Malaysian Airline accident. Use of EPIRB?

In fact, they ARE doing precisely that! You will possibly see it on TV coverage of the search.

They are called SAR Datum Buoys and they drop them to monitor currents. This is important so that when wreckage is found on the surface, they know roughly where it might have originated when the aircraft went down. They can "back-track" the currents.

However these will not be operating on either 406 or 121.5 mhz, for precisely the reasons Smart Alec alluded to.

There was and is no need to do as you indicated. The Orion knows the location. The equipment you mention is installed on ships or boats so that in distress situations help can locate them on the ocean surface. In fact, in commercial jets in the USA there is no requirement for an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) to be installed. The technology to track aircraft and ships over the oceans has existed for decades. Many years ago in one of the America's Cup races in Australia each boat had a transmitter that by using satellites could be tracked on a computer. Of course, this all requires money and standards and other things for proper use in planes.

Where do you get the info that debris were sighted by an Orion? So far, all I can find are reports of potential debris spotted on satellites pictures.

Which aircraft and ships are trying to reach.

In the middle of stormy weather in the area.

do you mean, to drop the emergency beacon JUST to monitor the currents? that would

a. saturate the bandwith

b. create false alarms

c. serve no purpose.

it can be done other way round.

those units are called EMERGENCY for reason.

i'm flying SAR. last thing i wish, is someone "thinking" to drop emergency locators in the middle of nowhere for no emergency reason.

we have this thing, called NAVIGATION that helps you to get into the search area. THERE, you start searching for the visual clues AND for the emergency signals, too.

you might mean, drop the buoy to float with the debris.. well, you don't want to search where the debris is.. you want the WRECK that's sitting in ONE place on the bottom, leaking the debris that is washed away by currents. please notice the debris from Fukushima tsunami washed ashore of US mainland.

edit: put simply.. ever heard of boy crying wolf?

the position of the debris is known. the current can be predicted. the aircraft WILL search for the debris where it potentially is. NO POINT dumping emergency locator. bear in mind, these things are no NDB beacons.. they reach 100 kilometers AT BEST.

time running out? what time? there's years to search for the wreck. no one is living down there. if someone else needed to use the 121.5 (as ancient and obsolete as it is) he would be prevented by this conflicting beacon. and take a guess who's the most likely to ditch in there right now- yeah you're right.. the search crews themselves.

those floating pieces... they will probably fish out a piece or two to confirm they're from the wreck.. but they won't be collecting them. the important pieces are on the sea bottom.

Why suspect the pilots? The plane’s transponder stopped signaling its location to air-traffic controllers and other planes at the perfect moment: the handoff from Malaysia’s controllers to those in Vietnam.

The way several key communication and tracking devices in the cockpit were disabled – at different times – also places suspicion on the pilots.

Read more at http://www.theasianconnectionsnewspaper.com/malays...

We are dialy getting new updates at news regarding this.