Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

(28-07-2014 05:34 )babelover48 Wrote:  clearly suggests he was party od some elaborate scheme - for what? Insurance?

The Malaysian police have already said that the captain didn't have any life insurance.

What is happening now? It's all gone quiet. Is the search for the plane still continuing?

The search for MH370 was stalled whilst they waited for new equipment to arrive, but it's due to resume sometime in August.

(28-07-2014 05:34 )babelover48 Wrote:  If the plane did ditch why hasn't debris floating on the surface been discovered before now?

Probably because so far they haven't been looking in the right place.

Press release by the Australian search team. It brings us right up to date with what's happening.

"Two ships, Zhu Kezhen and Fugro Equator, continue to work in the southern Indian Ocean, surveying the sea floor in preparation for the deep-sea search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

In June, an expert satellite working group identified a search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometres, which represents the highest priority for future search efforts. As with previous search areas, it is located along the seventh arc—a thin but long line that includes all the possible points where the last known communication between the aircraft and a communications satellite could have taken place.

Before the deep-sea search can commence however, it is necessary to map the sea floor in this remote region of the Indian Ocean, which until now has been poorly charted. The aim is to identify significant features on the sea floor, which may present a hazard for the deep water vehicles that will be used for the search.

Since 24 May 2014, the Zhu Kezhen, a Chinese PLA-Navy vessel has been conducting survey operations. The bathymetric data it is collecting will assist in characterising the sea floor topography. As of 30 July 2014, it has sounded over 25,000 square kilometres along the seventh arc.

Fugro Equator, an Australian-contracted specialised survey vessel, has also been conducting bathymetric survey work. As of 30 July 2014, over 43,000 square kilometres have been sounded by Fugro Equator.

Analysis and mapping of this data is continuing.

On 6 July, the Government of Malaysia announced that its hydrographic survey vessel, the KD MUTIARA, would join the Zhu Kezhen and the Fugro Equator in August to continue the bathymetric survey work.

It is expected that the bathymetric survey work will be completed by September. The deep-water search is expected to commence in September following the appointment of a prime contractor through a request for tender process."

Still a massive search area. I wish the searchers good luck because I think they need it.

If there had been some catastrophic event on board this plane or something way out of the ordinary happened, would there not have been a lot of mobile telephone attempts to call registered? Whereas in fact the only mobile phone contact to come from that flight came from the First Officer's phone attempting to log into a cell tower somewhere in Malaysia as the plane flew back over the country. That seems very strange.

(16-09-2014 10:12 )cuthbert Wrote:  the only mobile phone contact to come from that flight came from the First Officer's phone attempting to log into a cell tower somewhere in Malaysia as the plane flew back over the country. That seems very strange.

It's possible that something occurred on the plane that the passengers were unaware of. Just as an example, if the First Officer had been locked out of the cabin he would have known that something was seriously amiss, but it's unlikely I think that the passengers would have been informed.

Any news on the search?

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I remember when Payne Stewart died, wonder if the passengers would have suffered the same fate

(16-09-2014 14:45 )babelover48 Wrote:  Any news on the search?

The current search team have just located 58 "hard objects" on the ocean floor, but are being very cautious about what these might be. They stress that the objects remain unidentified and there's nothing to say they are from a plane. They will check that location again in more detail.