Malaysia Airlines 777 missing

inigo88 said:
In reference to the WSJ article about the plane flying for 5 additional hours per ACARS data:

I think general engine parameter messages are only sent once every 30 minutes, and go directly to the engine manufacturer. Unlike abnormal events (such as system failures) which go to MX control, the general parameters are things like N1, N2, EGT, FF, vibration, oil quantity, etc. This goes into a big database at Rolls-Royce so they can do long term trend monitoring of engine health and look for abnormalities.
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This is mostly correct, except that the data is not transmitted directly to Rolls-Royce (at least, I've never encountered a setup like that). The engine and other health reports are transmitted on the same infrastructure as all lthe other ACARS messages that go to the airline -- probably ultimately to a RR-provided ground station at the airline. From there, the engine reports usually forwarded from the airline to the engine manufacturer (via the internet, leased line, or whatever).

Which could be a potential source of delay for the release of this information (although five days is a little extreme). The transfer from the airline ground equipment to RR could simply be a batch job that runs only one per day (or, more likey, every few hours) … it's all part of a system designed to keep dispatch rates high and prevent IFSDs, which requires timely review. I don't know which specific equipment they're using to transfer data; some manufacturers do produce plaintext report files, other store them in a binary format that requires proprietary software to access, which would introduce a minor delay if the airline and the manufacturer's service rep didn't have access (but still not five days).

Whenever there is an incident like this, data gets locked-down (literally). Hopefully they didn't do something odd like disconnecting the systems that relay this data, only to find out a few days later they should have been monitoring for new incoming stuff, and lo, there were more updates waiting.
 
I just heard WSJ's Andy Pasztor on the NPR program "Here and Now" (http://hereandnow.wbur.org/ways-to-listen). I was unable to pick through some of his nuanced descriptions about what he knows and is able to disclose, and I suspect that he's got some tight constraints imposed by Rolls Royce. He has the reputation as a good reporter and he's on the inside of this story.

The engine data was transmitted to satellites, they indicate that the aircraft may have been aloft for another four hours, and - most interestingly - there is the possibility that it could have landed during that time (he did not say at the end of that time).
 
tomokc said:
I just heard WSJ's Andy Pasztor on the NPR program "Here and Now" (http://hereandnow.wbur.org/ways-to-listen). I was unable to pick through some of his nuanced descriptions about what he knows and is able to disclose, and I suspect that he's got some tight constraints imposed by Rolls Royce. He has the reputation as a good reporter and he's on the inside of this story.

The engine data was transmitted to satellites, they indicate that the aircraft may have been aloft for another four hours, and - most interestingly - there is the possibility that it could have landed during that time (he did not say at the end of that time).
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Refuel and fly off to the secret lair...
 
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