[Peetwo]

Captain's Log 05.12.16: The Oz v ATSB - Contrail re-visit?

Courtesy 'that man' in the Oz this AM - :

MH370 aid offer renewed
12:00amEAN HIGGINS
A physicist has renewed a proposal to try to find where MH370 went down using archival satellite imagery.

Are we looking for MH370 in the wrong place?2:57

Pilot Byron Bailey explains the holes in the current theory as to the whereabouts of MH370

• December 2nd 2016
  
• 4 days ago
  
• /video/video.news.com.au/News/
  

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A Melbourne cloud physicist has renewed a proposal to Australian and Malaysian authorities to try to find where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went down using archival satellite imagery to track its contrails.

Aron Gingis, a scientist who held posts at Monash and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before setting up a consultancy, said tracking aircraft movements by this method was more precise than the satellite electronic “handshake” data relied on by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

The ATSB has based its search strategy on automatic hourly Inmarsat satellite exchanges with MH370 during its flight to the southern Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

The ATSB has claimed the Inmarsat data shows the Boeing 777 was in a rapid descent at the end of the flight, supporting its “ghost flight” or “death dive” ­theory that it flew on autopilot with “unresponsive” pilots until ­running out of fuel and crashing.

• More: Enigma of MH370: key theories
  

Some international air crash investigators doubt the data is good enough to be confident of that conclusion, while senior commercial pilots such as Australian aviator and commentator Byron Bailey believe Captain ­Zaharie Ahmad Shah hijacked his own aircraft and flew it to the end, outside the current search area.

Mr Gingis noted that in a technical paper Inmarsat scientists “stressed that the sensitivity of the reconstructed flight path to frequency errors is such that there remains significant uncertainty in the final location”.

The $200 million underwater search directed by the ATSB over 120,000sq km is due end in weeks.

Mr Gingis said his consultancy, Australian Management Consolidated, had access to civilian and military archival satellite imagery and meteorological data that could enable it to determine where MH370 went down in one of two ways.

By examining satellite images from March 8, 2014, his experts could look for the condensation trails made by jet aircraft in some conditions, usually clear skies.

Alternatively, Mr Gingis said, when aircraft fly through clouds, they affect the physics of the clouds. Analysis of satellite meteorological data could also potentially track MH370’s route in such conditions.

He only asked that the ­Malaysian and Australian governments cover his firm’s costs.
The ATSB told The ­Australian it had dealt with Mr Gingis in 2014: “The ATSB subsequently sought details on the techniques proposed to be used, however Mr Gingis refused to provide information for consideration on the basis it would be detrimental to his commercial interests.

“Based on the information available, the ATSB and also Geoscience Australia considered his proposal did not warrant further investigation. The ATSB still holds this view.”

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MTF...P2