And as we've already seen, spotted debris without people around to pick it up ASAP (ie via satellite) seems to result in the debris disappearing.

Kevin Barret speculates the U.S. remotely hijacked the plane because of radar workers going to China. 18:30 + minute mark
_youtube.com/watch?v=B9XZV4vxjtU

New update, looks like this is it. :tears:

Most likely the debris field unless another ship somehow sank nearby.

I believe flight time drones can have a longer standby time. Also, it's a handful of eyes looking into the ocean for 2 hours, there's human error and eye strain involved. With drones' live feed/ various flir and other sensors it's much more superior plus, if its captured it can easily crowd source the search.

The debris looks the same because they're from satellite shots. If you have drones overhead, they can fly closer in without the risk of life. Plus, they can run overlap on search grids too.

I'm not saying don't use people. I'm saying they could've existing technology to facilitate a faster search, and the only reason they're not is because of national security (drone capabilities, etc)

i think it's time we find it and get closure for the families - it's obvious by now that it went down, most likely off Australia, why? we don't know, but i'm glad we're going to eventually get answers, and as said, more importantly, closure for the families

i do feel for them, having hope is the worst thing in times like this, as in reality, we all knew it was gone... the roller coaster ride these poor people went through, my heart goes out to them

You say that like they've been stalling intentionally.

Oh right, they have.

Is hard for the family for sure, but I think most news media is making it way worse than it is........

OK. I'll patiently wait for the images of the "300 objects of various sizes" that were conveniently not shown anywhere.

:pokerface:

Longer flight time doesn't mean jack shit if they can't even get to the search area. Drones have an average range of 1000 miles. Basically 500 miles 1 way then 500 miles the other. It would barely get to the search area before turning back. You clearly have no idea regarding the technology of drones and their limitations. This is real life, not mission impossible/James bond/call of duty.
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I think they're more concerned with finding it soon, before the locator beacons on the flight recorders run out of battery power. Closure is fine and dandy and can happen eventually, but they have barely two weeks to find the black boxes before they may never be able to find them, and never get closer to figuring out what happened... and then what closure will anyone have?

Supposedly a MH technician told some reporter that the batteries on the pinger on all MH planes were not stored properly and were stored in high temp/high humidity which would decrease the battery life from 30 days to 15 days. He also said he had most of the batteries replaced in the aircraft's but the work was slow and doesn't know if the batteries were replaced on MH370.

I would argue that the only bit of good news at this point is the fact that Australian authorities are now--to a certain extent--spearheading the search operations. I have a lot more confidence in the Aussie's ability to effectively manage and conduct a fruitful search and recovery operation as opposed to Malaysia's.

At this point, if the weather doesn't run a muck in the search area we should probably hear some good news in the coming days.

Take a seat buddy. I will be sure to let China to know your next in line for pics and data.

The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance aircraft. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. In role and operational design, the Global Hawk is similar to the Lockheed U-2. The RQ-4 provides a broad overview and systematic surveillance using high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and long-range electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors with long loiter times over target areas. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2) of terrain a day.

^what kind of paper was the brochure on? Was it a 2 fold brochure, or more of a magazine style?

Good news! The spot they've been looking this week where they have confirmed it went down.... well now Australia is shifting the search about 1100kms north following another 'credible lead' and are searching an area that is 319,000 square kilometres. Which is about 1/3rd the size of BC. Good luck mate.

:suspicious: am I reading something wrong?

General Characteristics
Primary function: High-altitude, long-endurance ISR
Fuel Capacity: 17,300 pounds (7847 kilograms)
Payload: 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms)
Speed: 310 knots (357 mph)
Range: 8,700 nautical miles
Ceiling: 60,000 feet (18,288 meters)
Crew (remote): Three (LRE pilot, MCE pilot, and sensor operator)

(taken from US Air Force website)

According to news 2 hours ago, the search site is now 1150 miles from Perth, making the round trip 2300 miles. To be safe, count 3500 miles, which allows for around 5200 miles worth of gas to search the area in circles.

I think the only drone with that kind of range is the global hawk. I doubt they will devote a $100+ million drone for this kind of operation.

Manned craft are more numerous and cheaper to operate.

da fuq do i know, like 90% of people I'm an armchair SAR expert lol.

One type of plane the US is using costs 200 mill each.

Boeing P-8 Poseidon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/mis...n-ocean-n63866

Also who knows it a country is using drones, I think they would keep that a secret.

Canada has the same planes. We call them the aurora.
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You are thinking Orion. Poseidon's are brand new and based on the 737
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Not that I can't appreciate the personal impact of this disaster, but I am so EFFFFFFFING sick of seeing this shit on CNN everyday.

"New debris" "New theory" "New Expert" etc... anything they can do to keep the story on the front page since there is nothing more interesting to write about. Scumbag news outlets.

Meanwhile in Russia...