MH370 Beacon Battery May Have Been Expired

New submitter Limekiller42 writes Malaysia's transport ministry released its preliminary report on the disappearance of MH370 that disappeared almost a year ago during flight and has yet to be located. The report states that the maintenance records for the solid state flight data recorder underwater locater beacon [indicate that its battery] expired in December of 2012 and there is no evidence it was replaced prior to aircraft going missing.

Comments

And that's half the story

[garyisabusyguy]

They were also carrying a load of lithium batteries, which other passenger airlines refuse to carry due to past accidents

"It confirms that a large consignment of lithium-ion batteries was aboard the Boeing 777 and outlined in a red box was the warning: “The package must be handled with care and that a flammability hazard exists if the package is damaged. Special procedures must be followed in the event the package is damaged, to include inspection and repacking if necessary.”"
http://www.thedailybeast.com/a...

Re:And that's half the story

[Richard_at_work]

They were also carrying a load of lithium batteries, which other passenger airlines refuse to carry due to past accidents

You make it sound like Malaysian Airlines is the odd one out in allowing shipments, when infact the norm at the time of MH370 was to allow lithium battery shipments - sure, some airlines had bans in place already (Cathay, BA) but others such as United Airlines put their restriction in place just this month, while Delta put theirs in during February.

Re:And that's half the story

[Zontar The Mindless]

Yep because speculation and conjecture will really help at this point.

Large consignments of lithium-ion batteries get carried all the time without issue.

It's not just "speculation and conjecture" As the Daily Beast's companion article states (emphasis mine),

One item in particular jumps out from the cargo manifest: a consignment weighing 5,400 pounds that included a large number of lithium-ion batteries, radio accessories and chargers.

Tests conducted on a similar consignment of batteries in a cargo hold by the Federal Aviation Administration have shown that they are vulnerable to a “thermal runaway” when one battery overheats and a chain reaction occurs. In several of the tests, smoke and fumes reached the airplane’s cockpit in less than 10 minutes. Another test caused an explosion that blew open the cockpit door. This week United Airlines joined Delta in deciding to no longer carry shipments of the batteries in the cargo holds of passenger flights.

This issue was also brought up quite recently in a related discussion right here on Slashdot.

Re:And that's half the story

[AC-x]

The standard procedure, as far as I know (not being an expert), is upon noticing the fire, the pilots would have shut down all the circuits on the plane in order to find out if one was responsible for the fire.

They don't turn off all circuits, only non-essential ones. For example as in this crash caused by an in-flight fire the standard procedure is to switch off power to the cabin but not the cockpit, as without power to the cockpit you'll barely be able to fly. The radio was also kept on at all times as you're less likely to be able to make a successful emergency landing without being able to talk to ATC to make sure the runway is clear and prepared.

Re:And that's half the story

[garyisabusyguy]

The priorities of a pilot are Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
https://www.faasafety.gov/gsla...

Aviate
It does seem that they kept the plane in the air, even climbing to a higher elevation for some time, pure speculation here, but they may have thought to use the high altitude to help extinguish the burning batteries

Navigate
There has been mention of them following waypoints to another airport, whether this navigation consisted of punching the numbers inot the autopilot or a pilot guiding the plane is unknown

Communicate
This did not happen, but there are plenty of things that could have occurred in the prior two steps; pilots incapacitated by smoke, pilots incapacitated by low oxygen, communications system affected by fire on board..., which would have prevented communication

All of these things have been points of discussion for the past year, what was not included in the discussion until this month was the potential source for the sudden fire

Re:What about military satellites

[Richard_at_work]

The satellites in question would have to be looking for the signal - GPS and GLONAS are passive systems, they send signals out in a broadcast sense, not a 1:1 client communication sense, so there is nothing for them to track.