MH370 Likely Debris Found

[Nibb31]

It seems to be mostly composite, so no scrap aluminium.

[Camacha]

I think that no matter what, the consignee is going to be asking where his "scrap aluminum" 777 flaperon is. Its a part that is too valuable to disappear like that. I don't know for sure, but I bet it was insured too. There are less than 2000 of these in existence.

What are you talking about? These planes are scrapped. This means that some parts will be recycled into the aircraft industry (which is highly profitable, which is why relatively new aircraft are scrapped), parts will recycled and parts will be sold off to people using the parts for other purposes. There will be no registration or anything on that - if you are lucky, you will find something about the part being sold.

Bits and pieces will wander the Earth without any central registration whatsoever. That is the truth we are dealing with.

It seems to be mostly composite, so no scrap aluminium.

There might be metal bits in there, though it is not terribly relevant to the story

Edited August 2, 2015 by Camacha

[K^2]

Moot point, since by now, the serial numbers have been confirmed to belong to the missing 777.

[MoeKitsune]

One sec... *Goes to closet* YUSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

[Camacha]

Moot point, since by now, the serial numbers have been confirmed to belong to the missing 777.

Well, the point was that you need to make sure, what they did It was very, very unlikely that the wreckage comes from another 777, but in cases like these winging it will not do.

I could not find the report that confirms the wing part belongs to the Malaysia craft, but I did bump into this bit about a guy that might have been inadvertently burning evidence for a while. You have to be careful with news like that, but he does not really come across as an attention seeking guy.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Camacha

[ElWanderer]

I've not seen that reported, yet. Meanwhile the BBC have announced the discovery of a second potential piece of the plane - a door.

The Telegraph had an interesting interview with one of the beachcombers, where he said all kinds of stuff had washed up recently, including suitcases and a seat, and he had burnt it (as his task is to keep the beach clear) so valuable evidence may have been lost.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/mh370/11777921/MH370-Plane-seat-found-washed-up-on-Reunion-Island-three-months-ago.html

Edit: ninjas by Camacha's edit.

Edited August 2, 2015 by ElWanderer

[Camacha]

Edit: ninjas by Camacha's edit.

You might want to take another look at the respective times

Edited August 2, 2015 by Camacha

[ElWanderer]

Gah I read a 5 as an 8. Plus I can't seem to type and edit on this tablet very well.

The BBC say the investigators won't start looking at the flaperon until Wednesday. Guess there isn't really a great rush at this point.

[sgt_flyer]

From what i've read, there's investigators (notably from malaysia) that have to come, in addition from boeing experts - so guess they want to settle legal things with the lead investigators before starting to analyse the thing.

Now, i guess they'll also call in some biologists to study the various organisms that have attached themselves to the flaperon - if they can determine if some of the organisms came from a specific place in the indian ocean, they might be able to partially retrace the flaperon's drift - so they could end up defining a more probable zone of crash.

As for the "door", french news told they found a metallic debris of 10x10 centimeter on one of the beaches, with a leather covered handle on it, but have yet to confirm if it's even a plane part (still, policemen gathered those parts for investigation) - so reporters might be a little hasty here telling it's a door (and as always when some news report starts telling such rumors without having more facts, other news reports start to spread this same damn infos - and the true infos ends up getting lost among all this)

Edited August 2, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[Hcube]

Thanks for your answers guys i was proven wrong and am learning a lot in this thread

[PB666]

This is the latest from the beeb.

No door, it was a domestic ladder.

Suitcases and other personal items have been found.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33750811

[smjjames]

According to that simulation, shouldn't some of the debris potentially end up along the southern Australian coast? Obviously Reunion island is the place to look right now and Australia has LOADS more coastline, so it's harder to patrol the southern Australian coastline than it is to do the beaches of Reunion island.

[Camacha]

According to that simulation, shouldn't some of the debris potentially end up along the southern Australian coast? Obviously Reunion island is the place to look right now and Australia has LOADS more coastline, so it's harder to patrol the southern Australian coastline than it is to do the beaches of Reunion island.

It seems to me you want to broaden your search to other islands nearby, at least from a sea current perspective.

[Nibb31]

Madagascar is right behind Reunion and will be catching most of the flotsam. Reunion is tiny in comparison and will only get a small fraction. Unfortunately, Madagascar probably doesn't have the resources to monitor its coastline.

We also shouldn't get excited over finding bottles or pieces of wreckage. Islands tend to catch hundreds of tons of trash and wreckage every year. Some of it has been floating out there for decades. Finding a bottle, a handle, or a suitcase is hardly rare. It happens every day.

[Camacha]

Madagascar is right behind Reunion and will be catching most of the flotsam. Reunion is tiny in comparison and will only get a small fraction. Unfortunately, Madagascar probably doesn't have the resources to monitor its coastline.

I do not think those people on Reunion are necessarily very suitable for the job either - I think this is something the airline or associated nations will need to address.

