Malaysia Airlines tragedies

[EarlyMon]

What do you get when you invent a better mousetrap?

Smarter mice.

What do you get when you make something more idiot-proof?

Bigger idiots.

Flight tracking and ground control systems that do everything that everyone wants already exists and was in use here.

It's not good enough.

As technology and lessons learned advanced, those systems get upgraded.

ACARS is already scheduled for replacement by a better system.

And this problem will never, ever, go away.

Nothing we can ever do will make it impossible to lose a flight.

Why?

Because:

What do you get when you invent a better mousetrap?

What do you get when you make something more idiot-proof?




PS - mousetrap => on-purpose, idiot-proof => accidents, so those two realities cover all of the possible bases.

 

[Steven58]

Perhaps this was said already as I've not been following this thread, but Air France took 5 days to find.

 

[EarlyMon]

Perhaps this was said already as I've not been following this thread, but Air France took 5 days to find.

Yep.

And it only took 5 days because the ACARS system sending position and attitude data worked right up until the plane hit the ocean.

 

[Unforgiven]

Why is John Brennan giving a press conference on this. That only guarantees conspiracy thoeries ala Flight 800.

 

[ceva321]

So strange no one has found anything

 

[Techlord]

Why is John Brennan giving a press conference on this. That only guarantees conspiracy thoeries ala Flight 800.

Yeah I'm leaning towards a flight 800 debacle. I wouldn't surprised if this didn't remain unsolved for a long time.

 

[EarlyMon]

I agree about the time.

Even if they find the data recorders today, it's still going to take a long while to sort out the data and cross-check against what, if anything, also went wrong on the ground.

On the analysis, I expect them to take their time and get it right.

But first we have to find whatever is findable of the airplane and then the data recorders.

I'm still holding out hope for survivors.

I've been to many part of SE Asia. There are island jungles that go right up to the sea in a lot of places, where people could have made it by now, just depending on the situation.

Why is John Brennan giving a press conference on this.

Check one:

[ ] Hi, I'm the CIA Director and I'm not making any public comments.

[ ] Hi, I'm the CIA Director and I have nothing to add and I'll say so in public.

[ ] Hi, I'm the CIA Director and I'm not ruling out anything.

Feel free to take congressional funding into account before choosing.

 

[Unforgiven]

Check one:

[ ] Hi, I'm the CIA Director and I'm not making any public comments.

[ ] Hi, I'm the CIA Director and I have nothing to add and I'll say so in public.

[ ] Hi, I'm the CIA Director and I'm not ruling out anything.

[x] Hi, this is big in the news and I need to justify my existence and get my mug on television to stoke my ego.

Feel free to take congressional funding into account before choosing.

You missed an option.

I didn't say he was adding anything, just that the optics of it were bad.

 

[Codegerm]

I choose

[x] Hi, I'm the CIA Director, and I don't have any facts on this, but the talk around the water cooler is....

 

[EarlyMon]

You missed an option.

I didn't say he was adding anything, just that the optics of it were bad.

[x] Hi, this is big in the news and I need to justify my existence and get my mug on television to stoke my ego.

Fair enough, but I think that falls under my third option and really modifies my qualifier to:

Feel free to take congressional funding and my big ego into account before choosing.

Meanwhile, a little over an hour ago at today's news blog for The Guardian, we have a lawyer chiming in -

Steve Marks, a lawyer at the US firm Podhurst Orseck, which represented relatives of victims of a SilkAir crash in Asia in 1997 and the Air France crash in 2009, said he was suspicious of information being released by Malaysia.

On Tuesday Malaysian investigators said they were still looking at a range of theories including hijacking and possible sabotage by a passenger or crew member.

Marks said:

 

[BRAINZ2013]

Looks like earlymoon was correct they searching in the wrong area

 

[Steven58]

Earlymoon is always right.

 

[EarlyMon]

From The Guardian and the NYT, emphasis theirs -

There’s considerable confusion around the theory that flight MH370 veered back towards Malaysia after it stopped communicating with ground controllers. The Malaysian air force chief, General Rodzali Daud, has been quoted as saying that the flight made a sharp left turn, and headed back across Malaysia and out over the Malacca strait.

The New York Times quotes Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, spokesman for the prime minister’s office, as contradicting that account. He said that senior military officials, with whom he had checked, said there was no no evidence that the plane had crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula, only that it may have attempted to do so.

“As far as they know, except for the air turn-back, there is no new development,” Mr Tengku Sariffuddin is quoted as saying. The Times says he described the earlier remarks by the air force chief as “not true.”

So much for the sensationalized reports about what the general said.



Meanwhile, this is pissing me off to no end -

If it's all made up, I'm pissed off.

