Shard

The Chinese seemed to be aware that something was up from about Day 2...so not totally sure I would give the Malaysians so much benefit of doubt.

Pollyana

When an aircraft goes missing other agencies are involved straight away. The first priority is always to alert anyone else who can help search. After a few years in my job I can honestly say I'm glad I have only had to organise searches for a couple of light aircraft, involvement in a large scale search/incident with an aircraft missing is one of those tasks I don't ever want.

Amazulu

I see that the USN is going to base a P8A in Perth for the Indian Ocean search

cresta57

Wouldn't want the shares to dip, think of the money! Who cares about 238 when there's coin to be made by not upsetting the "corporations"

The Bloke

Badge, why would the airline be responsible for the search of a missing aircraft in the first place? IMHO, airlines don't conduct search and rescue operations at all. The airline would have to contact the search and rescue agency immediately it was noticed to be missing from radar or when the failing to arrive at their destination.

Well if they didn't want people to panic, or jump to conclusions, why come out with what was practically bulls**t, have so many discrepancies in reports and information, raise the hopes of families and try pinning the cause on so many false excuses. I have lost track of how many theories that have been put forward by the Malaysians and dismissed.....this reeks of either incompetence on the part of the airline and Malaysian authorities or just simply Malaysian Airlines covering their butt for the inevitable law suits that are sure to follow. I think cock-up is pretty polite term for people to use, as this exercise was one of biblical proportions.

BadgeIsBack

Thanks for that - I would expect agencies to be advised straight-away.
I would almost expect the airline to eventually end up as pretty much a PR mouthpiece once other agencies get up to steam. I honestly don't know how much operational control an airline gets after the first few hours or days - but I am guessing there are international protocols which might govern bits of it. Reminds me there is often a difference between 'control' and 'command'. You would have the manufacturers, 3rd party agencies, government military/non-military agencies like the US - and their interests and the airline would have to manage them all. Then you would have the Malaysian government..

The Bloke

Pardon the insensitivity, but the MA shares have probably taken a major nose-dive in the last week.......

BadgeIsBack

Indeed - the airline would not have much input perhaps.
Wait and see mate, is all I would say. I don't read too much into what gets reported. I am reserving my judgement until there is more info - hindsight is a great thing isn't it? There are a lot of theories because there are a lot of unanswered questions and this one is a bit different, really. Even when there were questionable incidents, eg the 1996 Long Island crash- at least a plane came down in pieces and people could get out the bucket and mop...most of the questions are coming from punters the likes of us all sticking our noses into it all!

The Bloke

Why not ask questions or speculate.....that is how you find out information....I for one am totally confused with all the gibberish coming from Malaysia - the story changes every day!

First it was a catastrophic explosion, catastrophic structural failure, then 2 Iranian on stolen passports, then a minor Chinese "terrorist" group, then the co-pilot, and now the captain....and these are all "official" reports......wonder what they will come up with next.....?

Care to speculate?

Kapri

Agreed.

They should have been honest from the outset. They must have known it would all come out eventually.

GarryP

I've no problem with new information coming to light as time moves on, that's the idea of investigating. That should lead to changed probabilities of particular scenarios, etc.

However, it does appear as if this bunch of clueless cretins can't do a good job of presenting the confirmed evidence, supposition and plan of action together into a coherent whole. I don't think they really understand themselves. Too many 'minister for X', 'general that'; not enough people who actually have a clue what's going on and can make reasoned progress.

There is a concept of the 'recognised picture' - a sensible scenario of what really happened, when and how - then multiplied up to all the various options with various probabilities. Investigations then get targeted to prune those options down, narrow down to the most likely cases - solidify the picture.

Getting key information like what can be learned from the pilot's effects, who said/did what when is - or should be - early on. As it is their air defence radar coverage is in a mess and they weren't sure the plane had turned around for DAYS - yet they didn't prune down other possibilities during this time.

They've botched it, big time. They are still botching it by presenting for fact things that are then shown to be a facet of them not understanding what matters. If you turn ACARS off, it 'logs off'. If you disconnect it, it doesn't. Them saying they knew that it was turned off early made people think they had the log off message - but it just turns out they aren't knowledgeable or precise enough to get it right.

moneypenny20

It's nice that you can do that. Meanwhile there are 200+ families out there missing loved ones. I think they'd probably want the 'powers that be' to man up and not **** about from the moment the plane went off radar.

Pollyana

Yep, plane down in Queensland and QFES - who now run emergency management - are in there at once, even for a small one. For an airliner we would be involved as coordinators for Transport, CASA, AMSA ( if down in Queensland waters) QPS, and all other agencies like Ambulance as they become necessary. The airline itself has a role to play - caring for relatives, to name just one thing- but they are not trained to search, recover, preserve a site etc. there are State and National plans and protocols and each agency plays its role as required.
I don't have access to the Malaysian plans, nor do I know what goes on behind the scenes there, but I do know how frantic and serious a search like this would be if it happened here, especially during the first few hours before any facts emerge. I also know that however a major incident is dealt with, there will always be critics saying it should have been done faster/diffferent/better. As the time goes on, well its just getting more intriguing by the day, but those first few hours - maybe as long as 48 - I really felt for the individuals in the agencies trying to conduct the search, I would not have liked to be coordinating that one, either personally or professionally.

Shard

On contrary, it's frantic there because you're a small operation with limited staff and resources. This is a major aviation incident with immense national and international resources available. There are protocols and and procedures that are (normally) in place. I don't think it's the same thing as a bush plane going down at all.

BadgeIsBack

with respect Garry you are sounding like just another Internet geek. We are only getting what is reported. A condensed and filtered and interpreted version. I really wonder about this internet generation! This is not Tv mate...

Have you had any crisis management training, or Pr trg, or multi-agency training? I have : I know what it is like.

Maybe the agencies haven't coordinated that well and the PR side is incoherent but if you don't know where the plane is you don't know where it is.

Maybe they do and they don't want us knowing yet because it's a criminal investigation and a matter of national security...and the agencies on the ground have not finished yet.

Hey it's taken 3 days to fix a server at work. And the people that run these things have google coming out of their ears.