And the mystery continues--- new info.....
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Search area grows larger - CNN.com
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Search area grows larger - CNN.com
Flight MH370
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Here's something I do not understand.
The news said the black box (which apparently is orange) was turned off. When it was turned if, it no longer shows up on radar. What?? If a country is at war, do the planes from the other side keep black boxes to be traced? This makes no sense to me. But they said that was the first thing the terrorists did on 9-11 as well...turned off the black boxes.
The news said the black box (which apparently is orange) was turned off. When it was turned if, it no longer shows up on radar. What?? If a country is at war, do the planes from the other side keep black boxes to be traced? This makes no sense to me. But they said that was the first thing the terrorists did on 9-11 as well...turned off the black boxes.
I think you are confusing transponders and black boxes..........
From the NY Times:
"Q. Shouldn’t the signals from transponders or “black boxes” have pinpointed the aircraft by now?
A. If the black boxes are in water, “pingers,” which emit a tone, are activated. But these are audible only in a limited area. And the plane may not be in the water.
The aircraft’s transponder, which signals its identity to other aircraft and to monitors on the ground, apparently stopped functioning about 40 minutes after takeoff, which is why the plane no longer appeared on the radar screens of ground controllers."
Think of it this way, the black box is more of an information storage device while the transponder is more of a signaling device.
From the NY Times:
"Q. Shouldn’t the signals from transponders or “black boxes” have pinpointed the aircraft by now?
A. If the black boxes are in water, “pingers,” which emit a tone, are activated. But these are audible only in a limited area. And the plane may not be in the water.
The aircraft’s transponder, which signals its identity to other aircraft and to monitors on the ground, apparently stopped functioning about 40 minutes after takeoff, which is why the plane no longer appeared on the radar screens of ground controllers."
Think of it this way, the black box is more of an information storage device while the transponder is more of a signaling device.
If transponder is separate they may have meant that....but the reporter. said black box.
They are separate things, but it is an easy mistake to make. Heck, I'm certainly learning a lot about what goes on in the sky. I never thought that the engines of some these planes send out signals to the manufacturer letting them know how they are "feeling".....
The little I know...having been a radar operator. There is a device called a 'transponder'. Years ago this was that I write about and technology has been ever-changing...but the transponder turned on, when a radar 'interrogated' the transponder signal, that radar was provided with information. No information sent suggested that the radar blip was a 'foe'. We called it IFF (identification friend/foe). I imagine the civilian transponders are the same...turned on, they provide info to other searching electronic devices, information we've heard, altitude, speed, direction. A transponder is also the device that a pilot, in the event of a hijacking, can use to "tell" others of the hijacking. A signal is sent and the signal is understood to mean one thing...hijacking...or maybe a loss of comms. Sounds like there are other devices on planes...that pinging from the engines to Rolls Royce...and too, there was talk about various things being turned off...so perhaps some of the equipment, to turn it off, takes some doing. I suspect the hijackers had the pilot, or they did themselves, turn off the transponder that might have already been pinging the code for hijacking...but once off it no longer was sending that code...in the case of 9/11. That's why...I suspect anyway...that that unidentified radar return heading west, musta been, coulda been the jet, the transponder turned off, no longer sending out information as to its identity. Years ago, we'd be sitting there watching the screen, you could turn a knob, interrogate a radar return, and a larger blip would show on the screen. I recall having to look up a number to learn the name...the USS Kitty Hawk maybe...of this once, a radar return comes sweeping fast across the screen...thought it was a low-flying object...turned out to be the Pegasus...this...hydro-foil ship. Heh! They had a five minute Sea & Anchor Detail...a pain...going in and out of port, for larger ships...the Pegasus just zipped in and out like a speedboat. I thought the 'black box' recorded instrument data, voice data and the like...dunno if it actually sends information...simply records it?
A plane would still appear on radar with the transponder off...it would simply be an unidentified blip on radar.
But what use is radar if the enemy can just switch off what it tracks?
In movies the US marines gets blips on their radar from UFO's. UFO's have trackers on? And enemy planes have trackers on? But in a commercial plane...it gets shut off.
This world is to weird.
In movies the US marines gets blips on their radar from UFO's. UFO's have trackers on? And enemy planes have trackers on? But in a commercial plane...it gets shut off.
This world is to weird.
Thank you Walter. You make more sense then the multiple talking heads I've been watching.
(didn't see your reply before my last post)
(didn't see your reply before my last post)
The advantage of a transponder is that it identifies to the other 'friendlies' over the horizon that the image on radar is a friend. No 'identity' suggests the radar return is a 'foe'. I don't know how stealthy the new fighter jets/bombers are...but other than U.F.O.s, they are the only airborne vehicle I'm aware of that can possibly pass undetected by radar. But thinking about this now...say like when the 9/11 hijackers took over the planes...those jets' transponders should have been squawking a hijacking...all it takes, I believe, is for the pilot to turn a knob...and if they did that...alarms should have been ringing, lights flashing, so on so forth. But then that just leads to more disgusting thoughts. Sure, those hijackers knew enough to turn off the transponder that was squawking a code for a hijacking...so unless someone was watching, the warning disappeared...but seems like bells & whistles would have still been alarming watchers. Maybe with the ease of getting into the cockpits the pilots didn't have time to turn the knobs.
