MH 370 Battery expired

[boxcut]

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/8/817043 ... ore-flight

Good job Malaysian Maintenance and Records Control!

[sparky99]

While it's sloppy that they'd miss something like that, it's starting to get tiresome seeing all these reports referring to it as a "Dead" battery. When we replace time-expired DK-120 ULB's, the batteries are ALWAYS still fully charged. When you see something like: "The old battery means that crews searching the southern Indian Ocean likely wouldn't have picked up a signal from the black box even if they were floating right over it" it makes me roll my eyes.

[fish4life]

It might just be the start of a growing trend of maint related issues in that part of the world. Right now everything's expanding like crazy with no way of training enough or having enough experienced maintenance personal. Things aren't to bad yet because all the fleets are brand new but to think that 10-15 years from now these airframes are going to start getting more and more tired you might start to notice more deficiencies leading to accidents, I hope this doesn't happen but I don't have a lot of faith.

[flyinthebug]

While it's sloppy that they'd miss something like that, it's starting to get tiresome seeing all these reports referring to it as a "Dead" battery. When we replace time-expired DK-120 ULB's, the batteries are ALWAYS still fully charged. When you see something like: "The old battery means that crews searching the southern Indian Ocean likely wouldn't have picked up a signal from the black box even if they were floating right over it" it makes me roll my eyes.

Well said! I have rolled my eyes more times with this "crash" than any other I can remember. Those batteries easily last 2-3 years past there shelf life, and still have 80%+ power...so to blame the battery expiring (on one not two of the boxes, as CVR battery was ok) on their inability to locate a HUGE aircraft with 239 souls on board just proves how inept they truly are in that part of the world.

I still cant figure out how we lose a 777 aircraft anywhere in the world.

Something about this whole thing remains very strange. Conspiracy theorist? hardly, but when 2+2=5 you need to re do the math.

Fly safe all.
FTB

[Heliian]

The battery being way overdue is a bad sign. Were they even doing the tests on it? What else did they miss? And hell ya, standards and training there would be crap. I like how they now go to a 15 minute check in for tracking, can't go any cheaper than that.

[Meatservo]

... inability to locate a HUGE aircraft with 239 souls on board just proves how inept they truly are in that part of the world.

I still cant figure out how we lose a 777 aircraft anywhere in the world.

Something about this whole thing remains very strange. Conspiracy theorist? hardly, but when 2+2=5 you need to re do the math.

Fly safe all.
FTB

I'm nit-picking, I realize, but in terms of size, compared to the size of the world's huge empty spaces, there isn't much difference between a Cessna 150 and a B777. They are both almost equally small when compared to the Indian Ocean.

I personally am always amazed when they DO find a plane at the bottom of an ocean, for instance the Air France one.

However I should think that if I owned anything as expensive as a triple-seven, I would have up-to-the-minute tracking installed. Maybe the technology to do so isn't as simple as I imagine it is.

[flyinthebug]

I'm nit-picking, I realize, but in terms of size, compared to the size of the world's huge empty spaces, there isn't much difference between a Cessna 150 and a B777. They are both almost equally small when compared to the Indian Ocean.

I personally am always amazed when they DO find a plane at the bottom of an ocean, for instance the Air France one.

However I should think that if I owned anything as expensive as a triple-seven, I would have up-to-the-minute tracking installed. Maybe the technology to do so isn't as simple as I imagine it is.

Ok Meat, im with ya on your 1st two sentences, and your last two as well...but I am also amazed that they found AF447. That just supports my point though, as it proves we have the technology to do just that. We have found the Titanic, and countless other lost ships and planes as our technology continually evolves and improves. This aircraft was pinging its sat pings for 7+ hours...and yet we cant find an approximate search area for the engines? They have searched all over the map. They don't have a clue, and history tells us they should.

[Meatservo]

oops double post dammit

[Meatservo]

Well, the Air France plane crashed in 2009 and they didn't find the boxes until 2011. It's only been a year since MH370, so we're still well within the timeframe set by precedent. And, in the AF case they had floating wreckage so they at least knew "sort of" where it was!

So I wouldn't say MH370 is exactly a "Bermuda Triangle" case just yet.

[CID]

I'd be lying if I said I've never encountered an expired pinger battery. Unfortunately, the pinger is mounted on a bracket that is bolted to the FDR. Sometimes the FDR gets replaced and either the pinger isn't swapped out or.... if it's not, the replacement date for the new pinger doesn't get updated. It happens but there isn't much of a focus on the problem because it is rarely discovered when it matters.

This accident will likely have people reviewing their flight recorder replacement procedures.

Having said all that, I doubt the battery would be dead even being several months after the replacement date. I would wonder about the pinger testing and if they are actually doing that. It requires a special gadget but it's really easy to do once you have it.