Malaysia airlines MH370 with 239 people on board, 8 March 2014 #26

[tezi]

There were videos circulating online claiming to be of MH370 being circled by three UFOs before vanishing into a "wormhole".
Make of that what you will.

I personally believe that MH370 is in the Southern Indian Ocean and that it was a very well planned and executed suicide mission by the pilot.

Edit - It is well worth watching this fascinating and well researched documentary by Mentour Pilot -

I love Mentor Pilot! He is good at explaining things,

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

I love Mentor Pilot! He is good at explaining things,

 

[mmeynstyn]

I am sending positive thoughts for discovery. " Malaysia will restart the deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on 30 December."

Link

 

[PrairieWind]

I am sending positive thoughts for discovery. " Malaysia will restart the deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on 30 December."

Link

I am very hopeful, but very skeptical.

 

[tezi]

I am very hopeful, but very skeptical.

Same here.

 

[tricia]

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[Spectrix]

Ocean Infinity's search vessel Armarda 86-05 is currently on route to Bali where it will load supplies, before making its way down to the MH370 search area.

MH370-caption.net is tracking the progress of the vessel. At the time of making this post it looks as if they haven't updated the text on the website since last search season, however the map is tracking the correct vessel.

 

[PrairieWind]

Ocean Infinity's search vessel Armarda 86-05 is currently on route to Bali where it will load supplies, before making its way down to the MH370 search area.

MH370-caption.net is tracking the progress of the vessel. At the time of making this post it looks as if they haven't updated the text on the website since last search season, however the map is tracking the correct vessel.

I will try to follow this. I would LOVE for them to find the plane for sure.

 

[LittleSeaTree]

Ocean Infinity's search vessel Armarda 86-05 is currently on route to Bali where it will load supplies, before making its way down to the MH370 search area.

MH370-caption.net is tracking the progress of the vessel. At the time of making this post it looks as if they haven't updated the text on the website since last search season, however the map is tracking the correct vessel.

Great to have this, thanks @Spectrix!

 

[Charlot123]

I will try to follow this. I would LOVE for them to find the plane for sure.

Yes. And, the relatives of the passengers and the crew need closure.

 

[Spectrix]

Ocean Infinity's search vessel Armada 86-05 is currently off the coast of Western Australia being refuelled by a supply and tanker vessel called the Absolute.
It is expected that OI's vessel will reach the MH370 search area by the 29th December, in time for their start date of the 30th. The vessel's progress can be tracked here.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Yes. And, the relatives of the passengers and the crew need closure.

What does "closure" mean in this case? If the aircraft is ever found it may be possible to retrieve the black boxes and determine what happened on the flight but it's extremely unlikely that any bodies will ever be recovered. Although the Chinese communist Party has promoted cremation for decades, traditional Chinese culture still strongly prefers burial which provides a grave at which annual funerary rituals and ancestor worship can take place. Plane crashes on land tend to lead to the recovery of at least sufficient remains for a burial, but that is not going to happen with the loss of MH370 so it's difficult to see how simply finding the plane and the black boxes is going to provide "closure" for the families of the Chinese passengers who were about half of the passenger manifest on the flight.

 

[Spectrix]

What does "closure" mean in this case? If the aircraft is ever found it may be possible to retrieve the black boxes and determine what happened on the flight but it's extremely unlikely that any bodies will ever be recovered. Although the Chinese communist Party has promoted cremation for decades, traditional Chinese culture still strongly prefers burial which provides a grave at which annual funerary rituals and ancestor worship can take place. Plane crashes on land tend to lead to the recovery of at least sufficient remains for a burial, but that is not going to happen with the loss of MH370 so it's difficult to see how simply finding the plane and the black boxes is going to provide "closure" for the families of the Chinese passengers who were about half of the passenger manifest on the flight.

Particularly at the time of the planes disappearance, no one was sure what happened. There was no obvious sign of wreckage over the ocean and many speculated about the plane having been hijacked and landing somewhere.
If the wreckage is discovered, the family will finally know for sure what happened to their loved ones.

 

[Charlot123]

What does "closure" mean in this case? If the aircraft is ever found it may be possible to retrieve the black boxes and determine what happened on the flight but it's extremely unlikely that any bodies will ever be recovered. Although the Chinese communist Party has promoted cremation for decades, traditional Chinese culture still strongly prefers burial which provides a grave at which annual funerary rituals and ancestor worship can take place. Plane crashes on land tend to lead to the recovery of at least sufficient remains for a burial, but that is not going to happen with the loss of MH370 so it's difficult to see how simply finding the plane and the black boxes is going to provide "closure" for the families of the Chinese passengers who were about half of the passenger manifest on the flight.

“Closure” means “knowing how their story ended”. So far, we all just guess, and I think that we may be close to knowing who and why and how, and there are great movies explaining the details, but it is not “knowing”. So, if the black boxes have survived, it will be a lot. For the relatives, too. It didn’t crash or sink yet. There is still this eerie disappearance between Malaysia and Vietnam. And then, five handshakes.

As to the bodies, maybe there will be no burial or some symbolic common burial.
Plus, what if some things, even fragments, have survived? Plastic, cellphones. One never knows.

This closure is needed for the passengers, too. JMO. Graves are to visit, but some people make cenotaphs for memory. I don’t know if it can be done before the plane is found, though.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

“Closure” means “knowing how their story ended”.

