Well, this is admittedly a bizarre and far fetched idea, but what if it didn't crash? What if its been hijacked, and taken to a remote location as part of some sort of ransom plot or to be used as a political bargaining tool?

Complete hogwash, I know, but the lack of answers makes the mind wander.....

Umm, well it wouldn't be for free labour to work in the "salt mines" of North Korea, because I think they have a fair amount of free labour there already. It will be really interesting over the next few days I'm guessing, by that I mean who are the stolen passport guys etc.

How far apart are those land masses? Could someone on land see something exploding in the sky?


Also, what time, local time was the flight? I thought it was daylight.

Why no ransom request then? Very perplexing for sure.

I've wondered about something like this as well.

Very few things realistically happen in an airplane that don't give the crew time to communicate. Catastrophic airframe or mechanical failure (rare), massive explosion (aircraft or terrorist), shot down, or hijacking. If something happened dramatic enough that caused the aircraft to break up in flight and at altitude, I'm shocked that they haven't found pieces.

Not many remote areas have 2000 meter concrete runways.

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In all seriousness - this is very troubling.
I have heard discussion elsewhere about the idea that perhaps this was a "test run" in which case the responsible parties may not want to tip their hand yet. Very bothersome about level of "security" worldwide, but with stolen passports getting through unscathed - in tix (1-way)purchased immediately prior to flight.
Makes me glad to take my shoes, jacket, belt off and nearly empty my carry on multiple times per week.
There. Rant over.

Nutmeg I have always been perplexed by the griping over airport security and what an inconvenience it is. Surely if you find yourself on a plane with some mentally deficient islamic missionary trying to blow you up you might wish security were even tighter.

Radar contact lost at 2:41 am. It was dark.

No debris? What if the ocean slick tests show negative for JP-4 or no match for hydraulic oils used on the 777? Whats left? Alien Encounter?

After noticing what appears to be over an hour of time the plane was flying without contact, I thought of a hijacking also but with a resultant crash. However, I wonder about that possibility due to the security of the cockpit door. A hijack could explain the lack of communication, the altering of course, and the eventual (maybe) plunge into the ocean.

I absolutely know nothing about the look of a jet fuel slick, but from what I've seen, the slick being shown on the net looks an awful lot like bunker oil. I'm very skeptical of that slick being from the plane, but I'll wait until analysis is reported.

Beretta-
To clarify: not so much of a gripe as pointing out the level of searching and implied security vs the lack of use of the data that is available.
If I minded travel that much, I would find a career that would plant my butt in a cube somewhere.
I think I flew about 6-8 legs within china in January, and they "appear" to apply a high level of security at the airport. The apparent level of ineffectivness is the disconcerting piece here.
Sorry I was not clear earlier.

The oil slick was determined to not have originated from the aircraft, so at this time still no sign as I understand it.
The previous wing repair is a non issue, if you are getting on a commercial airliner there is a pretty slim chance it h as no damage history unless it is brand new, and in addition it appears that the aircraft merely had the winglet damaged and replaced, the aircraft can fly with very little effect with one winglet torn away. In fact, I know of a 777 that had winglet damage and had to relocate in order to be repaired and Boeing's recommended action was to cut off what was left of the winglet, speed tape the hole and fly the aircraft with one winglet to the repair location.
This event is remarkable in many ways, it is pretty hard to lose an aircraft these days. As far as location, the area in question is not an area that has systems that allow controllers to hard "paint"an aircraft, in areas such as this the "radar" system is really not a radar, it is the aircraft reporting her position to ATC, not ATC discerning her position by actual radar. So a significant transponder or nav system issue could have the aircraft reporting a gross postion error and everyone looking in the wrong area.

No oil slick? Impossible..................vanished without a trace...

The new "Bermuda Triangle of the South China Sea".

I can't get behind the "disintegrated" at 35K feet theory. Seems like there were be lots of debris spread over a large area had that plane come apart at Mach .8 while at altitude.

As far as the alien abduction... I heard two women discussing this at a garage sale on Saturday. One said, "They do have their own Bermuda Triangle over there." :rolleyes:

disintegration at high altitude could leave very little trace spread over a massive area. No oil slick is not that surprising if the aircraft truly did disintegrate the fuel would have dissipated over a huge area maybe not leaving enough in any one area for a slick.

That's a big plane. Even a massive explosion would leave a sizable debris trail with some pretty big pieces. I'm sure some would sink, but not everything.

Oh, there is a debris field somewhere. They just haven't found it. The ocean is a large place.