Malaysian Flight 370

[january 19]

Here is another response from one of the leading experts on impact phenomena, David Morrison of the NASA Ames Research Center:

From Scientific American- July 1997

 

"It is certainly possible for a meteorite to strike a commercial airliner, although the probability is low. We can make a very rough estimate by comparing the area of airliners with the area of cars in the U.S. A typical car has an area on the order of 10 square meters, and there are roughly 100 million cars in the U.S., for a total cross-sectional area of about 1,000 square kilometers. The typical airliner has a cross-sectional area of several hundred square meters, but the number of planes is much smaller than the number of cars, perhaps a few thousand. The total cross-sectional area of airliners is therefore no more than 10 square kilometers, or a factor of at least 100 less than that of cars. Three cars are known to have been struck by meteorites in the U.S. during the past century, so it would appear that the odds are against any airplanes having been hit, but it is not impossible that one might have been.

----------------------------- 

Worth noting that there are many more airplanes flying in 2014 and at higher altitudes for longer durations than when this was published some 17 years ago. And that airplanes now tend to be larger targets! This calculation also relates to the US rather than airplanes worldwide.

january

[fppilot 4,367]

 

 

How many black boxes were on the airliner? There were four "pinger" locations in the current narrow search area alone. They can't ALL be the black box! Which begs the question......are any of them?

 

The locations are where the receiver was at the time the ping was detected, not where the black box was.  Its been factually reported several times in this thread that the sound waves of the pings can travel some distance, based on a variety of environmental conditions.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

 

 

How many black boxes were on the airliner? There were four "pinger" locations in the current narrow search area alone. They can't ALL be the black box! Which begs the question......are any of them?

 

Actually, they can ALL BE the black boxes (there are two onboard; the data and the voice recorders - both of which are outfitted with pingers). Acoustic "bending" due to thermoclines is all too familiar a cause of this very situation. You could have the two pingers separated by some distance that due to bending appear to be four pingers in different locations separated by a significant distance. The towed pinger detector is NOT an accurate device by any measure. It is designed to just get you in the general location (and you are free to define "general"). It is the more sophisticated towed multiple sensor large baseline arrays that are needed to increase the accuracy of pinger location. A submarine's towed, flank or bow arrays would provide the same increase in accuracy. 

The locations are where the receiver was at the time the ping was detected, not where the black box was.  Its been factually reported several times in this thread that the sound waves of the pings can travel some distance, based on a variety of environmental conditions.

 

I was writing my response when you posted this.. That is correct.

[vr-pilot 11]

Wow- I feel a little like how Leonardo Da Vinci may have felt after he proposed the crazy idea that man might someday fly!

 

Hi "january"!

If you would add a valid signature to your posts we would all know that you are not "Leonardo Da Vinci" (JUST KIDDING) :lol:

I actually understand your point very good. For me "impact/explosion" followed by decompression is still the most possible scenario. (see my posts, e.g. March, 17th (p. 10, #238). When it was not an "internal" explosion inside cabin/cargo/electronics bay followed by fire and decompression, THAN an external "source of violence" is most probable:

E.g. a mislead army (training) missile (see "Itavia" flight 870) or a "scraping" near miss (see "GOL" flight 1907) with a military jet could be possible. (This would also explain why MH370 was kept at FL350 by ATC, although a higher level would have been normal for a T7 at this stage of flight, as can also be seen by the repeated transmission of the current FL350 by the F/O; thus implementing the polite form of requesting a higher level).

(Edit: BTW, the "disappearance" just after entering the new airspace is also quite contributing to the suspicion that there could have been a (known) clearance problem for the high altitude airspace...)

The oil rig worker's observation strengthens the probability of an "explosive action" or "impact". Also supporting the theory "explosion/impact followed by decompression": the crew of a preceding MH flight on that route making radio contact with MH370 (as a relay station for HoChiMinh Radar on 121.5, FL120 radio range approx. 116NM) recognized their colleagues' voices, but were unable to understand the "mumbling", probably due to mics not set to oxygen masks in use after/during emergency descent.

