Mystery Flight MH370 missing

[Zidane98]

All planes are monitored. I just can’t find where I saw that every commercial plane’s in flight position is known at all times and it can’t be turned off by the pilot.

ACARS can be turned off, SATCOM can be disabled. At least back in 2014 that was the case. What can't be turned off is the satellite link (hourly handshake) unless its power source is shut down (left hand bus in the 777). This must have happened as disabling SATCOM normally would result in a message being sent to the airline.

 

[Zidane98]

Private jet that disappeared in 1971 has just been found

Mystery of private jet that vanished in 1971 is finally solved

A private jet that vanished in 1971 has been found 53 years on. The story has a tragic ending. But families of the five men on board say they're glad to finally have closure.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The aircraft was known to have crashed somewhere in Lake Champlain. See map below:



So despite the general location of the crashed aircraft being known and the area miniscule compared to the potential MH370 search area it took 50 + years to finally locate the aircraft after many searches. And we're talking depths here of 20m on average, not 4-5000m like in the Southern Indian Ocean.


Just goes to show just how difficult the MH370 search is. It crashed somewhere within 100nm of the last ping arc at 00:19 in the Southern Indian Ocean. A huge area.

 

[Zidane98]

What's interesting in this case is the aircraft was found in areas already searched by further examination of sonar images from a 1997 survey with advanced equipment.

This could be a possibility in the MH370 search.

 

[Zidane98]

I urge anyone who maintains an interest in this to read/listen to Larry Vance's book MH370: Mystery Solved.


The general consensus amongst investigators is the partial handshake at 00:19 was the SATCOM link rebooting after the APU started up following fuel exhaustion.

Vance though points out a pilot looking to deliberately ditch the aircraft may have decided to start up the APU prior to fuel exhaustion so there was no issues with losing hydraulic power to control surfaces. In this instance the aircraft could have gone on to fly significantly past the 00:19 last handshake time.

Assuming a pilot that wants to go as far south as possible this could mean even 5 minutes of flight at typical speeds of 300knots could mean flying much further south with a glide aswell. The aircraft could be up to 200km south of the 00:19 ping. His suggestion seems to be to search everywhere from 50kms past the last ping heading south which is a massive, massive search area.