[aussie500]

The Maldives bit of debris, looked nothing like a surfboard, and was obviously from a plane. But a few things have gone down that could have ended up there, and it was plain not possible without a lot of experience to say which aircraft it might have come from. It was only a small piece, the armchair sleuths cannot get good enough images of the tail fins and wings to try and match it up with MH370, QZ8501, CG-791 or another plane, it did not seem to come from the drone that washed up in the Maldives.





With the lettering it should have been easy enough for someone who knew their aircraft to work it out. The media were deliberately giving a misleading story to discredit the find. Just as earlier they had been hyping the debris that was obviously not a fire bottle from a B777. They see something that might be debris, suddenly they try and pass it off as a surfboard.

One made of very strong honeycomb composite material with the exact same layers as MH370(or probably any other plane) would have had on some parts, possible metal sheaving under the skin on the outside edge (bit sticking out) which was rounded and wider than the tapered back edge which had broken off. A surfboard is slimmer on all the edges and thicker in the middle, and no surfboard is made like that bit of debris was. That would be obvious, the media had their own agenda, story would have sold whether they had gone with it being MH370 or not. Anything that is obviously not, they make out it is. They tried to discredit the flaperon hard enough, got away with discrediting the bit that washed up on the Maldives. There were smaller fragments, that washed up, of no use. Personally I though it might have come from something smaller than a B777, but would like to have had proof.

Here are some images of actual surfboards.

[Gobbledock]

Aussie, I'm sure that bearded donkey Commissioner Beaker will be able to enlighten us with his thoughts. Pathetic government footstool and national embarrassment.

[aussie500]

Actually I doubt you can blame Dolan for that stuff up, I think that bit vanished before he could get to it. Still it might have put a bit of a dent in their 7th arc obsession, if it could have been proven to be from a B777.

[Brock McEwen]

Thanks, Aussie500.  I'm hoping that it is not too late to squeeze information out of those photos. I agree with you the lettering, for example, could be run to ground one way or another fairly easily, by finding an instance of it on an intact version of this object.  That is actually my aim, here: to crowdsource matching images.  So, you know: tell two friends...

[ventus45]

Construction and profile looks more like a yacht fin stabiliser to me, probably broken off a boat during a grounding.
Something like this.

[aussie500]

The fin above is made of metal.
ROBUST CONSTRUCTION: The fins are fabricated of steel or stainless steel
combined with strategic internal reinforcement. This interior bolstering enables
the fin to withstand the cyclic loads encountered during operation

A non retractable fiberglass one looks a lot different, mangled.
http://setsail.com/wp-content/uploads/20...ck-235.jpg

It would look more like a surfboard if the right shape.

A couple of images from MH17 to compare the material to. None of the more fragile composite control surfaces made it down in one piece, hardly any photo's of them. First would be part of one, second part of the wing itself, so much thinner layer.






The brown stain on what is likely the upper surface of the Maldives mystery bit, could have been there originally, not caused by any mishap or the journey.

And on whether the MH370 flaperon could have been ripped of in the air, as she was coming down, the inset one is a broken edge from MH17.

[Brock McEwen]

Aussie500, you make a compelling case. I had not seen the MH17 hi-res images. Thank you for this strong work.

Anyone out there recognize the lettering? This might be very important. Thanks in advance for having the courage to come forward.

[Kharon]

Brock – I don’t have the necessary skill to ‘lift’ a picture the markings  and lettering in the picture above and make them into a photograph, suitable for safe analysis.  I would if I could.  Anyone out there know how to do that? If so, howzabout blasting the picture over the net and see what response it gets.  One of the problems we seem to have is very few photographs of investigative quality, I wonder how many questions could be answered if we had.  Too many variables and fuzzy images for technical anlysis.  Just a stray thought.

[aussie500]

Well if anyone has some really high res photos of a B777 wing, both sides that might help, the writing is only small, we would not see it on most photo's. Or even a high res image of an ailerion both sides and the bits of wing around that.

[ventus45]

Paul Smithson's Theory.
The theory in essence
This theory of MH370’s disappearance is very simple. After an in-flight emergency at 17:21 UTC Captain Zaharie and his crew were trying to get the plane home.
Webpage: http://www.findmh370.com/
Download a PDF of Paul Smithson's full MH370 report (70 pages, 16Mb file).
http://www.findmh370.com/Head_for_Home_2_Feb_2016.pdf

(Excuse the butt-in) That report is worth a Tim Tam, any day of the week; the voice of sanity and logic.  Bravo. P7.

[aussie500]

I would give Paul a whole pack of Tim Tams for that.

Although I would not be so enthusiastic about those sat images the media were shown. You can still work out where the whales were, even if they themselves are not easily seen, on a high contrast B&W image, their splashes, noise, breaching and reflections as they surface and dive can be seen. There were a LOT of whales down that way. The sightings made by the aerial search would be more reliable, they were all further east, and obviously not whales.

[ventus45]

Further to my "Once Upon a Flaperon" at post #100
http://auntypru.com/forum/-MH370-time-to...27#pid3227

I have been mucking around with the thought that the flaperon may have come off at or about the time of transiting the storms off the west coast of Sumatra.

I had a look at the CSIRO drift study published by David Griffin, and sent him an email asking if it was possible for the flaperon to get from there to Reunion.

He said it was, BUT the "time frame" was too short - by around 200 days. So, is it possible that the flaperon was on or near Reunion Island for 6 or 7 months before it was "discovered" ?

Here is a pdf of my thoughts and David's e-mail reply.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y9ywkng25iv1sy...1.pdf?dl=0

Any thoughts ?

