Hello World,
How are you doing? Me doing great. I had a little experience tonight and I wish to share that with you.
I was having my favourite Chilly Beef+Beef Fried Rice Combo at my favourite multi-glactic restaurant, which happens to be a blue-painted rusty old bus (without wheels you see) in my neighbourhood.
I was half way through my Beefy Treat when I realised I was standing in front of a Pizza Hut delivery bike with the iconic PHD symbol on it.
I started wondering as to why it is standing in front of the rather ordinary looking multi-galactic restaurant. The delivery person, apparently was there to have his dinner. He was dressed in his black uniform waiting to get his order.
I went up to him and asked him if he works with Pizza Hut and why he was there for dinner, when he himself worked at a famous restaurant.
He replied, his employer does not provide food to any of their employees. The full-time staff get Rs.800 per month for food allowance and the part-time employees don't get anything other than their pay check.
I was amazed. I have known and still continue to know people who are in the restaurant/hospitality industry and one thing they always never bother is their own meals since their respective employers provide them with meals during work-days. Some established hotels even have dedicated staff-kitchen.
So PIZZA-HUT is not providing food to its employees here in Chennai I suppose. The PHD Delivery Person said, if the respective managers feel like helping their subordinates out, then may be these guys will get a slice or two.
WHAT THE @#$% PIZZA HUT???!!??!!?? YOU ESTABLISH YOURSELF ACROSS 94 COUNTRIES WITH OVER 11000 OUTLETS AND YOU CAN'T FEED YOUR EMPLOYEES?????!!!!!
Here in Chennai, one large pizza with say 3 toppings and a side+soda will cost around Rs.750 and Pizza Hut gives Rs.800 for its full-time employees for food (monthly allowance). The part-time employees don't get even that!!! I guess, when you work part-time, your stomach goes out of operation.
I guess Pizza Hut hasn't realised, it MAKES MONEY OUT OF FREAKIN FOOD!!!!!
The place where I enjoy my Chilly Beef and Beef Rice is (not to undermine it in anyway) a dilapidated bus without wheels. There is no roof for the guests to sit under and only a few guests get the plastic stools. The rest of us stand and enjoy the 'Intergalactic Flavor' they offer while not noticing the rather unhygienic surroundings. SUCH A SMALL BUSINESS THAT CHARGES RS.60 PER PLATE PROVIDES FOOD TO ITS EMPLOYEES. Now that's commitment towards employee welfare. It is not much but the employees get to eat something before get off their work-shift.
Pizza Hut, your eyes may be covered with rising profits at the moment but you don't deserve any of it.
If you can't serve your own employees with your food, how the @#$! are you going to serve us with quality food? Maybe your employees are saving themselves from food-poisoning by eating out.
I don't care much since I don't remember the last time I bought Pizza-Hut's products. To me, here in Chennai, if the Pizza-Logo is Red & Black, the food is trash and if the logo is Blue & Red, the food is covered with molten plastic. Both are worse in terms of taste in their proprietary directions. ;)
There is this Tuscana place where me and my buddies enjoyed amazing pizzas.
Established businesses not taking care of its employees may be considered ordinary now but very soon, this state will bubble out and explode and when it does, it will get ugly.
Catch you soon with a something more interesting next time. I had to bring this out just to be fair to that Pizza Hut Delivery Person who respectfully defended his employer in spite of sadness deep down inside. He did not give his employer up but his eyes clearly told, he is craving for a slice of Pizza.....and PIZZA-THE-@#$%-HUT is not capable of feeding such kind humans who work with it.
When will we ever learn?
On a very different note [a shameless plug], if you are interested in unique tamil short films, feel free to visit https://www.summamovies.com/. I couldn't tolerate the mass masala entertainers anymore and decided I will do my best to produce content with substance. I have a long a way to go as a producer and a start-up founder, but I am glad our journey has begun. I look forward to your support. Each film on our site costs INR 15. Thanks!!!
