MH370 report reveals black box battery expired a year before flight

[KeepItReal]

Source: The Verge & Associated Press

Precisely a year ago, on March 8th, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight 370 mysteriously disappeared over the Straits of Malacca. There's still no trace of the Boeing 777-200 or its 239 passengers and crew, but an exhaustive 584-page report released today reveals that the battery powering one black box's locator beacon expired over a year before the incident.

The old battery means that crews searching the southern Indian Ocean likely wouldn't have picked up a signal from the black box even if they were floating right over it. In the weeks after the disappearance, crews searched hastily to try and find a black box before the batteries ran out of power. They're required to last at least 30 days after a crash.

According to the report, an error in maintenance records kept the battery from being replaced. Nevertheless, the flight data recorder would have continued logging data during the flight even if its locator beacon battery was dead. The battery for the other black box, the cockpit voice recorder, was up to date and search crews would have noticed its locator pings had they been in its vicinity.

Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/8/8170437/mh370-report-reveals-black-box-battery-expired-a-year-before-flight

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More from the AP:

The 584-page report by a 19-member independent investigation group went into minute details about the crew's lives, including their medical and financial records and training. It also detailed the aircraft's service record, as well as the weather, communications systems and other aspects of the flight. Nothing unusual was revealed, except for the previously undisclosed fact of the battery's expiration date.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MALAYSIA_MISSING_PLANE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-03-08-03-43-07

[Agschmid]

1. Kick.

[SoapBox]

2. Despicable.

And reminds me of a story...

Years ago I worked for a start up but left after a couple years (I was tired of being told I didn't work hard enough and that I was starving because our pay was so low).

That company later went on to purchase B757 equipment. The Flight Attendants had a job to check the pressure gauges on slide packs on all aircraft but the 75s have an additional pressurized bottle, used during an emergency to help open the door...the Flight Attendants wanted the responsibility of checking those gauges as well but the company said no, that maintainence would take care of that.

Needless to say, one morning one of the Flight Attendants happened to glance at the gauge for the emergency assist bottles and it registered...zero. Upon checking the other 5 (total of 6 doors), all 6 ended up having zero pressure. That oversold flight got cancelled. Friends always wondered how long the equipment had been flying with that issue. Management finally allowed the FAs to do that check as part of their job.

Mismanagement continues their crappy ways.

[Blue_Tires]

4. wow...accident waiting to happen...

[HeiressofBickworth]

3. Expired battery?

Makes one wonder what other cost-cutting measures could have contributed to the fate of this flight.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. Was there somebody important on board that the 1% wanted silenced???

[Oktober]

10. Tin foil conference...

Now no one will have hats!

[NuclearDem]

13. Planes never crash unless someone wants them to.

[Android3.14]

6. So what the heck were they following

Didn't we hear about the black box giving out pings every once in awhile for days and days afterwards and then they it stopped?

[BumRushDaShow]

7. According to the quote in the OP, there was a 2nd black box

with the flight data recorder with a battery that was up to date, and would have been pinging.

[Android3.14]

8. Thanks.

No coffee this morning...

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Understand!!

I need me a 2nd cup myself!! I want my damn hour back!!!!!!!!!!!!

[groundloop]

11. A battery won't instantly be dead when it 'expires'

In fact I'd guess that the 'expired' batteries could possibly have lasted nearly as long as 'good' batteries after the black box activated. It's just that they are required to be replaced well before their predicted shelf life is up just to be on the safe side. Regardless, this reflects badly on how the airline took care of it's maintenance.

[Blue_Tires]

12. It's becoming more and more evident the Malaysian Gov't was engaged in a cover-up

They knew that first night what general direction the flight was headed, and they still allowed assisting nations to waste their resources searching the South China Sea for a GODDAMNED WEEK...Unforgivable...

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. Who was the safety officer? Frank Drebin?