I hope some of the patient experts will indulge new questions since it is looking as though they may have at least identified the right area to find the plane. First - who owns the "Black Box"? Or does it matter? Will whoever has the ability to recover it get to examine it? It seems like Australia is still in the lead - is that because it is in their waters? Does that mean they get first dibs? I hope that Australia or the U.S. gets to examine it first because I have the most confidence that they will release accurate details eventually. And what about the aircraft itself? Does it go where the box goes? Also, I know you all aren't required to be experts on deep water recovery, but I would still like to ask this: Isn't it going to take MONTHS to recover a plane from even the shallowest depth of where they are looking? Where is a good place to read about the Air France recovery for comparison? Am I right in surmising that only a handful of countries in the world have the ability to do such recoveries? And finally, a purely subjective question that is based on the few English news accounts I can find from China. Can anyone shed light on why the Chinese appear to be so reluctant to believe their citizens are dead and why they appear to not believe what anyone says? Yes, I know I'm showing my ignorance here, but I have never been there and don't know anyone from there. Obviously, your opinion is going to be a lot more valid than anyone I know to ask. I'm trying to understand if it is just a result of living in such a closed, controlled culture where you're fed a bull**** diet on a daily basis. It's interesting to read their reactions to all of this. Thanks in advance.

It will be controlled by who ever is in charge of the accident investigation. Since it appears the plane crashed in international waters it would normally be the State of the operator. However in this case it seems the Malaysians have handed off the grunt work to the Australians. It will be interesting to see if and when stuff is found if the Malaysians try to take control or just contract the whole thing out to Australia. Normally they would not have had any standing in this flight. It wasn't going to or from there, it's not their airline or airplane and it wasn't made there.

Perhaps you haven't been around, but I've contributed quite a bit to this thread, but I got tired of seeing the same things posted by new members and took a break. Hope that answer is satisfactory. :rolleyes:


Mournlight- As far as deep water recovery, I'm no expert, but I assume they won't be pulling many pieces up unless the black box indicates something especially interesting that needs examination of the airframe itself. I could be very wrong of course, but that area is up to 20,000 feet deep at some points. I imagine it would take many many months to bring up as many pieces as they could if that is the avenue they choose.

Those are some bouncing jubblies!

Malaysian 777 missing
 

Now they're saying the FO's cell phone tried to place a call when over flying land. They're not releasing what number it dialed. They know he turned it off consistent with the beginning of flight but at some point during the turn back, his phone turned on, connected to a tower, and he or someone tried to place a call.

The plot thickens.

How deep is too deep to physically recover anything? Sounds like the area they are looking now is 2-3,000 feet deeper than AF447 was.

Might be an academic argument. Maybe the technology doesn't exist to recover anything??

They yanked half a submarine off the seafloor at 16,000' in the early 1970s and came back with a plan to get the rest of it, although it was foiled by the russians. It may take more time to recover stuff with slower robots and submersibles at those depths, but I'm sure it would get done.

Must have had Sprint service: Coverage in Manhattan? Not so good. Bottom of Indian Ocean? Clear as a bell, Sir Watson!

The Russians foiled it. Height of the Cold War. More things change.....

Seriously, thanks for the info.

Those 1-900 calls are expensive!

Better to do it while you're gettin' paid! :eek::D