[tsarzen]

Hacker News seems to be a community of people who are good at solving problems. This is a big problem that needs solving. Over 200 people missing, all with families who are going through a terrible time. I think the HN response to this is a very positive thing.

[weego]

Let's not groupthink our way into believing we are anything more than drivers who have slowed down in the opposite lane to rubberneck at a car crash at this point.

[omegant]

I´m finishing a blog post on how to use the satellite ping chain (with the consecutive position arcs) and the known cruise speed of the B777 to create a probable route tree over the maps. Maybe it´s not going to give much information (pings are one hour a part and have an error of about 100NM or more), but If it serves to dismiss some parts of the actual ping position band, that would save time to the search teams.

[tom_morrow]

has the ping data been published?

to my knowledge, we've seen one arc (from the last ping) that has been split into two parts based on assumptions of maximum and minimum ranges of straight flight at even speed.

that's a lot of assumptions.

[omegant]

As far as I know it´s not been published, I´m just making an example of what kind of information it would give (not too much).

I´ve read that the telephone ping was just every hour or so, that gives you at least 5 or 6 pings during the flight, some of them when the aircraft was at known positions.

It´s a pity because with a ping every 5 min it would have been possible to obtain a pretty narrow route.

The ping arc error zone it´s quite wide (about 100NM) but maybe it could be possible to correct it somehow comparing the ping string with the last known positions.

Of course it´s just going to give wide probable routes, but there is a possibility that they give additional indirect information, like some branches overflying radar zones, or airways on the general direction of the probable route that could be used to narrow the search again. Even if it just works for reducing the actual search surface it´s worth looking at it. I suppose that the SAR teams are trying to do something similar, but after seeing last´s week response it´s difficult

[shirro]

Sure there is an element of that. But there are huge numbers of tech people who are into aviation, radio, satellites, image processing and solving puzzles.

I don't want to forget that this is a tragedy for the families involved. But I think it is more technically interesting story than a javascript text editor or the latest crypto currency news.

[marshray]

Saaay... is there an app for that yet?

(I don't know if I'm kidding)