[Mr. Ford95]

No friggin way Useless...............

Did see where what looked like airplane debris has washed up on a beach, didn't catch the location, but it was being checked. Also heard a blip that the plane might have been crash landed near a small island and survivors are there...........I hate hearing things like this, such wild speculation at this point. I'm certain the families are well beyond tired of the roller coaster.

[Useless]

Errrrr.....Mr. Ford95 ?? Did you REALLY take me seriously??

[golfhobo]

Well, Useless.... there you have it! Although NONE of the parameters you mentioned concerning the training level, driving time nor safety record of the F.O., NOR the financial problems of the PIC, would have much bearing on the fate of the flight... ONE thing you mentioned clearly explains it all.

Having left Chicago, IL with a load headed to San Marcos, TX, they somehow went WAY out of route ending up in Las Cruces, NM. Obviously, their dispatchers had not allotted them that much fuel, and... NO SURPRISE.... GPS trackers at Swift were asleep at the wheel and didn't notice the deviation from their assigned route.

Inmarsat has declined to check for latent pings from their qualcomm system. And a search of the area is pointless, as we don't know exactly what their MPG average was, nor pertinent factors such as tailwinds, headwinds and whether the truck was on cruise control or "leadfooted."

It is feared that the truck and drivers may never be found... adding yet another wrinkle to the saga of MH370. Just WHO was actually piloting the plane since Hamid and Shah have obviously been "lost" in the NM desert. Although, MANY "sightings" of the wayward Swift truck have been reported by angry motorists... none have yet been confirmed. DOT authorities are not commenting on reports of buffets raided, toilets crapped out, and lot lizards complaining of not being paid for services. Apparently, these are common symptoms of Swift drivers and shed no light on the location of the specific drivers in question. As one spokesman said, "even the fact that they were LOST is not enough to go on."

Conspiracists have come out of the woodwork with FACTS stating that the truck was hijacked and sold to Mexican cartels, and that the two pilots are now in training to be Columbian Warlords. None of this, of course, can be confirmed... except by FauxNews and specifically Sean Hannity.

The U.S. gov't (along with those of Canada and Mexico) have expressed their willingness to dedicate whatever resources necessary to finding the crew, and a new Proposed Final Ruling is expected out next April.

Meanwhile, they're relying on private companies and their "crowd sourcing" of people with iphones and encouraging anyone who sees a SWIFT truck on the side of the road...or otherwise appearing to be "lost," (ESPECIALLY if the crew is Muslim...) to phone it in to local redneck authorities who will be sure to bring more guns than necessary to investigate.

It could take years. But, (again according to the FMCSA spokesperson who declines to be identified) we will spare NO expense to our already limited budget to locate this one single truck... and bring "closure" to the militant loved ones who are pretending to miss them.

But, if all else fails... don't worry. GOD will find them if enough people PRAY about it, and we pass more laws against homosexuality and abortion.... oh, and repeal Obamacare.

And... we need more guns! Long live Cliven Bundy the welfare queen!

[Mr. Ford95]

Actually it wouldn't have surprised me if you saying that here did turn out to be true! I figured it was too outlandish and too good to be true.

[golfhobo]

Well, they've slowing been moving the search area UP the southern arc towards where I believe it is. Now, some are questioning the original Inmarsat data, and considering that they may be searching in the wrong area. The thing is... the Inmarsat data does coincide with where I said to look, but they wanted to start at the farthest possible location and work back. When they thought they had heard the pings of the black box, I all but abandoned my theory. Now that they have found nothing, and the freqs were too low anyway... I am back to believing in Occam's Razor!

With all of the crazy conspiracy theories all but eliminated, WHEN are they going to consider the obvious? The pilot(s) were trying to return to KL, had NO ability to communicate, and then succumbed to fumes before they could turn toward the airport while going SouthEast down the Strait of Malacca!

There is no reason (and never was,) to believe the plane was maintaining top speeds or high altitudes. Remove these two erroneous assumptions, and the only place on the Inmarsat southern arc that fits the timeline is the uppermost point.... straight down the Strait of Malacca.

With the transponders turned off, I have absolutely NO faith anymore in ANY of the military or civilian radars "seeing" the plane as it flew between the two countries. I don't even have faith that the Americans at Pine Gap would have seen it, especially since it was almost on a direct inbound heading. It would have been a blip on the screen (maybe) that appeared not to be moving at all!

But, with absolutely NO wreckage washed up on any beach on Java Island or the northern coast of Australia... I am leaning again towards the deserts in Northwest Australia. On the other hand.... if you totally discount the "ping data," I might suggest looking southeast of the Maldives where locals swear they saw a lowflying aircraft with Malaysian Air markings.

[Mr. Ford95]

Agree, need to check some of these sightings. IIRC, using the data they have used to attempt to locate the plane has never been done before and up to this point still hasn't been accomplished. They are assuming they had a full tank of fuel, if they had a problem, I'm certain the pilots returning to KL would have been dumping fuel for an emergency landing. Let's say a cargo fire took out the wires to the dump valve after they opened it? Or maybe they dumped too much fuel before closing it again? In either way they end up running out of fuel whether the pilots were still flying the plane or had succumbed to the fire. It was said they only had 15 minutes of oxygen and they were a whole lot further than 15 minutes out. Even at a lower altitude, you cannot survive the smoke and fumes from a fire without oxygen.