#MH370 Mystery

I’m a bit of an aviation geek so the disappearance of a Boeing 777 fascinates me.  Having been to the Boeing factory in Everette, WA where they assemble the 777 and gotten to climb through one and see how large it is I’m truly baffled that one has vanished from the planet.

Nothing I say here is revolutionary but as the story evolves here are my thoughts from a lowly AV geek who flies a lot.

Flying is a high tech enterprise.  The planes are high tech, the crews are well trained, and the communications systems are first rate.  That’s my first quandary – how could a plane with 239 people on it completely vanish without a trace in 2014?  The evidence would indicate that they wanted to disappear as they chose the moment of flight ripe for going off grid in terms of the hand-off from one air traffic control center to another.  However, the obvious cockpit communications equipment is only one piece of the puzzle.  The engines and other aircraft systems often have their own communications systems and we know these continued to operate long after the cockpit communications (transponder, radio, etc.) were turned off.

The other part of the communications puzzle is the location in the world where this happened.  The Indian Ocean is the third largest body of water on the planet and the southern half is very remote.  There is also very limited satellite coverage for those systems communications to contact.  Even still, a remote part of the world with people intentional on going away should have still be detectable by other types of spy satellites, military radar, etc. and yet we have nothing.  Just a few pings from the engine systems off a single satellite and a lot of complicated math to even get us in the ballpark for where the plane may have gone down.

That same high tech though has aided investigators in at least getting this far.  Even without knowing the altitude and speed of the plane the evidence from those few pings and knowing how much fuel was on board has at least narrowed things down.  Granted it took a while to figure all of that out but at least we aren’t still searching in the South China Sea.

My next observation is the lack of debris.  One would think that by now if the plane did indeed crash in the water that on some beach somewhere something would have washed ashore.  In previous crashes into oceans debris and even bodies have washed up on coastlines within a few days but here we have nothing.  Nothing.  All we have discovered in searching is that the Indian Ocean is a much-polluted body of water with folks dumping all kinds of stuff in there. 

There can be many reasons for no debris but most of them are far-fetched and would be historical if proven true.  Finding the airplane in tact on the bottom of the ocean and understanding how it got there without any surface evidence will be game changing.

Combining these first two mysteries with the disappearance of 239 people and this does indeed become one of the greatest mysteries of our generation.  The loss of life here is tragic but there doesn’t seem to be a scenario where these folks could still be alive.  If the plane were stolen in the greatest heist ever then who would want to keep 239 people alive for this long without making some sort of ransom demand?  If the plane was stolen for purposes of turning it into a weapon then hiding it this long is a feat in and of itself.  You’d think those determined to use it for evil would want to get their ill will accomplished before they could be discovered.

I’m sure that all will eventually be revealed, but it will take time and patience and those traits are hard to come by in a situation like this.  I do think the Malaysians are in over their heads and obviously not used to this sort of international scrutiny and would be wise to turn over the investigation to another nation.

It took 73 years to find the Titanic, granted they had eye witness to tell them what happened but the wreck wasn’t discovered for almost three quarters of a century.  The search areas are massive and even with our sophisticated technology our lack of ocean knowledge combined with the sheer size of the area could still leave us waiting for several years before any of these questions are answered.  

Another Emergency Landing

Maybe it’s me but as of late I’ve had my share of travel issues. That’s to be expected with the amount of time I spend on the road and statistically I’m due for some travel related issues but do they all have to come at once?

Recently I’ve started to experience of string of emergency related landings. The last one was due to the plane catching on fire in flight. This most recent one was due to a medical emergency. Indianapolis is my home airport so we took off for Minneapolis (incidentally I was flying there for my last emergency landing as well) without issue.

I was looking at the window as we flew over Lafayette, IN – which is where I live when the flight attendance got on the PA and asked if there was a doctor or anyone with medical training on board. A few people got up and started helping a lady who was unconscious. Within a few minutes the plane begin to bank and I wondered if we were going to land somewhere. They had started doing CPR on the passenger and had her laying down in the aisle. They also were giving her oxygen.

Since we were over Lafayette and there is a runway at Purdue I wondered if we were going to stop there or if we would return to Indy. Turns out we returned to Indy. It took 15 minutes from the time we turned around over Lafayette until we landed in Indy. It takes me an hour to drive those same 70 miles.

This emergency landing was different in that it seemed all the normal landing rules were suspended. They didn’t do any safety checks, they didn’t make us put our seatback in the upright and locked position or raise our tray tables. The passenger was still lying on the floor with her husband and many others crouched over her. In this case the flight attendants asked those who were seated around them to buckle into the aisle seats and then lock arms over those on the floor in the aisle to hold them in place as we landed.

Once on the ground we were met by the Indy Airport fire and rescue crews. The plane quickly taxied to a gate and they boarded and got the passenger off the plane on a small stretcher. Her husband followed with other passengers helping him gather their belongings.

As those who were helping her sat down they told us that she and her husband were on their way to Hawaii to renew their wedding vows. Her husband told them that she hadn’t been feeling well the past few days but made herself get out of bed to take this trip. She has passed out and lost all her color.

