General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf MH370 crashed in southern Indian Ocean it wouldn't be seen or heard (average depth 11,000 feet)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/16/if-mh370-crashed-in-southern-indian-ocean-it-wouldnt-be-seen-or-heardThe southern Indian Ocean, where investigators suspect missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have come down, is one place where a commercial airliner can crash without a ship spotting it, a radar plotting it or even a satellite picking it up.
The empty expanse of water is one of the most remote places in the world and also one of the deepest, posing potentially enormous challenges for the international search effort focusing on the area, one of several possible crash sites.
snip
In most of Western Australia and almost all of the Indian Ocean, there is almost no radar coverage, an Australian civil aviation authority source said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the record.
snip
The Indian Ocean, the worlds third largest, has an average depth of about 3600 metres. That is deeper than the Atlantic where it took two years to find wreckage from an Air France plane that vanished in 2009 even though floating debris quickly pointed to the crash site.

randome
(34,845 posts)
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]
Baclava
(12,047 posts)
if you watched the show 'Draining the Oceans', you know what we call islands are the tippy tops of undersea mountains

Grand Bahama Bank, which rises more than 2 miles high from the Atlantic abyssal plain.
The Bahamas Islands are but the tips of these massive structures
Loudly
(2,436 posts)Not to mention the luggage.
Stuff will float and wash up ashore.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Crympghhuh dunguda flunutu.
Loudly
(2,436 posts)Sheldon Cooper
(3,724 posts)If it ditched into the ocean, then eventually something will wash ashore somewhere.
petronius
(26,700 posts)pilot suicide - and that the aircraft was set down as gently as possible in a very remote part of the ocean after everyone on board had been killed/incapacitated by decompression. If the plane was ditched carefully to remain somewhat intact, the floating wreckage may have been minimized...
Kick in to the DU tip jar?
This week we're running a special pop-up mini fund drive. From Monday through Friday we're going ad-free for all registered members, and we're asking you to kick in to the DU tip jar to support the site and keep us financially healthy.
As a bonus, making a contribution will allow you to leave kudos for another DU member, and at the end of the week we'll recognize the DUers who you think make this community great.