speed would be about 120 knots (or about 138 mph). This would be in the landing configuration, gear and flaps down.
In the clean (cruse)configuration it would be substantially higher , prob about 180Kts or around 200 mph.
I would submit to all that at those speeds an aircraft as large as a B-77-200ER/LR would be like hitting concrete, no gentle floating down to the bottom like a model in a bathtub.
No,debris would be everywhere.
I once spotted a crashed Money near Austin TX, at first I thought the debris field was a trash dump. Airplanes are not as durable as they seem sitting on the ramp, they tend to crumple like Alum. Foil.

[fatman6502002]

How fast was the plan flow by Sullenberg(sp?) that landed in the Hudson River. It didn’t crumble up like tin foil.

[zeestephen]

I picked that word up during the Scott Peterson trial in California.

He's the guy who tossed his pregnant wife into San Francisco Bay.

Eventually, her “disarticulated” body parts started washing up on the surrounding shoreline.

Here's another cool word I picked up after a different homicide.

“Exsanguinate” - to bleed to death, which comes from "sanguine," the Latin root for blood.

The son of a woman I worked with barricaded himself in her garage when the Police came to arrest him.

They sent in a Police dog, which he promptly shot, and then he started shooting at the Police.

Bad decision.

His Death Certificate said cause of death was “Exsanguination.”

[Mears]

A plane was missing in The Andes for 53 years.

.

[zeestephen]

No disarticulation after that giant thing gets done with you.

Just some random molecules, at best.

[zeestephen]

Right - I remember that.

A fairly recent discovery, too.