The Doppler effect is not exactly new technology. Radar works that way as do a hundred other things like sonograms and echocardiograms. I might have the last thing wrong – the one where they can observe blood flow in and out of a heart chamber and detect a leaky valve – it uses the Doppler effect. But anyway…
Measuring the difference between the transmitted and reflected frequencies is how you know which direction and speed a thing moving – It’s hard to understand the level of back-patting this British guy is giving himself by calling it “ground breaking” and never been done. Hardly, and a good reason to ask suspect the results. If this is the first time he’s done it, or really believes that nonsense, I would check the numbers.
Because I would imagine there is a lot of room for error in this calculation for equipment that wasn’t designed to do this. When the wave transmitter is also moving, they would need a very, very accurate estimate of speed and directon of the satellite itself – which makes me ask what they used to determine that, and how reliable is the data. I suppose it is possible if you have that much confidence in your equipment, but they’re not saying anything about the “ping” or which satellite or how many or satellites.
Plus whenever I see that idiot Bill Nye “The Science Guy” talking about something, I dismiss it as rubbish – this is a guy whose career involves putting vinegar in baking soda to impress grade schoolers on Saturday morning TV, and yet MSNBC and CNN put him on for everything from nuclear energy to “climate change”. If Bill Nye is vouching for it, it’s time to ask more questions.

Great technologies and great countries are all subject to human frailties, Murphy’s Law, misunderstandings, and incompetence. Conspiracies do exist, and sometimes take on very unexpected forms, but over time there are too many events outside the control of conspirators. Very few prevail without detection, eventually. That doesn’t mean we will ultimately know the facts around every conspiracy, but the odds of fate are not stacked in the favor of conspirators.

Because of the time that has elapsed, I would be very, very surprised if the passengers of that sad flight are still alive anywhere on Earth. It must be a horror for those who expected to see their loved ones at the conclusion of its scheduled flight.

I’m certainly no fan of the Chinese government but they may be the best friend of the truth in this case. It’s not too hard to read between the lines that they are *very* angry with the way the Malaysian government has handled this.

In any case I think it’s already too far gone and we are in JFK assassination territory thanks to the Malaysians. No matter what evidence comes up one way or another the conspiracy theories will go on for a long time.

Instructor pilots at my old airline taught Muslim pilots on contracts from Muslim national airlines. The most difficult thing to get across to them was that when an engine or system failed, it was their job to take actions to save the airplane. In their minds, when something went wrong, it was the will of Allah. Fortunately for many of these Muslim national airlines like Malaysia Air, the aircraft are very, very reliable and things seldom go wrong. In 25 years of airline flying while logging over 19,000 hours I had three emergencies – 1 engine failure, 1 hydraulic problem, and 1 brake problem. That’s reliability. And those were older less well engineered airplanes than what we have today.

I’m still reserving judgment. McInerny’s conjecture is one I won’t discard until after May 1st. If the airplane is in Pakistan, it would be a simple thing to load it with explosives, fly it low level (maybe a 45 minute trip), and crash it into Bagram Air Force Base in Kabul. That would create mass casualties for the USA and the Afghanis that support us there.

Thanks. I fixed it.