AP: Air Asia plane missing w/ 162 aboard

[NFATrustGuy]

looks like the Pilot and co-pilot had about 8000 hours between the two of them. They were requesting a flight plan deviation due to bad weather about 5mins before they lost contact. New Bermuda triangle?!?!?

8000 hours combined is definitely NOT a bunch of time. I recently upgraded to captain at my day job after 10 years in the right seat. I have roughly 12,500 hours and I'm probably one of the low-time captains. I don't think I've flown with a single co-pilot who didn't have at least 4,000 hours total time. Prior to our recent hiring and upgrades, I would estimate the crew's total combined experience was routinely in excess of 30,000 hours.

FWIW...

Rod

[SuperiorDG]

8000 hours combined is definitely NOT a bunch of time. I recently upgraded to captain at my day job after 10 years in the right seat. I have roughly 12,500 hours and I'm probably one of the low-time captains. I don't think I've flown with a single co-pilot who didn't have at least 4,000 hours total time. Prior to our recent hiring and upgrades, I would estimate the crew's total combined experience was routinely in excess of 30,000 hours.

FWIW...

Rod

They updated the Pilot's hours. 20,000 hours before he worked at Air Asia.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12...-media-report/

[bellavite1]

Question for the pilots here:
How can airplanes get lost?
When I use the free navigator app on my phone it knows exactly where I am at any given moment thanks to GPS technology.
I cannot imagine that something similar is not in use on such an expensive machine, let alone the negative publicity, lawsuits etc.
I heard about transponders, but it looks like they are just sending signals at intervals, not constantly tracking the position of the plane.
Can you help me understand?

[Gman]

If you were to fold your phone in half, how well would the GPS app track?

[wyome]

the pilots know where they are...the problem is flying thru severe weather that can jack with the instruments they need to accurately monitor altitude , speed, temperature and such....something catastrophic to the jet adds other crap to deal with that affects the pilots ability to fly the jet, or just be alive

[bellavite1]

If you were to fold your phone in half, how well would the GPS app track?

True, but until that very moment it would.
On the MA flight they were (are) looking for the plane on a 360 degrees area, they have no clue where it went for hundreds of miles.

[Gman]

There's no global radar system, at least for civilian use. There's a reliance on the aircraft to report their position. In the case of the Malaysian Air hijacking, the crew disabled the transponder.

[J]

Transponders also have a limited range, it "responds" to radar requests. A standard transponder does nothing when not in radar range. The ELT (emergency location transponder) can do linking to satellites, but not so well from under water... and it is only activated manually or on hard impact, at which point it might be damaged beyond transmitting.

Also, it should be noted that in a severe hail or severe thunderstorm, the GPS and NAV/COM antennas could easily be broken off or rendered inoperable, making the systems significantly less useful. Even if they are not, a severe TS can cause some big noise on a VHF system when it is close enough.

So, you lose those you basically have dead reckoning to work with, but with severe turbulence messing with your static and pitot systems, your altimeter, attitude indicator, climb rate indicator and airspeed indicator start jumping all over the place, and knowing how long you have been doing exactly what gets quite confusing. Especially when a large portion of your attention is to aviating through the severe weather.

So, no, it isn't easy for an airliner to get lost, but it can happen. And when it does, s#!t runs downhill fast. And it could be done with significantly degraded comms.

[Gman]

Is anybody else thinking vertical stabilizer failure...or is it just my paranoia about Airbus?

[hollohas]

So, no, it isn't easy for an airliner to get lost, but it can happen. And when it does, s#!t runs downhill fast. And it could be done with significantly degraded comms.

It's not easy and it's extremely unlikely...but somehow now it's happened twice in very short order.

It has to be some nasty, crazy weather to bring down a full sized passenger airliner. Holes get ripped in the fuselage and the planes land. Turbulence is so crazy it throws passengers against the cabin walls/ceiling and the planes land. I have personally been on a plane that was struck by lighting and we kept on our way. Weather doesn't just pop up. Planes don't end up in supercells by accident or by surprise. They know what's up ahead most of the time. I have been on countless planes when the pilot/co-pilot announced we'd be going up or dropping down because there was turbulence up ahead...and before our particular plane experienced any turbulence.

I have no idea or theory on this one. Maybe it was weather maybe it wasn't. All I'm saying is it sounds fishy, especially since the almost unheard of passenger airliner disappearance has recently become a lot more common in that particular neck-of-the-woods...