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MH370

This has to be the most puzzling one since the days when they used to disappear over remote areas due to gross nav or compass errors.

However, AF447 would have been just the same had it not been for the string of ACARS messages that got transmitted in its final moments.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

What puzzled me from the beginning is that there was no ELT signal. No ELT = no crash, or isn’t it that simple?

LOAN Wiener Neustadt Ost, Austria
What is the range of an ELT ? I guess not very far …..
vic
EDME

What is the range of an ELT ? I guess not very far …..

All the way up to the Cospas-Sarsat satellites?

If the ELT is underwater, no ELT transmissions received.

I agree with Jan. There is enough garbage in the media and on other sites. If ever found, the solution will prove to be quite basic and simple, it always is!

Hi Achim,

you are certainly right in case of 406 ELT, sorry , did only think of 121,5 channel. But reliability of ELTs is a bit questionable but they are really good with false alarms …..

Vic
vic
EDME

The media is full of garbage because … the media is nearly always full of garbage. The amount of concrete data in the public domain is about 5 minutes’ worth, but the programme producers have to fill time, and nowadays most TV is made for idiots. And most pilot forums carry advertisements so they like to run massive threads full of speculation.

It doesn’t mean we cannot discuss some aspects of it intelligently. This is Hangar Talk after all

It’s a good point about the ELT. It cannot be disabled from the cockpit, would not be any good in the case of a ditching, and it doesn’t always work following a ground impact. It works only if the impact is hard enough to trigger it but not hard enough to smash it or break the antenna or the antenna cable.

the solution will prove to be quite basic and simple, it always is!

I am sure that is true, but it doesn’t mean it won’t have an impact (no pun intended) on future procedures.

Last Edited by Peter at 17 Mar 09:54
Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

But reliability of ELTs is a bit questionable but they are really good with false alarms …..

Airliners have 3 ELTs in different places also to account for water ditching. The chance of none of the three triggering is probably rather slim in a crash/ditching situation.

As to our GA ELT, I do believe they are complete rubbish and serve practically no value.

Airliners have 3 ELTs in different places also to account for water ditching. The chance of none of the three triggering is probably rather slim in a crash/ditching situation.

But they can be turned off deliberately. I fly no airliner, but a transport category aircraft, so I suppose it is similar: There is a switch on the panel: ELT: Armed/On/Off. Put it to Off and no one will ever know where you came down.

As to our GA ELT, I do believe they are complete rubbish and serve practically no value.

That’s not true. When I was operations manager of a company that operated a small fleet of cargo MEPs and turboprops, my name was on the list of persons that got called when one of our ELTs went off. I got quite a few such calls (which is always hair raising, because you fear the worst), mostly when the aircraft were on maintenance and the avionics guys worked on the wiring. But one time it was a genuine hard landing.

… though one can discuss anything of course, in the hangar.

Jan, this here is my hangar. I spend next to no time in the actual hangar. Last week I had six duty days from Monday to Saturday and apart from the colleague who flew with me, the only aviation minded people I met were handling agents and refuellers. So where but here can I decently (!) talk about such rumors?

EDDS - Stuttgart
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