Hellobee Boards

When I first heard of this I thought of that show "Lost".....

It is really sad though. I hope they can get it resolved soon!

DH mentioned this to me the other day and it sounded SUPER fishy... Like almost terrorist fishy. Here's hoping the families can find closure...

@snowjewelz: The last big one was Brazil to France. I was impressed that they were able to locate parts so quickly in such a vast part of the ocean.

I keep checking for updates and reading the same info over and over again. I really hope they find or figure this out.

@Ginabean3: I have been thinking about 'Lost', too.

I asked a friend who is an aeronautical engineer about it yesterday. She said the most likely scenario is that there was a decompression issue and the plane fell apart very quickly, no time for a distress call. So sad that there is no answer yet!

I am fascinated by this situation - I just can't believe that in this day and age there isn't automatic electronic "calls" or alerts sent out if a plane diverts from it's course (either from human intervention or weather/atmosphere). I guess I just assumed that planes had some sort of super beefed-up "on star" type capabilities.

@Ginabean - all I can think is "Lost" too!

So sad

It is strange though, that the two missing passports were bought at the same time and one went on to Frankfurt and the other to another place. If it was illegal immigration and a family wouldn't they want to end up in the same spot?

I'm not sure it is terrorism because it doesn't make sense. But planes don't just disappear either. So it is all just strange.

The stolen passports just add to the sadness of this story. The family members of the passengers who used those passports will probably never know their loved ones' fates, even if wreckage is found.

@snowjewelz: As someone in the industry, it's really interesting to hear how non-fliers perceive aviation! I'm no Sully but I'll attempt to explain...

First of all, I don't think they disappeared without a trace. I think the plane, or what's left of it anyway, is underwater somewhere.

My husband, also a pilot, thinks it exploded (either from a bomb on board or from an external source) and scattered everywhere, making the bits really hard to find. He doesn't think it was decompression because even with the worst case scenario of explosive decompression, the pilots would have had plenty of time to make some kind of distress radio call (being that they were at 35,000 or so when they "disappeared").

(Decompression is caused by cracks in the skin of the plane usu due to age of the plane and/or poor maintenance. Explosive decompression is different from a slow leak in that a large chunk of the skin explodes out at once, as in the case of the Aloha flight many years ago. But even then, the pilots landed the plane.. just with a big chunk of the fuselage exposed. This is one of the reasons why you should always keep your seat belt fastened even when seated!)

There is something called the emergency locator transmitter on planes that sends out a distress signal if they crash on impact. However, I have never flown overseas so I don't know if this equipment is even required or used in airlines in that part of the world. I don't see why they wouldn't but I don't know. Plus, the ELT is installed in the tail which they say is typically more likely to stay intact so there's a chance it may not go off. And lastly, if the plane did explode, the ELT would have simply disintegrated along with the rest of the plane without ever having had a chance to transmit any signals. It's not made with crazy tough material like the black box is.

There's also something called a transponder that during the course of a normal flight, is "talking" to the air traffic facilities on the ground, transmitting information such as altitude. The transponder's signals is what enables air traffic controllers to see the plane on a radar scope. But radar is limited by line of sight (curvature of earth and whatnot). So this transponder "talking" doesn't happen on overwater flights. Those controllers cannot "see" you. Instead, they are verbally informed of the plane's position via the pilot's periodic radio transmission. So if a pilot doesn't or cannot make a radio call due to some huge emergency, the controller could only guess as to their current position from their old position, expected route of flight, and time elapsed.

So, those are probably the reasons why you might see experts say that it's not that hard for a big modern plane to "disappear." I hope it wasn't too jargon-y!

so sad.

@Meow: very interesting!

Whatever happened, this is so, so sad.

@Meow: thank you so much for all that info!

@Dandelion: I guess it just doesn't seem that unbelievable to me because...well, it's the ocean. Which is obviously huge, way bigger than a plane! I hope they find it soon so that those families have some closure, but it seems to me that it almost has to be in pieces at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.

It boggles my mind.... I feel so badly for those left behind without answers

@Meow: Wow, thank you for explaining all of that. Very informative!!

@snowjewelz: I made the mistake of reading a reddit thread last night about this flight and came across a link to a site that posts transcripts of last words from plane crashes. I'm happy I didn't listen to the recordings, just reading the transcripts was horrible enough for me!