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Americans and Australians Believe they have found MH370
After 2 weeks, plus calculations of final location from satecom pings, followed by a satellite search of area has found 2 distinct pieces of potential MH370 debris, and now sorties of a US P-8 and an Aussie P-3. A live abcnews report minutes ago from onboard the P-8, relays that the crew picked up significant radar hits and have taken photos to be analyzed once back. Australian ships are heading out. This is the most promising prospect in finding the missing plane. (www.usatoday.com) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
These days instead of the black box, why can't the info be streamed in real time to land based computers? The information would be available when ever it was needed.
As PhotoFinish already answered, it can. It is expensive, due to bandwidth requirements, and most airlines simply won't wish to incur such extra expense with little return on investment. (This info is easy to Google).
Much data is already transmitted live, when the airline opts for the service. Devices that could be considered "mini-FDRs", called QAR for Quick Access recorder, are used by many airlines. They store a lot of info about flights, they are usually downloaded by Maintenance, and the data analyzed as part of an airline's On-Going Maintenance Procedure. (We call the QAR a "snitch", because it will also record airspeed excursions, such as flap over-speeds, etc).
Recall the Air France flight 447 A330 in the Atlantic, several years ago. The Air France flight operations/maintenance departments received a lot of systems alarms and info then, because they opted for such services.
Much data is already transmitted live, when the airline opts for the service. Devices that could be considered "mini-FDRs", called QAR for Quick Access recorder, are used by many airlines. They store a lot of info about flights, they are usually downloaded by Maintenance, and the data analyzed as part of an airline's On-Going Maintenance Procedure. (We call the QAR a "snitch", because it will also record airspeed excursions, such as flap over-speeds, etc).
Recall the Air France flight 447 A330 in the Atlantic, several years ago. The Air France flight operations/maintenance departments received a lot of systems alarms and info then, because they opted for such services.
Well considering Malaysia Airlines have lost a $261 million dollar plane, have to pay for search and rescue/retrieval efforts and no doubt million dollar law suits into the billions, I'd say that type of live streaming is probably worth it. Pay this end, save that end.
I'm ignorant of the ins and outs of that issue, but wouldn't it have insurance to cover these particular circumstances?
Insurance doesn't cover passengers choosing to avoid the airline in large numbers, resulting in catastrophic financial performance, and the bankruptcy, failure, and/or end of the airline.
PanAm explosion over Lockerbie resulted from the actions of elements external to the airline. Yet the incident did impact bookings for the airline. It made a bad situation worse, resulting in the loss of a pioneer of the skies.
If an incident can take out a legend like PanAm, taking out Malaysia Airlines would certainly be within the scope of the possible. Especially given the extremely bad decision made years before the incident, during the incident, and after the incident during the search and investigation.
PanAm explosion over Lockerbie resulted from the actions of elements external to the airline. Yet the incident did impact bookings for the airline. It made a bad situation worse, resulting in the loss of a pioneer of the skies.
If an incident can take out a legend like PanAm, taking out Malaysia Airlines would certainly be within the scope of the possible. Especially given the extremely bad decision made years before the incident, during the incident, and after the incident during the search and investigation.
I hadn't even considered all of that. OMG
Ella it wouldn't have saved the acft but it might reduce the "locate", time however, if it was a mechanical failure & the acft "went in" then the search would have been over a long time ago as the on board equip would have been working to help locate the acft & most likely the crew would have had time to make a distress call...unless it was sudden & catastrophic, or at the very least the black boxes would have helped searches locate the acft on land or water & it really wouldn't reduce the "liability" though the cost for SAR ops which could be a lot less. This is all presuming it went down near it's intended flight path & not thousands of miles away.
That's what I was getting at, the search and retrieval effort. Currently, this would be costing millions to not only Malaysia but China and Australia. Considering the nature of flight, as safe as it is, not having live streaming is ridiculous.
I say the same for Airline companies cutting corners on anything to do with maintenance and safety. Not scrimping on safety pays dividends when you can keep your 50 odd $260 million dollar planes in the air and prevent law suits, bad publicity and perhaps bankruptcy.
I say the same for Airline companies cutting corners on anything to do with maintenance and safety. Not scrimping on safety pays dividends when you can keep your 50 odd $260 million dollar planes in the air and prevent law suits, bad publicity and perhaps bankruptcy.