[fingpilot]

The INMARSAT 'pings' were for a system MAS didn't buy. Boeing installed it while it was a 'white tail' on the assembly line. The system comes alive ONLY when all ground data contact is lost. MAS didn't pay the subscription fees either, so the 'pings' were recorded, but ignored by the INMARSAT system, and no reply was sent to the plane. The pings contained only ID data in the form of a serial number. The 'locating' of the signal was done by the particular sat was getting the pings, sig strength and doppler processing, good for 500-ish miles. It's now been established that that system was circuit breakered (in the E & E compartment) after it's 5th hourly ping. What that really means is that the airplane probably flew even longer than is now being reported.

The plane might even be in India, Pakiastan, or even worse.

The pax were dead/asleep when the plane reached FL450 not long after the last known xponder return. The aircraft may have even stalled up there, dropped a wing and came down in a hurry. The cabin was either popped open manually, or closing the throttles up there to do a quick descent popped the cabin outflow valves. Otherwise 289 cell phones would have been turned on when the lights of the Malaysian peninsula came into view certainly even after a maneuver like that. A lot of people over there have satphones.

This, very much like 9-11, was something new. We will be lucky if the airplane splashed in the ocean.