[aussie500]

Could have got stuck on a sandbank, before it washed ashore. But still I do not think a storm is going to dislodge a flaperon. Having it ripped off by wind flutter as she came down seems more likely. Whether it was too steep a glide, coming down too fast, a spiral of doom, or the whole plane came down in bits, MH17 style.

[BugsyM]

Interesting Ditching Study

Been reading the posts and catching up on here.  Very good Points made and interesting how Malaysia has made claims, then changed their stories.  If the lido radar image is false, then what else is false, for that matter what is true?  Do they even know what the truth is?  If the Inmarsat data is not complete, missing a column as some claim, then HOW can anyone pinpoint a location based on total assumptions?  This story has had more twists and turns and changes of stories that they can't even keep their story straight anymore and it appears as though they do not care.  They just want it to go away.  Am glad that there are some good people out there who keep questioning everything and trying to figure it out.  Malaysia appears to  have many secrets so who knows what really happened that night.  One can't help but wonder if there was more to this story than we have been told.  I am no expert at anything except being a frequent flyer, but I commend those who continue to disseminate facts from fiction.  I do hope this mystery is solved soon, kudos to all involved in their attempts to get to the truth.

Bugsy

[airlandseaman]

Bugsy: Everyone agrees that the Malaysian authorities have done a terrible job. For the most part, the behavior looks more like incompetence and inexperience than a James Bond conspiracy. But some of it definitely looks like deliberate misinformation and hiding of some key factual information, especially the 10 second radar data. All that is very troubling. However, I would like to dispel any notion that the redacted Inmarsat log files have created any significant problems for scientists and engineers. All of the essential data needed for a path reconstruction is contained in the available Inmarsat logs. If we had all columns in the file, it might add a little context, but it would not change any of the path calculations.

[BugsyM]

Bugsy: Everyone agrees that the Malaysian authorities have done a terrible job. For the most part, the behavior looks more like incompetence and inexperience than a James Bond conspiracy. But some of it definitely looks like deliberate misinformation and hiding of some key factual information, especially the 10 second radar data. All that is very troubling. However, I would like to dispel any notion that the redacted Inmarsat log files have created any significant problems for scientists and engineers. All of the essential data needed for a path reconstruction is contained in the available Inmarsat logs. If we had all columns in the file, it might add a little context, but it would not change any of the path calculations.

I have no idea what Inmarsat is or isn't capable of doing.  I have though, always questioned the data, but no clue as to how all the experts have came to the conclusions they have, but I will leave that up to them because I am not an expert in that field and have no intention of trying lol.  So are you saying all the information is there or it is missing a column of information?  I'm just glad there are people who are actually trying to find the plane, all the IG group people and ATSB are doing their best.  I do believe that Malaysia is just guilty of incompetence at first, but families truly believe they are withholding key information that could help find the exact location of the plane.  I have no opinion on that, except that I believe Malaysia has lied.  I'm not into conspiracies and believe this was an accident, but Malaysia was alseep at the wheel and rather than admit that, they have made up some wild theories.  A fellow that lives in Malaysia told me this was nothing new, that the Malay govt does it all the time.
I hope that the plane is found soon, the families need answers and closure.

[airlandseaman]

Bugsy:

The first page of the Inmarsat coms log ( https://goo.gl/XW3dDU ) explains what is contained in the full log, and what the redacted log contains. Of the redacted columns, the only ones that would have added some value to the path reconstruction analysis were Rx Power, C/N0, and Est. BER. These values would have provided some additional information about the quality of the received signals (signal to noise ratio). But we know, without these columns, that the signal to noise ratio for every reported record met the minimum requirements for error free transmission. So we have all the minimum required data. None of the missing data would have changed the path analysis. The JON Inmarsat Paper did provide some of the Rx Power, C/N0, and Est. BER data, and those data confirmed that there is nothing surprising in those vales.

[airlandseaman]

Another excellent IG Member report published here today: http://www.duncansteel.com/archives/2213.

[ventus45]

Ok, my theory is deliberate act, pilot controlled ditch at dawn.

Baby-poo brown lines are surface terminator at times shown.
Sunrise at FL400 is 19 minutes before surface for given position (as noted bottom right).

Flight was Igari-Penang-Medan-Milam-FMT west of Sibolga - thence direct to TOD at FL400 at 23:40/41zulu (sky blue track) - thence descent to BOD at 2,000 ft RA at 00:00/01zulu (green track) as shown.

Subsequent maneouvering was east then nnw to ditch at 00:18/19zulu on 00:18zulu terminator around 38S.

Graphic:   TOD 23:40/41zulu to BOD 00:00/01zulu



Graphic:   The "big-picture"



Note, position is inside 6th and 7th arcs (which are wrong - regardless of what Beaker says).

[slats11]

MH370 - ATSB now contemplating controlled glide

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/...its-scene/


I get the impression ATSB is laying the necessary groundwork before wrapping up the search in May. No one will have the appetite to search for another 2-3 years.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...16139.html

http://www.smh.com.au/world/missing-mala...35ap6.html

I remember all that debris well south of the 7th arc that was seen by various satellites relatively early on. This was between March 18-22 - 10-14 days after the plane disappeared.

The general location (approx 90E and 45S) is about 200km beyond the 7th arc, which could fit with a glide from that arc. Especially with 10 days of surface drift.

There were 122 pieces of debris, including 2 larger pieces that could possibly have been wings. That seems a fairly large cluster.

The ocean has lots of debris sure. But it did seem a reasonably dense collection, suggesting it was of recent origin. The fact it was announced at the time suggests it was a more concentrated collection than the normal background "noise." If it was just random debris, it should have looked random (i.e. typical) at the time.

And there was no other source for this identified.

People speculated it may have been debris from the 2006 tsunami. If so, there should still be similar collections floating around today. If there are not, that suggests it was of more recent origin.