Missing from radar screen - One Boeing 777

[MontyVeda]

I'd hazard a guess that when searching for an airliner, the surveillance equipment would be boats, aircraft, radar, satellite images and binoculars.. oh and the 'where's that plane' app.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Couldn't they just attach one of those keyring whistle things to every plane?

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Dangermouse was the authority on the subject a few days ago. Gone off the boil a bit now.

His thoughts are with everyone involved.

 

[Smurfy]

..and there is good reason to believe that information might be withheld. Much of the data needed for the search would have to come from the latest surveillance equipment which naturally means it is rather secret. Sharing data gleaned from such systems provide other countries with information on what your own systems do and are capable of. In Europe, thanks to the EU, countries are nowadays less furtive about such matters than they are likely to be in the South China Seas.

Good point. It would be awful if everyone was waiting for other countries to reveal their capabilities first, before showing their own cards, but sadly it's quite possible. If the plane really had been flying at very low altitude, each country with radar installations will be very cagey about revealing their capability at detecting low-flying aircraft.

 

[Smurfy]

Why?

In the world of defence and military, many, many types of operational capability data are highly classified e.g. max speed, max altitude, max depth, total number of missiles or torpedos, time to refuel, max range, time to reload. The list is almost endless, and military radar capability will be particularly closely guarded, as it is a first line of defence used to scramble jets when an incoming foreign aircraft is detected.

 

[Smurfy]

So how do you know?

You either know or you don't know.

 

[Smurfy]

So you work for MI6?

I think I've said this before. There are lots of agencies and organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, that deal with classified information.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Asterix and Yellow Tim are both correct. But that points even more towards the likelihood that the plane has just crashed into the sea somewhere without anyone knowing for sure. Even the intelligence services are not completely callous and indifferent to the fate of hundreds of people and indirect ways would be found to alert those who need to know without endagering the source, if the aircraft was known to have been taken anywhere or had if its wreckage had been spotted, even via some secret system or a known system whose complete capabilities are secret. What this disaster shows, if nothing else, is that surveillance might be everywhere in some form or other but it's a long way from comprehensive and omniscient.

 

[MontyVeda]

... What this disaster shows, if nothing else, is that surveillance might be everywhere in some form or other but it's a long way from comprehensive and omniscient.

I think that's pretty much the top and bottom of the situation. Having no idea what has happened, or where it happened is a long way from "They must must be holding known information from us"

 

[slowmotion]

Are they clearing a runway at Dealey Plaza yet?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Sounds like they might have found something 1500 miles southwest of Perth, Australia. Might.

 

[Globalti]

If the satellite spotted something 24m long, it sounds as if they've found the plane; the wingspan is 61 m and the cabin about 6m wide. That would be where it ran out of fuel.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

If the satellite spotted something 24m long, it sounds as if they've found the plane; the wingspan is 61 m and the cabin about 6m wide. That would be where it ran out of fuel.

Why in the name of feckery would it be there though?

I wonder if we will ever know.....

 

[Globalti]

If that's it, they should be able to find the data and voice recorders, which will explain the mystery.

 

[DCLane]

Sounds like they might have found something 1500 miles southwest of Perth, Australia. Might.

More detail: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26659951