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> Btw, what's the transmission range of a black box? If it's 10,000 ft down, how close do you have to be to hear it? Apparently 2-3 kilometers according to [1]

> Btw, what's the transmission range of a black box? If it's 10,000 ft down, how close do you have to be to hear it? Apparently 2-3 kilometers according to [1], which I found in the comments from here [2]. [1] http://www.hydro-international.com/issues/articles/id1098-Air_France_Flight_AF.html http://www.hydro-international.com/issues/articles/id1098-Ai... [2] http://www.aticourses.com/blog/index.php/tag/side-scan-sonar/ http://www.aticourses.com/blog/index.php/tag/side-scan-sonar...

melling 13y ago
So, if the plane is traveling at 13 km a minutes and you have a 20 minute window, it's going to take a long time to find it. Doesn't the technology exist to detect low power signals from a much greater distance? The US military must be able to do it?
- adanto6840 13y ago
  I'm more surprised that there isn't a single (imagery-related) satellite that would, over the last 24 hours or so, have taken imagery (or been able to be re-assigned to do so) of the area(s) of interest. If for nothing else than to rule out some areas / possible outcomes... But yeah, very far out of my realm of expertise, though I do hope to finish my PPL fairly soon & am an avid AVHerald & LiveATC follower! :-) http://www.liveatc.net/forums/ http://www.liveatc.net/forums/ http://www.avherald.com/ http://www.avherald.com/
  - Maxious 13y ago
    You can look at Landsat imagery for some of the search area http://www.geosage.com/Special/Landsat8_Flight370.pdf http://www.geosage.com/Special/Landsat8_Flight370.pdf
- Zancarius 13y ago
  > Doesn't the technology exist to detect low power signals from a much greater distance? The pingers are sonar (well, sonic, but detected with sonar), with all the limitations that implies.
- teamonkey 13y ago
  The black box pinger isn't really designed to locate a crash site, IIRC, it's to locate the black box within a crash site that could cover several square kilometers.

melling 13y ago

So, if the plane is traveling at 13 km a minutes and you have a 20 minute window, it's going to take a long time to find it. Doesn't the technology exist to detect low power signals from a much greater distance? The US military must be able to do it?

adanto6840 13y ago
I'm more surprised that there isn't a single (imagery-related) satellite that would, over the last 24 hours or so, have taken imagery (or been able to be re-assigned to do so) of the area(s) of interest. If for nothing else than to rule out some areas / possible outcomes... But yeah, very far out of my realm of expertise, though I do hope to finish my PPL fairly soon & am an avid AVHerald & LiveATC follower! :-) http://www.liveatc.net/forums/ http://www.liveatc.net/forums/ http://www.avherald.com/ http://www.avherald.com/
- Maxious 13y ago
  You can look at Landsat imagery for some of the search area http://www.geosage.com/Special/Landsat8_Flight370.pdf http://www.geosage.com/Special/Landsat8_Flight370.pdf
Zancarius 13y ago
> Doesn't the technology exist to detect low power signals from a much greater distance? The pingers are sonar (well, sonic, but detected with sonar), with all the limitations that implies.
teamonkey 13y ago
The black box pinger isn't really designed to locate a crash site, IIRC, it's to locate the black box within a crash site that could cover several square kilometers.