Like Walter said above, the plane or objects (flocks of birds for example) would still show up on radar. The transponder lets anyone know who is tracking it what the plane's ID is. So any military will know that the craft is a commercial liner and not a threat.......(until 911 that is....).
I didn't see his reply before my last post. My IPad and SKMB are not getting along well this week.
Getting a headache from them. Gotta go.
Getting a headache from them. Gotta go.
This is getting downright freaky- The Andama Islands are included in one of the theories of a landing sight. Now this.....
5.5 magnitude earthquake strikes off Andaman and Nicobar Islands
By CNN Staff
updated 10:57 AM EDT, Fri March 14, 2014
(CNN) -- A 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck in the sea off India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Friday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no tsunami warning was immediately issued.
The quake happened in the south Andaman Sea about 110 kilometers southeast of Mohean on Katchal Island, one of the Nicobar Islands, the USGS said.
Though the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are Indian territory, they are on the eastern edge of the Bay of Bengal and are closer to other nations, including Indonesia and Myanmar.
5.5 magnitude earthquake strikes off Andaman and Nicobar Islands
By CNN Staff
updated 10:57 AM EDT, Fri March 14, 2014
(CNN) -- A 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck in the sea off India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Friday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no tsunami warning was immediately issued.
The quake happened in the south Andaman Sea about 110 kilometers southeast of Mohean on Katchal Island, one of the Nicobar Islands, the USGS said.
Though the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are Indian territory, they are on the eastern edge of the Bay of Bengal and are closer to other nations, including Indonesia and Myanmar.
Been listening to what Diane Sawyer has been saying on ABC World News and now the 'experts' are saying that they have 'pings' from this plane 4 hours after it went missing, this means that it could have flown anywhere in an area as big as the US! I'm thinking terrorists here. They also said that the pings indicate that the plane changed altitude at least once, which means someone is flying it, but in a somewhat erratic way, perhaps to try to hide where it was headed?
This is so weird that no scenario seems to make sense. It seems kind of unlikely that someone would land a plane, the refuel it and try to take off again to use the plane for terrorism. They would have used it days ago when it was already in the air. Plus, you don't just land a plane like that on a dirt strip in the middle of the jungle. A plane like that has to have a very large area to land. No matter what the answer turns out to be, it's very strange. If it was highjacked and purposely crashed, why isn't anyone taking credit for it?
Perhaps it's not been crashed and the terrorists are holding all of the people hostage and waiting for the right moment to let the world know what they've done. They've had four days to disperse said people to various locations, so this way if the police find them (the terrorists) they won't be able to find the hostages in all of these different locales? It really just doesn't make any sense that if the plane crashed that, so far, there have been no reports or sightings of debries anywhere. How can that be assuming that there's got to be alot of satellites aimed at that part of the world right now?
I was watching the news on BBC1 this morning. Link here. BBC News - Missing Malaysia Airlines plane 'deliberately diverted'
Also, they had an aviation expert on. Apparently, if the plane was hijacked in an attempt to procure money (I'm pretty sure he said the average passenger plane is insured for £50 million quid) this information would not "be in the public domain". The news caster said SURELY it would have leaked out by now. I know it sounds odd, but I haven't even seen any news footage of relatives of the passengers on the television.
Also, they had an aviation expert on. Apparently, if the plane was hijacked in an attempt to procure money (I'm pretty sure he said the average passenger plane is insured for £50 million quid) this information would not "be in the public domain". The news caster said SURELY it would have leaked out by now. I know it sounds odd, but I haven't even seen any news footage of relatives of the passengers on the television.
M
mjs9153
Guest
I have seen some footage of relatives and they appear confused and frustrated,as you would expect..kingrice,it does seem odd that nothing is turning up,but you have to consider the vastness of the area,from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean,and the possible area it could be in..imagine it is like trying to find the head of a pin on a football field,or maybe even a larger scale.Also,if it turned over and drove straight into the ocean at hundreds of mph,well there just may not be much to find..very sad.. if it was a hijacking for ransom,would think some contact from the bad guys would have been attempted by now,and coordinating the housing and other details of hiding the people and the jet would have generated some cell or radio traffic which they should be able to trace..
I agree. IF it was being held for ransom somewhere, I find it hard to believe we've not heard anything. But apparently, (according to the expert I saw on the news), this is the norm. Likened it to Somalian pirate situations and said about the amount of times boats are "kidnapped" and us general public know nothing, is fairly frequent. But all those people, wouldn't SOMEONE have called a loved one, or a relative? I think you are right mjs153, I fear "bits" will start turning up soon. It's a heck of an area they're searching.