General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPerhaps a naive question - about the missing aircraft - all those cellphones...
Surely there must have been nearly as many cellphones on board as people - and I would guess not every single one of them was turned off (every time I fly, I can spot a few people sneaking looks at theirs) - and even if they are in airplane mode, isn't there a possible way to detect them? Just trying to figure out some way that something should be detectable from the plane...and if they all went off line at once?
Such a curious situation....
liberal N proud
(60,335 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)And under some circumstances there are ways, but if they're underwater I would say no.
A smart phone that's turned on or working...
NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)Not my sphere of knowledge - so just thinking outside the box!
Vox Moi
(546 posts)I would put in a device that mimicked a cell phone tower.
I have no idea if they have done that but is seems like a good idea.
Remember KAL 007? The US had monitored the conversations between the Russian pilot and his ground control. The decision to make that public went all the way to President Reagan. He decided to release it but there was a lot of second-guessing on the part of the intelligence community. I wonder if there is more information available in this case that is still under wraps. Just conjecture.
Jerry442
(1,265 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)cell phone transmissions. And, with an international crowd on the plane could be many different tracking opportunities. Wouldn't they be able to find when and the location where the cell phones stopped emitting signals in tracking?
I know this sounds like a dumb question, too.
hlthe2b
(102,290 posts)areas of wilderness/mountains of the US--as well as the bottom of the Grand Canyon-- unless something has dramatically changed.
Not to mention the fact that IF by chance this was an intentional diversion by those knowledgeable enough to turn off all the plane's tracking devices, they likely would have thought to include a simple cell jamming device among their gear.
RantinRavin
(507 posts)much less still having power after 6 days.