After a Decade of Dead Ends, $70 Million Rides on Locating Flight MH370 (theguardian.com) 26
More than a decade after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished over the Indian Ocean en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the marine robotics company that located Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance is preparing to resume its hunt for the missing Boeing 777. Ocean Infinity, a UK and US-based seabed survey firm, began searching a 15,000 sq km priority area in the Indian Ocean in February but called off the expedition in April after 22 days due to poor weather conditions.
The company plans to resume operations on December 30 for 55 days under a $70 million "no find, no fee" contract from the Malaysian government. The company has already covered nearly 10,000 sq km and intends to search another 25,000 sq km. Richard Godfrey, an independent aviation investigator, estimates Ocean Infinity has spent "tens of millions of dollars" on ships and equipment. "I don't think they're in this for the monetary reward of $70m, because this search is very, very expensive," Godfrey says. "I think they're in this for the achievement and their ability to market themselves as the greatest underwater-search firm in the world because they found MH370."
The search relies on Hugin 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles capable of mapping the ocean floor at depths up to 6,000 metres using sonar, laser, and acoustic technology. Each AUV can operate independently for 100 hours before surfacing. The machines carry magnetometers that can detect metal buried under several metres of sediment. The story adds: One of the biggest challenges Ocean Infinity faces is the risk of being very close to the MH370 wreckage and missing it because of difficult terrain or gaps in the survey data.
The company plans to resume operations on December 30 for 55 days under a $70 million "no find, no fee" contract from the Malaysian government. The company has already covered nearly 10,000 sq km and intends to search another 25,000 sq km. Richard Godfrey, an independent aviation investigator, estimates Ocean Infinity has spent "tens of millions of dollars" on ships and equipment. "I don't think they're in this for the monetary reward of $70m, because this search is very, very expensive," Godfrey says. "I think they're in this for the achievement and their ability to market themselves as the greatest underwater-search firm in the world because they found MH370."
The search relies on Hugin 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles capable of mapping the ocean floor at depths up to 6,000 metres using sonar, laser, and acoustic technology. Each AUV can operate independently for 100 hours before surfacing. The machines carry magnetometers that can detect metal buried under several metres of sediment. The story adds: One of the biggest challenges Ocean Infinity faces is the risk of being very close to the MH370 wreckage and missing it because of difficult terrain or gaps in the survey data.
how hard is it to fake an black box with data? (Score:2)
how hard is it to fake an black box with data?
Re:how hard is it to fake an black box with data? (Score:5, Interesting)
They're not retrieving anything, that I am aware of. All they are looking for is the plane itself which is most likely made more difficult because if the plane went into the ocean like a rock, there won't be much of it to find. Pieces scattered over who knows how many square miles.
If it was a "controlled" splash, meaning the pilot somehow glided the plane across the surface, such as on the Hudson River or the one which happened years earlier just off some resort (which I can't find), then you should have large enough pieces to be detected, assuming they're not hidden by undersea hills or mountains or fell into crevasses.
As for the black boxes, at this point no data should be retrievable. The salt water most likely damaged the recordings beyond recovery. Unless, by some quirk, the boxes are still sealed in which case we may finally have some answers.
As to faking the data, these folks wouldn't touch it. They would pass it over to Malaysian authorities. What happens from there is anyone's guess. I am certain other countries and outside experts would want a look as well so faking the data should be out of the question.
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... such as on the Hudson River or the one which happened years earlier just off some resort (which I can't find), then you should have large enough pieces to be detected, assuming they're not hidden by undersea hills or mountains or fell into crevasses.
Seriously, you couldn't find this? Did you try the terms "hudson river plane crash"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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I did miss the word "or" - he was referring to two different flights.
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No, not Lion Air. There was one where the video was taken from the beach. The plane came in from left to right in the picture and the right wing seemed to buckle. I want to say the plane had an orange color scheme.
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Ah, I missed the word "or". Which explains my puzzlement about not previously hearing that the "Miracle on the Hudson" flight had ditched near a resort!
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I thought things were getting bad enough with the kids these days who start reading in the middle of the sentences, or get tired and give up before they get to the end.
Skipping over the middle bit and only reading the beginning and the end of a sentence, though. That's a new one.
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If it was a "controlled" splash, meaning the pilot somehow glided the plane across the surface
This gave me something to ponder ... in practice what would a suicidal pilot, when descending to the ocean after running out of fuel (I assume he waited til that point), do? Would he glide it like a skipper rock across a pond, or go steep and fast?
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They're not retrieving anything, that I am aware of. All they are looking for is the plane itself which is most likely made more difficult because if the plane went into the ocean like a rock, there won't be much of it to find. Pieces scattered over who knows how many square miles. If it was a "controlled" splash, meaning the pilot somehow glided the plane across the surface, such as on the Hudson River or the one which happened years earlier just off some resort (which I can't find), then you should have large enough pieces to be detected, assuming they're not hidden by undersea hills or mountains or fell into crevasses. As for the black boxes, at this point no data should be retrievable. The salt water most likely damaged the recordings beyond recovery. Unless, by some quirk, the boxes are still sealed in which case we may finally have some answers.
They vacuumed up Swissair 111 and TWA 800 and many others even in millions of tiny bits. And Air France 447's flight recorders were in the ocean for 2 years before they were recovered. If/when they find that one piece that tells them they are in the right general area the rest will come together quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:how hard is it to fake an black box with data? (Score:5, Insightful)
The fate of that plane cannot be described as "gliding the plane across the surface". It stalled and belly flopped after the pilots learned that they didn't know how to fly a plane without computer assistance.
If they find where it went down, and they can find the CVR, they'll likely be able to pull the data.
How useful that data is for anything is another questional altogether, since the plane flew long enough after the Gulf of Thailand for its CVR to loop over itself. The FDR however holds 24h of data, so we'll be able to infer what the fuck happened, even if we can't listen to it.
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Yea
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At the same time $70M doesn't get put on the line for anything without a pack of lawyers wiring up a contract and conditions both parties agree to.
Malaysia and Ocean Infinity have contracted terms of what constitutes "finding" means here. At the same clip they could find it and Malaysia simply not pay, "satellites show their ship stopped here for longer than usual, let's just look there ourselves".
It's on the island from "Lost". (Score:1)
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SpaceX starship probably sitting on top (Score:2)
They won't find it (Score:1)
They're looking in the wrong area.
EVERYONE KNOWS the Russians did it.
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by now that one all ready went to the chop shop the market for aircraft parts is big.
MH370 victim families deserve closure (Score:2)
it's not lost it detoured (Score:2)