Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

[Albert Tatlock]

Back on topic Most expensive aviation search: $53 million to find flight MH370

 

A special prize for "Air Chief Marshal (rtd) Angus Houston (who) said on Friday ... ''It's a lot of money,""

I don't think they can quantify those costs that way. The bulk of the craft involved are military, they are already paid for by the taxpayers of various countries. If they were not there, it's not rocket science to say they would be somewhere else, many on other exercises, still running up the same costs. Most naval ships in any country do not sit on a dock simply waiting for something to happen.

[Gladys]

Aye, probably a cheap real life exercise really.

[Bobbie Bobster]

@AT Au contraire, cost allocation is a widely-practiced exercise. Direct costs can be ascertained fairly precisely, but I admit there can be quite a bit of subjectivity in allocating overhead costs, for which the allocation factors are sometimes pulled out of the air, e.g. would you allocate replenishment assets pro-rata by number of days, or have an arbitrary cut-off point for short exercises where replenishment would not be required; or JAG costs - by staff numbers or by average number of judicial cases in each branch of the military over a selected time period.

 

Anyhoo, I don't think that international recharges are done in these sorts of SAR operations, but countries will need to know operational costs at a fairly granular level in order to budget sensibly.

[Donald Trumps]

Aussies have got a ping now too

[Lisenchuk]

Considering what has been said about the frequency and timing of the signal it is looking more likely all the time that they may have located the wreckage.

[monasqueen]

Even if they have a valid "ping", this is only equivalent to having found a field of haystacks. They are still a long way from locating any needle/wreckage.

[Donald Trumps]

I think they need 3 valid pings to centre the area of search

[Albert Tatlock]

Direction finding generally needs three pings for a accurate triangulation. But it's not so easy as that, the water layer-temperatures etc. can give a false result, so the likelihood is they'll need a lot more from a variety of positions, plus it's not a 2D location it's a 3D one.

[Donald Trumps]

Apparently these pings (not the Chinese ones) are in the area of the last satellite contact

[x-in-man]

Towed pingers are not directional receivers, its a case of plotting the strongest signal areas and closing in on circular or cross pattern sweeps.

[Albert Tatlock]

From BBC: Missing Malaysia plane: Search 'regains recorder signal'

[mojomonkey]

Huge picture warning.

 

[The Old Git]

plus it's not a 2D location it's a 3D one.

 

It's likely to be on the bottom though?

[Mr. Sausages]

That's what I was thinking. Locate the coordinates and it's only going to be down.

[Donald Trumps]

Huge picture warning.

 

 

I can't see the plane at all, apart from that flying one at the top