True enough, but if they did go Galt, when they come out again looking for other Gulch citizens to recruit, I am hoping to be invited.

Unfortunately Tom Clancy died in 2013.

Most of the theories we've heard are plausible (MOST!) but none are accurate until the plane is found. All the rest is mental masturbation. Best thing to do is just keep waiting.

all good questions

a better question might be: *when* was it preprogrammed into the flight director? It might have been entered as a "canned" (preprogrammed) waypoint before departure just in case it was needed, then a few button pushes and it would be available. I'm not familiar with the airplane, so my question would be, if the main bus breakers were pulled, does the flight director still receive power?

Not rare, rather common, I'd say. Some folks are into FPS games, some are into golf. I like to set up the simulator for a short but legal, narrow runway; bring the visibility and ceiling (cloud bases) down to legal minimums and practice the approaches.

I read that too. Sounds more credible. Can't wait for the Tom Clancy novel though.

it would take a LOT of netting. It is a big plane. And that would be useless against SAR, Synthetic aperture radar, which would be the most effective way to search large areas electronically and can see through visual obscurations such as clouds, smoke or haze. clouds . hangers big enough to house one of these jets are REALLY big too.
Agree with Robbie, Moochelle et.al. are parasites of the highest order.

what about the fact that the turn was preprogrammed into auto pilot before last contact?

Good point, I wondered about that.
How about it SAUCERDESIGNER and other pilots?
Is it common for old vets to still sim in their off time or is it kinda rare?

What I would find unusual would be a pilot that does not spend some time flight simming. I know a number of air line pilots and I have met all of them on-line flying. Sims are the cheapest way to get used to the approaches for the various fields. Considering how weird things can get in south east Asia, and how far apart places to land are I would hope that he was using the sim to practice landing all over the place. That way if they get in trouble part of the solution has already been practiced.

I agree with your analysis of the pilot's ability to turn off the tracking device; I can't imagine a legit reason for doing so. Also, the optional maintenance tracking device was 'pinging' (a satellite?) but not conveying data because the airline had not signed up for the service. In light of this occurrence, it might be better for the maintenance company to record the data whether or not the airline paid, but only give access to it if the payments had been made. Data is cheap.

The problem with the voice recorder loop is that of regulatory and company impediments, not technology per se (which is what you imply, but I wanted to say it out loud). Back when we were all using pentium-level computers, the passenger phones in planes were based on 386 technology...because of the same time lag phenomenon. The solution to that is to remove some of the impediments.

Insofar as a sudden decompression incident is concerned, even exposure to outer space for a short time is apparently recoverable (except your eardrums). I would think that given that the automatic dispersal of the O2 masks there would be some percentage of passengers who would have made use of the masks and avoided hypoxia.

Jan

As a proper skeptic I have no opinion when there is no evidence. but I like simple explanations.
Error and accident is more common than evil.

But as for the flight simulator found at the pilot's house... it'd be interesting to know more about that.

As a pilot yourself, do you find that unusual?

I have been thinking all along that this was the result of a rapid decompression. I have a few reasons to think this including the fact that of all those people onboard, nobody got on their cell phone to let somebody know that the flight had taken a suspicious turn or that they were being hijacked. But, who knows at this point? Interesting story, for sure.

I spent more than a few years of my Navy career in the Indian Ocean (IO) and can tell you it almost impossible to track things out there, even with modern technology. Unless you are close to land, of which there is not a lot out there, radar is almost useless. That is one of the reasons, all Navy ships have their own radar and sensors. It allows us to track not only our own aircraft but any others that come within range. So, as long as it stayed over open water with it's transponder and communications turned off, it could really disappear for sure. If it is not in someplace like Somalia or Yemen or parts of the desert in Oman, close to Yemen, then it is in the ocean.

Did this entire airplane go Galt? There were 20 electrical/materials engineers from a semiconductor company on board.

Sent from my iPad

VERY SERIOUS MALFEASANCE]

Do you remember the recent incident about two former SEALs being found dead at the port in Richmond??  There job was to protect sensitive material in an out of the port.  I just wonder if that sensitive material was not on the Malaysian jet and it's now in Diego Garcia.!!!

Catastrophic failure would NOT be silent.  Not one passenger called on their cell phone to anyone????  And phones ringing from the other end--------------don't think that would happen at the bottom of the sea!!

Ukraine---------we are picking a fight we don't need to.  Crimea has spoken, let them go.  Protect and help the Ukraine and don't allow any more movement by the Ruskies.  Weak leadership created it, now time to back off.  This stupid DSIC (Dip Shit In Charge) is just about ready to get us into a war. But, I can also see where he could have a planned catastrophe in order to declare "Marshall Law" which would allow him to suspend election & thereby remain in power. Hopefully, at that point we would have commanders with stones that would defy his orders & a Congress to impeach him - but I wouldn't hold my breath.

If any of this is true, why haven't we heard about it on FOX?  They are very good at pointing out the antics of the knucklehead in the White House.
scroll down to picture:

BY ANY FIGMENT OF YOUR IMAGINATION DOES THIS GIVE YOU  REASON FOR CONCERN ?????

What is wrong with this picture? 
The picture is of the five first line US nuclear carriers docked together in one place. Just like Battleship Row, Pearl Harbor , December 7, 1941. 
This picture was taken the February 2014 in Norfolk , Virginia … Obama ordered 5 nuclear carriers into harbor for "routine" (?) inspections. Heads of the Navy were flabbergasted by the directive but had to comply as it was a direct order from their Commander-in-Chief.

The carriers were all pulled out from the MIDDLE EAST and the Afghanistan support role leaving our land forces naked and exposed!

NORFOLK, VA. (February 8, 2014). This is the first time since WWII that five nuclear powered aircraft carriers were docked together. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) are all in port at Naval Station Norfolk , Va. , the world’s largest naval station.

Knowledgeable Sources stated that this breached a long standing military protocol in the Navy meant to avoid a massive enemy strike on major US forces.
(U..S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Ryan J. Courtade/Released).

Obama is ‘Commander in chief’.
This ordering of most of the Navy's capitol ships into one place is unprecedented since Pearl Harbor !  This could be the creation of a false flag atomic incident too stupid for any enemy to pass up. 

Agreed Kath. These two never seem to do what is best. Nothing seems to get in the way of their vacation plans.

While I detest the woman and find her numerous taxpayer-funded luxury vacations appalling, that actually is a sound reason to postpone this one.

Have to be very careful about those red pilots. :)