Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

(04-04-2014 20:14 )way out west Wrote:  

(04-04-2014 11:34 )dark skies Wrote:  Inmarsat are not the enemy here

That may be so, but their calculations have not led to the plane's location, so up to this point have not been helpful.

Not helpful? They ruled out the Northern Arc for a start. If it wasn't for Inmarsat they'd still be looking in Borat's back yard.

A Chinese ship has detected a signal on the 37.5 khz/second frequency used by the Flight Recorders. NO confirmation as to whether it's from the missing Aircraft yet.

(04-04-2014 21:11 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  If it wasn't for Inmarsat they'd still be looking in Borat's back yard.

Yes it's true. Without Inmarsat the search would have been to the north and would still be to the north now. Nobody would have suspected a southern route because there had been nothing to suggest a southern route previously and consequently the chances of ever retrieving the plane would be about zero. It's only because of Inmarsat that the searchers have got some real chance of finding the plane.

I understand what you're saying Tumble Drier and dark skies, but I'm surprised they haven't found anything at all, even a bit of wreckage. I appreciate the search area is vast but it makes me wonder how reliable Inmarsat's calculations are and how accurate the flight path they've sent the world searching along is.

(05-04-2014 12:29 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  A Chinese ship has detected a signal on the 37.5 khz/second frequency used by the Flight Recorders. NO confirmation as to whether it's from the missing Aircraft yet.

There have been a lot of red herrings in this investigation, but this seems the most likely thing to be a breakthrough yet.

Latest from CNN. The disappearance of MH370 was a military operation according to families of the missing passengers and the plane is on the ground and is still intact.

(05-04-2014 13:15 )way out west Wrote:  it makes me wonder how reliable Inmarsat's calculations are and how accurate the flight path they've sent the world searching along is.

It may not be that accurate because they don't know the plane's speed and altitude, both of which they would need to know to make an exact calculation of the plane's last position. That's why the search area is so vast, because they don't have all the information they would need to make the search area more specific.

(05-04-2014 12:29 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  A Chinese ship has detected a signal on the 37.5 khz/second frequency used by the Flight Recorders. NO confirmation as to whether it's from the missing Aircraft yet.

There can't be much else in the ocean that broadcasts at 37.5kHz.

Looking at the plane's known route as captured on radar, I had originally thought that the path northwest before the turn south had been devised as a feint, a deliberate manoevre to throw people off the track of the plane. Who would look to the south when the plane was clearly heading northwest? But looking at the map again, I've been struck by the thought that rather than heading northwest until it was out of radar range, and then turning south, what the plane was actually doing was avoiding Indonesian airspace. Maybe it was too big a risk to fly over Indonesia and the plane simply went from heading west to heading northwest to avoid that and only turned to the south when it was clear of Indonesia. In a nutshell, if someone wanted the plane to turn south but without intruding on Indonesian airspace, then the turn northwest would simply be a necessary diversion that was needed to achieve that.

(05-04-2014 14:24 )whizzer Wrote:  There can't be much else in the ocean that broadcasts at 37.5kHz.

Could it be a whale song?