I’m not aware of how the situation turned out but please pray for this lady and her family.

Now the wait was on to see what would happen to the rest of us as we sat on the plane at the gate. While the Delta flight crew did a great job responding to the situation the Delta ground crew now had to figure out what to do with all of us. With it being Spring Break time there were no other seats available on any other flights and the airline had to solve 2 problems. First, they had to find a departure slot and second, they hand to replace our oxygen tank as it had been used up.

After waiting for 2 hours we were finally cleared to take off. I have no idea if we ever got our oxygen tank or not. I was impressed with how relaxed the rest of the passengers were. Many were traveling for Spring Break and were going to miss connections putting their plans on hold. Context is everything in a situation like that and it is hard to complain about being late when you’re sitting there healthy. I think everyone was also thinking that they would want the same courtesy and attention paid to them if they were the on the floor of the airplane aisle.

I arrived at my destination 4.5 hours late and was thankful. Again, contextually in the grand scheme of things I had no reason to complain.

I fly again tomorrow and pray for the sake of those around me that it is an uneventful flight.

Emergency Landing and a Website Failure

When you travel a lot, the odds are in your favor that something is going to happen at some point at some time that delays you, jams you up, leave you stranded somewhere, and generally adds a bit of excitement to your life.

This morning was my morning to catch up on that.  I boarded a Delta flight headed for San Francisco from Indianapolis with a brief stop in Minneapolis.  Our MD-90 aircraft took off and I promptly dozed off.  I was awakened when a flight attendant rushed passed me bumping my shoulder.  A few seconds later, she said we were making an emergency landing in Chicago.

The announcement woke me up and I looked around trying to figure out why.  The ascent had been pretty bumpy due to some weather in the area but I didn’t notice anything else wrong.  She then came back on and said there was a problem in the galley and we would be landing in Chicago in 10 minutes.  She told us not to be afraid but as the flight crew walked up and down the aisle, you could tell they were nervous.

I tried to jump online to inform my faithful followers of the fun I was about to experience but the internet wasn’t on.  Either we never reached 10,000 feet or they left it off due to the emergency. It was difficult to tell what our altitude was as we were flying through clouds and a lot of rain.

With the nose of the plane pointing down we began one of the fastest descents I’ve ever been through on our way to land at O’Hare.  As we descended and all started feeling lighter I felt a tap on my shoulder from the kid sitting behind me.  He had to be a teenager.  I turned around and he had slipped off his noise cancelling headphones and due to the rapid descent had a pressing question.  He said, "Dude, what's going on." Before I could mess with him and say something like, "Nothing much, the plane is just going down." the guy sitting across the aisle from him told him the true story.

Our pilots declared an emergency so after our quick descent we landed with full emergency vehicle escort at O’Hare.  We landed hard, probably due to the plane being heavy with fuel, and then stopped briefly on the runway while the emergency vehicles on the ground surrounded the plane.  The pilot told us to stay seated. 

After a minute, we taxied off the runway and stopped.  The pilot then told us there was an item overheating in the galley and the fire department was going to inspect the plane.  He then reminded us to stay seated. I figured we were good since it was pouring rain outside.

A few minutes later, we started to taxi towards the gate.  The fire trucks stayed right with us.  The pilot told us when we got to the gate to leave anything in the overhead bins behind and quickly exit the plane into the terminal.  In no time, we were at the gate and quickly filing off as firemen walked around the aircraft.

I typically fly with a carry-on bag but this time all I had was my backpack as I’m going to be gone for over a week and had to check my bag.  I grabbed my backpack and walked off the plane.  The jet bridge was full of fire fighters and fire extinguishers.  Once in the terminal I breathed a small sigh of relief and then started working on my next problem – getting from Chicago to San Francisco.

I quickly jumped on my Delta app but was not able to login.  I tried several times but the app wouldn’t work so I wasn’t able to rebook myself. The lines at the gate were rather long as 120 people were also trying to get rebooked.  Therefore, I went old school.  I took a page from my 1997 playbook and actually called the 800 number for Delta while standing in one of the lines.

I found out later that Delta had a complete site failure and that no one could check in for a flight or do anything.  I’m pretty sure the two incidents aren’t related but trying to rebook old school and not being able to look up any data online was interesting to say the least.  Even the airport kiosks weren’t working and were unable to find my confirmation number. 

A quick side note, as an IT person who deals with system failures all the time it was nice to know that even the big guys have major issues. 

I was hoping to catch a direct flight from Chicago to San Francisco but Delta doesn’t have one.  The best bet for me was to continue on with the broken plane once it got fixed to Minneapolis and then catch a later flight to San Francisco.  That also kept me with my bags that were still on the broken plane.  All told, I would end up getting to SFO 3 hours later than originally scheduled.  Not only that, but she also provided me with guaranteed upgrades to first on both legs of the flight, to MSP and to SFO.  It sounded good to me, so I took the deal.  I had my problem solved long before the majority of the folks standing in the long lines.  The only variable was whether they would get the plane fixed in time for me to get to MSP to catch the later flight to SFO.

