Missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 - Thread 5

[KenAdams]

Thread 1

Thread 2

Thread 3

Thread 4

"Yes Agnu - I'm very surprised there's not been a supportive official statement along the lines of "we are sending xxx planes / ships to assist in the search for this plane" - "

But we do know how many eg British ships, Australian and Chinese planes etc are searching and earlier it was stated who was searching in the malacca straits?

Marking place.

Why don't they make the coordinates available on Tomnod and why are the maps numbered so oddly?

That does sound interesting Psamm I read that on here last night(?) but had forgotten all about it this morning.

I agree it does seem significant.

psamead that's too much of a coincidence. It does suggest either auto pilot gone bonkers or a lack of immagination on the cover up team

Downton Trout I've only ever had to provide advanced travel info to go to the US, never anywhere else.

US government statement, for example;

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama said "we have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process".

Speaking to a Fox News affiliate, the US leader said there had been "close cooperation" with the Malaysian government, and "anybody who typically deals with anything related to our aviation system is available".

Earlier, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Malaysia was also speaking to US aviation and transport accident investigation agencies.

Hmmmm... that's very, very interesting Psammead..

Have not read all the posts in this thread, let alone all the threads, but has this been mentioned at all?

\link{http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/20/missing-plane-mh370-lacke_n_4998455.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk-ws-bb%7Cdl10%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D251248\this plane did not have a $10 computer upgrade that would have helped massively in finding it} (& it's something the 2009 Air France plane did have, so not a recent thing)

Goldie, do you know anything about this? It seems ridiculous that any airline wouldn't have done it

Fflonki to check in online, which is what we always do, you have to enter API.

If you arrive at the airport without checking in, they enter the API manually at the check in desk. Then when you go through passport control they slot the passport into a thingy also, they do the same before you board.

This is not always the case in other countries, thinking of return flights. In Egypt, for example, they rely on various bits of paper and men in boxes writing things down. There seems to be no computerisation at all. We could not check in and print boarding passes for the return portion of the flight in advance.

That has been mentioned. I think someone said it is 10 dollars per flight, possibly?

Just marking my place again :)

That was me Psammead - I think that it was not confirmed but as it is an ongoing tracking service it almost certainly has an ongoing cost and it's a decision made for a fleet, I'd've thought, not plane by plane.

And this is the first time since 2009 that it's been needed - lots of business decisions are on cost-benefit analysis...

I agree Doctrine. I do not see an engineering company throwing in extras like that for a tenner, it would be an on-going thing.

And yup - cheap flights are cheap for these kinds of reasons.

I would have thought it was $10 per flight too. Doesn't sound like much, but it must add up. I don't know how many flights Malaysian have per year, but they are a fairly big carrier. Say they have 100 flights per day, they'd be spending $1000 per day or $365000 per year on flight tracking.

And I suspect the sales pitch is more "find out your fleet data" than "find your lost plane"

Companies subscribing to it now though will prob go up.

Yes - or the FAA might mandate it.

Downton Trout ohh yes THAT, sorry was thinking of the palaver that I normally have to fill in as a non visa-waiver country passport holder when going to the US!

Yes, Malaysia Airlines requires all that info too, both ways, if checking in online. And my passport scanned at KLIA too, though not sure what they do with furriners' passports as I go through the Malaysian lane.

Actually thinking about it there is only one country that has been VERY thorough in checking my passport and UK visa on entering and exiting - Germany - whereas the Americans seem to prefer to ask nonsensical questions on seeing my passport ... sorry, I digress!

Back to thread, a part of me thinks the Aussie sighting is yet another one that will turn out to be unrelated and we will never find out what happened.

The second day of an international search for a missing Malaysian airliner has concluded without any sightings of debris in the southern Indian Ocean.

The operation is due to start again on Saturday. with extra vessels joining the search, Australian officials say.

Still no definite news then (should I worry that I check this thread before any of the news websites)? I worry that this story is going to be dropped from the news, and that the search will be scaled back without any answers being found. Those poor families - not knowing must be truely awful.

That is striking Psamm

If those coordinates are a coincidence, Psammead, it'd be a very spooky coincidence. If hypoxia is a possibility, it could be an unwitting error by the pilot.

"should I worry that I check this thread before any of the news websites)"

I do too!

That's what I was thinking, alciblades. First change of course due to a problem, second change of course due to hypoxia confusion, realising the plane was 'off course' and forgetting why, and thinking 'right now I am going the wrong way, gotta turn around' and going south instead of north.