Malaysia Airlines MH370

Does anyone know the ocean's approximate depth in the region that they're looking?

Yes, underwater. That is 100% correct.

Was thinking, seems like it could be some James Cameron-type deep water.

13k ft ocean depths in the Indian Ocean but there are large ridges.

I bet Abbott has a massive chub over being able to say WE DID THIS, the little shit.

IOW lol. i wouldn't be too bothered, it's a deflection ploy

OTM.

I bet Abbott has a massive chub over being able to say WE DID THIS, the little shit.

cross post with too much time on ilx thread (not knowing, I assume, Australian politics?)

y

yeah I was really confused for a minute there

OMG yes sorry I meant Tones Abbott not our beloved Abb!

cross post with too much time on ilx thread

lol same here

The 2 large pieces of debris ID'd on satellite were nowhere to be seen by sea and air after 2 days of searching. Officials believe they may have sunk.

or landed on an underwater runway

underwater runway lands on you :(

really thought we had something there with the underwater runways.

that's a very mellifluous phrase, "underwater runways"

it's the twin assonances, "un/run" and "wa/wa"

tell your favorite rapper

oh great now I have "oh well I feel so good today / we touched ground on an underwater runway" in my head

oh god is this thread the reason why i've been singing underwater moonlight to myself all week?

Just in: Chinese satellites received images of a floating object in the southern corridor, measuring about 22.5m x 13m. Chinese govt to announce more details in a couple of hours.

thank you for all the excellent updates, roz. i'm very sorry you have friends on the plane.

satellite photos quite close to where the debris was sighted
if they find the flight data recorder in that ocean it will be quite an achievement

thanks for the kind words, estela. it's part of my job anyway... I've been covering this for 13 days straight now.

Chinese govt didn't release much info in the end (no surprises there) - there was supposed to be a press briefing but it was too late, so they just issued a short statement. basically the usual... we found a thing, we're sending ships to the thing, but the thing probably sunk or drifted away already. :/

:/

Our PM Najib Razak will be holding a last minute press conference at 10 pm (a little less than an hour from now).

Actual news, I hope. Can't imagine him announcing something this late unless it's important.

PM Najib: New satellite data concludes that MH370's journey ended in the southern Indian Ocean, west of Perth, away from any landing points. Assumed to be no survivors.

Of course we knew this already, but I'm still incredibly sad right now.

sorry roz. :/

I still kind of can't believe this entire horrible story.

Fucking hell

does the now-presumed crash area tie in with the previous evidence of deliberate course change? i've lost track

Yes.

damn

sorry

They seriously broke this to the families by text message?

Classy

brutal :(

yeah, I have no idea what the fuck is wrong with MAS' communications team. I know some of the families wanted to be informed of any developments by text, but for this, you would think they'd have been better prepared. like how difficult would it have been to assemble their caregivers and given them a quick script to call families with? jfc

well then, the Internet strikes again.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjgMmFBCAAAewmb.jpg

What are the chances of finding the blackbox/data recorder? Should still be pinging.

How far away can floating debris drift in 2 weeks?

A long long LONG way

What are the chances of finding the blackbox/data recorder? Should still be pinging.

― Jeff, Monday, March 24, 2014 11:34 AM (17 minutes ago)

I believe the black box has a powersource to ping for 30 days after losing power after an "event", #underwater.

wikipedia appears to indicate that current speeds in the hundreds of km/day are reasonable. so Tom D. otm.

So, not trying to detract or anything but in a way:

http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/we_aint_found_shit.gif ?

I'm still so confused as to how the aircraft could have ended up that far south west of Perth.

if you look at the flight path that they're now speculating, the thing made a U turn, flew over loads of actual land, straight into the ocean and crashed. it's fucking bizarre.

My paper's frontpage today got me a little choked up:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1480593_10152335611023466_1629762008_n.jpg

:(

Aviation experts: is it possible for the pilots or anyone else onboard to disable the voice or flight-data recorders as the transponders were?

on silkair 185 the the pilot disabled the voice recorder

roz that cover is ;_;

fitting tribute

damn this whole thing is so sad and weird

i couldn't stop crying after the press conference yesterday. It wasn't just the families - a lot of reporters, some who have covered much bigger disasters, broke down. Part of it was the exhaustion, but mostly I think everyone had held on to that tiny bit of hope that there might be survivors. even though we knew there couldn't have been any. :(

it IS weird... so many unanswered questions still. How the fuck did the plane end up so far away from where it was going, for one.

Did they actually find pieces of the the plane or are they just sick of speculation? It seems they don't have any real evidence that it went down, unless i've missed something.