Image Source: http://justeat.in/bangalore/pizza-hut
Regards,
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
FINDING MH370: WHAT WE ARE TOLD AND WHAT WE ARE REALLY MISSING
Hello World,
Before I begin, A quick recap of what
happened so far:
The aircraft goes missing. Days later,
the aircraft is claimed to have detoured from its designated flight-path and
was caught by defense radars and satellites. The next set of news suspected the
passengers who flew MH370 with stolen passports. The recent news downplay
possibility of passengers' involvement (terrorist attack) while the friend of
one of the pilots is interviewed, where he reveals the pilot was not
stable-minded during the time of the incident owing to domestic issues.
Now, here's my analysis:
The questions repeated are still
indicating the possibilities of someone intentionally 'Switching-Off' the
communication system but no question so far has involved the possibility of
'Aircraft with Faulty Equipment' or 'Aircraft Encountering Equipment Failure.'
So far the official statements have been
repeatedly pointing at 'Deliberate Action' in the cockpit but no substantiating
information has been released. But when a theory of on-board equipment failure
is presented, 'Lack of Evidence' seems to block everyone's view.
Why would the pilot's friend come out and
say his friend was mentally disturbed? What is in it for him anyway?
Why would someone get himself in the
trouble of police investigation by mentioning the unstable mental condition of
a dead friend? He is either an attention craving conspiracy theorist or was
persuaded by the authorities to make such statement to the press?
Any type of stress disorder over domestic
issues would usually involve behavior pattern such as alcoholism or drug abuse
or domestic violence before the concerned person enters a suicidal phase. The
pilot could have committed suicide in so many ways than diving with the plane
full of passengers.
The satellite pings have been stated as
the basis for tracking the aircraft's path after its disappearing from the
radar. Please note that the aircraft was detected by defense radar later.
The regions where MH370 has been reported
to have disappeared from radar and spotted on defense radar, fall under the
Inmarsat Spot Beam Coverage regions. Now please note that these spot beams are
there to enable land-mobile satellite phone communication. The following images
are from Inmarsat and Stratos literature publicly available to inform about the
Inmarsat spot beams coverage for satellite phone communication:
http://www.inmarsat.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/I-3-satellite-coverage-November-2013.jpg |
Satellite pings from that region has not
been released and not discussed either. Why is that the military radar and the
private satellite detect the aircraft at two different locations but no system
seems to have detected the aircraft in between? How many hours did the aircraft
fly after its detection by the military radar and before it being 'pinged' by
the satellite? At what intervals do the satellites execute such pings? How come
the satellite did not ping the aircraft in the region where it has such
concentrated and overlapping spot beam coverage? Why is that data not available
for scrutiny?
If the satellite could execute a ping,
then the satcom system must have been 'On' (partially at least). Why did the
pilot not make any calls? More importantly, How many calls did the Malaysia
Airlines Flight Operations make during the 'Out-of-Radar' phase of MH370? Why
is the record of calls made and messages sent not being released by Malaysia
Airlines? Surprisingly, nobody seems to be interested in knowing that either.
If my cellphone was detected by a tower,
then how is it possible that I did not make a call and nobody called me, when I
was believed to be missing? Using this analogy for MH370, if the satellite
could execute a ping, why was the aircraft not able to contact Flight
Operations (Malaysia Airlines) and why did Flight Operations not make any calls
or send text messages?
The on-board mobile usage is a highly
subjective thing as only those passengers who purchase that service will be
able to access their mobile network through the cabin satcom system. If the
aircraft's satcom system got pinged by the satellite, it indicates that the
aircraft was indeed connected to the satellite at that moment. If the system
was deliberately switched off, why was it switched back on (to make it eligible
for a satellite ping)?
If the satellite has pinged more than
once catching the aircraft at multiple points, then the question to be answered
is what happened to the system in between those two points. Why was the satcom
intermittently 'on'? In case of those instances when it was actually on, why
did the pilot not make a contact and why did the flight operations not make a
contact? How can a 'no-connectivity' claim by the airline be accepted as a
credible statement in this regard?
