First of all, great series and loving the in-depth analysis. Something that I have been thinking about of late….if the satellite data is correct and MH370 hit the ocean in a near vertical dive with such energy, what chance is there of any in-tact wreckage based upon previous accidents. I recall there was very little left, if anything of the AirFrance murder/suicide in the Alps and would we not be looking at the same catastrophic breakup of the airframe here? Presumably hitting the water at such speed is similar to hitting the land. Hence why no fuselage wreckage can be found. Are they not in fact potentially looking for small items such the undercarriage and engines, which presumably at such depth is a challenge. Would be interested in your views Jeff.
RJ, you raise a good point, namely just how atomized would this plane be? We certainly know that if the plane did hit the ocean, pieces as large as the flaperon remained intact; a few other pieces of similar scale were also recovered. Things like engines and landing gear tend to stay relatively intact because compared to other parts of an airplane they are fairly dense and structurally tough; things like the vertical stabilizer also tend to remain fairly intact because they are the last to hit in a nose-first impact, although in this case we know that a fairly small piece of the tail was recovered. I expect that if an underwater drone passed over the debris field lying on the seabed it would find wreckage that would be readily identifiable as the remnants of a plane.
Hi Jeff, great series. Not sure if this has been covered before but I recently come across WSPR and how a few people have done work to use that data to track MH370.
First of all, great series and loving the in-depth analysis. Something that I have been thinking about of late….if the satellite data is correct and MH370 hit the ocean in a near vertical dive with such energy, what chance is there of any in-tact wreckage based upon previous accidents. I recall there was very little left, if anything of the AirFrance murder/suicide in the Alps and would we not be looking at the same catastrophic breakup of the airframe here? Presumably hitting the water at such speed is similar to hitting the land. Hence why no fuselage wreckage can be found. Are they not in fact potentially looking for small items such the undercarriage and engines, which presumably at such depth is a challenge. Would be interested in your views Jeff.
RJ, you raise a good point, namely just how atomized would this plane be? We certainly know that if the plane did hit the ocean, pieces as large as the flaperon remained intact; a few other pieces of similar scale were also recovered. Things like engines and landing gear tend to stay relatively intact because compared to other parts of an airplane they are fairly dense and structurally tough; things like the vertical stabilizer also tend to remain fairly intact because they are the last to hit in a nose-first impact, although in this case we know that a fairly small piece of the tail was recovered. I expect that if an underwater drone passed over the debris field lying on the seabed it would find wreckage that would be readily identifiable as the remnants of a plane.
Hi Jeff, great series. Not sure if this has been covered before but I recently come across WSPR and how a few people have done work to use that data to track MH370.
https://www.mh370search.com/category/wspr/
What's your thought on that?
Looking good and always sounding brilliant! Well-done, Jeff!
Thank you Kelly!