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There's always a fuse you can pull. And there needs to be a fuse, per regulations on how to build aircraft. The stray MH370 signal was coming from the engines

by fbender 10y ago

There's always a fuse you can pull. And there needs to be a fuse, per regulations on how to build aircraft. The stray MH370 signal was coming from the engines directly, presumably powered by the engine's internal power system, and it was engine performance telemetry to be sent to the engine manufacturer. The pilot might not have known about that system or unable to disable it (without shutting down the engines).

verelo 10y ago
This is the key point, in the case that there is a fire on board (one of the likely possibilities with MH370) you want to be able to disable the offending circuit immediately. If that happened to be your transponder, so be it...the transponder really adds no value to the plane in terms of its ability to stay in the air, so disabling it and extinguishing the fire is the key priority over giving ATC the ability to identify you on radar via the transponder.
- furyg3 10y ago
  But there can be a luggage fire? What fuse can you pull to disable that? I assume there are extinguishers for the luggage compartment? Put a GPS/Iridium suitcase in the plane?
  - Jtsummers 10y ago
    There are extinguishers in the cargo area. I'm not sure who manufactures it for the 777. The general setup is fire, smoke, and overheat detection systems throughout the aircraft. This information is relayed to the pilots. Some of the extinguishing mechanisms may be automatic (more common in military and not so common in commercial). Cargo areas probably use halon or similar.
  - verelo 10y ago
    The point is that you should be able to disable anything that is connected to the planes electrical system, to stop fires and prevent damaged systems causing issues with other functional systems (i.e. broken GPS causing electrical surges should be disabled to ensure other controls continue to work). Unless your luggage is plugged in, this is something that ground based security should be assessing the risk of prior to placing it in the plane, followed by the redundant fire suppression systems in the luggage hold as a last resort, this should be fairly under control by the time the plane is in the air.

by fbender 10y ago

verelo 10y ago

This is the key point, in the case that there is a fire on board (one of the likely possibilities with MH370) you want to be able to disable the offending circuit immediately. If that happened to be your transponder, so be it...the transponder really adds no value to the plane in terms of its ability to stay in the air, so disabling it and extinguishing the fire is the key priority over giving ATC the ability to identify you on radar via the transponder.

furyg3 10y ago
But there can be a luggage fire? What fuse can you pull to disable that? I assume there are extinguishers for the luggage compartment? Put a GPS/Iridium suitcase in the plane?
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  There are extinguishers in the cargo area. I'm not sure who manufactures it for the 777. The general setup is fire, smoke, and overheat detection systems throughout the aircraft. This information is relayed to the pilots. Some of the extinguishing mechanisms may be automatic (more common in military and not so common in commercial). Cargo areas probably use halon or similar.
- verelo 10y ago
  The point is that you should be able to disable anything that is connected to the planes electrical system, to stop fires and prevent damaged systems causing issues with other functional systems (i.e. broken GPS causing electrical surges should be disabled to ensure other controls continue to work). Unless your luggage is plugged in, this is something that ground based security should be assessing the risk of prior to placing it in the plane, followed by the redundant fire suppression systems in the luggage hold as a last resort, this should be fairly under control by the time the plane is in the air.