[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by 330

Then why was there an abrupt loss of contact on radar?

Everything that I've read indicates that the ATC in that part of the world has sparse radar coverage and relies instead on the aircraft transponder signal and location reporting from the crew. Unlike the USA, this is apparently pretty common in less developed nations. Were that the case, loss of contact could have been as easy as switching off the transponder.

Different world, but in the USA if you switched off the transponder and quit responding to radio calls you would have some F16 escorts pretty quickly.