"Radios are not safe" (Malaysian 777 loss)

[Beerus Maximus]

So dominating the news over the last few days has been the missing Malaysian 777 airliner. I just happened upon a blog post buy some guy who is apparently well known (it made it onto Digg as the top story for the last few hours, if that means anything). In it, he argues that the communications used by airlines is outdated.

Some quotes... "all they have to connect with ground is old style radios"... "radios that sound awful"... "radios are not safe"... "radio which has poor sound quality"... "primitive". I could go on.

His post is kind of rambling, but he argues that all pilots need sat phones and data recorders and ipads connected to the internet and a bunch of other new stuff. When the sh*t hits the fan in a cockpit, I'm not sure what all of this additional technology adds other than more work load. When Swissair 111 slowly burned in the sky, incapacitating one pilot and taking away all of the cockpit electronics, it surely wouldn't have helped. There is nothing simpler and more reliable to build than a radio with a PTT switch.

You can read his argument here:

http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/aviation-is-stuck-in-the-60s-a-reflection-on-mh-370.html

[Fansome]

I'm not sure how an eyePad could have disabled a bomb, if that's what it was. Of course, there's probably an app for that...

[skeezix]

Aircraft do have sat phones and HFDL, not just HF voice.

Does he have any idea what this particular aircraft had and what they used?

I looked at the page, and saw two very large paragraphs. Didn't bother reading it.

[paranoid dxer]

i read somewhere  a ex pilot said it could possibly have had something to do with the uninteruptable auto pilot  part of a anti hijacking setup

forgot where i seen that tho

[Beerus Maximus]

You know what, I was going to raise the BS flag on that and say I've never heard of such a thing ("uninterruptible auto pilot"), and I've followed commercial aviation as a hobbyist for a long time.

But then, to fact-check myself before I hit reply, I Google'd it. And found out such a thing may very well be implemented in airliners.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/new-autopilot-will-make-another-911-impossible-7239651.html

Most of the mainstream articles I've found on this topic are from circa 2006-2007, citing Boeing's patent, and then there is relative radio silence (no pun intended) on this subject except for some references on what I'll generously categorize as fringe sites. Also, there is a commercial pilot that has a blog and has been involved in litigation regarding his termination, somehow related to information about this system. [Edit: on further investigation it appears this guy is some kind of crank.]

This suggests to me that it's possible that there is such a system deployed and that most of the information about it is classified.

[paranoid dxer]

AIRCRAFT manufacturing giant Boeing said yesterday it was too early to tell whether the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft might have suffered autopilot problems that hit another of the carrier's 777 fleet in 2005.

While aviation experts described both Malaysia Airlines and the Boeing 777 as having a solid safety record, an incident on a flight between Perth and Kuala Lumpur led to a safety alert being issued for 777s worldwide.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/past-boeing-777-autopilot-problems-raised/story-e6frg95x-1226849686432#

[Beerus Maximus]

Unless there's a worldwide conspiracy by civil aviation authorities to suppress or alter aviation accident data, virtually all incidents have a very large human factor component to them. Competent and well trained crews can fly themselves out of most problems. Aloha Airlines Flight 243 landing with the fuselage ripped open. Sully landing the A320 in the Hudson with no engines. Countless others. Yes, there are a small number of incidents where pilots have no chance no matter what. But a lot of the bad incidents we hear about, while involving a system failure, are recoverable. Air France 447 was a pretty good example. A complex problem compounded by multiple system failures and finalized by pilot error.

The pilots on this plane were supposedly well qualified and Malaysian has a good record. This accident will likely be attributed to terrorism, or a non-terrorist event like a fast on-board fire or catastrophic structural failure. The supposed U-turn, if it really did happen, could indicate a crew beginning to deal with an on-board problem that got ahead of them too fast. See Swissair 111 and the UPS 747 freighter crash in Dubai.

[ka1iic]

The only problem with modern aircraft IMHO is the black box...  I have heard dozens of different comments about them dealing with battery life, signal power etc...  It seems to me that would be the big issue...  the operated on 37.5 khz I am told....

As for the article... also IMHO... pure bunk... I don't believe the guy knows much about aircraft in general.

There was a debate about using FM on comms several years ago but that was dumped because of FM having the capture effect and making lower level signals impossible to hear when a stronger one is broadcast...

Doesn't the 777 send out automatic aircraft condition to ground stations? I'm no areo expect just a end user...

I have heard a number of things about this one... wildest being a North Korea missile hit it...  I thought that one was totally nuts until I heard that China airways had a close encounter with one of them.... hmmmmm...

Only time will tell...

73 Vince
KA1IIC

[DLKE]

If someone wants to know better informations pse go to the wall street journal.
They are having an well known articel abt all the needed informations and also
abt the hfdl datas received by the engine manifacturer.
The hf radios working fine - u can receive voice and acars datas, for example with ur
computer ohnly,  when using PC-HFDL and TWENTE SDR.
As i predicted minutes / hours and days after the first missing news, there must be
more infos via HFDL either the airline or the engine manufacturer, now four or five
days late, this datas comming up and show us that the aircraft is / can be /
hundreds of miles away from the last vhf contact.
I hpe that original HFDL telegrams will be published.
In the meantime there is a vy small hpe for the people.