Missing Malaysia Airlines plane: No automated messages from missing Boeing jet, say sources

[brooklynite]

Source: Straits Times (Singapore)

The Malaysian passenger jet that disappeared on Saturday did not make automatic contact with a flight data-monitoring system after vanishing from radar screens, two people familiar with the matter said.

The Boeing 777-200ER is equipped with a maintenance computer capable of talking to the ground automatically through short messages known as Acars.

...snip...

Automated Acars error messages from an Airbus A330 that vanished in the Atlantic in 2009 focused attention initially on inconsistent speed readings as a possible cause of that crash.

...snip...

In the case of the Malaysia Airlines jet, however, investigators have no such evidence to help them discover what happened to the passenger plane, the people said.

Read more: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-no-automated-messages-missing-boeing-jet

[blackspade]

1. Weirder and weirder.

It could take a long time to find this plane.

[SoapBox]

4. Ditto to the weirder and weirder.

[SCVDem]

2. This is one of the most technically advanced planes flying!

I think there needs to be a last resort mini rocket in the tail which like a flare, pops a small beacon on a parachute.

The system would not cost much and it would slowly descend, letting home base know that something catastrophic happened and a general area. The military has a similar device only it's a jammer. They went into the chaff dispensers in the 70s and 80s, maybe still are.

Just my thoughts.

[SoapBox]

3. I do agree, that something else is needed.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. When do you pop it?

Until you're heading straight for the water, you might not know when the flight is about to 'end'. Plane could still struggle on for a couple hundred miles and change heading, depending.

If the automated message system reported nothing... I'm going to assume big meteorite took off the flight deck entirely. Or a late-deorbit piece of the MIR space station or something.

[SCVDem]

6. It would be completely automatic.

If a sensor picked up a rapid depressurization or total loss of power which is not good on a fly by wire aircraft, the beacon fires.

I'm only talking a 3 inch tube and an exiting charge to seperate it from the aircraft.

It just gives you a starting point.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. It could, but it might not give you much benefit.

Might not give you any more than the lost radar track we have for the Malaysia flight. Recall Aloha Airlines Flight 243 flew some 45 miles to a safe landing after 1/4 of the entire roof separated from the aircraft.

I think the idea has merit. Perhaps with a g-force signaling system, commensurate with the aircraft plowing into water or dirt. Like the airbag signaling system in your car.

[octoberlib]

8. Thanks for your updates on this, brooklynite. nt