The folks at Delta in Chicago did a great job keeping us informed.  They replaced the part but they also had another part coming in on another flight from Atlanta just in case the fix they had already completed didn’t completely solve the problem. 

Two and a half hours later, they boarded the plane again to continue.  There were only 27 people left as most had been rebooked and I heard one guy say he wasn’t getting back on that plane no matter what.

When we arrived in Minneapolis, we were all given a $10 food voucher for our trouble.  As I write this I’m on a different MD-90 making my way west.  My thanks to all the folks at Delta who worked hard to keep us safe and get us to our destinations.  I hope that if you ever hear the words “emergency landing” over the PA on a flight you are on that you are treated as professionally as the Delta folks treated us.

Oh, I guess I should finish the story.  Turns out the module just behind the cockpit that controls the flight attendant intercom went bad and ended up melting a few wires.  We saw several of the wires that had the protecting coating melting off.  This module didn’t affect the PA but my guess is since the intercom is important during flight and since it got so hot do close to the flight deck that they thought it best to land quickly and get it fixed.  A fire in the air would have been a very bad thing.

Update: 10/19/13
Yesterday I received an email from the Delta VP of Customer Relations apologizing for the "report of smoke in the cabin" that caused our troubles.  The email acknowledged that such events can be disturbing and said we would each be getting 10,000 miles added to our accounts.  It would appear that Delta gets it.  Not only did they apologize profusely for something that wasn't their fault but they took responsibility and are compensating their customers.  This is why I fly Delta and will continue to do so.

Codeshare Secrets

When you spend a lot of time on the road, or more accurately, in the air, you learn a few tricks to dealing with the airlines that make spending time in the air possible. One recent learning experience for me was with the whole code sharing of flights between airlines.

As airlines merge and try to compete and increase their offerings codeshares are a big way for them to be bigger than they are and serve more cities than they really do. I fly Delta almost exclusively and they have a codeshare with Alaska Airlines that I’ve found myself using numerous times. I book the flight through delta.com but part of the trip is on an Alaska Airlines plane operated by an Alaska crew.

This really isn’t anything new; it has just become more prevalent as airlines continue to merge. Eventually when they have all merged together and there is only one airline this problem will go away but for now it is something we all deal with.

In the ideal world you don’t even know the codeshare of the flight exists. Your bags transfer seamlessly, you go from gate to gate without issue and as a passenger the only difference is plane livery and crew uniforms. However, there are several things that don’t seamlessly integrate because after all, remember, you are dealing with two independent companies who have just decided to play nice with each other.

In my case the issue arose due to my seat preference. I like to sit in the economy plus section on longer flights to the west coast. On Delta you pay for this privilege but on Alaska they reserve those rows for their mileage elite and premier status customers. My question was how do I get an economy plus seat because on the Delta website all the seats on my Alaska codeshare flight were taken and it wouldn’t even let me select a seat at all.

Here are some tricks:

• Even though you bought your codeshare through one airline you actually have two separate reservations and confirmation codes, one for each airline. Find out what both of these codes are and then login to the website of the codeshare operator and you can see more seats that are available.
• In this case I had to actually call Alaska Airlines to get my confirmation number with them. The Delta website only shows your Delta confirmation number but once I got my Alaska confirmation number their site showed both numbers. I also called Delta and found them to be of little help as they didn’t have either my Alaska confirmation or ticket number. I waited 24 minutes to talk to someone at Delta and only 1 minute to talk to someone at Alaska.
• When you check in for your flight on your primary carrier you may not get all the seat options available due to difference in how each airline allocates seats. For instance, Delta charges for better seats while Alaska holds them for elites and premiers up until 24 hours before flight time. At that point it’s a free for all.
• In order to cheat the system I actually checked in twice to get the seat I wanted. I checked in on Delta for my Delta flights and then went to the Alaska website and checked in again just for their segment so I could get the seat I wanted.
• Remember, the 24 hour window starts from the local time of your flight for that segment. That’s why when I first checked in on the Delta site it still didn’t show me the seats I wanted. I waited another 3 hours until my Alaska flight was within check in range and tried on delta.com again and it showed me more seats but it did not let me pick them. I went to the Alaska website and quickly and easily got the seat I wanted. Granted I had a boarding pass from Delta for their flight and Alaska for their flight but at least I got the seat I wanted. Trust me, on longer flights across the country it is well worth it. 

Codeshare flights definitely have a benefit for both passengers and airlines. I personally prefer Alaska flights to Delta flights as the service on board is better, the crews are nicer, and they offer hot food for purchase in economy, the only US airline to do that I think.

Disclaimer: While this process has worked for me it is important to note that even though you can change your seat on the codeshare flights and print a boarding pass with your new seat the Delta site and the Alaska sites will still show you in your old seat.  I tweeted with Alaska to confirm my seat had changed and they confirmed it had, and their website showed it changed once I opened my actual reservation but the apps for both airlines never reflected my seat being changed.

Back to the (insert your own adjective here) skies.