Missing Malaysian Airlines MH-370 - Thread 6

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Thanks Doctrine, thats what I thought it was originally and then for some reason got it confused with the Boeing engine data packages thing.

Is this Lt.Gen.McInerny legitimate then? Its definitely interesting what he is saying but given that he is on Fox he is coming across awfully like someone the US would wheel out to give tin foil hat disinformation! It didn't help that I was texting my boyfriend about him a minute ago and all our texts to eachother got scrambled up and made no sense when they arrived, it was a bit spooky (in the 'Spooks' sense of the word!).

Fox programmes get filed in the same part of my brain as Sun journalism...

Lol @ McInereney scrambling your texts! (Or maybe eek?) Yep, he's a retired US Air Force general. He's an outspoken maverick, with severe paranoia about the Taliban (not unreasonably, I guess.) As I was linking to some Fox News pages about his statements the other day, the pages were withdrawn. Was a bit weird to see that happen in front of me!

Astrophysics digression:
Whoo-hoo, look, this is how you get a satellite to spend a long time over a particular part of the Earth! Highly elliptical orbit :) You'd only need two to cover one 'side' of the planet. Using the highly scientific method of turning the Earth on Google, I reckoned a satellite doing a long ellipse over our region of interest would be doing its speedy whizz over the Atlantic, which is less interesting from the military point of view. Clever, huh?!

Yes same here Doctrine, thats why I am a bit confused that his theories have some traction!

As for satellites and geostationary orbits all I can say is ((((Arthur C Clarke)))) . I'm still waiting on his cool 'space elevator' idea that connects earth to a satellite and was meant to be the next bit that happened after the satellites went up...

I read that link Garlic and while I can see how it works for GPS (which basically means that your position is triangulated off three satellites) I still don't see how much of the earth can be photographed at high res (though I guess that's classified!)

In 2012, the US National Reconnaissance Office gave two space telescopes to NASA, as it had already developed better ones for its satellites. The donated telescopes are miles better than Hubble!

Nancy, there are half a dozen space elevator programmes on the go at the moment!

Are there really Garlic? As in ones that actually might function how he predicted? How epically brilliant.

And yet we can't find a missing plane. Does. Not. Compute.

Yeah, but unlike a plane, a geostationary satellite is, um, well... geostationary

Oh dear, did I tell you the 15 mins before the US :o

As much as I think finding debris is a good thing for the relatives of those on board, and will possibly bring closure on the situation for them, I can't quite bring myself to believe the debris has been floating for three weeks unnoticed.

This whole affair is either a massive bungle by all involved, or a huge cover up. (For what, I don't know).

Yes, yes, I know oceans are huge, but this is not 1952.

Heh Doctrine, its that they are solving all the technical and weather related issues of the space elevator I am busy being amazed about. I just read that there has been an actual Space Elevator Conference! I can't tell you how happy that makes me! Been waiting for it to be built since I first read about it at 13.

Sorry, massive thread derailment though.

Lynette, on a day to day basis, no one really has any reason to focus on satellite images from that location and recently focus has been on a different area of the sea. The debris spotted previously, if unrelated, just goes to show there's lots of crap floating about in the ocean, even the remote ocean.

Lynette the guy on the radio this evening was saying the search area was the size of the UK so finding a few plane seat cushions (apparently they float well) and assorted bits of metal is nigh on impossible which we can all understand. I guess the thing we all keep thinking is however, how the hell is it possible that the position of the plane is so bloody unknown that we are left with such a massive search area in the first place. It just seems insane.

Yes, there is a lot of crap floating in the ocean.

I'm still not buying the "we don't know where is" line. They know more that they are letting on. Whether we need to know or not is another matter. But the relatives of those on board deserve to know if their loved ones are alive or dead, and need concrete evidence if there is no hope of any survivors. A few pieces of debris are not going to be hard enough evidence for many. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this.

Nah, Doctrine, the elliptical satellites aren't geostationary. They just go a lot further out on one 'side' than the other - hence, it takes them longer to get from pole to pole on that side, coz it's further innit. That gives them longer to take lots of brilliant photos of terrorists sunbathing in their lunch breaks. Then they whizz round the boring side, close in, dead quick. If you fire two off at about an hour apart, they will both be on the long ellipse nearly all the time and one will still be out there while the other shoots round the Atlantic side :)

I'm watching East Enders to try and get my mind off this. Unfortunately, Dot being conned by a nice young man again is a bit less fascinating than the miracles of space technology and Where Are The Pictures?!

It does seem like I am being a bit of a spoilsport here, and could be proved wrong, I don't actually think anyone will ever know what happened on this flight. I would be surprised if they managed to find much of the aircraft, if any. And even if they do, if it managed to fly for 7 hours before crashing the most useful part of the information in this case - why it turned off its course - would be lost anyway. The cockpit voice recorder records on a continuous loop, overwriting earlier recordings. Normally after a crash the cvr stops recording at that point, and it is possible to retrieve the info. Generally they record for 2 hrs.

There are lots of things that could have happened, but the more far-fetched the theory, the less likely it is to have happened. Wondering who is likely to profit, about the secret cargo, about political fallout - it's all a bit ridiculous. I've flown with a pilot who was on board a very famous flight, he ended up in a very precarious situation and was lucky to emerge from it. There were and still are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding what happened on that flight. I asked him about it once. He was happy to tell me what happened to me, and was quick to put down any conspiracy theories. There was no ulterior motive, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm not going to give away which flight I am referring to, so as not to out me or my colleague.

And if anyone is doubting my credentials....

Ha love the pic!

Someone will come on and say you are just the cleaner though, you know that don't you!

I don't think anything you said there supports or denies your 'credentials' tbh, so I really wouldn't bother trying to establish them, on a public forum.

backinthebox are you allowed to talk on here?

I'm a space elevator engineer. Doctrine & Nancy are my test pilots.

Don't tell them, I'm about to quit this job for life as a Somalian pirate & drugs transport vehicle developer. I was offered the post by an intriguing fellow in dreadlocks, eyeliner and a frilly shirt. It's hot out there.

Don't start talking about Jonny depp or we will get detailed again!

Backinthebox, that's very sad to think that the relatives may never know but hopefully some physical part of the plane will be recovered to give a little more certainty.

"Nah, Doctrine, the elliptical satellites aren't geostationary. "

Yeah, I know - the geostationary are needed for our space elevator though, right?

Telegraph says Americans have sent two fixed wing aircraft for the search.

Cool. Let's hope they find enough of something to allow the relatives their grief.