[Nibb31]

Reunion is France. There are coast guard services, beach cleaning services, rescue services, military and gendarmerie helicopters, etc... There's a whole infrastructure in France that you won't find in Madagascar.

The guy who says he probably burned stuff, or the government who employs him, aren't to blame. He probably burns tons of trash every year that he picks up on that beach, including luggage and wreckage. He's not going to call the gendarmerie each time he finds a suitcase or a bottle on the beach.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Nibb31

[Camacha]

Reunion is France.

It is technically France, yet it is not quite the same as actual France.

The guy who says he probably burned stuff, or the government who employs him, aren't to blame. He probably burns tons of trash every year that he picks up on that beach, including luggage and wreckage. He's not going to call the gendarmerie each time he finds a suitcase or a bottle on the beach.

He did find a chair he thought might belong to an aircraft, however, and could not say whether he found any more, because he never paid much attention to it.

Apparently, life on that island is simple That is why I think investigators might need to send in some of their own troops - they can be better trained on what to look for, and do not also have other jobs to do.

[Nibb31]

He did find a chair he thought might belong to an aircraft, however, and could not say whether he found any more, because he never paid much attention to it.

The chair could also have been from a boat, a tractor, a car, a shipping container full of seats, any other piece of wreckage or trash that's floating around in the Indian Ocean. He didn't seem to be able to determine what type of seat it was. Although aircraft upholstery is designed to float, the actual seat frames are metal and will tend to sink. How many chairs or seats do you think end up on beaches as flotsam every year in the world? Should workers around the world call the police each time they find a chair, or a handle, or any other piece of plastic that might or might not be from a ship, an aircraft, or a truck?

Apparently, life on that island is simple That is why I think investigators might need to send in some of their own troops - they can be better trained on what to look for, and do not also have other jobs to do.

Aviation incident investigators don't have "troops" that are capable of combing thousands of kilometers of coastlines for several years. They rely on local authorities for that.

[Camacha]

Should workers around the world call the police each time they find a chair, or a handle, or any other piece of plastic that might or might not be from a ship, an aircraft, or a truck?

You obviously have not seen the clips of the folks involved Go watch the clips, you will see what I mean.

Aviation incident investigators don't have "troops" that are capable of combing thousands of kilometers of coastlines for several years. They rely on local authorities for that.

I meant the 'troops' related to the countries involved, not the actual investigating agencies themselves I am not sure the local authorities are really capable of doing a broad search across many kilometres of beach and they surely have other jobs to do themselves.

Of course, it helps to bring everyone up to speed on what is going on and what to look for, but you likely need outside manpower.

[KerikBalm]

We also shouldn't get excited over finding bottles or pieces of wreckage. Islands tend to catch hundreds of tons of trash and wreckage every year. Some of it has been floating out there for decades. Finding a bottle, a handle, or a suitcase is hardly rare. It happens every day.

Precisely why he though nothing of it...

Only in retrospect does he seem to recall a higher frequency of such things washing up on the island.

If there was a real "spike" in the amount of stuff washing up, then there might be something to it.

Its also possible that his present memory of the past is influenced by the news, and it was really just standard random stuff he burned.

[PB666]

Reunion is France. ....

France....? your point? AF447, Air France placed a faulty pitot tube on their plane favoring a lower quality french made item over a more reliable American made item. They probably would have not have changed had their own pilots gone on strike. Lets see they past right over the wreckage not realizing it, added another year to the search.

You want to find beach junk, pay $1 for each piece of scrap over a pound as long as they have a GPS coordinate on the piece and a photo of it where it landed (since everyone now has a cell-phone with a camera). Get the malasians to set up an office and then let the locals solve the problem for you.

Edited August 3, 2015 by PB666

[Camacha]

You want to find beach junk, pay $1 for each piece of scrap over a pound as long as they have a GPS coordinate on the piece and a photo of it where it landed (since everyone now has a cell-phone with a camera). Get the malasians to set up an office and then let the locals solve the problem for you.

*Piece of scrap actually belonging to the aircraft.

[Nibb31]

France....? your point?

Point was that Reunion is a developed country, with a decent infrastructure and an organized government, unlike Madagascar and Easter Africa where most of the wreckage is bound to end up.

[KerikBalm]

France....? your point? AF447, Air France placed a faulty pitot tube on their plane favoring a lower quality french made item over a more reliable American made item. They probably would have not have changed had their own pilots gone on strike. Lets see they past right over the wreckage not realizing it, added another year to the search.

You want to find beach junk, pay $1 for each piece of scrap over a pound as long as they have a GPS coordinate on the piece and a photo of it where it landed (since everyone now has a cell-phone with a camera). Get the malasians to set up an office and then let the locals solve the problem for you.

Not to go too far off topic, but bad pilots (or rather, a single really bad pilot) was a bigger problem than the pitot tubes.

All that happened from the Pitot tube failure was insufficient data to run the autopilot.

The autopilot disengaged, and one pilot did everything wrong.

[sal_vager]

Lets not have any unfounded remarks directed against any nations people, thank you.