• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Wait... we can 'lose' a plane in this day and age?

C

Clair de Lune

Banned
I heard it this morning and heard it in depth on NPR just now.

They're combing the ocean to locate the plane right now and they say it's looking grim. The whole time I was really confused. This is 2009 people. How can we lose a 300-passenger transatlantic plane????

On the mult-million dollar plane, they can't bother to equip one, two or how about three independently operated GPS? They cost like what, a fraction of the whole plane?

I think it's mind boggling that we can't locate a plane in this day and age.
 
It doesn't sound like something particularly difficult, I'm sort of curious as to why airlines don't track their own aircraft now that you bring it up..

Sounds like a large centralized system for tracking all objects in the air would be tricky to organize..

However, I'm sure the military doesn't have this problem, USAF tracks a huge number of objects in space.
 
It's called a transponder. It does everything you want it to do and more. Like your ass vibrator, it's great until you have an electrical problem.
 
What are the chances we had a satellite over the area that caught whatever (picture or video) it was that happened to this plane?
 
Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
What are the chances we had a satellite over the area that caught whatever (picture or video) it was that happened to this plane?
Click to expand...

Considering it was lost in a thunderstorm, I doubt such a satellite would even have captured anything.
 
Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi
What are the chances we had a satellite over the area that caught whatever (picture or video) it was that happened to this plane?
Click to expand...

probably very low.

that's a good question though, if planes carry emergency transponders, like a GPS search and rescue beacon/transponder.

after more research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...cy_Locator_Transmitter
it looks like something that should've worked, but didn't?

EDIT: after reading through the above article, apparently scheduled commercial aviation is not required to carry an ELT
 
Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
I heard it this morning and heard it in depth on NPR just now.

They're combing the ocean to locate the plane right now and they say it's looking grim. The whole time I was really confused. This is 2009 people. How can we lose a 300-passenger transatlantic plane????

On the mult-million dollar plane, they can't bother to equip one, two or how about three independently operated GPS? They cost like what, a fraction of the whole plane?

I think it's mind boggling that we can't locate a plane in this day and age.
Click to expand...

It always amazes me when people really think this way. The atlantic ocean is HUGE. The oceans are huge. We lose at least one HUGE commercial shipping per month on the oceans.

As for this flight, you had a transatlantic flight that had an unknown caused electrical failure while in a storm. If you had a catestrophic failure of your electrical system and even the pilots didn't have time to radio their situation, what technology do you think we have that would pinpoint the crash wrekage hours later?

 
Originally posted by: bsobel
Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
I heard it this morning and heard it in depth on NPR just now.

They're combing the ocean to locate the plane right now and they say it's looking grim. The whole time I was really confused. This is 2009 people. How can we lose a 300-passenger transatlantic plane????

On the mult-million dollar plane, they can't bother to equip one, two or how about three independently operated GPS? They cost like what, a fraction of the whole plane?

I think it's mind boggling that we can't locate a plane in this day and age.
Click to expand...

It always amazes me when people really think this way. The atlantic ocean is HUGE. The oceans are huge. We lose at least one HUGE commercial shipping per month on the oceans.

As for this flight, you had a transatlantic flight that had an unknown caused electrical failure while in a storm. If you had a catestrophic failure of your electrical system and even the pilots didn't have time to radio their situation, what technology do you think we have that would pinpoint the crash wrekage hours later?
Click to expand...

They have indepedently operating blackbox. Why can't they have an independently operating GPS/transponder/plane-locator?
 
Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
Originally posted by: bsobel
Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
I heard it this morning and heard it in depth on NPR just now.

They're combing the ocean to locate the plane right now and they say it's looking grim. The whole time I was really confused. This is 2009 people. How can we lose a 300-passenger transatlantic plane????

On the mult-million dollar plane, they can't bother to equip one, two or how about three independently operated GPS? They cost like what, a fraction of the whole plane?

I think it's mind boggling that we can't locate a plane in this day and age.
Click to expand...

It always amazes me when people really think this way. The atlantic ocean is HUGE. The oceans are huge. We lose at least one HUGE commercial shipping per month on the oceans.

As for this flight, you had a transatlantic flight that had an unknown caused electrical failure while in a storm. If you had a catestrophic failure of your electrical system and even the pilots didn't have time to radio their situation, what technology do you think we have that would pinpoint the crash wrekage hours later?
Click to expand...

