The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 shows world how much and little tech can do


NEW YORK, N.Y. – The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has presented two tales of modern technology.

The limitations of tracking and communications devices allowed the plane to vanish from sight for nearly three weeks. But satellites’ advanced capabilities have provided hope that the mystery won’t go unsolved.

In this day and age of constant connection, the public has been surprised to learn that radar and satellites aren’t actually all-seeing, cellphone locations aren’t always traceable and key data about the plane is only recorded, not transmitted in real time to the ground. And onboard tracking systems can be disabled manually — one theory holds that someone in the cockpit intentionally diverted the plane and disguised their actions.

“Technology can track a flight, but assuming malice was involved, it wouldn’t change the outcome of this disaster. Only better human intelligence and screening can do that,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation consultant with the Teal Group.

Still, the mystery of Flight 370 would have been even more perplexing if it wasn’t for some of these technologies. The little information we have today about where the plane might have crashed came from satellites.

“If it weren’t for the technologies, nobody would have had a clue where to look,” said Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consultancy Leeham Co.



These cockpit devices send signals to radar stations on the ground with details about the plane’s flight number, heading, speed and altitude. The transponder also can be used to send predetermined messages to air traffic controllers. For instance, if a plane’s transponder squawks out a code of “7500” it means there has been a hijacking. A squawk of “7600” refers to a radio failure and “7700” means an emergency.







In the case of the Malaysia Airlines jet, military radar picked up a signal at 2:14 a.m. of a plane flying in the opposite direction of Flight 370’s original path. The radar signal was infrequent and there was no transponder data, making it harder to track.



Some jets use satellites to regularly send maintenance data back to headquarters. Malaysia Airlines did not opt to subscribe to this service from Boeing. The jet’s disappearance has many calling for airlines to live stream information from planes’ voice and data recorders. However, transmitting data by satellite from all 80,000 daily flights worldwide wouldn’t be cheap — it costs $7 to $13 a minute for each plane. And it’s not like airlines are flush with extra cash. On average, they made $4.13 in profit per passenger last year and $2.05 in 2012.

Other satellite transmissions from the plane, however, helped searchers ultimately narrow in on the plane’s final location in a remote part of the Indian Ocean.


Inmarsat was able to calculate two long arcs indicating where the plane might have flown. It refined that analysis by factoring in the jet’s speed relative to the satellite. The company gauged how the frequency was received and transmitted — the so-called Doppler effect is similar to the way the sound of a passing car changes as it approaches and passes by a fixed point.





That means searchers have concluded that the hundreds of floating objects detected over the last week by satellite weren’t from the plane after all. Any images picked up by satellites might be the best tool in ultimately finding the remains of the plane.


Many people initially asked why cellphone GPS data couldn’t be used to help find the missing plane. Several relatives of passengers said they were getting phones to ring, even if they remained unanswered. Smartphones can help pinpoint a person’s location but only if they are near a cellular tower allowing the phone to transmit data. If a plane is 7 miles up in the air or flying over the ocean, the phone won’t be able to connect with towers on land. As for why the phones kept ringing, that’s sometimes what happens when a network can’t locate a phone.


Several planes are searching for the plane in an area that’ an eight-hour round-trip flight from their Australian base. That leaves only enough fuel a two-hour search of the target area. Among the planes searching are a Lockheed P-3 Orion and a C-130 Hercules.

The flight crews use a radar system and infrared, long-range and high resolution cameras — plus their own eyesight — to search the ocean. They also films everything so they can review what they’ve seen after they return to base.










Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at

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