Naaa!!! It’s a small aircraft. In the past three weeks I have delt with three bird strikes on three different 777’s. The pilots didn’t notice a thing on each occasion.

Rgds Cking

There will be no shortage of pilots in the UK as long as there are people who will pay for their own training/type rating/uniform/ passes etc, etc.
The shortage of skilled licenced engineers IS a worry. The big firms are only training a few guys at a time and it takes a long time to get the qualifications and experience. Also very few people think about engineering as a career.

Rgds Cking

Last time at an airport I saw the ground crew install something in the nose wheel bay attached to a big red streamer which they removed and showed to the pilot before pushing back – would this have been a safety pin on the nose gear?

That would have been the nose wheel steering bypass pin. There is a lever on the nose gear that isolates the hydraulic pressure to the nose gear steering mechanism and creates a “Run a round” circuit for the hydraulic fluid. This allows the wheels to be steered by the push back crew. Once the aircraft is straight in the fairway and the tow bar is released the pin is removed and the spring loaded lever moves to the flight position and the aircrew can steer them.
U/C ground lock pins are not normally fitted for push back operations and most firms require a tech log entry for fitment and removal.

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I must say that the BBC’s coverage of the search isn’t very good. Reports are still there but one has to go fairly far down the list to get to them, well below Peaches Geldof (no disrespect intended nor implied), Hillary Clinton or whoever else.

The New Zealand Herald’s is much better. Try http://www.nzherald.co.nz.

Un fortunately there are only a certain amount of times they can say “They are still looking for it” and at some point it will drop of the page altogether. I suspect that if they don’t find the FDR and CVR soon that point will come in the next week or so. It is very sad watching a tragic event getting less and less coverage as the press moves on and knowing that the families are still suffering.

Rgds Cking

CKing that’s rather insulting.

I will remind you that to assess the truth in such event you’ve to turn and twist around what is plausible and then checked it out. That’s what I tried to do here. No alien, no meteor or whatever theory from me.

Not meant to be insulting, just poking fun at my outlandish idea that is as plausible as some of the others .

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If the plane suffered a fire in the frwd section, wouldn’t it be plausible to see a dispersion of locators along its flight path. Could be interesting to plot all those signals on a map.

The CVR and the FDR are mounted on the same piece of structure above the galley at the rear of the aircraft. It is done like this so that they stay together or very close together when the aircraft breaks up. The distance between the two pings is two far. Two or three miles may be but the distances mentioned make it sound like they have been removed from their mounts and thrown out of the aircraft. (At low speeds you can open a flight deck window of an unpressurized 777) OMG! There’s a new mad theory for you! Tin foil hats every one!!
Seriously I think one of the “pings” might be from something else.

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Wasn’t there reports earlier on about some passengers phones still ringing when relatives dialled? Didn’t the phone company’s issue some kind of statement then discounting the idea that the phones were working?
There has been so much said in the last three weeks and quite a bit changed as well.

Rgds Cking

Rgds Cking