This satellite ping indicates that the
satcom was intermittently 'On'. The perpetrator will have completely disabled
the system if that was the intention. The intermittently 'On' satcom indicates
the possibility of interrupted instrument/communication availability which in
turn indicates the possibility of on-board equipment failure which, looking at
the circumstances already discussed on my previous post, must have been the
case of an on-board fire resulting in a disconnected electrical power system.
If there is no evidence for on-board equipment failure due to fire, it has to be promptly acknowledged that there is no evidence for the pilot to be suicidal. A third person's view cannot be perceived as evidence for the judgement of the sanity of the suspect without the suspect being examined by a psychologist and psychiatrist.
Flying at an altitude of 40000 ft, at after midnight when it is the darkest time of the day, the pilots can only fly with the help of the instruments/indicators. Even during the day, they can look down through the wind shield only during take-off/ascent and descent/landing stages of their flight. The only other option is when they intentionally fly low with an objective of looking down for something (the SAR teams are doing the same as we discuss).
Will someone from the media please request the maintenance records of MH370 and other B777-200 owned by Malaysia Airlines for an audit? Will the airline release that data in public domain to prove it has not faltered on any of the maintenance procedures as mandated by the Malaysian Civil Aviation Authorities and ICAO? Last but not the least, Can we please speak in person to the Flight Operations Controller/Flight Dispatcher on duty when MH370 went out of radar?
If these cannot happen, then the pilot cannot be accused for a suicide based on 'Testimony from Long Time Friends & Family.' For an on-board fire, everyone needs concrete flight recorder data but for a dead human being's sanity, a third person's opinion is assumed to be equivalent to a psychologist's or psychiatrist's testimony under oath. This is beyond unfair.
On a very different note [a shameless plug], if you are interested in unique tamil short films, feel free to visit https://www.summamovies.com/. I couldn't tolerate the mass masala entertainers anymore and decided I will do my best to produce content with substance. I have a long a way to go as a producer and a start-up founder, but I am glad our journey has begun. I look forward to your support. Each film on our site costs INR 15. Thanks!!!
Regards,
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
WHAT HAPPENED TO MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370 ?
Hello World,
I am not happy writing this post but I think I need to. I am writing this with the hope that the passengers of MH370 are still alive.Image Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/17/Missing-MH370-Photo-Gallery-Day-10/ |
Having followed the news of the Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370 incident, which has so far reported a missing Boeing
777-200, I am here with my analysis of what might have happened.
To begin with, here's something I have
to share:
Most of the B777-200 issues involve smoke in cockpit/cabin and
burning smell. Engine failures are also mentioned along with lithium battery
fire.
Failures do happen with the most reliable aircraft. Proper
maintenance is the determining factor for continued operational reliability.
I don't think this Malaysian Airlines
incident might have been an act of terror.
The last seen spots for the aircraft are
very close to Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia and from the map, it seems like
their guarded maritime borders must be very close.
Assuming that the perpetrators
switched-off comm. systems, the aircraft would have still been visible on the
radars of any of the countries' naval bases.
When they spot an aircraft without an
authorized digital signature, the bases raise an alarm and categorize it a
security threat, the news of which will flash immediately on the media as they
might even initiate military action when unidentified aircraft continues to
remain anonymous in their airspace in spite of Identification, Friend or Foe
(IFF) interrogation from the respective civilian/military ATC.
Also in case of a highjack, the detour
forced by the hijackers will be over or towards the nearest foreign land and
not over the ocean, across the homeland as indicated by the maps in news.
So if the aircraft has been highjacked
and is safe somewhere, the perpetrators have friendly forces within the
concerned naval bases which is unlikely to happen.
