So, about that plane part...

[Velar Fricative]

Maybe Jeff Wise's Kazakhstan theory is right after all!

nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/08/strange-saga-of-the-mh370-plane-part.html

[Velar Fricative]

Tomorrow marks one month since a piece of a Boeing 777 washed up on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion, but French investigators are no closer to confirming that the part came from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. In fact, leaks from within the investigation suggest that the part might not have come from the plane at all.

Such a conclusion, if confirmed, would constitute a shocking reversal. At the time of the discovery, it was generally accepted that the wing segment, a so-called “flaperon,” could only come from MH370: Boeing engineers confirmed that the part was from a 777, and MH370 was the only 777 to have gone missing. Aviation experts declared that serial numbers on the flaperon would allow it to be definitively linked to the missing plane within 24 hours. When that deadline passed, news outlets told readers that the ID should be nailed down within a few days. Then by the following week.

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What was holding things up, it turned out, was that the ID plate that should have been attached to the inboard edge of the flaperon was missing. And that was not the only problem. According to the New York Times, Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board found that the object did not match Malaysia Airlines’ maintenance records.

The waters were muddied on August 6, when Malaysia's prime minister, Najib Razak, announced that experts examining the flaperon in France had “conclusively confirmed” that it was from the plane. Minutes later, the French prosecutor in charge of the case, Serge Mackowiak, contradicted Najib and stated that confirmation would require further tests. Around the world, however, many prominent news outlets, including CNN and the BBC, went with Najib’s more confident-sounding claim.

The story briefly faded from the public eye. Then, on August 21, the French news outlet La Dépêche ran a report citing sources within the investigation who indicated that the technical examination of the flaperon had ended without the hoped-for evidence being found. A few days later, Le Monde ran a report that echoed the Times’ earlier reporting: “[M]aintenance work that Malaysia Airlines has indicated it carried out on the flaperon does not exactly match that observed on the discovered piece.”

It’s not clear exactly how one should interpret such language. Airplane parts are engineered precisely, and any changes made to them must be meticulously logged by maintenance personnel. If a part has four holes instead of five, it doesn’t just “not match exactly” — it doesn’t match.

But if the part didn’t come from MH370, where could it have come from? In recent weeks the internet has been abuzz with speculation that the part might have been a replacement part not yet put into service or a spare part pulled off a scrapped airframe.


How the part found its way to a beach on La Réunion is another issue. The Dépêche article contained a tantalizing hint. “According to a Toulouse aeronautics expert who requested anonymity,” the article stated, “the element of the wing would not have floated for several months at the water’s surface but would have drifted underwater a few meters deep.”

It’s not yet known why investigators reached this conclusion, but one clue might be that the flaperon found on La Réunion was encrusted on every edge with goose barnacles. These animals are a type of crustacean that attaches while young to a floating object and spends its entire adult life affixed to the same spot. Since they obviously can only survive underwater, their distribution around the object suggests that the entirety of it must have spent at least several months submerged.

Therein lies the mystery. While it’s easy to imagine a submarine or a scuba diver hovering peacefully 10 or 20 feet under the surface of the water, this is not something that inanimate objects are capable of doing on their own: Either they are more buoyant than water, in which case they float, or they are less buoyant, in which case they sink. “My experience is that things will go up or down — they will never stay statically neutral,” says famed ocean-drift expert Curtis Ebbesmeyer, professor emeritus of oceanography at the University of Washington.

So, how could a six-foot-long chunk of airplane remain suspended beneath the ocean surface for a long period of time? At this point, there aren’t any simple, common-sense answers; the range of possible explanations at this point runs from as-yet-unidentified natural processes to purposeful intervention by conspirators. The implausibility of it all is quite maddening — but, then again, when it comes to MH370, maddening and implausible are par for the course.

[chedifuen]

Dude! I knew it.

[litebright]

I thought this could not get more bizarre. I was wrong.

[shanbrite2]

What the fuuuuuuuck??? What is going on!?!?!

[ttt]

WHERE IS THE PLANE??

[origami]

Maybe Malaysia had crap records about the maintenance work carried out on that plane.

[anastasia517]

This gets weirder and weirder. Tinfoil hats are definitely appropriate again.

