possible location of the plane:

FC,

Thanks. Also, isn't it unusual to have enough fuel reserves to have flown the additional 4-5 hours that's being speculated?

I read a few comments on the PPRN forum about this. Two reasons:
1. Chinese ATC are supposedly weird and can have you in the air much longer than you had planned.
2. Fuel might be cheaper in Malaysia, so they want to buy as little as possible in China to save costs.

A cornfield would be a disaster. But landing a area of firm terrain (e.g. a dray lakebed) would work.

i'm calling hoax on this whole thing. plane is in a hanger and they are filming one of those hidden camera party things.

FU MTV

Like in the australian outback?

Wild dingos ate the passenger. Plane is not overrun my roo's and armadillo's

I flew with a one-eyed Captain at ACA and she is now flying for United, I believe. I know of another one-eyed airline pilot at Delta. I'm not sure how they get past the depth perception requirement we have (it's actually part of every physical exam I do, which is every six months). They either learn to compensate (though I can't imagine how that's possible with monocular vision) or they get a waiver somehow.

Almost impossible unless the crew is lax when a pilot comes out to the lav. If proper procedures are followed, the chances of a cockpit breech are zero.

W0X0F, how are you staying up to date with this case? Who is doing the most accurate reporting from an aviation perspective?

I find it amusing that anyone thinks this is strange. Did any of the 9/11 planes do this? I don't think so. And if guys are storming the cockpit, I think I'd be kind of busy trying to defend myself and fight them off. I don't think it's at all strange that there would be no distress call or emergency setting on the transponder.

(Note: I'm not saying I think this was the scenario here.)

obviously pilots who are responsible for hundreds of people on every flight should take mandatory physical and mental tests at least annually. However, Its kind of ridiculous they get it so right with regard to aviation but let 70 year old grandpas drive around with Alzheimers that havent had a driving test in 50 years.

Yes, you're wrong.

Pilots can't even occupy the seat unless they've been vetted using the CASS system (Cockpit Access Security System) and presented their passport (which is the same picture that appear in CASS).

And I don't know what airline is allowing a passenger into the cockpit during flight, but you shouldn't ever fly that airline again. This NEVER, and I mean NEVER, happens on a U.S. carrier.

So much BS itt. I think I should just stop reading. Between the conspiratards and the absolutely incorrect information (much of it promulgated by the news media) I can't seem to remove the palm of my hand from my face.

I'm not. I haven't watched even one minute of TV coverage (no lie) and not read a thing other than what I've seen itt. The reason for staying away from the mass media outlets is that they are only marginally better then the posters itt on putting out bad information and pull-it-out-of-their-ass guesses.

I'm happy to wait for wreckage to be found. Then we'll know the story. However, I'm ready to concede that at this point this may just go down as an aviation mystery, the biggest since Amelia Earhart's disappearance.

This is exactly why you need to keep on reading and posting ITT.

Your posting is welcomed by anyone that's not here to troll this thread with alien theories

so the co pilot allowed in females and smoked in the cockpit on his previous flight.... Thats surely a sign to me that he doesnt give a ****e anymore.... And that he feared no reprisals from there on in?

But they were attractive so it is all good.

+1

You might want to stay away from CNN then. Lol. They legit talked for a half hour about it being code for something wrong.

1. Please keep posting.
2. I realize you're an expert on flying planes and not recovering them, but it seems like just a huge longshot at this point anything will be recovered. Agreed?

To the extent that new information has been revealed/discovered (flew for 8 hours, altitude changes, satellite reception of signals indicating some kind of path), all it really seems to have done is increase the potential radius from something like "ehh, somewhere in the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam" to a huge amount of the Earth, from like the middle of Asia to the southern Indian Ocean.

If it's on land somewhere, OK, but I don't see how you can practically search the ocean for this thing now.

I feel like 'forever an unsolved mystery' has to be the big favorite now unless terrorists stake a claim, something is discovered about the crew, etc.

I do actually agree with that. In the first few days after the disappearance, I thought this would be like the Air France accident, i.e. it might take a year or more, but something would be found. But in that accident, we knew a lot more about where the plane went down. In this case, we literally have a few million square miles to consider.

Can someone explain why the pilot, if he was responsible, would care about where he crashed? Like, what is the motivation to keep flying for 7 more hours if you are on a suicide mission?

Two immediate possibilities:

1. Disturbed mental state
2. Life insurance fraud, where recovering the plane might uncover the pilot's intent. At this point, assuming the worst about the perpetrators, crew or not, they've behaved in a way that makes finding the plane like, really seemingly impossible now. See above.

Its always crazy just how awful media coverage is on a subject when you know a ton about it (or are like you, an expert on the subject). It just makes me wonder do they ever cover anything well? Like all the **** I dont know about, I just have to assume they are ****ing it up, cuz ive never seen them do a good job when it is something I know about.