I suspect that "closure" will be culturally determined so that what would provide adequate closure in a western cultural context may not provide anything like closure in an Asian one. I recall watching news reports on TV many years ago about another air crash over water in the Far East and a reporter commenting that the distress of families waiting for news of the plane was not just about the fact that their loved ones had died but also because it was unlikely that any bodies would be recovered for burial. In Chinese society, and in other cultures where Confucianism provides the cultural and moral context, there is an obligation on younger generations, and especially the eldest son, to carry out rituals honoring the ancestors at their grave site every year. Without a grave or at least a plot where an urn of ashes is buried these ancient rituals are massively disrupted and the inability to carry them out causes ongoing distress.

If the plane is found, it wouldn't surprise me if Malaysian Airlines and/or the Chinese government do not fly relatives to Perth and charter boats to take family members out to the site and for expected rituals to be carried out there, but this would be a one-off event and won't address the cultural need to carry them out every year.

 

[Rikissa]

An article today in the Guardian about the new search:

Search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 expected to resume on Tuesday

Marine robotics firm to renew its search more than decade after plane disappeared with 239 people onboard

www.theguardian.com

 

[Spectrix]

Update -
Ocean Infinity's search vessel Armada 86-05 has almost reached the MH-370 search area.
As I post this, the time is 12:17pm, 30th December (UTC Time)
They appear to have lost some time due to a rough swell in the South Pacific, But it looks like they might arrive in the next few hours.

The vessel's progress can be tracked here.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight resumes, reviving hope of answers delayed for more than a decade

The U.S. marine robotics company Ocean Infinity will conduct seabed search operations intermittently for 55 days as part of an agreement with the Malaysian government.

www.nbcnews.com

BEIJING — The search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was set to resume Tuesday, more than a decade after the plane went missing with 239 people on board in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

The U.S. marine robotics company Ocean Infinity will conduct seabed search operations intermittently for 55 days as part of its agreement with the Malaysian government, the country’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement this month.

The company will use underwater vehicles, deep sea drones and advanced scanning technology across a 6,000-square-mile swath of the Indian Ocean seabed...

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight resumes, reviving hope of answers delayed for more than a decade

The U.S. marine robotics company Ocean Infinity will conduct seabed search operations intermittently for 55 days as part of an agreement with the Malaysian government.

www.nbcnews.com

BEIJING — The search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was set to resume Tuesday, more than a decade after the plane went missing with 239 people on board in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

The U.S. marine robotics company Ocean Infinity will conduct seabed search operations intermittently for 55 days as part of its agreement with the Malaysian government, the country’s Ministry of Transport said in a statement this month.

The company will use underwater vehicles, deep sea drones and advanced scanning technology across a 6,000-square-mile swath of the Indian Ocean seabed...

The mysterious missing Malaysian airline was just so heartbreaking for so long.

this is a boatload of resources....
will use underwater vehicles, deep sea drones and advanced scanning technology across a 6,000-square-mile swath.

 

[Spectrix]

The mysterious missing Malaysian airline was just so heartbreaking for so long.

this is a boatload of resources....
will use underwater vehicles, deep sea drones and advanced scanning technology across a 6,000-square-mile swath.

Yup. As far as I understand, the CEO of Ocean Infinity (Oliver Plunkett) sees MH370 as unfinished business and isn't likely to give up until his team have found the wreckage.

Ocean Infinity are pioneers of marine robotics and have a fleet of 14 vessels with cutting edge tech. They are using only one of those vessels for this current search phase (called Armada 78-06) though it is very well equipped.

Here is an overview of some of the equipment found on their search vessels
(Edit - suffice to say, I don't claim to know what all of the stuff I've listed below actually means, but it sounds as if they're thoroughly equipped ).

Primary Robotic Gear

• Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): The fleet deploys high-end AUVs, such as the HUGIN, which are used for large-scale seafloor mapping. These can be equipped with 6,000-meter pressure-tolerant batteries, allowing for missions lasting over four days.
• Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs): Vessels are equipped with work-class ROVs (WROVs), including HD Schilling and Leopard ROVs, for visual inspection and subsea intervention.
• Seabed Drills & Geotechnical Tools: Specialized gear like CPT (Cone Penetration Test) systems and seabed drills are carried for soil sampling and site investigations.

Integrated Navigation & Control

• Acoustic Systems: The ships use Sonardyne Ranger 2 USBL (Ultra-Short BaseLine) systems for tracking and controlling subsea robots.
• Hybrid Navigation: Units are fitted with SPRINT-Nav hybrid navigation instruments, ensuring precise positioning even if GNSS (GPS) signals are lost.
• Automated Launch & Recovery (LARS): These vessels feature automated LARS systems—some operating through dual moonpools—that allow for the safe, remote deployment and retrieval of subsea robots from onshore control centers.

Sensors & Communication

• Bathymetric Sensors: Each ship typically has hull-mounted multi-beam echo-sounders for high-resolution bathymetric data collection.
• Environmental Sensors: Valeport sensors are used for monitoring sound velocity and other water column data.
• Remote Operations Suite: High-speed satellite communications (LEO), 4G/LTE networks, and point-to-point radios connect the vessels to operations centers in Southampton (UK) and Austin (Texas) for real-time monitoring.