Text 8917, 100 rader
Skriven 2010-06-29 10:08:32 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Flying around the US
============================
Hello Robert,

On Monday June 21 2010 07:35, you wrote to me:

 MV>> Had there been a continues tracking system such as the one in use
 MV>> for European trucks, the search and rescue parties would not have
 MV>> to search hundreds of square miles of ocean, but could have
 MV>> directly gone to its last reported position, probably finding it
 MV>> in minutes instead of days.

 RB> You're grasping at straws, Michiel.

Not at all. I think susch a tracking system would be of great help and save a
lot of time in fruitless searches in case a plane gets missing.

 RB> According to the latest reports, the plane broke up in the air. At a
 RB> speed of several hundred knots an hour, that would mean a wide spread
 RB> of wreckage regardless of whether it was tracked or not.

It makes a lot of difference if one has to search and area 10 by 10 kilometers
or half an ocean. Yes, it broke up in the air, but that was not known until
much later. When that plane lost contact, nopody knew what had happened and
nobody knew where it was. Not by any aproximation. Even after so much time had
elapsed that it must sureley have been out of fule, there were speculations
about it having landed at a deserted airstrip in the middle of nowhere. Point
is that it took DAYS to find it and until it was found it could have been
anywhere where the remaining fuel could have taklen it. Thousands of
kilometers.

A contunues tracking system would have eliminated lots of possibilities within
minutes. Ok, in this case there was nothing to rescue, but I can think of mant
conditions where eliminating hours of fruitless seacrh can save lives.

And of course susc a tracking system would not just report the plane's
position. I could also report some critical flight date such as engine power,
air speed, verical speed, etc, etc. That would give lots of information that
otherwise needs to wait for the black boxes to be found.


 RB> Aside from which, you confuse wide stretches (thousands of miles) of
 RB> open water with European land. There is not the slightest relationship
 RB> between the tracking systems people use for European trucks and what
 RB> you would need for intercontinental flights over water.

A global tracking system is a global tracking system. If it uses satellites, it
works just as well over water as over land. http://www.aprs.net/

 RB> And even if all that were not so, you forget that it's often very
 RB> difficult to locate airplane wrecks in rough country even on land -
 RB> and the Air France machine went down in an area where the ocean floor
 RB> is mountainous and full of silt - much similar to heavily wooded,
 RB> mountainous terrain on land as far as finding wreckage is concerned.

As I wrote, it makes a lot of difference if one has tpo search hakf an ocean or
just a patch of 10 x 10  km.

 RB> And of course the ocean floor is dark, so you have to compare that
 RB> with trying to find wreckage at _night_ in heavily wooded, mountainous
 RB> terrain on land - with the added problem that you have to do it with
 RB> protective equipment in the ocean because of the pressure.

There is always something that floats. That will give a forst indication of
where to look.

 MV>> That US no-fly list IS a problem.

 RB> But not one so serious that it would warrent disrupting flight
 RB> schedules and causing flying hazards (ignoring for a moment the
 RB> economic consequences)

How about the three hour check in? Would not going back to half an hour be of
great economic value?

 RB> by trying to avoid American airspace. Otherwise the airlines would do
 RB> just that - they aren't stupid, you know.

But they ARE conservative.

 MV>> It is the cause of large delays at the check-in, it is a serious
 MV>> violation of privacy. One way of course.

 RB> That, of course, is true and I don't defend it. But your "solution" is
 RB> unfortunately not a practical option.

You have rejected it out of hand without taking a serious look at it.

 MV>> It is ineffective, it did not stop the amateur that tried to bring
 MV>> down a plane from Amsterdam to Houston.

 RB> When was this? Something recent?

Sorry, Amsterdam to Detroit. Around christmas. It was al over the news.

http://thekatycapsule.com/wordpress/detroit-attempted-terror-attack-thwarted/


Cheers, Michiel

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