The way I see it, the aircraft went
through a GNC (Guidance, Navigation, Control) failure owing to an accidental
fire (most probably in the electrical distribution buses) resulting in a
disconnected power system. The generators are usually connected to the
engine/gearbox from where they get the source power.
I will acknowledge the possibility of a
mechanical failure resulting in rapid decompression, knocking everyone on-board
unconscious but in that case, the aircraft debris would have been spotted
somewhere along the designated flight path. Cabin decompression need not
instantaneously knock-out the transponders alone and still allow the pilots to
‘Detour’ as being claimed by the recent news. The probability is too low for
the possibility to be weighed upon others, in my view.
My friend who is an expert in civil aviation regulations and aircraft maintenance reminded me about the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) that will send the signals in case of an unforeseen accident. True indeed. But there could only be two options to this: 1. The ELT disintegrated during the accident 2. The signal was detected but covered up for reason unknown. I am not completely aware of ELT's 'working range' and the requirements for its signals to be picked up. The fact remains that the very mention of ELT has not occured until now.
My friend who is an expert in civil aviation regulations and aircraft maintenance reminded me about the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) that will send the signals in case of an unforeseen accident. True indeed. But there could only be two options to this: 1. The ELT disintegrated during the accident 2. The signal was detected but covered up for reason unknown. I am not completely aware of ELT's 'working range' and the requirements for its signals to be picked up. The fact remains that the very mention of ELT has not occured until now.
A triggered blast (terror attack) would
have resulted in instantaneous disintegration of the aircraft and it may not
have detoured as being claimed by the news reports, quoting the military.
As long as the engines run, the
generators are on but if the connecting buses burn out, the power will not
reach the dependent systems. The Auxiliary Power Unit is there and if the
accident has occurred in stages spanning at least a few minutes, the pilots
would have had the chance to utilize the back-up power to raise a distress
signal. They however are trained to aviate, navigate and then communicate. To
aviate the aircraft, engines alone can buy some time but to navigate and
communicate, electrical power is required which is what they lacked as they
detoured hoping they are going back over their homeland for an emergency
landing. (Based on the detour track suggested by recent news reports).
Also for an advanced jet aircraft
weighing 230-280 tonnes (max. design take-off weight), controlling itself
requires large control surfaces that are operated with control systems that run
on electrical power.
Flight controls and instruments get top
priority when it comes to using electrical power. The flight controls have at
least one dedicated source while access to the other auxiliary units. The
instruments have access to multiple sources too. Redundancy is the key feature
for electrical systems of aircraft, especially the large commercial ones.
Since the electrical systems are
connected with the engines, any problem with them will eventually impact the
engine as they are connected. This means that a fire in the electrical system
can propagate to other parts of the aircraft, including the engine and fuel
storage.
With 2 Integrated Drive Generators, 2
Electrical Distribution Buses and 1 Auxiliary Power Unit (alternator driver by
an auxiliary gas turbine), the aircraft facing an instantaneous power system failure
is very unlikely unless it had been an instantaneous blast which contradicts
the ‘Detour Theory’ that has surfaced quoting the military as a source.
If the ‘Detour Theory’ had been true,
then the aircraft had flown after the commencement of the power system failure,
which had happened in stages giving the pilots time to raise a distress signal
which contradicts the ‘No Distress Signal Received’ claim.
If, in my opinion, by the remotest of
chances, the aircraft had been highjacked, transponders forcefully switched-off
and the event ended in a secret safe-landing of the aircraft after a detour,
then the terrorists had crafted a fool-proof plan and the pilots are in-arguably
the top-notch aviators of this era to have achieved such a thing using limited
instruments under life-threatening circumstances. But I can only wish it were
true.
When the electrical power system fails, the pilots don't have
access to all the onboard instruments. They have to navigate using the
available analog, pitot-based instruments and just hope to see some land
before they can execute an emergency landing. If the analog instruments
have digital displays, then they will not function as well.
Around 1 am, in the dark, flying at about 40000 feet, failed instruments are the most probable reason why an aircraft would go on a detour. An act of terror would have announced the highjack and taken the aircraft towards a foreign land and landed.
