
MH370 Debris Storm - curtis
http://jeffwise.net/2016/03/10/mh370-debris-storm/
======
steve19
"Given that after nearly two years only a single piece of debris had
heretofore been found, it’s extraordinary that in the span of less than two
weeks three pieces of possible MH370 debris have come to light."

I would think that would be expected. I would expect more than once piece
would be carried by the same currents that deposited the first piece.

Additionally, now that people know where to look, they will be on the lookout.
Nobody Venice Beach, California, for example, is on the lookout for plane
debris, while I bet everyone on the Mozambique coast is.

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hackuser
What's more likely:

1) Missing pieces of a plane that disapeared and probably crashed in an
unknown location in the Indian Ocean suddenly turn up near each other, lacking
barnacles, etc.

2) Someone is sick enough to perpetrate a fraud to get attention or for other
reasons.

In the case of very unlikely events, #2 is unfortunately always a serious
alternative hypothesis.

~~~
aaron695
> Someone is sick enough to perpetrate a fraud to get attention or for other
> reasons.

The entire interest in the 370 is purely entertainment.

Missing planes, who's occupants are dead and we can learn nothing from are
much more interesting than poor African kids, who are yet to, but will die of
simple stoppable issues.

If someone faked this picture it's no more sick than this original interest.
(And also unlikely, it's a boring punk)

~~~
Arnt
As a software developer, I really appreciate the work the airlines and
authorities put in after each accident.

I've read a couple of reports. Quite apart from the issue of saving people's
lives, it's good to see the work of someone who someone takes bugs
_seriously_. They never seem to say "let's see if it happens again", "maybe it
was a one-off, let's reboot" or "let's upgrade, maybe it's fixed in the latest
version".

The report I read most recently described a chain of seven mistakes and other
problems, described which ones combined and how, discussed how each of the
seven could be prevented and/or made less likely, whether each of the actions
was likely to be a net improvement, and finally made recommendations.

IMO, those of us who work with bugs should read one of those reports every so
often, just to see/remind us how an unlimited-resources, all-dials-at-11
incident post mortem looks.

~~~
diskcat
My question is why is it that this level of diligence is applied to the civil
aviation industry, and not to something like cars and buses which kill way
more people per distance travelled.

My guess would be it's because people like to blame somebody else. If it's a
plane then there are large organisations to blame i.e. the airline and the
manufacturer. While with cars almost always the blame is with the driver i.e.
the people. When it's a manufacturer's fault however nobody bats an eye if
they have to recall 500,000 cars to install something that would decrease the
risk by 1/10th the amount if everybody uses seatbelts.

~~~
cstross
Aviation industry accident investigation practices were adopted from the
railway industry. Back in the mid-to-late 19th century, train accidents killed
about as many travellers per capita as road traffic accidents in the 1950s. So
the industry adopted a set of principles: no-blame impartial accident
enquiries managed by an independent board who would deliver a report on the
causes of the accident along with recommendations for best practice to avoid
it recurring. Upshot: rail passenger travel is now by far the safest form of
land travel.

Bear in mind that a Boeing 777 like the one that went missing on flight MH370
costs on the order of $200M. You then have potential liability for the
passengers (if the airline made culpable/criminal mistakes) of maybe $2-4M per
head, for up to 400 pax on a 777 -- they're _big_ (MH370 had only 239 people
on board) and you're looking at a billion dollar accident. The airlines and
manufacturers thus have a huge incentive not to let this happen again.

(Compare to a car accident: 90% or thereabouts are down to human error, and
the vast majority of fatal ones "only" involve a couple of deaths, capping the
potential liability two orders of magnitude lower.)

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imaginenore
If these pieces were on the shore for a while, it's normal that you won't find
any barnacles on them. Walk on any beach that isn't regularly cleaned, you
will find all kinds of marine garbage - pieces of plastic, rope, never any
barnacles.

They do look suspiciously clean - 2 years in salt water under the sun. But I
have no idea how good airplane paint is in resisting to either.

