How do we lose an airplane

[Glassunion]

162. Judging by your posts, you are assuming exactly where it went down. You cannot.

Because no one knows where it went down, only where it lost contact.

At altitude, if there was a problem, and if they could not contact air traffic, the pilots would have to make a decision on what to do... Continue on the flightpath, turn for the nearest land, re route to another airport along the flight plan, etc... If they had been flying for just 60 seconds after that last contact they could have traveled over 9 miles from where the last contact was. This can make a huge difference in the search area (254sq miles), and every minute aloft could simply add more and more distance to the search area.

If a 777 loses power at altitude, the simple 1:15 glide ratio could be used to determine how far they could travel. Which works out to just over 100 miles. And then you can add to that the distance traveled after they lost contact.

So for a mental exercise lets say the plane has lost contact and flew for an additional 120 seconds before it lost engine power. The pilots made the decision to turn 15 degrees and head towards Ngọc Hiển (south Vietnam). The plane then crashed after stalling out at the end of its glide. Now if you limited your search area to the point of last contact you would be looking at an area of about 31,400 square miles just to cover any and all given glide directions from when the plane lost contact. That is about the size of South Carolina. However, since the plane took a new route 120 seconds after the last contact, your original search area would result in you finding nothing. You would need to add an additional 12,000 square miles to your search to the north and east of your search area. So in order to find the aircraft you would have to search an area larger than the state of Virgina.