Also the military radar and satellite signal reception data were released after a few days from the incident. Why did the military not take efforts to declare an unidentified aircraft?
If the satcom satellite picked up a signal, then the satcom system on-board was on and that points at the connectivity of the aircraft with the flight operations via satcom. Why is the flight operation not mention that before? How come, there was no distress signal received by the flight operations?
Generally a commercial aircraft is expected to have at least 3 VHF channels (at least 1 datalink), 2 HF channels (1 HFDL), Satcom (based on the news of satellite picking signal) and ACARS. How can the 'No-Connectivity-with-the-Aircraft' be trusted?
How would this be possible on an aircraft with 2 generators, 1 APU and the communication systems capable to function on 28VDC (they can be powered by battery pack if the gensets are out).
If it is an Inmarsat satellite (I am not sure), then Inmarsat covers up to around 82 degrees on either side of equator, which takes us to the next question, how did the aircraft stay out of satellite connectivity until the 2.40 signal pick up incident. Satcom satellite are there for seamless connectivity.
The news releases seem to be concocted to support a future pilot-error/terror-act-gone-wrong theory that will eventually shut the case tarnishing the flight crew's credibility. What do you think of this?
Around 1 am, in the dark, flying at about 40000 feet, failed instruments are the most probable reason why an aircraft would go on a detour. An act of terror would have announced the highjack and taken the aircraft towards a foreign land and landed.
Also the military radar and satellite signal reception data were released after a few days from the incident. Why did the military not take efforts to declare an unidentified aircraft?
If the satcom satellite picked up a signal, then the satcom system on-board was on and that points at the connectivity of the aircraft with the flight operations via satcom. Why is the flight operation not mention that before? How come, there was no distress signal received by the flight operations?
Generally a commercial aircraft is expected to have at least 3 VHF channels (at least 1 datalink), 2 HF channels (1 HFDL), Satcom (based on the news of satellite picking signal) and ACARS. How can the 'No-Connectivity-with-the-Aircraft' be trusted?
How would this be possible on an aircraft with 2 generators, 1 APU and the communication systems capable to function on 28VDC (they can be powered by battery pack if the gensets are out).
If it is an Inmarsat satellite (I am not sure), then Inmarsat covers up to around 82 degrees on either side of equator, which takes us to the next question, how did the aircraft stay out of satellite connectivity until the 2.40 signal pick up incident. Satcom satellite are there for seamless connectivity.
The news releases seem to be concocted to support a future pilot-error/terror-act-gone-wrong theory that will eventually shut the case tarnishing the flight crew's credibility. What do you think of this?
Summing up, in my opinion, based on the
limited knowledge and understanding I have, the aircraft encountered an
electrical system failure resulting in total GNC failure. The aircraft either
disintegrated in air and fell into the sea or crashed into the sea and drowned.
I also suspect, someone apart from the pilots, cabin crew and passengers
learned about this unfortunate incident as it happened but had no way of
helping them out other than hoping that the pilots would do miraculous
emergency landing which had not happened.
I honestly wish that the events turn out
to be something else and I be proved completely wrong. 239 lives definitely mean
more than the analysis of a curious Research Analyst.
A clear closure to this case will be a
public release of the black-box data.
Regulators should take this as a lesson
and make ‘Always-On/Never-Off’ transponders and on-board health monitoring
systems mandatory for commercial aircraft, redefining the flight operations
standards accordingly. Preventive control is the only way to avoid such mishaps
in future.
On a very different note [a shameless plug], if you are interested in unique tamil short films, feel free to visit https://www.summamovies.com/. I couldn't tolerate the mass masala entertainers anymore and decided I will do my best to produce content with substance. I have a long a way to go as a producer and a start-up founder, but I am glad our journey has begun. I look forward to your support. Each film on our site costs INR 15. Thanks!!!
Regards,
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