They have indepedently operating blackbox. Why can't they have an independently operating GPS/transponder/plane-locator?
Click to expand...

The black box has a locator beacon. The problem is finding it. The Atlantic ocean is 41.1 million square miles. The beacons cover a radius at most of a few miles because of battery power issues.
 
They have indepedently operating blackbox. Why can't they have an independently operating GPS/transponder/plane-locator?
Click to expand...

I'd have to check the a300, but they most likely have at least 2. You need to understand their are failure scenarios that involve no time for anything to occur. Flights can have structural failure due to design, use/misuse, terrorism, etc. In those cases there simply isn't time for anything to happen.

As for this case, there simply is no usefull information yet to cause and likely wont be for months to years. Thats the nature of these cases.

Bill
 
Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
Originally posted by: bsobel
Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
I heard it this morning and heard it in depth on NPR just now.

They're combing the ocean to locate the plane right now and they say it's looking grim. The whole time I was really confused. This is 2009 people. How can we lose a 300-passenger transatlantic plane????

On the mult-million dollar plane, they can't bother to equip one, two or how about three independently operated GPS? They cost like what, a fraction of the whole plane?

I think it's mind boggling that we can't locate a plane in this day and age.
Click to expand...

It always amazes me when people really think this way. The atlantic ocean is HUGE. The oceans are huge. We lose at least one HUGE commercial shipping per month on the oceans.

As for this flight, you had a transatlantic flight that had an unknown caused electrical failure while in a storm. If you had a catestrophic failure of your electrical system and even the pilots didn't have time to radio their situation, what technology do you think we have that would pinpoint the crash wrekage hours later?
Click to expand...

They have indepedently operating blackbox. Why can't they have an independently operating GPS/transponder/plane-locator?
Click to expand...

I think they do. And it sounds like it broke.
 
Btw, the difficulting of determing what happened while at sea is part of the reason for the aledged plot to blow up flights from asia to the US...
 
Originally posted by: Homerboy
how well do those beacons work until 2 mile of water?
Click to expand...

There are beacons designed to be deployed if the aircraft ditches, but its not likely this flight got that far in a controlled descent.

I think the Hudson river landing made people think that fligts were always saveable now. Even in that flight the crew screwed up (they never closed the ditch switches, causing the plane to start sinking faster than it should have).
 
I understand that the transponder and all the other wonderful gizmos on that plane stopped when (if) it got struck by lightning and that somehow knocked out all 4 independent electrical systems (3 backup systems!!!).
But WTF! The transponder worked for 4 hours before. They don't keep track where a @#$% plane is? They should have at least a "last know location" 5 minutes or 10 minutes before this happened.

Now they are looking near the coast of LatAm but the guy in charge already said that the flight might actually have gone down close to Africa. WTF! That is a little ways off.
 
Originally posted by: coolVariable
I understand that the transponder and all the other wonderful gizmos on that plane stopped when (if) it got struck by lightning and that somehow knocked out all 4 independent electrical systems (3 backup systems!!!).
But WTF! The transponder worked for 4 hours before. They don't keep track where a @#$% plane is? They should have at least a "last know location" 5 minutes or 10 minutes before this happened.

Now they are looking near the coast of LatAm but the guy in charge already said that the flight might actually have gone down close to Africa. WTF! That is a little ways off.
Click to expand...

There is no radar coverage in that part of the atlantic.
 
Originally posted by: coolVariable
I understand that the transponder and all the other wonderful gizmos on that plane stopped when (if) it got struck by lightning and that somehow knocked out all 4 independent electrical systems (3 backup systems!!!).
But WTF! The transponder worked for 4 hours before. They don't keep track where a @#$% plane is? They should have at least a "last know location" 5 minutes or 10 minutes before this happened.

Now they are looking near the coast of LatAm but the guy in charge already said that the flight might actually have gone down close to Africa. WTF! That is a little ways off.
Click to expand...

So the plane fell straight down as soon as the electronics went out? It could have glided 50 or 60 miles if it lost engines at the same time. It may have just lost electronics and been flying blind in which case it would have 8 - 10 hours of flying blind. It might have lost just one engine along with electronics so it would be able to go for 6 hours of flying blind. Maybe it lost some of its controls so the pilots struggled for a few hours but couldn't keep it in the air. Maybe it broke up while in the air and scattered debris over 50 square miles or open ocean and most of the largest pieces sank within minutes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top