Airliner Shot Down?

[GS_Dirtboy]

Saying that the US Navy deliberately and knowingly shot down an unarmed civilian aircraft loaded with almost 300 men, women and children on a regular civilian route and inside Iranian air space is quite an accusation.

I didn't say this.

When you consider a group of poorly trained rebels operating an air defense system with electronics from the Vietnam War era (analog computers and vacuum tubes), the possibilities of mistakes seem very plausible.

On this we agree completely.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

I am not an expert in aviation and may be somebody here has an idea of this. I have been curious about the technology that is used to identify an airplane when the previous Malayan airplane disappeared. Is there any kind of asymmetric or symmetric encryption technology to identify each commercial plane? Is there any technical limitation because of the quantity of the flights? Or the verification just depends on the model of the plane, schedule, the route, and other features?

Can an expert undermine the control of a plane by accessing different networks and pass the plane as a threat for other networks and create an international conflict?

Aircraft are identified with varying methods. First, the aircraft has a transponder. This broadcasts a unique, 4 digit code. Second, ground-based radar can identify an "object" in the air. It won't give a picture of the object, but an echo of the radar pulse that was sent at it. Third, most modern civilian aircraft have satellite-based communication with their maintenance shops and company offices. The B777 has this. The Malaysian flight that disappeared had this and the satellite handshakes were one of the ways they were trying to determine the flight path. There are other methods like different radar types but those are mostly military application.

As of yet, the possibility of bad guys remotely taking control of an aircraft has not been demonstrated. This would only be possible on a fly-by-wire aircraft. These aircraft are controlled by computers that send signals to switches in the control surfaces as opposed to actual cables and pulleys like the "old days."

 

[French jurist]

Well it does beg the question of why a commercial airliner (no matter the height at which it flies or what it's radar signature may be) is flying through an area where planes have recently been shot down?? That seems extremely careless to me. And I'm not particularly blaming Malaysian airlines, they're probably not the only ones, but you'd think such areas would be avoided by all airlines.

In any case, hopefully the truth comes out and the people responsible will be held accountable. Such a tragedy.

This article shows the routes followed by various companies across the same region. Only British Airways & Air France avoided it (hence spending a few 1.000s more). Does not take away the responsability of the dumbs who fired the missile but that was certainly a poor choice

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/17/world/europe/maps-of-the-crash-of-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17.html?_r=0#diverted

 

[MartyBA]

While the rebel mistake case makes some sense, I find it very hard to believe it was due to the use of outdated hardware. That area doesn't lack signals intelligence these days either. The BUK it is not outdated stuff but a very capable system ( I'm sure you, hornet jockey, know this very well ). Even in the extremely unlikely case of using an older SA6 I would bet every day that they have updated its electronics and IFF, etc and even then, it doesn't operate as a stand alone launcher but under or linked to the russky command and control network. It takes a bunch of monkeys and a day or two to learn how to properly operate those things ( russian translation: survive an air attack ) and those who take the time and expense can tell the difference between a big civilian airliner at cruise level and a mid size cargo plane or any other type of aircraft, provided they want to make it one piece.

 

[Matiasba]

Well it does beg the question of why a commercial airliner (no matter the height at which it flies or what it's radar signature may be) is flying through an area where planes have recently been shot down?? That seems extremely careless to me. And I'm not particularly blaming Malaysian airlines, they're probably not the only ones, but you'd think such areas would be avoided by all airlines.

In any case, hopefully the truth comes out and the people responsible will be held accountable. Such a tragedy.

I heard they were notified, and lots of airlines decided to avoid that route.

 

[ghost]

Wow and the Black Boxes have already been moved to Russia. Putin might as well finalize his shipment of SAMS to Syria. We need more Monkeys with machine guns.

 

[lucha54]

do you think they will share the black box content with the public? i was dumbstruck when I heard the news yesterday. Absolutely speechless.

 

[French jurist]

The black box won't give much detail I'm afraid (except to confirm there was no failure, hence it was a missile, which seems to be proved at that point).

 

[ajoknoblauch]

do you think they will share the black box content with the public? i was dumbstruck when I heard the news yesterday. Absolutely speechless.

I don't think the Russkis and their rebels are big on transparency, in any event.

 

[French jurist]

The greatest conspiracy theory so far comes from Russia: some people claim that the previous Malaysian Airlines plane that disappeared was in fact this one... Speechless