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sakopov
Wasn't part of the tail end found almost a year ago? It was such a convincing
report and the odds that the part came off MH370 were very high. But then it
got quiet and fell into the abyss. I don't want to dive into conspiracy
theories here but something just doesn't seem right with this crash. Either
there are plenty of hoaxers out there or something bigger is happening.

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yeukhon
If we do find the plane, do we expect to find any human remains there? I
always wonder about this for the sunken ships.

~~~
scottyates11
Yes, there are human remains on sunken ships. You may simply google it.
Caution： you may feel uncomfortable if you click the link. Here are some
photos about the human remains on the sunken ships.

Respect people who left this beautiful world:

[https://www.google.com/search?q=sunken+ship+human+remains&tb...](https://www.google.com/search?q=sunken+ship+human+remains&tbm=isch&imgil=uZiwffBPiuxyRM%253A%253B3tVyBk0OSi-q8M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.messynessychic.com%25252F2010%25252F10%25252F31%25252Fmexicos-
haunting-underwater-sculptures-art-with-a-
purpose%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=uZiwffBPiuxyRM%253A%252C3tVyBk0OSi-q8M%252C_&usg=__Wvwn02Ym3_eKNMEKdOARzgo0BMo%3D&biw=1600&bih=775&ved=0ahUKEwj3q-KdprjLAhUDKCYKHVeCA30QyjcIJg&ei=-4ziVrfCHoPQmAHXhI7oBw#imgrc=uZiwffBPiuxyRM%3A)

~~~
dmix
You linked to a man-man sculpture, artwork off the coast of Mexico. Although
other pictures in that search are indeed human remains.

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rogersmith
MH370 = MH17

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jorgecurio
where could it have possibly gone....was this the result of a suicidal pilot
or just accident...it's boggling that we can track anyone anywhere but not a
huge plane like this

~~~
sohkamyung
Tracking, or finding an aircraft over a large ocean area is still not
possible. As this article says[1], "About 85,000 square kilometres of the
120,000 square kilometre search zone has been covered so far." But if you
match that against the map of the search area, you will see that even that
huge search area covers only a narrow strip of ocean.

The plane may be huge, but compared to the earth, it is very, very small.

[1] [https://theconversation.com/two-years-on-since-flight-
mh370-...](https://theconversation.com/two-years-on-since-flight-
mh370-disappeared-and-the-search-has-found-nothing-what-now-55698)

~~~
jorgecurio
what makes it so difficult is it the underwater currents that carry the
fragments below the sea? don't we have some xray view on our spy satellites?

~~~
ars
Not entirely sure what you are asking, but A: No we have no xray view on spy
satellites, and B: X-Rays can not go through water.

A: Is impossible - no satellite has enough energy to illuminate anything, they
all use the sun for light and just take pictures.

B: Water blocks almost all forms of light, you need sonar to see anything
under there.

~~~
minipci1321
A:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPAZ_nuclear_reactor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPAZ_nuclear_reactor)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
"Although the test program was considered a success, no plans were pursued to
fly any of the reactors."

Edit: I misunderstood the wiki article. Carry on.

~~~
hga
That's just the TOPAZ-II model, the 2 of the earlier model flew, and 31 for
the Soviet's military radar satellites.

That Russia was willing to work with us and share the TOPAZ-II is yet another
sign of how much things changed after the Evil Empire fell.

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farrokhi
This is very interesting that "accidentally" all the parts have distinctive
marks that can be linked to a B777 aircraft.

~~~
liotier
In aeronautics, component lifecycle tracking is dead serious business - hence
even some trivial parts are individually identified, much more than in any
other industry.

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retrogradeorbit
What species of mollusc was found on the flaperon?

What is the habitat of that species?

How long does it need to be submerged for that kind of growth?

Why is Malaysia keeping this information secret? [
[http://www.wsj.com/articles/france-looks-to-broaden-its-
mh37...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/france-looks-to-broaden-its-mh370-probe-
through-wreckage-analysis-1438789402) ]