So for me, the "meteorite" theory is "ranking in the top area of my list", although it does not explain certain ATC "abnormalities" and government/international diplomatic "secretiveness", like the military jet/missile/training/mission theory would do...

 

Regards,

Claus

 

BTW: probably a small meteorite hit a cockpit window which would not only have made a tiny hole somewhere in the fuselage... ?!

Edited April 23, 2014 by vr-pilot

[Kattz 132]

Tom, I must say that I find the information you've contributed to this thread to be amazing to say the least.  Fascinating.  Thanks! :good:

[fuelpumps 3]

 

 

The towed pinger detector is NOT an accurate device by any measure.

 

Tom. This is correct. While the scientific calculations and analyzed information received may be close to the truth, the investigators are now looking for other possibilities. No, I am not talking about it had been shot down, but the fishermen and residents' accounts who had officially filed their seeing a low aircraft flying on the day MH370 was announced missing in northern Malaysia are being re evaluated.

[atulumello 0]

You guys can talk about meteorites and aliens as much as you want, but IMO it looks like pilot suicide.

[zmak 331]

Here is your answer folks

 

The pilot was committing an act of suicide. 

 

During this act of suicide the aircraft was hit by a meteorite.

 

Thats it, case closed.

[vr-pilot 11]

During this act of suicide the aircraft was hit by a meteorite.

 

 

I think this is called "black humor" also in english. Don't know if it fits in here, as folks try to find and discuss possible causes.

But posts like yours actually show that the almost complete lack of evidence in conjunction with contradictory reports is making every explanation possible as there is nothing elementary existing to prove the contrary (yet). Although your explanation will probably rank among the less plausible...

 

BTW: speaking in "your language", you forgot to mention that aliens nevertheless were able to capture the plane and since then send out puzzling pings to gain some time to find the best explanation of their presence... 

 

Regards,

Claus

[zmak 331]

Absolutely anything is possible. Have a look at this short Vid of a near meteorite miss

 

[goates 576]

Absolutely anything is possible. Have a look at this short Vid of a near meteorite miss

 

 

 

Or that was just a pebble caught in his parachute.

 

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2014/0419-forensic-ballistics.html

[KingGhidorah 209]

 The towed pinger detector is NOT an accurate device by any measure. It is designed to just get you in the general location (and you are free to define

 

This is one of the things that surprised me to learn as a result of this thread.  By having such a generalized device (you pointed out it is strictly omnidirectional)  they end up having to spend millions of dollars more, and countless days, mowing the lawn with additional resources, than it would cost to have an array of pinger locaters that could actually get a specific location no bigger than a football field within minutes of hearing it.  Obviously I spent too much time playing Jane's 688 back in the day, but I had originally just assumed this capability would have been standard fare in this age.

[geedub 15]

Gentlemen,

 

Could it be that the real answer to this particular 'mystery' is more sinister than we simmers dare, or are even able to imagine? What many experts are calling (yet another) "False Flag Alert'? I.e. an engineered event that defies all rational explanation. This one culminated in 'pings' and no hint of wreckage.   

 

Some believe that these and other 'spoof' events could be a prelude to a much greater cataclysmic event that will condition the world to accept a new, 'currently unacceptable' status quo - namely a world government. 

 

Too fanciful?  Maybe? Or is it time to get our Bibles down off the shelf and read, not what we're told, but what it actually says!?  To many, it warns of this very type of outcome. But on the positive side, also explains why it won't happen, and how it will be thwarted. 

 

Just  my opinions; I have no desire to debate them. I put them out there in the common interest.  "The times they are a-changing"          

[pete_auau 1,158]

Some more news  came through  today,  some debris  have been washed ashore 10 kms east of Augusta   south of perth,  debris was handed in the the local police  and now being  sent  for examination to see if it came from the missing  aircraft.  The debris  are said  to pieces of sheet metal with rivets in them more  than I piece were handed in.

[vololiberista 205]

Here is your answer folks

 

The pilot was committing an act of suicide. 

 

During this act of suicide the aircraft was hit by a meteorite.

 

Thats it, case closed.

No it isn't! You forgot to mention that after the meteor strike all passengers and crew were abducted.