Missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 - Thread 5

[KenAdams]

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Expert on TV reckons they had to do about a year's worth of analysis in a couple of weeks so it's a real achievement, and they have been looking in the right place.

New data?

Why are they flying the families to Australia?

The Malaysian PM did say analysis never before carried out didn't he? So maybe they were able to do some sort of triangulation, or perhaps, more accurately pinpoint, say, the latitude in either direction, and then cancel out the northern one because it was right over some highly protected 'istan airspace?

Dunno. I'm not technical. Just guessing. The poor families. I hope they can recover the black box at some point.

Sky news reporter reporting from Bejing (I think) where the relatives had gathered for the briefing. He's describing the scene of upset relatives, and you can hear people screaming in the background.

Then he says "They authorities have kept the press back from the meeting" too bloody right too, this sort of grief voyeurism really sickens me.

That's a bit strange, isn't it?
UK AAIB and Inmarsat have now 'worked it out' rather than wreckage?

I wonder if they will confirm wreckage tomorrow?

V sad for the relatives to get that news via TEXT.
No doubt they are not all penned up in that hotel but still think that is shockingly poor.

It was new analysis, rather than new data though wasn't it Anya? Think some complicated 3d trigonometry type stuff.

Expert on TV reckons they had to do about a year's worth of analysis in a couple of weeks so it's a real achievement

Blimey, I bet there have been some data analysts working some very long shifts then. Hats off to them.

I don't imagine that the information coming through by text is necessarily any worse than it being delivered face to face, either way it's still done officially by someone you don't know, plus it enables everyone everywhere to be informed at the same time of what has happened.
A family friend was on the silkair plane which crashed in 1997, his dw said that the worst of it was waiting at the airport and seeing an official looking person coming towards her, she said that you just know that they're not there to deliver good news.

I don't think there's ever been any doubt that the passengers/crew had all died tbh but obviously it would have needed to be confirmed. But all the searches i.e. over oceans, have pointed to the expectation that the plane had gone down rather than anything else.

And people don't survive plane crashes on water... not into the ocean anyway...

It does seem very callous to tell the relatives by text, but how else could they tell them all at once? There's no good way to do it. If they started ringing them individually, the news would be out before they'd got through everybody. They may have been briefed earlier to expect this, I think they were all gathered earlier today (the ones still in the hotel), and they could have been told to prepare this then for all we know. They're not all together, either, they're spread all over the world.

Such a sad story.

Terrible news god forbid the plane could have crashed on land and killed more

I'm a lurker but I know a little about image processing, it doesn't appear from satellites in easy to use form! It does seem like the team moved heaven and earth to extract useful data using new techniques.

It's all very sad and I hope that answers are found for the families involved.

yes, text may have been the only practical option but I do think the method of delivery can make a difference to grieving for some people.

very sad indeed

Felt sick reading the lastest update from the BBC. Was kind of hanging onto the fact that it has been hijacked or something and there would be hope for the passengers. Those poor people and their families. This is so horrible.

I hope they knew nothing about what was happening and that it was over quickly :(

RIP

My thoughts are with the families

I suspect that what they've found is something identifying e.g. a life jacket or something which would float which confirms that the plane went down but isn't the actual plane itself iyswim.

A plane going down and breaking up can be spread over several kilometres plus the ocean in that part of the world is very deep, so it could take years to find it.

I'd imagine the families are being flown to Australia to be as near as possible to the scene, who knows, perhaps to be able too hold a memorial or something as close to the crash sight as possible or something - this isn't uncommon.

They're unlikely to ever find the bodies though.

Hope this new data helps in locating the black box.

It's so sad. I have 4 friends who each have close friends on that flight. So sad. :( :(

I think text was the only way they could get the info to everyone simultaneously.

Yes the method of delivery can make a difference, but far better to be informed directly by the authorities, albeit by Text, than to hear on the grapevine / from a reporter / on Twitter because they've told some people but not got round to you yet.

I really hoped they'd found debris to confirm it was the plane, personally I'd still feel in limbo until that happened.

Loopy - sad for you and your friends. It's easy to get caught up in the mystery and lose sight of the tragedy

this is really sad. i haven't read much in the news because i can't get my head around it but do they think terrorists hijacked the plane?

Yes, Wannabe, that makes a lot of sense.
Michonnes - Yy, I agree.
Loopy, sorry to hear that

The evidence comes from new satellite data, which places the plane in the middle of the ocean after it had been flying for such a long time. With no possible landing points, there's nothing that could have happened to the plane apart from it crashing into the ocean, I think.