Considering the iPhone in my pocket knows where I am, it's astounding that four days after whatever happened aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, we still haven't found a trace of the plane. That's the point Jason Golson starts out from in his aviation blog for Wired magazine.
"Whatever happened, it happened quickly, aviation experts said, and catastrophically," he writes. "The fact it happened over the ocean–presumably the South China Sea, but possibly the Gulf of Thailand–means it could be months or years before we know exactly what went wrong. The ocean is a very big place, and finding clues will be slow."
Golson clears up a couple of popular misconceptions regarding tracking an aircraft, particularly over a large body of water.
"Although modern flight management systems use GPS for navigation, that only tells the airplane where it is–it does not tell air traffic control where the plane is. It’s a bit like taking your iPhone into the heart of the Mojave desert: Your GPS will tell you where you are, but you can’t use Find My Phone because there’s no cell coverage."
More here.