I can't imagine how the families feel without answers after all this time after so many times thinking that they would finally be getting answers.

[FloFTW]

What is happening even.

[Cicero]

Malaysia has very heavily censored media. By heavily censored I mean that the government controls what is printed and/or said. It would not surprise me at all if Najib was speaking trying to just put the matter behind him without thinking that a media outlet somewhere might ask follow up questions and his word wouldn't just be treated as gospel.

[jeaniebueller]

Huh.

[sangria]

[aurora]

Aug 28, 2015 21:03:51 GMT -5 origami said:

Maybe Malaysia had crap records about the maintenance work carried out on that plane.

Here you are, looking at logic and ruining all of the conspiracy theorists' days.

[iammalcolmx]

Mmmmmm hmmmmm, I was asking where the REST of that damn plane was! That shit is in Kazikastan.

[wise_rita]

I knew that wing would amount to nothing!

Or was planted, more like.

[IIOY]

Aug 28, 2015 21:03:51 GMT -5 origami said:

Maybe Malaysia had crap records about the maintenance work carried out on that plane.

Now why on earth would you question the safety protocol of a Southeast Asian airline?

[sangria]

Aug 28, 2015 21:03:51 GMT -5 origami said:

Maybe Malaysia had crap records about the maintenance work carried out on that plane.

Normally I would agree, but Malaysian isn't some rinky dink airline. They are allowed to operate in the EU and FAA endorsed which means they are required to meet very strict international maintenance record standards and safety protocols

[josieposy]

Every time I hear the word "flaperon" it sounds like a name my definitely-not-an-engineer DH would give an airplane part.

[meshaliuknits]

So we're back to aliens yes?

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 29, 2015 9:22:04 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

So we're back to aliens yes?

Or Putin. Either is fine.

[meshaliuknits]

Aug 29, 2015 10:50:29 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Aug 29, 2015 9:22:04 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

So we're back to aliens yes?

Or Putin. Either is fine.

Maybe Putin IS an alien!

Dun dun DUUUUUN!!!

[sushi]

dammit

I had an awesome putin alien, but it won't work.

[Deleted]

I personally think Hollywood is trying to revive DVD and streaming sales of Lost.

[aurora]

Aug 29, 2015 11:10:57 GMT -5 sushi said:

dammit

I had an awesome putin alien, but it won't work.

Wow, Googling "putin alien" returns a lot of hits!

One example:

[vanillacourage]

The flaperon is part of the wing, right?  If it crashed in a shallow-ish area and part of the plane's fuselage + wing stayed intact, with the fuselage on the ocean floor and the wing pointing straight up, would that create a scenario where the barnacles could attach to the flaperon "floating" in mid-water?

[Velar Fricative]

The French confirmed that it belongs to MH370. That took a while.

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34145127

So of course the first thing I did was run to Jeff Wise's Twitter. Nothing beyond tweeting the press releases yet.

[iammalcolmx]

Sept 3, 2015 12:10:41 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

The French confirmed that it belongs to MH370. That took a while.

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34145127

So of course the first thing I did was run to Jeff Wise's Twitter. Nothing beyond tweeting the press releases yet.

WHERE IS THE REST OF IT??? I need some more parts before I take off my Tin Foil hat.

[Velar Fricative]

Sept 3, 2015 12:17:39 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

Sept 3, 2015 12:10:41 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

The French confirmed that it belongs to MH370. That took a while.

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34145127

So of course the first thing I did was run to Jeff Wise's Twitter. Nothing beyond tweeting the press releases yet.

WHERE IS THE REST OF IT??? I need some more parts before I take off my Tin Foil hat.

Patience, my dear. Putin follows a schedule for throwing each part of MH370 into the ocean.

[iammalcolmx]

Sept 3, 2015 12:19:21 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Sept 3, 2015 12:17:39 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

WHERE IS THE REST OF IT??? I need some more parts before I take off my Tin Foil hat.

Patience, my dear. Putin follows a schedule for throwing each part of MH370 into the ocean.

You don't think it was part of MH17?

[sangria]

There are still too many questions for me!!!

1. I need to know how the made the 100% determination?

2. Barnaclegate

3. What about that other debris they found- what's the status on that?

This is still so fucking weird. I want to know HOW they finally were able to confirm it.