Scientific Method for Determining the Flight Path of MH370

Scientific Method for Determining the Flight Path of MH370

Dr. Marvin Vestal CEO of SimulTOF Systems Sudbury, MA, has proposed a method for determining the flight path of missing airliner MH370 from data produced from detection of hourly pings from the airplane by the satellite provider Inmarsat.  These radio transmissions can be interpreted to determine the distance between the plane and the satellite, and the direction of the plane relative to the position of the satellite.  The distance determination depends on precise determination of the delay time between transmission and reception and the direction determination is from Doppler shift of the frequency.   Inmarsat has interpreted these data to indicate that the plane flew south into the Indian Ocean, but failed to point out that the independent measurements of distance and direction were inconsistent.  This conclusion by Inmarsat has initiated a massive search for the plane in the Indian Ocean even though an objective analysis of the data indicates that this is only 1 of 14 end points consistent with the data available.   The methods used by Inmarsat for interpreting the data have not been released, nor has the actual data on time delays and Doppler shifts.  These are required for independent evaluation of their conclusions.

Details of the method and application to the flight path of MH370 are given in an earlier posting on marvinsthinking.blogspot.com.  This information has been given to Mr. Patrick Lally in the Boston office of Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts and has been forwarded by him to the FAA and the NTSB.  To date there has been no official response.  Mr. Ron Suskind of the Harvard Ethics Center has recently been contacted by Dr. Vestal with the suggestion that these events should be examined for evidence of scientific fraud.

Dr. Vestal is a   pioneer in time-of-flight mass spectrometer and a charter member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.  He received the Field and Franklin Award from the American Chemical Society in 2005 and the ASMS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Mass Spectrometry in 2010.  He organized the James L. Waters Symposium at PittCon on The History of MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry in March 2014.  He has published more than 100 papers in refereed journals and holds more than 50 US patents.  He received BS and MS degrees from Purdue University in Engineering Sciences and Phd in Chemical Physics from the University of Utah.  For more information about Dr. Vestal and Mass Spectrometry visit our website simultof.com.