It it was true, I'm pissed off.

 

[EarlyMon]

The search area everyone keeps printing:

Yet in other news that is almost a day old -

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post, or SCMP, reported, citing Hong Kong's civil aviation authorities, that the crew of a Cathay Pacific plane bound from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur had spotted some debris near Vung Tau, off the coast of southeast Vietnam, on Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. local time, adding that the location of the debris did not match Flight Mh370's stated flight path, which should have taken the plane over Ho Chi Minh City, about 125 kilometers (78 miles) away from the debris spotted by the Cathay Pacific crew.

That's a little bit southeast of Ho Chi Minh City - draw the shortest line straight to the sea from Ho Chi Minh City, and that's where Vung Tau is located.

That's far to the northeast of the search area identified in the media, by at least 150 miles.

Again, we've been through this before - that's not confirmed yet.

None of which includes the request for the search to extend as far northeast as Hong Kong.

I haven't seen anyone talking about that since it came out.

Except of course, for Bloomberg News, who have hilariously and pathetically identified Vung Tau as being near Hong Kong in their article's headline about the latest sighting: "Malaysia Sending Ships to Check Debris Near Hong Kong".

To be fair, that really is excellent work for Bloomberg, they were only off by a full thousand miles in figuring out where Hong Kong is.

Good job, Bloomberg!

 

[EarlyMon]

Looks like earlymoon was correct they searching in the wrong area

I don't know where they ought to be searching. No idea.

I'm simply questioning and debunking press reports that make no sense to me.

Which is almost all of them.

Earlymoon is always right.

Seriously, when it comes to questioning the modern media, it's hard to be wrong.

 

[Unforgiven]

Seriously, when it comes to questioning the modern media, it's hard to be wrong.

QFT, the news I am watching is reporting as settle fact that they took a hard left and flew for another 60 minutes minimum and are at least East of Malaysia. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, how the hell would any of us know. But when you are reporting news there is a difference between "sources say" and "we now know." When did journalists stop confirming leads before they reported them as fact (rhetorical question alert, don't answer that).

 

[EarlyMon]

QFT, the news I am watching is reporting as settle fact that they took a hard left and flew for another 60 minutes minimum and are at least East of Malaysia.

Oh, yes - from today's Huffington Post -

That's not even turning around halfway across the sea - you know - the point that has been identified from the beginning as where the plane was last located.

And reported as completely untrue according to the Prime Minister's office checking with their military.

 

[EarlyMon]

By the way - last I checked (yesterday) currents in the Malacca Straight flowed up, from southeast to northwest.

Even if the plane went down in the South China Sea, given enough time and the right conditions, it's conceivable that debris might be found someday in the Malacca Straight or even the Andaman Sea.

 

[BRAINZ2013]

Wow let me ask anyone to answer . but be honest . you have the option to turn off the transponder and you want to travel to another location cause you in charge and know you have enough fuel to get there and back to your location . would you do this or not . be honest

 

[jefboyardee]

That's rather unsettling.

 

[EarlyMon]

Wow let me ask anyone to answer . but be honest . you have the option to turn off the transponder and you want to travel to another location cause you in charge and know you have enough fuel to get there and back to your location . would you do this or not . be honest

No way.

Imagine deciding to turn off your headlights at night, cross the median and drive against traffic in the lanes going the other way on the freeway - because you know you have enough gas and you're in charge of the wheel.

Same thing.

 

[bjacks12]

Wow let me ask anyone to answer . but be honest . you have the option to turn off the transponder and you want to travel to another location cause you in charge and know you have enough fuel to get there and back to your location . would you do this or not . be honest

You mean just take a little detour and then return to the flight path?

Not if you want to keep being a pilot.

 

[Gmash]

Meanwhile, this is pissing me off to no end -

If it's all made up, I'm pissed off.

It it was true, I'm pissed off.

Wow, it's like the pilots thought they were rock stars picking groupies out of the crowd. And they were comfortable enough doing it to take selfies. Not that A Current Affair is the most credible media outlet, but the pictures do give the story some credibility, and the rich Aussie girl seems believable enough.

 

[EarlyMon]

Wow, it's like the pilots thought they were rock stars picking groupies out of the crowd. And they were comfortable enough doing it to take selfies. Not that A Current Affair is the most credible media outlet, but the pictures do give the story some credibility, and the rich Aussie girl seems believable enough.

If that's a hoax, I hope that they lock her up and throw away the key.

 

[BRAINZ2013]

I ask this cause on the news it was said the copilot was new and was interested in chasing skirts. But I think he went for a joy ride that's me . wow I guess we seen the same news report but this is what I say was a joy ride that turned bad.