Posted on 03/16/2014 9:30:37 PM PDT by Meet the New Boss
As the search for the missing flight MH370 enters its 10th day with few clues as to its whereabouts, the New Straits Times said today the Boeing 777-200ER dropped 5,000 feet (1,500m) to evade commercial radar detection.
In an exclusive story, the government-backed paper said investigators analysing MH370’s flight data revealed that the 200-tonne, fully laden twinjet descended 1,500m or even lower to evade commercial (secondary) radar coverage after it turned back from its flight path en route to Beijing.
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Investigators poring over MH370’s flight data had said the plane had flown low and used “terrain masking” as it flew over the Bay of Bengal and headed north towards land, the NST reported.
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“Terrain masking” refers to an ability to position an aircraft so there is natural earth hiding it from the radio waves sent from the radar system. It is a technique mostly used in aerial combat where military pilots would fly at extremely low elevations upon normally hilly or mountainous terrain to “mask” their approach.
Experts said flying a Boeing 777 in such a way would be dangerous, stressing the airframe and possibly causing those on board to be air sick and suffer from spatial disorientation.
(Excerpt) Read more at my.news.yahoo.com ...
I’m not knowledgeable in aviation, but that scenario sounds fascinating. Pretty slick maneuver.
” And planes are built with a low factor of safety.”
Do you have ANY IDEA of the process an aircraft goes through for certification?
thanks for the link, very interesting!
If the aircraft is on the bottom in deep water, it seems likely to me that it will never be found.
I thought the transponders were turned off by pulling circuit breakers?
Sort of like disabling the anti-lock brakes on your car by pulling a fuse.
Would you please supply a link to that/those photos?
Factor of safety (FoS), also known as (and used interchangeably with) safety factor (SF), is a term describing the structural capacity of a system beyond the expected loads or actual loads. Essentially, how much stronger the system is than it usually needs to be for an intended load.If I recall correctly, elevators are built with the highest FOS, 16, and believe it or not, planes are built with the lowest FOS: 1.5.
So rapid acceleration caused by rapid ascent or descent, resulting in significant forces, could exceed the planes structural strength.
St. Thomas, I am not an engineer, so I am not familiar with the term Factor of Safety. But as I pilot, I am familiar with load factor.
The jets I fly are stressed to about 3.8 G’s postive and 2.4 G’s negative. That is in reference to wing loading. We never come anywhere NEAR that in normal flight, in any realm of flight....take off, climb, cruise, descent and landing.
The cabin red line for pressurization is around 9 psi. Again, it is stressed for much more than that.
Flying near the ground/ocean is what planes do every day during take off and landing. I don’t see where the author is getting his ‘unusual stress’.
So, if it evaded detection....how do they know?
Another post said it dropped to 5000 ft...unbelievable.
Now I know nothing about planes and I avoid flying, because I do not need a mammagram, a colonoscopy or a catscan of my body...lol Besides it takes a lot of shampoo to wash my hair and those little bottles are just not enough. oy veh!
Let us hope Courtney Love is right and she found the plane via satellite images...very funny, but she has as good a chance as the Malaysians I guess.
This squabble between Putin and Obama is getting juvenile.
That photo that Courtney Love is talking about has been around since day 1..if that were the plane it would have been located already..yeah the whole 5,000 feet thing to be undetectable by radar is INSANE but so is this entire story from start to well let’s hope an eventual finish
A similar incident in 2002 0r 2004, when a plane disappeared with passengers like this, it was never found...that does create a real suspicion. I feel for the families who never had closure, and these families who are sitting on the edge; just waiting for some news of their loved ones. This is a terrible world we live in now, not knowing if it crashed or their loved ones are being tortured by terrorists.
Yeah its like one of those school yard fights where all the kids keep pushing two boys back at each other forcing them to fight because the frankly speaking are getting off on it.
Yes there are people in the world, here in America, in your home town, at work, possibly in your own family that get titillated at watching others fight.
Its been something that has been in Roman coliseums up to WWE on TV, people get off on watching others fight.
The Putin-Obama squabble reminds me of fake wrestling like the WWE or whatever, etc. A lot of BS, and they go out for a drink later.
That arguing gets on my nerves is why I can’t watch that stuff...it makes no sense. If you are gonna fight, get it on, and win!
The media is already starting to go after the Mechanical Failure theory because Malaysia keeps on changing their story about when the ACARS and Transponder were both turned off..all we know is this, two minutes after “All Right Good Night” the transponder was turned off..Am I supposed to believe that two minutes after everything was super awesome, a catastrophic mechanical incident happened, is that even remotely possible, and the wreckage would have been found already over the China Sea..
These families are going through hell, they interviewed a father last night who lives in Malaysia whose son was on the plane, he had a wife and two young boys, he worked in Beijing, his children BEGGED him not to go, they grabbed on to his leg and wouldn’t let go so he promised them chocolates from Beijing..so sad..sometimes its the little ones that have a sense when something bad is about to happen
Breaking news in minutes from the New York Times on Megyn’s show so check it out..now even though I hate the Slimes, I do give them credit for being on top of this story
I agree, there is a built in sensor inside of us and children are especially sensitive.
I think the ‘All Right Good Night’ could have been anything, even a goodbye of sorts signal.
I didn’t find anything on the Fox website, and I don’t dare interrupt the TV watcher in the other room...lol
Here is a sad reality:
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