Malaysian Jet

Russia and the US were in a severe cold war in the 80s. They are not in one now. The intelligence is still coming in, but my guess is that it was the Ukranian rebels who took down the plane, not the Russians. So, what can Obama do? It's not the same situation.

But yeah, it's in poor taste, kind of like the poor taste when the US Navy accidentedly shot down Iran 655 in '88, killing 290. Reagan stayed at Camp David that day.

Quote: boymimbo

The intelligence is still coming in, but my guess is that it was the Ukranian rebels who took down the plane, not the Russians. So, what can Obama do? It's not the same situation.

Commander Igor Girkin took credit for shooting down the plane believing it was a Ukrainian plane.
"We just downed an An-26 near Torez. It is down near the Progress mine," said Girkin's VK page (VK is the Russian version of Facebook).

Quote: Pacomartin

Something doesn't add up.
This may prove to be some very complex foul play.

MH 370:

Now we have a course of 188True indicating a splashdown point at the extreme west end of the Australian search area.

Well, 188T and 488Kts may fit the immarsat data but its a heck of a strange number to dial in ... the pilots would have wanted a long unobstructed approach to a long well lighted runway, not a mountainous approach to a short unlit runway at an airport that was closed or likely to be closed once they got there.

Ain't nothing on a course of 188T but miles and miles of empty ocean.

See FlightGlobal .

http://www.flightglobal.com/features/mh370/

What do you think of the possibility a piece of wreckage of 370 may have been found?

To begin with it needs to be determined it came from that plane. Yes, no other 777 is missing, but there are plenty of them in service and plenty of spare parts for them as well. Someone might have tossed a piece of wing in the ocean for some reason. A bad part, a ruined part, a bad installation. I'm not suggesting a plane lost a piece of flapperon in mid flight.

If it came from flight 370, then the problem is figuring out where the rest is and how it got there. The ACARS data has it nowhere near the place the flaperon was found. Maybe the data is faulty, or the system has some bug or something. but keep in mind the AF flight lost over the Atlantic was found roughly where ACARS data placed it. In this case, maybe 370 crashed thousands of miles away, and ocean currents carried a piece far away.

In any case, until the wreckage is found there is no hope to know what happened. Even if it's found, there's no assurance we'll ever know what happened. It depends on what is found, whether the black boxes are found, and if so whether their data is still there and can be extracted. The latter is by no means a sure thing.

BTW, a Nat Geo show called Air Crash Investigations tackled this particular mystery. Unlike most "reality" TV these days, this show, while overly dramatic, is not overly sensationalistic. What they did was explore possibilities given prior known accidents. These range from an oxygen malfunction which rendered all passengers and crew unconscious (as happened with a Greek flight once), to a kidnapping gone wrong, to a deliberate crash by one of the pilots, to a fire onboard, and even other things.

Quote: Nareed

The ACARS data has it nowhere near the place the flaperon was found. Maybe the data is faulty, or the system has some bug or something. but keep in mind the AF flight lost over the Atlantic was found roughly where ACARS data placed it. In this case, maybe 370 crashed thousands of miles away, and ocean currents carried a piece far away.

It's been almost 17 months so the initial guess is that it drifted thousands of miles. They are now reporting near certainty that it is a part from a B777, so they think it is probable that it is from MH370. Even if so, it may reveal little information about the cause of the crash.

It was found not far from the island near which a submerged, inverted catamaran was spotted a few weeks ago, the catamaran having gone missing while on a delivery from Natal Yacht club to Phuket, thailand shortly after a severe storm.

the inboard portion of a flap devoid of fuel would have floated.

It most likely is from the plane but it has floated a long way and certainly indicates the plane is unlikely to be recognizable if found off Perth, australia. the software used by the coast guard "spots" plane wrecks by software which tries to assemble a plane from images of wreckage, since items floating onto beaches or rocks often do not look like a flyable aircraft at all.

Here's a scenario that would likely cause bafflement.

The plane crashed in shallow water near an island. Parts of it could be slowly returned to the sea by tides, floods, the next Tsunami.

Quote: rxwine

Here's a scenario that would likely cause bafflement.

The plane crashed in shallow water near an island. Parts of it could be slowly returned to the sea by tides, floods, the next Tsunami.

If the island were in the search area, then the bafflement would be why it hasn't been found. Finding a wreck in shallow water is relatively easy. With all the stuff deployed for this search, it would have been seen in shallow water for sure.

So the bafflement would be why it crashed well off the area determined by the available ACARS data, and whatever other data was used.

Okay, but then I am sometimes baffled where I last left my keys.

But if you say it is easy, I would believe you.

Quote: rxwine

But if you say it is easy, I would believe you.

Not easy. Relatively easy.

Setting aside the obvious, like shallow water as ten feet deep, where a wreck would be apparent without any equipment, shallow water can be searched with shipboard sonar, tethered drones and even scuba divers. Sunlight penetrates a fair bit, aiding in visual searches. lastly there's plenty of experience working in shallow water. Piers, bridges and oil rigs are mostly in such water. The characteristics of various types of sea bottoms, currents, visibility, etc are well-known.

Compared to deep water, which hasn't even been thoroughly explored, searching in shallow water is easier.

All this assuming you're searching in the right place. No amount of equipment, light, man-power and experience will enable you to find something that's not there.