China Deploys Satellites In Search For Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 142
EwanPalmer writes "China has begun using its orbiting satellites in a bid to find the missing Malaysian Airlines flight. The Xi'an Satellite Monitor and Control Center is said to have launched an emergency response to search for Flight MH370 after it went off radar over the South China Sea in the early hours of Saturday. The center is reported to have adjusted up to 10 of its high-res satellites to help search for the plane."
Check small airports (Score:2, Insightful)
Sometimes big airliners can get lost at those.
Re:Thoughts (Score:2, Insightful)
I was thinking about this yesterday. Doesn't the vast majority of modern aviation tracking radar systems depend pretty heavily, not just for identification but for returns at all at at long distances, on the planes own IFFtransponders for replies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... [wikipedia.org]
Could it not "drop off" the long range radar simply by turning off it's transponder? At that distance the radar return might be low enough that without the transponder response, it'd "disappear"...
Re:Why then the crews never made any distress call (Score:4, Insightful)
Could it be that when emergency strike the crews panicked and started praying on their knees to their Allah and forgot to call for help ??
No. As my flight instructor told me, fly the plane first and if you have time, talk on the radio. If they where busy with multiple system failures the first task is to get control of the aircraft. If you don't have the aircraft under control, talking on the radio is the absolute WRONG thing to be doing unless there is time. ATC is required to ask you all sorts of useless questions and if you are struggling to control your aircraft the last thing you want or need is another distraction. "Nature of your emergency?" "Number of souls on board?" "What are your intentions?" Now if they can help you by suggesting the nearest airport, clearing the runway, getting the fire trucks rolling or getting search and rescue started by all means, get on the radio, but the first thing you do is FLY THE AIRPLANE.