I do love a mystery...

[Suff]

And this is a classic.

So the flaperon doesn't have it's plate which identifies it. Amazing stuff these accidents, the whole assembly can be torn off, but the plate which identifies it just sort of falls off...

Then it's covered in barnacles. Not on the bottom, but all over it. As if it was submerged.

Then whilst trying to find out how the identification plates are actually fixed on, I came across this advisory.

Now if you are of a suspicious mind, as I am, you might think that someone took the spars off to remove the plate and then reassembled it incorrectly before using remote control to fly it into the sea. Thus leaving a weakened spar which might break loose over time. Given that the spar is buoyant and therefore would provide constant upwards force whilst being trapped below water.

There is only one reported loss of a 777. This is a 777 part. It has appeared on a beach with no identification on it, when it should have an identifying plate.

What are we supposed to think?

[Rodo]

Yes, makes you think.

[Workingman]

There is such a thing a neutral buoyancy where an object will neither float nor sink at a given level. The downward pull of gravity is equalled by the upward push of the water. There is also specific gravity, salinity of seawater, which also plays its part. Then there is the movement and temperature of the water as well as atmospheric pressure.

All of these can combine to keep an object rising and falling in a body of water - sometimes floating, sometimes dropping but never fully sinking.

As for identification marks and serial numbers. I have seen many of these. Sometimes they are etched or engraved into a part. No catastrophe would remove them. Others are stamped on plates which are then riveted or spot-welded to the part. It would not be impossible for these to come off in a catastrophic event. The more modern way is for laser etched stickers to be used. Again these could come off for any number of reasons.

The AD in the second link only applies to the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. It has nothing to do with the lost marque, a 777.

What really mystified me about this incident, and I said so at the time, was that the plane's last "known" heading before it disappeared from any radar or sightings, was about 270º. Its position was just north of Aceh province of Sumatra. A continuation of that heading would have taken it near the Maldives and Seychelles and potentially on or near to the Somalian coast. Had it gone down on that course it would not be surprising for debris to turn up on the Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion or Madagascar. There were reports of sightings being made over the northern Maldives at about 01:00 GMT on the morning of the 8th of March. The time fits with a cruising speed of around 500km/h

[Suff]

Hmmm, sorry should have looked harder.

It seems that this sticker was laser etched and glued on with military spec adhesive. The assembly is made by Boeing.

Of course you missed the fact that Diego Garcia was in the probably course of the last known position and direction.
Also the fact that the transponder was deliberately turned off and the only reason for that last known position and heading is a military ship tracking radar. Without that ship and without it's tracking radar being up and running at that intensity, for all intents and purposes the plane would have been invisible to civilian radar and it was flown through a corridor of sea with low radar coverage.

Yes salinity, minerals, currents etc all led to possible reasons. However there is one part of the plane that _always_ gets recovered in a disaster at sea, where the plane is found. It is the most easily detached part and is very buoyant and it's BIG.

So where is the tail of the 777. It's made out of carbon fibre if I remember correctly. It's light, buoyant and damned strong.....

This find is just one more unexplained point in many unexplained points.

[Workingman]

I didn't miss Diego Garcia, but it is 1,200km south of the Maldives' Dhaalu Atoll where the alleged sighting was made and it is now an old RAF Station operated by the Yanks. I think they might have spotted a 777 coming their way.

I cannot explain the lack of wreckage unless it was a soft landing, as seen with the Hudson river crash some years back. If the pilots tried for a glide landing there is a chance of the fuselage staying intact, and later sinking, but with (some) control elements breaking off. It actually raises more questions than answers.

Another puzzle. I have also thought long and hard about the passengers and other crew members who would have seen nothing but sea all around them for hours and hours when there should have been land. That goes for whichever (alternative) route the plane took. Did they try to take any action or had they been overcome in some way - lack of oxygen? Another mystery.

[Suff]

Well there is one point to this which was tracked before the plane was lost.

The transponder was manually turned off and the plane was going absolutely nowhere near it's expected route.

So unless we had another GermanWings style event, it's hard to know why.