Fascinating read:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/
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Absolutely spellbinding. Thanks for posting this
That was a good read.
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Great article - thanks for the link!
Very interesting…
Thanks for the share. What a tragedy.
Does anyone know if all flights are tracked now? It seems kind of amazing that the aircraft cost hundreds of millions each, but don’t have continuous satellite tracking.
Does anyone know if all flights are tracked now? It seems kind of amazing that the aircraft cost hundreds of millions each, but don’t have continuous satellite tracking.
No, they may not all be tracked at all times.
I was under the impression that, partly due to the Malaysian crash, they were moving to global continuous sat tracking.
superb old school reporting. Thank you.
Does anyone know if all flights are tracked now? It seems kind of amazing that the aircraft cost hundreds of millions each, but don’t have continuous satellite tracking.
It’s not that amazing. Out of all the flights we have per year how many have ever been lost like this? No one thought it was needed until it was needed. Similar to hardened cockpit doors.
There are all these redundancy safety systems on modern commercial aircraft. If component A fails, then you go to component B, then to C… It would take a series of incredibility unlikely, cascading failures on a critical system to down an airliner. At this point the weak point is the human behind the yoke. I can only assume that the ratio of airliner crashes / disasters due to ‘pilot error or malice’ vs. other causes has been rising (though Boeing is doing its best to keep that ratio down with their 737 Max 8 series).
On a personal note, this case has interested me from day one. I have taken this route with Malaysian Airlines twice. Once with my wife in 2004 and again with wife and two kids in 2010. Back then it was in a 747 or A340. I also lived on Penang Island for many years - probably a few kilometers from the Captain suspected of this.
As the Atlantic piece concludes, the real story here seems to be in the failures and cover ups of/by officials in Malaysia. It now seems fairly apparent what happened on the plane and where it went.
It now seems fairly apparent what happened on the plane and where it went.
Where it went maybe, but I’d still call the “what happened” highly speculative.
Does anyone know if all flights are tracked now? It seems kind of amazing that the aircraft cost hundreds of millions each, but don’t have continuous satellite tracking.
It’s not that amazing. Out of all the flights we have per year how many have ever been lost like this? No one thought it was needed until it was needed. Similar to hardened cockpit doors.
But even outside of catastrophic failure, being able to receive real time data from aircraft would be pretty useful. When you are paying hundreds of millions each, would you want to keep track of what’s going on? If there is an anomaly in flight, wouldn’t it be nice to have all the data for analysis without having to wait?
It now seems fairly apparent what happened on the plane and where it went.
Where it went maybe, but I’d still call the “what happened” highly speculative.
There is much evidence that the captain was responsible for what happened, not least his simulated flight that replicated the plane’s known - and highly unusual - path. Exactly what happened on the plane? Even that can be surmised with a relatively high degree of confidence. Probably the biggest unknown is whether he piloted the plane into the ocean or if it crashed without him in control. But frankly that doesn’t really matter.
I was under the impression that, partly due to the Malaysian crash, they were moving to global continuous sat tracking.
They are moving to that correct, but not all of them have the capability or use it yet.
Does anyone know if all flights are tracked now? It seems kind of amazing that the aircraft cost hundreds of millions each, but don’t have continuous satellite tracking.
It’s not that amazing. Out of all the flights we have per year how many have ever been lost like this? No one thought it was needed until it was needed. Similar to hardened cockpit doors.
But even outside of catastrophic failure, being able to receive real time data from aircraft would be pretty useful. When you are paying hundreds of millions each, would you want to keep track of what’s going on? If there is an anomaly in flight, wouldn’t it be nice to have all the data for analysis without having to wait?
Really all newer (within the last couple decades) have this capability. If there are faults, those get sent out from the airplane, mostly so that maintenance personal are ready for when the airplane lands they are prepared to fix the issue (for example having the a spare part ready at the gate when it arrives). Some also send periodic updates, like on climb, at cruise, on descent, etc. But that is different than a continues updates of position.
It is suspected that the pilot shut down this system on MH370, hence why the system was only sending handshakes and not the normal updates or alerts to faults.
Should it concern me that a pilot has the ability to depressurize the cabin, climb a few thousand feet and kill everyone aboard? I mean, I know they can crash the plane and kill me and my life is in their hands, but this still creeps me out.
Should it concern me that a pilot has the ability to depressurize the cabin, climb a few thousand feet and kill everyone aboard? I mean, I know they can crash the plane and kill me and my life is in their hands, but this still creeps me out.
Only you can answer that.